Hello Yugioh Community! I am finally home from YCS Miami and here to share some of my experiences with you guys. While I did not get the third YCS win I so desperately crave, I managed to take 3rd place and net my 14th premier event top! I want to thank everyone for the support, whether you were one of the many awesome duelists I met at YCS Miami or if you were following the coverage and cheering me on from home! I put a lot of time and hard work into this game and it is a great feeling when it pays off. This was a great way for me to kick off the year and I hope I can have continued success throughout 2013! Instead of doing a cookie cutter tournament report with a round-by-round breakdown of my matches I would like to take a look at the number of each decks I faced overall, my mindset throughout the tournament; essentially I want to take a look at what YCS Miami was from my own perspective based upon my match-ups.
Question of the Article: What are your overall thoughts about YCS Miami?
Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!
YCS Miami – A Quick look at the deck I used –
Since this isn’t really a deck profile, I am not going to go to any specifics about the deck, although you can go read my last article that goes over a few of the in and out’s. I just figured it was important to see what I was working with.
-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: 9
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
Traps: 6
3 Abyss-Sphere
2 Abyss-Squall
1 Solemn Judgment
Side Deck: 15
1 Neko Mane King
2 Maxx “C”
2 Tragoedia
2 Deck Devastation Virus
2 Dust Tornado
2 Messenger of Peace
2 Gozen Match
2 Mind Crush
Extra Deck: 15
2 Mermail Abyssgaios
1 Number 11:Big Eye
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Mist Wurm
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
-Breakdown of my Match Ups – What decks did I face? –
YCS Miami was just shy of 1100 competitors which means there was 11 rounds of swiss followed by a cut to the top 32 single-elimination playoff. Since I made it all the way to top 4 that means I played a grand total of 15 rounds of Yugioh and here are all of the match-ups I faced.
*Indicate Feature Match
Round 1 – Dino- Rabbit (Won)
Round 2 – Wind-Ups (Won)
Round 3 – Mermail (Won)
Round 4 – Fire Fist (Lost)
Round 5 – Wind-Ups (Won)
Round 6 – Inzektors (Won)
Round 7 – Fire Fist (Won)
Round 8 – Fire Fist (Won)
Round 9 – Inzektors (Won)
Round 10 – Dino-Rabbit (Lost)
Round 11 – Mermail (Won)*
Ending Record after Swiss – 9 Wins 2 Losses – 15th place
Top 32 – Mermail (Won)
Top 16 – Dino- Rabbit (Won)
Top 8 – Fire Fist (Won)*
Top 4 – Wind-Up (Lost)*
So as you can see, surprisingly, I really only faced decks that are considered to be the best decks of the format. I have played in many premier level tournaments for years now and this might be the only one where I haven’t had to face anything too rogue. Let’s go ahead and group and rank these decks all together in order from most to least to help clarify. Then I am going to go through each match-up and discuss how it went overall.
Fire Fist – 4
This brand new deck had been receiving a lot of hype and I knew its popularity had been rising, but I did not expect it to be the deck I faced more than any other. If you take a look at my side deck I choose not to go with too many choices for this match-up as I felt it was somewhat favorable if played against correctly. Many other duelist were running around in Friday night and Saturday morning looking for copies of Overworked or Fairy Wind in an attempt to beat this deck, and while they are great picks, I viewed this match-up with a different perspective. Instead, I wanted them to go ahead and do there shenanigans, but at the end of the day deal with their face-down spell and traps that I did not know, leaving them only with the Fire Formations spells/traps and an easy path for my monsters to deal with anything they threw at me. Overall my strategy seemed to pay off, as I defeated 3 of the 4 I faced, losing to one of them due to my lack of drawing monsters and there steady stream of bears. My main decked copies of Forbidden Lance really came in handy in these match-ups.
Mermail – 3
I sided the most for this match-up as I felt it was the hardest to defeat due to them having a lot of the same explosive plays as I do in some cases. Two of the three mermails I faced were not true mirror matches per say as they used the Genex Undine engine and I feel that this Mono-Mermail version Jeff and I built was faster, more explosive, and had an edge against it. Sadly, I did have to play my co-creator of the deck in the last round of swiss, it was a tough and emotional match, but in the end the cards fell my way and I was able to take the victory. My side decked copies of Deck Devastation Virus proved to be “devastating” in a few of the games I played against mermails, anytime I activated it I won the duel quite shortly afterwards.
