Hey everybody! I’m back with a tournament report from YCS Miami. I managed to make it to top 16, giving me my 5th premier event top. Going into this event, I was sure I was going to play Wind-Ups as I thought they were the best deck. Sam Pedigo and I had been preparing for weeks now. In this report, I’ll go round by round explaining my matches, give my deck list, and explain why I ran certain cards. Let’s get right into it!
Thursday I was supposed to leave Athens, where I go to college, after class to go home for the night as my house was about halfway to the airport. I procrastinated most of the day and didn’t actually make it back to Covington until about 10 pm. When I got there, I did laundry and went to sleep.
Friday I woke up at 7 so I could shower and leave by 8. It was still about an hour drive to the airport and I got there around 9 to make my flight at 10. My flight landed at noon. When it did, I called the shuttle to take me to the Doubletree which is where I was staying. When I got there, there were duelists already everywhere in the lobby. After meeting up with some friends, Paul Clarke, Joe Giorlando, and Joe Bogli went to lunch at Au Bon Pain. Afterwards, we headed over to get preregistered. Since they weren’t letting people in the event hall, Joe G and I headed back to do some play testing back at Au Bon Pain. He was also playing Wind-Ups. We played 6 games and I won 5 of them, so I was feeling pretty good about my deck. There were 3 cards that weren’t standard in the deck; 1 Cardcar D and 2 Upstart Goblin. I’ll explain these a little bit later. After this, Joe G, Paul, and I went to eat at the restaurant in the hotel. Then I watched people play basketball for a while, before going back to the hotel room to do a lab report for my Marine Biology class. Once that was done, I headed back downstairs for about an hour where everybody was playing in a room. Finally I headed back upstairs around 1 am to go to sleep.
This was the list I ended up registering:
Monsters: 16
3 Wind-Up Magician
3 Wind-Up Shark
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
3 Wind-Up Rat
2 Tour Guide From the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Cardcar D
Spells: 12
3 Wind-Up Factory
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Upstart Goblin
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Fire Formation – Tenki
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Avarice
Traps: 12
2 Solemn Warning
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Solemn Judgment
Side Deck: 15
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Snowman Eater
1 Effect Veiler
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Dimensional Fissure
2 Messenger of Peace
1 Level Limit – Area B
2 Dust Tornado
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Trap Stun
Extra Deck: 15
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 20: Giga Brilliant
1 Number 30: Acid Golem
1 Diamond Dire Wolf
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Number 50: Blackship of Corn
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1 Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
Cardcar D and Upstart – The part Wind-Ups struggle with the most the early game. Hands like Magician Rat are pretty bad and have no real synergy. Playing Cardcar and Upstart let me get out of the early game quicker.
Fire Formation – Tenki – A fourth copy of Wind-Up Rabbit seemed useful as it combos with just about every other card in the deck. In testing, I found 2 to be too much.
Fiendish Chain – I think this card is really good right now. It’s clearly very good in the mirror, but more than that, it’s one of the better traps against Mermails. If you set it by itself, you can Fiendish Chain Megalo when they discard Marksman and they won’t get to destroy anything or search. Same with Pike and Marksman. It also hits Divas. It’s also good against Fire Fist as it stops the popping effects and the attacks.
Level Limit – Area B – I thought that Level Limit would be better than the third Messenger against Fire Fist since I could run over anything with a Rabbit. I side them all against Fire Fist anyway, but there’s nothing I want to side a third Messenger against, so I thought 1 Level Limit would be better.
Trap Stun – Originally I was siding Maxx “C”s instead, but last week I played a regional and didn’t play a single Wind-Up deck. Between the Cs and Veiler, it was like I was playing a 12 card side deck. Because of this, I decided to drop Cs and add a Trap Stun. If you read my article on Maxx “C” in the mirror, you’d know how big of an impact Heavy Storm has on the mirror. Trap Stun essentially acts as a second copy of Heavy and lets me double my chances of getting to it before my opponent in the mirror by playing 1. It is also against other decks that can side Rivalry or Gozen so I thought it was an overall better choice.
