So yeah. The CORE set is coming. With 10 packs of Clash of Rebellions.

Spoiler

CORE 1

Raidraptor - Return; Performapal Drummerilla; Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius; Black Metal Dragon; Keeper of the Shrine; Performage Damage Juggler; Tamtam the Melodious Diva; Kozmo Farmgirl; Sky Dragoons of Draconia

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Raidraptor - Return is okay, but not really a trap you need in Raidraptors. They have enough searching without a slow trap like this.

Performapal Drummerilla can give monsters 600 attack boost for the battle phase.

Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius is probably the best main deck Raidraptor. Free special summon and it searches more copies of itself.

Black Metal Dragon also gives 600 attack boost, but this time as an equip. And it searches Red-Eyes cards when sent to the GY.

Keeper of the Shrine is good tribute fodder for a dragon deck. And I suppose it is a decent recurring Synchro or Xyz material as well.

Performage Damage Juggler is nice, negating either effect or battle damage. And then you can banish it for a search.

Tamtam the Melodious Diva is not all that great. Sure the search of Poly is nice, but it isn’t that difficult to do. And the lower attack to burn is … I mean, I guess it could be useful with Bloom Diva, as you want a large difference in attack points. … except no. Bloom Diva cares about the original attack. So yeah, Tamtam is bad.

Kozmo Farmgirl is nice. Sure I don’t really need the special summon, but the search is okay.

And Sky Dragoons of Draconia is a good Pendulum scale for a deck running Normal Pendulums.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 2

D/D Pandora; Balance of Judgment; Pianissimo; Brilliant Spark; Black Metal Dragon; Keeper of the Shrine; Performage Damage Juggler; Igknight Gallant; Kozmo Forerunner

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D/D Pandora is way too specific. A draw 2 is nice, but it has to be destroyed, and you have to control no cards.

Balance of Judgment is a draw card, but I’ll never get to a situation where I can use it. Well, maybe if I’m fighting against an army. That might count.

Pianissimo might be fine. The reduction in attack is bad, but protection from battle and card effect destruction is nice. But that part I can do better with other cards. Pianissimo might be a good install for Cailie.

Brilliant Spark is an okay burn card. And Gem-Knights do deal burn damage, sometimes.

Igknight Gallant is basically the same as every other Igknight.

And Kozmo Forerunner is a spaceship. A spaceship that can heal. So a medical ship, likely. But if it is, why is it called the Forerunner? It is also large enough to carry smaller ships, at least based on the artwork, so it is likely massive. I’ll most likely test it out at some point, and I’ll also check if I can add the usual B.E.S. installs to it, so that it can be a ship we use.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 3

Performage Stilts Launcher; Aroma Garden; Bird of Paradise Lost; Pianissimo; Opera the Melodious Diva; Humid Winds; Performage Trick Clown; Kyoutou Waterfront; Kozmo Forerunner

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Performage Stilts Launcher can special summon itself, but it costs you your normal summon. So why not just let it normal summon itself without tribute? The extra 2k burn is maybe nice, but has to be a part of an established strategy.

Aroma Garden I already had. But admittedly I don’t remember where I got it from. … oh right. It was a reward for flower plantings.

Bird of Paradise Lost is nice. Good stats, gains even more based on how many Tuners you have in the GY, and can take control of an opposing monster. … I also had it already because I got it from somewhere.

Opera the Melodious Diva is meh. Sure the protection it gives is nice, but it is only for the turn.

Humid Winds I already had. Aromaseraphy Sweet Marjoram got it for me.

Performage Trick Clown is great.

And Kyoutou Waterfront means that there are Kaijus in this set. They might not be all that useful for me, but they’ll make for great practice opponents, especially if I let them use their effects.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 4

Igknight Margrave; Aroma Garden; Chicken Game; Balance of Judgment; D/D Pandora; Performage Hat Tricker; Igknight Squire; Brilliant Spark; Mandragon

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Igknight Margrave is, again, like every other Igknight. Have an Igknight in both scales and you can destroy them for a search. Only the level, attack and defense differ between them.

Chicken Game is fun. I just like playing under it. Sure it isn’t balanced that well, but if you go with ‘Chicken Game is always active’ and ‘Chicken Game cannot be destroyed or overwritten’, you can actually have some fun duels. For me though, it is complete trash.

Performage Hat Tricker is a free special summon and it can protect you from effect damage.

Igknight Squire is an Igknight.

And Mandragon is as vanilla as a Pendulum Normal Monster can be. It doesn’t even have a Pendulum effect. But it does have 2500 attack on a level 5, and that is really high.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 5

Igknight Gallant; Secret Blast; Performage Hat Tricker; Performapal Drummerilla; D/D Pandora; Performage Stilts Launcher; Trick Box; Igknight Champion; Mistaken Arrest

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Secret Blast can deal a lot of burn damage.

Trick Box is interesting. It allows you to mind control an opponent’s monster. Sure there is that monster swap part, but the monster you summon returns to your side of the field during the end phase.

Igknight Champion is a rare not copy and pasted Igknight. It is nice. No clue what returning to the bottom of the deck does, so that will have to be tested.

