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The January 2019 Trinity Cup Top 4 were:

1st Place: Giant Skyhawk

2nd Place: Cinosrepus

3rd-4th Place: MBT

3rd-4th: guiltygearxx

1st Place: Giant Skyhawk’s Lost World Dinos

Why did you choose to run your deck?

“You finally did it, huh Skyhawk?”

Three small Hydrogeddons waddle over to the rock that I’m perched on in the Lost World, happy to see that I’ve returned. I nod, and pet them each a little bit in order to wash my hands. They’d gotten a little dirty from all the machines I had to destroy in order to make it back alive.

“You really made us proud!”

I turn to see my good friend Hyper Hammerhead nuzzle his literal hammer head into my back. I give him some screws I collected from the instruments and the metal dragons for him to smash back into my opponent’s hands.

When I was younger my parents bought me the Dinosaur’s Rage Structure Deck and I spent hours upon hours playing against my brother and his Zombie Madness Structure Deck. I still remembered those moments so powerfully that when I came back to the game a few years later, I wanted to prove that these cards weren’t bad and that I could win without playing what everyone else was.

“What are you going to do now?”

A sole Jurrac Titano’s voice booms across the Lost World, causing the Black Pteras to fly out of their resting places. I didn’t answer, and kept walking. I knew he was waiting.

When I finally reached the volcano, the edge of it meeting a lake where Dinowrestler Pankratops was in a heated watersports luchador match with a few Megalosmashers. Small Rescue Rabbits are waiting and ready to pull the Megalosmashers back into the deep end of the lake when Pankratops pops them out. I laugh at the scene and progress onward.

Inside a small cave in the volcano, Jurrac Guaiba is waiting for me, exactly where I left him. The small fire I lit when I was a child is still burning, even a little brighter than it did when I first lit it.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t win together.”

“No, Skyhawk. You showed everyone that we weren’t just useless beatsticks. You showed us that we had hope.”

Tears fall from both of our eyes, having finally done what we set out to do.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

When I was building previous versions of Dinosaur, I always found that I would end up one or two cards behind the people I was playing against. After discussing with some other players in the decklists channel, I came to the epiphany that instead of trying to improve a smaller list, I could just play more good cards. This ended up working out, because even when I fell behind in card advantage I almost always had meaningful plays.

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

The thing about Dinosaur is that the cards themselves are all just insane tech, but to get to the tech within the tech the two spiciest cards are Lost World and Survival’s End. Lost World and any Dinosaur is a playable hand that either results in Dinowrestler Pankratops or that and a rank 4. Lost World has insane utility with the three Megalosmasher X’s in my deck as well, because you can destroy Babycerasaurus or Petiteranodon from your deck to summon another dinosaur if someone attempts to destroy a Megalosmasher X. If you happen to draw Souleating Oviraptor AND Lost World you can extend even further.

Survival’s End serves a few purposes. First, it’s basically an anti-Scapegoat card. Scapegoat is played in a lot of the control heavy trinity decks, and being able to say “You lose all 4 tokens and I summon 4 dinosaurs with a search off of Oviraptor” might be the most broken possible Trinity play. This has come up a few times, but not always. Secondly, you can use it either to pop Lost World tokens or your Megalosmasher X’s to summon Dinosaurs from your deck. Thirdly, it’s second effect lets you destroy one Dinosaur-type monster and one card your opponent controls by banishing itself, and you can do this on the same turn that you activated it. The combo potential is insane.

The last important tech card to talk about is Ultimate Tyranno, because this card actually won me my most important matches. Since you have so many ways to search out Dinowrestler Pankratops and dump Overtex Qoatlus to get Double Evolution Pill, you need to run another target. I went back and forth between some big Dinosaurs but ultimately settled on Ultimate Tyranno because it demands a nearly immediate answer from every deck in the format, can be summoned with Super Team Buddy Force Unite!, and will occasionally just win the game or put the game in an incredibly favorable position if you’ve already grinded through some backrow.

Honorable mentions to Dinowrestler Systegosaur, which functions both as a revival tool and a searcher for Dinowrestler Pankratops and to Number 103: Ragnazero, which under Lost World is a Zoodiac Drident that draws you a card afterwards.

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

Most of my siding was done to deal with backrow removal and graveyard effects. Abyss Dweller was excellent in the side as I can summon it with water materials to give it a good attack boost. I would definitely put Called By The Grave in the Main Deck as it’s almost always relevant to open with, and I would likely cut Trishula, Dragon Of The Ice Barrier despite being the only Trinity deck that can reliably summon it with a two card combo (it’s fun but almost never practical).