Round 1
Jonny Nagel, Machina Gadgets
Game 1: I remember this game he didn’t have much defense. I think he said he opened up with 3 Gadgets, but he did resolve 3 Gearframe so it actually wasn’t that bad. I ended up going Zenmaines with Rat returning and left him at 4500. I had Torrential set so I could Torrential whatever he summoned, pop any sets and then make Acid with the returning Rat for 4500.
Game 2: He started really strong. Gearframe then Gadget and Gear Gigant X. I Torrentialed the Gear Gigant, but he Lanced. At this point I knew I was going to lose if I didn’t go for it so I made Zenmaity into backrow and he couldn’t stop it. A couple turns later I draw Reborn and OTK him.
1-0
Round 2
Wind-Ups
Game 1: He wins the dice roll and opens Magician Shark. My hand isn’t very good and I try to stay in the game with traps, but he has too much and I scoop without showing him what I’m playing.
Game 2: I open Tour Guide Shark, but he answers the Shock Master with Fiendish, Warnings the Zenmaity, and eventually is able to clear my field. We get into a topdeck war and I topdeck Thunder King and he doesn’t have a way of stopping it.
Game 3: I have a huge Heavy Storm play for 3, but he Veilers my Snowman on his Thunder King. He was too far behind though from the Heavy and I OTK him with Diamond Dire a couple turns later.
2-0
Round 3
Macro Rabbit
Before game 1, we get deckchecked, but everything is okay.
Game 1: He starts with Tour Guide into Zenmaines. I have a slow hand, but am eventually able to resolve a Wind-Up Factory. Once this happens, I was winning the rest of the game, but the game was already very complicated. He had about 4 backrow and I had to push through them all so the game still took quite a while.
Game 2: This was more of the same. Another long game of me pushing through backrow by throwing monsters on the field because I had Factory. Eventually I drew Heavy, but didn’t play it because I thought he had Starlight, which he did.
3-0
Round 4
Hieratic
Game 1: I start with Tour Guide Factory and a Warning. He summons Rabbit and I Warning the effect. He then specials Tefnuit and ends by making Queen Dragon Djinn, Gaia Charger (on Atum), and a Su. I make a Tiras next turn and clear his field to put me in a winning position.
Game 2: He starts by setting 4 backrow. He doesn’t get any real monsters this game and I have Factory so I can keep throwing monsters into backrow since they’ll just be replaced.
4-0
Round 5
Luke Feeney, Wind-Up
Game 1: He goes first and opens Magician Shark setting two. I summon Cardcar and he makes a huge misplay and Fiendish Chains it. I set 3 and use Cardcars effect and draw two. I Fiendish the Shock Master and Prison the Papilloperative. Next turn I go for Tour Guide Shark and he Warnings and I Judgment and win.
Game 2: He opens Tour Guide Shark again, but I don’t have anything.
Game 3: I don’t remember, but I won.
5-0
Round 6
Brandon Battee, Rabbit
Game 1: I start this game very slow. I end up having to Fiendish Chain 2 Thunder Kings just to stay in it. Next turn he summons a Sabersaurus and I Torrential. He Compulses a Thunder King back. On my turn I summon Tour Guide and he Fiendish Chains. Now he has 1 backrow and I don’t have much else so I decide I have to go for it hoping that it’s a Prison. I Reborn Rat, get Magician, make Zenmaity with Rat and Tour Guide and he doesn’t have an answer for it and I win because it was Prison or Force.
Game 2: He starts with double Rabbit. On the second one I Bottomless the Sabersaurus, he negates and I Torrential. A Tour Guide and a Thunder King or two later and I still lost.
Game 3: I just do Wind-Up things and win with Rats and Magicians.
