Introduction
Almost three years ago, I received my first WCQ invite at
the Frederick, MD Regional in March 2013 by placing 15th
with Mermail. I failed to repeat this accomplishment every
event I had gone to since then:
*At the June regional that same year, I went 5-4, again with
Mermail.
*At ARGCS Washington, D.C., I went with H.A.T. and started
off strong but ended up plummeting halfway through and ended
5-4.
*At the October 2014 regional, I lost on the bubble with
Shaddoll and went 6-3.
*At the October 2015 regional, I tanked with Burning Abyss,
again going 5-4.
I heard a couple of my friends talk about the Philadelphia
regional that was occurring in December this year. It was a
week after the release of the Master of Pendulum Structure
Deck, a Deck that had interested me since this summer. I
thought that going to the regional would be cool, but due to
the length of the drive from my school in Baltimore and the
fact that I would be taking my final exams that semester, I
wrote off the possibility of attending as unlikely.
Then, the week before the regional, I received a message
from my friend; he had moved to Florida at the beginning of
the year and was coming to Maryland to visit:
"Hey, you wanna go to the Philly regional?"
A ride to the regional was being offered to me, so I looked
up when my final exams were. Conveniently, they didn't start
until the Monday after the event, with the exception
of one take home exam that I wanted to finish beforehand. I
messaged my friend back, saying, "If I can get this take
home final done before Friday, I'll go."
That exam was hell; this was my toughest class yet, and this
was by far the hardest exam I ever had to deal with. But
after hours or working on it, I finished at 6 AM and slept
until 2 PM on Friday. My friend and his mother picked me up
at 6 PM that evening, and after watching a boxing match that
she got us tickets for, we got ready to head to our hotel.
Unfortunately, there was an error in her reservation, so we
ended up driving around for hours trying to find a hotel
that had room for us; we eventually found one at 3 AM.
At this point, my friend's Deck wasn't even completed yet
(he was also planning on playing Odd-Eyes Magician). We
quickly finished his Deck and playtested for about half an
hour. We went to bed at about 3:30 AM, and naturally I
couldn't sleep. Finally fell asleep a little after 4, and
was promptly woken up at 7 AM.
This was the decklist I used in the event:
Monsters: (23)
3 Dragonpit Magician
1 Dragonpulse Magician
1 Majespecter Raccoon - Bunbuku
3 Majespecter Unicorn - Kirin
2 Nobledragon Magician
3 Oafdragon Magician
3 Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
3 Performapal Skullcrobat Joker
3 Wisdom-Eye Magician
1 Xiangke Magician
Spells: (17)
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Pendulum Call
2 Sky Iris
1 Summoner's Art
2 Terraforming
3 Upstart Goblin
3 Wavering Eyes
Extra Deck: (15)
2 Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon
1 Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon
1 Ebon Illusion Magician
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon
1 Norito the Moral Leader
1 Number 39: Utopia Beyond
1 Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
1 Majester Paladin, the Ascending Dracoslayer
1 Performage Trapeze Magician
1 Steelswarm Roach
2 Odd-Eyes Meteorburst Dragon
1 Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon
Side Deck: (15)
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Denko Sekka
2 Effect Veiler
2 Flying "C"
2 Maxx "C"
2 Psi-Blocker
1 Thunder King Rai-Oh
3 Waboku
I personally believe that Odd-Eyes Magician is the best Deck
until BOSH. It is very consistent and has a lot of power
behind it. The only Deck I think could possibly be better
than it is Performage Magician, but I think the
inconsistency of that Deck is its downfall, despite the much
more explosive plays it can make.
I wanted to play 3 Majespecter Raccoon, because Unicorn is
such an incredibly good card right now, but I wasn't able to
borrow a playset from a friend before I had to leave for the
event. I did succeed in trading in a Kozmo Farmgirl I pulled
for one though.
I chose not to play Mist Valley Apex Avian, Odd-Eyes Fusion,
or Luster Pendulum. I had two copies of Apex Avian ready for
when the Structure Deck came out, but decided to sell them
to my friend so I could have money saved for when BOSH comes
out. In testing I found that Apex Avian was a power play,
but also a major contributor to bricks; pretty much
everything this Deck does is a 3+ card combo, and Apex Avian
doesn't do anything to further your setup. I wanted the Deck
to be consistent as possible, so I deemed Avian as
unnecessary.
