Top 4 With Fire Fists At YCS New Jersey

Galo Orbea

5/22/2013 4:02:00 PM
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Hello everyone, my name is Galo Orbea, and I'm glad to be able to share my top 4 experience at YCS Meadowlands. It was great to top again after I got to the Top 16 in YCS Austin. Before I begin, I'd like to give a shout out to Nick Testa, Allen Fung, Bowen Huo, David Wu, Kenny Ortiz, Gabriel Trevino, Carlos Fernandez, and Gabriel Hernandez for helping me test and choose what I was going to run.
After my Top 16 finish in Austin, my obvious first option was Atlantean Mermail. Two weeks prior to the event, I play tested with Nick Testa and I felt I was at a disadvantage. At first, he dominated the Atlantean Mermail matchup with his Fire Fist build and triple Debunk in the side. Then, I tried playing Dino Fist and the risk of running another set of Normal Monsters was just too high compared to the reward of a possible Evolzar Xyz.

By the end of the day, I felt like Fire Fists were right for New Jersey. I tested siding the Debunks; they seemed superior to Dimensional Fissure in the Prophecy and Monarch matchups. In theory, against Atlantean Mermail it would keep them guessing and would serve the purpose of multiple Solemn Warnings. In the end, when choosing a deck for the event I was choosing between losing games to Heavy Storm (Fire Fist) or losing games to not drawing backrow removal (Atlantean Mermail).

Friday night I wrote up pros and cons about the two decks and in the end Fire Fist seemed to be the better deck to play. I fixed the Side Deck, swapped the second Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla for a Cardcar D and wrote up the deck list. We slept for seven hours, planning to endure a long Day 1.

Fire Fist Rabbit Galo Guillermo Orbea Davila
Location:  YCS - 2013-5-12 Meadowlands New Jersey - 3rd - 4th Place
Main Deck	Side Deck
3 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear 1 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla 1 Cardcar D 3 Gene-Warped Warwolf 2 Reborn Tengu 2 Rescue Rabbit Monsters [12] 1 Dark Hole 3 Fire Formation - Tenki 1 Fire Formation - Tensu 2 Forbidden Lance 1 Heavy Storm 1 Monster Reborn 3 Mystical Space Typhoon 2 Pot of Duality Spells [14] 2 Bottomless Trap Hole 3 Dimensional Prison 3 Fiendish Chain 2 Mirror Force 1 Solemn Judgment 1 Solemn Warning 2 Torrential Tribute Traps [14] Deck Total [40]	2 Banisher of the Radiance 2 Breakthrough Skill 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device 3 Dimensional Fissure 2 Dust Tornado 2 Soul Taker 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh Side Deck [15] EXTRA DECK 2 Abyss Dweller 2 Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King 1 Daigusto Emeral 1 Diamond Dire Wolf 1 Gagaga Cowboy 1 Gem-Knight Pearl 2 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn 1 Number 16: Shock Master 1 Number 39: Utopia 1 Number 50: Blackship of Corn 1 Photon Papilloperative 1 Steelswarm Roach Extra Deck [15]
Notes:

On Day 1 we got to the convention center at around 9 AM. I handed in my deck list and walked around until the tournament started.

Round 1 - Disaster DragonsGame 1: A well-timed Solemn Warning on my opponent's Stardust Dragon gave me enough momentum to win.

Game 2: My Heavy Storm cleared his backrows and let me cycle through Fire Formation - Tenkis and Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bears.

1-0

Round 2 - Atlantean Mermail
Game 1: My opponent set Heavy Storm first turn and it paid off after I set three backrows.

Game 2: I opened with Dimensional Fissure and Reborn Tengu. Again he activated Heavy Storm, but I stopped it with Solemn Judgment.

Game 3: I used Pot of Duality to get Dimensional Fissure and set a backrow. For the third time my opponent used Heavy Storm! I came back with another Dimensional Fissure and defensive traps.

