Regional Report and Deck Profile: The Little Engines that Can
Hey everyone! The McShake Alchemist here again with a
new article! Thanks again for all the feedback on my
youtube channel (Themcshakealchemist) and my email address (andro_sphinx@yahoo.com).
It really means a lot to know how much people actually pay
attention to my articles and what-not.
In today's article I'm going to be doing two things.
I'm going to give you all a regional report of the regional
in Knoxville, TN on 12/04/2010 and the deck that I played
that day. So, firstly, here is the profile of the deck with
me saving card explanations for after the list:
The Little Engines that Can
Monsters (17)
3 Flamvell Firedog
3 Flamvell Magician
1 Flamvell Archer
1 Flamvell Baby
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
1 Gravekeeper's Guard
3 Ryko Lightsworn Hunter
1 Summoner Monk
1 Card Trooper
Spells (14)
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Cold Wave
1 Giant Trunade
3 Rekindling
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Book of Moon
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Mind Control
Traps (11)
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Stun
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Dimensional Prison
Extra Deck
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
2 Scrap Dragon
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
3 Stardust Dragon
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Arcanite Magician
1 Magical Android
1 Mist Wurm
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
Sidedeck
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 D. D. Crow
3 Imperial Iron Wall
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Consecrated Light
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Dimensional Prison
2 Wild Tornado
Alright, explanation explanations. Firstly, I call the
deck The Little Engines that Can for a few reasons.
Firstly, I feel like whenever people would ask me about it
I would describe the monster base as "flamvell engine, spy
engine, ryko engine, and summoner monk", so a lot of the
deck is is just various card advantage engines, and I also
used to watch a movie when I was a really little kid that
came on TV called The Little Engine that Could about a
train.
I feel that there really isnt a lot of explaining
needed in the monster lineup, I like the summoner monk
because you can discard a spell, grab flamvell magician, and
go turn one sync for 8, (usually stardust going first,
thought ruler going seco
nd). I played one-ofs with Flamvell
baby and archer because I liked the toolbox-y feel that they
give the deck and a lot more versatility, not to mention
they make some rediculous plays possible, take for example
the quickdraw matchup. If they have tytannial, there really
isnt a whole lot I can do, unless they have another monster,
and, due to Tyt's ability, chances are they will, and I can
destroy it with firedog, grab archer, and then sync for
black rose or baby and go catastor. I'll go ahead and
explain my extra deck here too since most of the monster
lineup is just engines. I played all of the generic 8 star
synchro monsters because of the tool-box-y feel that the
firedog can give the deck with magician, and I sync'd for
every single one of them at least once over the course of
the tournament. I don't play colossal fighter because I
didn't have room for armory arm, and I didnt feel that I
would need it in comparison to others, because in most cases
I could get something with a more relevant ability, or, if I
needed the defense, I could just search for archer and nuke
the board via Black Rose Dragon. I play Arcanite Magician
because I could sync up with a gravekeeper's dude and the
archer and pop two cards, it's almost the Gyzarus of the
deck, my favorite play in the deck is playing cold wave,
flip spy, get guard, summon archer, sync arcanite, attack to
kill a monster, and then pop two cards. The only play that
is even close to one I like as much as that is summoning
baby in the same play instead of archer and syncing for myst
wurm to bounce all of the back cards, and then they can't
set them the next turn.
The spells are a bit weirder than the monster lineup
for a few reasons. I play charge of the light brigade
because I like the deck thinning that it provides, not to
mention that it dumps more cards in the graveyard, and when
I play 5 monster reborns, it becomes pretty crazy. I play a
maindeck nobleman of crossout because while checking out
what people were playing before the tournament I saw a lot
of plant synchro, and I hate the monsters in that deck when
I'm on the other side of the table. So i'd rather them be
removed. A lot of players that play Flamvell prefer only
two Rekindling, but I feel in my build that three is correct
for a few reasons. If you get too many in the early game
you can just discard it to summoner monk. Or, you can bluff
with it. Not to mention, at worst it gets back firedog
and/or (a) tuner(s) so usually the monsters will not be in
play at the end of turn so the RFG clause is not that
relevant in most cases. Finally, I liked maindecking 1 MST
just because I liked that it in a lot of cases was a +1 for
me due to someone else trying to MST it, but, because I only
played 1 I wouldn't draw it every single game.
