The Results of Testing! Help?

I’ve now invested approximately 10 days of playtesting for the upcoming Regionals. Yesterday I was playtesting with multiple people and decks, including Mermails, and this testing helped. In this post, I will likely go into details pertaining to my thoughts and decisions thus far.


I’ve decided to drop Chaos Anti-Meta as a selection for this event. I played a few games against Mermails and it lost more games than I can handle. I originally thought Mermails had a good match-up against this deck, and I don’t want to enter the Regionals, play this deck, and risk getting washed away. That being said, I am still considering Agents, Dino-Rabbit and Wind-Ups, and now it’s become much more difficult.

I will now expand on my thoughts pertaining to these three remaining decks.

Regarding Agents, I’ve already dedicated a detailed post with my thoughts. There are a few things I feel the need to discuss, though. For example, I completely forgot about Gozen Match in the side, and I will have to find room for 2 copies. Additionally, I’ve been thinking about siding Herald of Green Light. Many decks currently used rely on certain spells to survive, or over-extend. Despite it negating spells, it is also a tuner, which is quite useful. I’m really going to have to re-evaluate my side.

In the main, I’m considering utilizing 3 Hyperion in my final build. I justified in my previous post why I played 2 on Saturday, but after playtesting a little more, I’m thinking the deck doesn’t have enough power. Don’t get me wrong, the deck is still ridiculous in terms of winning for no reason, sometimes. However, 3 Hyperion is inconsistent, and I want to reduce the number of dead draws to the absolute minimum. I have to seriously determine if I want to sacrifice consistency for increased power, or not.

I finally want to discuss the extra deck. I’m honestly stuck when having to pick 15 cards. These are the cards I have to choose from, and why:

1. Armory Arm – Easy to make, and wins games

2. Catastor - Easy to make, and wins games

3. Gaia Knight – Sometimes, I have to make this card with the cards I’m handed.

4. Black Rose – Having the ability to wipe the field is important, though I’ve only summoned it once in my entire testing period, if that.

5. Ancient Sacred Wyvern – Every time I bring out this card, it makes me happy. Note, I’ve only brought it out a few times. It did won me one game because of its effect.

6. Stardust – I rarely summon it, but I feel a little more safe when I do.

7. Mist Wurm – This card is still possible to summon, and can win games by clearing important cards. I’ve only summoned it once or twice, though, and it’s not Trishula.

8. 2 Gachi-Gachi – Being more of a control player, I like 2 in the extra deck. Against all the explosive decks, stalling does come in handy.

9. Daigusto Phoenix – Having the extra attack is nice, though I’m still not a huge approver of this card.

10. Dark Mist – Only reason I’m considering this card right now is because it is a Dark monster, and I play BLS. I apparently don’t have enough Dark monsters sometimes…

11. Zenmaines – It’s a good card

12. Leviair – It’s a good card

13. Leviathan Dragon – It’s a good card

14. Photon Papilloperative – It’s a good card

15. Maestroke – It’s a good card

16. Utopia – It’s a good card

17. Utopia Ray – I play mind control, and I don’t really want to be stalled by a Utopia

18. Gaia Dragoon – This card saved me against Wind-Ups, because I play Mind Control. After they explode, I would take their Rank 5 (bonus if it’s a Zenmaioh or Adreus) and make the Dragoon. I really want this card in my extra deck in the end.

This, along with the side, is the toughest part of this process right now. Perhaps if I had my ideas straight, I would feel a little more inclined to take this deck to Regionals. I’ll leave it at that for now.

Regarding Dino-Rabbit, I will be playing the Macro version. If I draw Macro turn one, I have a significant advantage (most of time). My biggest issue is that I won’t have an answer to turn one Wind-Up plays.

I’ve done extensive testing with Rabbit over the last few months, specifically last format. I know this deck quite well, and I would be comfortable with it. My main deck is practically complete to my standards. My extra deck won’t be too hard to put together. My side deck will be the same as it always has been.

I will finally discuss Wind-Ups. I have tried multiple deck lists over the last few weeks. If I take this deck to Regionals, this is what I will be playing. All of these areas still need slight work, as you will see:

Main (40):

3 Wind-Up Rabbit

3 Wind-Up Rat

3 Wind-Up Magician

3 Wind-Up Shark

1 Wind-Up Warrior

1 Wind-Up Soldier

2 Tour Guide

1 Sangan

1 Maxx “C”

2 MST

1 Storm

1 Reborn

1 Dark Hole

3 Wind-Up Factory

2 Forbidden Lance

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Torrential Tribute

3 Call of the Haunted

*1 Starlight Road or Effect Veiler

Extra Deck (15-16):

Zenmaity

Zenmaines

Leviathan Dragon

Acid Golem

Leviair

Temtempo

Maestroke

Zenmaister

Papilloperative

Utopia

Shock Master

Gagaga Cowboy

Zenmaioh

Adreus

Tirus

*Stardust Dragon

Side (19-20):

1 Thunder King

1 Fossil Dyna

* 1-2 Veiler

1 Maxx “C”

2 Snowman Eater

2 Tragoedia

1 Gorz

1 MST

2 Twister

2 Dimensional Fissure

2 Dimensional Prison

3 Trap Stun

In the main, I play 1 Warrior and 1 Soldier, along with 3 Factory, to increase the odds of increasing card advantage, which leads to longer and more explosions. I’m also playing 3 COTH because it will allow me to explode in ways this deck usually can’t. Having the extra Rat, or re-summoning Magician after it gets hit by Warning is incredible. 3 COTH allows me to maximum use of my extra deck, and being able to summon anything from that pile of 15 cards, usually.

Regarding my extra deck, I have to decide if I’m going to play Stardust Dragon, by choosing an XYZ monster to remove. This isn’t easy to decide. This will also determine whether not I play Starlight Road or Veiler in the main deck.

My side deck is definitely the hardest part to finalize. Everything I’ve chosen is quite useful. I specifically like Trap Stun. For a while, this card was in my main deck, and I won games because it was Trap Stun. Dimensional Fissure is good against Mermails, and against hand-traps. The Twisters are for annoying cards like Gozen Match that will break this deck, if I don’t have an answer. Tragoedia is really good because my hand-size is usually quite high. If not, I can use it to manipulate present extra deck options. Every thing else is pretty standard.

Tomorrow at Locals I will participate with Wind-Ups or Dino-Rabbit, since I played Agents at the last Locals I attended and won. I shall continue to playtest rigorously, since I only have about 36 hours left to decide. If you readers can help me or provide advice with any of the questionable factors I discussed, please comment. The more help I receive, the easier this decision will be.

Picking a Deck

The challenge of having multiple decks is picking the one to use for a tournament. Right now, I’ve done extensive play-testing, and it hasn’t helped my decision enough. I was originally choosing between these decks:


Dino-Rabbit

Wind-Ups

Agents

Chaos Anti-meta

Chaos Dragons

Exodia

I have tested all of these decks, and this is what I’ve determined:

- Chaos Dragons are slightly underpowered compared to Agents

- Agents has a wide-range of good or solid matchups, but falls horribly to its bad matchups

- Chaos Anti-Meta is honestly, pretty solid. However, it doesn’t have the explosive power that other decks do. It also has a somewhat bad matchup against Mermails

- Wind-Ups are the same always: They do everything, and occasionally make Shock Master first turn

- Dino-Rabbit with Macro is a really good meta call. However, I need to draw the Macro, and be able to make Laggia and Dollka quickly.

- Exodia will usually win game one this format, but will likely lose the following games. Oh, and Moulinglacia might murder the deck.

Taking this information into consideration, I’ve knocked down this list to four decks:

Dino-Rabbit

Wind-Ups

Agents

Chaos Anti-Meta

I believe that Agents do what Chaos Dragons do, and are a little more powerful and less reliant on luck. I don’t want to risk playing Exodia because the deck is simple to counter, and Moulinglacia exists.

I was impressed with Agents this weekend. This feeling lasted until today when I got savagely destroyed by Dark Worlds. Agents have a bad matchup against Dark Worlds, and it didn’t help that I didn’t draw a single MST or usable Herald of Orange Light. Honestly, if I’m playing Agents at Regionals, I might side Herald of Green Light. I can’t deny that Agents are impressive though, and have enough control over the board to capitalize all the time, usually. I also have to consider that Dark World decks will be minimal at the event.

I’ve tested Wind-Ups quite a bit to know that Agents have the overall better matchup, and they are on par with other strong decks. The deck destroyed Dark Worlds today, and I didn’t summon Shock Master once, so that’s a good sign. This deck wins because it has an out to almost everything, and can generate a lot of advantage. The major conflict I have arises with the increase of hand-traps, due to the rise of Mermails. Veiler and Maxx “C” should be staples, and those cards thwart Wind-Ups, usually.

Macro Dino-Rabbit just hurts a lot of decks, including Mermails, which will take up a good population at Regionals. It also has decent match-ups against every deck, due to Laggia and Dollka. The only negative is that sometimes, this deck has difficult hands. Also, drawing dead Rabbits late-game can be a serious factor.
The final option is Chaos Anti-Meta. This deck uses one-for-ones to take control of the game. I also use Light and Dark monsters that cause people issues, like Spirit Reaper and Thunder King. This deck doesn’t explode like other decks, and it rarely achieves a +1. Also, sometimes I will draw the wrong cards at the worst times. This is the same with most decks, though.

So those are the main points of my testing. I’m honestly stuck between these four decks, because they are all solid contenders for the Regionals.

Agent Evaluation

This title is funny because I work full-time as a technical support “agent”… get it… funny right…


Anyway, before I start discussing Agents, I had a couple of questions concerning Dave’s tournament report from the tournament on the weekend, with Chaos Dragons. This is a basic summary, and as much as I know:

Round 1 vs Ganon (six sams): 2-0

Round 2 vs ???: He won

Round 3 vs myself (agents): 0-2

Round 4 vs Rori (Dark Worlds): He won, but I’m not sure if it was 2-0 or 2-1

Round 5 vs Richard (Mermails): 2-0 I’m pretty sure

Top 4 vs Raymond (Dino-Rabbit) 1-2 (However, I watched their game 3 since my Top 4 match went by quickly. Dave misplayed and likely would’ve won the match if he didn’t.)

