Hey Duelists! Happy Holidays to you all! I decided to finally finish this saved up tournament report so I hope you all enjoy it! I decided to use Water. It was about 77 players and 7 rounds of swiss. Let’s get right to it shall we? Oh but first, here’s my decklist 🙂
Water: 41 cards
Monsters: 24
3 Mermail Abyssmegalo
3 Genex Undine
3 Atlantean Dragoon
3 Atlantean Heavy Infantry
3 Atlantean Marksman
2 Genex Controller
2 Mermail Abysslinde
2 Mermail Abysspike
2 Deep Sea Diva
1 Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord
Spells: 11
3 Salvage
2 Soul Taker
1 Mind Control
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Avarice
Traps: 6
3 Abyss-sphere
3 Spiritual Water Art – Aoi
Side Deck: 15
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Maxx C
2 Gozen Match
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Malevolent Catastrophe
1 Gorz
1 Trageodia
1 Airorca
Round 1: Water vs. Standard Agents (Kevin Rubio)
My tournament started off with a bang, having to immediately play Kevin Rubio who made Top 4 at nationals this year and Top 16 at YCS Rhode Island. Since he lives in Jersey, we see and play each other all the time and he’s a pretty cool guy to be around in general. But when it comes to Yu-Gi-Oh, I just can’t predict what’s going to happen next with him. He tends to play 44-50 card decks and somehow finds success using them. I had no idea what he was playing but I knew that I should be ready for surprises. He won the die roll and opened with a set backrow and nothing else. This was good for me since I had a Genex Undine in hand and some other solid cards to go along with it. I sent Dragoons to the grave to add Abyssmegalo to my hand before attacking and ending my turn. He drew and summoned his fresh Venus, paying 1000 and going into Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. Standard. At least now I knew what I was up against. I drew for turn and put that Megalo to use by discarding Heavy Infantry and Abysslinde. I searched for an Abyssphere and popped his face-up Venus with Infantry’s effect. I then played Salvage to get back Undine and Heavy Infantry so that I could summon Undine again and pop his backrow with Atlantean Marksmen. It was Call of the Haunted. I tributed Undine to have Megalo attack Gachi Gachi Gantetsu twice, taking both his materials before setting Abyssphere and ending my turn.
This is where things go wrong. He drew and summoned a Shine Ball. It didn’t take me long to realize exactly what was about to happen since he had 3 fairies in the grave already. He crashed the Shine Ball into my Megalo, took some damage, and dropped Archlord Kristya! He returned Venus to his hand and set 2 backrows before ending his turn. I already had a Soul Taker and Dark Hole in my hand so I wasn’t too concerned but it was still going to be a pain to deal with. I drew and played Soul Taker but he activated Forbidden Lance. I can’t say that it didn’t suck, but nobody said it was going to be easy. No big deal. I’ll just try again next turn. He summoned the Venus he got back and swung into my face-down Genex Controller with Kristya and then hit me for 1600 directly. I played Dark Hole but he activated ANOTHER FORBIDDEN LANCE to save the Archlord! Now it was time to panic. I was out of answers for her and I knew that my deck only had 1 more left, but I had to draw into it to even have a chance. Obviously I drew the last Soul Taker next turn because I’m cool like that, but if you can guess what happens next you might be a psychic. He played yet another Forbidden Lance! I scooped immediately. He then told me that his opening hand was terrible since he had 2 Lances but when he drew the Venus it made everything live.
I took very little time siding and I was ready for game 2. This game ending very very quickly. Moulinglacia came down on my second turn and I had +4 or 5, too. He scooped to save time and we began game 3.
Game 3 was a battle of attrition. He opened with Fossil Dyna and 1 backrow. I had Undine, Soul Taker, Dark Hole, Abyssline, Mirror Force, and Salvage. I summoned Undine but she caught a Solemn Warning. I set Mirror Force and ended my turn. He dropped Thunder King Rai-oh next and attacked me for 3100 before passing. I wanted to keep my Mirror Force just in case things went wrong on one of his upcoming turns. I played Dark Hole to destroy both and then summoned Abysslinde. She was banished by Bottomless Traphole so I ended again. He set 2 new backrows (now controlling a total of 3) before ending his turn. I drew and summoned another Undine, sending Marksmen to the grave and destroying his set Torrential Tribute. I set another Mirror Force and ended my turn. He summoned Banisher of the Radiance next and swung at my Undine but I blew the nuisance away with Mirror Force. I had a gut feeling that one of his backrows was Call of the Haunted and surely it was. He flipped it, bringing back Banisher and swinging at my Undine one more time. The Banisher tasted the glass one more time as a I flipped the second Mirror Force. Kevin was devastated. I then began to abuse the massive card advantage I gained over the course of the last few turns to bully him while he was down. The duel ended 2 turns later.
