Tournament Report – Top64 – WCQ: German National Championship 2018 by Adrian Koch & Carmelo Buttiglieri

On June 13, 2018 by Valerio Zucco

Hello everybody,
This past weekend Carmelo and me, Adrian Koch (the better Adrian ;) ), participated in the WCQ: German National Championship 2018 in Mainz. The event had 1074 players in the main event and by that was the biggest Nationals in Germany ever. Since Carmelo and I live in Bonn, we decided to take no hotel for this tournament because it was just 1.5h by car and I had to work on the Friday before and Monday after the tournament. Together with our friend Philipp “Ratpier” Beck, we arrived Saturday 8 AM at the venue where we tried to find the cards, which were missing to complete our decks. At this point, I want to thank Merlin, who was there as a judge and lent me almost everything I needed.
Carmelo and I decided to play Trickstar Sky Striker because the team came to the conclusion that it was the best choice for this event. This was supported by the dominant number of Trickstar Sky Striker builds in the Top Cut (6/8)

In the following part, we will explain some card choices:
Pot of Desires: We both did not play Pot of Desires because it is too risky to banish important cards like Trickstar Lilybell or both Trickstar Lycoris, which were by the way totally sufficient without Pot of Desires, we didn’t miss the third copy.
Shared Ride: We expected to face a lot of Trickstar and Sky Striker, so we played three Shared Ride in the main deck to have an advantage in the mirror match, similar to how people started main decking Maxx “C” back in Tengu Plant Format. Of course, it is not the best card if we lose the dice roll and have to go second. However, since this format is not a “break my board or lose”-format it can still be good after the first turn.
Effect Veiler: Besides Droll & Lock Bird and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, which are mandatory to play, we decided to play Effect Veiler as an additional hand trap. Carmelo played one and two copies of Infinite Impermanence – after the tournament he wished he had played more copies of Effect Veiler instead. In my opinion, it’s a lot better than Infinite Impermanence because it can’t be hit by Trickstar Light Stage and on top of that we can draw into it with Shared Ride and use it directly even with cards on board.
Twin Twisters: I played three Twin Twisters in the main deck because I expected many trap-heavy decks like Altergeist, True Draco or Paleozoic. In addition, the card is good vs Sky Striker to destroy the Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor and the set cards by Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole. In the mirror match, we can destroy the Scapegoats which were “frozen” by Trickstar Light Stage so it has a good amount of different uses.
Phantom Skyblaster: We both played three copies of Phantom Skyblaster – which is unlikely for Trickstar Sky Striker. You may think that the card conflicts with Trickstar Candida. However, we can simply go into Knightmare Goblin to have an additional normal summon if we happen to have both Candina and Phantom Skyblaster. Nevertheless, I just sided them together with three copies of Mind Control to have plays while facing all the “hate” which my opponent could potentially side.

Match overview (Adrian):
Round 1 (Win vs Burning Abyss Phantom Knight)
In the past Trickstar had problems facing big monsters like Dante and Beatrice – thanks to the Sky Striker engine they could easily be outed by Widow Anchor. This was an easy win because – my opponent even played the worse version with Phantom Knights instead of Sekka’s Light and a bunch of hand traps.
1-0
Round 2 (Won vs Altergeist / 2-0 vs Levin H.)
My opponent made many misplays – also Twin Twisters did a good job.
2-0
Round 3 (Drew vs Dino / 1-1 vs Christian O.)
My opponent wore a Jurassic World T-Shirt and had Dino deck box. I won Game 1 easily – he won Game 2. Going into Game 3 there were 3 minutes on the clock. I decided to go second, which was a big mistake. I thought I could simply break his board to end with Lycoris and steal the game in time out. He finished his turn with Ultimate Tyranno Conductor and Evolzar Laggia and I just had Trickstar cards. The game ended in my turn and it was a draw since we both had 8000 life points.
2-0-1
Round 4 (Won vs Spyral / 2-1 vs. Marvin W.)
I lost the first game because he had the full combo and I had no hand trap, which would not have helped anyway because he also had Called by the grave. The other games I won easily.
3-0-1
Round 5 (Lost vs Gem-Knight / 0-2 vs Tristan S.)
Not sure whether he played the FTK version. I went first both game and he otk’ed me twice by attacking with just a couple of big beaters. I hate my life.
3-1-1
Round 6 (Won vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 2-1 vs Davide D.)
The first mirror match. This was the match up I was most prepared for so I won this easily.
4-1-1
Round 7 (Won vs Burning Abyss Phantom Knight / 2-1 vs Peter H.)
Nothing to say about the match itself. A judge wanted to give me a slow play warning – I appealed because I did not play slow and even my opponent said that. I did not get the slow play warning.
5-1-1
Round 8 (Won vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 2-1 vs Tzem B.)
Nothing to say.
6-1-1
Round 9 (Lost vs Paleozoic / 0-2 vs Moritz W.)
In the first game, I had the Twin Twisters for his backrow – but he came back with Toadally Awesome, which won him the game. I lost the second game to a heavy brick with four hand traps in my first hand.
6-2-1
Round 10 (Won vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 2-1 vs Sebastian S.)
Nothing to say.
7-2-1
Round 11 (Won vs Pure Sky Striker / 2-1 vs Sebastian D.)
I won game 3 in time out while having 100 life points more than him. He misplayed last turn by destroying both monster I had with After Burner instead of taking one with Widow Anchor. For his excuse – he had not much time for his turn and had to go to battle phase swiftly.
8-2-1 => 27th after swiss rounds
Top 64 (Lost vs True Draco w/ Macro Cosmos in the main deck / 1-2 vs Jan M.)
Weird tech card, which hurt him more than me. Still I had no chance because of Amano Iwato dodging all the hand traps.

