Was is a real YCS or another kind of random tournament hosted by Konami?
According to Konami's blog, YouTube, DuelistGroundz and more Google stuff, the top 32 consisted of anything that you can imagine in this format: Agent, Geargia, Wind-Ups, Chaos Dragon, Dino Rabbit, HERO, Gravekeepers, Gladiator Beast, Fish, Lancer Frogs, Zombie and a Machine-based deck that I have no idea of how to call it: Genex Neutron, Genex Ally Birdman, Cyber Dragon, Cyber Eltanin, Machina Gearframe/Fortress, Gallis the Star Beast, Lightray Sorcerer, Ghost Ship, Black Rose Witch, everything in one deck.
Cutting down to top 16, there were still 11 different decks staying in competition, with Agents dominated in numbers (5). 4 Gadget/Geargia/Karakuri managed to climbed here, the rest was filled with rogue pick and only ONE Wind-Ups.
As can be predicted, the top 8 consisted of absolutely ZERO Wind-Ups, with Agent and Geargia Karakuri were the only 2 decks which could be seen in double.
The random Zombie things went up to top 4, along with 2 Geargias and Chaos Dragon. Geargia took the win, Chaos Dragon finished second, and Zombie (!) piloted by Nareg Tarossian, a SJC veteran with a Jump Champ. in 2005, was the 3rd.
The interesting thing is that there were too many "black horses" in the tournament, making it the most diverse YCS ever seen (in history?). Aside from the usual top tier decks, there're something we can predict, for now:
- Agent is the Chaos Dragon of this format. It stayed under-radar for the first 3 YCSs, but rose to fame with a whopping 5 spots in top 16. The chance of drawing Earth has doubled comparing to last format, and that makes real differences. Oddly enough, the old (and nerfed) Chaos Dragon climbed to top 4, competing with Geargias and Zombie.
- Good old rogue picks have places in YCS-level tournament, at least before Abyss Rising. Gladiator Beast, Gravekeepers, Sea Lancer, Zombie are all solid decks, but they have the same weakness: speed. YGO is still slow for now, so there're chances for random tops. The Machine-based random deck of Joe Maddalena, and Fish deck of Chris DiGregorio, though managed to survive the Swiss, won't be making anymore YCS-top IMO.
- Geargia is too powerful. In slow formats card advantages win game. It's no different now.
On a side notes, Paul Levitin and Nareg Tarrossian were back to the top after years out of Yugioh. I don't know, maybe I don't have anough knowledge to judge, but it SEEMS like duelists nowadays do not have the skills that the old SJC legends had. Without knowledge of the metagame (Nareg even had to read Geargiarmor...), the 2 teenage legends sill managed to fight through a field of new updated duelists, even with the most rogue deck available
“A bunch of good commons!” Torrosian smiled and shrugged. Tang laughed as Torossian continued. “No, seriously! This is what happens when you sell all your cards three years ago and then randomly decide to show up to a tournament!”Geargia had its first YCS win, Agents came back, rogue picks arose, too enough for a 2012 YCS.
See you guys next time when I have collected some interesting decklists around the Internet!
Peace~
New generation duelists may not know what zombie can do as well =))It has been so long since last time i saw a Caius on the field.
ReplyDeleteThe Zombie deck is a little above in term of power level compare to Machina,if Machina can top surely Zombie can top, too.