Tournament Report 12/29/12

So, I went to locals for the last time this year.  I have been wanting to post stuff other than tournament reports, but there hasn't been much to discuss, at least on the TCG side.  I haven't been keeping up with Fire Fists, Sacred (Constellar), and Verz (lswarm), but they're all doing stuff in the OCG, apparently.  I just haven't had the motivation to keep up with them anymore.  Part of that is because I've been playing Pokemon Colosseum (that really old game for the Gamecube with the Shadow Pokemon) and Assassin's Creed (both Revelations and 3).

But yeah, I went to the usual card shop for their Vanguard tournament yesterday.  There were actually like 16 players there.  Half of them were newbs who just started out, so yeah.  I was using my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck, since I actually wanted to win extra promo packs and try to pull No Life King, Death Anchor for Riku's Dark Irregulars deck.

In the first round, I played against a newbie with a Narukami Trial Deck who got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I won.  In the second round, I played against a newbie (Spectral Duke) Gold Paladin player, but I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for the whole game and lost, which is ridiculous since I play 16 Grade 1's.  For the third round, I played a mirror-match against one of the regulars who switches decks every week or something and won because he drew a bunch of Triggers.  In the last round, I played against a newbie (Spectral Duke) Gold Paladin player and won because I kept killing his rear-guards so he couldn't effectively put pressure on me.  However, I was paired down in that last round, which ruined my tiebreakers, so I didn't get any additional packs.  My friend (who still needs a name) got 2nd place with his Snogal Royal Paladins, but none of us pulled Death Anchors.

However, my friend brought all of his extra Dark Irregulars stuff for Riku, so we fixed his deck so he doesn't have to rely on Reijy and the Demon Bike things anymore.  Now it focuses on Demon Eater (until he gets Death Anchors) and Doreen to make 21k lines.

But yeah, after that was the other Vanguard tournament.  There were almost 30 players there or something.

Round 1: vs Shadow Paladin

Last week, I saw that this guy timed his Phantom Blaster Dragon very badly, so I wasn't too worried.  He didn't make any such mistakes this time, but it wasn't too difficult for me to win 2-1.  What was ridiculous is that he pulled his Critical Triggers as often as I did; he only has four, and I have twelve, so that shouldn't happen.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same Gold Paladin player that I played against in Round 1 of this Vanguard tournament.  I don't know what his deal is, since he always sighs before he does anything (including guarding, attacking, and even speaking...).  I asked why, and he responded with "Why do you hate me for guarding for so low?"  I told him that guarding one-to-pass on the Vanguard is wrong (in most situations), but he insisted that it was correct.  Well, I won 2-0, since he kept guarding one-to-pass on my Stern Blaukluger.  On the final turn of the second game, I did five damage, four of which was from Stern because he guarded one-to-pass (10k worth of shield) even though he had another 5k in his hand.  If he had guarded correctly, he would've taken two damage from the Critical Trigger, which would've gone to my rear-guard.  But instead, he tried to prove me wrong and lost because of it.  You can get lucky guarding one-to-pass against a Vanguard, but it's mathematically stupid.

Round 3: vs Dimensional Police

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend's Vanguard tournament.  For some reason, he likes to keep all of his cards in his hand instead of calling rear-guards.  So, although he had a bunch of cards to defend with, he couldn't force more than three cards out of my hand during each of his turns, meaning that my card advantage was keeping constant throughout the game.  Anyways, in the first game, he had like eleven cards in hand when my Vanguard Stern Blaukluger attacked his Enigman Storm.  He guarded two-to-pass and my first Drive Check was a Critical Trigger.  He was at four damage, and he had so many cards in hand, so he would've been able to guard even if I gave the Trigger to my rear-guard.  So, I gave it to my Vanguard and pulled a Heal Trigger to push through his guard and win.  Trigger-sacking at its finest.  I won the second game because I was able to whittle down his card advantage, but he didn't form any real rear-guard columns to pressure me with.

