Toronto Regionals Report ft. Cubics!

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

The Cubes went 4-3-1, a winning record by the slimmest possible margin but a winning record nonetheless! 

 

Monsters: 17

Vijam the Cubic Seed x3

Duza the Meteor Cubic Vessel x3

Crimson Nova the Dark Cubic Lord x3

Geira Guile the Cubic King x1

Buster Gundil the Cubic Behemoth x1

Summoner Monk x2

Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit x3

Maxx "C" x1

 

Spells: 20

Cubic Karma x3

Cubic Wave x3

Foolish Burial Goods x3

Twin Twisters x3

Scapegoat x3

Pot of Desires x2

One Day of Peace 

Raigeki 

Dark Hole

 

Traps: 3

Unification of the Cubic Lords x3

 

Extra Deck: 15

Link Spider x2

Proxy Dragon

Ib the World Chalice Priestess 

Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior

Decode Talker

Borreload Dragon

Firewall Dragon

Topologic Bomber Dragon

Abyss Dweller

Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir

Number 39: Utopia

Number S39: Utopia the Lightning

Tornado Dragon

Black Rose Dragon

 

Side Deck: 15

Dimensional Barrier x3

Anti-Spell Fragrance x2

Denko Sekka x2

Royal Decree x3

Chaos Hunter x3

Summoner Monk

Psi-Blocker

 

Round 1: Win 2-0 vs. Toons

Suck it, Pegasus! I have much respect for my fellow Rogue amongst Rogue deck players, and this was a pretty cool deck that could bring out Rank 7's via Black Stone of Legend -> Red-Eyes Toon Dragon -> Toon Dark Magician. I Twin Twistered some Solemn Strikes and got Crimson Nova game 1, game 2 I didn't draw quite that well and they established a field. I sat back and activated One Day of Peace, then they extended their board some more with Toon Kingdom for protection but I had Black Rose Dragon to net some advantage and win from there. 

 

Round 2: Loss 2-1 vs. Pendulum Magicians

This guy really liked Ash Blossom. He had an Ash Blossom mat and ran 3 Ash Blossoms. I didn't share his enthusiasm. This was a good match with a good Pendulum Magician player who I think went on to do pretty well. He had his combos down and kept Time Pendulumgraph up enough of the time before going on the offensive with Ignister and co. Game 2 I baited Time Pendulumgraph with Scapegoat using Links and Duza with Unification then pulled Crimson Nova off for a surprise OTK from a card he'd never heard of. 

 

Round 3: Draw 1-1 vs. Herald Nekroz 

Should've lost this one. Pre-Preparation of Rites is really good, Nekroz of Trishula is a scary card and he also ran Star Seraph and Cyber Angel shenanigans to recoup a sizeable card advantage all the time. He slowly but surely ground me out in game 1. He had a difficult time outing Borreload Dragon but eventually did with Nekroz of Trishula. He also had to read all my cards a bunch and there was a fair amount of side-chat since we were having fun and such so we ended up going into time in game 2. I didn't have King Crimson the God but managed to hold out thanks to Unification and Dimensional Barrier calling Ritual. With a 2600 LP disadvantage on turn 4 of time I got 2200 damage in with Duza attacking over Castel with Cubic Wave and then sent it to the Graveyard for a Defense Position Geira Guile in MP2 for 800 more damage. At that point we were sorta topdecking so on turn 5 he was able to summon a monster to destroy Geira Guile but still got the technical loss thanks to Geira's clutch burn, making the match a draw.

 

Round 4: Win 2-1 vs. True King Dinos

This isn't a fun match-up for Cubics at all. Ultimate Conductor Tyranno is a nightmare for the deck because he's the only main decked monster that comes up with over 3000 original ATK, which gets over Crimson Nova's immunity. Ghost Ogre and Chaos Hunter put in good work, as did One Day of Peace.