Now, quite a few people have requested an analysis of my Agent deck, along with my thoughts and research. This post should hopefully contain enough detail to satisfy the readers that are specifically interested, while increasing everyone else’s knowledge as well. I will start by posting the build I used on Saturday:

Main deck (40):

1 BLS

2 Hyperion

1 Kristya

2 Earth

3 Venus

3 Balls

2 Thunder King

1 Sangan

2 Tour Guide

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Card Trooper

1 Honest

2 Herald of Orange Light

1 Effect Veiler

2 Maxx “C”

2 Tragoedia

1 Gorz

3 MST

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Book of Moon

1 Mind Control

1 Creature Swap

1 Enemy Controller

1 Forbidden Lance

1 Treacherous Trap Hole

Extra Deck (15)

1 Armory Arm

1 Catastor

1 Gaia Knight

1 Black Rose

1 Stardust

2 Gachi-Gachi

1 Daigusto Phoenix

1 Zenmaines

1 Leviathan Dragon

1 Leviair

1 Photon Papilloperative

1 Maestroke

1 Utopia

1 Utopia Ray

*Side Deck (15):

2 Gemini Imps

2 Banisher of the Radiance

1 Maxx “C”

1 Kristya

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Forbidden Lance

1 Forbidden Chalice

1 System Down

2 Twister

3 Royal Decree

*This may be slightly different from Saturday, but I’m 90% sure this was it.

This deck list is similar to Simon He’s deck list that earned him a spot in the Top 8 of YCS Seattle. This has always been my approach to Agents from the beginning (many monsters, not many spells and traps), since I build Frog Fairies over a year ago and destroyed people with it. I took his deck list into consideration and altered some card choices that I found more beneficial. I’ll analyze all of the “odd” card choices:

2 Hyperion – 99% of these decks play 3 Hyperion. My reasoning behind 2 was quite simple: I have 5 targets to special summon Hyperion with its ability. I also don’t play Call of the Haunted. I’m unsure of whether I want to play 2 or 3, but 2 served me well on the weekend, and in testing so far.

1 Kristya – Again, most players play 2 of these. I main 1 only because I don’t have great graveyard manipulation with the lack of Call of the Haunted. I do side the extra one for the decks that like to special summon a lot.

1 Spirit Reaper – We are in an explosive format, so being able to stall is good, and Reaper is great for the job. The fact that it can discard a card is crazy.

1 Card Trooper – I really don’t like this card. Maybe it’s my bad luck, but I would always mill good cards. Also, I don’t play Call of the Haunted, so it isn’t necessary at 2. 1 is fine, and I might even cut that.

I think the rest of the main deck is self-explanatory. Now I will discuss the extra deck:

2 Gachi – A lot of people are playing 1 and I can understand it. I like 2 because it is extra stalling power.

1 Daigusto Phoenix – I feel like I should discuss this card. I borrowed my friend’s Phoenix for the tournament because I don’t own one. I only summoned it once the entire day, and I didn’t need to. I can’t tell whether or not I want to play it. I guess we will see what happens.

1 Utopia Ray – The main reason I played this is because I play a few cards that can take a Utopia from the opponent. It’s a dirty play.

Everything else should be self-explanatory. I’ll now go into detail about some of the strange side deck choices:

2 Banisher – I like this card in Agents a lot. I can side it against the mirror match to surprise them. I can side it against any deck that Macro hurts. The fact that it’s a fairy makes it ridiculous.

1 Forbidden Chalice – I sided this in as extra effect negation. It’s also a card no one would expect seeing. Surprise factor is useful.

2 Twister – Extra removal of face-up spells and traps. It destroys cards like Macro, Necrovalley, Call of the Haunted, Wind-Up Factory… Need I keep going?

3 Royal Decree – I usually always side 3 of them. I need them for trap-heavy decks and most alternate win condition decks.

Now that I’ve finished talking about the cards I did use, I will mention a few cards that I would like to use and try:

Gellenduo – It’s a wall that’s better than Reaper in terms of keeping alive, and it’s a fairy…

Night Assailant – It’s an extra Tour Guide target that can destroy a monster. People wouldn’t suspect it, so it’s a good choice.

Dark Mist – That extra deck monster that requires 3 level 2 monsters, and can increase its attack during damage step to kill a monster by battle. During testing, there has only been one situation where I wanted to use, but I needed it to get ahead. I’m not sure if I will use it or not.

Gaia Dragoon – I would play this because I can steal a rank 5 and 6. I actually took this card out on Saturday for the Phoenix

The final section of this post will describe my match-ups and how I feel about fighting against certain decks:

Chaos Dragons – In my testing, Agents completely stomp this deck. Kristya is too good, and Herald of Orange Light stops Ryko. Plus, it is a little more consistent than Chaos Dragons, since the Dragon deck heavily relies on what you mill.

Wind-Ups – In testing, I won 66% of my games with Agents. This deck has outs to Shock Master, and can rip apart their field, sometimes. Wind-Ups can be extremely powerful, but if not, the game normally belongs to Agents.

Dino-Rabbit (Macro) – I want to say this deck wins a little more against Rabbit, but its close enough to 50/50. The big monsters can get over Dollka, and it’s easy enough to bait out Laggia. Macro is the main issue, and games can be lost simply because of Laggia and Macro, unfortunately.

Mermails – I haven’t had enough testing against this deck, but I built it to have a good match-up against it. I’m honestly not that worried.

Geargia – This is another 50/50 match-up. If I can stop the Geargiarmor with a Herald, I’ll probably win, though.

Inzektors – I have a slightly favourable match-up against these insects. If I can protect the Kristya, or blow through their field with Hyperion, I have a strong chance of winning the game,

This is my analysis of Agents. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask. I feel fairly confident in Agents, and I’m now considering this deck a little more, for Regionals, than I was before.

Tournament Report 11/24/2012

Regarding Saturday’s tournament, I decided to play Agents. This is one of the decks I am considering for Regionals on December 1st, so practice was necessary. Also, I gave Dave (a random troll that’s better than average, Belleville people know who I’m referencing) my Chaos Dragons to use, since he randomly showed up and I wanted to test that for Regionals as well. There were 21 players, so 5 rounds of Swiss and a Top 4.


Round 1 vs Sal (Alchemist Chaos)

1 – I went first, with a typical Venus play, and I think he had the Veiler. Anyway, I set one backrow and passed. He special summons Cyber Dragon on his turn and tributes it for Vanity’s Fiend. I have the Book of Moon to flip it down. He sets one backrow and ends. I summon Earth and search Venus, then my Venus on the field summons some balls, and attacked the face-down Fiend, and when Earth went to attack, he chained Call of the Haunted to summon Cyber Dragon. During the battle phase, I tributed one of my balls to take the Dragon and dish some early damage. I made a Gachi, then I gave him back his Cyber. He tributed it for Caius and I had Herald of Orange Light. I won a couple of turns later.

2 – I barely remember this game. All I know was that there was a fair bit of stalling behind Cyber Valleys and such, but I had enough power to overwhelm him. It’s unfortunate I don’t remember this match quite well because it was entertaining.

2-0

Round 2 vs Bobby… (Chaos Dragons)

1 – I had hand-traps to stop his plays, and I beat him with a Venus, Thunder King, Hyperion and Daigusto Phoenix (though at that point I didn’t need it).

2 – This game was hilarious, so I will jump to the juicy part. On the last turn of the game (which didn’t last long), he has a set Snowman Eater on his field with 6000 life points, while I have a Photon Papilloperative, Leviathan Dragon with one detachment, and a Gachi-Gachi. I use Photon to flip the Snowman Eater up and he destroys Photon with the Snowman’s effect. I special summon Hyperion, and have Leviathan Dragon attack the Snowman. He sends it to the Graveyard and summons Gorz with his Token. I asked him what he was doing, and he said he was using Gorz’s effect. I told him he can’t and he asked why. Raymond, who was on my left, and I explained that the monster being destroyed is the last thing that happens before the end of the Damage Step, and damage calculation occurs first. He doesn’t agree, and Sal, who was on my right, lists the purpose of each sub-step and he doesn’t understand, along with his friend, Jordan, beside him. Bobby proceeded to tell us if he knew that he would’ve used the Monster Reborn in his hand to summon the Spirit Reaper in his Graveyard. It’s funny, because that didn’t matter, since I could’ve used Hyperion’s effect to destroy it. He then told us we were Yu-Gi-Oh Junkies! Apparently, Raymond and I eat, breathe and sleep Yu-Gi-Oh and that we are nerds. He walked away… So I think I won that game.

Round 3 vs Dave (Chaos Dragons)

Unfortunately for him, I knew the Dragon deck inside in and out. To be fair, I told him I was playing Agents.

1 – I went first and summoned Thunder King. He sets 2 backrow and ends. I summon another Thunder King and attack for 3800. He goes and passed. I summon Card Trooper and win. He couldn’t use the Charge of the Light Brigade in his hand because I had Thunder King. He lost because of that.

2 – He managed to explode fairly early on. Fortunately, I had Hyperion and Gachi, so I was able to destroy his field one monster at a time. Then, I followed with Kristya to lock him down.

2-0

Round 4 vs Kyle (Macro Worms)

1 – This game was fairly close. He has Macro Cosmos early on, meaning I couldn’t use my Herald of Orange Light or Honest when I needed to. I lost, that simple.

2 – I just rushed him, and by the time he had Macro it was too late.

3 – This game was close as well. Fortunately, I drew my Royal Decree that I sided in. He had 4 unusable cards face-down, including Macro. I won.

2-1

I was the only undefeated player at this point, so I was getting paired down.

Round 5 vs Ganon (Newbie Six Samurai)

1 – He summoned Shi En first turn, but since he didn’t have any threatening backrow, I ran over it with Hyperion, and then made a Venus play. I beat him a couple of turns later.

2 – He summoned Naturia Beast while he had a face-up Macro Cosmos. I killed the Beast with Thunder King and Forbidden Chalice, and beat him down from that point. Nothing exciting.

2-0

I obviously made the Top 4 cut. Raymond made it with a 4-1 record playing Dino-Rabbit. Dave made it with a 4-1 record. Finally, Kyle made it with a 3-2 record.

Round 6 vs Kyle

1 – I set up a lot faster this game, and I was able to play around a bunch of his plays. Herald of Orange Light really messed up his need W Nebula Meteorite play, and I capitalized from there.

