Hello ARG readers! My name is Jordan Winters, but you might know me from Dueling Network as DoubtFull. As many of you know, this past weekend ARG held their first Online Open. Let me be the first to say that it was a blast! I received second place at this event with my own variant of Dragon Rulers, and am here today to share with everyone the great experience that I had playing in this event.

The Event:

64 players, 6 rounds of swiss and then a cut to top 8.I cannot emphasize enough how smooth this event went. Considering this was a first attempt, I anticipated a lot of problems. There were virtually none. We had roughly an hour between every round on the dot, which is incredible when compared to Regional or YCS events. The two hosts of the tournament, Jeff Jones and Coredero Vexacus Spencer, were both very helpful throughout the day. Any questions I had were answered swiftly and politely, and I couldn’t be happier with how they handled the tournament. I’m sure that it wasn’t easy to manage 64 Yu-Gi-Oh players for an entire day, but you both did a fantastic job! In the top 8 cut, there were live feature matches hosted by Joseph Giorlando on Twitch! This was definitely the best part of the night for me, despite having a few technical difficulties on my own end.

The Deck:

The weekend before this event, I managed to finish in the Top 8 of YCS Toronto with my team mate James Frazier. We both piloted the same plant ruler deck, and I will stand by my belief that it was the perfect build of the deck for this particular event. However; the meta is constantly changing, and I always strive to be a step ahead of it. After testing several other decks I was able to quickly come to the conclusion that a variant of Dragons was without a doubt still the way to go. Their extreme power, consistency, and ability to adapt to any situation has this deck leagues ahead of anything else. Not to mention, we have a searchable black rose.

Unfortunately, I also was forced to come to the conclusion that my beloved plant and lightsworn engine had to go. While I loved these cards all weekend at Toronto, I found the sworns to be too slow to keep up with dragons. That, on top of constantly putting yourself in positions to be blader’d meant that they had to go. As for the plants, I just felt that without the milling of the lightsworns, it would be more beneficial to run more defensive cards. After not nearly enough playtesting, here is the build that I came up with.

http://articles.alterealitygames.com/arg-online-open-1-2nd-place-jordan-winters-doubtfull/

(+1 [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd])

To stay concise I’m going to avoid talking about card choices in this article (I could go on all day). I don’t have any complaints about the build. It worked perfectly, and my only losses in the entire tournament were due to factors that were completely out of my control.

The Tournament:

Round 1:

0-0

Jordan Winters vs Dav Taylor (Dragunitys)

I’m literally terrible at Rock, Paper , Scissors, and only won 2 all day. I don’t remember which ones, so just always assume that I lost.

Game 1:

I out-resource him and eventually am able to make a push for game. He main’d multiple copies of emptiness, but between Blaster, MST, and 3 copies of raigeki break I nearly I always have an out.

Game 2:

I have COMPLETE control of this game, and then he flips [ccProd]return from a different dimension[/ccProd] and kills me.

Game 3:

This was one of those games that you just feel like you are going to lose the entire way through. Despite this, I did my best to stay in the game and was even able to hold my TT until I cleared his board of Atum, RedMD, and 2 Big Dragons. At one point his board was 2 backrows and a face up blaster. I had no choice but to summon a debris onto the board and pray that he didn’t have the emptiness set. After a moment of thinking he chains…. Maxx c! I bring back my trooper, get mills, and board wipe his set reckless and debunk. I’m able to follow up with 3 Big summons for the OTK and he doesn’t have the swift scare crow with 12 cards left in deck.

This was a very intense match, and not something I was prepared for round 1!

Round 2:

1-0

Jordan Winters vs Squiddy (Fire Fists)

Our keyboard’s both malfunctioned and our caps buttons were locked for the duration of the match. This was quite odd.

Game 1

This game was very close. After clearing a bottomless, I’m forced to return into 2 back row and unfortunately get hit with a TT. The next turn he summons wolfberk and I maxx c. If he had either a tensu or a dragon in hand he could have OTK’d me, but instead he attacked and went for a dweller. The next turn I was able to BRD nuke with a [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd] set and took the game from there.

Game 2

I make a really bad mistake by flipping a coin to decide whether or not to attack his face down monster. You shouldn’t do that. It turned out to be a boar, which lead to me getting blader’d the following turn. Fortunately I had the scape goats to survive his attacks for a turn, and was able to easily take control of the game on the following turn with a BRD. Board wipes are good against fire fists.

