Wind-Up With Billy Brake – A Regional Report

September 1, 2011

Hello Yugioh Community! I am here this week with a special report over the last regional I attended for the current format! As a treat, I decided I wanted to do something special and try to make top 8 with a deck that has not seen any success yet. The deck that I decided to pilot was the new Archetype: Wind Ups! I thought it would be fun to try and win with a new deck and on top of that, I was not going to use any Synchro monsters! I could have made room for a few in my extra, but I thought it would be much more interesting if I really went against the mold and played with an automatic disadvantage just to find out how I would fare.

Question of the Article: What underrated deck do you think could do well an event?
Answer the question in the comments below!

The regional that I participated in was in San Antonio, Texas on August, 27th, 2011 and would be the last set of regionals for the current format. I have already mentioned what deck I chose to use and why, so here is a look at my exact deck list I participated with:

Name: Winding Up with XYZ Power!

Monsters:20
3 Wind-Up Solider
3 Wind-Up Dog
3 Tour Guide From the Underworld
3 Reborn Tengu
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Maxx “C”
1 Sangan
1 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

Spells:10
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Instant Fusion
1 Giant Trunade
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Mind Control
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Book of Moon

Traps:10
2 Solemn Warning
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Safe Zone
2 Dust Tornado
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of The Haunted

Extra Deck:15
2 Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
2 Adreus, Kepper of Armageddon
2 No.17 Leviathan Dragon
2 Number 39: Utpopia
1 Steel swarm Roach
1 Leviair, The Sea Dragon
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1 Karbonala Warrior
1 Charubin The Fire Knight
1 Reaper on The Nightmare
1 Cyber Saurus

Side Deck:15
3 Puppet Plant
2 D.D. Crow
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Kinetic Solider
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Malevolent Catastrophe
2 Chain Disappearance
1 Bottomless Traphole
1 Debunk

“What does this deck do?”
The basics to this deck are to abuse the new XYZ monsters. Wind-up Dog and Soldier both have effects that can make them Level 5 and along with Cyber Dragon of Instant Fusion it becomes very easy to bring out Tiras, Keeper of Genesis (The Boss Monster of my deck). As long as Tiras has XYZ material he can’t be destroyed by card effects and at the end of the battle phase where he attacked or is attacked he can destroy 1 card on the field. With 2600 attack he is pretty hard to destroy by battle; my safe zones will also make sure he lives! His only downside is that at each of my end phases I have to detach one of the XYZ materials.

I use 3 copies of Tour Guide From the Underworld for the obvious reason of how good it is. Being able to make a turn 1 Leviathan Dragon and search oout Maxx “C” or Effect Veiler is just too good in the current format.

Essentially, this deck is like a beat down deck that likes to XYZ summon fairly often. The deck is very monster dependant. There are many games that I am able to win with this deck just because I beat my opponent down fairly quickly before they are able to get anything going.

The Regional Report!

The regional had just over 200 players meaning it would be 8 rounds of swiss with a cut to top 8 and having the top 32 receive their invite to the WCQ 2012!

Round 1
Wind-Ups vs. Agents
Game 1
Me-8000-5200
Opp-8000-4100-0

I start the game off with Reborn Tengu, Safe Zone, and a Mystical Space Typhoon. My opponent activated Dark Hole on my Tengu and then used Herald of Orange Light discarding Archlord Kristya to negate my Tengu effect. He somehow made a Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier to bounce both my Backrows, I chained Safe Zone to take the Brio down (and save me from losing that turn). My opponent used Monster Reborn on Kristya and hit me for 2800. I had Dark Hole, Monster Rebon, Wind-Up Dog, and was able to keep 4 fairies out of his grave and ride to a quick victory!

Game 2
Me 8000-7700-6000-5000-0
Opp 8000-7100-6600-4600-3600
I had a good strong opening tempo, but my opponent is able to activate a Royal Decree and I proceed to draw around 4 traps in a row. I am able to make a play with Tiras to pop his Royal Decree, but sadly he has another one set, an econ to take my Tiras and I can’t recover.

