Taking on the World Duel Carnival... Again!

[Tinkerer]

Hello, fine peoples!

I doubt anyone remembers the first time I tried this (not that you have to, scroll down a few posts in Blogs and you should be able to see it), so I'll just sum it up here.

I reinstalled Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal World Duel Carnival on my 3ds.  Just like last time, I wanted to try to make a challenge run, so I plan to play through "Vagabond mode" with a randomized pool of cards.  Vagabond mode is the last story mode in the game and it consists of ~40 different duelists of varying levels of strength.  My goal is to start off with that randomized pool of cards then slowly get more cards whenever I win a duel.  Ideally, as I take on stronger opponents, I will have a stronger/more versatile pool of cards to use.

Last time I did this, I dove into the game without a lot of thought.  Instead of allowing me to have a pool of cards to work with, I instead started with a deck of randomized 1-ofs, and replaced my deck 1 card at a time.  This prevented me from coming up with strategies and - needless to say - it sucked.  I think I got through about 5 wins before I forgot about the challenge.  This time, I'm giving myself some base rules to make the challenge a bit easier more palatable.

1. Instead of just having a deck, I will have a running card pool update.  I will be noting all the cards I have in this challenge with via Google sheets and use either edopro/duelingbook to post/update my current deck.
2. Any card I have in my collection I will have at 3 copies (unless limited in some way by the game's banlist).  This might help mitigate some problems regarding archetypes.
3. After each win, I get to open up a new "pack" of 5 cards: 2 monsters, 1 spell, 1 trap, and 1 Sync/Xyz.
   • If I randomly obtain a Ritual Monster or Ritual Spell, I get the other corresponding card added to my pool for free.
   • If I happen to get a duplicate card/banned card, that is my jackpot.  I can reroll that card, but add some criteria to my pick.  If I want to replace it with a MD/ED monster, I can choose either Attribute + Level -OR- Monster type and reroll from a more limited pool.  If I want to replace it with a Spell/Trap, I can choose a specific Spell/Trap type and reroll from that pool.
4. My initial Main Deck card pool is going to be 30 cards; my Extra Deck card pool will be 8 cards.  My initial ratios for my Main Deck pool will be 15 monsters, 6 Spells, and 9 Traps.  My ratios for Extra Deck pool will be 1 Synchro and 7 Xyzs.

Outside of that, the goal is still the same: beat Vagabond mode.

Original Deck:

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Final Deck:

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https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=13547297

 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by Tinkerer
Updated Deck

[Tinkerer]

Before starting:

It seems like I've pulled a handful of good starting cards.

In terms of Monsters: Blue Rose Dragon, Royal Firestorm Guards, and Sabersaurus work well as pure beaters.  I imagine Sabersaurus will end up being a clutch monster in many duels.  Cloudian Turbulence is probably my best monster since it is Level 4, WATER, and cannot be destroyed by battle.  For now, I'll need to keep some of my high Lvl monsters in my deck until I can hopefully pull some more usable Xyzs.

As I had anticipated, the spells tended to be lackluster and too heavily archetype-focused (that's why I only aimed to pull 6 Spells in my initial ratios).  Still, "Gather Your Mind" acts as my deck's only form of thinning and it'll probably stay in my deck for a long time.  Union Attack isn't very good, but it might help me in case the opponent is sitting on a big monster.  It also works pretty well with Crazy Box since it can't attack.

Pulling Bottomless is about the best thing I could ask for.  The only issue is that it is semi-limited.  No Entry!! is also a pretty solid trap since it is chainable battle protection. I didn't pull enough WATERs to turn Eisbahn into a core strategy card, but I don't have too many options and I have enough WATERs that it might actually be useful.  I am holding onto Drastic Drop Off for now.  If I can pull some more usable cards, I'd probably replace the WATER package and use DDO to pad my deck numbers.

 

[Tinkerer]

Duel 1: Charlie McCay

Probably the absolute weakest character in the game.  His whole deck relies on luck: coin toss & die roll cards with his ace being Number 7: Lucky Straight.  His monsters aren't strong, and I've never seen him play any notable generic cards that would pose any trouble.  The only difficulty with him is Sasuke Samurai #4.  It's weak enough that it is unaffected by Bottomless, but its ability can potentially kill off any monster it battles if he calls the coin flip correctly.  Fortunately for me, he had terrible luck and I was able to swarm him with beaters and win the game.

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Pack 1:

Monster 256: Beast of the Pharaoh (Level 3. Mediocre)
Monster 2059: Mimimic (Level 3, Can Special Summon self. Excellent)
Spell 162: Contact (Archetypal. Terrible)
Trap 586: Poseidon Wave (Generic Attack Negation. Ok)
ED 212: Nitro Warrior (Archetypal. Terrible)

 

 

Duel 2: Number 96

Definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum, Number 96 uses a deck that attempts to turbo out... Number 96.  On the whole though, it is just a Rank 2 spam deck using Malicevorous as its primary engine.  As long as it doesn't actually summon itself, the duel is pretty straightforward.

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Pack 2:

Monster 1194: Gem-Knight Lazuli (Level 1. Normal Monster Support. Bad)
Monster 2518: Ronintoadin (WATER. 2000 DEF. Ok)
Spell 298: Exile of the Wicked (Narrow Scope. Might use in the right matchup.)
Trap 407: Infestation Infection (Archetypal, but I have an Exilswarm Xyz.  Might use if I get some lswarm monsters.)
ED 61: Cosmic Fortress Golgar (Archetypal. Terrible)

 

 

Duel 3: Quinton (V)

The weakest of the Arclight family, Quinton's deck is probably supposed to be designed to summon Number 9, but I don't think I've ever seen him summon it successfully.  His deck in the game is mostly about machines and modulating levels.  Given these first few duels, it's pretty apparent that the weakest duelists are the ones with unwieldly/hard-to-summon boss monsters alongside mediocre decks.

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Pack 3:

Monster 703: Darkflare Dragon (Chaos. Beatstick. Dragon Support. Ok)
Monster 1608: Inzektor Ant (Archetypal. Terrible)
Spell 740: Searing Fire Wall (Archetypal. Terrible)
Trap 62: Battle Break (Weakest Battle Trap. Bad)
ED 116: Gachi Gachi Gantetsu (Generic Rank 2. Good)

 

 

Duel 4: Caswell Francis

A duelist who's purposefully meant to be easy.  His deck is Crashbug/Rank 3 spam.  His deck doesn't run much in the way of disruption besides some traps, but his Grenosaurus was a real pain in the neck.  I had no consistent way to take it down besides a tribute summoned monster, and it could easily run over all my level 4/rank 3 beatsticks.  Had to duel him a few times, but eventually got lucky with an early tribute summon.

