NAWQ - Long Awaited Update

Almost two months later, this person finally puts up a post. Sorry about the long awaited post. I've been busy with work and trying to figure out some logistics in my life. Anyways, as you can read from the title, I judged in the North American World Qualifier for Yu-Gi-Oh!. It was an exciting news when I got an email confirmation that I were to be judging at such a prestige level of event. Before I continue, I want to thank for all those who got me on the staff and those who supported me. I am very thankful and grateful for such an opportunity. 


A small tid bit about the event. It was an attendance of a little over 1600 in the main event. I believe that Konami tried to put it in the middle of the United States so that people from the East coast and the West Coast was able to attend at the same price where as if it was in California or in New Jersey, it would be too "expensive" for some of the players. However, I also believe that it was just that they try to put the NAWQ at different places in the country every year. Also, with this being the case, the amount of people were well below what was expected. With 4400+ players having invites to this event, we expected at least 2500+ players and max 3500 players. However, it wasn't the case, having "unnecessary" rooms. But, as we always say, "better to have too much than have too little". 


A lot of the staff members were a bit stressed because of the amount of things going on. Not exactly sure what was going on, but a lot of hustle and bustle was rousing around in the back area of the judge area. The staff were talking to this player and that player for doing something that they weren't allowed to, etc. etc. It was quite the unexpected behavior of the players and I, as a judge AND a player, am upset about the player's behavior. Besides all this, the event staff moved swiftly and quickly which made the event end sooner and on time. 


Now to one of the least important part of the event, the winners. As you can read a lot of this stuff on the Konami website, I will also make a quick note on this post. Tyler Tabman was the winner with the deck, Wind-Up. It was an interesting deck that won it, but was one of the few decks that had a huge advantage. However, I think that DinoRabbits should have a huge advantage in this format, the only issue is the inconsistency it does have. But it should have a favorable match up against Wind-Ups, so I was confused when I heard that Wind-Up won. Here's his deck list. (found off yugidojo)

Monsters: 21

3 – Wind-Up Rabbit
3 – Wind-Up Rat
3 – Wind-Up Shark
3 – Tour Guide From the Underworld
3 – Effect Veiler
2 – Wind-Up Magician
1 – Wind-Up Hunter
1 – Spirit Reaper
1 – Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 13

3 – Mystical Space Typhoon
2 – Wind-Up Factory
2 – Instant Fusion
1 – Heavy Storm
1 – Book of Moon
1 – Dark Hole
1 – Pot of Avarice
1 – Mind Control
1 – Monster Reborn

Traps: 8

2 – Solemn Warning
2 – Torrential Tribute
2 – Bottomless Trap Hole
1 – Solemn Judgment
1 – Mirror Force

Extra: 15

3 – Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
1 – Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 – Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1 – Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 – Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 – Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 – Number 39: Utopia
1 – Acid Golem
1 – Steelswarm Roach
1 – Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 – Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1 – Cyber Saurus
1 – Dragoness the Wicked Knight

Side: 15

3 – Dimensional Fissure
3 – Shadow Imprisoning Mirror
2 – Maxx C
2 – Snowman Eater
2 – Dimensional Prison
1 – Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 – Soul Taker
1 – Dust Tornado

This was a surprise for a lot of North Americans because a lot of people are in the state that DinoRabbits and LS Dragons will win it for sure, but never saw that Wind-Ups had a decent matchup against any and almost any deck. Again, it really matters one what you were paired up against. Maybe he got paired against an easy matchup, maybe he got the first round bye. Only he would know, but so far, the deck looks solid and I really can't complain too much. After all, it is Yu-Gi-Oh!, there's not much explanation to this card game. :\


Until next time, Blog to you soon!

Plant Synchro Deck Profile

With the acquirement of Tour Guides, I am finally able to play plant synchro deck. It's a format late and soon to be two formats late, but sometimes, when a duelist has a chance at these "tier 1" decks, we play it and see how it goes. It went well to say the least. My friend and I talked about how the deck is a mix of random cards in a deck, but it works so well because it has the random +1s and the random answers to the opponent's cards. The Tour Guides are always an aggressor in any deck and in this deck, it makes it 10 times more aggressive. Not only that, it's also dark material for the BLS. Spirit Reaper is when the poop hits the fan and we need to set or become the aggressor as well. Well, anyways, here's the deck profile:

MONSTERS [22]

