Remote duels are back in full swing. And what could be a better way to send off a format before the new Forbidden & Limited List drops than to enter a Remote Regional? Maybe enjoy a familiar deck in Prank-Kids? Here's what's better: Do all of that and then earn yourself a spot in the top cut!
On January 15, there was a Remote Regional held in Canada. Not exactly my region, but I decided to enter and managed to get myself a spot in the top cut. It was not the biggest Regional since it was held at the same time as North America's Remote YCS, with many of their skilled players there.
Originally, I was going to use Sky Striker DPE for the tournament, but since I only picked up the deck recently, I was not too confident with it and found myself making some misplays that would ultimately cost me against good opposition. So, on the night before of the tournament, I decided to switch decks and go with something more familiar to me. I ended up choosing Prank-Kids.
The Games
I ended up with a record of three wins, one loss, and one draw. My first match was against Orcust Mekk-Knight with a little help from . The first game lasted forty minutes until he scooped, and game two ended because of what Prank-Kids do best: win in time.
The second matchup was Invoked Shaddoll Dogmatika. He bricked game one, which gave me the win. Game two was back and forth, but he managed to outplay me. Since he used on me in game two, I had a suspicion he had it in hand for game three and played around it while making sure there was enough life point difference at the moment time was called. After the match he revealed to me that he drew two copies of Nibiru into his opening hand.
My third match was against Dinosaurs, which is possibly this deck's worst matchup since only resolves during the main phase, which is exactly when is backed by . Game three he simply summoned a Tyranno backed with a … I can tell you … that hurt a lot.
Round four, I was up against Tenyi Swordsoul. We were in game one and my opponent disconnected during my turn. He received a game loss and dopped from the tournament unfortunately. Sadly, this is one of the shortcomings of remote dueling that make in-person events much more reliable, even if it is the safest option for the time being. In any case, with every disadvantage comes another advantage. The Regional was held in Canada, making it impossible for players to join unless they live way over there or happen to be traveling Canada at the time.
The last round was once more against Tenyi Swordsoul. I took game one fairly quickly. A setup of and is very discouraging if the opponent doesn't have enough resources to outplay it. Game two was a long and difficult affair. He was constantly countering my plays with negations and hand traps, also having sided in and . Enforcer honestly kept me afloat for a while, but my resources eventually depleted, and he attacked for game. We were so engrossed in the duel that we didn't pay attention to the clock and actually had to be told by a judge that time was up and we couldn't proceed to game three. He had a record similar to mine and ended up topping as well right above me in sixth place.
The Deck
Here is the list I used for the tournament.
| Prank-Kids |
|---|
| Main Deck | Extra Deck | Side Deck |
|---|
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 3
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 1
- 1
- 3
- 1
- 3
- 2
- 1
- 3
- 3
- 1
- 2
- 3
| - 3
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
| |
Unfortunately was the brick I never used, but thankfully I never drew it either. I was siding it out when going second. I didn't even use the package so I will probably take it out going forward. The hand trap lineup worked great for me. I never missed the third . Though the MVP among hand traps was actually , which I kept drawing. I once used all three copies within the span of just two turns. Before the tournament, I considered running instead of Veiler as it is a high-impact card that allows me to play against established boards, but I was worried as it conflicts with . If I draw Lampsies as my only Prank-Kids name along with Dark Ruler, then I am simply playing myself.
Contrary to what some might think, and Prank-Kids do not really clash, even if locks the player into using only Prank-Kids monsters. To circumvent that, I added three copies of to use with during my turn, while Pandemonium was mainly for my opponent's turn.
I never really missed the second as Enforcer is simply better. It destroys one card only, but it has a wider range than Butler since it can get rid of troublesome back-row cards. Also, the destruction effect occurs once per turn, every turn. If you think of it in the long run, it is much more rewarding than using Butler. Actually, I found myself going into a lot more than Butler to build up more card advantage and restock on resources by making sure to summon back .
Overall I was happy with how the deck performed. It held its own against some strong decks, and I amazingly enough hardly bricked with it. I still have hope that becomes semi-limited to have more starting plays as opposed to having to recycle the card almost every turn with like I was doing.
The deck will only get better—as will almost every other deck—once we get the adventurer token engine that debuts in the Grand Creators set. I will write about that engine soon. Of course I was hoping to secure an invite, but the season is still long, and there are a lot of chances remaining!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
