YCS Providence

So like I said with my last post on here, it's been a while. Anyone who watches my YouTube Channel knew that I was going to YCS Providence the weekend of the 19th, aka last weekend. I figured I'd give you guys a brief rundown of what I played against real quick. Since I don't remember which round I played some of these decks I won't specifically mention which rounds I played these decks. I played 8 of the 9 rounds of Day 1 before dropping due to a X-3 record. Getting a 6th win with 3 losses would've been kinda pointless so didn't bother with Round 9. I was playing Wind-Ups and faced the following decks: 2 Geargia Machina, 1 Wind-Up, 1 Six Samurai, 1 Burn, 1 Hieratic, 1 Zombie Monarch and 1 Kristya Banish Random.dek. I lost to the last three on that list. Wind-Ups facing down a Kristya is pretty stupid, but same can be said for a lot of other decks vs Kristya or anything similar to her for that matter. Zombie Monarch player stalled out for time, not the first time it happened all weekend, least for me. Everything else I won. I was 4-0 going into Round 5, lost to Hieratics that round. Beat Six Samurai following that then ran into Zombie Monarch and Kristya Banish Random.dek. The Wind-Up player also actually tried to bribe me, which I found funny.

Anyway, that was the tl;dr version of my YCS experience. But I do want to say something regarding this YCS. There were probably 3 single handedly perfect side cards throughout the weekend; Prohibtion, Gozen Match and Messenger of Peace. Here are my reasons why broken down for each card.

Prohibtion:
Prohibtion is easily a card that can shut down any play at any given time if played right. Same can also be said about shutting down a single deck and its strategies. Play against a HERO player and call "Elemental HERO Neos Alius". Suddenly they have dead Alius' in their deck and hand. Funny thing about this is that any card Alius can be used with is also shut down, meaning no Gemini Spark, Hero Blast and etc. There are other decks that get hurt like this in a similar way. Think of Geargias, they rely on their Geargiarmor's to search out key pieces of their deck that allows them to go off. If you call Geargiarmor with Prohibtion, they have to bank on their decks to draw into Geargiaccelerators, not to mention Geargiarsenal won't be allowed to bring out Geargiarmor since it's prohibited and cannot be used. It slows down Geargias just enough to more than likely get yourself set up for a big push and potentially win you the game. Prohibtion was also useful last format for decks like Inzektors and Dino Rabbit, calling "Inzektor Hornet" or "Rescue Rabbit" made things easier for players facing down these decks. Prohibtion is still a strong side deck card, though all weekend long I didn't see it once at the Providence YCS.

Gozen Match:
While good for the Geargia, Six Samurai and Atlantean players, Gozen Match sided in against decks like Wind-Ups, Dino Rabbit and etc was one of the best choices for players all weekend long. I played Wind-Ups and ran into Gozen Match at least 4-6 times throughout my matches. I believe each instance I managed to play around it but regardless it put pressure on me and forced me to make different plays, even if I had broken plays I wouldn't be able to play them around Gozen Match so my strategy had to be changed. In my opinion Gozen Match is a must to side if you're playing a deck that consists of mainly one attribute, because it can probably save you in some of your toughest matches.

Messenger of Peace:
It's official guys, I love this card. Not once did I see this used against me, but I personally used it and it saved me more times than I even expected. Though this mainly came into play against my Geargia matches, it's got uses against a lot of other decks too. Decks like Dino Rabbit, Hieratics, Geargias, Six Samurai and so on. There's actually a bigger list of decks than most think. Wind-Ups outside of Shark are all under the 1500 mark, allowing monsters like Wind-Up Rabbit to just pass under it and continue safely attacking. While Geargias can still attack with Geargiaccelerator and Geargiarmor, monsters like the Machinas as well as Geargiarsenal and all of their Xyz cannot attack. Allowing you to set up and remove threats from the field. Round 1 I was facing off against a Geargia Machina deck, we went into time in Game 2 because she couldn't get past my field, and know what my field was? Wind-Up Magician in defense, Dimensional Fissure and Messenger of Peace. She wound up losing because she played a Solemn earlier in the game, and my measly 100 per Standby Phase wasn't going to bring me lower than her. While I hated winning like that, Messenger of Peace was easily the card that saved me in that match. Her field the entire time was 2 Gear Gigant X, 1 Fairy King Albverdich and a Geargiano Mk-II. The Fairy King had already used up all of its materials too, so it couldn't reduce my Wind-Up Magician at all. Messenger of Peace is an amazing card for any side deck due to the fact it can stall out a lot of decks, even if its just for a couple turns so you can draw into your outs or force them to play around it.