Tournament Report: 1st Place Harpie Lotus

Author: CreativiTimothy Youtube Link / Twitch Link

Introduction
I used this standard build of Harpie Lotus to get 1st place for the Subreddit tournament on 6/25/17. I chose this deck because Harpies Hunting Ground generally has good matchups all over the board, with Weevil and Handless being the only soft counters, which I didn’t expect to see in a tournament because I didn’t see much in the ranked ladder, and I psychologically expected people to choose more offensive decks for tournaments because of adrenaline rush. 2 Knight of the Red Lotus boosts the win rate of this deck from around 45% to 85% (based on Platinum rank duels) – one might say it’s a meta creep (similar to power creep). It also makes certain unfavorable matchups more neutral or ever favorable, especially against Handless despite only encountering 1 during the tournament. 2100 ATK and ability to serve as a GK chief to Order to Charge the few monsters in Handless is huge, going over anything but Swift Gaia. I got KoG easily with this deck with only about 10 duels.

Card Choice and Card Ratio
I chose a ratio of 9 non-tribute monsters, 2 Lotus, and 9 spell/traps, which worked out pretty well. There was an occasional brick, but I felt like if I added a 10th monster, I would lose my backrow protection. Back during WCQ, I used 12 non-tribute monsters instead of 9 because I did not have access to enough Dunames / higher beaters. Because of the theory that SR and UR are drawn more frequently due to the shuffling system, I figured 3 Blazing Inpachi will solve all the bricks in this deck, because you are more likely to draw it than Great Angus, anecdotally. Also, since 1850 ATK is the highest power creep, enemy Inpachi won’t be able to -1 me like it can to Dunames and Great Angus. If I did not have access to 3 Inpachi, I would probably put 1 Inpachi and 3 Great Angus to replace it, and probably take out a Mirror Wall. 2 Lotus was what I felt was ideal since having 3 might cause bricks and you won’t even be able to activate its effect with so few normal monsters. 1 was too rare and I didn’t draw it when I needed it. Heart of the Underdog helps reduce bricks and helps “search” for Lotus or a useful spell/trap. 3 Enemy Controller is a must in almost every deck due to flexibility, and Order to Charge is a must in a vanilla deck especially when Lotus can re-summon any monster you used or will use for OtC. 2 Mirror Wall were for extra protection so it allows me to tribute summon Lotus if need-be.

Matchups and Common Plays
The toughest matchup which I feared _would_ be Red-Eyes Zombies, summoning 2-3 Red-Eyes every turn and eating up all the OtC’s and Mirror Walls quickly. This was why I decided to side a 7 Tools of the Bandit to try to negate Red-Eyes Spirit. Heat Wave, which prevents them from summoning an effect monster for 1 turn, is also another decent choice but I had forgotten about it. I used 2 mirror walls in my main deck instead of Dimension Gate solely for this matchup alone which I didn’t face at all due to how expensive the deck is – however, it helped me against Handless and Last Gamble Darkflare if I save it in my hand. Out of around 11 Bo3s, I only lost one and that was due to a Venus player getting a god hand with Venus, Lotus, and multiple spells. So no bad matchups for the tournament itself.

Since everyone knows how Harpies work, I will discuss Lotus’s impact and common plays with it. When I had an Econ or OtC, I usually tribute summoned for swarm potential unless I knew I was going to have 3 normal monsters in the graveyard by next turn (which allowed me to special summon it), or if I had another normal monster in my hand and didn’t mind the slightly lower ATK then Lotus. Other times, when I had little resources, I stalled with normal monsters until I had 3 in the graveyard, and then special summoned it. Sometimes you can bring out 3 monsters in one turn by doing this and turn the game around. Another important play, is to Econ tribute take an opponent’s monster, and then use that to tribute summon Lotus. It’s the common Gravekeeper’s Chief play except with normal monsters, helping you getting rid of troublesome monsters from 3SD or Relinquished or just simply a -1 for your opponent without skipping your Battle Phase with Soul Exchange or playing around Mirror Wall.

Sidedeck
For sided cards, 2 Dimension Gate helped me a lot against 3-Star Demotion and Relinquished. Often replaced Heart of the Underdog because it was imperative I remove all slow cards like HotD against offensive decks. Twister would have destroyed Toons which there were none, but it helped me against the Relinquished match. It helps destroy a Relinquished equip spell or my own Dimension Gate, assisting Harpie Lady. Leotaur was there to deal with Flash Assailant mostly or Mako decks.

Possible Changes
The Soul Exchange variant with 3 Red Lotus idea by Dkayed, seems more powerful but prone to bricks. Because I do not have access to a 3rd Red Lotus, I do not know how good it would be, but if I did, it would look something like this: https://yugidecks.com/decks/soul-lotus-harpies

In comparison to this deck, it uses Soul Exchange for monster removal and getting out Red Lotus and an established field, at the cost of a Battle Phase skip and potential bricks. The current deck I use uses Mirror Wall for protecting monsters to tribute summon Red Lotus or for monster removal sometimes. I think both perform roughly the same and it’s more of a matter of preference.

Thoughts on Other Deck Choices
About other decks, I thought about using Toon Kingdom and Relinquished, but I figured that Twister and Dimension Gate which could be sided as hard counters them, making them not the best decks for tournaments in my opinion. I actually decided to side 1 Twister and 2 Dimension Gate because of that.