It would have been silly of anyone to look at the Mermail cards from Abyss Rising and think they would have no impact on the format. Granted, going in, I was under the impression that they were in fact – overhyped. And by that I mean, the way people were talking about them reminded me of the hype surrounding Dark World from YCS Columbus 2011. Now I wasn’t going into the event thinking they were going to completely flop, but I most assuredly did not think they were going to over take the tournament in some overbearing manner – or else I would have played them.
Instead I elected to run Dino-Rabbit, and more specifically Macro Rabbit again. For anyone who had been following this past year, they would probably recognize my love for the Dino-Rabbit archtype. I could go on for days about why I enjoy playing the deck, and argue contrary to what most people believe, that the deck requires a significant amount of skill to pilot successfully on a consistent basis.
Going into Seattle I actually had the opportunity to test a reasonable amount in comparison to some of the other events from the past. I would be lying if I didn’t admit to spending a few nights playing against Top 4 competitor Sorosh Saberian and his early builds of Mermails. The testing I was able to amass turned out to be crucial to my success in Seattle, as I would eventually be paired against a handful of water decks, though of course, experienced my eventual doom against the deck in the Top 32.
From the perspective of other members of ARG, there was no real consensus as to the best deck going into the event. Billy, Jeff and Patrick were adamant about the potential of the Mermail deck, and had spent a serious amount of time perfecting their builds. As indicated in an article in the week leading up to Seattle, Paul was quite certain he was going to play Chaos Dragons, and eventually followed through with it. Past that there was the Wind-Up contingency of our group lead by Samuel Pedigo. I honestly do not think anyone can prepare as much as Sam does for each event, so the fact that he was comfortable enough to play Wind-Ups again should show how confident he was in that deck’s matchup against Mermails.
Then of course there was me. I guess I have always been the Dino-Rabbit advocate of the group, though I have only been successful a few times in pushing members of the team toward running the deck. This time I was going to be the lone soldier sleeving up six normal monsters, but I had been in that position plenty of times before.
For this event I actually came to similar conclusions that I had in the previous format. I found the Mermail deck to essentially take over the popularity of Inzektors, and the remainder of the decks to be almost identical. With that I started with a shell of a deck that was quite similar to that in which I played last format. I bite the bullet and tried cards like Fiendish Chain and Thunder King Rai-Oh but concluded that they were less than ideal for this event. Here is the decklist I ended up registering:
3 Kabazauls
3 Sabersaurus
3 Jurrac Guiaba
2 Rescue Rabbit
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
2 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
1 Night Assailant
3 Forbidden Lance
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Solemn Warning
2 Macro Cosmos
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Snowman Eater
2 Maxx “C”
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Gorz Emissary of Darkness
2 Level Limit – Area B
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Dust Tornado
1 Macro Cosmos
1 Needle Ceiling
2 Evolzar Laggia
2 Evolzar Dolkka
2 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Maestroke the Symphonny Djinn
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Gagaga Cowboy
1 Stardust Dragon
There are a few things I want to talk about before getting into the actual tournament.
Why are you not maining Thunder King Rai-Oh?
I get asked this question a lot. Simply put, Jurrac Guiaba is a better card. When comparing Guiaba and Thunder King there are a lot of things you need to take into consideration. Last format Thunder King was strictly worse than Guiaba against one of your most prevalent matchups – Inzektors, so it actually was not terribly close. This format, I do acknowledge the comparison of the two to be closer, seeing as how Thunder King is actively good against the Mermail deck. However, even with that point swinging in the favor of Thunder King, I cannot tell you how often the simple fact that Guiaba is a Dinosaur ends up winning you an otherwise unwinnable game.
In a perfect world, you either attack over a weak monster, or use a trick to push Guiaba over a monster. Sure, everyone can do that. The thing is, there are so many times when you end up opening with a Normal Monster and end up achieving the same game state that Rescue Rabbit creates just because you had a Guiaba to XYZ with. I have played Dino-Rabbit decks at 5 YCS events, and a failed Nationals attempt, and I have lost count of the amount of times I needed to set up Evolzar plays by setting Guiabas. Thunder King is going to occasionally get you there through his effect, but in all the testing I have done with Dino-Rabbit, and the dozens of YCS rounds I have played the deck, I can confidently say the one word that separates these two monsters is “Dinosaur.”
