Today, I'm going to share my journey on how I managed to be part of day 2's Top 16 from 211 aspiring duelists who competed last March 23rd. Let's gooo!
I. Why "Tenpai Dragon"?
II. Deck Profile and Tournament Report Day 1/2
III. Tech Choices
IV. Realizations
V. Summary
I. Why "Tenpai Dragon"?
As some of you who have followed my competitive journey, you know that I have used "Voiceless Voice" in major events. I have explored a lot of decks ranging from VV, Chimera, Melodious, and Yubel - Tenpai Dragon is the one that stood out during testing and actual ranking tournaments.
Below are some of my considerations why I picked this deck instead:
1. It has a lot of 1 card combos that lands on the same OTK output
2. It's quite consistent on wave 1
3. You can decide the outcome of the round in 1 turn.
4. Because you can decide the outcome instantly due to its OTK strategy, you'll have time to grab your snacks, take a pee break, take some rest
5. It can play around Dimension Shifter and Nibiru
6. Their field spell is vroken :))
As funny as it sounds, number 4 consideration is quite important especially during major events with 8 or more rounds of swiss.
Based on my experience, it's not enough that you have a strong and competitive deck, it is also important to have great stamina to last in long rounds of a major event. Breaks are also important to ensure that you can start fresh the next round until the end - at least this has worked for me so far. :)
I also like the fact that "Tenpai Dragon" can main a lot of hand traps without reducing its consistency that much.
II. Deck Profile and Tournament Report
Here's a cleaner decklist exclusive in this article :)
Player: ArcKnight
Deck: Tenpai Dragon
Players: 211
Date: March 23, 2024 (Day 1)
R1 Chimera X O - Lose die roll (DRAW)
R2 Salamangreat O O Lose Die Roll (WIN)
R3 Orcust O O Lose Die Roll (WIN)
R4 Snake-Eye O O Lose Die Roll (WIN)
R5 Mannadium O O Lose Die Roll (WIN)
R6 Ritual Beast O O Win die roll (WIN)
R7 Chimera O O Win roll (WIN) Table 1
R8 Rescue Ace O X - Lose Die Roll (DRAW) Table 1
Result: 6 Wins - 0 Lose - 2 draws
Ranking: 2nd out of 211 players after 8 rounds of swiss :))
Source: Courtside/Yu-Gi-Oh! Philippines
Day 2: Top 16
Date: March 24, 2024
R1: vs. Voiceless Voice X O X (Lose)
End Result: Top 9th-16th
My VV deck is madge at me for not choosing it as my deck in this event so she showed up in top cut I guess. XD
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III. Tech Choices
My decklist isn't that special and it looks typical of most hand trap based "Tenpai Dragon". The only thing that stood out in my opinion that helped me win against Chimera is "Vagnawa the Moon-Eating Dragon".
Photo: Sir JD
This is a generic synchro monster that can inflict 300 damage to your opponent's LP for evey level that the tuner used for the synchro summon of this card had. Usually, "Tenpai Dragon Zhongdora" is the tuner used to synchro climb. Since it is a level 4 tuner, I am guaranteed to possibly inflict 1200 damage to my opponent. While "Tenpai Dragon" is OTK focused, there are instances where you are short of damage, "Vagnawa" acts as a back-up.
IV. Realizations
I feel that I can still optimize my extra deck and side deck even more so I'll have a more solid strategy against my worst match-ups. I am also not used to playing second so I am happy that blind go-second strategy worked in my favor.
I will also try to come-up with a better strategy against decks where choosing to go-second won't be a good choice.
V. Summary
Overall, I'm very happy with the performance of "Tenpai Dragon" in Battle Nexus 2024 in the Philippines. I'm glad to see new decks making it to the top. I'm now excited on what's next with "Tenpai Dragon" considering this is just their wave 1. Just imagine right?
Thank you so much for reading until the end of this article. I look forward to April 2024 OCG format post banlist. Regardless, I'll definitely let my opponent go first. (Wink)
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