After the World’s tournament I've pretty much been out of the Yu-Gi-Oh scene, but that changed this weekend when I was able to finally attend another YCS at Seattle! Although I didn't get into the top 32, I still managed to finish with a pretty good record and I thought I’d share my experience of the tournament with you all today.
Leading up to the even I once again had to figure out what I was going to play, was there some degenerate deck strategy I could once again exploit? After testing and theorizing everything I could think of, it was pretty clear that wind ups and water in this meta made most all rouge decks obsolete. I went through my usual episode of testing all the decks, deciding their all bad, and going with what I think is the “least bad”. It wasn't without purpose however, because play testing with the water and spellbook decks made me know exactly what to expect when playing against it and learn it’s weaknesses as well, for example I knew shockmaster was basically unstoppable against water. As such, I opted to play Wind Ups at this event. Ironically when speaking with my friend during the event Saturday, we realized Inzektors would have been a pretty good meta call, and then of course it wins the event.
When I finally decided to go to Seattle it was pretty iffy, I had to get a ride from Arkansas to Kansas to catch my flight and ended up having to take a bus that was an interesting experience to say the least. Not only that but I had to take a bus from the airport to the convention center, and I’ve never seen people cuss out an employee because they can’t afford $1 more for a bus trip, oh my! I get to the event Friday around 7 and meet up with an Australian duelist Jono (he probably knows Bodan) who I was staying with for the event. Friday night I go out to dinner with everybody from ARG and had a really great time, this was the first time I actually got to hang out with any of them and honestly I really enjoyed it, they’re all great people. I tried to get Jono to come too but he insisted he “just ate” and refused to get up. Who knows, anyway…. Got up early Saturday to register and the event began!
Round 1: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Six Samurai)
Game one-
He opened gateway and Kageiki and I near fainted from disappointment. Luckily he didn’t have the Kagemusha in hand, and he actually made a lot of play errors as well. I would have easily lost if he used his counters more effectively but he had just started playing again luckily for me and I eventually mustered up some combos to push for advantage.
Game two-
Almost the same thing, opened gateway AGAIN! But no Samurai spam.
He didn’t know what my Wind Ups did either.
Record: 1-0
Round 2: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. 12 year old (Dino Rabbit)
After Philadelphia I was pretty nervous about playing against small children, especially ones piloting Dino Rabbit.
Game one-
By turn 2 or 3 he has out Laggia and Sabersauras with a backrow to my Tour Guide from the Underworld, Dark Hole, Mind Control, and Wind Up Factory. I use Mind Control and he negates, then I use Dark Hole and go Tour Guide into Zenmaity, his last card facedown was book of moon. I set the Factory and pass my turn to his no cards in hand and no cards on field. No monster I win, any vanilla and I’m still in decent shape. He uses magic and top decks Guiba! I proceed to lose shortly after.
Game two-
Pretty much a repeat; I turn one Zenmaity and factory to get some advantage going. He opens heavy storm and Guiba.
The funny part was he showed me them before I was even done searching off factory. Also, he showed me what he was siding in! After the match he said yeah I just 2-0’d him, it was pretty easy. The best part however was later I get told that he didn’t know who I was telling people “Yeah I just beat Tyler Tabman”. This kid was by all means a true champion, and hilarious on all counts.
Record: 1-1
Round 3: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Agents)
Game one-
He doesn’t get any momentum going so I capitalize by floating with rabbits and Zenmaines, killing his trag and pushing for damage until I eventually win.
Game two-
I opened shark magician and called spells on shockmaster and set protection so on the proceeding turn I can get off my Zenmaity and go for game from there.
Record: 2-1
Round 4: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Water)
Game one-
I sealed a quick game by going shark magician into shock lock on spells, unfortunately he’s playing water and had I known I obviously would of called monsters. He uses undine into infantry to destroy my shock master, however I still have too much momentum going and push for game on the board a turn or two later.
Game two-
I have rabbit and 2x Dimensional Fissure to his set monster and 2 set backrow, I activate one of them and attack, getting hit by a Mystical Space Typhoon and thus triggering his Abysslinda. I clearly should of activated both MST’s. I end up using the second one main phase 2 but it gets blasted by a second MST on his turn and my hand doesn’t have nearly enough protection.
Game three-
I open worse with 4 monsters, Dimensional fissure, and 1 other backrow. I summon thunder king and pass my turn. He goes summon Marksmen, mind control Thunder king, attack with marksmen into Dragoon, attack directly, then XYZ Dragoon and Thunder King into Abyss Dweller and detach to trigger dragoons effect. After that I’m at a huge disadvantage and lose shortly after.
Record: 2-2
Round 5: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Machina Gadgets)
Game one-
He starts off with a Gearframe to my subpar hand, I opt to just go Rat Shark into a Zenmaines to keep myself from being poked to death, but I knew I’d probably still lose anyway to gadget spam and XYZ’s where I’d slowly but surely lose advantage. He decides to go for a huge push instead with double Fortress right into my Mirror Force and I take the game pretty easily from there.
Game two-
Thunder King hits the field, I D-Prison his Fortress, and the rest is history.
Record: 3-2
Round 6: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Watts)
Game one-
I got there at 34minutes… game loss!
Game two-
I opened magician shark and used shock master to lock down his traps and took the game pretty easily.
Game three-
An early mirror force on his watts took the pressure off of me as I swarmed him and sealed the game with a dust tornado to his messenger of peace and he obviously didn’t draw much protection this game.
