What a crazy weekend! ARGCS Richmond was undoubtedly an amazing event for all those who attended! It was particularly a great weekend for the top players of Georgia. I managed to make it to top 8 along with many of my very good friends, including Patrick Hoban and Brandon Wigley, two of Georgia’s best. Also congratulations to Patrick Hoban for becoming ARGCS Richmond’s champion and for adding a fourth trophy to his collection!
I spent so much time getting ready for this event but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who spent hours practicing and making changes in anticipation for ARGCS Richmond, being that it was the first major event to allow cards from the most recent set, Dragons of Legend.
Once I heard about and familiarized myself with all of the cards that were going to be released in this set and had a clear understanding of what the “important’’ cards did, I almost immediately made the decision that Mythic Rulers would be best served by Dragons of Legend.
Seeing as how I was able to determine this so quickly I was able to start testing many forms of the deck without having to test multiple decks to only come to the same conclusion. Patrick also came to the same conclusion so we started testing right away. We had a few differences in card choices that I will explain later. Here is the deck list that all of Patrick and I’s testing lead to.
Monsters: 19
1 Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos
1 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Cascades
1 Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
1 Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders
1 Blue Eyes White Dragon
1 The White Stone of Legend
1 Mythic Tree Dragon
2 Mythic Water Dragon
2 Flamvell Guard
1 Debris Dragon
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
3 Kuribandit
3 Maxx “C”
Spells: 17
3 Dragon Shrine
3 Upstart Goblin
2 Trade-In
2 Cards of Consonance
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Burial from the Different Dimension
1 Sacred Sword of Seven Stars
1 Foolish Burial
3 Soul Charge
Traps:
1 Raigeki Break
1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Torrential Tribute
Extra Deck: 15
1 Orient Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Stardust Spark Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Crimson Blader
1 Azure-Eyes Silver Dragon
1 Star Eater
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
2 Mecha-Phantom Beast Draccosack
1 Number 15: Gimmick Puppet Giant Grinder
1 Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
Side Deck: 15
2 Metaion, the Time Lord
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 XYZ Encore
2 Black Horn of Heaven
2 Vanity’s Emptiness
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Skill Drain
I'm sure that many of you will notice that my deck list for the main event was far off from a conventional Mythic Ruler build. Usually this deck plays more traps including Mirror Force, which I believe to be one of the worse trap cards in the game. I say this because of Mirror Force’s inability to prevent your opponent from establishing a field. Also, any “good” player will recognize that an idol trap card that is present while combo-ing is either a dead trap card or is Mirror Force. The card’s risks aren’t worth its rewards.
You will also notice that I decided to play Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness for this event. There were many reasons and they are as follows:
It gives me an extra level seven to be a valuable Sacred Sword of the Seven Stars target.
This deck, as did many other decks for this event, played triple Maxx “C” which I classified as half a defensive card. I say half a defensive card because naturally the mind set is that this card would deter your opponent from continuing any special summoning or combo-ing that would result in a less-than-desirable opposing field but what happens when your opponent’s back is against the wall and they have to go for game? You need a card that will prevent that. I contemplated Swift Scarecrow but it is a minus 1 unless your opponent decides to play through your Maxx “C” and Tragoedia is just to “fair” but then there is Gorz. Along with preventing a fatal battle phase I now have a semi-established field of level seven monsters that are very synergistic with my level one tuners, which I play 3 of in this deck.
Gorz is an out to Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree.
Though this is very minor when compared to the current meta, Gorz has the effect of inflicting burn damage to an opponent who inflicts burn damage to you, making it a good response to Metaion, the Time Lord and burn decks.
I decided to play Raigeki Break and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast as opposed to conventional traps such as Solemn Warning and Bottomless Trap Hole because of their ability to deal with an opponents established field and they work better with Soul Charge by not requiring me to pay any life points and fueling my graveyard with monsters when I pay the cost of discarding.
As I mentioned earlier, Patrick and I decided to play the same deck with a few differences. Patrick’s list played three PWWB while I chose to play only one and one Raigeki Break with a Gorz replacing replacing the last PWWB. Patrick believed it necessary to go in prepared for only playing against the mirror as our deck was “superior” to all decks other than. I believed this to be true but also believed, through past experience, that the aerage player chooses to go against the meta and never decides to play the “best deck” thus leading me to believe that no one would be playing mythic rulers outside of the few who I knew were going to be playing this deck. PWWB is better equipped to deal with the mirror because it is one of the few outs to Spark Dragon-Vanity’s but Raigeki Break deals with so many more things that were troublesome in this format so I decided to play Raigeki Break instead, even knowing that this would give the mirror an edge against me if I ever played it.