The trap lineup is somewhat standard for a non-decree
build, I only play 1 trap stun because I like it but hate
the fact that it isn't spell speed 3, but, I don't want to
play double seven tools because I play double warning and a
judgment, so the life paying can get hefty in long games. I
play a one of dimension prison just because I like the
versatility of it and I like that it is a great answer to
shooting star dragon. My main playtest partner has been
playing Plant Synchro for a month now so I've got a lot of
practice in the matchup, and a correctly time d-prison can
be crucial and game winning.
The side deck is just how I like it, some things I
would probably change in hindsight, but, I feel that
everyone builds their side deck somewhat uniquely. I've
always thought that there are about 45 relevant sideboard
cards and everyone just has their opinion of what the best
cards are. The only thing in the side deck that I feel is
crucial for this is D. D. Crow over Dimensional Fissure,
just because I need the graveyard too.
The Regional Report
Before the regional: This is the closest that a regional
has ever been to my hometown before so I was glad that I
didnt have to get up too ridiculously early in order to get
their on time. I drive a car pool of myself, my
stepbrother, and three friends and headed out at about 6:30
AM in order to get there early, eat, etc.
After some rain and a wrong turn we arrived at about 9 am
and discovered that the regional was going to be in a
shopping mall. We didn't have any problem with this but
couldn't find the store. After about a half hour of
wandering and reading various maps without "YOU ARE HERE"
stickers on them we finally found the store but didn't see
tables anywhere. Upon walking into the store we found that
the regional would be in the back of the store and the rest
of the store would still be open for the day. Now I promise
the things I say are not just to trash the store or anything
but seriously, if you've ever been in a store in a common
sized shopping mall, there shouldn't be room for 80+ tables
in the back corner of it, but, this store found a way to
cram about 100 people. After going to the back and finding
out that the only people there didn't want to trade, we went
to the front checkout counter to find out where to register
and, contrary to what the internet said, apparently
registration didn't even start until 11 and the player
meeting wouldn't be until 12:30 pm. Though quite angry and
frustrated, my friends and I at this point when and ate at
the food court, and, even if the store was a bit weird, the
food court was possibly the best I'd ever been to (it was
the West Town Mall, not East in Knoxville). We finally came
back around 11 and registered and wrote down our decklists
and went over each other's to make sure that there weren't
any errors, and finally, we were ready.
:two hours later:
Player Meeting: I sat across from a friend of a friend from
South Carolina that was apparently playing Blackwings that
day and we talked for a bit and made fun of ourselves but by
the time the meeting was adjourned we jokingly promised each
other we'd have to just keep winning out until we played
each other at table 1.
Round 1: (Infernities)
Firstly, I'm going to straight up say that this was one of
the best games of yugioh I've played since getting back into
the game, I have to give this person credit for playing
infernities and not owning
a.stardust dragon
b.infernity barriers.
Game 1: While shuffling he dropped and infernity archfiend
so I know what he's playing and I know how to play around
it, as I playtested the deck for awhile before I went to YCS
atlanta. It went pretty poorly for him when I started turn
one set spy and solemn judgment and he went turn 1 set
archfiend and three s/t and I went turn 2 cold wave flip spy
summon baby sync mist wurm kill archfiend. He didn't
recover from that.
Game 2: He kinda went off but I had a d.d. crow for his
monster reborn that he had so it stopped him, I got him in a
really awkward position with a lot of card advantage (which
really is kinda irrelevant v. infernities but regardless)
but he topped the archfiend and ended up synching red nova
dragon (his primary kill con)
(special summon archfiend, get mirage/launcher/etc., beetle
+ archfiend for gaia knight, gaia + beetle for red dragon
archfiend, launch for two beetles, beetle + beetle + red
dragon for red nova) Ironically, afterwards, I top decked
torrential and dark hole in the next three cards, he got
that one shortly.
Game 3: Now that I actually know what he's doing I'm less
worried. He set a turn 1 necromancer which slowed me down a
bit, but I had flamvell baby next turn (discard to pump
firedog) and sync'd for Stardust Dragon (this is probably
the only time since I started playing the deck I kinda
wanted colossal fighter as a wall xD) and Long story short,
I ended up misplaying a d.d. crow when he attempted to
launch for beetle and necromancer, he showed me the two, and
I said "d.d. crow your beetle" and pointed at the
necromancer (obviously I meant necromancer, because I dont
suck /that/ bad at this game.) the judge ruled that it was
beatle so he got archfiend and went nuts and got red nova.
