YuGiOh! Texas 2010 Regionals

I can't remember if anyone here plays/played YuGiOh, but again, bored, so I figured I'd post up a little news here.

Started playing YuGiOh a couple months ago and got a good deck together- a variation of the Machina Gadgets metadeck. I went to my first Regionals in San Antonio with a group of friends on Saturday, and entered. There were about 233 people there, despite that there was a bigger tournament with better prizes going on in Chicago or something. For those of you who don't know, the top 32 players of a Regional get invites to Nationals.

I happened to get 33rd.

I actually went into this tourney without any aspirations of doing well, but according to my friend who got me into YuGiOh (he's a judge and has been playing about six years, so I figure his opinion is totally a good one), that's actually really incredible to place so high in my first Regionals. Funny enough, I think he's more proud of me than I am of myself. Aside from one other guy who placed ninth, I actually did the best out of our little group that went there. He happened to be running a deck very similar to mine- Machina Gadgets. I figure he had a better sidedeck and could deal with some opposing metadecks better than I could.

Here's a list if anyone's curious- my Machina Gadgets.

Spoiler:

That's about all I guess. The more bored I get, the more time I spend here.

I have a bunch of friends who are into YuGiOh now so I actually know what you're talking about; my friend runs a Machina Gadget variant.

I was thinking of getting back into it and playing a Lightsworn deck for the lulz, but it's too expensive.

Zenith wrote:I have a bunch of friends who are into YuGiOh now so I actually know what you're talking about; my friend runs a Machina Gadget variant.

I was thinking of getting back into it and playing a Lightsworn deck for the lulz, but it's too expensive.

The big advantage to me with Machina Gadgets is how CHEAP they are to make. Thirty bucks gets you the bulk of the cards that you need (three Machina Mayhem structure decks). Here's a decklist you can pull together using JUST the Machina Mayhem decks.

3x Machina Fortress
3x Machina Gearframe
3x Cyber Valley
2x Red Gadget
2x Yellow Gadget
2x Green Gadget
2x Scrap Recycler
2x Cyber Dragon
1x Machina Force

3x Shrink
3x Solidarity
2x Hand Destruction
2x Machina Armored Unit
1x Swords of Revealing Light
1x Machine Duplication

3x Dimensional Prison
3x Compulsary Evacuation Device
2x Time Machine

That's a good start for Machina Gadgets. Lots of cards to pick up, of course, but that shouldn't run too badly till you get more staples, if you don't already have them from older collections or something.

I think my problem is that I find Machina Gadgets really boring looking and I have problem playing decks that I think are boring.

This is why I don't play too many card games anymore.

Zenith wrote:I think my problem is that I find Machina Gadgets really boring looking and I have problem playing decks that I think are boring.

This is why I don't play too many card games anymore.

Machina Gadgets IS really simple to play.

Frogs are pretty fun to play just cause... Well, they're FROGS. If you wanna look into some less conventional decks, there's always a Chain Strike deck, in which you just chain cards like Just Desserts and Ceasefire into an all-consuming Chain Strike. That, and you can run cards like Lava Golem to tribute the opponent's monsters, hand 'em a giant 3000 Atk beatstick, and watch as they take 1000 points of damage a turn for having it there. Cool thing about Chain Strike is that it's kinda hard to stop because of how the stack works. Every new chain hits the top of the stack, so if they try to Heavy Storm, you can just chain to that, chain another card to that, and another card to that, etc, etc, till you hit Chain Strike and do massive damage- then everything else pops and you get to laugh in their face cause they just wasted a Heavy.

Aww wtf i totally wouldve gone if I knew someone from here would be there!!! I live in SA baby!

It's not really a matter of convention, it's a matter of the card's actual design.

Zenith wrote:It's not really a matter of convention, it's a matter of the card's actual design.

Huh?

The Machina Gadgets are not pretty to look at so I don't like playing with them.

Zenith wrote:The Machina Gadgets are not pretty to look at so I don't like playing with them.

Blackwings are pretty to look at. So are a lot of the Frogs, Herald of Perfection decks... Quickdraw decks run Dandylion, which is adorable as all hell.

Zenith wrote:The Machina Gadgets are not pretty to look at so I don't like playing with them.

Aesthetics over usefulness, glad I am not the only one who does that with games.

Well, I've just loved Machines since I started playing. I used to play a LONG time ago, when the game first came out, but stopped shortly after cause it sucked.