 

Round 5: Loss 2-0 vs. pure True Dracos

This is normally a good match-up for Cubics because True Dracos lack any sort of non-destroying removal on their own, which makes Unification and Buster Gundil especially good against them. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make much of it because he'd always have Majesty Maiden and Ignis Heat to plus off my Unifications-and Diagram, Duality, Desires, Demise, Disciples makes for a hell of a lot of d-cards (Heritage too, but there's no d there). He also ran 3 Apocalypse which most True Draco players don't and it wrecks Crimson Nova where Master Peace doesn't, so unfortunately I couldn't keep up. I had Ghost Ogre for Diagram once but then he just played another one. I think I'd have rather had a Kaiju here to out Majesty Maiden/Ignis Heat as those put in more work than Master Peace which just finished the job.   

 

Round 6: Win 2-1 vs. Burning Abyss

Burning Abyss is a good meta call but can't do much against Cubics. They tend to maindeck like 80% monsters, none of which do anything against Crimson Nova. Game 1 I had the OTK, games 2 and 3 were both some of my worst bricks in the tournament (stuff like multiple Vijams) but in game 3 he played strangely passively and ended up making a Utopic Future while I had no monsters out besides Vijam when he should've just beat me down with his 2 Dantes and outed them by detaching or otherwise graving Alich/Farfa as he had in game 2 (I learned Farfa is hilarious against Bagooska, it makes the poor Tapir commit suicide the next Standby Phase. I eventually drew into Crimson Nova and Cubic Wave in the too many turns he gave me to do so and took the match. Anti-Spell Fragrance also came up a few times here but setting cards while stalling wasn't too big a deal. 

 

Round 7: Loss 2-0 vs. 60-card Infernoids

This went really badly and I don't want to talk about it, but I will. Infernoids in general do horrible things to me. Game 1 started with a hard-drawn That Grass Looks Greener. I got Ash'd multiple times. Most Infernoids can banish Karma/Unification as a Quick Effect, so that sucks. They also have easy access to Omega through Raiden, and that sucks. Fairy Tail Snow is a stank jabroni. Void Imagination is terrifying. Onuncu is a Judgment Dragon that also has negation for some reason. In game 2 I could've finished it with Utopia the Lightning but got baited by a Cosmic Cyclone or whatever and couldn't finish - then he Summoned Fairy Tail Snow and Tornado Dragon was clogging my Extra Deck. At that point I pulled off Unification>Duza>Unification>Duza>Buster Gundil and revived a couple Duzas and got a Wave back but still didn't have enough for Crimson Nova either, so just had to try beating him down and once I'd summoned Tornado Dragon I didn't have enough for both Link Arrows and a Dweller/Lightning to stop Snow from rebounding from the Grave, and it came back, flipped me down and I lost. I think I'd seen him mill Solemn Scolding or something and that's why I was tentative about backrow in a 60-card deck that barely ever backrows but you live and learn. I also got Chaos Hunter off against him which was pretty cool but he just outed it with Decatron programmed with Harmadik and proceeded to go off.

 

Round 8: Win 2-1 vs. Pendulum Magicians

This came against a snooty locals' nemesis and felt really good after my horrible defeat in round 7.

Game 1 he bricked with the deck that doesn't brick. He really did brick though, set a monster and 2 backrow and passed. I didn't brick, I basically drew Exodia except with weird geometry (Foolish Goods>Duza>Karma>Geira Guile is the standard path for when I already have Crimson Nova and 2+ Cubics in-hand, and Crimson Nova's second attack for 3000 + Duza's 1600 + Geira Guile's 800 burn + Crimson Nova's burn is the usual OTK. Geira Guile is the card to be afraid of if anything, because if it gets searched it means I already have everything else. Game 2 I got out a Crimson Nova but strangely didn't have game, I think it died to a boosted Astrograph Sorcerer. I might have misplayed or something, sorry guys.

Game 3 I chose to go first for that sweet Dimensional Barrier and it worked as planned. He couldn't do anything and I OTK'd him mirthlessly, having gotten 2 normal summons for Duzafication Link shenanigans. The next turn I drew another Cubic, summoned a non-Cubic to Link with Duza for Ib, activated Unification for another Duza to dump Karma, searched and had Crimson Nova. 

