What's going on guys? I'm back from Spain and I have got a lot to tell you all. I brought home my fifth top 32, something I thought I almost couldn't manage to get this year. After starting off with a great record at almost every YCS, I never finished one with anything better than a bubble. I'm happy to say that I have topped at least one YCS/SJC every year since the year 2009. I can also say that I am one of two players to top a European event. I look forward to having a better year in 2013.
For most of this format, I was pretty big on Chaos Dragons. They were a solid deck with a lot of great answers to the other decks of the format. I believe the release of the Atlantean Water deck changed Chaos Dragons from one of the best decks to a mediocre deck at best. Since Chaos Dragons runs no traps, the water deck can push with Marksman to gain a lot of advantage, and the Chaos Dragon player can't really do anything about it. I made the mistake of running Chaos Dragons at Seattle, but immediately after, I realized that I needed to run a better deck. My good friend, Jonathan Weigle had some success with Wind-Ups at the past couple of YCS and I felt that Wind-Up would be my next best choice after a quick chat with him.
The Spanish experience
I didn’t really come to Barcelona for Yugioh, I came more for the experience. I’m lucky that a lot of my friends from around the US decided to join. Some things I was looking forward to doing were to taste the cappuccinos and the food, buy some clothes, and take some nice pictures. I didn’t manage to get any clothes because of how full my suitcase already was, but I did however do the rest of those things. First of all, I have to say that the espresso there is just so much better. I have never had a cappuccino as good as the ones I drank in Spain! Next was the food; I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t really like a lot of the food I ate in Spain. They had some delicious sweets, but aside from those, I didn’t really enjoy any of my meals. I was still happy to try everything, though! I took an overwhelming amount of pictures while in Spain. The architecture is just too beautiful and I am happy to bring some of it home with me.
Now onto the tournament experience
For the first four rounds I managed to remain undefeated, playing against Water, Wind-Up, Inzektor, and Anti-Meta. I lost round 5 to a Dino Rabbit player because he had Dolkkas and Thunder Kings everywhere and I couldn't handle them. I managed to finish the seven rounds of day one with a 6-1 record playing against another Wind-Up and Water deck to finish the day off.
On Day 2, I played against a water player from Greece round 8. He was playing very well, but he couldn't come back from my magician shark combo game one. Game two, he opened rather poorly and I beat him with the wind up toys. Next up, I was paired up against an Italian player named Denis, he was running an Inzektor deck maiming 3 Waboku. He managed to win the dice roll and started off with a Card Car D and a set Waboku so I actually thought he was running Final Countdown. I was pretty relieved when I saw an Inzektor monster soon after. I managed to win! What that meant for me was an automatic top 32 spot! The final round paired me up against another mirror match. I brought him to game three, but he went first that game and had Thunder King with a few back rows. I dint have much going for me and lost soon after.
Water - 3
Wind-Up - 3
Inzektor - 2
Dino Rabbit - 1
AntiMeta - 1
My final Record was 8-2 and I place 15th. I won a lot more dice rolls than I usually do at this event and I believe that was a big part of my success. I think I only lost 2 of them in the 10 rounds I played! I also played a good amount of water, which Wind-Up has a pretty amazing match-up against.
Onto the top 32
Top 32 Piya Peiris - Rabbit
Game one started off with me having 2 sharks and a factory. He responded back with a torrential and a MST for my factory. I had some stupid question and I wanted to make sure I was right, but of course I wasn't. This got him really angry at me and he called me a rule shark… Throughout the whole game he gave me attitude. I managed to take game one, but it was an extremely long game.
Game two, Piya beats me rather quickly… he seems a bit less agitated after that, but time is running out and we still have to finish game three.
A few turns into game three, a Judge comes up to Piya and tells him that he is slow playing. We only had around a minute left and he was thinking for the whole minute, not making a play. Eventually we get a 2 minute time extension and they let us continue. About a minute later, I get a field of lots of XYZs and attack for game!
