Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Portland, Oregon Regional Report 4-14-12

So to start things off...

The only really noteworthy thing that happened on Thursday is I found out that the event would cap off at around 140 people due to the size of the shop in question after reading a post by Mike from Team Overload's blog. Thanks to him I dodged a bullet and was able to do more research and tell everyone coming with me to the event to preregister to guarantee ourselves a spot. I owe you one dude! It turns out the event was populated by lots of familiar faces from Washington.

Friday night at 6pm, the 8 people going to this regional (Me [Justen], Matt, Kyle, Nate, Tyler, Seth, Joe, Kegan) gathered at our locals (Phoenix Games) to carpool in Matt's SUV to Seth's house in Tacoma to stay the night and prep for the event which would be starting at 10 am the next day. Bouncing ideas off my team members (We might as well be a team, most of us go to every event, playtest, and hang out together) it was regrettable that I found out my idea for Glad Beast HEROs was unfeasible, at least in its current form, and neither my team nor me brought the cards needed for me to try my new idea to make it work. So I dropped the HERO element almost completely and focused on making my deck into a sleek Gyzarus spamming machine. I also perfected my side on the ride and by the time we arrived at Seth's house and play tested a bit, I finalized the following decklist:

AHL Glads v2 [41 Cards]

14 Monsters

3 Prisma
3 Test Tiger
2 Darius
1 Laqurai
1 Bestiari
1 Hoplomus
1 Equeste
1 Retiari
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh

14 Spells

1 Pot of Duality
1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Hole
2 Forbidden Lance
2 MST
1 Heavy Storm
3 A Hero Lives
1 Monster Reborn
1 RotA
1 Smashing Ground

13 Traps

3 War Chariot
2 D-Prison
1 Solemn Judgement
1 Starlight Road
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Trap Stun
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Extra Deck

2 Gyzarus
2 Heraklinos
2 Essedarii
1 Stardust
1 Utopia
1 C39 Utopia Ray
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Zenmaines
1 Leviair
1 Leviathan Dragon
1 Acid Golem

Side Deck

2 Smashing Ground
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Bottomless
1 King Tiger Wanghu
2 D.D. Crow
1 Retiari
1 Snowman Eater
1 MST
2 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh

A few words on my card choices:

Hoplomus was pretty much for the HERO matchup, I was very wary of them because lots of disruption + lots of 1900 beaters = sad day for Glads. The matchup isnt terrible but its definitely a uphill struggle. I wanted something that could wall a Alius then tag into Laquari or just sit there and make them do something about it.

I decided to max out Gladiator Beast War Chariot rather than try something crazy to counter the hand traps I feared. In theory and in practice its very strong right now and and extremely effective against pretty much all the top decks except for HERO's, which ended up being my most played matchup. Still I would definitely maindeck 3 of them if I could do it all over again because even against HEROs there's some good stuff to negate (Veiler, "C", Stratos, Honest).

I wanted to try to balance offense and defense in this deck because I felt it would be more effective than the all out offensive builds I ran in the past. Hence the inclusion of Dimensional Prison and Compulsory Evacuation Device. I ended up also including Starlight Road on a whim, which proved to be a very good decision as that card won me at least 3 games that day and was only dead once in a duel I was going to lose  already.

Anyways...

After getting to Seth's around 10:30, I spend 10:30 - 12:30 playtesting and playing Brawl with everyone else, then I attempt to go to sleep to little avail so I play some more Brawl and fall asleep at what I suspect was 3am but I'll never know for sure since I didnt look at a clock since 1am.

We wake up the next morning at 6:15, do standard morning stuff. I eat some food, then we cram into the car and drive the rest of the way to Portland. We find the venue with very little trouble (yay for 3 people having GPS phones!) and arrive at around 9:30, where we are greeted with a crush of people milling around the front door to the venue (Guardian Games). Since we preregistered, we get ushered past all of them by an employee into the store proper, where we get in a much smaller line to check off our names on the preregistration list. My stomach does the usual shenanigans it always does before regionals, but I contain it as we move slowly forward in line. Its while we are waiting in line that we find out that everyone who also came from our locals to Oregon for the regionals didn't make it in. I will always preregister if possible from now on =[.

So I fill out decklist and parings go up!


