Go-YGO.com’s second pro interview is Chris Gehring (not Gehrig). The decorated New Zealand duelist recently returned from the World Championships in 2009 and agreed to sit down for an interview.
Chris Gehring is our subject for the day. Considered the best player in Oceania, he has finished in the top eight of two Worlds Championships in a row. Konami reserves only one slot for New Zealand (for the National champion), so Gehring has essentially won the biggest tournament in his country two years in a row. Gehring also has a runner-up finish at the New Zealand Fortune Tour Final, dozens of Regional top eights and wins, and an x-2 finish at Shonen Jump Anaheim 2009.
Last year, while wielding Gladiator Beasts, Chris efficiently swept through the 2008 New Zealand National Championship and earned the right to represent his country. At the 2008 World Championship, he made a sharp metagame call, taking a Gravekeeper/Necrovalley Burn deck to a 4-1 record and 2nd place after Swiss. He then lost to eventual runner up Robert Ackerman in the top 8.
This year, Gehring used a variant of Dark Skill Drain Synchro to reach the finals and earn his second trip to Worlds. And at the 2009 World Championship, he used a unique Gladiator Beast build featuring zero War Chariot to a 4-1 record and 2nd place after Swiss again. He agreed to share the build with Go-YGO.com:
Monsters: 16
2 Test Tiger
2 Rescue Cat
2 X – Saber Airbellum
2 Gladiator Beast Laquari
2 Gladiator Beast Samnite
1 Gladiator Beast Bestiari
1 Gladiator Beast Darius
1 Gladiator Beast Equeste
1 Gladiator Beast Murmillo
1 Sangan
1 Summoner Monk
Spells: 11
3 Book of Moon
2 Gladiators Proving Ground
1 Smashing Ground
1 Brain Control
1 Monster Reborn
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Giant Trunade
Traps: 13
3 Solemn Judgment
3 Waboku
3 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
1 Dimensional Prison
Sideboard: 15
3 Mind Control
3 King Tiger Wang Hu
2 Gladiator Beast War-Chariot
2 Cold Wave
2 Dust Tornado
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness
1 Summoner Monk
1 Gladiator Proving Ground
Gehring is one of three players in Yu-Gi-Oh! history to reach two World Championship day twos in a row. The first two, Dario Longo and Miltiadis Markou, were Yu-Gi-Oh! World Champions who received automatic invites their second time around (avoiding the rigorous qualification process). Hopefully Chris’s answers will inform and enlighten duelists all across the world.
Click the next page to move on to the interview.
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Damn you Jae you got in your interview first, now I’m gonna look like a copycat :p
Still, it was a good read and if I publishmy interview with Chris (was planning on writing it today) I’ll link to yours
Keep up the good work.
Yea shot Gehring! NZ rep.!
His name is Vittorio Wiktor not Victorio
Nice interview and good to read. Without a boring question.
who cares what this guy thinks of other players ? I know I’m probably coming off negative again but this whole interview rly rubbed me the wrong way. Jae I would have enjoyed this interview a lot more if you focused the questions on the person who’s being interviewed.
I think the interview was quite informative, and the questions you asked got useful answers – but there were also some pertinent questions that you didn’t ask – the deck Gehring took to Worlds, for one!
Note: By that I meant its unorthodoxy – low monster count and lack of Chariots.
it was a good interview but I want to hear more about individual player skill (‘how to get better’), playstyles, etc. Breaking predicting the metagame down a bit and explaining it.
Thanks Claudio. I had his name as Vittorio Wittor, double-checked and saw it was Vittorio Wiktor, so changed his name to Victorio Wiktor for some reason (it was late!).
Also thanks for the feedback. I think it must be stressed Chris provides a really unique opportunity. He is a player who has attended Worlds two years in a row and seen about 50 reps over two years. Gehring is also very skilled, so I feel this puts him in a very rare position to evaluate talent. Frankly, given these once-in-a-blue-moon assets I think it’s criminal not to tailor the questions around his perspective of the world.
Great interview Jae! Another good read here on your blog. Keep up the good work.
Good interview!
I wish you followed up with a question or two about his deck though. It would have been nice to hear the reasoning behind from the guy himself.
All other questions were great and very informative.
I can just talk about my deck here.
I’ll start of with lack of Chariots – AJ and I (as we made the deck together) that Chariot was a very slow card that did not do as much as we wanted in the expected meta of Gladiator Beast, Cat Synchro and Blackwing. This was true and I don’t regret the decision even once. Against Blackwing all you really hit is Kalut and Gale. I didn’t find either of those cards problematic with Wabokus, and Books in my deck and the fact I Gyzarus a lot because of Proving Ground, Monk, and Cat. Chariot just didn’t seem all that powerful in that match-up. Then against Cat Synchro I found it just does nothing. Sure, you can get lucky and maybe they try go for game without spell and trap disruption, but in most situations that will not be the case so Chariot will do nothing but be another unplayable card in your hand. I know it can hit Spy, but that’s what the problem is. You have to go first, draw Chariot with an adequate Gladiator Beast, and hope to not get Mind Controlled. I think that’s a lot to hope for. If you have a Gladiator Beast, and a Chariot and go 2nd… what can you do. It’s just another dead card in your hand.