I opted to not play Odd-Eyes Fusion because I figured in any
case where I could use it and have my Extra Deck set up with
Pendulum Monsters to fuel Vortex's effect, I could just as
likely make a play that was just as powerful without it. The
ability to search it out with Sky Iris is neat, but a lot of
the times I would prefer searching Odd-Eyes himself. My
friend ran Fusion over the 1 Raccoon, and he said it worked
out well for him, so maybe there's some merit to it, but I
didn't think I needed it. After the event I read Frazier
Smith's article on the Deck and noticed he was playing a
copy of Performapal Splashmammoth in order to summon Vortex,
so I may try out that idea later.
As for Luster Pendulum, my personal opinion is that it sucks
in this Deck; being Scale 5 means that you'll be locking
yourself out of either your Level 4's or your Level 7's
(when often times you will want to have access to both), and
not being a Magician means that he locks you out of all of
their Scale effects. Additionally, the only ways to reliably
get him out of your Pendulum Zones were Sky Iris and
Wavering Eyes. I tried playing around with upping
Terraforming to 3 and putting in 2 Chicken Game, but I
didn't like how Chicken Game wasn't a good standalone card.
I also planned on offering to Gentleman's agree to side out
Wavering Eyes in Games 2 and 3 (and I intended on siding it
out against non-Pendulum Decks anyway), so I didn't want to
rely solely on Sky Iris to get rid of Luster Pendulum. In
the end, I decided that losing access to Ignister was
necessary for a more consistent Deck.
I chose to main 3 MST because, while Dragonpit can deal with
one set card, I didn't want to have to play slow when facing
down two or more. MST let me break through a lot of backrow
and make a push earlier.
I was for the most part satisfied with the Main Deck, and I
never bricked; at worst I started slow, but no hand was
unplayable. After the event, I replaced Xiangke Magician and
the Terraformings with a second copy each of Raccoon and
Summoner's Art, and a Splashmammoth. Xiangke Magician never
came up and I almost always sided it out. Terraforming was
nice, but I didn't find myself always wanting Sky Iris; the
protection from targeting is very useful, but sometimes I
didn't have something I wanted to destroy in order to search
out Odd-Eyes. Although I was initially unsure on playing
Summoner's Art, after the event I realized that the games I
lost were the ones where I couldn't get to Dragonpit, so I
decided that not only was Summoner's Art great, but I wanted
to use another one.
Regarding the Extra Deck, the only cards that never came up
were the second Absolute, Rebellion, Norito, Majester, and
Vortex, though Norito was an option at one point. Ebon
Illusion Magician was clutch a number of times, and Utopia
Beyond stole me so many wins. Steelswarm Roach only came up
once in Round 5 and it won me the match, but in that
situation I also could've ended with Red-Eyes and been in
just as strong of a position, so I'll likely replace it with
Queen Dragun Djinn, which I found myself wishing I had at
one point.
The Side Deck was what I was having most trouble with. I
originally planned on siding a bunch of Counter Traps for
when I went first against the mirror or Performages, but I
felt like it was a weak strategy, so I ended up changing my
Side at the last minute. A friend from my locals happened to
have Denko Sekkas that he wasn't using, so he lent them to
me. He also suggested I side Veilers, Flying "C", and Maxx
"C" in order to deal with Performage.
Psi-Blocker and Waboku were the MVPs of my Side Deck; Waboku
protected me from being OTK'd if I went first, and also
stopped Farmgirls from searching. Psi-Blocker was useful for
shutting out the key components of my opponent's Decks.
I'm not sure how I feel about Thunder King. I only saw him
once, and while I feel he was useful, my opponent ended up
being able to deal with him pretty easily. Breaker came up a
few times and helped.
So with 10 hours of sleep spread across two days, I was
ready to finally break my regional curse and get another
invite.
I'll summarize my matches to the best of my ability; at the
time of me writing this, almost 24 hours have passed since
the event ended, so my memory is a little fuzzy:
Round 1: Performage Magician
Game 1: I won the die roll and opted to go second. He opens
with a turn 1 Omega and King of the Feral Imps, then passes.
The Game goes back and forth for a little bit, and he ends
up making Trapeze Magician and Ignister for a push, but I
manage to survive. I topdeck Pendulum Call, and with no
Scales and only a Pit and Odd-Eyes in my hand, I search out
a second Pit and an Oaf. He activates Omega, and I pray he
doesn't hit the Oaf; to my fortunate, he hits one of the
Pits, and I proceed to go off and use Big Eye to take his
Trapeze Magician for Game (even after chaining it in
response targeting my Big Eye, I had enough damage).
Game 2: I start kind of strong and get an early Unicorn out.
