Team Misplay

It's not a pro play, unless it's a misplay.

[teammisplay-blog]

March Banlist Analysis

What’s on my mind

The ban list has been announced as of about a week and I’m pretty sure if you’ve found your way to this you know what’s on it by now. If not, the changes are as follows

Banned Sangan

Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity

Limited

Wind-Up Magician

One Day of Peace

Solemn Warning

Semi-Limited

Tsukuyomi

Advanced Ritual Art

Thunder King Rai-Oh

Unrestricted

Blackwing-Kalut the Moonshadow

Spore

Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

Shien’s Smoke Signal

Mind Crush

Discussion TIme

Everyone’s first instinct is usually to start getting upset about what the list didn’t do, but I would much rather focus on what it did do. If you don’t care about my opinions and just want to see my talk about what the meta will be next format skip on down to the next section, but if you want to hear how I feel the banlist impacted the game we had last format and changed the way many decks will play or be played read below.

Toned back Wind-Ups Made Wind-Ups comparable to Inzektors in that they are no longer a “sacky” deck and the cards that generate massive advantage (Magician and Dragonfly) can no longer be abused the way they had before. This was done through hitting Sangan, Zenmaity, Wind-Up Magician, and Solemn Warning. Every Wind-Up Deck lost 4 cards out of the main deck and 1 card from the extra. People will soon realize just how different the game is with 1 solemn warning, perhaps the single most impactful card hit outside of Wind-Up Magician and Zenmaity on this list, but Sangan is giving it a run for its money.

Makes Dino-Rabbit less sacktastic Most people don’t see eye to eye with me on this, but this is my write-up so I can do what I want (well within reason of course). Rabbit lost 2 Cards in their main deck as a result of this list. One of those cards facilitates the engine in a huge way being Sangan which somehow always seems to go off around Macro Cosmos despite the deck oftentimes opting to main 3 of the card. Its beyond me but whatever. They now have 2 copies of the furry bunny in the deck and not potentially up to 5. This is including Sangan and the Two Tour Guides which can go get Sangan on a regular basis. I think Rabbit players may opt to use Gold Sarcophagus for the time being and most will switch to play Verz when it debuts here barring the cards aren’t ridiculously expensive as its basically Rabbit 2.0 and supports the infamous Macro Cosmos in the main for the time being.

Promotes Prophecy. Konami is a business, and businesses like making money. The Prophecy deck is a searching machine, literally searching almost non-stop throughout a game. Thunder King says no to all that, so by putting him down to 2 they give Prophecy a bit of a better chance in the Meta. People will say that most players only played 2 anyway, and they would be right. However I think people would have certainly considered playing 3 once Prophecy reaches its full potential. The deck is tearing Japan apart right now. You can check results from Japanese tournaments at www.shriek.twoday.net . Keep in mind the card pool is different between here and there when you look at results from there, but it’s a good place to go to see different and unique ideas as well as keep up with where the game will be going in the near future as they get new sets before us and then we play catch up. Also Warning to 1 means that the deck can summon its bosses more easily. This is a trend Konami seems to be going with, having boss monsters that get around Solemn Judgment and are only vulnerable to the great Solemn Warning. This can be seen with Grapha, Lightpulsar getting back REDMD, Mermail Abyssmegalo, the Prophecy High Priestess thing, and Garunix now which revives itself from the grave by its own effect.

Advanced Ritual Art This card to 2 does nothing at all desirable for this game. This may be my least favorite move on the list. The 2 decks likely to see more play as a result of this are Demise and Herald. Both of which are annoying and about as much fun to play against as Countdown.

One Day of Peace to 1. Hallelujah. Who would have thought a card that generates you no advantage and gives your opponent a plus 1 would be so deserving of this spot but I feel the card should be banned. It promotes stalling. There are already so many cards that serve this same function anyway and this just isn’t needed as it stalls and replaces itself unlike any of the other stall cards out there such as Threatening Roar, Waboku, Forzen Soul, and Thunder of Ruler.

The unrestricted cards will contrary to what appears to be popular belief have a sizable impact on the game.

Lumina Lumina at 3 is a little cloggy as is, but could be used to play a couple more rank 3’s consistently and also helps Lightsworn players better deal with cards like Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos which I support wholeheartedly as I think both of the aforementioned cards are bad for the game as the decks who use them do not do so to further their own game state, but rather just so their opponent cannot interact with them and play the game.

Kalut Kalut to 3 makes Blackwings a viable deck. Konami is set to give us some more Blackwing support in the near future and havin Kalut at 3 with only 1 Black Whirlwind is a decent balance. There are some combos I see this deck being able to make that would be pretty sick but I personally do not have the courage to play the deck at any major events as I can see it not being able to handle certain meta decks that can outpace it. That will nto stop people who loved this deck and still do going back to it here and there and seeing if a viable form of the deck can be made to compete in the current meta.

Shien’s Smoke Signal This was not needed. It makes Samurai better able to sack their way to victory and they already do that plenty. The deck won a YCS last format but yet still got a card back. Doesn’t make any sense to me, but I imagine some new Samuai support is in our future and this is to help sell that support.

Mind Crush I like this card at 3, as I feel this is often a card that needs true skill to be maximized. However, by not putting Dragged Down to either 2 or even 1 I hate this move. Dark Worlds are going to be more annoying than usual and that’s a bit hard to believe. The card helps players more reasonably stop boss monsters like Megalo and High Priestess which is a good thing, and I feel this card at 3 is favorable to Solemn Warning at 2. This is because unlike Solemn Warning, a Rabbit player is much worse off going Laggia set Mind Crush and Forbidden Lance. However, Laggia + setting Warning and Forbidden Lance was going to be a real problem for you most likely. Mind Crush at 3 helps players fill the void to stop certain ards that only Warning could stop before but doesn’t allow players to just stop everything in a manner that made going first oftentimes an incident that would generate significant if not insurmountable advantage.

Spore This was dumb, The card should either be at 3 or at 0. No one uses more than one and when Konami hit this card everyone just didn’t understand why, and we still don’t really know why that ever happened. Regardless, Spore is back in one of the two places where it belongs. It doesn’t make any deck any more or less viable, it would appear to me that this is just Konami realizing they made a dumb mistake.

So if you’re still with me, and let’s be honest you probably aren’t, let’s briefly touch on what’s good right now.

Breaking down the tiers at the start of the format

Tier 1

Mermail Atlanteans and Mono Mermail (including and excluding undine)

Fire Fists and certain Fire variants

Macro Rabbit

Tier 1.5/2

Dragons

Dark World

Agents

HEROes

Prophecy

Dino Rabbit

Hieratic

Tier 3

Machine variants (Pure Karakuri, KK Geargia, Machina Geargia, and Machina Gadgets) until we get Goldfish

Dragunity

Lightsworn

Inzektor

Wind-Up

Blackwings

Some less powerful fire Variants (Hazy Flames, pure Fire Kings, etc.)

Samurai

Gladiator Beasts

People have said this format will decrease the number of playable decks, but I’m looking at that and it does not appear to be the case. The way I ordered them is an informal ranking system, but I grouped them by tier and then within each tier by how I feel they rank within that tier. This is just how I feel at the moment. Currently I have Samurai way down low, but the better Prophecy gets, the more playable Samurai gets so things are of course subject to change. If this becomes a backrow Heavy format, look for Blackwings to surge upward as they can play a great tempo game with cards like Delta Crow-Anti Reverse, Icarus Attack, and now Blackwing-Kalut the Moonshadow at 3. Not included in this ranking are the two decks which get help in Hidden Arsenal 7, Lavals and Verz. Where they fall will be based on what’s relevant when they come out, things rise up and fall off the playable list and I likely have forgotten some decks that could perform at very high levels. If the format swings to graveyard reliant decks Macro Rabbit could rise up the list, but if Macro Rabbit becomes increasingly played, Fire Fists will be a great meta call as they have a very good matchup against Macro Rabbit.

Tier 1 Breakdown

Mermails haven’t lost anything and they are going to get a themed Lonefire Blossom. Most of if not all of the attributes (I can’t recall) will get a themed “Incarnate Dragon.” Water will be able to abuse this card with Undine if they like as well as in the Mono Mermail builds but not as consistently, albeit it will still be abuse. They’ve lost nothing and are set to gain more things and the deck was already considered a top contender last format and the deck that many people thought was better is no longer a factor (Wind-Ups).

Fire Fists are good now, but will get better. Wolfberk and Fire Fist – Chicken will likely both show up in this format if they haven’t been announced already. The two cards make the deck extremely consistent allowing for use of the Rank 3 and Level 6 Synchro, plus easier access to Rank 4’s on a regular basis. Onslaught of the Fire Kings into Graunix is also a problem to deal with and Tenki is extremely OP in my opinion so the deck will maintain a consistent presence for the next format.

Macro Rabbit is the great equalizer at times, keeping certain decks in check just due to its presence. I hate this deck with all my heart, I think its players are soulless at times, but I can understand why many feel the deck must remain a factor. If it wasn’t so many things could just run rampant through the format and players would have no hopes of stopping a variety of decks and the format would become based around just a few decks, and I personally like more variety in a format because more informed and more well-rounded players tend to have higher levels of success due to skill level and not due to opening with a better hand than the opponent.

