{"id":27819,"date":"2017-09-05T20:46:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T20:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/?p=27819"},"modified":"2017-09-05T20:46:30","modified_gmt":"2017-09-05T20:46:30","slug":"desiredoutcomes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/?p=27819","title":{"rendered":"[Team YGOrg] YCS Toronto Retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone, Ryan Levine here. I\u2019m a member of the Org\u2019s newly founded event team and I have the privilege to write our team\u2019s inaugural article. \u00a0This will be a departure from the Org\u2019s regularly scheduled programming, and will focus on the highest level of competitive TCG play. \u00a0Even if you have little interest in the competitive side of the game I implore you to try something new and read on. \u00a0In this article I\u2019d like to talk about the deck I piloted to a top 16 finish at YCS Toronto last week, the state of the game as a whole, what goes into preparing for an event, and how to analyze and learn from the things you do wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is the deck profile I recorded for the Ygorganization YouTube channel:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JOovpqAeti4&t=<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Decklist:<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main (41)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Monsters (13):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Maxx “C”<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Ramram<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Ratpier<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Thoroughblade<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Whiptail<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Spells (20):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Disciples of the True Dracophoenix<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Dragonic Diagram<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Fire Formation – Tenki<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Raigeki<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Shuffle Reborn<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Soul Charge<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Terraforming<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0True Draco Heritage<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Barrage<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Traps (8):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Dimensional Barrier<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Skill Drain<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0True Draco Apocalypse<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0True King’s Return<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Combo<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extra (15)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Abyss Dweller<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Daigusto Emeral<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Missus Radiant<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Boarbow<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Broadbull<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Chakanine<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Drident<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Hammerkong<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Zoodiac Tigermortar<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Side (15)<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Zaphion, the Timelord<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a03x \u00a0\u00a0Cosmic Cyclone<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Dark Hole<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Floodgate Trap Hole<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a01x \u00a0\u00a0Imperial Order<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a02x \u00a0\u00a0Magic Deflector<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

DECK CHOICE:<\/b><\/p>\n

This may seem obvious, but you can\u2019t begin to think about what cards go into your deck until you decide what deck you\u2019re going to play. \u00a0I identified 3 decks as \u201cviable\u201d for this event (viable meaning I believe they had a chance to win the event) with one very close behind the top 3, and I\u2019d like to briefly explain what those decks were, and why I did or did not choose to play them.<\/span><\/p>\n

True King Dinosaur:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This was the straggler I mentioned, not quite in the top 3 but very close. \u00a0This deck obviously has some very powerful combos but I don\u2019t think it does too many unfair things without Diagram, and if drawing Diagram was a requirement for my deck to be good I would like to be searching Master Peace, not Lithosagym. In addition, Zoodiac is so absurdly powerful it would take a lot to justify not playing them and I don\u2019t think they really fit in this deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pure True Draco:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This deck I acknowledged had a lot of potential, but again suffered from the lack of Zoodiac cards in the same way dinosaurs do. \u00a0I believed there COULD be a way to consistently beat Zoo with this deck if I approached the deck building in a different manner but did not have enough time and probably lacked the ingenuity to do so. \u00a0Basically, I identified problems the deck had but could not figure out how to solve them. \u00a0As it turned out, Joshua Schmidt played a truly unique build of pure True Draco to 3<\/span>rd<\/span> place at YCS Rimini by solving these problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pure Zoodiac:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