Then after I explain this decision I usually end up getting asked this question. Well, if you want to main Guiaba, why not run Thunder King over the Spirit Reaper.
You see, this question pertains to an entirely different topic and aspect of the Dino-Rabbit deck. The comparison of Thunder King to Guiaba pertains to two normal summoned beater monsters. Here we are comparing a defensive advantage engine to a normal summoned beater – which is not a fair comparison. The main reason why I elected to play the two copies of Spirit Reaper is that they allow you to alternate between game plans throughout the match. There are times when you simply cannot allow a Thunder King to be hit with a Bottomless Trap Hole. The tempo you lose when that happens while they already have a monster on the field cannot be understated. Having access to Spirit Reaper allows you to set up plays multiple turns ahead by having some sort of defensive creature in the deck. There are only two other monsters I actively want to be setting in this deck – Night Assailant and Sangan. Otherwise every other monster is presumably going to be normal summoned, unless we are in an odd game state. Adding more normal summoned 1900 beaters to the mix was not something I was in the market of. The protection, advantage and uniqueness of the Spirit Reapers were things I was looking for.
Though, you will find a single Thunder King in the side deck. Even with all of reasons I presented for not running it, there were a few matchups where I took out the Guiabas and actually wanted another normal summon to balance out the consistency of monsters in the deck.
Anyway, enough with the decklist. Time to go into the event itself.
Round 1: Agents (Rolls 1-0)
Game 1: I opened up with first game with a Macro Cosmos, Solemn Warning, and two Jurrac Guiabas. I immediately flipped the Macro Cosmos in my opponent’s draw phase, a decision I made before going into the tournament. I was going to play Cosmos immediately – every round, every game one – no exceptions.
The main highlights of the game consisted with me trying to push a Guiaba over an Agent of Mystery – Earth, only to be met by Dimensional Prison. But eventually being able to resolve a Guiaba over another on of his monsters and establish a lock of Macro Cosmos and Evolzar Laggia. My opponent eventually conceded the game due to having multiple dead hand traps, and what I assumed was a Master Hyperion in his hand.
Game 2: This game started relatively slow with both parties trading off our resources. I had sided in both copies of Maxx “C” due to the potential of an early Agent Venus into Gacchi Gacchi play. Unfortunately I ended up drawing both copies of Maxx “C”on the turn after I responded to the summon of Venus with a Bottomless Trap Hole. From this point the game appeared to enter into a dull phase. However, an unexpected copy of Black Luster Soldier quickly turned the math in my opponent’s favor and gave him the win.
Game 3: I opened with a relatively defensive hand consisting of several trap cards. My opponent had been running a trap heavy version of Agents himself, so we ended up pushing through our resources. The critical part of the game came when my opponent destroyed my Sangan and allowed me to search a copy of Rescue Rabbit. From here I left Rescue Rabbit in my hand until I felt I had successfully drained all of my opponent’s resources. I followed it with a game clinching Rescue Rabbit.
1-0
Round 2: Billy Brake with Mermails (Rolls 1-1)
Game 1: So I end up playing Billy for the second event in a row! And yet again, it was not a feature match. Instead of an inherently frustrating Inzektor mirror match, we actually play a matchup that is rather in my deck’s favor.
Billy ended up generating massive card advantages through favorable card interactions. But the nature of Macro Cosmos ended up showing in the middle stages of the game. Even when I was down a considerable amount in sheer card advantage, I was able to draw a Macro Cosmos which completely shut him down and in turn, gave me what ended up being a swift victory.