2 – He starts by summoning Worm Zex, and I stop its effect with Veiler. This definitely caught him off guard. I can’t remember what happened on my first turn. On his next turn, he tributes Zex for Worm King and deals damage. I summon Tour Guide and special summon Sangan. I tribute the Sangan with Enemy Controller to take King, and search a creature. I attack with both monsters and tribute the King to destroy his one trap. Then I had a Lance for his next play, and Royal Decree to stop his traps. I won with some very decisive moves. I must say that was my favorite game of the day, simple because of how well I played. It was beautiful.

Raymond beats Dave 2-1, however, if Dave didn’t misplay he would’ve won the match. We couldn’t finish the tournament because the employee there wanted to leave. Since, I went undefeated, I was given 1st place, while Raymond was awarded with 2nd place. Raymond and I spent our credit on a box and it was pretty decent.

In conclusion, I was impressed with my performance with Agents. I only lost one game, due to an unexpected Macro Cosmos, so I didn’t do horrible. I’m also impressed with Chaos Dragons. The next post will be an in-depth analysis of Agents so stay tuned.

The Next Regionals

The next Regionals I will attend is on December 1st. This post will outline the decks I am considering, and my reasoning behind my choices.


1. Chaos Anti-Meta – I am quite satisfied with how this deck has performed, as a whole. This is an option because the deck is very flexible. I can adjust it to have batter match-ups against Wind-Ups, Mermails and other popular decks. When Wind-Ups and Geargias were extremely popular, I used 3 Cyber Dragon and 3 Thunder King, specifically to counter those decks. I will have to create the perfect build, though. Also, I enjoy how a fair amount of players don’t have a clue what to side against me, because they can’t figured out what I’m playing.

2. Wind-Ups – This deck is extremely capable of winning the entire event, for obvious reasons. However, I believe more people will run hand-traps, after what happened in Seattle. Hand-traps can cause this deck some difficulty, as well as other common traps. This is my only problem with the deck.

3. Agents – I want to play this deck because Hyperion and Kristya are too good. I haven’t quite found a build yet that I like, so this presents a complication. This deck also has access to Herald of Orange Light, which is a lot more powerful than Veiler.

4. Chaos Dragons – I am quite fond of this deck, in a way. When I attended Nationals, I picked to use Dino-Rabbit, however this deck was the runner-up. The deck does powerful things, though the most recent ban list limited explosive functionality. I also dislike how the game can be dictated by what you mill. This deck is an option because REDMD and Light Pulsar are broken. Also, this deck is just too powerful, and hits for too much.

5. Macro Dino-Rabbit – I would like to play Dino-Rabbit in a tournament again. If I do, I believe using Macro Cosmos is a great idea. Many current and popular decks have issues with Macro. Some of the hands can be annoying, though. Also, playing the Macro version implies I won’t have an answer to a first-turn Shock Master against Wind-Ups.

6. Exodia – This deck has a good match-up, game one, against everything except Dark Worlds, turn one Shock Master and Naturia synchro monsters. Game two gets a lot more complicated when people side in their Royal Decrees and such. This deck is a still a contender, though.

These are my options that I’m contemplating right now. Currently, I’m leaning closer towards Chaos Anti-Meta, and then Dino-Rabbit and Wind-Ups, and the other decks are last. I will likely choose the deck with the best match-ups to the above decks, and a few select others. Any suggestions?

YCS Seattle 2012 Analysis

Well, Inzektors won YCS Seattle, and the winner was a player that no one has every heard of previously. It’s obvious that the deck was a good meta call, and that’s why its success was paramount. I’ll just go right into discussion regarding why Inzektors won.


1. For some reason, a lot of players were not playing Effect Veiler. I don’t understand why though… Veiler at the right time terminates Mermails, Dino-Rabbit, Agents, and many more decks. Expecting that Mermails would take the event by storm, I would be maining at least 2 Veiler, and probably 1 or 2 Maxx “C”. I’m suspecting that Mermail players, specifically, didn’t play Veiler because of deck-space, and because many players thought Maxx “C” was superior. I disagree with this logic, but whatever.

2. Threatning Roar is a good card. Should an explosive deck explode, Inzektors can make a comeback, specifically with Hornet, if the Inzektor player survives. Threatning Roar allows survival. It was definitely a great idea.

3. Many decks didn’t play a lot of traps, primarily Mermails, Agents, Chaos Dragons, etc. Inzektors triumph with less traps around, in a different way than other decks. Don’t forget 3 Call of the Haunted is broken. Also, facing a DAD with no traps is frightening.

Of course, there are other important factors to take out of Seattle. Mermails did exceptionally well, unquestionably earning Tier 1 status. This was expected, and everyone had their side-decks ready for them.

Macro Dino-Rabbit made a splash in the Top 32. Although it typically had a bad match-up to first-turn Wind-Up explosions, it has a general good match-up against almost everything else, specifically Mermails.

Wind-Ups did well at this event, as expected. They were a little overwhelmed by Mermails, but besides that, Wind-Ups are good.

Geargias didn’t make a grand showing in this event. This could possibly be because Mermails have a great match-up against them. Also, I found that many side-decks were well equipped with cards to take them down.

Agents and Chaos Dragons also made a slight appearance. Those decks have the aggressive power to pound the crap out of any deck. Overall, I’m not surprised.

Finally, I want to address Dark Worlds. They didn’t do that well this event. Besides the deck being terrible and luck-based, Dark World players were crushed by the side-deck choices for Mermails (Soul Drain). Of course, they will continue to do random things for the next little while, but they shouldn’t be as challenging now, especially games 2 and 3.

That’s my basic analysis of YCS Seattle 2012. Overall, the results weren’t particularly surprising, with the exception of Inzektors winning the entire thing.

Tournament Report 11/16/2012 and 11/17/2012

Since I forgot to write my report last night, this report will contain both of my tournament results from yesterday and today.

Yesterday, in the spirit of "Fun day Friday", Raymond and I decided to play Gallis decks. I decided to play Gallis Machina, similar to the one that came in top 32 of the last YCS, but with my spin. 40 monster decks are always fun, right?

Round 1 vs Holden the Newb (Chaos Dragons)

This match isn't special. I won the entire match in two minutes...

2-0

Round 2 vs Richard (Mermail Atlanteans)

1 - By turn 2 or 3 I end up with the Gallis, Genex Ally Birdman, and Koaki Meiru Doom loop.
2 - He rushed on his third turn, and I didn't draw any hand-traps, so I lost. I believe he OTKed me with double Abyssmegalo and a Marksman, which summoned an Attack Squad
3 - This game lasts only a few turns. On his last turn, he was just a few life points shy of defeating me, because I had Tragoedia or Gorz (can't remember). Then I loop him with Gallis, 2 Birdman and Doom. I needed 2 Birdman because he negated the first one with Abyss Scale of the Kraken.

2-1

Round 3 vs Kyle (Inzektors)

1 - After a few turns I ended up looping him to death.
2 - Game 2 was very close. We both ended up exploding on each other, however, his explosion was much more effective because he had Hornet. After he couldn't kill me, I special summon Cyber Eltanin to clear his field, then summon Machina Fortress and attack for game.

2-0

Round 4 vs Raymond (Gallis Piper)

1 - I loop him before he could loop me. This was turn 2 or 3.
2 - Neither of us had the loop. We exchanged power plays, and I won because he ran out of hand-traps before I did.

2-0

I went undefeated into Top 4, with the other competitors being Chris, Raymond and Kyle. Richard went 2-2, losing to Raymond after me, and Rori went 1-3 playing Plant Zombies.

Round 5 vs Chris (Machina Malefic Geartown)

1 - I didn't have the hand-traps to stop double Fortress and a Gadjiltron Dragon so I lost very quickly.
2 - I looped him immediately.
3 - He had too many Geartowns, and a Fortress. I somehow managed to put up a fight, but after that, he played the Seal of Orichalcos and the extra attack points secured him the victory.

I ended up splitting with Kyle for 3rd and 4th place because he didn't feel like playing another Gallis deck. Raymond ended up coming 1st.

That tournament ended my 1st place streak at 31 tournaments. It was a little sad, but I knew it was going to happen. He finished me with Seal, and I did feel like a lost a slight part of me after that game. Is that ironic?

Anyway, Friday ended and Saturday started. I decided to play the Plant Zombie deck I build for Rori, and that he failed using. I included 2 more Veilers and a Trap Stun. The Veilers were included for more synchro plays, not just for its effect. I included Trap Stun at the last minute for random tech. I ended up removing 2 Caius (there were 3) and a Goblin Zombie (there were 2).

Round 1 vs Blake (Dark Worlds)

1 - I go first and have the cards to Accel Synchro Summon Shooting Star Dragon. On his turn he doesn't do anything significant; just setting some back-row and a monster. On my next turn I summon Debris Dragon, special Lonefire Blossom from the graveyard, and summoned Black Rose Dragon. I negated his Torrential with Shooting Star. I used the second effect of Black Rose; by banishing Lonefire, I switch his Beige to attack mode with 0 attack. I used Shooting Star's ability to reveal 2 tuners out of the top 5 cards of my deck. I attacked for 9000 damage that turn.
2 - This game only lasts a few turns as well. I don't have many plant plays, but I have a plethora of Zombie plays. I swarm him and kill him.

2-0

Round 2 vs Richard (Mermail Atlanteans)

1 - He goes first and summons Diva, which I have the Veiler for. He sets a backrow and passes. I open with Lonefire and Reborn. I Accel Synchro Summoned Shooting Star Dragon, reveal 3 tuners with its effect, and attack for game.
2 - He goes first, and with his cards, summons Gachi. He also sets a backrow. I set a monster and 2 backrow. He draws, and flips his Abyssphere to summon Abyssmegalo, which I banish with Bottomless. He special summons another one, using its effect, and attacks my face-down. From that point, I don't really remember what happened. I know that I had board presence by having Stardust and Scrap Dragon, through some Zombie plays. His only option was to over-extend and destroy Stardust, and I won on my next turn.