 

Scapegoat and One Day of Peace: These worked great. I wanted to go for a build that could comfortably go first for a few reasons:

1) Some opponents make me, especially like-minded OTK-players like my True King Dino opponent (still don't know how I won that, he somehow Summoned V.F.D. and lost.)

2) I can access much better side deck cards by choosing to go first after losing a game, like Dimensional Barrier/Anti-Spell Fragrance/Royal Decree. 

3) Scapegoat serves as bait, defence, Borreload Dragon, a co-linked Firewall Dragon to recur Cubic names, etc. Pretty versatile.

One Day of Peace worked because I'm okay giving my opponent an extra card if I can guarantee my survival and get another couple draws - one off of it and another from my next Draw Phase, it was very good every time I saw it.  

Normally, Cubics just have Vijam and Duza>Unification for defence which are pretty easily outed.

 

Ghost Ogre: It was okay~helped with Herald of Perfection, Ultimate Conductor Tyranno, Dragonic Diagram, Dante, and Onuncu as well as getting me a Black Rose/Ib when I needed one, but there were a few times I saw it and would rather I hadn't. I mainly wanted it for SPYRAL Resort but didn't end up facing any SPYRALs, so eh. I'm a bit split on whether to go with these or Kaijus, but this is a little better with the going first motif.

 

Paleo hate in the side: Didn't end up playing any Paleo, rip. They were there though, croaking away in their horrific trenches-so no regrets and I'd side it all again.

Chaos Hunter: This card's range is pretty amazing. I was afraid of rogue stuff like Dinosaurs, Kozmos and Infernoids and am glad I was because this was pretty helpful against those, but it's also nice against ABC's, Trickstars for Reincarnation, SPYRALs for Sleeper, etc. It even helps against Paleo for stopping Ronintoadin and Dinomischus. 

 

Psi-Blocker:

I didn't end up siding this in, but I thought it'd be pretty fun against SPYRALs (call Super Agent) as well as the odd Cyber Dragon/Blue-Eyes match-ups. I could get him out with Summoner Monk, which is part of why I sided a third Monk (as well as for when I just really wanted to get Bagooska or Dweller out or something).

Speaking of Monk, I used to main 3 Summoner Monks and run Performage Trapeze Magicians for Trickstars, but they usually out it okay and I didn't want to commit the space anymore. I also wanted to side a Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo too as it seemed like another awesome card to search off Monk but couldn't really justify it given that relevant decks without readily available Normal Summonable beatsticks are pretty few and far between.

 

Topologic Bomber Dragon:

It was between this and Akashic Magician, and I never ended up Summoning this and never found a situation where I'd have wanted Akashic Magician. I was pretty happy with my Extra Deck overall, I think the card I most recall regretting not being in there was a third copy of Link Spider. I think I'll just use Topologic's spot for Linkuriboh once it comes out.

 

No Rank 10s:

I never wanted to go into one. Some people dedicate a good 5 Extra Deck slots to these in Cubics for the Spider engine and the RANK10TRAAIAIIIINS, but they all pale in comparison to Crimson Nova, let alone 2 of them-and if I can't win with 2 Crimson Novas I doubt any of those rank 10s would be of much help. 

 

No Gofu:

Drawing this when you have monsters sucks, and I do a fair amount of floating with Unification. I don't have much in the way of solid defensive Link plays going first (Links are pretty fragile in general as far as Extra Deck monsters go what with having to be in Attack Position, which doesn't help elude OTK's). So I found that if I got this going first I'd tend to just leave it and the tokens there for extra defence, which Scapegoat is a bit better at. Going second Gofu is nice when it works, but Bagooska renders it pretty useless. If running Allure, Radian and Gofu are really good to max out on, but having run Allures with max Gofu/Monk/Radian and having tried all the other draw cards to run in pure Cubics I've found Pot of Desires the best in spite of its risks here for getting to that OTK ASAP, and it also doesn't force me to maintain a certain number of DARKs whenever I side.  

 

Other things of note:

Dodged SPYRALs and Trickstars, I'm not unhappy about this but wouldn't've minded the test.   

