Random Stuff #38

So, I was unable to go to locals this weekend, not that I expected to be able to.  I wanted to test out my Scrap Worms a little more, but I guess that'll have to wait.

I've been thinking about what deck to play when Order of Chaos comes out in January.  It'd be nice to continue using my Scrap Worms, since it can use Number C39: Utopia Ray, but the deck would be weak against Inzektors.  Seeing as how Inzektors would probably be pretty popular, I'd probably have to use a different deck, like T.G. Zombies.  We'll see.

Either way, for the holidays, I got a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, among other things.  This includes eight packs of Duelist Pack: Crow, four packs of Generation Force, four packs of Photon Shockwave, and two Generation Force: Special Editions.  The best card I pulled out of all of these packs was an Ultra Rare Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon.  Oh wait, I spoke too soon.  The best thing I got was one of those free entry coupons for Side Events at a YCS.  Yeah, that bad.

However, I did get Starcraft II, which is pretty cool.  I haven't starting playing it yet, though, because I'm looking into another game at the moment.  That game is RuneScape.  Runescape is pretty fun when you start out, then it gets boring once you finish all of the free to play stuff, then becomes fun again once you're a member.  I'm planning on just playing for free until I get bored, since I'm not going to be committing as much time to it as I used to.

So yeah, I'm still looking for new deck ideas.  I'm satisfied with staying with either my Scrap Worms or T.G. Zombies until the end of the format, but if I can find something better, then I'd want to try it out.  I mean, if the format stays relatively the same after the ban list, then it won't take much adapting, and I'll be able to use the same deck from this format, whatever that may be.  If not, though, then we'll see what happens then.

Tournament Report 12/18/11

So, since I'm most likely going to be unable to go to locals next weekend, I decided to go today.  I was pretty disappointed with my T.G. Zombie deck, so I threw together my Scrap Worms to take to the tournament.

There were about 26 players with quite a few newbs.  Guess who I get to play first...

Round 1: vs Newbie Agent Fairies

He didn't even have Synchros...

Round 2: vs  Agent Fairies

-Duel 1: The initial Bottomless Trap Hole on his Venus forced him to fight an uphill battle.  After a couple turns, I ended up with a field of Steelswarm Roach and Scrap Dragon.  He couldn't get through the Roach , so I won.
-Duel 2: He started with a Set Herald of Orange Light.  I Set Worm Yagan, Scrapyard, and Bottomless Trap Hole.  He used Heavy Storm, then summoned Earth to search Venus.  He attacked, and I had to bounce the Earth with Yagan's effect.  I played the other Scrapyard I had to grab Scrap Beast and make Scrap Dragon.  It attacked over the Set Herald, and I Set a second Bottomless and a Dimensional Prison.  He destroyed my Scrap Dragon with Smashing Ground, and I got back Scrap Beast.  I used Bottomless Trap Hole on the Venus that he Normal Summoned, and he ended his turn.  I drew into Light-Imprisoning Mirror, and that let me lock down all of his effects while Scrap Beast continued to run over his wienies.  A Scrapstorm later let me turn Scrap Beast into a Scrap Dragon, and he couldn't get over it.

Round 3: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I pushed through his floaters with my Scraps and Worm Yagan.  He couldn't deal with the resulting Scrap Dragon, so I was able to win fairly easily.
-Duel 2: He made a Lonefire Blossom play after using Foolish Burial on Dandylion.  That let him make a Trishula; I had Effect Veiler, but he had Book of Moon.  I lost all of the Scraps from both my hand and Graveyard, so I couldn't recover.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Worm Xex play and a Set Debunk.  He just Set a Monster.  I summoned Scrap Chimera and used it to attack over the Sangan, which I banished with Debunk.  Xex attacked into Gorz, but I bounced Gorz with Yagan, then overlaid my Worms for Utopia.  He crashed a Reborn Tengu into my Scrap Chimera, but didn't have much follow-up.  I ran over the next two Tengus with Utopia.  He held out with that Gorz in hand, but I had like four cards on him, so I didn't mind waiting.  Eventually, he Set a Dandylion and a Call of the Haunted.  I ran over the Dandylion with a Scrap Dragon, then killed a Token with Utopia.  He tributed the Token for Cyber Dragon, then attacked my Scrap Dragon with it.  I declined to negate with Utopia, and he used Book of Moon and Call of the Haunted to revive his Banisher of the Radiance.  My Scrap Dragon got banished, but I simply destroyed both of his Monsters next turn with Utopia and another Scrap Beast.  Mirror Force killed my Utopia, and we both started Setting Monsters.  I kept running over his wienies with Cyber Dragon, but I didn't want to let him drop Gorz.  After a few turns, though, I had gathered the necessary cards to OTK him.  I summoned a Scrap Chimera to make Scrap Dragon and destroy his lone Trap, then I Flip Summoned a Scrap Beast to go with the Worm Yagan I Monster Reborned to make Avenging Knight Parshath.  That pierced his Plaguespreader Zombie, letting Scrap Dragon finish him off before he could drop Gorz.  Yet another duel won by Avenging Knight Parshath.

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbits

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I went first, but opened up with a hand full of Spells.  I used Scrapyard to get Scrap Beast, summoned it, and Set Scrapstorm and Mystical Space Typhoon.  He hit the former with his own MST, and I Chained it to grab my Scrap Chimera.  Then he used Gold Sarcophagus for Mind Control and summoned Sabersaurus.  He attacked directly and ended without a back row.  I summoned Scrap Dragon using Scrap Chimera and ran over his Sabersaurus.  He summoned Tour Guide to grab Sangan, then Set a Trap.  I used Scrap Dragon's effect, targeting my MST and his Sangan, then Chained the MST to destroy his Set Starlight Road.  He searched for a Rescue Rabbit, but it was too late.  I summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast, then Mind Controlled his Tour Guide to make Scrap Archfiend.  He was at 7100 LP, and I attacked with everything for 7200 damage.
-Duel 2: He opened with a Sabersaurus and two back rows.  I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, ran over the Sabersaurus, then Set three Traps.  He hit my Dimensional Prison with an MST in my End Phase, then dropped Electric Virus to steal my Cyber Dragon.  He attacked with it, then tributed it for Caius the Shadow Monarch.  Caius' effect targeted my Fiendish Chain, so I Chained it to negate.  I couldn't do anything but summon a Scrap Chimera and Set Scrapstorm.  He summoned another Sabersaurus and attacked, forcing me to use Scrapstorm; I sent Scrap Beast to the Graveyard and took a direct attack.  I was able to make Colossal Fighter using Cyber Dragon and Scrap Goblin on the following turn to run over the Sabersaurus, but he dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning to banish it.  I topped Scrap Chimera and used it to make Scrap Dragon.  I destroyed Fiendish Chain and the BLS with its effect, then ran over Caius.  He topped a second Electric Virus to get rid of my Scrap Dragon and my Set MST, leaving me at 200 LP.  I drew and Set Maxx "C".  He drew Rai-Oh and beat me down with it.  I drew a Worm Xex, meaning that I could've had a small chance to come back, but I decided to scoop so that he didn't see the Worms.
-Duel 3: I opened with all three Worm Xex and a Worm Yagan...  Opening with three Xex is okay, but opening the Yagan preventing me from making a second Worm Xex play after he used Solemn Warning to negate the Flip Summon of my Special Summoned Worm Yagan.  So, I died rather slowly to some beatdown from Rai-Oh and Sabersaurus for a while.  He eventually decided to Mind Control my Set Worm Yagan after I used the third Worm Xex to revive it and overlaid it with his Sabersaurus to make a Steelswarm Roach.  I was able to banish the Rai-Oh with Dimensional Prison, the first Trap I drew all game.  I drew Scrapyard, finally, but getting Scrap Beast in an attempt to make Scrap Dragon would be a waste against his Roach.  So, I grabbed Scrap Goblin and Set it.  He destroyed it by attacking with Roach, then another Rai-Oh.  From there, I decided to stall: I summoned Scrap Chimera to grab Scrap Goblin in Defense Position and ended.  He attacked both of my Monsters, dealing 200 damage, while I got back the Chimera using Goblin's effect.  I continued to stall like this for a while; even though I kind of expected to lose this duel, being able to make this kind of play with Chimera and Goblin made me feel glad that I was playing Scraps again.  Either way, he tributed his Rai-Oh for Caius after a while in an attempt to banish my Scrap Goblin, but I Veiled Caius' effect.  From there, I started to take 700 damage per turn with his Caius attacking over the Scrap Chimera.  When I was down to 300 LP, I drew Scrapstorm.  I made the Chimera/Goblin play and Set the Scrapstorm.  He attacked, but I destroyed my Chimera so that I wouldn't take the damage, also allowing me to set up my Scrap Beast for later.  Finally able to make an offensive play, I summoned Chimera and revived Beast.  Beast attacked his Set Sangan, and I used Debunk on its effect.  Chimera attacked over Roach with help from Forbidden Lance, and I decided to go into Utopia to protect myself and avoid Electric Virus.  It didn't matter what I made, though, since he dropped BLS to banish my Monster, then attacked directly with Caius for game.  I played the best I could with what I drew, but I guess it isn't enough sometimes.

Round 5: vs X-Sabers

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He started with a Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster and a couple back rows.  I made a Worm Xex play (if you haven't figured out by now, that means I Normal Summoned Worm Xex, sent Worm Yagan to the Graveyard, then revived Worm Yagan with its own effect) and attacked his Set Hamster, letting him grab X-Saber Airbellum.  I Set a couple of Traps and ended my turn.  He summoned XX-Saber Darksoul, and I decided to negate its summon with Solemn Warning.  He attacked my Set Worm Yagan, and I bounced the attacking Airbellum.  Then, he played Dark Hole and Set Trap Dustshoot.  I drew and lost Cyber Dragon with the rest of my hand being Scrapstorm, Effect Veiler, and Dark Hole.  I ended, and he summoned and attacked with Airbellum.  I flipped Dimensional Prison, but he negated it with Trap Stun.  I lost the Veiler from my hand and drew into Scrap Beast.  I destroyed Airbellum with Dark Hole and summoned and attacked with the Beast.  I Set Scrapstorm to finish out my turn.  He summoned and attacked with XX-Saber Emmersblade, and I used Scrapstorm.  I drew Forbidden Lance and grabbed Scrap Chimera from my Graveyard, then took the direct attack from Emmersblade.  I drew into Scrapyard, then made Scrap Dragon with Scrap Chimera.  Scrapyard got me Scrap Orthros which got my Chimera back to my hand.  I Set the Lance to destroy with Scrap Dragon's effect so that I could destroy Emmersblade.  I hesitated to attack against his lone back row, but decided to risk it.  He summoned XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and stalled behind that for a turn while I drew into Gorz.  He then flipped his Trap, Gottoms' Emergency Call, to revive Darksoul and Airbellum.  He tuned Fulhelmknight to Darksoul to make Brionac, then summoned a second Fulhelmknight.  He pitched his last card, X-Saber Pashuul, to bounce my Scrap Dragon.  He attacked with Airbellum, and I Chained Gorz.  I lost my other card, Scrap Chimera, but Gorz stopped him from killing me.  He declined to attack the Kaien Token with Brionac, and ended up forgetting his Darksoul search.  I attacked his Fulhelmknight with the Token to force its effect, then over the Brionac with Gorz.  I Set the Lance I drew and ended.  His draw was apparently of no help, as he decided to scoop.  Apparently, he had somewhere to go, since he just gave me the whole match.

