March 2022
Top 4:
What made you choose Blue-eyes for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I like Blue-Eyes. My tech choices were mostly in the side deck, but I didn't end up using them too much. Kaijus, chaos creator, Cerulean Nepthys, high ritual art, slash draw, lightning vortex. The Nepthys combo was cool in testing but kinda slow so I thought I'd use it against slower decks. That never happened though so I'll probably take it out.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
It was good. I had some difficult times, especially if my opener got negated or if I bricked. I don't think I did any special or big brain plays though.
Next month's YTC will have a $55 prize pool! Do you have any expectations for the tournament or for what decks will be strong?
Not sure since I don't really keep up with the meta. I guess a lot of Dharc and maybe Albaz or Despia?
Cinosrepus
Walrus
What made you choose Noble Knight for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
Noble Knight are currently an overpowered archetype. If the deck resolves Borz within the first two turns it almost always steamrolls the opponent. I also feel more comfortable piloting this archetype than any other, which is a big deal in tournaments where familiarity with your plays makes such a difference in being able to convert wins.
The only meaningful difference from my first place build last month is the addition of the three-card Magicians' Souls package. This package is an absolute must in Noble Knight because Souls gets such value out of the recurring GY equips from Ogier, Maugis and Gwenhwyfar. So long as Souls sticks around, that's two draws per turn!
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
I was generally frustrated with my play this tournament because I lost several winning game states due to misplays. More of my losses were because of an oversight when decision making in game than from opening poorly. Noble knight are a deck with a ton of intricate decision making involved, but it's still a bummer to lose when you know you could have won.
That said, I also had plenty of intelligent decisions this tournament that won me close games... So I suppose it goes both ways.
My favorite moment was when I used Magicians' Souls as a material for Relinquished Anima, equipped my opponent's Machine Ruinforce and then attacked directly for exact lethal. That was fun! My game two against Folo was also insane, in which I played through three disruptions in the opening turns to eventually swing the snowball in my favor and win.
Next month's YTC will have a $55 prize pool! Do you have any expectations for the tournament or for what decks will be strong?
There's almost no chance I don't get first place next month, so I'm excited to win some money.
As for top decks, I think that all four of the archetypes that topped this month will be contenders, in addition to Albaz (whose new structure deck will be legal for the first time next month), Plunder Patroll, Ogdoadic and War Rock.
Impy
What made you choose Dragons for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I played Drulers because its my "old reliable" deck. I know the deck in and out, the lines and combos, and I added the souls package to the deck and it paid off. The souls package "fixed" one of the issues of the deck, that being not being able to consistently run Seven Swords or Allure of Darkness and resolve them. The package adds DARKs and level 7s to the deck as well as provide the deck with a 0 summon lv7 extender.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
It went overall fine till the tail end of the event. Pro tip: don't mix beach vacation with ytc; your schedule will suffer. The most notable moment in the ytc was my duel with WideWalrus, Round 4. It was fun dueling against a very competent player of a deck I used to play, and I got to see how we both took advantage of the magician souls package. (They even used the Diviner of the Herald > Illusion of Chaos combo that I brought up.)
Next month's YTC will have a $55 prize pool! Do you have any expectations for the tournament or for what decks will be strong?
As for the $55 i expect at least some players coming out of retirement (money is money). As for what decks will be best to take to the event, I'll say, Dragon Rulers (only loses to bricking), Noble Knight (if you're a good enough pilot), and Sword Soul + Good stuff (if you're a good pilot and understand match ups).
Ejinqus
What made you choose D/D/D for the tournament? What were your tech choices?
I chose d/d because I've been playing it in tcg recently and it had no representation despite just having gotten support. Not much in terms of techs, the main and extra decks were fairly standard for d/ds. I tried a loptor package in the side that came in often but felt hit or miss, particularly in a deck like this where you want every card to be either engine or a trap card.
How did your tournament experience go? Any notable moments?
Tournament was mostly fine, even with scheduling which was incredibly nice. For notable moments I dunno, normal summoning orthros 3 turns in a row during my swiss match with cino and it being relevant all 3 times was funny.
Next month's YTC will have a $55 prize pool! Do you have any expectations for the tournament or for what decks will be strong?
Although the point of time the prizing was announced could change it, I'm expecting a much larger turn out than normal which is good because playing against new faces is always fun. I haven't much been paying attention to what decks are poised in the meta but I expect most of the common faces these past couple of tourneys to be good, noble knights, war rock, drulers and the like (probably also despia, although it's fallen off recently so I'm not sure), with some less common decks like thundra flip or zombies also being brought by pilots who've practiced a lot for the tourney, and of course wild cards brought by new people. In particular I've heard rumblings about noble knights so I'll try and lab that match up more if I decide to participate.