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Trotters Yugioh Tournament Report: TobiaX (plus Zombies)


Widely considered the best tournament in country

Reporter: TobiasX (plus Zombies)

Entry fee: £5.

Tourny Type: 5-round Swiss, plus playoff between players with 5 wins.

Roughly 120 entrants over Beginner and Advanced Tournaments.

This is an introduction to me, the deck, and the tournament, plus a report of my first serious tourny back. I'll be adding more reports every 2 weeks, hopefully the night after the tourny.


1. Me

My name is Tobias, I'm 21 years old, going to Middlesex University in London. I've been playing Yugioh for about 2 years now. About 1 1/2 years ago, I took my Lockdown Deck (containing, to name a few, Jinzo, Yata, Dark Ruler, Raigeki, Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, Ring of Destruction, lots of good Ultras & Secrets) to uni, and it got stolen. Since then, I've been collecting Japanese cards, and built up a respectable collection. Recently, a King of Games tournament was held nearby and I entered and had a lot of fun. I've decided to return with some zombie friends of mine and see if I can hold my own, if only for a while.


2. The Deck

After various discussions with friends, I've decided to re-enter the tournament scene with a new zombie deck, modified from the Zombie Madness Structure. For my own moral reasons, I refuse to run any of the following cards in my deck:


Yata Garasu (AKA: The Stupid Bird) (Banned)
Chaos [Insert Name]
D.D. [Insert Name]
Breaker the Magical Warrior
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Exiled Force
Scientist (Banned)

Delinquent Duo
The Forceful Sentry (Banned)
Confiscation (Banned)
Change of Heart (Banned)
Snatch Steal
Brain Control
Enemy Controller
Creature Swap
My reasoning for this is stated in my signature on Pojo: "I want to defeat you with my own cards, or not at all". Although I accept that control of this kind is necessary some times, I just don't feel right using Snatch Steal on my opponent's Jinzo and Change of Heart on my opponent's Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, then winning. For this reason, I refuse to run them in my deck. Not even my Japanese deck uses them.

So, without further ranting, here's the deck list:
Monsters: 15


Tributes: 4
1x Despair from the Dark
1x Ryu Kokki
2x Vampire Lord

Other Monsters: 11
2x Royal Keeper
2x Regenerating Mummy
1x Chiron the Mage
3x Pyramid Turtle
1x Magician of Faith
2x Spirit Reaper

Spells: 16
1x Pot of Greed
1x Graceful Charity
3x Book of Life
1x Heavy Storm
2x Smashing Ground
2x Nobleman of Crossout
1x Premature Burial
2x Wasteland
1x Call of the Mummy
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Scapegoat

Traps: 9
1x Mirror Force
1x Magic Cylinder
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Divine Wrath
2x Tutan Mask
2x Sakuretsu Armour
1x Call of the Haunted

Deck Total: 40
When some of the experienced members of Pojo finish laughing at the deck list, a bit of explanation about the cards that most people are probably going "What The Heck?" about:

Despair from the Dark
DARK / Zombie / 8-Star / 2800 ATK / 3000 DEF
Effect: If sent from hand or deck to the graveyard by an opponent's card effect, I can Special Summon it face-up to my side of the field.
While I have yet to summon this guy by his effect at the tourny, I know that sooner of later I will, especially if I end up facing my friends Huge Revolution Deck (don't laugh, its at the tournament, and he's killed people with it! :D ).


Royal Keeper
EARTH / Zombie / 4-Star / 1600 ATK / 1700 DEF
Effect: When this monster is flipped face-up, or Flip-Summoned, increase his ATK and DEF by 300. Once per turn, during my Main Phase, I may change the position of this monster to face-down defence.
1600 / 1700 becomes 1900 / 2000 when flipped. So much for Berzerk Gorilla. Brilliant card, and has helped me in the past many times.


Wasteland
Field Spell (From LOB)
Effect: Increase the ATK and DEF of all Zombies, Dinosaurs and Rocks by 200.

