Regionals and How to Prepare.

bloodymonkey5 · 05-27-2011, 06:37 PM

Hello, my name's Zane Caruso and I've attended a handful of Regionals, and plenty of locals. I however, have never made Top 32. But! I do, know of ways to prepare yourself and get into the mindset of Regional Time. This is how I prepare for a Regional.

Questions you may find flying through your head as the tournament dawns closer will include:

"What deck should I run?"

"How do I play against ‘insert deck name here’?"

"How many times should I practice each match up?"

"What will I be facing?"

The first, is most likely the one to pop-up in your head almost 101% of the time before a tournament. Let's go over that.

Choosing a Deck to run.

The most important factor when playing Yu-Gi-Oh! is feeling comfortable and confident when you play. This is one of the main factors that lead to a good performance on the day of a tournament.

When choosing a deck, go over the possibilities of different decks you can play. Most people, myself included, come to the outcome of two decks. Deck A is the one we've been playing forever and know inside and out. Deck B is a strong meta deck, and has a strong record at top events.

Example:
Bob has been playing Zombies all format. While going through pojo he comes across a Lightsworn deck. Despite not knowing how to run Lightsworns, Bob decides to play them at the tournament. Bob ends up with a record of X-5.

See, not knowing how a deck works can lead to your demise. Knowing how a deck functions is the key to winning.

So, in most cases, run the deck you're more familiar with. Even if you have a bad match-up against X deck, that's much better than not knowing how it works. If you know your deck, you can probably turn the match around on the drop of a dime!

Testing.

Testing is the biggest part of any competitive player’s time when they aren’t sitting at the tables at tournaments.

Testing, as many of you know, is when you put a chosen deck through its paces against every type of deck in every possible kind of situation. This helps you to memorise match ups as well as find out what cards you are going to need to squeeze into your deck list to cater for any weaknesses you find.

So how do you effectively play test? To start you should think back to your past matches and bring up any games that you feel you played badly in or your deck just didn't help you with and put them at the top of your list.

After you've got the decks all sorted, get help from your friend! Have them pilot these decks against yours. Even though you may lose a plethora of times, you're always going to learn different moves/combos you never would have before. This is very effective, as now you know what your deck can do in any given situation.

How many times should I play X match up?

After you’ve done this, play the match up again and again, trying out different ways to win and you may find the perfect strategy to take down those troublesome decks. All of these games will help you in the long run.

What am I going to be facing?

This, I cannot write much to help you prepare. Just know you're probably going to see a lot of your local meta/net-deckers from past tournaments. If your local meta is filled with Dragunitys, side in 2 Dust Tornado, and main-deck 2 Mystical Space Typhoons.

I know it's short, but doing this can help you make your 2-5 Record turn into 5-2! I hope you all enjoyed reading this and would love any critique as to how I can improve this, or maybe some of your own tips I can add to the OP.

Vizier Defiant · 06-03-2011, 08:32 PM

nice read, but if i ever attend a regionals it will be for the lulz =P

Cloudstrife 189 · 06-03-2011, 08:59 PM

Thanks for the tips.

Red Lotus · 08-13-2011, 11:25 PM

What you face depends on how well you do. The earlier your first loss is, the more unconventional the decks you face will be. The later your first loss is the more mainstream the decks you face will be. Thus siding is harder when you lose earlier, and easier when you lose later.

RainbowTroll · 08-14-2011, 02:51 PM

This is pretty good, might I recommend putting your experiences and how using these tips has helped?

ccayco · 08-15-2011, 10:13 PM

#1: Netdeck - 'cuz using what someone else makes is pro
#2: Loaded Dice - going first wins
#3: Stack - people will accuse you, but others will defend you (Pojo *cough*), so no consequences there
#4: Don't get jacked - duhhh
#5: Rip off the Dragon Duelists - Like takin candy from a baby that also owns trading cards

^^^ List of about 60+% of Regional participants

DubDuelman · 08-20-2011, 01:39 AM

I'd also enjoy hearing about your experiences. Good article. It will help people.

Peculiar · 08-20-2011, 01:43 AM

This thread is all common sense.

Derp pick deck, play test derp.

There, I just summarized the wall of text.

Dark Black · 08-20-2011, 01:57 AM

^ Did you ever stop and think that article might have been written to help those that never have attended a regionals?

Peculiar · 08-20-2011, 02:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Black

^ Did you ever stop and think that article might have been written to help those that never have attended a regionals?

Oh, like the other 23423432432455671 threads/videos about that?

I guess not...

Dark Black · 08-20-2011, 03:00 AM

And there's a reason why there's so many of them. Each article has a different approch even though the articles deal with the same topic and because not every reader likes reading certain types of articles (lengthly, short, etc).

100% FTK · 08-20-2011, 08:17 AM

Peculiar I'm just wondering, did you have to go to school to learn how to be that big of a ****** bag or is that just natural talent?

ndralcasid · 08-20-2011, 10:38 AM

I think people overthinking the preparation part of a Regional

There are people that procrastinate and wait to the last minute to build their deck (let alone choose their deck) and still top 8. If you are already going to locals, paying close and attentive attention to the sociological aspects of the game, and/or playing good players on DN, you should be sociologically aware enough how to initiate good deckbuilding and what the proper plays without investing a lot on practice time. Then again, I don't believe in mass playtesting a night/week before at all.

I honestly think just staying physically and mentally healthy the day of, being confident, and just flat out being smart about your plays should be the core at doing well.

I do agree the article pretty much just repeats whats been said before and is mostly common sense. But having another perspective helps

momoRX · 09-13-2011, 06:32 PM

You forgot the biggest preparation advice

TAKE A SHOWER

xnicx888 · 09-13-2011, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by momoRX

You forgot the biggest preparation advice

TAKE A SHOWER

AMEN!! 10char.

chaotic angel · 09-13-2011, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ccayco

#1: Netdeck - 'cuz using what someone else makes is pro
#2: Loaded Dice - going first wins
#3: Stack - people will accuse you, but others will defend you (Pojo *cough*), so no consequences there
#4: Don't get jacked - duhhh
#5: Rip off the Dragon Duelists - Like takin candy from a baby that also owns trading cards

^^^ List of about 60+% of Regional participants

This is the funniest thing I have read all day lol.