2-0

Round 3 vs Rori (Dark World)

1 - I Accel Synchro Summoned Shooting Star Dragon first turn. He opens with a good hand. He discards Grapha to destroy Shooting Star, which I negate. He plays Heavy Storm to wipe out my 3 back-row. I OTK him on my next turn with more Plant plays, and Shooting Star Dragon.
2 - I don't know how I won this game, honestly. He goes first, setting some cards to his backrow and  ended. I didn't open great either, so I set a Dandylion and some traps. He topdecks Card Destruction, sets another card to his backrow, and plays Card Destruction discarding Broww, Beige and Grapha. He destroys my set Dandy. He eventually summons Grapha and kills a token by battle, after setting more backrow. I draw, and summon DAD, thanks to Card Destruction. Unluckily, I destroy 1 set Reckless which he chains, and his Gate of dark World. I summoned Debris Dragon, summoned Dandy and made Scrap Dragon, and I take away quite a bit of life points. On his turn now, he explodes, activating both D.D.V. and E.E.V., declaring spells, which thankfully I had none. He also goes through all 3 Dragged Down to the Grave, a Dark World Dealings and end up with Double Grapha on board. He also used Grapha's effect at some point to destroy Scrap Dragon. He also destroyed my DAD by battle. At his end phase, I activate Call of the Haunted to summon Scrap Dragon. I draw, and activate crap Dragon's effect, destroying his Grapha and my set Trap, which I chained. That trap... was Trap Stun. I used Mezuki to summon Goblin Zombie from my Grave, special summoned Plaguespreader Zombie with its effect, and synchro summoned Gaia Knight. Those zombies entered my graveyard because Rori over-extended with his discard outlets, and because of the D.D.V.. I used Goblin Zombie to search Beast of the Pharaoh, which was enough damage to destroy him.

2-0

Round 4 vs Ryan K. (Inzektors)

1 - We both open with poor hands. Fortunately, my poor hand had a Dandy in it. The advantage was enough for me to eventually push for game, after turns of stalling.
2 - We both opened poorly again. He opened slightly better, since was able to do some Inzektor plays and summon a Tirus. I was able to make a Gaia Knight and crash with it. At that point he ran out of steam, due to his bad hand, and I had a couple of synchro summons which ended the game, but he scooped before I could finish him. We also both forgot to side against each other...

2-0

I head into Top 4 undefeated, along with Raymond, Chris and Blake. Richard went 2-2 after losing to Raymond, again. Rori went 2-2 after losing to Chris round 4.

Round 5 vs Raymond (Wind-Ups)

1 - I go first and set Reaper, with a face-down Torrential. He destroys it with MST and opening Tour Guide and Factory, and ended with Zenmaity and Rabbit, along with setting a trap. He did not attack. I summoned Mezuki, and he activates Torrential, banishing his Rabbit. I banish Mezuki to summon Reaper and attacked, discarding his Shark that he searched. That might have won me the game. From that point, I exhausted his resources with Veiler and Gorz. I also had to fight through 2 Reapers that he was stalling with. Once I did, I attacked for game.
2 - This game only lasted a few turns. He opened Rabbit and Factory, and I open with a set Goblin Zombie. Next turn, he tried to explode, but I had a hand-trap, so he couldn't kill me. Next turn I try and stall with Pyramid turtle, but it didn't matter because he had a lot of damage to kill me with.
3 - I Accel Synchro Summoned Shooting Star Dragon turn one. He sets some cards. I OTK him with Pyramid Turtle and Shooting Star, after revealing 3 tuners off the top of the deck.

2-1

Round 6 vs Chris (Machina Malefic Geartown)

PAYBACK MATCH!!!

1 - I Accel Synchro Summoned Shooting Star turn one. He summons Machina Fortress, which gets killed by my Bottomless. He passed. I draw and summon Pyramid Turtle. I chose not to use Shooting Star's effect to reveal tuners, since a lot of them were in my hand. Anyway, I attacked for 4500 that turn. He goes and summons Gearframe, searches and summons Fortress. He attacks Shooting Star with Fortress, and I banish Shooting Star to negate the attack, in case he had Limiter Removal. He then chooses to equip Gearframe to Fortress and ends. I play Mind Control and swing for game.
2 - He doesn't do too much on his turn. I set Sangan with 2 traps. He goes through a couple of Geartowns, granting him 2 Gear Dragons. He also summons Machina Fortress. Fortress destroys Sangan and I search for Lonefire. I take 6000 damage afterward. On my turn, I summoned Lonefire, and tributed it to summon Dandy. I used a face-down COTH to summon Lonefire, and tribute Dandy to summon Spore. I tune Spore and a Fluff Token to summon Formula and draw. I tune Formula to Lonefire to synchro summon Librarian. I banish Lonefire to summon Spore, and tune Spore to my other Fluff Token to synchro summon Catastor. I draw one with Librarian. I flip over my second COTH to summon back Formula Synchro. I tune Formula Synchron, to my Ally of Justice Catastor, and T.G. Hyper Librarian, to Delta Accel Synchro Summon Shooting Quasar Dragon! I also use Monster Reborn on Catastor, though it didn't matter at that point. Catastor attacked a Gear Dragon. Quasar attacked a Gear Dragon, then Fortress. I negated Fortress' destruction effect with Quasar and ended my turn. He baits out Quasar's effect with Grand Mole, then plays Dark Hole to destroy my field. I then used Quasar's ability to special summon Shooting Star Dragon from my extra deck. He special summons Machina Fortress and passed. I summon Tour Guide, special summon another one, and overlay them for Leviathan Dragon. With Shooting Star Dragon, I revealed 2 tuners off the top of my deck, so it was able to attack twice. With that extra attack, and Shooting Star negating Fortress' destruction effect, I won the tournament.

2-0

And that was that. I must say I enjoyed winning with Plants today. It brought back some good memories from the past. Maybe I'll start to build up another streak, who knows.

The Current is Rising

Mermail Atlanteans is the newest Tier 1 deck to; literally, make a splash in the format. This deck contains multiple OTKs that don’t require a significant amount of though. I will divide this post into two separate sections: One section will highlight how to play the deck, and the other section will contain information explaining how to combat it.


So there are only 4 Atlanteans that should be played: Dragoon to search for anything, Heavy Infantry for the addition normal summon and destroying a card, Marksman for its special summoning capabilities and destroying a card, and Attack Squad for extra attack power. Typically, players should play 2-3 Dragoon, 2-3 Heavy Infantry, 3 Marksman and 1-2 Attack Squad.

As for Mermails, these are the ones that should always be played: Abyssmegalo to OTK and to search Abyss spells and traps, Abysslinde to special summon other creatures, Abysspike and Abyssturge to manipulate your hand and graveyard, and Abyssgunde as a discard outlet that summons a Mermail from grave. Ideally you incorporate 2-3 Abyssmegalo, 2-3 Abysslinde, 1-2 Abysspike, 1-3 Abyssturge and 1-3 Abyssgunde.

Other monsters that this deck should play are Genex Undine and Controller, Deep Sea Diva, Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord, and other hand-trap monsters. Monsters that can be teched are Genex Ally Birdman, Abyssgunder, Dragon Ice, Koaki Meiru Ice, Abyss Soldier, and… Airorca. Airorca is the boss: Look it up if you don’t know what it does.

The mandatory spells are your obvious spells: MST, Reborn, Storm and Dark Hole. Other cards you should play are Salvage and Moray of Greed. Random tech cards are Call of the Atlanteans, Pot of Avarice, Pot of Duality, Allure of Darkness, and the equip spell thing that can negate a monster’s effect during damage step (I think it’s called Abyss Scale of the Karen or something).

The trap-line is a little iffy. Everyone plays Abyssphere. Some players might tech Torrential Tribute or Compulsory Evacuation Device. However, there are trap-heavy builds that play 8-10 traps.

The extra deck choices are very flexible. They vary on the build you are using, so I won’t go into details.

Now these are some strategies and plays you should be familiar with:

1 – Open Genex Undine: There is an extremely defined correlation between opening this card and winning the game. The more you do that the better. It’s part of the reason I play POD, so I have a slightly better chance of opening with it.

2 – End phase Abyssphere: I’ve found the ruling that states if you activate Abyssphere to summon Abysslinde in the end phase, Abyssphere destroys itself, allowing to utilize Abysslinde’s effect. You should do that.

3 – Birdman and Diva: Summon Diva and special summon Infantry. Bounce Diva for Birdman. Re-summon Diva and summon Marksman. Overlay Diva and Infantry for Daigusto Phoenix and activate its effect to attack twice. Marksman attacks for 1400, and you summon Attack Squad which attacks for 2200. Phoenix attacks for 1500 twice. Birdman attacks for 1400. This is exactly 8000 if they all attack directly.

4 – Abyssmegalo and Diva: Special summon Abyssmegalo. Summon Diva and special summon Marksman. Tribute Diva with Abyssmegalo to attack with it twice. Marksman attacks for 1400, summons Attack Squad which attacks with 2200. Abyssmegalo attacks twice with 2400. This is 8400 damage if they all attack directly.

I will now conclude the first part of this post. It’s obvious this deck is broken, and doesn’t require much skill and though, unfortunately.

Now, I will discuss fighting this deck. It is a little bit difficult, however, it is similar to fighting against Wind-Ups. I think it’s crucial to use Veilers against this match-up, and Maxx “C”s to draw Veilers. These are the best monsters to negate with a Veiler:

1 – Diva

2 – Abyssmegalo, Abysspike, Abyssturge, Abyssgunde

3 – Moulinglacia (because it’s better to lose 1 card than 2)

4 – Extra deck monsters

Besides Veiler and Maxx “C”, any deck that can afford to run Gorz and Tragoedia should run them. This doesn’t make Shock Master as easily as Wind-Ups can. Running traps is also good; Bottomless, Dimensional Prison and Compulsory Evacuation Device are the best choices. Warning will lower your life points, and put the monster in their graveyard for later use, so I don’t recommend it.

The following cards are good side-deck choices against this deck:

1 – Dimensional Fissure

2 – Macro Cosmos

3 – Soul Drain

4 – Fiendish Chain

5 – Dragon Ice (especially during the mirror match)

That’s basically all you can do, regarding fighting this deck. Honestly, if you have nothing to stop them, you will auto-lose. If they resolve a turn-one Genex Undine, you almost auto-lose. This deck is unfair, but there’s nothing anyone can do.

