Tourney Report 12/3/11

There's something to build on with this Jurrac deck. I went 1-3 against four of the top decks in the metagame, but I made them work for their wins. Well, except for the TGU Agent deck I played in round two.

Round one, I played against a Karakuri deck and was able to win 2-1. Good start, even with a few of the Karakuri monsters having a higher defense than the Jurracs' attack. I was able to punish my opponent for trying to use cards like Nisamu and Inashichi.

Round two, TGU Agents. My opponent played four Tour Guides in the two games we played. LOL Yugioh. Even when I mounted some offense, he was smart to not leave a Mystical Shine Ball on the table that I could easily destroy.

Round three, Dark World. My draws were horrible in the first game, opening with two Jurrac Aeolo and the one Flamvell Magician in the deck. Second game, Raioh popped up his ugly head and I draw Bottomless Trap Hole the turn after he hit the field. I didn't draw a Lance, Mind Control, or anything else that would have helped me get him off the field. Yay.

Round four, Machina Gadget. Game one ended with me having a Stardust Dragon and a Evolzar Laggia on the field. Game two, he played the gadget gameplan to perfection, using trap removal to simplify the game state while nibbling away with gadgets. Game three, he gets a Kycoo on the field and (once again) I don't draw any removal to get it off the field. Le sigh.

I think I need to play Smashing Grounds in the deck to help deal with problematic monsters. I wanted to play Dimensional Prisons, but that's too slow. I'm definitely taking the Jurrac Gallim out of the deck. Terrible card.

We'll see what happens next week.

Building JurracVell

Last Saturday, I acquired two Evolzar Laggia. They were basically the last pieces I was waiting for before playing the build of Jurracs that I threw together.

3 Jurrac Guaiba
3 Jurrac Velo
3 Jurrac Dino
3 Jurrac Aeolo
1 Jurrac Gallim
3 Flamvell Firedog
1 Flamvell Magician

3 Fossil Dig
2 Rekindling
2 Forbidden Lance
1 Book of Moon
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mind Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
1 Pot of Avarice

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Solemn Warning
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Safe Zone

2 Evolzar Laggia
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 TG Hyper Librarian
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Orient Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Jurrac Giganoto
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Using Flamvell Firedog or Jurrac Guaiba to get a synchro/xyz monster with one card is a powerful strategy. Especially Guaiba into Laggia. People who've had the displeasure to play against Rabbit decks may have run into this.

Guaiba attacks a low attack or defense target, sometimes assisted by Book of Moon or Forbidden Lance. Guaiba searches out either another copy of itself or a Velo. Overlay for Laggia. Now your opponent has to expend resources to get Laggia off the field before they can attempt to put their gameplan into effect.

And if they do get rid of Laggia, you have the resources to do it all over again.

You usually see a deck like this max out on Rekindling. I went down to two because Rekindling is terrible in the early game and drawing multiples before you have your graveyard stocked with monsters usually leads to a loss. I replaced one with a Pot of Avarice, because even though it has no synergy with Aeolo and Rekindling, it'll give me a chance to reuse my monsters from my extra deck.

The one card I don't have for the deck is Evolzar Dolkka. Dolkka is a good monster to add to the dino toolbox, but I'm not in a hurry to drop $40 for a toolbox monster. When I do get my hands on one, however, it'll probably replace the Roach in the extra deck.

Also note the absence of Pot of Duality. This deck special summons almost constantly that Duality would hinder the gameplan of this deck too often.

The deck doesn't really miss Duality, though, because of the three Fossil Dig that get you any dinosaur you need at the time from your deck.

Jurrac Guaiba: Natch.

Jurrac Velo: A recruiter for the rest of your Jurracs (if destroyed in battle while in attack mode). He also provides a level four body for Laggia.

Jurrac Dino: Level three tuner with a really solid ability. If Dino destroys an opponent's monster by battle, you can tribute a Jurrac you control during your end phase to draw two cards. Pot of Greed is good, right?

Jurrac Aeolo: Level one tuner that brings the deck together. His 200 defense means that Firedog and Rekindling can special summon him. He also can be tributed to special summon any other level four or lower Jurrac from your graveyard.

The side deck would be a combination of the usual stuff (third MST, Debunks) and two or three Gozen Match. All your monsters are fire and a nice chunk of your extra deck is fire so it won't hinder you too much. Doesn't work as well as with Karakuri, but...

All told, this is a solid, fairly cheap deck to put together that has decent game against the top decks in the format.