Galileo de Obaldia’s 1st Place YCS Rio de Janeiro Tournament Report

On November 16, 2016 by Merlin Schumacher

Hey guys this is Galy,

To be honest I wasn´t even planning on attending a YCS this year! Fortunately, I was in Brazil for my work, and it presented the perfect opportunity to hang out with some old friends.

Although I didn´t get a chance to practice very much, the advantage was that the meta was relatively new and theory was very important to coming up with the final list. I ended up playing ABC, as it was one of the top decks, yet was relatively easy to pilot without much experience. I say relatively, because I still see many people not playing optimally.

The first thing about ABC, is that you always want to start with the field spell + a special summon (Thrasher/Gadget), so running 40 cards with Desires/Upstart is the way I wanted to build the deck. However, I have always done well with 41 cards, as all my wins have come with 41 cards. So even though this goes against logic, and believe me, I work in finance and believe whole heartedly in numbers, I decided to go with 41 once again.

The decklist & some insights as follows:

Main Deck – 41
17
A-Assault Core x3
B-Buster Drake x3
C-Crush Wyvern x2
Photon Thrasher x3
Gold Gadget x2
Silver Gadget x2
Maxx “C” x2
17
Instant Fusion x3
Terraforming x3
Union Hangar x3
Pot of Desires x3
Twin Twister x3
Book of Eclipse x2
7
Solemn Strike x2
Dimensional Barrier x2
Bottomless Trap Hole
Floodgate Trap Hole
Vanity´s Emptiness

Side Deck- 15
Chaos Hunter x3
System Down x3
Anti-Spell Fragrance x3
Pot of Acquisitiveness x2
Cosmic Cyclone x2
Swords of Concealing Light x2

Extra Deck – 15
ABC – Dragon Buster x3
Diamond Dire Wolf x2
Abyss Dweller
Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer
Elder Entity Norden
Number 39 – Utopia
Number 39S – Utopia the Lightning
Daigusto Emeral
Gear Gigant X
Bujintei Tsukuyomi
Traptrix Rafflesia
Number 80: Rhapsody in Berserk

Instead of going over the decklist, I will just cover some of the key questions some people have had since the time that the list was published:

  1. Why only 2 C?

I believe that opening up multiple A/B/C can lead to bad hands, however, it is very risky to run less than 3 because of Pot of Desires. There are two reasons I ran only 2C: 1) It is the one that I almost always search with Hangar, so I can keep field presence and potentially access Buster Dragon without my normal summon to play through backrow. 2) If I don´t draw hangar, it is the one I least want to draw to make Buster turn 1 with instant fusion if I draw Hangar with Tsukuyomi (More on this below).

  1. Why Instant Fusion? Why Maxx “C” / Book of Eclipse?

Instant Fusion is amazing. It is great going first or second, and it is so easy to set-up the deck with just a field & a hangar, that any multiple Instant Fusions can either be discarded or re-used with Emeral.

Going first: There are two purposes, either making Rafflesia, which is very difficult to deal with, but even more importantly it allows you to make a Buster without drawing Hangar turn 1.

For example, imagine a hand of Thrasher + B-Buster Drake + Instant Fusion + Any Trap & any other card. If you make Tsukuyomi, and draw Hangar, you can Instant Fusion back the B-Buster Drake, attaching a C-Crush Wyvern, to make a Buster Dragon.

Going second: Along with Book of Eclipse & Twin Twisters, they allowed me to play Maxx “C” in the main to make it playable for going second even if the opponent started well. I am still undecided if this is the right method, however it did work on multiple occasions, including winning game 1 against Minervasworn even though my opponent opened amazingly.

  1. Why Swords of Concealing Light?

My weapon of choice for going 2nd against decks who could make big boards. It is less versatile than cards such as Book of Eclipse, however it is also more reliable, because even though it can be countered, it doesn’t need an immediate follow up, so it can buy you a turn or two to set up.

  1. Why no Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries?

Theoretically, this card seems amazing, however, in the mirror match you still have to be able to play through the backrows with one less card, as well as the existence of the new Pot card. Just didn´t seem the right choice.

The tournament

The day didn´t start off so well, drawing really badly, only seeing 1 Hangar, and summoning 1 Buster Dragon in 3 full rounds. I was 1 – 1 – 1 and on the verge of elimination, having beaten a Pendulum deck, drawing against an ABC, and losing to a Triamid deck, which to this day I still have no idea how it works – things weren´t looking good.

I stayed positive, knowing that all I needed was to start drawing normally and I could turn it around. This is exactly what happened, I then played 2 Metalfoes, 1 Mermail and 3 ABC, being able to make it to the top16! Unfortunately Galo was unable to make it with me due to finishing 17th, so I was the last UG standing.

The top was full of a lot of good players so I knew it wouldn´t be easy.

Top 16: ABC 2 – 0. His version with Galaxy Soldier was slightly less consistent than the regular version.

Top 8 – Hector Perez (1st in Swiss): ABC 2 – 0.

G1: I started but didn´t open great, as well as playing against a Maxx “C”. With only a Tsukuyomi and 2 backrows, I faced an uphill battle. I proceeded to Maxx “C” the Gadget summon, and my backrow came in clutch, a Book of Eclipse for the Tsukuyomi summon.

G2: A minor mistake on his part allowed me to capitalize and win.

Top 4 – Carlos Henrique (YCS Winner): ABC 2 – 1.

Final: Metalfoes 2 – 1.

G1: I won the die roll and started with a standard hand. Something that didn´t happen a LOT this weekend.

G2: I opened relatively bad but I could have won this game in 2 ways, the first way, was due to a misplay because I wasn´t aware Metalfoe Alkahest received the protection from ABC monsters it was equipped with! I thought my lack of practice would cost me, however, Swords of Concealing Light bought me some time, and with very few cards (~6/7) left in the deck I still had 3 Twin Twisters left, which was all I needed to win the game. However, I proceeded to draw 3 blanks in a row.

G3: Anti-Spell is too good if they don´t have an out!

Finally! I managed to win the only tournament I have never won before. I managed to, in a small way, get over losing the WC final and achieve a new record to be proud of, the first to ever win all 3 of the big events in this TCG we all love so much: a YCS, WCQ & Worlds.

I couldn´t have done this without so many people, and as it is impossible to name everyone by name, you all know who you are!

What I really want to accomplish in this game, is extremely difficult that it is almost a pipe dream, however, if you would have asked me if I could have accomplished all of this when I first started playing, I would have also said it was just a dream. I´m going to continue dreaming..

Galileo de Obaldia