Toronto Regionals Report 03/09/2013

This is it: The much anticipated tournament report! All my hard work and playtesting would now be put to the test, with a final objective of receiving my invite. Due to completely ridiculous circumstances, as anticipated, I was unable to play Fire Fists. Because of that, I decided to play Mono-Mermails. I will try and remember as much detail as required for this tournament report.

The tournament consisted of 475 participants, and 9 of them were from Belleville I believe. 9 rounds of swiss, and Top 48 would receive an invite. Finally, without further ado:

Round 1 vs Dino-Rabbit

1 - I OTKed him on my second turn with the standard Abyssmegalo + Diva play, after I spent my first turn baiting out his traps. He won the die roll, and didn't open Macro.
2 - He opens with 2 Dimensional Fissure, and 3 set spells/traps. I summon Diva and he uses his Fiendish Chain on her. I set 2 backrow and pass. He summons Rescue Rabbit, and summons 2 Sabersaurus, attacking with both, then making Laggia. On my turn, I flip over an Abyss-sphere, which Laggia negates, and I flip another one to special summon Abyssleed. Abyssleed attacks over Laggia and I set another backrow before passing. He plays Dark Hole, then Thunder King and attacks. I have to use Soul Taker on it, and when I summon Marksman, he activates Torrential to destroy it. He topdecks another Rabbit and I lose.
3 - I set 2 and end my turn. He sets a monster and 2 backrow. On my draw phase, he flips Macro, and I chain my set MST. My other backrow was Solemn Judgment, which countered his other trap, and I OTKed him.

1-0

Round 2 vs Lightraysworns

1 - As soon as I make my first Abyssgaios, that was his falling point, because he didn't draw Judgment Dragon. I eventually won.
2 - He summons Jain and mills 2. I opened with all 3 Megalo, Reborn, Abyss-sphere and Abyss-squall. I discard 2 Megalo for the 3rd and add an Abyss-sphere to my hand. I play Reborn to summon another Megalo. I attack over Jain and attack directly. I then made Abyssgaios and set my 3 traps. I completely OTKed him on my next turn.

2-0

Round 3 vs Genex Mermails (Matthew Bishop)

I knew ahead of time he was playing Mermails, since he beat Rori and his Fire Fists last round. That presented some pretty interesting conversation before our match started.

1 - I set Abysslinde and end my turn. He summons Undine, dumping Dragoons, searching Megalo and Controller. He passes with 1 set. I flip over Abysslinde and attack over Undine. I set 1 and he chains Abyss-sphere, to which I respond with MST. He made a pretty explosive play on his turn, but I used Complusory Evacuation Device on his Number 11: Big Eye, which completely hindered his play. I proceed to explode on my next turn, since I saved my resources until then. He scooped when he drew for his next turn.
2 - He sets a monster with 2 backrow. I play Heavy Storm; he chains Abyss-sphere and I chain Maxx "C". He summoned Abysslinde and I drew a card. Storm destroyed his sphere and Deck Devastation Virus, then he used Abysslinde to summon Megalo and I drew another card. I ditched Abyssgunde and Abyssteus to summon my own Megalo. I searched Abyss-squall and summoned Abyssteus with Abyssgunde. I had Abyssteus attack his face-down Abysslinde, and my Megalo killed his, with the help of Forbidden Lance. I end by making Abyssgaios and setting 2 backrow. He used MST on my Abyss-squall, and I had CED for his big push. After a few turns of attempting to fight back, he eventually conceded.

3-0

Round 4 vs Six Samurai

1 - He went first, and was able to summon Shi En and Barkion, followed with a few backrow. I set 2 backrow and pass. He attacks me for 5000 total and sets 2 more before passing. I activate Heavy Storm, which he negates with Musakani Magatama, and I negate that with Solemn Judgment. After destroying all his spells and traps, I ditch Abyssteus and Abyssgunde for Abyssmegalo. I searched Abyss-sphere and summoned Abyssteus. I opted to make Abyssgaios in this situation, and I ran over his Shi En. I set a monster and 1 spell/trap. He plays Shien's Smoke Signal to search Hand of the Six Samurai, and normal summons it. He also special summons Kizan. He tributes Hand to destroy Abyssgaios. His Kizan attacks and destroys my face-down Abysslinde, and I special summon Abyssleed. He sets 1 spell/trap and passed. I summon Diva, and special summon Marksman. Abyssleed destroys Barkion. I then activate Abyss-sphere to summon Abyssmegalo, and attack over Kizan. Marksman deals direct damage, summons Dragoons, and attacks for more damaged. He looked at his next card and scooped.
2 - He didn't open nearly as powerful as last time, but I had the MST for his Macro, and I beat him in 3 turns. I don't remember how.

