My YCS SeaTac Decklist: Passive-Aggressive Wind-Ups

Quick decklist before I go to bed, thoughts about in a later post

Monsters: 20

3 Wind-Up Shark
3 Wind-Up Rat
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
3 Wind-Up Magician
2 Maxx "C
2 Tragoedia
2 Tour Guide From The Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 9

3 Wind-Up Factory
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Avarice
2 MST

Traps: 11

2 D-Prison
1 Trap Stun
1 Compulsory
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn J

Extra:

Standard Stuff + Cowboy and Abyss Dweller (No Tiras)

Side:

2 Macro
1 Soul Drain
1 MST
2 TKRO
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Chimeratech
2 Soul Take
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Trap Stun
1 Compulsory

YCS Seattle Report + Important Stuff!

After not publishing an article for over 4 months, I'm back with my comeback: a (kinda lackluster) YCS report!

Preface to this report: After becoming disillusioned with Yugioh and burnt out, I've slowly been working my way back to regular Yugioh activity levels. This culminated at my first major event I attended since my last blog post: YCS Seattle (/Tacoma)!

PRE YCS GARBAGE:

Got off work Friday night at 9 pm. After getting a ride to Tacoma, I stayed at Motel 6 with YCGPodcast crew (Matt Carter + Joe Mecham) and other people from our locals (Phoenix Games). After getting 2 hours of sleep and playtesting all night, I make my big YCS debut! 

YCS SEATTLE: DAY 1

Get in line, get registered, eat no food :(. Also I'm running a Nick Ma inspired Wind-Up deck. Around 750ish people show up, which is less than normal for a YCS, so top cut is 32.

ROUND 1: Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: I misplay horribly, but so does he and I win

G2: No backrow and my Wind-Up combos get veiler'd ;[

G3: Gagaga Cowboy burn and stall in time. Woooo!

ROUND 2: Vs. DINO RABBIT [WIN]

G1: He Macros me 2 turns in but I just use my Monster Reborn his Sabersaurus and give him a bad beatdown.

G2: He gives me the Dolkka treatment and I draw no outs for the longest time.

G3: Wind-Up player using Tragoedia and Thunder King control? His answer is Grand Mole :S. He gets stomped due to his magic monster hand.

ROUND 3: Vs. DINO RABBIT [LOSE]

G1: -

G2: -

G3: I dont remember much about the first 2 duels but the third one I lose decisively to Dolkka + Laggia.

ROUND 4: Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: He doesnt really bad Wind-Up combos and uses waaay too much resources so I win.

G2: Like, to give you an idea of how bad it was. He was using Soldier/Shark to make Rank 5's when I had 1 backrow and a set Magician, then makes Tiras instead of Zenmaioh and rams Tiras into my D-Prison :x.

ROUND 5: Vs. KARAKURI GEARS [LOSE]

G1: I draw all monsters except for 1 Factory. He opens 4 backrow + Geargiarmor. I eat dirt.

G2: I sit on my Cyber Dragon because I want to Fiendish Chain his set Geargiarmor. He Trap Stuns me, slaps me silly with Burei and Shock Master, then locks spells when I have Heavy + 2 MST and sets 4. Derp

ROUND 6: Vs. AGENTS [WIN]

G1: Shock Lock for the win.

G2: Hes low on life, I have a field full of winning, I use Adreus effect on the Gorz he dropped last turn, then try to run over the 1500 Atk Gorz token. He drops Honest and I lose cause I'm at 1200 LP. That was meansies ;(

G3: I open Magician/Shark and he uses Herald of Orange Light discarding Krystia on my Magician. 2 Turns later I Reborn his Krystia and commence a 7 turn beatdown with his own Krystia where he is forced to set every monster he draws. At the end, he reveals his hand of 2 Maxx "C", Gorz, and Tragoedia and offers me the handshake.

ROUND 7 Vs. CHAOS DRAGONS [WIN]

G1: Slow roll into a Shock Lock after being denied the first time by Effect Veiler.