I’m undecided as to whether I would cut Hi-Speedroid Chanbara and Jurrac Aeolo, as while Aeolo can be bricky it can also be a win button. Time-Space Trap Hole also performed well, and I would likely add Chaos Trap Hole for Wee Witch’s Apprentice summons or large scary links. I would also make room for a game finishing rank 4 monster like Dark Rebellion XYZ Dragon or even a Number S39: Utopia The Lightning package because the vanillas enable it to be easily made under the summon limit. I think another mistake was not main decking the third copy of Super Team Buddy Force Unite!, as it’s fantastic for both unbricking hands and reviving Dinowrestler Pankratops or Soul-Eating Oviraptor.

How were your matchups?

Round 1 was against punkrocklee’s “Activate Quiet Life? Normal Summon Luna?” deck. I lost this match 2-1 because I still don’t know how Quiet Life works and the only card in the game that can beat Megalosmasher X is Fairy Tail – Luna.

Round 2 was a bye, and at this point I’m panicking because now I have to actually try to WIN my matches. Yoinks.

Round 3 was against He Who Shall Not Be Blasted’s BA Norleras deck and was such a quick game that he was soon after blasted from the server itself. Game 1 we both summoned Armageddon Knight Turn 1 and 2 and we ran them into each other, a true test of strength.

Round 4 was against i0tg9’s Altergeist Control, and oh boy this was one crazy match.

I won Game 1 solely because it is impossible for any deck in Trinity Format to beat a 2000 attack normal monster.

Game 3 was just insane, might be one of the craziest ones I’ve played here. I caused my opponent to misplay in a complicated situation to win me the game. The cards that won me this game were Jurrac Aeolo and Super Team Buddy Force Unite!

Round 5 was against ToadalGear’s Infernoid, and while normally this is a very spooky deck to play against, this incarnation of Dinosaur is a lot more effective at solving the problem of the big Infernoid monsters. This is because Dinowrestler Pankratops makes them waste resources and Ultimate Tyranno can just run them over with little disruption. I managed to survive the dreaded “The Void Stared Back At Me And Summoned A Decatron” combo by drawing Scapegoat both games.

My semi-final match was against MBT’s Orcust Bardiche, which is insane at generating bodies on board and intense grave advantage. This was also the first time I’ve managed to play against him in my whole time playing Trinity! I manage to win this match because I’m the only person in the format playing Dark Hole at co-forbidden and I used Lost Wind on my own Ultimate Tyranno to facilitate the match-winning scenario.

The final was against Cinosrepus’s Cyber ABC Shaddoll, also known as Arcanegrove.dek. This match was extremely back and forth, and I honestly thought I was going to lose all three games. I bricked really hard the first game, and also bricked the second game. However, the boardstate ended up in a position where using Double Evolution Pill to summon Overtex Quotalus from deck was exactly the way to win. Game 3 was an insane back and forth of me clinging on for dear life. One of my favorite cards from the Dinosaur’s Rage structure deck, Ultimate Tyranno, sealed the deal.

Winning this tournament by using Ultimate Tyranno in both of my top cut matches was extremely vindicating for me, as most people in the community kept calling it a useless brick. While it’s certainly not the card with the most plus potential or value, I think I’ve proved that Pankratops isn’t the only large Dinosaur to be afraid of.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

Even in the worst case scenario of hits, those being a Pankratops to semi-forbidden, Scapegoat to semi-forbidden, and Soul-Eating Oviraptor to co-forbidden this deck is not only still playable, but very good. You could either play the deck at 50 cards to preserve its current state with a little less consistency, or you would cut Dark Hole and/or a Rescue Rabbit to play the deck at 45 cards.

There are definitely a few different styles to play it, either a more control oriented backrow beatdown deck or a 35 card relatively tight OTK deck is definitely possible. Another thing to consider is that if Geist Control or strong monster based decks start to take over the format after the list, swapping Ultimate Tyranno for Jurrac Titano is a great idea. Most Trinity decks have no main deck outs to a 3000 attack monster that can’t be targeted by monster or trap effects.

2nd Place: Cinosrepus’s ABC Cyber Doll

Why did you choose to run your deck?

Arcanegrove told me to. I’ll be posting some of his own opinions here since he made the majority of the deck. He thought that I’d be able to play his deck better.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

Arcanegrove says:

“I wanted to make a deck that would flow as well as possible with as many hands as possible. With the summon limit being what it is in trinity, ‘set-up’ decks are actually far stronger than people would like to admit. As long as you dedicate some deckspace to a grind oriented engine or any way to interrupt some advantage oriented backrow decks, being able to pull off a high cost boss monster is very strong.