Game 2: Billy opened this game with the always favorable copy of Genex Undine. The game progressed in a similar fashion to the previous game, however, Mist Wurm ended up making an appearance in this game. At one point of the game I was sitting with a face-up Macro Cosmos, and a face-down Macro Cosmos. Billy made a play which resulting in him summoning a copy of Mist Wurm to bounce my pair of Macros. From there he was able to resolve a few graveyard based effects with Abyssmegalo before passing back to me.
Unfortunately for Billy, once my Macro Cosmos became live again I was able to resolve a crucial Torrential Tribute to clear the board. From here he passed the turn to me with six cards in his hand. With only two copies of Macro Cosmos I ended up drawing a Tour Guide from the Underworld with a Rescue Rabbit removed from play. Not exactly the most skillful way to end a game, but it happens. It did bring my Billy YCS Game record to 4-0. Salt him up.
2-0
Round 3: Nimbles (Rolls 1-2)
Game 1: This deck was crazy! He was using all these new Nimble monsters from the recent set to generate immense amounts of card advantage. He kept trying to play this new field spell which increased the levels of his on field water monsters, in order to summon Wind-Up Zenmaioh. Multiple times I had to turn away the powerful XYZ with trap cards such as Compulsory, and finally a Bottomless Trap Hole. I quickly established my game plan as stalling out for as long as possible until I drew Macro Cosmos. Every play my opponent was making was dependent on the graveyard and I knew Macro would seal the deal. I had drawn a wide array of trap cards throughout the first 5 or 6 turns and had the resources to delay his offensive maneuvers. Once I finally drew Macro Cosmos my opponent’s game plan completely haulted. He was no longer able to abuse his Nimble monsters, and his Swap Frogs essentially became dead. I was eventually able to draw a few Dinosaur monsters to XYZ summon an Evolzar Laggia and seal the game.
Game 2: This game was almost identical to the previous one. There was no Macro Cosmos in sight during the early stages of the game, and because of that my opponent was freely able to slam down Rank 2 XYZ monsters. Once I finally drew the critical trap card, the game turned in my favor until I was able to summon large enough monster to attack over his powered up Gacch Gacchis.
3-0
Round 4: Rabbit (Rolls 1-3)
Game 1: My opponent began the game with a copy of Rescue Rabbit protected by four spell and trap cards. I tried to make a come back, but my opponent blind Mystical Space Typhooned my Torrential Tribute, and any hope of creative chains in order to bait out his Laggia negation went down the drawn. The one opportunity I had to recover was stomped out when my Starlight Road lost out to Solemn Warning.
Game 2: I began the game by setting four spell and trap cards – one of which was Starlight Road. My opponent simply set a copy of Solemn Judgment and passed back. Once I passed back my opponent threw down a Heavy Storm, with Solemn Judgment to counter my Starlight Road, and followed it up with a copy of Rescue Rabbit.
3-1
Round 5: Water (Rolls 2-3)
Game 1: I am able to draw a copy of Macro Cosmos on the opening turn and ride the card to victory.
Game 2: My Macro Cosmos was met by a Twister on the second turn of the game, and with no other copies in sight my opponent was freely able to generate immense card advantage while I was unable to get my footing.
Game 3: I opened Rescue Rabbit for the first time this tournament! And it just so happened to be backed up with Heavy Storm and Tour Guide. One of those hands…
4-1
Round 6: Water (Rolls 2-4)
Game 1: My opponent ends up drawing an incredibly strong opening hand with Abyssmegalo, but naturally, forgets to search for Abyss-Sphere while resolving his copies of Atlantean Dragoons. Unfortunately for him, I am able to stick a late copy of Macro Cosmos after stymieing his initial offensive onslaught and end up winning with it on board.
Game 2: A devastating Royal Decree shuts down not only my Macro Cosmos, but my collection of four trap cards. I never end up recovering, and he pulls out the win.