The winner of this regional (named Dylan, as am I!) is a super fun and hyper kid (I reckon around 14-y/o) that I've seen at my locals here and there. He went 8-0 and had a huge smile on his face, couldn't help feeling happy for him. I believe he's on a team with some of the best players in the city and they lend him cards for tournaments, regardless he obviously knows what to do with them. 

Met

, a fellow Cubic player whose performance in Swiss at YCS Toronto earned him a deck profile with Ontario's BEST hype-machine TeamSamuraiX (haven't met him yet-that'll be the day!)

Also in attendance was Hanko Chow who won this tournament last year with Igknights (and top 8'd with Jurracs-the man is FIRE). He shows up at my locals sometimes too and I've had the odd friendly matches with him, nice guy. 

Ended up playing two players I face regularly at local tournaments (the BA player and the round 8 Pend Magician player). Was in general much more familiar than the YCS where a good chunk of players traveled in.

I believe this was the first big event with Magical Musketeers legal, and they seemed to be doing pretty well, often doing their thing at tables 30-50. 

Got 5 CIBR packs upon entry! Pulled poorly. :S

 

Was a splendid event, a great experience, lots of fun and I'd highly recommend such events!

I also recommend Cubics, one of the better budget decks and lots of fun to run.

[Darj]

A really enjoyable read. I have little clue on what Cubics do, so I found this report really interesting.

What was the deck of Dylan, the regional winner?

[Mr. Best Male 2008]

Ayy good job man. I've never played against Cubics but there is a guy at my locals who is trying to build them. I'll show him your deck list and sheet.

 

But yo that Team Samurai guy, can't stand him lmao. His builds are so bad and he just repeats the same things 900 times in his videos

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

A really enjoyable read. I have little clue on what Cubics do, so I found this report really interesting.

What was the deck of Dylan, the regional winner?

 

Thank you! I believe he was running SPYRALs as that's what he was running at locals a week prior but didn't get a chance to watch any of his duels so couldn't tell you for sure. :S

 

But yo that Team Samurai guy, can't stand him lmao. His builds are so bad and he just repeats the same things 900 times in his videos

 

But he's the BEST! and his builds are absolutely INSANE guys!

[Tinkerer]

Based on the tournament, how you did, what you faced, etc., is there any specific improvements/alterations you think you'd make to your deck going forward? You mentioned Linkuriboh over TBD, but anything else you think jumps out?

 

Money aside, what are your thoughts on Winter Cherries over Ghost Ogre? You already have Link Spider, Borreload, Firewall, Decode, Bagooska, and Utopia. At minimum it should hit something even without siding, while possibly opening up side deck space (since you'd have to run less overall #s of deck counters).

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

Overall I was pretty happy. It was either a build that looked like this or a build with Allure and a few more DARK monsters (including Radian, Gofu and an extra mained Monk) that I'd been using before, but in that case I'd probably have to take out the going-first cards and focus on going second as that's what Radian and Gofu are good for, and I feel like that build really struggles with going first.  

 

On that note I like that Cherries is DARK and it could be a good card to side (personally I don't have it). I wouldn't main it as the format's fairly diverse now and I'd worry a bit about sacrificing Extra Deck space for it too as I feel that's an increasingly important and tight thing for Cubics as more Links become available given Cubics' innate synergy with Links using Unification, but if you can fit the Extra Deck targets in the side as well then I can see Cherries being a solid option. 

 

If I could access a playset of PSY-Framegear Gammas that's a card I think would be good in Cubics and has the ability to stop hand traps from disrupting Desires/Foolish Goods>Karma>search, though they'd still be able to stop Duza as you'd control a monster at that point. If you stop a hand trap with Gamma and then make Omega you should have game, and going second it's even better for getting rid of negation bodies and other Quick Effect monsters.

[~ P O L A R I S ~]

bump

 

A really enjoyable read. I have little clue on what Cubics do, so I found this report really interesting.

What was the deck of Dylan, the regional winner?

 

Here is his deck profile courtesy of TeamSamuraiX, he was indeed running SPYRALs.