April Philippine Monthly Tournament report: 2nd Shot at Dino Rabbit

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since I last posted in this BLOG. I have been too busy with work lately and had to beat a lot of deadlines… It’s a good thing that despite all that, I still found time to join the April 28 Philippine Monthly Tournament. This is a way for me to unwind and momentarily forget all the pressure at work even for just one day. So I was again able to borrow a play set of Tour Guides and an Evolzar Dollka and while I am not a big fan of the standard Dino Rabbit, I have come to love the Verz archetype that is so often splashed in the OCG builds. Having just acquired a Verz set for a relatively cheap price, I decided to play Verz Dino Rabbit with Tour Guides. Talk about a hybrid deck which combines both TCG and OCG cards. We only get the chance to do this during Philippine monthly tournaments as the format is unsanctioned and therefore we are allowed to use any Yugioh cards under the sun, as long as they are not fake. So how did this build fare during the tourney? Find out below.

Deck Used: Verz Dino Rabbit (Hybrid version)

No. of Participants: 40

Format: 5 Rounds Swiss + top 8

Round 1: vs Dennis (Chaos Dragons)  O-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: It looks like his build was not very effective as he can’t seem to swarm the field fast enough and I was able to take control of the game with Raggia. I was not aware he was playing Chaos Dragons then and I should have went for Verz Ophion if I knew.

2: Macro Cosmos shuts down his deck.

Round 2: vs Timothy Vivit (Inzecter)  X-O-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: He opened very well with Damsel and Gruf to summon Crimson Shadow and set one backrow. I drew none of my 3 main decked Veilers in my opening hand but I had Rabbit. I wished I drew Heavy Storm or one of my 3 main decked MST’s as I could have stolen his Crimson Shadow with Verz Bahamut, unless he had Veiler. It turned out his set card was Solemn Warning. GG.

2: My turn to open well. Rabbit into Raggia. He just set a card. So I proceeded to OTK him on the next turn using Tour Guide to make Leviar and revive Rabbit to summon 2 Verz Heliolope. Raggia + Leviar + 2 Verz Heliolope = 8100 LP Damage.

2: He opened by summoning Damsel and equip with Hornet and Gigamantis. When he popped Gigamantis. I chained Veiler, so all he was able to do was summon back Hornet and exceed for Zenmaines. I was able to get rid of Zenmaines with Grand Mole and stop his Hornet with Macro Cosmos. I side in Grand Mole to bounce back suspected set Snowman Eaters in every game 2 and 3, but I guess it serves another purpose J

Round 3: vs  Chito Racimo (Hanzo Hieroglyph)  O-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: WTF I always lose the dice roll. I jokingly suggested that it must be the dice so I’m going to change it in game 4 and hope my luck changes with it. LOL. He just set a backrow and passed. I summoned Rabbit and was surprised he responded with Torrential right away as I had Forbidden Lance to protect my Rabbit. He could have waited for me to summon the two Vanillas first. I knew from the start that he was using Hieroglyphs as I saw him play in the earlier rounds, so I made Ophion and detached to search for Pandemic Contagion Infestation. He did not know what Ophion did so when I explained, he was shocked by its effect and how effective it is against Hieroglyph. Unable to deal with it, he lost a couple of turns later.

2: More or less the same as game 1.

Round 4: vs  Jeff Legarda (Dino Rabbit)  O-X-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Looks like changing my dice was indeed the solution to winning the roll ;) I opened with Rabbit into Raggia but I had no backrows. With the help of Book of Moon, he was able to get rid of my Raggia and summoned his own. On my turn, I summon another Rabbit and he did not negate. I then made Verz Bahamut with two Heliolope and he was forced to negate. This implies he had no Veiler or any decent traps. I then played Avarice and on the following turn was able to summon Ophion using Tour Guide into Levair and was able to run through his used-up Raggia. From there, I was able to take control.

2: He opened well with Rabbit into Raggia and plenty of set traps.

3: Not a very good opening but I had Verz Thunderbird to annoy the hell out of him. I had Torrential Tribute, a few other backrows, and Veiler to stop his plays.

