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...