2-0

Round 3 - Atlantean Mermail
Game 1: I had an Abyss Dweller to my opponent's one card in hand, but he drew Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord off the top, activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy my facedown Fiendish Chain, and then dropped the Moulinglacia to take control of the game.

Games 2 and 3: I remember having Dimensional Fissure or Dweller controlling the game.

3-0

Round 4 - Macro Rabbit
Game 1: This was a total grind game where my opponent was left with a Leviair the Sea Dragon with one Xyz Material, and I had a set Mirror Force. I drew into Cardcar D, summoned it and used its effect to draw into Forbidden Lance and Pot of Duality. Next turn he used Leviair's effect to Summon Sabersaurus and tried to attack for game, but ran into my Mirror Force.

Game 2: Another grind game, I ended up topdecking Fire Formation - Tenki. I guess Fire Fist have stronger topdecks than Dino Rabbit.

4-0

Round 5 - Infernity (Patrick Hoban)
Games 1 and 2: I drew two Gene-Warped Warwolfs and Rescue Rabbit, but hey, it happens. Both games I summoned the Wolf and set my hand. I wasted a couple resources attempting to stop his play, but he protected his Infernity Necromancers and in the end, I had no outs to them.

4-1

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Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear $8.95 $1.79 $0.56

Set	Cosmo Blazer
Number	CBLZ-EN024
Level	4
Type	Effect Monster
Monster	Beast-Warrior
Attribute	FIRE
A / D	1600 / 1200
Rarity	Ultra Rare
Card Text	Once per turn, when this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can Set 1 "Fire Formation" Spell Card directly from your Deck. Once per turn: You can send 1 face-up "Fire Formation" Spell/Trap Card you control to the Graveyard to target 1 monster on the field; destroy that target.
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Round 6 - Evilswarm
Game 1: I used Heavy Storm on my opponent's four backrows and played Fire Formation - Tenki into Bear.

Game 2: Tenki is just a great card against Evilswarm when they don't have a way to stop Bear.

5-1

Round 7 - Constellar (Nicole Tipple)
Game 1: Another grind game, I controlled her Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear by making Maestroke the Symphony Djinn.

Game 2: She beat me by stealing my monsters with Memory of an Adversary.

Game 3: I beat Nicole in time because of a topdecked Tenki. I also got some Starstrike Blast packs because Nicole was a bounty duelist, and I pulled a Droll and Lock Bird.

6-1

Round 8 - Atlantean Mermail
Game 1: My opponent discarded a monster that would activate in the graveyard to Summon Mermail Abyssteus, so I detached a material from Abyss Dweller to stop the grave effect. He added Mermail Abysslinde to his hand with Abyssteus's effect. He thought for a while, then Summoned the Abysslinde. His Abyssteus hit my Dimensional Prison, and then he misplayed when he attacked my Abyss Dweller with the Mermail Abysslinde, forgetting that I had activated Dweller's effect.

Game 2: I saved my Solemn Judgment by letting him make a Mermail Abyssmegalo play with Armory Arm to bring me down to 300 Life Points. Then I popped his 'megalo with Bear and ended my turn with Abyss Dweller.

7-1

Round 9 - Gadgets
Game 1: I won this game because my opponent didn't draw Gadgets, and I had Forbidden Lance for his face-downs.

Game 2: He totally overwhelmed me with his Gear Gigant X searches.

Game 3: My opponent won Game 3 by topdecking Heavy Storm to destroy my Solemn Warning and Fiendish Chain.

7-2

I was excited to finish Day 1 on the bubble! I tend to enjoy the extra pressure, but I was a little worried because in these large events some X-2 records tend to miss the top cut. I re-sleeved my deck and went to sleep for five hours.

Round 10 - Shark Drake OTK
Game 1: I wasn't sure what I was playing against when my opponent's Pot of Duality revealed Spell Striker and T.G. Warwolf. A few turns later, he OTK'd me by destroying my back rows and making Number 32: Shark Drake with triple Heroic Challenger - Extra Sword, courtesy of Inferno Reckless Summon.