Round 5: vs Ryan Alindayo (Chaos Dragons)  O-X-X  (No Dice Roll)

I was hungry and since we will both go to the top 8 win or lose, I decided to concede the game and grab some burgers and french fries J

TOP 8 Matches

Quarter-Finals: vs Racil Daliwan (Hieroglyph)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Opened with Tour Guide to special summon Sangan and set 3 Backrow cards. I did not exceed into Zenmaines right away as I had good backrow support and a Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce back Tour Guide in case I wanted to re-use it. He activated Heavy Storm and I had Starlight Road to stop it, netting me a free Stardust. All I need to draw next is Rabbit to make Ophion and lock him out and true enough on my turn, I drew Rabbit! How godly is that. Did I somehow manage to inherit WSlasher’s luck powers? LOL.

2: He opened with a set Spell/Trap and Cardcar D. My turn I activate Heavy Storm and summon Rabbit into Ophion. Unable to draw his sided Electric Virus which was his only out, he lost a couple of turns later.

Semi-Finals: vs Ryan Alindayo (Chaos Dragons)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Before we started, some people were saying that he had been consistently drawing well and doing a lot of explosive plays in the past rounds. I guess his deck was really built well for it to be quite consistent. Nonetheless, I am not fazed as I have been drawing “WSlasher-like” openings and top decks in my last match. LOL. I knew if I opened Rabbit into Ophion, his only answer would be either Ryko or tribute summon something that can run over it. I opened with Rabbit but I also had 2 Verz Heliolope in hand so I am only able to summon Raggia instead. A couple of turns later, I was able to summon Ophion by manually summoning the two Heliolopes but before that, I attacked his face down monster with Raggia to get rid of it, in case it’s Ryko and true enough it was. He destroyed Raggia with it and I made Ophion in main phase 2. I was surprised that he was still able to get rid of Ophion by tribute summoning Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon using D.D.R. on a banished Plaguespreader plus Battle fader which he summoned on my previous turn when I tried to make a direct attack. However, on his following turn, he forgot the effect of Eclipse Wyvern when he banished it to summon Chaos Sorcerer and therefore was not able to finish me off. On the next turn, I had Dark Hole to get rid of his monsters and Pot of Avarice which allowed me to draw Tour Guide, enabling me to make Acid Golem and run over his Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. He had Ryko to get rid of the Golem but a few turns later, I was able to summon Ophion once again and seeing that Dark Hole and 3 Ryko’s are already in his Graveyard, I proceeded to lock him out.

2: He had no Ryko and I was able to summon Ophion again.

Finals: vs Jeff Legarda (Dino Rabbit)  O-X-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: LOL I did not lose the dice roll ever since I changed dice in round 4. Opened Rabbit into Raggia but without backrows. He just set 3 backrow cards and passed. My turn I activated Heavy Storm. He tried Starlight Road, but I negated with Raggia. I then summoned Tour Guide into Leviar, revive Rabbit to summon 2 Heliolope and attack for game. I knew he did not have Gorz as one of his backrows destroyed was Macro Cosmos. Makes no sense to set that one if you have Gorz. Again, the Wslasher luck spirit lives on. LOL.

2: He opened Rabbit into Raggia and a couple of Warnings. GG.

3: This time my only opening was Tour Guide into Zenmaines and set one backrow which is only a Forbidden Lance. He did not have Rabbit on his turn either, so it was quite a relief. He just set a monster and passed. I felt it was Snowman Eater so I summoned my weapon against Snowman (Grand Mole) wherein he responded with Torrential Tribute and chained Fiendish Chain to my Zenmaines, I chained Forbidden Lance to protect it, but he chained Solemn Judgment so the field got wiped out. Next turn, he just set another monster, one backrow, and passed. I then summoned Thunderbird, set 2 backrows and passed. The following turn, he summoned Kabazauls, hoping to run over my Thunderbird but when he attacked, I activated MST, allowing Thunderbird to dodge. On my turn, I summoned Sangan and rammed it into his Kabazauls to fetch Rabbit and attacked over Kabazauls with my now bigger Thunderbird. Finally, one of us gets a Rabbit after 10 years! LOL. I was pretty confident at this point because I have Gorz and Dark Hole in my hand in case he is able to top deck Rabbit. It turned out he didn’t and on the following turn I made Dollka with Rabbit, activated Compulsory Evacuation Device on his set monster and attacked directly for game with Dollka and Thunderbird.