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Pack 4:

Monster 1804: Left Arm of the Forbidden One (... Terrible)
Monster 2982: Thunder Nyan Nyan (LIGHT. Beatstick, but has self-destruction effect. Ok)
Spell 764: Silver's Cry (Too Narrow. Terrible)
Trap 699: Slip Summon (Too Niche. Bad)
ED 23: Baby Tiragon (Too Niche. Bad)

 

 

Duel 5: The Sparrow

After trying and losing duels against some other people I'd considered easy, I decided to bite the bullet and face The Sparrow who runs probably the second-most gimmicky deck in the game (after Charlie's gamble deck).  He runs the "Sparrow Family" series of cards, and he doesn't really have any low level monsters besides Beast-Warrior Puma.  Still, facing him is a hit or miss depending on his opening hand.

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Pack 5:

Monster 669: Dark Lucius LV8 (2-Tribute beater. Bad)
Monster 3264: Worm Cartaros (Level 4 LIGHT. Can search itself. Mediocre)
Spell 120: Card of Sanctity (Draw spell that draws at the cost of everything. Terrible)
Trap 118: Cell Explosion Virus (Archetypal. Terrible)
ED 320: Superdimensional Robot Galaxy Destroyer (Xyz. Needs 3 Level 10s. Terrible)

 

 

With 5 duels down, I think I'll leave it here for today.  I think I had a pretty decent starting deck and it effectively carried me through the first three duelists without losing.  However, the supplementary packs have not been nearly as helpful as I'd hoped.  Outside of Mimimic, which I'd pulled in Pack 1, my deck has not substantially changed.  I have enough WATERs to support Eisbahn, but none of them have high enough ATK to actually put pressure on the opponent/their monsters.

Mimimic gives me the ability to go into Shadow Lich relatively consistently.  Lich is my main damage dealer, usually being consistently summonable just often enough to put pressure when my main deck cannot.  Crazy Box has been the cause of most of my headaches (4 out of my last 6 rolls were 1s), but it has also won me a couple games.  I suppose that's just how it goes when your effect is based on a die roll.

Right now, I feel as though I'm already beginning to plateau.  A lot of the duelists moving forward tend to use some generic powerful goodstuff cards to supplement mediocre decks/strategies.  Unless I get lucky and can beat the opponents quickly, I'm likely going to end up losing just by virtue of not having any backrow removal.  That being said, I might implement a pity system.  Maybe 1 free pack for every 5-10 losses in a row or something.  Though I do think this challenge is doable without such a system, I don't have the constitution (nor the interest) to do this challenge over a super long time span.

Anyways... updated the OP with my current deck build.

[Tinkerer]

Whew, been a few weeks, huh?  Turns out that 5 duels is my limit when it comes to this challenge before I burn myself out.  I wasn't super pumped to get back to the grind, but I figured I might as well try.

I tried facing Ray Shadows, but completely forgot that he was using Constellars (definitely a high-ranked deck in this game) so I got smacked, so I tried finding an easier opponent which brings me to...

Duel 6: Rio Kastle

Rio is on the easy side, though her deck can potentially be annoying if I had to overly rely on ED monsters.  She runs an odd mix of WATER/Penguin monsters and Winged Beasts (including a couple Blackwings).  Fortunately for me, she runs minimal backrow and though I got hit with a Dark Hole, my high base ATK monsters were enough to push through and get the win.

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Pack 6, aka. ~Best pack yet~

Monster 1206: Gemini Summoner (Needs Geminis.  Terrible.)
Monster 2238: Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke (LIGHT. Beatstick. No downsides. Decent.)
Spell 946: United We Stand (Really strong equip, probably the best spell I've pulled. Decent.)
Trap 714: Sound the Retreat (Too Niche. Bad.)
ED 122: Gem-Knight Pearl (Pure beatstick, but super reliable and probably one of the better Rank 4s I could hit randomly. Excellent.)

 

Duel 7: Lotus Hanazoe

A 1-off character in the show, I believe?  Her deck is based around spamming Level 3 plants and summoning Rank 3s which includes her boss monster Battlecruiser Dianthus.  She is also the first duelist I've faced in this run who uses anime-only cards.  Fortunately for me, her deck isn't super great at actually getting to her boss monster, but unfortunately she had the plant Mirror Force card in her deck which kept setting me back.  Eventually though, I managed to punch through.

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Pack 7

Monster 312: Blackwing - Brisote the Tailwind (Archetypal and Niche. Terrible.)
Monster 3248: Winged Rhynos (In limited formats, this card's effect is surprisingly competent. Beatstick. Decent.)
Spell 475: Legendary Ebon Steed (Archetypal. Terrible.)
Trap 445: Level Limit - Area A (Narrow Scope. Might use depending on matchup. Bad.)
ED 56: Constellar Hyades (Rank 3, but needs LIGHTs. Decent card/effect, but I have no way to summon it. Ok.)

 

Duel 8: Cody Callus

Another duelist-of-the-week character.  His deck focuses on summoning out the scary Rank 5 "Digvorzhak".  However, just like the other duelists who need 3 materials to summon their boss, he wasn't able to actually summon it.  Generally his beefy & easy to summon Level 5s were more threatening, but once I was able to slap down a monster with more ATK than Cyber Dragon, he folded pretty quickly.

As a sidenote, Cody was my first victory in the original version of this challenge, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the duel was relatively easy.

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Pack 8

Monster 256: !!!!! JACKPOT !!!!! - I hit 256 in pack 1: "Beast of the Pharaoh"!!
Monster 1572: Ido the Supreme Magical Force (Beater that can re-summon itself, but prevents me from using any other monsters. Terrible.)
Spell 597: Offerings to the Doomed (Quick-Play monster removal. Good.)
Trap 336: Giant Trap Hole (We don't have Pendulum Summons here, so this is probably useless. Terrible.)
ED 275: Overmind Archfiend (Extremely conditional/difficult to summon Synchro. Terrible.)

Bonus Roll:

Against the better judgement of going for a potentially really good extra deck monster, I'm going to go for a Quick-Play Spell using my bonus.  While the generic spell pool is super saturated with junk that works only with specific archetypes, the quick-play pool is a lot more generic.  On top of that, there is a much higher chance of getting some spell/trap removal from this pool.  Hopefully I get something~

Q-P Spell 112: Shrink (One of the best damage step cards I could get. Given my deck, this card is basically 1-for-1 monster removal. Good.)

 

I'll leave things there for now.

Oddly enough, I am feeling much more confident that I'll be able to complete this challenge than I did at the end of my last post.  I had a really lucky streak of packs which has enhanced my deck quite a bit.  I have a much more solid base of Level 4 beaters, I have some cheeky plays with a lot of helpful traps and quick-plays, and I now have a competent Rank 4 that'll let me go toe-to-toe with a lot of opposing boss monsters/Xyzs.  In fact, now I feel as though I have enough options to rebuild my deck from scratch with multiple different directions.

I've updated the OP with the deck that I used against Cody.  It'll definitely change by the time I continue the challenge/face the next duelist.

 

[Tinkerer]

Hello, hello, and hello again!

I'm back with another series of duels!  Last time I left off, I was feeling pretty confident with my new set of cards including a few decently strong Level 4s, Offerings to the Doomed and Shrink, and my latest boss monster: Gem-Knight Pearl!

