Yet Another Weekend Update!

Hey everyone. I'm gonna cut right to the point -- I'm really not feeling well and also don't feel like writing up a huge blow-by-blow report of what happened during my matches this weekend, so I'm just going to give a really brief overview of each tournament:

Friday - Pandemonium
Deck Used: Lightsworn
Final Record: 3-3

Sunday - Fun4All
Deck Used: Blackwings
Final Record 2-2

Monday - Our House Games
Deck used: Blackwings
Final Record: 4-1

Not a bad weekend overall I suppose, but I definitely could have done better. I've been playing around with Blackwings a lot lately, and the deck has really grown on me. I've been debating whether or not it's worth dropping the $200+ to get the Pot of Duality that the deck needs, but until I get them I've been playing Gold Sarcophagus instead. It's working rather well. Removing Black Whirlwind, Dark Hole or Monster Reborn plays such terrible mind games with my opponents. Also I have to say that Delta Crow - Anti Reverse is one of my new favorite cards, right alongside Icarus Attack.

Tournament Record to Date: 28-24

Weekend Tournament Report

Another weekend has come and gone, and that brings us to another tournament update!

So, last Monday I took a pure Lightsworn deck to my locals and finished 3rd with a 3-2 record overall. Unfortunately there weren't many people there, so 3rd place wasn't awarded any prize, but that's OK I guess. In the first round I played against my friend Nick, who has been playing Hopeless Dragon for literally as long as I've known him. In game one I demolished him, ending with a field of double Judgment Dragon and a Lyla. In game two I SHOULD have gotten an OTK off, but due to a miscalculation he survived by 200 LP and ended up making a ridiculous Dark Hole comeback play that sealed him the game. Game 3 I opened up with trash and he steam rolled me.

Round 2 I had a cakewalk match against a Psychic player, who I easily 2-0'd. Round 3 I got paired up against my good friend Pat, who is playing a Relinquished/Djinn control deck. He had agreed to let me have the win ahead of time because he was 2-0 while I was 1-1 so that we would both make top, but we played it out anyway and I ended up destroying him 2-0 with two consecutive Celestia plays. Lightsworn is a bad match up for his deck anyway, which I suspect is why he was just going to let me have the win. haha

I lost in the first round of top 4 to my friend Bob who's playing Quickdraw. Game 1 I stomped all over him, but in Games 2 and 3 he sided in Soul Releases and just completely shut me down. I couldn't recover both games and ended up losing. In the second round of top 4 I got paired up against Pat again, and he scooped to me after I opened with a Charge putting 3 different LS's in grave, then Foolish Burial-ing another to drop double Judgment Dragon on my first turn. He didn't want to play the rest of the match out and just let me have it. haha

Friday Pat and I went to Pandemonium again, but unfortunately we showed up late and weren't able to enter without taking a round 1 match loss, and neither of us wanted to do that.

Sunday afternoon we went to another locals in Ypsilanti at a place called Fun4All. I played GBs and started off strong with a 2-0 record only to lose my next 2 games and not make top.

Yesterday I changed up my Lightsworn to be more of a controlling Twilight build and I piloted it to a 3-2, second place finish. The only thing I lost to was a Gravekeeper anti-meta deck. Basically, I HATE Necrovalley lol Overall though I'm pretty happy with how I've been doing. All of my practice is starting to pay off.

My friends and I are planning on going to YCS Philadelphia next month. I'm not sure what I'm going to play, or if I'm even going to go at all because I'm not confident enough in myself just yet, but I will definitely be writing up a huge report if I do go.

Tournament Record to Date: 19-18

Sorry for the lack of updates!

Pandemonium

Hey everyone!

I've been sort of neglecting this blog, and while I realize very few people are reading it anyway, I apologize for the lack of information!

Last Friday I went to a place in Garden City, Michigan called Pandemonium. I've only been there once before, but Pandemonium is without a doubt the premiere place to be for competitive Yu-Gi-Oh play in my area. A large percentage of the people who play regularly there have topped or even won Shonen Jumps/YCS's. To put it simply, the competition there is intense and at the highest level possible outside of a YCS or a regional.

