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The December 2018 Trinity Cup was held this month with 19 participants, and the results are in!

1st: MBT

2nd: meepmoto27

3rd: guiltygearxx

4th: Cinosrepus

Congratulations to all who topped! The following deck profiles were all written by the respective tournament participants.

1st Place: MBT’s Pendulums

What deck did you play and why?

“MBT… please…”

I look at the ground, tears flowing from my eyes.

Format administrator and Pendulum God punkrocklee lies at my feet, scales clenched between his fists. “You must… carry on the legacy,” he manages, his Scandinavian dialect further obstructed by a mouthful of lingonberry preserve.

“Why? Why does it have to be me?” I ask. It’s too soon. I cannot commit to becoming the savant of the scales.

“Because…” he whispers, pulling me close. “It’s the holiday season… and you’re the only one… with enough free time.”

I whimper. He is right. He takes my hand in his and, as his grasp weakens, I see he has left a single Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon in my sweaty palms.

“I’ll make you proud,” I promise, resigned to lose 60% of my games to Heavy Storm Duster. “I’ll make you proud.”

What tech choices did you play?

I played quite a few different cards than the previously-successful builds of pendulum. This deck definitely has a higher cap than it’s at right now, and would really benefit from three or four more dedicated pilots (hint, hint).

The first important difference is that I’m on the Abyss Actors. These previously-unexplored pendulum monsters were critical to my success. The most important (by miles) was Abyss Actor – Mellow Madonna, who is basically just Performapal Monkeyboard.

I also shaved down the count of cards I was playing to 35 in order to more consistently access Thunder Dragon, the best card in my deck.

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

My side deck is almost completely constructed with respect to Pankratops Altergeist, Orcust Bardiche, and Pendulum, which I expected to be the top 3 decks. Meepmoto27’s Danger! BEWD deck caught me completely off-guard, so I would change the side deck moving forward. Notably, Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion, Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, and Mystical Space Typhoon underperformed.

As far as the main deck goes, I think most of the cards here probably have to stick around. I would, however, remove Abyss Actor – Sassy Rookie for a copy of Abyss Actor – Comic Relief. The lack of a searchable high scale from Abyss Actor – Mellow Madonna mattered in almost every game.

The extra deck needs significant work. Metalfoes Orichalc, Metalfoes Adamante, and Masterking Archfiend were all terrible. I’d replace them with Gaia Saber – The Lightning Shadow, Number 61: Volcasaurus, and Supreme King – Starving Venom.

I’ve attached a modified list below, which more accurately represents what I’d play in the future.

How were your matchups?

They were wild, actually.

First round was against Caroman on Orcust Bardiche, which I played incredibly drunk as a result of my own poor planning. Caroman was instrumental for the development of Orcust Bardiche, so it was exciting to play against such a visionary. I ended up picking up the set, which got easier as I sobered up.

Second round was against Xenoburn on Pacifis. I almost conceded out of mutual respect, but ended up winning by never activating an effect.

Third round was against Megacomet, who was on an unreal BA brew featuring Sky Scourge Norleras and Phantom of Chaos. Despite resolving Norleras in game 3, I picked up the set.

Fourth round was against woosh on Pankratops Altergeist. I really outskilled them by drawing my best possible opener during game 1 and watching them brick in game 2. Game 1 features a blind Constellar Pleiades activation returning Twin Twister, winning me a game I otherwise was losing 100% of the time.

Fifth round was against meepmoto27 on Danger! BEWD. Meepmoto27’s deck is EXTREMELY highroll-ey, and game 3 features a hand without compare. I died at the hands of several very meaty dragons.

My semifinal match was against Cinosrepus on SPYRAL, who was unable to chew through my recursion.

Finals was the rematch against meepmoto27, and seriously, if you have a chance, check these games out. They’re amazing, and come all the way down to the wire. I ended up clutching out the set almost entirely by virtue of the fact that meep didn’t find nearly enough Melody of Awakening Dragon.

2nd Place: meepmoto27’s Danger! Blue-Eyes White Dragon

What deck did you play and why?

I chose to play Danger! Blue-Eyes since I played it in the previous cup and didn’t have the time to refine a new decklist.

What tech choices did you play?

My main deckbuilding decision was to go up to 50 cards. While it did hit my consistency, having the benefit of 3 copies of Melody of Awakening Dragon, a 2nd Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, and a Co-Forbidden pair really raised the deck’s ceiling. To fill space in the deck and get it to 50, I ran Dinosaur engine to search hand traps and a Dino engine for Dinowrestler Pankratops.

I also chose to run Ancient Rules. The motivation for this was that I lost a huge portion of my November Cup games to drawing a large number of vanilla Blue-Eyes that would get stuck in my hand for turns on end. While it could be a brick on occasion, Ancient Rules overall performed well as the deck has a large number of ways to get a Blue-Eyes White Dragon or Dragon Spirit of White into hand, especially with 3 Melody.

Here’s my updated list.

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

I made sure to dedicate a good portion of my side deck to the Orcust Phantom Knight matchup, since it was viewed as the big deck to beat after November. This didn’t end up paying off, however, as I never ended up facing that matchup during my 7 rounds of play. Other than that, I just ran more traps that I had previously to give me a slightly better grind game against other backrow heavy decks where going for an OTK immediately would just end in me burning all my resources.

I think the deck is good overall, but there’s definitely a few tweaks I’d make. I would definitely run Pot of Desires, Dragon Revival Rhapsody, and King of D. going forward. King of D. and Revival were only not included due to oversight on my part. Desires might seem a bit unintuitive, but the deck can pressure a board extremely quickly and getting the +1 can oftentimes guarantee the OTK, making the cards that you banish more or less totally irrelevant. I would also cut Stardust Spark Dragon for Scarlight Red Dragon Archfiend or Hot Red Dragon Archfiend as Spark just never came up, but Scarlight would’ve in several boardstates.