Luckily, I ended up having a consecrated on top, but, he
thought if he book of mooned my consecrated light he could
kill it by battle with an infernity archfiend, which doesn't
quite work. So I ended up stalling for a long ass time
because I trap stunned his infernity break until I got the
ability to cold wave and mist wurm and firedog for game in
the same turn.
Record so far: 1-0
Thoughts: I was really glad that I won that game because I
really wanted to get my nationals invite and that was a
great start to the day. I congratulated him on a game well
played and wished him luck in the rest of the tournament and
the judge took our result up to the front. (we only had 20
seconds left until time when I won so the judge was already
right there and offered to take it up)
Round 2: Dragons?
I had heard from my friend that there was some jank floating
around but while my opponent was shuffling his deck I saw a
dragon dwelling in the cave. Wiki it if you've never heard
of it before, but, I was somewhat confused.
Game 1: My opponent drew 6 cards in his opening hand, and
proceeded draw twice for his turn. He shuffled his hand
when I called him on it and proceeded to put the two nearest
to his deck back on top. I called a judge because there
wasn't any way for me to know that those were the two cards
he drew 7th and 8th. I had honestly just thought the judge
would make him reshuffle or I would pick two at random or
something but the judge called the head judge over and my
opponent was given a game loss. I really don't like winning
this way, but I also really don't like my opponent cheating.
Game 2: My opponent's main line of defense was masked
dragon, my main line of offense was flamvell firedog, do the
math.
Record so far: 2-0
Thoughts: I feel bad that he got a game loss like that, I
talked to him and everything and he seemed like a nice guy,
but at the same time, who knows. If anyone ever pulls this
on you, or shuffles their hand and tries to activate Destiny
Hero - Dasher or a similar effect, don't let them, there are
too many cheaters out there to let someone get you like that
or for them to think someone will fall for that. Again, not
that I'm saying my opponent did that, and I don't like
technical wins like that, but at the same time, when in
doubt, call a judge, they're there for a reason and they'll
know what to do.
Round 3: Plants (table 2!)
Game 1: This might be my favorite game of the day. I went
charge of hte light brigade (milled archer and baby) set
ryko and two s/t go (he went first)
he synchd for stardust and attacked into ryko, and thought
he could stardust during damage step, but was wrong, and I
milled a fire dog and magician.
Next turn I topdecked giant trunade, set spy, go. He set a
monster and said go. I drew flamvell magician and summoned
it, he solemn warning'd my spy, but I had call of the
haunted and rekindling, so I call'd magician, sync for scrap
dragon to pop his monster, then giant trunaded. I then
rekindling and sac baby with archer's ability and attack for
1800+2800+2700+2200. (8500)
Game 2: I'm honestly not sure how I won this because his
turn 1 was
summon lonefire
tribute lonefire
get tytannial
set 5
go
and I just set spy and got creamed for about 5-6 turns
but he got greedy and summoned another monster to start
trying to get damage in, and I had a coldwave and firedog
and blackrosed,
he didnt recover from that.
Record: 3-0
Thoughts: I felt kinda bad because other than when he had a
tytannial out I really wasn't that worried, he really didn't
know what to do because he hadn't seen flamvells before,
outside of the internet, and I had playtested the quickdraw/plant
matchup probably 50-75 times. This match definitely shows
why playtesting is so crucial, I feel that if he had really
thought things out he wouldn't've played the second monster
game two and would've just kept attacking until I didn't
draw a monster to throw in front of tytannial.
Round 4: Blackwings (table 1)
There was 'random' deckcheck here because the judge said the
head judge wouldn't let him see decklists without doing a
deckcheck and he wanted to see my list because he'd never
thought of flamvells as more than something casual.
This guy top 32'd in Atlanta, idk his name but he had the
mat and I recognized him from a couple of weeks previous.
Needless to say, I was intimidated as shit.
Game 1: A well time'd trap stun did him in on a pretty
crucial icarus attack play.