So I finally won a monthly tournament this year. Prizes were mainly REDU booster packs plus one thousand pesos worth of store credits. The only notable pull I got was Geargiganto X. At least I got something good plus a bunch of cards. Also, videos of the semi-finals and finals matches were taken by WSlasher. Please see below:


Semi-Finals Video (Game 1):

Semi-Finals Video (Game 2):

Finals Video (Game 1):

Finals Video (Game 2):

Finals Video (Game 3):

Here are some random thoughts that come to mind, after using this deck:  Tour Guide is crazy. It enables an OTK which otherwise cannot be done in the OCG. Ophion auto-wins against Hieroglyph in the absence of Electric Virus. I side in 3 Maxx C against Hieroglyph and never got to use them. Ophion single-handedly took care of everything. Grand Mole is good not only against Snowman, but also those XYZ that are hard to kill such as Zenmaines, Crimson Shadow, Tyrus, etc. While Verz Rabbit is great against Hieroglyph, I feel the standard TCG version of Dino Rabbit is better against Inzecters cause it is able to summon Dollka the turn after summoning Raggia. OCG version of Verz Rabbit is also better against Inzecters as it runs Macro Cosmos in the main deck. Thunderbird is also great. It is quite good against Inzecters as it is able to dodge Hornet and it is very annoying, basing off the comments of some people I played against who can’t seem to get rid of it. Also, Heliolope is so much better than Kabazauls when you draw it. It can even run over Raioh and it gets rid of Snowman Eaters before dying. I don’t feel as bad drawing them than drawing Kabazauls. Remember the match when I drew 2 Heliolope? Imagine if I drew 2 Kabazauls instead. I don’t think I could have won if that was the case. And finally, yes I do have Snowman Eaters to side in the mirror. I just never seem to draw into them.

That’s all for my second post. Hope you enjoyed the read and feel free to leave any comments. I’ll try to write an article for beginners and intermediates on how to improve your game but don’t get your hopes up because it will probably take a while, especially because work is piling up again for me. Thanks!

By the way, here’s my decklist:

20	MONSTERS
3	Tour Guide from Underworld
3	Rescue Rabbit
3	Sabersaurus
3	Verz Heliotrope
3	Verz Thunderbird
3	Effect Veiler
1	Sangan
1	Messenger of Darkness Gorz

11	SPELLS
3	Mystical Space Typhoon
2	Forbidden Lance
1	Monster Reborn
1	Dark Hole
1	Book of Moon
1	Heavy Storm
1	Pot of Avarice
1	Pandemic Contagion Infestation

9	TRAPS
2	Torrential Tribute
2	Solemn Warning
1	Fiendish Chain
1	Chain Disappearance
1	Solemn Judgment
1	Compulsory Evacuation Device
1	Starlight Road

15	EXTRA DECK
2	Evolkaiser Raggia
2	Verz Ophion
1	Evolkaiser Dolkka
1	Verz Bahamut
1	No.50 Black Corn
1	No.39 Aspiring King Hope
1	Inverz Roach
1	Gemknight Pearl
1	Leviar the Sea Dragon
1	No.17 Revise Dragon
1	No.60 Acid Golem of Destruction
1	Wind-up Zenmaines
1	Stardust Dragon

Chaos Dragons burning the Meta

Hi guys! As you all know Chaos Dragons took YCS Toulouse and placed 2nd in YCS Dallas. Chaos Dragons is basically a deck created from the last structure deck that is Dragons Collide splashed with the LS engine (which is any lightsworn monster + Solar Recharge and Charge of the Light Brigade).Here are the deck lists of both players:

Alex Reed - 2nd Place YCS Dallas

Monsters: 31
3  Lightpulsar Dragon
3  Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
2  Mystic Tomato
2  Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
2  Eclipse Wyvern
2  Effect Veiler
2  Ryko Lightsworn Hunter
1  Jain, Lightsworn Paladin
1  Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner
1  Ehren, Lightsworn Monk
1  Judgment Dragon
1  Card Trooper
1  Chaos Sorcerer
1  Dark Armed Dragon
1  Honest
1  Tragoedia
1  Sangan
1  Black Luster Soldier Envoy of the Beginning
1  Plaguespreader Zombie
1  Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1  Phantom Of Chaos
1  Darkflare Dragon

