Now granted because this was the first event of this kind to be held in the Province word didn't get very far and as the result the participants were solely players who lived in Saskatchewan. To my knowledge we didn't get any people from Alberta or Manitoba and due to this the overall quality of competition was very low. ALOT of the players present were bad in retrospect and the top cut of this event reflected it. Despite being "Wind-Up Format" the deck itself didn't dominate the environment as you'd think as it was really only the most competitive of players who piloted the deck (and had Shock Masters) while everyone else pretty much came with their "signature" decks. Honestly when I think more about it alot of people treated this Regionals as just another Local tournament, just with a larger turnout. Due to this the tournament itself is more or less a joke as people who had no business playing at the top tables did so and some even topped and Nord has often voiced this to which I can't deny it.
However this Regional was still an important one nonetheless as it was again the first high level event to be held in the province (and we would only have 2 more following this before Tramps lost its OTS status and began its 5 year spiral into oblivion) and the reason it sticks strongly to me: I got 1st Place. The turnout was small (61 people) and the players were of VERY questionable skill but at the end of the day I was the winner of the whole thing and I worked my ass off to do so, especially given that I wasn't even piloting a meta deck.
No the deck I used to win the very first Regionals held in Saskatchewan was motherfucking Dragunity. Not only that but this was also following my 1st Place Top in Winnipeg in the recent March Regionals so if you do the math this meant that I had managed to get back to back tops and both of them were 1st Place. At the time of this post I only have 3 tops to my name and chances are that's all I'm ever going to get given my...displeasure of current YGO but the "two First Place Tops" club is one of the few things that I can claim to be a part of and I think Magnus is the only one of our group to also have that title. Someday you'll earn your spot Nord ;)
But back to the regionals. I opted to play Dragunity as at the time I felt it was the strongest Dragon strategy following the banlist as Future Fusion was banned and REDMD went to 1. Disaster Dragon died with that banlist and aside from 3 tops by Richard Clarke nobody relevant has been able to do anything with the deck since and even then I'm sure Clarke topped because he was just that good at the game. Since I had gotten my first ever top with Dragons and at that time I called my channel "The Dragon Network" I had it in my head that all I was good at playing were Dragon decks and so I went with Dragunity.
Truth be told all 3 of my tops have come with Dragon decks (Disaster, Dragunity, Blue-Eyes Rulers) so that statement isn't that far off....
Anyway going into this tournament I had seen PhoenixFlareX's list that he used to get a Regional Top of his own the week prior and decided to use that as my base for the deck while educating myself on the "Atum Loop" that a surprising number of people didn't know about. No at the time when people saw Dragunity they thought "oh it's MakeStardustpass.dek" and I knew I had the advantage because of that. I was confident in my deck and made my way to the scene of the tournament in which I also recorded a fair bit of it;
Prior to the tournament actually beginning the head judge (Ryan P) allowed Scott to ask everyone for a moment of silence for the memory of a friend of the community Brendan Phillips who had passed away in a car crash on the way back from the recent Winnipeg Regionals in March. For those of you who might have pieced it together by now; yes I was in this crash too. It's why I had those bandages on my hand in my Disaster Dragon Deck Profile as I had severely injured my hand and still bear scars from where I got cut. It's also why I've got a long standing phobia road trips (or being in the car with people who do things like fuck around on their phone while driving) and while I've managed to overcome it to the point that I can go with friends to Regionals again I absolutely refuse to go during times in which any form of snow or ice are on the roads. I will gladly skip out on Regionals held in November, December, March and sometimes April if it means I won't have anxiety attacks leading up to and during the trip. Case in point Nord, Cobb and Rhett went to a Regionals this past weekend and I had considered going...until we got hit with an early winter. Nope GG I'm out.
With that context now explained you'd understand if I came into this tournament with a bit of a heavy heart as I wanted to win the tournament for Brendan (and I know I wasn't alone in this) and I know I made a prayer the night prior asking him to wish me luck.