After a shocking defeat at the NA WCQ, Zoodiac managed to win both ARG Circuit events after Link summoning went into effect last month, despite the True Draco hybrid variant being theoretically better suited to the new rules, and I had to ask myself why. \u00a0The most obvious reason is because the deck is still very, very strong – possibly even the most dominant deck the game has ever seen – and the Link rules did not hinder it much at all. Link summoning also invalidated a counter to the deck, Flying \u201cC\u201d, as you can now simply link summon a missus radiant using it as a material. \u00a0I also believe after True Draco Zoo did so well at the NA WCQ, people began maining cards and setting up their turn 1 plays to be better suited to that matchup than pure Zoodiac, such as summoning Abyss Dwellers blindly in game 1s and cutting Dimensional Barrier from the main deck. \u00a0Now that the deck had proven itself to be just as good, if not better, after Links, I believed things would revert to their pre WCQ status; main decks geared towards pure Zoodiac. \u00a0Now, the existence of Dimensional Barrier would not be enough to dissuade me from playing pure Zoodiac if it were in fact still the best deck; that honor goes to a card that recently surged in popularity: Floodgate Trap Hole. \u00a0I felt this card created scenarios where you sometimes just can\u2019t play around it and are locked out of the game until you draw an out. Additionally, I did not think there were too many cards that outed floodgate trap hole and did something productive enough to justify putting it in my deck. \u00a0Shuffle Reborn and Enemy Controller were the only ones I could think of, and that just wasn\u2019t enough for me. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

True Draco Zoo:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

In incredibly simple terms, I considered this a Zoodiac deck that doesn\u2019t lose to floodgate trap hole, can sometimes play through dimensional barrier, and is a little bit more powerful, but sacrifices some consistency. \u00a0As previously mentioned, I believed most of the field would be geared towards pure Zoodiac, not the True Draco variant, giving it an additional advantage. I too believe pure Zoodiac would be the most represented deck, so in the end I decided on True Draco Zoo built to beat pure Zoodiac.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

CARD CHOICE:<\/b><\/p>\n

Most of the deck list is pretty standard so I\u2019ll only talk specifics about the more unorthodox cards. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pot of Desires:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Although it doesn\u2019t seem like much at first glance, the lack of Pot of Desires is probably the most defining characteristic of this deck. \u00a0The theory behind cutting Pot of Desires is extreme, and I by no means am certain it is correct, but I will present the thoughts behind the decision in their entirety and allow you to make your own decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pot of Desires has seen near constant play since its release in TDIL, and for good reason. It is obviously an incredibly powerful card; Draw 2 cards with no immediately tangible downside, provided your deck can consistently support having 10 cards randomly removed. \u00a0One of the only decks that has not played Pot of Desires has been pure Zoodiac before the F\/L which semi-limited ratpier. \u00a0Before this list the deck was entirely dependent on summoning all 3 Ratpiers in one turn, nearly every turn, and if even one were to be banished from Pot of Desires you would be at a severe disadvantage in a mirror match where your opponent would still have access to all 3 of their Ratpiers. \u00a0In this unique circumstance the existence of Ratpier in your deck (or more realistically on your field) was roughly equal to a +1 every turn as it allowed you to summon a near infinite number of Daigusto Emeral, albeit once per turn. \u00a0Pot of Desires provides a +1 the turn it is activated, but if removing even one of the Ratpiers in your deck meant you were no longer making a free Emeral every turn you would be breaking even the turn you played it, as you were no longer getting the +1 from Emeral, and losing a +1 every subsequent turn. \u00a0This interaction is pretty unique and most top decks since Desires\u2019 printing (Blue eyes, ABC, Paleozoic, etc.) have been constructed of largely 3-of cards where banishing only one copy wouldn\u2019t cripple you. \u00a0Banishing all 3 copies of Blue-Eyes White Dragon would be a problem for a Blue-Eyes deck, but the odds of banishing all 3 copies of a card with Pot of Desires is barely over 1%, compared to over 60% to banish 1 copy of a 3-of. \u00a0These numbers aren\u2019t exact as you could also draw or search for a card before activating desires, but it should demonstrate the vast differences in probability between these concepts. \u00a0These numbers only matter for searchable cards. \u00a0If you banish an unsearchable 1-of such as Raigeki or Soul Charge with Pot of Desires it doesn\u2019t matter unless you draw every single card in your deck as far as probability is concerned, as it was equally likely to be in your top 10 as it was to be the absolute bottom card of your deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