This was a really fun match, as Squiddy matches tend to be.

Round 3:

2-0

Jordan Winters vs Jeff Sharpe (Hunders)

Because we had to post our winning screen shots on the event facebook page, I knew that there was a hunder player still undefeated going into round 3. My prayers were heard.

Game 1

He doesn’t open much, and I open return. I try to OTK him but get [ccProd]waboku[/ccProd] flipped on me, so instead I just decide to end with Dracossack, [ccProd]Scrap Dragon[/ccProd], and a Stardust. Thanks return. Double pops from Scrap/ssack leads to a swift win.

Game 2

[ccProd]Skill drain[/ccProd] is up for the entire game, and I’m eventually able to grind through for the win with fencing fire ferret beat down.

This guy was pretty cool, and I enjoyed our match.

Round 4:

3-0

Jordan Winters vs Mathew Kuhnel (Undine Water)

Game 1

This game was a battle of the maxx c’s. At one point I have Maxx C/swift scare crow in hand, and I’m able to drop it on a position where he had to special like, 5 times in order to get game. It was still the right play to make, and fortunately for me he did it. Long story short, he ended with a dracossack and an Abysssgaios to my 300 cards in hand. Needless to say, even with a maxx of his own he couldn’t keep up with my advantage.

Game 2

We both start out slow but I’m eventually able to clear his board and push through maxx c for the OTK.

 My opponent this round was very nice and from what I saw made all of the correct plays. I just think that if you’re going to play water this format you need to be running the [ccProd]Bahamut Shark[/ccProd] turbo build that topped Toronto. Undine is just too slow of an engine to keep up with the meta.

Round 5

4-0

Jordan Winters vs Jordan Williams.(Blackwings)

Yes, we have very similar names.

Game 1

I don’t remember much about this game, but because he is playing rogue you can pretty much assume that I blackrose’d for game.

Game 2

I open up pretty terrible, and take 2 or 3 hits from a bora. Then I flip scape goats to stall for a while, and realize that bora has a random piercing effect (forgive me, I’m new) so I’m forced to waste a [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd] on it. The follow turn I’m able to make a cool-ish [ccProd]formula synchron[/ccProd] into mist bird play that allows me to play around a kalut. The next turn he does blackwing things but I was able to use all of my resources to clear his remaining backrow and then flipped return for game. I drew return a lot in swiss.

I know I’ve said this a lot, but another really cool opponent this round. I was pleasantly surprised to see blackwings still undefeated this far into the tournament and wished him luck in his next round.

Round 6

5-0

Jordan Winters vs Rosty Elkun (Dragon Rulers)

This game was a feature match. You can probably find it on ARG’s youtube page, but at the moment it isn’t up so I will describe the match regardless.

Game 1

Early on in the game I’m forced to lose access to my blaster so that I could make my Cards of Con live. I really hate this card. He opens very well, and I am able to drag the game on for a long time but eventually lose without ever seeing another blaster. Tidal was awol for the entirety of the match.

Game 2

This game goes on for awhile, and at one point he as me locked down with emptiness/[ccProd]scrap dragon[/ccProd]. He gets greedy and uses scrap’s effect to clear my set maxx c and my final card in hand is swift scare crow. I topdeck [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd] and easily secure the game from there.

Game 3

He open seven swords, maxx c, [ccProd]return from a different dimension[/ccProd], and[ccProd]debunk[/ccProd]. Oh yeah, and he summons a trooper and mills 3 dragons. I open 6 dragons.

This was one of those matches that I’m quite positive I could never have won. The only thing I could have really done game 1 is not have ever had CardsofCon in my deck…HMM. If the feature match is up, feel free to point out better plays that I could have made in that game. I’m always looking to improve and the best way to learn is by your mistakes!

Top 8

Jordan Winters vs Barret Keys (Dragon Rulers)

This match was crazy,

Game 1

We get the feature for the live stream, and I’m very excited to begin the match, He opens up very weak by summon a blaster and passing. My opening hand is seven swords, tempest, [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd], [ccProd]debris dragon[/ccProd], and maxx c. I cannot lose. Then I DC. Wow. I confirm with Jeff that the punishment is a game loss, before I start a new match with Barret and head straight to siding. And then I DC again while still in the siding screen. I instantly call my team mate Jared Minderman and tell him to log onto my account and start the match over with Barret while I drive over to his house. After a few sighs from Jeff and a final warning, the final match begins while I am speeding to Jared’s house.