1 of the reasons that Vampire Lord doesn't see as much play outside of Zombie Decks is the existence of Berzerk Gorilla. 2000 ATK 4-star vs. 2000 ATK 5-Star is an obvious choice, even if 1 does come back and 1 can be killed by Enemy Controller. Wasteland makes many Zombie's much stronger. Here's a quick list:
Spirit Reaper: 500 ATK
Regenerating Mummy: 2000 ATK (same as Berzerk)
Royal Keeper (Unflipped): 1900 ATK
Royal Keeper (flipped): 2100 ATK (bigger than Berzerk)
Vampire Lord: 2200 ATK (bigger than Berzerk)
Ryu Kokki: 2600 ATK (bigger than Jinzo, Dark Ruler and End of Anubis).
Despair from the Dark: 3000 (big enough to suicide opponent's BLS).
While it may not be much, it has helped my defeat people who weren't expecting it. Worst case scenario, its a not-to-costly discard for Chiron the Mage's effect.


Call of the Mummy
Continuous Spell
Effect: When I have no monsters on my side of the field, during a Main Phase of my turn, I can Special Summon 1 Zombie from my hand.
When I'm losing, it's great. When I'm not, its another good discard for Chiron or Graceful. This is the fastest way to get Despair out short of taunting an opponent into playing Card Destruction. I can summon Vampire Lord for free from my hand, where my Pyramid Turtle's can't get him, or get a monster out Spirit Reaper for an extra defence.


Tutan Mask
Counter Trap
Effect: Negate the effect of and destroy 1 Spell or Trap card that targets 1 face-up Zombie on my side of the field.
Most people are going to turn around and say this is a terrible card, and under some circumstances I agree. However, this card stops Snatch Steal, Change of Heart, Magic Cylinder, Ring of Destruction, and a few other irritating targeting cards that see play regularly. The other advantage is that apart from 2 of my monsters, everything else is a Zombie.


3. The Tournament.

Trotter's Yugioh Tournament is considered by many the Best Yugioh Tournament in the UK, many of the best players of Yugioh in the country player being regular entrants. This year, while I can't remember the exact numbers, at least 6 of the top 8 Nationals players, including both finalists, were all representing Trotters at the England Nationals. While I'm not in there league, I consider myself a good duellist and know I'll get better playing against the best players the country has.

So, after my rambling, the tournament report!

Turned up about 10:30, walked in and started setting up the tables. At about 11:30, after everyone had arrived, signed up, and we'd got the usual notices about possible thieves and how the tournament worked, its time for round 1.


Duel 1: TobiasX (plus Zombies) vs. Majin Buu (AKA Steve) and his Field Control Deck
Steve's a good duellist, and I discovered a note for my Zombie deck, there is NOTHING, not even BLS, more annoying than 3 face-up defence position Spirit Reapers!

Match 1.
Steve: 8000.
TobiasX: 8000, 5200, 400, 0
He stalled for what felt like 7 turns with 3 defence position Spirit Reapers, then summoned Jinzo, then Dark Ruler, and used Exiled Force on my Spirit Reaper. Game.

Match 2.
Steve: 8000, 5400, 3300, 0.
TobiasX: 8000, 6000, 5800, 6800, 4750.
The match was won by Chiron, and a repeatedly Flip-Summoned Royal Keeper with Wasteland on the field.

Match 3.
Steve: 8000.
TobiasX: 8000, 6800, TIME.
I lost on Time, after using Mirror Force on his BLS, D.D. Warrior Lady, and 2 other monsters, then he got 3 Spirit Reapers to the field and time got called. I need to add more monster destruction to this deck.


Duel 2: TobiasX (plus Zombies) vs. Barry Skinner (and Zombies)
This guy seems like a good duellist, but I think it may have been his first or second, maybe third, tournament. While I haven't played in a big tourny in over a year, I've played and attended regularly so I've had a lot of experience. We both enjoyed the duels and I made some recommendations for changes to his deck afterwards.

Match 1.
Barry: 8000, 6200, 4200, 1200, 0.
TobiasX: 8000.
The duel turned was a stalemate for the first 2 or 3 turns, then I charged into his Vampire Lord, and used Book of Life to return mine and remove his. From then on, he didn't draw anything useful.

Match 2.
Barry: 8000, 6800, 6550, 3050, 550, 0.
TobiasX: 8000, 7450, 6850.
Didn't go entirely according to plan. However, 2 Vampire Lord and a Spirit Reaper were able to bring the win surprisingly quickly for me. Very proud of all of them.

Duel 3. TobiasX: (plus Zombies) vs. Tony Quelch (Skill Drain)
Though I didn't think about it at the time, this was probably 1 of the worst parings I could have ended up against. I found out part way through the first match, after I called over a judge to confirm it, that Pyramid Turtle does not get his effect if Skill Drain was active, even though it activates in the graveyard. Something to remember for later. Tony's a good friend, and is considering going for another deck type as he's too dependent on Skill Drain as a card. However, we all think he should stick with it as will anyone who looks at the first match.