Continuing with the game I decided to start off today facing...

Duel 9: Striker Crossit

Another duelist-of-the-week with a 3 material Rank 5 that's anime-only: "Playmaker".  Most of the 3 material Rank 5 decks are similar; they try (and often fail) to bring out their boss monster because they can't get all the monsters on the field.  This duel was pretty close though because my opening hand had 1 monster and Striker was more than happy to use Mirror Force and Dark Hole.  Still, with 400 LP left, I managed to keep a monster on board and made a miraculous comeback!

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Pack 9

Mon 67: Ally of Justice Searcher (A very mediocre card, but it seems purpose-built to take down a very specific duelist in this game so I might unironically use it)
Mon 1635: Javelin Beetle (& Javelin Beetle Pact). (Eh... I suppose I was due to get another Ritual. Terrible.)
Sp 404: Guts of Steel (A "Scrap" Archetypal card. Terrible.)
Tr 30: Aqua Chorus (Generic Continuous Trap with a conditional ATK/DEF boost. Bad.)
ED 330: The Fabled Kudabbi (An archetype-locked Synchro. Terrible.)

Well, guess my relatively bad luck from the duel carried over to the pack 

 

Duel 10: Nistro

Returning to the pool of relevant characters, I ran into Nistro.  He uses a Heroic Challenger/Champion deck with his boss monster being Excalibur.  Uh... I lost like 4 times before finally getting a lucky hand while he bricked.  I didn't expect him to be too difficult, but his Excaliburs let him kill me at much higher LP values than I'd expect, so all he needed to do was clear my board which wasn't difficult with his Dark Hole, Sakuretsu Armors, and triple Mirror Forces.  I suppose it wouldn't have been too bad, but without any Spell/Trap removal, I felt like I was constantly running into things that I wish I could've played around.

Sidenote: One duel, I had Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke under Crazy Box.  I used Crazy Box, hoping to get lucky, but Crazy Box destroyed itself.  The very next turn I draw into Darkflare Dragon and I was only able to Special Summon it because Crazy Box and Ninja Sasuke filled the DARK and LIGHT summon conditions! 

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Pack 10

M2190: Naturia Sunflower (Archetypal. Terrible.)
M2831: Super Defense Robot Monki (Archetypal. Terrible.)
S529: Meklord Fortress (Archetypal. Terrible.)
T438: Kozaky's Self-Destruct Button (Reliant on the opponent. Terrible.)
ED120: Gauntlet Launcher (Detach 1; pop a monster. Simple as that, except it's a Rank 6. Mediocre.)

Wow, that's... about the worst pack I've gotten this entire series.

 

Duel 11: Vector

So this guy used some odd Rank 4, DARK Umbral Horror Deck?  His boss monster seemed to be "Master Key Beetle", but he also had King of the Feral Imps.  It didn't look as though he really was able to get going, but I'm not complaining.  The duel ended up being pretty smooth since he didn't have Mirror Force or anything to stop my main deck monster beatdown.

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Pack 11:

M1861: Lucky Pied Piper (I didn't think I'd actually pull a Gemini monster... Its gemini effect isn't awful but I'm not building around it. Mediocre.)
M1994: Mecha Phantom Beast Warbluran (A pretty bad tuner with some conditional or archetype-locked effects. Bad.)
S624: Particle Fusion (One of the Gem-Knight Fusion cards. Unusable. Terrible.)
T497: Mind Drain (A much better card in the modern era than in this one.  Still, there might be some use with this one? Maybe?? Bad.)
ED188: Majestic Star Dragon (Oh good, I hit the most impossible to summon Synchro. Terrible.)

Well, the bad pack streak continues.

 

Duel 12: Mizar

Mizar's boss is Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon.  Overall, the deck's focus is getting it on the field and just letting it rampage.  Fortunately for me, that style is pretty limited and it was pretty easy to just bait him into committing before using Bottomless or Offerings to the Doomed.  The duel could have been way worse.

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Pack 12:

Monster 658: Dark Dust Spirit (Ooh, finally! A nuke of my very own! Probably one of the better Spirit monsters that existed this era. Good.)
Monster 1315: Gladiator Beast Murmillo (Only really benefits its archetype.  Is WATER and Level 3 for what that was worth. Terrible.)
Spell 38: Ancient Gear Fist (An archetype-locked Equip Spell, need I say more? Terrible.)
Trap 380: Heroic Gift (More of a meme than anything. Terrible.)
ED 33: Blackwing - Silverwind the Ascendant (Archetype locked Synchro. Terrible.)

Not the worst pack I've pulled today.

Alright, I'll leave it here for now.  I don't think I'll be adding anything from these recent packs to my deck for now, so I'll just update the OP with my deck as it stands currently.

 

[Tinkerer]

Bump~

Wanna get back to this, but I'll have to see if I'm feeling up for it.  Maybe today, maybe next weekend, but definitely before the end of the month.

[Tinkerer]

The boi's back at it!

 

Duel 13: Hart Tenjo

Kite's little brother has a very different deck than many other duelists in the game: it doesn't focus around Xyzs!  He uses a banish Psychic deck with main deck beaters and "Future Glow" to push for damage.  He ended up beating me the first time since I couldn't keep a monster on board, but I was able to push through his floating/strong monsters the second duel and come out on top.

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Pack 13:

Monster 1793: Laval Blaster (Weak, archetypal, and not even Pyro to take advantage of Firestorm Guards. Bad.)
Monster 1962: Mask of Darkness (An interesting card that might find itself as a tech vs certain matchups. Ok.)
Spell 656: Monster Slots (A nice generic draw option that plays into Xyzs. Good.)
Trap 694: Skill Drain (!!! A surprise powerful floodgate.  Given my deck is pretty much "summon big beatstick, swing", this is a really useful card. Excellent.)
ED 46: Cat Girl Magician (Anime-only.  Generic 2-Mat Rank 4 with 2k ATK.  Can temporarily halve its ATK to attack directly. Ok.)

 A great pack which is surprising, given it is number 13 xD

 

Duel 14 Dr. Faker:

An interesting character in terms of the in-game lore, Dr. Faker runs another Level 5 deck like Cody.  However, his goal is trying to summon Heart-eartH Dragon using Number 53.  While I have only ever seen him summon Heart-eartH Dragon once, his Deck is still quite annoying to face without it.  He runs tons of continuous traps like Safe Zone, CotH, and Fiendish Chain.  Coupled with his decent ATK Level 5s, it becomes extremely difficult to break through for significant damage.  Skill Drain ended up becoming really useful since both his primary and secondary win conditions (Endless Decay) were unusable.

Long story short... Triple Crazy Box FTW.

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Pack 14:

Monster 610: Cyber-Tech Alligator (One of the biggest 1-tribute beatsticks. If I didn't have Gem-Knight Pearl, this guy would be much better. Ok.)
Monster 997: Fabled Ashenveil (LIGHT Level 4 that can boost itself to 2200 during battle for a discard. Ok.)
Spell 20: Advanced Dark (Archetypal. Terrible.)
Trap 242: DNA Surgery (Conditionally powerful card. Might see use. Good.)
ED 347: Unformed Void (You'd think this would be useful in an Xyz-focused game, but... it's not. Mediocre.)

