Hi everyone! It’s been a loooong
time since I last posted in this BLOG. I’ve been too busy with work lately and
had to beat a lot of deadlines… I missed a lot of weekly tournaments and I was
not able to join the May Philippine Monthly tournament because I had to work on
weekdays and take care of wedding preparations on weekends. Yes, folks, you
read it right. I’m getting married! J
Despite the hectic schedule, it is a
given that I do not intend to miss the biggest 2012 Yugioh event in the
Philippines – the 2012 Philippine National Championship. I’m kind of worried
though as I have not played for some time, having no time at all even just for
practicing and playtesting. I told myself that I cannot really expect to win
this big event as I wasn’t as focused as I should be. Nonetheless, I know that
I still had a chance. Anyone has a chance in Yugioh ;)
First, I have to choose a deck. Nationals
is not a time to experiment, especially with my lack of playtesting, I know
that I have to choose a tier 1 deck. It will either be Inzecter, Hieroglyph,
Dino Rabbit, or Chaos Dragons, even though I don’t really like any of them.
Here are my thoughts on these decks:
1) Chaos Dragons – Very explosive and
OTK-oriented. Prone to bad draw because of the number of boss monsters. No
traps. I am always plagued with bad luck when I play with LS type of decks and
I don’t feel secure without traps, so it’s not my choice.
2) Hieroglyph/Hanzo Hieroglyph – OTK-oriented
and a bit more consistent than Chaos Dragons. Tends to over-commit in the field
when doing the combos. I don’t like over-extension and I feel that the deck is
not as strong without Gustaph Max.
3) Dino Rabbit – Very control-oriented
and is able to main deck Macro Cosmos, posing a big threat to Inzecter. Chaos
Dragons will also struggle if Macro Cosmos is active. However, you run the risk
of drawing Vanillas wherein you need to depend on your traps. Also, if you do
not draw Macro Cosmos, Chaos Dragons will easily run over you. I am expecting
many players to use Chaos Dragons, as it is relatively cheap to build, so I don’t
think I’ll choose this.
4) Inzecter – In my opinion this is currently
the best deck of the format, at least as of June 30, 2012. Very versatile and
has the capability to control as well as explode for an OTK, depending on the
situation. It has also enough traps to use both in defending and in pushing
(CoTH). However, expect all people to have side deck (even main deck) hate
against this deck as alongside Chaos Dragons, it’s one of the most played
decks. There is also the chance of drawing poorly (No Hornet/Gruf or drawing
only Hornet/Gruf), but that is tolerable. One thing I hate about this deck is
its cheap ability to blow up stuff for free. So if the opponent doesn’t have an
answer, you easily gain card advantage. I don’t really like this idea as I
believe it is quite unfair that one is able to gain advantage without much
effort. It also disables the option of setting back-row bluff cards. But that, of
course, says a lot about how powerful the deck is and would just strengthen the
point for me to use it.
So because of the strong points
above, I decided to play Inzecter. I will not write a complete tournament
report because it will be quite boring, seeing that people don’t really expect
to see something new from an Inzecter deck LOL. Maybe just a few highlights and
how I fared in the tourney of 114 participants. I actually qualified for the
top 16 slot in day 1 where I got a 5-2 record.
The people that beat me where quite highly-ranked and finished the
tourney with a 6-1 record so I had good tiebreakers. Guess what decks they were
using: Inzecter J
On the seven rounds of Swiss, I faced
1 Machina, 1 Gladiator Beast, 1 Agent
Angel Inzecter, and 4 Inzecter. Looks like my decision was right to main deck
Mind Control and Safe Zone. It helped me in my Inzecter match-ups, but it
actually boils down to who draws better, especially if you are up against
players who are equally good. The
Gladiator Beast player also did not seem to draw the War Chariot or Veiler on
time in both of our games so I was able to win easily. The Top 16 match was
also held in day 1 and whoever qualifies to the top 8 will have to go to day 2.
I had to face my worst match-up this time against a Dino Rabbit deck main decking
Macro Cosmos, but somehow I managed to pull it off. I lost game 1 miserably but
went on the win the next 2. One thing I noticed is that when I sided in Royal
Decree and was able to use it, I was able to freely execute my Inzecter stunts.
