Saturday: I wake up at an ungodly hour after having only 3 and a half hours sleep. I get ready to leave and notice that I’m 10 minutes behind schedule. I run for most of 2.5 miles I need to travel to get to the train station, downhill. Still, I miss the train I want to get by one minute. I consider leaving it and just going to locals but remember that there’s another train that gets to Exeter St. Davids at 9:51, although that was cutting it fine since the tournament started at 10:30.
3+ hours on a train later and I’m in Exeter. I catch a cab to Sidwell Street and start looking for the venue. I walk in at 10.29 and notice that people are still writing down their decklists – Eureka! I’m here on my own and notice but one face; a YCS champ who occasionally goes to my locals. Fortunately he had been to my locals a week prior and I knew this and what he was running courtesy of the locals facebook and tournament result page. Knowledge is power.
M1 G1: I win the die roll and open a Dino and 2 backrow. He opens with Upstart Ninja and I’m relieved since I can get rid of the duel rust against a deck that isn't top tier. I chain Fiendish Chain to Upstart Ninja and next turn make a Laggia. I summon Kaba and use Reborn, declared Guaiba... only to realise it isn't in my grave since Laggia still has it as material. First misplay of the day! Instead I take Upstart, make Utopia and beatdown to win.
M1 G2: I can’t remember much apart from siding out Macro and siding in Maxx “C”. He opens by setting one to each zone. I set 1 monster and 2 or 3 backrow. He flips Karakuri Sazank, I warning. He uses CoTH and I chain Maxx “C” – he seems a little frustrated by this. I just remember beating him down and eventually summoning Guaiba, getting his effect off, having Dolkka and Laggia on the field and shaking the guys hand.
Players are given 40 minutes to finish their matches and I finish with 20 on the clock, so do some scouting. End up watching Prophecy vs. Hazy Flame since it’s the last game to finish; it ends a draw. Next round is announced and I see my name on the top 3 tables vs the YCS winner. He wasn’t around for the first game so I thought he was just there to trade but it turns out he got a bye. Must be nice.
M2 G1: I won the roll and open Laggia and backrow. He plays what he did last week – Inzektors – a relatively easy matchup. I have answers for everything and he eventually scoops.
M2G2: I side out Cardcars, Snowman and I think two traps for 2 Banisher, MST, Dust and Macro. Dragonfly and Hornet shenanigans rip my field apart after he pops my Macro. Sided Messenger of Peace effects all of my monsters. I get OTK’d.
M2G3: Throughout this match he makes comments that are aimed to make me second guess my moves, and he’s damn good at it. This game was grindy; I had Macro and he had Messenger, the latter I eventually pop with MST. I keep topping traps to answer his attempts to progress (Chain, Prison, etc). He sets a monster I suspect to be Snowman but earlier he mentioned something about Reaper... Could it be? It turns out to be Reaper which is a nightmare since I don’t use Papilo and didn’t have Lance in hand. He drops Centipede and I BTH it. All I need is a lvl 4 to win (Cowboy), which I eventually draw after drawing into masses of traps. I make Cowboy and win. Handshake and break.
I go outside and talk to the Prophecy dude who has 4 points (1-1-0). Dude is cool and we play some theory-oh. I noticed the shop is right next door to Tyepyedong noodle bar, a place I thought was too far away for in the city for me to get something from. Not enough time for something now so I munch on Nik Naks and get ready for M3.
M3 G1: He's using Macro Rabbit and I win quickly and don’t remember much, must’ve been dull.
