This is a two part series of how I arrived at YCS Toronto and how I fared at the grandest stage in the Canadian Yugioh circuit. Yes, of course I could tell you all about how I booked my flight and all that, but that's not important. There's a lesson to be learned in all of this YCS stuff that you just can't teach someone who has never been.
We start on August 18th, 2012.
Four of us had decided to test and theorize together - JT, Scott, Jeremy and I. Jeremy, unfortunately, lives about 12 hours away so the testing focused on the three of us.
I had just finished work and my best friend, JT, informed me of the banned list changes and that it was posted on Shriek. This gave us two weeks to test some decks for the YCS. Immediately I started in on a TeleDAD variant to test online, given E-Tele and D-Draw were both at three... too inconsistent. Tried adding Dualities... too slow. Nothing could make the deck work because I didn't have enough cards going on that synergy to play. In other words, Absolute Zero was not good enough to play at the YCS, is what my testing concluded.
On the 20th, JT tested Heroes at locals and for the next week. Scott did the exact same thing. I hadn't been to locals so I was testing online, simply put. I couldn't get to locals due to work being quite frustrating. Having said that, I too went for Heroes.
JT and Scott, interestingly enough, concluded Heroes weren't the best deck. I did the same and the three of us theorized that the following would be true: Wind-Ups are the best deck, but they are a combo deck and not everyone can learn the combos, so as a result they would fall back on Heroes as the second-best deck. Dark Worlds didn't get touched and as a result they too would be played. Rabbit semi'd meant that the deck was garbage (I'll get back to that a little later). Rai-Oh was also a much better card to play than hand traps (Maxx "C" and Veiler) because of the fact that normally hand traps didn't help unless you were actually playing Trag or Gorz, which most people weren't because of the amount of spells/traps ran and a lack of room.
Moving on, I tested Agents the week before the YCS, which resulted in okay results but I didn't think they would have the best chance of topping the YCS. I moved to Bubble Beat, figured out it was a cool deck but was told it probably wouldn't top by JT as it was okay but the top three for the most part were better than it in practice and testing. Friday, August 31st rolls around and I am on my flight to Toronto with all of my deck stuff, and I have no idea what to play.
We get into Toronto, go to pre-register for the YCS and go to our hotel. We're right beside the CN Tower, the tallest building in Canada. We're also two blocks away from the event. We go off to Cardmasters for the Friday tournament, which we very nearly miss because people wanted to trade and such rather than play for four to five hours. I again have no idea what to play so I try Rabbit at someone else's suggestion.
I lost to Ervin So in round 1, who's a Canadian pro, pretty decent, and he's playing Wind-Ups. I lost to another Wind-Up build in round 2 and LS in round 3. I finally notch a win against Batteryman in round 4 at which point I determine Rabbit is terrible. So here I am, stressed out. It's midnight before day 1, I have to build from scratch and don't have time to test anything. I've been an avid Hero player, but now it's even more important I build properly.
After talking endlessly for an hour or so about what I can do, JT offers the idea of Bubble Beat because he knows that Heroes are my thing and he couldn't get regular Heroes to work. I take that idea and immediately start deckbuilding on it and determine that it's my best shot at the YCS. I can't run Wind-Ups because the combos are difficult to learn and we don't have a spare Shock Master to use.
Here's my decklist.
3 Elemental Hero Bubbleman
3 Elemental Hero Neos Alius
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Photon Thrasher
3 Night Beam
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
3 Miracle Fusion
2 A Hero Lives
2 E - Emergency Call
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
3 Gemini Spark
2 Pot of Duality
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Super Polymerization
1 Book of Moon
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Mirror Force
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Elemental Hero The Shining
2 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Elemental Hero Escuridao
1 Elemental Hero Nova Master
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero Great Tornado
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Heroic Champion - Excalibur
Side
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Snowman Eater
2 Soul Taker
1 Super Polymerization
2 Skill Drain
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3 Dimensional Prison
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
The main was pretty tight. I chose Mirror Force over D-Prison because I just didn't care about threats to play something that only got rid of one thing and most people wouldn't play offensive with a Zenmaines, especially against Bubble Beat. Compulsory was ran in one copy specifically to counter that one thing my opponent was running to counter my OTK.