Couple months back, though, I was bored at school and someone I knew happened to have a big ole' collection of YuGiOh cards on him, so I was like, "Gimme your cards, I'm making a deck."

Naturally, I sucked. I threw together and Ancient Gear deck and found myself suddenly in love with Machines, so I've just been using those since then. I'm especially fond of Gadgets. They ARE aesthetically pleasing to me.

Oddly enough, though, my favorite card is Neo-Spacian Grand Mole. It's just got too much cool factor to NOT love.

I remember when I used to play a long fucking time ago, I think I was a freshman in high school then.

Ran a goddamn Amazoness themed deck, when I had better strategies that I could use. In my defense, it looked shithot whenever everything worked out and I won.

Shiki wrote:I remember when I used to play a long fucking time ago, I think I was a freshman in high school then.

Ran a goddamn Amazoness themed deck, when I had better strategies that I could use. In my defense, it looked shithot whenever everything worked out and I won.

Funny enough, the next set coming out will be having more support for Amazoness decks.

Not to mention, Amazoness Decks already run a VERY potent combo called "Ojama Archers." When they attack your Amazoness monsters, you play a Trap card called Amazoness Archers and then chain another card called Ojama Trio to that. Ojama Trio resolves first, since it was the most recent card in the chain, dumping three defense position 0/0 monsters on the opponent's side of the field that deal 300 damage each to their controller when they are destroyed. After that, Amazoness Archers resolves and forces all the opponent's monsters into attack mode, reducing their Atk by 500 each and forcing them to attack that same Amazoness. Assuming the Amazoness lives, all the Ojama Tokens have to swing into your Amazoness with their 0 Atk, essentially letting you deal the Amazoness' Atk three times, as well as an extra 900 since each token is destroyed. If you throw in a Rush Recklessly, this almost always results in an OTK- "one-turn kill".

Aside from that, Amazoness monsters are getting a lot of new support in the next set that comes out.

Amazoness Queen is a 6-star, 2400/1800 monster that makes all your other Amazoness monsters immune to destruction by battle damage.

Amazoness Sage destroys a Spell or Trap everytime it swings into the enemy.

Amazoness Village boosts all your Amazoness monsters' Atk by 200 points, and each time one is destroyed, you get to special summon a new one from your deck with level less than or equal to the one that was destroyed- you can lose the Queen to a Smashing Ground or something, and then pull it right back out from your deck without having to tribute. Very cool.

... And that's just to name a few that I actually know of!

Aside from that, the decks should be CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP to make. Most Amazoness cards go for about $0.33 each, and most of the other cards, even staples, are fairly inexpensive.

Spoiler:

This post used to be bigger.

Basically, the big creature in your deck is AMAZONESS SWORDS WOMAN. If she's bigger than the enemy's monster, she destroys them. If they're bigger, she's destroyed, but they take ALL the battle damage. Amazoness Queen and Mist Body are there to keep her from being destroyed by battle- that in mind, you can swing into anything and the enemy will always take the difference in battle damage.

I ran a beatdown deck that won 9/10. Here's how it is dawg. No side-deck needed. This deck worked like this: I get strong monsters out, halt you from doing whatever you wanted then just kicked your teeth in before you could reset. Worked almost every time and yes. There's no Jinzo because Jinzo is a lame card.

I'd also like to point out that there are only 3 monsters in my deck that require sac-summoning. a 2600 that deals damage directly if all of your monsters are in defense mode. A monster with 2000 that if he inflicts damage, you must grab a type (monster/magic/trap) of my choice from your deck and throw it out. Lastly, maju. Pump something up with the AXE and the Dagger... Say... That black tyranno if I'm feeling risky... I go from a killer dino with 3900 to a UNBUFFED monster with 7800 attack AND I get both of those equips back if I wish.

I actually won a tourney because of Maju. The guy had a horrible draw. He busted out a summon skull, and next turn I snatched it, sac'd it, busted out a 5000 power Maju and then Monster Reborn his Skull. Yeah.... I (almost) felt bad for the guy.




