If you read our Round 5 Constructed Feature Match, you’re already familiar with Kento Toshikawa! Traveling here this weekend all the way from Osaka, Toshikawa made the Top 32 of the YCS main event with Prophecy, pulling out moves and combos we’ve never seen in a YCS Feature Match before. There’s alot of hype surrounding the new Prophecy cards in Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy, but even without the new stuff, Prophecy are still hugely competitive.
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We haven’t seen many playoff appearances by Master Hyperion lately, but 5 Duelists managed to end the solar system slump and bring the strategy to the Top 16 and Top 8. Read more about why and how it works over on our Strategy Site!
Even though he didn’t win, William Casaw put on a great show with his Obelisk the Tormentor Deck. You can read about the strategy behind the Deck over on our Strategy Site, right here!
The tournament is far from over, and we’re continuing to see a lot of cool Decks advance. Check out some of the interesting Decks that entered Day 2, and the players that brought them there!
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The Yugiverse is in a state of HEROic revolution! New monsters released in Order of Chaos and the Premium Collection have led to a number of different HERO strategies seeing competitive play, and experiencing success here this weekend. Duelists are building around Fusion Gate, Skill Drain, Mask Change (with the new Masked HERO Dian and Masked HERO Acid) and Blade Armor Ninja, creating radically different decks that use similar monsters, but with completely different end results.
Andres Ochoa is playing a hot new variant called “Bubblebeat”. This Deck is all about fast, vicious aggression, combined with a heavy Trap Card lineup. It constantly threatens to Xyz Summon multiple copies of Blade Armor Ninja in a single turn. How does it do it? The answer is an old favorite from the GX era: Elemental HERO Bubbleman. Read more…
Lots of this weekend’s Duelists are using what’s popular. Twilight, Agents, Plants, and Infernities are all strong picks to win this tournament, and consequently, many of the competing players are using these Decks. But Michael McTavish took a different approach. Instead of running a Deck that’s popular because it’s strong, he decided to run a Deck that beats those Decks. Michael McTavish’s Banishment Deck uses Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos to counter the most popular Decks of the weekend.
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No two Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series tournaments are alike: formats are different, trends change at the drop of a dime, and in many cases, the Dueling landscape of the hosting city itself shapes the tournament. Here in Toronto we are in Kalin Kessler country: Infernities may be more popular here in Toronto than anywhere else, thanks to big Championship wins in the hands of Torontonian Duelists last year. While Infernities fell off the competitive map many months ago, the new September 1st Advanced List has opened the gates once again, and Duelists like Jason Larabee are capitalizing on one of the biggest new tournament powerhouses to take the strategy to new heights.
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It’s early here Saturday, but most Duelists are already anticipating Agents and Plant Synchro variants to be the two most important match-ups of the day. The stage is set for innovation, and Toronto’s own Bobby Barone is rising to the challenge! His strategy? A HERO Beatdown Deck that borrows from the Gemini HERO Decks of old, but that adds a fistful of new twists hinging on the new Spell Card, Mask Change. The surprise all-star of the strategy? None other than Elemental HERO Ice Edge, a pint-sized direct attacker that’s taken on a whole new role as of September 1st. Read more…
Nordics are back, and better than ever! With Debris Dragon now Limited and the Lonefire Blossom engine taking a hit from the new Advanced List, a handful of Duelists are exploring Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts once again, getting easy access to high-Level Synchro Monsters. When Tanngnjostr is changed from Defense Position to Attack Position, it Special Summons another Nordic Beast from its controller’s Deck, and the prime candidate is the Level 4 Tuner monster, Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts. Tuned to Tanngnjostr, Guldfaxe unleashes Black Rose Dragon to wipe the field, or Ancient Sacred Wyvern to strike for huge damage.
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What looked like one of the most promising Decks of Day 1 actually didn’t make it to Day 2. In Round 3, we showed you Augustin Herrera claiming victory with his Anti-Monster Beast Deck. Three Rounds later in Round 6, Jehanzab Siddiqui defeated Robbie Kohl in another Feature Match, with the same strategy. But neither Duelist – nor any of the other competitors playing Anti-Monster Beasts, of which there were several – would make the Top 16 cut after the Swiss Rounds were said and done.
That’s a shame, because this strategy was really impressive both times we saw it in action. Tapping into the massive popularity of Horn of the Phantom Beast, this strategy both outplayed Horn, and took advantage of Horn itself, making clever use of some old school Beast monsters. Combined with new school tech like Forbidden Lance and Reborn Tengu, it’s got a ton of potential. Here’s what Herrera’s version looked like yesterday… Read more…