6-0
Round 7
Jose Alfredo Cardona Cornejo, Rabbit
Game 1: I start with Magician, Shark Factory. He starts with Cardcar and a set. I think of the decks that play Cardcar and think it is mostly only Inzektors. I thought if I called Traps I’d get Roared and lose after that so I just detached for Zenmaity and was going to call monsters, but got Torrentialed. I wasn’t that worried about Torrential though because I had infinite Factory searches. He summon Tour Guide the next turn and grabbed Night Assailant, but when I stopped that XYZ play I won shortly after.
Game 2: I sided as if he were playing Rabbit since I saw Night Assailant and I was right. Game 2 was extremely slow. He didn’t start with Rabbit, but eventually made Laggia and Dolkka by just summoning Dinos. I stalled forever under Messenger and eventually Judgmented an MST to keep it alive to stay in the game. He Leviaired my Magician and was attacking with it under Messenger. I slowly pushed through Dolkka and used Dark Hole for Laggia. Then Heavyed the rest. Then I summoned Shark, flipped Magician, made Shark 5, got another, made Tiras, rammed Magicians, attacked over Dolkka and popped Leviair. He couldn’t recover.
7-0
Round 8
Travis Smith, Wind-Up
Game 1: He started with infinite traps and I just beat him down with Rabbits. He eventually had to Compulse one to stay alive. When I stopped his one play with all the traps I was accumulating during this time, he scooped.
Game 2: He had a strong hand, but I had a stronger hand and OTKed him.
8-0
Big congratulations to him for going on and winning the YCS.
Round 9
Miguel Chavez, Wind-Up
Game 1: I beat him without really knowing what he was playing. I thought I saw him playing Wind-Ups the round before, but wasn’t completely sure. Sided as if he were.
Game 2: Sure enough, he opens Magician Shark. I got destroyed.
Game 3: He had Maestroke with my Thunder King that was Mind Controller under it. He summoned Rabbit and I played Torrential, he chained Rabbit on Rat and I chained a second Torrential. This gave me a 5th and 6th monster for Avarice. I left a Rat target in there, but drew Rabbit, MST, Dust. Next turn he just attacked and set a monster. I drew Rat, used it to make Zenmaity and banished the Rat. Then made Leviathan and attacked over Maestroke and didn’t attack the set. He played 2 Factory and set another. I Dusted the set, drew Rabbit. Used Zenmaity to get Magician and make Wolf and pop the set Magician and attack for game.
9-0
Glad was really glad to be able to finish day 1 undefeated and guarantee me a spot in top 32. No bubbles to play on this even!
I came back the next morning read to go.
Round 10
Josiah Ebanks, Mermail
Game 1: He started off the game really strong, but ran into Mirror Force which kept me in the game. My hand was weak, but eventually I drew a Shark which made my double Factory live. I searched Magician Shark and ended. He summoned Undine and searched Diva. I summoned Magician Shark and chained it so he couldn’t Torrential until I brought out Tiras. When he didn’t Torrential the Tiras, I thought his set had to be Mirror Force because I had 3 Magicians on the field and he wouldn’t want me going Shock Master. Because of this, I made Shock Master in defense (one of the Magicians was in attack so I couldn’t just do it mp2) and attacked with Tiras. I popped the Mirror Force and called monsters main phase 2.
Game 2: I don’t remember the rest of this match. There may have in fact been a game 3, but I don’t remember. I ended up winning though.
10-0
Round 11
Edward Toussaint, Wind-Ups
Game 1: He started with Rabbit Factory and some traps. I also had a Factory, but he had MST. He just got to push through my sets because he could keep using Factory.
Game 2: It was very similar to game 1. I was in a poor position from the beginning because he had Factory and an out to my Factory and I did not.
10-1
After standings were called, I still finished in 1st despite losing the last round.
Top 32
Francisco Adrian Saldivar, Wind-Ups
Game 1: I start with Cardcar set two. He plays Heavy Storm, Tour Guide into Rabbit, and set 3. I am able to hold him off for a bit and a couple turns later I draw a Factory, but can’t resolve it for a couple more turns. Eventually he pushes and I get to search Shark so my hand is Heavy, Magician, Shark. I stop his push with Warning and he has Reborn for Magician and another Shark in hand and I lose that turn.