Might use the Fabled as another LIGHT target for my Darkflare Dragon.  DNA Surgery will definitely be useful against at least 1 really annoying duelist.  Pretty good pack overall.

 

Duel 15 Cameron Clix:

A 1-of duelist in the show, this guy uses a Chaos/Rank 6 strategy.  In the show, this was meant to summon out Number 25: Force Focus, but here he tended to just go Lightpulsar Dragon beatdown.  While Skill Drain shut down his troublesome Xyzs, Lightpulsar has 2500 ATK and floated which was pretty annoying.

Crazy Box + Skill Drain beatdown is now my favorite strat.

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Pack 15

Monster 2297: Paladin of White Dragon (Probably one of the more usable Rituals at that era, but it's a Ritual with no support so... Bad.)
Monster 2506: Risebell the Star Psycher (A level 4 with a quick effect to change a monster's Level. Can potentially screw opponent plays? Decent.)
Spell 18: Advance Force (Lets me tribute summon a 1 tribute monster to tribute summon a 2-tribute with 1 tribute! Bad.)
Trap 868: Xyz Xtreme!! (Extremely conditional burn card. Bad.)
ED 23: DING DING DING!!! We have a winner! I hit Baby Tiragon in Pack 4

Bonus Roll:

While I really like my Quick-Play idea from before, I've pulled some of the better things in that pool already (Shrink & Offerings).  I'm not sure I could push my luck on it, even if it could net me a Spell/Trap removal card.  Instead I'm going to pull a Level 4 DARK Main Deck monster.  While probably one of the larger pools (with 258 monsters), I really need a DARK so that I can more consistently summon Darkflare Dragon.  I'm hoping for either a good effect or 1600+ ATK.

BONUS Monster 176: Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo (Definitely on the upper end of cards I could've gotten. Great.)

 

Another jackpot roll, another solid card that's immediately slotting into my deck~

Hanzo might not look super impactful, but it instantly makes both "Monster Slots" and "No Entry!!" significantly stronger (since they can go +1 alongside Hanzo), on top of having a good body and being DARK.  It also makes any "Ninjitsu Art" that I pull jump up a few tiers in usefulness.

 

Duel 16 Cathy:

One of the support cast, Cathy uses an anime-only "Cat" deck that focuses on Rank 1 and 4 monsters with her boss monster being "Cat Girl Magician" (see Pack 13 above).  Besides her two Mirror Forces, she wasn't too difficult...

...and that was mostly because I actually triggered the Monster Slots > Hanzo combo!  Immediately after slotting him in, I was able to Special Summon Hanzo and grab Sasuke to get over Cathy's "Slacker Magician".  Immediate results! 

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Pack 16:

Monster 378: Bottom Dweller (Level 5 Normal monster with 1650/1700. Terrible.)
Monster 2396: Psychic Commander (Level 3 Psychic Tuner that essentially has 1900 ATK. Great.)
Spell 550: Mokey Mokey Smackdown (An absolute meme, but still useless unfortunately. Terrible.)
Trap 560: Ordeal of a Traveler (Random chance Battle Trap. Honestly, pretty solid when it works. Decent.)
ED 136: Heroic Champion - Excalibur (Not a bad R4, but also not generic. Will probably slot it in just because of my Ninjas. Ok.)

 

While Psychic Commander is a great card, putting it in my deck now will just interfere with Monster Slots.  If I decide to go back/retry Rank 3s, then it's a definite must.  Ordeal of a Traveler may actually slot in my deck if Skill Drain ends up being more of a hindrance than a help.

 

Duel 17 Quattro:

The second brother of the Arclight family.  His Gimmick Puppet deck has the potential to be really dangerous.  Giant Grinder can break boards and deal massive damage while Strings is a huge beatstick.  Fortunately for me, he wasn't able to summon them.  Unfortunately for me, he was able to summon Dark Armed Dragon which very nearly killed me.  He got me down to 200 LP before I managed to turn everything around with the Hanzo > Sasuke play using No Entry to put all Quattro's monsters into def.  Hanzo being my key card for two duels in a row is honestly amazing xD

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Pack 17:

Monster 1951: Maniacal Servant (Monster that banishes DARKs for a temporary DEF boost. Bad.)
Monster 3105: Uraby (A nostalgic card to be sure, but... Terrible.)
Spell 191: Crystal Tree (Spells keep trying to give me Crystal Beast stuff... sigh. Terrible.)
Trap 578: Power Frame (Battle trick that negates attacks and boosts my monster to the ATK of the monster attacking it. Not the worst, but I've got better options now. Ok.)
ED 27: Battlin' Boxer Lead Yoke (A pretty cool card, but unfortunately archetypal. Terrible.)

 

Probably the worst pack today, but honestly, I needed a bad roll given my splendid luck today 

 

Duel 18 Girag:

A *spoiler* in the show.  Ordinarily, he would use a "Hand" deck (Fire & Ice Hand + Number 106), but Hands didn't exist at the time.  Instead, Girag runs a rock-goodstuff deck.  Catapult Zone, Attack the Moon, Legendary Jujitsu Master, Grand Mole... a lot of passive and defensive stuff that just makes things difficult for to break through.  I had to reset the duel a few times until he didn't start with Catapult Zone, then I just swarmed him with beaters until he lost.  Not elegant, but it worked eventually.

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Pack 18:

Monster 1841: Lightray Sorcerer (A pretty strong card locked behind a prohibitive summon condition. Mediocre.)
Monster 3259: Wolf (Another weak Normal. Terrible.)
Spell 291: Everliving Underworld Cannon (Zombie-specific light burn damage. Terrible.)
Trap 809: Trap of Darkness (If it didn't have such a restrictive activation condition, it probably would be pretty interesting. As-is? Mediocre.)
ED 172: Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En (A cool card that's unfortunately both Limited and Archetype-locked. Terrible.)

 

Another pretty bad pack.  Still, the bar to enter my deck has gotten decently high at this point.  I imagine I'd probably reject 85% of cards now that I have a few set strategies.

 

Duel 19 Anna Kaboom:

The train girl herself!  Trains only had a few members back then, so her deck was supplemented with Machina Fortress.  She was never able to summon out her Xyzs and I was pretty lucky she didn't use Skill Drain herself.  She could not reliably keep her stuff on the board, so the duel ended up being pretty easy.

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Pack 19:

Monster 2969: The Portrait's Secret (Wow. Four packs in a row with useless Normal monsters. Terrible.)
Monster 3356: ZW - Ultimate Shield (Big DEF body, but otherwise unhelpful. Bad.)
Spell 632: Photon Sanctuary (Summons 2 tokens in Def, but locks me into LIGHT. If I can build a Deck with Lightray Sorcerer, this could be useful. As-is? Mediocre.)
Trap 379: Hero's Rule 2 (Counter Trap with a kinda niche condition. Bad.)
ED 332: Thermal Genex (Archetypal. Terrible.)