So, I ended up going 4-1 and getting 3rd place.  Since today's tournament was a box tournament, X-1's got Hobby League cards.  I got a D.D. Warrior Lady, even though I'm never going to use it... And the Turbo Pack 6 wasn't completely horrible, since I pulled a Rare Stardust Dragon.

Even though I wasn't able to win, I was pretty happy that I was playing Scraps again.  I'm not sure if I will continue to play Scraps, since not drawing Tuners means I auto-lose and also that I have some trouble with bigger Monsters, but I feel like it's not as bad as auto-losing to not drawing Goblin Zombie in T.G. Zombies.  At least I can hold out with the Worms, and I'm not only gaining advantage through searches, which Rai-Oh messes with.  My deck also isn't as reliant on the Graveyard and doesn't die to Gozen Match, so that's good.  Oh, and I'm also now able to play Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Solemn Warning, so that's pretty cool.

I'm still thinking about Flamvells, since I have all of the cards to make the deck, but it seems worse than the Karakuri deck I made, so I'm not so sure.  If anyone has some interesting deck ideas, I'd be happy to hear them, especially if they use Phantom Skyblaster...

Regionals Report 12/17/11

So there was a Regional today, and I think I'll start this report from the beginning of the day.  And by the beginning of the day, I mean 12:00 AM.

Katana, sickpenguin, evilhamsdwch, and their friend, teamsuicide69, were over at my house to finish up their decks and borrow cards and such.  I lent out a bunch of cards, including Chaos Trap Holes, Bottomless Trap Holes, Compulsory Evacuation Devices, a Mystical Space Typhoon, a Rivalry of Warlords, a Gozen Match, and a Leviair the Sea Dragon.  They ended up running Six Samurai, Junk Doppel, Agent Fairies, and Hero Beat, respectively.  After they ended up leaving, which was at about 2:15 AM, I rushed to print out my T.G. Zombie deck list (I would've printed it earlier, but I thought that I might change something after some last minute testing with my friends; I didn't change anything, though...), and ended up falling asleep at about 3:00 AM.  Seeing as how I had to wake up at 7:30 AM, I only got four hours of sleep.  Yeah...

I left my house at about 8:30 AM, and we got to the Regional at about 9:10 AM.  We would've left later, but sickpenguin and I concocted a plan to tell everyone else that registration ends at 9:00 AM to ensure that we wouldn't be late.  That's because we often got to Regionals with very little time to spare when we went as a group in the past, and we didn't want to be late.  So, we got there with plenty of time to register and for them to fill out their deck lists.

The entrance packs weren't very good for most of us.  I pulled an Alexandrite Dragon, Wind-Up Knight, and two Laval Dual Slashers (from the same pack, actually).  teamsuicide69 ended up pulling Wind-Up Zenmaines, so he made his money back.

There ended up being 580-something players there today.  That means 10 rounds... Ironically, though, sickpenguin and evilhamsdwch were paired against each other for the first round.

Round 1: vs "Synchrocentric" - XOX
-He had answers to my few defenses in the first duel, but didn't draw any Monsters besides Reborn Tengu in the second.  I drew no Monsters besides Effect Veiler in the third duel and lost fairly quickly...

Round 2: vs "Synchrocentric" - OO
-I stole his Scrap Dragon with Creature Swap, then made Trishula in the first duel.  We just sat back behind stall cards in the second duel, but I was eventually able to clear out his field and go for game.

Round 3: vs ??? - OO
-I have no idea what he was playing.  I assume it was some sort of Stun, since the only Monsters I saw were Reborn Tengu, Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, Spirit Reaper, and Thunder King Rai-Oh.  Either way, I had no difficulty playing through his back rows, since he didn't play anything Continuous like Dimensional Fissure or Skill Drain.

Round 4: vs Hero Beat - XX
-He mained Skill Drain, and I didn't draw into Spell/Trap destruction either game.  I would've been able to survive if he didn't keep drawing Gemini Sparks and Geminis to go with them.

Round 5: vs Kuriboh Chaos - XOO
-I lost the first game to Gorz shortly after I dropped Trishula.  I won the second duel because I was able to apply constant pressure with a string of Synchros.  The third game was much quicker; Creature Swap his BLS for game.

By this point, everyone in our group was X-2 or had already dropped.  Katana and evilhamsdwch dropped after Round 2 to go to Disneyland while the rest of us continued playing.  teamsuicide69 had dropped after Round 4 with an X-2 record.  sickpenguin and I decided to drop after Round 5, as we both had X-2 records.  We were all pretty tired from the late night and decided to leave instead of entering any side events.

So, we were all pretty disappointed, having scrubbed out so quickly.  Oh well, it was decent practice, I suppose.  But, we all contemplated switching decks after this Regional.  I'm still having the same problem with my T.G. Zombies: not drawing Goblin Zombie.  Without Goblin Zombie, I can't gain a stream of advantage while making Synchro plays.  T.G.'s have to minus to Synchro, by themselves, which really hurts when I'm trying to push through a Rai-Oh and/or back rows.

The problem is that I wouldn't know what deck to switch to.  Nothing else I would consider using is really as good as T.G. Zombies... I have a bunch of choices, including Karakuri, X-Sabers, Dark Worlds, HEROes, and even Stun builds.  I just don't like any of them.  Perhaps I should consider Flamvells...

Tournament Report 12/11/11

As planned, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombie deck. Before the tournament started, though, I got to play a few games against vadangchoinga with my new fun deck. It uses Gem-Knights, a theme which I really like. Unfortunately, it's not a very good deck, as you will most likely see on my YouTube channel sometime this week.

There were about 30 players there, with plenty of regulars, but also plenty of newbs.

Round 1: vs Newbie Hero Beat

It was obvious that he was a newb, but he wasn't too bad. Either way, I just pushed through his Dimensional Fissures with Synchros that he didn't have answers to.

Round 2: vs Chaos

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. He was playing a Chaos deck similar to the one that won that recent YCS.

-Duel 1: I gained a lot of advantage on him with all of my searches and an early Trishula.

-Duel 2: He opened with Pot of Duality to fetch BLS. I kept his grave clear of Lights for a while, and he decided to push with a Chaos Sorcerer once a Rai-Oh hit his Graveyard. The Chaos Sorcerer's effect banished my T.G. Wonder Magician, and his Dimensional Alchemist attacked me directly. I used Dark Hole to clear out his Monsters, and he grabbed Gorz with Alchemist's effect. I made Brionac using Mystic Tomato and a T.G. Striker (Monster Reborn) and chucked my last card to bounce his Set card. He was at 2200 LP, and I knew that none of his cards were Battle Fader, so I attacked for game.

Round 3: vs Newbie X-Sabers

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. Trishula messed with him both games, banishing a bunch of his X-Sabers.

Round 4: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

He played situational cards like Forced Requisition, Goldd, and Sillva. Unfortunately for me, he drew the perfect ratio of Dark World Monsters to discard outlets, and I could only make passive plays while he went crazy every turn. I literally only got to play three turns out of the whole match, since I lost all of my cards to his effects and Deck Devastation Virus. This makes me consider siding more against Dark Worlds, but decks like this don't draw well all the time; it would be like siding for Exodia FTK. Sometimes, there's just nothing you can do. It happens...

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first with a Shi En backed by a bunch of back rows and a Grandmaster. I stalled for a bit behind Mystic Tomato, but I lost a lot of momentum to his Rivalry of Warlords. He swarmed with T.G. Hyper Librarian, Naturia Beast, Ally of Justice Catastor, and a Grandmaster equipped with Spirit of the Six Samurai, and I died.

-Duel 2: I should have lost this duel to a late game swarm of Shi En and Double-Edged Sword Technique, but he misplayed. He forgot that he couldn't Synchro while he had Rivalry up. He died to the burn from Double-Edged Sword Technique in his End Phase.

-Duel 3: He controlled me with two Solemn Warnings and other back rows long enough to amass pluses from his Gateway, and I couldn't recover.

So, I pretty much scrubbed out after losing to two luck-based decks. Oh well, it happens.

The main thing is that I got to test out siding Tragoedia. It didn't do much, honestly. I only drew it once all day and I banished it for Allure of Darkness. I feel as though it should be more helpful than Chaos Trap Hole, but that remains to be seen. I think I'll stick with it for the Regional next weekend, but I still want to change the Side Deck a little bit.

After the tournament, I played against some random regulars with my fun deck that uses Gem-Knights. It actually won a match against T.G. Plants, so that was surprising. Other than that, it just lost a bunch, which I was expecting. I can't wait for the new Duel Terminals so that I can get the new Gem-Knights to improve the deck.

Siding Tragoedia

So, I was talking with vadangchoinga a bit about the upcoming Regional, trying to figure out how to fix our decks, and I came up with the idea of siding Tragoedia in my T.G. Zombie deck.

Why not? It deals with the everpresent Thunder King Rai-Oh and provides additional defense, which my deck tends to lack. Tragoedia also provides an easy way of dealing with an early Evolzar Laggia or Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En. It can even steal opponents' Monsters and provide for easy Synchro/Xyz Summons.

