Two weekends ago was a crazy one as that was the weekend of the North American World Championship Qualifier that was held at Navy Pier Chicago, Illinois! Unfortunately I was not able to make the Top 64 as I took a loss to Spellbooks on the bubble round 11 but I had a lot of fun at the event regardless and we have a great team for Worlds so I can’t be too mad. I would also like to give my congrats to Frazier Smith for making Top 64 for the 3rd year in a row I believe, and a huge congrats to Patrick Hoban for winning this year’s WCQ , getting his first win at one of the biggest events of the year! This year’s WCQ was one not to miss as there was so much going on that besides Yugioh that weekend which made it so crazy. Even if you weren’t able to get your invite in a Last Chance Qualifier or didn’t do well in the main event there was plenty to do at the Pier, it was like a mini amusement park with many attractions and places to eat at.
I decided to play Dragon Rulers at this year's event for all of you who didn’t know. I couldn’t get myself to like the way the Spellbook deck played or some of the hands it could give you with so I decided I would be playing Dragon Rulers pretty early on. After testing quite a bit at locals, exchanging testing results over text messages, and extensively testing against the mirror and Spellbooks on Dueling Network against friends, this is the list I ended up playing for the event:
Monsters: 28
3 Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos
3 Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders
3 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls
3 Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
2 Reactan, Dragon Ruler of Pebbles
2 Burner, Dragon Ruler of Sparks
2 Stream, Dragon Ruler of Droplets
2 Lightning, Dragon Ruler of Drafts
3 Maxx “C”
3 [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Dragunity Corsesca[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Swift Scarecrow[/ccProd]
Spells: 11
3 [ccProd]Super Rejuvenation[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Sacred Sword of Seven Stars[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]Gold Sarcophagus[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Book of Moon[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Dark Hole[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Heavy Storm[/ccProd]
Trap: 1
1 Vanity’s Emptiness
Extra Deck: 15
3 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
2 Number 11: Big Eye
1 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssgaios[/ccProd]
1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
1 Karakuri Shogun MDL 00 “Burei”
1 [ccProd]Scrap Dragon[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Thought Ruler Archfiend[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Colossal Fighter[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Crimson Blader[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Black Rose Dragon[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Ancient Sacred Wyvern[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Armory Arm[/ccProd]
Side Deck: 15
3 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
1 [ccProd]Electric Virus[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mystical Space Typhoon[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Enemy Controller[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Eradicator Epidemic Virus[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]DNA Surgery[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]Skill Drain[/ccProd]
I made my deck so that I had a good main for the mirror game 1, maining 1 [ccProd]Swift Scarecrow[/ccProd] and 1 Vanity’s Emptiness. I chose not to main or side Droll&Lock Bird as it is easily played around when playing against when playing against Books, and even if you got it off you needed to be able to OTK them or lock them out of the game next turn and that’s if they had no real traps for you to fight through, which can be asking for a lot. Plus it’s potentially another dead card games 2 and 3 when they board in their Dimensional Fissures and/or Mind Drains. Making my book matchup slightly better G1 was just not worth it since I was likely to lose G1 and it makes every other matchup a little worse as well.
I chose to go with the Fusilier/EEV side deck as it allows me to EEV under my opponents [ccProd]Mind Drain[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Dimensional Fissure[/ccProd], I can also try to attack over Jowgen with Fusilier since it has 1400 atk when summoned without tributes and I can also use Sword to banish it to draw 2 more cards if I have too many of them. Having [ccProd]Skill Drain[/ccProd] and Fusilier on the board can just flat out win the game against other decks like Evilswarm and Constellars. I chose to also side 2 DNA Surgeries which was the hot card this year at the WCQ, vendors selling this card for $15 a piece and people going to the vendors to buy Pharaoh’s Servant packs just to try and pull them (somebody I know bought a playset of them for $100, the drive to top an event is crazy!). It is just a blowout card, shutting off Power, Wisdom, Master, Fate, and Defender from protecting their monsters, you just have to be careful since they can chain Fate to the card and banish it if they have a spellcaster on board already. I only sided E-Con, [ccProd]Electric Virus[/ccProd], and sometimes one MST for the mirror since my main was already made to beat it and siding too much in can mess up your decks flow or making siding out cards awkward.
If I could go back and change anything in my deck, I would main deck [ccProd]Card Destruction[/ccProd]. I had it in my deck until literally last minute when I got into Chicago; it is just an overall great card against anything that isn’t the mirror. I would also side deck another [ccProd]Swift Scarecrow[/ccProd], there were many times in the mirror where it would be too easy for my opponent to put 8k on board and just kill me even through Maxx “C”, especially games 2&3 with cards like [ccProd]Electric Virus[/ccProd] and [ccProd]Enemy Controller[/ccProd] flying around. In Swiss I played against 1 Firefist, 1 Darkworld, 1 Spellbook, and 8 mirror matches, which I played all in a row.
If you were at the WCQ you know how mentally and physically draining it was on Day 1, especially for those people who are like me and don’t go to sleep early Friday night, with rounds going 40+ minutes over time it felt like the day would just never end. One round I had to have Sam Pedigo watch my body as I had to take a nap before the next round started (which was little help). Using Joe’s box of decks from older formats to play with helped pass the time a bit in between rounds. Luckily though they cut Day 1 one round short so they only did 8 rounds Saturday instead of 9, but we had to be back at the venue by 7:45 AM the next morning, so we couldn’t get too much of a break. On Sunday I got to see a good amount of my friends play in the Top 64 playoff after I was out of the tournament including Steve Silverman and Robert Boyajian, both of them going to Worlds with Patrick next month.
Overall it was a great event held in a nice, though expensive city. With the WCQ being once a year I get to see people I don’t get to see very often, plus this year’s WCQ was a few hundred people bigger than I expected so seeing more people coming out to play Yugioh is always a good thing. The off season after the event gives me a chance to prepare for the upcoming format as the September list is just around the corner, and I for one have no clue what Konami will do next, I know many people are looking forward to it since some find the format right now a tad stale with Books and Dragons at the top. Tell some of your good or unexpected experiences from the WCQ down below in the comments. Until next time!
-Tyree Tinsley
YCS Rhode Island 2011 & YCS Meadowlands 2013 Champion
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