At this point, there were four undefeated players left, and the tournament organizer was in a bad mood and wanted to close early or something, so he cut to Top 4.  I made it, since I was undefeated.  The total prize pool was 22 packs, so we decided to split five packs each, then play our Top 4 pairing for the last two packs.  The winners of the two games would each get an extra pack, if that makes any sense.

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin

His starting Vanguard was Kyrph.  The other two Top 4 were both Spectral Duke Gold Paladin players.  Anyways, my opponent opened with two Gigantech Destroyers, so I was able to pressure him early.  He also used Kyrph's superior ride effect on his third turn (the turn where he could've normal ridden one of his Gigantech Destroyers) and used Ezel's Limit Break twice to call out a Speeder Hound and a Halo Shield, Mark.  He didn't trigger-sack me, so all of the early pressure I put on him helped me win the turn after that, since he didn't have much to guard with.

So, I won six packs of Set 4.  The only notable card I pulled was Blaster Dark, which I traded to the shop for a pack of sleeves for Aki.  I didn't even get any holos, and I already have all of the Commons and Rares that I would want from Set 4, so that sucked.

Either way, I was able to trade my Battle Sister Chocolat for a damaged Twin Blader and an Epitome of Knowledge, Silvest.  Now I have three Twin Bladers, so that's cool.  I'm going to add it to my deck and change it around a little bit.  Asura Kaiser has been pretty useless, so I might take it out for a third Moai the Great, which has been the opposite of useless.  Dancing Wolf has also been kind of useless; if my opponent can't guard Stern Blaukluger the first time, they probably won't be able to guard it the second time, especially if I get a Trigger.  Dancing Wolf pushes out another 5k guard on the second attack due to its +3k effect, but it seems like overkill.  So, I'll probably drop one for the third Twin Blader, and I'll drop the other Dancing Wolf for something else.  And, I'm considering using some Draw Triggers again, we'll see...

Tournament Report 12/22/12

So, since the world didn't end on Friday, I went to locals.  This will be a fairly short post since I didn't enter the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

First was the small Vanguard tournament with nine players.  I was using a Megacolony deck I made entirely out of Commons and Rares that I got for free from people who didn't want them.  I got a bye, then beat my friend who plays Vanguard and his new Pale Moon deck, then lost to a Megacolony deck since he got a sixth damage Heal Trigger... twice...  I got 2nd place and two of the new promo packs, but didn't pull anything good.

So, while the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament was in progress, my friend and I went to Panda Express to have lunch.  Riku ended up going 1-2 and dropping.  The tournament was won by a little kid who apparently had no idea of what he was doing (or so I'm told) and his Six Samurai deck.  I think that this pretty much sums up what I was talking about in the previous post: this game doesn't take skill anymore; it has basically just degenerated into Vanguard where luck decides everything.  If skill somehow returns to Yu-Gi-Oh, I'll play in tournaments again, but otherwise, it's not worth it.  At least Vanguard tournaments are free, yo.

After that was the other Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  I was using my new Nova Grappler build that uses the Blau- ride chain.  I had gone to the flea market on Wednesday and gotten two Blauklugers and a third Stern Blaukluger for $18.  But, I sold a random holo for $2, so that brought up my net spending on Vanguard to $70.  So yeah, I could finally stop running White Tiger.  I have nothing against it, but 5k boosters suck against crossrides.  The reason why this matters is because someone there runs the Grade 4 Great Nature card with 13k Power, so I'm basically playing right now as if crossrides exist so I won't auto-lose to him.  Yeah, that also means that I traded in my Stands for Crits, sadly.  And as usual, my friend was using his Royal Paladins (now with 12 Critical Triggers) and Riku was using Dark Irregulars.  We're going to try and get some Death Anchors so he doesn't have to run Reijy anymore.

