Event Breakdown: YCS Sydney
Date: March 1-2, 2025
Overview
There were 896 duelists in the event, with 10 rounds of Swiss and a cut to Top 32, which are good numbers for a YCS event in Australia!
YCS Sydney Top 32 Breakdown
11 Ryzeal (6 Fiendsmith)
9 Maliss
3 Primite Blue-Eyes (1 Buster Blader)
3 Mitsurugi (Ryzeal)
1 Azamina White Forest
1 Crystron (Kashtira)
1 Fiendsmith Bystial
1 Memento (Goblin Biker)
1 Atlantean Mermail
1 Phantom Knights (Horus Fiendsmith)
Crossing Over with no Breaks
Frederick Cammell won YCS Sydney with Ryzeal, giving the deck another premier victory! He faced Andrew Udal in the finals, who was on Maliss.
We saw a decent split between both Fiendsmith Ryzeal and Pure Ryzeal as both versions of the deck continue to be incredibly prominent in the format, with Pure's ability to accommodate a mix of hand traps and flexible Power Spells ultimately edging out the Fiendsmith variants, alongside its lessened Bystial weakness.
Despite all the powerful Side Deck cards teched against it (Mulcharmy Meowls, Artifact Lancea, and Chaos Hunter), Maliss continues to be one of the strongest decks in the format, comfortably sitting at the number 2 spot and having a dominant display over in YCS Sydney. The higher Bystial counts and resurgence of Dominus Impulse have certainly helped the deck in some of its tougher matchups, while players are getting more creative by now running direct outs to Ryzeal Detonator to solve that problem, such as Metaltronus.
Even against Pure Ryzeal, something like Bystial Druiswurm can alleviate a lot of pressure by getting rid of Eclipse Twins and answering Ryzeal Detonator, provided Ryzeal Duo Drive has been prevented from resolving its effect. Goblin's Crazy Beast is becoming more and more common in Maliss lists, summonable off 2 Bystials. Its incredible slew of effects makes it very well-positioned in dealing with Detonator + Ryzeal Cross setups.
Blue-Eyes White Destiny
Primite Blue-Eyes had a good showing in its first ever YCS post-SDWD, getting a solid 3 placements in the Top 32 and a commanding finish from Worlds Competitors Kunlun Lei (Top 4)! The deck's impressive recursion and seamless ability to shift between combo and control make it a force to be reckoned with. Majesty of the White Dragons paired with Primite Drillbeam is quite difficult for most decks to overcome and gives Blue-Eyes an edge, even if the opponent would play through its monster setup.
Primite Lordly Lode and Primite Dragon Ether Beryl allow the deck to be played low to the ground if they're your only way to start or as aggressive as the pilot wants when paired with other cards like Maiden of White or Sage with Eyes of Blue. Certain hands can play under or through Nibiru, the Primal Being, if necessary. The deck's massive non-engine count gives it some breathing room going second, with powerful hand traps like Dominus Purge leading the fray and pushes with Blue-Eyes Tyrant Dragon.
More and more players are also proactively putting Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon in the GY to help protect Blue-Eyes Spirit Dragon and Blue-Eyes Ultimate Spirit Dragon from targeting effects. Another under-appreciated thing about the deck is its ability to easily search Effect Veiler, even having multiple copies at times, thanks to Sage and Wishes for Eyes of Blue! Primite Scream is an underrated Side Deck tech choice, giving the deck a repeatable (albeit once) and powerful option to further lean into the Primite engine, now able to deal with the likes of Ryzeal trying to force a Ryzeal Detonator onto the board without having to burn your interruptions on keeping them off level 4s.
Its fellow contemporary Ryzeal Mitsurugi also continues to perform very well in regionals and YCS events, getting 3 spots in Top cut as well. The lists have been more streamlined and have dropped the Dogmatika package altogether due to the increased presence of Droll & Lock Bird.
Reforming the Cluster
Kashtira Crystron has had its best showing yet (Top 8), piloted by Yacine Sahli! The Kashtira cards act as a powerful secondary engine that can help buffer against some of the commonly used blowouts against the strategy that can hurt its ability to play otherwise. Not only that, but it also gives you a way to your Crystron cards, thanks to the Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack line with Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss. Both cards have decent use applications outside of accessing Crystrons due to the former's removal effect and the latter's protection effect.
Kashtira Unicorn, Kashtira Fenrir, and Kashtira Birth remain impressive cards that can help you throughout all stages of the game, which can be quite terrifying to deal with when backed up with Crystron's very solid grind game and layered interruption with the likes of Crystron Eleskeletus, Crystron Cluster, and Crystron Tristaros. Yacine showed off a very creative tech against Ryzeal with Hi-Speedroid Hagoita! Off one Tristaros, you can check both Ice Ryzeal and Sword Ryzeal on the opponent's turn by increasing their levels by 1, which also cuts off Ext Ryzeal's search effect since they are now level 5 monsters. Especially potent against Pure Ryzeal, which is unable to do anything with the bodies.
Miscellaneous Showings
Huge props to Micah Catelan's legendary run, placing Top 16 with Horus Fiendsmith Phantom Knights, only being stopped in its tracks by Maliss during the Top Cut. It's been a very long time since we've seen Horus around, especially due to how hostile the current environment is for it, and the same applies to PK.
Other prominent showings outside the Top 4 decks include Azamina White Forest, Atlantean Mermail, Fiendsmith Bystial, and Goblin Biker Memento! All of them are quite powerful decks in their own right but are just shy of the big 4 as of now. Samuel Quan brought a unique take on White Forest, instead heavily focusing on hand traps for his non-engine paired with Crossout Designator, coupled with a few sleeper Extra Deck options. Azamina Moa Regina is used to close out the game with a Cross-Sheep line, reviving Elzette, Azamina of the White Forest. The second copy of Chaos Angel can often be game-winning if it comes down to a tough grind game, and the outs to the first one have already been exhausted. Ali Obeido had the same idea, playing 2 in his Fiendsmith Bystial list.
Closing Thoughts
The format has mostly remained stable and is likely to remain very similar with the CRBR decks on top, even with the release of Maze of the Master this weekend, introducing Seventh Tachyon into the game. We'll have to wait and see if the upcoming banlist will shake things up. Until next time, Renren out!