And Mistaken Arrest doesn’t limit anyone except me. But it is a secret rare, so I like it.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 6

Raptor's Gust; Performapal Silver Claw; Wavering Eyes; Performage Hat Tricker; Trick Box; Aromage Cananga; Opera the Melodious Diva; Sky Dragoons of Draconia; Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon

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Raptor's Gust negates a Spell/Trap.

Performapal Silver Claw gives a 300 attack boost to Performapals.

Wavering Eyes is nice when you play a Pendulum deck against another Pendulum deck, but it isn’t that good for me.

Aromage Cananga I already had. Again, flower planting reward.

And Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon is really nice. In theory, every time someone actively uses a skill, they get burned. Cast a spell, burn. Use Flickering Step, burn. Take something from Storage, burn. At least I think so. And since it only burns the opponent…

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 7

Ferret Flames; Igknight Gallant; Performapal Salutiger; Performapal Drummerilla; Rank-Up-Magic Raptor's Force; Raidraptor - Return; Aroma Jar; Balance of Judgment; Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju

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Ferret Flames is potentially powerful, but too specific.

Performapal Salutiger searches when it destroys something by battle.

Rank-Up-Magic Raptor's Force I already had.

Aroma Jar I already had.

Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju is my first Kaiju. And while Kumongous isn’t the best Kaiju ever, it is nice. And spider silk from my spider monsters is useful. I’ve still yet to test if I can just tribute over a wild monster, as I’ve never needed to, but I should try that at some point.

… spoilers. I tested it, it didn’t work. I could tribute over a monster someone owned. So if someone has a tamed or summoned monster, I can tribute it and give them a Kaiju.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 8

Aroma Garden; Deskbot 005; Igknight Gallant; Raptor's Gust; Aroma Jar; D/D Pandora; Chicken Game; Wavering Eyes; Extra Buck

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Deskbot 005 is nice. Having a Pendulum scale of 10 is good, even with only being able to summon Deskbots. And the attack gain is also good.

And Extra Buck is a draw 2 that works with Pendulum monsters. It is a little slow and would be better if it was a Continuous Spell, but it is usable.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 9

Trick Box; Ferret Flames; Tamtam the Melodious Diva; Performage Trick Clown; Mystery Shell Dragon; Raptor's Gust; Performage Stilts Launcher; Bird of Paradise Lost; Kozmotown

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Mystery Shell Dragon is a 2k Wyrm vanilla.

And Kozmotown is great. Recovers banished monsters. Allows you to shuffle useless monsters into the deck. And if it is destroyed, you get a search.

Next pack.

Spoiler

CORE 10

Ferret Flames; Performapal Camelump; Aroma Garden; Performage Stilts Launcher; D/D Pandora; Risebell the Summoner; Keeper of the Shrine; Performapal Silver Claw; Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju

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Performapal Camelump is bad. It can give a monster piercing, but at the cost of that monster losing 800 attack for the turn. Or if it dies, it weakens a monster by 800.

Risebell the Summoner I already had.

Dogoran, the Mad Flame Kaiju is my second Kaiju. And definitely a good Kaiju at that. Sure in terms of giving it away it is worse than Kumongous, but in terms of summoning it for my use, it is better. Also, I think you get what I mean when I say they are great monsters to practice against.

The Kaijus are massive monsters, a lot like S and SS-rank monsters we might run into when dealing with fissures. So having monsters that are like them is a great utility when I train future Card Venturer teams.

But that was the first CORE opening. 3 higher rarity cards is good, especially since I got both the ghost rare and a secret rare.

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Now, there was just one more thing I had to do before my wedding day. And that was keeping up my promise of transporting the finalists of the adventuring tournament. As well as the few people who had tickets to go see the finals.

No, I wouldn’t take the entire adventurer population of a town. That is just a terrible idea. Besides, the tournament will be livestreamed. We have the technology, so why not?

Thankfully I wasn’t responsible for that. But some HomeBase personnel were, as they knew the technology better than others. They also had the necessary levels to be near the action without being in great danger. And if anything broke, I’d be able to get them a new one for free. And everything kind of ran on my tech anyway.

And no, I didn’t have any advertisers or sponsors yet. I need to get some at some point.

But back to the transport part. My job was simple. Kind of. I was basically ATC, air traffic control. I was on HomeBase, tracking each flight, ready to teleport there if any troubles showed up. For example, if one of the finalists were trying to pull rank. I’d teleport there and remind them that they are not that strong.

Luckily I only had to do that twice. Most high ranked adventures know how to act. Also, I learned later that one of the two I scared dropped out of the tournament. No clue why. Not like I’m participating.

We also transported a few nobles. But unlike the adventurers, they didn’t fly to the Hero’s country. Unless they requested it. Instead, they got my teleportation service.

It was honestly just magic practice for me. Teleporting large groups without relying on the Numeron Code was still somewhat of a challenge to me, so it worked out fine.

And while a few nobles wanted to travel by air, most went by teleportation.

At the end of the few transport days, I was tired of teleporting, but at least I knew I could teleport many people with me. And a ton of luggage. So not that wasteful of days.

Tomorrow is the last day of the year. And my last day before I’m a married man. So I’m spending it opening more packs. Sorry if you don’t like that idea. But I have an idea for something specific I want to do and it is my last chance before I’m busy for a few days. … or weeks.