Match 1.
Tony: 8000, 7000.
TobiasX: 8000, 7100, 2000, 0.
The 1000 LP loss for him was paying for Skill Drain when I tried to suicide my Pyramid Turtle into his face-up ATK position Goblin Attack Force. Both the following turns he summoned Fusiler Dragon - The Duel Mode Beast, and wiped me out. Nice Deck! :>

Match 2.
Tony: 8000, 5700, 3000, 0.
TobiasX: 8000, 6000, 4900.
I won this match because he didn't get Skill Drain. If he had, I'm sure I would have been in trouble. It ended with 2 Spirit Reapers, Vampire Lord and Ryu Kokki attacking him directly.

Match 3.
Tony: 8000, 7600, 7200, 7100, 4300, 0.
TobiasX: 8000, 7200, 8200, 9200, 8300.
Tony ended up Snatch-Stealing my Ryu Kokki, I sacrificed my 2 Spirit Reapers for Despair from the Dark and attacked it, bringing it back with Book of Life, and then summoned Vampire Lord.

Duel 4. TobiasX (plus Zombies) vs. Vito Innocenti
He seemed to be running a mix of Aggro & Control, with a slight surprise of Zaborg, Kycoo, and the appearance of BLS to save him in the 2nd match. None the less, he was a good duellist and deserved to win. I need to find some way to deal with BLS more often as well, I think.

Match 1.
Jason: 8000, 5600, 3800.
TobiasX: 8000, 6100, 4300, 1300, 0.
The match ended with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch killing my face-down Spirit Reaper. Good duel.

Match 2.
Jason: 8000, 6300, 5400, 4400.
TobiasX: 8000, 7700, 7400, 7100, 5300, 1600, 0.
Again, a good duel, but he was saved when he top-decked BLS and I had several good monsters on the field. He then drew Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and brought out Breaker next turn. He used Kycoo to attack and remove, with BLS in defence position removing everything I put face-down. Well played, but I definitely need some way more than a single Divine Wrath to deal with BLS.

Duel 5: TobiasX (plus Zombies) vs. Jason Tran (Chaos Beatdown)
I didn't note down how the first match was lost, but I remember exactly how the 2nd match was. More on that in a moment.

Match 1.
Jason: 8000, 5900.
TobiasX: 8000, 7800, 5800, 5000, 4400, 2000, 0.

Match 2.
Jason: 8000, 4000, 3800, 3000.
TobiasX: 8000, 6400, 4800, 4300, 2200, 2100, 900, 200, 0.
I had 2 defence-position Spirit Reapers, and 1 defence-position Pyramid Turtle, and 900 LP. He had an Archfiend Soldier, 2 Scapegoat tokens, and 2 cards in hand. I made the mistake of changing everything to attack position and summoning a Pyramid Turtle, suiciding it to bring out Vampire Lord and take down the Archfiend. Pyramid No.2 and 1 Reaper took out the Tokens (I thought he only had 1, because he was using the Scapegoat card itself to show he had tokens at all on the field), and attacked with the 2nd, taking 1 card from his hand.
He top-decked Mad Dog of Darkness, and had Blade Knight in his hand.

-_-'

I realised afterwards that if I'd waited and left everything in defence, I might have won. However, you live and learn, I just need to keep better track of scapegoat tokens (and make sure my opponent keeps actual coins instead of the card itself).


The Results: 2 wins out of 5 duels.

Considering the deck itself, I'm very proud of how well I did. I played well and hope to play better in 2 weeks, hopefully getting 3 or 4 wins. The main thing I need to change is more Monster Destruction and more ways to deal with BLS. Maybe Royal Oppression would help out, if I can find some traps to get rid of. Feel free to email me with advice at the email address at the bottom of this report. When I say Advice, read the list of cards I'm NEVER going to use in this deck BEFORE sending the email.. Cheers.
See you all in 2 weeks.
TobiasX

For more information on the Tournaments, how to enter, where it is, got to www.2collectit.com, and click on the button labelled "Yugioh: Click Here To Sign Up For The Tournaments!"

To Contact me with advice, comments, and ideas for the deck: email <A href="mailto:tobiasx2k@hotmail.com>tobiasx2k@hotmail.com
If you don't include [Pojo Report] in the subject, it will be treated as spam.