Monsters:
Gemini Elf x3
Cyber Jar x1
Great Maju Garzett x1
Yata-Garasu (the secret rare version)
Mad Dog of Darkness x1
Spear Dragon x3
Sangan x1
Witch of the black forest x1
Archfiend Soldier x2
Vampire Lord x1
Slate Warrior x1

MAGIC (spells... screw that name change crap <3) cards:
Heavy Storm x1
Butterfly Dagger Elma x1
Change of Heart x1
Card Destruction x1
Axe of Despair x1
Snatch Steal x1
Monster Reborn x1
Premature Burial x1
Swords of R. Light x1
Dark Hole x1
Injection Fairy Lily x1
Black Tyranno x1 (<3)
Mystical Space Typhoon x1 (shiny <3)


Traps:
Dust Tornado x1 (also shiny <3)
Robbin Goblin x1
Ring of Destruction x1
Royal Command x1
Mask Of Restrict x1
Mirror Force x1
Shadow Spell x1
Seven Tools x2
Imperial Order x1
Metal Morph x1
Magic Cylinder x1

Question about the machine decks posted... Where the **** is Barrel Dragon?

Akubarix wrote:I ran a beatdown deck that won 9/10. Here's how it is dawg. No side-deck needed. This deck worked like this: I get strong monsters out, halt you from doing whatever you wanted then just kicked your teeth in before you could reset. Worked almost every time and yes. There's no Jinzo because Jinzo is a lame card.

I'd also like to point out that there are only 3 monsters in my deck that require sac-summoning. a 2600 that deals damage directly if all of your monsters are in defense mode. A monster with 2000 that if he inflicts damage, you must grab a type (monster/magic/trap) of my choice from your deck and throw it out. Lastly, maju. Pump something up with the AXE and the Dagger... Say... That black tyranno if I'm feeling risky... I go from a killer dino with 3900 to a UNBUFFED monster with 7800 attack AND I get both of those equips back if I wish.

I actually won a tourney because of Maju. The guy had a horrible draw. He busted out a summon skull, and next turn I snatched it, sac'd it, busted out a 5000 power Maju and then Monster Reborn his Skull. Yeah.... I (almost) felt bad for the guy.

Spoiler:

Cyber Jar, Yata-Garasu, Witch of the Black Forest, Butterfly Dagger Elma, Change of Heart, Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Dark Hole, and Ring of Destruction are banned in the Advanced format, which is the format used for tournaments. After working out those kinks, I'm sure it could work after a little more tweaking. A good anti-meta deck is hard to make, but that seems to be the direction you're going in. As such, I'd maybe attempt to make some kind of combination Skill Drain/Royal Oppression deck, running cards like Fusilier.

Akubarix wrote:Question about the machine decks posted... Where the **** is Barrel Dragon?

To answer this, Barrel Dragon sucks. This card requires TWO tributes, first off, which is terrible for any deck. It's far too easy to destroy a monster via Torrential Tribute, Smashing Ground, Hammershot, etc to bother throwing so much work into a single creature. Anytime someone tries to pop a seven-star or more monster via TRIBUTE on me, it almost always ends up getting a Compulsory, in which point, they end up going back to the hand before they can even do anything. As for Barrel Dragon's effect, you get to toss THREE coins, and if TWO are heads, you can destroy one MONSTER on the opponent's side of the field.

Snipe Hunter is a four-star monster that allows you to discard a card and roll a six-sided die. As long as the number rolled is NOT a one or a six, the target is destroyed. Aside from that, Snipe Hunter can target the back row as well as monsters, and can use his ability as many times in a row as you like. In many cases, the discard cost is almost entirely overlooked, and sometimes seen as an advantage for the fact that YuGiOh is heavy in Graveyard manipulation, meaning it tends to be much easier to Special Summon a monster from the grave than it is to Normal Summon them from your hand.

Compare Barrel Dragon to, say, Machina Fortress. Machina Fortress is also seven stars, just like Barrel Dragon. However, Machina Fortress can special summon itself from the hand OR grave by discarding Machine type monsters whose total levels equal eight or more. Interestingly enough, Machina Fortress can actually discard ITSELF from the hand along with any other Machine in order to special summon itself from the grave, because the ability doesn't check to see where Machina Fortress is until the cost has already been paid. As such, you can get out a Machina Fortress- who has just 100 less Atk and a better ability - essentially for half the number of monsters - especially considering that Machina Fortress is a SPECIAL SUMMON which essentially tributes from the hand, meaning, it's much FASTER.

Aaaand that's about all I can think of right now. Basically, Barrel Dragon doesn't do the deck any good.

Shiki wrote:

Zenith wrote:The Machina Gadgets are not pretty to look at so I don't like playing with them.

Aesthetics over usefulness, glad I am not the only one who does that with games.

Oh, I agree with this all the way.

