Hello Yugioh Community! By the time you are reading this article the first YCS of the year, YCS Miami, has probably taken place and a winner has been determined. Hopefully I was able to do well, but either way I wanted to give all of you duelist out there an inside look on what I took to the tournament. I wrote an article of similar style about my inzektor deck I took to YCS Indianapolis and ended up doing fairly well so let’s hope I can repeat this success! One of my best friends, Jeff Jones, and I have been working long and hard on trying to build the best version of the Water deck possible to try and start 2013 in a big way. After weeks of testing, grinding it out, and comparing our results we came up with a list, while there a couple of difference due to player preference, but we have built a version of the Water deck that to my knowledge hasn’t really been seen before. I hope you guys enjoy this article, especially since the Konami coverage site doesn’t really share the top deck lists anymore you will at least get a chance to see what I have been messing around with for the past month.
Question of the Article: Are you surprised about what deck won YCS Miami?
Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!
-Why Water? -
I have been using the “Water Deck” since the day of the Abyss Rising sneak preview and I have never stopped loving it. This is easily one of my favorite decks of all time. Not only is it quick and powerful, in our(Jeff and I) version we even add a control aspect to it if we aren’t able to finish you off quickly. The amount of versatility this deck offers is incredible, you have basic plays that happen often, but you can get all sorts of combinations of hands that you will need to use all of your brain power to determine the most beneficial route to take. It is important to really enjoy the deck you play because I honestly feel you will try harder to win if you are having fun with it. Lucky for me, I love my deck and it just so happens to be powerful enough to win most of the time. Depending on what happens with the forbidden and limited list, I think Water is here to stay for quite some time.
***Due to the fact I am writing this article a few days before Miami, there is a chance it may change!***
-The Deck-
Total :40
Monsters: 25
3 Mermail Abyssmegalo
3 Mermail Abyssteus
3 Mermail Abysspike
3 Mermail Abysslinde
3 Deep Sea Diva
3 Atlantean Dragoons
3 Atlantean Marksman
2 Mermail Abyssgunde
1 Atlantean Heavy Infantry
1 Mermail Abyssleed
Spells: 7
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
Traps: 8
3 Abyss-Sphere
2 Abyss-Squall
1 Safe Zone
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Solemn Judgment
Extra Deck: 15
2 Mermail Abyssgaios
2 Number 11:Big Eye
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Armory Arm
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Gungnir, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Scrap Dragon
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
-Not the Norm-
As you can probably tell our version of the Water deck is pretty different from what has become the standard version. I am going to go over a few of the basic questions that I feel many players will ask after looking at my list.
-What are an Abyss-Squall and a Mermail Abyssgaios? Mermail Abyssteus changed the game!-
When these two cards were both released in Abyss Rising they were both overlooked due to the fact there was no easy way to make two Rank 7, outside of two copies of Abyssmegalo, and there really weren’t too many solid Mermail monsters, but after Cosmo Blazer everything changed. Being in love with the deck the way I am, I had hoped for a good TCG exclusive and Konami did not disappoint! They released Mermail Abyssteus, a level 7 water monster that triggers all of my other monsters while searching out my deck for any level 4 or lower Mermail to fit the situation I am in. This one card made both Abyss-Squall and Mermail Abyssgaios absolutely amazing. Abyss-Squall, or as Jeff nicknamed “Return from the Abyss” , is like a Return from the different dimension for Mermails from the grave, it special summons 3 Mermail monsters in defense mode, there effects are negated, and they die during the end phase. One at first might question its usefulness, but with a closer look you will be able to see what Jeff and I discovered as a way to insure victory. All I need in the grave is two level 7 (Any combination of Abyssteus/Abyssmegalo/Abyssleed) and a copy of Mermail Abysslinde preferably. Abyss-Squall will then net you a Rank 7 (Big Eye or Abyssgaios) and when Linde is destroyed during the end phase you will trigger here grave effect to summon any Mermail from your deck. The best part is that all of the cards in this deck search for each other and can set this particular situation up turn one rather easily.
Before I move on I will go ahead and share one of my favorite turn one plays with our deck.