In which category does Draco Zoo fall? I would argue it falls somewhere in the middle, and you can build it to fit either one, and each provides their own advantages and disadvantages. \u00a0In my deck without desires I played 1 copy of Master Peace and only 3 True Draco traps. \u00a0Master Peace is not a card you want to draw multiple copies of, is easily searchable with Dragonic Diagram once you actually want to summon it, and usually ends the game when it is summoned; this makes multiple copies unnecessary. \u00a0The only reason you would need multiple copies would be to reduce the chances of banishing all copies with Pot of Desires. \u00a0Similarly, you want to draw 1 or 0 True Draco traps in your opening hand and would much rather search them with Dinomight Knight, so 2-3 traps is the best way to facilitate this. \u00a0Although I did end up playing 2 copies of Disciples of the True Dracophoenix I believe I could have played only one. \u00a0Without the threat of Pot of Desires banishing your only copy, one may be all you need, and you\u2019d rather have True Draco Heritage in most cases. \u00a0I believe these ratios provide the most consistent version of the deck by cutting down on the number of cards you don\u2019t want to see in your opening hands while keeping the core win conditions of the deck intact. <\/span><\/p>\n

The most common Draco Zoo decks you may see, which include Pot of Desires, play 2-3 Master Peace, 4-5 True Draco traps, 2-3 Disciples, and sometimes a few additional zoo monsters such as a 3<\/span>rd<\/span> copy of Ramram or a Bunnyblast. \u00a0They dilute their deck with multiple copies of cards, which I believe to be unnecessary, to mitigate the downside of Pot of Desires. \u00a0This brings me to my main argument: is it worth playing Pot of Desires if it means you must make your deck worse? \u00a0If the answer is yes, then how much worse can you make your deck before it starts outweighing the benefits of Pot of Desires? In these examples, I believe their decks to between 4 and 6 cards worse than what I deem to be the optimal numbers. Is that too much? Good enough? I don\u2019t think there is a hard rule like \u201c5 cards worse is too much\u201d and it varies from deck to deck, but for this event I decided that was enough and I would rather have what I deemed to be an overall more consistent deck by removing Pot of Desires and the filler cards that went with it.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Skill Drain:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

This card has seen quite a bit of play in pure True Draco but, to the best of my knowledge, it has not seen play in True Draco Zoo. \u00a0As I mentioned previously, I wanted to build a True Draco Zoo deck that was built to beat pure Zoodiac, and this card does just that. \u00a0Skill Drain is uniquely powerful against Zoodiac in a manner similar to Dimensional Barrier: The Zoodiac xyz monsters have 0 attack. \u00a0Assuming you dodge S\/T removal and play around their Drident, you can draw Skill Drain when you go second and it will not only negate your opponent\u2019s Zoo\u2019s effects, but will remove their attack points as well. This buys you a few turns to draw into a way to flip an otherwise unwinnable game. \u00a0Another aspect of the card that made it so powerful was people didn\u2019t expect to see it in a Zoo deck, and rarely played around it. \u00a0The most common use for Skill Drain was setting it alongside Drident and a True Draco monster, using both of my monster\u2019s effects before shutting down their turn with skill drain, then tributing skill drain for a second True Draco to turn my Zoodiac cards back on and OTK. \u00a0None of my opponents were ready to face a game 1 Skill Drain and I didn\u2019t lose a game I drew it, going 1<\/span>st<\/span> or 2<\/span>nd<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

FUTURE CHANGES:<\/b><\/p>\n

Put simply, I don\u2019t believe my deck was perfect by any means and these are the changes I would like to make.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ignis Heat:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

For the most part I believe deck building should be based on theory, not playtesting. \u00a0This means you shouldn\u2019t cut a card or add a card to your deck because you played a couple games where it was good or bad, you must be able to see the overall effectiveness of cards in the long term and against the field of decks you expect to play against. Even the best plans go awry, and the way I used Ignis Heat in this deck was one of those times.<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not saying Ignis Heat is a bad card, but I built my deck, and more specifically side deck, around it in the wrong way. \u00a0I built my side deck assuming Ignis was good going second against pure Zoodiac, Draco Zoo, and pure True Draco; as well as being decent going first against Draco Zoo and pure True Draco. \u00a0It turned out this was not the case, and Ignis performed very poorly going first against anything, and was mediocre even going second against pure Zoodiac. \u00a0One of our future articles will talk about side decking, but basically what this meant for me that my entire side deck plan, what goes in and what comes out, was entirely incorrect for every matchup and I had to come up with a new plan in the middle of the tournament. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, this was my original side deck plan for going first in the Draco Zoo mirror:<\/span><\/p>\n

