Players are welcome to create 3D avatars for use in game, and Konami has enhanced the basic mechanics of dueling online. The most duelist-friendly change is that duels will now be free! Players can buy “Boosterpass” points to add new cards, and the points can be bought via credit card or PayPal. In the new version, players can trade cards with other players and lend cards to their friends and team members.

Konami has opened free Beta-testing trials of the Duel Accelerator now, and the Beta will be open until the end of February. You can check it out by going to www.yugioh-online.net. It will run alongside the current Duel Evolution service, which will come to an end when Duel Accelerator launches  next month!

orites such
as Yugi, Kaiba, Jaden and Princeton.

Players are invited to create 3D avatars for use in the game, and KDE has
enhanced the basic mechanics of online Dueling, too. The most
Duelist-friendly change is that Duels will now be played at no cost. Players
can buy BOOSTERPASS points to add new cards to their Decks, and these can be
acquired by credit card or PayPal. In this new version of Yu-Gi-Oh! ONLINE,
players will not only be able to trade cards with other players but also
lend cards to their friends and Dueling team members.

Konami has opened free Beta trials of *Yu-Gi-Oh! ONLINE DUEL ACCELERATOR* now,
which will continue until the end of February. It can be found at
www.yugioh-online.net, and will run alongside the existing Yu-Gi-Oh! ONLINE
DUEL EVOLUTION service, which will come to an end when *Yu-Gi-Oh! ONLINE
DUEL ACCELERATOR* launches in March.

First of all, Wizards of the Coast unveiled the third of three sets that are in the Zendikar block. Rise of the Eldrazi, codenamed “Prosper”, will be joining Zendikar (October 2009) and Worldwake (January 2010) to complete the block. The set is announced for April 23, 2010, with prerelease events held in participating WPN (wizards play network) locations the week before. This will be a 248-card set and previews will start on April 5th on magicthegathering.com.

The upcoming Pro Tour and Grand Prix schedule was also posted. The stops cover 16 countries and numerous states. Some of the big ones are Oakland, CA and Houston, TX for the States, as well as events in parts of Europe. All grand prixes will feed into the pro tours for the respective area, IE Oakland’s grand prix and others in the surrounding areas will feed to the San Juan pro tour. The promotional card is an old favorite from Kamigawa, Umezawa’s Jitte. This card will only be available while supplies last. The first stop is, in fact, Oakland, on Valentine’s Day weekend (February 13-14).

In the world of Yu-Gi-Oh!, there has been an announcement from Konami about a new Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s league. The Pegasus League is already proving to be a test for any duelist’s deck-building skills. Konami will regularly select a new deck format for players to test their skills. For November, the challenge is for any deck built must contain four monsters of the following elements: Water, Fire, Earth, and Wind. Every time the format is updated, the changes will be posted on www.yugioh-card.com.

The final stop on the Shonen Jump Championships came to Columbus this past weekend. More than 800 players showed up to compete, and one man, Vincent Ralambomiadana, took the top prize. He was playing a French Twilight deck against second place Kevin Slapnik’s Destiny Hero / Zombie deck. Again, the top finalists from this championship have earned invitations to their respective country’s 2010 National Championships.

It’s been a busy few weeks in the world of competitive card games, so bust out those deck you’ve been meaning to play and have some fun!