Day 1 of YCS Houston is in the books. Eight Swiss rounds of the Genesys Main Event ran on Friday, October 16, and the Top 64 Duelists now head home and wait for Sunday, when they play four more rounds of Swiss before a cut to the Top 8.
Konami’s final Day 1 standings list Ittipat Arunnaveesiri in first, with Michael Austin DiGiorgio second and Jesse Dean Kotton third. One note from Konami: the Top 64 list can still change before Sunday, because Duelists who made Day 2 of both the Genesys and Advanced Main Events have to pick one, and their drops can pull lower-ranked players into the Top 64.
Decks at the top
The last round of the day told the story of the format. In Konami’s Round 8 top tables breakdown, Blitzclique strategies dominated: 10 of the top 20 tables were pure Blitzclique, and 18 of the Duelists there were using Blitzclique cards once hybrid builds like Angelechy Blitzclique and Spright Blitzclique were counted. Angelechy was the other main pillar, including variants like Ancient Fairy Angelechy and B.E.S. Angelechy. Offbeat picks still reached the top tables too, including Artmage DoomZ, Zombie Vampire Pumpking, Synchron Junk Assault Mode, and a Jurrac Snake-Eye Fire King deck.
Feature matches
The Round 7 feature match put two 5-1 players against each other: Brandon Diez of North Salt Lake, Utah on a HERO deck built around the new Destiny HERO cards from Beyond the Brave, against Steven He of Plano, Texas on Labrynth — a deck that picked up a big boost in the recent Genesys points update. He’s opening turns leaned on Lovely Labrynth of the Silver Castle and Welcome Labrynth chains, while Diez’s HERO build churned through Vision HERO Faris and Destiny HERO plays. Diez finished Day 1 at 23rd and He at 27th in the final standings.
Earlier in the day, Houston local Hector Aaron Luviano Lopez brought Jurrac Snake-Eye Fire Kings against Jacob Allan Dotson of the Dallas–Fort Worth area and his Evil HERO mix in the Round 5 feature match. Dotson’s build stacked Destiny HERO pressure, with Destiny HERO – Dogma and Destro-Dogma burning Luviano Lopez for chunks of damage across turns. Luviano Lopez ended the day 44th in the standings.
The ban list reveal
Friday also brought the first part of the next TCG Forbidden & Limited List, announced between rounds. Six cards went Forbidden, including Called by the Grave, and two more were Limited, among them Droll & Lock Bird. Konami reveals the remaining parts on Saturday and Sunday — four more announcements are expected across the weekend.
What’s next
Saturday is the Advanced format Main Event’s Day 1, and Sunday brings both Main Events back for Day 2. Follow our running Forbidden & Limited List article as each part is revealed.