Tier 2 Breakdown

Dragons and Agents really only lost Sangan. All of the decks that gave them issues like Rabbit and Wind-Ups and such (other than each other) lost Solemn Warning to stop the Gorz and Tragoedia plays. I think they are both strong picks right now and play very well against certain decks within the meta. However, both tend to take a bit of damage as part of their play style which just excessively plusses Fire Fists. Decks will change as new sets release and Dragons could switch up their playstyle a great deal with the release of a trap card in Tachyon Galaxy and move towards a deck that plays a few trap cards and perhaps even goes for Rank 4 spamming by including the Hanzo engine to make Lavalval Chain to stack the Black Luster Soldier or bury the Eclipse Wyvern to banish the Blue Eyes White Dragon to revive with Daigusto Emeral the next time you make a rank 4. The deck has reliable ways to get the Blue-Eyes to the grave from the hand with Lightpulsar and Darkflare Dragon is this is certainly an idea that is not all that farfetched.

Agents will opt to main deck 2 copies of Thunder King Rai-Oh. This will really help them in their Prophecy match-ups and also their Mermail match-ups. I view this deck as highly comparable to Prophecy outside of Agents ability to utilize Thunder King Rai-Oh and Prophecy’s inability to do so. Some may think one card doesn’t make that big of a difference, and to that I say you’re not using your brain. Rescue Rabbit, Hevay Storm, Dark Hole, Monster Reborn, Black Luster Soldier, Gorz, Solemn Judgment. Those are cards that for the most part you can only play one of and do devastating things, you can play two Thunder Kings. Hopefully that logic makes sense, if it doesn’t rethink the way you view the value of cards. Thunder King keeps your opponent from just going straight nuts on you while also progressing you towards your own gamestate of Hyperion and Kristya control, buying you the time to set those plays up and keeping decks that can’t handle cards like Thunder King at bay.

I’ve already talked about Propehcy a bit earlier. The deck is good and only getting better. As it gets better, many people will play Six Samurai to combat the deck, so the decks ability to morph itself to deal with that will be how we can determine if it stays around as playable. They will only get more support this format, and the advantage their cards can generate is often insurmountable as it’s a deck full of plus 1’s that likely won’t survive in its full potential form past this format due to the success it will have around the time of the NAWCQ.

Any time Rabbit and other stun decks start to rise up in play, cue the HERO decks and the great equalizer that is Super Polymerization. That’s enough said.

If Hieratics go off and you can’t stop them you already lost and the deck lost exactly 0 cards so their win condition is still completely intact and in my opinion rightfully so, the deck hasn’t done enough here to warrant anything happening to it undeservingly.

Tier 3 Breakdown

Any time Machine variants pick up steam, Cyber Dragon then reminds them that he is a card, steamrolling Machine Players into submission. Many players of the Karakuri Geargia version will argue they just explode all at once and I will offer them a scenario. The KK Geargia player has Starlight Road set so they begin to go off unafraid of Torrential and Mirror Force understandably. They create a massive field of Bureido, Stardust, Burei, and Gear Gigant X to swing for game. Before entering battle phase the opponent activates Threatening Roar. The opponent then on their turn special summons Cyber Dragon, contact fuses their whole field basically and pummels them. Another scenario they do all that with Solemn Judgment, the ultimate protector down so they do not fear the opponents one backrow. Opponent MST’s the face down on attack declaration and KK Geargia player lets this go through so they can still attack for game with the Stardust they need to attack to seal the win. Battle Fader happens. Tribute set Cyber Dragon, contact fuse for game. The second scenario is one I did to someone last format while playing Dragons. The guy was upset of course, but he plays a machine deck and machine decks lose to Cyber Dragon into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.

Dragunity is actually a pretty good right now. If there wasn’t so much Macro Crap running around right now I’d be a bigger fan of the deck, but that crap is around so I don’t like this as much. Turn 1 Stardust is not what it used to be, but it is still somewhat annoying if you don’t have the right combination of cards to deal with it. Churning out Level 8 Dragon synchros every turn can become very tough to deal with very quickly, and with Emeral the deck will be able to recycle cards better like Dux and Varijyana the way it used to when Avarice was at 3.

Wind-Up and Inzektors are to me very much 1A and 1B. Both can still do nutty things despite the restrictions placed on them by Konami, but they require very specific combinations of limited cards, and thus just lack the same capabilities to make those plays, and especially make them more than once if needed.

I discussed Blackwings above, if you want to see my take just Ctrl+F (Find Function) “Blackwing” on this page and read that area then come back.

Hazy Flames are highly combo-centric and fall victim to mass removal cards. Torrential Tribute can now constitute 4 cards in a main or side deck where they used to only be able to take up 2 slots due to banlist restrictions. This goes along with Dark Hole being a card so players have 5 ways to not target but still destroy Hazy Flames at their disposal. Bottomless Trap and Dimensional Prison should take care of Garunix, and cards such as Gagaga Cowboy Help get opponents around the destruction effect by having it be destroyed by battle. When the deck gets Yaksha we may have problems. The Fire Kings also lose hard to Prohibition on Garunix. Many Fire King advocates will say otherwise, but when played correctly the Prohibition of Garunix is like using Prohibition on Grappha, and to a lesser extent Lightpulsar (thanks to Ryko and Lyla) as it completely kills the one card engine that the deck relies on to generate advantage.

Six Samurai have been discussed before but I will cover them briefly. The success and playability of this deck is directly related to the success of Prophecy and to a lesser extent HEROes. Super Polymerization gets around Naturia Beast and Six Samurai Shi-En, but many of the other power spell cards the deck relies on are shut out by Naturia Beast. If I were playing this deck I would tech one copy of Marauding Captain as he is an earth monster that can be paired with Kagemusha to make Naturia Beast. Kaigeki is a Wind Monster and can only be used to make Shi-En, thus Marauding Captain will get you to the same combination of levels, but with the ability to make Naturia Beast and not Six Samurai Shi-En.

Gladiator Beasts are always a thing, but in my eyes never all that relevant. Bestiari being at one is too much of an uphill battle for the deck to climb. Any more than 1 and the deck would become a high tier option and would become immensely frustrating as Gyzarus are dropped left and right, but at one the access to it is so limited that the deck can’t get enough Gyzarus plays off to be viable as Gyzarus is the card that generates them the advantage the deck needs.

Things to keep your eyes open for

A few new decks will be debuting shortly and I’ll just list the names here as more and more will come out on them and then I would be much more informed and able to speak on their abilities and viability in the meta at the time of their release.

Verz

Lavals

Harpies

Beastcrafts (Phanton Beasts)

Burning Knucklers

Constellars

The Light-Thunder Deck (Mahunder, Pahunder, Sishunder, and Thunder Seahorse)

Machines with Goldfish

Hope this was informative and you enjoyed it. You can message anything you want me to address going forward to this page or you can also leave a message in our inbox at our youtube channel as well.

Until next time,

Michael

[teammisplay-blog]

Fire Monsters

Cosmo Blazer is around the corner and of the entire set there are really only a few cards you should be worried about. Although the Haze Beasts are good cards, without the support from the Fire Kings which we do not yet know when we will get them, they will not be nearly as playable. The other group of fire monsters, the Fire Fists, are however insanely good and should not be overlooked.

They function much in the way Inzektors do, constantly having the ability to destroy cards with Bear and Gorilla and also have great ability to search the deck much like the Merlanteans. Bear is really the engine of the deck much in the way Centipede is now for Inzektors and they rely on their continuous Spells and Traps to make their monsters a respectable size. The deck toolboxes rank 4's constantly if it so chooses, but unless a certain situation demands an XYZ play, you might be better off as a player of the deck just leaving the Fire Fists up instead.

What will set good players using this deck apart from the bad ones in my opinion will be those who can use Dragon good and those who can't. He is such a hidden gem and should in my opinion be played as a 3 of in any Fire Fist deck for the time being. Obviously once we get more support with Chicken and Spirit the deck list may change.

This also as a side note may be the second deck I've ever seen where Rescue Rabbit opening is just the stone cold nuts. This will prove to more and more true post Hidden Arsenal 7 when I assume Daigusto Emeral will be released and allow them to recycle their normals. The deck has very few weaknesses outside of Skill Drain and if siding for this deck cards like Effect Veiler, Fiendish Chain, Skill Drain, and Forbidden Chalice could be very good for you. A first turn Thunder King is good, but the normals this deck will use will be Gene-Warped Warewolf and they can just run over Thunder King as well as any of the Fire Fists backed by Forbidden Lance.

I will talk more about this deck later as I continue to play it and this could very likely be my deck choice for the next format.

Michael

[teammisplay-blog]

Not sure if everyone could view the side guide I posted so this is it again, should work this time...

[teammisplay-blog]

Side-Guide

In a video at one point I mentioned that I use something I call a “side guide.” Here is an example of the one I made before the Houston Regionals on September 29th where I placed 6th. I used Chaos Dragons for that event so hopefully that helps you understand some cards and choices I made and the video of the deck profile is on the team’s YouTube Channel called TheTeamMisplay.

The sheet I made in Microsoft Excel and as you can see, it’s pretty straightforward. You can’t refer to your notes or look at your phone during rounds, but the process of making this and looking it over every now and then will likely be enough. Also, the process of creating this will help you get your ideas on paper and see what cards consistently come out and which ones stay in. That way you can know where to look to side cards out when you need to take out one more card.

