Hey everyone. Atlanta is tomorrow! The most anticipated deck rounding out the format is Wind-Ups. They recently took 9 out 32 spots at YCS Mexico which was more than any other deck in the top 32. If you are on your way to Atlanta you’re definitely going to want to listen up as I’ve got a few tips on how to approach the matchup to give you the best results. If I had to guess, I’d expect to play either two or three Wind-Up decks assuming it is a ten round tournament. With numbers like those, you can’t ignore the deck and hope for the best.
Trending Cards
Maxx “C” – If this card was not already a staple as a three-of, it certainly is now. This card is fantastic in this matchup. I’ll go into a little more depth about when to use Maxx “C” against them later in the article.
Effect Veiler – Before Order of Chaos this card started to see less and less play; however, since the set was released it has gotten much better. Not only is this card good in the matchup in question, but it’s also amazing against Inzektors. Again, I’ll explain when you should be using this card against Wind-Ups a little bit later.
D.D. Crow – Rounding out the hand trap triad, this card is pretty good against the deck as well. It’s nice that it acts as a more permanent solution and when you resolve it, your opponent is left in an awkward position. The problem is that if they are starting with Magician and Shark they would go Magician>Shark>Magician>Hunter>Tribute Magician>Zenmaity>Rat and then you would Crow the Hunter. That means that they would still have a Zenmaity, a Magician, and a Rat while you had a card discarded and you discarded a Crow. That means you’re at a -3. It’s not as bad as if you didn’t have the Crow, but generally speaking the other two are better.
Fiendish Chain – As Frazier said in his article, Fiendish Chain is amazing right now! Just about every deck should be running three of these this weekend.
Cyber Dragon – This card is really good in the side deck against Wind-Ups. Once they loop, they will often leave themselves with multiple machines on the field. If you still have Cyber Dragon in your hand you can make a giant Chimeratech Fortress Dragon to put you right back in the game.
Black Horn of Heaven – I think this is a sleeper card that should see some play this weekend. It’s very powerful against the deck and works in multiple matchups.
How to Play Effect Veiler
There are so many different options when it comes to playing hand traps against Wind-Ups and people often get confused as to when the most effective time would be. Hopefully I can clear up some of this confusion and give my thought process behind what I think is the right time to play the card.
I think that there are three right times to play Effect Veiler against Wind-Ups depending on what they are starting their loop with and your ability to deal with their board.
If they are starting their loop with Tour Guide and Shark and you have Veiler you have to consider your hand to decide the best time to activate the Veiler.
1. It would be better to activate Veiler on the Tour Guide if you cannot deal with a Zenmaity. That way they have just a 1000 attacker on the field that doesn’t contribute much to their overall goal.
2. However, if you can deal with the Zenmaity and are able to attack over it the following turn, I’d say that it is better to let them search out a monster with Tour Guide and allow them to XYZ into Zenmaity. The main reason being is that a lot of the builds do not play Tour Bus. This means that if you can stop it the first turn and run over it the next turn, they will be down a Zenmaity if they are able to do the loop later in the game. Even if they do play Bus, it’s still better to do it here since they can’t put it back multiple times and they’d essentially only have three Zenmaity instead of four.
If they are starting their loop with Magician and Shark, it is best to activate the Veiler when they reveal Shark. The best way I can explain this is to explain why the alternatives are wrong. The first alternative would be to allow them to special Shark and activate Magician’s effect and grab another Magician. Then allow them to decrease Shark’s level and grab Hunter. You can’t Veiler the Hunter since they will essentially be using its effect to discard the Veiler. Then they can just XYZ into Zenmaity and continue the loop. If you allow them one discard off the Hunter and then choose to Veiler the Zenmaity when it comes out, they still have a giant plus. They started with two cards and now have Zenmaity and Magician while you are down two cards (Veiler and a random card discarded by Hunter). The last alternative seems really similar to the correct play, but there is a small difference that makes it better. The last alternative would be to allow them to summon Magician and activate Shark’s effect to special summon itself. Then you could Veiler when Magician activates the effect. The only difference here is that if they have Book of Moon they can chain it to Veiler and the Magician would still resolve. This would allow them to continue to do the loop and discard 3 cards plus the Veiler that you discarded yourself. If you activate Veiler on Magician when they activate Shark’s effect, Magician won’t have activated yet (since it starts a separate chain) and even if they have Book, they can’t use it to play around the Veiler. At this point the most they could do is XYZ into Utopia which will result in a break even for you (you took a minus from Veiler and they took a minus by XYZing).
How to Play Maxx “C”
Even more important is to know when to activate Maxx “C” in this matchup. Like above, there are multiple times to activate it, depending on what they start with.
The first option requires them to start with Wind-Up Magician and Wind-Up Shark. Here the best time to play it is when they activate Shark’s effect in hand (you will draw for it being special summoned since it is not an inherent summon). In this matchup it is important to understand that you aren’t looking to get a plus off of Maxx “C,” instead you simply want to break even and force them to stop for the turn. If you activate the “C” here, they can either stop and it will have been a 1 for 1, or they can special summon Rabbit and you’ll both have an extra card to work with. This leaves them in a vulnerable position which you should be able to capitalize off of on your next turn.
The other option involves them starting with Tour Guide From the Underworld. The best time to activate Maxx “C” here is when they summon the Tour Guide. Yes, they will probably just get Sangan and end. At that point the Tour Guide is essentially a 1000 attack normal monster which is hardly a plus 1 for them. Earlier this format, this had never been a good play against decks like Plants. Earlier you wanted to save the “C” for when you could use it to get a plus. Here that’s not the case. Let me explain why. Well let’s say that you don’t Maxx “C” the Tour Guide’s effect. They will either get Bus or Sangan and XYZ and make Zenmaity. If you activate the Maxx “C” on Zenmaity’s effect, you’re just going to be taking a negative where they aren’t just floating a 1000 attack normal monster. Instead they are floating a Wind-Up Rabbit that you probably will have a difficult time killing and a Zenmaity that will loop your hand the following turn if you can’t deal with it because after all, protecting Zenmaity for a turn is a loop by itself (Get Rabbit the first turn and then Hunter the next turn, tribute the Zenmaity, and loop by XYZing Rabbit and Hunter). That puts you in a bad position already, but let’s say that they had Wind-Up Factory in addition to Tour Guide. You don’t Maxx “C” the Tour Guide and they then play Wind-Up Factory. Then they’ll XYZ into Zenmaity and use the effect to which you will chain Maxx “C.” They will special summon Wind-Up Rabbit and search a card with Factory. Then they’ll end and as soon as you draw they’ll remove Rabbit and get another search. When it comes back they will have a Zenmaity, Rabbit, Factory, and six in hand (with two of them hand selected) to your six in hand. They’ll have a plus 3 after you play Maxx “C,” that hardly seems optimal. Additionally they probably searched Magician and Shark. If you drew a Warning or Fiendish Chain, you’d be forced to play it on the Zenmaity the next turn. Then they can just summon Magician and Shark and do the 8500 combo or loop your hand for sure this time. And then even if you had multiple back rows and could stop all of it, they still started with a plus 3 and now have Rabbit and Factory to get another plus every single turn. And that is why you should just let them get Sangan off the Tour Guide and end.
Hopefully this article cleared up a bit of the confusion surrounding when to play hand traps against Wind-Ups and that it can be used as a valuable tool heading into this weekend. I hope to see everyone there this weekend. Stop by and say “Hi!” Until next time, play hard or go home!
Patrick Hoban
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