From Nimble Paleozoic swarms to Vendread‘s, we saw a lot of crazy matchups this monthly. With 12 different decks at the event, there were a ton of fun interactions and witty play-by-plays to be seen.

Here’s what each player brought:

Cooldude112233445570

A great duelist with great insight that you see on almost every Wednesday broadcast. Cooldude112233445570 demonstrated a wide range of deck styles with ever-threatening boards and comeback plays. I’ve played against his Ultimate Conductor Tyranno deck before, but that’s yet another testament to his skills as a player in staying nimble while adjusting to whatever current game state is present to him. His Galaxy Eyes deck showed strong control while knowing when to XYZ climb if needed. Mathmech had a cool premise with some great Link Monster plays that I took note of for my own deck. I look forward to what he has in store next month.

SPIRE_FAN

Riding off the drive since getting back into competitive in 2011, I made two additional decks based off of my other favorite cards to bring the entire trio to the event. Jinzo and friends have been in the works for quite a bit, and I like the challenge of pushing his strengths in a current metagame that doesn’t use as many Trap cards. I’ll for sure be adding Desperado Barrel Dragon for the next iteration. St. Joan was a lot of fun; she’s been a favorite since I was a little kid when my mother taught me how awesome she and her real-world inspiration are upon reaction to the card. I was actually able to place St. Joan into a new version of my old secondary deck, “C.E.L.L.” (Chain Energy Lifepoint Lockdown), and add some cool Red Eyes Black Dragon cards that synergize with both. Raspberry Splash is pretty self-explanatory at this point. I always have a fun time playing my favorite monster and am looking forward to bringing Slushy next time for some early 2010s fun.

PMurphy

Skilled in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Pokémon TCG Highlander, I wasn’t too surprised to see that PMurphy was here to play Yugioh as well. Coolheaded and calculating, he was able to bring over his eye for strength from a recently great Pokémon monthly run to the Yugioh tables. His Psyframe deck was able to continuously stream Synchro monsters that could retaliate to a plethora of board control. I was impressed with his Tindangle list and hope to see it again in the near future, as well as Vendread‘s use of abundant Ritual support while being inspired by the “rule of cool” of Spawn Armageddon himself.

Toadyhoady (Champion)

A longtime good friend and reigning champion of the event, it’s no surprise that Toadyhoady brought his WOODS Pokémon Draft League wit to the Yugioh tables for the event. Not only was his Ancient Warriors deck impressive, but the added charm of his humorous banter during our set was (all according to his master plan) great. His Salamangreat deck showed a lot of cool Link plays while keeping me at bay with great negates and well-timed aggressive plays. Though the fated “Jinzo vs Spright Paleo” matchup didn’t happen (…this time!), his use of swarming Nimble monsters with the Palaeo’s as a solid second wave proved formidable throughout his tournament run.

Thanks again to all of the players that entered, and congrats to Toadyhoady for taking home the gold. We will see you next month as we begin to arrange dates on the community discord!