M3 G2: This game was ridiculous. Snowman Eater is the MVP of the game on both sides; I ran into it with a Laggia, he uses Laggia to attack into my Snowman and detaches material to negate it; a spectator and I am like lolwut and he facepalms. I only main 1 Snowman and don’t side another, but was able to bluff having another for a while. That “Snowman” was actually a Rescue Rabbit that had no targets in the deck. During this game I had summoned 2 Laggia, 1 Dolkka and a Zenmaines and we both had 4000+ lp; yes, it was that grindy. I draw into another Rabbit, summon it and flip summon another; the few spectators we have go nuts. I XYZ for Utopia; didn’t go Maestroke because he had used all of his Mirror Forces. I attack into Snowman and my Utopia dies to his backrow. We keep topping masses of backrow and there isn’t much time on the clock. I stop setting when I top Gorz. He has a faceup Snowman and summons Kaba, attacks me and I Lance his Snowman. “It has 0 ATK and you’re Lancing it?”. I drop teh Gorz w/ token but not even they last long. There’s 3 minutes left and he wants it to be draw but I scoop since I have little to no monsters left. It’s about now that a judge is watching us and wants G3 to happen.
M3G3: I open with 3 Prisons and since this game is going to be decided by LP, I am happy. Not much to be said apart from me getting one direct attack in, which he Lances. I walk into Snowman next turn but his attacks can’t get through; I have far too much hate. I win on LP and a few minutes later, M4 is in progress.
Matches 4, 5 and 6 I cannot remember enough to write about. These guys used Fire Fist and I lost the tie roll to all of them. The 4th guy kept drawing Fire Formation Spells and Bears G2, resulting in me winning 2-0. The 5th guy was nervous judging from his movements and sighed a lot because of my backrow. Macro, triple Fiendish and triple Prison put in work and I win 2-1. The last guy I played was x-0 like me and a really cool guy. We talked before we played and weren't too bothered about who won since we were both going to top 8 anyway. I won the first and G2 I open with the fabled TGU, Rabbit, backrow and S/T hate hand and win from there. All 6 rounds of swiss had been played and I go x-0. Pretty weird considering I thought about not even going to the regional.
10 minutes later the guy posts the score sheet; I’m first and the only guy with 18 points, the fire fist guys topped, the Inzektor guy got 9th and the Prophecy guy didn’t top either. I go to the counter, say my name and get my prizes. Like Sabb I got an FF mat and a deckbox, along with a voucher that let me get any pack of card protectors (got pink, ****’s cool) along with a 5ds deck/extra/side storage box which looks like a packed lunch box. It’s the box in this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC5JLQGGpSs I guess now i know what it feels like to be Kaiba lol
Some of us are wondering if they’re doing playoffs but according to the organizer they wouldn't have effected prizes, so no-one was interesting. Sweet, I didn't have to play anymore Fire Fists! After exchanging names I get some noodles and get on the train, a bit dumbfounded that I won considering the circumstances.
Now for the decklist:
16 monsters:
2 Rescue Rabbit
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
3 Sabersaurus
3 Kabazauls
3 Jurrac Guaiba
2 Cardcar D
1 Snowman Eater
8 spells:
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Forbidden Lance
16 traps:
3 Dimensional Prison
3 Fiendish Chain
2 Macro Cosmos
2 Mirror Force
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Starlight Road
1 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
15 extra:
2 Evolzar Laggia
2 Evolzar Dolkka
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Utopia
1 Pearl
1 Maestroke
1 Dweller
1 Cowboy
1 Acid Golem
1 Leviathan
1 Leviair
1 Zenmaines
1 Temtempo
15 side:
2 Thunder King
2 Banisher of the Radiance
2 Fossil Dyna Pachy
2 Maxx C
1 Gorz
1 MST
2 Soul Taker
1 Dust Tornado
1 Breakthrough Skill
1 Macro Cosmos
The deck is very consistent and all of the traps ensure that I don’t lose momentum when using Cardcar D and help me grind for Evolzars, the latter being the most common way to summon an Evolzar in this deck. When HA7 comes along I’ll be using Evilswarm so it was nice that I got something out of the deck before I decide to move on and prepare for nats. thanks for reading and if anyone has questions, fire away.
Subject: WCQ Exeter (UK regionals) 
Mon Apr 08, 2013 4:20 pm