Prostiboots wrote:

Shiki wrote:

Zenith wrote:The Machina Gadgets are not pretty to look at so I don't like playing with them.

Aesthetics over usefulness, glad I am not the only one who does that with games.

Oh, I agree with this all the way.

I like to think that I've found a happy medium between what's aesthetically pleasing and what's practical. I immediately knew I wanted a Machines deck based on the fact that I loved them so much right off the bat, but I didn't actually decide to run a Machina Gadgets deck till I realized that my Gadget Oppression was not working out very well. I also have two decks on the side that I'm working on for more casual matches and the likes- one is Spaceships, another is Amazoness. I'm also happy to note that I've got most of the makings for a basic Blackwings deck.

I'm even happier to note that I won second place in a small tourney today and ended up winning a binder, a pack, and a rare card. Fun stuff. Too bad the AC was out the whole time. D:

Shine wrote:

Cyber Jar, Yata-Garasu, Witch of the Black Forest, Butterfly Dagger Elma, Change of Heart, Monster Reborn, Premature Burial, Dark Hole, and Ring of Destruction are banned in the Advanced format, which is the format used for tournaments. After working out those kinks, I'm sure it could work after a little more tweaking. A good anti-meta deck is hard to make, but that seems to be the direction you're going in. As such, I'd maybe attempt to make some kind of combination Skill Drain/Royal Oppression deck, running cards like Fusilier.

My deck was made back when these cards were all legal. The deck ran circles around people. Even though everyone and their mother has most of those banned cards (save for yata, premature and ring). Thing have apparently changed A LOT since my 'retiring' from tourney and casual play 4 years ago.

To answer this, Barrel Dragon sucks. This card requires TWO tributes, first off, which is terrible for any deck. It's far too easy to destroy a monster via Torrential Tribute, Smashing Ground, Hammershot, etc to bother throwing so much work into a single creature. Anytime someone tries to pop a seven-star or more monster via TRIBUTE on me, it almost always ends up getting a Compulsory, in which point, they end up going back to the hand before they can even do anything. As for Barrel Dragon's effect, you get to toss THREE coins, and if TWO are heads, you can destroy one MONSTER on the opponent's side of the field.

Barrel Dragon has 2600 to back him as well. Not to mention that if you're tributing for something; you should have something to protect it. Not to mention that there are ways around bringing him out without just throwing him out there at the cost of 2 monsters. Given what you said below, BD doesn't "suck", he's just slightly outclassed.

Yeah. His skill is 2/3 heads. But those odds aren't exactly bad. Not to mention it wipes things out that are face-down without any flip-effects triggering. BD can clear his own path and if tides are in your favor, suck away 2600 LP from your foe. Not to mention Limiter Release and if you're crafty enough, mega morph.

Snipe Hunter is a four-star monster that allows you to discard a card and roll a six-sided die. As long as the number rolled is NOT a one or a six, the target is destroyed. Aside from that, Snipe Hunter can target the back row as well as monsters, and can use his ability as many times in a row as you like. In many cases, the discard cost is almost entirely overlooked, and sometimes seen as an advantage for the fact that YuGiOh is heavy in Graveyard manipulation, meaning it tends to be much easier to Special Summon a monster from the grave than it is to Normal Summon them from your hand.

So you have a 2/6 shot of failing at the cost of a card anyway? Yeah sure. I see why he's in your deck. Discard the MF or things for him. I get it. But that could easily be turned on you as well. Not saying the effect is horrible, but I'd rather flip a coin than to rely on luck AND lose a card. It's double the gamble at what could cause you to get hit in not one, but both kidneys.

Don't get me started on if people WANT you to destroy something of theirs with the effect =p.

Compare Barrel Dragon to, say, Machina Fortress. Machina Fortress is also seven stars, just like Barrel Dragon. However, Machina Fortress can special summon itself from the hand OR grave by discarding Machine type monsters whose total levels equal eight or more. Interestingly enough, Machina Fortress can actually discard ITSELF from the hand along with any other Machine in order to special summon itself from the grave, because the ability doesn't check to see where Machina Fortress is until the cost has already been paid. As such, you can get out a Machina Fortress- who has just 100 less Atk and a better ability - essentially for half the number of monsters - especially considering that Machina Fortress is a SPECIAL SUMMON which essentially tributes from the hand, meaning, it's much FASTER.

Aaaand that's about all I can think of right now. Basically, Barrel Dragon doesn't do the deck any good.