Game 2: I opened Rescue Rabbit into Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Tiger King to search Bear with Tenki and set four backrows.

Game 3: A clutch in-grave Breakthrough Skill allowed me to destroy a 2800 ATK Maestroke and cycle through my Bears to take the win.

Round 11 - Dino Fist
Game 1: I was able to control the game with Reborn Tengu, Maestroke and Fiendish Chain.

Game 2: My opponent opened with Fire Formation - Tenki into Tengu, Duality into Rescue Rabbit, and set two backrows. I drew Heavy Strom and my average hand became great. I destroyed his Mystical Space Typhoon and Bottomless Trap Hole, then Summoned Rescue Rabbit so that the Gene-Warped Warwolfs could take care of the Tengus. I overlaid into Tiger King, searched Tenki with Tiger King's effect, and then searched my own Tengu off of Tenki. Finally, I set a Bottomless to stop his vanillas.

9-2

I finished 9-2 but I wasn't too confident that I was going to make the top cut. Once they started to call names, I sat with some friends to hopefully hear my name called. There was no such luck, although it seemed the guy who got 32nd had a similar last name to mine. My friends tried to console me but then one of them congratulated me for squeezing into the bracket! It turns out I made it after all! I felt pretty good to get 32nd since a few X-2's didn't make the cut.

Top 32 - Atlantean Mermail (Paul Levitin)
Game 1: I started off by using Pot of Duality to fetch my third Fiendish Chain. I set two Chains and hoped he didn't draw backrow removal. He summoned Deep Sea Diva, I looked at one Chain and flipped the other. So, in that sense he would think that he successfully baited out my only Chain. Then, he discarded Mermail Abysslinde and Atlantean Marksman to Special Summon Mermail Abyssmegalo, and once it hit the field I activated the escond Chain to stop his play yet again. On my turn, I attacked Diva with Bear, searched for Tenki and popped the Abyssmegalo. By the end of the game I had a Number 16: Shock Master and a face-down Solemn Judgment to take Game 1.

Game 2: Paul beat my Banisher of the Radiance with Diva into Atlantean Heavy Infantry, Summoned Marksman, then Xyz Summoned Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. He ran over my Banisher with the boosted Marksman and I just couldn't come back.

Game 3: There was a point in the game where I had Banisher, Dimensional Fissure and two set Bottomless Trap Holes. When I ended, he activated two Dust Tornados to get rid of my face-downs and used the effect to set an Abyss-sphere which I destroyed in the End Phase with my in-hand MST. He made the same play as Game 2 with Diva and Marksman, but this time I had Dark Hole.

After surviving a few turns with Dimensional Prison I managed to get a Bear on board, and later I drew a Gene-Warped Warwolf to make Tiger King so I could search Bear and get rid of Gachi Gachi. By the end of the game he couldn't draw an out to Dimensional Fissure.

Top 16 - Wind Up (Justin Diaz)
You can read this match over in the official coverage right here.

Game 1: My opponent didn't seem to draw a good hand, and Bear plus protection controlled the game.

Game 2: I misplayed this game when I set the Compulsory Evacuation Device; I should have just passed because I had a Torrential Tribute set that he would have to get rid of to make plays.

Top 8 - Atlantean Mermail (Christian Georges)
Game 1: Abyss Dweller controlled this game, and when I had to detach its last material, I was able to make a second Dweller.

Game 2: I don't really remember how, but I lost.

Game 3: This game came to the point where he summoned Mermail Abyssmegalo by discarding Mermail Abyssgunde, bringing Mermail Abyssleed back from the grave and searching Abyss-sphere off of Abyssmegalo. He attacked with both, made Mermail Abyssgaios and set Sphere.

I had Bear, Tengu and Mystical Space Typhoon... I top decked Dark Hole! Out of the excitement I slammed it on the table, summoned Bear, and attacked to fetch Tenki to search Gene-Warped. Then I activated Mystical Space Typhoon on Sphere and popped the Abyssmegalo that the Linde brought out. He drew and summoned Atlantean Dragoons to run over Bear. I drew Dimensional Prison, summoned Gene-Warped to destroy the Dragoons, set the Prison and passed.

