Top 4 With Fire Fists At YCS New Jersey
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.
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
| Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear
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$2.99
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$1.20
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$0.88
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Set
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Cosmo Blazer
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Number
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CBLZ-EN024
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Level
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4
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Type
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Effect Monster
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Monster
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Beast-Warrior
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Attribute
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FIRE
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A / D
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1600 / 1200
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Rarity
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Ultra Rare
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Card Text
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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
| Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Cardinal
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$7.90
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$1.58
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$0.80
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Set
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Lord of the Tachyon Galaxy
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Number
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LTGY-EN054
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Level
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4
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Type
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Xyz/Effect Monster
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Monster
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Beast-Warrior
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Attribute
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FIRE
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A / D
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1800 / 2200
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Rarity
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Secret Rare
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Card Text
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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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