G2: Sad game where my only monsters for 5 or so turns were Rat and Magician. At the end I'm so desperate that I Rat my Magician, Monster Reborn his Card Trooper, and make Zenmaity to combo off. However he drops Maxx "C" on my Rat, so I'm like fck it, and I end up trying to deck him out and getting him down to 7 or so cards left. He drops a Tragoedia on my attack. His turn, he specials Lightpulsar, Tributes both monsters for another Tragoedia , Drops 2 more Lightpulsars, and Specials Dark Armed. Scoop Phase :3

G3: Mid game Shock Lock and I got amazing backrow that he cant power through. He milled Heavy so I called monster effects. After that he's pretty much done.

ROUND 8 Vs. WIND UP MIRROR MATCH [WIN]

G1: I outplay the crap out of him. After wading through both his Solemn Warnings and  his Solemn Judgement, I make him waste his backrow on Wind-Up Rabbit since he only has 1000 left. Then I give him the beatdown once he runs out of backrow.

G2: I outplay him severely again. He wastes his resources on the wrong plays, searches the wrong things with Factory, and I leave him with nothing. I get the feeling he was not very familiar with the deck.

So I go x-2 and make it to Day 2. I get more sleep tonight! Yay!

DAY 2:

ROUND 9 Vs ATLANTEAN MERMAILS [LOSE]

This guy is a regular at any Washington Regional. I know as soon as I see that I'm playing him that he's gonna be tough to beat. Add that to the fact that this is my first time ever facing Atlantean Mermails...

G1: He goes and sets a card. I go and Shock Lock.

G2: I open backrow + Wind-Up Rabbit, which is the exact opposite of what I wanted against this deck. After a few turns, he outplays me straight up. He does more damage than I thought he was capable of doing after he gets a surprise marksman effect in somehow during my endphase with Abyss-sphere, killing my last backrow (Torrential D:)

G3: He has MST for my Macro when he uses Abyssmegalo, and he has Gozen Match for when I try to Wind-Up combo. 

ROUND 10 Vs. Alexander Thomas (MADOLCHES?) [WIN]

G1: He ends up being in the middle of a duel/trades, so he doesnt show up and I get the default win.

I end up getting 61st, which I am more than content with after being away from competitive Yugioh for so long. But I wanted a little something to remember this day by, and I told myself  that if I had time on day 2 I would try to enter the structure deck duel and win the  XYZ Symphony mat I had my eye on ever since I saw it at the judges table day 1.

A NEW CHALLENGE APPEARS!

XYZ SYMPHONY STRUCTURE DECK DUEL: 8 PEOPLE ENTER, 1 LEAVES.

ROUND 1: Vs. MYSTERY G (!)

My opponent never showed up, so I got the only bye in the tourney. I use this time to get familiar with the cards in the deck.

ROUND 2: Vs. DRAGON DUELIST PRODIGY KID!

This kid was something else. Apparently he was a famous Dragon Duelist who had a monster binder full of expensive cards like Italian Cardcar Ds and misprinted ultra Book of Moons (They said Creature Swap). He also outplayed the crap out of his opponent round 1 and seemed pretty cocky. Before the round started he offered to scoop to me if I payed him 40 bucks. I was like helllll nawww.

I 2-0'd him. He overextended alot and left himself open to counter attacks from cards like Dark Hole. He also tried to rule shark alot. Oh well, I gave that kid the beatdown.

FINAL ROUND: Vs. Joyang (?)

I think that was his name, I feel bad about forgetting it after asking him for it but my memory sucks :(. Anyways this duel was super epic. He won the first round, I won the last 2. Sorry for not remembering the specifics. This duel went on for so long that we actually got put into time, which went turn 0 - 1 - 2 - 3 instead of the standard 5. I was already edging him out near the end, but since we were both topdecking anything could happen. Me ripping a call of the haunted gave me insurance. I set it and changed my Muzurhythm to defense. His last turn he couldnt push through, so he offered the handshake.

+1 Xyz Symphony Mat.

