This weekend, I attended my first YOCC in Toronto, and I basically defeated myself. I caved and I decided to play Qliphorts instead of Nekroz... I feel like this was my greatest mistake since becoming serious in this game.
Going into this event, I built my deck list specifically to defeat Nekroz, and the mirror match, since these are currently the most powerful decks. I went in knowing that if I opened Scout and a few traps, I would be fine, and probably win the whole thing. However, that would be the only way this deck would prevail, since the deck's win condition is stopping the opponent with floodgates with a constant stream of spaceships (yes, spaceships). My final reason I wanted to play the deck was because I've never played the deck at a competitive event, and this was my last chance, since the deck becomes lower than Tier 1 next format (I understand that this isn't a good reason, but I decided to do it nonetheless).
So, as far as a tournament report, I played against 0 Nekroz decks, even though a 3rd of the players were playing Nekroz. Also, the only decks I lost were the ones where I didn't draw any traps, or didn't draw an monsters. Unfortunately, it was as simple as that. I lost half my games because I was unable to play the game. I figured I would brick a few times, but I didn't imagine I would brick as often as I did.
I'll take this as a learning experience, though. I would've had better results if I played Nekroz, and I'm 100% certain about that. Hell, I feel like I would've done better if I played Burning Abyss... The lesson I learned was to not play a deck at the competitive level if I'm not 100% sure it's the best deck. I decided to play a degenerate, helmet deck, instead of the better deck. I took the easy route, by relying on floodgates and drawing good, and I was punished since luck was clearly not on my side.
Now that I've finished explaining my experience with Qliphorts, I'll commence the real meat behind today's post: Can "Helmet" decks be the best deck?
First, I feel I should explain what a helmet deck is. These decks are decks with simple strategies that don't require to much of a thought process. These decks don't normally include a lot of complicated plays. Examples of these decks include Chain Burn, Dino-Rabbit, Fire Fist, Satellarknights, H.A.T, Yosenjus and Qliphorts. For example, a turn consisting of summoning Deneb, searching Altair, and setting 3 cards is pretty easy. Drawing an opening hand in Nekroz might contain a dozen options, and you need to make the best decision, otherwise you may not win the game. Making a misplay in a helmet deck usually isn't fatal; you can somewhat recover from it. Making a misplay in a deck like Nekroz, Shaddolls or Dragon Rulers could be fatal; it's harder to recover.
As well, I'd classify any explosive deck that makes the same plays a helmet deck. Madolches, Wind-Ups and Ritual Beasts do the same stuff every game; these are decks that are very predictable and easy to play against.
In September of 2014, I had both Satellarknights and Shaddolls built immediately, with Burning Abyss shortly after. At YCS Toronto, I decided to play Satellarknights as opposed to Shaddolls, and almost made the Top cut. I attended a Regional 2 or 3 weeks later and decided to play Satellarknights again, and I achieved my invite. The only matches I lost that event were because I bricked, especially against Infernity.
I decided to use Satellarknights as my first example because this Helmet deck had a few things that provided it with a lot of strength. First was it's counter trap, Stellarnova Alpha, which negated cards and let you draw. The other reason why this deck was so powerful was because it was a Rank 4 toolbox. This deck could make the most out of Rank 4 monsters and spam them quite easily.
Other helmet decks that were quite powerful were Dino-Rabbit and Fire Fist. These decks were capable of unlocking their toolbox as well. Dino-Rabbit in particular is probably my favorite Helmet deck, because of Laggia and Dollka, AKA monsters that can negate things. Fire Fists just focused on destroying stuff and managing a constant stream of attacking monsters. When Wolfbark was released, it retained those values, and became a rank 4 toolbox.
In regards to Qliphorts, it lacks the ability to utilize a rank 4 toolbox. You can only summon monsters from your extra deck if you don't control a Qliphort monster in the pendulum zone. This makes their strategies quite transparent. I enjoy that the deck made the most of the pendulum mechanic, but it really falls when being able to utilize the extra deck: Those rank 4s are amazing, and this deck cannot take total advantage of them.
For my conclusion and final thoughts, I believe a helmet deck will only be the best deck when it can take advantage of the extra deck, and have an amazing blow-out strategy. This is why Dino-Rabbit and Fire Fists were the strongest decks at their time; because they took advantage of both of these factors. Qliphorts cannot use the extra deck that well, but can create quite a blowout board. If the deck could take advantage of the extra deck, then this deck could've been the strongest deck of the format.
Let me know your opinions on this subject. Thanks for reading!
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