The July 2018 Trinity Cup was our biggest so far with 26 participants. The Top 4 was as follows:

1st: Cinosrepus

2nd: DanteTravelerOfTheBurningAbyss

3rd: iotg9

4th: Prawnwizard

Thank you to all of our participants, and congratulations to the Top 4 on their performances. Now, each of them has agreed to give a short deck profile and tournament report.

1st Place: Cinosrepus’ SPYRAL ABC

Why did you choose to run your deck?

I started out with SPYRAL because SPYRAL Resort prevents the monsters from being targeted. It counters both Graydles and Fairy Tail Snow, which is now forbidden. It recycles important monsters and searches one every turn as well.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

SPYRAL combined with the ABC engine. It’s a control deck meant to outvalue the opponent with various ways of removing enemy threats, including rank 4’s, ABC-Dragon Buster, and of course SPYRAL Tough.

What were some of your tech choices and “trinities?”

I use Gagaga Cowboy in this deck because I often saw that games would come down to the wire, with my opponent having less than 1000 life points. It combos well with the ABC cards because if I attack with each piece after using ABC-Dragon Buster’s retrieval effect it acts as an extra finisher. Because Heavy Storm Duster and Twin Twisters were unlimited, as well as the possibility of Exciton and Mirror Force, I had Starlight Road in the main deck. I think it saved me a few times, but sometimes my opponent would predict that I had it face-down and acted accordingly.

Fairy Tail – Snow was a popular card and play-style, so I thought I would have Lullaby of Obedience in the main deck. I thought I would be able to predict which cards were in my opponent’s deck by seeing what cards they used. Many of my side cards, including D.D. Crow, Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, Called by the Grave, and Debunk were added for that deck specifically.

In the side deck I had Nobleman of Extermination in case someone was using Buddy Force, because dragons were quite popular so I assumed some people would be using them. I had Ghost Bird of Bewitchment for a powerful card which had some versatility, but mostly because I wanted a big guy that wouldn’t trigger Pacifis. However, I never played against anyone using the deck.

My trinities were Snatch Steal, which was the current best co-forbidden card, SPYRAL Resort, Dark Hole, and Monster Reborn.

How did you prepare for the meta, and would you change anything going forward?

I would probably take out the Timelords from the side deck. They didn’t serve much purpose. I also forgot to add Topologic Bomber Dragon and I thought that would harm me at some point, but it didn’t end up being that big of a deal actually. I would probably have Breakthrough Skill and others in the main deck because of the abundance of monster effects being used.

How were your matchups?

Round 1 vs TheCardRipper’s cool engine deck

It included trickstars, SPYRAL, Sky Strikers, and Subterrors. I lost the first game and I thought I would lose 2-0 but then I brought it back. Very lucky on my part.

Round 2 vs AsuiKitsune’s Subterror flip deck

I was very scared because I didn’t know what Subterrors did. I lost the first game but won the next two.

Round 3 vs Boddity’s Goodstuff deck

It all came down to whoever had better draws I think. I did have a memorable move in the final game. Opponent had Linkuriboh and Eater of Millions on the field with 5100 LP. In hand I had Hidden Armory, SPYRAL Super Agent, Premature Burial, and SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red. I used Hidden Armory to get Snatch Steal then summoned Super Agent by calling monster. I used Premature Burial to summon Ghost Bird of Bewitchment from grave to the left so it gained 1000 attack. Big Red then came down to summon Quik-Fix to bring Fully Armed to hand. It finished with attacking with everything for game.

Round 4 vs Dante’s Snow Lightsworn deck

Very annoying, but I was able to win through it. Number 27: Dreadnought Dreadnoid was a very scary card to go up against too.

Round 5 vs Prawnwizard’s Warrior Link deck

This round was my only loss in Swiss.

Round 6: Against Gavone’s Zoodiac Volcanic deck

It was an interesting matchup and I won 2-1. Whiptail’s ability to banish really hurt my deck.

Top 8:

Round 1 vs Gavone’s Zoodiac Volcanic deck

This time I was better able to understand his deck and played accordingly, winning.

Round 2 vs CardRipper’s cool engine deck

I feel like I played better this time and it brought me to a victory.

Final Round vs Dante’s Snow Lightsworn deck

I think I made a few more errors this time, but I was able to win anyways.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

Yes, with the biggest change being Scapegoat to Co-Forbidden and Snatch Steal to Semi-Forbidden.

2nd Place: DanteTravelerOfTheBurningAbyss’ Minervasworn

Why did you choose to run your deck?

I didn’t have enough points to qualify for the FLOD Season Championship without topping, so I decided to play a good deck. After cycling through various options, I settled on Snowsworn which I had significant success with in testing and Trinity Online Locals. It was a powerful deck which I could play reasonably well.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

I wanted to run as many ways to make turn one Minerva as possible so I ran basically every rank four enabler. I also wanted lots of ways to fill the graveyard and get more utility of Minerva. Because of this I included a versatile selection of Lightsworn monsters along with 3 copies of Charge of the Light Brigade. I also ran a strong lineup of traps to counter my opponents’ plays while I got my graveyard set up.

