So, I was thinking about using Karakuri, since the deck seems good. So, I made a Karakuri deck and tested a little bit with it. It sucks. I don't know how Karakuri decks do so well at big events; they're so combo oriented and there are some situations where you just can't do anything at all for turns at a time just because you drew an awkward hand. So, I just fixed up my T.G. Zombies Side Deck and took that deck to locals... We'll probably be seeing the Karakuri deck in some duel videos, eventually, though.
There were 23 players there today with only four or five regulars. On the upside, there were only a few little kids. But, who do I have to play against first...?
Round 1: vs Newbie Evil HEROes
So maybe he wasn't a little kid, but he was a newb. I OTK'd him with his own Evil HERO Dark Gaia in the first duel and ran him through with Trishula on the second duel.
Round 2: vs Dino-Rabbit
Normally, I would call it Rabbit Laggia, but it's also based around Dolkka in the TCG. By the way, this was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.
-Duel 1: He opened with no Monsters and played defensively. I wasn't really able to make a push, so I just waited until he made a random push with Brionac (he stole my X-Saber Pashuul with Mind Control). I responded with Gorz, and he had to waste his Smashing Ground. I had the T.G. Striker and Warwolf to make Ally of Justice Catastor and kill the Brionac. I held out behind that Catastor for a while, but he had his own Gorz, which destroyed my Catastor. Trishula got rid of his Gorz and I ran him through with that.
-Duel 2: He opened with Rescue Rabbit to Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia and Set a couple cards. I attempted to Special Summon Striker, but he used Solemn Warning. So, I just Set Warwolf and Dust Tornado. He summoned and attacked with Sangan to destroy Warwolf and with Laggia directly. I Chained Dust Tornado, hitting his Torrential Tribute, so that I could drop Gorz. I searched another Striker with Warwolf's effect in the End Phase and ran over Laggia with Gorz, leaving my Token in Defense Position and Setting Call of the Haunted. He summoned Tour Guide to grab a second one and make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. He detached a Tour Guide to boost Leviathan Dragon's ATK, then dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. He attacked Gorz with BLS, then my Token with Leviathan Dragon. He tried to attack with BLS again, but I pointed out that it couldn't use its second attack since he already attacked with his Leviathan Dragon. I took 1000 damage from Sangan, though. I Special Summoned my Striker, Normal Summoned Goblin Zombie, and Special Summoned Warwolf with Call of the Haunted to make Trishula. That banished his BLS and a Kabazauls from his Graveyard, but he didn't have any cards in hand to banish. I tried to run over Leviathan Dragon, but he flipped Magic Cylinder. He used Leviathan Dragon's effect to boost it to 3000 ATK and run over Trishula. I made a Brionac with my third Striker and the Goblin Zombie I searched after Synchro Summoning Trishula. That let me search Mezuki, which I pitched to bounce the Leviathan Dragon. From there, it was draw-pass-draw-pass, since I didn't want to kill the Sangan and let him grab another Rescue Rabbit. We weren't really building up resources, however, since I kept drawing into Mystical Space Typhoons and Dust Tornadoes to destroy the back rows he kept drawing. After a while, I drew a Caius and tributed Brionac to summon it and banish Sangan. He dropped Gorz off of the 1000 damage, burning me for 1000. I sent a card from my hand (Snowman Eater) to the top of my deck for Plaguespreader Zombie so that I could make a Scrap Dragon and run over the Gorz. From there, I continued to destroy what few cards he had left, and I rode that Scrap Dragon to victory.
Playing against Dino-Rabbits isn't as bad as I thought, I suppose. It would still horrible to lose to them, though, since it's a luck deck like Six Samurai or Lightsworn...
Round 3: vs Macro Cosmos Stun
-Duel 1: He drew the perfect hand to counter my hand. He almost OTK'd me, but I blocked with Gorz. I kept the 2700 Token (he Trishula'd me...) in Defense Position to block, but he topped Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind to kill me.
-Duel 2: I drew four of my five Spell/Trap destruction cards over the course of the duel to keep his Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos off of the field. He couldn't do much without them.
