Hello to everyone, I am Rodrigo Togores and I recently topped 16 at the last YCS Toulouse with bubble beat! Here is a list of my credentials:

-          I have top 8ed or won every single national championship that has been held in Spain since 2004 except for 3 of them.

-           I won SJC Orlando 2009 with Blackwings

-           Top 16 at SJC Los Angeles with Express Zombie

-           Won the 2010 European championship with Frog FTK!

-          I have also attended 3 world championships

WARNING! This is a quite a long report, it would be much better to tend to your everyday needs (eating, going to the bathroom, etc) before reading any further. =)

At first of all I want to thanks Sorosh Seberian for correcting and editing this long, long, long article.

After missing YCS Brighton I was expecting to attend YCS Leipzig, I put together a Dino Rabbit deck which I borrowed and tested with Alistar Albans and Michel Günner. I got to day 2 but then lost to a Wind-Up deck on the bubble main decking both DAD and BLS. Although strong, the deck is rather boring to play. So I decided that for Toulouse I would play a non T1 deck that a liked. I generally tend to get my best results with non meta decks that I enjoy playing. Having a good deck is not as important as have fun with it: If you enjoy the deck, your result will be better because you are playing more comfortably. So I started to test Samurais and Bubble beat. I won an Ipad tourney in Spain with samurais and I was also doing well with them when testing. I got 7^th at a major event with Bubble beat a few weeks later. As a result, I had to decide on which deck I wanted to play.

At the beginning, I was favouring samurais. I had it tested and ready for Toulouse but the night before, I was testing with Michel and he destroyed me 6-0. When that happens right before an event, you lose a lot of confidence. As a result, I built the Bubble beat deck and finished 3-3 against him. The deck did much better than I had expected against one of the best European Players.  I decided to test a third deck to see if Bubble Beat is the best choice. I made a Skill drain hero deck and finished with another 3-3. So both decks seemed to work pretty well against his Dino Rabbit deck. I decided to play Bubble Beat due to its ability of making strong plays consistently at a fast pace. I strongly believe that Absolute zero is one of the best cards in the game and this deck could summon it with ease. Furthermore, the deck can control the flow of the game and OTK in a flash. Here is the list:

Main Deck:

3 Elemental HERO Neos Alius
3 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
1 Elemental HERO Stratos

3 E - Emergency Call
1 Forbidden Chalice
3 Pot of Duality
3 Gemini Spark
1 Monster Reborn
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Dark Hole
3 Miracle Fusion

2 Torrential Tribute
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Mirror Force
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Hero Blast
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Side Deck:

2 Smashing Ground
2 Super Polymerization
2 Snowman Eater
2 Maxx "C"
2 Effect Veiler
3 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Rivalry of Warlords

Extra Deck:

3 Elemental HERO The Shining
2 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
2 Elemental HERO Nova Master
1 Elemental HERO Great Tornado
1 Gaia Knight, The Force of Earth
2 Blade Armour Ninja
2 Number 39: Utopia
1 Number C39: Utopia Ray
1 Stardust Dragon

In my original deck, I main decked 1 Super Polymerization and 1 Forbidden Chalice. I also side decked 3 Rivalry and 2 Bottomless. This is why testing decks is important. It lets you tweak  the deck a lot. I was considering on playing a second copy of forbidden Chalice instead of 1 Smashing Ground. However, I came to the conclusion that siding a second chalice is a waste of space. So I left the sideboard like this. If I were to play the deck list now, when dragons becoming tier 1, I would reconsider my side deck choices and swap in bottomless for the Smashing; even though smashing is a good card against Dark world or mirror match.

Here is a little tutorial on how to play the deck. The ideal hand is one that lets you summon Stratos search for Bubbleman, set all your cards, SS bubbleman get and then Xyz into ninja. From there on detach the Stratos flip monster reborn and rinse and repeat. This is only possible if your opponent does not have any responses.

I cannot stress this enough but DO NOT waste your Heavy Storm! I will demonstrate this throughout the report as I discuss my games. The point is that you are playing a control deck. If you set 2 cards to your back rows, more often than not, your opponent will also set 2. You should set cards even if you have heavy storm. All of your sets will destroy their monsters to stop their big pushes. Once you have used your trap cards and are able to make a big play, you can use your heavy storm for a plus 1-3 and put yourself in an ideal position to win the duel.  This happens much more than you think. One of the best Storm plays I have made with this deck is Duality into Starlight then set Storm, 1-2 E-call or one Duality. He is not going to Storm you because you have Road. Then he is going to set 2-3 cards and you are going to Flip all your Spells and win the game.