How were your matchups?

First round vs Giant Skyhawk’s Dino – He drew bad both games so I was able to shut him out.

Second round vs Killingspre’s Shinobird Blue-Eyes – It was a bit of an OTK back and forth in games 1 and 2, but game 3 I was able to outgrind since I drew into a play sooner.

Third round vs Arcanegrove’s ABC Cyberdolls – A very close match that I barely won due to some misplays on my opponent’s part. The matchup can be good overall though since Blue-Eyes can play around Shaddoll Fusion.

Fourth round vs SonicBlast’s Noble Knights – I bricked and lost game 1 and was able to pull out wins in games 2 and 3 despite continued bricks.

Fifth round vs MBT’s Pendulum – I ended up winning this match through the insane luck of drawing Melody of Awakening Dragon with a Danger! Nessie! to pitch for it in both the games I won.

Top 4 vs guiltygearxx’s Altergeist – These were some close games since heavy backrow matchups are definitely not favorable to this deck. I ended up being able to put enough damage out to ensure a win though.

Finals vs MBT’s Pendulum – Unlike in our match during swiss, I never drew Melody of Awakening Dragon here making it a steep uphill climb against the insane advantage pendulum could generate. In the end, he drew a large number of early game counters to my plays in the last game of the set and I was never able to recover.

3rd Place: guiltygearxx’s Altergeist Pankratops

What deck did you play and why?

As long as Meluseek is Co-Forbidden, Altergeist will continue to be a small and efficient package that can combine with any of the main staples of the format really well. In a largely singleton format it is important to produce so much efficiency without an overusing of suboptimal engine requirements. The archetype also has plenty of synergy with most recruiters allowing for fairly good consistency. Last Will is especially good here because it is very easy to trigger without going over limit using Spellbook of Knowledge or Linkuriboh. Last Will in turn gets a recruiter which can search pretty much the entire monster lineup including Dinowrestler Pankratops. Beyond engines and recruiters I played as many worthwhile trap cards as I could find.

What tech choices did you play?

My trap choices involved some unusual picks to pad out trap ratios. I don’t remember exactly why I played Quaking Mirror Force and Floodgate Trap Hole, but it was probably due to fear of Cyber Eternity Dragon. I tried Dark Renewal on a suggestion, and it might have been the worst card in the whole deck. It was an easy side out every single time. Personal Spoofing was alright as pseudo consistency filler, though it was sided out every game too. Some other traps like Fiendish Chain and Ring of Destruction were easy side outs for more applicable traps like Black Horn of Heaven and Chaos Trap Hole, but I thought they performed fairly well in the main deck.

I used every side card except Herald of the Abyss because I had a chronic lifepoint problem last tournament and did not want to push it. Not just maining Called by the Gave, Twin Twisters and Chaos Trap Hole is probably a mistake right now. The extra deck was good, I played some obscure Spellbook of Knowledge targets in case I needed to make use of a mind controlled monster. Not playing Scapegoat also made the extra construction a lot easier. I chose not to use Scapegoats because it had less synergy with my Altergeist gameplan then some other cards. Playing 40 was also really good for the side, small decks definitely feel more optimal.

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

As long as backrow remains an effective strategy the only prep you really need is to play as many good cards as possible. Worth noting that focusing on Pank more probably wins the mirror. The “side card” that is possibly worth maindecking right now is Chaos Trap Hole, by the way. Also not, maining Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring was an oversight in a meta where Arcanegrove [ED: our resident ABC Cydra Shaddoll one-trick] and Melody of Awakening Dragon exist.

How were your matchups?

I played against most of the expected meta decks.

Orcust are hard to stop when they get going, because thy can continuously recycle advantage, however they have decent interrupt points if you can stop them early. I focused on pushing for damage to end games quickly since they can recur over a long period. Chaos Trap Hole is great because it negates the summon, preventing them from using World Legacy – “World Wand” to bring back extra deck monsters.

Round 2 was against Gladiator Beast. It was surprisingly close because Gladiator Beast Noxious is difficult to deal with and is an excellent counter to Altergeist Meluseek. My strategy was just to have enough attackers at once so I could clear multiple protected glads before the end of the battle phase.

Round 3 was the mirror with woosh. I think Graydles were a detriment for him, but the Pankratops focus might give him a big advantage. I kept in Mind Control and Nobleman of Crossout for Graydles, but he might have sided those out. Drew zero monsters game 3.

Game 4 against BA. Not much to say because BA has a ton of interruptible pieces and I was able to hit those points.

Game 5 against the Arcanegrove ABC Cydra Shaddoll deck. A very scary deck but I had plenty of extremely real backrow every game.

Top cut with Danger! BEWD: The ability to use Melody of Awakening Dragon to create multiple beaters from nowhere is very scary. We had back and forths for the most part until he melodied for Chaos Dragon Levianeer and Chaos Emperor, the Armageddon Dragon, wreaking havoc on my board and making Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand.

Overall the deck performed as expected and is a great choice if you want a consistent deck where matches are rarely a blowout on your end.

4th Place: Cinosrepus’ SPYRAL

What deck did you play and why? SPYRAL; it’s still good, but I need to refine it. SPYRAL Resort gives a lot of value and protection, and the various multiple effects of the SPYRAL archetype give a lot of versatility (SPYRAL Gear – Drone and SPYRAL Gear – Last Resort for example).