ROUND 1: Justen Vs. Bo (Six Samurais)

So I sit down at my table and we get our entry packs, where I pull a Tour Bus. I was already planning on stocking up on that card, so the day is off to a good start. The head judge says his usual spiel and informs us that out of the 154 people competing today 115 people were preregistered, leaving only 39 spots for people who didnt preregister to fill. Crazy. I then find out that my opponent is Bo, a cool guy I am already familiar with. 2 regionals ago he defeated my friend Matt on the bubble in one of the craziest duels I have ever seen. He drops hints that he's running some crazy deck, but it turns out he's running Six Samurais as usual. The entire duel was filled with fun and awesome banter. Definitely one of my favorite duels of the day. BUT ENOUGH TALK...HAVE AT YOU!

Lost the dice roll

Game 1: He makes a first turn Shi-En and sets 1. I play MST, he lets it slide and I hit a D-Prison. I then play Smashing Ground forcing the negate and AHL into the Gyzarus play with my in hand GB. I have no protection however and he clears my field next turn and beats me down with Sams since I only have 4k.

Game 2: I set a D.D. Warrior Lady and some backrow (War Chariot and Solemn Judgement). He goes, plays Gateway, Specials Elder and Grandmaster, searches Kagemusha, and does some searches and ends with a field of Shi-en, Grandmaster, and Kizan. I think to myself if he doesnt attack Warrior Lady with Shi-En I'm going to be in a bad spot. Fortunately for me he makes the misplay of attacking with Shi-En, so I remove it, and I eat some damage. Next turn I set Mirror Force and a Hoplomus, and he rushes headlong into it after summoning Zanji. He sets 1 and ends. I make the Gyzarus play by summoning Prisma, pop and non chainable trap, attack, and tag into Darius and Laquari, then triple tag into Heraklinos. The rest of the duel I just stockpile cards in my hand and attack his set monsters. He runs out of monsters after 2 turns and draws unhelpful stuff consecutively (Heavy, Bottomless, Solemn Warning) so he loses this one.

Game 3: He goes first and passes. I draw a very explosive hand, but don't have quite enough protection to tempt me into going for it since he has nothing on board and ill pay a huge chunk of LP for nothing. I set 2 cards (AHL and War Chariot) to prep for my next turn with another AHL and Prisma in hand. He draws, MST's my bluff AHL, summons Zanji, specials Kizan, uses Asceticism for another Kizan, then Asceticism again for Grandmaster. At this point he has game, but I do something I don't have alot of practice or confidence doing, which was pretend I had a power card (Mirror Force in this case). Its very easy for bluffing to not work, but this was a prime situation for it to work perfectly. He had just lost to Mirror Force last game, so that was still in the back of his mind as he stared down my lone facedown card. I had set a bluff, so he figured the chances of my other card being a power card I wanted to protect were high. I tried my hardest to act indifferent to his field and indifferent in the tone of my voice. So he ended up doing the safe play and xyzing his 2 Kizans into a defense position Utopia, and attacking for 3900. His face was the very picture of confused when his attacks went through unopposed, and I could tell he instantly smelled something was rotten. He set no backrow and ended his turn, and on my turn I drew and proceeded to destrolish his field with a Gyzarus into Heraklinos play, leaving him with nothing on board and a Heraklinos + War Chariot face down. He couldnt recover.

LWW
Record: 1-0


After the event I notice that he sided heavily against me (Veilers, Rivalrys, and Bottomless plus some other nasty pieces of work). I thank my lucky stars I didnt see any of that in the match. Again this was by far my favorite duel of the day, hence the amount of detail I remember.


ROUND 2: Vs. Gladiator Beast Mirror Match

I win the dice roll

Game 1: I didnt expect to face a Glad Beast mirror here, thats for sure. This game basically came down to me establishing my field before him because I went first. Eventually I got a Herk on board and he was reduced to setting Glads till he lost.

Game 2: This duel came down to me drawing Bestiari in my opening hand, which is bad for me since I drew very little protection. I didnt get rid of it immediately by setting it which didnt help.I made the mistake of summoning Prisma to get some damage in after Smashing his Laquari, and he had Mind Control next turn to make a Gyzarus of his own. By the time I was able to get rid of Bestiari from my hand it was a simple matter for him to go into Retiari for the slap to my face and the KO.

Game 3: I set 4 (Mystical Space Typhoon, Starlight Road, Book of Moon and Call), summon Darius and end. He specials Cyber Dragon, summons Equeste, and tries to beat over Darius but I have Book for him. He is visually distraught and he pretty much tells me he has Heavy in hand but fears Starlight Road. He holds off and sets 1, which I MST. Next turn I attack his Cyber Dragon and tag into 2100 Laquari. At this point he has no choice but to Heavy my field, which I Starlight. He has MST to deny me the free Stardust though. We pretty much trade blows at this point with Smashing Grounds and direct attacks. He gives before I do as I have Dark Hole and my second Call set to seal his fate.