I then had to decide on what to take out of my Side Deck for two Tragoedia. Chaos Trap Hole and Tragoedia were going to be sided in against the same match-ups, more or less, so I decided to swap those two. Tragoedia also does more against Dino-Rabbit and Six Samurai than Chaos Trap Hole.

But, Tragoedia is only good early game, and is a dead draw. Chaos Trap Hole can at least function to stop things like Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Tour Guide from the Underworld instead of just trying to react to them. While my hand is usually full to boost Tragoedia's attack, I wouldn't want to discard many of my Monsters to make use of its effect. I can also make much more explosive plays if I start my turn with an empty field, as opposed to one with Tragoedia left on it.

Chaos Trap Hole actually fulfills an important role in the Dark World match-up, acting as a Solemn Warning that also banishes. But it doesn't do all that much in most match-ups; I would normally only side it for Dark Worlds, Gladiator Beasts, Agent Fairies, and Lightsworn, and it's decent, but not that great.

Tragoedia does provide more aggressive plays for when I side out my Creature Swaps, letting me take my opponent's Monsters. I suppose that I could use it fairly decently late game as well, assuming I have another Monster. I think I'll try it out at tomorrow's tournament and see how it works, since I'm still not completely convinced that it will help.

"I'm finally free!"

So, I'm done with all my school work and I'm off for a month. Awesome.

What's even more awesome is that there's a Regional in my area next weekend (December 17), which I'm definitely going to.

I'm also planning on going to the 100th YCS in Long Beach next year, March 24-25. Just a random note...

Blog posts and video uploads should be much more frequent during these few weeks. While I'm not able to upload a duel video today, I should be able to upload practically daily (meaning any day I'm not at a tournament) starting tomorrow.

So yeah...

Hidden Arsenal 6...?

...?

Could this really be the product page for Hidden Arsenal 6...?

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No, it's not. It's my final project for my Writing class.

So, what do you think? How convincing was it?

Tournament Report 12/3/11

I went to locals today, as usual. Also as usual, I took my T.G. Zombies.

There were 30 players there, including plenty of regulars.

Round 1: vs T.G. Zombies

A mirror match, really...? Anyways, I was playing against a regular who I hadn't played against before.

-Duel 1: We both had lackluster hands from what I could tell, and I just made a Leviair with his Sangan and my Spirit Reaper, which was Veiled, to beat him down. He Creature Swapped to take it, and I Creature Swapped it back. I had answers to most of his plays and was able to win fairly easily.

-Duel 2: The duel ended with my Brionac clearing his field and going for game. I don't remember the beginning; it wasn't too eventful.

Round 2: vs Malefic Skill Drain

I was playing against vadangchoinga.

-Duel 1: He opened with a bunch of back rows and a Beast King Barbaros. Skill Drain stopped my effects, Safe Zone protected Barbaros, and Dark Bribe protected the back row. Nothing I could do.

-Duel 2: He didn't have as many back rows, and I was able to Creature Swap his Ancient Gear Gajiltron Dragon to beat him down.

-Duel 3: I tried to make a push with Brionac, but got shut down by Skill Drain. From there, I made a Colossal Fighter to stall. He couldn't get through it, so we just ended up Setting back rows for a while. I drew into Heavy Storm to destroy the Safe Zone protecting his Barbaros and a Skill Drain, and my Set Compulsory Evacuation Device bounced his Gajiltron Dragon. I was able to beat him down with Colossal Fighter and Splendid Rose with his field cleared.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened pretty badly, with two Kagemusha and no other Monsters, but I opened pretty badly, too. I couldn't get over the 1800 DEF of his Kagemusha and through his back row, so we were just sitting there until he made a Shi En backed by a full back row. My Gorz got Warned, and I scooped.

-Duel 2: I Dust Tornado'd and MST'd everything he Set and destroyed his Solidarities with Scrap Dragon. He couldn't do anything top-decking.

-Duel 3: He attacked with Mizuho, and I dropped Gorz. Kizan attacked over the Token, and he tributed the Kizan for Mizuho's effect. I had Effect Veiler, though, and he regretted not using Warning on the Gorz. I beat him up slowly with Gorz, but he played a second Solidarity, Kageki, and Grandmaster to run over my Monsters. I made double Synchro'd up to Black Rose Dragon using T.G. Striker, T.G. Warwolf, and Plaguespreader Zombie to destroy his field. He only had 400 LP left, so I revived Plaguespreader with its own effect to attack for game.

Round 4: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew a lackluster hand, and I was able to capitalize with Creature Swaps on the few good Monsters he did drop. Splendid Rose helped out, too.

-Duel 2: He opened with Reborn Tengu and a back row. Rai-Oh ran over the first Tengu, and I stole the second one with Mind Control to overlay for Number 39: Utopia. I attacked his Set Monster next turn, and he used Book of Moon on Utopia. He used his Set Spore and a summoned Zombie Master to make Magical Android. When he attacked, I used my own Book of Moon. But, when I Flip Summoned Utopia, I lost it to Solemn Warning. So, I Set T.G. Striker. He attacked it, and I got T.G. Warwolf. That let me make T.G. Wonder Magician with a second Striker on my turn, destroying his Set Soul Release (he forgot to play it last turn). Creature Swap switched our Synchros, and I attacked over my Wonder Magician with his Magical Android to draw a card. From there, I was able to beat him down with his Magical Android, and he didn't have any answers.

Round 5: vs Stun

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. This was the finals, but we decided not to split, since neither of us wanted anything specific, and the prizes were pretty good for both 1st and 2nd.

-Duel 1: I made an early push with Caius, but he got rid of it with D.D. Warrior Lady. Dark Hole cleared out his Monsters, and I made a push with Brionac to finish him off.

-Duel 2: I had pretty decent control over the duel, but he was able to chip away at my LP. He used Dark Hole to clear out my field, and I died to a Breaker.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Snowman Eater. He opened with King Tiger Wanghu and Dimensional Fissure. Snowman Eater's effect destroyed Wanghu, and I supposed Warwolf to overlay for Leviair and steal his banished Wanghu. I beat him down with those two Monsters for a bit, but his D.D. Warrior Lady banished my Leviair, and he made his own Leviair using Banisher of the Radiance and my Warwolf (Monster Reborn). I was forced to get rid of it with my Brionac's effect after failing to destroy it with Utopia, otherwise he would be able to use its effect to grab back his Wanghu, which I didn't have an answer to. That Brionac cleared his field on the following turn and allowed me to go for game.

So, I went undefeated and got 1st place. Using the store credit I got, I bought a Super Rare Royal Decree, two Photon Sabre Tigers, a Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, and some Duel Masters-sized sleeves for Aki.

So yeah, I'm not sure what else I can do with the deck. It seems to be pretty solid now that I added more Spell/Trap destruction to the Side Deck and started playing Heavy Storm again.

Tournament Report 11/26/11

As I said yesterday, I would be able to go to locals again today. Of course, I took my T.G. Zombies, since all of the other decks I have right now aren't really good enough for tournaments... Sad...

There were 38 players today, including plenty of regulars. There's really too many to list. There were also plenty of new people; one of my friends said that many of them went to Sunday tournaments, but they're new to me.

Round 1: vs Newbie X-Sabers

He ran Gardestrike, hence "Newbie X-Sabers." Trishula is really mean to newbs...

Round 2: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: I controlled with Traps and Gorz and such. He didn't really draw into many Shuras/Boras, and I Creature Swapped the one Shura he did draw, so it wasn't too difficult.

-Duel 2: I feared Heavy Storm and Icarus Attack and played conservatively with my back row. That doomed me when he just used a Mystical Space Typhoon to clear out my one card and OTK me.

-Duel 3: I drew out his Gorz fairly early, sent it back to his hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device, then summoned Trishula. I missed his Gorz (I had a 50% chance), but I was able to defend with Dimensional Prison and kill him with Splendid Rose.

Round 3: vs Vayusworn

I think that I had played against this guy before, but it would have been years ago.

-Duel 1: He milled a lot quickly with two Lylas, but I dropped Trishula to remove the Lumina in his Graveyard and the Wulf on his field to cut down on the Lightsworn count in his grave. I ended up dropping Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using his Ehren, Goblin Zombie, and Plaguespreader Zombie. That discarded his Judgment Dragon and went for game on the following turn.

-Duel 2: I made Decisive Armor very early in the duel, but his only Light was a Judgment Dragon, again. Either way, I was able to beat him up with the Decisive Armor and a Number 39: Utopia (I would've made Steelswarm Roach, but Decisive Armor showed me the Sirocco in his hand). Either way, there wasn't much he could do after that.

Round 4: vs Newbie Wind-Ups

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. Trishula was really mean to him both games. My Duel Terminal Trishula seems to be much more evil than the Secret Rare one, ha ha.

Round 5: vs Diva Zombies

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. I overheard his friends and brother tell him not to split, and I was perfectly fine with that (not because I expected to win, which I did, but because the prizes today were really good today because there were so many participants, even for second and third place).

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Goblin Zombie. He Set Goblin Zombie and a back row. I Tribute Summoned Caius, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format, ha ha. After a while, he swarmed with my Spirit Reaper (Monster Reborn), a Goblin Zombie, and Dark Armed Dragon. I had enough outs in my hand to not care what he hit with Reaper. He missed my Dark Hole, so I played it. After that, I beat him down with Mystic Tomato for a few turns, and he didn't have any answers.

-Duel 2: I played conservatively with my back row again, fearing Heavy Storm, and lost out to Mystical Space Typhoon and a random swarm. I was already down too many cards since he Trishula'd me using Deep Sea Diva and Mystic Tomato.

-Duel 3: We started off just Setting Monsters, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format. I drew into my Caius, banishing his Set Goblin Zombie and running over the other one. He stalled for a bit behind a Spirit Reaper, and I just sat there gathering resources. I eventually made a Brionac/Mezuki play to bounce his field and swarm for game. He said that if I didn't kill him that turn, he would've killed me on his turn, but I had a Maxx "C" in hand and a decent back row, so I was pretty safe, even if he did have Gorz.

So yeah, I went undefeated and got 1st place and a mess load of store credit. I got a couple of packs of sleeves, some more Bottomless Trap Holes, and a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon tin. From the packs in the tin, I pulled a Forbidden Lance and an Ultra Rare Gladiator Beast Essedarii. I traded both to the friend that I played against after this tournament, and we had a few duels afterwards.