 

Another bad pack, but w/e.

 

Played a whole bunch today!  My deck finally feels like it has gone from "trying to make it work" to "okay, now I can focus on a strategy and be picky".  Basically, my deck has reached the point where I think it is capable (with enough luck) of beating any duelist, so now it's just about enhancing any strengths & covering weaknesses.

Out of my Monster lineup, Hanzo has quickly become my Most Valuable Monster in my deck.  I don't even think Hanzo's doing anything groundbreaking, but I always seem to get it alongside "No Entry!!" (which lets Hanzo stay alive to flip summon and grab Sasuke, who can then auto-kill the opponent's defensive monster).  Both Shrink & Offerings have come in clutch many times, but "No Entry!!" is undoubtedly the best card in my deck.

Gem-Knight Pearl and Crazy Box bounce around the number 1 spot.  Pearl is consistent which is always nice, but Crazy Box plays extremely well under Skill Drain since it equals or surpasses almost every boss-level monster in the game in ATK.  Crazy Box is also DARK which feeds into Chaos plays with Darkflare.

Will update my current deck list... sometime.

[Tinkerer]

Updates:

• OP has a link to my current deck
• Updated the link to my full cardlist

 

[Tinkerer]

Hello, fine peoples!  Been a bit over a month since I last posted about this!  Honestly, at this point, it's not the duels but the nuisance of getting new cards (and pausing to write) that makes this a bit more annoying than I'd like.  Maybe there's some way to streamline it...

Anyways, onto the duels.

 

Duel 20 Kaze:

Kaze's a Ninja duelist.  A formidable rival vs my own deck, I was worried about facing him because he actively uses backrow (Super Transformation) as removal while putting out strong monsters.  I still don't have any way of dealing with backrow, but I opened up enough good cards that I just beat him down by turn 6.

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Pack 20

Mon 1218: Genex Spare (Funny that I got this when the last pack had a Genex Synch.  Still, Terrible.)
Mon 3279: Worm Warlord (Interesting... Can't be Special Summoned, but can attack twice and negate the effects of monsters it battles. Ok? Good??)
Spell 604: One for One (An excellent card normally, but it's Limited and hard to utilize in this format. Mediocre.)
Trap 349: Gozen Match (Seriously, what's up with me getting floodgates?! This might be useful in certain matchups. Good.)
ED 293: Scrap Archfiend (Finally, a generic Sync-7. Stronger than Gem-Knight Pearl, but probably not worth building around. Ok.)

Decent pack, all things considered.

 

Duel 21 Trey:

The youngest (and most difficult) of the Arclight siblings.  Runs Chronomalies.  His Xyzs don't do too much, so I wasn't worried about them.  UNfortunately, Chronomalies have tons of extenders and one of the strongest boosting backrow cards in the game: Chronomaly Pyramid Eye Tablet (Continuous Spell, boosts all Chrons by 800 ATK).  Without any way to deal with backrow, I just had to hope to he ran out of resources before drawing into the Tablet.  Took three tries before I was lucky enough to stop his onslaught.

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Pack 21

Monster 789: Divine Dragon Aquabizarre (Has potential, but not for my deck rn. Mediocre.)
Monster 1814: Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi (1700 ATK. Level 4. LIGHT. That's all I need to hear; it's going in. Ok-Good.)
Spell 856: Symbol of Heritage (A revival spell.  Unfortunately, it needs 3 monsters in the GY with the same name, so it's too specific. Bad.)
Trap 187: Dark Bribe (Hey! A potential card to help against backrow! It's not the best, but it can help bait out Heavy Storms or protect from Dark Hole/Mirror Force. Good.)
ED 365: Windmill Genex (Are you kidding me rn?? 3 packs with Genex cards in a row... Terrible.)

 

Duel 22 Brooke Walker:

An unusual character within the vagabond story mode.  Characters tend to have their own reactions/assumptions of your character, but Brooke's is unique since she apparently admired you when she was young, and remembers your role in the tag force series.

Her deck apparently revolves around R10s, but she never summoned any.  Her main deck is a mix of Mecha Phantom Beast and a couple anime-exclusive Level 10s.  Her deck isn't particularly strong, but the fact that she had Dark Hole, Mirror Force, Monster Reborn, Heavy Storm, and Call of the Haunted means I couldn't outpace her when I opened poorly.  Beat her relatively quickly the second time though.

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Pack 22

Monster 1187: Gauntlet Warrior (Level 3 Warrior support monster. Nothing noteworthy. Poor.)
Monster 1781: Krebons (!!! An actual good card! Can protect self for 800 LP and is a DARK Tuner. Really versatile. Great.)
Spell 1004: Xyz Territory (A Field Spell that gives a boost to Xyzs and can protect itself from destruction. Might use. Good.)
Trap 86: Blast Held by a Tribute (Anti-tribute summon tech. Bad.)
ED 309: Star Eater (Generic Synchro... but, uh... it's Level 11. Still, if I can summon it, it should be a game winner. Decent.)

 

Duel 23 Tori Meadows:

I was honestly EXTREMELY worried about facing her.  She doesn't have staples but her deck has battle floaters, the agent of creation venus, Gachi Gachi, and her bosses (Master Hyperion and Archlord Kristya) are scary.  It's very easy for her to put out stronger monsters than me quicker than me.  I was going to lose to her at first, but I pulled off an absolutely clutch play and managed to grab a win.

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Pack 23

Monster 1883: Machine Lord Ur (a multi-attacker, but doesn't inflict damage. Might use this if I go up against a spammy deck. Decent.)
Monster 2503: Right Leg of the Forbidden One (... Terrible.  Somehow, I now have 2 Exodia pieces though.)
Spell 1000: Xyz Energy (Spot removal while I control an Xyz. Might actually use, since Pearl has no detach, and Box works best under Skill Drain. Decent.)
Trap 868: The Dragon's Bead (Continuous trap that gives dragons trap card target protection for a discard. Niche. Bad.)
ED 366: DING DING DING!!! Another Jackpot! This one is X-Saber Souza, a card from among my starting cards.

Bonus Roll:

My deck is pretty solid rn, so I can actually afford to risk this one.  I'm going for an EARTH R4nk.  Half of 'em suck or are difficult to use, but there are a handful that are usable (since a lot of them use Warriors).  The grand prize for me would be Gagaga Cowboy or Diamond Dire Wolf, but let's see what fate has in store:

EARTH R4nk #4: Fairy King Albverdich (RIP. This is on the bottom half of the lineup. Doesn't do too much and it needs EARTH monsters specifically. Bad.) 

Ah, well. The bonus didn't end up helping much. Still, worthwhile risk. I might keep hard-rolling EARTH R4nk for every jackpot, especially if I get more Level 4 warriors.

