Tournament Report – Top4 – WCQ: European Championship 2018 by Alessandro Garanzini

On July 26, 2018 by Valerio Zucco

Hello everybody !

This is my report for the WCQ European Championship 2018 in Berlin.
I sadly lost in the top4, one step away from qualifying for the World Championship 2018. This is still a good achievement and I like it but I came so close to the dream and didn’t make it in the end.
I decided to play Sky Striker Trickstar with Mekk-Knights because I think it was the most powerful deck, since it gives you a lot of different ways to play.

You can go for an OTK, play to control the field or even play to burn your opponent’s life points!
I learned a lot of things by testing a lot online and attending my nationals, I learned that a mirror-match build of the deck is not the right choice !
You will see…

DAY 1

Round 1: vs. Gouki 2-0
Game 1 he bricks and I go for the OTK on turn 2.
Game 2 he scooped by himself saying he doesn’t know how to do combos (lol)

1-0

Round 2: vs. Altergeist 2-1
Game 1 I started and had a lot of control.
Game 2 He started with EVERY floodgate, so he had no way to play.
Game 3 I started with a pretty bad hand and he had a lot of floodgates like anti-spell fragrance and rivalry of warlords. I had mekk-knights, they dealt 4500 for 2 turns, no monsters for him – GG.

2-0

Round 3: vs.Paleo 2-0
I Won both games pretty fast

3-0

Round 4: vs. Mekk knight-Invoked 2-1
Game 1 I Won by controlling the field and had scapegoat in his end phase
Game 2 He otked me so heavily.
Game 3 I left him at 900 life points but he drew nothing so he scooped.

4-0

Round 5: vs. Trickstar-Sky Striker 2-1
A classic Mirror match. I won game 3 thanks to shared ride and scapegoats.

5-0

Round 6: vs. Trickstar-Sky Striker 2-1
My opponent could have otked me game 1 but he didn’t mostly because he was under shared ride pressure.
I otked him the turn later, lost game 2, won game 3 thanks to twin twisters on set terraforming and on lightstage!

6-0

Round 7: vs. Burning Abyss 2-0
Game 1 I otked him
Game 2 Mind control + anchor dealt with Beatrice so he had no way to come back (He milled Imperial order with gallis).

7-0

Round 8: vs. Gouki 1-2
Game 1 He made me the whole extra-link combo. GG
Game 2 I bricked but he bricked more.
Game 3 I had cherries on firewall but he countered it with called by the grave, full combo again.

Score at the end of day1: 7-1

DAY 2

Round 9:vs. Trickstar-Sky Striker 1-1
I started 1 (3 phantom skyblaster, terraforming, engage). I activated engage for hornet then he drolled me, so I passed my turn with topologic bomber dragon on field hoping he didn’t know the effect.
He summoned link spider then another link spider under it, everything TO GRAVE please.
Game 2 he won by lifepoints during the end of match procedure.

7-1-1

Round 10: vs. Sky Striker 2-0
Trickstar Sky>>>Pure, that’s all.

8-1-1

Round 11: vs. Phantom Knight Sky Striker Hero 0-2.
He destroyed me, amazing deck and cool combo.

Score at the end of swiss: 8-1-2 (34th)

TOP64
Feature match:

Spoiler:
Lilybell <3

TOP32
vs. Trickstar Sky Striker 2-0.
Game 1 the same thing as in g1 Round 9 happened, Topologic Bomber Dragon – best card.
Game 2 Gained control with topologic bomber dragon after burning a lot of LP, too strong.

TOP16
vs. Phantom Knight Sky Striker Hero 2-1
Lost the dice.
Lost game 1, he made me discard 4 with gumblar.
Won game 2, had a lot of control
Game 3 he received a game lost for slow play.

TOP8
Gouki 2-1
Game 1 I started controlling the field and then otked on turn 3.
Game 2 he did the full combo.
Game 3 I started with everything I needed candina engage shared ride scapegoat droll and lock.

TOP4 vs Skystriker Trickstar
Game 1 Lost the dice, lost the game.
Game 2 I started, after a hard rush i won the game.
Game 3 He started, gained a lot of advantage.
I tried to clean the board and get some control but it wasn’t enough… Sadly he had everything to shut me down. 2 reincarnations in graveyard and skyblaster in hand.

I’m still proud of my record but I have to say that I am always a bit sad cause of this, it’s so hard to deal with this sensation everyday. I hope to bring more good results for the team and hope you guys enjoyed my article!
See you at the upcoming European YCS events !

Alessandro Garanzini