If you are interested in our video journey there, you can watch the Vlog up here!
For the benefit of the uninitiated, YOT is a Yu-Gi-Oh! event hosted in various country in Asia usually twice a year. YOT is in a sense the YCS of OCG Yu-Gi-Oh!. This YOTMY had a turnout of roughly 400 participants thus the tournament format was 8 round Swiss and cut to top 64.
So as you can see above, I have chosen the Salamangreat deck to be my partner in this endeavor. What a
Day 1 - 8 Round Swiss
Round 1 - 2
I get to skip playing for the first 2 round as I manage to get second place in a local regional back in Singapore before the YOT, earning me 2 Byes or in other words 2 free wins for the first 2 rounds.
In all honesty, the Byes are a double edge sword. Imagine round 3, your opponent have just won their first 2 matches and is fully warmed up plus they are on a winning streak. It is a bit hard to break their momentum that way and get your own started.
Round 3 - XX
My first match of the day! And I am up against... Thunder Dragons!
Starting off the match, I lost the dice roll and ended up going second. If that was not bad enough, my opening hand had a strange absence of Hand Traps and both the Salamangreat Sanctuary and Salamangreat Falco graced it with their presences. Leaving me unable to set up any field nor disrupt my opponent's field. Leading to a quick death on turn 3.
Not being discouraged, I opted to go first and guess who came to visit my hand again? If you guessed the Salamangreat Sanctuary and Salamangreat Falco then you are right! Despair started setting in the came acceptance. Being unable to set up any field presences I Instantly got defeated in the coming turn.
I guess this is not really a good way to start the day huh? However, not being discouraged, I requested some assistance from friends to play a few mock games on the side before the next round to help me warm up!
Round 4 - xx
Let see what I am up against for my second match of the day... and it's Subterror! Great... now half of my Hand Traps are useless, hopefully I won't draw into them.
Losing the dice roll yet again, I ended up going second, and guess who came to my opening hand to say hi? My lovely Hand Traps, Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and Maxx "C". Usually, I would be happy to see them but my opponent is using Subterror... so... but it gets better when my top draw reveals a second Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay. I swiftly gave up and moved onto the next game.
Going first this time, I was confident as I managed to set up my field with the Salamangreat Roar. However, during the standby phase of my opponent's turn he activated Super Polymerization. Well you can pretty much guess what happen next.
Once again, I chose not to give up as I was still not out of the running yet as long as I don't lose another game. So I continue to ask my friends to assist me in warming up in hopes that it helps me.
Round 5 - OO
Going into my third match with the mindset that I cannot afford to lose another match, I was completely focused. This time my opponent was using Guardragons, finally a deck that I am confident to fight against.
Once again I lost the dice roll resulting in my opponent going first yet again. However, this time my opponent's hand was not that good, as all it took to stop his combo was one Infinite Impermanence on his Ib the World Chalice Miko effect ending his turn.
Now, my turn as there is only one Ib the World Chalice Miko on my opponent's field, I set up my field with and destroy Ib the World Chalice Miko and the Guardragon summoned by Ib the World Chalice Miko via battle. I then ended my turn with just a reincarnated Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf, Salamangreat Miragestallio, 2 face-down Called By The Grave, and 1 face-down Infinite Impermanence.
Back to my opponent again, he tried to revive his normal dragon by using Guardragon mini's effect, but was stopped by my first Called By The Grave. He then try to revive his Ib the World Chalice Miko by using revival spell to link zone in an attempt to summon it to my salamangreat Sunlight Wolf's link zone but it was stopped by my second Called By The Grave. Leading to him surrendering this game.
Game 2, my opponent chose to go first, however I started my hand with Maxx "C", 2 Effect Veiler, Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, and Salamangreat Gazelle. Once my opponent started his combo, I threw Maxx "C" and he took on the Maxx "C" challenge and continued his combo but came to a complete stop when I threw Effect Veiler on his Guardragon Elpy, and when he tried to use his Guardragon Pisty I used my Second Effect Veiler, this brought a complete stop to his combo and ending with my hand size being relatively big.