I then finish trading for everything I need to run my next pet projects (Prophecies and Air Neos OTK). I also played in the Atlantean Structure deck tourny, but I get thrashed! Dumb Atlanteans ;(. I then go over to watch the finals and see the epic conclusion as Michael Stibbins from my locals wins YCS Seattle! Me and the rest of the Phoenix Games crowd are super stoked and we celebrate together. 

After that I go to the hotel across from the event hall be a part of the joint interview of Michael Stibbins by the YCGPodcast and SlimXTeamSymetry. Then I go eat food at Dennys and go home :S. Ill post a follow up article later answering any questions people have, giving a decklist + thoughts, and detailing what Ive been thinking about and doing in my abscence. Till next time!

Wind-Ups win WCQ...My Reaction.

------------------

In other news, computer issues have plagued me for the last week or so, but now that they are completely resolved, I look forward to finishing my Zenmailstrom articles, then moving on to giving more analysis/love to what will probably be the newest/oldest sensation of this summer: Wind-Ups. Not sure why people were so surprised when Wind-Ups topped. They were never bad, and it all makes sense in retrospect if you consider the following formula:


{if:}


Maxx "C" =/= Your side or main deck


{then:}

{executefunction=WINDUP_TAKES_A_DUMP_ON_YOU}

Certainly is enlightening isnt it?

An Introduction to Zenmailstrom

Before I detail the combos involving Zenmailstrom, I thought it would be prudent to first give an proper introduction to the card itself, since there's a good chance most of you out there have no idea what it even does.

As you can see, the basics of the card are:

• Tribute 1 Wind-Up monster with 1500 or more ATK (as a cost.)
• Special Summon 1 Wind-Up monster from your hand (Mandatory)
• Special Summon 1 Wind-Up monster with the same ATK as the monster just special summoned from your deck (Optional)

On the surface, the card is a minus 1 1/2. You play the card (-1), tribute a Wind-Up monster you control (-1), Special Summon a monster from your hand (-1/2?) and special summon one from your deck (+1). 

Likely candidates of monsters you want to tribute for Zenmailstrom are:

Wind-Up Hunter

Wind-Up Soldier

Wind-Up Shark

There are more targets but you probably don't want to run them in a competitive Wind-Up deck (Knight, Juggler, ect.)

Likely candidates of monsters you want to special summon with Zenmailstrom are:

Wind-Up Rat (600 ATK)

Wind-Up Magician (600 ATK)

Wind-Up Shark (1500 ATK)

Wind-Up Soldier (1800 ATK) [Not recommended as this doesn't lead into any meaningful combos by itself but it IS possible]

So you might be thinking whats the point of playing a card like this where you get a couple of negs just from resolving it? Simple my friend, when used correctly it sets up some of the most broken and ridiculous combos the Wind-Up deck has to offer. Now its time to detail how exactly to properly use this card.

The first rule to using Zenmailstrom is realizing that what you tribute to activate it doesn't really matter too much for basic combos, but matters alot when executing advanced ones. There is a hierarchy in tributing preferences in regards to these combos:

1. Shark (Technically better than Soldier to tribute due to a better level range [3,4,5 as opposed to 4,5 for Soldier] however be wary of using all your Sharks too fast. Also is the only one of the 3 tribute choices that can make the Shock Master/Disigma plays happen.)

2. Soldier (These things are expendable and can make most of your big plays happen no problem.)

3. Hunter (Obviously only gives you level 3 to work with from the graveyard. However this is perfectly acceptable to use as tribute for Zenmailstrom because 1) The graveyard is where you want Hunter anyways 2) It leads into the hand loop seamlessly and 3) it wont limit your plays too much as long as you don't try anything ridiculous.)

In 95% of all cases when resolving a Zenmailstrom your going to want to summon Magician or Rat, then summon the counterpart you didnt summon from your deck. This is the beginning of most Zenmailstrom plays barring a few strange ones involving Shark that really arnt worth doing. The reason you do this is because:

• It lets you use Rat immediately (Bring back the monster you just tributed)
• Lets you resolve up to 3 Magicians in one combo and end with a meaningful field, a feat that is almost impossible in normal Wind-Up decks due to field space issues.
• The basis of the forbidden Shock Master/Disigma OTK combos!
• Truly the best start to making the field of your choosing

Next article will tackle the combos themselves, from the strange to the expected, the outlandish to the boring, and might possibly include a flowchart! Tune in next time!