Game 2: He got a pretty good delta crow on my out of nowhere
while he was in topdeck mode (his two face downs were call
and delta crow, I had bottomless, a freshly set seven tools,
a book of moon, and a charge of the light brigade face down)
He call'd a kalut.
Game 3: This game was really intense, not quite as intense
as game 3 round 1, but regardless, a close second. I got an
early stardust dragon and he attempted to attack with with
shura the following turn and I d-prisoned it. Later in the
game I had 4 face downs (trap stun, seven tools, solemn
warning, and mind control) and a stardust with 1200 lp, he
had a card in hand and no field and I attacked with stardust
and put him to 900. He drew and played his second shura of
the game and asked my number of cards in hand (1) (ryko),
number of facedowns, and lp, over and over. He decided not
to attack with shura and I drew mind control ftw. After the
game he asked what my face downs were and cussed himself
out.
Record: 4-0
Thoughts: Bluffs. are. awesome. mkay? This was a great
confidence booster as I've never really played anyone that
had done anything cooler than won a regional before.
Round 5: Blackwings (turbo vayu build) (table 1!)
This time I got another 'random' deckcheck from the other
judge, he said the same thing the other one did. I was
pretty happy at this point, it totally made up for the fact
that there wasn't even enough room to spread my mat out.
This was also the guy who I mentioned in the player meeting.
It was great and funny that we had both got this far
undefeated. I was pretty happy to be totally honest.
Round 1: I roflstomped him. I don't even remember what
happened exactly, but I remember that I looked at the clock
and it was 37:18 (time remaining)
Round 2: He boarded like a champ. Banisher of the radience
ftw. and When I actually dealt with it, he cold wave'd,
summon grepher, discard sirroco, dump vayu, etc.
Round 3: Admittedly, I should've boarded out the consecrated
lights because I knew he was playing the banishers and had
other outs, but I still went turn 1 set trap stun, set
warning, summon consecrated light go. I thought I was ok, I
was wrong, he special summoned Cyber Dragon, I warning, he
special summoned another one, and then normal summoned
banisher of the radience. Next turn I attempted to special
summon my own CyDra just for it to get booked. I was a sad
panda.
Record to this point: 4-1
Thoughts: Never think that your sideboard plan is the only
correct one. I think that I should've take out my
consecrated lights and put in the other d-prison, even if I
was playing imperial iron wall at the same time. I feel
that he would've had to deal with the iron wall or he would
lose, and if he didn't I'm fine with having a single dead
draw in the whole deck that still serves as a bluff/delta
crow fodder. This is probably one of the only times in my
years of playing yugioh that I felt completely outplayed in
yugioh. I was honestly kinda embarrassed afterwards just
because I knew what I had done wrong, and I knew what I
should've done correctly, but, I was glad that it was at
least someone I knew that was a good guy rather than an
asshole. Not to put myself or him on a pedestal though, I'd
never met him before this tournament, but afterwards he said
"You're a really good player" and I said "that's random but
I don't exactl-" and he cut me off and said "No, seriously,
your analysis of the game and the way you think about
building stuff, not to mention being able to get to
basically a blackwing exclusive set of top tables with a
deck that most people dismiss as casual, having the ability
to build and play like that, it's a gift." Just that saying
will probably stick with me forever. (No homo lol)
Round 6: Absolute Zero
This guy ended up winning the regional and I hadn't
playtested against Ab Zero that much just because I didn't
expect to really see it, not to mention his build was
different than the only one that anyone at my locals had
played.
Game 1: He fused 3 times this game. fml
Game 2: Stardust + Thought Ruler = om nom nom Ab Zero
Game 3: He went nuts this game, as in, turn one d-draw,
ditch malicious, allure, remove malicious, summon diva,
synch for stardust, miraclue fusion, set solemn judgment,
next turn cold wave.
Record: 4-2
Thoughts: At this point I was starting to get nervous about
my invite because I really wanted to get it and things were
starting to look bleak. If I win out though I could still
top (only top 8 got invites, there were only like 90 people
were in the reg)
Round 7: X - Sabers
I'm not gonna break down both games because we drew almost
the exactsame hands both games
He went turn 1 set emmersblade both games
I went summon firedog, attack, he gets fullhelm, I get
magician, I book his fullhelm, kill it, sync stardust, he
doesnt recover.