Some said that the Shaddoll engine is bad and/or too easy to play around, but the only card that makes it bad is Ash. Even then, Shaddoll Fusion recurs, and the deck runs so many 1 card starters. If a more technical player than I takes hold of it, they can push it way further than I could. Once people learned the choke points in the deck, it was obvious that I had to move back from a hyper aggro list to a more conservative list. There were still some choices that Cino made that I disagreed with, but he’s top 4 and I’m not sooo…”

I changed a bit by making it smaller and more tight. I felt like his original version was a bit more bloated because it included fusion recycling plant, polymerization, chicken game, set rotation, and graceful charity. This version ended up fusing less, so maybe he was on to something.

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

Arcanegrove says: “The direct counters to this deck are BEWD and Pend. I don’t care how much evidence that OrcBard beats this deck, in all my play testing against OrcBard, I only ever lost to MBT on it. And they were more due to bad hands and me being a bad player than this deck not performing well . Anyways, Mind Control Mirror Force Package/ Called by the Grave / were all played because of that poor matchup. I personally don’t like playing Called By, since I never seem to have it when I need it, but Cino uses it well. The Cydra engine in itself is a tech choice worthy of discussion. Being able to go +2-4 is insane, and no one plays it. It under performs against BEWD and Pend, but it seems that MBT is the only that manages to make OrcBard run around it. It also acts as a way to get back ABC pieces when they get banished, and that’s always good.” I came up with using Mirror Force Launcher since it both counters blind mst/storm duster plays and can recur mirror force against aggro matchups. It also discards Dandylion for tokens. Called had too many uses, especially in this meta, with its ability to prevent hand-traps, negate Pankratops, and banish various cards from GY. It’s good as a generic counter to revival traps as well.

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

I dedicated most of my side deck against aggro. Drowning Mirror Force tripled as anti-aggro, anti-OrcBard (since the traps can’t protect against being sent back to the deck), and anti-Geist (since Meluseek attacks directly, as seen by my match with Woosh). I never fought against Blue-Eyes, but essentially it could stop large boards from doing huge finishers. Other choices include Storming Mirror Force and Lightning Vortex to stop big boards. Honest and Limiter Removal work against big guy decks and Pankratops (damage step). Dark Rebellion, Exciton, Knightmare Phoenix, and Norden were for more versatile plays against different decks. D.D. Crow works against GY decks, Fortress Dragon against machine decks. Brain Control works for Geist and BE etc., and Cosmic Cyclone and Spell Shattering Arrow against Pendulum.

How were your matchups?

Good vs. BA, good against Sky Striker, I think it SHOULD be even or 40-60 vs. OrcBard, but I didn’t do too well vs. MBT. I think I needed more siding against it, like Chaos Trap Hole and System Down (which is also good against cyber dragons) and maybe more spell and trap removal. I did make a few misplays though so it’s also my own fault and not the deck. Slightly favored against Geist because it’s more resilient, but Woosh was a very good opponent. Drowning Mirror Force was the MVP that game.

As for top 4, I got mostly lucky against guiltygear’s version of Geist mid-range, but I still feel like my deck was more favored. Against Champion Skyhawk’s dinosaurs, I did fairly well, but made the mistake of over-siding despite having a slightly favored matchup. Game 3 I tried to rectify this but it still wasn’t enough. I should have just stuck to the original deck.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

It has been severely weakened, but it is technically still playable.

3rd Place: guiltygearxx’s Altergeist

Why did you choose to run your deck?

Same deck as always and I’m comfortable with the ins and outs of the strategy, little reliance on chance and I have the flexibility of using the side deck in a synergistic fashion.

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

Search for cards that give strong versatile 1 for 2s, And try to balance playstarters vs other cards that don’t conflict with summon limit. Unlike Goat Format, Trinity is still fast enough that you want to play as many cards as soon as possible. Because of this, I didn’t want to clog with conflicting normals or too many summons. It’s still hard to find a balance, as I went overboard on engines this tournament while last tournament I may have been too conservative.

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

Shoutouts to Wuh Train for recommending the fiend engine. Basically, I can use my standard Tour Guide plays to slowly dig for more traps in a situation where I saw my engine thanks to Back jack and Lilith. Great synergy with the side deck as you can look for cards like Dimensional Barrier or Fairy Wind. My Tour Guide was the best in the tournament and people should optimize more around tour guide. Also, woosh is wrong about one thing in my opinion which is that Maxx “C” is meh.

How were your matchups?