Hopefully, this post enlightened you about this deck, and how it plays. Hopefully, you have a couple more idea on how to fight this deck. If you have any comments, comment away.

Apparently this is an OTK Format…

I’ve heard and read a lot of discussion on the above statement. I thought I would share my thoughts on this format. From this point, I’m defining OTK as to generate 8000 ATK points in a single turn. I will start by stating a few pinnacles:

These are the current mainstream decks that have the ability to OTK consistently:

Wind-Ups

Geargia

Agents

Heroes

Mermails/ Atlanteans

Chaos Dragons

These are the current mainstream decks that have the ability to OTK the odd game:

Inzektors

Six Samurai

Dark Worlds

Heroic Champions

Plant Synchro Variants

Lightsworns Varients

These are the current mainstream decks that rarely have the ability to OTK:
Dino-Rabbit

Madolche

Psychics

Other Anti-Meta decks

Based on the above statistics, it’s fair to assume that OTKs aren’t uncommon by any means. I will definitely agree when someone tells me this format is extremely diverse. The majority of these decks, though, have simple OTKing abilities, which is likely why they all stand a chance of performing exceptionally.

It’s safe to say I’ve witnessed a lot of bullshit in the last 2 months. I’ve watched and observed duels at my Locals, Youtube, DN… that have resulted in an OTK, and that player won the game, regardless of advantage or player skill. There’s nothing fair about MST, Dark Hole, Magician and Shark when you are going second. From an OTK standpoint, Yu-Gi-Oh is not salvageable. Cards and archetypes with OTK potential are printed in every major set. Konami desires for every players to have a card-pool, that’s easily obtainable, that is able to auto-win. Unfortunately, this is not healthy, however it won’t change because Konami has to make money somehow.

One approach of combating this uprising is by playing Anti-Meta. I built my Chaos Anti-Meta deck for that simple reason and it barely disappoints me (with the exception of my performance and thankfully I was still able to scrape my 31st 1st place finish). This deck’s only weaknesses include Spell/ Trap lockdown and lucky draws. It seems to be a strong, competitive deck.

The other approach I’ve contemplated is constructing decks with multiple hand traps. The closest deck I have is one of my Gallis monster mash decks, containing 3 Veiler, 2 D.D. Crow, 1 Gorz, 2 Tragoedia and 3 Battle Fader. This deck is definitely competitive; however, I don’t believe it is enough.

This approach makes me want to take another swing at Frog Fairies; my original deck I constructed 2 formats ago that destroyed everyone. Ideally, I would like this deck to use 2-3 Veilers, 2-3 Maxx “C”s, 2-3 Herald of Orange Light, 1 Gorz, 2 Tragoedia, 2-3 Battle Fader, and 1 Honest. Followed up with a stream of boss monsters, it seems like this deck can shine once again.

My only issue with this approach is the existence of Shock Master. If the only hand-traps I possess are Gorz, Tragoedia, Battle Fader and Honest, I’m screwed. Kristya is another card that messes this strategy up. Thunder King also presents a challenge, but no where near as deadly as the above two options.
So those are my basic thoughts on the subject. I could go into a lot more detail; however, I don’t believe that is necessary. Just pick your position in this format and be prepared: Anything can happen.

Tournament Report 11/09/2012

Yesterday, I booked off work so I could play at the tournament. Nothing special; just your average Locals. With the spirit of “fun day Friday”, I decided to play Exodia. This tournament would decide whether or not I come 1^st for the 30^th time.

Round 1 vs Mason (Prophecy)

1 – This was a really long game, simply because I didn’t have anything going for a while. I eventually drew my 5 pieces of Exodia.

2 – He sided in 3 Royal Decrees, and predicting that, I sided 3 MST and Storm. Anyway, I had to use a Solemn Judgment on the first Decree. I didn’t have any answers to his second one. He had Stardust on the field to prevent me from destroying it, unless I had 2 MST or MST  + Storm. I didn’t so I lost.

3 – Time was called very early in this game. Anticipating that time would be called, I didn’t play my Upstarts or Gift Cards, so I would be able to force a draw if nothing else. When Turn 5 arrives, I have 4 pieces in my hand with a set Reckless. He summons Gagaga Cowboy, since I used Threatning Roar, to burn me for 800, which put him in the lead… I flipped my Reckless and drew the last piece I needed to win. The crowd went wild, since almost everyone was watching our game. Heart of the Cards FTW!!

2-1

Round 2 vs Zach (Chaos Dragons)

1 – I easily take the first game since this deck doesn’t usually have outs to Exodia in the main deck…

2 – He summons Jinzo… I knew he was siding it because he told me, but I had an MST waiting for a Decree. I ended up using it on his Prohibition that was locking me down. I just had to stall with Battle Faders, One days, and Swift Scarecrows. It gets to the point where my 4 cards in hand are 4 Exodia pieces. My face-downs were useless traps. I draw the 5^th piece of Exodia and obliterate him.

2-0

Round 3 vs Austin S. (Wind-Ups)

1 – He doesn’t explode first turn, thankfully, because I didn’t have Maxx “C”. I draw 2 of them later on, and end up triggering them, after he summoned his Shock Master turn 3. I was able to fight him off, and win.

2 – He opens with both of his Thunder Kings so I can’t use my 2 PODs or Sangan. I still manage to win because he’s so bad.

2-0

Round 4 vs Ganon (Sea Lancer)

I was a little surprised…

1 – He didn’t draw his LADDs so I won…

2 – Read above sentence…

2-0

I ended up going undefeated into Top 4. Mason, Austin and Ganon top as well.

Round 5 vs Mason (Prophecy)

1 – I was close to winning, but he summoned Tempest Magician and used its effect to finish me, since my life points were quite low.

2 – He doesn’t draw any of his Decrees and I had a good hand, so I won.

3 – He sets a bunch of backrows, summons the guy that searches Spellbooks, searched a Spellbook and played it, then ended his turn. I play 3 Upstart and One Day of Piece. I ended up setting 3 Hope for Escape, 1 Gift Card and an MST, going YOLO because my hand didn’t offer any other options. He flips Decree at my End Phase. He draws and plays Heavy Storm. I activate my 3 Hopes, then Gift Card, then MST to destroy Decree. MST destroys Decree, and the rest of my chain resolves, allowing me to draw a total of 12 cards. I ended up with the 5 pieces of Exodia.

2-0

Round 6 vs Austin (Wind-Ups)

1 – Once again, he doesn’t explode. I opened a good hand that let me go through my deck quite quickly, although not as strong as my last match. I still won.

2 – Just read the above paragraph…

2-0

So I come 1^st for the 30^th time now. I will admit, I was legitimately sacky in some of my matches (those ones should be obvious). If I wasn’t as lucky as I was, I probably wouldn’t have won the tournament. Oh well, onto the next Locals.

Money...

Money... This certain term has brought pain and agony to numerous card players. This definitely a strong control of the game, and seperates players into two different groups: Players with money, and players without money. Players with money will have an easier time gathering the more expensive cards while players without money will face difficult times, and cherish every $50+ card they possess (i'm not saying the second group of people doesn't have money, but they are definitely on a tigher budget that the people of the first group).

Money has driven people away from the game, simply because it's too expensive to have the best cards. It doesn't help that prize support in yugioh is lacking, compared to the prize support in MTG or Pokemon. This lack of prize support isn't an incentive to play yugioh competitively; the only incentive is to hold up the trophy at the end of the day, or have fun (if you are one of those people...).

Money isn't always assurance when it comes to buying a box, either. Yugioh is not like Pokemon or Vanguard, where you 95% guaranteed to break even or profit from purchasing a box. In Yugioh, each box usually contains 5-6 super rares, 2-3 ultra rare, 1 ultimate rare, 1 secret rare, and maybe 1 ghost rare. Konami is quite annoying and frustrating because each set contains good cards AND bad cards within the same rarity. I believe in ABYR, exactly 5 of the 8 secret rares are good, expensive cards. The others won't be as good. If person A buys a box of ABYR, and pulls Mermail Abyssmegalo, and person B buys a box and pulls Spellbook Library of the Heliosphere, person A almost made broke even with that one card, while person B is crying in a corner. It's ridiculous. Konami knows exactly what they are doing. People will purchase boxes until they obtain the cards they want. Konami makes more money by purposely including crappy cards into the higher rarity bracket.

Money is definitely a challenge in every card player community, and certain communities have it significantly worse than others. Here in Belleville, the owner of our card shop decided to charge us $29.95 + tax for the Hanzo tin. This is a little ridiculous, especially when I can buy the same tin at Walmart for $24.99 + tax. The original retail price, according to Konami, is $19.99. Silly, right? Also, I found out something yesterday from Mike (the other employee at the card shop). Apparently, the owner is starting to despite his credit system because it's unfair. Unfortunately, that's all the information I received regarding that because the first round started, but I'm probably going to visit the shop on Monday so he can elaborate on this topic.

...

This is where I start discussing a different tangent...

...

I'm currently in the process of trying to organize Pokemon DS tournaments (generation 5 Pokemon). The financial cost of this is quite minimized compared to any TCG. $40 to purchase Black/ White/ Black 2/ or White 2 (most people have already purchased this game), and entry fee every tournament. That's it... I don't have to work two jobs to afford that or anything.

This also happens to be a game that rewards patience. It requires patience because you should train your Pokemon to make them stronger, hatch eggs until you get a Pokemon with a suitable nature, etc. This game requires skill because battles do require a good amount of though to come out on top.

The luck factor in this game is quite small. There are critical hits (lucky shots that do more damage, and critical hits don't happen all the time either. In wifi battles of generation 5, I've ony once seen two critical hits in a row. Those critical hits were against my team, and I still won after a close battle. The other factor of luck is quite minute: Normally the pokemon with the higher speed attacks first. The luck comes into place where you have two pokemon facing each other with the exact same speed stats. Who attacks first? I experimented this once on my own, and both Pokemon went first multiple times. Other than those two examples, I can't think of any other luck factor at this time.

Generation 5 battles also contain a variety of formats: Single battle, double battle, triple battle, and rotation battle. There are also formats a little more specific like Little Cup for example.

When I do get things rolling, we will decided upon our own "ban-list" to make the game balanced. This will include banned pokemon, moves, and possibly items.