He has trouble playing around it, but eventually brings out
his own Unicorn and Skullcrobat to try and stall. My board
consists of an Oaf, Skullcrobat, and Unicorn, so I use my
Unicorn to bounce both Skullcrobats and then Pendulum Summon
a large board again. Realizing that no matter what he
bounces that I have enough for game, he concedes.
1-0
Round 2: Kozmo
Game 1: I don't remember much of this game, but it was
really fast because this matchup is really easy.
Game 2: I open Psi-Blocker and Waboku. I set the Waboku and
summon Psi-Blocker, calling Farmgirl. He works with what he
has and gets a Forerunner out, and tries to swing into the
Psi-Blocker, but I activate Waboku. On my turn I hit a
face-down with Pit, and he chains Emergency Teleport to
summon Farmgirl. I call it again with Psi-Blocker, and he
chains Farmgirl to summon Dark Destroyer, destroying
Psi-Blocker. At this point he has 2 set cards, and I have
another Psi-Blocker in hand. I MST one of the sets and then
summon Psi-Blocker, and he chains Torrential, turning his
two ships into 2 Slipriders, hitting my Scales. On his turn,
he swings with the Slipriders, and then tries to Emergency
Teleport into Farmgirl for game, but I remind him that I
called it with Psi-Blocker so he can't. He ends up summoning
Strawman instead, and in MP2 uses its effect to revive Dark
Destroyer, which turns into a Forerunner. With only a
Unicorn in hand, I topdeck Pendulum Call and set my scales
up again. I make Ebon Illusion Magician to summon
Dragonpulse. I swing with Beyond over Forerunner, which he
floats into Wickedwitch. I then use Beyond to attack a
Sliprider, which he turns into another Wickedwitch. I then
swing with Pulse and use Ebon to banish one of the
Wickedwitches, and at the replay I opt not to attack the
Sliprider. He crashes Sliprider on his turn and turns it
into a Goodwitch, and runs over Dragonpulse with Wickedwitch,
and proceeds to make Ptolemaeus into Pleiades in the End
Phase. I draw Majespecter Raccoon, use it to search Unicorn
and Pendulum Summon again, using Unicorn to bait out
Pleiades and push for game.
2-0
Round 3: Kozmo
Game 1: He opens slow and I just Overwhelm him.
Game 2: I snipe all of his backrow with MST and Dragonpit,
and he eventually gets Vanity's Fiend out with one set. I
search out Dragonpulse and set it in my Pendulum Zone
(despite Oaf being in my other one), and give up my ability
to Pendulum Summon so I can remove Vanity's Fiend. He
immediately flips Vanity's Emptiness, apparently not
realizing that I can't Pendulum Summon, so I just
continuously swing with Skullcrobat Joker. He set one card,
and when I MST it, he scoops.
I try to explain how I couldn't Pendulum Summon, but he
responds with, "I'm a little mad right now," so I stop.
3-0
Round 4: Kozmo
3 Kozmos in a row; fate sure was loving me.
Both of these games ended pretty quickly, with the guy
saying how he couldn't figure out how to kill me. Game 2 I
managed to get Absolute and Red-Eyes on the board; he was at
2600 LP, and he had to drain 1500 of it to even do anything,
and I killed him the next turn.
4-0
Round 5: U.A.
Game 1: He activates U.A. Signing Deal, and in my head I
think, "Oh God no!" I despise playing against U.A.. He ends
up getting Perfect Ace on the board turn 1, and the game
just snowballs in his favor, delivering me my first game
loss of the day.
Game 2: I opt to go first. He bricks and I open Psi-Blocker,
calling U.A. Midfielder. He can't do anything from there.
Game 3: He opts for first but bricks again, and I open
insane. I make a push and then end with a board of Absolute,
Roach, and Ebon Illusion Magician, and he scoops.
5-0
Round 6: Performage Majespecter
Game 1: He delivers me a swift OTK with Ignister. We agree
to side out Wavering.
Game 2: I discover that he's actually playing the
Majespecters, as I had not seen any of them Game 1.
Fortunately, I'm able to push through and kill him with
Utopia Beyond.
Game 3: I don't remember much of this, but it didn't go in
my favor that much.
5-1
I was salty after this loss, and started thinking that maybe
I would once again crash and burn during the second half. To
change that thought process, I did what my best friend does
when he needs motivation; listen to Kanye West.
It worked, I guess.
Round 7: PSY-Frame
I actually recognized this guy from ARG D.C., as he was my
Round 3 opponent at that event.
