February 2022
Top 4:
What made you choose Noble Knight for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I've been playing Noble Knight in YTCs for ages now, and there was no reason to stop now that they had a shiny new four-card Brave engine to add in. It's incredible how much of a difference this engine makes, because it effectively adds three more ways to draw a Noble Arms card in your opening hand, meaning that the deck no longer needs to run an extensive assortment of sub-par Noble Arms equips like Caliburn and Destiny.
The only cards that I'd really consider techs here are the Traptrix Myrmeleo + Time-Space/Bottomless Trap Hole package, which I play in virtually all my decks because it's insane. I still think that this is the most underplayed splash in the format, even though it's not particularly rare.
And I suppose that the TGU+Sangan engine is also a bit of a tech. It performed well as a way to search Merlin/Ogier or a hand trap, and I'll continue to play it so long as Dharc remains unlimited. Notably, Sangan was also great every time I drew it as just something to ram into my opponent's monster for a search. In this way, it overperformed my expectations.
What impact did your side deck have on your tournament performance? Which cards came in often, and which didn't?
Not much of one, but that's kind of how 50 cards goes. D.D. Crow, Puppet Plant, Brain Control and Gravedigger's Trap Hole were the four cards that I sided in most frequently. The pendulum hate, Ready Fusion and Soul Release never came in. I always sided out Forbidden Lance for extra Trap Holes if I knew I was going first, whereas I brought in monster stealing if I was going second.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
I got the bye round 1 and then went undefeated in matches through the rest of the tournament, which felt good because I've had several first place finishes in swiss now but never actually won a YTC. My matches didn't generally feel close, because even though I almost lost a couple, I spent the vast majority of my time playing in game states where I had massive advantage over my opponent.
My favorite moment was equipping Noble Arms - Arfeudutyr to my opponent's Elemental Hero Stratos, clearing his backrow, summoning Noble Knight Medraut, attacking over his now 1300 attack Stratos, and then having Arfeudutyr re-equip to my Medraut so that I could combo off in main phase 2.
This was the first YTC of the format; were you surprised by anything that showed up in the event?
I was more surprised by the absence of D/D/D and Zombie than I was by the presence of anything new. Both of those decks have proven to be title contenders in the past and received meaningful buffs, so I was surprised that nobody chose to pilot them.
I was also surprised that Zodiac managed to make top 4. I don't think that that deck is particularly strong, but Sparky is a good pilot and maybe I've underestimated it.
Walrus
Guilty
*Note: the above list is illegal as it played 6.5 points instead of the 6 allowed. However, this oversight wasn't caught until after the tournament.
What made you choose War Rock for the tournament?
First of all, war rock is a tier zero meta threat, possibly unrivaled since full power grassworn, throw in sky striker and now we’re in the tier -5 to -15 territory. I started with an already finished deck list from last format, looked at the banlist and saw no changes so I just went with what I already had with no prep. My expectation was plenty of untuned decks, but the decks at the event were uncharacteristically competent. I’m using a board breaking approach which is a mild advantage against many standard decks. However if a combo deck is strong enough, breaking boards and setting up your resources isn’t enough, you have to start disrupting them on the recovery which is where the deck falls short somewhat with its pure reliance on main deck beaters. Still, just having the resource loop of mountain with multiple war rock monsters punishes attempts to attack and starts a beat down clock.
What impact did your side deck have on your tournament performance? Which cards came in often, and which didn't?
My relevant tech was dark sacrifice as a counter to annoying game 2 cards like twisters, ghost ogre and bottomless. I also encourage everyone to revisit triple tactics talents in the despian matchup. It’s really impactful. There’s also the mind control series of electric virus and co, which are usually pretty effective in the right match. D/D crow and Primineral kong are always staples in any side. The rest is there for countering monsters, s/t or monsters from the extra deck. Santa is in the main not side because it’s broken in every matchup.
How did your tournament experience go? Were you surprised by anything?
This format is improved because the player base has finally coalesced around bode hits rather than flip flopping and we also seemingly hit the new stuff correctly. This tournament showed off Dark Nephthys, which was a surprise, for me. The other thing I learned is the spellcaster that fetches ecclessia, but I don’t think that’s new. People always play what they wan’t so new players shouldn’t be in intimidated even by tier -15 decks like war rock. Happy black history month and screw Borz.
Wtrain
What made you choose Blue-Eyes for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I played Chaos Blue-Eyes for this event. I played it because Cinosrepus want to overload the bracket with Blue-eyes players and tried to get a bunch of people on BE. I was one of the fools who went along. My list was a decently standard Blue-eyes list. What made mine different wasn't what I played but, what I didn't play. I didn't play a ton of good Blue-eyes "staples" like True Light or Blue-eyes Abyss Dragon because while they did increase the power ceiling, I felt that they also made your bad hands worse.
What impact did your side deck have on your tournament performance? Which cards came in often, and which didn't?
I was playing 60 cards so, my side deck had a minimal impact. I mostly used it as a way to take out bad cards from my deck. I did no testing and several cards I would side out every game since I did not read them before I put them in my deck. Something I regret is not having the banish 3 Shadoll in my side deck since it would be very accessible.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
Blue-Eyes did what Blue-Eyes does: have a really high power ceiling and an amazing grind game but, sometimes just brick. But all said, it is a fun deck and I had fun playing Trinity.
This was the first YTC of the format; were you surprised by anything that showed up in the event?
I didn't see any cool decks but, the tech of guiltygear running Spell Striker was cool as heck.
Sparky
What made you choose Zoodiac for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I feel like mid-range combo decks are really strong right now so I wanted enough removal to stop them from going off. I had a few tech choices like legacy of the duelist, moon mirror shield, and cloak and dagger but they all felt only decent.
What impact did your side deck have on your tournament performance? Which cards came in often, and which didn't?
he battle traps came in more than I expected, I ended up fighting Bewd twice in the tournament in which I’d take out some effect negation or backrow to put them in.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
I got 2-0d in round 1 but managed to win out and get in top 4. The blue eyes matchup felt really rough but I felt like the cards were really solid against the slower matchups. I top-decked pot of greed multiple times and once I got a pot of greed into avarice. Usually it was unnecessary, however it was very comedy.
This was the first YTC of the format; were you surprised by anything that showed up in the event?
Not really. It was pretty much what I expected. Decks from recent history bewd, despia, and noble nuts are still very strong.