It's time to D-D-D-D-DDDDUEL

[quintowill]

It's back up if ya wanna duel.

[phoopes]

Yeah, I was dueling some guy and it went kaput.

[phoopes]

Battled quinto 5 times.

First two games I had my mill deck which did next to nothing against quinto's Gladiator Beasts(?).

The last three games I went 1-2 with my Saber deck against quinto's plant-ish deck. First game wasn't really that close, with the Sabers dominating. Second game was an epic one, with it coming right down to the wire and quinto just pulling it out. Third game seemed like an insta-victory for me with the best opening hand you could possibly have, but then quinto countered and nuked the field. I then top-decked Monster Reborn and it seemed like there was no way he was going to stop me (because of combo I was going to pull off) but Effect Veiler makes me go hnnnngg.

gg's.

[kusari]

>Glad. Beasts

Remind me never to duel Quinto again. I hate those fuckers with a fiery passion normally only reserved for the Jersey Shore douchebags.

[deoxys]

>Kusari

I just looked them up and read one of their effects, and I'm seething with rage for you.

[kusari]

It's worse when you actually play against them. You attack. No traps stop the attack and you're thinking to yourself "wow, I may actually destroy one". You destroy it, another comes out. Then another and another. On their turn those monsters are recycled for more. It gets old really fast.

The only upside is the fact that with those effects, they can beat you rather quickly so you don't have to sit and get slowly destroyed.

[deoxys]

I hate konami.

[Doppleganger]

I'll duel right now.

[Tuner89]

So, Incase you missed it last time, I'm back. For confusion's sake, there was another duelist with my name in the tournament, and he did better than I did xD

I ended up going 4-3 before dropping at the end of day 1.

First off: some first hand experiences of the event.

My group and I were running crazy late out the door, and didn't get to the convention center on friday until 6:30, and we did not have enough time to pre-register, but we did manage to get some registration forms we used to sign up that night. This gave us the ability to do some last minute tweaking the night before which all of us appreciated. I ended up dropping the Wind-Up Knights in my deck(which I started running after seeing how well they worked in phoopes' deck; thanks phoopes!) for Effect Veilers, because I was only using the Knights to help in the Dino Rabbit match up, and I needed the Veilers more for the tougher Inzektor match up. The veilers helped fuel my BLS as well, which is why I ran them over Fiendish Chain. One of my friends, Kyle, toyed around with running a Sword Inzektor deck, before going back to his Fabled Dark world deck, which he piloted in the event, and my friend running the Bubbleman OTK, decided to start main decking Skill Drain to counter the meta.

My final deck list going into the competition was:

Spoiler: show

Main Deck: 40
Monsters: 24
3x Effect Veiler
3x Tour Guide From the Underworld
3x Wind-Up Magician
3x Wind-Up Shark
3x Wind-Up Soldier
3x Wind-Up Rabbit
3x Wind-Up Rat
1x Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1x Tour Bus From the Underworld
1x Wind-Up Hunter

Spells: 9
3x Wind-Up Factory
2x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Dark Hole
1x Heavy Storm
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Avarice

Traps: 7
2x Compulsory Evacuation Device
2x Solemn Warning
2x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15
3x Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
2x Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
2x Number 39: Utopia
2x Tiras, Keeper of Genesis
1x Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon
1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
1x M-X-Saber Invoker
1x Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh
1x Wind-Up Zenmaines
1x Wind-Up Zenmaister

Side Deck:
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Cyber Dragon
2x Dimensional Fissure
2x Royal Decree
2x Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2x Thunder King Rai-Oh
1x D.D. Crow
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Spirit Reaper

After playing the tournament, I would have dropped one of my Wind-Up Magicians for pretty much anything... maybe a Maxx "C" or a Wind-Up Kitten. Additionally, I would have dropped a Utopia or a Leviathan in favor of a Giga Brilliant, enabling the OTK. Other than that, I'm pretty confident in my list, I just had terrible luck =(

Saturday started off with my friends and I all in the first 20 or so people in line to register because we were prepared with our lists. We got our mats and returned to our hotel for an hour or so, dropped them off, and came back to the convention center. The line when we returned to register was ridiculous, and trailed on out of the convention center(no small feat). They ended up delaying the tournament for over 4 hours to finish registering(which no one was very happy about, honestly), and over 1,000 of the participants were just in it to get the participation mat, and ended up dropping or not showing up for the first round.

It was a truly amazing experience though, seeing so many other duelists in one place, and it was tons of fun to interact, duel, and trade with so many new people!

Later, I'll post a detailed explanation of all of my matches, as best I can remember. If any one has any questions about the event/my deck/etc. Feel free to ask, and I'll answer them as well!