You obviously do not need Microsoft Excel to make something like this, albeit the program helps in the process. Using formulas regarding sums and cell referencing will make your life easier. If you don’t know how to use the program I suggest you at some point you do take the time to learn it, I use it in so many different aspects of my life from budgeting to tracking things, and so much more. I could talk about Excel for paragraphs, but even I know that’s boring.

One thing you may notice is how often I side out some cards, such as Solar Recharge and Allure of Darkness. That consistency in siding out the same cards allows you to gain familiarity and know where to look to take out cards to offset the ones you want to bring in like I mentioned earlier. Games 2 & 3 in any match are likely to be much slower games with any deck you choose to play. This has a lot to do with people siding out pieces of their combos that are perhaps less consistent (i.e. Solar Recharge and Allure of Darkness), and bringing in cards that help disrupt what your opponent wants to do in order to simplify the general game state. Simplified game states will lead to less misplays, and on the whole most people seeking to win consistently are better off making as few misplays as possible.

Before your next event or tournament that you wish to do well in, I encourage you to reflect on your side deck as much as possible. This is something you get to use in potentially 2 games every match, and you will play at least half of your games with cards that are in your side deck. Do not just throw cards in there to fill up the space without first examining how you can incorporate them into your deck and checking to see that they will in fact work. Take a card like Kinetic Soldier for example. It may be a great card, but I really just don’t have any room for it in the side deck here and thus I don’t play it. I won’t argue anyone on the merits of the card, it is phenomenal in the appropriate match-ups, but you may just not have room for the thing.

Don’t take the side deck lightly. Players who are the best at side decking tend to perform well in highly competitive events, as it is one of the areas where players can really set themselves apart from their opponents and peers. The art of side decking is one developed through practice and time and reflection. Nothing worth having likely will come easy, so it’s important to be diligent and work hard to put yourself in the best possible position to succeed going into each and every match-up. I used a side guide from a regional over 2 months ago for this article; however, that doesn’t mean I don’t actively keep and change mine. I have one from the last 2 regionals I have attended that I will not delete, as well as ones that I have attempted at locals or in test playing with friends. If something just doesn’t work over time take note of that and move that card out. I take notes after many matches and can tell you every deck I’ve lost to in every competitive tournament going back quite a ways. By taking life points on paper and not a calculator you can do this very easily. I write down the name of the opponent and also the deck they are playing when I play them some time during the round. Some people ask me I keep a blog or what not about it, and I don’t. I keep it so that I know what that person played if I come across them again and also how I performed against them. You could go as far as to make something along the lines of a spreadsheet in Excel to track success ratios against different decks and players to see which areas of your side deck need the most attention and which ones may be getting too much attention and you can rotate cards out of to give yourself more help in those match-ups you struggle in.

Thanks for reading if you were able to stay awake during my boring talk about analytics. I pride myself on my ability to side deck, along with my knowledge of the card pool with concern to specific cards that help against numerous match-ups, archetypes, monster types, and attributes. I encourage any and all players to educate themselves on the competitive card pool when you can, that knowledge can only serve to benefit you, as knowing what is in other people’s decks and also the average side deck for a particular deck will also make you much more effective at side decking. In the end what almost always proves true is that you should expect an amount of success comparable to the amount of time you spend attempting to put yourself in a situation to succeed. That is something that proves true in all facets of life, not just this game we choose to play.

Michael

[teammisplay-blog]

Houston Regional Report- Steven

Hey guys, Steven here. This past weekend, Darian, Rudy, Michael, and I, as well as a few of our friends, went to the Abyss Rising Regional in Houston, TX. I headed up the night before and spent the night at a friend's house while the rest of the team stayed at a hotel. That night, I met up with my friends at Heroes Collectibles to do some last minute test playing and make final adjustments to my decklist. We went out to eat and ended up going to my friend Quang's house to get some rest. Saturday morning we arrived at the event early and got registered fairly quickly. I wasn't feeling that great about the event, mainly because my deck wasn't testing well against key matchups, and I had very little experience playing against the new water deck (which I fortunately did not end up playing against). 

  So without further ado, here’s my decklist:

  Main Deck: 40 Cards

  Monsters: 31

  3 Lightpulsar Dragon 3 Darkflare Dragon 1 Eclipse Wyvern 1 Dark Armed Dragon 1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon 1 Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning 1 Chaos Sorcerer 2 Tour Guide from the Underworld 1 Sangan 1 Night Assailant 2 Card Trooper 3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter 3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress 3 Maxx “C” 2 Effect Veiler 2 Tragoedia 1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

  Spells: 9 Cards

  1 Charge of the Light Brigade 3 Solar Recharge 2 Mystical Space Typhoon 1 Heavy Storm 1 Monster Reborn 1 Dark Hole

  Side Deck: 15 Cards

  2 Thunder King Rai-Oh 2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 2 The End of Anubis 2 Soul Taker 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 2 Messenger of Peace 2 Royal Decree 2 Call of the Haunted

  Extra Deck: 15 Cards

  1 Leviair the Sea Dragon 1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon 1 Number 20: Giga-Brilliant 1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction 1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn 1 Wind-Up Zenmaines 1 Queen Dragun Djinn 1 Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon 1 Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh 1 Photon Strike Bounzer 1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle 1 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum 1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger 1 Black Rose Dragon 1 Scrap Dragon

  Round 1: Lightsworns (2-1)

  The first round pairings are posted so I find my table number and try to get to my seat before my opponent. I tried to do this for every round so I could sit down facing the clock. I lost the die roll, which was a recurring theme throughout the day, and things got underway.

Game 1: He opens up with Charge of the Light Brigade to search for a Jain and follows up with a solar recharge sending a Wulf; milling a Ryko and a Necro Gardna in the process. He summons the Jain and mills 2 more then passes turn. I open with Card Trooper and Tragoedia in hand as well as 2 Lightpulsar and Darkflare, drawing into a Maxx C as my sixth. I summoned the Trooper and milled 3 and attacked straight into an Honest! I drew an MST off of Trooper and ended my turn. On his next turn he managed to hit another Solar Recharge and summon a Lumina. When he activated the effect I chained my Maxx C, drawing a Solar Recharge in the process. He attacks for 1000 and I drop my Tragoedia with 6 cards in hand. On my next turn I draw into Charge which, in combination with the Solar Recharge, drew me into BLS and Dark Armed Dragon. I then proceed to remove his Necro Gardna with my Darkflare and OTK through his field and attack negation, ending the duel with BLS, Adreus, Dark Armed Dragon, Lightpulsar Dragon, and Red-Eyes Darkness Metal

  Game 2: I basically open a hand full of boss monsters and no possible way of feeding the graveyard. He pokes at me with Lyla’s and Wulf for 3 turns and I lose very quickly.

  Game 3: After power shuffling my deck, I draw into Card Trooper and Tragoedia; which I end up sitting on for a few turns. This allowed him to load up his graveyard until I drew into my side decked Kycoo and completely shut him down. He tried to use Necro Gardna to save himself from my final attack, but after re-reading Kycoo’s full effect, he extended the handshake.

  (1-0)

  Round 2: X-Sabers (2-0)

  Game 1: He’s able to hold off my initial push with his traps as well as his Emmersblade floating, giving him time to draw into his combo. I Maxx “C” when he activates his Boggart Knight’s effect but he continues his play and synchro summons a Scrap Dragon alongside a Hyunlei and Pashul. I drop a Gorz which gets Saber Slashed with the token, but I’m able to use my card advantage to bait out his backrows and end the game the next turn.

  Game 2: This game was a bit of a grind. He’s forced to Solemn Judgment my BLS early bringing him down to 3950, but he’s able to stall me out with Messenger of Peace and the rest of his traps for a few turns. This gave him time to combo off without me having a hand trap. A few turns later he ends up making a Bounzer using Faultroll and Hyunlei with me at 1300 Life Points. At this point, my hand consists of a Tour Guide with no targets, a Darkflare, and a Dark Armed Dragon with 2 Darks in grave. I draw for my turn into a Monster Reborn which gave me a huge sigh of relief. I summoned the Tour Guide and called no effect and reborned an Emmersblade to make Acid Golem and punch over Bounzer. Next turn I tributed the Acid Golem for Darkflare and summoned Dark Armed Dragon for game.

  (2-0)

Round 3: Six Samurai (2-1)

  I’m sitting down in front of my opponent before the round starts when one of my friends walks up behind me and picks up my token on top of my extra deck to look at it, unintentionally revealing my Photon Strike Bounzer to my opponent. I quickly flip my extra deck facedown and he apologizes and walks away. I’m a little annoyed by this and my opponent comments on how that would’ve frustrated him as well, but I shake it off and start the match.

  Game 1: My opponent opens by summoning Kageki and activating his effect. Luckily I was able to chain Maxx C, forcing him to only special summon a Kizan from his hand. He ends his turn with no backrow and I summon Card Trooper. I hit Eclipse Wyvern and 2 darks off of the mill and OTK him with Dark Armed Dragon and Red-Eyes/Lightpulsar after using Darkflare and Lightpulsar to manipulate the graveyard for me.

  Game 2: He opens Shien’s Dojo and Six Samurai United and I have no hand traps to stop him. His starting field is Shi en equipped with spirit, Grandmaster, and Enishi. All I could do was set Ryko and get OTK’d the next turn.

