Hey everyone, this is The_SynchroGuy, and I’m here to share with you my experience at the PPG Case Tournament that recently took place. Today I decided to take a break from my weekly news series and share with you one of the most fun tournaments I have ever played in. Don’t worry, you are not missing out on some big news, and I’ll be back to doing that next week. For now, let’s get into this post!
This PPG tournament was held in Washington D.C. at this year’s Otakon!
I’ll be honest, I had no idea about this convention until a couple of months ago when my best friend invited me to it. And once I heard there was going to be a Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament there, my mind was made up.
I also have never been to a convention beforehand, let alone a Comic Con, so this was an experience I’ve been wanting to have for so long. (Now I can cross that off of my bucket list.)
I have to say, being in a big place full of anime/gamer lovers like myself, felt like I was in my element. It was a blast. Even saw some Yu-Gi-Oh! cosplays.
There were others like Yugi, Mai and Dark Magician Girl that I saw, but didn’t take a picture of them when I had the chance too.
Now where was I?… Oh, right! The tournament!
This tournament was not too big like other tournaments. We only had a total of 49 players, which means we did 6 rounds of swiss with a top 8 cut. There were, of course, some that knew how to play and were playing some strong decks. And there were some players that were either new to the game or were playing some fun decks. (And no, none of them made it to the top cut.) We even had some in cosplay outfits, which was also cool. I actually liked seeing that.
Anyway though, here are all my matches from the tournament. And the deck I played for this event was Branded Despia.
R1: Libromancer
Game 1: Opponent goes first and tries to combo off, but I had Droll & Lock Bird in hand to slow him down. My turn, I did the usual Branded Despia starting combo and passed. On top of that, I had another Droll in hand, so I was able to take that game.
Game 2: I could’ve had that game, but I misplayed by not activating Branded Lost before playing Branded Fusion. My opponent then killed me with Accesscode and Baronne.
Game 3: Went first and brought out Mirrorjade, Dramaturge and Masquerade. Along with a set Branded in Red before passing my turn. On my opponent’s Draw Phase, I activated the set Branded in Red for the second Masquerade. My opponent tried to deal with one of them, but I managed to stop it. And at that point, he didn’t have enough LP to do anything else.
Record: X-0
R2: Marincess
Game 1: This game took quite a long while that we were down to just 10 minutes by the end of it. Long story short, I eventually got my opponent to admit defeat so we can do a game 2.
Game 2: I had to play quickly before we lost any more time, but I misplayed quite a bit and eventually surrendered to hopefully do a quick game 3.
Game 3: Unfortunately time got called during my turn. And since I couldn’t deal any damage, our match ended in a draw.
Record: X-0-1
R3: Branded Eldlich
Game 1: My opponent goes first and sets up Mirrorjade and a set card before passing. I don’t remember much on how it all went down. Aside from using a Droplet on his Eldlich so my monster could win the battle. In the end, I eventually got the game.
Game 2: My opponent was trying to be quite clever with setting 5 cards and passing. He then tried to use Anti-Spell on me, but luckily I had Cosmic Cyclone in my opening hand to get rid of it. Later on, my opponent tried to use Rivalry of Warlords, but funny enough, I topped decked into another Cosmic Cyclone right at that moment. I eventually took that game, and the round.
Record: X-0-1
R4: Eldlich
Game 1: I got to go first this time (finally). And funny enough, after my opponent set 5 and passed, I used Branded in Red during his End Phase and snipped his Rivalry of Warlords (luck seemed to be on my side that day). I was able to eventually attack for game.
Game 2: This game was kind of funny. When I tried to Fusion Summon, my opponent flips Rivalry, so I chained Branded in Red, and then he flips another Rivalry! And since I didn’t have any Fairy Fusion Monsters, I was stuck with my main deck Despite monsters. Luckily though, my opponent didn’t have the cards he needed to do his play, so I started attacking to get those damages in. And eventually, I got it! I won without summoning a single Fusion Monster.
Record: X-0-1
R5: @Ignister
And guess who my opponent was.
(Uh oh. Things just got real! 🤯)
Game 1: My opponent went first and tried to combo, but I then dropped Nibiru on him. On my turn, I OTKed him.
Game 2: My opponent didn’t do much but set some cards and passed. I tried to do some plays, but got stopped due to Rivalry. Even stopped my hand traps during their next turn with Solemn Strike, so he got it.
Game 3: I had a great set up, but my opponent opened Mystic Mine. So we went into a draw pass rhythm for a while. (Didn’t see a single Fusion card, sadly). Eventually, my opponent was able to go off and kill me, after turning off the Mystic Mine. (It was nice knowing you guys. Remember me! )
Record: X-1-1
R6: Branded Despia (Patrick Hoban)
I kid you not, I played against the Pro playing Yu-Gi-Oh! legend himself, Patrick Hoban! I did not expect to see him at this tournament, but apparently he lived an hour away from the convention, so he figured “why not?”. He’s a really nice guy if you ever get the chance to meet him.
Game 1: Patrick went first and summoned Mirrorjade (which was live) and a Predaplant Dragostapelia with 2 sets before passing. I knew I wasn’t gonna win that one with how my hand looked, so I quickly surrendered to try and keep my deck a secret.
Game 2: Went first and I made the exact same board Patrick made. He tries to play it out, but I was able to stop him a bit. On my next turn, I managed to drop his LP to 500. I then summoned Masquerade and took the game.
Game 3: It all came down to this. It was such a close game. I managed to slow down Pat with my Droll & Lock Bird, thankfully. On my turn, I had to use every card in my hand. But I felt I was in a good position regardless. Eventually, I could’ve taken that game as I had Dragostapelia and Mirrorjade (live) on board, against his Mirrorjade and Albion. But then he activated Super Poly, fused my two monsters away and took it! (Nooooo!!)
Final record: X-2-1
At the end of the last round, I placed 14th, so I didn’t make top cut. (So close!!) But regardless of that, I had an amazing time! I had a lot of fun duels. My opponents were also very nice. And I got a chance to play Patrick Hoban! That is without a doubt my favorite thing throughout my entire time at Otakon and, in my opinion, made the trip to D.C. worth it.
I would share more pictures of Otakon here if I had thought about it beforehand, but I didn’t. I’m sorry.
But I did see some cool Yugioh merch being sold at the convention. Even got myself some cool pins.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this! Oh, and if you’re wondering what deck won the event. It was Bishbaalkin FTK Ft. Dinos.
Yeah, we did our best to try and stop it, but it was not enough.
I’ll see you guys in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today!