Standard Mythic Ruler decks generally play 2 copies, each, of The White Stone of Legend and Blue Eyes White Dragon, providing more targets to fuel Trade-In and Cards of Consonance but unfortunately, this creates a consistency problem. I found that the deck is at its most consistent with only one copy of both of these cards and an extra copy of Mythic Water Dragon.
Lastly I want to explain, in detail, the boost in power that Dragons of Legend give to Mythic Rulers. The only two cards from this set that were played in this deck were Kuribandit and Soul Charge but they made all of the difference this past weekend.
Kuribandit
Atk/1000 Def/700
Dark
Fiend/Effect
During the End Phase, if this card was normal summoned this turn: You can tribute this card; Excavate the top five cards of your deck, you can add one excavated spell/trap card to your hand, also send the remaining cards to the graveyard.
I wholeheartedly believe that this card was created to be played in any Dragon Ruler themed deck and honestly, this was probably the greatest thing to ever happen to Dragon Rulers since they were all limited to one copy each! Like seriously, being able to send not only Dragon Rulers but other dragon type cards to the graveyard, such as The White Stone of Legend. This card, better than any other card in the game, effectively fuels soul charge, making them a dynamic duo, comparable to, if not better than Graceful Charity and Sinister Serpent. (If you have ever seen me at an event you will see me always playing Goat Control. I love playing 2005 Goat Control and often find myself comparing cards to some of the banned cards from that format.)
Next up is Soul Charge.
Soul Charge
Spell Card
Target any number of monsters in your graveyard; Special summon them and if you do, you lose 1000 life points for each monster special summoned by this effect. You cannot conduct your battle phase the turn you activate this card. You can only activate one “Soul Charge” per turn.
Wow! That just about sums up the essence of that card in one word. I don’t think that a card has been created that was this overpowered since Dimension Fusion was played!(I swear, me and my goats! lol) But seriously, did you guys read what this card does? Well if you weren’t playing mythic rulers this past weekend at ARGCS Richmond then I'm fairly sure that you didn't! I don’t think I could bring myself to play anything other than a deck that can open with Dragon Shrine into Soul Charge with a trap to back it up. Is that not the most broken opening or what?!?
Well without further adieu, my tourney report!
Round 1
Vs. Continuous Trap Deck
Game 1: I won the dice roll and proceeded to begin the match with an opening of multiple draw cards. Starting off with the deck performing better than it did in testing strengthened my belief that Id made the best choice for my deck. My ending turn one field was Stardust Dragon and Azure Eyes Silver Dragon, thanks to soul charge, accompanied by a set Raigeki break, pwwb and and maxx “c” in hand so naturally I felt as if I had nothing to worry about. Man was I wrong. My opponent begins his turn and sets 5 cards to his backrow and activates pot of duality to grab a marshmallon and set it. He ends his turn and my enthusiasm for the round quickly leaves me as I immediately start thinking that I am going to lose round one to a burn deck. I start my turn and start a conversation about how burn was probably a good pick for this tournament seeing as how everyone was more than likely playing soul charge. He then replies by telling me that he was not playing burn and I was baffled because I was not sure if he was lying or not. During my standby phase I summon back flamvell guard and summon a dragon to make a scrap dragon and destroyed the set marshmallon and immediately begin my battle phase by attacking with scrap dragon and he activates gravity bind. I then notice that his deck was playing 60 cards and right then and there I realized I was playing against a stall deck. I passed turn and he draws for turn and immediately passes. I draw and then I summon back guard during my standby phase again. I make spark dragon and attempt to destroy his gravity bind with a scrap-spark combo but he then flips imperial customs. Imagine how annoying that is! Though this was a very annoying and long game one I managed to pull it out because of scrap dragons ability to keep destroying his cards at no expense to myself.
Game 2: He starts with multiple floodgate cards which did not allow me to play so I quickly scooped in fear of his deck having the upper hand in time.
Game 3: I started off very strong ending with a scrap dragon-spark combo that made game three a breeze seeing as how he had no outs to it.
1-0
Round 2
Vs. Alyxander Lisgathe Mythic Rulers
Game 1: Alyx won the die roll and opened with a very strong spark dragon-vanity’s combo that I had no out to. I opened with raigeki break and thought to myself that this was pretty funny seeing as how I knew that this card wouldn't help much against the mirror so I conceded and went to game 2.