What were some of your tech choices and “trinities?”

The biggest tech choice I used this tournament was Number 27: Dreadnought Dreadnoid, which allowed me easy access to Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Superior Dora. Snow’s recursion along with stuff like Giant Rex, Heroic Challenger – Thousand Blades, and The Phantom Knights of Shade Brigandine meant that I could often “cheat” the summon limit. This gave me the extra summon for Dora, producing a literal Towers off of a rank four.

My trinities were of course the semi-forbidden Snow and two additional copies of Charge of the Light Brigade. These set up the grave and give me access to whatever Lightsworn I needed. I’d also like to mention how amazing the Armageddon Knight/Phantom Boots engine was, easily my favourite engine in Trinity. The only other card which I think is unique or good enough to deserve a shoutout is Ryko, Twilightsworn Fighter. He was consistently very good for me throughout the tournament.

How did you prepare for the meta, and would you change anything going forward?

I don’t think I prepared very well for the meta and my side deck was not very optimal. I prepared excessively for Kozmo True Draco, siding system down and maining both versions of Ryko since they did not target. However, the deck was crippled by Diagram’s hit before the tournament and I did not come across it. I sided a fair amount for SPYRAL, but my two losses across the tournament were both to SPYRAL anyways. The rest of my sidedeck was somewhat generic and not targeted at one deck.

In terms of what I’d change, I would probably not include regular Ryko. I would likely have exchanged Felis, Lightsworn Archer for Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, mainly because Felis could only really trigger off of Lightsworn mills or Lavalval chain. Wulf can trigger off of Foolish Burial and Charge of the Light Brigade as well. There were situations in the tournament where I would have much rather had access to Wulf than Felis. However, Felis’s tribute and mill effects put in lots of work so I’m not certain which would’ve been better.

How were your matchups?

Round 1: El Bisonte Del Burrito (FLIP) 2-1 Victory

Game 1 lasted over an hour but I managed to outpace his slower flip effects and burn through most of his good cards to seal victory. Game 2 he completely blew me out turn after turn with Subterror Umastryx and World Legacy Pawns. In game 3 I summoned Dora in the mid game for a 2-1 victory.

Round 2: Giant Skyhawk (Dinosaurs) 2-0 Victory

In both games one and two I drew almost perfect answers to almost every play he made, although I came close to losing game 2.

Round 3: Prawnwizard (Isolde Gouki) 2-0 Victory

Similarly to round 2, I always seemed to have the correct trap or mill the right monsters to stop his plays. Being able to counter Black Luster Soldier, Envoy of the Beginning with Snow and traps and using rank fours to clear the only other threats made for a decisive, if undeserved, victory.

Round 4: Cinosrepus (SPYRAL ABC) 0-2 Loss

In round 4 I picked up my first loss against Cinosrepus’s SPYRAL ABC deck. It was a combination of my playing atrociously and him perfectly timing handtraps to stop my turn one setup plays. There was a great moment when he attacked over my weaker monsters and then made Cowboy for game. This lost me the game despite me controlling Dora.

Round 5: Punkrocklee (Sky Striker Zoo) 2-0 Victory

Game 1 I won mainly due to an incorrect ruling from a judge that meant I milled cards that altered the gamestate massively in my favour. In game 2 my opponent didn’t see any of his side deck cards so my stronger engine was able to secure victory.

Round 6: Wtrain (SPYRAL) 2-1

I won game 1 because I drew insane and my opponent kept getting unlucky on blind SPYRAL calls. Game 2 I got my setup stopped by a handtrap and was turns behind for the rest of the game. It all depended on game 3, which turned out to be incredibly close. Only by using the effect of Fire Fighting Daruma Doll to return my D.D. Crow was I able to stop my opponents plays for the last few turns. This ensured victory, my top, and my season championship qualification.

Top 8

Top 8: I was forced to read all the Subterror cards which gave me a headache for the rest of the day. However, I won games one and two regardless, mainly due to the power of Ehren, Lightsworn Monk.

Top 4: Prawnwizard (Isolde Gouki) 2-1 Victory

I won games 1 and 3 with Snow and Dreadnoid, getting beaten in game 2 by having little access to either in that game.

Finals: Cinosrepus (SPYRAL ABC) 1-2 Loss

Despite me opening really well in game 1, Cinos managed to answer all my plays. I then summoned the wrong xyz, allowing him to take control of the game and win. In game 2 I managed to set up Snow/Rex, made Dora, and won the game from there. I completely bricked game 3 and although I managed to recover by turn 2, I’d used up too many good cards to string together a setup play. I ultimately couldn’t deal with the ABC Dragon Buster he summoned, losing the match.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

With Fairy Tail – Snow going to forbidden, Snowsworn is not playable in the current format. Minervasworn variants without Snow don’t really have a win condition and are just a worse version of r4nk. Lightsworn may still be playable and Lightsworn engines are still good in some decks, but Snowsworn is not really competitively viable anymore.