In came my turn, with the huge number of resources in my hand I proceeded to set up my field and when for the OTK.
Finally, I won my first game, and as a bonus I found out after the game that my opponent was actually playing Gandora-X the Dragon of Demolition
Round 6 - ??
I sat down at my seat awaiting my next opponent. 10 full minutes later, my opponent did not show up. Resulting in an instant match win. Well a win is a win even if it is a free one, I am not going to complain about it.
Round 7 - OO
2 rounds left and 2 more wins away from making the top cut, I met my opponent who wields a Orcust deck.
Guess if I won my dice roll? Of course not, losing the dice roll for the third time. Going second with a Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and 2 Effect Veilers in my hand. I used Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay when he summoned his Knightmare Cerberus, and 1 Effect Veiler on his Knightmare Mermaid, essentially stopping his combo dead in the tracks.
My turn, I manage to clear his board completely, it was not really difficult as there was only 1 Knightmare Mermaid and I proceeded to lock him out of his next turn by summoning Abyss Dweller.
His turn again, I activated Abyss Dweller's effect during his standby phase, causing him to not be able to do anything this turn and allowing me to finish his Life Points the very next turn.
Game 2
He chose to go first, however I started with a lot of Hand Traps yet again and this time I have the newly sided in Artifact Lancea. I was able to prevent him from making any significant board presences at all.
My turn, I cleared his board and proceeded to summon Abyss Dweller again, sealing his fate for this game.
Not being able to do much on his next turn, I proceeded to finish him my very next turn.
Round 8 - OO
Last Swiss round, all that stand in between me and making it to the top cut is my next opponent.
For the first time that day, I won the dice roll and chose to go first. I manage to set up my field with the Salamangreat Roar face down despite my opponent using Maxx "C", and that is all thanks to my Haru which I retrieve using Salamangreat Sunlight Wolf's effect.
Next up my opponent's turn, he normal summoned Lady Debug, which I proceeded to prevent the search by using my freshly retrieved Haru. He then Link summon Salamangreat Balelynx which I took the chance to summon Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, thus allowing me to shuffle back the field spell I searched previous turn back, trading it for newer cards. He then proceeded to end turn.
My turn, as my opponent did not manage to set up his field properly, I broke down his field bit by bit. I continued to set up my field further, this place me way ahead in terms of resources and allowed me to slowly shave away his LifePoints.
Game 2
He chose to go first after siding, however as my hand started with 4 hand traps; Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, Effect Veiler, Infinite Impermanence, and D.D. Crow. I manage to prevent any form of field presences that my opponent can build. However, my hand was not that fantastic as I did not have a single Salamangreat card in my hand.
My turn came and I drew Lady Debug, talk about lucky. I then started to build my board and once again I was ahead in terms of resources and manage to win my second game.
With this I manage to make it for the second day by making the top 64 cut.
Day 2 - Top 64 Cut
(Top 64) Round 1 - OO
To summarize what happen in both game, I started off with 4 Hand Traps in hand including 1 Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, which I used to control my opponent, not letting him set up any field and win him by out resourcing him.(Top 32) Round 2 - xx
Guess my dice roll winning streak ends here.
My opponent went first and summoned Inspector Boarder and ended his turn with 3 face down cards.
I had Infinite Impermanence in my hand, but the rest of my cards in my hand was other hand trap and Salamangreat Roar and a strange absences of Salamangreat monsters. I proceeded to just end my turn without doing anything.
My opponent proceeded to activate Trickstar Lightstage and he searched for Trickstar Cardina and he normal summoned it and proceeded to shave 4000 off my life points.
Game 2, guess who came back to visit my starting hand? Salamangreat Falco and Salamangreat Sanctuary. Without able to set up a proper field I was easily dispatched and lost the game.
Conclusion
I guess this is as far as I can go at the moment huh? Well considering I only played Salamangreat about for 3 to 4 weeks before I came for YOT Malaysia, I think I did pretty good. Anyway, thanks for reading! See you in the next article!