TCG-Con Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournament Report

This past week, I went down to Houston, Texas to attend TCG-Con, which is a big convention event dedicated to trading card games, as well as anime. There were vendors almost everywhere, 3rd party companies selling accessories from deck boxes to mats, clothing, posters, sleeves, funko pops, you name it!

But these things weren’t the main reason why I was there. My goal was to take part in the Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament that was being held there.

I decided to take Floowandereeze to this event, as I expected to come across a bunch of Tearlaments, which turned out to be the case later on. I had a blast playing in the tournament. And no I’m not saying that as if I had nothing but wins. I did take some losses, but I still had fun.

Here’s how my matches went:

R1: Dinomorphia

Game 1: I went first and activated Dimension Shifter during my turn. My opponent, on his turn, just set cards before passing. I eventually took the game, but was unsure about what deck he was playing.

Game 2: My opponent went first, set some cards and passed. And during my turn, he flipped Dinomorphia Frenzy, finally revealing what he’s playing, and summoned out the big boy, Dinomorphia Rexterm. I tried to play, but soon conceded when his LP hit 500 before I could play out my combo, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to do anything at that point.

Game 3: I went first and made sure to set up so I could eliminate most of his backrow during his turn with Unexplored Winds, Raiza and Cosmic Cyclone. Thankfully it worked andI eventually took it.

Real quick, I must admit that I made an illegal action during this game. I used the effect of Unexplored Winds to draw some cards, but I could not do that because I activated Pot of Extravagance earlier.

Once that was caught, we called for a judge and were able to fix the gamestate, thankfully. And of course, I received a warning for my illegal play. (Remember not to cheat, and call them out if you see them.)

Record: 1-0

R2: Dinosaur

Game 1: I went first and set up the Empen, Magnificent Map and Dreaming Town on field, with the Barrier Statue in hand. As soon as he Normal Summoned, I triggered the Map and summoned out Raiza. Then when he activated One For One, I chained Dreaming Town to summon the Barrier Statue. I had him locked at that point.

Game 2: My opponent went first and I activated Dimension Shifter during the Standby Phase to prevent Miscellaneousaurus from hitting the GY. He activated Lost World, summoned a Souleating Oviraptor and summoned a Token to my field before passing.

On my turn, I activated Unexplored Winds, used it to tribute the Token on my field and his Lost World for Empen. Could’ve gotten Dreaming Town, but I needed the Magnificent Map. Used it to combo and summoned Raiza.

My opponent made a misplay in their next turn by summoning Pankratops in ATK mode instead of activating the Lightning Storm. He eventually passed the turn and I took the game on from there.

Record: 2-0

R3: Floowandereeze

Game 1: My opponent went first and was able to go off. On my turn, I tried to see if I could play, but my opponent was able to stop me, so he took game 1.

Game 2: I went first this time and comboed off with an Empen, Map, Dreaming Town, and an Infinite Impermanence. My opponent opened very well though. He hits me with Feather Duster, Lightning Storm, and Enemy Controller! When I tried to make a play on my next turn, he managed to interfere with it. Luck was not with me in that game.

Record: 2-1

R4: Tearlaments

Game 1: I went first and set up the combo before passing. From there, we went back and forth a while, but my opponent eventually surrendered to save up on time.

Game 2: My opponent went first and set up his ideal board. I tried my best to play it out, but there wasn’t much I could do, so I scooped up so we could still have time.

Game 3: I performed my usual combo and managed to stun my opponent enough till he had seen enough and surrendered.

Record: 3-1

R5: Tearlaments

Game 1: My opponent went first, but I opened up with Dimension Shifter, which I chained to the summon of his Keldo and stunted his plays. He couldn’t do much but pass. And thankfully he activated the effect of the Agido that he discarded, because my opening hand was not looking so hot.

On my turn, my hand still wasn’t much better, so I went and Normal Summoned Stri to banish the Agido in his GY, but he chained his Keldo to shuffle it back. Also, I forgot to activate the effect of my Robina and Eglen that were banished. Next turn, my opponent took the game.