4-0

Round 5 vs Dino-Rabbit

1 - He won the die-roll, opened Rabbit, Tour Guide and Macro...
2 - This was a really close game. He wasn't drawing too many monsters, but did draw Thunder Kings. I also had Macro, which didn't help. I had to use Soul Taker on the first Thunder King. I actually got rid of the second one by summoning Marksman, when I drew a Forbidden Lance. I attacked with Marksman, and he used Dimensional Prison, which I negated with Solemn Judgment. I used Lance at the damage step, and beat his Thunder King. Then I summoned Dragoons and attacked directly. After that, he only drew Kabazauls and Guaibas, which I could deal with individually.
3 - He summons Sabersaurus, and sets 2 backrow. He flips Macro and I chain MST. I summon Diva, which gets hit by the Fiendish Chain. Then I discarded Abyssgunde and Abysslinde for Abyssmegalo. I search Abyss-sphere and summon Abysslinde. I tribute Diva so Abyssmegalo can attack twice. I have Abysslinde attack into Sabersaurus, destroying her and leaving an Abyssteus in her place. Abyssmegalo attacks over Sabersaurus, then again directly, followed by Abyssteus. I end by making Abyssgaios and setting 2 backrow. Thanks to Abyssgaios, not even the Rabbit he drew could save him!

5-0

Round 6 vs Six Samurai (Bo Tang)

I'm at the point where I realize if I win round 6, I will automatically get my invite, even if I lose the last 3 rounds. Last time I fought Bo Tang at Regionals, I earned a 2-1 victory. We talked for a little bit before the match; he remembers our match as much as I do. This was going to be quite the match. Unfortunately, I can't recall a lot of specifics right now. There was a lot of skilled play between the two of us, and the match was over 40 minutes. It was my favorite match of the day.

1 - He performs an initial explosion which drops me down to 300 life points, quite early on. I would've lost if I didn't have that set Abysslinde. After he commits all those monsters to the field, I wreck his field with a lot of Mermail plays, and then I win.
2 - Basically, I didn't have answers for his playsthis time, and he eventually OTKed me, after a few turns.
3 - We both opened with some pretty messy hands. I had to summon Diva turn one, special summon
Heavy Infantry, and make Gachi-Gachi. I set 2 backrow as well. He sets 5 backrow. We spent a few turns drawing and passing. He eventually drew his first monster: Fossil Dyna. He summoned and passed. I also drew and passed. He drew and passed as well. Now that I've been saving my resources for a while, I'm ready to explode. I play Dark Hole; he chains Safe Zone on Dyna, and I chain MST on Safe Zone. His Dyna dies, and Gachi loses a material. My plays baited out most of his traps, and I had Solemn Judgment at the right time, though it cost me 4000 life points. It worked out because that turn I dealt 4800 damage. That turn, I also searched an Abyss-sphere, and I set 2 backrow before the end of my turn. He draws, and his finally able to mount a comeback by top-decking Smoke Signal, which searched Kagemusha. He summoned Kageki and activated its effect, and I responded with Maxx "C". He special summoned Kagemusha, then synchro summoned Shi En, and I was able to draw two cards. He ran over my Megalo, since Gachi had no more materials. After a couple more turns of back-and-forth plays, time was called during my turn, as I lower him to 800 life points, to my 3600. I could've won by stalling, but I top-decked Abyssmegalo with 2 Atlanteans in hand to seal the match.

6-0

Round 7 vs Mono-Mermails

At this point, I have my invite. I wanted to keep going as far as I could though, all the way top Top 8!

1 - I summoned the first Abyssgaios, and after he wasted all of his resources to get rid of it, I summoned another one with Abyss-squall. I won that game.
2 - Game 2 I was OTKed by Abyss-squall, double Abyss-sphere, and Deep Sea Diva.
3 - I made an Abyssgaios first turn, and this game was extremely similar to game 1. I won because of Abyss-squall.

7-0

Round 8 vs Inzektors

1 - He was able to mill his Hornet and Ladybug with Card Trooper, then next turn he won with Dragonfly and Monster Reborn.
2 - This game, he killed me on his first turn with Dragonfly, Hornet and Zektkaliber.

7-1

Round 9 vs Dino-Rabbit

At this point, I'm not completely discouraged. I entered the final round with a clear mind, and was prepared to give it my all.

1 - He wins the die-roll, and opens Rabbit into Laggia, set 3 and ended. He flipped a Macro. I had nothing to fight that with my hand, because I couldn't summon or set a monster the entire game.
2 - I have Heavy Storm to clear his field this time, and I OTK him.
3 - He opened the same as game 1, and as much as I tried to resist, I didn't draw any spell/trap removal, though I was successful in killing a field of Laggia and Dollka (because he opened 2 Rabbits). He beat me down with Thunder King until my life points hit 0.

7-2

As discouraging as it was that I didn't make Top 8, I did come in 12th and I received my invite. Raymond received his invite playing Six Samurai. Only the two of us, members of SkillOverLuck, topped this Regionals to represent Belleville!

I still find this whole situation hilarious, though: I get screwed out of playing Fire Fists, due to someone going against an agreement, and I pick a deck that brought me the most success at any Regionals I've ever attended. Irony is a cool thing, I guess.

My next post will go into the details of my deck, and a few other things regarding gameplay with the deck itself.