What’s up guys,

Today i want to give you a quick tournament report of the recent YCS Prague, which was held at the 27^th and 28^th of February.

To be honest, going into the event I wasn’t really sure about what to run. In my opinion every Deck in this format has its strengths, but also its weaknesses. Also I think the die roll became so important so I was really unsure about what to play. One week prior the tournament I was considering between the Draco-Performapal Deck, Mermails or Kozmo. My favourite until like 2 days before the tournament was Mermails because they have really strong combos, but the problem was Abyss Dweller which is super easy to summon for Performapals. So, in the end I decided to run the Draco-Performapal Deck, because it seems to have the best 1^st turn combos but also really strong and diverse plays in general. At Friday, Long Dao showed me his Decklist which was in my opinion really good, he also said that he tested it really well and it is really strong. Because I had a lack of playtesting I wasn’t really into the Deck but I thought with my knowledge about the Performapal Deck prior the Adjusted Banlist I might still know the basic combos. Long, Patrik Rieder and me played the same Deck, just a few cards different. At the end of Friday I went around to borrow the last cards I needed and then we went for dinner. Here especially shoutouts to Irfan and Eurocards aka Lars!

So without further do hop in into my Swiss Rounds.

Round 1

Against Catherine S 2:0

In my first round of swiss I played against a woman, which is also not that common. Sadly she received gameloss because she lost one of her extra deck cards. After she bought a new one she decided to let me start, which was actually a bad idea since I made a huge first turn which she wasn’t able to overcome with her Gem Knight Deck.

Round 2

Against Felix B 2:1 Kozmo

In my second round I was paired against my most feared matchup Kozmo. I won the dieroll but opened not that well and got killed later in the game by Raigeki. The following 2 games I won by my huge turn ones and my sidedeck.

Round 3

Against Anthony F. 2:0

I won the match against his Performapal Magician deck pretty easy because I drew both games pretty well and also because of Vector Pendulum in the scale together with Dinoster Power to protect myself to Wavering Eyes.

Round 4

Against Stefano Memoli 1:2

Déjà vu. I also lost Round 4 at last years YCS Prague against Stefano. Even after he received a gameloss for different extradeck sleeves ( which we both didn’t knew that its illegal) I lost the following 2 games because my deck bricked against me. But he was really nice and player pretty well.

Round 5

Mario M 2:0

I faced another Performapal Draco deck and won this match again 2:0. It was pretty easy because he didn’t played the trap version with Ariadne and Solemn Strikes and I opened with Maxx C in game 2.

Round 6

Peter W 1:2

I sadly lost because he topdecked Emergency Teleport in game 3 when he had 0 cards and I didn’t drew a lowscale to perform a Pendulum Summon. So I continued with a 4:2 record.

Round 7

Frederic L. 2:1

In the last Round I played again against Kozmos and also lost Game 1 because I bricked. The following 2 games I won because of the Solemn Strikes and because he just bricked in Game 3 whereas I opened pretty well with Luster Pendulum and Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer.

So I finished day 1 with a 5:2 record with which I wasn’t really too happy because winning 3 rounds in a row is really hard especially in Day 2. Fortunately Lond and Patrik also made Day 2 aswell as my other teammates. After that we went to dinner and sleeped until 7 am where we have to wake up.

Unfortunately I had to play against my friend Patrick H. in Round 8 but he went for clubbing the night, so I was pretty sure he wont show up.

Round 8

Patrick H. 2:0

And as I said he didn’t showed up and I got the win after 10 minutes J

Round 9

Giorgio Q. 2:0

In round 9 I played another mirror match, and I opened pretty good and he didn’t so I won game 1 pretty easily. Game 2 he went first and I opened Maxx C so he had no other choice than going into Naturia Beast by Meliae of the Trees and Glow-Up Bulb. Unfortunately for him I drew into my Rescue Rabbit to out his Naturia Beast and just kill him with my other 10 Cards in Hand.

So as last year in Prague I was on the bubble again, since round 6 this time and I was really nervous but also confident going into the last round of swiss.

Round 10

Suraj P 2:0

To be honest I won this match pretty easy simply because I drew way better than him both games, there is nothing much to say about it.

So I finished with a 8:2 record and hoped to sneak into the Top 32 because I heard that some people even with an X:2 record wont make it.

But I did and finished as 26^th after swiss.

Top 32

Alessandro G. 2:1

So in top 32 I face my first Monarch deck of the weekend. I won the dice roll but opened pretty bad and lost two turns later. Game 2 he had to throw everything in my field but I was able to prevent him from building up his advantages and finished him with a Vanilla Beatdown containing of Vector and Master Pendulum a few turns later. Game 3 I just opened very well and had an out to his Field Spell so I just cleared his field, and ended with a big board but also Solemn Strike and Mask of Restrict face down.

Top 16

Urh K. 0:2

When the Round started my opponent didn’t showed up so I was pretty amused about that since its really great to get at least a free game win in the top 16. But in the last second he appeared and the table judge ruled that he still gets a gameloss because he didn’t had everything on the table. He appealed and the Head Judge ruled in his favour, so we started our Game regularly. I won the die roll once again and opened not really good, just ending with Traptrix Rafflesia and Dinoster. And he just destroyed me in his turn with a perfect hand on his side containing Draco Face-Off, Instant Fusion, Wavering Eyes and so on.

Game 2 I opened really strong with Ignister Prominence, Dinoster, Majester Paladin and Master Pendulum with a Solemn Strike face down and a Performapal Guitartle in the Pendulum Scale. But every first turn is very weak against a hand of Instant Fusion, Raigeki, Draco Face-Off and Wavering Eyes plus 2 more cards. He just killed me this turn and kicked me out with just winning the YCS afterwards.

Overall Matchups:

1 Gem Knight

4 Kozmo

6 Peformapal Draco

1 Monarch

Sadly my tournament ended here, but I really didn’t expected to top this time since I didn’t really tested to much but because of the well built Deck ( thanks Long again) and the right amount of luck I topped and Im really happy about that. Long also topped with a 10:0 Record loosing to Magical Explosion FTK in Top 32 and sadly Patrick lost his last round on the bubble against Marvin Weber the runner up of this YCS.

I hoped you enjoyed my YCS Prague experience and I hope to see you all soon at the next YCS!

Special Shoutouts to Long, Soner, Eurocards aka Lars and Irfan and United Gosus for borrowing me cards or helping me to prepare for the event!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Niclas Leichnitz is an new intern Member of United Gosus and is studying in the mercantile area.

To learn more about him, just check out his member profile here.