He rebuilt his Gladiator Beast deck, and I used my not-so-great Karakuri deck to test it out. We played five duels, and I won four of them. Two were due to me sniping his Solemn Judgment/Starlight Road with MST, then playing Heavy Storm on his remaining three/four back rows. Good stuff.

Because I got that Galaxy-Eyes tin, I once again have two Solemn Warnings, and now I have three Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. I don't think I'll be using them in my T.G. Zombie deck, but we'll see.

Tournament Report 11/25/11

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to locals today, in addition to being able to go tomorrow, as usual. Yay Thanksgiving, I suppose.

So, I was thinking about using Karakuri, since the deck seems good. So, I made a Karakuri deck and tested a little bit with it. It sucks. I don't know how Karakuri decks do so well at big events; they're so combo oriented and there are some situations where you just can't do anything at all for turns at a time just because you drew an awkward hand. So, I just fixed up my T.G. Zombies Side Deck and took that deck to locals... We'll probably be seeing the Karakuri deck in some duel videos, eventually, though.

There were 23 players there today with only four or five regulars. On the upside, there were only a few little kids. But, who do I have to play against first...?

Round 1: vs Newbie Evil HEROes

So maybe he wasn't a little kid, but he was a newb. I OTK'd him with his own Evil HERO Dark Gaia in the first duel and ran him through with Trishula on the second duel.

Round 2: vs Dino-Rabbit

Normally, I would call it Rabbit Laggia, but it's also based around Dolkka in the TCG. By the way, this was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with no Monsters and played defensively. I wasn't really able to make a push, so I just waited until he made a random push with Brionac (he stole my X-Saber Pashuul with Mind Control). I responded with Gorz, and he had to waste his Smashing Ground. I had the T.G. Striker and Warwolf to make Ally of Justice Catastor and kill the Brionac. I held out behind that Catastor for a while, but he had his own Gorz, which destroyed my Catastor. Trishula got rid of his Gorz and I ran him through with that.

-Duel 2: He opened with Rescue Rabbit to Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia and Set a couple cards. I attempted to Special Summon Striker, but he used Solemn Warning. So, I just Set Warwolf and Dust Tornado. He summoned and attacked with Sangan to destroy Warwolf and with Laggia directly. I Chained Dust Tornado, hitting his Torrential Tribute, so that I could drop Gorz. I searched another Striker with Warwolf's effect in the End Phase and ran over Laggia with Gorz, leaving my Token in Defense Position and Setting Call of the Haunted. He summoned Tour Guide to grab a second one and make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. He detached a Tour Guide to boost Leviathan Dragon's ATK, then dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. He attacked Gorz with BLS, then my Token with Leviathan Dragon. He tried to attack with BLS again, but I pointed out that it couldn't use its second attack since he already attacked with his Leviathan Dragon. I took 1000 damage from Sangan, though. I Special Summoned my Striker, Normal Summoned Goblin Zombie, and Special Summoned Warwolf with Call of the Haunted to make Trishula. That banished his BLS and a Kabazauls from his Graveyard, but he didn't have any cards in hand to banish. I tried to run over Leviathan Dragon, but he flipped Magic Cylinder. He used Leviathan Dragon's effect to boost it to 3000 ATK and run over Trishula. I made a Brionac with my third Striker and the Goblin Zombie I searched after Synchro Summoning Trishula. That let me search Mezuki, which I pitched to bounce the Leviathan Dragon. From there, it was draw-pass-draw-pass, since I didn't want to kill the Sangan and let him grab another Rescue Rabbit. We weren't really building up resources, however, since I kept drawing into Mystical Space Typhoons and Dust Tornadoes to destroy the back rows he kept drawing. After a while, I drew a Caius and tributed Brionac to summon it and banish Sangan. He dropped Gorz off of the 1000 damage, burning me for 1000. I sent a card from my hand (Snowman Eater) to the top of my deck for Plaguespreader Zombie so that I could make a Scrap Dragon and run over the Gorz. From there, I continued to destroy what few cards he had left, and I rode that Scrap Dragon to victory.

Playing against Dino-Rabbits isn't as bad as I thought, I suppose. It would still horrible to lose to them, though, since it's a luck deck like Six Samurai or Lightsworn...

Round 3: vs Macro Cosmos Stun

-Duel 1: He drew the perfect hand to counter my hand. He almost OTK'd me, but I blocked with Gorz. I kept the 2700 Token (he Trishula'd me...) in Defense Position to block, but he topped Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind to kill me.

-Duel 2: I drew four of my five Spell/Trap destruction cards over the course of the duel to keep his Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos off of the field. He couldn't do much without them.

-Duel 3: He made a passive play with Reborn Tengu and one back row. I summoned Zombie Master to run it over and Set a back row. He drew into Dimensional Fissure and played it. I ran over the second Tengu, and the third was in his hand. He drew a D.D. Survivor to crash with my Zombie Master, though. I held the Survivor off for a bit with Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. He drew into a Dimensional Prison to get rid of my Gaia Knight, but I drew into a Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Dimensional Fissure. From there, he Set a bunch of Monsters, and I wanted to used Torrential Tribute, but I was worried he had Starlight Road. Under the assumption that he had Starlight Road, I just pushed through the two Monsters, making a Leviair with my Spirit Reaper and T.G. Warwolf to grab his banished D.D. Warrior Lady. Leviair got removed by a Dimensional Prison, but the Warrior Lady ran over a Set Gale. I ran over his other Set Monster next turn, and it turned out to be Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, which destroyed the Warrior Lady. With my field cleared, I was ready to make Trishula with the usual Striker, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie, but he used Debunk on Warwolf. So, I settled for making Brionac and pushing for a little damage with that. He was able to kill the Brionac with Dark Hole, however, and I just Set a couple of Snowman Eaters over the next few turns, while he apparently didn't draw playable Monsters (that's what happens when you play Guardian Eatos). He eventually summoned Deep Sea Diva to make Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I Flip Summoned both Snowman Eaters to get rid of Gantetsu's Xyz Materials, then summoned Striker to make Scrap Dragon and push for game.

Round 4: vs Gadget Stun

-Duel 1: He drew all of his Smashing Grounds/Fissures to keep killing my Monsters, but I was able to defend myself well enough with Traps so that I didn't die to a Gadget swarm. That gave me the time to outsearch him with my T.G.'s and Goblin Zombies and such. I was able to make a Scrap Dragon and push for game with that.

-Duel 2: I only drew a couple of Traps over the course of the duel, and he beat me down with his Gadgets, Doomcaliber Knights, and seemingly endless Smashing Grounds/Fissures.

-Duel 3: I drew even less Traps than last time (one) and the outcome was the same as the second duel. He just kept drawing Smashing Grounds and Fissures...

Round 5: vs Agent Fairies

I was paired down, so that was kind of disappointing. However, I was paired up against someone really nice, and we had a fun duel (not a "Happy Duel"--there was no crazy Johan OTK... um, actually, now that I think about it...).

-Duel 1: Apparently, he drew two Mystical Shine Balls and no Agents, so I beat him down with Zombies. He dropped BLS, but Torrential Tribute dealt with that, and he had no follow-up.

-Duel 2: Apparently, he drew all three Mystical Shine Balls, but he broke up my hand with Trap Dustshoot (not really, it was Monster Reborn, Mind Control, Dimensional Prison, Mystical Space Typhoon, Warwolf, and Striker, and he sent back the latter). Warwolf ran over a couple of Shine Balls, but he drew into a Rai-Oh, summoned it, but declined to attack. I summoned Goblin Zombie and used Mind Control. He dropped Maxx "C", so I attacked before overlaying for Steelswarm Roach. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, which I negated with Roach, and then summoned Earth, whose effect I Veiled. He dropped BLS, and I had to use Roach's effect again. Finally, he banished the Earth on the field to drop Hyperion and banished one of the three Shine Balls from his Graveyard to destroy my only back row (Dimensional Prison). He attacked over Roach and ended with one card in hand and just Hyperion on the field. I considered my options and decided to drop my hand onto the field. I used Monster Reborn on Goblin Zombie, and he Chained Maxx "C". Ha ha, I was actually happy that he did that. In response to Goblin Zombie's Special Summon, I dropped another Warwolf. I overlaid the two Warwolves for Leviair and used its effect to Special Summon his banished Earth. I Normal Summoned Zombie Master and Synchro Summoned Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using it, Goblin Zombie, and Earth. I searched Mezuki with Goblin Zombie and Set my MST. Because of Maxx "C", he had drawn five cards--five cards that I could see with Decisive Armor's third effect. It turns out that he had drawn into Hyperion, Venus, and Kristya with only 4500 LP left. Yay, Decisive Armor!

So I ended up going 4-1, but because of lackluster tiebreakers, I was the lowest 4-1 (4th place). Today's prizes were only for the Top 3, so that was really disappointing... The Turbo Pack wasn't even good (another Zombie Master...).

Oh well. I guess I'll just try again tomorrow.

"Good Stuff" Tournament Report 11/19/11

So, I went to a "Good Stuff" Tournament at a card shop I have never been to before. By "Good Stuff" tournament, I mean that the prizes were "Good Stuff," like Tour Guide from the Underworld, Wind-Up Zenmaines, a 1st Edition Pot of Duality, Dark Smog, and a Duel Terminal Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Good stuff, yo.

This card shop is known to have regulars who have all of the expensive top tier decks, so I chose to go with my T.G. Zombies. I really liked the idea of using Scrap Worms, since Worm Yagan deals with Evolzar Laggia like it dealt with Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En in previous formats. But, Laggia can negate Worm Xex's summon, and Scraps need their Normal Summon too much. T.G. Zombies would be able to make explosive plays using only Special Summons, and they can more easily dodge Dark Smog.

There were 15 players, with the decks including at least one Tour Guide Tengu Plants, one Infernity, one Machina Gadgets, one Gladiator Beasts, one Rabbit Laggia, two Dark Worlds, one Lightsworn, and one Tour Guide Agents. The format of this tournament was four rounds of Swiss and a cut to Top 4.

Round 1: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants

-Duel 1: He wasted a Solemn Judgment, so I just beat him down in a few turns with T.G. Rush Rhino and such.

-Duel 2: He combo'd off after Heavy Storming my back row, beating me down with Reborn Tengu and Caius.

-Duel 3: This duel went into time, with me getting the last turn. I was down over 4000 LP, but I made a desperate push with Brionac and Utopia on my last turn to reverse the LP count and win.

