What’s up Yugi-doods? This past weekend I attended a local iPad Tournament at my local card store Alternate Universe. I decided to play Dino-Rabbit since it’s quite obvious that the deck is far beyond anything else in the format. It recently placed 15 players in the Top32 of YCS Atlanta and 19 players in the Top32 of YCS Leipzig. As much as I hate the deck, I really hate playing with Wind-ups or Inzektors even more. Those decks were testing absolutely horrible for me and they required so much to get the best results while Dino-Rabbit only needed a Rescue Rabbit or a Jurrac Guaiba to become outrageous. The way I see Dino-Rabbit is as follows, it is the deck with the least amount of input but with the highest output. This means that you don’t have to do very much to get very good results. It’s not particularly hard to play and I would argue that no real deck can beat it more than half the time. We got about 60 players for the tournament so that means 6 rounds of swiss; child’s play.
The Prize Breakdown for the tournament looked like this:
1st: iPad 2
2nd: 2 Maxx “C”
3rd and 4th: $100 store credit
5th-8th: 1 Booster Box of Order of Chaos
Round 1 Dino-Rabbit vs. Mystic Piper Chaos
Game 1: I win the die roll and open with Rescue Rabbit, Solemn Judgment, Kabazauls, Sabersaurus, Maxx “C,” and Jurrac Guaiba. Against a regular deck that commits to the field this hand might have been okay but things get out of hand pretty quickly. I summon Rabbit and go into Dolkka and set Solemn since I know he’s playing Piper Chaos and it doesn’t main any threatening traps. He draws for turn, plays MST on my Solemn Judgment, plays Dark Hole on my Dolkka, and then he summons Piper and draws into Chaos Sorcerer. He ends with an open field. I draw Torrential Tribute for my turn, summon Sabersaurus, and pass without attacking. He draws, activates another MST, plays monster Reborn on my Dolkka and I immediately scoop after discarding Maxx “C” and drawing into Maxx “C.” I was a bit frustrated but I felt it was just bad beats that he countered my hand so perfectly.
Game 2: I open Rescue Rabbit and Tour Guide with some real backrows (Fiendish Chain, Solemn Warning, Forbidden Lance, etc). This game ends by like turn 3 after the whole Laggia + Dolkka shenanigans.
Game 3: He opens with Pot of Duality which nets him a Starlight Road (idk what he expected to do with that because my logic is that if I ever draw Heavy Storm I’m just gonna have a dead Heavy Storm and you’re gonna have a dead Starlight Road). He sets a monster and sets 4 backrows. I open with Thunder King Rai-Oh, Rescue Rabbit, MST, Dimensional Prison, Solemn Warning, and Tour Guide from the Underworld. After seeing what he sided in last game, which was some kind of anti-metaish thing (Fossil Dyna, Doomcaliber Knight), I quickly realized that I shouldn’t just run my Rabbit into his 4 backrows on turn 1 like a noob. I get a soul read feeling that his set monster is Fossil Dyna so I summon Thunder King Rai-Oh and declare an attack. He chains Book of Moon to turn the Tking face down (Yay! Easy +1). I set Dimensional Prison and Solemn Warning and pass my turn. He draws, plays another Duality and grabs Fiendish Chain. He sets it then ends his turn. I draw, Flip Tking, he doesn’t respond, and then I declare an attack to which he chains Fiendish Chain targeting my Tking but I chain my in-hand MST to destroy it and the attack goes through. It was Fossil Dyna so I netted myself another +1. I set my freshly drawn Sangan (yes I set Sangan despite my Tking because my opponent is virtually topdecking and I have Warning and Prison set). He draws and summons Doomcaliber Knight which catches a Dimensional Prison. I draw for turn and summon Tour Guide, he chains Effect Veiler, I flip Sangan and have everyone attack and everything goes through. At this point I’m thinking about what his backrows could be since I know 1 of them is a Starlight Road and the other 2 aren’t playable, apparently. I pass my turn and he draws and sets a monster. I draw for turn and win shortly after by just abusing my control over the field and never having to use the Rescue Rabbit.
1-0
Round 2 Dino-Rabbit vs. Gladiator Beasts
Game 1: I win the die roll and open with Tour Guide into Sangan and set Torrential and Fiendish Chain. I already know he is playing Gb since I caught the end of his Round 1 match while walking around. He activates Heavy Storm and then summons Laquari to attack my Tour Guide, tagging out to get Hoplomus in defense mode and then setting 2 backrows. I draw and summon Jurrac Guaiba, activate Mind Control, overlay into Number 39: Utopia and begin attacking with Sangan and Utopia. He never activates any of the 2 backrows and he never deals with Utopia so I win shortly after by gaining too many plusses through battle.