Wind-Up – 3
The terror of going second against this deck is almost comparable to losing the dice roll against the former Frog FTK deck, if they open with Wind-Up Magician and Shark, there is almost nothing you can do. Luckily, I did not experience this powerful opening against me and with the exception of being eliminated in top four against this match-up, I was pretty pleased how my deck took care of the other two that I faced. Once again, Deck Devastation Virus proved to be key in my victory in this match-up, I usually hit a minimum of four cards with it and the knowledge it granted me of my opponent’s cards all but sealed most of my games. Mermail Abyssgaios is a an amazing card for this match-up and he did not disappoint and even in the few scenarios where they are able to get over him, a timely abyss-squall made sure he came out just as fast to end the game. Siding in Maxx “C” against this deck is necessary, but can prove to be fatal. As most Wind-Up duelist side into Dimensional Fissure for the Water match-up, it would nullify my Maxx “C”, but he has to go into to help insure I don’t just lose in one turn two their devastating two card combo. There is a reason this deck was hit so hard on the new Forbidden and Limited list and I am glad it won’t be as big of an issue anymore.
Dino-Rabbit – 3
Easily one of my decks worst match-ups if they are able to resolve a Macro Cosmos. I started off my day in round one losing game two against this deck just because I drew all monsters and my opponent started the duel off with a Rescue Rabbit and Macro Cosmos. Outside of that one game though, I seemed to do fairly well, if it was drawing MST’s or my side decked Dust Tornado, I would be able to deal with their backrows and usually kill them faster than they could set-up. I have to say I was rather glad to have only faced a rather small amount of this particular match-up, but I also felt adequately prepared. Gozen Match was a card I had included in my side deck for Wind-Ups, but throughout the day I debated with myself whether I should put it in against Dino-Rabbit or not. It is a great draw to have if I have the ability to activate it before my opponent can resolve a Rescue Rabbit or Tour Guide from the Underworld, but proves to be useless at any point after that or to an opposing Jurrac Guiaba. I ended up opting not to put it in, but when I went first I had the option select to put one copy in over something like Pot of Avarice which would be dead in the opening and could remain that way due to Macro Cosmos.
Inzektor - 2
While I knew this deck was still running around I did not expect to face very many and did not side any cards in particular for this match-up. Inzektors do have a decent “Normal Water” match-up as Genex Undine is a little slower, Threatening Roar can stop the game pushes giving them a chance to go off right back, but my mono-mermail version had a couple of key cards that were instrumental in obtaining me victory in both of these rounds: Mermail Abyssgaios, Deck Devastation Virus, and Mind Crush. This three card combination is what tilted these rounds in my favor. Game 1 I was fairly easy for my deck to put me in a position to win with an early Abyssgaios shutting down there decks only engine and in games 2 the deadly combination of DDV and Mind Crush left my opponent’s with no cards and a clear path for the W.
- YCS Miami Thoughts-
Going into this event I felt pretty confident that I would do well, Jeff Jones and I have been working on this deck ever since the announcement of Mermail Abyssteus, I knew our time and effort would pay off. I attended a regional in Colorado the week before with the same deck and had quite positive results making top 8. Oddly enough, I only played against the match-ups I felt were the most popular and what I prepared for, something that has never happened to me before. The combination of preparedness and knowledge of the in and outs of my deck had a key role in my overall success. This deck is the definition of what I look for when I am trying to decide what to take to an event: Explosiveness with the ability to control. It matches my play style as a player and when the two come together in such perfect harmony, success usually follows. Overall it was a great event and an awesome way to kick of the yugioh year of 2013. I hope to meet more people at future events and have continued success! YCS Austin is about a month away and with the new Forbidden and Limited list my preparation has already begun! Thank you again to everyone for all the support!
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, concerns, suggestions, or simply just 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
YCS Miami Top 4 Deck Profile Billy Brake Mono Mermail http://youtu.be/OpjmoZdkrc0
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