Game 3: This was an incredibly frustrating game. After amassing massive card advantage behind a Macro Cosmos in the early stages of the game, my opponent ends up flipping a Snowman Eater to kill my Spirit Reaper and subsequently using Creature Swap to trade his Snowman Eater for my Wind-Up Zenmaines, which was of course, in attack mode. Luckily for me the Zenmaines was sitting with no attachments, so I had a plethora of live cards to draw in order to stabilize. At this point I had a Mystical Space Typhoon, Torrential Tribute and two Macro Cosmos at my disposal. Of course, I end up drawing Mystical Space Typhoon, Forbidden Lance and another Torrential Tribute as my own Zenmaines puts me out of my misery. And naturally, the top card of my deck once I had lost was a Guiaba! I would have been ecstatic with a Kabazauls over those three turns to just kill my Zenmaines!
4-2
Round 7: Scraps (Rolls 2-5)
Game 1: An early copy of Macro Cosmos ends up shutting my opponent off from his Scrap Chimera plays. I eventually draw into a Rescue Rabbit and take over control of the game.
Game 2: My opponent using Foolish Burial to set up a first turn Scrap Dragon. Unfortunately for him, I end drawing my single copy of Compulsory Evacuation Device to return the Synchro to his extra deck, and in turn, halt any aggression while I draw into a few Dinosaurs before XYZing into Evolzars.
5-2
Round 8: Wind-Ups (Rolls 2-6)
Game 1: I open with a hand consisting of 3 Jurrac Guiaba, Sabersaurus and a Mystical Space Typhoon. After my opponent summons Tour Guide, XYZs into Zen-Maity and plays Wind-Up Factory I elect to scoop to hide what I was playing.
Game 2: I draw a hand with a handful of defensive trap cards and a few normal monsters. I end up having to mitigate his explosive plays as I try and to stabilize the game state. Unfortunately he is eventually able to resolve an elongated Wind-Up play which using the majority of cards in his hand. He has a Wind-Up Zenmaioh that tries to take out my backrows, but I use a Forbidden Lance so I only have one face-down. This forces him to use his ability to XYZ summon a Rank 4 to go into Maestroke and turn my on field normal monster facedown. Once he had finished going through the motions I had my opportunity to respond. I ended up having a copy of Tour Guide from the Underworld in my hand, which I knew was my only real way of winning. Had my opponent gone into Utopia on the previous turn, I am no sure if I would have been in as desirable of a position, but luckily he took the bait and went into Maestroke. The Tour Guide allowed me to go into Temtempo and wreck havoc on his board of three XYZ monsters. Of course, my opponent would draw into Pot of Avarice on the following turn and all of my work in expending his resources was wasted. Justice would be served as he would draw poorly off the Pot and I was eventually able to take the game.
Game 3: My opponent goes through with a play consisting of two Wind-Up Factories, Tour Guide and Wind-Up Shark. I ended up having a copy of Sangan face-down, which allowed me to search a Maxx “C” since I had Gorz in my hand with the ability to counter my opponent’s board.
Unfortunately for my opponent, he tried to perform his play without understanding where he was going. Meaning, he ended up grabbing a Wind-Up Rat from his deck from Magician, with no ability of turning it to attack mode and made a Wind-Up Shark level 5 with no way of XYZ with it. Once my opponent realized he had made a monumental mistake, he asked if he could go back and change both plays. I have very little sympathy for people who play mistake running Wind-Ups. To correctly pilot that deck you need to put in the work. Michael Steinman has written about this dynamic of the deck before. You do not perform the Wind-Up Shark/Magician combo 11 rounds in a row. You need to know how to adapt your combo based on the number of Factories, what monsters you are holding and what you want to end with. My opponent was frustrated when he drew an additional copy of Wind-Up Magician for his turn when he was about to go off. But he should have reconsidered his play before jumping ten steps in and wanting to fix steps 3 and 5.
So once my opponent completed their turn the board state sat at something like this.
Wind-Up Factory, Wind-Up Factory
Attack Position Wind-Up Zenmaity
Attack Position Photon Papilloperative
Attack Position Wind-Up Shark
Defense Position Wind-Up Rat (used)
Defense Position Wind-Up Magician (live)
To my 2700 attack Gorz.
