Hello Yugioh Community! Let me start off by giving a huge congrats to the winner of the 100th YCS Michael Balan! He managed to take his Dark World deck all the way to the top and capture 1st place out of the 4200 duelist that showed up to this historic event. Another big shout out to my fellow ARG Writer Joe Giorlando! He was on a rampage last year topping almost every event he attended, and was able to make a very respectable 3rd/4th place finish at YCS Long Beach. Awesome job Joe! Moving on, my article this week is going to talk about my experience at YCS Long Beach, what deck I chose to run, why I made certain choices, and the duelist that were able to stop me from being as successful as I wanted to be!
Question of the Article: What deck did you/would you have used at the 100th YCS?
Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!
MY DECK CHOICE: WIND-UPS
I have been told by many of my personal friends that I have an addictive personality, and I must admit this is quite true. If I start to like something I tend to put my all into it and make it my primary focus. I believe this trait is what allows me to have success when playing Yugioh because I put a fair amount of effort and focus into this game. This same trait appears when I start playing a certain type of deck. A lot of players will hop around from deck to deck, but once I find one I like I tend to stick with it. Ever since their release, Wind-Ups have been my favorite deck. I choose to use them because I feel they have a decent Game 1 match-up against all the top decks, and if you go first your odds of winning increase significantly! I always like explosive decks that require some thinking to how you want your field to look at the end of your turn. Wind-Ups in my opinion are one of the most complex decks of this format and I love them to death! Here is a look at the build I chose to use at the 100th YCS!
Monsters: 22
3 Wind-Up Rat
3 Wind-Up Shark
3Wind-Up Rabbit
3 Tour Guide From the Underworld
3 Effect Veiler
3 Maxx “C”
2 Spirit Reaper
1 Wind-Up Hunter
1 Sangan
THE MONSTER CHOICES:
As you can see my monster line-up might look a little different than the standard Wind-Up deck list. I chose not to run any copies of Wind-Up Magician due to the fact I felt like I would be facing a lot of Dino-Rabbit and Hero decks. He is a great card to open with alongside a Shark, but cards like Maxx “C”, Evolsaur Dolkka, and even just going second in general can make this card quite bad. Instead, I decided to main deck two copies of Spirit Reaper who help a lot Game 1 in the Dino-Rabbit match-up and are also level 3 monsters to help me get to my ultimate goal of bringing out a Wind-Up Zenmaity. I maxed out on the hand traps just as more of a personal preference. If I did end up playing against Inzektors, I wanted to make sure I had 3 copies of Effect Veiler in my deck to make sure I could get to it, and the same goes for Maxx “C”s in the Wind-Up mirror match.
Spells: 8
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon
THE SPELL CHOICES:
My Spell line-up was pretty standard. I didn’t really choose to use anything too special, just stuck to the main staple line-up and went with it! Nothing special in the spell department!
Traps: 11
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Solemn Warning
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
THE TRAP CHOICES:
I ended up being pretty heavy on the trap portion of my deck. With the most played deck being Dino-Rabbit and Heros at the 100th YCS I felt the more removal I had the better! While the Dimensional Prisons and Mirror Force weakend my Inzektor match-up I felt I could make it up by using 3 copies of Fiendish Chain. Most of the time when I am dueling I will end up with one or two copies of Wind-Up Zenmaity on the field and I like to play a game called protect the Zenmaity! If you are able to get a Zenmaity’s effect off twice the odds of you winning are turned greatly in your favor and that’s what I built this deck to do! For the most part is went off without a hitch and I was pretty happy with the trap choices I decided to use!
THE SIDE DECK:15
2 Snowman Eater
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 D.D. Crow
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Cyber Dragon
2 Smashing Ground
2 Dust Tornado
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
1 Nordic Relic – Laevateinn
HOW I SIDED IN CERTAIN MATCH-UPS
Instead of me talking about why I side decked certain cards I decided to just go through exactly how I chose to side deck throughout the tournament against the top 3 decks!
