Beating Billy Brake by Bobby Brake

October 26, 2011

by Bobby Brake

Many people probably recognize my last name, but not so much my first. I am Bobby Brake, brother of Billy Brake. As you may know YCS Columbus was this past weekend which me and my brother both attended. First off, I would like to congratulate my brother for winning yet another YCS. He has always been a good player but it seems that this year his skill level has increased by far. He has topped a total of 11 major events including, 5 YSC events this year, 4 of them making it to the top 4 and 2 of those he won the whole event. So as you can see my brother is pretty good at this game.

In round 5, I played the hardest person I could imagine playing in the whole tournament, my brother. This was very odd thing to happen. Me and Billy have played in many events together and have never had to play each other. We were both 5-0 at the time so it was not good for one of us to take a loss this early in the tournament. Neither of us were excited about what was about to happen. I am going to go through each game and show you exactly what went on in our duel.

Who Went First?
We chose to roll a die to see who went first.
I rolled a 5
Billy rolled a 5
I rolled a 4
Billy rolled a 4
I rolled a 2
Billy rolled a 1

Game 1

It seems that luck was already in my favor by the way I was able to go first. The game was going back and forth for a few turns with nothing special really happening. At one point my brother had a Reborn Tengu and a set monster on the field with 2 cards in hand. I had a set Debunk and 3 cards in hand. I drew to my 4th card for my turn. I summoned Lonefire Blossom used its effect to special summon Dandylion from my deck. I then used Enemy Controller to take Billy’s Reborn Tengu, getting 2 fluff tokens in the process. I activated One for One, discarding my Maxx C from my hand to special summon Spore. I used Spore and a fluff token to Synchro Summon Formula Synchron, drawing Black Luster Solider – Envoy of the Beginning from its effect. Then I banished Dandylion for Spore’s effect to bring him out at level 4. Next I used my Spore, Billy’s Reborn Tengu, and my last fluff token to Synchro Summon Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Trishula’s effect activated and I removed his set monster, which was Debris Dragon, and Caius the Shadow Monarch from his hand. Billy then retrieved his 2nd Reborn Tengu from his deck and Special Summoned it to the field in defense mode. I attacked over it with Trishula and negated Reborn Tengu’s effect with my set Debunk. I did this play because this way Billy had the least amount of outs to be able to come back in the game. At the end of my turn he only had one card in hand to my Trishula and Formula on my field and one card in my hand. The only card I could think of at the time that would help him was Dark Hole. Sure enough after my brother drew for his turn he activated Dark Hole to destroy my monsters, then he set a monster and passed. I drew Pot of Avarice for my turn. I summoned Black Luster Solider and activated Pot of Avarice, drawing into Thunder King Rai¬-Oh and Solemn Judgment. I summoned Thunder King and attacked with both my monsters and ended my turn. Billy drew and attempted to summon a monster and I flipped up the Solemn Judgment and we went to game 2.

Game 2

Billy ended up summoning Tour Guide from the Underworld and getting Sangan with its effect and crashing Sangan into my Reborn Tengu and searched his deck for Maxx C. Billy activated Trap Dustshoot when I drew for my turn and this was my hand: Monster Reborn, Pot of Avarice, D.D. Crow, Maxx C, One for One, Dandylion, and Reborn Tengu. He decided to put Maxx C back in my deck. I had a great hand but sadly, I had little options because of the Maxx C I knew he had in his hand. I summoned a Tengu and XYZ Summoned Steelswarm Roach. He then sets a monster and passes. I attack over his set Dandylion and set my own facedown monster. Billy then tributes one of his fluff tokens for a Caius the Shadow Monarch and removes my set Dandylion from play. The game pretty much ends here. Billy keeps just attacking me down with Caius and I attempted at playing Pot of Avarice but he shuts me down with D.D. Crow and we are going into game 3.

Game3

I get to go first this game, which I believe is one of the biggest advantages to have in the game right now. I set a debunk and end my turn. Billy summoned Reborn Tengu and attacked me directly and set one back row before ending his turn. I activated Mystical Space Typhoon on his set Book of Moon. Then I activated One for One, discarding Dandlylion from my hand to special summon Spore from my deck. He chained Maxx C to One for One, then I activated Debunk on his Maxx C. I special summoned 2 fluff tokens on my field from Dandylion’s effect. Then I played Mind Control from my hand to take his Reborn Tengu I used Spore and Reborn Tengu to Sycnhro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian and he got a 2nd Reborn Tengu on his field. I then played Foolish Burial to send Glow-Up Bulb to the graveyard. Then I activated Glow-Up Bulb’s effect to Special Summon it to my field. Then sent Glow-up Bulb and a fluff token to the graveyard to Syncrho Summon Formula Synchro, to draw 2 cards, one for Formula’s effect, and one for Hyper Librarian’s effect. I then banished Dandylion to Special Summon Spore and use it and my last fluff token to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Catastor and drew another card because of Hyper Librarian. Then for good measure I sent Formula and Catastor to the grave to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon, drawing my 4th additional card that turn because of Librarian’s effect. The game ended a few turns after that because Billy simply could not come back from my strong 2nd turn.

I hope you all had as much fun reading this as I did playing. My expectations for this event were not very high when coming to Columbus. I like playing this game because it is a lot of fun and if I win that is awesome too. My record after day 1 was 8-1 and I was ranked 10th out of 1095 players that participated in the tournament. I felt really good and only needed to win one more round to grantee my Top 32 spot. Unfortunately I lost both rounds on day 2 and was not able to make. I ended the tournament getting 41st. I had a great time playing in the tournament and it just means I need to keep on trying my best.

Bobby Brake