-Duel 3: He made a passive play with Reborn Tengu and one back row. I summoned Zombie Master to run it over and Set a back row. He drew into Dimensional Fissure and played it. I ran over the second Tengu, and the third was in his hand. He drew a D.D. Survivor to crash with my Zombie Master, though. I held the Survivor off for a bit with Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. He drew into a Dimensional Prison to get rid of my Gaia Knight, but I drew into a Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Dimensional Fissure. From there, he Set a bunch of Monsters, and I wanted to used Torrential Tribute, but I was worried he had Starlight Road. Under the assumption that he had Starlight Road, I just pushed through the two Monsters, making a Leviair with my Spirit Reaper and T.G. Warwolf to grab his banished D.D. Warrior Lady. Leviair got removed by a Dimensional Prison, but the Warrior Lady ran over a Set Gale. I ran over his other Set Monster next turn, and it turned out to be Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, which destroyed the Warrior Lady. With my field cleared, I was ready to make Trishula with the usual Striker, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie, but he used Debunk on Warwolf. So, I settled for making Brionac and pushing for a little damage with that. He was able to kill the Brionac with Dark Hole, however, and I just Set a couple of Snowman Eaters over the next few turns, while he apparently didn't draw playable Monsters (that's what happens when you play Guardian Eatos). He eventually summoned Deep Sea Diva to make Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I Flip Summoned both Snowman Eaters to get rid of Gantetsu's Xyz Materials, then summoned Striker to make Scrap Dragon and push for game.
Round 4: vs Gadget Stun
-Duel 1: He drew all of his Smashing Grounds/Fissures to keep killing my Monsters, but I was able to defend myself well enough with Traps so that I didn't die to a Gadget swarm. That gave me the time to outsearch him with my T.G.'s and Goblin Zombies and such. I was able to make a Scrap Dragon and push for game with that.
-Duel 2: I only drew a couple of Traps over the course of the duel, and he beat me down with his Gadgets, Doomcaliber Knights, and seemingly endless Smashing Grounds/Fissures.
-Duel 3: I drew even less Traps than last time (one) and the outcome was the same as the second duel. He just kept drawing Smashing Grounds and Fissures...
Round 5: vs Agent Fairies
I was paired down, so that was kind of disappointing. However, I was paired up against someone really nice, and we had a fun duel (not a "Happy Duel"--there was no crazy Johan OTK... um, actually, now that I think about it...).
-Duel 1: Apparently, he drew two Mystical Shine Balls and no Agents, so I beat him down with Zombies. He dropped BLS, but Torrential Tribute dealt with that, and he had no follow-up.
-Duel 2: Apparently, he drew all three Mystical Shine Balls, but he broke up my hand with Trap Dustshoot (not really, it was Monster Reborn, Mind Control, Dimensional Prison, Mystical Space Typhoon, Warwolf, and Striker, and he sent back the latter). Warwolf ran over a couple of Shine Balls, but he drew into a Rai-Oh, summoned it, but declined to attack. I summoned Goblin Zombie and used Mind Control. He dropped Maxx "C", so I attacked before overlaying for Steelswarm Roach. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, which I negated with Roach, and then summoned Earth, whose effect I Veiled. He dropped BLS, and I had to use Roach's effect again. Finally, he banished the Earth on the field to drop Hyperion and banished one of the three Shine Balls from his Graveyard to destroy my only back row (Dimensional Prison). He attacked over Roach and ended with one card in hand and just Hyperion on the field. I considered my options and decided to drop my hand onto the field. I used Monster Reborn on Goblin Zombie, and he Chained Maxx "C". Ha ha, I was actually happy that he did that. In response to Goblin Zombie's Special Summon, I dropped another Warwolf. I overlaid the two Warwolves for Leviair and used its effect to Special Summon his banished Earth. I Normal Summoned Zombie Master and Synchro Summoned Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using it, Goblin Zombie, and Earth. I searched Mezuki with Goblin Zombie and Set my MST. Because of Maxx "C", he had drawn five cards--five cards that I could see with Decisive Armor's third effect. It turns out that he had drawn into Hyperion, Venus, and Kristya with only 4500 LP left. Yay, Decisive Armor!
So I ended up going 4-1, but because of lackluster tiebreakers, I was the lowest 4-1 (4th place). Today's prizes were only for the Top 3, so that was really disappointing... The Turbo Pack wasn't even good (another Zombie Master...).
Oh well. I guess I'll just try again tomorrow.
Karakuri is a very combo oriented deck, and while it doesn't suck imo, in my testing if my opponent veilered ninshi or stopped my combo in any way that was game.
ReplyDelete@Cameron
ReplyDeleteYeah, I even tried to make my build more control-based, but it seemed to have made it worse. So yeah, I gave up on the deck after realizing that it doesn't have as much of a control element as I thought it did.