YCS Atlanta Tournament Report

YCS Atlanta Tournament Report

02/23/12

This was my first YCS, first sanctioned tournament, and second tournament overall in the last several years. I decided to play Chain Burn, realizing that the deck has an easy time siding into answers against the current format. The night before the tournament, I drop the lone Black Horn of Heaven from my Side to opt for a third Swift Scarecrow instead, as it does wonders in the Inzektor matchup and Plants likely wouldn't be too strong. (I wouldn't know until later how good of a decision this was and how accurate I was about Plants.) Here's the build I went with:

Feel free to leave any questions on my Youtube (but not here, since I almost never get on here lol). Round 1 doesn't start until 11:20 due to an unexpected turnout (1319 at the head judge's announcement but later 1325); let's get started! 

Round 1 vs. Karakuri Machina Plants

Game 1: He summons Hyper Librarian and Bureido and draws tons of cards. I draw Morphing Jar just in time to turn the game around, but he makes Brionac and I offer the handshake.

Game 2: He gets desperate and Gearframe/Kuick swings into a Dimension Wall for game.

Game 3: He opens with two backrows and Gearframe (again). I open with a pretty good hand and set five - he End Phase Royal Decrees me and I offer the handshake with only four minutes left in the round. He explains after the match that he had Decree in Game 2 but I beat him too quickly to see it, hence, I never knew to put in my MSTs. :(

0-1

Round 2 vs. Inzektors

Game 1: Perhaps partly due to my warning him before the match that I’m occasionally hard of hearing, he plays his every move extremely slowly, even taking forever to shuffle our decks. He opens with Dragonfly and I immediately believe I’m out of the tournament. :( He becomes noticeably angry after I open with One Day of Peace. To my delight, he summons a Zenmaines instead of...well, any other Rank 3, but I lose anyways after he bug-swarms me.

Game 2: He doesn’t manage to get the Hornet quickly enough and when he does, I play around it and demolish him with burn.

Game 3: We start Game 3 with only 2:40 left in the round. The judge explains the time procedure to me after I mistakenly call for a time extension. I open double Scarecrow and immediately believe I’ve lost for some idiotic reason. I draw into several burn cards and keep his life low. At the end of Turn 5, he combos extremely smartly to put 9500 damage on the table against my clear field and one card in hand, but I drop the third Scarecrow and he offers the handshake.

1-1

Round 3 vs. Wind-Ups

Game 1: He opens with Tour Guide into Tour Guide into Zenmaighty, then detaches to summon Hunter and tributes Zenmaighty; I lose one card. I brace myself, but he sets two and ends his turn. After that, he loses relatively quickly due to Giga-Brilliant attacking into more than one Dimension Wall/Magic Cylinder. I begin to wonder what it might feel like to tell all of my friends I managed to beat Wind-Ups; his face becomes noticeably troubled while side decking.

Game 2: He opens by taking three cards this time, yet I’m still able to put up a fight by using Duality to find a Gozen Match. He elects not to attack my set Morphing Jar and I call his bluff, only to walk right into an Effect Veiler, thereby losing the game. He misplays by popping my set card instead of Gozen Match, but draws another Space Typhoon later anyways. He later beats me up with Giga-Brilliant and other assorted black people.

Game 3: ANOTHER GAME THREE DECREE. D:< That and Lava Golem spell my end.

1-2

Round 4 vs. Machina Gadget

Game 1: He wonders what I’m playing in a scared manner after realizing I have no Extra Deck; the first opponent to realize this out loud all day lol. I open with Duality and he immediately knows. Double Barrel for 2000 each and double Desserts for 2000 each tear him to shreds frighteningly quickly.

Game 2: He smartly avoids Dimension Wall(s) by not letting his Fortress and Utopia attack, instead poking with a Yellow Gadget until my life is low enough. When my life gets to 2200, he activates Limiter Removal in the Damage Step to take the game.

Game 3: I don’t remember this game at all for some reason or another, but I win with somewhat low life by topping into a Just Desserts just in time. This match makes me happy to be playing Scapegoat.

2-2

Round 5 vs. Nobody

He/she never shows up, so I partly watch the Inzektor mirror match to my left and Samurai vs. Dragunities to my right until ten minutes are up. I stayed hopeful that someone might show up to duel me up until the last two minutes or so, so in a way this way the most stressful part of the day.

3-2

Round 6 vs. Photon Heroes

Game 1: I destroy him with Secret Barrels despite him using Polymerization to clean up the Ojama Tokens and call out The Shining. I stay hopeful that I can win the match despite not knowing how to side for this matchup, as he definitely doesn’t have the Decree, but isn’t playing Plants, Wind-Ups, Dino-Rabbit or Inzektors like I prepared for.

Game 2: His Super Polymerization interrupts my Chain and he Heavy Storms me, destroying my now-useless Accumulated Fortune.

Game 3: I play three One Day of Peace on Turn 1, later revealed to be a mistake. He Heavy Storms my two Dimension Walls (how?!) and attacks me with Great Tornado riding a Sabre Tiger, among other things.

3-3

At this point, most of my friends have already lost out, so I play Kevin with Absolute Zero for fun in the hallway outside the main event hall, seeing as it’s raining. This was a long and complicated game due to it being Kevin, however I’ll try and recall as much as possible. Note: There is only one game, no Match.

Game 1 vs. Classic Synchro Summon

I rip him a new one with Trap Dustshoot on turn 1, revealing several things I’ll need to play around including Quillbolt, Compulsory, and Needle Ceiling. I play slowly, attempting to draw out the immensely annoying card while tiptoeing around Needle Ceiling, but for some reason he never even sets the Compulsory until later on, by which time I find a Destiny Draw to ditch my stuck-in-hand Malicious and combo off with him, Reese, and Miracle Fusion. Eventually, bystanders are momentarily drawn in by the usage of Destiny Heroes. I summon Dark End to take out his Stardust, and he finally uses Compulsory, but seems surprised that it doesn’t actually cancel Dark End’s effect. Spirit Reaper joins in the fun, and it’s game over after Stratos and Absolute Zero make direct hits and he draws to two cards in hand while I have somewhere between three and five as well as the three aforementioned monsters on field.