[Talon87]

Just curious: weren't you pretty confident going into this that you and your friend had a good shot at winning the entire damn thing? Or did I misread that post? Now that you've actually participated in it, a few questions:

(1) Was this your first ever event of this scale?

(2) Even if you had had better luck, given what you know the best decks of the event ended up being like, do you still think you could have made Top 32? Top 16? Etc.

Again, not asking in an asinine way. I'm just curious. Because the impression I got from you was that you really thought you or your friend might win it all. And now I'm wondering how much of that was just optimistic excitement pre-event and how much of it is conviction that still remains.

[Tuner89]

This was the first event of this scale period. It was a record breaking event, the previous record for participation at a card game tournament was 2,400 people, this event catered 4,500 people.

I was extremely confident going in, and I am still confident, even after seeing top 64, that I could have made it if I had better luck. The two people I lost two in the first two rounds were both, self admittedly, really bad at the game, and neither had any experience against wind-up decks. Additionally in the second round I receieved a game loss which really set me back. I didn't draw a single tour guide from the underworld, wind-up shark, or wind-up factory the first two matches(other than a single game), which I'll show you when I go through all of my matches one at a time

My friend ended up getting 218th place or something like that, but he didn't make it.

Once my luck came back to me, I won 4 games in a row before being beaten again, and dropping. If I had stayed, I would have likely won more games, but there was no point staying in the competition at 3 losses. I had no trouble beating any of the meta decks in the past(except inzektors, but I could have played around it), and Dark Worlds are a joke match-up for me due to the nature of my deck and sided Dimensional Fissures and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirrors. Typing up detailed games now

[Tuner89]

Round one: vs. Six Samurai (Loss, 1-2)

Spoiler: show

Game 1: Loss

I laughed out loud at my hand this game, realizing karma was going to luck sack me out of the win almost immediately. I opened with 2 Solemn warning, an effect Veiler, a Tour Bus from the Underworld, my BLS, and a Wind-Up Magician.

I won the dice roll, and decided to just set my magician and warnings and end my turn. He obviously has no idea what he's doing and has to re-read all of his cards multiple times before making plays. he opens up with shard of greed, and six sam united before special summoning Elder of the Six. I let the summon go and he normal summons Kagemusha, which I also let go. He activates Six Sam United, drawing two cards, one of which is a Dojo which he decides to activate. He syncs into Naturia Beast, which I Solemn Warning. I draw an Avarice or something stupid, before ending my turn. He does a similar play with Elder, before specialing grandmaster which is able to run over my magician. I draw another magician, and set my Tour Bus. He draws for Shard of Greed, and uses kageki to special a kagemusha before syncing into Shien, which I use solemn warning on. he summons a Kizan, runs over my tour bus and attacks for 2600. I draw bad again and end up scooping.

Game 2: Won
I grin as my luck has come back. I end up doing a full loop on him, leaving him with 1 card in his hand, then set a solemn judgment, which I reveal next turn resulting in him scooping.

Game 3: loss I draw a similar hand to game one, except for a judgment instead of a warning. All game there's a guy sitting next to us who is telling my opponent how bad of a player he is, and how he's missing his opportunities to sync into shien every turn, and I tell him to stop talking and helping him. He insists he's not helping, and proceeds to continue telling my opponent how bad of a player he is - too stupid to make up. I would have called a judge on it, but I thought it was too funny, so I let it go. My opponent has Gateway and double Dojo this game, so it's only a matter of time before i lose again, not being able to summon anything useful. I didn't draw anything but trap cards and Tour Bus that whole game. After the game, that guy continued telling my opponent how bad he was, and told me I was robbed for that win, exclaiming that I would go far and I just had bad luck that game. I thanked him, and waited for the next round to start.

Round two: vs. Inzektors (Loss, 0-2)

Spoiler: show

This guy explained to me, once he saw my cards, that he had never played against wind-ups before and expected to lose.

Game one: Loss due to judge-induced game loss
I draw basically the same as my last round. I summoned a Wind-Up Rabbit and set two Torrential Tributes. He summons Dragonfly, which I effect veiler. He uses giga-mantis' effect in his hand to equip that instead, and attacks over my rabbit which he negated the effect of some how. I set a magician, and he uses hornet to pop it and one of my torrentials, I manage to torrential the centipede he summons, clearing his field. I summon Wind-Up Rat which he effect veilers, but I then Monster Reborn his Hornet, and go into Wind-Up Zenmaines. As I'm fetching the zenmaines though, I notice I left a card from my main deck in my deck box accidently. I stupidly decide to tell my opponent and appologize, and he calls a judge who gives me a game loss.

