Raise your Chalices for a toast.

June 4, 2012

by Oscar Puebla

Hello yugioh community! My name is Oscar Puebla. I'm from Wisconsin. I like long walks on the beach. I like riding on boats, so I can say' "I'M ON A BOAT"! Then there is the good ol "card board". Where I'm from, when people want to play some Yu-Gi-Oh. We ask each other if you want to play some card board!

I've been playing yugioh competitively for a bit now since last year Nationals and its starting to pay off! Playing at nationals was the big eye opener cause I never attended to a ycs before. I scrubbed out but in exchange it gave me motivation to better myself for the next event. At the next two events in Kansas and Atlanta I was able to do a bit better, barely missing day 2, it is an improvement compared to my showing at last year’s Nats, but yet I was not satisfied. I started going into Yugi Dojo and trained even harder. The next event that I traveled to was Chicago, for this event I was able to day 2 but I still missed top 32 on the bubble. Right there and then I told myself "I am going to top Philly!!" No Excuses!

The Day for Preregistration for Philly finally came, I was sitting down next to my good buddies Anthony “Raioh” Pascariello, and Thomas Vo and watched them play test. I saw something that made my brain explode! Have you guys ever watched the movie Limitless? I felt like that without taking the pill. I started observing the power and versatility of Forbidden Chalice. I was watching Rabbits struggle against Chalice. Thomas Vo and I were on the same page. I was concerned about me taking out Fiendish chain for Chalice a week prior to YCS Philly. I was at 60/50 decision. I really wanted to add Chalice, but I need a sign or something, and watching that match made up my mind. Fiendish Chain is a good card but it has pros n cons.

Pros- Negates the effect of monsters, and they can't attack.

Cons- it is a continuous trap so you could be in a situation for a dead gorz in your hand. Your opponent can chain MST allowing their effects to resolve. It can't be activated in damage calc. Its dead against normal monsters.

Forbidden Chalice is definitely my favorite card. The only con it has is, it increases your opponents attack. The bad thing I can see with this is that your opponents monster might be able to get over your monster. By then, you should have a monster on the field that can be strong enough to defend your life points. If you have gorz in the hand while having chalice down. Your opponent could activate effect, then you respond with chalice and have a live gorz. its great during Damage Calc, and also fantastic against flip effects during damage step. Fiendish Chain can not deliver what Forbidden Chalice can give you. lol, Tragoedia wants to attack me for 3000!? Sure damage Calc, Chalice your Tragoedia!! After taking in consideration all of these observations, my final decklist for the event was made.

Dino Rabbit: 41

Monster: 19

x3 Kabazauls

x3 Sabersaurus

x3 Rescue Rabbit

x3 Tour Guide from the Underworld

x1 sangan

x1 Gorz the emissary of Darkness

x1 Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning

x2 Effect Veiler

x2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

Spells: 12

x3 Mystical Space Typhoon

x2 Forbidden Lance

x2 Forbidden Chalice

x1 Monster Reborn

x1 Dark Hole

x1 Heavy Storm

x1 Pot of Avarice

x1 Book of Moon

Traps: 10

x2 Solemn Warning

x1 Solemn Judgment

x2 Torrential Tribute

x1 Mirror Force

x2 Bottomless Trap Hole

x1 Macro Cosmos

x1 Starlight Road

-Side Deck-

x2 Snowman Eater

x2 Kinetic Soldier

x1 Spirit Reaper

x1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

x2 Soul Taker

x2 Dimensional Prison

x2 Dust Tornado

x2 Macro Cosmos

x1 compulsory evacuation device

-Extra Deck-

x1 Giga Brilliant

x1 Leviair the sea Dragon

x1 Leviathan Dragon

x1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn

x1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

x1 number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction

x1 Number 39: Utopia

x1 Steelswarm Roach

x1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

x2 Evolzar Dolkka

x3 Evolzar Laggia

x1 Stardust Dragon

I am sorry I don’t remember all my games, I know I should but I don't. I do however remember my highlights. Don’t get me wrong, Chalice put work in the whole

days 1 & 2. These are just my highlights:

Round 8 against dragons, Forbidden Chalice was able to help me against my opponent’s set Rykos, and Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. I had the out afterwards against Red Eyes with Soul taker, another very good side option that emerged recently.

Round 9 against Rabbits (the mirror) Thomas Mak summoned Rabbit, and I responded with Effect Veiler, he then sets a card and passed his turn. I draw, I have a set snowman eater and a set chalice, but I don’t want to flip it because I don’t want to get Effect Veilered or fiendish chained by my opponent. If that face-down card was a Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force, I had Forbidden Lance to protect me. So I summon kabazauls and he had no response. Life points werehis 1250 to my 6000. I declare an attack, and he responds with chalice to his Rescue Rabbit to attempt to live for one more turn. So I chained Chalice to my Kabazaul giving me enough attack points to win and go into day 2.

Top 32 against Wind Ups game 3 Andrew Lindou summoned Wind Up Rat, and proceeded to activate his Rat’s effect to bring out Wind Up Rabbit, next he revealed Wind Up Shark, activating his effect to Special Summon itself. I looked at my facedown cards on the field and I activate Torrential Tribute, he responded with Rabbit's effect, and I was able to then chain Macro Cosmos, he had no further response, so I continued to chain chalice to Wind Up rabbit, eliminating the problem that this creature may present as the game advances. I did the same thing to him game 2 but instead of chalice I used effect Veiler. Andrew Lindou was astonished with the plays I made. I told him if I drew a monster. I think I would have put up a stronger fight. He smiled with relieve at me and said yeah. I have learned so much from my experiences yet there is always room to grow.

I am pleased to be writing an article for ARG and I hope to learn from you, the readers, the same way I want you readers to learn from me. My goals is to be able to win a YCS and keep having top showings as I get better and better with experience. My next stop will be this year’s North America WCQ (Nats). It has been an entire year since my story began, as a competitive player and now I have many people backing me up, I feel like I have grown a lot this past year but I cannot wait to see what this upcoming year has in stored for me. If you pass by and see me at any of these events, feel free to stop and say hi! This is Oscar Puebla, Thank You!