But yeah, I won the first round against an Oracle Think Tank player that normally uses Tsukuyomi, but was trying out a Soulless build.  He misplayed by putting down front-row rear-guards for me to attack, so I didn't have to give him two damage by the time he rode Scarlet Witch, Coco.  So, I was able to win easily.  I won the second round against a Dark Irregulars player who really had no idea what he was doing.  I won the third round against a Spectral Duke Gold Paladin player since he didn't realize that Moai the Great boosted by Tough Boy is a 20k column, so he guarded incorrectly.  I lost the fourth round against a Dimension Police player who got his Enigman Ripple every game.

So, my friend, Riku, and I all went 3-1.  My friend and I made it into the Top 4, but Riku's tiebreakers weren't good enough, apparently.  The other two players in the Top 4 were my Round 3 opponent and my friend's Round 4 opponent (whom he lost to).  We all decided to split and get six packs each.  I got Set 4 and pulled an Enigman Wave, which I gave to my friend since he wants to build Dimension Police, and a fourth Stern Blaukluger for my deck.  I just hope I don't pull any more, ha ha.  And I don't even know what I want to take out for it.  I'll figure it out later.

But yeah, so I got a bunch of free Vanguard cards today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).  Not bad, I suppose.  I also got custom play mats printed up for Aki and myself.  I just used my Rotom picture again, except without the rectangles for the zones.  I also made the picture a little brighter, but it ended up being printed a lot brighter, so I don't know how I feel about that.  Aki chose to use a picture of Valkyrie Windbreaker Dragon for his mat.  We'll probably use the mats in the next set of duel videos, which we'll be recording on Wednesday, so you'll get to see them then.

The Current State of Yu-Gi-Oh

It's gotten pretty bad, to be honest.  I really don't know where to start; there's just so many things that are wrong with the game now.  I guess the main thing is that power creep has gotten more ridiculous than I would've ever imagined.

So, over four years ago (for the OCG), we got a nice themed searcher for this obscure archetype called "Genex".  That card was Genex Searcher.  It had to be destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard to recruit a Genex Monster with 1500 ATK or less.  Two years ago, we got a few searchers for another obscure archetype, "Gusto".  One of them was Gusto Gulldo, who could Special Summon a Level 2 or lower Gusto from your deck when it's sent from the field to the Graveyard.

Alright, so we started off with a terrible battle recruiter that couldn't even search itself in a pathetically weak theme.  Now, I do like Genex as a theme, but I have to admit that they're terrible... So, the Gusto theme comes along and they get a pretty decent recruiter.  It doesn't even have to be destroyed by battle, so long as it being sent to the Graveyard is the last thing to happen (it can miss timing).  And, it was also limited in what it could search (it could search like two decent cards, both of which are battle recruiters).

Nowadays, we have this card called Mermail Abysslinde that if it's destroyed and sent to the Graveyard allows you to Special Summon a Mermail Monster from your deck.  That's right, any Mermail Monster (except itself), regardless of ATK or Level.  It also doesn't care how it's destroyed; it will work either by battle or by card effect.  It doesn't even miss timing.  And let's not forget that it has a themed Trap that will Special Summon it and destroy it for you so that you can just grab whatever you want later.

We could even bring up XX-Saber Darksoul, which was seen as a very powerful card when it was first released.  Like Abysslinde, it didn't care how it got from the field to the Graveyard (well, it needed to be on your side of the field, but yeah).  You could even use it for a Synchro Material and still get its effect later.  But, you didn't get to put a huge beater on the field right away like with Abysslinde.  During the End Phase, you'd get an X-Saber to your hand.  You couldn't even use the card that turn.

In a game like Yu-Gi-Oh where cards and themes tend to be very different in how they work, it's hard to find a direct comparison like this to show how power creep has really affected the game.  I mean, you wouldn't compare Drill Warrior and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, both of which were format-defining cards in their times.  But, seeing the power of these themed search cards increase to ridiculous levels shows how fast the game has gotten.