Match overview (Carmelo):
Round 1 (Won vs Pendulum / 2-0 vs Kevin S.)
I started Game 1 with Saryuja and won with Reincarnation and Lock bird after he searched with Duelist alliance. Game 2 my opponent bricked.
1-0
Round 2 (Won vs Altergeist / 2-1 vs Heiko H.)
Game 1 he started with 4 sets and I did not get to play at all. Game 2 I won with Twin Twisters and Heavy Storm Duster and Game 3 he paid a lot of life points with Imperial Order, which cost him the game during end of match procedure.
2-0
Round 3 (Won vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 2-0 vs Periklis K.)
This was a feature match: https://www.facebook.com/YuGiOhTCGEU/videos/1244383322370470/
3-0
Round 4 (Won vs True Draco / 2-0 vs Ilja R.)
I won Game 1 with the Lock bird combo. Game 2 I won because he locked himself with Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries on the field and a face up Rivalry of the Warlords.
4-0
Round 5 (Lost vs Mekk Knight Invoked / 0-2 vs Stephan H.)
Game 1 he stopped my plays with Effect Veiler and otk’ed me with Purgatrio. Game 2 I just had Trickstar cards.
4-1
Round 6 (Lost vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 1-2 vs Alexander S.)
I lost Game 1 due to the Lock bird combo and Game 2 I won with the Lock bird combo. Game 3 was close but he won with Scapegoat in the end.
4-2
Round 7 (Won vs Paleozoic / 2-0 vs Patrick G.)
Game 1 I negated his Swap Frog with Infinite Impermanence.
Game 2 he had 5 set cards including Anti-Spell Fragrance but I could play through it. In the end, he lost because he could not use Scapegoat with the Anti-Spell Fragrance.
5-2
Round 8 (Won vs Anti Meta / 2-0 vs Giulio P.)
Trickstar Light Stage with the Sky Striker engine was good enough to win the first game. Game 2 I had Twin Twisters and Scapegoat.
6-2
Round 9 (Won vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 2-1 vs Tom K.)
He won the dice roll and had a good opening hand including Scapegoat. Game 2 I had a good opening hand also including Scapegoat. Game 3 he misplayed hard which cost him the match.
7-2
Round 10 (Won vs 60 cards Pendulum / 2-1 vs Marcel B.)
I won the first game with the Lock bird combo. Game 2 I had once again a hand full of Trickstar cards and he had Shared Ride. Game 3 I won in time out with Topologic Bomber Dragon and a Reincarnation in grave.
8-2
Round 11 (Won vs Pure Sky Striker / 2-0 vs Pascal J.)
I won the first game with Reincarnation and Lock Bird after he searched something. Game 2 he bricked.
9-2 => 15th after Swiss rounds
Top 64 (Lost vs Trickstar Sky Striker / 1-2 vs Tom K.)
Game 1 I won because he had a bad first hand. Game 2 he top decked Engage to steal the game. Game 3 I had just Trickstar cards again and he ashed my shared ride.

All in all I think we could have easily gone further in the tournament but some weird situations made it difficult and at then end of the day we are quite happy with another Top Cut appearance each for the team :)! Until the next time!
Adrian Koch & Carmelo Buttiglieri