Brandon is one of our two Coeur d'Alene players, and our newest member as well (technically Alan re-joined, rather than joined for the first time).
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1. How long have you been playing this game, and when did you start playing competitively?
Well it's yugioh so of course I have been playing since I saw Yugi take down Kaiba on the t.v show. Way back since LOB. My first competitive deck I would have to say was Gravekeepers. I didn't really get competitive until about a year ago when I was tired of going to the tourneys and losing. Losing is no fun at all so from there on I decided I was going to start playing with the best people I could find and get better that way.
2. What "kind" of player would you consider yourself, or what is your particular play style? Aggressive vs conservative vs mixture, original vs strict net-deck, budget vs "money is no object", bling vs everything common, etc.
My favorite decks to play are the ones that are aggressive. I still conserve my hand, but I like to just get it all done in one turn if I can. A surprise OTK. I also like decks that have really good combos in it. When you pull off sick combos it just makes the deck fun.
3. What do your think about net-decking? Does it hurt or help a player's ability to play the game?
Net decking is something a lot of people frown upon, but in my experience how else do you get good ideas. It doesn't mean copy the deck card for card. Mix it up a little and make it your own. I think if you want to be a competitive player than you should get some ideas from the decks that are topping at regionals and ycs tourneys.
4. What do you think of the current format? If favorable, what do you like about it? If unfavorable, what is it you don't like about it?
I actually like the format a lot more now than when Giant Trunade was legal. I think Giant Trunade was much more broken than Heavy Storm. The big thing that made this format so much fun was that they brought BLS envoy back. I love that card and chaos decks are a lot of fun.
5. What is your current main deck and why do you run that deck?
Well I have two decks I use both a lot. One is Miracle Gemini and the other is Rescue Chaos Dragon. The Rescue Chaos dragon runs 3 hunter dragon and 3 alexandrite dragon with 2 rescue rabbit. You run 3 blue eyes, 1 horus, 2 galaxy eyes photon dragon and since they are all level 8 you do 3 trade in and 2 pot of duality to help with hand consistency. Also to keep my dragon engine right I run 3 red eyes darkness metal dragons. The Chaos part of the deck I run 2 chaos sorcerer and 1 BLS envoy of the beginning. I also tech one card trooper to dump light and darks in the graveyard faster. I will get a full deck list up sometime. My first time running it in a tourney I had to play with saggi the dark clowns instead of my hunter dragons and I still made top 4 in a 18 man tourney.
6. What was the first holo you ever pulled out of a pack?
Dang I am pretty sure it was actually a super Flame Swordsman. I remember when I was a kid I opened that up and was so excited I pulled it. I wasn't even sure how fusions worked at the time, but I still was just excited I got something I saw Joey use on the show.
7. What is your favorite format/deck of all time?
My favorite format of all time would have to be when blackwings had Dark Strike fighter. I remember running that deck and nothing could ever stop me. I seriously had a lot of fun with it. I was bummed when it got banned, but I could definitely see why.
8. What do you think of reprints of expensive cards/reprints in general?
I love the fact they reprint expensive cards. Not a lot of players have the money to get the big named cards so they can't run the competitive decks that are out. When they reprint those cards it gives them a chance to get those and everyone can play on the same level.
9. If there was one thing that you could change about the game, what would it be?
If I could change anything about the game it would be to do a better job at making decks even. You have decks that everyone will run because it is better than all the rest. Then that deck will get the cards that make it good banned. If they didn't ban all those cards and brought back things like infernity launcher, black whirlwind, and gateway of the six to three you would have a bigger variety of broke decks and not just have one that they have to try and fix by banning the good stuff in it.
10. If there was one thing that you could change about your own ability to play, what would it be?
I sometimes let my emotions get to me when I play and I start to lose. I have worked on it a lot, but I just want to never let emotions change during the game. It makes it really hard to pull bluffs off and make moves when that happens.
11. A lot of players online raged at the news that Black Luster Soldier and Heavy Storm were coming off the ban list. How do you currently feel about both of them being back in the game?
I love that they are back. I would definitely prefer them over trunade and no BLS.
12. Do you think Black Luster Soldier will be re-banned in March? Why/why not?
I really hope not. They need monsters like that. He is an out, but I don't think of him as being more broke than krystia or Judgement dragon.
13. If you could play against any one "pro"/big-name YuGiOh player, who would it be?
Brandon Link... The kid is just so good I learn something new against him every time I go against him. lol I actually have never really thought about it. I guess right now it would be the latest YCS winner that ran Chaos deck Courtney Waller.
14. What do you think of the current state of Spokane-area (Spokane, Valley, CDA) YuGiOh?
I really actually wish we had a regional or something closer. The only time I ever get a chance to go to one is when it is in Boise or Seattle. They are both still pretty far away. The competition is still good though. It is more competitive in Spokane then it is in CDA, but CDA people are improving everyday. A lot of them are finally looking online for deck ideas and actually playing good decks.
15. If there was one thing that you could say to the Spokane-area playerbase, what would it be?
Team Overload FTW!
BLS D=
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