My opponent passed back to me.
Here I summoned a Rescue Rabbit which I had been holding and elected to summon two Sabersaurus, as opposed to Kabazauls. Here the Sabersaurus would allow me to attack the Magician, Shark and Zenmaity. Once I destroyed all three monsters I went into Laggia and set both Compulsory Evacuation Device and Forbbiden Lance.
My opponent ended up having Heavy Storm, to which I allowed to resolve, but chained Compulsory on his Papilloperative and Lance on my Laggia. This way my Laggia would be protected from a Mind Control, Dark Hole or Soul Taker.
Next my opponent summoned a copy of Wind-Up Rat. Fearing the potential of a Wind-Up Shark (since I knew my opponent had copies from the Factories on the previous turn), I elected to immediately negate the Rat. If I allowed it to resolve, he would have been able to drop multiple Sharks and break the board I had established. Of course, my opponent also had Monster Reborn in his hand to which I naturally discarded Maxx “C”.
My opponent targeted his Wind-Up Magician and triggered his Wind-Up Shark. My opponent simply went into Number 39: Utopia and attacked over my weakened Laggia before passing back. Here I had a copy of Thunder King Rai-Oh with Forbidden Lance in hand. It was crucial that I got his Wind-Up Rat off the table since I knew an Acid Golem/Wind-Up Zenmaines would allow him to stabilize.
So assuming he would think I was bluffing I attacked my Thunder King into Utopia, leaving back my Gorz. Luckily he decided to not negate my attack, and thus my Forbidden Lance took down his Utopia in the damage step. Next up I attacked over the Rat with my Gorz. From there my opponent was essentially locked out of the game.
6-2
Round 9: Chain Burn (Rolls 2-7)
Game 1: I end up setting an additional normal monster on a turn when I have a Laggia since I was confident I could set up a play with both Dolkka and Laggia which would get me passed any battle stoppers. Unfortunately he ended up having copies of Lava Golem in his main deck, so I ended up losing my opening and chance of victory.
Game 2: If there was ever a time to open double Rabbit, this was it. I take a swift victory behind it
Game 3: Even after siding out a majority of the poor cards against this deck, I end up staring down a Marshmallon I simply cannot deal with. Naturally I had only draw a Sabersaurus and Spirit Reaper throughout the early stages of the game, and I could not get over it. I decide to try and bluff my opponent into dropping a Lava Golem since I had Torrential set. Instead of triggering my own Torrential by summoning Spirit Reaper, I set the Reaper to leave myself the option on the next turn, and at the same time, give him the chance to drop Golem into my Torrential. Of course, things work out and his Lava Golem falls victory to my Torrential Tribute, killing off his Marshmallon at the same time.
From here I draw into a critical Solemn Warning which I realized could be huge with my in hand Heavy Storm. If my opponent had a copy of Ojama Trio face-down, I had the chance to stop his chain link with a counter trap to blow away all of his burn card. Once my opponent passed back to me I slammed down the Heavy Storm. After chaining Reckless Greed, Just Desserts and Ojama Trio I knew I had him. I chained my Solemn Warning and walked away from the chain link at 6000 lifepoints and he was under Reckless Greed.
Over the course of the next three turns I attack with another copy of Sabersaurus I had in my hand, waiting for my opponent to come off of Reckless Greed. Once he began drawing again, I drew a critical Tour Guide from the Underworld. Now I would be able to represent lethal on the board with a copy of Leviathan (to play around Desserts/Barrel I went right into Leviathan). Unfortunately he had a copy of Swift Scarecrow in his hand. He passed back the following turn and I tried to attack again, yet fell victim to another Scarecrow. For the turn I drew Snowman Eater and decided to set it because I had a Gorz the Emissary of Darkness in my hand and wanted the option of tribute summoning it incase he dropped a Lava Golem on my side of the table.
He drew, set a few and passed back to me.