Don’t waste your MST. For example if your opponent has 1 back row and you are going to summon Stratos, you do not need to use your MST. If your opponent has more than 1 back row, set your MST and leave it there. You shouldn’t force yourself to play an MST in this position. If your opponent sets a new card don’t MST it, just wait until you really need it or wait until your opponent activates his MST, Fiendish Chain or Call of the Haunted, or decree post side.

From there on it’s a control deck. Get your +1s by attacking over their monsters, chaining Gemini Spark on his Torrential and Prisons, Getting back Alius with Hero Blast, and destroying his Xyz with your monster removals and with big fusions.  The trick of this deck is “not to lose” you are going to play and play and get advantage without letting your opponent go off. Then find a spot and combo him with ninjas and miracles.

The deck plays much different than other hero decks because you play 20 monsters.  Your opponent will have fewer traps than you have monsters. As a result, don’t waste your cards. You need to try and outplay your opponent as much as possible.

Don’t randomly set your entire hand. It’s fine to lose 2 cards to a heavy storm if your opponent is not making a big push. It’s much better to lose those 2 cards then set 3-5 cards without fear and win from there on. One great move I like, is Summon Alius first turn and set Blast and Spark. If your opponent Storms you: You chain your Spark and because its cost you can also chain Blast. So you lost 3 cards, and your opponent one, then you drew a card and got hero back. So you are at the same number of cards as your opponent.

Never, ever, ever forget the 2^nd effect of Bubbleman to draw 2 cards. It has happens 2 times to me and I lost the game because of that. Usually having MST and Bubbleman in hand I set both and lose. So never forget this option.

Now the tournament report of YCS Toulouse starts, enjoy!

After taking a shower and eating breakfast my friends and I took a taxi to the venue. There I caught up with my friends until round 1 started.

1st round I played with a French guy without play mat and with all his synchros in different colored sleeves, I thought it would be an easy matchup against a random deck, but after my first turn I discovered he was playing rabbit. I won easily anyway. Only lost 2000 lp cause of a warning to stop a big play. I began to side:

Out:

-1 Starlight Road

- 1 Mirror Force

-2 Dimensional Prison

-1 Gemini Spark (Duel his Spell and trap negation engine)

- 1 Pot of duality

In:

+2 Snowman Eaters

+2 Super Polymerization

+2 Rivalry of Warlords (The vanillas are Dinosaur but the XYZ are Dragon)

Second game was quite weird. He didn’t side deck Royal Decree and wasted his Storm and MST fast. I also managed to get rid of his dinos so that he was not able to make more Evol monsters.  At this point in the game I believed that I was in total control. He had a Sabersaurus on field and on his turn, summoned a Tour Guide. I chained to the effect with Rivalry and he selected the Guide. The turn after, he top decked Pot and played it to put 2 Guides Sangan and 2 Reaper back in his deck. I let it resolve because he had no outs lefts to rivalry and all my monsters. After this move there were only 11 min on the clock and I was losing in life. Pot resolved and I counted my deck and his deck. I was at 11 cards and he was at 8. Needless to say, I decked him out =).

2-0 (total games count 2-0 Total match count 1-0)

2^nd Round I played against a French guy who ran a Six Samurai deck. I started the duel by summoning Alius, setting Spark and warning before ending my turn.  On his turn he activated dojo and summoned Kagemusha. I played warning to negate the summon and he ended his turn without making any other plays. On my turn I set all my cards and summoned Bubbleman then flipped E-Call and summoned Stratos who got me another Bubbleman. Summoned this one and XYZ two Blade Armor Ninja, activated their effects and won the game. I sided:

Out:

-1 Elemental Hero Bubbleman

-1 Gemini Spark (Duel his Spell and trap negation engine)

-1 Starlight Road (They usually don’t play Torrential, Mirror Force, Dark Hole or Storm)

-1 Pot of Duality

In:

+2 Super polymerization (Naturia Beast and a E-Hero plus Any other SS it’s a way to kill Shi-En)

+2 Snowman Eaters

The second game he starts off by activating 2 dojos before summoning elder and special summoning kizan. He then uses both dojo’s to summon Kagemusha and the monkey.  This allows him to synchro summon for Shi-En and Naturia Beast before ending his turn. On my turn, I summoned Stratos and searched for Alius and passed with some bad back rows. He attacked and killed stratos and ended his turn after setting 1 back row I drew Super Poli and Made E-Hero Gaia but he was removed with a Bottomless  Trap Hole. My opponent then top decked a monster reborn and proceeded to win the duel by summoning back naturia beast.

