[Deck] Pure Karakuri (TCG Jan 2014 - YCS Sydney)

Hi Everyone, here's the deck profile for my deck, which I managed to win the recent YCS Sydney held on 18/19 January. First up of course is the deck list!
*Click on for more info, thoughts behind the deck and stuff, but be warned, its rather lengthy*

DSummon's Pure Karakuris January 2014 (TCG list) [41]

Monster [23]

[1] Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders
[1]Solar Wind Jammer
[2] Karakuri Ninja mdl 919 "Kuick"
[3] Karakuri Soldier mdl 236 "Nisamu"
[1] Karakuri Watchdog mdl 313 "Saizan"
[2] Karakuri Strategist mdl 248 "Nishipachi"
[3] Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 "Ninishi"
[3] Karakuri Merchant mdl 177 "Inashichi"
[2] Psychic Commander
[3] Maxx "C"

Spell [14]

[3] Instant Fusion
[3] Emergency Teleport
[1] De-Synchro
[2] Iron Call
[3] Mystical Space Typhoon
[1] Karakuri Cash Cache
[1] Book of Moon
[1] Limiter Removal

Traps [3]

[1] Solemn Warning
[1] Bottomless Trap Hole
[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device
[3] Fiendish Chain

Extra Deck[15] 
[2] Cyber Saurus
[3] Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X "Bureido"
[3] Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei"
[1] Crimson Blader
[1] Black Rose Dragon
[1] Naturia Beast
[1[ Ally of Justice Catastor
[1] Divine Dragon Knight Felgrand 
[1] Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
[1] Number 11: Big Eye

Side Deck [15]
[1] Maestroke the Symphony Djinn
[2] D.D. Crow
[1] Xyz Encore
[1] The Transmigration Prophecy
[2] Trap Stun
[1] Overworked
[2] Light-Imprisoning Mirror
[1] Soul Drain
[2] Rivalry of Warlords
[2] Gozen Match

PS: Psychic Karakuri, Tele Karakuri, whatever. Not that important to me lol. Though I still don't get the logic of adding on stuff into the name simply because I run some of it inside. Unless u think i should name it as some Instant Fusion Teleport Fiendish Chain Karakuri nonsense lol

Basis for deck choice
I have kinda 3 main big reasons for choosing to pilot this deck actually

1. Simply because i love this deck. I firmly believe that if you love the deck, there's no reason why you shouldn't just keep working on it and playing it. It's pretty obvious if you go through the blog's deck archive that Machine decks have been a love of mine since day 1, with Karakuri as one of my main favourites since they were released. Don't play decks simply because "they topped some event" or "they are the meta" nonsense guys, this is a game, so keep it as a game and enjoy it.

2. This deck has the capability to flood for otk win, without having to wait for a turn to pass, something which the TCG meta is severely lacking currently. Every deck now seems to be an Evilswarm which they just grind their way to victory through a couple of monsters and multiple sets. My strategy is to go the opposite route and take opponents by surprise. On an additional note, this deck can start potentially much much stronger then say, Geargia Karakuri, which is 1 of the main reasons why I did not choose that deck. Just see the feature match for YCS Sydney to see how I built up a really good field on turn 1. (Side reason being I did not want to be accused of net decking the YCS Turin winner)

3. This deck allows for Naturia Beast. A lot of people are not expecting this, especially since Six Samurai isn't really a thing anymore, and I have won several games in both my swiss and single elimination rounds just by its existence alone, so its really good.

Combos
I'm sure that through Geargia Karakuri, most people are familiar with how Burei and Bureido work. What a lot of people don't know is what the other Karakuri monsters do to help the strategy out, such as Ninishi providing extra summons for making Burei easily, Kuick to fetch back stuff from the grave to easily synchro, Inashichi provides stability and also access to Naturia Beast. If you are interested, I would suggest you read up on the various monsters.

To be honest, there isn't really much combos to talk about in Karakuris, its pretty much a math game. Gather 3+4 on the field and you get Burei. 3+5 or 4+4 makes you Bureido. 3+2 for Catastor then add another 3 for Bureido. Its pretty simple actually. Its just a matter of being familiar with the cards and knowing how exactly to put the numbers together with the cards you have to get access to them and get the most benefits as much as possible.

