The smog has cleared and out of 1100 people, Billy Brake has done it again.
After YCS Columbus, it seems Dark World's hype did not live up to expectations, claiming ZERO spots in top 32. Why this was is subjective currently, but more importantly right now is what many people have been waiting for. My report on my top 16 of Columbus with Karakuri!
Many of you may already know from my Youtube videos that I've been a fan of Karakuri for quite some time. Going into this event, I had known that Karakuri has a very good match-up vs the hyped Dark World deck (being able to setup turn 1 Naturia Beast is usually game), and has a favorable match-up vs the Synchro Spam deck that Billy Brake had used, and was also very popular. This lead me to testing the deck extensively with 2 friends, Anthony Alvarado who had also made top 16 of YCS Toronto with Karakuri, and DDT Master Kris Perovic.
All three of us used different builds because we disagreed on certain things that were important. As for myself, I used the following build.
Monsters: 22
3 Genex Neutron
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Maxx "C"
3 Karakuri Ninja Mdl 919 ''Kuick"
3 Karakuri Merchant Mdl 177 "Inashichi"
3 Karakuri Komachi Mdl 224 "Ninishi"
2 Karakuri Soldier Mdl 236 "Nisamu"
1 Karakuri Watchdog Mdl 313 "Saizan"
1 Karakuri Strategist Mdl 248 "Nishipachi"
Spells: 10
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Duality
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon
Traps: 8
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Mirror Force
Extra: 15
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Ally of Justice - Catastor
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Landoise
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
2 Karakuri Shogun Mdl 00 "Burei"
2 Karakuri Steel Shogun Mdl 00X "Bureido"
Many people find my build intimidating or odd as many cards people usually use 3 like Strategist I only use 1 of. Strategist is simply not that good to run multiples of. The same goes for Watchdog. Tripple Maxx C is probably the most important part of the deck. Opening turns may be slow, so you must make sure you can keep your opponent at bay until the time is right to strike, and set up the rest of the game in your favor. Another card most people usually steer away from when it comes to Karakuri, is Soldier. Its basically a Giant Rat for Karakuri but better. It allows to you protect yourself early game from monsters like Tengu and Venus, while also allowing you to maintain board presence while allowing you to set up for next turn. Also, crashing your Soldier into a larger monster, to grab Kuick (or even a Strategist to tilt a monster to Defense Position) was a very common play over the weekend, to attack over another monster and bring back a fallen friend.
Things I would change about the deck now, is I would run a third Pot of Duality, and I would not run 3 of Fiendish Chain. Fiendish chain can be amazing with Naturia Beast, but without it its sub-par. More often then not, you will Fiendish Chain an opponent's larger monster, then be forced to commit cards to coming over the top of the monster, meaning you had to use Fiendish Chain in an instance where say, something like Dimensional Prison would be better. There were very few instances where I used Fiendish Chain to negate an effect. Most the times it was on Caius or Hyperion. I might still run 1, but I would try to test something more along the lines of Dimensional Prison. I sided 2, and sided them in almost every game so it would be a good start.
The last change I would make is I would add Barkion to the Extra Deck. The deck only really has 1 way to make Barkion, with Merchant and Watchdog, but a few times I had turn 1 Merchant, and could have used Watchdog to make Barkion vs some Anti Meta decks (one which I lost too).
Now for some insight on my time at YCS! At the end of day 1, I had gone 8-1, and on day 2 I won my 2 remaining matches, putting me at 10-1 and in Third Place. Throughout the tournament I played against 3 Dark World Decks, 3 Agent Decks, 4 Plant Decks, 2 Anti-Hero Decks, and 1 T.G Deck. My only loss in swiss was to one of the Anti-Hero decks. It was a long game drawn to game 3, but in the end I was forced to make a gamble in which I lost. My last loss was in top 16 to an Agent player. My hand wasn't bad, but Agents is arguably my deck's worst match-up. I didn't open with a Maxx C to keep his plays in check, and I lost game one very early to double Master Hyperion. During game 2, he opened very solid again vs my hand. My hand normally would wreck Agents, but he had the Anti-Anti hand to counter me, and again I lost. There were only 2 Agent decks left in top 16, so my chances of playing against it were slim, so it upset me that I was forced to play against it.
But all is well now! I wouldn't have ran any other deck, although I would make some changes now, I'm extremely happy with my 11-2 performance with a deck most people still dismiss as something that's Tier 2. One day I will take Karakuri all the way! Mark my words duelist!
Now, just around the corner we have YCS Kansas, and the release of the amazing set, Photon Shockwave. Photon Shockwave is another set which will change the face of the game as we know it, with extremely powerful cards like terrorizing cousin of Rescue Cat, Rescue Rabbit, and the prehistoric Evol monsters. Next week I'll be talking about something you're going to hear a lot about in the coming weeks, and that's how counter the Rabbit decks turn 1 play of a walking Solemn Judgment/Divine Wrath with protection. So make sure to tune in next week because many of you probably already know from Duel Network experiences how annoying that deck can be!
Until next time Duelist! And as they say here at Alter Reality, play hard or go home!
LMJeffJones
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