Third game I started off by summoning Alius and setting Solemn, MST and Mirror Force. He activated SS United  special summons an Elder and then a Kizan.  I MST his SS United in response to the summon. He proceeds to normal summon a Kageki without activating his effect. He overlayed both lv 3 to N17 Leviathan detached one and attacked straight into my Mirror Force and from there on I won the game pretty Fast.

2-1 (total games count 4-1 Total match count 2-0)

3^rd Round I played against a Hero deck that mained Barbados, skill drain, and 2 Bubbleman (I think is a bad synergy playing Skill Drain and Bubbleman together). I won both games pretty easily by outplaying my opponent. I Gained advantages from using Sparks and Hero blasts while making him waste resources. I Sided:

Out:

-2 Fiendish Chain

-1 Forbidden Chalice

-1 Book Of moon

-2 Pot of Duality (Thunder king Rai-oh was in his deck)

In:

+2 Snowman Eaters

+2 Super Polymerization

+2 Smashing Ground

2-0 (total games count 6-1 Total match count 3-0)

4^th Round I played against Wind-ups. My opponent drew pretty bad awful vs. my deck.  He only drew 2 Maxx “C” and 1 shark which I later removed using a prison. It was still pretty close. My Miracle Fusion got negated by Warning; I then played MST on his last back row so that I could play my last miracle fusion.  Shining attacked and next turn he tried to go off but warning stopped it. On my turn I summoned Alius and entered the battle phase because he may have and I Sparked his back row just to make sure that he did not top deck a mirror force or prison to stop me from winning this turn.

By the Way here is the video thanks to Lithium2300 for recording so many games at the YCS.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hdaafS2aFc

I sided out:

-1 Bubbleman (it’s a nice top deck after loop top deck but with 4 more monsters main deck it’s not so good)

-1 Starlight Road (Bad top deck)

-2 Dimensional Prison (My Power Rangers are usually stronger)

-1 Mirror Force (Same as Prison)

In:

+2 Maxx “C”

+2 Effect Veiler

+2 Rivalry Of warlords

Second game he started with 3 back rows, I Stormed him destroying Torrential, Solemn Warning and Royal Decree. The I Summoned Alius attacked, set Solemn Judgment and Warning along with Rivalry. The storm advantage and the power of my back row finished the duel quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApAPC4byb4E

2-0 (total games count 8-1 Total match count 4-0)

5^th Round I played a Dark World duelist from France who also got top 32 the next day. The first game I lost because he drew all of his power cards. It is very hard to deal with Grapha when you do not have a prison. I Sided:

Out:

-1 Bubbleman

-1 Forbidden chalice

-2 Fiendish Chain

-1 Starlight Road

-2 Hero Blast

In:

+3 Shadow Imprisoning Mirror

+2 Snowman Eaters

+2 Smashing Ground

This game I had to try to control the game as much as possible. The goal is to hold out until I can make a combo come back. Essentially I have to use as much removal on his monsters as I can since the dark world deck does not have a lot of monsters. With this in mind, I started with Alius, a back row Mirror Force, and Book of moon.  He summoned Snow and activated the field. Then attacked, I contemplated on my move because I had reborn in hand. After some consideration, I decided to play book of moon in order to kill snow the turn after. On my turn, I attacked over snow and reborned it rendering making my opponents field car useless. This move bought me a few turns which enabled me to win with Shadow Imprisoning Mirror.

The third game he goes first. I cannot recall the exact events that took place in this duel since I otked him using the standard ninja combo.

2-1 (total games count 10-2 Total match count 5-0)

6^th Round Italian player with Inzector. first  game he dropped a Dark Armed Dragon by turn 3 and I was not able to kill it. The game ended pretty quickly because I wasn’t able to get rid of it.