Special summons eat the bottomless trap hole though. So not only can that be nuked, it can be REMOVED from the game via that card. I don't know about now, but everyone I played years ago had 2 of those things at the ready. Be it because of Vampire Lord or something else. I'm sure your speed wouldn't save you from a BTH. 100 attack, heck. 1 attack point makes the difference. Scraping 100 extra LP from someone could mean a turn away from winning or getting your salad tossed the next following turn.

Before I got a hold of Black Tyranno, I used Barrel Dragon as my only 'beefy' monster. I can't tell you how many times his flip cost someone a huge chunk of LP or even the game. Granted, my deck consists of pushing you so you have nothing to defend yourself with (while holding your other abilities down as well), but BD has his uses.... Not to mention he's a dragon with a REVOLVER FOR A FACE. Just throwing that last part out there =p.

For the first part, I'm simply saying that you wouldn't be able to run your previous deck with today's banlist.

As big as Barrel Dragon is, it doesn't really have a place in the deck. Not to mention, if you check out my decklist, I don't actually RUN Snipe Hunter anymore. Gadgets prefer "one-for-one" creature removal like Smashing Ground, Dimensional Prison, and Soul Taker. I would also like to note that the Barrel Dragon errata specifies that his ability can only be used "Once per turn."
3rd Errata Lore: DLG1-EN045 & RP01-EN044: Once per turn, you can toss a coin 3 times. If 2 out of 3 results are Heads, destroy 1 monster your opponent controls. (link for reference). If this card were eight stars or more, and thusly, readily available Fortress food, it might've found a place in my deck. However, it simply doesn't belong.

Compare Smashing Ground to Barrel Dragon.

Barrel Dragon requires me to tribute two monsters. I'm losing two cards to risk losing my Barrel Dragon as well. That puts Barrel Dragon at a -2 (-1 IF its ability works). Being a monster, Barrel Dragon is also fairly to remove by a variety of means. The enemy could drop a Cyber Dragon and fuse with Barrel Dragon for Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, Smashing Ground, Hammer Shot, Fissure, Compulsory Evacuation Device, Bottomless Trap Hole as it comes out, etc, etc.

Smashing Ground is one card that destroys one monster. At a one-card cost for a one-card destruction, it evens out at a nice, neutral zero. As a spell, it is also much more difficult to counter, considering no one really packs cards like Magic Drain, and Anti-Spell Fragrance, while good, is not often used in most meta-decks.

Further more, I'd rather top-deck a Smashing Ground than a Barrel Dragon. If I'm sitting there with little to nothing on the field after a Lightning Vortex/Torrential Tribute or something and somehow managed to deplete my hand, I'd much rather pop a Smashing Ground than sit with a Barrel Dragon in my hand I can't play.

Yes, people still play Bottomless Trap Hole in nearly every deck- two of them, because they're semi-limited. However, your argument is that those Machina Fortress will just get BTM'd right off the bat and become worthless. This is why you play intelligently and conservatively, and this is why I have the options in my deck that I do. Mid-game, it's difficult to properly put out a Machina Fortress on the field, because at that point, they probably have a BTM on the field, waiting for it. Early-game, because they haven't gone through as much of their deck, there's less of a chance they'd have one on the field. As such, I can take early control of the field by Normal Summoning a Machina Soldier, which allows me to Special Summon another Machina monster from my hand, i.e., Fortress. For the mid-game and beyond, I have Jinzo, which eliminates the possibility of any Traps coming up and biting me in the ass. Book of Moon is a common card these days- simply pop it, and flip a monster into face-down defense position. They could Book Jinzo as my Fortress comes out, but then the summoning of Machina Fortress wouldn't have been the last thing that happened, meaning they still couldn't Bottomless Trap Hole. Aside from that, I have a decent amount of back-row removal, including Heavy Storm, Giant Trunade, and Mystical Space Typhoon. I would run Dust Tornados as well, but Machina Gadgets don't need too much back-row hate. However, I have been considering Cold Wave in place of Heavy Storm, considering the popularity of a card called Starlight Road which negates an effect that destroys two or more cards on the field, and allows you to Special Summon a Starlight Dragon from your extra deck. It's a very mean card- conveniently, Machina Gadgets is not too terribly reliant on quickplay spells and traps- especially considering how few traps I pack, due to the fact that I'm running Jinzo.

I guess that's about all I've got to say right now.