  Game 3: This game was insane. We both opened pretty broken, but I had the more explosive hand. I start the game with Dark Armed Dragon, BLS, Tragoedia, Tour Guide, and Card Trooper and mill Night Assailant, Tour Guide, and Red-Eyes. He starts his turn off with a Monster Reborn on my Red-Eyes on top of a Shi En and Zanji. He attacks the Trooper, which draws me into a Solar, and I drop the Tragoedia. He Soul Takers the Tragoedia, giving me 3 darks again for DaD. I draw into a Ryko but summon DaD first, straight into a Solemn Warning. I activate Solar which gives me Chaos Sorcerer and Monster Reborn which was completely ridiculous. I drop the sorcerer to remove Shi En but he uses Effect Veiler. So I drop the BLS, Reborn his Kagemusha, synchro for Scrap Dragon, set the Tour Guide, used Scrap to pop Zanji and Tour Guide, and completely turn the board around. He looks at his next card and scoops.

  (3-0)

  Round 4: Chaos Dragon Plants (2-1) *FEATURE MATCH*

  I check this round’s pairings and see that I’m at table 1 so I sit down with my opponent, and before the round starts, Steve from DNA walks up and tells us we are the feature match. So we move over to the feature match area, sign the media release forms, and start the duel.

  Game 1: He opens Tour Guide when I have Maxx C in hand, so he gets Sangan but still chooses to Xyz into a Zenmaines. I don’t see much of his deck but I do catch a glimpse of Spore and Darkflare Dragon from his mills.  He pokes at me for a while bringing me down to 1200 until I drop Tragoedia. After a Solar Recharge and decent Card Trooper mill, I’m able to OTK him.

  Game 2: I don’t really remember much about this game. All I can recall is that he chained a D.D. Crow to my Call of the Haunted targeting my Lightpulsar Dragon and I lost the game that turn.

  Game 3: I open up this game with Tour Guide for Sangan. He activates Charge for Ryko and sets a card, which I assumed to be the Ryko. Usually when my opponent adds a card to their hand, I watch it’s placement in their hand, even when I’m shuffling. This time, however, I didn’t and I misplayed by not summoning the Thunder King in my hand. Instead I decided to Dark hole his facedown which turned out to be Sangan. Afterwards I eat an early Soul Release for 4 monsters which really worries me. I’m able to hold him off for a while by setting a Ryko but milling nothing but spells. The turning point in the game was when I had one light and no darks in the grave with a Tour Guide without targets, Pulsar, and BLS in hand when he has a Red-Eyes and Stardust on the field. I top deck Monster Reborn and target his Darkflare to send a dark to my grave for BLS.

  (4-0)

  Round 5: Darkworlds (2-0)

  When I checked my pairing for this round, I noticed that my opponent was X-0-1, which worried me a little bit. It wasn’t my toughest round, but it was the round that definitely tested my stamina as a player. The guy was being an obvious slow player and it was causing me to rush through my plays, especially game 2.

  Game 1: This duel was literally only 3 turns, but it lasted so long that when we started game 2 there was only 8 minutes left in the round. I lose the die roll and he opens up with a field of Grapha, Gates, and 2 backrow. I start my turn with Charge of the Light Brigade which he picks up and reads for a good 5 minutes, looking at his backrow repeatedly before saying it’s ok. The same thing happens with Solar Recharge and I start getting really annoyed. I summon Lyla and ask if it’s fine and he Solemn Judgments it for some reason so I start dropping dragons, starting with Darkflare. Again, he asks to read the card and contemplates using his trap but chooses not to. I drop another one and go into Adreus to pop Grapha, then drop BLS for game. (I never found out what his trap card was, but I’m sure it was a bluff)

  Game 2: Like I said, this game started with 8 minutes left on the clock so I told him to try and speed things up. This one turns out to be a huge grind game. I’m able to slow him down by chaining Call of the Haunted targeting The End of Anubis when he activates Dragged Down, but he manages to get rid of it after a few turns with an MST. A few turns go by and I end up having to banish one Grapha with Chaos Sorcerer and making Exa-Beetle (which he reads for a while until we’re down to 3 minutes which prompts me to call a judge) to send his second Grapha to the grave and banish it with Darkflare. He’s able to summon his third Grapha when I’m top decking but the Yugioh gods were on my side because I top deck a BLS to banish it. On my end phase, he activates double Reckless Greed. After this turn, time starts with me at 5600 and him at 2650. He activates the effect of Gates to pitch Ceruli whose effect allows him to discard Goldd and clear my field. This drops me down to 3000. I was pretty sure I lost the game at that point. I drew a Card Trooper and set it, and since he was under Reckless Greed all he could do was attack and end his turn. The Trooper drew me into a Lightpulsar which I knew won me the game because I had a Red-Eyes in the grave. I drew a Gorz for my turn and I misplay by summoning the Lightpulsar from my hand instead of pitching the Gorz and Lightpulsar to the grave to special summon the one from earlier. He scares me with a Dragged Down on turn 4, drawing into his second to last card and summoning a Tour Guide for Leviair; but after attacking my Lightpulsar and facing a Red-Eyes, he thinks through his options and extends the handshake.

  (5-0)

  Round 6: Wind-Ups (2-0)

  Game 1: He opens with double Factory, Wind-Up Rabbit, and 3 traps. I look at my hand and see that I have a Maxx C ready for when he goes off so I summon Lyla into a Bottomless and then activate Heavy Storm which is met by a Solemn Judgment. When he tries to make his play next turn he summons Magician, reveals Shark, and I wait until he triggers Magician’s effect to Maxx C. He chooses to go into another Rabbit and Maestroke and attack into a Tragoedia. I draw Charge and mill what I need to take down his last 4000 life points.

  Game 2: This game was quick. He starts off with a Rabbit, Messenger of Peace and 1 facedown. I see the Heavy Storm, Ryko, Solar Recharge in my hand and just explode on the field. OTK is all I have in my notepad for this one.

  (6-0)

  Round 7: Lightsworns (0-2)

  I get to my table and sit down to see an acquaintance from Heroes, Ricky, sitting across from me. I wish him good luck after he wins the die roll and we get things underway.

  Game 1: He summons Jain and mills a Wulf and Plaguespreader Zombie at the end phase. I look at my hand and see that my only playable card is Card Trooper so I summon it, mill 3, and attack into Honest for the second time that day. This is what definitely lost me the game, but all I could do was play the cards that I was dealt.

  Game 2: I open decently with a first turn Trooper and Tragoedia. He summons a Lyla to beat over my Trooper but choose not to drop Tragoedia, instead wanting to save it for his big push. My next draw is a Kycoo which I use to take care of his milled Ryko and Aurkus after beating over Lyla. He gets rid of my Kycoo with another Ryko and has me on the ropes for a while. About 3 turns later, I’m able to set up a decent play with Dark Armed Dragon and Call of the Haunted to bring back my Kycoo when he has a face up Lyla that I used Effect Veiler on the previous turn. However, I misplay by attacking with the Kycoo over the Lyla instead of destroying it with Dark Armed Dragon and attacking directly, so I left him with 800 life points. He is able to get rid of my Kycoo and summon JD and BLS for game.

  (6-1)

  Round 8: Chaos Dragons (2-1)

  The loss in round 7 really took the wind out of my sails. I was exhausted and starving, so I just sat down after my match and talked with some people I knew. Luckily one of the people that I came to the regional with brought me some Wendy’s before the next round started, which made me feel awake again. When the pairings were posted, I got up to see that I was paired up against my teammate Michael, who was also X-1; with his only loss being to the person I just lost to. I had a gut feeling that this would happen, seeing as how we play in just about every tournament that we enter together, regardless of whether it’s locals or regionals. This pairing really sucked for both of us considering that we were (X-1) and both in a great position to top the event. I was really nervous about this round because I’ve played him in the mirror for about a month and a half before the event and I had yet to beat him in a full match. Before the round started he told me that if I wanted the win, it was mine because he had already gotten his invite. I told him that I wanted to play it out, knowing that if I took the win, I would feel like I didn't earn my invite. This was without a doubt the toughest match of the day for me. He won the dice roll, we shook hands, and got started.

  Game 1: My opening hand is horrendous. He summons a Card Trooper, mills 3 and passes, and I look at my hand to see Tour Guide, Tour Guide, Sangan, Night Assailant, and Maxx C. One of my friends was sitting next to me dueling and he happened to notice this and later commented on how ridiculous my situation was. I gave a small smirk and jokingly said, “You seem to have stacked me quite well,” as I showed him my Tour Guide and her friends. He laughs and shows me 2 “dead” Lyla’s in his hand, to which I thought, well at least you can use those with Recharge. I draw for turn into a Dark Armed Dragon so I choose to set the Sangan and pass. He mills three more and attacks my Sangan which allows me to search for my own card trooper to get things going. The duel goes back and forth for a while until he decides to go off. He makes a field of Lightpulsar, BLS, and Chaos Sorcerer. He attacks with the Sorcerer and I drop a 3000 Tragoedia which he removes from play with BLS. I draw for turn into Monster Reborn (which I had been drawing just when I needed it all day) with a live Dark Armed Dragon in hand. So I summon DaD and activate his effect which gets Effect Veiler’d. Then I summon Tour Guide from my hand and use its effect to summon the other Tour Guide from my hand and make a Leviair. I special summon his banished Effect Veiler and synchro for Scrap Dragon. I attack over the Chaos Sorcerer, use Scrap Dragon to pop itself and BLS, then Monster Reborn his BLS to remove his Lightpulsar, which seals the game.