Here I tried to yet again attack directly. We had been making the mistake of not stating our battle phases out loud, and when he tried to use a Waboku I elected to use my face-down Solemn Judgment since there was never any indication as to when he wanted to use the card (he could have presumably wanted to use it in battle phase to start a chain link with Magic Cylinder and Chain Strike/Accumulated Fortune). Obviously once my opponent realized this he decided to argue that he wanted to do if before the battle phase, something I was fine with, as long as I didn’t have to Solemn Judgment.
Judges get called and at the end of the judge call, not only do I have to Solemn Judgment the Waboku, I have to do it before the battle phase. And on top of all of that, my opponent argues that he had only taken two direct attacks with Sabersaurus, leaving him with more lifepoints than he had before. And of course, that goes in my opponent’s favor as well.
Boys things could not have gone more wrong here.
Luckily his two remaining cards are not enough to burn me out, but if his top card was worth 300 points of damage I would have lost. It was Legacy of Yata Garasu.
7-2
Round 10: Ninjas (Rolls 2-8)
Game 1: My opponent begins the game with a first turn Hanzo and quickly established immense control of the game. My only chance at stabilizing was countered when my Torrential Tribute was hit by Starlight Road
Game 2: I draw an incredibly slow paced grind game hand. With no Rescue Rabbit in sight, I have to ride the power of Macro Cosmos against his Super Transformation and Upstart Ninja effects. After trading off our trap card resources I am finally able to break through and push through enough damage.
Game 3: In this game my opponent again opens with an explosive Hanzo. I again draw a hand that requires the game to be slowed down as I draw into legitimate threats. The Macro Cosmos I assumed would be influential in the games outcome is met by a blind Mystical Space Typhoon. My opponent is able to amass a field with Wind-Up Zenmaines, Jurrac Guiaba and Hanzo to my Spirit Reaper. On my turn I am able to turn a Tour Guide from the Underworld into a Temtempo and begin establishing a board presence to counter his offensive maneuvers. Unfortunately my Temtempo gets his by Bottomless Trap Hole, but I of course, chain his effect.
Eventually I am able to clear and board of his threats and finally drop a Rescue Rabbit I had been holding in my hand during the duration of the middle stages of the game. Once the first Rabbit hit the table the momentum swung dramatically in my favor, and I was able to quickly end the game.
8-2
Top 32: Mermails in a Feature Match (Rolls 2-9)
Game 1: The only monster I saw during the course of the first game was Kabazauls. I honestly tried to stall the game out as long as possible, perhaps giving my opponent opportunities to make a mistake that I could capitalize on. Unfortunately once I drew a potentially game saving Macro Cosmos, my opponent had his one copy of Solemn Warning, and when I tried to resolve a Dark Hole it was met with a rather odd Starlight Road.
Game 2: So I opened the game with a hand consisting of the following: Jurrac Guiaba, Monster Reborn, two Forbidden Lance, Starlight Road and Torrential Tribute. I considered my play for some time before passing with placing a card on the field. I felt comfortable just passing because I was confident my Jurrac Guiaba would score an attack on the following turn.
My opponent ended up running his Marksman in with a direct attack. I did the best Gorz bluffing I was capable, and when he continued his special summoned Dragoons in for 1800 points of damage I was fairly confident he had some type of spot removal at his disposal. Usually it is difficult to determine the capabilities of an opponent, but I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt in terms of outright losing to a turn one Gorz, especially when I pulled the whole, “Attacking for 1800 too?” line.
Anyway, my opponent finished his turn with two backrows.
On my turn I am not only able to resolve the summon of my Guiaba, it successfully goes over his Marksman. From here I believe his two backrows to me Starlight Road and something like Abyss-Sphere or Mystical Space Typhoon.
I decide to go into Dolkka, since I had Starlight Road and two Forbidden Lances at my disposal. I was almost positive my opponent had a copy of Soul Taker at this point, seeing as how he attacked into Gorz on the first turn, and did not respond with the Mirror Force I saw game one on my Guiaba. To no surprise he ended up playing the Soul Taker, and I of course, responded with Forbidden Lance.