So yeah, people of Belleville, expect something soon. This is a really great idea, and doesn't require significant financial loss...

...

Money... Unfortunately, we can't change how Konami runs their business. Unfortunately, we do have to deal with unfair prices in our communities. However, that's not a reason to quit playing. I've won locals with both cheap decks and expensive decks. I also build my decks so they can defeat expensive decks. Just because the game is expensive doesn't mean you have to get depressed over it. Fight it and move on, and kick ass with cards, expensive or not.

"Box" Tournament Report 03/11/2012

So today I planned to go the box tournament today and I was piloting Wind-Ups. At yesterday's tournament (where I went undefeated with Chaos Anti-Meta..) we were told by the owner that the prize would be a box of GAOV. Today, we find out the real prize: A bunch of random packs of GAOV and HA6... We were all disappointed. I even went as far to ask the owner if credit could be today's prize. He said no... So yeah, playing for absolute crap...

Round 1 vs Random Scrub (Macro)

I didn't open amazing during any of these games, but I won because he is still a scrub...

2-0

Round 2 vs Richard (Inzektors)

1 - I opened Magician + Shark and I made a Shock Master locking off monster effects. I won the next turn because he couldn't use monster effects.
2 - I don't remember the details of this game, but I won within a few turns.

2-0

Round 3 vs Jim (E-Heroes)

1 - He went first, summoning Stratos, searching Alius, and setting a trap. I opened MST, Tour Guide and Shark so I won that turn.
2 - I joked with Jim that he gave me a godly hand. I opened 2 Magician and 2 Shark... He stopped my first first Magician + Shark play, but I killed him the turn after... That was by far the best and I've ever experienced playing this deck.

2-0

Round 4 vs Random Scrub (Dark Worlds)

1 - He goes first, and does a couple of Dark World plays. I won by beating him down with Rabbits because I had answers for his plays.
2 - This game was quite drown out. Gemini Imps beat his Card Destruction, then I had control of the game with Thunder King and Rabbit. I also kept my Graveyard empty so he couldn't properly use Dark Smog.

2-0

I topped, along with Rori (Karakuri), Zach (Chaos Dragons) and Ryan (Geargia Machina). Now get this:

Yesterday, Rori lost to me, got a bye, and won his other 2 rounds and he topped. The bye was worth 3 points. Today, Dark World scrub received a bye, a loss by myself, and won his other 2 rounds. His bye was worth 1 point... Discrepency much... I would also like to poit out Rori won against 3 random scrubs today, and lost to Jim. Just saying... Anyway, back to the report:

Round 5 vs Zach (Chaos Dragons)

1 - I start by summoning Tour Guide into Sangan and set a Warning. He summoned Card Trooper, which was negated by Warning. He then passes and I draw Shark. I make a Zenmaity with my 2 monsters and summon Magician. I then activate Shark...and I win that turn because he didn't have any hand traps.
2 - He summoned Thunder King and passed. I summoned Wind-Up Rabbit and passed. He summons a Tour Guide, special summons another one, and makes Leviair (In case I decided to banish the Rabbit). I let his Thunder King kill my Rabbit, he swings with Leviair and I drop Gorz. He passes and I summon Tour Guide and Sangan. Gorz kills Thunder King, my Token crashes with Leviair, and Tour Guide gets 1000 damage in. He draws, plays Dark Hole to destroy my field, Monster Reborn to summon my Gorz, and BLS to have exactly enough damage to win... So many limited cards...
3 - I summon Magician, and he drops Maxx "C" when I reveal Shark, so he draws a card. I set 2 traps and pass. He plays Heavy Storm, then Monster Reborn on his Maxx "C", and tributes it for Light Pulsar Dragon (I saw his hand after, that was the best he could do...). He attacked my Magician and ends his turn. I win on my next turn because I have Reborn too. He didn't have any more hand-traps.

2-1

Round 6 vs Rori (Karakuri)

1 - I go first with Magician and Shark, and end up with Shock Master, declaring Spells. He summons Komachi, uses its effect to normal summon a lv. 4 Karakuri, and he destroyed my field with Black Rose. We continued to fight, and it got to the point where we were both under 1000 life points. My only play was to make Tirus for game, and he had the CED. I will also note that I could've won a couple of turns before that, but he had Limiter Removal so I couldn't win. I lost... I was not happy at all. I refused to let Rori end my hot streak at 28 1st place titles...
2 - I held him back with Thunder King. I didn't leave the field the entire game... I won with Thunder King and a couple of Wind-Up plays.
3 - By my second turn I had Thunder King and Fossil Dyna on the field. He had no outs to either monster until the very end, when it was too late. I took advantage of the Karakuri battle-changing mechanics to win the tournament. I was a little happier...

2-1

So I secured my 29th 1st place finish. That was more of a prize than the packs were, since the best card I pulled was Vylon Disigma...

Other than that, I lost my voice last night and couldn't speak much today. It was annoying playing cards like that. Also, Richard and Ryan made fun of me because I could barely speak... bunch of meanies...

Anyway, I did some trades, and bought some sleeves off my store credit, since I refuse to pay $30 for a Hanzo tin (That's right, $30 for a tin, when the official price is $19.99 according to Konami...). He charged me tax on the sleeves, since I was using credit, which was a little annoying since I didn't win any credit today...

Today's events I consider more negative then positive. Yeah, I won another tournament, but that's old news...

How to Become a Better Player

Today’s post is something that implied to any competitive game. I’m going to discuss some fairly simple techniques to become better at any game. I feel like typing this because I have seen many people in my area that don’t improve for whatever reason. I’m no expert, I’ll admit, but I can share my knowledge to benefit everyone else.

1. Build and utilize different decks – This is something I mentioned in my previous post, and I’ll summarize it: The more decks you build, the more strategies, rulings, techniques and combos you learn. You can’t accomplish this if you consistently play one deck for 2 or more months at a time. Sure, you can play against a variety of decks, but playing with the deck increases your knowledge substantially. You will likely learn a different dimension that you ever knew existed.
2. Play decks that require thought – I also mentioned this in my previous post. You won’t increase your knowledge significantly if you only use decks that are auto-pilot. You have to force yourself to think, in order to learn new concepts and excel.
3. Play as much as possible – Whether you play with yourself, a group of friends, or on Dueling Network, you will increase your experience in this game after every game. It’s like a Pokemon that constantly battles. That Pokemon will gain experience, then become stronger after a certain point, and this process continues until the Pokemon’s levels are maxed. It’s much harder and longer to maximize your strength in Yu-Gi-Oh. The more you practice, the better you will become.
4. Master your bad match-ups – One of the better feelings in this game it to be victorious against an opponent playing a deck that is statistically stronger. If you can pilot Dark Worlds successfully through a storm of Macro decks, you will become stronger.
5. Read – This includes anywhere from reading your cards, to reading online articles. The more you read, research and receive, the more knowledgeable you become. This knowledge travels a lengthy distance. It can help you build decks, fight against decks, etc.

These are 5 steps I have followed the past few years to become a better player. They have worked for me, so I’m assuming they can work for you too.

Bulding Decks = Building Skills

So I've decided I will blog a few times a week. I don't have time during the week to type much more than that. I believe I have useful information that will benefit all my readers, or at least the information will enlighten you. Today I want to discuss deck-building, and all of its benefits.

I'd like to start this with this quote: "The more decks you seriously build and playtest, the more your skills as a player will increase". This is a quote that I invented, and I believe it's true to every last point.

Most players tend to have an average of 3 decks built all the time. I have a friend that has 19 or 20 decks built. I currently have 30 complete decks. A lot of people will be flabbergasted when reading this, unless you already knew, because it's rare to find a person with this number of decks. By the way, that number will increase when I scavenge more sleeves. I always have deck ideas to go.

By having 30 decks, I'm able to playtest different strategies against different decks and observe specific results. I'll use this as an example. Let's say I'm testing my Ninjas against Heroes. My current Ninja build used 3 Anti-Spell Fragrance. Some other combos include Mist Valley Falcon + Safe Zone, and Anti-Spell Fragrance + Dark Simorgh. Against Heroes, if I have Anti-Spell Fragrance + Dark Simorgh active, I win because Heroes can't drop a boss monster to deal with the Simorgh unless they use a card like Miracle Fusion, and they can't use it due to my lock. Also, Super Transformation Art makes Shining miss it's timing, so that's always nice. Theoretically, Ninjas would have a dominate match-up against Heroes. Heroes would still likely win if they have instant answers to Anti-Spell Fragrance and Super Transformation Art.

Now say after a match or two between those decks I want to playtest Gallis Monster Mash against Ninjas. You would quickly observe that Anti-Spell Fragrance does nothing against this deck, however White Dragon Ninja + Safe Zone is practically impossible to overcome, or prevent. The only chance for victory at that point would be to resolve an effect of a card like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, or OTK with burn damage with the Gallis + Birdman + Koaki Meiru Doom loop.You will also notice that Gallis will beat the crap out of Ninjas because of the amount of big monsters, unless they resolve a Safe Zone.

It's this type of playtesting that builds your skills, because you are learning the outcomes of certain cards against other cards. You are forcing yourself to strategically overcome challenges with the 40 cards at your disposal, which can take serious effort and planning.

As an aside, playing a sacky aggressive deck (like Heroes or Agents) barely increases your skill. This is something I always notice when constructing and experimenting with a deck like that. All the deck rewards you for is beating people down with big monsters. It's not an accomplishment, and if anything your skill level decreases, because all you know how to do is beat people with big monsters and you leech off the ability to be lucky. A not-so-skilled player can still win with a deck like this because it's simple and two-dimensional in terms of advanced strategy. A skilled player obviously will be better at the deck, even though it is simple, because skilled players usually have a better idea of when to drop the boss monsters, and use the most powerful cards at the correct times. This is a different post for a different day, though.

I enjoy having 30 decks built for multiple reasons. First and foremost, the playtesting and experimentation that occurs is amazing and quite useful. I can playtest at least 6 decks a day, and that's wholesome, beneficial practice. A lot of people can playtest their 3 constructed decks every day, but I believe my playtest is a lot more thorough. Secondly, I just like having 30 decks built to make me feel good about myself. Finally, it's better than having cards lying all over the place, serving no real purpose.