This format has basically degenerated to the point where whoever can OTK first wins.  Steadily gaining advantage over your opponent isn't a way to win anymore.  The deck that comes closest to that is Dino Rabbit, and it barely fits that description; it's just a lock-down deck that prevents the opponent from doing anything for a few turns while they get beat down with Dinosaurs.

That's not even the worst part.

This OTK-happy format was manufactured by Konami.  They're the ones who make these archetypes for people to use.  They made Inzektors broken, they made Wind-Ups broken, they made Mermails broken.  They make these overpowered themes so that people will buy their products, and they don't care that it takes all of the skill out of the game.  In fact, they encourage a more luck-based game, since it means that anyone can win.

I mean, you can't even argue that their card designers are overlooking these problems.  If it were something like the Birdman/Gallis/Doom FTK, then yeah, they probably didn't realize that there would be such a powerful interaction between those cards.  But, they make these themes that are more powerful than those that already exist and are even blatantly broken.  I don't see any other way to look at this; Konami meant for these problematic cards to be introduced into the game.

But where does that leave the players?  Well, Yu-Gi-Oh players have been pretty loyal, for some reason.  I mean, there have been some terrible formats, and people still play regardless.  However, this has gotten pretty ridiculous.

Personally, I don't even enjoy going to locals anymore.  I don't even feel like I stand a chance this format.  In the past, I could just continue playing my random decks like Scrap Worms or Nordic Diva and still go X-1 every week at locals.  Now, I can barely go X-2.  I'm making the right plays, I'm making the correct reads, but it's not enough anymore.  Think about it this way: you can play against someone who's playing with their hand revealed for the whole game, but you still lose because their cards are just that much more powerful than yours.  That's how I feel about this format.  It's like all of the skills and tricks I've acquired over years of playing this game don't even matter anymore.  It doesn't matter if you know how your opponent is going to OTK you if you can't do anything about it.

So, I don't know if it's still worth playing competitively anymore.  If I can't win without buying new cards, then I don't think it's worth entering tournaments just to lose and get an Astral Pack for $7.  It's not even fun anymore.  Locals now just consists of newbies with terrible decks that are easy to beat and the people who have the money to buy the broken decks.  It's not fun beating newbs and it's not fun losing to broken decks where I didn't even have a chance to win in the first place.

This is actually the first time I've seriously considered quitting competitive Yu-Gi-Oh.  I'll still play for fun, like how I play Duel Masters, WeiB Schwarz, and such just for fun.  I'd just stop playing in tournaments.  I'd probably still go to locals to hang out with my friends and maybe play Vanguard and Kaijudo, but I don't see any point in playing in Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments anymore.  If I do decide to stop, then maybe I'll start back up again when Hidden Arsenal 7 is released, since Gem-Knights could potentially stand up to the meta at that point, but we'll have to see.

I understand that this is a very, very pessimistic post, but it's hard to be optimistic with Konami's track record.

So, what do you guys think about this?  Am I way off in trying to compare themed recruiters over the past few years, or is such a comparison justified?  What are your views on Yu-Gi-Oh right now?  Do you have any hopes that the game might get better?  I really have no idea what to do with regards to Yu-Gi-Oh right now, so I want to see what you guys think.

Tournament Report 12/15/12

I went to locals yesterday, as usual.  I got a couple Fighting Battleship, Prometheus from one of the other Vanguard players yesterday, so I switched my Nova Grappler build to a Crit-heavy build with Death Army people and eight Grade 3's.  That way, I wouldn't get gradestuck as often on Grade 2, and since the small tournament has best-of-1 matches, I really didn't want that to happen.

So yeah, there were nine people there for the small Vanguard tournament.  I played against the newbie Bermuda Triangle player again for the first round and won.  I beat my Round 2 opponent and his Spectral Duke Gold Paladin deck to get to the final round against my friend who plays Vanguard.  He was using an Angel Feather deck with only Commons and Rares (R's, no RR's or RRR's), and his key card was Calamity Flame.  He ended up winning since I got gradestuck on Grade 0...