  Game 2: He starts off with Card Trooper again, this time milling 2 Lightpulsar Dragons and a Battle Fader. I summon Kycoo and attack over Trooper; banishing both of his Lightpulsars. He counters my Kycoo with a Soul Exchange followed up by The End of Anubis which I’m forced to Dark hole. I summon my second Kycoo, but when I declare my battle phase he activates Effect Veiler so I choose not to attack. Then he activates Monster Reborn to retrieve his End of Anubis which I can not do anything about because I haven’t gotten a mill off yet. He got off a Charge/Solar play the next turn and just destroyed me with DaD, BLS, Red-Eyes.

  Game 3: I open Kycoo again, alongside 2 Call of the Haunted, but I choose to summon Tour Guide instead to fetch Sangan. He summons Thunder King which I’m forced to Veiler and he attacks into Tour Guide. I draw for turn and get completely lucky and draw Card Trooper to get rid of his Thunder King and mill Red-Eyes and Lightpulsar in the process. He draws to 6 and passes turn so I summon my Kycoo and attack into a Battle Fader. I set my Call of the Haunted and he tributes his Fader for Lightpulsar to attack over Kycoo. Because he knew that I side decked Call of the Haunted, he had go after them with his Lyla’s to prevent me from getting a big play off. This let me to get free draws off of Card Trooper which allowed me to draw into my outs and end the game after he attacked into a Tragoedia.

  (7-1)

  After this one we shook hands and he congratulated me on earning my invite since I was (X-1) with one round to go. I was so relieved after this round was over. I accomplished what I came to do and just had one round to go. After being congratulated on my invite by my friends, I walked around outside and gave Justin a call to tell him the news, but right when I came back inside, the final round pairings were up.

  Round 9: Macro Rabbit

  The last round of the day and I find myself back at table 1 paired up against the last undefeated in the tournament. We talk for a little while about our matches and before the round starts we get chosen for a deck check. During the deck check, one of my opponent’s friends, Michael Klasel, who finished 1st after swiss in the last Houston regional, came and sat down next to us and we started talking. The conversation eventually went to him suggesting to my opponent that he should give me the win so that I could top 8 since he was already guaranteed a spot. Sure enough, when the judges came back with our decks, he extended his hand and said, “You’ve got the win.” I was startled for a moment and couldn’t really think of anything to say back. I shook his hand and signed the match slip but it took a while for it all to sink in. I just topped a regional! I thanked him and walked around the room to find my friends, who were all just as surprised when I told them what happened. In the top 8 pairing I got matched up with Ricky again for the deck box but I decided to concede to him since he finished 2nd and I felt like he deserved it more.

  I was unsure heading in to the event, and there were definitely a few misplays along the way, but at the end of the day I think I represented myself and my team to the best of my abilities. I finished 7th overall after swiss and have everyone that has helped me get this far to thank for it. I’d like to give special shout outs to:

Michael Bryan- for helping me build the deck and teaching me how to play it effectively through play testing and observation. I’ve really learned a lot from you and for that I thank you.

Darian Crevier- for helping me put my side deck together and suggesting cards that I never would have thought of. Your ingenuity is unmatched.

Michael Dang- that burger saved me bro.

The rest of Team Misplay and Team Asian/Quasians- thank you all for being there with me and supporting me!

 And I’d also like to congratulate team member Rudy who got top 8 as well!

 Well that’s all I have left to say. Thanks for taking the time to read about my experience. And remember, it’s not a pro play, unless it’s a misplay!

  Steven

[teammisplay-blog]

You can't Maxx "C" the Special Summon of Swap Frog and expect to draw from it. Also, you can't add the Maxx "C" back to hand after you figure that out.

Adam

[teammisplay-blog]

Shocked Bunny Sept 2012 Deck Profile - Darian Crevier [28th Place San Antonio Regionals] (by TheTeamMisplay)

[teammisplay-blog]

The Elemental Lords - A Breakdown

Grandsoil's effect is to Special Summon a Monster from either Graveyard. Kurogane's effect is to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Earth Monster from your Graveyard. Both cards' effects are really similar to a Spell card that holds a special place in my heart, Monster Reborn. Monster Reborn's effect is actually the SAME as Grandsoil's effect. Monster Reborn can also be thought of as a stronger version of Kurogane. Now, let's take a look at the Water Elemental Lord and Spiritual Art.   

So, Moulinglacia's effect is to discard two cards from your opponent's hand. Aoi's effect is to let you look at your opponent's hand and send a card from their hand to the graveyard. Again, very similar effects. They're also very similar to another card we all know and love (or, actually, it's probably for the best that this card is Forbidden at the moment): Delinquent Duo allows you to discard two cards from your opponent's hand, like Moulinglacia. It's also a stronger form of Aoi. (See a pattern yet...?) And now, for the new Fire Elemental Lord:   Pyrorex's effect allows you to destroy a Monster on either side of the field, then both you and your opponent take damage equal to half that Monster's attack. Kurenai's effect burns your opponent for a Fire Monster's original attack (after you've Tributed that Monster, of course). There's another similarity between the effects here. And both effects are similar to another card.   Ring of Destruction allowed you to destroy a Monster on the field, then both players take damage equal to it's attack. Sounds a lot like Pyrorex's effect. It also sounds like an upgraded Kurenai. Hmm... What does all of this mean?! It means that, most likely, Konami plans on releasing 3 more Elemental Lords that follow the same pattern of mirroring a powerfull Spell/Trap that is the upgraded form of the Elemental Lord's Spiritual Art. But, why 3 more Elemental Lords? Why would they give EVEN MORE support to Light and Dark?! What's stopped them before? I mean, whenever Konami releases "Elemental" support, they do it for all 6 Attributes, not just Water/Fire/Earth/Wind. The two obvious examples are the Spirtual Arts (they finally got Dark and Light), and the Omni-HEROes (The Shining and Escuridao have both been released). Because of this, they definitely won't hesitate to release both a Light Elemental Lord and a Dark Elemental Lord. Personally, I think it's pretty easy to figure out the effects for the remaining 3 Elemental Lords. All we have to do is look at the Spiritual Arts and compare their effects to classic Spells and Traps. In fact, I'm going to give my predictions right now. WIND:   I think the most likely effect for the Wind Elemental Lord is the effect of Giant Trunade; it will return all Spells and Traps on the field to their owners' hands. It's sort of similar to the effect of Miyabi, and it's a card that's currently on the F/L list. Wind is actually the Elemental Lord that I'm not sure about. DARK:   DSA - Greed's effect is to draw 2 cards. Pot of Greed's effect is to draw 2 cards. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that "Draw 2 cards" will be the effect of the Dark Elemental Lord. (COME ON, they're even both named GREED.) Interestingly enough, the Dark and Light Spiritual Arts are the only ones that can be negated if your opponent reveals a card in their hand. Probably because they both have stronger effects than the others. LIGHT:   Hijiri's effect lets you Special Summon a banished Monster. Dimension Fusion lets both players Special Summon as many of their banished Monsters as possible. The Light Elemental Lord's effect will definitely be one that mirrors Dimension Fusion, but will it allow you opponent to gain the effect as well (like Dimension Fusion)? Only time will tell. If you would like to do some research on the Spiritual Art cards, which the Elemental Lords seem to based on, you can start by clicking here. Anyway, that's about all I have about the Elemental Lords for now. With Abyss Rising releasing in less than a month, and Cosmo Blazer not too far after, we'll have 3 Elemental Lords at our disposal, with the remaining 3 coming soon after. I'll let y'all know if any more Elemental Lords' information is released. This is Team Misplay member Adam signing off! 

[teammisplay-blog]

Houston Regionals Wrap-Up - Michael

 -Edit: This is an edit with concern to me having typed this in a Word document and then cutting and pasting it onto the site. This will be a very long and detailed report. I intend to entertain the reader and interest you to the best of my abilities, but be aware this is a marathon not a sprint of a report so to speak.

So a few members from the team made the trip to Houston, TX yesterday for the regionals at Greenspoint Mall. We headed up in waves as Adam had to go early because he was judging and Phil went with him, and then Rudy, Brennan and myself went later with some other friends, while Steven went the night before and stayed with some friends from home. Justin stayed home because of work which got rained out and we were sad because we missed him and his blouse, but that’s another story for another time I suppose.

Steven, Rudy, Phil, and myself played in what was the largest regional in Texas history with 452 or maybe it was 453 players, whatever it was the Florida one had one more than we did for the biggest in the country Saturday, but that's not saying anything bad about ours. For the size of the event it was run probably as well as it could've been. Registering as many people as they did takes a long time, I personally feel there should be some sort of online pre-registration system but that's my wants, and I of course would not be paying for such a system that would likely be expensive and costly to implement but I'm rambling.

To test for the event obviously we played amongst ourselves as much as we could. I tested the most with Rudy because I was afraid of the deck he would be running (Dark Worlds) and wanted to give myself a chance to win the game 1's against them and then have the ability to let my side do some work in games 2 & 3 as Dark Worlds almost rely upon winning game 1 every time. This testing was worth it as I will get into later. Rudy helped me a lot in building this deck and I can't thank him enough. He reminded me multiple times not to be an idiot and keep it simple which is tough for me at times, because I get rose-colored glasses on and start to see all these possible combo plays and abilities I can have when those really aren't what I should be doing at all.