Game 2: I went first and my opening hand still was not that great, so I couldn’t do much but pass. I did open with D-Shifter again, so I kept him from trying to kill me, but he still dealt some big damage to me.

On my next turn, I was able to make a play and do some stuff. We went back and forth a little bit, and my opponent made a little misplay during their turn, but eventually I took the game.

Game 3: My opponent went first and this time I did not open with Dimension Shifter. (Dang it.) So my opponent was able to go off, and ended with a Predaplant Dragostapelia, Reinoheart, Zombie World, and a set Tearlaments Cryme.

During my turn, I made a mistake. I used Pot of Duality and should’ve taken the Pot of Prosperity that was offered to me to get access to Cosmic Cyclone to banish the Zombie World, but I could not remember if I sided that card in, so I opted to take Enemy Controller.

I wasn’t able to do much on my turn, and I did my best to see the duel through to the end, but I eventually took the loss.

Record: 3-2

R6: Tearlaments

Game 1: My opponent went first and knew what to play around my deck since he used Agido to mill my top 5 cards. I still tried to play it out, but there wasn’t much I could do.

Game 2: I went first and bricked hard. I managed to set up a Dimensional Fissure at least to try and slow him down. But as the duel went on, I wasn’t able to get what I needed to pop off. Plus, my opponent found a way to get around my D-Fissure by using Time Thief Redoer. I eventually lost.

Record: 3-3

R7: Libromancer Mikanko

Game 1: I went first and set up my usual board, with a Dimension Shifter active. There wasn’t much my opponent could do and soon scooped.

Game 2: My opponent went first and just went full combo, ending on a board with: Baronne, Ohime, Doombroker and a set Intervention. I tried to see if I could break it, but there wasn’t much I could’ve done.

Game 3: I went first and bricked again! I tried to slow down my opponent, but on my next turn, I didn’t draw into any of my Level 1 birds. After that, my opponent OTKed me.

Record: 3-4

Overall, I did not perform very well towards the end. But these losses offer us a good chance to improve ourselves. So let’s ask the big question.

What Went Wrong?

In-Person Playing

Looking back on this, one thing I felt that affected me was my lack of in-person playing.

I took a break from in-person play once Thanksgiving was closing in, which also meant that Christmas was going to be right around the corner. And all of that meant I was going to be spending some big bucks on presents and such.

With that being the case, I decided to put my locals on pause to save up on some money. Looking back now, I should’ve attended locals again as soon as January started so I could regain the in-person experience.

This is important because sometimes players like to play fast in order to not go into time. And in those moments, you could have one moment where you could have a response to something, but choose not to speak up when the opponent starts to act like their card is going to resolve.

If that happens, then you’re choosing not to respond, which means you can’t go back on it. Going to locals is a good way to warm yourself up for big, in-person tournaments, so make sure you’re going to your locals when you can. (Remote duels also work if there’s no locals close to you.)

Not Laying Out My Combos

While I did get in some practice playing with my cards, one thing I’m starting to regret was not laying out all of the plays I could make, or taking the time to see what other possibilities there could be beforehand.

While I had the main combo line down to instinct, just that alone was not enough. I need to write out all of my possible plays so I can be aware of what’s available to me.

Little practice time with match-ups

Although I was aware of what was currently meta and have seen how they work, I was unable to give myself the actual experience needed. I did not give myself a chance to play against Tearlaments enough so I could fully understand what it was I needed to do against them.

I’m not just talking about how to play against them, but also how to Side Deck against them. I had the cards to help deal with them, but I didn’t give myself the opportunity to come up with a plan on what to take out and what stays.

Not to mention, with Tearlaments including cards like Zombie World into their Side Deck, that makes it even more challenging since I would need to include backrow removal every time I go second. That’s also something I was unable to practice dealing with.

Overall, this tournament might as well have been my warm-up to getting back into playing in-person events. Point being, I still have ways to go to win big events like a YCS or WCQ. Let alone Worlds someday.

Regardless though, I had a fun time playing in this tournament. It made me realize what I need to focus on for future events. Now all I need to do is take the time to work on them.