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I decided to play my Nordic Diva deck since I haven't used it in a while.  If you couldn't tell, I'm basically switching between all of my decks every weekend since they all have about the same chance of winning nowadays, which is sad.  I think I'm going to make Wind-Ups, though, since all I need are Rats and Sharks, now.  But yeah, there were about 22 players there yesterday.

Round 1: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

-Duel 1: I guess he opened up pretty awkwardly, since I was able to just mess with him with my Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters and Deep Sea Divas to win.  He was pretty confused, which is good, since that is what the deck is supposed to do.
-Duel 2: I opened up with Macro Cosmos, but I didn't really draw that many Monsters.  So, once he was able to resolve a Deep Sea Diva, I basically lost.
-Duel 3: I had Macro Cosmos again, but he had Mystical Space Typhoon this time, so he was able to OTK me with Megaloabyss and such.  He did play correctly, so I wasn't too upset to lose, but still... I just don't like how this game is all about OTK's now.

OXX

Round 2: vs Watts

A bunch of people there today were playing Watts, for some reason... Probably because of Thunder Seahorse.

-Duel 1: He had me cornered at 1000 LP, but he made a misplay by unnecessarily summoning his Wattcobra, letting me clear the field with Torrential Tribute.  From there, I was able to swarm and make a reversal to win.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw many Monsters, so I was able to kill the few he did draw with basic removal cards like Smashing Ground to win.

OO

Round 3: vs Agent Fairies

I was up against AquaBass.

-Duel 1: He opened with Sangan (which he used to search Earth) and two Master Hyperions, so he could counter all of my plays with his Hyperions.
-Duel 2: I opened up with Macro Cosmos, and he basically gave up at that point.  I just stalled out with various Synchro Monsters, and he was able to summon Hyperions from his hand to run over them, but I was able to grab Catastor to destroy them without much trouble.
-Duel 3: He opened with Venus into Dark Mist, and my hand was all Monsters, so I just Set a Hamster.  For some reason, he sides Nobleman of Crossout, so he banished all of my Hamsters and I lost.

XOX

With that, I decided to drop and just play Kaijudo and Vanguard with my friend who plays Vanguard.  I switched my Nova Grappler deck back to the Beast Deity version to prepare for the other Vanguard tournament.  So yeah, I got a Terraforming out of the Astral Pack, so that was cool.

So yeah, we ended up going to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament, and there were 24 Vanguard players there.  My friend told me that quite a few people told me that they wanted to wait until Set 4 comes out to start playing, since they are crazy for Shadow Paladins.  Well, there were some Shadow Paladin players there, but honestly, Shadow Paladins (at least the way that people want to play them) are horrible.

Regardless, before the tournament started, we found out that my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament had gotten multiple boxes of Set 4.  He was building Dimensional Police and he traded away all of his holo Shadow Paladin stuff to his friend or something.  So, my friend and I asked him for some of his Commons and Rares.  I got his Megacolony and Nova Grappler stuff, and my friend got his Royal Paladin and Shadow Paladin stuff.  I also got some Flame Seed Salamanders, Snogals, and Brugals just to have.  I ended up giving a Brugal to a little kid who was using Stardust Trumpeter as his starting Vanguard, so yeah.

But yeah, onto the uneventful tournament report:

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin

I was up against my friend... We believe that they rigged the pairings so that we couldn't both make Top 4, as usual, ha ha.  But yeah, we spent a little while remaking our decks with the new cards we got.  I added Dancing Wolfs to my deck, taking out the random Death Army Guys that I wasn't really able to make good use of.  I also switched out my Red-Card Dealers for Grapplemanias.  He added a set of Beast Knight, Garmores and Snogals.  He also got two Fang of Light, Garmores, and added them to his deck.  As for the match, he guarded correctly against my Beast Deities to prevent me from searching my Azure Dragon, so I got gradestuck and lost.