Cards in Hand – any combination of Mermail Abyssteus, Atlantean Dragoons, and Mermail Abyssmegalo/Leed. Activate Abyssteus effect paying the cost by discarding Atlantean Dragoons, search your deck for Mermail Abyssgunde with Teus and Megalo/Leed (Whichever one you don’t have) with Dragoons effect. Activate Megalo’s effect to discard Gunde and Leed. Search your deck for Abyss-Sphere or Squall depending on the rest of your hand, then special summon back Mermail Abyssleed with Gunde’s effect. Tribute your face-up attack position Mermail to send a card from your opponent’s hand to the grave and then overlay with the remaining two for Mermail Abyssgaios and in most cases proceed to win the game!
-Why no Genex Undine , Moulinglacia, or Salvage? –
We completely cut the Undine engine, while it is still good, it just takes up a lot of space and we have completely eliminated opening up with multiple Genex Controllers and just losing. Genex Undine is probably one of the best cards you can search of a Mermail Abysspike, but with Mermail Abyssgunde, Mermail Abysslinde, and Atlantean Marksman all being targets there is usually another play without Undine that, in most cases, is just as optimal. The main reason why I feel we ended up cutting Undine is just because of the amount of deck space that he takes up, Undine is the reason I feel most Water duelist end up with more than 40 cards because it is hard to fit everything in when you have at least 2-3 spots being occupied by Genex Controller to allow undine to function. The point of not using Undine is another reason why you won’t find Moulinglacia in my build. While he is another good card, in most cases he ends up being a win-moar card if you will. With no way to search him instantly, outside of drawing Dragoons and a discard outlet, he just isn’t as reliable in our deck. We tried to make the deck as consistent as possible and Glaica had to go. Consistency is the main issue I had with Salvage. The more I began to play with this Undine-less version, the less I began to like Salvage. It is still a great card and I can see myself playing it again one day, but from my testing over the past month it just seemed not needed and would always be in my hand when I took a loss. The only real cards I want to get back are Abyssgunde/ Diva/ Marksman and with multiple ways to get all of these cards and the fact that I am maxed out on Diva and Marksman, Salvage would just sit in my hand most of the time doing nothing. It is still a great card and can get any Water duelist back into the game, but opening with it early in our version can just be too slow.
-Let’s talk about tech – Solemn Judgment, Compulsory, and Safe Zone -
These are come tech cards that might stick out on my list and two of which Jeff and I seem to disagree upon. First up we have Solemn Judgment. I have been using this card in my water deck ever since I started including any form of traps into my deck. It can stop any out my opponent has, in most scenarios there outs are very limited, and is easily one of the best trap cards this game has ever seen. Compulsory and Safe Zone are where Jeff and my play style seem to differ just enough to alter our versions of this deck. I have concluded after extensive amounts of play testing that Safe Zone is one of those cards that can win me games that I probably shouldn’t. The main reason I decided to test it out is because I liked the idea of having a Mermail Abyssgaios attached with a Safe Zone and watching my opponent try and deal with it. Outside of the initial card they have to use to kill my Gaios they also need to have the MST for my Safe Zone which will free up my Abyss Squall just to make another Gaios once they finally defeated the first one. Safe Zone is a card that takes a lot of duelist by surprise and I hope to use this to my advantage. The last card I want to cover is the one copy of Compulsory Evacuation Device that I seemed to have “splashed” into my deck if you will. It is a chainable trap card that has multi-purposes in my deck. I can deal with almost any problem monster my opponent drops or I can use it offensively when my Deep Sea Diva gets Effect Veiler’d, I can chain compulsory returning Diva to my hand, get out Atlantean Heavy Infantry and just normal summon the Diva again. It is just an out to a lot of cards in the game right now and I think it will be a solid pick for YCS Miami.
Conclusion: Jeff Jones and I have set out in a mission for 2013 to each get our 3rd title and hopefully make it out to the World Championship Qualifier in Vegas this summer! We wanted to start the year working hard on making what we feel could be the best deck going into an event while keeping it under wraps for the most part. I shared our grand creation with you guys to help show everyone that innovation does still exist in this game, but just in different forms. Hopefully Jeff and I have done well at YCS Miami and will have the results to back up my hype for our Water deck! Either way I wanted to give you guys the inside scoop at to what we have been working on, and with the lack of deck list being posted after events now, I hope this helps show a brand new way to go about using Mermails!
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or just simply want to answer the question of the article, feel free to do so in the comments down below!
-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and YCS Columbus Champion
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