Your deck for locals.  What do you think of when you hear that?  Depending on what kind of store you play at, it could mean anything.  If you live in southern California, New York City, or Atlanta, it could be incredibly competitive.  If you live in a smaller city, there is a high chance the game is taken less seriously at your store.  Is this a bad thing?  No, it gives you more chances to try new things, with a lower risk of wasting your day away in the 0-2 bracket.  Obviously this is different if your store has a larger event coming up, as people will generally be more competitive in order to prepare.  

 

The spreading popularity of www.duelingnetwork.com and similiar services have also given players the ability to try new things against different opponents without having to risk losing out on 5 bucks at locals.  There have been some unfortunate side effects of the program, as well.  I generally have a lot of trouble playing against randoms* as there is a great deal of ignorance when it comes to rulings, and people are not afraid to go forum-flame war mode if you even suggest they are incorrect.  The amount of people trying new things can also be somewhat annoying when trying to test for a larger event using the website.  No, as a matter of fact, I don't think I'll need to know the Fabled matchup that well for YCS Miami.  Thanks for giving me a 15 card opening hand via Maxx C, though.

*Lingo for just playing the first person who will accept your game.

For the decklist divers that are still reading this article somehow, patience, I'm going to give a decklist at the end of this article.  For now, we're still talking about your local game store (LGS, for short). 

Why is your local game store so relevant?  I could go into a big supply & demand rant about how it makes cards more accessible, but that's not what you come to Pojo to read about.  The short term answer, is that you can play decks (such as the one at the end of this article) that might be cooler or more fun than they are competitive.  There are times where this isn't always true, as stated above, but, generally speaking, you aren't going to be willing to drive 2+ hours to a regional so you can mess around with Crystal Beasts.  If you are heading to a larger event, you are going to want to win.  Locals gives all of us a creative outlet with card to mess around and just play the game for what it is.  A game.

 

Why should you care about your local game store?  The long term answer, mostly pertaining to this article, is that it gives you more chances to test your ideas out in real tournaments.  If it weren't for locals, before Dueling Network (DN), people wouldn't really have had a reliable way of testing decks out.  I can't help but imagine that Gene-Warped Warwolf would be a tournament staple in this universe.  

It's actually sortof amazing how much hatemail I get from people when I even mention Magic: The Gathering in my articles, but, I'm gonna take a page from Paul Reitzl when I say, it is amazing how much you will grow when you surround yourself by players who are better than you.  You generally won't learn anything if you have been the one teaching everybody else how to improve.  This isn't always true, Bill Nye put it best with "Everybody knows something that you don't.", but you will always learn more from people who know a great deal more than you. 

 

This has definitely been a shorter article, but people have been talking to me a lot lately about the game stores that they go to and asking various questions about why I think they should keep playing at locals instead of just skipping it.  For the decklist divers, here is the fun deck I've been testing online lately.

 

Monsters (16)
3 Wind-Up Rabbit
1 Wind-Up Rat
1 Wind-Up Shark
2 Reborn Tengu
3 King Tiger Wanghu
2 T.G. Rush Rhino
1 T.G. Warwolf
1 T.G. Striker
2 Maxx "C"

Spells (13)
3 Fire Formation - Tenki
1 Wind-Up Factory
1 Forbidden Lance
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
2 Pot of Duality
2 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps (12)
2 Mirror Force
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Solemn Warning
1 Starlight Road
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Horn of the Phantom Beast

Extra Deck
1. Daigusto Phoenix
2. Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
3. Wind-Up Zenmaines
4. #17 Leviathan Dragon
5. #30 Acid Golem
6. Temtempo, The Percussion Djinn
7. Soul of the Silvermountain
8. Diamond Dire Wolf
9. Gagaga Cowboy
10. Maestrok the Symphony Djinn
11. #11 Blackship of Corn
12. Naturia Beast
13. Naturia Barkion
14. Ally of Justice Catastor
15. Gaia Knight the Force of Earth

 

The deck is strange and randomly awful (sometimes you get 5 monster hands or vice-versa).  When you get the good hands though, you get to play fairly, and get to play lots of really cool cards.  I don't think this deck could do well on the main stage of a YCS or something simliar, but if you are an old school player like me and want something that feels like the old Warrior-Toolbox strategies of 2004, try this out.  It's a blast.  Generally speaking you play control with Wind-Up Rabbit and just gain value that way.  There are also a ton of cool interactions via Diamond Dire Wolf;  If you hit Rhino or Warwolf, you get another T.G. during the endphase (assuming they aren't later removed), if you hit Reborn Tengu, you get another, and my favorite, if you target your Wind-Up Rabbit has Chain link 1 with the Wolf, you can then remove Rabbit and still destroy their card. 

The Phoenix is in the deck because there were times where I had a Maxx C in my hand against a macro cosmos with a T.G. Striker and just felt like the worst player in the world, so I wanted an option if similiar situations arose.  Another sweet play is if you have a T.G. Warwolf and Wind-Up Rat in hand, you can do some really cool things out of nowhere in an otherwise fair deck. 

1. Play WU Rat
2. Target Rabbit/Shark with Rat
3. SS the other WU
4. SS Warwolf

Depending on what the board state is like, you can do several things from here

1.  If you are really far behind, you can overlay the Wolf and Rat into Zenmaines and have Rabbit banish-able to protect itself.
2.  If your opponent has an open board here, you can have Rat/Wolf go into Zenmaity, and then detach for another Rabbit, and smack them for 14+14+15.
3.  If you actually want to just do more damage and sacrifice a bit of control you can overlay into Acid Golem before attack to do 3000+1500
4.  You can use Rabbit to banish Rat, then O/L the Wolf/Rabbit into a rank 3, detach Rabbit, and go nuts with Rat again next turn.
5.  If they have something you can run over you can O/L into Soul of the Silvermountain in the previous scenario (using the two WU instead) and then O/L into something else when you run over something with the Soul.

There are obviously other situational plays depending on the kind of setup you have, but, there have been times it has just been a total blowout when I hit my opponent with the play. 

The synchros may seem a bit out of place, but remember that T.G. Striker is a tuner and a very easily used one at that.  I almost want to play a Black Rose Dragon in the deck just because Striker + Shark can nuke everything, which is pretty cute. 

If you like playing 'fair' with decks and not just playing 4 Xyzs, a walking Solemn Judgment, or putting 4 things on the chain first turn, try the deck out where it can really thrive.  Locals.

 

Sean Handy
The McShake Alchemist

 

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