1x B.L.S. - Envoy of the Beginning
1x Caius
1x Dandylion
2x Effect Veiler
1x Glow-up Bulb
1x Gorz
1x Lonefire
2x Maxx "C"
3x Reborn Tengu
1x Sangan
1x Spirit Reaper
1x Spore
3x Thunder King Rai-oh
3x Tour Guide

SPELLS [13]

1x Book of Moon
2x Creature Swap
1x Dark Hole
2x Enemy Controller
1x Foolish Burial
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mind Control
1x Monster Reborn
1x Mystical Space T.
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Scapegoat

TRAPS [5]

3x Dimensional Prison
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Torrential Tribute

SIDE [15]

2x Cyber Dragon
2x D.D. Crow
2x Kycoo the Ghost D.
1x Spirit Reaper
2x Smashing Ground
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Mirror Force
1x Chimeratech Fort. Dragon

EXTRA [15]

1x A. of J. Catastor
1x Armory Arm
1x Black Rose D.
1x Brionac
1x Formula Synchron
1x Gaia Knight
1x Orient Dragon
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Stardust Dragon
1x T.G. Hyper Librarian
1x Trishula
1x Leviair
1x No. 17 Leviathan
1x No. 39 Utopia
1x Wind-up Zenmaines

Monster line up is quite normal, I do not have a third Maxx "C" as it is too out of my budget. As for why I do not run the these cards, Debris Dragon, One for One, and Solemn Warning.

Debris Dragon - must synch into a dragon, monster 500 attack or less, attack mode reborned monster, Maxx "C" would stop play, therefore would rather synch, causing your opponent to plus off a possible Maxx "C" as most players play 3 Maxx "C"s or just make a side deck of anti special summon.

One for One - Same issue, possible pluses for opponent's Maxx C but also, if I don't have a good discard outlet, I won't have a monster to special summon nor do I have a follow up after the level one tuner I just summoned.

Solemn Warning - What can I say? I just like my life points too much to waste it on a summon. Also, if the deck has so many outs to cards, what's an issue with one monster summon? Would rather save that 2000 LP for something else.

As for the side, I wanted to hit those pesky backrows (Vanity's Emptiness, D. Fissure, etc. etc.) And I think Dino Rabbit is a big issue for the plant deck because they can run some cards that normally a plant synchro can't (Vanity's Emptiness, D. Fissures, etc. etc.) It' another control deck.

I chose to replace the above named cards for Creature Swaps instead. This is typically a surprise for a lot of people as the Plant Synchro deck can take enough hits to OTK them the next turn. And with them over extending so far, C. Swap can turn the game in your favor in one turn. Also chose to have a 40 card deck rather than a 41(or some random number) card deck because that's just the way I grew up with. The less cards in the deck, the higher the chance to draw the cards. Not too big of a difference, but it's just good to be concise about the deck.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed this deck profile of mine. (enter catchy end phrase here)

Dark World Deck

Hi there YuGiOh! fans and players! This is my first post on my new blog today and it's my first attempt to share some of my thoughts and ideas of decks out in the meta (most played). I will tell you what deck I'm analyzing, some history of the deck & the cards, what the idea of the deck is supposed to be, and then show you my build (with side and extra) with my reasoning. Of course, links will be provided for your purposes and for mine because I do not want to type out the card effects myself.

Today, I will be sharing with you my Dark World deck build. Yes, *sigh*, Dark World. With the new structure deck that came out, Gates of the Underworld, the Dark World deck now has expanded their uses and their capabilities. A few new cards in the structure deck to name are, Grapha, Snoww, Ceruli, and Gates make this deck have more "power" I guess you can say.

I wasn't around for a few years (2006-2009) because I left YuGiOh to focus more on school and a lot of the people I played with were not the most pleasant of folks. But from the amount of information I collected from the internet and from other players, Dark World wasn't the best deck at that time. It was reasonable with the amount of drawing and special summoning that occurred, but that was it. Now with a few more cards left and right, Gates, Grapha, and Snoww, it made the deck much more consistent and less reliant on miscellaneous support cards.

For those who do not know what Dark World is, it's basically DW monsters that needs to be discarded through an effect so that DW monster can get its effect. What I mean be "discarded through an effect" is that it cannot be a cost. To tell the difference is to see whether is says "to" or "and" and whether it was the first sentence to discard and then the resolution. An example of the "to" is: Brionac. Notice the effect says,

You can discard any number of cards to the Graveyard to target the same number of cards from the field; return them to the hand.