Record: 5-2
thoughts: I lied to my friend group at this point and said
I lost this match because only one person who came with us
other than me was doing well (one friend didnt enter because
he had his invite) and I didn't want them to think they
justsucked or something and I was still iffy on whether or
not I would get my invite. Just 1 more win and I get it
though.
Final Round of Swiss: Chaos Stun
Round 1: He gets doomcal, I go nuts with triple rekindling.
Round 2: It was a closer game but he had triple d.d. crow.
Round 3: This game was close as hell, 3rd best game of the
day, it got to where we both had 1-2 cards in hand and
almost nothing on board (we both had 1 facedown s/t) I
draw, activate trap stun because I think he has a warning.
I call summoner monk, discard charge of the light brigade
to get flamvell magician (this was unique because monk and
charge are usually my first two cards boarded out, in this
case I think baby and something else were) I sync for 8 and
ask to see his graveyard. I see he has already played 2
smashing ground, dark hole, and torrential this game, but 0
book of moon and only 1 d-prison. I decide to get thought
ruler over stardust. I push 2700 and put him to 2100. I
set solemn judgment and say go. He draws and activates his
Phoenix Wing Wind Blast targeting my facedown judgment and
discards plaguespreader. (I hadn't seen any wingblasts up
to this point other than this one from him) He then special
summons cyber dragon and puts a card on top for
plaguespreader and nukes with blackrose, and monster reborns
his own cyber dragon. Attacks, puts me to 3500 and passes
turn. I draw solemn, set it, and say go. He draws thunder
king and I scoop.
Final Record: 5-3
Thoughts: I was pretty disappointed with this loss because
I feel that gadget stun is a much better version of this
deck, and that's what my stepbrother had been playtesting
for weeks now getting it ready and I playtested with it a
lot and still lost this matchup. The black rose play really
threw me off though so I wasn't that mad. It's ironic it
really didn't matter what I synch'd for, because if I'd got
stardust he woulda just wingblasted the stardust dragon.
Standings: My stepbrother ended up coming in 35th or
something if I'm not mistaken, I came in 18th, and one of my
friends that had the same ranking as me came in 16th. I
felt really bad for my friend round 5 that came in 9th from
tie breakers. The plant synchro player I played round 6
ended up topping. The other friend that came with us ended
up dropping. He played glads and the draws kept shitting on
him. (opened with double test tiger, double respite, trap
stun and cold wave twice)
After the tournament: I ended up getting some great trades
and buys. My stepbrother did too. On my team the book
breakdown is kinda like
Me: Hot book with only about 5 pages of stuff
Plant Synchro test partner: 5-10$ range tradewise with a
monster binder full
Stepbrother: Normal Rare book
My stepbrother traded someone three normal rare banisher of
the radiance and two normal rare d. d. crows for a judgment
dragon, ulti shooting star dragon, and tuning. I don't know
how he did that but I was pretty happy with him about it.
Afterwards he gave me the shiny stuff to trade and I traded
the JD and two Gold Thunder Kings for the last solemn
warning my team needed at the time. So it worked out pretty
well in the end.
Final Thoughts: Thought I didn't get my invite I had a lot
of fun and met a lot of people and loved the experience that
I got from it
Thanks a lot for reading! If you have feedback, want to
read more, want help with a deck, or just wanna talk online,
hit me up
email:
Andro_sphinx@yahoo.com
facebook: facebook.com/shakezilluh
youtube: themcshakealchemist
finally
my girlfriend is gonna start making playmats with handmade
art. If i'm not mistaken her cost is going to be
Stuff she draws on the mat that she decided to make: 20$
Stuff that other people requested her to make: 25$
If you're from really far away that doesn't include
shipping. If anything though just spread the word around.
I think she has a lot of potential as far as making mats
goes.
Here is her deviantart
xxxtearlessxxx.deviantart.com
my deviantart and facebook both have pictures of the mat
that she made for me and it got a huge amount of postive
feedback.
Bear with me as far as written articles go I should be able
to upload videos in the near future, including my friend who
won Attack of the Giant Card! and the Point Playoffs at YCS
Atlanta with his deck that he won it all with.
Thanks for reading!
The McShake Alchemist