Now we have the mirror match. I think Chariot was the best in the mirror match, but still unneeded. You have to have than just the Chariot in the mirror match for it to be effective. It just doesn’t stop much and I felt it just helps the person that’s winning. For my first 3 mirror matches at Worlds I sided in 1 Chariot because I thought it would help me… Yeah, well, the both times I drew it, it almost cost me games (as it did absolutely nothing). I realized the card is just like having another Gladiator Beast in your hand.
That was for Worlds format though. Because of Lightsworn, the card should be in Gladiator Beast main deck x2 always.
For the low monster count:
If I draw more than 2 GB monsters I think the chances of losing just increased. You want your entire hand to be active, or able to be defensive on every turn. Playing out a GB and being able to set 3-5 back row cards is just to hard for almost, including the mirror to handle. Especially if you know how and when to play those cards.
Lack of Secutor was because when we made the decklist I played 2 games against AJ and drew it both times opening hand. I threw it against the wall. While we were going to hand in our decklists it was our 17th monster and we thought 16 was enough. We cut it and put Dimensional Prison in its place. Wow, that card was amazing. I drew it every match.
2 X – Saber, you have to run 2 or 0. 1 is just bad. This card is just amazing tbh. Not once did it cause me problems. It helps me win in situations where I should be losing.
1 Monk, with 2 X – Saber and 11 spells it was a great card on the day. We didn’t run 2 because we were not trying for the OTK version and we wanted to keep our hands consistent. 1 Monk added pressure which was good.
Idk what else so say. People can ask me, I don’t mind.
Hey do you think hoplomus is worth running in a GB? And why not 3 Test Tiger? While playing GBs, I found that Test Tiger has always been useful whenever I draw one, two, and sometimes three.
Ummm Gehring did not win NZ nats 2009. He came 2nd but the winner couldn’t go to worlds.
That’s interesting. Weren’t you worried about Monk’s fallibility in the mirror? Didn’t you often draw too few monsters?
Liked the interview, and thanks to Gehring for explaining a little further for your decisions on your decklist. Im sure alot of people will take into consideration your ideas upon creating your deck to introduce them to todays meta (or more likely, the new meta after the ban list)
Also..
” Click the link to read the unofficial recap).”
Wheres the link? Maybe I missed it?
@ Dan – I don’t like Hoplomus at all outside of getting past Crush Card. I just found it had no real use. Sure, it could stall against BW, but generally that does not give you enough advantage. It’s just a slow monster that does nothing. Whenever I attack, it’s not something I ever want to tag into.
Test Tiger creates bad hands with a low monster count. I expected a lot of GB and every GB mains like 3 Book and 3 BTH, not to mention Solemns. I summon a GB, they Bottomless or Solemn and now I have a dead Tiger in my hand. I summon a GB, then Tiger and they Book. Now I just wasted a card. I just found having 3 contributes to much to dead hands. There were a lot of test games I would draw 1 – 3 of them with no GB or I would get disrupted on summon and it would just cause problems. I prefer my hand to always be live.
@ Ice-eyes
Monk was a last resort card. It’s not like I would drop him on my opponent when I can’t clear the field, or negate their spell/traps. Using one meant I bearly even drew it, but when I did it gave me the option for huge tempo swings, or even game. To be quite honest, I summoned it only twice at Worlds. The first time my opponent Solemed it which was good because he did exactly what I wanted him to do (I knew he had Solemn the way he was playing). The 2nd time I just won the game because of it stealing 2 cards, and having an Arcanite + Waboku. Following turn they just died.
Not once did I draw a hand without monsters. If you count Proving Ground, I have 16 monsters I can summon (not counting Tigers which I class as spells pretty much).
Nice deck Chris, looks really well built, and I admire some of the ‘ballsy’ choices of 2 Tiger/no Chariot, shows a great willingness to think outside the box
Regarding Hoplomus, how do you feel about it in a heavy LS filled meta, alongside triple Chariot?
i like the list in general but i wonder how these triple wabokus worked for you in a meta filled with glads.(maybe thats one reason synchro-cat went down)
At first, just looking through it, that decklist kinda put that sense of worry in me, but after seeing your posts, Mr. Gehring, I can see how cleanly it works (“cleanly” = “no clutter”). Especially how you took ‘Defensive Tactics’ and ‘Hoplomus’ out of the picture (He’s such a good “faker” though).
I’d love to see how you would change your set-up, if at all, when the new Banlist is out
Not meant negatively in any way, but seeing an Extra Deck would’ve been nice too.
the specialist card game have to listen to your sense of humor.i mean you have to learn one thing stay focus in your deck, but I´am thinking you rather stop showing your deck try to keep a secret.dont let no one know, including me or other.
your deck have a strong heart but you dont know what it means. try to find it
chris gehring made one of the best gb decks ever..i just want to know, now that there is a new banned list what would chris gehring do to the deck. Maybe add 1 more d prison because bth is semi limited. maybe add 2 chariots because of the limited solemn and add call of the haunted to replace monster reborn. Im curious to know.
alo add secutor because cat is limited