Breaking The Curse, 10

It’s Sunday and I finally found a free day where I can just do whatever I want. During the past previous weeks all I had to wake to is work, work, and more work. Since I managed to pull an all-nighter on Saturday and completed everything in accordance to my client’s wishes I decided it was time to test the waters with Hieratics for the new format. Despite having slept, I headed down to Kuala Lumpur where my locals are held for a casual day of dueling. Fully aware that it was Asia Plus Pre-Qualifiers today. I sat and observe the crowd to get a feel of what they are trying out. There were a whole bunch of decks being played so I suppose the Meta here hasn’t really taken shape yet but Agents and Karakuris were a big hit. So, I decided to join my friend’s team together with Izzat in order to get them qualified. Of course, I once again played under another person’s name and sadly it wasn’t Mike’s. No Mikhail Think action.

Prior to my free-lance projects, I did numerous testing with wacky techs to further improve my chances with Hieratics in the new format. I must admit after reading Baha’s comments on my previous post, that pretty much made me go back to one of my scratched-out experimental techs. Not sure if he was trolling me or whatnot but Baha got me convinced that Overdrive Teleporter was a good inclusion into my Teleport Hieratics deck. Like seriously! No homo! I guess it was some sort of reassurance kinda thing. I thank you Grandmaster Baha for giving me courage and confidence to tread the extremes. LOL! Nevertheless, let’s get into the tournament report. Temporary member of Team TFK reporting in.

Asia Plus Qualifiers

Format: 3 Rounds of Swiss cut to Finals (Asia Advance)

Deck Used: Hieratics Overdrive

ROUND 1 (E-Tele Karakuri, Sorry I Forgot Your Name.)

GAME 1: I draw absolute garbage and died to his random Burei pokes. 

GAME 2: I had REDMD in hand. My opponent left and empty field as he didn’t get to see my deck from the previous game. I personally thank him for giving me a free game. Made a field of double Gaia Dragons, REDMD, and Force Focus to slam Game 2 shut. He was shocked! Now we both know we are each facing OTK-based decks. Off to Game 3!

GAME 3: He made double Burei before ending his turn without any set card. I have Nebthet, Eset, Seal of Convocation, Tefnuit, Psychic Commander, and Electric Virus in hand. It was once again Hieratics’ self-touch! After making a Gaia Dragon and Volcasaurus I grabbed his Burei with Electric Virus, popped the other one with Volca and proceed to attack for game. 

XOO

TEAM RESULTS:

Leader (Aliff): O

Player A (Izzat): O

Player B (K’yde): O

(1-0)

That was a pretty good warm up. But I haven’t had a chance to fully utilize the deck’s new tricks. It wasn’t long before Round 2 came along.

ROUND 2 (T.G Agents, Yap Zian)

I was hoping he played Dark World like two weeks back but instead he got his hands on T.G Agents. With staples. This is a good chance to see how this new weapon of mine will fare against one of the top decks in this country.

GAME 1: I drew into Overdrive Teleporter, Tefnuit, Su, Night Shot, Hanzo, and Eset. He had Earth on field and no back-rows. Honest or not, I combo off. Tefnuit into Su, Su into Teleporter, and I made Atumus to try and bait Orange Light but he had none of the mentioned once. I guess he drew a mediocre hand. Atumus grabbed Nebthet and popped Earth, Teleporter transported his minions from a different time-space. Final field included: Gaia Dragon, Hyper Psychic Blaster, Stardust Dragon, and a vanilla dragon with zero stats. Let’s go to Game 2!

GAME 2: One Drago meant control, two Dragos meant the end. Basically, I rushed him with double Dragos and he had no outs to them. 

OO

TEAM RESULTS:

Leader (Aliff): O

Player A (Izzat): O

Player B (K’yde): O

(2-0)

ROUND 3 (Agents Angel, LCW)

Yes, again, LCW plays Yugioh. Don’t ask me why and LCW is LCW. Entering this match, I was suddenly reminded of my traumatizing encounter with Victoria. I kid you not! My head was literally filled with thoughts of sudden Victoria popping up and summoning my own dragons to bite my head off. Either way, revenge match!

GAME 1: He summons Earth if I remember correctly and sets a back-row. When it came to my turn I drew into Night Shot. I have Tefnuit, Su, Nebthet, E-Tele, and Lightpulsar in hand. Went for the usual Tefnuit+Su combo hoping to bait Orange Light out if he has it. Apparently he did not. So, I went for the kill. Gaia Dragoon, Lightpulsar, Nebthet, and Psychic Commander did the job well enough. I’m halfway through my nightmare!