Spells: 9
3  Solar Recharge
1  Monster Reborn
1  Charge of the Light Brigade
1  Heavy Storm
1  Allure of Darkness
1  Dark Hole
1  Future Fusion

Traps: 1
1  Treacherous Trap Hole

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Peter Gross -YCS Toulouse Champion
Monsters: 32

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
3 Lightpulsar Dragon
3 Chaos Sorcerer
3 Darkflare Dragon
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress
3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3 Eclipse Wyvern
3 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Tour Guide From the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Card Trooper

Spells: 8

1 Charge of the Light Brigade
3 Solar Recharge
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

The deck's main focus is to summon big monsters as fast as possible and finish the game quickly before the opposing player could even setup his plays.Lightpulsar Dragon is a card that when I sent to graveyard from the field you can special summon a dragon monster from the graveyard,by having a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon in your graveyard you have created a mini-lock.Another good card here is Darkflare Dragon he has the ability to remove a card in the graveyard by just discarding a dragon monster from hand and from deck,he is used to remove those threats in the graveyard like Inzektor Hornet etc. It also helps in setting up plays like sending an Lightpulsar Dragon in hand then sending Eclipse Wyvern to graveyard, remove Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon via Eclipse Wyvern then everything is now up to you on what you will do from here.


Here is what I thought how Chaos Dragons made an impressive showing:

• The ability to summon a lot of big boss monsters and finish the game before the opponent could make his moves.

• The surprise factor of the deck- many people doesn't know how the deck functions just like this guy here:Top 4 featured match for those who are too lazy to click on the link well this is what happened: “Reed used his Metal Dragon’s effect to Special Summon Lightpulsar Dragon. Duren flipped Torrential Tribute to clear the field, but Reed returned Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon to the field with Lightpulsar Dragon’s effect, and used the his Red-Eyes’s effect to Special Summon Lightpulsar Dragon right back to the field, putting him in the exact same position he was in before the Torrential Tribute.”

So that's it for my analysis on how Chaos Dragons took everyone by surprise, for those aggro players like me you should give this deck a shot it is good, cheap and also fun to play because of so many things that you can do once you have your grave set.Till next time hope you enjoyed reading and if you have any comments don't be shy to give them thanks :)

Late Updates

Hi everyone it's been a while since I posted here in our team's blog because I am busy finishing lots of paper works ,being a college student and a yugioh player is difficult LOL. Anyway here are some updates that happened during the past few weeks OCG and TCG:

-Jeff defended his Asian Championship in Singapore.
-Our representative for Asian Championship, Edsel Gozon placed 3rd
-Chaos Dragons destroyed YCS Toulouse and also placed 2nd in YCS Dallas.
-Dino Rabbit hopped it's way to win YCS Dallas.
-For the Philippine meta Wind-up Inzektors is the best deck for 2 weeks since it won almost all of the tournies for this month.


So that is it for the updates sorry for the late post, later I will post my take on the newest deck that took everyone by surprise bot YCS Dallas and Toulouse.

Neza's Rare and somewhat Tournament Report

Tournament: Courtside Weekly Tournament Sanctioned Pod 3
Date of Event: April 7, 2012
Format: Sanctioned
Rank: 2nd
Player Name: Neza
Deck Name: Sword Dancing LOL

Monsters - 17

3x Inzektor Dragonfly
3x Inzektor Hornet
3x Inzektor Centipede
2x Inzektor Gullho
1x Inzektor Giga-Mantis
1x Dark Armed Dragon
2x Card Car D
2x Effect Veiler

Spells - 14

3x Inzektor Sword - Zektkaliber
3x Pot of Duality
3x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Allure of Darkness
1x Book of Moon
1x Monster Reborn
1x Heavy Storm
1x Dark Hole

Traps - 9

2x Torrential Tribute
2x Solemn Warning
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Raigeki Break
1x Solemn Judgment



The main card in this deck is the Inzektor Sword - Zektkaliber:

 

Equip only to an "Inzektor" monster. It gains 800 ATK and DEF. When this face-up card on the field is sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 "Inzektor" monster in your Graveyard; add that target to your hand.