Game 2: I opened very unplayable so I set one spell to my backrow and passed turn. Alyx opened with multiple draw cards and quickly takes advantage of the game and after a few turns of him having such a massive advantage I scoop so that I can get something to eat.
1-1
Round 3
Vs. Bujins
Game 1: He wins the dice roll and opens Kaiser Colosseum and bujin yamato. I begin my turn with a flurry of draw cards and special summons to quickly take advantage of the game and after a few minor misplays from my opponent I end game one very shortly.
Game 2: my opponent opens up pretty similar to game one and we exchange a few turns of dragon-bujin plays but dragons prove to be to resourceful and I quickly win the match.
2-1
Round 4
Vs. Darkworld
Game 1: My opponent wins the dice roll and starts with some pretty moderate “darkworld” plays which eventually lead to me taking an early advantage in game one because he played two dark world dealings which I discarded two dragon rulers off of. The game lasted for a while because of skill drain but that eventually proved to be the reason that I won the game because I continued to keep removing his field spell which kept my blaster stronger than all of his monsters and I won game 1.
Game 2: I opened very unplayable while he opened what most darkworld players would call “the nuts” so I scooped after I drew for turn because we were getting ready to go into time.
Game 3: I opened moderate and had a soul charge play to which he could not answer the following turn so took advantage of the game very early.
3-1
Round 5
Vs. Geargia
Game 1: He sets a monster and five s/t to his backrow and my morale diminishes drastically as I look at my hand with a bunch of draw spell and no targets. I then draw a dragon shrine for my turn with which I use to send a white stone to the grave to add blue eyes to my hand and from there I continue to draw more and more cards that result with me having lots of targets to banish for the two dragons that I managed to draw and I quickly take advantage of the game with dragon ruler summons followed by a strong soul charge play which he had no answer to after I exhausted most of his backrow.
Game 2: He wins very quickly thanks to a number of floodgate cards that I was unable to draw any outs to.
Game 3: I open very strong but without any outs to any floodgate cards. I made a scrap dragon turn one which is very hard for that deck to deal with. He draws and sets four to his backrow with no monsters. As I draw he compulses my scrap dragon and I normal summon kuribandit. I end my turn praying that he does not have geargiagear which he doesn’t and with kuribandits effect I added MST to my hand and milled some dragons to my grave and from there the game is a blowout.
4-1
Round 6
Vs. Mermail
Game 1: I lost the dice roll but quickly realize that my opponent doesn’t know how to properly play the deck and I blow him away with a turn one Heliopolis play that seals the game for me.
Game 2: Again, thanks to numerous misplays and the lack of floodgate cards needed to give his deck an edge against mines I win the game in a dragon ruler manor.
5-1
Round 7
Vs. Geargia
Game 1: My opponent wins the dice roll and opens with what is probably the best hand a geargia player could open and destroys me as he has answers for every play that I make and on top of that, he had set armor and geargiagear. Can you say blowout?!?
Game 2: I open with more traps than desired but they were good as they allowed me the necessary turn to draw into my combo pieces but this ends up making the game long. At some point in the game he has a face up soul drain which I have no answer for and set armor but I topdeck soul charge which immediately ends the game for him.
Game three he opens very unplayable with multiple black horns of heaven but no real monster to get him ahead. I start with many dragons and all the draw cards I need to fuel them. Because I had not seen any mirror forces in our previous duels I decided to simply attack with my dragons and then set double skill drains which eventually ended up winning me the game.
6-1
Round 8
Vs. 3.5 Axis Fire Fists
Game 1: My opponent begins by summoning traptrix myrmeleo and added bottomless trap hole to his hand which he set along with four other s/t cards. My hand was very good and was surprisingly able to deal with the set bottomless. After a dragon shrine and a cards of consonance I drew into soul charge and trade in. with tidal in grave I decided that I would bait out the bottomless with my soul charge knowing that if he used his bottomless I would be able to search mythic water dragon and use trade-in. he decides not to use his bottomless and instead allows me to Synchro summon. I'm sure he was aware of the fact that I would get a search for tidal being banished and probably hoped that I would make a scrap dragon or something that could be killed by bottomless but I decided to make stardust and from there his bottomless trap hole was dead and the I proceeded to make plays freely without the threat of torrential or bottomless thanks to stardust.
Game 2: He opens with a fossil dyna and one backrow. I open pretty strong but no outs to fossil dyna so I just set a flamvell guard and passed turn. He then draws and summons fire fist bear with which he attacks into my guard which has 2000 defense. I then draw and set two pwwb to my backrow and set a debris dragon. He then summons another fossil dyna and passes turn. I draw and activate both of my pwwbs and sacrifice both of my monsters for tidal with which I proceed to kill all of his monsters in following turns. At this point I have accumulated to much control over the game and win the game because of tidal and other special summon plays that I was able to make once I cleared his field of his fossil dynas.