I chose to use Chaos Dragons for this event. I've been using them since last format when they first made their splash at YCS Dallas and Toulousse (or however you spell that). I picked them up almost immediately after those two events, and I really loved their Dark Horse potential and great match-up with Machina, Wind-Ups and Samurai for this regional, as many had written the deck off as a contender or weren't siding nearly as much as they used to for the match-up. In addition the meta of Inzektors and Macro-Rabbit hurt Dragons a lot last format, and they are no longer threats giving me that much more help in a large tournament setting. 

Without further ado, here’s my list.

Monsters: 31

3 Lightpulsar Dragon 3 Darkflare Dragon 1 Eclipse Wyvern 1 Dark Armed Dragon 1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon 3 Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress 3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter 2 Card Trooper 1 Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning 1 Chaos Sorcerer 2 Tour Guide from the Underworld 1 Sangan 1 Night Assailant 2 Tragoedia 1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness 3 Maxx "C" 2 Effect Veiler

Spells 10:

3 Solar Recharge 1 Charge of the Light Brigade 1 Allure of Darkness 1 Monster Reborn 1 Dark Hole 1 Heavy Storm 2 Mystical Space Typhoon

Extra 15:

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines 1 Leviair the Sea Dragon 1 #20:Giga Brilliant 1 #17: Leviathan Dragon 1 #30: Acid Golem of Destruction 1 Queen Dragun Djinn 1 Steelswarm Roach 1 Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon 1 Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh 1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle 1 Photon Strike Bounzer 1 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum 1 Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger 1 Black Rose Dragon 1 Scrap Dragon

Side 15:

2 Cyber Dragon 1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon 3 Gemini Imps 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh 1 Battle Fader 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 2 Soul Taker 2 Dust Tornado 1 Karma Cut (I love this card, but not for any justifiable reason)

Round 1 Six Samurai (2-0) 1-0

Event finally gets started around 1:00 PM after all the formalities and registration and such. My round 1 opponent was an awesome guy. The match-up wasn't much of a competition as I had a really good counter-hand that allowed me to create a lot of advantage throughout both games. Despite this, he still found me numerous times throughout the day and wanted to know how I was doing. I caught him watching my games later on after he had dropped and he was one of the first people to congratulate me at the end of the day.

Game 1 I drop Tragoedia once and run over his monster at 3600 attack. The next turn it is D-Prisoned. He attacks and I drop the other Tragoedia (told you I had a counter-hand). I am able to then summon a Lyla and destroy one back row, and then MST the other leaving no Spells/Traps on his side. I ditch my in hand card trooper to steal his kaigeki with Tragoedia then use Tragoedia's eff to copy trooper and make a Leviair. I use Leviair to pull back a banished Eclipse Wyvern and overlay with Lyla for Queen Dragun Djinn. End the game with 2 Darkflare Dragons, 1 Queen Dragun Djinn, Leviair, and DAD on the field.

Game 2 was legitmately a repeat of game 1. My notes say Trag, DAD, REDMD, Pulsar. A Tour Guide into a #17 Leviathan which I subsequently banished for my in hand REDMD that was then used to bring back Lighpulsar was the game winning play. DAD makes an appearance in there too, and when he comes down successfully and stays down it’s a good thing for me.

Round 2 Monarchs (2-1) 2-0

This was by far my toughest match of the day, as my opponent was an awesome player. I was very luck Saturday with the sportsmanship of my opponents, as once again this guy was a good sport. I found him after the tournament and told him he had been my toughest matchup, and he took some pride in that. I did mean it though, he used Swap frog to recycle Caius in game 2 about 6 times, needless to say it was rough.

Game 1 he has dead cards like MST and Heavy Storm and when I push with bosses he doesn't have the Trag, Gorz, Fader to stop me.

Game 2 was the Caius shenanigans. He starts double dupe frog. I run into the first face down one with Trooper then he summons the other making a lock. I have to get rid of both with a DAD play and I load a field of bosses only to run into Battle Fader. Then the Caius plays begin to rain down on me. I hold him off for a while, but eventually I no longer have nay outs and I can't hold him off.

Game 3 we go into time. I make a Bounzer while ahead 7000 to 5100 on turn 3 of time, and he doesn't have the Enemy Controller to get around it. Early in the game he uses 2 tributes to go into Light and Darkness Dragon. I am happy to see this as I keep Lyla in against Monarchs for this exact reason, as well as a way to mill when I have slower hands. I then proceed to draw another Lyla for turn which would have been the best top deck, but I already had one. I then have LaDD negate Lyla's mill effect, which is mandatory until LaDD can't negate anymore, making it a 800-400 non threat. I learned that ruling on accident a long time ago and this is the 3rd time I've ever been able to take advantage of it.

Round 3 Chaos Dragons (2-0) 3-0

Game 1 I had a nuts hand with Charge, 2 Solar Recharge and a Lyla. I hate those hands, as it’s not a game when you get them. I don't mean to come off smug in saying that, I do in fact mean that in all seriousness. That's just ridiculous to hit all of those combo pieces turn 1 and it makes the game bad. But I played the cards dealt to me and win on turn 2 when he doesn't have Gorz or Trag. I had DAD to take care of it if need be. Game 2 I feel my side won me this one. He goes turn 1 Thunder King and I crash into it with Card Trooper and draw a card. Charge of the Light Brigade…probably the sackiest thing I did all day, but sometimes that stuff happens and I go grab Ryko. He makes a Lightpulsar play to try and put some pressure on me as I am holding a lot of my hand back, albeit I was doing this  intentionally to lure out as much of his hand as possible. I can do this because I have Battle Fader in my opening hand allowing me to play much more slowly and not have to force the issue early, as Dragons don't play a way to negate Battle Fader. I drop Battle Fader and then do shenanigans that Chaos Dragons do. I leave him with 2800 after the turn with REDMD, Pulsar, and DAD on board. He draws to 3 in hand and shows me a Ryko, bottomless, and REDMD and extends the handshake.

I was reluctant to let him forfeit at first, as I thought he had a play, but he assured me he didn’t and when I actually looked i realized he was right. He would've been able to put a dent in my board, but nothing to keep me from hitting him for 2800 the next turn. Side Note: Notice how often I am able to drop DAD is a little ridiculous. Again in all seriousness and not smugness, the Yugi-Gods were smiling upon me yesterday with concern to DAD, and Rudy even commented on it at one point during the tournament as to how frequently I would just run into playable DAD situations out of nowhere. Obviously you play the cards dealt to you, but I was consistently able to get DAD out and create lots and lots of advantage at every turn.

Round 4 Six Samurai 1-2 (3-1)

I was salty after this one.

Game 1 I drop Tragoedia steal his Naturia Beast by discarding a Darkflare Dragon and win the game. This is why I like my matchup against Samurai. I run 3 level 5's I have no problem discarding that can allow my 2 Tragoedia’s to steal their best Synchro’s in addition to Gorz and 3 main-decked Maxx C. Basically I can create present without spells and traps and they don't like that.

Game 2 I Maxx C his attempt to go off with Gateway and United. It’s no use. I draw 14 cards and don't hit one of my Tragoedia’s, Gorz or sided Battle Fader. The stack of cards was taller than my arm which was lying flat on the table, yet he still went for it with no way to stop Gorz, or the Tragoedia he had lost to the game before. I had a set Ryko he mind controlled. The Ryko would have picked off one of the attackers and allowed me to mount a comeback the following turn, but without it I was defenseless.

Game 3 is slow. My hand sucks. 4 Lightsworns, Night Assailant, and DAD and I am just holding off. Set a Night Assailant and pick off a Kizan. End up drawing Tour Guide and I go Tour Guide into Sangan. He has one set monster at this time and I am reading it correctly as Fossil Dyna.  I have played against Samurai a lot in my time. Over the summer I played a couple of matches against a player from my locals named Scott. He was using Samurai at the time, and when he sided in Dyna it absolutely wrecked me when he drew it, so I was wary of the little guy face down. Because of this I was opting not do anything until I was ready. With 2 Rykos and 2 Lylas in hand I could take care of Dyna when the time was right. He draws and passes, and I do the same. I have one dark in grave and 2 on field for my in hand DAD. Sangan can search Fader to save me from the OTK and then DAD drops. That’s my game plan. He then draws, plays mind control on my Sangan after doing a lot of exceed plays and OTKs. I don’t get another turn.

I was salty because after Game 1 he had intentionally sided in an extra card moving his side deck down to 14 and his Main Deck up to 41 cards after having 40 and the standard 15 at the beginning of the match. I counted it out before game 2 and asked him about it and he admitted to doing it intentionally. I decided not to do anything about it as game 1 had gone so smoothly and I would rather just win fair and square. To call him on it would be a douche thing to do, especially since he was newer to the game and thought he could. He said he wasn’t trying to cheat me and I honestly believe him. He was a sincere guy but of course I was salty after the round. I had the opportunity to take that round on a stupid yet illegal infraction and I passed on it, only to lose when at the end of it all. I found him later and apologized for any bad vibes I gave as I was just upset at the time and he was very nice about it all. He was the first guy to congratulate me at the end of the day too, as he fell off after that round and began watching some of the top tables towards the end of the day and I noticed him watching my games almost the entire day.