1-0
Round 2: Water vs. Bubblebeat (Christopher Lin)
Game 1 started out with me drawing pretty poorly and him pushing very quickly with Blade Armor Ninjas and Aliuses. I somehow managed to get a foothold in the duel, reducing him to only 2 backrows to my 5 total cards (2 of them were Genex Controller and 1 of them is an in-hand Tragoedia). My lifepoints were at 3400 so I felt pretty safe knowing that a Miracle Fusion wouldn’t kill me and I could retaliate with Trag. But he rips Monster Reborn off the top and goes into Heroic Champion Excalibur to steal the game. I was really salty considering how I didn’t think I had a chance that game, and then coming back only to get savaged by the topdeck. So I sided in my trust Gorz, Typhoons, Malevolent Catastrophy(s), Airorca, and took out the Water Arts and excess Salvages, Infantry, Megalo, etc.
I won game 2 on turn 2 with a really strong opening of Undine and Abyss-sphere. There wasn’t much he could really do. Game 3 is quite the spectacle though. He opens with Stratos and 5 backrows. Right when I thought he was about to end his turn, he then specials Bubbleman, plays an E-Call to get another and specials that one too, goes into Shock Master calling monster effects, and ends his turn. I look at my opening hand which is pretty solid for this situation but I was scared nonetheless. I had Tragoedia, Gorz, Soul Taker, Typhoon, Undine, and Megalo. I played Soul Taker to kill Shock Master, leaving him with only 4 backrows, and ended my turn with 5 in hand. On his following turn he flips Monster Reborn, grabs Bubbleman, special summons it, goes into Blade Armor Ninja, detaches Stratos, uses The Warrior Returning Alive to get back Stratos, summons it, searches out Alius, and tries to go in on my life. I dropped Tragoedia in defense but he fired back with Solemn Warning! No matter though, as it was all part of my plan which he soon realized when I dropped Gorz on his consecutive attack with Blade Armor Ninja to devastate his chance at winning! He had 1 backrow with his Stratos and Blade Armor to my Gorz and 2200 token. I drew for turn and used the Mystical Space Typhoon I was holding to get rid of his last defensive card before Summoning Undine and clearing his field. He had one chance to top deck a Miracle Fusion and I even had that covered. I won shortly after.
2-0
Round 3: Water vs. Dino Rabbit (Aaron Furman)
Aaron is a close friend of mine and he often travels with me to YCS tournaments. He also topped YCS Atlanta at the beginning of 2012. This duel wasn’t real at all because of our relationship. Game 1 he opens with like Rescue Rabbit, Macro Cosmos, another Rabbit, and a bunch of backrows. The whole game we’re just laughing and joking around and I didn’t scoop for whatever reason, even though I knew it was game. Eventually he just kills me and we go to game 2. Game 2 was even worse as we both did like 2-3 “takebacks” and dumb stuff while laughing and talking the whole time. I eventually trick him into attacking into my Gorz which he had been playing around the entire game and that basically gives me the chance I needed to win. Game 3 was pretty unfortunate as he opened with Kabazauls and 4 backrows—one of them being Macro Cosmos of course. I had Heavy Storm and decided to just say YOLO. Surprisingly, it went through and he just scooped. I was super shocked, but he explained that if I had Heavy, he couldn’t win that game regardless so it was the right play. He wouldn’t be able to come back from a Heavy on 2 cards anymore than he would be able to come back from a Heavy on 4 cards.
3-0
Round 4: Water vs. Chaos Dragons (Ying Huang)
This round was a series of unfortunate events that looked so promising on the surface. I won game 1 easily with Moulinglacia, Megalo, Spiritual Water Arts, and all those good things. Game 2, I have literally +5 on him and I go to drop Moulinglacia again to make it +7 but he had Gemini Imps! I was a little surprised but it didn’t really matter because my setup was still godly. I felt so safe. That is…until he drew for turn and played Pot of Avarice, then Allure of Darkness, then Solar Recharge, and then dropped Dark Armed Dragon with his perfect graveyard after all that milling and nonsense. I was at 8000 so this still wasn’t enough. But as fate would have it, he was able to use his last 2 cards, Eclipse Wyvern and Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, to bring back Lightpulsar and attack for game in one turn. It was quite the upset. I was mad as hell the way things went down but I knew I had a strong Chaos Dragon matchup because of the Water Arts when going first. I sided all 3 back in and opened with one to reveal his ungodly hand of BLS, Charge, Recharge, Tour Guide, Dark Armed Dragon, and Lyla. It was too much to deal with and his mills worked out for him so he destroyed me in a few turns.