What's so good about this card? Lots !! LOL. First, it gives a boost to Inzektors (both ATK and DEF). Imagine your Centipede becomes a Monarch size (2400 atk) and Dragonfly becomes a Laquari (1800 atk) or a freaking wall (2600 def) and Hornet (or Gullho) has some decent atk (1300 atk). Next and the fun part of this card is its Monster Reincarnation like effect. The "When" statement of the card does not miss its timing (Miss Timing = "When....you can"). Third, this card is similar to Supervise.

Equip only to a Gemini monster. It is treated as an Effect Monster, and gains its effect(s). When this face-up card on the field is sent to the Graveyard: Target 1 Normal Monster from your Graveyard; Special Summon it.

Both the Inzektor Sword - Zektkaliber and Supervise has "When this face-up card on the field is sent to the Graveyard". What's my point? Let's check the rulings:

-If “Mystical Space Typhoon” is Chained to the activation of “Supervise” to destroy it, the effect to Special Summon 1 Normal Monster will still be activated.

-If “Supervise” is sent to the Graveyard during the Damage Step, the effect to Special Summon 1 Normal Monster still activates

Both rulings can be seen here: http://www.yugioh-card.com/en/gameplay/rulings/100325DPTin_%20HA_SDWS_ST09_Rules.pdf

Some stunts that can be performed with the sword:

-Summon Dragonfly equip Hornet and equip the sword. Enjoy the Special Summons and get your Hornet.

-Opponent has only 1 card on the field, you have a Dragonfly, Hornet, and important cards. Inzektor stunt that card, Special Summon Centipede. Destroy Dragonfly, get sword. Equip sword. It will pressure your opponent. If the equipped monster gets destroyed by battle, the monster will be sent to graveyard first then the sword will be destroyed by game mechanics sending it to the graveyard then it will form a chain so you can target either Centipede or Dragonfly to perform a stunt next turn.

Game Mechanics explained here: http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Game_mechanics

-If the equipped monster and the sword is simultaneously destroyed by a card effect (ex: Black Rose Dragon) and sent to graveyard, both of the cards will be sent to graveyard then after that a chain will form via sword's effect. The equipped monster is in the graveyard by that time so you can target it (also noted in the supervise rules).



And that wraps about the trolling powers of the sword. Now for the Tourney Report:

Round 1 vs Kaloy Bonillo (Inzektors)
O-X-O

The first player to have Hornet wins. Luckily, I got it for 2 games.

Round 2 vs Chito Racimo (Lightsworn)
O-O

He milled his Heavy Storm in Game 1 and also got bad draws. Book of Moon his Consecrated Light in Game 2. Done many sword stunts in this round.

Semi-finals vs Vince Lim (Hieroglyphics)
O-X-O

Veilered his Card Car Ds then took control in Game 1. He destroyed my Mask of Restrict and negated my Light-Imprisoning Mirror in Game 2. He suffered greatly because of Mask of Restrict in Game 3. All his Card Cars are either veilered or warninged.

Finals vs Alvin Lim (Inzektors)
O-X-X

This round is about who runs out of backrow first wins. I ran out first 2 out of 3. LOL


Overall, I can say that the sword is so good if you know how to use it right. Destroying it while equipped for OTK and leaving it on the field for pressure.

This concludes my post. Have fun !!

4/4/2012 updates

Hi everyone! I hope you have read Alvin Lim's report last week because it is filled with lot of information, for those who haven't read it click here. For those who do not know Alvin Lim ,the uncle of Rey Vincent Lim  is our representative for world championship for 2010, also he is recognized by everyone as the "Master" LOL coz he is always on top during tournaments and he really is good,so that is it for his introduction and hopefully you guys would read his posts.

Okay today I went to Robinson's Galleria to particapate in today's tournament I got eliminated during round 2 by Yuki (his blog) and went home immediately because I need to avoid traffic, since it is Holy Week many people are travelling to their own provinces to have their vacation.

