Hot Times in Hotlanta

So a Latino, an African American, a white guy, and an old man walk into a motel in Atlanta … 

“Do you want a King Sized bed?” asks the clerk

“Whut?  Are you kiddin’ me?”  Yugioh makes for strange bed-fellows but that suggestion is ridiculous. 

… and so began our two day Yugioh bender known as YCS Atlanta.  

In case you’re wondering, this YCS carried the Atlanta name only because that’s the nearest city.  You’d be quite disappointed if you were expecting Southern Belles and Mint Juleps.  Truth is we could have been at YCS Lubbock or any other American city that could promise a low flying aircraft every 15 minutes and a Waffle House every third block.  

Still, what could be more fun than playing cards for 2 days? 

Almost anything, if you lost your opening match because you failed to notice that Silent Honor Ark only applies to attack position specially summoned monsters.  (Hey, I only had the card for about 48 hours.)  Then I failed to use is ability to save himself.  X-1

My second match-up was against Spellbooks.  My side-deck was more aligned with Bujins and Skill Drain Decks and not Spellbooks.  Soon I was looking at X-2.  

Needless to say, I was not called for a feature match.  But I did hang in and play out the nine rounds of Swiss.  Really, how many waffles can you eat?

Day two was spent entering regional flights.  I’d love another national invite even if it means eating waffles in Detroit.  Alas, this was not meant to be either.  The competition is pretty tough.  Let’s face it, if you’re going to drop several hundred dollars to play at a YCS, you probably don’t suck.  

So how did I do? Of the 1,348 doolists, I finished 341 with 15 points.  Here is my record by day and by deck:

A few thoughts

1.       On the “Have No-Fear” philosophy.  I was Mirror Forced 4 times in 52 games or about 7.9% of the time.  It cost me the game once or 1.9% of the time. 

2.       Those who know all the decks do well.  I have a job and a wife.  There is only so much time.  I tend to focus on a small number of decks and get to know them very well.  It’s a reasonable philosophy.  However, it would probably help me to test some of the other meta decks.

3.       Diversity now!   The meta is wide ranging:  18 duels against 12 decks. 

One last thing … I pulled a Shared Ride. I can’t think of a more appropriate card considering the company that went with me.