Game Two: Loss
I start first, but draw awfully. I summon a Wind-Up Rabbit and end my turn. He does shenanigans involving Allure of Darkness removing his dragon fly and using leviair to bring it back, and manages to FTK me.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty poor about myself, and regret all the boasting I did before the tournament, as I'm sure karma is pissing on me given my hands. I've never drawn this bad before using my deck EVER(for example, at regionals I drew the loop first turn every single game) and I can't believe what's going on. All of my friends are doing really well compared to me, especially my friend running Fabled Dark World, and another friend running X-Sabers, which I thought were funny. Scott, my friend running Bubbleman is 2-0 as well as I expected.

Going into Round 3, I am placed at table 1509... awesome.

Round three: vs. Gemini (Win 2-1)

Spoiler: show

This round was against a little kid, he couldnt have been more than 14 years old. He also forgot his calculator at his last duel, so I felt really bad for him. The judges managed to find it though some how and it got returned to him, it was awesome. Once i played my first card though, he groaned, and explained how this was the third wind-up deck he's played against, and was tired of losing so bad... I felt awful D=

Game 1: Loss
I don't remember this round very well, but I remember it ended with him using Future Fusion sending Elemental Hero Sparkman and some wind-attribute Gemini monster to go into Elemental Hero Great Tornado. I foolishly didn't worry about it at all, and two turns later it was able to run over my Leviathan Dragon and win.

Game 2: Win
I remember this round even less, but I think it involved shenanigans with Tiras. I ended up winning handily.

Game 3: Win
I looped him, and won the next turn. I apologized to him for the match up because he seemed upset, but was proud of my first victory, and hoped my luck was starting to turn around.

Round four: vs. Monarch (Win 2-0)

Spoiler: show

Game 1: Win
I set a Rabbit and a Solemn Warning, used it against whatever he summoned. Next turn I drew a shark and used it to loop him for all his cards. He scooped and we went to the next game.

Game 2: Win
This round lasted longer and involved him using Dimensional Alchemist. He unfortunately removed his Treeborn Frog however, and after a long duel, I came out on top and won. I don't remember much more of this match.

Round five: vs. Dark World (Win 2-1)

Spoiler: show

Game 1: I went first and looped him. I won the next turn

Game 2: He goes first and summons Fabled Raven. I can't get over it, and he ends up otking me on his next turn using a second fabled raven he drew and gates of the dark world, and grapha.

game 3: I loop him, but this time I have my sided Dimensional Fissure on the field. This devastates him, and when I activate my sided Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, he scoops.

Round six: vs. Dino Rabbit (Win 2-1)

Spoiler: show

Game 1: Longest duel ever. This game goes over 25 minutes, neither of us can draw anything, and he stalls me with Spirit Reaper. I won after a long time because he decided to xyz his spirit reaper away after I veilered his Tour Guide

Game 2: He again draws poorly. I don't remember much, but I drew even worse and he uses Sabersarus to beat down for game.

Game 3: more poor draws. I use Leviathan Dragon to win though. He seems pissed, and I feel bad for him. He didn't draw a single Rescue Rabbit the entire duel.

Round seven: vs. Worms (Loss 0-2)

Spoiler: show

This is a funny match up, because I used to run worms, and only recently tore it apart before building Wind-Ups. Also, my friend, Scott, dueled this same guy amazingly and told me about his deck because he knew I liked the archetype. Scott 2-0'd him, so I felt confident going into this.

Game one: I feel confident, and attempt to loop him, but he has Veiler so I can't. He uses Honest to run over my tour guide and bounces it back to his hand. I summon a second tour guide to try and loop him, but this time he has a Solemn Warning which he uses. He summons honest, attacks directly, bounces, and ends his turn. Third times a charm as I summon my third Tour Guide, this time he has veiler though, so I attack directly and end my turn. He finally draws Worm Xex, and summons it, special summoning Yagan and running over my Tour Guide. I Draw Soldier and use it to special summon Shark and go into a Zenmaioh, trying to pop yagan and one of his back-row. He has a Starlight Road though, and now I'm facing down a Stardust with nothing protecting me. The game lasts a few more rounds that I can't remember, before he barely beats me after a close game.

Game two: I side in my royal decrees which I unfortunately never draw. He locks me down with Xex and Yagan all game and even gets off one of his Nebula Meteorites. I don't stand a chance. I Shake his hand, impressed with his deck.

