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