Top 16 Federico Zoppini - Water
After this game, I was very disappointed with myself. I knew I had to write a tournament report, but I didn't want to mention what happened because of how terrible I managed to play. Although I did just pick up this deck again, I understood it pretty well and that wasn't the reason I was misplaying; I most definitely had other things on my mind. First of all, I would like to mention that water is by far this deck's best match-up. Shock Master and Abyss Dweller are just too easy to make. I managed to get 2-0ed even after drawing great hands.
I'm not exactly sure what was clouding my mind, because a lot was going on in there. First of all, my friend, Patrick Hoban, told me that he played Frederico previously in the tournament and that I should announce each and every one of my plays. For some reason this kind of got me nervous. On top of that, we were playing right next to the crowd. With all these players watching me, I felt a little nervous, and after each and every misplay, I felt self conscious that they would all think about how terrible I was playing. Not only was I nervous, but I was getting extremely mad at myself. I was misplaying left and right because of my mindset. Sometimes I would take a 5 second break to tell myself that my mistakes and my emotions were in the past and to play a perfect game for the remainder, but It never seemed to work. I usually don't get nervous when I am playing Yugioh, but for some reason it got to me that game and I hope it prepared me for my next top 32 experience.
I want everyone to learn from this! Make sure your mind is on the game and not other things. You need to concentrate! A good breakfast would have probably helped me there, but I decided against one.
For those of you that are interested, here is my Wind-Up deck list:
3x Wind-Up Shark
3x Wind-Up Rat
3x Wind-Up Rabbit
2x Wind-Up Magician
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
2x Effect Veiler
2x Tour Guide front he Underworld
1x Sangan
/18
3x Wind-Up Factory
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
2x Messenger of Peace
1x Pot of Avarice
1x Monster Reborn
1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole
/12
2x Torrential Tribute
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Solemn Warning
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Compulsory Evacuation Device
/10
3x DImensional FIssure
2x Maxx "C"
2x Macro Cosmos
2x Dust Tornado
2x Needle Ceiling
2x Level Limit - Area B
2x Soul Taker
/15
1x Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1x Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1x Number 16: Shock Master
1x Photon Papilloperative
1x Wind-Up Zenmaister
1x Maestroke, the Symphony Djinn
1x Abyss Dweller
1x Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1x Soul of Silvermountain
1x Number 20: Giga-Brilliant
1x Leviar the Sea Dragon
1x Temtempo, the Percussion Djinn
1x Wind-Up Zenmaines
1x Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
/15
Changes to deck
Overall I really like the deck. I wasn't as experienced with it as I wished I could be, but I was lucky to have 2 Wind-Up players in my hotel room. Thanks to Sean McCabe and Jonathan Weigle for giving me help!
I would cut the two copies of Dimensional Prison for two copies of Mirror Force and the one copy of Wind-Up Zenmaister for Number 39: Utopia. Look out for Blackship of Corn, because that just may be the next addition to the Wind-Up deck!!!
European playstyle
A lot of players like to say that there are different styles of play when comparing the US and Europe, but not many have been to both events. I'd like to say they are just players being arrogant. Since I had the opportunity to make it to one of the European events, I would like to say that I do however agree. While I don't necessarily feel that the competition is harder over in Europe, I feel that the players care a bit more there. Out of the 12 Rounds I players in Europe, only one would be considered a non-meta deck. I definitely could not say the same thing about an American event. A downside of the European event that I went to was that I noticed a hardcore amount of rule sharking. I saw players to the left and right of me getting warnings and game losses because their opponents were calling them out on simple things. That is not okay! Don't do that guys; it makes you look bad.
I had a great time hanging out with all my friends and even making some new ones. Barcelona was an awesome experience and I hope I can travel far again!
Latest posts by Paul Clarke (see all)
- My 2013 NAWCQ Tournament Report - July 23, 2013
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