 

Duel 24 Kari Tsukumo:

Yuma's sister holds a deck that's more scary than Tori's.  She runs generic chaos/milling/Dragon/high level goodstuff.  Lightsworn, Armageddon Knight, Chaos Dragons, Trag, Gorz, Treeborn Frog loops... The moment she has a tiny advantage, it'd probably be impossible for me to swing it back into my favor.

...fortunately, it's an AI and it does dumb things, like tribute summoning Tri-Horned Dragon using REDMD, or summoning Treeborn Frog in attack position when she had 700 LP left (seriously, Gagaga Cowboy would be SOOOOO helpful).  I squeaked out a win from those mistakes, but probably wouldn't be able to win otherwise.

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Pack 24

Monster 247: Battlin' Boxer Rib Gardna (Archetype specific. Bad.)
Monster 1796: Laval Coatl (Level 2 Tuner. Only good in-archetype though. Mediocre.)
Spell 914: Token Sundae (I don't think I have any token generators, so... Bad.)
Trap 618: Ready for Intercepting (Flips Warriors and Spellcasters face-down. I can use this to trigger Hanzo, but I can also use it as a niche BoM. Mediocre.)
ED 188: Mecha Phantom Beast Concoruda (Another generic Sync-7... and another token payoff? Odd. Bad.)

Interesting pack.

 

Duel 25 Orbital 7:

The robot companion of Kite.  I'd actually faced this guy super early (back at duel #5), but usually I could not put enough pressure on it before it summoned Googly-Eyes.  Orbital also ran "Solidarity", another 800 ATK continuous spell booster for its entire deck.  I figured I'd have to use DNA Surgery against it, but fortunately I had strong enough beaters and was just able to push for game.

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Pack 25

Monster 241: Battle Warrior (Level 3 Normal monster. Terrible.)
Monster 1221: Genex Ally Duradark (Guess I'm still getting Genex stuff, but unlike the others, this one is actually very good.  DARK, Level 4, 1800 ATK, and a removal effect that can auto-destroy DARK monsters. Great.)
Spell 294: Evo-Karma (Archetypal. Terrible.)
Trap 688: Shien's Scheme (Archetypal. Terrible.)
ED 183: Maestroke the Symphony Djinn ("OOOOHH!! Yeah, bois, we are in there! Aw, yeah!" -my actual vocal reaction to seeing the card. Excellent.)

This pack had two big bombs.  Duradark might come in extremely clutch.  Maestroke is also excellent; it's a solid defensive and offensive option.

~~~

Alrighty, I'm gonna leave it off here.  My deck - in general - hasn't changed much, but I'm glad that I've gotten through some of the more potentially frustrating/sacky duelists in the game.  Most of the rest of the duelists are pretty consistent at summoning strong monsters, or use too many spell/traps that I'll need to get extremely lucky.  Heck, I'll probably even need to actually tailor my deck specifically to some of the duelists.

Edited July 4, 2022 by Redro

[Tinkerer]

Bumping this so it doesn't archive itself.

[Tinkerer]

Bumping again~

[Tinkerer]

I plan to jump back into this challenge next weekend, so here's another bump.

[Tinkerer]

Let's jump right into it!

 

Duel 26: Pip

In this duel, I faced Pip who uses a “dog deck” with a number of game exclusive cards.  This is a duelist I was largely dreading because - unlike many of the anime-onlys - Pip’s boss is easy to summon, and it’s ridiculously strong.

Pip’s boss is this guy (https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Sumo_King_Dog). 2600 ATK ties or beats out all my monsters (even a majority of my Level 4s while equipped), and the trap negation is crazy good when securing a lead.

I lost to her in game 1, but fortunately I beat her the second time by setting up Skill Drain and turboing into Crazy Box.

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Pack 26

Mon 1271: Girochin Kuwagata (Normal monster. Ok stats, but unneeded at this point. Poor.)

Mon 671: Dark Mimic LV1 (Weak FLIP monster that draws a card. Mediocre.)

Spell 529: Megamorph (Ooh, not bad! Versatile equip that lets my Level 4s beat over bosses.  Good-Great.)

Trap 52: Attention! (Interesting destruction trap that punishes different levels. “Side deck” pick.)

ED 131: Gravity Warrior (Generic Sync-6. Not the worst, but too weak/too late to build around. Poor.)

 

Duel 27: Alito

Alito runs Battlin’ Boxers.  It’s a deck that could be extremely troublesome depending entirely on whether he could summon out Lead Yoke quickly.  Normally, he can within a turn or two, but it seemed like he bricked really badly during our match and I took it (despite also bricking pretty badly).

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Pack 27

Mon 1844: Lyna the Light Charmer (Conditional and slow effect. Bad.)

Mon 2542: Science Soldier (One of my all time faves, but a terrible card. Terrible.)

Spell 54: Assault Revival (Archetypal. Terrible.)

Trap 483: Malefic Claw Stream (Archetypal. Terrible.)

ED 30: Black Rose Dragon (!!! Excellent card, just not in the deck I’ve built.)

Man, the whiplash from a whole bunch of terrible cards… and then BRD xD

 

Duel 28: Bronk Stone

Bronk’s deck seems to be a Gadget grind deck, having consistent monster summons and easy access to decent ATK Rank 4s.  I think I faced him early on, but my deck couldn’t consistently put pressure on him.  This time, it went smoothly and he never drew Solidarity, so I took it pretty quickly.

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Pack 28

Mon 1203: Genex Ally Crusher (One of the better Genex cards.  Can be really good if I can set it up consistently.  Might be worth using…)

Mon 1757: Lady of Faith (Weak normal. Terrible.)

Spell 851: Sword of Soul Eater (Well… that is… A payoff for all those low-level Normals, I guess. Terrible.)

Trap 58: Bamboo Scrap (... Trash.)

ED 82: Diamond Dire Wolf (!!! Another Excellent ED card! Finally, a way to remove Spell/Traps!)

 

Duel 29: Tombo Tillbitty

The Tomato man himself!  Like Pip, he runs a gimmick deck that uses game exclusives to great effect.  His boss Tomato King is normally too strong to beat over, and his Field Spell Tomato Paradise passively buffs his monsters while also adding spam potential for extra damage.

…fortunately, I opened up Skill Drain, so I was able to sit on a 2k ATK monster to win.

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Pack 29:

Mon 159: Arma Knight (Another weak normal. Terrible.)

Mon 3013: Trust Guardian (Level 3 Tuner with some upsides and downsides. Mediocre.)

Spell 555: MONSTER REBORN!!!

Trap 791: Torrential… Reborn (One away from greatness.  Cool WATER tech if I pulled WATER monsters early on to work alongside Eisbahn. Ok.)

ED 138: Heroic Champion - Excalibur

Ah, I figured I might run into this problem eventually.  I've already pulled Excalibur, but it was number 136 before.  The way the game’s pool of cards works is that it removes cards from the trunk when 3 copies are added to the deck.  That means that as I swap cards in and out, the card numbers do not exactly correspond to the same thing. I’d already pulled Excalibur, but as it was a different number, I’ll just reroll the ED slot.

ED 269: Number C39: Utopia Ray V (No Utopia, no easy way to summon. Bad.)

 

Duel 30: Vetrix

A duelist I’d been dreading.  Vetrix runs Heraldic Beasts and is probably the strongest anti-Xyz deck in the game and one of the strongest but least sacky decks in the game.  The more you rely on Xyzs, and the stronger they are, the harder the duel against him tends to be.  Knowing this going in, I… did not summon an Xyz.  I was able to use Spells/Traps to 141 trade with his Xyzs, enabling me to gain advantage over time.  If he kept Leo on the field, I probably would have lost.

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Pack 30

Mon 2179: Neko Mane King (Funny, but useless here.)

Mon 2326: Photon Wyvern (Would be great if it was 1-tribute. Might be necessary for trap heavy matchups though…)

Spell 565: Multiplication of Ants (In an era before Links, the card is extraordinarily mediocre.)

Trap 552: Odin’s Eye (Archetypal. Terrible.)

ED 58: Constellar Pleiades (A Rank 5 that’s actually worth building around. Late now, but a great card.)

 

Duel 31: Dextra

Uuugh… One of the duelists with a high trap count.  She uses Butterspy, but also runs an engine consisting of Traptrix Myrmeleo and Beetron.  Because of this, it’s usually tough to keep monsters or Spell/Traps on board.

Lost the first duel, but opened Skill Drain + Sabersaurus in the second duel and was able to keep things under control.  Eventually, I was able to summon Crazy Box while she had no backrow and push for heavy damage.

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Pack 31

Mon 1715: Koa’ki Meiru Drago (Interesting. If I had a heavier pool of dragon cards, I’d absolutely find a way to use it. Can completely shut down some strats.)

Mon 2190: Neo Space Pathfinder (A LIGHT w/ 1800 ATK. Time to replace my LIGHT 6-Sam!)

Spell 373: Gem-Knight Fusion (Somehow I pulled 2 different Gem-Knight fusion cards… Terrible.)

Trap 382: Heroic Retribution Sword (Archetypal. Terrible.)

ED 194: Melomelody the Brass Djinn (An ok early-game pickup.  Too late and too weak to be useful.)

 

