JAELOVE's Smooth Journey

Article 27: The Second Shonen Jump Championship
February 14, 2004

Sunday, February 7th, saw the second Shonen Jump Championship, held at Las Vegas with over 200 players attending. This article will attempt to assess the caliber of competition present at the event and offer key insight into the second biggest Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament of the year held thus far (second only to the first SJC).

Unfortunately, this iteration suffered from numerous ailments, including a hiked entry fee (of 15 dollars for the same prize structure), a curious choice of dates (Super Bowl Sunday?), and a rather obscure location. As a result, turnout was far less than the prestigious first tournament, and as a result the championship consisted of mostly solid players.

Most of them were from California, including some of the best duelists in the nation including the Nationals Champion (who top eighted the event), and many of the previous qualifiers at the first Shonen tournament, including Miguel Flores, Patrick Holmes, and Hugo Adame. The champion of the entire process turned out to be another member of Team Comic Odyssey, proving once again that the Southern California metagame is the best in the nation.

My own deck was a form of hardcore hand disruption and finished 6-2, good for 15^th place. Unfortunately, as a 6-1 favorite, I ran into the eventual runner up of the entire tournament, a match that I’ll get into later on in the proceedings. First, I want to talk about the highs and lows of the second Shonen Jump Championship.

The environment was once again overrun with Black Luster Soldier dominated Chaos, with a scant 4-7 cards distinguishing everyone’s decks. Players such as myself tried to valiantly hold on to a few trace wisps of originality, but derivative cookie cutter decks managed to dominate the top eight.

And yet a few bright spots managed to shine through. Several players were running Earth-based decks, others decided to splash tech such as Strike Ninja into theirs, and a few lone warriors made brand new archetypes that day. Unfortunately, since turnout was muted by the overwhelming specter of Super Bowl Sunday, this event will not get the rightful coverage it deserves.

I feel that a new evolution in reaction to the current environment has begun.

As players begin to adjust to heavy Scapegoats and chainables, there is little to no consensus on the basic monster lineup that should fill out the standard cookie cutter deck (which should change with the rightful bannings of Black Luster Soldier, Magical Scientist, and Tribe-Infecting Virus). Decks that manage to circumvent the restrictions of the cookie cutter deck actually have a high percentage of winning the Shonen Jump tournament.

A good friend of mine, Sand Trap, created a brand new deck and finished 6-2 with it, managing to place 16^th out of a field of 200 with cards that nobody knew existed. With only one loss differentiating between top 8 and top 20, at times the only distinguishing factor between top tier duelists was luck.

HOW I PERFORMED AT THE TOURNAMENT:

Incredibly enough, this my fourth regional tournament of the year. The first took place on the Friday right before the Anaheim Shonen Jump Championship, at Gencon. I finished 7-1 and qualified for nationals. The deck I used was exceedingly similar to the one I used this past Saturday, a form of Zombie Control that featured Trap Dustshoot, Mind Crush, and heavy disruption of the opponent’s hand. With it, I hoped to prove that originality can succeed, that sometimes the best cards are those you’ve never heard of, and that Pojo.com houses some of the best Yu-Gi-Oh! talent in the game today.

*From this point onward, if you see Trap Dustshoot/Mind Crush anywhere, know that it was my idea. Many of my friends have had problems in which unscrupulous users steal their ideas outright without giving credit to the original inventor. I’ve been using this deck since November of last year (2004), and they should basically make me sign every Dustshoot/Crush ever created.

The very next day, I finished a legitimate 8-1, but actually signed away match slips to finish 6-3, good for a top 30 finish (I believe), and had the satisfaction of seeing my good friend Miguel Flores (who I played whilst having a 7-1 record), become the eventual second place winner. The deck was the same.

A few weeks ago, I partook in the San Mateo Regional in Northern California with my friend Tony (Shecki from the site) and f00b (the pioneer of Metamorphosis!!!). The deck I took was the Strike Ninja deck posted on this site for all pojo.com fans. I finished 8-0, but signed away a match slip (again, a match I had won before signing), so that a lucky player could top 8.

Obviously, I was quite confident and excited entering Saturday’s event, especially after having playtested my deck to near perfection (it has a total of 3 match losses in three regionals events). Unfortunately, my expectations were derailed by a series of unfortunate events that exceed belief. Sure, Yu-Gi-Oh is a game dominated by luck and good draws, but because my deck was one that constantly monitored the opponent’s hand, I was prone to falling victim to miracles.

