The National Championship has come and gone, and Worlds lies just over a month away. A deck not many people have bothered with shined this past weekend, claiming victory over the popular and front runner deck, Tengu Plants. That deck is the futuristic Tech Genus.
Going into this tournament, myself along with fellow ARG Writer and close friend Billy Brake decided to work, and run the T.G. deck that previously had gotten minimal attention prior to this event. With a small showing at some YCS's, it was dismissed as something that wasn't better then the explosive and comborific Tengu Plant deck or sacktastic Samurai deck. But something Billy and myself both realized is that running Plants in this event, wouldn't be the way to go. Everyone knew that Plants would be the most popular deck going into this event and the mirror match was utterly dreadful.
So instead of joining the ranks of Plant players, we decided to try building a deck which had a good match-up vs Plants, yet didn't sacrifice others like Samurai or Gravekeeper. T.G. seemed the way to go, and it was awesome because it was so under the radar... or so we thought.
We first had played a Skill Drain version of the deck, extremely similar to the version that just won the WCQ. After testing we decided that unless you are flipping Skill Drain in the first couple turns, it was not that great of a card, and the deck still had an amazing Plant match-up with out it.
The deck consist of monsters that replace themselves, also known as Floaters. This meant that whenever the opponent dealt with these cards outside of battle, they were more then likely taking a minus in card advantage. The deck is very disruptive, with cards like TG1-EM1 to break up opponents Synchro plays, or steal powerful monsters like Hyper Librarian and Stardust Dragon. My favorite card by far is Horn of the Phantom Beast. A sneaky trap card which can be activated in the damage step, allowing you to boost your monsters to stand toe to tow with most intimidating of creatures, as well as allowing you to draw cards when you destroy them.
We teched our decks with Maxx "C'" and Effect Veiler's, to make sure when going second our opponents couldn't nut hand us (or at least as often). This was very common in many decks this weekend. Finally we were confident in our deck, and match-ups. We disrupt Plants from making their plays, steal opposing Shien's, and bust through Gravekeeper's defenses.
So Friday rolls along, and up until this point, I had only played in 2 YCS's this year and I judged all of my regionals, meaning I didnt have my invite. So I had to LCQ it up with my T.G. deck, which was fine to me cause that meant I got to do some serious field testing. Needless to say, the deck passed with flying colors, laying waste to my opponents and allowing me to play in the WCQ the next day.
So next day rolls around, and I end up going 8-0 out of 9 rounds day 1, and in round 9 I took my first loss to the mirror match. At this point I'm thinking "What the hell? Why did I play this deck?" Billy and I thought this deck was one no one was running but us basically. I had no side deck for the mirror outside of something like Thunder King and Malevolent Catastrophe, so I got absolutely demolished.
Round 10 of day 2 comes along at 9am, and I play against a local player who is also playing T.G. What the heck man? Another mirror match? I pulled it off though as I won and advanced to round 11. I had my second feature match this round where again, I played against the mirror (and eventual champion of the event) and I destroyed him game 1, only to suffer from poor luck, draws, and unfavorable side decking game 2 and 3.
So I take 2 loses to T.G. mirror match, and make top 64. Yay! Well, not yay for long... In top 64 I had to play against another player from my local who also played the same deck. So, another mirror match... my fourth one... And I again lost to the mirror, kicking me out of the tournament. That weekend I played 4 Tengu Plants, 4 T.G. decks, 2 Gravekeeper decks, 1 Water Synchro deck, and 1 Anti-Meta deck. My only losses were to the T.G. mirror. Something I was totally unprepared for. By a complete freak chance I played probably one of the least represented of the current deck types more times then Samurai or Gravekeeper, and tied it with Plants. I was completely in awe of this.
The T.G. mirror is like the Plant mirror. Atrocious. Its so awful. The player who goes first, and can set more cards then the opponent, or has more Phantom Horns will more then likely win. Its not a pretty sight at all. But everything else aside, with what I know now, I am happy with my deck choice. It was easily the best deck going into this event, and I thought keeping it on the down low would allow me to sneak into the Top 6 but I suppose it wasnt in the cards for me. There will always be next year!
So to wrap things up, because frankly just writing about my redonkulous games is starting to drive me a little crazy, what you and everyone else wants is the deck list of course, so here you go duelist, and don't forget to either play hard or go home.
LMJeffJones
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