3rd Place: TheCardRipper’s Field Spell Engine Deck

Why did you choose to run your deck? It was unique and performed better than the other decks I had at the time. What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck? The philosophy behind this deck is similar to goodstuff (where a bunch of the best singular cards are thrown together in a low synergy pile). In trinity, having low investment plays that don’t neg you when they are stopped is very important. Both my deck and goodstuff accomplish this very well. The difference is my deck is less conservative than goodstuff. I play several “garnet” like cards that can really drag down bad hands. These include Umastryx, Fiendess, Lilybell, and Lycoris. What I get out of this are much stronger plays and lots of pluses when my deck isn’t stopped. If my Trickstar Candina is negated, that is a one for one trade. I can then make my next play or set and pass for next turn. If Candina isn’t negated, I can search Light Stage which searches Lycoris. I’ve now gone +2 and added candina to hand for more plusses on following turns. Eventually I can resolve a card that allows me to plus more than the opponent. What were some of your tech choices and “trinities?” The Subterror package as an additional engine is fairly unique. It allows me to plus a decent amount off of warrior (searchable with rota or field) with any other monster. I also played Fiendess as an extra Subterror card to search. It is just too good with Subterrors not to play. I believe the Subterror engine isn’t common because of the garnets needed, but I am perfectly willing to draw dead cards a few times in exchange for powerful playmakers.

My Trickstar ratios are also unorthodox, as I do not play Trickstar Reincarnation . Reincarnation is a very good card, but not good enough at semi-forbidden for me. Hard drawing Reincarnation felt bad in testing and had low impact. It generally performed poorly for an engine I paid for with a Semi-Forbidden slot and a Co-Forbidden slot. The engine with Lilybell and Lycoris plays a much different role and is very powerful on its own. Instead is searching disruption, it is more focused on dealing heavy damage. Candina + Lycoris is 3800 damage with Light Stage up. It also results in being able to search Lilybell later on and add back the Lycoris in grave. There are more garnets involved, but it proved worth it to me. As for trinities, Trickstar Light Stage and Terraforming are obvious. Snatch Steal was just broken this format as well. Spyral Resort was the 3rd field spell engine, the last and probably least of them. It had its ups and downs, I’m not sure if I would play it again in the future. Tough being a normal summon and the randomness of it outside of the Tough/Agent combo was frustrating. How did you prepare for the meta, and would you change anything going forward? I didn’t actually focus on the Trinity metagame that much when building my deck since lots of people are on widely varying decks. The one thing I did think about though was the prevalence of backrow removal. This lead me to play Bad Aim because it was theoretically a very chain-able but less powerful trap. Ideally I could set it first, then I could keep my more powerful traps like Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare for later turns. It ended up being bad though, mainly because it wasn’t chainable on an empty board. Metaverse was very good for this purpose, but more powerful traps would be better than Bad Aim.

Is your deck still playable in the current format? It definitely still is. The deck had no real hits on the August Forbidden List. The only real changes you would need to make to the deck are removing Snatch Steal and replacing it with the newly Co-Forbidden Scapegoat. The empty slot in the deck can then be replaced by any generic card, such as the Mana Dragon Zirnitron. Good traps to replace Bad Aim with could be Black Horn of Heaven or Infinite Impermanence.

4th Place: Prawnwizard’s Gouki Deck

Why did you choose to run your deck?

Well this was a deck idea I had a couple months ago when Gouki were first released. I didn’t really see the full potential of Isolde Turbo until guiltygear ran it in a locals. I decided to prove the deck was cup worthy by topping with it.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

Add as much consistency as possible and rely on the power of Isolde, Two Tales of the Noble Knights to win games. The main idea was if I resolved Isolde turn 1, the vast majority of decks would not be able to handle the insane amount of card advantage and threat generated across the next 2-3 turns.

What were some of your tech choices and “trinities?”

Used a trinity on RotA because every single monster in the deck is a warrior and Armageddon Knight is a 1 card, 2 summon isolde. Then I took BLS and snatch steal because of their synergy with Isolde. BLS being the best target to search with Isolde and snatch steal being the best equip in the game.

How did you prepare for the meta, and would you change anything going forward?

I honestly wasn’t too sure what the meta would be going in. Most of the top players were taking a break from playing super competitive decks or were trying to chase a goodstuff boogeyman that didn’t really exist. I think this made it the perfect opportunity to just play a high consistency deck with powerful threats that undertuned decks can’t handle.

How were your matchups?

This deck absolutely crushed goodstuff. Goodstuff relies on trading cards a lot, but the Isolde engine is so efficient they can’t possibly keep up without perfect draws. Control decks would have been a big problem, but no one really played them. Snow decks were a massive pain because of my own lack of disruption and no efficient way to deal with Snow unless they let me make Borreload.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

Yeah but I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s another deck I played similar to Hopeless Dragon where it heavily relies on abusing weaker players who don’t run hand traps or weaker decks that can’t handle early pressure. Even with a more optimal list, I don’t think there’s much hope for this deck among the top tiers.

Take out Pot of Avarice, I sided it every game because it’s more likely to brick you than do anything useful. Reinforce Truth is another card I would cut. This deck requires a very TCG mindset to build. If it doesn’t help you turn 1 or 2, then cut it. Add anything that lets you safely turbo Isolde and nothing else.