Monday, November 22, 2010

YCS Atlanta

Before I start talking about Atlanta, let me say that YCS Milan was as expected. The deck that everyone expected to win did win. So yeah.

YCS Atlanta, on the other hand, was a huge upset. Gravekeeper's took the top three spots, as you probably already know. Although Gravekeeper's Recruiter gave them a boost, no one thought that it would be that powerful.

In theory, Gravekeeper's would be a perfect meta call. Necrovalley halts Graveyard-dependent decks, while turning all of the 1500 ATK Gravekeeper's into 2000 ATK beaters. That means that practically all of the prominent decks in the TCG have a bad match-up against Gravekeeper's. The only one that I can think of that doesn't have a bad match-up is Frog Monarchs.

Gladiator Beasts, Blackwings, and Gemini Stun can't get over 2000 ATK very easily, and if they can, it's just a temporary solution. They all can destroy Necrovalley somewhat consistently, but it's easy for the Gravekeeper's player to just drop another one on their turn.

X-Sabers, Debris Plants, Scraps, and Absolute Zero decks lose access to their Graveyards. Half the time, they use Royal Decree over Mystical Space Typhoon, so they can't get rid of Necrovalley without wasting a bunch of cards or finding a way to protect their set-up. The latter is unrealistic, because Gravekeeper's Descendant can rip through a field pretty easily.

Machina Gadgets and Quickdraw Plants don't rely on the Graveyard as much, since they can Special Summon big Monsters from the hand, essentially. They aren't hurt as badly by Necrovalley, since Gadgets don't care if they die, and Quickdraw Synchron gives easy access to Junk Destroyer or tribute fodder for Caius. Dandylion also helps.

Basically, decks that drop big Monsters from the hand have a good chance against Gravekeeper's. Their Trap line-up is generally thin, since they devote a lot of the deck to the Gravekeeper's Monsters. That gives decks like Six Samurai or Karakuri a good match-up against them, theoretically, of course.

Or, it could have just been a fluke. Either way, it's time to start Main Decking Mystical Space Typhoon again, if you were silly enough to take them out in the first place.

2 comments:

  1. I think a lot of people were playing decree in their gravekeepers. The topping decks did play traps, telling me that decree is sub par.

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  2. @Anonymous

    Well, by "Their Trap line-up is generally thin," I meant that you're not going to have to push through four back rows, generally, as opposed to when you're facing Stun decks.

    I've also seen the Royal Decree-based builds, and I agree that they're not too great.

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