Deluxe Article: 4-in-1!

Having made 3 half finished post drafts for this blog in the last few weeks and not finished them, I will instead include them all (and more) in this one post.

Kevin Tewart Presents: I got info, do you?


Dont get me wrong. I appriciate that Kevin Tewart took time to give us some "insight" into this very secretive process, but I was expecting something a little more businesslike from some bigwig at Konami. He talked very causally; if I didn't know better, I could have mistaken his article for the reasonings of some random on Pojo's Forbidden/Limited discussion board. I feel he vastly understated the influence his counterparts in Japan hold over the banlist. His methods for justifying Konami's sometimes dubious decision making was also pretty funny: Secret info that only you know, really? If Konami had access to that kind of information you'd think their NA YCS coverage would be better. And why not make that information publicly available? Any move towards transparency would be good in my opinion.

And of course there was the contradictions (Like saying you support syncro summoning still, but ban Trishula, arguably the best syncro monster and one of the main syncros keeping them relevant in the meta.) and the expected but still annoying non-admission that Konami is a business that makes most of its decisions to make more money. If you look at most of the unexplained changes on the banlist, they are mostly money driven: Phase out old archetypes that arn't making any money, and make new archetypes more attractive to move more product. Like I said, expected but still a minor annoyance. All in all its a mixed bag for me. Useful info, but best taken with a grain (or more) of salt.


The New Hotness: Thoughts on a new Evol + Dino Rabbit Tech


Around the time of Seattle regionals, I lent out my Forbidden Lances to my friend attending the event, and havnt seen him in a while. Afterwards, I was bidden by 2 other friends to run Evols using the cards they had gathered. The deck was pretty much complete but neither of them felt like running it, so I volunteered. I did not have the Lances back yet, so the search for replacement tech led me to a card that I think might have some potential in Evols or Dino Rabbit:

Burden of the Mighty

Me and my friends have a long running joke that if Dino Rabbit ever started teching Molten Destruction (The Field Spell card that adds 500 atk to all fire monsters) they would be almost unstoppable due to eliminating one of the main weaknesses of the deck (the relatively low atk power of Laggia and Dolkka). It tested fairly well, with especially good synergy with Casinario. I like 1 card Laggia as much as the next guy! =]. Just something to think about, I certainly didnt expect for it to work as well as it ended up working.


My Boring Life (2 articles combined together)


These 2 posts was originally designed to detail what I was doing while I was on break from my blog, but after several deletions and rewrites I came to realize it wasn't very important in the grand scheme of things to detail every little thing, so a quick review will be done instead.

Basically I took a break from Gladiator Beasts, feeling I had achieved as much explosiveness as I could at the time. I would revisit them when a new idea stuck me to improve them, but for the time being I decided to move on to testing miscellaneous things. I started with a Spellcaster deck that included some of the new cards from GAOV like Bound Wand plus Gagaga stuff. It didn't do very well, so I added the Destiny Hero engine to it along with good cards like T-King and D-Prisons. It did markedly better, but since I was still missing pieces of it (Strike Bounzer and other good rank 6 XYZ) I decided to ultimately shelve it.

An antimeta deck that I created on a whim was my next project, and that lasted all of 2 days before being dissected. Antimeta is good, but it has no identity, no soul. The strategy is always the same: plug up holes in a dam till either you win or you fail, let your opponent go off, then lose. After being torn apart, I combined the remains of the antimeta deck with the remains of the Spellcaster deck for a hilarious hybrid deck that strangely won all 3 duels I used it in. Alas, it was abomination, so I killed it.