My Round 2 opponent didn't show up, so I just watched my friend play against his bad Pale Moon friend.  My friend won, so that was good.

Round 3: vs Pale Moon

Yes, I was up against the bad Pale Moon player again.  For the first game, I got gradestuck at Grade 2 and I was still able to win because his columns were terrible and I actually know how to play this game.  In the second game, he foolishly emptied out his Soul with Luquier's Limit Break, so he couldn't use any of his switching effects and lost.

Round 4: vs Narukami

This guy was running Stand Triggers, which was weird... Anyways, I got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game and kept drawing Grade 1's so I couldn't even attack him effectively, so I lost.  In the second game, I didn't have any Grade 1's after my Grade 1 ride, so my rear-guards couldn't hit his Vermillion.  Unable to pressure him like I'm supposed to, I lost.

So that was it.  My friend ended up getting 5th place, so he didn't make it.  Riku was there too, and he went 3-1 with his Dark Irregulars, but also failed to make Top 4.  So, my friend and I just spent out time organizing all of the free cards we got.  We basically got every Common and Rare (he wants SP Blaster Darks, so he didn't care about not getting Rares) we wanted.  He also traded his two Vivianes for two Stern Blauklugers and gave them to me, so that was cool.  Now I just need two Blauklugers, and I can play the deck in tournaments.

I'll also be able to make a Megacolony deck now, though the only holo Megacolony card I have is one Master Beetle.  I'll just use Megacolony Battler C as my starting Vanguard and see how it works.  It's just a fun deck, so yeah.

Aki and I are also planning on getting new playmats, so that'll be cool.  I'm still not sure what I want on mine, but I think Aki has already decided for his.  I have a week to figure it out, though, so I'll come up with something.

Tournament Report 12/14/12

I decided to go to locals today since my winter break started yesterday.  I remade my Gem-Knights (sadly without Sardonyx or Zirconia, since they're not legal yet) for fun, because why not?  I mean, a bunch of people are playing Mermails now, so every game turns into who can OTK who first, and whatnot.

There were like 17 players there, with about half of them being regulars.

Round 1: vs Newbie Dark Sage Deck

I 2-0'd him, as it was his first time at a tournament.  He was good enough to recognize my Amber loops once I made them, though he couldn't do anything to stop them.

Round 2: vs Genex Atlanteans

I was up against JB this round.  Yugilo recorded this match, so it should go up on his channel soon.  This match showed how I'm kind of getting out of touch with the meta, but I'll talk more about that in another post eventually.  So yeah, I won't spoil the surprise of how the match ended, so you can watch the video.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

I couldn't tell if this guy was a very good player or not.  He didn't make any huge misplays, from what I could see, but he did think a lot about very simple plays.  Of course, since he was playing Six Samurai, it was difficult to judge his skill level regardless...

-Duel 1: My only Monster was a Tour Guide, which grabbed Sangan.  Neither of those, nor my two Rank 3 Xyz Monsters (Leviair and Zenmaines) could kill his Set Kagemusha, so he just sat there on it until he could kill me, since I didn't draw any of my Gem-Knights...
-Duel 2: I locked him down with Thunder King Rai-Oh.  I also had a Set Gozen Match, but the Rai-Oh was enough to prevent him from doing anything.
-Duel 3: He went first with United, Kageki, Kagemusha--the dreaded opening play.  He drew two cards, made Shi En, and Set a card.  I opened with Summoner Monk, discarding Gem-Knight Fusion to Special Summon Gem-Knight Amber.  He used Bottomless Trap Hole on Amber so I couldn't make Maestroke.  So, I Set Gozen Match and Mirror Force to end.  He summoned Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and attacked with it, but on attack declaration, I activated Gozen Match.  He let it go and sent his Enishi to the Graveyard.  He killed my Monk with Shi En and ended.  I revived it with Monster Reborn (he let it through), then discarded Dark Hole to Special Summon Snipe Hunter from my deck.  With them, I was able to make Maestroke and kill his Shien.  From there, Gozen Match locked him down, so there wasn't much he could do.