Building new decks is always a challenge because you want to make it as strong as possible. Using innovative tech cards that no one else really considers is definitely a bonus. Good deck building definitely increases your skill as a player, especially building a unique deck that has never really been heard of before (like I did with Frog Fairies 14 months ago). Who knows, you might build come up with a YCS winning deck (like I did with Chaos Dragons... just saying).

Hopefully you found this post enlightening and useful. My next post will likely be a tournament report for Saturday's Local tournament. I would like to come 1st for my 27th Local tournament in a row.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Past, Present and Future

I'm going to try and restart blogging. My life is extremely busy, with school and other activities that consume large proportions of time. I've decided to write an article on my thoughts of Yu-Gi-Oh! today. I probably wouldn't be writing this post if I didn't read this article: http://kperovic.com/blog/ygo-the-state-of-the-game/. I will be referring to this article, a little bit, in my discussion because there are numerous points I want to discuss myself. I will be dividing this post into 3 sections: The past, the present, and the potential future.

Past:

I remember when this card game first hit Canada, and I was a small kid who wanted to play it. I didn't understand competitive play immediately. I just bought packs and collected the cards for the most part. I remember when I pulled Change of Heart. That was a $50 card when it was first released and I had no idea. I immediately recognized it was a good card, and put it in my deck to play against my school-mates and neighbours (because back then everyone played this game). I still have my Change of Heart I pulled all those years ago, but that's beside the point.

When competitive play and tournaments first began, the card-pool was quite limited. The best deck-builders and more skilled players topped events and bathed in success.

Something I would like to draw attention to is the fact that there were less overpowered cards years ago, then there are today. Sure, back then we have Forceful Sentry, Harpies Feather Duster, Raigeki, etc. However, good players were able to use these cards to their maximum benefit, and also learned to mitigate their impact when used against the player. It wasn't that bad.

Things began to grow out of proportion when BLS, DMOC and Chaos Emperor Dragon were released. Those cards are game-enders. However, there was still skill to playing these cards. Skilled players, under normal circumstances, wouldn't summon their BLS unless they were certain BLS could end the game that turn. Despite these powerful cards entering the metagame, the players who were more skilled still topped events consistently. It was literally the same people, or same group, over and over again. The game had broken cards, individual cards, that didn't necessarily have broken combos with other cards (Chaos Emperor and Yata-Garasu, for example, is an exception).

I remained blissfully ignorant of this environment. I was just a kid in school, with controlling parents and no social life. Yeah, I collected cards, but didn't play with them too much. Honestly, I didn't even know this game was played competitively, because I lived in a bubble and all of that.

Fast forward the years, and let's visit 2009. What happened in 2009? I found out that my small village had a card shop. I decided to go on Saturdays and play in the tournaments. In the beginning I sucked, not horribly, but I would go 2-2 consistently. I played random crap like Elemental Heroes (Not with Shining and Absolute Zero, but Flare Wingman and Thunder Giant, like a boss), and random piles of cards with some strategy. I wasn't trying to be super competitive and be the best player of all time, but I did want to win.

I eventually ended up taking a hiatus from playing at the shop that summer and fall. I returned in the fall, and this was around the time LODT was released. People were playing Lightsworns and Dark.dek. I would consistently go 2-2, by beating the scrubs (even though I was kinda a scrub, but not as scrubby. I kinda scrubbed the scrubs if you know what I'm scrubbing at...). Eventually, Synchro monsters were released, and I built a synchro toolbox deck. I achieved better results, but still didn't top immediately.

Then the Zombie structure deck was released (the one with Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon). I built a zombie deck around that theme, and merging it with my synchro toolbox deck. At that time, I didn't have Plaguespreader or Mezuki because I was too good for that shit (just kidding, I was poor). I finally started to top once in a while. I was amazed with myself, when I look back, that such a horribly constructed deck was able to top, when people were playing Lightsworns, Gladiator Beasts, Tele-Dad, actual complete Zombies... I didn't top all the time; just a couple of times.

When Stardust Dragon Assault Mode was released, I built a deck that spammed Stardust Dragon so I can summon the assault mode version. It was a good deck and I topped a couple of times with that.

I eventually traded for the 5 pieces of Exodia, and built a really bad Exodia deck. It had Giant Germ, Nimble Momonga, Appropriate, Cup of Ace... I managed to top with that deck too somehow.

Looking back, I realized that I was developing some skills. I had to learn to play with budget decks and inexpensive cards because all the tier 1 decks back then were quite expensive. We didn't have as many reprints as we do now. I tried to become skilled and competitive, and my effort was paying off.

Then... UDE was replaced by Konami, and shit hit the fan. From OCG to TCG rarity bumps in sets, to less tournaments and more overpowered cards, the skill level in the game required to succeed dropped. It wasn't that bad right away, and I was still enjoying the game.

I remember the first time I won Locals. It was done with a Dark Monarch deck with random cards like Level Eater, Veil of Darkness, and other tech cards. I saved up and went out to get the cards for this deck, my own creation mind you, and it won. I was extremely proud of myself. I realized that day I do have the potential for greatness, at least being able to win Locals.

I started to top more and more. Then a deck was created that changed everything for me... Quickdraw Dandywarrior: A deck that spammed my favorite synchro monsters. I went out of my way to collect the cards for this deck, including the plant engine, and both Jon and myself started to test Plant Synchro variants religiously. This was around the same time SkillOverLuck was born.

The Plant Engine taught both of us so much about this game: Anything is possible with certain cards and combos. Eventually Spore and Glow-Up bulb were released, and the Plant engine was complete. Both Jon and I became consistent winner of our Locals. We fought through so many challenges and decks together, since we build many decks and played a variety of decks at our Locals. Since we were a team, it was also easier to get the staples as they were released... such as Veiler, Warning, and Scrap Dragon. Eventually, both Jon and I both topped our first Regionals as competitive players. It was a good feeling indeed. It was the beginning of a chapter, an era actually, of competitive card games.

Present:

This is where the article starts to become depressing. Overpowered decks and archetypes are being released more and more. Notice how back then we only had overpowered cards... Also, some of these decks anyone can play because they require minimal financial investment, like Agents of Dark Worlds. A lot of people were unhappy and quit this game, while others tolerated it and tried to find the light, like I try and do.

These overpowering decks reduce the skill level of this game substantially. Random scrubs can top Locals, Regionals, YCS tournaments, Nationals with only basic skills and some luck... It's honestly unfortunate that this game has turned in this horrible direction. However, Konami needs to make money so making cheap, tournament topping decks is a good idea financially.

In the past year or so, YCS tops have been random. Players have been coming and going, some good players and some bad players. This is caused be the decrease in skill required to play this game. There are a few notable exceptions to this, though: Joe Giorlando topped 7 YCS tournaments in a row, which is impressive. Billy Brake won 2 YCS back-to-back, which does take skill.

This leads me to my next point, that there is still a good amount of skill necessary to succeed. The above two players used their skill, and likely some luck, to achieve their accomplishments. Compared to previous years, the difference is that skilled players have an increased chance of losing to "sack" than before. Years ago, the levels of overpowered cards weren't even close to what they are. For example, when BLS was legal years ago, it wasn't terribly difficult to overcome and BLS didn't have any significant game-ending combos. Now, we have Forbidden Lance to protect it from any spells and traps, and Honest + BLS can immediately end the game, much like a hand containing the 5 pieces of Exodia.

Outside of the cards themselves, there are other factors that have a detrimental effect on the card playing society. Konami does horrible event coverage, compared to UDE, and has stopped posting top 32 deck lists from YCS tournaments and other related tournaments. It's not the biggest deal because Youtube exists, however, Konami isn't it making it easier to play the game, and become good at it. The top 32 deck lists of each YCS were a plethora of valuable information that I personally used to understand the game better.

Another detrimental factor is that there isn't a lot of advanced theory-oh online, both in the form of videos and articles. Youtube exists, and videos containing theory-oh and deck lists are uploaded daily. I find a lot of this content basic time-wasting. Hell, people post videos of their car ride to a YCS. Honestly, what's the point? How is that useful to theory-oh? The theory-oh content on Youtube is becoming stale, because people don't know what to discuss, and the same contents over and over again. Try looking for a video with an advanced discussion of different types of card advantage, because there a lot of videos on Youtube that doesn't delve past "Destroying 2 cards with Heavy Storm is a +1". Regarding deck lists, I've watched a lot of basic deck profiles over the years. Unless the deck is something unique or different, or unless it topped a Regionals, YCS, or even 10 Locals in a row, it's usually a waste of time. If you go on Youtube and search "September 2012 Wind-Up decklists", you will be presented with a lengthy list of results. How many good or unique Wind-Up decks are their, and how many Wind-Up decks are roughly the same?

Articles are written for many different reasons regarding this game. Tournament reports, deck analysis and lists and theory-oh are the only subjects that people consider reading, for the most part. One of the reasons I will take a break from blogging is because I find my material to become stale and not overly useful. I stopped posting deck lists (written and video format) because I don't see a point. Unless someone requests of build of a certain deck for whatever reason, I don't see a point in sharing because I don't participate in too many big tournaments for my opinions to stand out to the rest of the world. A deck list Billy Brake posts will be acknowledge more than I deck list I post online, for example. I stopped tournament reports when I stopped blogging. I do find them an intricate and beneficial resource because it shows how Deck A fairs against Deck B. I stopped writing theory-oh because for two reasons. Firstly, I wasn't offering too much game-breaking material after a certain point, and secondly, my life became really busy, which ultimately stopped my blogging.

Continuing with articles, I want to discuss Alter Reality Games (ARG for short). ARG is a card vendor, and the team of some of Yu-Gi-Oh!'s finest delists of this generation (Billy Brake, Joe Giorlando, Jeff Jones, and the list goes on). ARG does try to assist this card playing society multiple ways. Firstly, they are a vendor, and they try and sell cards for as cheap as possible. Sometimes, there prices are a little exuberant, but for the most part are cheaper. The other thing they do to try and help players is pay the popular skilled players of today's metagame to write articles relating to mostly theory-oh, deck lists and sometimes tournament reports.