AGAINST DINO-RABBIT
Out: 3 Maxx “C” , 3 Effect Veiler
In: 2 Snowman Eater, 1 Spirit Reaper, 2 Smashing Ground, 1 Nordic Relic- Laevateinn
AGAINST INZEKTORS
Out: 2 Maxx “C”, 2 Dimensional Prison ( if they are running Jurrac Guaiba and Thunder Kings I will swap these out for Wind-Up Shark and a third Maxx “C”)
In: 2 D.D. Crow, 2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror ( Optional, If you want to take out 3rd Maxx “C”, Spirit Reapers or Mirror Force, you can side into Smashing Grounds, Cyber Dragon, or even Thunder King Rai-Oh)
AGAINST WIND-UPS
Out: 2 Dimensional Prison, 1 Mirror Force, (2 Reapers or a Wind-Up Shark/ Wind-Up Rabbit if they are using Factory)
In: 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh, 2 D.D. Crow, 1 Cyber Dragon
THE EXTRA DECK: 15
3 Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
2 Wind-Up Zenmaines
2 Leviair The Sea Dragon
1 Number 20: Giga – Brilliant
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Number 39: Utopia
1Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1 Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 Armory Arm
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
THE EXTRA DECK CHOICES:
I have a fairly standard Wind-up extra deck, except for the fact that I don’t use Wind-Up Zenmaioh. In testing I just found him to be very under-whelming. In most situations where he would be good, Tiras is almost always better. I chose to cut him so I could fit in a Chimeratech Fortress Dragon into my main extra deck and not have to waste a side deck slot on him. Outside of that choice everything else is pretty much self-explanatory!
HOW I DID AT THE YCS LONG BEACH
Let me just give you a brief overview of how I did at the 100th YCS. I had a great start winning the first four rounds of day 1, but in the fifth round I was handed my first lost by fellow ARG Writer Patrick Hoban. We had a pretty fun match that went back and forth, but in game 3 of a somewhat complicated game state, he was able to simplify it leaving me with no cards after a Torrential Tribue and a Heavy Storm! He had the Rabbit and it is pretty much near impossible to beat a Laggia with no cards to your name!
I then suffered a second loss the very next round to a Dark World duelist. He was able to take me down Game 1 with a combination of Card Destruction, Skill Drain, and being able to draw better off the top than I was. I fought back and took Game 2 rather quickly, but he was able to go first in Game 3. He opened up with a Card Destruction and drew into a Gate of the Underworld and Snoww. He had like a plus 5 on me turn 1 and with not Heavy Storm in sight I wasn’t able to pull through the game.
I was able to win the last round of the day and finish day 1 with a record of 5-2 and needing to win all 5 rounds we were going to play in the morning! I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep and was ready to go again! I defeated Inzektors in Round 8 and my opponent didn’t show in Round 9. Now I had improved me record to 7-2 and knew I needed to win the last three rounds to give myself a chance to top this tournament! In the tenth round I had to face a duelist from my local named D.J. He was piloting Inzektors and from when we have played before I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy match. He took Game 1, I fought back and won Game 2, and he was able to go first in game 3. Luck was on his side and he was able to stop me in my tracks every turn by having 3 copies of Maxx “C” and activating them all. Even after all of that I made a late push to try and come back. I had a couple of Zenmaity’s on board trying to make one last push with a set Fiendish Chain for his Inzektor Dragonfly in hand. Sadly, He drew a Mystical Space Typhoon and was able to blow my whole field up and attack me for game. I was eliminated from the tournament!
Conclusion: This YCS was much bigger than anyone could have anticipated! I had a great time and met a lot of really awesome people! I tried to take my Wind-Up deck to the top, but unfortunately lady luck just wasn’t on my side this weekend! With YCS Dallas only a few weeks away you can bet that I am already preparing and getting ready to try and get another championship under my belt!
Thanks for Reading! Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below! We are also going to be doing some Live Streams for those who have not heard about it! You can follow us here at this link - http://www.twitch.tv/arglive ! If you want to know when we will be on, be sure to check in at the Alter Reality Games Facebook page and like them to get notifications about everything Yugioh related!
-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and Columbus Champion
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