Now with all of that explained I can get into the meat of this post, a copy and paste of my tournament report from Duelistgroundz;
Despite this being likely a small Regionals (although 60-90 is par for the course I've noticed for Prairie cities. At least in Sask and Manitoba. I can't comment on Alberta's turnouts) I was treating this as something I HAD to top since this was the first ever Yu-Gi-Oh! Regionals in Saskatchewan and it was being held here on my own doorstep. I had long decided that I was going to run Dragunity thanks to its ability to be aggressive with Ravine + Zeph combos while having a solid grind game in Stardust Dragon + Backrow. The things we discussed in this thread along with Dragunity videos I saw on youtube proved that I was on the right track and I ultimately went with what I posted on here just a few days ago except I switched Smashing Ground with Soul Taker since Heroes and Chaos Dragon were still played here. I expected to see the main meta decks (Graham Wind-Ups, Dark World, Heroes), Rogue decks and troll decks which was exactly what happened. Obviously the meta decks beat out the rest with our top 8 consisting of 2 Graham Wind-Ups, 1 Dark World, 1 Alive Hero, 1 Chaos Agent, 1 Gravekeepers, 1 Frognarch and 1 Dragunity (myself). The most played decks were Frognarchs, Heroes, Wind-Ups and Dark World. The rest were rogues. Nobody could afford Geargia Variants (I had traded away my Gigant X and Armours for a playset of TP Deep Sea Divas and TP Horn of the Phantom Beast the day prior) so that allowed me to get away without side decking hate for that matchup.
Yes I realize this was a bit over the top for just a small Regional but I tend to overdo things in this manner. I'll spare everyone a long winded tournament report given the size of the event but I will provide a quick summary and other notes;
[Spoiler]Unfortunately I forgot to write down Pot of Avarice on my decklist so I ended up being unable to use it the entire day. Thankfully I was only given a warning and not a loss.
Round 1 - vs Heroes (2-1)
Game 1; I opened Phalanx + 2 Mystletainn which allowed me to establish Stardust + Atum which he could not break, leading to a two turn kill.
Game 2; I opened awful with a Dragunity Legionnaire as my only monster. My backrow somewhat slows him down but I can't stave off 2 Blade Ninjas for long and scoop.
Game 3; Grinded this game out with backrow while ripping 2 straight Dux off the topdeck with a Phalanx in grave. A little sacky but it allowed me to drop a second Stardust and a Scrap Dragon respectively for game.
Round 2 - vs Macro Rabbit (0-2)
Game 1; Opened with Dux and Legionnaire, but no Dragon Ravine for what felt like ever. I'm able to get rid of his Laggia but he just has far too many counters to my own counters and I lose.
Game 2; I side in a total of 7 cards and I don't see a single one for about 10 turns while he opens with 2 Dimensional Fissure to my REDMD, Mystletainn and Phalanx. Despite this I did NOT make this an easy game for my opponent as I established a Dux and kept swinging while keeping him from maintaining a monster for a bit. Sadly he got to Rabbit and makes a Laggia which I eventually Prison + Chain away but I just could not get rid of his Fissures and ultimately lose. I sided in a 3rd MST, 2 Royal Decree, 2 Gozen Match and 2 Imperial Iron Wall. Should have sided in Twister as well but I couldn't think of what to side out for it.
Round 3 - vs Fabled Quasar (2-0)
Game 1; I spend a good 4 minutes waiting for my draw as he just goes completely off with combos. He had a Monster Reborn and a Pot of Avarice to continue things but fell just short of making Quasar Dragon which is great as I opened Ravine + Zephyros and two turn killed him.
Game 2; I put pressure on him early, forcing him to Synchro climb while I have T.G. Hyper Librarian on the board but I Fiendish Chain him before he can do more than that and take it from there.
Round 4 - vs Chain Burn (2-0)
Game 1: My opponent wins the dieroll and sets everything which makes me wonder if she's got a Morphing Jar down. I open Ravine and pitch Phalanx for Dux intending to summon it and make a Scrap Dragon. Instead she flips up all of her backrow and I learn I'm dealing with Chain Burn to which I'm like "OH WELL THEN" and decide to Synchro into this guy;
Felt so good.