Round 5 Dark Worlds (2-0) 4-1

Game 1 is a slugfest between a Graphha and my Pulsar and REDMD. He has no discard outlets and I can’t do anything. I end up hitting a key Solar Recharge a couple of turns into the game and get a Heavy and a Charge of the Light Brigade. I am able to take the game quickly after that. He tells me it’s his first loss in a game 1 of the day.

This player was slightly familiar to me as he had beaten me in a very intense Chaos Dragon Mirror Match in a Fort Worth Regionals last format after time had been called. On the first turn of time he had put me to 500 life points. I then took about ten minutes to reason through my play. Admittedly I know it was a long time but my hand was ridiculous, and I had to win that turn or he would wipe me out an on field Brionac he had. I had a Victoria and an Electric Virus and a lot of other ways to combo out. It required 13 moves in a certain order to pull it off. I did the entire thing in my head beforehand. I had a judge over my shoulder pressuring me and I messed it up by removing for a pulsar before I pitched for one on the 7th play of the move and lost the game to a set forbidden lance. Shit sucked so this was my rematch. This is however a very friendly rivalry, and we both have a lot of respect for each other, and we always catch up with each other at regionals and other events whenever we cross paths.

Game 2 he doesn’t draw a monster and it’s unfortunate. He didn’t have the opportunity to win. I had Gemini Imps in hand, but in a game where you need monsters to kill your opponent to win, it sure doesn’t help when you don’t have any. I would rather have felt I earned the win, but he was a good sport about it and he was there at the end to congratulate me, which was nice because losing to your deck is a lot worse than losing to your opponent in my opinion, and to see him not get down about that was really cool.

Round 6 Dark Worlds (2-1) 5-1

This was the only match I felt I deserved to lose all day, but because of technicalities I walk away with an undeserved win, he was understandably upset but he realized it was due to something he could have done differently and didn’t hold it against me.

Game 1 he wins die roll and has double dragged down.

Game 2 I have Gemini Imps for his Dealings and Dragged Down. He spent ten minutes searching for a Snoww because he was conflicted on the play he should make. I end up trying to hurry him so we don’t go into time, which is what ends up being the reason I won. I win this game in blowout fashion as he can’t get past 2 Gemini Imps.

Game 3 is equally stupid. Time is called as he plays the Card Destruction he opens with and sets 3. I play Charge and summon Lyla and he activates Skill Drain. I remove for Darkflare and pay cost to activate its effect by discarding Lightpulsar from my hand and sending REDMD from my deck to the grave. I have a Monster Reborn in my hand, so I do some math and realize REDMD, Lyla, and Darkflare attacking puts him at 100. If I do this I have no way to summon back Lightpulsar. The other option is while Lightpulsar along with Lyla and Darkflare puts him at 400 and allows me a chance to stave him off. That’s what I decide to do. Sure enough he wipes my field over the course of time, and I literally control 0 cards at the end of turn 4. But he has 400 LP and I have 500.

If you read this, I meant it when I said you played phenomenally after the match and deserved it. I’m sorry the rules suck and maybe our paths can cross again at a later date so we can get a real match. One where the winner is the one who deserves it, and in this case I feel that wasn’t what happened.

Round 7 HEROes (2-1) 6-1

Rudy had played this guy earlier and complained that this guy just opened the nuts. I didn’t know this was that guy. I only knew Rudy had lost to a HERO player who was opening broken every time. Later on people told me he was shady. To be fair, I didn’t notice anything he did that was shady in regards to stacking or cheating during the game.

There were two incidents in the game where I was a bit sloppy during the game and he tried to shark me. Both times the judge came over and told him to stop. I had a friend tell me after match that he made a crucial mistake in the match, when I asked why he said; “You can’t shark somebody who is better than you. When you do they will just beat the shit out of you and hold nothing back.” On to the match summary.

Game 1 he opens nutty. E-Call’s and Duality and all kinds of shenanigans. I have Veiler for Stratos, but he is controlling the game. I am able to fight him off later on and end up clearing his board. I have 700 LP to his 6000 after using Exa-Beetle equipping and sending Sangan to sweep away his last monster and overlay into Gaia Charger and drop him to 3400 after adding a Ryko in case I draw Solar or he makes the Shining. At this point I can’t afford dead cards, and I can survive The Shining, and then have the ability to set Ryko that would make the Shining miss timing. He controls one card, a face-down. He draws…Miracle Fusion and goes into The Shining and attacks over my Gaia Dragon for 600 LP dropping me to 100. I for some stupid reason try to draw like its card trooper before dropping Tragoedia. I only touch the top of my deck, and then I come to the realization that “oh shit that wasn’t card trooper WTF am I doing” and then proceed to drop Trag. Shark #1. Judge says its fine and to continue. I draw Recharge and pitch the Ryko I had added off Sangan searching with the Exa-Beetle play. I draw Charge and something else I can’t remember. I then try and play charge and then realize WTF am I doing, I didn’t even check to see if I had targets. I didn’t he calls judge again. Shark #2. Judge says it fizzles (a correct ruling as I didn’t even do anything further with the play outside activation) and that I have to reveal my deck to show I have no more Lightsworn monsters that I could possibly add. I do this quickly so as not to let him make an inventory of my deck, and he says I went too fast, the judge tells him to stop sharking (literally) and that he as a judge personally attests that there were none for me to add. I don’t have this game and I lose.

Game 2. I’m mad. I shit all over everything he does with reckless abandon. I give absolutely no fucks all game and make it known he isn’t winning after the BS he pulled.

Game 3. They call time as we are handing our decks back to each other following pregame shuffling. I ask for and get a time extension because of multiple rulings. I play fast and set the pace of play. I am a better player than him and it shows. I attack with Pulsar and put him to 5500. He kills it. I play Trooper he plays Gemini Spark on his summoned Alias when I attack. He passes without a play. I summon another Trooper and he plays Torrential. He plays a Stratos and runs over Trooper. I Reborn Lyla into 3 set back-row cards. He plays Bottomless. I activate MST and take out one of the 2 face downs, leaving one more card face-down. He lets it go through and I hit MST. Some may see that as a bad hit, but all that said to me was that the other one was a bluff. Maybe that was my rage talking, but all I can think at this point after he set an MST is, “He set a dead as shit card to try and scare me rather than save it to discard for something like a set Super Polymerization where he could actually get utility from it.” I then banish for Pulsar while having an in grave Darkflare. He still has that Stratos at this point and an in-hand Neos Alias with one set.

I play Dark Hole and he has no response. I get back Darkflare with Lightpulsar, then send a light and dark from my hand to bring back Lightpulsar. I finish it off with a normal summon of Thunder King, and proceed to swing for game giving no fucks about his face down. I’m pissed and it pays off, I shake his hand let him know I read his bluff when he made a remark about me not having enough respect for his face-downs telling him that better players aren’t fooled by lesser ones. I  sign the match slip and on to the next round.

I try not to be cocky or douche at tournaments. Key part of that sentence is I try. Sometimes that’s hard for me because its in my nature for whatever reason. Here the guy fucking deserved it. I have absolutely no regret for how I acted or what I said, he should be ashamed of himself for the level he would sink to for a win. It makes me that much happier I didn’t call the Samurai player on the technicality earlier because I wouldn’t in a million years want to be compared to this guy.

Round 8 Chaos Dragons 2-1 (7-1)

This guy was awesome. He had been right behind me the round before watching my match against HEROes. I’m not sure how many people were watching it, but his voice was recognizable, and he told me right when I sat down I was playing a mirror match, which was nice of him because I didn’t know what he was playing.

Game 1 He opens Lumina so I assume he is playing the Lightsworn and JD version of the deck as opposed to my more standard build. I am later to be proven correct in this assumption. He says he is ending turn and I chain Effect Veiler to his Main Phase to keep him from milling since having tested with that deck, realize I only did that when I had a weak hand and I had a way to get through Lumina on my turn 1. I draw to 5 now after losing the Veiler and summon Lyla and attempt to attack over Lumina. Honest. This would be a continuing theme in the match. I can’t recover from this early loss of card advantage now down 5-4 and 6-4 on his draw phase. I end up setting a Ryko and he summons Ehren and runs it over and I kill Lumina. Ryko mills two more Ryko’s and then goes back to the deck. I then draw another Ryko for my turn, you know the one Ehren just took out, I am unpleased.

Game 2 I open with a strong hand but its one that will take a couple of turns to assert control. Tour Guide fetches Sangan in attack position (stupid Ehren is a card) and I pass turn. I Veiler his Lyla on the mill again after it runs over my Tour Guide. Same as last time but this time I know I will get plays through as I have an in hand trooper and now a light and a dark in the grave. Summon trooper mill 3, Honest. Again. I summon the BLS I opened with to apply early pressure as I sense a weak hand, one that needs more turns to set up any plays that would establish field presence. I remove Lyla. He isn’t pleased. He sets a card, I remove it with BLS and start poking with a Pulsar backed by an in grave REDMD and Sangan and he can’t recover.

