Dinh-Kha Bui wins YCS Birmingham with Pure Fire King!
Event Breakdown: YCS Birmingham
Date: February 8-9 2025
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.
Din-Kha Bui wins YCS Birmingham with Pure Fire King! The finals were up against Tony Wan, who was on Maliss!
Din Kha Bui does the unthinkable once more and won with Pure Fire King. 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 Ponix and Garunix. Ulcanix has noticeably increased the ceiling of Fire King and the deck shrugs off Mulcharmy Fuwalos with relative ease.
The deck is incredibly 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, Ty-PHON, Promethean Princess. It either gives the player 2 additional cards or burns through the opponent's Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. DKB's list ran a lot of premium defensive cards as well, such as Dominus Impulse and Mulcharmy Fuwalos, with a side deck specifically tailored for Maliss.
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, going second pushing power with both Poseidras, and ability to grind it out thanks to the likes of Abyssrhine, Toadally Awesome, and Abyssalacia. Prima Donna + Barrier Statue of the Torrent makes an appearance once more, which results in a devastating lock.
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.
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 Traptrix cards to bolster the strategy. 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. Pingucula 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 finally makes another appearance after being dormant for quite some time, still brandishing all of its usual tricks, getting 5 spots in 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 Pure variants perform quite well at this event. The deck is also capable of performing surprise OTKs thanks to Mementotlan Akihiron's first effect or with Bone Party's piercing granting GY effect.
Crystron finally makes its long-awaited appearance, 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. Crystron Cluster and 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!
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.
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, Witchwolf of the White Forest, and grinds incredibly well thanks to Diabell, Queen of the White Forest. Dominik S. 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.
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.
Top 64 Breakdown
25 Ryzeal (1 Traptrix(?), 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
- Renren