Triple Gemini Spark was played even though I only had 3 Alius because of using it as a possible bluff card - may as well make use of it, even though Heavy was still in the format. Also I wasn't playing Gorz so it was an easy set mid-late game. Double Duality for those awkward hands that you've got to play through. I didn't like using it because it revealed at least part of the deck but I figured it was better than the alternative.
As for the side, Rai-Oh's pretty well a staple in the deck. Stops the Wind-Up searches, stops my opponent from Dualitying, gives them something to think about turn one that they need to get rid of. Stops so many of the things that make some other things stupid. Snowman Eater is the exact same way. Excellent card in a format of Wind-Ups.
Skill Drain was a third card that had a lot of use - obvious reasons, the card's good in Heroes and the way I have the deck set up I can side into it. Soul Taker - gets rid of threats. Seems standard. Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror was for the Dark World matchup and a few other rogue decks that I figured would be rampant.
3 Dimensional Prison was to help the deck become a little less Bubble Beat and a little more standard Hero-esque, while the second Compulsory was to help get outs to things I couldn't get over. Given the deck was only running 2 Super Poly with only one Escuridao, Spirit Reaper was a scary card. As was Snowman Eater.
I didn't run Bottomless Trap Hole in this deck for a couple of reasons. The first was that with Rabbit's poor showing, I figured I wouldn't need to side in much against it. Second, I figured I would set it, and it would get destroyed by something. Bottomless just didn't feel great in the format, not even as a side-decked card in Bubble Beat because of the sheer number of outs.
So, finally at 2:45 AM, I have my decklist written out and I head off to sleep so I can wake up the next morning and play in my first ever YCS!
Part two - Day one of YCS Toronto to follow!
We start on August 18th, 2012.
Four of us had decided to test and theorize together - JT, Scott, Jeremy and I. Jeremy, unfortunately, lives about 12 hours away so the testing focused on the three of us.
I had just finished work and my best friend, JT, informed me of the banned list changes and that it was posted on Shriek. This gave us two weeks to test some decks for the YCS. Immediately I started in on a TeleDAD variant to test online, given E-Tele and D-Draw were both at three... too inconsistent. Tried adding Dualities... too slow. Nothing could make the deck work because I didn't have enough cards going on that synergy to play. In other words, Absolute Zero was not good enough to play at the YCS, is what my testing concluded.
On the 20th, JT tested Heroes at locals and for the next week. Scott did the exact same thing. I hadn't been to locals so I was testing online, simply put. I couldn't get to locals due to work being quite frustrating. Having said that, I too went for Heroes.
JT and Scott, interestingly enough, concluded Heroes weren't the best deck. I did the same and the three of us theorized that the following would be true: Wind-Ups are the best deck, but they are a combo deck and not everyone can learn the combos, so as a result they would fall back on Heroes as the second-best deck. Dark Worlds didn't get touched and as a result they too would be played. Rabbit semi'd meant that the deck was garbage (I'll get back to that a little later). Rai-Oh was also a much better card to play than hand traps (Maxx "C" and Veiler) because of the fact that normally hand traps didn't help unless you were actually playing Trag or Gorz, which most people weren't because of the amount of spells/traps ran and a lack of room.
Moving on, I tested Agents the week before the YCS, which resulted in okay results but I didn't think they would have the best chance of topping the YCS. I moved to Bubble Beat, figured out it was a cool deck but was told it probably wouldn't top by JT as it was okay but the top three for the most part were better than it in practice and testing. Friday, August 31st rolls around and I am on my flight to Toronto with all of my deck stuff, and I have no idea what to play.