Record: 4-2
Round 7: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Machina Geargia)
Game one and two-
I don’t remember these two specifically other than both games I got off an early factory for massive advantage. Game two I eventually got off a Zenmaioh play to blow up a Dimensional Prison and attack for game! I played Zenmaioh just for this matchup so I was pretty happy it served it’s purpose.
Record: 5-2
Round 8: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. Chris Kendrick (Wind Ups)
Game one-
I open up Tour Guide and 2 Wind Up Sharks. I go for the shockmaster combo and for some reason make shark a lvl 3 and bring out wind up rat, after realizing that was stupid I overlayed rat and shark into zenmaines, dropped the second shark, and made shockmaster anyway. This put a lot of pressure on him and I won the game two turns later.
Game two-
This time he opens up Shark/Mag and calls shockmaster on monster effects. My hand is Fiendish Chain, Solemn Judgment, Wind Up Factory, Wind Up Rabbit, Torrential Tribute, and something else… Anywho it was exactly the perfect cards to almost muster up a comeback, I wipe the board with torrential after chaining his shockmaster, we get into a topdeck war and I rip a tour guide while he has messenger up. Next turn he rips his own rat for a temtempo play and I drew blanks after that.
Game three-
I don’t remember lol. But I won!
Afterwards I had him show me the combos for if you have a second shark and whatnot to make sure I was doing it right! Getting advice 9 rounds into the tournament, preparation is not my strongest area.
Record: 6-2
Round 9: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. (Agents)
Game one-
Turn one I set Sangan and Torrential Tribute. He summons Venus and I use Torrential on the second Shine Ball, and he uses Herald of Orange Light to negate my Sangan by discarding Kristya. He sets one and passes, I set one and pass right back. He uses Call of the Haunted to get Kristya and I fiendish chain when he attacks. Main Phase 2 He summons Thunder king and ends. The board ends up being my hand of Rat, Shark, Warning, Book of Moon, and Mind Control with a Fiendish Chain face up to his Kristya, Thunder King, and 2 cards in hand. I summon Rat, special Shark, and mind control Thunder King to overlay Shark and Thunder King (his Kristya is being negated by my fiendish chain) into Maestroke, detach a material to put Kristya facedown I’m able to put a target in the grave for my Rat. I use Rat, go into Zenmaity into another Rat and go Leviathan. Leviathan attacks over Kristya putting it back on top (with unfortunately 4 fairies in grave, but I knew that and had the Warning to stop it) and Maestroke and Zenmaity get direct hits. I set Warning and Book then end my turn. He drops Kristya into Warning and I win on the following turn.
Game two-
He literally otk’s me turn two and has herald for my trag, oh my!
Game three-
I open Dimensional Fissure, Shark, Magician… I play Dimensional Fissure and he chains Maxx C, damn! So his turn he goes Tour Guide into Zenmaines, set one and pass. I MST the set card and now use my Shark Magician into Zenmaity, Temtempo, and Maestroke. Temtempo detaches from zenmaines, I end, and detach the second material, giving me a 2700 and 2800 monsters which have to be destroyed 4 times! He has 2 shineballs in hand and is in no position to recover from that.
Record: 7-2
Round 10: Tyler Tabman (Wind Ups) vs. Chris Hentz (Wind Ups)
I’m sad I had to play a friend of mine on the bubble 🙁 especially since he’s a good player, challenges in clutch times is no fun!
Game one-
I open factory which is just blowout in the mirror to say the least.
Game two-
He opens Tour Guide and Factory but luckily I have the Maxx C to stop him, he leaves his Tour Guides there and ends his turn. My hand is Pot of Avarice, Monster Reborn, Heavy Storm, Wind up Rat, Fiendish Chain, Wind up Factory. NOOO! It looked so good but without anything to get going I just had to heavy his factory, use mine, and end my turn. I got OTK’d next turn.
Game 3-
Bit of a grind, he opened pretty poorly with just multiple backrow so I went for rabbit beatdown and didn’t commit anything to trigger his backrows. I summoned my shark after a few hits and started poking with that as well, since I had some protection down I didn’t even XYZ as I didn’t want to run into a Bottomless Trap Hole or Solemn Warning. Eventually the board comes down to my 2 rabbits and shark to his 4 backrow and wind up rabbit. I attack with shark and he uses chain on my rabbit, when I use the effect he chains Needle Ceiling so we both banish one rabbit and my other rabbit and shark are destroyed. Main phase 2 I use reborn on his rat, grab the rabbit and end my turn. He draws factory, uses rabbit and grabs magician and sets it and I banish rat for rabbits effect. My turn I activate the now usable rats effect and XYZ into leviar and if he has bottomless he’d have to let it go through because he can’t afford a zenmaity play. It goes through, I grab his rabbit, and XYZ into Zenmaity which he in turns uses Bottomless. I summon the other rat from my hand and he doesn’t have an answer.
Record: 8-2
Well, due to my tiebreakers I ended up getting 36th place and being the lowest ranked x-2. I’m not sad though, a 4th top in a row would have been really cool but I’m happy with my performance first event back since Worlds and I’ll be sure to do better next event! No doubt I’ll attend the next one and stick with the game more guys so be alert. I don’t have too much to say for Seattle, the meta was pretty obvious and outside a few rouge decks it played pretty much as expected. Until next time guys, play hard or go home!
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