We got midround deckchecked and I had to swap a Dark Hole and an MST because they were old, but everything was fine. I think it’s funny the other deckcheck didn’t do this.
Game 2: I summon Rabbit and set Dust and Warning. He plays MST on Warning and Magician Sharks me. I successfully play it off like I have Torrential and he just gets Rabbit. He attacks with Shark over Rabbit and I don’t remove because I can’t deal with Leviair and I have a Rat in hand. He makes a misplay and goes Maestroke main phase 2. By letting Rabbit die, he should have known I can’t deal with Zenmaity/Leviair. Then he sets 1 and ends. I do some Wind-Up things over the next couple of turns and win.
Game 3: He goes first and opens Tour Guide Shark and sets 1. I set a monster and two backrow. He draws and calls Traps with Shock Master. Then he plays Heavy. This was a misplay for sure. Are you worried about Starlight Road or something? I’ll take my chances. Him playing Heavy also revealed his set as Bottomless which means he misplayed again by specialing Shark in attack mode turn 1. I could have made Zenmaines and rammed and he wouldn’t have had an answer. Putting it in defense would have been much safer and would have avoided the unnecessary risk of Zenmaines. He detaches for Zenmaity and gets Rat, Rat gets Magician and Magician and Shark make Papilloperative. This would have been game if he played Diamond Dire Wolf. He flips up my set, which is Snowman and I kill Shock Master. He summons Thunder King and attacks for 5500. He plays Factory and sets 1. I drew to the perfect fourth card; Tour Guide. My hand was now Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, Wind-Up Shark, Tour Guide. It was unreal and I sacked him pretty badly. By the same token, he could have just played his turn better and I wouldn’t have had an opportunity to sack him.
What makes it even funnier is that I always side out Dark Hole in the mirror match. We were just about to time. I sided it back in for game 3 with the logic of “Dark Hole, attack for damage.” Worked out.
Top 16
Edward Toussaint, Dark World
Game 1: My hand is very bad, but he first turn Card Destructions me into a workable one. I am able to make Zenmaity Dweller the next turn which puts him on a two turn clock that he couldn’t answer.
Game 2: He opens Card Destruction again, but this time goes off. When I draw he EEVs my 4 spells and double Mind Crushes my Wind-Up Rabbit and Wind-Up Shark. I drew to 0.
Game 3: He opens Card Destruction for a third game in a row. Fortunately for me, he messes up and searches Gates off Snoww when he meant to search something else and the judge makes him keep it. He then Gates away his Tour Guide after he’s summoned (I’m not sure why he didn’t just hold it, he had Grapha in grave with a Dark World removed. Leviair?). At this point I have a couple of XYZs up with a set MST and Prison with a Rat and Magician returning. He starts talking about how I have a big field, but I can tell something’s up. I get the god read on a set Heavy and MST it in his Standby phase and sure enough I was right. He does something to clear my field and plays Dragged Down letting me draw into Dimensional Fissure. At this point, time is called and it’s only 3 turns instead of 5 in top cut. I draw Level Limit for my turn and bring back Rat and Magician. Before I even activate them, he flips up Skill Drain. I play Level Limit and Fissure and end. He can’t do anything significant and I draw for my last turn hoping to draw an MST for Drain. Instead I draw a Trap Stun which was disappointing as it would almost certainly mean I would have won if we weren’t in time as I could Magician Rat him the next turn. Oh well, it happens.
And with that I was out of the tournament. I get the mat and a box and trade for the rest of the Fire Fist stuff I need. I go to lunch with some friends and cube draft later that night.
I had a crazy morning at the airport the next day and end up missing my flight and almost missing my second flight. Eventually I made it home for 2 days of rest before Germany this weekend. Looking forward to seeing a lot of people there! Until next time, play hard or go home!
Patrick Hoban
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