Game 2: In this duel I catch him in a vicious a Maxx “C” early on when he kills my Sangan and I search for Rescue Rabbit. I drew into Heavy Storm with the Maxx “C” and he sets 2 backrows before ending his turn. I already have Cyber Dragon in my hand but the game ends once I go Heavy + Rabbit.
2-0
Round 3 Dino-Rabbit vs. Six Samurais
Game 1: He wins the die roll and opens with Shi En and Barkion with 2 backrows. I lose pretty quickly.
Game 2: This game takes a very long time. We keep switching momentum back and forth and he topdecks Dark Hole and the perfect moment and Monster Reborn right after. I still won and pushed it into game 3.
Game 3: He opens with Shi En and Barkion 2 backrows again but this time I have a Snowman Eater, a Forbidden Lance, MST, and a Mirror Force. I set snowman and set all 3 of my backrows. He draws and attacks into the Snowman, allowing me to destroy Shi En. I MST one of his 2 backrows, hitting Solemn Warning and then it takes me awhile to debate on trying to get greedy and having my in-hand Sabersaurus attack into his Barkion. I consider what would happen if he has Solemn Judgment or anything of that nature and I opt to first play Heavy Storm, chain my set Lance, and then Summon Sabersaurus. I lost Mirror Force in the process of doing this and I destroyed his set Rivalry of the Warlords. It was too risky to man up in that situation so I didn’t feel too bad about it. He topdecks Monster Reborn for Shi En and attacks my Sabersaurus. I topdeck Rescue Rabbit and make Utopia to kill Shi En. He draws and sets a backrow and ends his turn. I draw and summon Kabazauls to attack directly which connects. He topdecks Kizan and attacks Kabazauls. I topdeck Sabersaurus and attack Kizan. He draws and plays Smashing Ground then ends. I draw and summon Tour Guide but he plays Solemn Judgment. He draws and sets another backrow and ends. I draw Gorz and pass. He draws Zanji and attacks me directly and I drop Gorz. We both comment on how absurd our draws have been this game. I draw and turn both to attack mode and attack into Zanji but he Fiendish Chains my Gorz. I draw another Tour Guide and go into Giga Briliant and try to attack him but he has yet another Fiendish Chain. We both draw back and forth for several times and I draw dead card after dead card (Rescue Rabbits, Solemn Warnings, etc.) He has 5 backrows when I topdeck a Kabazauls and I summon it and begin to attack him. A turn later I draw into Forbidden Lance. I have Kabazauls attack him for game and he chains Book of Moon, I then activate Lance on Gorz and say “attack for game.” He offers the handshake and I move on undefeated. Sheesh!
3-0
Round 4 Dino-Rabbit vs. Skill Drain Heroes
This round was easy going since I made the deck for my friend the night before and I knew everything that was in it as well as all of its flaws.
Game 1: He opens Alius and 3 backrows and I summon Tour Guide and go into Zenmaines. He plays a Duality for Skill Drain, sets it, and then ends his turn. I already have a set MST and Forbidden Lance. I summon Sabersaurus and crash into Alius. He draws and plays Reinforcement of the Army for Stratos, he activates Hero Blast on Zenmaines but I chain Forbidden Lance to keep it unaffected by that AND Skill Drain for the turn, he summons Stratos, grabs Alius and ends his turn. I summon another Sabersaurus and beat over Stratos. He crashes his searched Alius into my Sabersaurus but I have another Forbidden Lance. By the time he draws another monster I have a Solemn Warning and it’s far too late for him. I win game 1.
Game 2: I remember chaining MST to his Skill drain on my first turn Tour guide. I go into Zenmaines again and play defense. He plays Solemn Judgment on a Pot of Avarice of mine which I didn’t agree with but that’s what you call a skill gap. Eventually I have a Kabazauls, a set Lance, set MST, and a set Solemn Judgment to his 3 set backrows and face-up Skill Drain, a Barbaros that is currently Fiendish Chained, an Elemental Hero Gaia that was just summoned via Miracle Fusion, and a freshly searched Alius from Emergency Call. Before he could summon it I activated MST on one of his backrows and hit Starlight Road. What I didn’t know is that he drew into his second Starlight Road that turn and my MST psyched him out because he feared a Torrential Tribute and figured that he could just try to summon his Alius with protection next turn. He swung on my Kabazauls with Gaia and I used Forbidden Lance to kill it. He set the freshly drawn Starlight Road and ended. I drew Tour Guide, activated Mind Control on the Barbaros, and swung for game but he activated Book of Moon on Kabazauls. I debated for awhile and then opted to play Solemn Judgment to end the game since I saw his Solemn in the grave already. He extended the handshake and I moved on undefeated.