WLW 
Record: 2-0




ROUND 3: Vs. Kyle (HERO's)


So I'm 2-0 and feeling pretty good after winning 2 hard fought matches. I sit down at table 2 and who else do I have to face but Kyle, a friend/team member who came with me to the event! While I could handle his deck when I playtested a few days ago, both our decks have changed alot since then.

I lost the dice roll

Game 1: I pretty much get the stuffing beat out of me as I draw into 1 MST but not the Lances / Trap Stuns I need to fight back in this matchup. I'm forced to MST a Skill Drain that would have shut my deck down, but it makes little difference as I lose soundly anyways.

Game 2: I now find out a fact that would plague me for the rest of the day: In my final edits I made to my deck last night, I saw fit to reduce my Laquari count to 1. After drawing my only Laquari in my hand, I was unable to go into Gyzarus with my AHL and Prisma in my hand. After 2 turns of being stunned like this I finally drew enough cards to make a workaround but it was too late. Kyle had already established his field with enough cards to make winning the game impossible without Trap Stun or Forbidden Lance, which I again failed to draw into. By the end of the game his set cards were Spark, Rivalry, Starlight Road, Solemn Warning, and Solemn Judgment, and he successfully beat me down for game.

LL
Record: 2-1



ROUND 4: Vs. BYE?!?



Here's how this worked. After round 3 there was a lunch break that lasted until 2:40. My opponent had crossed a bridge to go with a friend to a food place, and the bridge had been raised by the time he tried to leave, so he had to wait for it to lower. By the time he got back it was 12 minutes into round 4, so he got a match loss.

FAILURE


Record: 3-1




ROUND 5: Vs. Dino Rabbit


I lost the dice roll

Game 1: The game does not get to a very good start as I make my first straight up misplay of the day by summoning the wrong monster. I had a Prisma on the field with a Prisma and Laquari in hand. His field was 2 backrow locked under Trap Stun. I went for the play that would get me the best setup, the double Prisma into Gyzarus into Herk +1 play which would have locked him out of the game. However I forgot that I had only ONE Laquari in my deck, and it was in my hand! The correct play should have been to summon my in-hand Laquari, make the Gyzarus then battle tag into Herk. As it was, I went into double Prisma, sent a Bestiari and was rudely awakened to where my one Laquari was. I was pretty mad after that, and made another misplay in leaving them on the field and not xyzing into Utopia. I didn't immediately lose after that, but I slowly lost advantage and after he finally makes a Laggia I was pretty much done.

Game 2: This game was just a grindfest. I attempt to make Gyzarus 2 times in one turn, but he interrupts me with Veiler and Fiendish Chain. We both use our resources smartly, and after a while we're down to no monsters and topdecking. After getting some good defensive cards set, I just need a Glad Beast monster but instead I just topdeck 3 AHL over the next 5 turns with no monsters in sight while he draws a Sangan and later a Tour Guide after I get rid of the Sangan and beats me down for game.

LL
Record:  3-2




ROUND 6: Vs. Elemental HERO's


I win the dice roll

Game 1: I find out he's running monster heavy when he summons Crusader of Endymion to beat over my Glad on board. Next turn, I activate Trap Stun, then go bonkers on his Crusader + backrow with Gyzarus into Herk because I know his monsters cant do anything to me and I have a War Chariot face down in case of Honest.

Game 2: A long and drawn out game thats characterized by me not being able to get any momentum throughout the game. Near the end I make a push with Essedarii over his Alius which he has Honest for. After that I pretty much lose.

Game 3: He annoys me in the beginning with Grand Mole shenanigans, but I bait out his backrow and make a Herk with Solemn Judgement face down. He really has no answers after that but Grand Mole, which I Judgement. After that its a slow slide downhill for him as he cant get rid of my Herk and I eventually draw War Chariot to complement my Herk. Fortunate for me, because he made one last effort to kill my Herk with a Thunder King + Honest play near the end, which failed due to War Chariot.

WLW
Record: 4-2




Round 7: Vs. Elemental HEROs (Bubble Beat)


I lose the dice roll

The second time I've faced a Japanese person in a duel. While his English was lacking, was a stellar player who knew all about TCG ruling and plays.

Game 1: I lose this one quick after getting my Gyzarus play disrupted and him beating me down with Blade Armor Ninja after clearing my backrow with Heavy Storm.