I was going to test my luck day two as well so I had more to tell you guys even though I couldn't make top at that point, but I decided that evening to sleep in instead. I ended up sleeping so late that I missed all the public events as well, so I just traded(and made a hefty profit) instead day two.

Walking away from YCS, I'm thinking I'm going to tear apart my Wind-Up deck. Scott wants to keep his heroes, but wants to build Dino Rabbits while they're still a competitive deck; he has some tech ideas that he thinks will set him apart. My eyes have been re-opened to Worms. Seeing this guy's recipe I think I have some tech ideas that can do what his deck couldn't, and give me the competitive edge this format, so I'm going to rebuild that deck as my main. My friends all agreed that karma did me in on Saturday, and if I had not been so sure of myself, I would have had better luck and would have undoubtedly topped.

Questions are welcome as always!

[Doppleganger]

Why are you taking apart your Wind-Up Deck? If you mentioned your reasons, it wasn't clear, I'm not sure why you'd take it apart because of several ill-timed dour kismet.

I'm up for a duel if anyone's available!

[phoopes]

Made another new deck if anyone wants to try that out.

[Doppleganger]

Sure, let's go!

[phoopes]

Played 4 games with Dopple, won 3 of them.

First game: Great game, Dopple was winning, but I ended up locking him down and stalling him to death, making for a pretty good comeback. 2000-0, in my favor.
Second game: Dopple only got a monster this game via Gold Sarcophogus. Terrible draws for him. Clean sweep, 8000-0.
Third game: I got a good opening hand, and my deck did its job fast. Able to pull off the clean sweep in this one, 8000-0.
Fourth game: Back and forth kind of game, but Dopple broke my stall and pulled off a victory with 3400 LP.

Pretty happy with how the new deck performed. Just gotta trim it down a little bit (sitting at 50 cards currently), because I could've used some cards in the first and fourth games that really would've helped me out. Didn't draw a Level Limit Area B in any of the four games, and I have two in my deck.

[phoopes]

Originally Posted by Muyotwo

Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I learned that if you play Wave Motion Cannon, 85% of random duelists will quit as soon as it's played.

Your faithful student, Pinkie Promise.

This is actually pretty accurate.

[Concept]

Ha, I found that too. It's why I decided to make a deck other than the burn one (not always wave motion cannon, but a silly number of people will swear at you and quit when they realise you're running a burn deck. Either that or I just got a lot of moody idiots).

[Doppleganger]

I haven't had people ragequit on me, ever.

(except Talon once)

Am I doing something wrong?

[phoopes]

>Dopple

Your deck's troll level isn't that high, unlike how high my burn deck's can be. For example, a guy tried to use Heavy Storm on me. I countered with Judgement of Anubis, and sacked his 5-Headed Dragon, which made him lose 5000 Life Points. Stuff like that, and also using cards that many players consider "cheap," like Wave-Motion Cannon or Secret Barrel are what make people ragequit.

[Doppleganger]

d00dz up for d00lz?

[Doppleganger]

UM's been using a burn deck against me, I think I'm 2-6 against it. Like Necrovalley, I'm succumbing to the same problem of focusing the duel around destroying the Field Spell, especially when I don't have Synchro advantage.

Something I've been debating - and I need some advice in this regard - is deck size. My deck has 44 cards now, the same as the original I based it on, but I'm struggling against (specifically) high magic/trap focus decks. Even with monsters that have built-in magic/trap destruction I find it very difficult to handle tons of continuous traps and field spells. I've upped it to 46 but I don't really feel comfortable increasing the size unless I'm using deck thinners.

Opinions on Scrap Dragon?

...

I had a match against Poke_Hunter and went 2-1. He uses an effective E-Hero stall with burn, but I beat it with speed in the second match and luck in the third. In the first my face went splat against the cement, but I had a chance to use the Level Eater combo I discovered against UM, but chickened out.

[Tuner89]

Deck size - unless you're running light sworns (and often, even then) you want to have a 40-card deck. It makes things a lot more consistent. You might think you're losing options, but you'll find quickly that the ability to draw more useful things, faster, gives you more in the long run.

As for scrap dragon, it's by far the best generic level 8 synchro. Highly recommend in any deck that can get him out, and even some that can't that run monster reborn/mind control still.

[phoopes]

>Level 8 Synchros

Blood Mefist is pretty darn good.

[Tuner89]

Originally Posted by phoopes

>Level 8 Synchros

Blood Mefist is pretty darn good.

It's also $100 dollars(for the cheap version) and extremely hard to come by as it is the current prize card for topping at events. For the purposes of general deck building, it doesn't exist. I can't think of a single person who would actually consider running one.

The ultra rare can cost $1000