Konami was kind enough to invite me to attend the Team YCS Las Vegas this weekend and it was a blast. While I was there, I had the opportunity to go up against Master Duelist Esala Wathuthantrige from the team Esala Needs This and it was an experience. We used premade decks for Speed Dueling (Duelists of Tomorrow and Ancient Millennium) to help things be a little fairer and it was fun. I used Kaiba’s deck while my opponent used the Ishizu deck.
I may have won 2 of 3 games, but I could tell he would’ve wrecked me if he had been able to use his own deck. He was very skilled and as it was merely starter deck vs starter deck, a lot came down to the luck of the draw. I got really lucky in being able to draw my stronger monsters. There was a turn where I took a big gamble by using Interdimensional Matter Transporter to keep my Twin-Headed Behemoth alive while taking moderate damage. I had a Spirit Ryu in my hand, but I got lucky and drew a Luster Dragon #2 that I was able to Tribute Summon using my Behemoth and take control of the board.
I give credit to the simple fact that I had Kaiba’s deck and he had Ishizu’s. If he had one of the other decks, I think it would’ve been a very different result. Talking to Team Esala Needs This they all agreed that I had the best deck from Duelists of Tomorrow and Wathuthantrige probably had the worst from Ancient Millennium. In addition, I have been informed that as these guys are professionals they sometimes hold back as the duel is for fun. I also wanted to note that Wathuthantrige and his team were all very helpful if any of us had questions or if they maybe saw a better move we could do, etc. This duel did give me a better appreciation for Speed Duels as well even if it is still not my cup of tea.
I did ask Wathuthantrige about his deck for the main event and apparently the whole team was running a Shaddoll Invoked deck because they thought it was the best deck out there. It’s a shame that they weren’t able to pull out the win.