I wasn't expecting to do very well given the fact that I had only played there once before and given that I'm sort of rusty, but I started off doing really well. I played Infernity and swept my first two matches to go 2-0 into the 3rd round. I was seated at the top table right next to my friend (and somewhat of a YGO mentor), Pat Bodette, and I got matched up against Sean Montague, who some of you will know as this year's USA WCQ winner. It was a close game, but in the end his GBs got me 2-1.

I won my next round making me 3-1, but scrubbed in the final two rounds bringing my record to 3-3. Overall though I was very happy with not only my own performance, but with the deck's performance as well. I had made a few changes to the spell and trap lineup and I found the deck running MUCH more smoothly.

On Sunday I took my hung over self and my Infernity to our local tournament at Fun4All in Ypsilanti, only this time after a tip from Brandon Miotke I decided to replace the Dark Grepher graveyard engine with 3 Ryko and a Charge of the Light Brigade. To put it simply, I was AMAZED at how much this sped up the deck and also helped me in clearing out large threats on the field. The only problem is that sometimes milling important cards (Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Infernity Launcher, etc.) really sucks, so I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with the build, but it ended up taking me to a 3-2 record where I lost out on my chance to make top 8 simply because there were a HUGE number of 3-2's and my tie breakers just didn't make the cut. It was a little disappointing, but I got over it.

On Monday I piloted a Lightsworn deck to a 2-1, third place finish here at our locals in Monroe. However, given the fact that there were only 6 people playing, it wasn't much of an indicator of how well my deck was built and playing.

I've been tossing around a few deck ideas in my head, some of which I may execute on and write about here. But I have decided that in order to keep myself from getting burnt out on the game or any one deck in particular that I'm going to regularly rotate decks at every locals every week. I figure that should also help make these entries a little more interesting to read.

On that subject, I promise that not everything I write here will be a tournament report like this. I do plan on writing some useful, informative content for the blog, I just haven't been struck with any particularly good ideas or how to execute on them. But rest assured that I am thinking about it!

Anyway, until next time guys, I'll leave you with this:



Tournament Record to Date: 11-12

Crisis of Faith (Infernity Analysis Post-Sept. 2010)

Hey guys, I'm back with a different sort of update today. As I mentioned in my last post, I played Infernity this past Sunday at locals and I started off strong, sweeping my first two matches 2-0 and from there on proceeded to get crushed in the next two rounds, finishing with a (rather embarrassing, I might add) record of 2-2, with no hope of making top 8.

As I'm sure we've all felt at one point or another, there's nothing quite like spending multiple hours and hundreds of dollars on a deck only to take it to a tournament and get knocked the hell down. It's a frustrating and humbling experience, especially after you've grown accustomed to piloting the same deck to the top 4 or even top 2 of local tournaments each and every week. To put it in the simplest terms possible, it sucks!

So now I'm back to the drawing board with my Infernities. I knew that the loss of two Infernity Launcher was going to really hurt the deck's capability to compete, but I was completely blindsided by the loss of consistency that came with it. It now takes much more time and careful consideration to set up your graveyard, and once you have there are a lot less ways to explode without Launcher.

A lot of interesting tech has come along since the ban list, including cards like Stygian Street Patrol (which is a staple at 1 in the deck now, as far as I'm concerned), Dark Eruption to recycle Mirage, Infernity Break to protect your field and gain advantage, and even entirely different builds like the ones who have dropped Infernity Beetle altogether in favor of 2 Infernity Avenger and a Plaguespreader for more consistent synchros in the form of Hundred Eyes Dragon copying Mirage's effect to fetch more Infernity Barrier's from the deck.

Infernity Mirage and Infernity Barrier are now absolutely the two key cards in the deck. The deck wouldn't even be considered playable without either of those cards. Ending up with a field of Stardust Dragon, Infernity Doom Dragon and 2-3 Infernity Barrier back is an almost unsolvable field. Getting to that end result is more of a challenge now, especially with so many ways for the deck's big plays to be interrupted, but it's still worth attempting.