Game 2: I do a pretty crazy play. He plays Heavy Storm to my 3 set, which I Starlight Road for the Stardust. He sets and ends. His field is 4 backrow including a face up Skill Drain. Mine is a Thunder King, a set Hoplomus and a Stardust. I play Trap Stun so I can go off. I summon Prisma, and he plays Super Poly on my Prisma and Stardust for Great Tornado, halfing my Thunder King's attack. I play through that with Monster Reborn on Prisma, make Gyzarus blowing up Tornado and a backrow, attacking, making another Gyzarus with Darius to pop 2 more, then using Test Tiger to create a Herk to control the rest of his backrow and the game.

Game 3: He just disrupts me all game with Gemini Spark, Veiler, and Solemn Warning, and I cant get anything going.

LWL
Record: 4-3




Round 8: Vs. Elemental HEROs


I lose the dice roll

Game 1: He drew, in his own words, "the poop." I, in turn, pooped on him by setting up and taking advantage of his terrible hand of all monsters.

Game 2: I open pretty good, but he first turn dualities into veiler, which sets my plan back a turn or 2. Not that big of a deal however, as he doesnt draw Miracle Fusion, Mask Change, ect till way later in the game when I have control of the duel. I end up baiting out his Veiler and using the War Chariot. Then when I try to loop War Chariot with Equeste, he D.D. Crows it...I was like wtf. He makes a offhand remark like "it doesnt really matter, you probably have another one." Next turn I draw into another War Chariot lol. Near the end Herk control wins the day again.

WW


*FINAL Record: 5-3, 26th place*


So I end up placing 26th, putting me slightly out of invite range, which is ok. I learned alot about this deck and next time I will have a much more refined and tested build to run. All of us mostly go 5-3 except for Kyle, who places 20th at 6-2 and gets his second invite. Congrats to him =)

IN REVIEW




THE GOOD:

- Doing fairly well with a new build of my deck
- Preregistering and not driving all the way to Oregon for nothing
- Meeting Mike Jeezy and Danny from Team Overload's Blog!
- Pulling Tour Bus and making some good trades
- Olive Garden after Regionals with the best service ever!
- Overall a good trip and experience


THE BAD:


- Bo getting sacked game 3 by a topdecked Bubbleman with no cards in hand or on the field. Guy draws into Miracle Fusion and Mask Change and both are live. Must be nice!
- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy beating 2 of my friends, who both underestimated him and payed for it.
- What I've come to call "Regional Sickness", which plagued me Round 1. Although I didn't have it as bad as Kyle...
- Our team playing a total of 5 matches against each other.
- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy ripping a Mind Control off the top of his deck, and the floor shaking roar that ensued. I was in the middle of a match and I thought a bomb had gone off for a second.


THE UGLY:


- Random Trenchcoat Samurai Guy in general. After he ripped that Mind Control to win a game he was about to lose, a bunch of people were asking him for advice and talking to him. The answers he gave made me cringe. His voice in general made me cringe. He just seemed like he wasnt used to the attention he was getting and it showed.


WHAT I WOULD CHANGE FOR NEXT TIME?
Add a 3rd Lance because it was winning, add a second Laquari because its too important not to run, and run a 3rd Trap Stun because thats what let me go off all day and was rarely dead. I would probably side the MSTs for Dark World and thats about it.



Thanks for reading! If you want any additional information, just ask! 



Till next time!




Friday, April 13, 2012

Drawing Conclusions: Elemental Glads

A update after testing the deck some more recently:

My suspicions were confirmed after a few duels. The power ratio is definitely lopsided in the deck. Almost all the major plays involve the Glad Beasts and Prisma, and very few involve the HEROs. Whats worse, Prisma plays involving the Glad Beast stuff usually send him back to the deck, where I dont want him if I want Miracle Fusion to be live later in the Duel. I dont really know how to give the HERO plays a greater share of the deck without cutting Glad Beast stuff (AHL, Retiari, Proving Ground, ect) which I'm not sure will be a good or bad thing.

This is probably the biggest problem that I could find with the deck, giving the HEROs a greater share of deckspace. While I might have tested well against my friends decks, this gives me little reassurance because they dont run Maxx "C" and Veiler, at least not in the decks they dueled me with. I know that if I rely too heavily on the GB plays, I'll get smashed to pieces if someone interrupts them with "C" or Veiler as they are very offensive and leave me vulnerable if interrupted.

