Notes & Combos

Some thoughts:

• Am I back to regular M1 climbs? No, I do not think so, as I have little to prove playing "normal" decks. And I do not see the impulse that pushes me to really try coming any time soon.
• Maliss is the much better deck currently. I played Ryzeal, because I was lazy and did not want to learn too many new things. Do not make the same mistake. Be happy that I suddenly got the drive to go for M1 again lol
• Despite me having had some minor "success" in the past, it was all with engine-heavy decks, as I refuse(d) to play many HTs or any HTs at all. So, despite HTs being easy to use and not that skillful at all, I had to pay attention to plays of my opponents more than I usually need to. So, there was a learning curve when it came to using HTs. But - and who would have guessed - it came quickly and there was not much more to it than knowing what other decks do. Something you need to learn anyways.
• The balancing philosophy of Konami has to be clearer: you either fully balance around HTs (and thus remove the generic HT counters like Ash, Called By and Crossout) to let them resolve and simply be something you have to expect every game ever or you move away from the HT balancing idea. The generic HT minigames we have are so ******* lame.
• the climb was expectedly annoying. Hard might be the wrong word, but it was annoying for sure. Does not help that I still did not try Maliss myself, so that I could HT them more optimally. I did learn some cues intuitively, but I am probably far from perfection there.
• Add to this that I went into Ryzeal raw without consulting combo lines or really reading cards. As I started in Gold, I spent my games there "learning" Ryzeal combos. It took me until low Diamond to finally get the idea to use Starliege's mats for Duo Drive. It was not until there and low Master where I think I got the good HT-insulating lines and also timings for HT use down well enough. Combination of laziness, lack of knowledge and also lack of need.
• I did start with Plasma Hole, cut it and then added it again a bit later. Your board does not cut it against Maliss without Plasma, so I added it back.
• I find Mermail ******* scary, man. Luckily, not many play it. Similar thoughts but less pronounced for Memento.

Yeah, the game is not fun like this. Konami gotta decide (and they did in the TCG/OCG):

either tank the power level of the game, or make everything batshit crazy to powercreep generic HTs, or change rulesets/cardpools.