Deck hasn't changed all that much since it was released, its just the support available, such as Iron Call and the Xyzs. Its really a matter of planning your moves carefully, and knowing how to play the deck well. (E.g. Instead of Bureido + double Burei trying to go for kill with a useless Saizan, you can go Bureido + Dracosack + Burei with a defence mode Nisamu instead. Safer against Mirror Force, and you don't spend extra cards)

Against Evilswarms
Some comments have popped up on various sites asking whether I met Evilswarms or how does this deck match up against them. Since I decided to go for this YCS, I was observing the meta in the TCG for over the past month, and took a risk that there would be a small showing of the deck, especially with the current deck of choice being 3.5 axis Fire Fist, which is one of their worse matchups. I was lucky enough to not have to meet up any though.

However, playing this deck as long as I have, there's actually quite a lot of creative ways to kill Ophion, you just have to think of them. (E.g. Nishipachi + Kuick, double E. Teleports, Limiter Removal). The deck also mains 3 Chain in case I meet them. And of course if I win the dice roll, doubt Evilswarm can do too much against Felgrand.

General Matchups
Well, what about other match ups? Here's a quick look at some of the other main decks people are piloting, how it does against them generally and why.

1. Fire Fists (3.5/4) / Bujin - Strong. Burei and Nishipachi allows me to go around Tensen / Crane, which is their main bread and butter. Furthermore Naturia Beast stops Fists from even starting their combos.

2. Spellbooks - Even. Generally, Spellbooks is not a good deck to fight against simply because Karakuris are battle oriented while Spellbooks can just slow stuff down while pluss-ing. However, Naturia Beast is a card.

3. Mermails - Strong. Simply because Karakuris would flood much faster then them. Furthermore for TCG side, theres a lack of Undine and Diva moves, so its even slower. Abyssgaios is a problem, but Burei + Kuick makes short work of it. Just make sure you have something to force out its negation first (E.g. Nishipachi first, before you Iron call or something, kinda depends on what you have at hand). And of course Fiendish Chain is also meant to solve this problem.

4. Dark World - Not fantastic since Skill Drain is a problem. Though thats the only main problem, and of course Naturia Beast works well against Dark World, i won my swiss round against Dark World just with it.

Don't really want to list out the entire list of all the decks here, but these are the decks I mainly expected to meet at the tournament (Though I know some Inzektors are topping and theres a lot of other stuff like Constellars and Noble Knights etc). If you want an opinion of how my deck fares against a certain deck and why, just ask at the comments below.

Card choices / tech
Here's a few tech choices in the deck and why~

Main deck:
Karakuri Lineup:
5 non-tuners necessary to make your Ninishi live. Ninishi + non-tuner along with a Instant Fusion / Jammer makes me 2 Bureidos with 2 draws into Felgrand. 1 Saizan needed for above purpose. Plus too many Karakuri players look down on Kuick which I have no idea why, i win so many games just because of its effect. I can Burei into Kuick, attack, make another Burei, go into Dracossack / Big Eye for whatever I couldn't clear. 2 Strategist is pretty standard i would say.

Limiter Removal - Yes, it is tech. I main it not for OTK factor (Though it helps), but actually for Evilswarm match ups if any. Also I would keep it in against Fists / Bujin and other combat oriented decks with damage step stuff, just in case I don't have stuff to change their mode. Otherwise, this is usually the first card i would side out.

Solar Wind Jammer / De-Synchro - Its just 1 of each, simply because I don't want to draw them late game, when I have nothing on the field. So its a, if i draw it turn 1 its awesome, if not, just not gonna bother. This may be a combo based deck but consistency is still important. Not to mention Solar Wind Jammer + Redox doesn't really mix as the only non-earth monster in the deck. Usually sided out if I am going second. Plus for the builds that try to spam 3 of them it gives bad hands easily, and basically just dies to Evilswarm outright, so I dislike that build.