This is what we call a "cost". Another "cost" is just a plain and simple sentence that tells you to discard a card. And then the resolution of the effect. An example of this is: Darkness Approaches. (I know, it's a classic)

Discard 2 cards from your hand. Select 1 face-up monster and flip it face-down, but do not change its battle position.

Now, what we want for the DW deck to work properly is having cards that has the effect (or the resolution) of the card as a discard effect rather than a cost for the card. A few to name off from the top of my head are Dark World Dealings, Dragged Down Into The Grave, Morphing Jar. These cards are quite pivotal within this deck. A lot of the cards in the structure are reintroduced from older sets that were already out. However, with the new ones, it has more potential than it ever had.

There are a lot of builds out there, but I want to share mine. I can list all those other builds out there, but I will tell you the reasoning behind my choice of cards and why I didn't select certain cards for my build. First off, the list:

MONSTER:


2 Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World
3 Broww, Huntsman of Dark World
1 Fabled Raven
3 Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World
2 Malefic Stardust Dragon
1 Sangan
3 Snoww, Unlight of Dark World
3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

MAGIC:

1 Allure of Darkness
1 Card Destruction
1 Dark Hole
2 Dark World Dealings
2 Dragged Down Into The Grave
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
3 The Gates of Dark World
3 Upstart Goblin

TRAP:

2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Mirror Force
3 Reckless Greed
1 Torrential Tribute

EXTRA:

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Brionac, the Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Orient Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
2 Stardust Dragon
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia

SIDE:

2 Cyber Dragon
1 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Debunk
1 Eradicator Epidemic Virus
2 Royal Decree

The main monster lineup is pretty standard, 3 Snoww, 3 Broww, 3 Grapha, and 3 Tour Guide (if you have them). These are the MUST HAVE in this deck. I chose Beiige over Sillva or Goldd because I'd rather have the capability of normal summoning without having to tribute in a certain case I have no discard outlet.

The Malefic SD is for a few reasons. As many of you know, Gates removal is a cost, therefore my opponent can use MST on my Gates and I would not be able to discard my card nor draw. So I would typically drop my MSD, using its effect to protect my field. Then I can proceed to draw my cards. Not only that, it uses it to bait out my opponents backrows (Warning or BTH) creating a safer field for my potential Grapha. ANOTHER amazing thing is that it's a target for my DDV and my EEV! AMAZING! I actually thought another step further into thinking about the side deck people use, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror. This being main decked, I don't need to side into it nor do I have to side it out. However, I have noticed that it does stop me from spamming the field and attacking for game, I usually have a DDV set in that case.

I opted out of the Ceruli/Sillva build because I was thinking one step ahead of the game, Skill Drain and Shadow Mirror. Some people in my locals run Skill Drain main decked and Shadow Mirror sided for their dreaded match up, Dark World. Therefore, I don't want to have to side them out and side in cards that can already be useful in the main. Small technicalities here, but yes. Let's continue.

The magic and trap lineup was basically something to make the deck a little more turbo-y. I could draw more monsters and more cards for discarding my DW cards. Some protection (torrential, mirror force) I thought was needed in this deck in case I didn't draw some kind of outlet to my DW cards.

Extra deck, plain and simple, although, I do wish I had a Wind-up Zenmaines, a Leviathan can do as well as that for now. I can go into rank 3s easily with TGUs (grabbing Broww, Sangan, or another TGU).

Side Deck, here are my reasons for side deck. I figured that the side deck isn't about how to use cards to push my opponent into a corner, it's about how to improve your weaknesses in the deck and how you can respond to your opponent's cards that they might side in.

Cyber Dragon = karakuri/gadgets
Fossil Dyna = Plant Synchro/special summon heavy
TKing = search/inherent summon heavy (rabbits)
MST = I know my opponent will go trap heavy to kill me (shadow mirrors, debunk, D. Prisons, BTH, etc)
BTH = Rabbits, slower decks with one normal summon after another
Debunk = mirror match or other hand/grave activation decks
EEV = magic/trap heavy also knowing that they side heavy traps against me, I can use it against them
Royal Decree = knowing that they go trap heavy, I can use it against them. Also focuses his MSTs towards this rather than my field

Well, that's all the info for my deck and some tips about Dark Worlds. Hope you enjoyed this information. Some feedback on my first post would be really nice! Thanks for your time!