Starter Deck Tournament Winners
If you’re looking for new tournament formats, then the Public Events at the Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series is a great place to start your search! New events like Tin Challenges and Retro Draft tend to debut at big tournament weekends like this one, and Duelists here in Toronto were the first to compete in all-new Starter Deck Tournaments. How did it work? Simple:
-The tournament was an eight-Duelist single elimination competition.
-Each competitor played the same Deck: a fresh-out-of-the-box copy of Starter Deck: Dawn of the Xyz.
-Everybody got to keep their Deck, and the winner of each eight-Duelist tournament took home an all-new Game Mat, exclusive to Starter Deck Tournaments:
Pretty sweet, huh?! We took a few minutes to sit down with the winner of each Starter Deck Tournament in Day 1 to ask them what they thought of the event format; the prize mat; and their tactics. Without further ado, here are your Starter Deck Tournament winners!
Twenty-one year-old Justin Dizazzo won the first Starter Deck Tournament Saturday morning. Hailing from Montreal, Dizazzo joined the tournament because, in his words, “it looked fun! I knew the prize was a new Game Mat, but I was really just looking for something new to try.” His opponents? “Mostly experienced players.” Starter Deck Tournaments are cool because new Duelists and old veterans alike can compete on the same footing, but on Saturday the field was mostly experienced Duelists like Dizazzo; players that were eager to try a new way of Dueling, and who were hyped to score a never-before-seen prize.
If you ripped your Starter Decks open just to get to Number 39: Utopia and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu, you might be surprised at how many combos and clever plays are possible in this kind of tournament. Dizazzo’s favorite? “I used Reinforce Truth a lot. It lets you Special Summon Level 2 Warriors like Vengeful Shinobi, so you can pair that Level 2 with another one like Tenshin. Then you can Xyz Summon Gachi Gachi.” Summoning the Rank 2 Xyz was Dizazzo’s favorite play: “Once Gachi Gachi’s on the field, he’s almost impossible to destroy. You have to draw something like Raigeki Break to get rid of it, so my Gachi Gachi was almost un-killable.”
And if he wanted to go even bigger? “I got Number 39: Utopia on the field almost every game,” said Dizazzo. “I’d just Summon a Level 4 monster, and use cards like Mirror Force or Swords of Revealing Light to protect it. Or I could use a recruiter, too, like Shining Angel; Giant Rat; or Warrior Lady of the Wasteland.” All three of those monsters are Level 4’s themselves, and each can Special Summon another Level 4 when they’re destroyed by battle. They make it really easy to Xyz Summon, bringing out a monster of whichever Level you need most.
Dizazzo’s verdict on the event? “It was really entertaining, and this is a sick mat!”
Our next triumphant Duelist was fifteen year-old North Alton, from Grand Prairie, Alberta. “My friends were still playing in the main event of the YCS,” he explained, “and the Starter Deck Tournament was something to do! The chances of winning a Game Mat seemed pretty good.” Alton laughed. “I was like, ‘There’s a definite possibility I could win this!’”
How did Alton find the competition? “The first round was kind of easy, but it got harder and harder as the tournament continued along. It was fun! You play a lot of monsters you don’t normally play with, and you get into a lot of topdecking.” Alton’s winning plan? “A lot of the Xyz support helped. Whenever you’d Xyz Summon and have something like Xyz Energy or Xyz Effect, you’d usually win.” Xyz Energy is a Normal Spell Card that allows you to detach an Xyz Material to destroy an opposing face-up monster. It’s great in a format like this one, where the biggest monster tends to dominate the field, and simple removal like Bottomless Trap Hole and Dimensional Prison is hard to come by. Xyz Effect is a Trap Card that lets you destroy any card on the field when you Xyz Summon, so it’s very similar.
“My main go-to card was Blade Knight,” commented Alton. “The ATK boost was really powerful!” His MVP Xyz Monster? “Grenosaurus is the one I got out the most, usually with Feedback Warrior. If I could keep any monster on the field, I could drop Feedback Warrior and change that monster’s level. Then I could stack them to Xyz Summon Grenosaurus.” And what did Alton think of winning a Grenosaurus mat to go with his big Dinosaur plays? “The mat’s really nice! It looks great!”
Our last Starter Deck Tournament winner on Saturday was nineteen year-old Nick Fraser, from Red Deer, Alberta. “My friends made me do it!” laughed Fraser. “They told me I should enter because the mat looks nice, and I need another Utopia anyways, so I went for it.” What did he like about the event? “Everyone was on the same level, using the same Deck. Oh, and I really liked the fact that I won! That made me feel better about dropping from the YCS.”
Fraser’s shared a few tips that helped him win: “I could Summon Trident Warrior to Special Summon Shine Knight, and then the Knight’s effect would turn it into a Level 4. From there I could Xyz Summon Utopia. Holding onto Fissure and Raigeki Break until I really needed them to clear out big monsters was vital to my strategy, too.” His favorite combo? “Definitely The Warrior Returning Alive, to send back Utopia!” By returning Utopia to his Extra Deck, Fraser could Xyz Summon it more than once in a single Duel, and really go the distance against his opponents. “I did it, like, four times!”
Fraser also had alot to say about Gachi Gachi Gantetsu: “He just sits there blocking, and he’s great. I’d use Reinforce Truth in my opponent’s End Phase to bring out a Level 2 monster, and then I’d Summon another Level 2 on the next turn. If that didn’t work, and my monsters were destroyed before I could Xyz Summon, I could bring them back with Speed Bird.” The Bird is a Level 4 monster that lets you Special Summon 2 Level 2’s from your Graveyard when Speed Bird is destroyed by battle and sent to the Graveyard. The monsters you Special Summon lose their effects, but that doesn’t stop you from stacking them to Xyz Summon Gachi Gachi. Fraser grinned: “For the Aspiring Ojama player, hey! There you go!”
Starter Deck Tournaments are really easy to play, and they offer a form of competition that’s unlike any other in the Yugiverse: one where Deck building doesn’t matter, and it’s all about the on-table action. You won’t find the Grenosaurus Game Mat anywhere else, so it’s a great chance to pick up a cool new prize, too. If you find yourself playing in the Public Events of a YCS any time soon, keep an eye out for this new kind of tournament.