GAME 2: When it’s Agents, you know first come first Drago treatment is the best deal. During this game, I was practically praying for him not to have Electric Virus or Victoria in hand. Every time LCW draws my heart stops for a couple seconds! He tried to Dark Hole the field but I had Lance to keep my godly Drago safe. After that, it was Hanzo and Drago beat-down all the way. YES, NO ELECTRIC VIRUS AND VICTORIA DÉJÀ VU! 

OO

TEAM RESULTS:

Leader (Aliff): X

Player A (Izzat): O

Player B (K’yde): O

(3-0)

We got into Top 2 and waited for our final opponents. After a couple of minutes pass by, Team TFK will be playing against Sung Lee’s team in the finals. Better known as the Ampang Gang. During the wait, I managed to scout out what deck Sung Lee was playing and my God it was fucking Exodia. Ivan as usual ran his Six Sams. I was pretty confident about that. All that’s left is to identify what my opponent (Michael Yap) is playing. It wasn’t long until my questions were answered.

FINALS (Karakuri, Michael Yap)

Michael Yap is a popular player in Malaysia. Needless to say their team was the crowd favourite and pretty much everyone assumed they have already won. Michael is a cunning player, an old fox, and his bluffs are damn well tricky. So, it was another OTK showdown. 

GAME 1: Michael went first, set a card, and ended his turn. I drew, set E-Tele and ended. He repeated the pattern. I looked at my hand and thought for a second. At this point I didn’t know what he was running but it really doesn’t matter since it has always been do or die for me. My hand card consists of E-Tele, Eset, Su, Su, Seal of Convocation, REDMD, and Lightpulsar Dragon. I went for my plays and he had no response. The pace was mine to decide and my field consisted with REDMD, Lightpulsar Dragon, Stardust Dragon, and Gaia Dragoon. I went for the knockout punch but was stopped by Book of Moon slamming my REDMD face down on the board. 400 LPs left. 

It was Michael Yap’s turn to do his shenanigans! He made triple Bureido and had another Karakuri monster on board (I forgot its name.) He proceeded to clear my field and left me with only one hand card which was Hieratic Seal of Convocation. Fuck this shit! I draw and it was Hieratic Dragon of Su! He has no set cards on the field and 400 LPs left! I searched out Tefnuit and proceed to make Atumus special summoned my second Lightpulsar Dragon, overlay Atumus into Gaia Dragoon, and pierce through his weak mechanical bastard. Game 1 goes to me. It was a close call.

GAME 2: Again, Michael went first. He set one card and ended his turn. I was slightly perplexed with his action. Hanzo, E-Tele, Overdrive Teleporter, Tefnuit, Su, and Forbidden Lance in my hand. I summoned Hanzo for my Ninjitsu Art of Super-Stealing. Slapped for some damage, set Lance and Super-Transformation. When it came to Michael’s turn, he first played Mind Control, I chained with Lance, and he went ahead to chain Book of Eclipse on my Hanzo. WTF?! He than summoned a Tuner to Synchro into Black Rose Dragon and slapped me back for 2400, ended. When it came to my turn I drew into ELECTRIC VIRUS! I special summoned Tefnuit and than Su, tribute summoned Su for Overdrive Teleporter netting me two vanilla dragons. Overlay Wattaildragon and Emerald Dragon into Force Focus, used Teleporter’s effect to special summon two Psychic Commanders, tune Commander and Overdrive Teleporter for Hyper Psychic Blaster. I now control Force Focus, Hyper Psychic Blaster, and Psychic Commander. 

Then I stopped. I took a second to observe his expression and, yeah, it was a done deal. I went and activated my E-Tele for another Psychic Commander. Force Focus, Hyper Psychic Blaster, and double Psychic Commander attacked! It was game. We shook hands and wait for our respective teammates’ results. Aliff ended up miraculously defeating Ivan. It was a performance worthy of praise. Sung Lee and Izzat decided to complete their ongoing match and stopped when the game they were playing ended. It was a one-all-tie in their case. 

OO

TEAM RESULTS:

Leader (Aliff): O

Player A (Izzat): Discontinued

Player B (K’yde): O

(4-0)

Team TFK ended up taking the spot. Both Izzat and Aliff did amazingly well today. Good job and kudos to their effort! I suppose good shit happens when you play in a team with chemistry. After that, it was time to earn some cash. I managed to make around RM250 so it was all good. Today was a productive day. The deck played out well and consistent enough. Even when I do not draw an OTK hand the deck with Hanzo allows me to play a pseudo-control style before exploding into an onslaught. All my testing are done for now. I am satisfied with how the deck is but I will certainly continue to do some minor tweaks in order for it to be able to reach a higher level of performance. This is all for today. I hope you enjoyed reading. All and all, as always, remember to play smart, fight hard, or go home a loser. Thank you for dropping by!