The one problem I have with all regionals events is a strict time limit of 40 minutes, which includes shuffling between duels. Almost all of my later duels were decided by time (with me having heavy advantages of 7000 life points to 400, 7000 life points to 1200, etc). I still felt bad winning them out, however, because I feel that the game should be decided by skill alone. After losing my second match, I ended up winning 5 in a row to improve my record to 6-1. Winning the next match would ensure me a top 8 berth; losing would boot me because of my low tiebreakers (another flaw of the system).

It was at this time that another respected Yu-Gi-Oh website approached me with a chance at working the featured table booth. After having a seat, it was realized that the table was a bit away from the normal action, meaning that the judges announcements on time, and their availability, was never granted to us.

I have a deck that heavily monitors the hand, so obviously I can tell when an opponent is top-decking an incredible savior. After completely dominating the first duel, I ended up losing the second to a procession of fluky events that I had done my best to prepare for, including a sequence in which a topdecked Heavy Storm removed my Swords, then a swarm of 3 monsters took my life points down by 6050. My overextended opponent quickly fell prey to a Snatch Steal and overwhelming field advantage (Ryu Kokki, set Sinister Serpent, set Book of Moon, set Sakuretsu Armor) shortly thereafter, before topdecking into a Fiber Jar.

Unfortunately, the duel was marred by a series of illegitimate and dicey mishaps by my opponent, including an insistence on calling a coin flip in the air after it landed, a card drawn out of turn, numerous pleas to the judge for help on a ruling before play took place, an attempt to illegally play Premature Burial on a monster that was removed from game (caught by Dawn Yoshi, the stud who was writing on the match), and an attempt to spy at my deck while shuffling before the third game.

It was the fateful third game that derailed my chances. The life points were close, 3600 to 5800, after I had summoned Airknight and attacked him twice for card advantage of 4 to 1 (his Sinister Serpent). His next draw was a Swords of Revealing Light, which was played onto my Fiber Jar (a strategic set versus his Berserk Gorilla/Enraged Battle Ox combination). Any other card in the deck would have left him helpless, seeing as how I had a Book of Moon and a Call of the Haunted set. He summoned Berserk Gorilla, attacked for 2000, and at that point time was called.

Being away from the main table, we started our match several minutes late with no prompting from the judges. We were basically secluded, and since all cell phones were turned off, we had no way of monitoring the time. My match ended to a called time versus his clear field (with Berserk Gorilla), and my hand of Painful Choice, Book of Life, Pyramid Turtle, and numerous other options.

Despite this, I managed to tell the man good game, wish him luck, and exit gracefully. I cannot stress the importance of presenting oneself in a calm, reasonable, and dignified manner, even through the worst stretches of gameplay one can encounter. Unfortunately, numerous players I encountered at the SJC were ill-mannered, discourteous, and refused to shake hands or even acknowledge me after a loss.

In summary, the two things I learned from the tournament were:

1) Bad luck and horrible mishaps by outside forces can occur and still, to be a champion, you must conduct yourself as such even in defeat.

2) Good deck building and familiarity is always crucial to placing well at tournaments. Being original, effective, and skilled will lead to a string of regionals placements at the very best tournaments, so don’t be dismayed by the derivative environment.

I feel like all of us have something to learn from this game, and throughout this process of writing for pojo.com, I feel that the admirers and even the haters of my body of work can all contribute to my growth as a player. It has been, and will always be, a privilege to work for you all and correspond with the wide body of Yu-Gi-Oh players.

We will construct the Dark Paladin deck next, but before leaving, realize a few things about this site:

1. Pojo.com is the only website that has maintained a consistent Card of the Day from the very dawn of Yu-Gi-Oh!
    

2. It is also the only website that has released the entire decklist and strategy of a regional winner (provided through me), in my Constructing the Strike Ninja article. This was done in order to help all readers of the site.
    

3. It has housed the very best Yu-Gi-Oh minds in the game today, including magazine writers such as Someguy and DM7FGD, contributors to Upper Deck such as Dawn Yoshi and Sand Trap, and regionals winners such as myself, f00b, and Shecki.

To all those who have learned a single thing from myself or pojo.com as a whole, please spread the word to all those that play Yu-Gi-Oh! Give them a chance to get better at the game, to learn about the advanced concepts, and help keep the great game of Yu-Gi-Oh alive.

I choose to be a proud defender of this game. You may reach me at JAELOVE@gmail.com.