Traditional at locals

I wasn't able to participate in the previous Traditional tourney due to… partying a little too hard the day before (lol) and failing to make time to create a decent enough deck. So that’s why I was a spectator last time.

Last Saturday, though, I was prepared and went to the other locals I usually attend, for a traditional Tourney. I pimped out my chaos dragons with forbidden cards (Painful Choice, Chaos Emperor Dragon, Dimension Fusion and Graceful Charity are all boss in Chaos Dragons).

Round 1: P-H (Six Sam):

• Game 1: I open up badly, but Imperial Order saved my ass, as my opponent opened with 5 spell cards (LOL). He can only advance slowly, while I recuperate from possibly one of the worst opening hands I've ever had. When my lifepoints drop down to 1900 (mostly due to paying the cost of Imperial order) I stopped paying the cost and get my game going. I get Future Fusion in my hand, resulting with a bunch of monsters and Chaos Emperor Dragon on the field, dropping his lifepoints to 2900 and then activating CED’s effect to burn 3200 for game.
• Game 2: I beat his monster with Leviathan Dragon turn 1, but he activates Gateway + SS United. He continues to summon, Searches/draws cards, drops Electric Virus on my dragon and OTK’s me. Yeah, I suddenly remembered why I hate Gateway of the SS.
• Game 3: Back and forth game, with Imperial order backing me again and Painful choice helping me advance. I win in the end.

Result: OXO

Round 2: Newbie (random warriors)

• Game 1: I realized this guy was new to the game and the god of card games wanted me to punish him. I opened up really broken (best hand of the day) and could FTK him.
• Game 2: Even with a quick-made deck that wasn’t prepared for Traditional, he showed quite some resilience. This guy holds some potential. But yeah, when facing Chaos Dragons unprepared in Traditional, you’re bound to lose.

Result: OO

I give him some tips on what he could’ve done to stop my advance, giving him some insight into the game.

Round 3: Vs Damon (Infernity)

• Game 1: The moment I activate Painful choice, he sees where I’m going and asks if I’m going to OTK him. I bluff a little, saying yes (as if! My hand wasn’t that great). He takes my bluff and scoops (his hand sucked, he told me).
• Game 2: I can’t do a thing when he starts looping. He OTK’s me.
• Game 3: I stop his Grepher with Veiler, seal his traps with Royal Decree and go forward from then on.

Result: OXO

Game 4: Carl (Piper Chaos)

• Game 1: Back-and-forth Game. He draws a lot and makes my moves backfire. I have few tricks of my own, but I know his Piper deck takes advantage of big, beefy monsters (like mine). Though moment he activates Crush Card Virus, I’m doomed. My field is swept clean and my hand is gone.
• Game 2: I have Troll & Lock bird ready, but he doesn’t activate a single draw card (once, a single Piper, wow). My  sided Royal Decree gets MST’d early on. Crush Card Virus doesn’t discard lot from my hand (I had Tour Guide, Veiler and the D&L bird that wouldn't fly), but with every good card I draw, being automatically sent to the graveyard, I can’t come back.

Result: XX

His loss over the Droll & Lock birds a few weeks ago clearly left a sore spot, as he didn't pimp his deck out with draw power (he said he’s the only one playing without Pot of Greed). No wonder my birds wouldn’t fly.

By request of the judge, we don't play top-4 (we agreed, result would've been the same, more or less)

End result: Third place (P-H got 2nd due to better tie-breaker)

• Card of the day: Imperial Order
• Fail card of the day: Dark Magician of Chaos (dunno why I bothered using him. Mostly ended up being a dead draw, even in Chaos Dragons).
• Got crushed by: Crush Card Virus. Yeah, that card really does hurt Chaos Dragons

So that's my locals report.

Next to the report, I've decided to do something with all the banlist predictions out there... But as this might take a while, I'll post about that near the end of the week.

Until next time, V out.

No deck is unbeatable (even in Traditional)

We all had that moment once, where we thought: "Damn, that deck can NOT be stopped!"

In the current Yu-Gi-Oh! format, I don't really have that feeling right now. Every deck can be beaten by another deck. For example, the current top decks of the march 2012 format.

• Wind-ups are weak to Maxx "C" and Veiler, 
• Chaos Dragons have a weakness to macro decks and recurring destruction (aka Hornet), 
• Dino Rabbits' weakness is that they have no outs to boss monsters like those Chaos Dragons spew. 
• Inzektors hate cards like Veiler & Dolkka, nor do they like chaos monsters.

Exchange FTK

In my own case, until recently I thought that the Traditional deck that could not be beaten was Exchange FTK.

For those that do not know Exchange FTK, I'll explain it in a few steps:

1. You draw a lot, with cards like Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, One Day of Peace, Upstart Goblin,...)
2. You ensure Makyura the Destructor ends up in the graveyard (Foolish Burial, Armageddon Knight, Darkworld Dealings, Graceful Charity,...)
3. You draw recklessly, because you want to finish things in 1 turn (cards like reckless greed, Good Goblin Housekeeping & into the void)
4. You use Soul Release, because you don't want cards in your opponents' graveyard.
5. You activate Exchange of the Spirit from your hand, swapping grave and deck (not sending, SWAPPING!).
6. You use a draw power card that forces your opponent to draw a card (Dark World Dealings, One Day of Peace, Card Destruction).
7. Since your opponent cannot draw, you win.

In the few games I've seen happening with one of the better players at the steering wheel, the match was decided in less than 5 minutes, siding not included.

Holy s!!t, those guys must be banned!

They Key pieces for this FTK are of course: Makyura the Destructor and Exchange of the Spirit. Both cards have been forbidden for life for a reason.

•  Makyura has no line on it that says that it has to remain in the grave to continue resolving, thus he doesn't give a f**k when removed by D.D. Crow or such.

• Exchange's exact wording: Cards like Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, or Penguin Knight cannot activate, because they're not being sent to the graveyard. The deck has just been swapped with the graveyard. A choice in wording that Konami (thankfully) never repeated, due to it being unstoppable by anything in existence.

But in the finals of that Traditional tournament I watched, I thought Exchange FTK would win for sure. At least until I saw that very Echange-player struggling and losing.

I admit, cards like Delinquent Duo & Confiscation stopped the advance little by little. But there was a key card in there that put a lock on the whole idea behind Exchange FTK.

Droll & Lock Bird (read: Troll & Lock Bird)

Troll & Lock Bird is a hand trap that shines the most when faced with a "draw or die" deck. When your opponent draws a card (or adds a card to his hand), you can discard this card from your hand. Neither player can add any other cards from his deck to his hand that turn.

While this card does not seem that useful in most decks, it's a literal pain in the ass when it fights against Exchange FTK or other traditional decks that focus on drawing a lot of cards (Dragon Deep Draw, Exodia OTK,...).

Due to being forced to stop drawing, the reckless nature of Exchange FTK automatically backfires, as cards like Reckless Greed & Into the void suddenly DO have their drawbacks. Discarding the entire hand (Into the void) and not being able to draw any card in the draw phase (reckless greed) often means the player loses. And since Makyura is still limited, even in Traditional, you lose your chance of activating traps in your hand.

During the entire match, the Exchange player (whom I thought would win the tournament) faced Troll & Lock bird 5 times, causing him to be frustrated near the end and lose.

I saw the (what I thought) most unbeatable deck in Yu-Gi-Oh! go down in an exciting match and Troll & Lock Bird made that win happen.

What's to say... I've become a fan of this card.

Until next time.

V out.