Round 2: vs Machina Gadgets

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I OTK'd him with Gorz, Brionac, and his Utopia, courtesy of Creature Swap.

-Duel 2: I got OTK'd by Limiter Removal.

-Duel 3: I summoned Rai-Oh and Set a bluff Creature Swap. He used Heavy Storm and ended his turn. I summoned T.G. Warwolf and attacked, but declined to attack with Rai-Oh to prevent Gorz from coming out. I Set my real back row (Dimensional Prison and Bottomless Trap Hole) and ended. He Set one and ended. I attacked with Warwolf, but not with Rai-Oh, fearing Dimensional Prison. That's what happened over a series of turns, until he decided to summon a Gadget, then flip Torrential Tribute on his own summon. From there, I had so much advantage, and he was so low on LP that I was able to push through his Gorz and kill him.

Round 3: vs Gladiator Beasts

This was my Top 8 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I drew an all-Monster hand, and it's hard to beat Gladiator Beasts with all Monsters.

-Duel 2: I drew a Trap for each of his Gladiator Beasts and beat him down fairly easily.

-Duel 3: He invested all of his resources into a Heraklinos and Set the last card in his hand to his back row. I topped Dark Hole with Caius in hand and made the obvious play (playing Dark Hole...). He drew and Set a back row. I drew Book of Moon and Set it. He drew and Set a back row. I drew and Set Effect Veiler. He drew and Set a back row. I drew Torrential Tribute and Tribute Summoned Caius. He Chained Mystical Space Typhoon and Bottomless Trap Hole to the summon. I flipped the Book of Moon he targeted with MST to save Caius from the Bottomless Trap Hole, and Caius' effect removed one of his other back rows. He drew and summoned Rai-Oh, and I had to use Torrential Tribute. I drew Mezuki and attempted to summon it. He had Solemn Judgment face-down with 1800 LP, but if he negated the summon, I would use Mezuki's effect to revive a Zombie and attack for game, so he declined to use the Solemn. I attacked, he drew and Set a back row, and I attacked once more for game.

Being 3-0 going into the last Swiss round, I was guaranteed a spot in the Top 4, so that was cool.

Round 4: vs Infernities

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. Revenge time.

-Duel 1: He started with a slow hand, pushing for a little damage with Stygian Street Patrol. I Normal Summoned Sangan and he flipped Solemn Judgment. Okay...? I Set a bluff Creature Swap because I knew a little about his play-style and that he wouldn't combo off if he didn't know that it was safe. He could've OTK'd me that turn, but he decided to just make a Catastor with Infernity Avenger and the Stygian Street Patrol and Set a back row. I made Brionac with T.G. Striker and Goblin Zombie, grabbing a Mezuki and pitching it to bounce his back row. I used Mezuki's effect to revive Goblin Zombie, Creature Swapped it to him, then bounced it back to my hand with Brionac's effect. That left his field open, letting me attack with Catastor and Brionac for game.

-Duel 2: I controlled him with Rai-Oh, Chaos Trap Hole, Compulsory Evacuation Device, and Maxx "C" so that he couldn't complete his combo. He was left with a Utopia and two Infernity Necromancers. I drew a Monster to pitch with Zombie Master, stealing his Plaguespreader Zombie. Then, I Mind Controlled one of the Necromancers and Synchro Summoned Trishula to banish the other Necromancer. Compulsory Evacuation Device bounced the Utopia, and I attacked for game.

So I went undefeated in Swiss, meaning that I would play against the 4th place players in the Top 4.

Top 4: vs Dark World

-Duel 1: He went first and summoned Tour Guide, which I Veiled. He then Set two Mind Crushes and played Dragged Down into the Grave. I lost my Bottomless Trap Hole, and chose to discard his Beiige (better than throwing his Snoww...). I lost Mystic Tomato to the first Mind Crush and summoned Armageddon Knight to pitch my Plaguespreader Zombie and run over the Tour Guide. He played Gates after grabbing it with Pot of Duality, removing the Tour Guide to discard Grapha and destroy my Set Torrential Tribute. Beiige ran over my Armageddon Knight, and he ended. I drew, and he flipped the second Mind Crush on my Caius. I Set the MST I drew and a T.G. Warwolf. It got killed by Grapha's attack, and I continued to search T.G.'s to stall. I was able to Creature Swap his Grapha after a bit and beat him down with it. He destroyed it with another Grapha's effect, though, and revived a Grapha on his next turn to kill another Set Warwolf. I searched T.G. Striker and drew Goblin Zombie. With those as the only two cards in my hand, I made the usual Brionac/Mezuki play to bounce Grapha and go for game. It's pretty hard to lose when you open Dragged Down and double Mind Crush, but apparently, it's possible.

-Duel 2: He didn't open nearly as well as last game, but I didn't have an answer to his Grapha this time after I lost a Chaos Trap Hole. I was able to Creature Swap one of them, but it died to another Grapha.

-Duel 3: I went first, but opened with a subpar hand of Spells and Traps, so I passed without making a play. He Set a back row and passed, not wanting me to drop a Gorz. I drew another Trap and Set a Bottomless Trap Hole. He used Fabled Raven to discard Snoww and grab The Gates of Dark World to discard Grapha and destroy my Set Bottomless. I drew and summoned Mystic Tomato and Creature Swapped it with the Raven, attacking over my Tomato and grabbing T.G. Warwolf. That let me make T.G. Wonder Magician to destroy Gates. With that, I Set three Traps, now that they were live (Crevice Into the Different Dimension, Call of the Haunted, and Torrential Tribute) and ended. He summoned Beiige, and I used Crevice to banish his Grapha and Snoww. I attacked over the Beiige, and he used his Set Reckless Greed, then Gates to discard Grapha and destroy my Torrential Tribute. He then revived Grapha and attacked over my Wonder Magician, letting me draw a card. I revived the Wonder Magician with Call of the Haunted on my turn and summoned Sangan to make Scrap Dragon. I searched T.G. Striker and used Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy Gates, letting me attack over the Grapha. He proceeded to stall with the Grapha, as he couldn't get over my Scrap Dragon. After a while though, I was able to destroy his field and go for game.

So it turns out that my Round 3 opponent was my opponent in the finals. We decided to split the top two prizes (Tour Guide and the DT Trishula), him getting the Tour Guide and paying me the difference. My Top 4 opponent and Round 4 opponent played for 3rd/4rd; the Dark World player got 3rd and the Wind-Up Zenmaines, while the Infernity player got 4th and a 1st Edition Pot of Duality.

So yeah, I ended up going undefeated, walking away with a Duel Terminal Trishula and a bunch of other cards that I got from my Round 3 opponent, in accordance to the split we agreed upon. We didn't end up playing the second time; I was pretty tired and didn't really care, since I had already beaten him earlier.

I'm planning on trading the DT Trishula, but I don't even know what cards I would need. Maybe I can get a set of Infernity Barriers or something cool like that...? I really don't need anything at the moment...

Tournament Report 11/12/11

It's quite sad that I've only been able to make blog posts for tournament reports recently. I just haven't had many ideas of what to write about, and school work has been taking up most of my time.

Either way, I was able to go to locals today with a new version of my T.G. Zombies. I dropped the Reborn Tengus for Mystic Tomatoes and some tech choices.

There were about 20 people there, with only a few little kids.

Round 1: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. Splendid Rose helped me OTK her in the first duel, so that was cool.

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I had to pull through a horrible hand after he used Irou to kill my Mystic Tomato. I was able to deal well enough with his swarm at first, but he used Monster Reborn on Shi En, and I couldn't deal with it the second time.

-Duel 2: He used Rivalry of Warlords against my Gorz so that I wouldn't be left with the Kaien Token, but I tributed Gorz for Caius to remove his Utopia and attack over Grandmaster. Later, he had cleared my Monsters out, and pushed for a little damage with a Kizan. I took it with Mind Control to go with my X-Saber Pashuul and Synchro Summon Gaia Knight. Quite convenient, I'd say. Rivalry doesn't hurt me as badly as I thought.

-Duel 3: He swarmed me with Shi En, Enishi, and Grandmaster, and I didn't have any outs, despite drawing a bunch of cards with Maxx "C". Quite sad.

Round 3: vs Newbie Blackwings

Trishula banished all of his cards in the first duel, and I OTK'd with Splendid Rose in the second. Splendid Rose put in a lot of work, even on the first day that I put it into the deck. It's pretty good.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: Spirit Reaper swung for some early advantage, but I took a lot of damage from the resulting swarm before I dropped Trishula to take control of the duel.

-Duel 2: He made a Naturia Barkion, which I was able to kill with Dark Hole. Then, he Synchro Summoned Shi En, but he couldn't get through my Spirit Reaper. I forced Shi En's negation with Mind Control, then played Creature Swap. He scooped.

Round 5: vs Hero Beat

-Duel 1: He used Torrential Tribute against my field of four Monsters; two of them were Gorz and its Token, and the other two were Sangan and Goblin Zombie. That let me make a Trishula play on the following turn, and he couldn't recover.

-Duel 2: He had control of the duel with his big beaters, whereas I had three Goblin Zombies. I Set one against his D.D. Warrior Lady, just wanting to get rid of the Warrior Lady so that I could Set something I really needed in the Graveyard. But, he summoned Doomcaliber Knight and tried to remove my Goblin Zombie with D.D. Warrior Lady's effect. I reminded him that Doomcaliber Knight's effect negates D.D. Warrior Lady's effect, and that completely cost him the duel. From there, I was able to build up advantage and finish him off with Trishula.

So yeah, I ended up going 4-1 and getting 3rd place. With the store credit that I won, I got a couple of Bottomless Trap Holes so that I don't have to keep switching the only pair of English Bottomless Trap Holes that I have between my decks. Now I can have a full Scrap deck and a full T.G. Zombie deck at the same time. Cool stuff.

There's not much else to talk about. Perhaps I should start siding more heavily for Six Samurai, since there are so many regular Six Samurai players at my locals. We'll see.

Tournament Report 11/4/11

I decided to go to the Friday tournament this weekend, since there would be no tournaments due to the Sneak Preview today and tomorrow. By the way, I didn't go to the Photon Shockwave Sneak Preview because the only cards I needed from the pack that I could plausibly get are the Wind-Ups (minus the rarity-jacked Zenmaines...).