We get into Toronto, go to pre-register for the YCS and go to our hotel. We're right beside the CN Tower, the tallest building in Canada. We're also two blocks away from the event. We go off to Cardmasters for the Friday tournament, which we very nearly miss because people wanted to trade and such rather than play for four to five hours. I again have no idea what to play so I try Rabbit at someone else's suggestion.
I lost to Ervin So in round 1, who's a Canadian pro, pretty decent, and he's playing Wind-Ups. I lost to another Wind-Up build in round 2 and LS in round 3. I finally notch a win against Batteryman in round 4 at which point I determine Rabbit is terrible. So here I am, stressed out. It's midnight before day 1, I have to build from scratch and don't have time to test anything. I've been an avid Hero player, but now it's even more important I build properly.
After talking endlessly for an hour or so about what I can do, JT offers the idea of Bubble Beat because he knows that Heroes are my thing and he couldn't get regular Heroes to work. I take that idea and immediately start deckbuilding on it and determine that it's my best shot at the YCS. I can't run Wind-Ups because the combos are difficult to learn and we don't have a spare Shock Master to use.
Here's my decklist.
3 Elemental Hero Bubbleman
3 Elemental Hero Neos Alius
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Photon Thrasher
3 Night Beam
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
3 Miracle Fusion
2 A Hero Lives
2 E - Emergency Call
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
3 Gemini Spark
2 Pot of Duality
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Super Polymerization
1 Book of Moon
2 Torrential Tribute
2 Mirror Force
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Elemental Hero The Shining
2 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
1 Elemental Hero Escuridao
1 Elemental Hero Nova Master
1 Elemental Hero Gaia
1 Elemental Hero Great Tornado
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Heroic Champion - Excalibur
Side
2 Thunder King Rai-Oh
2 Snowman Eater
2 Soul Taker
1 Super Polymerization
2 Skill Drain
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
3 Dimensional Prison
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
The main was pretty tight. I chose Mirror Force over D-Prison because I just didn't care about threats to play something that only got rid of one thing and most people wouldn't play offensive with a Zenmaines, especially against Bubble Beat. Compulsory was ran in one copy specifically to counter that one thing my opponent was running to counter my OTK.
Triple Gemini Spark was played even though I only had 3 Alius because of using it as a possible bluff card - may as well make use of it, even though Heavy was still in the format. Also I wasn't playing Gorz so it was an easy set mid-late game. Double Duality for those awkward hands that you've got to play through. I didn't like using it because it revealed at least part of the deck but I figured it was better than the alternative.
As for the side, Rai-Oh's pretty well a staple in the deck. Stops the Wind-Up searches, stops my opponent from Dualitying, gives them something to think about turn one that they need to get rid of. Stops so many of the things that make some other things stupid. Snowman Eater is the exact same way. Excellent card in a format of Wind-Ups.
Skill Drain was a third card that had a lot of use - obvious reasons, the card's good in Heroes and the way I have the deck set up I can side into it. Soul Taker - gets rid of threats. Seems standard. Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror was for the Dark World matchup and a few other rogue decks that I figured would be rampant.
3 Dimensional Prison was to help the deck become a little less Bubble Beat and a little more standard Hero-esque, while the second Compulsory was to help get outs to things I couldn't get over. Given the deck was only running 2 Super Poly with only one Escuridao, Spirit Reaper was a scary card. As was Snowman Eater.
I didn't run Bottomless Trap Hole in this deck for a couple of reasons. The first was that with Rabbit's poor showing, I figured I wouldn't need to side in much against it. Second, I figured I would set it, and it would get destroyed by something. Bottomless just didn't feel great in the format, not even as a side-decked card in Bubble Beat because of the sheer number of outs.
So, finally at 2:45 AM, I have my decklist written out and I head off to sleep so I can wake up the next morning and play in my first ever YCS!
Part two - Day one of YCS Toronto to follow!