~~~

Whew! Lots of duels, and a surprising number of them were 1-duel victories! Never had to duel more than twice either, which is pretty impressive considering my thoughts from last time.  I've already updated my deck to its current iteration in the OP.

 

As it is now, I have 5 more duelists on the main map before I go face the finals duelists.

Ray Shadows - Uses Constellars iirc.  Can consistently summon Pleiades which can single-handedly win vs me.  Will have to be lucky and/or open Skill Drain to win here.

Dumon - Uses Star Seraph, I think?  Should be a relatively easy victory as long as he doesn’t have too many generic goodstuffs.

Flip Turner - Tried dueling him very early.  Given my deck now, it shouldn’t be hard but it’ll probably be extremely tedious since I’m pretty sure he runs stall continuous cards (Gravity Bind, Messenger of Peace, etc.).  Might actually tailor my deck just to streamline this.

Scarlett Starling - Runs Madolches iirc.  She can very easily snowball out of control, and I did not pick up enough Spell/Trap removal to effectively deal with it.  Out of the remaining duelists, I am most worried about her and Ray.

Yuma Tsukumo - I still haven’t dueled base Yuma.  He’s not hard, but his deck is VERY sacky.  Given my deck's beatstick nature, Utopia might slow things down enough to let him delay and draw into power cards.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Tinkerer

[Tinkerer]

Bump~

[Tinkerer]

Duel 32: Dumon

As I noted last time, he uses Star Seraph, but his deck seemed to be more LIGHT Fairy goodstuff, utilizing Valhalla and such to spam Level 4s.  He managed to summon out a Gem Knight Pearl, but overall wasn't tough at all.

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Pack 32

M2458: Reptilianne Viper (too conditional, even if its effect is technically generic. useless.)
M3168: Weather Control (one of my favorite normal monsters... but still useless.)
S131: Cestus of Dagla (ironic that I got a fairy-based equip spell after facing a fairy duelist.  Useless card tho.)
T764: TG-SX1 (archetypal. useless.)
Ex345: Turbo Cannon (a synchro that needs a specific tuner. useless.)

 

Probably the worst pack in a long time, damn.

 

Duel 33: Flip

Ugh, this guy was annoying.  I didn't have to change up my deck, but his gameplan was backrow-based burn (Magic Cylinder/Wave Motion Cannon) supported by stally flip monsters, Cardcar D, and Lava Golem.  Fortunately, his backrow couldn't take me out quickly and once he started setting up his flip monsters, I was able to use Skill Drain and run them over without danger.  If the duel lasted maybe 2 more turns, he probably coulda flipped the tables on me.

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Pack 33

Monster 2573: Sengenjin (Beefy normal monster this time.  Always liked the lore behind this one, but it's much too late for consideration in my deck. bad.)
Monster 2991: Traptrix Atrax (Decent ATK, interesting effect with some self-protection. I even have Bottomless, but I probably won't use since it's EARTH. Decent.)
Spell 890: The Grand Spellbook Tower (useless since I don't have any spellbooks.)
Trap 21: Amazoness Shamanism (archetypal.  useless.)
ED 9: Ancient Flamvell Deity (very conditional summon condition... useless.)
 

 

Duel 34: Scarlett

One of the duelists I was most worried about.  Fortunately, she never drew into Ticket or Chateau and I was able to snipe her Tiaramisu with Offerings to the Doomed which swung the game in my favor.  Super lucky with this one.

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Pack 34

Monster 904: EHERO Ice Edge (Well, it is technically 1 for 1 Spell/Trap removal. A bit too awkward to add to my deck right now, but a decent card.)
Monster 3177: White Dragon Wyverburster (Huh!  A solid card that works with the chaos theme I've been building; might put it in.  Good-Great.)
Spell 817: Spirit Converter (No real value in turning my monsters into Materials.  bad.)
Trap 272: Enlightenment (conditional double attack trap for Spellcaster with additional downside.  terrible.)
ED 290: Red Nova Dragon (Man, another Synchro with specific material?? Seriously, what's with the synchros this sesh? Useless.)
 

Some interesting monsters.  Might try Wyverburster if I have enough Level 4 DARKs.

 

Duel 35: Ray Shadows

The other big terror.  I should have had no chance of winning (especially since I went second), but I opened both Skill Drain and Megamorph, allowing me to completely shut down his offensive ability after he wasted Mirror Force on my initial attack attempt.

Skill Drain has been the absolute MVP of this entire challenge.

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Pack 35

Monster 613: Cybernetic Cyclopean (1400 ATK but becomes 2400 ATK if I have no cards in hand. Interesting.)
Monster 2605: Shining Angel (A classic Attribute summoner!  Might find itself in the deck since it works under Skill Drain. Decent.)
Spell 934: Tricky Spell 4 (... terrible.)
Trap 161: Crystal Pair (Crystal Beast support card.  terrible.)
ED 326: T.G. Hyper Librarian (A solid card with generic materials.  Might've tried building around this guy if I got it early. Ok.)
 