I was ready to give up and declare the deck dead after last Sunday, but now that the first YCS of the format is over and two Infernity decks made their way into the top 16, I'm not calling it quits just yet. I spent a lot of time learning this deck and making an optimal build, and I refuse to let all of that go to waste. I'm going to try again with the deck this Friday and see what happens. It's all about play testing until I find the perfect build to fit my meta and my play style.

So, what do you all think? Is Infernity dead without 3 Launcher, or is the deck still just as deadly as it was before? Hit up the comments and let me know your thoughts!

Tournament Record to Date: 3-5

First Local's Report from the new September 2010 Format!

The new ban list took effect this week, and last night I attended my first local tournament of the format. I put together a Blackwing deck packing a lot of draw power and anti-meta tech hoping to be a sort of "rogue" deck to take people by surprise, but unfortunately I wasn't the only one with the idea! There were at least 3 other Blackwing decks there. Here's my deck list:

Monsters: (20)

3 BW - Sirocco
3 BW- Shura
3 BW - Bora
3 BW - Blizzard
3 BW - Kalut
1 BW - Gale
1 BW - Vayu
1 Cyber Dragon
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
1 Dark Armed Dragon

Magic: (11)

2 Cards for Black Feathers
1 Pot of Duality
1 Black Whirlwind
1 Allure of Darkness
2 MST
2 Book of Moon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole

Traps: (10)

3 Icarus Attack
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Skill Drain
1 Royal Oppression
2 Bottomless Trap Hole


Round 1: Unlucky for me, I got paired up in a mirror match first round. As I'm sure we all know, mirror matches in general are terrible, but Blackwing mirror matches are especially awful. The kid I played against (literally a kid, he couldn't have been older than 11), was actually really pro. He was running a Burden of the Mighty/Solidarity build, and just steam rolled me game one once Solidarity hit the field. Game 2 I went for aggressive pushes to bring out Armor Master as fast as possible and won the game through sheer aggression. Game 3 I opened with a terrible hand and just couldn't recover from his field presence. He won the match 2-1.

Round 2: In Round 2 I got paired up against my good friend and teammate Ray Hampton. He was running an interesting Guardian Eatos/Gemini City hybrid, with main decked Dimensional Fissures. He won the dice roll and opened game one with a D-Fissure and Eatos on the field, and I just couldn't get over it without being able to use my Kalut's. I played defensively for a while and eventually cleared his monsters with an Icarus Attack play, but had no follow up and got my face kicked in. Game 2 Ray opened with a Consecrated Light, and at his end phase I activated a Skill Drain. He was completely shocked. "You were supposed to side those out against me! I hate you for being so pro Ry-Ry!" hahaha I knew he would side in Consecrated Lights and left the Skill Drains in specifically for that. Needless to say I pounded on his Consecrated with a Bora/Shura combo and easily won the game. Game 3 I once more opened with a terrible hand and conceded after a few turns. Ray took the match 2-1.

Round 3: I got paired up against another kid in round 3, who was running a terribly modified version of the original Dinosaur structure deck. Without going into detail, I crushed him 2-0.

Round 4: In the final round before top 8 (which at this point I had already accepted I wasn't going to make it in), I got paired up against a guy named Emmanuel, who I was informed was playing a Darkworld/Fabled hybrid. He won the dice roll and, strangely, decided to let me go first. All it took was an end phase Skill Drain to clinch the first game for me. Game 2, however, took almost an hour. It was really intense. I had both Skill Drain and Oppression active on the field, with a Bora in play. He had a few cards in his back row and a face up Jujitsu Master, which was worthless thanks to Skill Drain. Eventually he wore me down enough in life points via Oppression and made a big play with a sack for Caius, sealing the game. Game 3 was over in just a few turns. I opened (ONCE AGAIN) with a terrible hand consisting only of magic and traps, and after he brough Goldd and Siilva to the field I conceded, knowing I had no chance. Regardless, it was a really great, challenging match. He won 2-1.

So, obviously I didn't do so hot in the first tournament of the format! I had a full Infernity deck that I should have played, but I had enough confidence in the Blackwings to try them out. Needless to say I won't be doing that again! There's another tournament tomorrow, in which I'm going to play Infernity. Look for a report some time tomorrow night!

Final Record: 1-3