3-1
Round 5: Water vs. Dino Rabbit (Tej Trivedi)
Game 1 took about 25 minutes because of the crazy struggle I had dealing with his slew of backrows and Thunder Kings. If at any point he would’ve top decked a Rescue Rabbit, I would have lost the game. But by the time he drew into one it was too late as I controlled Abyssgaios. Game 2 he opened Rescue Rabbit, drew into Tour Guide on the following turn, and smashed me pretty easily. But game 3 was my turn to draw the ignorance and it ended pretty rough as I dropped double Diva to take the match.
4-1
Round 6: Water vs. Thunder Beatdown (Elgusto Gus)
I had no idea what any of his cards did so there was a lot of reading during the match. His deck played similar to mine in that he didn’t really play any defensive traps or real backrows. This made things much easier for me since Water can get away with murder against trapless decks. Both games went very smoothly; I never felt threatened at any point and I used my Abysspheres as Raigeki Breaks a couple times to disrupt his plays. Soul Taker put in work against his Abyss Dweller, which the deck can summon quite easily using the effects Mahunder and Pahunder. Only one more round to win before Top 8!
5-1
Round 7: Water vs. Chaos Dragons (Vinnie Cassello)
I was nervous as all hell going into this match only because of what happened to me earlier against Chaos Dragons. But this time there were no disasters. He did win game 2 but then in game 3 I opened with Water Art, Undine, Sphere, and other broken cards like Dragoons, etc. It was pretty bad after seeing his hand and debilitating his best play. After the win he wished me luck and it was time to get ready for top 8.
Top 8: Mirror Match (Christian Urena)
I won the die roll which played an incredibly huge part in this match (or any game of cards for that matter actually). I summoned Undine and had a Water Art to go with it, but so did he! I was surprised that someone else was running the card. He ended up scaring me really bad in one of his turns because it seemed like he was going to kill me, but I managed to live thanks to Abyss-sphere and then take the game. Game 2 was pretty cool because of the way he killed me. He knew I had Gorz in my hand so he dropped Megalo, Leviathan Dragon, and Moulinglacia all in the same turn but he missed the Gorz on the discard. He then attacked me directly with Megalo and I said sure, then he tributed it for Water Art and took my Gorz before attacking with the next 2 monsters and ruining any chances I had of winning the game. I was shocked to see such a beautiful execution like that but that’s what I get for underestimating him. In game 3, my hand was very mediocre so I wanted the game to end as quickly as possible. I had a Gorz, Mind Control, Genex Controller, and Maxx “C” in my hand. He attacked me directly with Abysslinde on his first turn and I debated for a long time before deciding it was best to drop Gorz. I drew for turn, summoned Genex Controller, played Mind Controller on Abysslinde, attacked with Gorz, the token, and Controller with no fear, and then Synchro summoned for Gungnir (apparently no one realized until after the match that I could only have made Dewloren seeing as how 3+3 is 6 and not 7). I ended up winning on the next turn and we discussed the Gungnir vs Dewloren play in greater detail. If I would’ve brought out Dewloren, he would’ve had absolutely no chance of winning since I could have bounced the Gorz back to my hand and still had Maxx “C” with plenty of lifepoints (6500 to be exact after Abysslinde’s attack). I didn’t even get to use Gungnir’s effect so it was completely irrelevant. His hand just couldn’t deal with the first problem I presented—Gorz.
On to top 4!