In the article Kris Perovic, he mentioned many articles written today, using ARG written articles as an example, are lacking quality and theory-oh. To an extent I agree, because I have a critical view on written material. I believe if you write something, it should be either entertaining, educational or both. Sometimes, I will learn something from reading their articles, but more often than not it's the same old stuff. I believe they should be writing articles with revolutionary material and theory-oh not too many people consider or understand, if they are getting paid to do this. I'm not hating on the ARG members at all, because they are skilled players in today's metagame and do occasionally present useful material, but they should repeat this pattern often.

As an aside, these articles would benefit players who aren't that skilled, and haven't been playing for the longest time. I personally don't find a lot of their material useful because I've read, and theorized about it numerous times over the last few years.

Compared to last format, I will admit this format is healthier for the metagame. YCS Providence, that just concluded, proved this. The top 32 consisted of many different decks; some rogue decks and some newer unique decks as well. Wind-Ups, thought to be the bane of the format, only sported 1 spot in top 16. I believe YCS Providence proved that anything can win, if the skill is present.

Visiting my community now, things have changed in the last year to affect our local community. I can split the players of Belleville into a few simple groups that basically reveal the entire picture:

1. Players who consistently top using different decks
2. Players who consistently top using luck-based decks only
3. Players who don't consistently top
4. Scrubs and retards

What I've written I'm sure can be acknowledge by readers everywhere, and I'm sure these classifications occur in other communities. Because of the overpowered decks, this classification will be true for a long time. Unless we reach a point where overpowered cards are completely removed, and skill becomes a necessity like it used to be, these classifications will continue to exist, unfortunately.

Future:

What awaits the future of Yu-Gi-Oh!? Right now, we are heading in a dangerous direction. If this doesn't change, more people will quit and people who don't deserve glory will receive it. I have a few suggestions that might help:

We need a website, exclusively for Yu-Gi-Oh, where only good players and judges can post material (unlike Pojo). This material should include top deck lists, useful tournament coverage, theory-oh, in-depth tournament analysis and other beneficial information.

Konami needs to eliminate the luck-based nature of this game, as much as possible, by not printing broken cards and archetypes, and limiting the right cards every 6 months. We could complain to Konami about the rarity bumps in cards, but they won't address it because they need to make money.

That's really all we can hope for. I'm positive that the game will change direction if these are put into place.

I want to continue playing this game. I have a passion for this game that drives me to strengthen my skills and collection. The luck-based nature of this game has depressed me, but I still continue to fight it. Yu-Gi-Oh! is a great card game, but desperately needs improvements so more people can enjoy the game and grow.

Please feel free to leave your comments and opinions, so that they can be discussed.

Box Tournament Report 08/15/2012

As I mentioned in my previous post, I attended the box tournament in Peterborough, Ontario. I finally decided to pilot my Chaos Anti-Meta deck. I felt the most comfortable and secure with this deck. I didn’t play Heroes because I didn’t have all my extra deck cards available. I didn’t play Dino-Rabbit or Wind-Ups because I felt people would be extra prepared for those decks.

Anyway, I pulled a Geargiarmor in my entry pack, which was pretty nice. There were 18 players participating in this event (5 from Belleville). The tournament consisted of 5 rounds, than top 8 cut.

Round 1 vs Chronomaly

1 – We spent his duel going back and forth for a little bit. Most off my life points were depleted from my own Solemn brigade. He didn’t explode needless to say. He ended up getting the best of me, though, with his attack position Snowman Eater and a Creature Swap.

2 – Much like the previous duel, I stopped most his plays. He dropped a Gorz on me, but I was able to kill it with the help of Forbidden Lance. He didn’t have much after that.

3 – He summons a Tirus early on, like turn 2, but I have the Dimensional Prison to banish it. Next turn, he summons a Crimson Shadow Ninja, which I Bottomless, and had the Veiler to nullify it’s invincibility effect. He spent a fair amount of resources making those monsters, ad he couldn’t recover afterward. I basically beat him down with Breaker.

XOO

Round 2 vs Six Samurai

1 – He summoned Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En when he went first, and backed it up with multiple face-downs. I didn’t have much at all, so I set some face-down spells and traps and a Snowman Eater. On his turn he summoned Zanji. Zanji attacked my Snowman Eater and I tried to destroy Shi En, but he used Shi En to destroy Zanji instead and attacked directly with Shi En. Next turn I set a Maxx “C” and another back-row. He summoned Kizan, which attacked my Maxx “C”, and Shi En attacked directly again. I baited out Shi En’s effect with Book of Moon, then followed-up with Dark Hole. I also destroyed his Musakani Magatama before that with an MST, after I activated Book. I then attacked him directly for a few turns with Maxx “C”, and kept setting the traps I drew. I eventually dropped a Thunder King, and he chained Torrential, when I chained Starlight Road. His next card was Dark Hole so he scooped.

2 – This time, his first turn field consists of Shadow of the Six Samurai, Kageki and Kizan, which 2 cards in his Spell/Trap zone. I MST his Magatama again, set my Snowman Eater and multiple back-row again. He used Shadow to pump Kageki. Shadow attacks my Snowman and I activate Dimesional Prison to banish the Shadow. Kageki attacks my Snowman and I use it to destroy Kizan. He sets another back-row and ends his turn. I draw, and run over his Kageki with Maxx “C”. At this point, any time he summoned a monster, I had a trap for him. Eventually, I beat him down with Breaker.

OO

Round 3 vs Wind-Ups

1 – I have Maxx “C” on his first turn for his explosive play, which he immediately terminated. From that point on, I controlled him with Thunder King and multiple trap cards.

2 – This game almost went into time. It got to a point where he had Maestroke, and I had Thunder King. After 10 turns (each player) of setting cards and building our hands, we both had 5 Spells/Traps, a few monsters on the field, and full hands. At this point we started to bait out each other’s traps. I eventually won, because I gained the most advantage with my plays, and because Thunder King is super effective against Factory.

OO

Round 4 vs Fusion Gate Heroes

This match was a feature match, and the match will be posted online eventually. When it is, I’ll link it here. I won, though, 2-1.

OXO

At this point, I was the only undefeated player, so I was getting paired down.

Round 5 vs Geargia Karakuri (Chris)

1 – Thunder King kept control of most of this game. However, he eventually got rid of it. He then spent some turns playing into my traps since I didn’t have too many monsters. I eventually made a Giga-Brilliant, and the Honest for his potential game-winning play. I won shortly after.

2 – I used a Cyber Dragon to make a Chimeratech Fortress Dragon with one of his machines. He then set a monster and back-row on his turn. On my turn he used his Veiler on my Chimeratech, which was a little saddening. I switched it to defense and set a monster and back-row. He flipped up his Karakuri monster that was face-down (the one that’s 1700 ATK, and special summons a monster when it destroys a monster by battle), and he summoned another one. He declared an attack on Chimeratech, and I dropped Maxx “C”, He didn’t special summon a monster. Then his other one attacked my Snowman Eater, and I inflicted 200 damage and destroyed one of his monsters. At this point I dropped BLS on my turn, and with the Lances to back it up, BLS removed the rest of his life points over a few turns.

OO

So I went undefeated in Swiss, which is great. I get a couple of packs for going undefeated, and pulled a Sword Breaker in one of them, which is neat. I make top 8, obviously. From Belleville, Chris made top 8 and Rori did too, with Dark Worlds. My round 3 and 4 opponents also made top 8.

Round 6 vs Wind-Ups

1 - He spent a few turns beating me with Wind-Up Rabbits, since he had the Bottomless for my Thunder King. However I started to play aggressively with Cyber Dragon and Tour Guide plays, protected my Lances and other traps. I eventually drop BLS, but he had Fiendish Chain. I ended up tributing my BLS for another Cyber Dragon, and used Monster Reborn on BLS. He didn’t last too long after that. I never thought the day would come where I had to tribute a BLS for a tribute summon…

2 - For some reason, Top 8 matches weren’t timed, so this game lasted almost an hour… Anyway, basically we both grinded each other down to under 1000 life points, and some of this damage was due to our own Solemns. This guy also drew all 3 Factories early on. I basically took as much advantage as possible with my Torrential Tributes, and I used all my other traps at the best times. I used my Dimensional Prisons on his Leviathan Dragon and Acid Golem. I saved my Veilers, Bottomless Trap Holes and Warnings for his Wind-Up combos. Towards the end, I drew Heavy Storm and activated my own Starlight Road, in an attempt to push for enough damage. He chained Torrential on the summon of Stardust and argued it with our judge, and they looked up the wording. Normally, you can’t chain a card like Torrential to the summon of Stardust like that. Apparently, though, the wording on Starlight Road was changed with problem-solving card text, and it was ruled he could chain Torrential on my Stardust… Whatever, so I negated with Stardust. In a few turns, I won with BLS, after drawing my first dark monster after an hour long game…

OO

In top 8, Rori and Chris ended up playing and Chris won the match. I played him next.

Round 7 vs Geargia Karakuri

1 – I went first and summoned Thunder King. He set a monster and ended. I summoned Spirit Reaper, and attacked his face-down Genex Ally Birdman with Thunder King. Reaper attacked and discarded his other Birdman. Next turn, he set another monster with a back-row. Thunder King destroyed the monster and Reaper discarded his Pot of Avarice. Next turn, Thunder King destroyed his next monster and Reaper discarded a Maxx “C”. He lost too much advantage after that point and eventually lost,

2 – I don’t exactly this game. All I know is that I controlled him with Thunder King and lots of traps.

OO

Round 8 vs Dino-Rabbit

This match was featured as well, and will be posted eventually. He won the match 2-1. Game 1 I drew poorly towards the end. Game 2 he drew poorly the entire game. Game 3 I drew poorly for the last half of the game. All I needed was a dark monster and I could’ve dropped BLS…

XOX

So I ended up coming second, and winning 16 packs. No one who won packs in the top 3 pulled any good money cards in the packs. Chris came fourth and missed his prize unfortunately. Rori came 7^th.

Overall, the tournament was an enjoyable experience. I played challenging opponent’s all day almost, and performed quite well, for not playing one of the more popular decks this format. I also traded with almost everyone there, and received good cards. I can play a couple more decks now, the way I want, which is neat.

On our way back, we stopped at McDonalds and I filled up on Big Macs, like I do on every card trip, without exception. Then we discussed multiple Yu-Gi-Oh related subjects, and talked about something quite interesting, regarding the potential future of our local card shop. I will blog about it later on in the week.