19-year old Evan Vargas from Keller, Texas, has been a fixture at large conventions, Yu-Gi-Oh! mall tours, and area Regional tournaments for quite some time, playing all day and dozing on the tables. I tracked him down for a formal interview between rounds 5 and 6 to talk about the tournament, his deck, and Yu-Gi-Oh! in general.
He traveled up from Texas with three friends, and reunited there with the multitudes of other duelists he’s met over the years both online and at events. Evan has been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! since it was released in the United States. Oddly enough, he got into it as a result of his father hearing the game was doing well in Japan and wanting to buy stock in the company. Evan checked out the game, liked it, and has been a dedicated duelist ever since.
Evan played one of the seemingly few Chaos-free decks at the event. He designed it specifically to counter the metagame he anticipated. “I thought about the metagame, and what everyone is playing, and built it to counter things like that. Everyone is playing Berserk Gorilla, so I put in Prickle Fairy. There’s Scapegoats everywhere, so I put in King Tiger Wanghu.” When asked about the absence of Chaos, Evan responded “Chaos can be slow and hinges on Painful Choice.” The deck has performed quite well, Evan’s record was 4-1 at the end of round 5. “Why didn’t you interview me at the end of round 4? I was undefeated then!” He thinks his deck is unusual, in that he’s the only person running Prickle Fairy and one of very few with King Tiger Wanghu. “I haven’t seen anyone running anything like it. I’m the only one running as much removal as I’ve got in there.”
The side deck is varied, mainly designed to further tech against archetypes. Evan included Swarm of Locusts and Mobius the Frost Monarch to counter Stall or Burn decks, and Kinetic Soldiers for Warrior or Chaos decks. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer is more tech against Chaos, another King Tiger Wanghu if needed for swarms, and Blade Knight if Evan needs to go up against a lot of flip effect monsters. “It’s all to further counter the metagame, but more focused on what kind of deck I end up against.”
Evan has come up against a lot of metagame – mostly in various forms of Chaos. Chaos/Warrior, Chaos/Beatdown, a Fiend deck, one that removed cards from play, and Control deck with Compulsory Evacuation Device. “The remove from game deck was the toughest,” he said. “I won that one due to time!” The masses of Chaos didn’t surprise him much – “I knew the meta, and expected all this so I figured I’d do all right. The weirdest card I’ve seen played is Trap Dustshoot. My friend is playing that!”
Evan won a spot in Nationals at one of the Regional tournaments at Gen Con Indy, but hasn’t had much time for tournaments since. “I’ve been so busy with college, I haven’t had time. I haven’t played in really anything since then.” That included the recent Sneak Preview Weekend.
He likes the new Shonen Jump tournament series a lot. “I really like it, because the prize support makes it so worth playing the game. You get a bigger sense of accomplishment, winning a computer instead of some booster packs.” On the subject of the projected turnout for the events, expected to reach the thousands as the series continues, he said “The bigger the better—there’s more competition. You’re that much better if you win a tournament against 500 people instead of just against 50. You’re that much of a better duelist.”
Evan had no trouble deciding the fate of the Cyber Stein, if it lands in his possession. “The second I get back home it’s going straight on eBay! I need some money! I heard that people buy the Top 8 playmats from Regionals, too—can you make an announcement on the mike?”