Game 3
Me 8000-7000-5000
Opp 8000-6300-4600-1000-0
I can tell his hand isn’t very good with no Venus or Earth. He ends up using 2 Heralds of Orange Light to fill his grave 2 4 lights, but I have Tengu and Instant Fusion and make a Steelswarm Roach. He tries to summon Kristya and I simply negate it with Roach and ride him to victory!
Record 1-0

Round 2
Wind-Ups vs. Six Samurai
Game 1
Me 8000-5900-3800-1700-1200-800
Opp 8000-4000-3500-3200-0
She makes a big push and ends with Hand, Kizan, Kizan, and Great Shogun Shi-En. I fiendish chain the Shogun so I can still activate all my spells and traps and Safe Zone my own Cyber Dragon. She doesn’t draw and out to my Cyber Dragon in Defense mode and I am eventually to make a push back to take my victory! Tiras put in some work!

Game 2
Me 8000
Opp 8000-4000-0
My opponent starts her turn off with Kageki into a Kagemusha, sync for Shi En and set Solemn Judgment; A pretty strong opening for Samurais. I special summon Cyber Dragon, summoned Tour Guide from the Underworld which she was forced to Solemn Judgment, I then discarded Puppet Plant and was able to attack for game on my first turn!
Record 2-0

Round 3
Wind-Ups vs. Gladiator Beasts
Game 1
Me 8000-6400
Opp 8000-7400-7200-7100-3700-0
My deck has a fairly good match up vs. GB since I run 3 Cyber Dragon and 3 Wind-Up Soldiers that can become 2200 atk for a turn. I slowly cause him to run low on cards and a key Maxx “C” when he tags out for a Darius leaves me with a lot more cards and he can’t recover.

Game 2
Me 8000-6200
Opp 8000-6200-5400-3700-0
He has a bad hand and simply sets a Hoplomus. I summon Tour Guide and make a Leviathan Dragon in order to run it over. He just has a bunch of Gladiator Beast and not enough trap and spell support to really do anything with, I easily win fairly quickly.
Record 3-0

Round 4
Wind-Ups vs. Gravekeeper’s
Game 1
Me 8000-7800-6100-4100-2000-200-0
Opp 8000-7100-5300-3300-2800-2200
We have a pretty long game 1. It’s a lot of back and forth action. I take down his guys, he takes mine down. When the duel stands at 2000 me and 2200 him all he has is a Recruiter in hand he just searched. He tops a Pot of Duality into a MAGIC CYLINDER! All I have is a face up Cyber Dragon, Effect Veiler in hand and 2 other meaningless cards. If I was using Synchro’s I would have been able to make a Brionac on my next turn and win the game, but my disadvantage prevented me from doing so! I draw into a Dust Tornado to get rid of it eventually! He ends up topping a spy that I run over with a Tiras with no effect, so he specials a Descendant from his deck hoping to top any Gravekeeper to pop my Tiras and attack for game. He doesn’t draw one, but instead just sets a backrow and pass. I attack and he flips a second MAGIC CYLINDER and I lose!

Game 2
Me 8000-7000
Opp 8000-6000-4100-2000-200-0
I start off with a Tour Guide into Leviathan. He doesn’t have any monsters and I am able to make a quick Tiras with Instant Fusion and Wind-Up Soilder, activate Safe Zone so he can’t Dimensional Prison him and I quickly get a victory.

Game 3
Me 8000-6000-5000-2900-1700
Opp 8000-4000-2000-1200-200-0
He starts off by setting his hand and a Monster, flips Roayl Tribute to leave me with just Solemn Warning and Fiendish Chain, He then dualities into a Warning so it my chance for victory looks grim. I end up using my Solemn Warning on his monster, which was a Descendant. Neither of us draws monsters for pretty much the entire game. I am able to make a play where he has to Solemn Judgment my Mind Control or he would lose. I top a Malevolent Catastrophe, he then draws a Spy and decides to push since the duel is 2900 me and 1200 him and all I have is my one back row, I flip the Maly Cat and top deck a Cyber Dragon on the next turn to win the duel!
Record 4-0

Round 5
Wind-Ups vs. Zombies
Game 1
Me-8000-7000-5000
Opp 8000-6300-4300

My opponent has an all monster hand and I am able to make a game push on my 2nd turn behind Tengu and Tiras via Instant Fusion, I have a Solemn Warning to stop his Gorz.

Game 2
Me 8000-7400-6400-6200-0
Opp 8000-6300-2800

I have a Reborn Tengu and that is about it after a turn 1 Trap Dustshoot from my opponent. He is able to start off with a Goblin Zombie, search out a Zombie Master, pitch Mezuki, make a Uptopia. Over the next two turns I draw D.D. Crow’s back to back and a little too late.

