Wind Ups win NAWCQ(recap of NAWCQ)

The results are in! The battle lines were drawn and Wind Ups won the war. Tyler Tabman took the gold. In all seriousness it wasn't really out of the realm of possibility for wind ups to do good infact I figured that they would at least have some tops, however I didn't expect them to win..... but we have seen this entire scenario before. People side for the major contenders(in this case rabbit, dragons, and inzektors) and either completely forget about other non major contenders ot give them a token concession and maybe fit a card that is specific for them or try to fit a card that is widely good against all decks but not focussing on just wind ups.

     Wind ups were clearly left unchecked here. This has happened before, when dark worlds got no spots in the top cut at YCS atlanta because people over sided for them then won YCS long beach because people undersided for them. This is pretty much the same situation just on a much more prestigious scale. Wind ups are good everybody knows that its just that chaos dragons, inzektors, and rabbit were nerfed because of the heavy siding doen against them. I have to hand it to Tyler he made a great meta call realizing that wind ups are still a fantastic deck capable of fighting with the grown ups just kind of forgotten about.

The top 16 was as follows:
9 Dino Rabbit
5 Wind ups
1 Anti monster
1 Chaos Dragon

Clearly this shows that chaos dragon were in the sights of everyone as it occupied a paltry one spot. This should not be surprising though considering that chaos dragons have just won the two most recent YCS's(philly and toulouse) clearly stating that they were a threat heading into NAWCQ. Dino Rabbit continues to be good but that should be old news to every person playing this game. Apparently wind ups did trend pretty high considering they did occupy the 2nd most spots and also restates what I said in the last 2 paragraphs. The ani monster deck is whatever as there is laways that one rouge deck that sneaks in there. Also on a side note the lone chaos dragon deck is being piloted by Jarel Winston for anyone who cares. On side note #2 no inzektors? Konami never posted the top 32 parings so i can't be sure if inzektors topped( I would think they would) but it does seem weird that inzektors wouldn't at least have a single spot. Their field clearing abilities are legendary lol.

The top 8 is as follows:
3 Dino rabbit
3 Wind up
1 Chaos Dragon
1 Anti monster

So 2/3 of the dino rabbit decks were ousted and now wind up and dino rabbit were neck and neck. The Chaos Dragon continues to prevail and hangs in there. The anti monster also stays in. The same 4 decks that were represented in the top 16 are also still all represented in the top 8. At this point I was thinking that it really is still anyones game.

The top 4 is as follows
1 Chaos Dragon
1 dino rabbit
2 wind up

So konami never actually posted the last deck that comprised the top 4. They never actually even posted the top 4, I was able to get the known decklists by looking at feature matches. I will assume though that the last spot is dino rabbit but I cannot be for certain.

The finals
wind up mirror match!
The last duel was quite good with Tyler Tabman eventually winning against Robert Lewis, but take into account this was Robert lewis's first ever WCQ so not bad at all for a first timer actually not bad at all even for a pro. The first game was over in a flash as Tabman pulled off the loop that magically makes your opponents hand vanish into thin air and then reappear in their graveyard! What I found interesting is that Lewis mained maxx C which has seen alot less play as the format moves along. Maybe he made a good meta call and predicted that other people would play wind up because they knew that wind up hate was relatively low and he could hate on wind ups therefore giving him a edge. Or maybe he thought it was a good card. Lets go with the latter.
In game 2 Lewis was able to loop 3 cards out of Tabman's opening hand which gave him a massive advantage. Lewis fought back with mirror force and snowman eater, but lewis dre into a instant fusion allowing him to bring out a scrap dragon and finish the job.
In game 3 Tabman was able to get all 3 zenmaity on the board and quickly wrap up the NAWCQ.

     Congratulations to Tyler Tabman and everyone who is going to tokyo for worlds the official list is:

For the all-ages World Championship:
Tyler Tabman, 17, from Overland Park, Kansas
Robert Lewis Jr., 25, from Mt. Sterling, Kentucky
Jarel Winston, 21, from New York, New  York
Kevin Rubio, 19, from Pennsauken, New Jersey
Adrian Shakir, 22, from Colorado Springs, Colorado
Michael Steinman, 18, from Burlington, Iowa

And for the Dragon Duel World Championship
Tyler Nilson, 12, from North Port, Florida
Zachary Leverette, 13, from Winston, Georgia

Courtesy of konami
There really isn't any well known pros save for Jarel Winston, and Tyler Tabman has been performing very well in the past few events and I have seen his name a few times(I could be overlooking a big name that I don't know or some other "pros" could have been in the top 32). Also Robert Lewis was the runner up and this was his first WCQ! I am looking forward to worlds and hopefully these North American reps see victory!

Overall this seems like a decent NAWCQ. We have some relatively well known names mixed in with a lot of fresh faces. Wind ups winning isn't a WTF win, it is in the realm of possiblity though I do wish konami posted the top 32 parings so I could see if some well known faces topped and what other decks topped as well, but konami will be konami. Thanks for reading and good luck to everyone who was successful today.
-Cameron