YCS Toronto Analysis Pt. 1 - Deck Profiles & General thoughts

What's up, youtube; this is your boy MaJu V... woops, err...

Sorry for that intro, but the deck profile intro's start to stick. In order to do a proper analysis of YCS Toronto 2013, I've been watching ALL available decklists around (thanks to Underworld6667, ProWinston and a few others for doing a great job on that).

But while doing the analysis, I've started to breach the 3-word-pages limit for my blog posts, which means I have to start splitting things up to keep it readable. It resulted in a three-parter. This three-parter will have:

1. All the available decklists on youtube (got 30 of the 32 decks).
2. A general analysis of the event (below).
3. A look at what cards of the latest sets (Number Hunters & Judgment of the Light) that made a change in this event (and in what decks) (part 2).
4. A more in-depth look at certain tech cards that were used (part 3)
5. A more in-depth look to cards that return to the main stage (part 3)

Decklists

Duelist	End result	Deck used	Decklist
Edward Kuang	1st	Dragon Ruler	Available
Sorosh Saberian	2nd	Mermail	Available
Patrick Hoban	3rd	Dragunity Rulers	Available
Sehabi Kheiredine	4th	Blackwing	Available
Bobby Barrone	Top 8	Mermail	(same vid as 2nd place)
James Frazier	Top 8	Plant Ruler (LS variant)	Available
Jordan Winters	Top 8	Plant Ruler (LS variant)	Available
Umar Haq	Top 8	Dragunity	Available
Frazier Smith	Top 16	Prophecy	Available
Galo Orbea	Top 16	Plant Ruler	Available
Harrison Perinpanayagam	Top 16	Fire Fist	Available
James Guerrero	Top 16	Mermail	Available
John Valade	Top 16	Dragon Ruler	N.A.
Loukas Peterson	Top 16	Prophecy	Available
Roger Simpson	Top 16	Infernity	Available
Thomas Mak	Top 16	Plant Ruler	Available
Bo Tang	Top 32	Dragon Ruler	Available
Christopher LeBlanc	Top 32	Karakuri Geargia	Available
Dale Bellido	Top 32	Dragunity	Available
David Wu	Top 32	Madolche	Available
Evan Waxman	Top 32	Herald of Perfection	Available
Igor Bijelic	Top 32	Fire Fist	Available
Jack Ran	Top 32	Mermail	Available
James Kim	Top 32	Dragon Rulers	Available
Jeffrey Cho	Top 32	Dragon Ruler	Available
Kareem O'Brian	Top 32	Prophecy	Available
Leo Chan	Top 32	Constellar	Available
Michael Chung-Salamone	Top 32	Evilswarm	Available
Peter Martino	Top 32	Prophecy	Available
Sean Coovert	Top 32	Evilswarm	Available
Sean McCabe	Top 32	Constellar	N.A.
Yuhang (Victor) Li	Top 32	Evilswarm	Available

Note: From top-8 and onward, the players are listed alphabetically (first name) per rank group, not by their individual position in that top.

Note 2: If I made any typo in names, or if you have the two missing deck profiles, please let me know.

General thoughts on the event

As predicted, YCS Toronto ended up being a very diverse event; with the better players participating and many players testing out "new" techs/decks in real life. This of course resulted in a very diverse top 32.

A thing I noticed is that even though 10 toppers played Dragon Rulers, they used different variations on the deck, making even those deck profiles very interesting to see. The different variants were:

• Dragon Ravine variant (focus on searching Dragunity tuners & dumping lots of Rulers from the hand/deck).
• Skill Drain variant (focus on spamming high attack/defense monsters and beating the opponent by force).
• Plant variant (with the Debris-Dandy "plant" engine).
• Mill variant (the "plant" engine + Lyla/Ryko's & card troopers).

Decks like Fire Fist, Mermails and Prophecies did lose a few key cards in the last F&L list, but did not fail to represent themselves again. Fire Fists gained Rooster & Wolfberk; Prophecies are now using World of Prophecy (using Temperance/Book of Life); and Mermails are now using Aqua Spirit (lol, wut?) and the combo of Bahamut Shark/Abysstrite/Mechquipped Angineer (more on that combo this Friday).

Certain older decks made a come-back, like Blackwings, Infernities and Dragunity. But the main decks of last format remain the main decks of this format. Those are Dragon Rulers, Mermails, Prophecy, Evilswarm, Fire Fist and Constellar.

Certain decks were expected to make a come-back (Chain Burn, Final Countdown, D-Hero control decks, etc.) were nowhere to be seen in the top tables. That means that even though the decks regained power, they're no match for the current top decks.

This top 32 will be the template on what other YCS's will become. They will be less diverse and will focus more on the "winning" decks.

The first YCS now will be YCS San Mateo (California, US), the first weekend of October. The only change then will be the availability of the Blue-Eyes Structure Deck. So I expect to see more Hieratic decks and Prophecy/Maiden decks. Other than that, it will be about the same end result as this YCS.

Afterword

Tomorrow (or Thursday), I'll take a look at the cards from Number Hunters and Judgment of the Light that were actually used (read as: useful).

Until then, V out.