YGO Locals Report - Rengoku no Akuma

This locals was a bit on the important side as now that I know I'll be heading to Regionals in a few weeks I need to settle on a deck to play and this was an opportunity to get some games in with at least one of them.  The deck choices I have are;
-Satellarknights
-Nekroz
-Ritual Beast
-Red-Eyes / Disaster Dragon (Project RED)
-Infernoid
-Igknight

So of these Nekroz are by far the strongest, however given my flat out abysmal performance with them at every tournament I've gone to I'm not confident I could play well let alone get a top especially with the Clown variant being a thing.  Satellarknights have been ruled out as I know that there will be a ton of Shaddoll variants running around and the addition of the Performages makes the matchup really, really difficult and there's no way I'd be able to compete in the format with Igknights when I don't even have the cards yet.  That pretty much leaves me with Infernoid, Ritual Beast and Dragons which I'm fine with as they are rogue decks that many people don't have proper experience playing and as such wouldn't know how to properly side on them.  Now Kozmos being a thing in the format does mean that Imperial Iron Wall will be seeing WAY more play which'll make Ritual Beasts and Infernoids much harder to play, though Infernoids can out Iron Wall with Dekatron/Reasoning/Monster Gate/CotL/Lyla but they lose to Counterattacking "C" which is something I'll have to look into dealing with.  I think Counterattacking "C" summon itself as a cost in response to Reasoning meaning I should be able to negate it with Forbidden Chalice and continue my way and hopefully slaughter the opponent as Infernoids have a promising Shaddoll and okayish Nekroz matchup which I like.  Not sure how I feel on Burning Abyss.

Lastly there's Dragons in either a pure Red-Eyes build or a Disaster variant called Project RED that I've been brainstorming with Richard Clarke and other "family" members on which both have their pros and cons;

+You get to summon big, dirty Dragons from hand/deck/graveyard so Shaddoll Fusion will not get maximum value.
+Black Flare and Flare Metal Dragon punish slower strategies with their burn effects.
+Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon is fucking Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
+Archfiend Black Skull Dragon is a beast vs Rogue decks
+Searchable recovery plays in the form of Red-Eyes Return and Spirit
+Disaster has access to Koa'ki Meiru Drago who prevents Trick Clown from summoning anything except Hat Tricker and stops all Kozmo special Summons.  This is in addition to slowing Tellars/BA down if they can't out it.
-You're very prone to bricking
-Qliphort
-Dragons currently have a hard time answering an established board of monsters bigger than REDMD
-Nekroz of Trishula
-Disaster variants are very slow given it's a deck from 2010 trying to play in 2015.  I'll give it props for hanging on much better than Blackwings and X-Sabers have.  Pure Red-Eyes has access to Cards of Red Stone, Allure and Seven Star Sword if need be.

So yeah I'll be giving both decks a try to see what I like more.  Currently leaning towards Infernoid because of how powerful Reasoning is and the options it has post siding (considering running Cyber Dragon Core + Cyber D to deal with Kozmos as most people will call Lv.1 vs this deck which lets Core summon Cyber Dragon...) and as such I played a modified version of the build that topped ARG with Dragged Downs and Mind Crushes.  The player mentioned he hated Torrential in his main and wanted to move Mistake over so I did that and the result was;

Round 1 - vs Masked Hero (2-1)

Game 1: I opened 3 Antra, Big Chicken and something else.  I died pretty quickly as he kept throwing Blade Armour Ninjas at me.

Game 2: He opens with Monk into Mist into Dark Law on my turn, but I opened with Harmadik so I out it, drop Dekatron and start pushing.  Eventually I summon Big Chicken to lock it up.

Game 3: I get a bad Reasoning, but I'm able to keep throwing monsters at him until he eventually dies.

Round 2 - vs Performage Shaddolls (2-0)

Game 1: I get off a disgusting Reasoning and kill him in 2 turns Damage Juggler be damned.

Game 2: Pretty sure I OTK him here.

Round 3 - vs Clown Blade (2-1)

Game 1 - I win the dieroll and make him go first and he makes a board that I had to slowly go through as I didn't see Reasoning/Gate.  Dekatron pulled me through though and I win.

Game 2 - He makes me go first and I opt to make a Felgrand thinking if I negate his Normal Summon play I'd live.  Nope he had Book of Moon + 5 Monsters he could summon at once and he makes Feral Imps, Rhapsody and Trapeze Magician and OTKs the fuck out of me.

Game 3 - I pay him back with Reasoning Gate.

Top 4 - vs Kozmo (2-0)

Game 1: I open with Dragged Down and spot Honest (of course), Ring of Destruction and the 2800 spaceship which I get rid of and make it a point to put Devyaty in play.  He rings it but I bring it back and when he tries to Honest me I negate it and win.

Game 2: I open pretty weakly as I end up using up most of my cards to field a couple of monsters and clear his board so I can play the damage game as Infernoids need to do as he drops Farmgirl then Jurageido and has it pump her up to beat over my Patrulea.  Upon him trying to use Farmgirl however I flip Chivalry and he ragequits.

Finals - vs Performage Dolls (2-1)

Game 1: He opens sub par which can happen with that deck while I get off a decent enough mill to win.

Game 2: By his own admission after the match he opened with another bricky hand but literally went Mathmatician -> Squamata -> Dragon -> Draw Fusion spell and proceeds to OTK me.

Game 3: I get revenge by summoning Primais and spinning away one of his two sets which turned out to be Emptiness and resolve Monster Gate and 2 Reasonings and win after a pair of pushes.

So yeah I won locals for the first time since...Satellarknights had JUST come out?  Yeah it's been over a year since I actually got first place.  Whoohoo.

Now that said there were things about the deck that left me less than impressed and it was definitely Dragged Down and Mind Crush.  Sided them out all the time as while I did win 2 games with the intel Dragged Down got me, I feel like I could just run Chicken Game in its place to actually draw combo pieces or my win buttons.  I also really don't like how the deck will die if it runs out of steam against anything that can drag out the game. That part is something I'll have to accept as I do like the idea of a deck that can throw monsters into backrow until the opponent dies.

Props
-Picking up Ignkights
-Got Hoopa EX
-Topped
-Won Locals for the first time in a year.

Slops
-Every time I played Reasoning and only milled 2 monsters
-Playing Monster Gate on Raiden and the next card in deck was RAIDEN.