While I was waiting for the tournament to start I have a playtest with Irwin Arogo (our head judge) with his version of Dark World. It looks similar to Michael Balan's deck with some changes, he replaced Tour Guide of the Underworld with Card-car-d's, swapped Upstart Goblin with Pot of Duality.What I have noticed is the ability of the deck to gain so much card advantage thanks to Reckless Greed. Card-Car-d, Gates of Dark world,Dark World Dealings,Dragged Down to the Grave and most importantly Pot of Duality, with so much cards that allows you to draw, it gives you more chances on setting up your field early.He showed me how good the deck is even against the best deck IMO Inzektors, being able to draw Skill Drain is really good and it cripples the deck so much that it cannot fight back anymore unless you have drawn your S/T destruction cards, which is dealt by Mind Crush or Dragged Down to the Grave.As I have said before Skill Drain is the best card to use against meta decks today, because of it's ability to stop powerful monster effects.So far the deck is testing well and we are quite satisfied with the results that the deck has given us.

This just proves that Michael Balan's success during YCS Long Beach is because of his deck's ability to search for his power cards as early as possible and to overwhelm the opponent with so much card advantage.So that's it and see you guys again next time :) 

Tournament Report from your newest Blog Contributor :)

Hi everyone!

My name is Alvin Lim a.k.a BlueMinotaur. Like Karlo, I am also a member of Team Top Deck and starting today, I will be making contributions to this blogsite. For the benefit of those who do not know me, I will try requesting Karlo to make a brief introduction about me because I am not really comfortable making it myself. I hope he is able to accomodate J

Today I’d like to talk about the recently concluded March Philippine Monthly Tournament. This is an unsanctioned tournament and therefore we are allowed to use TCG exclusives and promo cards. I was contemplating on using Miracle Gemini in this tournament, being one of my favorite decks, but then I was able to borrow a playset of Tour Guides and an Evolzar Dollka. Even if I am not a big fan of Dino Rabbit, I decided to play it just to experience playing both TCG exclusives. Hell, it’s not every day that you get to use a playset of Tour Guides and a Dollka here in the Philippines. It’s too damn expensive and no one here wants to buy something that can’t be used in Sanctioned tourneys. Without further ado, here’s what happened:

Deck Used: Dino Rabbit (TCG version)

Format: 6 Rounds Swiss + top 8

Round 1: vs Kent (Inzecter)  X-O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Was already leading with Raggia on the field, but made a crucial mistake of playing Heavy Storm and going for game, as he set 2 more backrow cards on his preceding turn and I thought that knowing him to be a good player, he won’t set that many backrows if he has Gorz, but it turned out I was wrong. It cost me the game.

2: Chain Disappearance his Damsel.

3: I drew a subpar hand that is unable to defend against Inzecters and I thought I was really gonna lose. He was able to use Warning on my Rabbit. When I got hold of Veiler via Sangan, I knew that my only chance is to deal quick 6000 LP damage and finish the duel before he is able to pull off his inzecter stunts, so I made Acid Golem with Tour Guie and attacked, praying he does not have the answer in his set traps. Luckily, I connected and he was not able to draw an answer on the next turn wherein he just set Damsel, knowing I have Veiler. On my turn I summoned Sabersaurus to run over Damsel and attacked directly again with the Golem, to win the game. Tour Guide doesn’t disappoint. True story.

Round 2: vs  Sorry forgot your name (Hieroglyph)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Open with Rabbit into Raggia. On his turn, he just set a backrow. On my turn, I made Leviar with Tour Guide, revive Rabbit to Summon 2 Sabersaurus, and attacked for game. Raggia + Leviar + 2 Sabersaurus = 8000 LP Damage.

2: He was not able to get rid of my Thunder King Raioh and when I made Raggia on the following turn, he conceded.

Round 3: vs  Paolo Calma (Laval)  X-O-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: He had triple Rekindling (Used Gold Sarcophagus on the two and drew the third one). I was able to negate the first two but when he activated a third one, I conceded, knowing he would be able to make Quasar.