With only 1 day left till regionals, my goal will be to find the balance between defense (Needed in both GB and HERO decks and something I've been neglecting) and offense on both sides of the deck (GB and HERO). Finding the perfect mix between GB and HEROs will be hard but is doable imho. It just requires testing, testing, and more testing, along with appropriate deck revisions along the way. It might take upping the HERO count (Adding Alius and crew), reintroducing Fusion Gate into the deck, or finding a powerful HERO play that is compatible with GBs. I'm going to play my deck into submission!

Btw if your going to the Oregon regionals on Saturday I hope to see you there! I'll be the mulatto dude with glasses and a YCS Long Beach mat.

Till next time!


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Testing the waters: Elemental Glads

Before everything else, here's the decklist that I decided on after a night of playtesting:

40 Cards

15 Monsters

3 Elemental HERO Prisma
3 Test Tiger
1 Elemental HERO Stratos
1 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
2 Gladiator Beast Darius
2 Gladiator Beast Laquari
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Gladiator Beast Retiari
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari

16 Spells

3 A Hero Lives
1 Gladiator Proving Ground
1 E-Emergency Call
1 Reinforcements of the Army
1 Smashing Ground
1 Book of Moon
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Miracle Fusion
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon

9 Traps

2 Trap Stun
1 Solemn Judgement
2 Gladiator Beast War Chariot
1 Fiendish Chain
2 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Extra Deck: 15

1 Gladiator Beast Heraklinos
2 Gladiator Beast Gyzarus
1 Gladiator Beast Essedarii
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Number C39: Utopia Ray
1 Elemental HERO Nova Master
1 Elemental HERO The Shining
1 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
1 Elemental HERO Gaia
1 Elemental HERO Great Tornado
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon

Side Deck: 15

???

This by no means the definitive version or the final one, but I felt like I needed to get something up to show what direction this deck goes in. A few details on the card choices and playstyle:

After testing the entire night I ended up taking out Fusion Gate. It was a dead draw if I ever drew into multiples of it and I never really made any game-changing plays with it. And removing Gladiator Beasts from play when I'm running AHL Glads is bad. While I do have fairly easy access to Leviair, I dont want to use it to salvage random Glads from the banish zone (except Bestiari).

The deck plays defense very poorly from what I've seen since every Glad play you do is a miniature nuclear explosion, so I cut D-Prison from the final build in favor of Trap Stuns, which let me go into Gyzarus unopposed.

Hand traps are a major problem for Glads, but a minor annoyance for HERO's. I toyed with the idea of siding into Macro Glads to counter hand traps game 2 and 3 but sadly it was unfeasible. My idea now is to maybe transformation side into HERO Beat game 2 and 3 to counter my opponents side and maindecked Gladiator Beast hate, but it's just a idea at this stage. If I face someone who runs hand traps I'll just focus on the Hero plays over the Gladiator Beast plays. I might at a later date add more HERO-friendly cards to facilitate that strategy and even out the power play ratio between HERO's and GBs because right now i'd say its split 65-35 in favor of GBs.

A few major plays include:

2 Card Gyzarus:

-Prisma/Test Tiger
-AHL/Test Tiger
-AHL/Any Glad Beast
-AHL/Prisma

The dreaded 3 card Double Gyzarus

-AHL/Prisma/Test Tiger

Details on this place because its a little less linear. Play AHL for Prisma dumping Bestiari. Normal Summon 2nd Prisma dumping Laquari. Tag into Gyzarus popping 2. At this point the play branches.

*You can do the legendary 2 card double Gyzarus, but it requires attacking directly with the Gyzarus you summoned. After doing so, tag out for Darius and the Glad beast of your choice. Darius brings back the Bestiari you dumped earlier, leaving you free to tag into Gyzarus again. A great play to perform under Trap Stun. You can also bring out Double Darius to go into Gyzarus with Darius # 1 and Bestiari, then triple tag into Heraklinos with Darius #2, the Laquari brought back by Darius #2, and Gyzarus.

*If you dont think you can battle, you can spend a in-hand Test Tiger to forcibly continue the combo. Special Test Tiger and tribute it to tag out Gyzarus for Darius, bringing back Bestiari and tagging right back into the same Gyzarus for another double pop.



Going to be playtesting this deck some more tonight, and you can bet I'll have more info on deck changes and combo's afterwards! Till then!