Out:

-1 Mirror Force

-2 Dimensional Prison

-1 Starlight Road

-1 Bubbleman

-2 Pot of Duality

In:

+3 Shadow Imprisoning Mirror

+2 Effect Veiler

+2 Smashing Ground

Against this matchup I never want to have any cards that cannot be chained to an Inzector effect. I started the game by summoning a Stratos first turn (forgot what I fetched). He activated duality to get another duality so I knew he was searching for something. On my turn I simply attacked with stratus again before passing. He then activated duality to get Ryko. So I attacked into the Ryko and on his effect I activated Forbidden chalice so that he didn’t destroy my card or mill. Next turn he top decked the hornet summoned Dragonfly, which I obviously was waiting for with my fiendish chain! But he had his MST ready for it. Little did he know that I had a 2^nd fiendish chain set. From there on I ended up killing him with the Stratos.

Third game he started with some back rows I had Storm in hand along with Pot of Duality, Fiendish Chain Smashing  Chalice and E-call. I activated duality to see if I could draw a Spark to know what to search with E-call. I was shown 2 random cards and monster reborn. I also new from his body language that he didn’t have solemn or Road set. I took reborn and know that 2-4 turns later I would win the game like it happened. I summoned Stratos searched Alius and attacked with it before setting my Fiendish Chain. He set a monster and a back row. I drew some spell or trap and attacked with Stratos, it was a Dragonfly witch was killed with my Chalice, I then Knew that he had Torrential set and was waiting for me to summon Alius. Then next turn he Summoned Centipede activated his effect and I chained the Fiendish Chain. He passed turn. On my turn I stormed his massive 4 back row. Summoned the Alius made a Blade Armor ninja detached the Stratos. Reborned the Stratos and searched for Bubbleman, set all my cards and summoned the Blue Hero and Smashed his Centipede attacking for game.

2-1 (total games count 12-3 Total match count 6-0)

7^th Round, the last one of the day, I played Noel Garde, a really good player piloting Dark World a bad matchup for me.

He managed to play Storm and summon a Leviathan which gained him a lot of advantage. At some point in the game, I realized that I had misplayed. I had a summon available, MST and E-call set. Instead of playing E-call to get Bubbleman  and special summoning it to draw 2 after normal summoning a monster  before attacking, I just normal summoned a monster and attacked. As a result, I lost the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf0SwamM7O8

Out:

-1 Bubbleman

-1 Forbidden chalice

-2 Fiendish Chain

-1 Starlight Road

-2 Hero Blast

In:

+3 Shadow Imprisoning Mirror

+2 Snowman Eaters

+2 Smashing Ground

The Second game I drew very badly and he drew the nuts. I don’t remember the game but I lost pretty easy.  I Summoned Alius set a back row. He played MST and summoned Leviathan which attacked over my White Power Ranger. Then later in the duel, he had Grapha in the graveyard. Grapha gave him a lot of advantage. A few turns later I got OTK by his 2 coming and going lords of the underworlds. I may have misplayed thinking that I could get him to use overextend without gaming me before using my dark hole.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cdy4SIrnUA

0-2 (total games count 12-5 Total match count 6-1)

I Finished 11^th of the YCS and went to the hotel with Michel and all the others, We ordered Pizza and then went out to drink a Little. I got back into the hotel around 3am and went back to sleep.

The next day after breakfast and taking a taxi to the venue, I started the day by facing a friend who was out with us the night before.

8^th Round against the German player Stephan Faust with Wind-Ups. I started with Stratos and managed to control his little toys and win the game.  Playing my removal on his combo try’s.

Out:

-1 Bubbleman

-1 Starlight Road

-2 Dimensional Prisons

-1 Mirror Force

In:

+2 Maxx “C”

+2 Effect Veiler

+2 Rivalry Of warlords

The second game he managed to make a N17 Leviathan and with his big monster he controlled the game. On one turn he had 3 back rows the XYZ and a Rat that just came back from removing it with Wind-up Rabbit. He had In hand a Searched Shark and another card he just drew. He flipped Storm and I chained Rivalry to get rid of a monster. However, he had just drawn his 3^rd MST to kill my rivalry, I ended up chaining book of moon to the MST on his Leviathan so that if he detaches, he is not able to attack directly. But the Rabbit allowed him to combo off and win.

The third game I started with some back rows including Solemn Judgment. I summoned the shining and he runs over it with Kinetic Soldier. Then next turn I Sparked his kinetic and played super aggressive with my Solemn as backup.

