Note: Editor’s notes for clarity are written in enclosed italics (like this). Missing words that complete the thought will be inserted in brackets [like this].
1. You have now had two World Championships to observe about fifty competitors. You have also seen players considered the best in the world such as Roy St. Clair and Claudio Kirchmair at work. Can you elaborate a bit on what you feel are the strongest dueling countries?
I think it’s more specific strong players than countries. I think each country has a group of strong players. The bigger countries such as the USA have more players, meaning a bigger group of strong players. People such as Claudio I think are great at this game. Claudio from what I saw was one of those players that thinks every single play though before he makes it. He thinks turns ahead and plans for the final outcome later in the game. This is something not many people do, even when they say they do. Roy on the other hand I find to be a very aggressive player. He will play for the current turn and hope it works out. Pressure is the key to his success.
As for OCG players, one thing that really stood out is that OCG players are super aggressive. Conservative play is almost non-existent. They will put their hand on the table, and then try and negate anything they can so their big pushes go through. It’s constant pressure and I guess it does exploit the conservative player because it changes the pace of the game so that they’re not used to it.
It’s quite hard to be specific to USA or Europe because the USA’s performance [with 4 competitors at Worlds per year] has never been so great, and this year Europe didn’t place a single competitor in the top 8. So overall I think it’s more about the players than the countries they’re from. It’s also about the good players making the correct metagame choice.
2. This is your second World Championship day two finish in a row. This year, you lost to a Gladiator Beast player (South Korea‘s Lee Hong Kyu) that you dominated in swiss. Can you tell us what happened in your match?
In our swiss match, he Solemned himself to death (used Solemn Judgment incorrectly) and both games were over quite fast. So I didn’t get to see anything in his deck (the competitors were not given deck lists of the top eight).
Our top eight match: He won the dice roll and opened with Laquari and passed. I had an amazing hand of Storm, Solemn, Bottomless Trap Hole, Test Tiger, Sangan, and Murmillo. I set Sangan and Bottomless, thinking I could set up a Storm/Gyzarus play next turn.
He draws and plays Cold Wave (a card I had not seen in swiss). He summons Secutor with Tiger and swings into Sangan with Laquari. I get Rescue Cat. He then swings with Secutor and tags for Bestiari on my inactive Bottomless and Laquari. He leaves the 2100 Laquari and tags his other three monsters out for Heraklinos.
I wonder if this guy is serious or not because he just saw I searched Cat (consolidating 3 monsters into Herak is a mistake with Wave active and Gehring having searched Cat [for Tiger + Samnite into Murmillo]). I run two Samnite, so if I don’t draw a Samnite I can Gyzarus his field (For those who don’t play GB: Gehring can Rescue Cat into double Samnite, special Tiger sending Samnite back for Bestiari, then tag Gyzarus to clear his opponent’s board). Unfortunately, I draw Samnite. Now my hand is garbage because I also have Murmillo. So I have to Murmillo the Heraklinos and pass (vs his Laquari). Next turn he has Rescue Cat, Mind Control, and Reborn. I get OTK’ed to Dark Strike Fighter. He would have won no matter what because he just drew insane.
Game 2 my hand is 2 Proving Ground, Equeste, Darius, Mind Control and Solemn. I get OTK’d a turn later. He has Reborn, Cat, Automomous Action Unit… So yeah, nothing I could do both games. I was pretty shattered. Missing out on a prize card two years in a row destroyed me (only the top 4 get the lucrative prize cards).
3. Benjamin Hong Hwee Tan ended up winning the entire event. He beat Roy St. Clair, my top pick on that side of the bracket. Nobody has really heard word from Roy about that quarterfinals match. Would you care to give details about what happened?
After I lost in the top8 I left the venue and went to sight see so I didn’t see what happened. Alexander Antonios (AUS National Champion) watched and told me that Roy fell into a lot of 2 for 1’s and basically got outplayed.
4. Speaking of Roy, he was banned previously for cheating. Despite his amazing ability, Roy is a frustrating case for fans because he is constantly plagued by accusations of improper play. Germany’s Vittorio Wiktor, as well, is assumed to be a dirty player. What are your impressions of the two?
Personally I really like Roy. He is one of the nicest guys I’ve met in Yu-Gi-Oh! He’s friendly, easy-going, and when I saw him play I saw nothing shady about him. I can’t say anything bad about him because I did not witness it. I don’t know if the rumors are true or not, but without me seeing anything I cannot pass judgment on him.
Vittorio on the other hand is an arrogant cheater. I couldn’t stand the guy. Everyone at Worlds was so awesome and got along except him. I saw him blatantly stacking his opponents in fun games. Rule sharking. Basically anything he could do to gain some sort of advantage. During the Worlds tournament he was taking advantage of the language barrier with the Japanese players and accused them of cheating him. Even Charles Easton’s mom said that she thought he was suspicious and that his shuffling method was not normal. He was the first person I had ever witnessed stacking since I started playing this game. Many of the competitors saw him doing it as well.
I really don’t know what else to say about this guy. All I know is that everything said on the internet about him cheating is true and I can’t believe he is not banned already.
There’s more Yu-Gi-Oh! Questions with Chris Gehring on the next page below!
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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