Location: Major League Memories in Riverside, RI
Date: 11/23/02
Number
of Participants: 8 (10 signed up, but the weather was pretty bad)
Structure:
Single-elimination; Pharoah's Servant legal using Japanese
restrictions
Prize: 3 rares
Monsters (25):
1x Exodia the Forbidden One
1x (each) Left Leg/Right
Leg/Left Arm/Right Arm of the Forbidden One
2x Witch of the Black
Forest
2x Sangan
3x Magician of Faith
1x Mystic Tomato
3x The
Unhappy Maiden
2x Mask of Darkness
3x Big Eye
3x Spear Cretin
Magic (10):
2x Monster Recovery
1x Painful Choice
1x Pot of
Greed
1x Upstart Goblin
1x Ground Collapse
1x The Shallow Grave
1x
Monster Reborn
1x Raigeki
1x Dark Hole
Traps (15):
2x Magic Jammer
2x Solemn Judgement
1x Magic Drain
1x
Seven Tools of the Bandit
1x Backup Soldier
3x Waboku
1x Mirror
Force
1x Gravity Bind
1x Solemn Wishes
2x Enchanted Javelin
Total: 50 cards
A bit large for an Exodia deck, but it works very well. In over 30 games,
it's only lost about three times. It's also my first deck to have the "ideal"
1:1 ratio between monsters and magic/traps. Most of the monsters explain
themselves. You might be wondering about the Spear Cretins; they let me reuse a
flip effect or death-effect (Sangan, Witch, and the Tomato; basically any
monster whose effect triggers when it goes to the graveyard), or in a pinch, two
of them form an endless loop of recursion for defense. Unhappy Maiden is purely
for stalling.
The magic and traps mostly explain themselves. The Backup
Soldier/Painful Choice combo is well-known by now, but for those who don't know
of it yet; use Painful Choice to dump three of Exodia's limbs into the
graveyard, then use Backup Soldier to put them into your hand (note that the
head won't work, Backup Soldier can't recover cards with effects; it's useless
outside of Exodia, really). Monster Recovery helps again for reusing flip
effects, or as a helpful card if I have Exodia peices in hand and someone uses
Card Destruction. Gravity Bind stalls beatdown decks in their tracks, and
Enchanted Javelin is sort of a low-caliber Waboku, although it's also useful if
they attack a defense-mode monster.
Round 1:
I knew the opponent well. He always hangs around the card shop
and makes a nuisance out of himself. And he knew my deck, to boot, but had no
way to do much about it. So he tried to put an early hurting on me, unaware that
my starting draw had included Gravity Bind. He used his one and only Dust
Tornado on it....then attacked a face-down Mask of Darkness. I ended up using
Dark Hole with a Sangan and both Witches on the field, gathering three peices of
Exodia, then snagged a fourth via Painful Choice/Backup Soldier. The game went
on for a while after that, with Sangan getting Reborned, but his monsters unable
to attack from Gravity Bind. Then I realized that Sangan is only a level three,
so GB has no effect on it. }=]> Sangan went on a suicide run against a
Summoned Skull, getting itself killed to let me snag Exodia's head out of the
deck for the win.
Round 2:
His main attackers included The Bistro Butcher. Hm. That's it,
let me get lots of draws in...and he did. This game went by pretty quickly, with
Exodia claiming another victory; this time it was largely due to him attacking
face-down cards that turned out to be Sangans, Witches, and Spear Cretins. I
pulled off a Raigeki, then tried to summon a Witch in attack mode (as Mirror
Force bait, mainly)....and he Trap Holed it. Since it went from the field to the
graveyard, I got the affect and pulled the final Exodia piece for the win.
Round 3 (Final):
Painfully short tourney. I would've liked another round.
Ah well, what can one do. Anyway, this kid knew what he was doing. Turns out the
person I defeated in the previous round was his brother, and he wanted revenge.
Sorry, but I wanted to know what those mystery prize rares were. I ended up with
four Exodia peices in my hand....and the fifth on the bottom of the deck.
Figuring that I wouldn't be getting an Exodia win this time, I blasted his
monsters away with Raigeki, Reborned his Blue-Eyes, and attacked him with that,
a Big Eye, and a Mystic Tomato. He dropped a monster in defense mode and hoped
for the best. The best didn't come. The Tomato nuked his face-down card (a La
Jinn); he attempted to use Michizure, but Seven Tools prevented it. Blue-Eyes
and Big Eye finished the game.
The prize rares didn't turn out to be anything particularly special....a Card Destruction, a Flying Kamakiri #1, a Manga Ryu-Ran and a Painful Choice. Given the fact that the store had seven or eight Painful Choices sitting in the display case, I suppose it wasn't too surprising. At least the Card Destruction found a home in my discard deck (which is still being worked on).
Coming Soon From The Mighty Mollusk: An updated Deck Archetype article. I intend to keep updating those with each new set as the game changes. For example, I gave Exodia only a fair recommendation last time, but now I've seen its true power.
And, as always: Good Luck, Happy Dueling, and May the Heart of the Cards Be With You.
The Mighty Mollusk
themightymollusk@yahoo.com