It appears that his deck is particularly reliant on Cosmos and so it does not
have any Effect Veiler to stop my plays, in case I am able to negate or destroy
Cosmos. So, with triple MST, 1 Heavy Storm, and 2 Royal Decree, I know I have a
big chance to win and indeed I did. So now I qualify for the top 8. However, I
was destined to face a teammate and friend in my first match, which made me a
bit sad.
Now onto day 2. In the
quarter-finals, I am facing my friend Jomer, who is a very good player and is
one of the 2011 Asia Plus Team Champions. He is also using Inzecter and despite
the fact that I won the match, I did not really feel that I won because I was
the better player. The reason was more on my more superior draw compared to
his, which allowed me to OTK him in game 3. Moving on to the semi-finals, I
will now face another friend and teammate Kaloy, who is also a very good
player, one of the 2011 Asia Plus Team Champions, and is the originator of this
BLOG. He was using Chaos Dragons and had a perfect record so far. In game 1 I
thought I was going to lose, drawing a sub-par hand of 2 Hornet, 1 Gigamantis,
1 Solemn Judgment, and Duality. The
funny part is when I used Duality, it revealed 2 Veiler and 1 Heavy Storm, both
of which are not very good cards against Chaos Dragons. I took Veiler, because
it can still be useful compared to Heavy Storm which is quite dead and indeed
the Veiler paved the way to my game 1 win. I was able to stop his Lyla from
milling and destroying my set Solemn Judgment, limiting the number of monsters
in his graveyard, while continuously beating him down with Hornet equipped with
Gigamantis. When he finally got a light and dark monster in his graveyard, he
summoned BLS and I was able to negate with Solemn Judgment. In game 2, I sided
in Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Fissure but I did not draw them. The
good thing is that I drew enough to perform the Inzecter Stunts and he did not
have Veiler to stop it, so I won. This is a game where I feel, skill had played
a factor, especially in game 1 wherein we both did not draw well. That situation
is where you need to work hard to get the win LOL.
So finally I am one win away from
bagging my 3rd National Championship and representing my country in the World
Championships for a second time. I really wanted to win because I felt the need
to redeem myself especially because I did not perform very well during the 2010
World Championships. My opponent in the finals is no other than my friend and
teammate Irwin, who is a very good player and a former judge/tourney organizer.
Honestly, it sucks to play against your friend/teammates for the entire
duration of day 2, but it takes away the pressure as well, because win or lose,
you know that the winner will come from your team. As to Irwin, this is actually
his first major event in Yugioh, but let us not down-play his experience. I
know for a fact that he is a very competitive and strong player as I often play
with him when he was a judge and I have nothing but good things to say about
how skilled and dedicated he is. I also heard that he has been consistently
joining and winning weekly tournaments lately while I was not even playing at
all. He is also adept in other card games such as MTG, WOW, Vanguard, etc. And
he happens to be using the best deck around, namely Inzecter, so I know this is
a very tough match for me. In game 1, we both started slow, but he got to the
Centipede/Damsel + Hornet pieces first. All I got where Grufs and a couple of
Hornets and I did not draw Veiler on time. My only Centipede was Veilered. I
had Heavy Storm but was unable to capitalize with any plays even if I activate
it. Game 2 was pretty much the same. I drew mostly the smaller “equip”
Inzecters and my single Veiler was not able to stop him as he had Reborn (his
last card), ending his turn with Centipede on the field and Damsel in hand. I
have MST in hand and I top decked Warning. GG. Again I drew Heavy Storm and am
unable to capitalize because of my sub-par draw. Well, that’s too bad. I almost
had it, but that’s life I guess.
On hindsight, I think Irwin was
indeed the more deserving person to win. Because given that I am busy with work
and wedding preparations, I might not have enough time to prepare for Worlds
had I won, substantially lowering my chances of success. As to Irwin, he is pretty
skilled, dedicated and he play tests a lot so I think he has a better chance
than me ;) I wish him good luck in his
journey to Japan J
whoa, awesome post :D
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