I had no time at all to change my deck since last weekend, so I went with the lackluster Scrap variant (I really want to be able to use the Worm engine...). I went with sickpenguin and his friend evilhamsdwch. They were playing Junk Doppel and Agent Fairies, respectively.

Round 1: vs Newbie Six Samurai

I could tell that he was a newb because he searched for Hand of the Six Samurai instead of Kagemusha when he had Kageki in hand...

Round 2: Blackwings

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I opened with a pretty awkward hand and just stalled out with Gravekeeper's Spy (Worm Xex would've been able to do lots of damage here...). He made a Stardust Dragon and Set his hand to his back row, and I worked to bait out all of his Traps before I made a Scrap Chimera play. Once he ran out of back rows, he couldn't do anything about my Scrap Dragon.

-Duel 2: He made Brionac with Blizzard to bounce my Scrap Dragon. I had to wait a few turns before making my own Brionac with Cyber Dragon and Effect Veiler to bounce his Brionac, but I lost my Brionac to a Dimensional Prison. From there, we were both top-decking, but he drew a Monster to kill me with.

-Duel 3: We both opened with pretty Trap-heavy hands. I destroyed his whole back row in a turn with Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado before I summoned Scrap Chimera to make a Scrap Dragon. It got hit by Compulsory Evacuation Device, but I was able to make another one to keep control of the duel with.

Round 3: vs Junk Doppel

I was paired up against sickpenguin. How sad.

-Duel 1: I opened pretty crazily with two Scrap Chimeras, Scrapyard, Scrapstorm, and two Traps. I made the obvious Scrap Beast/Scrapstorm play to grab Scrap Orthros. He didn't draw any Effect Veilers to deal with my Scrap Chimeras, so I won fairly easily.

-Duel 2: He opened with Trap Dustshoot, seeing my hand of Effect Veiler, Gravekeeper's Spy, Chaos Trap Hole, Dimensional Prison, Mind Control, and Reborn Tengu, the latter of which he sent back. That left me to Set Gravekeeper's Spy and Chaos Trap Hole. He searched Ryko with Charge of the Light Brigade, but he didn't want to Set it because I had Mind Control. I lost my Spies to a Torrential Tribute when I flipped the Set one, and I Chaos Trap Holed his Caius, so we just sat there for a while. I drew into a Tengu and beat him down a little bit with it. He made Catastor with Junk Synchron to kill my Tengus. I had Cyber Dragon in hand, so I was okay with that. However, I had to consider whether or not to fuse it with Catastor or steal it with Mind Control and overlay. I wanted to keep Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in my Extra Deck, considering I had Monster Reborn in my hand, so I overlaid for Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon. Adreus died to Ryko, so that was sad, but that was okay; I finally was able to summon a Rank 5 Xyz Monster. And, it worked out pretty well when he summoned Card Trooper on his next turn and I topped a second Cyber Dragon. After so long, I was finally able to draw a Scrap Beast and make Scrap Twin Dragon using it and the Monster Reborn. He couldn't deal with it (I had two Effect Veilers, ha ha), so I won.

Round 4: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Recharge and Charge, but he milled Lumina with Charge, so he had to settle on getting Lyla. Without that momentum, and seeing as how he milled all of his Judgment Dragons, I was able to take control of the duel with Scrap Dragon fairly easily.

-Duel 2: He gained a bunch of pluses off of Wulf, Celestia, then Judgment Dragon, and I couldn't do anything about that.

-Duel 3: I was doing fairly well with an early Scrap Dragon, be he milled four Lightsworn names within a couple turns, then dropped two Judgment Dragons on me. I killed the first, but couldn't do much about the second. I stalled out for a while, then made Black Rose Dragon using Reborn Tengu and Scrap Goblin to destroy the Judgment Dragon and push for a little damage. Unfortunately, he drew Lumina and chucked a Necro Gardna to revive Lyla and break my Set Forbidden Lance. With Glow-Up Bulb, he made Catastor and destroyed my last Tengu. I topped Cyber Dragon to fuse with Catastor and force out one of the two Necro Gardnas. He was able to rid of it, though, and I topped Dark Hole to clear the field. He topped Monster Reincarnation, so he was able to kill me with Judgment Dragon the following turn.

Round 5: vs Scraps

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. We agreed to a split, and I had much higher tiebreakers than him, so he would give me the win regardless of the outcome of the match.

-Duel 1: He opened crazily with Reborn Tengu, Scrap Beast, Scrap Chimera, Mind Control, and Monster Reborn, so he killed me by the fifth turn of the duel.

-Duel 2: I was able to control the duel with Utopia, then Scrap Dragon.

-Duel 3: I opened pretty badly, and he drew Scrap Chimeras so I lost. I really hate how the Scrap mirror match can often come down to who draws more Scrap Chimeras...

And that's part of why I'm considering switching up decks for next weekend. Either way, I went 3-2, but technically got 2nd place with a 4-1 record. With my half of the store credit that I got, I was able to buy a Number 10: Illumiknight tin at a good price. I pulled Gladiator Taming and Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi from the packs, so that was pretty good.

sickpenguin ended up going 4-1, getting 5th place; evilhamsdwch had a lackluster record (*cough* 1-3 plus a bye *cough*).

So yeah, I'm not sure if I want to run the same Scrap deck next weekend. I might want to switch to a Worm variant (as least I can do something if I clump-draw Worms, Tengus are useless), or I might want to switch to a different version of my T.G. Zombies that doesn't lose as hard to Rai-Oh. We'll see...

Tournament Report 10/29/11

So, I decided to go to locals with a Scrap deck this weekend. Since Worms aren't too good this format with all of the Rai-Ohs everywhere, I decided to use Gravekeeper's Spies instead.

There were about 20 players there today. Most of them were newbs...

Round 1: vs Newbie Synchro

It was basically just a deck based around Junk Synchron that wasn't Junk Doppel...

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

-Duel 1: I drew double Tengu, but that let me make a Steelswarm Roach. He couldn't get over it, so I won.

-Duel 2: I made an early push with a couple of Spies and a Scrap Beast, letting me keep control of the game with Scrap Dragon.

Round 3: vs Zombie Plants

-Duel 1: He dropped Dark Armed Dragon and Stardust on me early in the game, and I was able to kill both by sacrificing my Scrap Dragon. From there, I was able to keep him off of the field until he milled a Dandylion off of Ryko and proceeded to draw Debris Dragon... Needless to say, I lost to Trishula.

-Duel 2: I just rushed him with Scrap Dragon, since he had a lackluster hand.

-Duel 3: I tried to rush him again, but his D.D. Crow and Effect Veiler stopped my play. Then, he banished those two cards to drop Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and destroy me with it. This was the first time I have legitimately lost to BLS; it's broken.

Round 4: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He was one of the three undefeated players, so I offered to give him the win. We still played it out for fun.

-Duel 1: I played conservatively, using Effect Veiler on his first turn Leviathan Dragon so that it couldn't run over my Set Gravekeeper's Spy. I used that Spy to make Utopia, which died to Mirror Force. From there, I made a Scrap Dragon to run him through, and he couldn't do anything about it.

-Duel 2: I opened with Scrap Beast and two Scrapstorms. I used them to get a Scrap Chimera before he Synchro Summoned Shi En, and the resulting Scrap Dragon ran over that Shi En. He couldn't deal with it, so I rode Scrap Dragon to victory.

Round 5: vs T.G. Agent Fairies

-Duel 1: I drew three Reborn Tengus, but he made a Gachi Gachi Gantetsu with Striker and Earth, so he didn't have anything to attack with. As such, I built up my field with the Tengus and Gravekeeper's Spy. Once I had enough Level 4's on the field, I made Scrap Dragon and Steelswarm Roach to lock him out of the game.

-Duel 2: I only drew two Effect Veilers as my Monsters, and he drew three Earths, so I couldn't stop Venus from coming out.

-Duel 3: He stole my Scrap Dragon using Tragoedia's effect, but I locked it down in a few turns with Fiendish Chain. Dark Hole cleared off the field a few turns after that, and we were both top-decking. I topped Scrap Chimera after he topped Torrential Tribute, so I couldn't make my Scrap Dragon. Then, he topped Hyperion and attacked with it. I topped Scrapyard with Cyber Dragon in hand, letting me make Scrap Twin Dragon to run over Hyperion. He couldn't get over Scrap Twin, so I won on the following turn.

So, technically I went 3-2, but I actually went 4-1. So yeah.

My Round 4 opponent gave me a pack of sleeves and a Common Grinder Golem from Legendary Collection 2 since I gave him the win so that he could get to the finals. That was cool.

Last weekend, half of the people were playing Gravekeeper's, and this weekend, everyone's playing swarm decks (Lightsworn, Zombies, Chaos). Half of the reason I played the Gravekeeper's engine was because I expected to play against Gravekeeper's. I even started siding Closed Forest, again.

Either way, the Main Deck for my Scrap variant seems pretty solid, so I may just need to work on the Side Deck. I really do want to play the Worm engine again, but the sheer amount of Rai-Ohs being played hurts the Worms too much. It's quite sad, too, since the Worm engine is good against the deck formerly known as Tengu Plants. Oh well, we'll see what happens.

Tournament Report 10/22/11

Yesterday, I decided to use the Dark World deck I put together with the Ryko Side Deck. I had to go early to buy the Structure Decks and put the actual deck together.

There were 23 players, and quite a few of them were newbs. Guess who I get to play against first...?

Round 1: vs Newbie Dragons

This kid was really annoying, and after I 2-0'd him, he kept telling me about how close he was to winning.

Round 2: vs Frog Monarchs

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He was able to keep pushing through damage by destroying/spinning Grapha with Monarchs, since he kept drawing Monarch after I ripped his hand apart with Dragged Down and Mind Crush. In the end, he had to stall behind Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and Tragoedia, but that didn't last for long.

-Duel 2: For a while, he was at 3100 LP, just trying to hang on. I knew that he had a Tragoedia in his hand, and I wanted to finish him off in one shot with Grapha so that he wouldn't have tribute fodder. That plan didn't work out, unfortunately, but it gave me the opportunity to use Wind-Up Zenmaister. He had switched my Grapha to Defense Position with Enemy Controller, and Zenmaister switched it back so that it wouldn't get run over by a Jinzo or something. I ended up using Torrential Tribute to clear the field after he stole my Grapha with another Enemy Controller and tributed it and his Treeborn Frog for the Tragoedia. That let me finish him off on my turn.