Game 2

Jared clearly announces all of the cards that I draw over the phone, and what my opponent does for the first couple turns of the match, while I tell him what to do. There is a dueling on motorcycles joke somewhere here. Fortunately, Barret opened weak again this game and I’m able to out resource him for the win shortly after arriving at Jared’s.

Game 3

He opens ravine and quickly has access to all of his elements, and passes without setting any traps. My first five are [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd],[ccProd]debunk[/ccProd], maxx c, blaster, and  [ccProd]flamvell guard[/ccProd]. I’m all but positive that I’m going to lose until… top deck [ccProd]card trooper[/ccProd]! I mill a tempest and stab for 1900 before setting [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd] and[ccProd]debunk[/ccProd]. At this point, I’m almost positive that I will win the following turn if he doesn’t blaster pop my backrow or topdeck mst/any trap. He summons a blaster and I Maxx c, forcing him to stop and try to run over my trooper. I have the [ccProd]raigeki break[/ccProd], and the follow turn I’m able to put game on board and have [ccProd]debunk[/ccProd] for his [ccProd]swift scarecrow[/ccProd].

Top 4

Jordan Winters vs Squiddy (Fire Fists)

A feature match against Squiddy, with 400+ viewers, while Joe Giorlando live stream commentated the entire thing. This was the highlight of the tournament for me, and is singlehandedly the most fun that I’ve ever had in a  Yu-Gi-Oh duel. Annoyingly enough, both of our keyboards malfunction again and we are stuck shouting at each other.

Game 1

Squid opens up Dragon, tenki, set tenken, and a solemn warning that he added off of duality. He also sets 2 mystery cards, one of which I’m sure is either a bluff or a tensen because of his hesitance in setting it. I seven sword off a redox and after a lot of thinking, decide to discard for handsize and pass. I did this to keep him from being able to gain any more advantage off of bear/dragon effects by clearing his tenki off the board with bear’s effect. The next turn he simply summoned bear and double poked for damage before passing. I seven sword’d off a tempest and searched for debris. I draw my mst, and decide that my best bet is to blindfire into the 2 that I deemed most likely to be warning and… I hit a bottomless. Now I know that I need to bait out a warning, so I pitch redox with trooper to summon trooper and squid is good at this game so he doesn’t warning. After milling, summoning tidal, and crashing my trooper, I realize that the only way I’m clearing this warning is with debris. Fortunately, I had milled a second tempest with trooper effect, so after he warning’s my debris, I ride scapegoat to my next turn and am able to board wipe with black rose and end with a dracossack. He can’t recover.

Game 2

Squid opens up Dragon, tenki, set tensen, a maxx c that was added with duality, and flips [ccProd]imperial Iron wall[/ccProd] in my standby phase. I debate for a while about whether or not his opening was better than game 1 or not, and eventually decide that the answer is yes. However, I have the mst for his iron wall, and I ride my skill drain to victory.

Again, I had a lot of fun this match. At one point Joe G. was looking over Squiddy’s deck and actually said “There are a lot of typos in this guy’s decklist…”. I died laughing.

Finals

Jordan Winters vs Rosty Elkun (Dragon Rulers)

Dale Bellido guest commentated this round, which was pretty cool.

Game 1

This is it, what you’ve all been waiting for. He opens up with set one pass. I open seven swords, ravine, and a card trooper. Here I am thinking I can’t lose and then… DC.

Game 2

He opens very weak this game and I open my dragons with traps. He doesn’t raigeki break my ravine the first time I use it, but does on the following turn, so I can only assume that he didn’t open with a single dragon. Regardless, I still think it was a misplay to waste his break on my ravine after already letting my gain access to all of my dragons. The game gets simplified to his 1 set card and 2-3 in hand, he still has no resources. I have all of my dragons, with mst and debunk set. I cannot lose. And then I DC.

So, in the end I got 2-0’d by Road Runner in the finals but oh well, C’est la vie! I still had a great experience in the tournament and cannot wait for them to reveal when the next one is! The ARG online tournaments are another great addition to competitive play and I strongly recommend joining the next one as soon as it is announced!

Until next time, Play Hard or Go Home!

-Jordan Christopher Winters

 

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