Next I was pretty much given everything for Evols, so I decided what the heck, might as well try them out. They had a good run as well, there were very few games I didn't feel like I had momentum going for me. Only problem is not drawing defense for when you draw the Evolsaurs and need to camp on them to make the Xyz. Then again, pretty much everyone agrees that's the decks major weakness, so I shouldn't have been surprised by it. Again, Burden of the Mighty helped out tremendously in keeping a Cerato or other dinosaur that I drew alive so I could make Laggia/Dolkka next turn.

Parallel to the Evol project I started experimenting with Gladiator Beasts again, this time compacting the engine to Laquari, Darius, Bestiari, and Equeste, adding good beast/beast-warriors and Horn of the Phantom Beast, Reckless Greed, and control cards (D-Prison, Bottomless, ect) for a fast paced control deck (!). The results were... interesting. I certainly won the majority of the duels I used it in, but I still don't know what to make of the results of my testing. Further testing is definitely warranted and will be done at a future date.

After finishing with those 2 decks, I took them partially apart to create what I am currently using, testing, and improving: Zenmailstrom Wind-Ups. The idea is simple: go off as much as possible with 3 MST, 2 Night Beam, and all the explosive plays Wind-Ups are known for. 3 Soldier adds a bit of stability to the volatile monster line up, provides food for Zenmailstrom, and insures dominance over T-King, a major pain for the deck. 2 Factory and 1 Rabbit lessen the slow paced control elements of the deck, while 2 Call of the Haunted and 3 Ryko help establish it as a deck that can go off early and often thanks to the graveyard setup Ryko provides. Rats are very rarely dead in my hand, and 2 Instant Fusion along with the Calls help me push through Effect Veiler and D.D. Crow. Maxed Magician is needed as I run Zenmailstrom in 3's and need either Rat or Magician in hand for it to work.

More details on the deck, including a decklist, combos exclusive to Zenmailstrom Wind-Ups, and other information is pending my continued testing of the deck, as admittedly the deck is still in the very early stages of development. Where it could go from here is anyone's guess, and I want some concrete ground to stand on before I start posting about it here. I will try to get the combos done very soon however.

Till next time and thanks again for your patience!

A few things....

Over the last few weeks I have started and not finished several articles, which I apologize for. I will be trying to improve on that aspect of blogging in the future. I am currently in the process of combining all 4 of them into one large article, so for everyone who reads this blog and has been patient waiting for new posts, I ask that you wait just a bit longer. Thanks! In the meantime, I present this...

Quicksand Theory

Like quicksand, the meta is ever shifting...


The results from YCS Philly are in, and they are simultaneously surprising and unsurprising. On the one hand, the top 16 cut was made up mostly expected and established meta decks, Dino Rabbit and Chaos Dragons. But the surprising thing was the notable absence of one accredited tier 1 deck: Inzektors. No Inzektor deck made it into the top 16. Hieratics didnt manage to live up to the hype and HEROs also were MIA in the top 32. Wind-ups and Dark Worlds, while being on the decline in comparison to Dino Rabbit and Chaos Dragons, still managed to sneak into the top 16. So what does this mean for the meta going forward?

In theory, Inzektors should be one of the strongest decks in the format, especially now that they have even more support available (Ladybug). They also have neutral or favorable match-ups against almost every other relevant deck in the meta. But we all know that Yugioh theory doesnt always equal Yugioh fact. So why did Inzektors lay an egg at Philly, taking only a measly 4 spots out of the top 32 for such a allegedly dominant and powerful deck? Was it under representation, a lack of Inzektor usage? Its impossible to know at this point due to a lack of solid numbers, but if Inzektors fall out of favor  due for some unknown reason, it will certainly leave a power vacuum at the top, with only two tier 1 decks left to duke it out. It might weaken Dino-Rabbit, who have a very unfavorable matchup against Dragons, and push them out of tier 1 in the most extreme case.
Will a new deck rise to check the power of widespread Chaos Dragon usage? Or will Inzektors steamroll on, proving in time that this YCS was just a fluke, with OCG records and results to back up their claim to tier 1 status? One thing is certain, the Yugioh meta is like quicksand, and it only takes one shift to completely restructure the power base.