Game 3 I open with an almost identical hand to game 2. I have Soul Taker this time, along Tour Guide, Trooper, BLS, and others. He goes first setting an obvious first turn Ryko and I summon trooper and send 3. I hit a Wyvern and banish REDMD as Pulsar went to the grave as well along with the other Tour Guide. I banish for BLS and remove Ryko with his effect. It may seem early to some but it didn’t to me. The last round fatigue had caused sloppy play, but in this round I was in the zone and making extremely good reads the entire game. He then top decks and hits charge milling pulsar and REDMD. He summons pulsar by pitching light and dark and then Banishes for his own BLS, which was dead prior to Charge. I’m upset but I coerce him into banishing my BLS and attacking my trooper with Pulsar. I have an in hand Reborn at this point along with my own REDMD and Chaos Sorcerer to accompany his in grave REDMD and his field has a Pulsar with no other targets (or friends/buddies as I call them). I draw, I don’t remember what it was because it didn’t matter. I tested the Veiler waters  by Banishing for Sorcerer and trying to remove BLS, and I catch one. Reborn his REDMD use its effect to bring out my Pulsar from grave, hit Veiler #2. Banish that REDMD for my own and use that one’s effect and he has no response. I summon Tour Guide and go get sangan and detach Sangan in making a Leviair and pull back something I can not remember. Make Exa Beetle and send his BLS and my in grave Sangan adding a card. I load up the field and start punching. Its over after his next draw isn’t an out. One away

Round 9 Dino-Rabbit (2-1) 8-1

I love this matchup. They no longer can just open Rabbit and TGU so much. I mean they can but the odds are much lower now. The deck has slowed down and thus is not nearly as good as it used to be and it no longer mains Macro which was the only real way that deck beat me in the first place. I also have countless hours testing with both Rudy and Justin when they used it during last format and I honed my craft against the two of them in that matchup who were maining 3 Macro Cosmos each to shut down Dragon players and Inzektors.

Game 1 its not really fair. I hit a hand full of recharges and Lightsworns and just keep milling and digging. After its all said and done I summon a trooper and my opponent had the look of defeat on his face. Just one of those, “Really 3 more?”, kind of looks. He summons a Sabersaurus runs it over and I draw Tour Guide for it. He sets 2 and passes. I draw for turn and catch MST. I summon trooper mill 3 and attack and find a D-Prison which I was reading the whole time I just wanted to find it. The other backrow was troubling. I had MST but I couldn’t push for game here and wanted to save it for when I could to clear out the last problem as I had a Lyla in hand that could take one out as well for the next two he put down. I decide to go for broke and drop BLS and expect Warning but find  Judgment. If you read Justin’s tournament report post Nationals, that means you lose to Chaos Dragons. You can’t get away with that type of life point paying against Dragons. I pass turn and he summons a Kabazuls and I activate Maxx C. He attacks for 3600 and doesn’t exceed setting just 1. I MST. Summon Trooper send 3 Hit Wyvern, banish DAD who is live at this point with 4 Darks, one of which I would remove to summon it. Then I bring Pulsar. He tries to soft-cheat me by coercing me into attacking Kabazuls with Trooper saying something to the tone of “200?” to which I say no crash with Sabersaurus. I draw one and hit a Chaos Monster I can’t remember. Pulsar takes out Kabazuls. The reason I say he tried to cheat me here is the reason I sometimes hate summoning Trooper against the Rabbit matchup, Jurrac Guaiba. When he tried to get me to leave that Trooper on the field which I was never going to do because I’m not a bad player, He basically told me he had a dead in hand Guaiba. I pass he summons Guaiba and sets 2. I draw and find another MST. I summon Lyla and find a bottomless. I MST the other backrow, a Torrential Tribute and Special Sorcerer then add DAD and summon it after I tell him of my intent to add it and he says ok. I have no want of being Maxx C’d here and I play more quickly after he gives me the go ahead. He scoops when I drop DAD

Game 2. He attacks with Sabersaurus 4 times. I have no plays for numerous turns. Its awful. I end up clearing his field after drawing some cards I can actually use and proceed to make a push but find Gorz. He lances my Darkflare and runs over it with Gorz to take me out.

Game 3. I open with a diverse hand and play my game well. I run trooper into a Thunder King and he is unhappy at this. He plays a dimensional fissure and then plays a dark hole on my pulsar and I chain a set Dust Tornado and never looked back. I end up running another trooper over a Kabazuls. He gets Guaiba and runs over trooper and goes into Dolkka. Running over Trooper draws me Soul Taker. Drawing for turn nets me Tour Guide. I Soul Taker Dolkka he debates chaining the backrow and doesn’t. I reborn a Lyla and go after the backrow and he chains it, Book of Moon. I summon Guide and put game on board by making a DAD live and then using DAD to pop my own Pulsar and get back an in grave REDMD I pitched to summon Pulsar and make DAD live. REDMD goes and gets Pulsar and I attack for game and match.

He never hits a Tour Guide or Rabbit to my knowledge and that’s sad but honestly that’s what the deck should do. It runs 9 Dinosaurs and 4 True Effect Monsters. It should draw twice as many dinosaurs as Rabbits and Guides, but sadly he didn’t ever draw them to my knowledge. I sensed weakness the whole match and pushed right through that weakness with everything I could. I know the matchup inside and out and I could tell he was unhappy after the match. I played with almost reckless abandon the entire set just going after everything he did knowing that I could trade with him all day and be fine. Without Macro Cosmos the biggest Exceeds they can make don’t rival REDMD and DAD with their effects, unless you’re talking about Acid Golem, but I can make that too.

I feel I played to the best of my abilities throughout most of the day. At times I was sloppy, but at the end of the day I came out alright. I finished 6th overall in Swiss and a lot of my success had to do with hitting my stride late in the day as other players faded. I consciously was noticing my ability to read players increasing in the later rounds and as some would say, “I was next level.” (You know who you are) Rudy on the ride back home told me he knew I had the thing in the bag after I beat the HERO player that had defeated him earlier in the day, but didn’t want to say anything so as to interfere with the natural progression of things that appeared to be happening. Beating someone accused of shady play and stacking in time is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned especially since I just kind of looked at my hand and then looked at the LifePoint count and remembered what Justin has told me time and time again. “In order to be good with Chaos Dragons, you have to play like an idiot.” He usually says something else but I’ll choose not to say that here because it’s not entirely appropriate. I also got my revenge on Adam who did get his invite before me and made sure I knew about it. This also had a lot to do with him playing an event where he was eligible to get his invite before I did as I did not attend the September 1st regional. Depsite me being the one who actually did that well, it’s not as if it were just me. There is a lot of time and effort spent amongst friends to prepare for these events and I’m no different. I had a ton of help from people around me in testing and building what would be my final deck. I was on the phone with Justin at 1am Friday Night talking about my side deck and deciding on whether or not to use D.D. Crow or something else instead, along with did I really need Battle Fader. I did need Battle Fader, and I also chose to go against the Crow for Karma Cut. Milling that card happened way more than playing it, but when I milled it it struck the fear of God into my opponents when I set things afterward in the matchups where I sided it, such as Dark Worlds and the Mirror. If I haven’t thanked you in person and you know you contributed to my results this Saturday I’m taking the time now to thank all of you. It’s probably a lot more than I even know, but the point is that this was not something I did on my own despite whatever it may look like.

The top 8 consisted of another Dragon player, 2 Wind-Ups, 2 Rabbits, 2 HEROes, and 1 other mystery deck. I didn’t see where the guy went and nobody knew what he was playing when I asked around. Not sure how it would have panned out had we decided to play it out. The guy I was paired against was a good acquaintance and we were thinking of gimmicky ways of settling who would get the deck box prize for top 4. A judge suggested spreading out a deck upside down and picking out a card each. The person with the highest attack monster would win, and if we drew a spell/trap to draw again. I suggested using my deck since it was so monster heavy and my “opponent” Martin agreed. He pulled Night Assailant so I was a sure lock to take it…Effect Veiler. Oh well, I didn’t need the deck box and it was funny as hell so I thought I’d share that. We pulled the 2 lowest attack monsters in my entire deck, but after the event Adam got some kind words from JD about his judging prowess, and we went to B-Dubs (Buffalo Wild Wings) like always because Twiggy loves that place and his 12 Spicy Garlic  Boneless Wings that he must have after every competitive tournament. Got back around 3:40 AM, which was ridiculous. It was a fun day but it was very long. To all those reading this, if you still are because holy crap this thing is long, thanks for taking the time to read about my experience. This was my first top 8 in somewhere around 4 years (Zombie format) and I hope you all have success in your future tournaments, and remember to have fun while playing this game whenever possible, because that’s the point. If you happen to win in the process that’s just an added bonus, but the friends you make and the experiences you share within the game are then entire reason its worth playing, and its important not to lose sight of that.

Michael

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Just did this to Empty Jar in Round 3 of YCS Indy. Shark + Magician is dumb. This is turn 2. X-1

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And this is what I got in my YCS entry packs.

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This is what I got today by trading/buying.

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Just got to Indianapolis. Definitely realized I should have brought a jacket.

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Finally got out of Texas! Stopped at a Red Lobster in Texarkana. This'll be a long drive lol.

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Definitely have a long way to go...

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Adan's going to YCS Indy!!

I'll be live blogging, like I did for Nats this past summer. Just look for my posts in the next couple days, and I'll probably upload a couple videos.

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I really hate DN. -_-