DJ Cdisk Blog... Nationals the day after

[DJ Cdisk]

Hey Everybody! DJ CDisk is back with another blog to digest. I had a great time this weekend, even though I didn’t even play a single game of yugioh this week! My cousin had his wedding this past weekend (no not mine guys) and I was part of the whole festivities. I laughed, cried, and DJ’ed one awesome party; so awesome I basically slept the entire Sunday getting enough rest for work on Monday (I want a job where I don’t have to wake up @ 7:00 in the morning, maybe I can be a professional poker player or something).

I had such a crazy weekend I almost forgot a pretty crazy weekend for yugioh as well. With 3 Tournaments here in Hawaii, and I like many of you guys, headed to the 2009 National Championship Coverage on various sites as well as speaking to people who were personally at the event (my first player profile was going to be Brandon Kinard this week, but obviously he was too busy actually attending Nationals. So awesome to hear he’s done so well. I guess you guys will have to wait a week or so to get my profile on him. ). In the end, Kris Ferber won the whole thing with Syncro-Cat.

Among hours of reading event coverage I have a few things I found interesting and want to discuss;

1. Gladiator Beasts can still contend with the best.
Gladiator Beasts have been on such a rollercoaster ride this past year, from winning last years National Championships, then getting blasted by Tele-DaD, risen back up with additions of War Chariot and GB Retiari, then falling to the restriction of GB Bestiari, then inching there way with GB Samnite, only to be pushed aside by players to use other powerful decks like Twilight and Blackwings. Now rising again with Joe B. making top 8 at the 2009 Hawaii Regionals and only coming an OTK away from being back on top again… Gladiator Beast does so well because of their array of abilities. You can do EVERYTHING that is needed to win, from beatdown (Laquari), Removal (Bestiari, Murmillo, and Gyzarus), Revival (Daruis, Equestte), and Control (War Chariot, Heraklinos). Doing all of this without losing field presence or hand loss is what continues to help pull out wins for GB’s. Also, with so much attention to other decks, side decking against GB’s were either sparingly or even non-existent.

2. Gold Sarcophagus has found its home.
When Gold Series 2 was released, people were looking for so many goodies in this set. From Dark Armed Dragon, Solemn Judgment, and Mind Control. People knew that Gold Sarcophagus was in there but with the meta so fast, waiting 2 turns for a specific card seemed to be a waste and left them in many people’s binders for trade fodder. Leave it to the big boys to find a home for gold sarc; Lightsworn! By playing gold sarc opening turn you can put aside Judgment Dragon for 2 turns as you mill more important stuff like Wulfs and Gardnas. Even removing 1 card helps your odds just a little in your favor. Then when your 2 turns are up, simply take Judgment to your hand and give your opponent something to worry about. I would defiantly play 2 Sarc and take out the 2 Monster Reincarnations then play 2 Beckoning Lights and taking out DAD and Chaos Sorceror to fully play Lightsworn than Twilight. Anybody got 2 Gold Sarcs for trade? (J/k don’t send me offers)

3. Duelist still does not want to give up there D-Draws and Malicious.
Since Tele-DaD was totally destroyed by the latest ban list, people still want to try and break the mold and make a new archetype for them. Using like likes of Black Salvo, Mystic Tomato, and even Cyber Valley to try to bring “______-dad” (insert dark monster here) to the top again. While many duelists have tried (myself included), I feel that you while you may have a lot better drawing power with this deck as oppose to others, in the end you will still lose due to the lack of Power monsters and OTK Factor to compete in the format. Drawing cards is always good but to only find 1 to 2 power monsters (ala DAD and Plasma) in your entire deck while fully relying on your extra deck for power hurts this deck substantially. Hopefully ____-DaD will get a boost in the next ban-list like increasing DAD to 2, Emergency Teleport to 2, or maybe even Malicious back to 3. But until then, _____-DAD will still be Tier 2 or 1.5 at best.

4. Syncro-Cat is better than I expected.
Remembering my last blog, I still feel that Blackwings are still #1 with Twilight and Syncro-Cat right behind it. With Justin Yere making top 8 at Regionals and Kris Ferber winning Nationals, I have a few more insights on Syncro-Cat;
a. Gravekeeper’s are King!!!! Gravekeepers have found there way back from the binders to the decklist merely in a matter of X-Saber Airbellum hitting our shores. Spies totally hurt Blackwings and Guard totally hurts Lightsworn and GB’s as seen in the finals of Nationals.
b. Syncro-Cat is defiantly a control deck with the high probability to OTK on a given turn. This makes it so good by means of controlling the flow of play reacting to your opponent’s outs, then when the opportunity arrives, OTK FTW!!! I like one of the feature matches when the guys says “if you don’t have Gorz I’m gonna OTK FTW.” Classic!
c. People are finally taking out Sea Koala and replacing it with Ryko. I didn’t like Sea Koala in the build as it felt like a wasted just to add another beast into the deck. I think I would rather use Milus Radiant than Koala.

Next week, hopefully I will get you people a player profile, if not I will have a new deck idea for ya’ll

Til then, keep playing, trading, and have fun
Nick
aka
DJ!!!.................... CDisk!!!...............................CDisk!!!

[Kurosori A. (Brandon Kinard)]

Hey Nick, I'm sorry about the interview. I'll get it to you by wednesday or friday. I went 6-4 at Nationals finishing 221st out of 1,200+, remember this was my first nationals, and then finished 2nd in the Dragon Duel National Championships earning my invite for the 2010 Yu-Gi-Oh TCG National Championships and most likely my last Dragon Duel Championships (I'm turning 12 this year). If I finished fist however in the Dragon Duel Championships I would have received an all expensive paid trip to the Jump Festival (Dragon Duel World Championships) in Tokyo, Japan during August, so all-in-all I had a very enjoyable and fun trip.

[Joo-Soo-Ten]

and they said it couldn't be done.

[DJ Cdisk]

very cool Brandon. I hope that 2010 Nationals will be closer to Hawaii so more people can attend. How was the event? did the 10 rounds go smoothly?

[Kurosori A. (Brandon Kinard)]

The event was very nice although I lost my Crush, oh and for the 10 rounds going smoothly haha, I wish. Try waiting 30-45 minutes after all the matches are done for the next round pairings and then them saying they canceled round ten and without notice post-pone it till the next day (in our case latter that day, the 9th round ended at 1:35 there time after they sat us all down then told us they cancelled the thenth round)

[motsuji]

Great job Brandon.