Game 1: I manage to snipe both of the Circuits that he
activates, and just slowly swing with Skullcrobat in the
hopes that he doesn't get Beta. He doesn't, and I win.
Game 2: It's going well for me, as I'm just swinging slowly
with Raccoon, but he ends up drawing Feel Zone and drops
Zeta on me. I'm not able to deal with it in time, and he
flips up Anti-Spell Fragrance for game.
Game 3: He sets two and I open Denko Sekka. I then sit on
Denko and Unicorn, constantly swinging. He summons Yaksha
(yes, regular Yaksha) and attempts to run over Denko, but I
bounce it with Unicorn. With no Scales, I go for the
desperation tactic and set Oafdragon and Skullcrobat Joker
in my Pendulum Zones, Pendulum Summon Dragonpit and
Odd-Eyes, and then Tribute Dragonpit for Unicorn, swinging
again. He summons Yaksha again and I repeat, bouncing OEPD.
At that moment, time is called, so I analyze my hand and
proceed to Absolute OTK him.
After the game, he commends me for playing the situation
perfectly, as well as my knowledge on how to deal with
PSY-Frames, and stated that he was pretty much relying on me
messing up.
6-1.
Round 8: Performage Magician
Game 1: He opens triple Plushfire, Mirror Conductor, and
Luster Pendulum. He sets Luster and Mirror, activating the
former's effect, and then Pendulum summons Mirror and the
Plushfires. He then makes King of the Feral Imps, searches
Masked Chameleon, and makes Omega. On my turn, I see that he
has no sets and no cards in hand, so I activate OEPD in my
Pendulum Zone. Suspecting Wavering Eyes, he activates Omega,
but misses. So I set another OEPD and Wavering for 4. I then
Wombo Combo him to death.
I then ask him if he wants to side out Wavering Eyes and he
refuses, suspecting that I don't play the Performages.
Game 2: I maintain an early lead and am going for pushes
when I topdeck Wavering Eyes. Again noticing that he has
nothing in hand, I activate it again, and that allows me to
push for game. Karma I guess. :P
7-1
At this point I have 7 wins, with my only loss being in
Round 6. Because it was a Top 64 cutoff, I was more or less
guaranteed my invite.
Round 9: Kozmo
Game 1: I lose the die roll and he double Emergency
Teleports me. Happens I guess.
Game 2: He hits me with Fairy Wind, but I push through it
and Beyond OTK him.
Game 3: He hits me with an early Fairy Wind, and I'm left
with nothing so I stall. Then he topdecks Emergency
Teleport. Happens I guess.
Well, seeing as I beat three other Kozmo players that day, I
guess one of them was gonna take me down.
7-2
Round 10: Vs. Majespecter Magician
Game 1: I misplay a lot this game, including Wavering him
under a Pendulum Call and not noticing that Wisdom-Eye can
use its effect when Skullcrobat Joker is in the other
Pendulum Zone. He ends up killing me pretty quickly. In my
salt I forget to ask to side out Wavering Eyes, but
fortunately, he offers, and I agree.
Game 2: I Beyond OTK him. That play is such a game stealer.
Game 3: "It all comes down to this game," I said. He looks
at his hand and says, "I think I won...", and proceeds to
Pendulum Call, and then Pendulum Summons for five, including
Elemental HERO Shadow Mist of all things. He searches out
Mask Change and then Majespecter Tempest (with a Fox he
summoned), and then summons Dark Law. He then uses his last
two monsters (can't remember what they were) to make
Ptolemaeus into Pleiades, and passes. I draw a Pendulum
Call, and decide that I have to gamble, so I activate it and
search Dragonpulse and Dragonpit. He activates Dark Law, and
fate decides that she is not on my side as he succeeds in
hitting Dragonpit. I manage to use Dragonpulse to hit Dark
Law, but by that point the damage is done and I can't play
around Pleiades. He OTK's me the next turn.
7-3
I was really salty after that last round, but I at least
felt secure that I would be able to get my invite.
The results went up, and to my delight I managed to place
32nd, just barely squeezing into the Top 32! I was ecstatic
that I was finally able to escape my block and get another
invite.
After the event, I picked up a second Majespecter Raccoon
after trading some cards and $10.
Conclusion:
Overall, I was really satisfied with the results. I wish I
could have done better than 7-3, but I was aiming for an
invite, and I got it. Next on my agenda is ARG Richmond (if
I can get everything I need from BOSH), and after that, the
WCQ. I missed it the last time I got my invite, and I'm not
letting that happen this time.
~Riko
