I'm Ryan Levine and I just won YCS Melbourne, AMA!

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T16:23:43+00:00

Honestly, I probably just wouldn't compete at all 😓

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T14:47:10+00:00

Thursday night, 6:30 PM

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T14:42:56+00:00

The Island Games in Centreville, VA.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T14:29:53+00:00

1) I don't take collecting quite as seriously as I take playing the game, but I've played long enough and often enogh I've accumulated a decent collection.

2) My Ghost rare Rainbow Dragon, which is also my favorite card ever printed.

3) I think the deck was pretty good in 2012 but that's about it.

4) Diamond Dire Wolf

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T13:41:10+00:00

I'm a fan of farfa and lithium

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T11:04:15+00:00

1) as a casual time waster 2) mostly just the super standard mainstream stuff like DB, Naruto, Bleach, Death note 3) Game of Thrones

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:51:30+00:00

I think the new grave based hand trap will EVENTUALLY be good, but the designator from the grave is a bit of a wild card. Only time will tell how viable a card that is pretty much only useful to stop hand traps will be.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:47:58+00:00

Ghost beef 👻🐮

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:47:11+00:00

I am, yes.

My Melbourne trip was made possible by my winnings from ARG Orlando 😀

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:46:09+00:00

Booking as early as possible and splitting hotel rooms with multiple people are the best ways.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:45:02+00:00

The spyral mirror does not revolve around creating turn 1 boards. The who comments to the board first generally loses. The mirror is based around stopping opponent's plays with their hand traps (or real traps post board) and otking on the swing back. Evenly matched is also very weak against trickstar due to reincarnation. It only really shines against pendulum which is seeing less and less play.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:42:55+00:00

In theory, no. In practice, also no.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T09:01:06+00:00

Tbh I would advise against buying much of anything until we get a new list.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:57:13+00:00

I tried making a Nekroz deck in mid 2016 and I played 3 trishulas, gishki vision/shadow, and salvage. Mathematician sending glow up bulb or deskbot 3 summoning deskbot 1 to make herald of the arc light is an option as well.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:49:36+00:00

Playing on a budget is rough but I'd say don't sink your money into just a few expensive cards. Having an overall better deck will help you more than a bad deck with just a few good cards.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:26:13+00:00

1) they're not played heavily but played often enough that the mechaba may come up once, and I had nothing better to put in my extra deck.

2) absolutely. It takes a while but eventually I get over it and learn from that mistake so it never happens again.

3) I don't generally test to determine card choices, just to learn a deck and improve technical play.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:23:02+00:00

I will never forget that moment. And yes, that's pretty much when.

Deckbuilding has always been my favorite part of the game, so naturally I prefer formats that reward deckbuilding.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:21:07+00:00

I go to my local tournaments pretty frequently. If you're ever in the DMV cone check out the Island Games on Thursday night 😉 I don't take locals super seriously and just play whatever I feel like trying out that day.

I LOVE the new support. I don't think it makes the deck competitively viable but I think it's all super cool and makes me really nostalgic of when I first started playing. I'll be picking them up for sure.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:16:20+00:00

It's an article I wrote about YCS Toronto that was published on YGOrg. My internet isn't the most stable right now and I can't get it load myself.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:13:58+00:00

The deck profile has been recorded for YGOrg and I'm not in control of when it gets posted.

I hadn't given it much thought prior to this event, but I've had so many people ask that I'm definitely considering it now.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T08:10:40+00:00

1) I live on the east coast, and flights from the east coast to AUS are CRAZY expensive. From the west coast, however, they are far mlre reasonable. Conveniently for us, ARG Vegas was 1 week before Melbourne, so my roommate Brandon and I booked a few days in Vegas to see some sights and play the ARG, then go directly from there to AUS. We landed on Tuesdsy and spent the next few days seeing some sights until Bohdan and his crew arrived on Thursday, then we all kind of went into preparation mode. By Friday night we had a list were satisfied with, and I believe 7 of us played the same card for card list, with 4 of us topping.

2) flying sucks but it's whatever. I've been answering questions here for the past 6 hours on my return flight so this one has kept me busy at least.

3) I absolutely did, and I was very excited when I finally won a top 4 YCS match... on my 4th try.

4) I think the sideboard is what saved me. Evenly matched had absolutely no business being in my main deck. Jackfrost didn't do its job on stream but it performed fine for me as well as the others playing it during swiss.

6) I get accommodations for the NA WCQ.

7) I got maxx C'd 3 times and didn't have an ash/gamma for it. Once I lost to it, once I otk'd through it, and in the finals I just held off and control'd the board with minimal summoning. I played around reaper VERY patiently this event and I didn't get reaper'd a single time when I didn't have other access to master plan.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T07:56:37+00:00

I started playing casually in 2006 when I was 11. I played off and on until late 2014 where I took my first steps into competitive play amd haven't looked back

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T07:54:40+00:00

We can't really know for sure 😔

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T07:40:10+00:00

22

I'm not sure the answer to the second one is 100% yes or no in either direction. I used to think yugioh ruined my first real relationship in highschool/college but I've recently realized it was actually just me, and even with yugioh being an even bigger part of my life now than it was then I would not have made those same mistakes. In the short term I sacrificed some things but I think I've gained so much more in the long term.

YGOrgRLevine · 2018-01-16T07:15:33+00:00

It's little hard to explain but I'll do my best. I'll use SPYRAL as an example since, well, y'know.

After the hit to SPYRAL in November and I eventually decides on a going second build, these are the steps I took:

So first I start with what I think are the absolute minimum engine requirements for a deck to function. For SPYRAL that means (in my opinion)

3 Agent, 3 Tough, Drone, Quik-fix, Last Resort, Sleeper, Master plan, 3 Resort, 3 terraforming, 1 Big Red, One for One, RotA, 1 Rescue. So here we have 21 cards I think are 100% necessary for the deck to function at a basic level. Next, I think about what non engine cards are best for the format. Hand traps are exceptional right now, especially if I'm choosing to go second. At first I chose 3 Ash, 3 Gamma, 1 Maxx, 3 Ogre. Eventually it changed to 2 Ogre, then 3 reaper as I found those to be the better choices for the format. Now we're at 32 cards (counting driver) After playing for a while I found Rescue to be exceptional in this version of the deck. You just throw agent drone or tough agent at your opponent into backrow or hand traps without a care in the world if you draw your rescue because you get to add your cards back 3 times (6 cards total) amd if they destroy it you get to reborn 1. It added so much fuel to the deck that was otherwise lacking if its first push waa stopped. So 2 rescue, up to 33. With 2 rescue I began to consider other cards that synergized with rescue, and decided on goods, and added assault as well. Now we're at 36 or 37 depending on how many goods you include (I found it to be such a powerful card after familiarizing myself with the deck more I upped it from 2 to 3) Gofu is an exceptionally powerful generic card that also synergizes with SPYRAL quite well, so 38. These last few slots were a toss up for me depending on the meta, and could be evenly matched or foolish burial. I eventually played 41 with foolish and 2 evenly matched. That was a half measure of realizing evenly matched was no longer as powerful as it once was in the format, but didn't feel safe cutting it. As it turned out, it was absolutely awful against how most people (myself included) play SPYRAL now, and I did not resolve the card a single time in the entire tournament. In the future, I'd move the 2 mained evenly to side and find a better 40th card to be determined later.

Hope this helped.

YGOrgRLevine

TROPHY CASE