Removed Cloudian Turbulence and slotted Shining Angel into my deck.  Actually had to take out 1 of the 2 Bottomless just so I could put in the third Angel.  Really hoping the float is worthwhile!

Given the sheer number of LIGHT goodstuff I have, I might end up tossing in Nyan Nyan and Photon Sanctuary and removing some of the non-LIGHT elements.  Bit risky.  If I'm stumped I'll try it.

 

Duel 36: Yuma

Dammit Yuma...

5 duels.  It took 5 duels just to get 1 win.  Between his Gogogo Giant beating over any of my Main Deck monsters and screwing my Skill Drain, to his Utopia delaying the game so he could draw his power cards, to his Mirror Forces/Dark Hole/Heavy Storm/Monster Reborn to reverse the game whenever I eked a slight advantage... I was right when I said he's sacky.  Doesn't help that the game decided never to let me go first... Ugh.  It's done now tho.  Hopefully I get something good out of it...

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Pack 36:

Monster 768: Dice Armadillo (trash level 5 Normal monster)
Monster 2057: Mist Valley Executor (This would've fit in well in the early game as a backrow clearer.  Way too slow/weak now.)
Spell 549: Mist Body (Might be useful, even if only to give me a turn so I can Xyz. Ok.)
Trap 486: Mask of Restrict (Another floodgate continuous trap.  Huh.  Probably useless though.)
ED 162: Jurrac Meteor (You know... if I do this challenge again, maybe I'll remove the Synchro pool.  There's just so many non-generic Synchros...)
 

...nah, wasn't worth the pain

 

 

Duel 37: Astral

I completely forgot that Astral was locked behind beating Yuma.  So I still had to duel him before the finals.

Aaaaand I beat him first try.  After the sack-fest that was Yuma, I got to go first vs Astral and opened Shining Angel which gave me the fodder to stand Astral's initial assault.  He's usually quite good at drawing revival monsters (Gogogo Golem/Ghost or Masked Chameleon), but he didn't and I was able to smack him before he could set up another Utopia to prolong the game.

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Pack 37

Monster 2478: Robolady (classic normal monster.  I think my dad would recognize this one xD)
Monster 2647: Skull Red Bird (another classic normal.)
Spell 828: Star Light, Star Bright (A fun card, but not super practical.)
Trap 508: MIRROR FORCE!!!
ED 13: Arcanite Magician (Ugh, another tough to summon synchro.  Not impossible, but also probably not worth the trouble.)

All the pain, all the trouble against duelists with Mirror Force, and I finally get to use it myself, just in time for the game's finals!

~~~

With me finishing up the preliminaries, I am now 3 duels away from the end of this run.  The last three duelists are Shark, Kite, and Zexal (in that order).  All three are tough in their own way and all boast some powerful generic cards and large/annoying boss monsters.

This is also the moment the "story" gets interesting.  There's a lot of conflicting info about the playable character.  Some characters recognized you as a famed duelist, while other people (like Number 96 and Dumon) seem to identify you as something a bit more sinister (Dumon thinks you're Nasch while 96 doesn't specify).  However, because you can fight almost any duelist in any order in the prelims, the info you get about yourself is scattered.  In the finals?  There's a clear storyline between the three duels, and they all assume you're some malevolent dueling force trying to destroy the world with your hat.  It's pretty wacky, so I look forward to finishing it up.

Until then!

 

 

[Tinkerer]

bump

[Tinkerer]

Last time, I'd finally reached the finals.  On top of that, I'd pulled Mirror Force from my random packs so I figured that my deck was good enough.

For these last three duels, I chose not to change my deck.  My final build looked like this: https://www.duelingbook.com/deck?id=13547297

 

The final 3 duelists were Shark, Kite, and ZEXAL in that order.

Finals Round 1: Shark

Shark uses a Rank 4/5 WATER spam deck.  His opening moves are pretty dangerous since he usually ends on Bahamut Shark and Full Armored Black Ray Lancer.  Bahamut is just really beefy while FABRL is sticky and gives extra advantage when destroying monsters.

I managed to out the initial wave, but Shark used Salvage and grabbed extenders from his GY in order to rebuild board presence.  He eventually managed to get out Full Armored Crystalzero Lancer and I scooped it after he stole my Xyz with Splash Capture.

On replay things went smoother.  He did his usual opening, but I broke through it somehow.  After that, we were both in a deadlock with neither of us drawing into monsters after he Torrential'd the board.  Eventually we started drawing monsters; He drew some of his level 5s, but my Level 4s actually had more attack, so I punched through and managed to keep enough advantage to win.

 

- As an aside: I find the "story" they threw together in the finals very amusing.  It really made it out like you were the ultimate villain, a potentially world-ending threat.  It was cheesy, but I appreciated that cheese -

Finals Round 2: Kite

Kite was a pretty dangerous one for my deck especially.  Duradark does nothing (did nothing against Shark either), and his monsters are generally bigger than mine, so Skill Drain was disadvantageous.  Galaxy-Eyes pretty heavily hard-counters my Xyzs as well.  I figured going in that I could potentially keep him off low-level monsters and he'd brick on his high levels.

The idea worked a bit.  I kept him from resolving his Shining Angels while forcing his bigger level 4s into defense position.  However, on my final push, I ran into Mirror Force and he combo'd off me the very next turn for his win.

On the replay I played even more carefully.  Using Maestroke to turn his low levels into Defense while being protected from Mirror Force.  Every time he over-committed, I'd punish with my Offerings to the Doomed or my own Mirror Force.  It was a slow game, and he did scare me for a moment when he summoned Neo Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon, but eventually I managed to get my LIGHT and DARK ninja bros on the field for the win.

 

Finals Round 3: ZEXAL

Out of the three finalists, ZEXAL was the one I was least worried about.  He tends to have some ZW monsters in his deck which makes it brickier than just a Utopia spam deck.  I was so nonchalant that I went first and just summoned Fabled Ashenveil without any backrow.

...unfortunately, he immediately punished that passive play.  ZEXAL slapped down Goblindberg into another Level 4 to summon Utopia, and then dropped Rank-up-Magic Numeron Force to play Utopia Ray Victory.  He punched over Asheveil for a full 2800 to face.  On top of all that he set a backrow.

Ultimately though, I was not feeling stressed about this duel.  ZEXAL had burned through so many resources.  I had answers, and it was much more likely for him to brick than either of the others.  My feeling was correct.  I kept outing his stuff and (unlike the other two), I defeated him in 1 try rather than 2.

~~~

Aaaaaaaand with that, my journey ends!

It really should not have taken me over a year to complete this, but y'know... procrastination is a real pain

Honestly, the duels tended to be relatively short.  The write-ups were pretty tedious, but I enjoyed them.  It was setting up the pack randomization that was the most painful part of the whole process.  I probably would do this again on my own for fun with some other way to do randomness.

But yeah, with that, I can put this project to rest.

Until next time, fine peoples!