Game 3
Me 8000-6900-5400-4500-3400-1200-0
Opp 8000-7000-6700-5800

I open up with 2 copies of Mystical Space Typhoon, Dust Tornado, Giant Trunade, and 2 copies of Tour Guide From the Underworld. My Opponent has 2 Effect Veilers and does not set a single spell or trap card the whole game. Needless to say I lost since I had basically 6 dead cards to start the game off.

Record 4-1

Round 6
Wind-Ups vs. TGU Plants
Game 1
Me 8000-6000-5000-0
Opp 8000-6800

I am able to make some plays and get out a Tiras fairly quickly after I warning his Tour Guide. He is able to do some Lonefire-Dandy shenanigans and use Enemy Controller to take my Tiras and attack for game with him and his own T.G. Hyper Librarian.

Game 2
Me 8000-6000-5500
Opp 800-5400-2700-1900-1000-0

My opponent makes a big push with Giant Trunade, Lonefire, Monster Reborn. I have Maxx “C” and he wasn’t able to recover.

Game 3
Me 8000-7200-6200
Opp 8000-6300-4600-0

He starts off by setting 3 cards to his backrow so I know he does not have any monsters so I put the beat down on as fast as possible. Reborn Tengu and Thunder King are more than enough to guide me to a quick victory.
Record 5-1

Round 7
Wind-Ups vs. Mystic Piper Chaos Monarch
Game 1
Me 8000-6000-5600-4300-0
Opp 8000-5800-4100-2000-1200

This deck basically uses Kinka-Byo and Mystic Piper to draw a lot of cards and Chaos Sorcerer and Caius as the boss monsters of the deck. His deck runs almost no back rows so I draw double Dust Tornado, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Giant Trunade of course! I am able to make a game push when he is at 1200 with 2 cards in hand ( one I know is Caius from a Mystic Piper) and I have a Reborn Tengu and a Wind-Up Dog and all he has is a Face up Tour Guide from the underworld. I try to go for game and his other card in hand was a Tragoedia, so he is able to survive and drops Caius on his next turn for game.

Game 2
Me 8000-6000-5900-4000-3000-2600-2300-0
Opp 8000-6200-5400

This game was pretty much all downhill for me. He is able to summon 2 Chaos Sorcerer’s, Reborn one of them, and has a Caius and another live Chaos Sorcerer in his hand. There was very little I could have done to win this game.

Record 6-1

Round 8
Wind-Ups vs. Gravekeeper’s
Game 1
Me 8000-6000-5800-0
Opp 8000-7200-7000-6200-5400
My opponent gets to go first and he opens with 2 copies of Solemn Warning, Royal Oppression, Gravekeeper’s Spy, Solemn Judgment , Necrovalley. He dominated the game from the beginning and his Royal Oppression sealed the deal as I did not draw any removal what so ever.

Game 2
Me 8000-7300-6100
Opp 8000-3300-0
He opens up with Royal Oppression again so it is hard more me to get anything going. I draw into a Malevolent Catastrophe and activate it when he attacks and drop Gorz. I am able to quickly win shortly after.
Game 3
Me 8000-6000-2300-0
Opp 8000
My opponent goes first and starts off with 3 cards to his back row, Necrovalley, Gravekeeper’s Recruiter, and ROYAL TRIBUTE. I lose everything except 2 Malevolent Catastrophes. He then flips a Pot of Duality into a Descendant so that he can pop both of my Maly Cats and finish me off for game very quickly. It was kind of a sad way to end a fun tournament.

FINAL RECORD – 5-3
FINAL STANDING 37th place

Conclusion: My experiment to try and be successful at a regional without using the help of synchro monsters went about as well as I expected. I got off to a quick and strong start holding a 4-0 record, but sure enough trouble came where I would need to use Synchros to help assist me in victory. I used a deck that was very dependent on field presence so it did not come as a shock that 2 of my losses were due to me not being able to keep a monster on the board.

In this day and time, XYZ’s are very powerful, but cannot replace Synchros entirely. As long as long as cards like Monster Reborn and Mind Control are in your deck it is a good idea to at least extra deck a few key Synchro monsters just in case! I tried to see how well I could fare without them, and most of the time it was ok, but I do feel I would have done better if I had used a Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier and a Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier!

I hope this article was interesting for you! I was trying to give a look at how a deck that is not top tier might be able to do at a semi-major event! Don’t forget to answer the question of the article and thanks for reading!