Topping Nationals 5 Years in a Row, The Experience.

July 21, 2011

Categories: Featured YuGiOh! Articles, Free Articles

by Adam Pro Corn

Heading into 2011 Yu-gi-oh nationals this year, I was extremely excited, but very skeptical at the same time for multiple different reasons. I had been testing plant variants for over a month before the tournament and became very comfortable with my final build . On the down side, I knew that a lot of people were going to be playing plants and was also very concerned about how popular gravekeeper’s were going to be at this event. With the majority of the playing field running plants I felt as though a lot of people would fall back to gravekeepers and “ plant hate “ type decks just for the sheer good match up factor. But nonetheless I was still set on playing plants for a few reasons.

A). In my opinion it is the best deck at the moment and I am usually the type of player who plays the best deck.

B). I was extremely comfortable with it and this is a huge factor when choosing what deck your going to play for a major event. When building my decks I usually choose consistency over everything else because going through 11 rounds of Swiss into a top 64 cut is pretty tough.

C). It has the ability to come back from nearly every difficult situation even with a mediocre hand as long as you don’t draw completely dead.

D). I actually really like the mirror match for the most part. Its definitely challenging but if you play it right and don’t make mistakes you should definitely be able to outplay the opponent.

The List

Monsters-

2 Tour guide form the underworld
1 sangan
2 lonfire blossom
1 spore
1 glow-up bulb
2 debris dragon
1 dandylion
1 Tytanial princess of camellias
1 Cauis the shadow monarch
2 effect veiler
2 max ''c''
3 reborn tengu
1 gorz
2 ryko

Spells-
2 pot of avarice
1 foolish burial
1 one for one
1 monster reborn
1 dark hole
2 mystical space typhoon
1 giant trunade
1 mind control
1 enemy controller
1 book of moon

Traps-
2 solemn warning
1 solemn judgement
1 limit reverse
1 call of the haunted
1 torrential tribute
1 dust tornado

-41 cards

Side Deck-
2 cyber dragon
2 thunder king rai-oh
2 chain whirlwind
1 malevolent catastrophe
1 kinetic soldier
2 dimensional prison
1 neo spacian gran mole
2 d.d. crow
2 Chain Dissapearance

My side was great and wouldn't really change much. I had a lot to put in Vs. every deck.

WHY PLANTS ARE ONE OF THE BEST DECKS RIGHT NOW.

I found myself coming back from un-winnable situations with my deck all weekend which proved to me I made the right choice. Plants are so balanced and versatile. They can come back from big pushes and make moves while still have many tricks in store. The deck generates too much advantage and has too much synergy. Good players also know how to play around cards like Max ‘’C’’ and other cards like Effect Veiler which I felt was one of my advantages in playing the deck. There are lots of choices to be made and I feel like I made the right ones most of the time which led to my success. Playing the deck for over a month now I was very confident with it and didn't feel like I would make many mistakes. That’s the worst way to lose in Yu-gi-oh to me is to a misplay. Even the cards that should hurt me the most, I found ways to play around and keep my chance to win at its highest. They have too many options and set up for big plays by doing hardly anything at all. I’m sure after reading this, you will have a better idea of why I chose to play the deck.

I ended up going 7-0 in the tournament beating 2 six samurai decks, 3 mirror match plant decks, an anti-meta, and a T.G. deck. I lost the last 2 rounds day one to a mirror match and an extremely anti scrap deck ( who went undefeated through the whole tournament 11-0-1 ). Both opened pretty nuts and sometimes when you don’t draw your stable monsters and they do, its not even a game at that point. Yu-gi-oh may be a game of skill, but it’s a game of luck nonetheless when it comes to being consistant through so many rounds.

Day 2 I was very exhausted but the drive and motivation kept me going. it’s a little thing I’ve learned to call Yu-gi-oh adrenaline. I won my 10th round and received a draw in round 11 which was fine considering I was almost guaranteed to make the cut. Sure enough I ended up topping with and 8-2-1 record. My top 64 match was a true travesty, losing to time in such a premier quality event is just a horrible way to end your run. But I’ve learned to accept that this game isn’t very fair sometimes and you just have to deal with it. Basically I had one turn to deal 3000 damage to my opponent. I activate pot, forcing his D.D. Crow, next I lonefire to tribute a token which is then Veilered. Next I try to synchrony my formula/token/lonefire into brionac for game but of course there was a solemn warning just waiting for me to make me scoop it up. The final score was my 1500 to his 1800 after I attacked his armory arm with stardust. Unfortunate, yes I know.

I was very satisfied with my deck choices and I feel as if my side deck was near perfect although I would have changed a few cards. This always happens to me after a major event to me because play testing with locals and friends is totally different than actually being in the event. So I learn new things as the rounds go by, everyone should.

MVP cards of the tournament( that seem to be overlooked)

1. Max ‘’C’’- This card was too good. Every time I had it I just felt so protected and new that I was going to be drawing more cards and stopping my opponent which helps keep you in an advantageous state. I mostly used max ‘’c’’ as a defensive card as opposed to attacking tengus and using it that way. Doing it to glow-up, spore, or debris were my favorite using in the mirror match and against Samurai it is also amazing. 2 mained was a good meta call.

2. Tytannial Princess of Camellias- Most people have stopped running this card mainly for the fact that its terrible when you draw it. It adds another really powerful play to the deck and single handedly proved itself to be the underdog in my event. It attacks over most synchros and it can hit the field just from a lonefire. Most of the time when I drew Tytannialit had no impact on whether I won or lost. But in situations where I needed it to attack over something, it was just too clutch. I would have lost games without this in my deck. Even the small fact that you could double sacrifice off of a tour guide and now with tech genius creature swap running around, its negating targeting effect works greatly to help with advantage. it’s a true power card.

3. Caius the shadow monarch- I played one copy of this card and it turned about to be the perfect amount. I was never clogged with multiple dead cards but its such an amazing simple one card play. An early cauliscan be huge against most meta decks right now. Also withall the seven tools of the bandit and solemn warning/judgment that 1000 burn damage can be critically game changing. Now with the rise in popularity in Tour Guide of The Underworld, sangan is put on the field more often than not, making Caius a very powerful play. However it doesn’t just start with sangan; dark souls, dandylions, rykos and large synchro monsters staring down your field can easily be solved with a simple Caius play.

As you can see, the deck has not only potential, but explosive plays that can destroy your opponent and the ability to come back from detrimental scenarios. I would highly recommend running a plant variant at your next local tournament and see how it does. The consistency balanced with the aggression will surly keep your opponent more than on their toes.

Until next time - Adam Corn O.D.