Game 2; I make Black-Winged Dragon again and despite her sacking it off for Lava Golem I bring it back with REDMD and Dark Bribe her attempt to stop my Thunder Charger's attack for the win. Pierce + BWD pretty much makes this an automatic win for Dragunity players.
Fun Fact: I literally put Black-Winged Dragon in the night before because I figured "there's always a chance some troll will play burn at these things." Justifiiiiied.
Round 5 - vs Destiny Hero Agents (2-0)
Game 1; This went pretty quickly as I had the Ravine + Zephyros hand to his 3 Destiny Draws and an Earth. I take it in 2 turns.
Game 2; He opens with Earth while I drop Stardust off of a Phalanx + Mystle combo and proceed to grind the game out while setting myself up for a big push with Vajrayana + Aklys combos.
Round 6 - vs Macro Stun (2-0)
Game 1; To my sheer joy he does not draw into Fissure or Macro and I'm able to overwhelm him with Thought Ruler Archfiend and protection.
Game 2; He opens Fissure and eventually Macro Cosmos when I try to summon Aklys from hand and equip it to Legionnaire hoping to pop his monster and Fissure. My backrow is able to keep me in the game despite not drawing any of my sided cards (again) when he gets me down to 200 LP. However unlike my Rabbit match this time I live long enough to draw an out and it happened to be Imperial Iron Wall which completely turned the game around as I was able to Synchro spam and quickly dropped TRA and Stardust to win the game.
Fun Fact: This was one of the last Regionals this guy played. Now he's a professional musician. I have no idea how far he's been able to make it but he seems to have a fanbase...
Top 8 - vs Frog Monarchs (2-0)
Game 1; I quickly establish a field of Stardust Dragon with Photon Strike Bounzer to knock a fair bit of life off (and using Forbidden Lance to protect myself from E-Con) before dropping Thunder Charger and attacking over his Treeborn for game.
Game 2; He opens double D.D. Crow which disrupts my Zephyros and Dux plays, but I do him one better by flipping up Gozen Match and protecting the hell out of it. He gets rid of my first Stardust but I make another with Legionnaire x2 and a Phalanx and keep swinging over his Ronintoadin before summoning Aklys (I had no more Dux/Legions left in deck and you bet I was missing Pot of Avarice at this point) and poking over his Treeborns for damage. The game is ultimately decided when he tries to E-Con my Stardust Dragon to which I chain MST targeting his E-Con then negate with Stardust to get him off the field and to make the Con resolve without effect. After this I warning his Swap Frog and Normal Summon Phalanx to poke over his monsters for game.
Top 4 - vs Wind-Ups (2-0)
Game 1; Both of us were considering dropping out at this point since we had our invites + deckbox but decided to play at least one game. I won the dieroll and opened Ravine + Zephyros which he couldn't answer. He conceded after drawing into an awful hand.
Game 2; He gave me the win wanting to drop out and get some trades done before closing time. Honestly I consider this a crummy way to get a win as he was one of the best players at this tournament :/
Finals - vs Dark World Turbo (2-1)
Game 1; Opens 3 Upstarts then Card Destruction which gets rid of my Ravine and 2 Terraforming while he continues to do the solitare combos that Dark Worlds are known for. I make a small push but he clears my second ravine and I lose my third one to dealings to which I scoop it up.
Game 2; I make a turn 1 Stardust Dragon which he does clear but he's unable to answer my Scrap Dragon that I make afterwords. Also helps that I set my entire hand to render his Dragged Downs dead.
Game 3; A real grind game here as I sit on a Stardust while keeping myself handless and setting up a Zephyros play. I eventually make an Atum whle getting him down to 5400 and Book of Mooning a Beiige that he summoned (Grapha was in grave). I do a quick mental tally in my head and determine I can kill him if his monster has less than 1300 defense (which he does) so I get a Dux out of the deck and summon it (Phalanx had been Smog'd earlier) while dropping Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger and swinging for 5800 damage and the win.