My opponent ended up passing back with one additional spell or trap card.
Here is where things just swing in his favor. Of course when I summon my freshly draw Spirit Reaper it is met with a Torrential Tribute. But I had Starlight Road right? Well, that would have been all fine and dandy if my opponent hadn’t drawn his one Solemn Warning for the turn. It was frustrating to know he had to have drawn the Solemn for that to happen, since he either would have set or activated it on the first turn. But low and behold that is how life goes.
I press on and use my Reborn on the Reaper to attack directly and put him to one card in hand.
He draws and sets an Infantry.
I have a copy of Sangan and elect to summon it. I had just took a Genex Controller out of his hand with Reaper, so there was a chance he was running low on resources here. His facedown ended up being Infantry, so I passed back.
On my following turn I decided to summon a Sabersaurus. In the back of mind I had pinpointed the original backrow as Starlight Road, though as the feature match shows, it was Gozen Match. But since then I thought it was possible that his two new draws could have been Gozen Match, so I summoned the Sabersaurus full well knowing what could happen.
Once the Gozen Match was flipped up I used my Sangan to search for Rescue Rabbit, seeing as how I still had two copies of Sabersaurus in deck, and he was also and Earth monster. At this point my main concern was finding a way to get over the 1600 defense Infantry.
So my Sabersaurus attacked over Infantry and I passed back with a set Torrential Tribute, Solemn Warning and Forbidden Lance.
Here my opponent continues his critical string of draws by drawing an Abysslinde.
On my turn I decide to summon my Rescue Rabbit. I actually had drawn a second copy for my turn, so I was hoping he would use something like Torrential Tribute so I could Solemn Warning his Abysslinde and potentially Lance my Rabbit. Of course the summon went through. Now I was left with the decision of using my Rabbit effect, or simply leaving it on the field. I wanted to keep my Rabbit’s effect as a backup plan, since I had another copy in hand. I also did not want to just run both of my monsters into a Mirror Force he had slow-rolled from the previous turn. So I decide to enter my battle phase with Rescue Rabbit in attack mode, giving me the option to use his effect main phase two, but also go into Gagaga Cowboy with the level four Earth that Rabbit is.
That way I could burn for 800 points of damage for two straight turns and use my other Rescue Rabbit to put 3800 points of damage on the table the following turn, and finish off the game.
Of course things go horribly wrong when my Solemn Warning is blind Spaced. But that is okay, I still have the Lance to attack over the Abyssmeglo
I decide to use my Rabbit effect now because I wanted to have Gagaga Cowboy on the field with 2400 defense to wall Abyssmeglo, and have a 1900 Sabersaurus to threaten with Lance. Now that my opponent had three cards to his disposal (Abyassmegalo, Gozen and a card in hand), my game plane shifted away from utilizing my in hand Rescue Rabbit, plus I still have 3 Mystical Space Typhoons, 2 Dust Tornados and Heavy Storm left in my deck.
But he drew Undine. With four waters in grave. Oh, and Moulin as the one card in hand.
So… I lost.
After the event I watched my friends like Simon He, Sorosh, and Jerry Williams try and take home the gold, but as we all know that did not happen.
So with the end of YCS Seattle came the end of 2012. At the beginning of the year I made a video on my YouTube where I said my goal in 2012 was to win a YCS. Strictly speaking I guess you can say this year was a failure in terms of accomplishing that, but that is a tough thing to say when looking back at this year. I am still numb to the idea of having a YCS top streak that was approaching the likes of Adam Corn, and at the same time finishing in the Top 4 of two YCS events. But that is the past. It was awesome to join the double-digit top club in Seattle, but that isn’t the goal I had set out this year. Just means you turn the calendar to 2013 and focus even more.
Latest posts by Joe Giorlando (see all)
- Trying to Make Sense - October 7, 2013
- Note-Taking and YU-GI-OH Today - September 18, 2013
- The Future of Yu-Gi-Oh: The ARG Circuit Series - September 9, 2013
Get
Connected