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Mischievous Mog's Marvelous Plan with Flan

~~~~ The wheel of fate is turning... ~~~~



As you can probably tell, the title of this post has nothing to do with Yugioh. I grew tired of the cut and dry format of my titles even though they befit a scientist such as myself, so from now on I will occasionally use random titles when my topic isn't laser focused. =)

This will be a turning point for this blog. Up till now I've been pretty narrow in my coverage, providing occasional variety but mostly focusing on Wind-Up combos. Now I will try to branch my posts out to cover whatever comes to mind, or whatever gets requested.

So I'm shelving my work on Wind-Up combos (for now) to cover a deck that started out as a joke between friends but evolved into something much more: A Hero Lives at the Gate (A Hero Lives PrismaGlads + Gate HERO's)

This deck has evolved from a fun side project into my last best hope with regionals coming up in less than a week and my Wind-Up deck in pieces. HERO's have always had a place in Gladiator Beasts but this deck takes the symbiosis to a whole new level. I've seen this deck do some crazy things with my inexperienced hand piloting it, capable of the best plays from both AHL Glads and HERO's, with a few key cards bridging the gap between the two decks. I would love to post a decklist, but I feel like I need to take it to freeplay at locals one more time tomorrow before I can confidently release a decklist and definitively detail what the deck can do. I will release detailed deck testing notes, a decklist, and some of the decks power plays late tomorrow night.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

A cursory look at YCS Long Beach

As you probably already know, YCS Long Beach was the largest Yugioh TCG event in the history of the game. Over 4300 people attended this monumental event, and almost appropriately the event was filled with every deck imaginable. The top 16 embodied this perfectly, being a mishmash of both familiar and unfamiliar decks. I'll just take a brief look at the top 4 decks and give my thoughts about them.

1st Place: Dark worlds, piloted by Michael Balan

We all knew Dark Worlds were a decent deck, but I bet few people thought someone could take them to the very highest peaks of dueling fame. I believe a combination of pure skill and blind luck (in respect to pairings) helped him win it all, along with the amazing side decking skills needed to combat the biggest problem a Dark World deck faces: Game 2 and 3. One look at his side deck and you saw that he was ready to anti-side for all the hate being sided against him. Congrats to him for winning, he certainly deserves it.

2nd Place: Dino Rabbit, piloted by Simon He

Hey, its Dino Rabbit. I thought about only typing just that one sentence for this section. Nothing I say is going to change what you think about Dino Rabbit, or tell you anything you don't already know. Its a good deck, its tier 1, and it was the most played deck at the top tables of the event. No details about his deck have surfaced yet, but I have no reason to believe its anything radically different from the norm.

3rd/4th Place: Chaos Piper, piloted by Gabriel Perez

Now here's a deck I never thought I'd see top 4 a YCS. Most people counted Piper Chaos out when planning for the event, but this YCS was all about both the expected and the unexpected, and this deck certainly was unexpected. While the main deck is pretty standard bar a few odd tech choices like Wisel, Swap, and main decked D.D. Crow, the side deck was absolutely filthy. With only 2 main decked traps most S/T hate would be sided out game 2, and the opponent would quickly fall into the hands of his barrage of side decked traps. Kudos to you for taking a chance with transformation siding that payed off big time.

3rd/4th Place: Drained HERO's, piloted by Joseph Giorlando

HERO's made a big showing at YCS Long Beach, as it's no secret that they're very popular in the area (The last 2 California YCS events were won by a HERO variant). While its obvious that the pilot of this deck had overwhelming skill to take it this far, a few odd decisions in the deck left me puzzled. This deck bears a striking resemblance to Bubble HERO's, but it seems like he just dropped the Bubbleman and was filling the hole left in the deck with cards that normally don't see play in HERO decks, such as Barbaros and Crusader of Endymion. Puzzling but definitely not bad tech choices. The side deck is pretty geared towards Dino Rabbits, already a fairly favorable matchup. No doubt he smashed any Dino Rabbit player he played to pieces. There is an absence of cards that address probably the worst match up HEROs have in the current meta: Dark Worlds. For those who read the final duels you will know that this comes back to haunt Joseph as he must duel the future champion who is running Dark Worlds.

In conclusion...


That's all for the review of the Top 4 of YCS Long Beach. That isnt to say there arn't any other decks that are worthy of attention (Wind-Up Beasts from the Top 16 in particular caught my eye) but this was just meant to be just my 2 cents as admittedly there are other people who actually went that did a much better job of detailing the event than I could ever hope to =). Look forward to the newest edition of Dueling like a Mad Scientist, which should be up in a day or 2 (provided I stop procrastinating and get it finished...)

Till next time!