That would be the gist of it. All in all the deck performed very well except for those oddball games with the shit hands (or not seeing my side deck for 10 turns) but otherwise it ran smoothly and many people just did not really know how my deck worked. They were aware of the traditional Level 8 plays that the deck is infamous for but each time I started doing my Rank 6 plays it blew their minds and the Atum + REDMD + SDD + Backrow board was damn hard to get around outside of a godly hand, which I was fortunate to not be the victim of. I'd say that this deck is easily Tier 1.5 in the hands of someone who knows how it works and how to manage its weaknesses. Dragunity Aklys gets a special mention for its sheer versatility as normal summoning it will put the opponent in the precarious situation of having to use removal on it or letting the summon go through so they can save their outs for Dux/Vaj. This of course lets you put Legionnaire on board and proceed to pick off monsters + Backrow. The Legionnaire + Aklys play is so potent this format I almost want to up the Legion count to 3. Almost. Mystletainn was also stellar thanks to being able to go Phalanx -> Stardust without needing Ravine or Dux. It's a hard -1 but you do get a 2500 negator you can protect. That or you could hit any Level 8 in the game.
Decklist;
Trails in the Sky - The Legend of Dragunity
Monsters
3 Dragunity Dux
3 Dragunity Phalanx
2 Dragunity Arma Mystletainn
2 Dragunity Legionnaire
2 Dragunity Aklys
2 Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite
1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
Spells
3 Dragon Ravine
3 Terraforming
2 Cards of Consonance
2 Forbidden Lance
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Avarice
Traps
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Fiendish Chain
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Dark Bribe
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit
Extra Deck
3 Dragunity Knight - Vajrayana
1 Dragunity Knight - Gae Dearg
2 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Black-Winged Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 T.G. Hyper Librarian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Hieratic Dragon King of Atum
1 Photon Strike Bounzer
1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
Side Deck
2 Royal Decree
2 Gozen Match
2 Imperial Iron Wall
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Twister
2 Soul Taker
2 Maxx "C"
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
At this point the only change I am considering would be keeping Maxx "C" in the side or not. Gojira made a good point that without Veiler, Gorz or Trag to draw into the opponent is just going to keep going anyway as Dragunity usually doesn't draw into anything that would stop their push regardless or take advantage of the hand you'd end up having outside of drawing the Trinity. In its place I may run either Cyber Dragon/System Down, Nobleman of Crossout or Thunder King Rai-Oh.
And that's it. One of the Saskatoon players who had came to this event (and was one of their better if not best players. He doesn't play anymore) made a video talking about his experience at the Regionals and described me as "one of the best and most skillful players I had ever seen" which was definitely something my ego appreciated. Mind you on this day seeing Dragunity do the now well known Ravine + Zephyros combo was just bonkers. What do you mean you have Atum, REDMD and Stardust on your field!? Oh it was a good time. My big regret from this was never writing a proper Regional Report on this blog as there was a timeframe in which I didn't give this thing a look let alone put my thoughts down. Granted I've fallen back into that kind of state as at least until next spring I can't compete in a full YGO locals and our Vanguard Tournament scene died with Tramps (now it's just casual games and relay fights at Comicreaders) but you get the point. My two other tops have written reports on here and with the exception of the times I've played Hunder Family and the two Regionals I went to this year (spoilers I did NOT have good times at either of them) I've done reports on all my other ones. I guess I should do that but I'll sum them up here;
March 2013 - I got my two tops with Dragons so surely I can do it with my other favourite theme; Thunder. Nope. Fire Fist ate my ass both in the main tournament and the win a mat. I also lost a close game to Machina Gadgets because he had stronger topdecks and greasy mullet played Dimensional Fissure in fucking Mermails.
June 2017 - Why the fuck did I listen to Nord and decide to play in Fusion Substitute Zoodiac format!?
September 2017 - True King Dinosaurs; they brick when you're up against Zoodiac/Trickstar but go the FUCK off against all the bad decks in the room.
There.