4-0
Round 5 Dino-Rabbit vs. Wind-ups
Game 1: I win the die roll and open with 2 Rescue Rabbits, Tour Guide, Maxx “C,” Solemn Warning, and Lance. This game ends very quickly.
Game 2: I MST two of his backrows and attack into a Gorz and scoop shortly after. I was surprised that he had it because he had 2 backrows but meh.
Game 3: He drops a Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning on the same turn that I used Fiendish Chain on his Tour Guide. Needless to say it was a little devastating but I had a set Dark Hole which wiped the board. I came back with a Laggia and Maxx “C” in the late game.
5-0
Round 6 Dino-Rabbit vs. Wind-up
I 2-0ed him in an orderly fashion, making me the only undefeated in the Swiss rounds. I placed 1st seed and waited for everyone else to get done their matches so we could play Top8.
Top8 Dino-Rabbit vs. Wind-up
The head judge, Paul Fahy, does a deck check on the whole Top8, and my opponent got a game loss for having 2 Stardust Dragons in his extra deck but only 1 written down. He was using Wind-ups and got to go first. I didn’t get looped on turn 1, instead he summons a Wind-up Rabbit and ends. I don’t have anything to stop a loop if he does go into it next turn so I’m kinda sad as I see my hand of double Sabersaurus, Tour Guide, Mirror Force, Kabazauls and MST. On his next turn he drops the few cards that I couldn’t commit to the field and makes a Leviathan Dragon. I catch him in a brutal Mirror Force and begin to come back. He plays a Wind-up Rabbit that I try to Torrential but he has Solemn Judgment. I topdeck another Torrential Tribute and set it. He attacks me and then I draw Tour Guide and summon it but she gets Fiendish Chained. For some reason he sets a Maxx “C” and I topdecked a Jurrac Guaiba to attack it. I make a Laggia and end with a set Solemn Warning while I’m at 2300. He makes a play to Xyz summon and I Solemn Warning it. He offers the handshake and I move on to top4.
Top4 Dino-Rabbit vs. Six Samurais (same guy from Round 3 swiss)
Game 1: I win the die roll and open with Rescue Rabbit (I’m on a roll today lol). I set MST and Fiendish Chain and end my turn with Laggia. He opens Gateway and Dojo, summons Elder, summons the Kageki and activates the effect and I chain MST on his Gateway. He drops a Legendary Six Samurai Enishi, he pops the Dojo and grabs Yaichi. He uses Yaichi’s effect to target my set Fiendish Chain and I use it to on Enishi so he doesn’t cause future problems. He activates Asceticism of the Six Samurai and summons Kagemusha from his deck. He Xyzs into M. X. Saber Invoker and uses it’s effect to summon a Kizan from the deck. He overlays the Enishi and the Kizan into Utopia and I have to negate it with Laggia. He then has the Kagemusha and Elder become Shi en and attacks over my Laggia. He has no backrows and I have an in-hand Tour Guide to get back my Rabbit. I win by going into Leviair and brining out 2 Sabersaurus with my Rabbit to attack over the M.X. Saber Invoker and the Yaichi and then Xyz the Dinosaurs into Utopia. I now have Utopia and Leviair against his lonely Shi en. He looks at this topdeck and concedes.
Game 2: He opens with a Yaichi and a set backrow. I try to bait him by setting just Torrential Tribute even though my hand contains Snowman Eater and Spirit Reaper. He draws and immediately attacks with Yaichi which tells me that he won’t be summoning anymore monsters until I make a play. Smart. But I planned for this too. I draw and set Fiendish Chain and Snowman Eater. He draws and activates Heavy Storm, destroying my 2 backrows and his 1 backrow. It was a 2 for 2 on Heavy so it wasn’t that bad. He specials Kizan, then specials another Kizan and activates Smoke Signal for Kagemusha. He summons the Kagemusha and I activate Maxx “C.” He continues to make Shi En and I draw 1 card for Maxx “C.” He has Shi En swing into my Snowman and I target one of the Kizan since there is no point in targeting Shi En. The other Kizan and the Shi En attack me directly and he passes. I set Spirit Reaper, Torrential Tribute, and Monster Reborn (he already used Heavy Storm so I knew he would be a little cautious after seeing 3 backrows). He swings into the Reaper and passes. I summon Rescue Rabbit and use priority to activate its effect, he has no response and I chain my set Torrential Tribute, he chains the effect of Shi En to negate it and then I search out 2 Kabazauls. I Xyz summoned into Evolzar Laggia and activated the set Monster Reborn on his Yaichi and used it to overlay my Spirit Reaper and Yaichi to make Number 20: Giga-Brilliant. I used the effect of Number 20 to make his attack 2100 and the attack of Laggia 2700. I had Brilliant attack his Kizan and Laggia attack his Shi En. He offered the handshake after seeing the top card of his deck. Now I move on to the finals still undefeated.