2-1 (total games count 14-6 Total match count 7-1)

So I was in Top 32 and didn’t care about losing or winning the next game.

9^th Round against Leroy from France with Dino rabbit main decking Bottomless Trap Hole.  First game I managed to come back from his turn 1 Laggia and turn2 Tour Guide with help of torrential tribute and Fiendish Chain. Lots of people were watching the game. For some reason, I felt like my next opponent would also be a dino deck. I did not want to give people more information about my decklist. As a result, I did not side in my 2 Rivalry.

Out:

-1 Starlight Road

- 1 Mirror Force

-2 Dimensional Prison

In:

+2 Snowman Eaters

+2 Super Polymerization

Second game I tried to storm for 3 cards but he had Solemn Judgment. I  Had a Alius running over his monster and my ninja attacking for game . I was at 1700 with warning back row and he was at 3750 with a back row card and an active decree. He MST his Decree and dropped Gorz to survive at 550. He tried to attack with Gorz and I Negated it with Fiendish chain. I ended my turn to see him top deck an Avarice. He puts his dinos back and summoned a Rabbit special summoning both 1900 monsters from the deck. I responded with Torrential destroying my ninja and his Gorz engine along with the dinos.  Then it came down to who would top a monster first. On my turn I set another Torrential before passing. He drew a card,  set it, and passed. I drew a Fiendish Chain and set it. He drew and passed, then I drew monster reborn and knew his back row were Bottomless and searched his grave for any card with more than 550 but less than 1500. He had no Tour guides or Sangan. The only target that would win me the game was Bubbleman, which I had in my own graveyard. But my opponent had a D.D. Crow! He activated his effect on my Hero drew a Sabersaurus and won the game.

I proceeded to destroy him in game 3 with shining and nova.

Top32 I played a mirror match of Bubble beat. It was sad that the only 2 hero players had to face against each other but usually in the mirror the better player stands out and wins. The first game he started with Future Fusion and I thought he was playing dragons, but he selected Zero. I ended up winning the game pretty easily with starlight road set. I activated and gained even more advantages with cards like spark and hero blast and ended up winning with Miracle fusion.  I sided:

Out:

-2 Fiendish Chain

-1 Book of Moon

-1 Forbidden Chalice

-1 Bubbleman

-1 duality

In:

+2 Snowman Eaters (to eat his snow)

+2 Super Polymerization

+2 Smashing Ground

The second game I drew pretty poorly and he played aggressively with his beat down cards. I ended up losing the game since he had a miracle fusion a few turns later.

The third game I summoned Alius, he rammed his own Alius into mine. I set hero blast he summoned another Alius I played hero blast. Then summoned my Alius attacked and next turn he passed without monster. But with a Super poly. I stormed his back row summoned Stratos searched the Bubbleman xyz into ninja, and game.

Top 16, I played against Wind-Ups! You can read the game here:

https://tcg.konami-europe.net/coverage/8173/top-16-rodrigo-togores-hero-vs-dennis-verspeek-wind-up/

Out:

-1 Bubbleman

-1 Starlight Road

-2 Dimensional Prison

-1 Mirror Force

In:

+2 Maxx “C”

+2 Effect Veiler

+2 Rivalry Of warlords

Both games were very long and if I would have drawn a Miracle in any of those games I would have won, but things happens :(.  When I played the solemn, I would be in a good spot if he didn’t have Reborn. But he had it u,u. I didn’t draw into any Torrential Tribute, which are great cards against Wind-Ups. He had the Reapers and Snowman’s all the time which put me in a really bad spot.

The most interesting part of the duel was this:

Verspeek Summoned Wind-Up Rat and tried to get back Wind-Up Hunter, but Togores played Rivalry of Warlords, which was destroyed by Mystical Space Typhoon. He Summoned Hunter and tributes Rat to discard the Gemini Spark that was drawn off Maxx "C" this turn.

When this situation came up. He had the back row MST  I had Warning MST and Rivalry. I wanted to activate the rivalry but just realized his back row was a MST. From there on I had 2 options. First Activating MST into his MST and when he destroys my Rivalry I lose the game. Or doing nothing and wait. May be I should have activated it and gambled on my 50% chances of him getting my warning. Say your opinion on this move in the comments!

So I lost the match and my chance of winning another big event. But I was very happy, I wanted to top the YCS and I did it with a very fun deck.

Thanks for reading and have a good time dueling.

Rodrigo Togores.

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