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...