Finals
Dino-Rabbit vs. Wind-up (same guy from Round 6 swiss)
So I get to play against the guy who I swiftly 2-0ed in the last round of swiss and I remember his misplays from that match so I’m feeling pretty good about this. My only legitimate fear is that he doesn’t get a free game win by winning the die roll, opening the loop, and the absence of Maxx “C” in my own hand. Little did I know, disasters were abound.
Game 1: He wins the die roll, summons Tour Guide, I activate Maxx “C” in response to her effect, and he ends his turn with 1 set backrow. I have a hand of Jurrac Guaiba, Solemn Judgment, Torrential Tribute, Pot of Avarice, Mirror Force, and Kabazauls. I summon Guaiba and attack Tour Guide successfully. I go into Laggia and set Solemn Judgment, Mirror Force, Torrential, and Pot of Avarice to add pressure—and just in case he does have a way to do the loop he would only be getting a Kabazauls out of my hand but considering my backrows I felt that to be highly unlikely. He draws for turn and sets another backrow. I draw and summon my Kabazauls and end my turn without attacking Sangan. He endphases 2 MSTs, hitting my Solemn Judgment and my Torrential Tribute then he draws for turn and activates Mind Control on my Laggia and I negate it with Laggia’s effect. He then plays Heavy Storm to destroy my other 2 sets and summons another Tour Guide. I know this game is basically over since I have nothing but a Gorz in my hand and soon that won’t be there either. He goes Zenmaighty, Zenmaighty, and Leviathan. His first misplay of the night comes when he decides to have Leviathan attack over my Laggia, leaving me with a Kabazauls so just in case I draw a level 4 monster (and there are several), I would be able to attack over both Zenmaighty, Xyz into a Utopia and stall for a bit. Well that’s exactly what happened as I topdecked another Kabazauls, killed both the Zenmaighty and made Utopia. However, I wasn’t ready for his topdecked Pot of Avarice that draws his 1 tech copy of Smashing Ground and ends game 1.
Game 2: I remember him having a Wind-up Rabbit on board and I summoned Tour Guide and Xyz summoned into Leviair. I declared an attack and he opted to remove it (another misplay on his part especially since he DOES have Wind-up Rat in his hand with no targets in the grave yet). I set a Fiendish Chain but he has MST and Grandmole to put the Leviair back into my extra deck. I draw and attack with the Rabbit and pass. He draws and goes into Magician + Shark but I chain Maxx “C” to the effect of Shark. He then Xyz summons into Utopia, then into Chaos Utopia (which he wouldn’t have had to do if he was playing Wind-up Zenmaister like he should’ve been). After all was said and done I drew 3 cards from Maxx “C” and he attacked me directly after I opted to remove the Wind-up Rabbit from play (it comes back to me), he then passes his turn. I made a Leviathan Dragon by summoning a dead Tour Guide (yes it’s that bad lol) and attacked Chaos Utopia, using a Forbidden Lance to destroy it. I set Fiendish Chain and Torrential Tribute before ending my turn. He draws and plays Heavy Storm again! I lose my 2 sets and then he summons the cursed Grand Mole to bounce my Leviathan back to the extra deck. I’m left with a Maxx “C” and Mind Control. I draw into my 3rd Maxx “C” and pass. He topdecks Wind-up Rabbit and swings. I drew Warning, set that and Maxx “C” and pass. He draws and summons Wind-up Rat which I use Solemn Warning to negate. He swings into my Maxx “C” and passes. I topdecked Solemn Judgment and pass setting the other Maxx “C.” If you haven’t noticed already, I have not drawn into a Rescue Rabbit in either game. He draws and summons Grandmole but I use Solemn Judgment. He swings with Rabbit over my Maxx “C.” I draw and concede after having a Mind Control and MST as my only 2 cards. My luck had run out. There were several misplays to capitalize on but 2 Heavy Storms would stymie those chances. I congratulated my opponent and collected my 2 Copies of Maxx “C” for second place.
I hope you all enjoyed this tournament report. I think this particular article can be very helpful because you get to peek inside my head and see what my thoughts were about individual plays.
Remember, Play Hard or Go Home!
-Frazier Smith
-YCS Atlanta Champion
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