I only lost the mirror and ABCyber. The rest of the decks I played against weren’t extremely “real” in the meta sense. I played against Blue-Eyes, Skystriker, Trains, and Ninjas, and always saw my backrow, what can I say. There’s no magic bullet for this deck against meta, you just see the appropriate cards and use them correctly.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

The Altergeist hits are a joke to be honest. The generic trap hits are a problem though, I prefer to not to go big but it might be pertinent now. The lazy answer to how to update this list is just adding more cards to fit back in the now Co-Forbidden Traps, but I’m sure some testing will show an optimal strategy.

4th Place: MBT’s Orcust Bardiche

Why did you choose to run your deck?

“Useless, every one of you!”

Danger! Tsuchinoko whimpers as I kick a Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade across the linoleum. They haven’t seen me this upset since I misplayed against Mirage of Nightmare.

“Well, we did the best we could, and that’s what counts!” Galatea says, beaming. My eyes lock with hers, and her smile instantly contorts into a horrified grimace as she realizes my pupils are burning red.

“The best you could?” I manage, only barely containing my frothing spit between my lips, “The best you could?” I raise a World Legacy – Wonder Wand and brandish it at the format-destroying superthreat. “THE BEST IS THE BEST YOU COULD! Fourth place is hardly ‘the best you could!’”

“It’s not her fault! If you had just played better around backrow…” I swivel to see Armageddon Knight, trying desperately to defend his preferred payoff.

“Oh, of course!” I moan. I am no longer containing myself. “Of course! If only I had played around Solemn-Warning-Network-Trap-Hole-Chaos-Trap-Hole! What valuable insight!”

I fling Armageddon Knight across the room so hard he gets limited in the TCG. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the true target of my ire.

“You,” I growl, my gaze boring holes into The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche’ rusty bardiche, “you’re the most pathetic of all of them. Three materials? Plus two? Don’t make me laugh. I saw you one time total in the third place match. Coward.”

I turn to face a room of shivering Dark Goodstuff. Orcust Cymbal Skeleton’s Cymbals and Skeleton clash and rattle, respectively.

“NONE of you are worth my time. I demand RESULTS from my decks – and fourth place is NOT a result.”

Borrelsword Dragon speaks up, his mechanical mouth laboring under the weight both of his words and of four materials. “W-well, what are you going to do? We’re the best deck in the format!”

I laugh – a cruel, heartless laugh. Tour Guide from the Underworld turns away, no longer able watch the howling, hollow specter the duelist who once took such pride in onetricking Pacifis has become.

“You couldn’t be more wrong,” I say in a whisper that fills the room. “Now come with me, you overpowered eyesore. I’ve got a plan to tip the scales in our favor.”

What was your deckbuilding philosophy when making this deck?

Orcust and The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche does a wonderful job facilitating a cohesive gameplan for an otherwise mediocre set of pretty-good Dark goodstuff.

I tried to play a reasonable ratio of Armageddon Knight effects, free Dark summons, and payoffs to facilitate a turn 1 Galatea, the Orcust Automaton as often as possible.

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

My deck remains largely unchanged from the last time I played Orcust Bardiche.

I played slightly fewer Danger!s, as I often found myself with a Thunderbird stranded in my hand.

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

I expected more hate than I experienced in previous formats, as people have begun to optimize both the side deck and specific answers to this strategy.

As a result, I placed more faith in backrow destruction, as well as dedicating maindeck space to the occasionally-included TGU package, in case I needed a backup line.

I also played Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring in the maindeck, as I don’t think my linear gameplan is strong enough anymore to ignore my opponent completely.

How were your matchups?

Round 1 was against ToadalGear on Infernoid. I drew enough handtraps Game 3 to win.

Round 2 was against Meepmoto27 on Orcust Bardiche. These games were extremely interesting, but I had slightly more experience and a better deck for the mirror.

Round 3 was against Cinosrepus on Cydoll ABC. Despite having a natural weakness to both Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and Chimeratech Rampage Dragon, I was able to walk away with the set.

Round 4 was against Woosh on Altergeist Pankratops. I ended up winning a few close games, though he was never able to fully access his own gameplan.

Round 5 was against Punkrocklee on Goodstuff, which is basically just Orcust Bardiche without the powerful ED monsters.

My semifinal match was against Giant Skyhawk on Dinosaur, whose deck was fantastic and play was heads-up. I was caught very off-guard by his strategy.

My 3rd place match was against guiltygear on Altergeist Pankratops. They were two quick games – I played quite poorly and ate a ton of targeted hate game 2.

Is your deck still playable in the current format?

This deck, despite the hits on the February list, is still very good. While losing the payoffs of Babel and Fog Blade hurts, we have new tools in the form of Orcustrated Knightmare and Time Thief Redoer. The main changes are swapping Nessie for Mothman and Fog Blade for Shade Brigandine.