Top 4: Water vs. Wind-up (Sean McCabe)
Sean had been undefeated all day up until this point. Our matches are always a coin flip since he’s a very good player and we both know how the other one thinks. But nothing could’ve prepared him for the events that would ensue in our match that day. He won the die roll and opened with a very good hand of Tour Guide + Factory, searching Shark and summoning Rabbit, setting one backrow, and ending his turn. My hand was also very good, holding Genex Undine, Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord, Allure of Darkness, Abysslinde, Atlantean Marksmen, and Atlantean Dragoons. On my draw phase, he immediately banished Rabbit to search out Magician to complete his combo. This meant that the duel was now “kill or be killed.” He wasn’t trying to play Yu-Gi-Oh whatsoever, and as fate would have it, neither was I. I started my turn by summoning Genex Undine, sending Atlantean Dragoons to the grave and searching for Genex Controller and Abyssmegalo. I pitched Atlantean Marksmen and Atlantean Dragoons to special summon Abyssmegalo. Marksmen targeted his set backrow which was Torrential Tribute, but he opted not to use it, and Megalo added an Abyssphere to my hand. The second Dragoons searched out another Abyssmegalo. Next, I used Allure of Darkness to remove Genex Controller from my hand, drawing 2 new cards. I only needed to hit 1 water monster in the next 2 cards to have game, and I obviously drew into it. It could’ve been anything. I pitched Abysslinde and Abysspike to summon the second Megalo, adding another Abyssphere to my hand and giving me the necessary 5 water monsters to summon Moulinglacia, the Elemental Lord. My field was now Genex Undine, 2 Abyssmegalo, and Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord. If that weren’t enough, I then used Mind Control to take his Wind-up Zenmaighty! Since he had a Factory on board, I had nothing to fear. Everybody swung in for massive damage and he immediately conceded. You tell me you’re going to kill me in 2 turns, I’ll kill you in 1.
Game 2 also went terribly downhill for him despite having another very good start. He opened with Dimensional Fissure to which I immediately chained Maxx “C” without thinking about it since I know what can happen if Wind-ups have a clear shot to go off. Apparently he didn’t have game to begin with but there’s no way of knowing that, so I’d do the same play a million times over. He summoned Wind-up Rabbit, activated Factory, banished the Rabbit to search Shark, and set 1 card to his backrow. I countered with a much needed Heavy Storm, blowing away all 3 of his backrows and giving me a clear shot to make some moves. I summoned Abysspike, pitching Atlantean Dragoons to search for Abyssmegalo and Genex Undine. I then discarded Genex Undine and Atlantean Marksmen to summon Abyssmegalo, adding Abyssphere to my hand. I swung for 4000, knocking him to half-life and forcing him into a corner. I set Abyssphere, played Salvage to return Undine and Marksmen to my hand, and ended my turn. He drew, returned Rabbit to the field and summoned Thunder King Rai-oh to beat over my Abysspike. He then activated Soul Taker to destroy my Megalo before passing his turn. Before he could do so, I used Abyssphere to grab Abysslinde from the deck, which meant that she would be destroyed on his end phase, and I could search another Abyssmegalo to keep the onslaught coming. I drew for turn and summoned Atlantean Marksmen, tributing it for Megalo’s effect to destroy his new backrow, and swinging over Thunder King Rai-oh. Since he wanted to keep his Rabbit, I was able to attack again with Megalo directly, hitting him for 2400 damage. He was now low on life, sitting at only 1100 which meant that Genex Undine would be enough to finish the job next turn, hopefully. He drew for turn and decided it was time to put that Shark to use. I was content with this because it meant that he didn’t have another 3 star monster to go along with his Wind-up Rabbit. In other words, he couldn’t go into Zenmaighty and then Magician Shark me. He took a minute before he finally decided to go into Zenmaighty and Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, both in attack mode. I drew Abysspike for the turn and opted to summon that instead of Genex Undine because she would provide an out to Leviathan Dragon next turn and my lifepoints were so high that I didn’t have to worry about dying to a top-decking Wind-up Deck. I beat over Zenmaighty for 100 and passed. He drew for turn and detached the last material on Leviathan Dragon, boosting him to 3000 atk and swinging over my Abysspike for 1400 damage. I drew Salvage! It wasn’t completely necessary since I already had the Undine in hand but who doesn’t want more free cards!? I summoned Undine to send Heavy Infantry to the grave before destroying his Leviathan Dragon and attacking for game!
I was now in the finals.
I watched the rest of the other top 4 match which was Jerry Williams vs. Nicholas Ma. Water vs. Wind ups. It seems like that’s the matchup of the format. They had just finished game 2 and Nick was going first. He opened Dimensional Fissure, Magician and Shark. He even had MST for Jerry’s Gozen Match on the draw phase. It was pretty disgusting, and even more so once we all found out that he only sided 1 Dimensional Fissure -__-
After seeing that savagery I decided it would be best to split the prizes and go home. We worked out a nice deal and I headed out to dinner with Silverman, McCabe, and the rest of the crew. It was a pretty successful event for me and a nice little birthday present to myself 😀
Thanks for reading this tournament report guys! Hope you enjoyed it!
As always, Remember, Play Hard or Go Home!
-Frazier Smith
-The Dark Magician
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