It all started two Thursdays ago. I have three classes, two of which I have exams in. Once I am done with my classes, I rush home and make sure all of my bags are packed with everything I need. Soon after, my parents drive me to Logan International Airport and I’m on my way to the JFK airport in New York for my connecting flight. I meet up with Jerry Williams and Paul Levitin and we just wait for our flight to board. Finally our flight boards and 6 hours later we are in Seattle. Once I land, I have to look for my friend John Hubbard and call up our good friend Jonathan Weigle to come pick us up.
On Friday, we take our time before we get to the convention center. When we do, I get lots of testing in with Frazier Smith. He is using his Atlantean deck and always seems to open an Undine + Spiritual Water Art – Aoi. I win like 2 out of 6 or 7 games. Regardless of our testing, I am pretty confident in my choice of running Chaos Dragons. Eventually, the day ends with a meal at a Korean Barbeque. Good stuff!
Once we are done eating, we go back to Jonathan's House and I decide on this build of Chaos Dragons:
2x Tragoedia
1x Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
3x Light Pulsar Draogn
3x Dark Flare Dragon
1x Chaos Sorcerer
1x Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1x Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon1
1x Dark Armed Dragon
1x Eclipse Wyvern
3x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3x Effect Veiler
2x Maxx “C”
2x Tour Guide from the Underworld
2x Card Trooper
1x Sangan
1x Night Assailant
/31
3x Solar Recharge
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Charge of the Light Brigade
1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole
1x Monster Reborn
/9
-40
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x Light and Darkness Dragon
1x Maxx “C”
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Soul Taker
2x Soul Taker
2x Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
2x Soul Drain
2x Royal Decree
1x Dust Tornado
/15
1x Armory Arm
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Scrap Dragon
1x Wind Up Zenmaines
1x Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1x Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1x Leviair the Sea Dragon
1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1x Queen Dragun Djinn
1x Adreus Keeper of Armageddon
1x Wind Up Arsenal Zenmaioh
1x Inzektor Exa Beetle
1x Photon Strike Bounzer
1x Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger
1x Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max
/15
As you can see from my list, the side deck is quite different from the build I chose to run at YCS Providence. I noticed at YCS Providence that I wasn’t doing as much as I wanted to with the side deck. I decided to add in some pieces of removal that were solid answers to the current meta. With Dino Rabbit and Atlantean everywhere, I thought that Soul Exchange and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast would be good answers. Phoenix Wing Blast is obviously a good answer to pesky XYZ monsters, like Dolkka and Zenmaines, but it can also act as a great way to get rid of pesky back row cards. Wing Blast is also a great card to help fuel your graveyard, thanks to its cost to discard. It also can set your opponent back a turn, which can really put your opponent in an awkward position. That is also why I decided to main MST over Forbidden Lance for this event. Lance doesn’t do too much to Abyss Sphere and Macro Cosmos while MST does. I opted to side Soul Exchange because I find it to be a better soul taker. When you tribute summon a monster, the monster tributed will miss timing, because the last thing to happen happens to be the summon of the tribute monster. So soul exchange pretty much acts as a better soul taker. It has the ability to answer facedown monsters, which is really useful, because it allows you to play around Forbidden Lance, Mermail Abysslinde, and even Geargiarmor! With the plethora of tribute monsters in the main deck as it is, soul exchange will hardly ever be dead. Soul exchange can also act as a way to play around cards that affect the graveyard, because you will no longer have to remove two to special summon the monster you are now tributing.
Now lets get onto my tournament experience
Round 1 – Ellis Maddalena
(I lose dice roll)
I get paired up versus a friend of mine. I know he is running Atlantean Mermail, and I’m not too afraid of this matchup. Game one, I open up triple Lyla and he wing blasts one of them back to the top, essentially putting me at four lylas in a row. I cant come back as I have a monster heavy hand. Game two, he moulinglacias me among other crazy shenanigans and I cant come back.
Lose 0-2
Round 2 – Wind –Up
(I win dice roll)
I am paired up versus an extremely nice guy from Hawaii. He is new to the game and using wind ups. He gets some really good hands, but doenst really execute the combos too well so I manage to 2-0 him.
Win 2-0
Round 3 Brady Brink – Wind Up
Paired up against another friend
(I lose dice roll)
Although I 2-0 I was very disappointed in my play this round. I wasn’t thinking straight and I make several mistakes.
Win – 2-0
Round 4 – Paul Cooper –Hieratic
Paired up yet again against a friend.
(I lose Dice Roll)
Game 1, He plays very passive. I summon multiple troopers and fuel my grave quickly. I also have lots of hand traps. I eventually amass a board of too many chaos monsters for him to handle.
Game 2 he hieratics me. I have no hand traps
Game 3 – I slaughter him with 3 recharge by turn 2. He didn’t stand a chance.
Win 2-1
Round 5 – Hero
(I lose dice roll)
Game 1 – I bring out lots of big guys every turn, but he has lots of answers and just beats me down slowly.
Game 2 He sides into wind ups, I side out hand traps. He opens the loop, I lose… (MADDDDDD) =[
Lose – 0-2
Round 6 – Madolche Psychic
(I lose dice roll)
Game 1 – I win with lots of dragons
Game 2 - I cant get over ultimate axon kicker so I lose
Game 3 - another game where I just have lots of dragons
Win 2-1
Round 7 – Dark World
(I lose dice Roll)
Game 1 He opens the absolute nuts. Duality, Dealings Upstarts, Card Destruction… just crazy stuff. I manage to win because all of his discard outlets fuel my grave and allow me to spam big dragon guys.
Game 2 I win quickly thanks to my side decked MSTs and dust tornados.
Win 2-0
Round 8 – Geargia
(I lose dice roll)
Game 1
He opens geargiarmor + 3 set backrow and I have 0 answers. He attacks into my empty board with no fear of tragoedia or gorz and I don’t have them. =[
Game 2
He opens poorly, but so don’t I. I eventually get there with a top decked recharge and go off for game.
Game 3
He opens 5 backrows and complains that his hand sucked. (although I disagree) I also open extremely poorly and pass right back. He tops a set monster and ends. My hand is just extremely bad so I have to pass back after discarding a redmd for my turn. He flips geargiarmor and I lose soon after.
Lose 1-2
Once the day is over, we go to a delicious Hibachi and celebrate Jonathan Weigle’s Birthday. The food was delicious, but they didn’t cook my chicken enough and I get a little sick.
Sunday
Since I am no longer in contention for the tournament, I just chill. Most of my friends somehow don’t make it into the top 32 even after amazing records Day 1. Some time during the day, my brand new iPhone 5 gets stolen… (which means my flight home sucks, and also a lack of deck profiles)
Congrats to:
Jerry Williams
Sorosh Saberian
Joe Giorlando
Simon He
Justin Delhon
Matt Bishop
Desmond Boyd
After a pretty terrible start to a Sunday, a humongous group of players (I’m talking 20+ go to a trampoline place and we get to play bouncy dodgeball for an hour. We have lots of fun, and learn that Jerry Williams is the king at that stuff. I suggest you ask him to sign your Ape Magicians before he becomes famous. (That’s his favorite card!) Once we are all worn out from an hour of straight bouncing, we decide to head to a delicious italian restaurant, called Maggiano’s. That place was amazing! We each got 3 appetizers, 4 main courses, and 2 desserts for only $25.
And that was my weekend…. Some good stuff, some bad stuff. Overall, a great weekend!
Latest posts by Paul Clarke (see all)
- My 2013 NAWCQ Tournament Report - July 23, 2013
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