Maxx "C" - Earth for Redox. Card drawing important simply because this is a combo deck. Veilers are not as useful in this deck, simply because there is rarely any monster that is so important to negate that I might lose the game from it, unlike Dragon Ruler era with tons of Big Eye and stuff. Level 2 also means bad hand situations allow this and a level 3 tuner to make Catastor, I can then add another 3 from there to make Bureido, which I actually do quite often when I have bad hands with only tuners.

Karakuri Cash Cache - Contemplated between just playing 1 Cash Cache, versus playing 2 Cash Cache and 1 Anatomy. However i decided that the additional stuff don't really help to build the field, and instead of adding draw power for more defences, I might as well just add the defences outright.

Traps - Pretty standard 1 each of the usual. 3 Chains is just for Ophion match ups, and of course against Priestess to protect your Naturia Beast (Beast negates Wisdom so its awesome)

Extra deck:
Crimson Blader - Chose it over Stardust / Scrap simply because I play more aggressive, plus its good on Spellbooks / Mermails to prevent Priestess / World / Megalo. Never summoned it though.
Catastor - Explained above
Big Eye - Totally didn't use it throughout the week, though good in case I face down BLS etc.
Black Rose - helps to clear board, especially when I faced down a guy who sided DNA against me. Considered Landoise instead but decided Black Rose would clear threats while Landoise just helps me to secure my win when I'm leading, so Black Rose was more important.

Rest is pretty standard stuff I would say? And yes, you do NEED 3 Bureis and Bureidos, I burn through them way too fast even at 3, and having no Avarice is a problem.

Side Deck :
Maestroke + Encore - Evilswarms (Would have sided 1 more Encore, but couldn't find it)
D.D. Crow - 3.5 Fire Fists, Inzektors, Infernities
Overworked - Fire Fists, Inzektors, Harpies
Light Mirror - Constellars, Bujin, Noble Knight, Hieratics, possibly against Spellbooks
Rivalry - Evilswarms, Xyz heavy decks like Harpies and Infernities
Gozen - Spellbooks (Prevents World and Priestess), would also consider against Noble Knights for Merdraut combos
Trap Stun - Trap heavy decks such as Evilswarms. Plus I don't main them, but side because game 1 is meant to be a surprise factor. Once the surprise is over and they side in traps, Trap Stun goes in.
Transmigration Prophecy - This is an error side actually, because it would work against Mermails in OCG rulings. However I didn't realise TCG rulings would allow the effects to still go through, so I would have changed it to something else, possibly the space for that additional Encore.

I did hear how some people were wondering why I sided in Rivalry against Harpies in top 16. Partially due to lack of a better choice since I only had 1 Overworked, but also because I reasoned that it would stop Channeler and Summoner plays, along with preventing them from making Xyz, since their monsters pose no threat to me otherwise. Hopefully this explains that choice.

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Thats the end of a very long deck profile article. Hopefully its not too long, but i figured this one deserved the extra long profile, since there would be a lot of questions on certain choices I made, and I figured there might be people asking about how and why I managed to actually win with this deck.

However, I still stand by my first reason as to why I pilot this deck. I dare say I am probably 1 of the guys most familiar (Dare I say I am the most familiar?) with this deck and all the things it can/can't do, and its inside outs, simply because I love the deck a lot, and have been playing with it as my main tournament deck since it was released in 2010. (Used a variant of it for my Worlds qualifiers in 2011 where I got 3rd, which was my last major event before this lol) So just play the deck you like the most, and it will surely work its hardest for you.

Lastly, just before I end, I would like to give a big thanks to the many people who loaned me cards, gave ideas and thoughts on tech to use, advised on TCG matchups, like Bahamut84, Calvin, Clarence, Sam, Liang Jun, Jeff and even the Full-Yen and Active Games shop bosses! Wouldn't have managed to put together the deck this quickly without their help. And of course also to thank all the people who really just flooded me with congratulation messages once they heard that I won. Much appreciated guys~

Thats about it guys! Do pose any other questions you may have regarding the deck in the comment section, and I will reply as soon as I can. I will also get to work on a YCS Sydney looking back article soon as well, so look forward to that! In the mean time, check out the event coverage post on the YES Facebook page to see all the photos and stuff that happened throughout the event!