Round 3: vs Gravekeeper's

I've played against this guy before, but it's been at least a year, and I'm too lazy to go back and find out when.

-Duel 1: He drew a Trap for each of my Monsters, so I couldn't get anything to the field.

-Duel 2: I drew all of my Rykos, and they all milled my Dark World Monsters. Because of that, I didn't have any Dark Worlds to use to summon Grapha. It didn't matter much, though, since he kept drawing Traps to stop whatever I may have attempted.

And that is why I didn't want to play Dark Worlds.

Round 4: vs Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 4 opponent from last week.

-Duel 1: I ripped apart his hand with Dragged Down into the Grave, and was able to keep Necrovalley off of the field and gain advantage with The Gates of Dark World. Dark World Lightning is pretty good, too.

-Duel 2: I didn't draw any discard outlets (another reason why I didn't want to play Dark Worlds), and got beat down by Gravekeeper's Guard and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.

-Duel 3: I hit him with a Mind Crush, letting me see his hand of non-Chainable Traps. He Set them to avoid Dragged Down, but that left him open to Dark World Lightning. Once his back row thinned out, Grapha took control of the field, and he couldn't deal with it.

That ended up being the last round, so I went 3-1. My tie-breakers were bad, apparently, since I was like the lowest ranked X-1. That didn't matter, though, since I was just trying out Dark Worlds and seeing if other people picked up the deck. I think that I was the only competitive Dark World player there. Gravekeeper's, on the other hand, were quite popular, for some reason.

In fact, I played against one of my friends (the same person who I played against after this tournament), and he was playing Gravekeeper's. Hand control won me the game 2-1, with the game I lost being due to not drawing discard outlets.

So, I'm not sure on what deck I'm going to use next weekend. I'm trying to decide between T.G. Zombies, Dark Worlds, and some sort of Scrap variant. I think that I'll keep working on Dark Worlds, but we'll see.

Random Stuff #37

I got my COSSY Top 1000 play mat earlier this week. It's the blue one, the one for the ranking period from July 2010 to August 2010. Yes, it's over a year behind. The coloring is also relatively dull, but it's nice to get free stuff, nonetheless.

So, I've been thinking about Dark Worlds a little more, and I realized that siding into Stun is a bad idea. It takes away the only power that the deck really has, which is Grapha. So, I'm thinking about siding against what others would side.

For instance, people might side Gemini Imps and D.D. Crow. Debunk deals with both of those, as well as many commonly played cards like Reborn Tengu, Glow-Up Bulb, Spore, Dandylion, Sangan, T.G.'s, and against opposing Dark Worlds. They could be siding other cards like Dimensional Prison and Crevice Into the Different Dimension. Trap Stun shuts those down (I've been looking for an excuse to start using my Duel Terminal Trap Stuns). Dimensional Fissure and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror are also expected Side Deck choices. Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter destroys them. Seems pretty good.

Honestly, I had forgotten about Ryko completely. And, now I see why people in the OCG used to play it, it deals with EVERYTHING, though I like it better as a Side Deck card.

So, the idea is that against slower decks that would most likely side in Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and/or Dimensional Fissure, Ryko would be sided in. Against faster decks that would use drop-hand or Graveyard effects, Debunk goes in. Trap Stun can go in against anything, it just depends. With this siding scheme, I may have to side out Dragged Down into the Grave, as it conflicts with Ryko, so I may have to replace them with Dark World Dealings.

That is, except for the mirror match. I'd need to make a special Side Deck strategy for that deck. Crevice Into the Different Dimension seems good, but that's not exactly a strategy. We'll see how that turns out.

Also, using Dark Worlds, a deck that doesn't require much Extra Deck commitment, lets me side Super Polymerization against E-HEROes. I think that it would be pretty hilarious to use, since no one would expect it.

Now, I've run out of random things to talk about, so I'm going to go work on my Dark World deck.

Tournament Report 10/15/11

As usual, I went to locals with my T.G. Zombies. I haven't changed the deck in like a month, so yeah...

When I first got there, there were very few of the decent regulars to be seen. Most of them arrived right before the tournament started, though, so that was good. There ended up being about 24 players, with half of them being decent players.

Round 1: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. I won fairly easily, as she didn't play mass back row.

Round 2: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I played around Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush, and while doing that, I also kept him from getting names into the Graveyard (Bottomless on Lyla, Creature Swap his Celestia, etc.) until I had a way to deal with his boss Monsters. I basically forced him to drop his Judgment Dragon, then took it with another Creature Swap.

-Duel 2: I made a Steelswarm Roach early on, since I had the cards to protect it. Then, he ended up milling Dark Hole, so I dumped my hand onto the field, leaving me with Brionac, Flamvell Uruquizas, my third Reborn Tengu, and of course, the Steelswarm Roach. He made a desperate Celestia play using Plaguespreader Zombie as the tribute to run over my Roach, but I Mind Controlled the Black Luster Soldier he ended up dropping to banish his Celestia and take the game.

Round 3: vs Gate HEROes

I knew that this guy was a good player, as I had played against him before. I'm just to lazy to go back and find out when.

-Duel 1: He stalled for a bit with Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, but I stole it with Creature Swap and made a Catastor with it and T.G. Striker, but Catastor got banished by Bottomless Trap Hole. I made a Trishula soon after to deal with his The Shining, but he then made an E-HERO Absolute Zero with his second Fusion Gate (I MST'd the first) to kill my Trishula. I made a Brionac play with Striker and Goblin Zombie, searching Mezuki to bounce the AbZ. Mezuki revived Spirit Reaper to rip the Miracle Fusion out of his hand, leaving him with only his Fusion Gate. I wasn't able to capitalize, though, and he built his field back up. It didn't matter, though, since he was low on LP, so I Creature Swapped him my Effect Veiler to push through it for game.

-Duel 2: I drew one Monster, Plaguespreader Zombie, which got sent back with Trap Dustshoot. He then beat me down with a The Shining over three turns, since I didn't draw any other Monsters or Traps that could deal with it.

-Duel 3: He made a Nova Master on his first turn to get over my Reborn Tengu and draw a card. I summoned the other Tengu in my hand so that I could make a Utopia, but he used Mind Crush, expecting me to use Creature Swap. He missed, though, seeing my hand of T.G. Striker, Gorz, Monster Reborn, and Mezuki. He randomly discarded Banisher of the Radiance to complete Mind Crush's effect, then I made my Utopia to stall. He made The Shining to try and force out both of Utopia's negations, but he attacked with The Shining first, which I let through. Fearing the Gorz he knew I had, he didn't attack with Nova Master. So, I made Trishula with Striker, Mezuki, and his Banisher, courtesy of Monster Reborn. That let me run through his two Monsters, and he had to play Dark Hole on the following turn. He stalled for a bit with Grand Mole, but kept gaining advantage with my floaters and just made a big push with Brionac to wipe out the rest of his LP.

Round 4: vs Stun

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many of his Traps, and I was able to gain advantage with Spirit Reaper and Trishula.

-Duel 2: I drew all Monsters and lost to his Dimensional Fissure, Wanghu, and Rai-Oh.

-Duel 3: I drew mostly Monsters again, but I drew a decently consistent flow of Monster removal Spells/Traps to deal with his threats. So, I forced the game into a top-decking war. I drew Goblin Zombie, he drew Rai-Oh, so I lost. It was an enjoyable duel, though.

Round 5: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. He and my Round 1 opponent from this tournament adamantly stick to Six Samurai, in case you didn't notice. Neither of them use what you would call an optimal build, but they're at least somewhat decent.

-Duel 1: I Duality'd into Bottomless Trap Hole (over Dark Hole and Heavy Storm; I needed some defense), then Set it, Mystical Space Typhoon, and a T.G. Rush Rhino. Quite an unorthodox opening, now that I think about it, but it was the best play at the time. He summoned Kageki, Shinai, Kizan, and Grandmaster, the latter of which I Bottomless'd. He attacked with his three Samurai, and I searched Striker in the End Phase. I made a Creature Swap play to get a non-Tuner (I drew Plaguespreader, and I didn't want to waste Zombie Master), giving him my Striker. I attacked over it with Shinai, then Synchro Summoned Catastor in Main Phase 2. I searched Warwolf and ended. He played Solidarity and Set a back row, which I destroyed with my MST (it was Musakani Magatama). I summoned the Warwolf, then attacked Kizan with Catastor, then Kageki with Warwolf. He summoned Shinai and Grandmaster, attacking Warwolf with Grandmaster. I searched Striker, then drew Goblin Zombie on my turn. I used Zombie Master, Goblin Zombie, and Plaguespreader (I sent Striker back to my deck) to make Decisive Armor and searched another Goblin Zombie. Decisive Armor got over Grandmaster, and Catastor killed Shinai. He couldn't draw anything, so I killed him with Decisive Armor over the next two turns.

-Duel 2: He played Dojo, Shinai, and Mizuho. When he activated Dojo's effect, I Chained Maxx "C". He stopped after completing Dojo's effect, Special Summoning Kagemusha. I didn't have a follow-up, so I just sat there for a turn, letting my field get ripped apart by Mizuho. That exhausted all of his cards, though, so I made a Brionac and bounced his Shi En, exhausting most of my cards. He dropped Kageki and Kagemusha, and I used my second Maxx "C". He had to give me two draws while making his Shi En and getting over my Brionac. I drew to three cards in hand against his Shi En and Set back row. I Set them all, and he used Double-Edge Sword Technique on his turn to get back Mizuho and Shinai. Mizuho's effect tried to destroy my Set Reinforce Truth, which I Chained, but it got negated by Shi En. He attacked with Mizuho, but I had my second Reinforce Truth to block with X-Saber Pashuul. He ended his turn, and I used Call of the Haunted to revive Brionac in the End Phase after Mizuho died. I used Mezuki to revive Goblin Zombie to tune it with Pashuul for Gaia Knight, searching another Goblin Zombie. I pitched the card I drew (MST) to bounce Shi En with Brionac's effect, then summoned the Goblin Zombie and attacked for game.

So, I went 4-1 and got 3rd place. I used my store credit to buy four Gemini Imps to go with the two that I already had. So, in case I decide not to use Dark Worlds next weekend, I'll have the Gemini Imps to side against them.

It was nice to play against so many regulars today; it's nice to have a challenge instead of playing against a string of newbs.