7-1
Round 9
I played against my good friend Admassu Williams, with whom I decided to draw, landing us both guaranteed spots in top 16.
7-1-1
After the 9th and final round they called the top 16 standings. Me and Patrick both made top cut with the deck that we had both put a lot of time and effort into so it was good being able to actually reap the benefits of our labor. Patrick, the leverets and I all have this arrangement when we travel to major events that who ever does the best is allowed to pick where we eat for that night and would be allowed to take the last shower the following morning so that they could sleep longer. I, having had the best record, decided that we would eat at Outback Steakhouse for the night. After dinner we headed to the hotel with much anticipation for the top cut rounds the next morning.
The next morning came too soon as it seemed like I blinked and woke up already sitting across from my opponent. I did as much preparation for my match but when it comes down to it there isn’t much prep needed for bujins. It’s a pretty linear deck with overly obvious plays so I began the match with, maybe too much, confidence that I would surely win.
Top 16
Vs. Bujins
Game 1: My opponent wins the dice roll and opens with Yamato-Colosseum. Naturally I was less than happy about this. He sends hare to his grave and passes turn. My hand, subpar at best, does not provide me with any plays to deal with my opponents opening and the game quickly takes a turn for the worse. After a few turn of exchanging plays I concede defeat.
Game 2: I opened very well and though there were a few back and forth moments a skill drain seals the deal later in the game.
Game 3: my opponent draws for turn and summons a monster. I close my eyes, praying that it isn’t yamato and when I open my eyes it turns out to be Mikizuchi. I explain to my opponent that he may as well quit now that his deck didn’t open the one good card in it. We laugh and he passes turn. I start with a flurry of draw cards but am forced to pass turn as I have no plays. He draws and attacks and passes turn. I draw and pass turn. He draws and repeats the cycle. I draw for turn and its soul charge. I play the soul charge immediately, ending me with a field of Azure Eyes Silver Dragon and stardust dragon. From there my opponent quickly loses what little control of the game he had. I get on the offensive but play it safely being that I've already taken 3800 damage from Mikizuchi. I end up in a position where I am forced to put azure eyes in attack mode and if he draws a beast warrior bujin for the crane in his hand I would lose. Fortunately, his deck did what I expected it to do and on the following turn, the better deck won.
Top 8
Vs. Patrick Hoban Mythic Rulers
Seriously?!? Of all the people I have to play on my way to my first ring it has to be Patrick?!? Well this wasn’t desirable for either of us as we both were very confident in the others abilities to pilot the deck.
Game 1: I win the dice roll and begin with a few draw cards that get me nowhere. I pass turn and Patrick simply sets 2 to his backrow so I'm thinking I have a great chance of taking game 1 so long as my next draw can get me somewhere. Unfortunately it was not a good draw and I am forced to pass turn. On Patrick’s next turn he drew one draw card and from there began a long series of plays quickly putting him ahead. After a few turns I found myself summoning a dragon ruler and Patrick activating Maxx “C” and placing me in a very bad position. After a quick survey of the field and graves I realized that I would lose this game if I did not attempt to deck him out. My plan was working out with me knowing that the only thing that I would lose to was a combination of torrential tribute and pwwb for the stardust that I had made. Unfortunately Patrick did have the traps I mentioned and used them when I played my soul charge effectively ending the game from there.
Game 2: I didn’t open as well as I’d hoped, being able to only make a play that ended with Stardust Spark Dragon and a Maxx “C” in hand. Patrick starts his turn by playing dragon shrine and sending flamvell guard and tidal to his grave. He banishes a dragon from his hand and the guard from his grave to summon tidal, to which I activate Maxx “C”. His hand, being less than great, forced him to play through the Maxx “C” ending him with a field of Dragulon which was able to take my Spark Dragon and a set Vanity’s Emptiness. I’d drawn around 10 cards but unfortunately none of them were outs to his field ending this game in two turns.
Congrats to Patrick who would later go on to become the champion of ARGCS Richmond!
All in all this was a wonderful event giving me my 6th major event top and second top in less than a month. Hopefully this report was eye opening for you players out there who still question the value of playing Mythic Rulers. Dragons are forever! Well until next time, PLAY HARD OR GO HOME!!!!!!!
Latest posts by Desmond Johnson (see all)
- ARGCS Richmond Top 8 Tournament Report - May 4, 2014
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