Going first:<\/span><\/p>\n

OUT:<\/span><\/p>\n

2X Shuffle Reborn<\/span><\/p>\n

1X Skill Drain<\/span><\/p>\n

1X Dimensional Barrier<\/span><\/p>\n

IN:<\/span><\/p>\n

1X Dinomight Knight<\/span><\/p>\n

2X Magic Deflector<\/span><\/p>\n

1X Imperial Order<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When building my side deck I did not believe I had very many cards I wanted to side out against the mirror, so I did not include a large number of cards meant for going first against Draco Zoo. As I realized later in the tournament I did not want multiple Ignis Heat in my deck going first, even against the mirror, my side outs jumped from 4 to 6 or 7. \u00a0It was not a complete disaster, as quite a few of my side deck cards can potentially be slotted in going first or second in the matchup, such as Cosmic Cyclone and Ghost Ogre. However, it was far from ideal, and in hindsight I would have included a 3<\/span>rd<\/span> Magic Deflector in my side deck at the very least had I understood I needed more cards to fill that role. \u00a0Going forward I would not main deck 3 copies of Ignis Heat, and this would also lend itself to cutting a True Draco spell.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shuffle Reborn:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Shuffle reborn is a card commonly played in pure Zoodiac, but not often in Draco Zoo. We decided to play it in this deck primarily to beat ghost ogre on our rat when going first, and thought it provided more utility going second than something like my body as a shield or pianissimo would. \u00a0As it turned out, ghost ogre saw less and less play and the primary reason we played the card was basically nonexistent. \u00a0I was not entirely unhappy with this card, but 1 copy could very easily be cut to bring the main deck total to 40, or another card entirely could occupy that slot.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disciples of the True Dracophoenix:<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I mentioned this briefly as part of my Desires discussion, but I would like to talk about it a little more in depth. \u00a0This is a card I could not evaluate entirely on theory, and I needed to play a number of matches with the deck to completely understand its usefulness. \u00a0In theory getting 3 True Draco cards into your graveyard seems very easy; in fact, just tribute summoning either Ignis or Dinomight using a Draco spell\/trap and then resolving their effects gets you 3 True Draco cards right there. The problem with this theory, I found, is that the game usually lasts just long enough to resolve Disciples once, but never twice. \u00a0If you have put 6 True Draco cards into your graveyard in the same game you are either attacking for game the turn your second set of 3 hits the grave or your opponent has broken your board 2-3 times and you have already lost. \u00a0Games in this format do not usually go long enough to support Disciples shuffling back Disciples to \u2018go infinite\u2019 with your True Draco cards, and because of this I do not believe the second copy of Disciples is necessary. This is especially true if 1-2 copies of Ignis Heat are cut from the deck.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it and learned something! When the next F\/L list is revealed and the new competitive season heats up expect more articles from myself as well as the rest of the team. \u00a0Any feedback is welcomed, as this is a new process for us and we\u2019re trying to provide the best content we possibly can.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey everyone, Ryan Levine here. I\u2019m a member of the Org\u2019s newly founded event team and I have the privilege to write our team\u2019s inaugural article. \u00a0This will be a departure from the Org\u2019s regularly scheduled programming, and will focus on the highest level of competitive TCG play. \u00a0Even if you have little interest in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":27240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,8,20,214,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deckbuild","8":"category-events","9":"category-konami-events","10":"category-opinion-pieces","11":"category-tcg-decklist"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.ygorganization.com\/2017\/08\/ycs_logo-1.png?wsr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56434,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27819\/revisions\/56434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ygorganization.com\/staging\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}