And, I was able to get my copies of Dragged Down into the Grave (not to mention that they're all mint, which is odd considering that it's such an old card). So I will be able to play Dark Worlds next weekend if I decide to. Regardless, I'd probably use them in some duel videos when I get the chance.

Dark Worlds Next Week

So, seeing as how the Dark World Structure Deck comes out on Tuesday, tomorrow's tournament is going to be pretty pointless. Either way, I'm trying to figure out what to do next weekend when Dark Worlds are legal.

From testing out the deck a little bit, I feel that it's too combo-oriented to be consistent. Grapha is broken, but what really drives the deck is The Gates of Dark World. If you don't draw it, you won't be able to do much; it provides a constant discard outlet, which is what the deck really needed. This is amplified in the mirror match, where you can't use the discard outlets that make both players discard, so all you get is Gates and Lightning.

Because of all of that, I don't really want to play the deck competitively. The only way I'd consider using it is if I were to side into Stun for the mirror match and the Stun match-up, siding out Graphas and Dragged Down to render their Side Deck cards useless. I don't know how well this would work, but it might be difficult to figure out exactly how to build the deck to make this strategy effective.

If I can make this type of Dark World deck effectively, then it should be able to do pretty well, even without Tour Guide and Fabled Raven. However, if I can't, I'll have to learn how to deal with them in other ways.

Supposedly, they're easy to Side Deck against... The thing is that everyone in the OCG seems to feel obligated to run three Gemini Imps to protect themselves from Dragged Down. They're running a full three cards to stop as few as three cards in the opponent's deck. They may expect Dark World players to side in Dark World Dealings, but that's not a sure thing.

Besides that, Crevice Into the Different Dimension and Spell/Trap Destruction seem good. Banishing Grapha and destroying Gates are the most important things you can do to halt Dark Worlds. While Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror and Dimensional Fissure are decent, Mystical Space Typhoon destroys them too easily, and most decks can't use them. However, Closed Forest may become viable again...

So yeah, I'll have to learn to deal with Dark Worlds, but either way, I'm probably going to switch decks after this week. I just think that my T.G. Zombies can't do that well against Dark Worlds... So, I'll have to figure out a deck that can...

Regionals Report 10/8/11

So, as stated in the previous post, there was a Regional today. I took my T.G. Zombie deck as it was, same as the past two weeks.

Before the tournament started, I got a Legendary Collection 2 pack...binder...thing... I got a Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, Banisher of the Radiance, and Necro Gardna. Notable Ultra Rares were Jain, Lightsworn Paladin and Light End Dragon. Not bad.

There ended up being 507 players, meaning that there would be nine rounds.

Round 1: vs T.G. Stun - OO

-I ended up making a T.G. Wonder Magician using his Warwolf and his Striker, courtesy of TG1-EM1 and Mind Control, respectively. He was pretty confused, seeing as how he had only seen Zombies and Tengu up to that point.

Round 2: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants - OXO

-In the first game, I overextended like crazy to kill him before he could combo off, and it ended up working. I got combo'd off on in the second duel, and I held off his combos and won in time in the third game.

Round 3: vs Tour Guide Tengu Plants - XX

-I was playing against Robert Boyajian, whom I had played against four times before at locals over a year ago. In both games, Trap Dustshoot revealed to him my hand, and while my Monsters being sent back to the deck didn't hinder my strategy, him knowing my hand let him combo off knowing that I couldn't stop him.

Round 4: vs Infernities - XX

-I got looped in the first duel with Leviair and Mirage and such. I lost the second duel because I drew all of my combo-stopping cards, like Effect Veiler, D.D. Crow, and Maxx "C", but he drew a Stun-ish hand, despite not even siding into Stun...

Round 5 was a no show.

Round 6: vs Agent Fairies - OO

-This guy was kind of a newb, so it didn't take much to beat him...

Round 7: vs Disaster Dragon - OXO

-This was a very back and forth match, and it was fun. My opponent even said before the match that she didn't feel like playing, but after the match was over, she said that she felt much better. It was that fun.

Round 8: vs Agent Fairies - XOX

-In the first game, he OTK'd me on like his second turn; I stopped the Venus with Book of Moon, but he just kept Special Summoning Monsters to kill me. I won the second game with the awesome Ally of Justice Decisive Armor. I lost the third game because I drew mostly Traps and he drew two Royal Decrees...

Round 9: vs Lightsworn - XX

-I made Decisive Armor against his Wulf and five cards in hand, but its third effect only hit an Honest, which was a huge waste. Chaos Sorcerer banished my Decisive Armor, and I couldn't do much to recover from that. I lost the second game to Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

So I ended up going X-4, which isn't good at all. I got 113th place, if anyone cares, and vadangchoinga ended up getting 49th place. Overall, it was pretty disappointing. Oh well, this doesn't really mean anything with Dark Worlds coming out in a couple weeks.

Tournament Report 10/1/11

So, as usual, I went to locals today with my T.G. Zombies. I didn't have the time to change anything in the deck, so I just went the same build as last weekend.

There were 23 players there, and at least half of them were regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He Set two back rows, activated United and Dojo, then summoned Kizan. I took the Kizan with Mind Control and Synchro Summoned Gaia Knight using it and my previously Set X-Saber Pashuul. I killed him over the next few turns with that Gaia Knight, since he didn't draw any more Monsters.

-Duel 2: I held onto my Torrential Tribute until he dumped his whole hand onto the field, letting me kill four Monsters, leaving him with no cards. I ended up making a Gaia Knight again and killing him with it.

Round 2: vs Chaos Zombies

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He was forced to use Solemn Judgment on my Creature Swap, and I was able to push through a bunch of damage with Reborn Tengu. Another Creature Swap ended up winning me the game, taking his only card, Gaia Knight, and giving him my Effect Veiler.

-Duel 2: He drew a pretty bad hand, with something like Dark Armed Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, Reborn Tengu, and two Effect Veilers. I made a random Brionac play to get rid of all of his Reborn Tengus in one turn, and also letting me draw two cards off of Maxx "C". He wasted Cyber Dragon and Effect Veiler to make a Gaia Knight and run over my Brionac. But, I Creature Swapped him my Goblin Zombie for his Gaia Knight. He ended up taking it back with his Creature Swap, but I made a Catastor with Striker and Sangan to kill it. I ended up making a Revived King Ha Des next turn to lock him out of the game.

Round 3: vs Newbie Agent Fairies

I had to play against a little kid using three Lost Sanctuary Structure Decks smashed together. He didn't show much skill, but he remained pretty composed, so that was pretty good; he appeared to have the potential to become a better player. Regardless, it was a 2-0. I beat him in the first game with Trishula and general control tactics, and I won the second game with Ally of Justice Decisive Armor.

Round 4: vs Lightsworn

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament. I offered to split, but the difference between the 1st and 2nd place prizes were so small that we just decided to play for it.

-Duel 1: He opened with Trap Dustshoot, returning my T.G. Rush Rhino to the deck. He saw that I had an Effect Veiler, so he held back on his big plays until he could bait it out. Unfortunately for him, I'm not stupid, so I saved my Veiler for his Black Rose Dragon. And when he dropped his Judgment Dragon, I killed it with Bottomless Trap Hole. Unfortunately, we were both top-decking after that, and he drew into another Judgment Dragon.

-Duel 2: I made a Steelswarm Roach, but he milled a Wulf off of his Glow-Up Bulb to run over my Roach. Then, he made a T.G. Hyper Librarian. I had to make a Gaia Knight to run it over. He then kept summoning Lightsworn Monsters to get four names into the Graveyard, but I kept his Graveyard in check with D.D. Crow. Then, I traded out my Gaia Knight for a Colossal Fighter using Plaguespreader Zombie. With five total Warriors in the Graveyard, he would be unable to get over it with Judgment Dragon, and I had two Effect Veilers to protect it from effects. He dropped a Chaos Sorcerer, but one Effect Veiler stopped its effect. He then used his last card, Dark Hole, to clear the field. After that, I slowly built up my resources, eventually making a Catastor. He ended up summoning a Judgment Dragon with three cards left in his deck, but Light-Imprisoning Mirror protected my field. In his End Phase, I destroyed my Imprisoning Mirror with Mystical Space Typhoon to force him to mill out. It was hysterical.

-Duel 3: He opened with Charge of the Light Brigade, milling Lyla, Mind Crush, and some Spell to get his Lumina. He summoned it and pitched Wulf to revive Lyla, but I had my D.D. Crow to banish it. He Set Trap Dustshoot, then milled three Spells/Traps in his End Phase. The Dustshoot didn't matter, since my hand was: Call of the Haunted, Creature Swap, Pot of Duality, T.G. Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie. He returned the latter to my deck, and I used Duality to grab Thunder King Rai-Oh. I summoned it and attacked over Lumina. Then, I set Call of the Haunted and ended my turn. He Special Summoned Wulf with Foolish Burial and attacked over my Rai-Oh. Then, he Set a Monster. I summoned the Goblin Zombie I drew and ran over his Set Glow-Up Bulb. Then, I Creature Swapped him my Zombie, then revived Rai-Oh with Call of the Haunted. I overlaid my Rai-Oh and his Wulf for Steelswarm Roach. He Set a Monster and switched the Goblin Zombie to Defense Position. I summoned another Goblin Zombie and ran over the one under his control, searching Zombie Master. Then, I ran over his Necro Gardna with Roach. He Set a back row, and I flipped Reinforce Truth in his End Phase to Special Summoned Pashuul. I also Special Summoned T.G. Warwolf, then made Trishula with Pashuul, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie. Trishula got destroyed by his Solemn Judgment, but I searched out Mezuki. I didn't attack that turn, fearing Gorz, but I attacked next turn with Mezuki, and he didn't have the Gorz. He had to block Roach's attack with Necro Gardna, as he only had 1850 LP. He drew more dead cards (like Solemn Warnings), and couldn't get rid of the Roach, so he died.

So I went undefeated and got 1st place. With the store credit, I got an Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon. Now I have Tiras and Adreus, in case I decide to ever use Rank 5 Xyz Monsters. Unfortunately, my Turbo Pack 6 was bad. Oh well.

So yeah, I guess that my deck is as ready as it will be for the Regional next weekend. It's nice to know that I can beat Lightsworn fairly consistently. After that, I might switch to Dark Worlds, we'll see...