Event Breakdown: YCS Birmingham

Date: February 8-9 2025

Overview

There were 2496 duelists in the event, 12 rounds of Swiss with a Top 64 Cut! This is a fairly large European YCS, having similar numbers to YCS Bologna last year.

YCS Birmingham continues the trend of YCS Orlando, with people on high Bystial counts and the prominence of Ryzeal, Maliss, and Mitsurugi being the decks to beat. However, several people got ahead of the trend and chose to go against it. For the first time in forever, Pure Ryzeal managed to outshine Fiendsmith Ryzeal, getting more spots than the supposed best deck of the format due to the reduced weakness against Bystials. 

Top 64 Breakdown

25 Ryzeal (1 Traptrix/Hole, 10 Fiendsmith, 14 Pure)

16 Maliss

6 Mitsurugi (Ryzeal)

5 Memento

4 Tenpai Dragon (FS Bystial)

2 Fiendsmith Bystial

2 Atlantean Mermail

1 White Forest (FS Azamina)

1 Branded Despia

1 Fire King

1 Crystron

Top 8 Breakdown

3 Ryzeal 

2 Maliss 

1 Fire King  

1 White Forest (Fiendsmith Azamina)

1 Atlantean Mermail

Firestorms Over Atlantis! 

Dinh-Kha Bui - YCS Birmingham 1st Place

3

1

3

3

3

1

1

2

3

3

3

2

2

1

2

3

1

3

Extra Deck

1

1

3

2

1

1

1

2

3

Side Deck

3

3

3

1

3

2

Dinh-Kha Bui won the event with Pure Fire King! The finals were up against Shanxiao Tony Wan, who was on Maliss!

His game plan was to create a small field and play/grind with multiple copies of Fire King Sky Burn and set up his grind with Legendary Fire King Ponix and Sacred Fire King Garunix, respectively. Fire King Courtier Ulcanix has noticeably increased the ceiling of Fire Kin,g and the deck shrugs off Mulcharmy Fuwalos with relative ease, still able to set up multiple forms of disruption and removal.

The deck is somewhat adept at going up against Ryzeal Detonator due to how the Fire King cards work. Pot of Extravagance is an incredible card for strategies like these, as he doesn't go into the ED too often and can afford to run multiple copies of important cards such as Garunix Eternity, Hyang of the Fire Kings, Hiita the Fire Charmer, Ablaze, Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames and Super Starslayer TY-PHON - Sky Crisis! It either gives the player two additional cards or burns through the opponent's Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. DKB's list ran many powerful defensive cards, such as Mulcharmy Fuwalos and Dominus Impulse, with a side deck specifically tailored for Maliss, as seen with the Artifact Lancea and Chaos Hunter.

Atlantean Mermail continues to put up impressive results, getting two placements again in this YCS and even getting Top 4! This WATER deck is one of the strongest combo decks in recent times, able to put up incredibly resilient boards while also having a lot of premium benefits to it, such as having effects that send for cost, hand manipulation with Deep Sea Minstrel and Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord, going second pushing power with both Poseidras, and ability to grind it out thanks to the likes of Abyssrhine, the Atlantean Spirit, Toadally Awesome, and Mermail Abyssalacia. Deep Sea Prima Donna + Barrier Statue of the Torrent makes an appearance once more, which results in a devastating lock and is often protected from targeting effects thanks to Mermail King - Neptabyss!

Trap Holes in 2025?

Ben Kreutzkamp - YCS Birmingham Top 64

3

3

3

1

1

3

3

3

3

2

1

3

1

3

1

3

1

1

1

Extra Deck

3

1

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Side Deck

3

3

3

3

3

Ben Kreutzkamp teched 3 Hole Trap cards and a couple more Traptrix cards in his Ryzeal list. Aside from the Gravedigger's Trap Hole with Traptrix Rafflesia to help insulate against hand traps, he brought a few more Hole cards to bolster the strategy. Ryzeal Plasma Hole for removal which Rafflesia can use proactively, and a Traptrix Trap Hole Nightmare to help negate the likes of Ame no Murakumo no Mitsurugi or Maliss Link monsters. Traptrix Pinguicula is used to search Traptrix Myrmeleo which is a decently strong Normal Summon that adds a Hole trap to the board.  His goal was to utilize Rafflesia to help Ryzeal Duo Drive resolve, due to how game-winning that card is when it goes through.

Memento Madness

Memento finally makes another appearance after being dormant for quite some time, still brandishing all of its usual tricks, getting 5 spots in the Top 64, and making it up to Top 16! 

Powerful 1-card combos, insane flexibility, absurdly powerful engine, and difficulty to interact with due to the plethora of Quick-Play spells at its disposal! We saw both Fiendsmith and Goblin Biker variants perform quite well at this event, outshining Pure. The benefits of a secondary engine were quite important this time around, especially as the Goblin Biker package was adept at chewing through the materials of both Detonator and D/D/D Wave High King Caesar. The deck is also capable of performing surprise OTKs thanks to Mementotlan Akihiron's first effect or with Mementotlan Bone Party granting piercing with its GY effect. 

Solo Topping

Kyle Wallace - YCS Birmingham Top 64

2

3

3

1

1

3

2

1

3

3

3

3

1

1

3

3

3

1

Extra Deck

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Side Deck

3

2

1

2

2

3

1

1

Crystron finally makes its long-awaited debut, finding a single placement in the Top 64. This powerful midrange synchro deck is capable of putting up very creative boards while being difficult to interrupt due to Crystron Tristaros's Quick Effect. Crystron Cluster and Crystron Eleskeletus also make the deck incredibly resilient in the grind game, providing lots of protection and floating. The deck has a couple of options when it comes to running supplemental engines, such as Azamina, Kashtira, Speedroid Terrortop, and more! Kyle Wallace chose to use Terrortop alongside a few copies of Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls to help get his plays going.

Branded Despia managed to secure 1 spot in the top cut thanks to the talents of Basilis Tsimplouilis! He made use of Nadir Servant to help push through interruptions and to further his plays going up against the plethora of Ryzeal running around the format. The deck is somewhat adept at dealing through Ryzeal Detonator's multiple destructions while being unexpected enough to avoid a game 1 blind Abyss Dweller.

Dominik Strunz - YCS Birmingham Top 8

3

1

1

1

3

3

1

3

1

3

3

1

1

1

1

3

1

3

2

1

3

3

1

1

Extra Deck

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Side Deck

3

2

3

3

3

1

Absent from YCS Orlando, White Forest souped up with the Azamina and Fiendsmith cards makes for a very explosive combo deck that keeps the opponent's monsters at bay with Silvera, Wolf Tamer of the White Forest, and grinds incredibly well thanks to Diabell, Queen of the White Forest. Dominik Strunz. teched in The Black Goat Laughs as a powerful tech card to help disable Ryzeal Detonator and also further disrupt the opponent if needed. Thanks to cards like Elzette of the White Forest and Diabellstar the Black Witch, he's capable of easily putting it in the GY before having to commit to crucial plays.

Closing Thoughts
 

European duelists certainly delivered and managed to pull off some creative deck choices and solutions going into the SUDA format. Fire King went from an underappreciated rogue deck into a relevant metagame contender ever since Din-Kha Bui's win, and Mermail has also followed suit as a terrifying presence throughout Regionals. We'll have to wait and see how the format evolves with new events following the release of Structure Deck - Blue-Eyes White Destiny. Until next time folks, Renren's out!