Top 4 - Atlantean Mermail (James Guerrero)
This was also a feature match, and you can find it here.

Game 1: He seemed like a reckless player, fearless of my backrows. At one point I couldn't Torrential to destroy most of his monsters because he made his Abyssgunde Chain Link 2. I also shouldn't have used Bottomless Trap Hole on the Abysslinde if I was going to make Dweller either way. That, and by the end of the match a judge told me that if I Fiendish Chained his Abyssmegalo on the summon of the Dragoons that he couldn't tribute it for cost, so I misplayed in that sense.

Game 2: I knew I would lose to Heavy Storm at some point during the tournament - not the best timing, but it happens.

3rd/4th - Atlantean Mermail (Andrew Fredella)
My last Feature Match, you can read it here.

Game 1: I just couldn't draw into useful monsters.

Game 2: His set Bottomless Trap Holes and Solemn Warning, putting me under a ton of pressure and ending up beating me.

Side-Decking (some choices depend on who starts the game)
Fire Fist have better Games 2 and 3, so they basically win through their Side Deck. The Main Deck isn't that versatile, but the Xyz toolbox helped against most everything I played against. Side Decking doesn't affect the synergy of the deck except for Banisher of the Radiance stopping you from sending Fire Formations to the graveyard. Here's how I sided for each matchup...

Atlantean Mermail:
Out: Cardcar D; Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla; 2 Forbidden Lance; Heavy Storm' 2 Torrential Tribute
In: 2 Banisher of the Radiance; 3 Dimensional Fissure; 2 Soul Taker

Fire Fist:
Out: Cardcar D; Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla; 1 Pot of Duality
In: 2 Breakthrough Skill; 2 Dust Tornado

Dino Rabbit:
Out: Cardcar D; Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla; Fire Formation - Tensu; 3 Fiendish Chain
In: 2 Breakthrough Skill; 2 Dust Tornado; 2 Soul Taker

Infernity:
Out: Cardcar D; Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla; 2 Forbidden Lance; 2 Pot of Duality; 3 Dimensional Prison; 2 Mirror Force
In: 2 Breakthrough Skill; 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device; 3 Dimensional Fissure; 2 Dust Tornado; 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

Evilswarm:
Out: Cardcar D; Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Gorilla; 2 Pot of Duality
In: 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device; 2 Dust Tornado

Wind Up:
Out: Cardcar D; Fire Formation - Tensu; 2 Pot of Duality; Forbidden Lance; Dimensional Prison
In: 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device; 2 Dust Tornado; 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh

If I were to continue playing this deck after Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy, I would try to fit in two Tour Guide From the Underworld and fix the Extra Deck to accommodate Rank 3 Xyz as well as Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Cardinal. Throughout the tournament I just noticed how important Number 16: Giga-Brillant is to pump up the Banisher. Finally to be honest, I don't think I'll be touching this deck for a while. I'll either play Dragon Rulers or Evilswarm with Main Deck decks against Prophecy and Dragon Rulers.

Thanks for reading my report, I hope you enjoyed it! It was a pretty good weekend, and I'll see you guys in Chicago at the WCQ!

-Galo Orbea

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Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Cardinal $11.40 $2.28 $0.98

Set	Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy
Number	LTGY-EN054
Level	4
Type	Xyz/Effect Monster
Monster	Beast-Warrior
Attribute	FIRE
A / D	1800 / 2200
Rarity	Secret Rare
Card Text	2 Level 3 "Fire Fist" monsters // You can detach 2 Xyz Materials from this card, then target 2 “Fire Fist” / “Fire Formation” cards in your Graveyard and/or face-up on your side of the field, and 2 cards in your opponent’s Graveyard and/or face-up on their side of the field; shuffle those targets into the Deck. You can only use the effect of “Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Cardinal” once per turn.
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