GGP Colombia: Top 8 Deck Lists

On June 14th of this year, Colombia hosted a GGP with an insane top finish. This event, the first of its kind, had a whopping 97 players and 3 invites! This event was not only a monumental success for a nation’s first GGP, but also one against all odds.

According to tournament organizer Raidenxix:
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  “In Colombia, we’re often divided by disputes between stores, which has led Time Wizard to be perceived as a fragmented and problematic community…. The concept behind this event was to create a tournament by the community, for the community, where we could demonstrate unity and ensure the representation and recognition of every store that has worked towards the growth of the community in the country. I’m really happy that we managed to get 96 participants, which gives us the chance to send three representatives to the World Championship so they can show what we’re made of.”

​This author may be late to the party, but with this much format love and insane tech we had to give the top 8 some eyeballs.

​Both first and second place for this event were won by Chaos Turbo, and given the sick jank in the rest of the top 8 this makes some sense. What’s most notable though is that both of these players LOVE their Kycoos. Runner-up Diego Ferrer had 3 of the Ghost-Destroyer in the board, and our champion Andrés Camelo had 3 IN THE MAIN (and 3 Sakuretsu Armor too, by the way). In fifth place was Gustavo Camargo running only 2 Kycoo and 2 Sakuretsu armor. Perhaps he didn’t have enough Kycoos to take the cake (or perhaps Night Assailant isn’t so good in a turbo deck with few flips and no Card Destruction). Lastly, it feels worth noting the highly nontraditional sides of these decks, with a high focus on hate cards (Decree, Canceller, Jinzo, etc.) over the removal we see in the online meta. Congratulations to these players for their stellar and Kycoo-loving performances!

​Straying from the trend was Ricardo Castillo with his sixth place finish. This list looks a lot more suited for the online meta, and if I had to guess would have done incredibly against a mirror with any of the previous three players, or even our third place player. This author speculates Ricardo fell to the absolute sick-nastiness of our fourth place player specifically (read on, you’ll see). That aside, I see a lot I like in this list that I think players can take some notes on for the current online/European meta. Congratulations to Ricardo for making it happen!

In third place is a deck I’m affectionately calling “Batshit Burn,” because its composition is, well…  batshit! How else might you describe a 41-card burn deck with quantities like these? Though it may look like an eyesore, a careful look at why play these quantities of cards tells a lot more of a story: 2 Cannon Soldier and 3 Scapegoat combo to empty your burn and convert the goats into burn when you’re ready; 2 Ojama trio because we don’t have tools to ojama lock, don’t prioritize the burn traps as our only burn, and don’t want to brick on multiple copies; 2 Wave-Motion Cannon because we have enough redundant burn not to max it out; 1 Metamorphosis because we can only really use it with a Goat Token and Sangan, and we don’t want to TER more than once in a game anyway; etc. With all of that, the only head-scratcher left is why Erick’s on 1 Area B and 1 Bind instead of 2 Area B or the traditional 2 of each. This deck looks like it had what it takes to go all the way for this event, especially since neither first nor second place ran Mystik Wok for Lava Golem. I for one am a certified Batshit Burn believer! Congratulations to Erick on third place and the third invite!

In fourth place is the absolutely sick-nasty Reasoning Gate Horus Goat Control piloted by Juan Guillermo Bernal. The deck maximizes summoning King Dragun and Horus the Black Flame Dragon Lv8, then protecting from what little left can out them with My Body as a Shield and Solemn Judgement. What really impresses me most about this deck is its redundancy and its willingness to use Reasoning with that redundancy. Say what you will be no player is calling 1, 3, 5, or 7 in the blind (even 6 is questionable), leading to an instant fatty and free summon most of the time. Using redundancy and protection over reactive answers to push through is a rare approach and always a cool one to see succeed.

Raidenxix had this to say about the creation:
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    “The most original deck RG Horus… had already won a major event before. Juan Guillermo managed to climb through all seven rounds of the event to delight us with a unique deck list, proving that the format isn’t set in stone and there’s still room for innovation.”
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This author is thrilled both that the deck has seen success before and to see possible room for future growth. Congratulations to Juan for bringing Horus into the limelight once again!

​Last but certainly not least are two unique Zombie decks in 7th and 8th. Samuel Chaves Monge ran a Decree Earth aggro variant with Stein and Will to trigger off tribute summon Kokki or Exiled Force. Most of the deck’s monsters are extremely durable normal summons and are equally capable of converting into explosive finishes.

Ramón Gonzáles, on the other hand, opted for Skill Drain over Decree. Notable is the 2 Vampire Lord and 1 Ryu Kokki over the traditional 2 Kokki 1 (or 0) Lord. Also highly respectable is the use of Goats and Creature Swap WITHOUT shoehorning Metamorphosis. Sometimes the threat of TER is scarier than the TER, and Ramón opted for Enemy Controller in the side to better take advantage of the Goats. Both continuous traps seem to have cut the mustard for top 8, but neither brought their pilots further. Congratulations to both players for a great Swiss!

In closing, Raidenxix said it best:
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​    “May this be the start of many more major events for the community, and thank you all very much for your participation and support. See you at the next tournaments.”
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