2: Opened by normal summoning a Sabersaurus and setting a few backrows. On his turn he used 2x Gold Sarcophagus to search for Heavy Storm and 1 Rekindling. I was then able to make Raggia on my second turn through normal summoning a second vanilla. When he set a monster (Laval Tender), I called his bluff and summoned Guaiba to attack. It was a risky play, knowing it could possibly be Snowman Eater, but it paid off. My 2x Raggia plus backrows was then enough to deal with his Heavy Storm and Rekindling.

3: Early Macro Cosmos vs. Laval is quite devastating. I was able to chain it to his Sweltering Heat Transmission field.

Round 4: vs  Tony Shu (Inzecter)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: First turn Rabbit into Raggia. My following turn, Tour Guide into Leviar.

2: Macro Cosmos kills Inzecters.

Round 5: vs Meison (Gravekeepers)  O-X-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: He opened with Necrovalley and 2 Set backrows. My turn he activated Skill Drain so I thought this is really a tough match for me. We went back and forth in negating summons and when I was able to bait out his Warnings, I set up my Gorz play by activating MST to destroy his Skill Drain when he declared an attack with Commandant. From there, I was able to turn the tables.

2: An early Macro Cosmos renders his GK Stele useless. I was able to kill GK Recruiter with Guaiba after I use MST on his Necrovalley. Controlled the game from there.

Round 6: vs Willam Sy a.k.a Wslasher (Six Samurai)  O-X-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: This is a no bearing game as we will both go to the top 8, win or lose. I had Veiler to foil his turn 1 Shien via Kageki, but I was not able to capitalize on my turn as my only monster was Kabazauls. Was hoping it was someone bigger who can run over Kageki and Kizan. His turn he tried making Shien again via Asceticism on Kagemusha, but I was able to negate with Warning. He attacked me with Kizan for a couple of turns, but when I finally drew Rabbit, I took control.

2: First turn Shien, Grandmaster and Kizan with set Solemn Warnings = GG.

3: Unable to capitalize going first due to subpar opening hand of 1 Veiler and 1 Kabazauls, plus Spells/Traps. He was able to destroy my back row and summon Naturia Barkion and Grandmaster on his turn. I set Kabazauls and Torrential, trying to bait him to summon another Monster so he can attack for game and he totally fell for it. He probably was comfortable with Barkion on the field, but I had Veiler to negate its effect. That play plus a timely Gorz in the later turns enabled me to steal the win.

So I finished swiss with a perfect record of 6-0, but I have to say it does not bode well for me because basing from past experience, people who had no loses usually lose immediately on the quarterfinals match, save for Wslasher. I remember the time when he won both Asian Qualifiers and Nationals 2011 wherein he had a perfect record during the swiss rounds. When we faced each other during the finals of the 2011 Asian Qualifiers, he totally thrashed me with Gateway openings. Talk about consistent lucky draws. This is part of the reason why I wanted to win against him in Round 6 despite it being a no bearing game. Anyways, enough ranting.

Needless to say, I lost the quarterfinals match against Orlando Rivera a.k.a OrlandoBoy who was piloting Wind-up Inzecter. I lost the dice roll and he was able to drop 4 cards from my hand in game 1 as I did not draw any Veiler. I won game 2, but he was again able to drop my hand in game 3. I had 1 Veiler for his Zenmaighty but it wasn’t enough to stop him as he was able to special summon 2 more level 3 monsters. Didn’t draw my 2 sided Maxx “C”. Too bad I lost my 3^rd Maxx “C” (Can’t find it at home). If only I had it, there’s a chance I would have gotten it in my opening hand instead of Veiler as I was supposed to side it in place of one Veiler. Wslasher also lost in the Semi Finals against Paolo Calma (Laval). Looks like my theory was viable after all ;)

My overall comment on the deck is that Tour Guide and Dollka greatly increases its power level. If you open Raggia and good backrow cards, it doesn’t require much skill to play, but if you open some subpar hands with Vanilla monsters, that’s when you need to put on your thinking cap. Also, I did not put in Pot of Duality in my build as I felt that there are 6 cards which are good special summon openings (3 Rabbit and 3 Tour Guide) and there is a big chance of drawing them in your first turn. Indeed, I did not miss Pot of Duality on any of my games. It’s a different story for OCG as we don’t currently have Tour Guide.

That’s all for my first post. Hope you enjoyed the read and feel free to leave any comments. Thanks!