XOO

Round 4: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

I was up against spondo.  As expected, he had the money to make such an expensive deck.

-Duel 1: I lost very quickly to a Megaloabyss and Moulinglacia swarm.
-Duel 2: I opened with Thunder King Rai-Oh, Dimensional Fissure, and two back rows.  He played Mind Control, then summoned Genex Controller (wrong order, by the way), so I negated the summon of the Controller with Solemn Judgment.  He Set two back rows and gave my back my Rai-Oh.  In the End Phase, I destroyed his Dust Tornado with my Mystical Space Typhoon; apparently, that was his only out to Dimensional Fissure.  I was out of Traps, so I just Set a Gem-Knight Fusion after attacking with Rai-Oh.  On his turn, he used Abyss-sphere to get Megaloabyss and run over my Rai-Oh.  I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched my other Gem-Knight Fusion to grab a Thunder King Rai-Oh from my deck.  His Megaloabyss died in the End Phase due to Abyss-sphere, and I ended.  He asked his deck for a Dark Hole, and sure enough, he drew Dark Hole to clear out my field.  He attacked with Atlantean Dragoons and ended.  I summoned Gem-Knight Obsidian and ran over his Dragoons with the help of Forbidden Chalice.  He summoned Deep Sea Diva and grabbed Atlantean Heavy Infantry to Synchro Summon Armory Arm to run over my Obsidian.  I then topped Gem-Knight Garnet to run over his Armory Arm.  He played another Diva to grab Atlantean Marksmen to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Catastor to kill my Garnet.  I topped Return from the Different Dimension and used it on his turn, since I was at 1400 LP.  That protected me for a turn, so I could use Dark Hole to kill his Catastor.  Now it just came down to if he could draw a Monster with at least 700 ATK.  Genex Undine has 1200 ATK, so I lost.

XX

That ended up being the last round, and sadly, I didn't win anything.  I pulled a Super Rare Kagemusha of the Six Samurai from my Astral Pack and traded it to Fwazalaza for an Ultimate Rare Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity.  Now all I need to make Wind-Ups are Rats and Sharks.  So, I may actually consider making Wind-Ups...

But yeah, I'll be at locals tomorrow, as usual, for the Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.  I have yet to decide whether or not I'm going to use my Gem-Knights again tomorrow or not.  I kind of feel like using my Nordic Diva deck again, since it's the best deck I have and I need to get some more sleeves...

Tournament Report 12/8/12

As usual, I went to locals yesterday for the Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.  I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like to since I've been busy with school, but I get 3.5 weeks off for winter break starting this Thursday, so that'll be nice.  Well, it's not like there's been much to discuss, since Yu-Gi-Oh has gotten pretty stale, and everyone else is doing a good job covering the big events.  But yeah, I'll probably talk about where I am with regards to the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh scene and such in another post once I'm done with finals

So first was the small Vanguard tournament.  There were only five people, including myself and my friend who plays Vanguard, and there ended up being only two rounds.  I got a bye in the first round, then played against one of the undefeated (1-0, LOL) players and their poorly-built Tachikaze deck to win the tournament, since the other undefeated player got paired down and lost.  So that was really silly, but I suppose that's Vanguard...

Next was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  There were about 25 players there yesterday, and I was running a new Scrap deck I made for fun.  It uses a few Gravekeeper's Spies and some other random stuff as non-Tuners for the Scraps.  Despite the fact that winning with Scraps in this ridiculously fast format depends on whether or not I draw Scrap Chimeras, I decided to just try it out and see what happens.

Round 1: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  He was using an incomplete deck (it lacked Abyss-sphere and only had one Mermail Abyssmegalo).

-Duel 1: I kept throwing cards down and rushing him by making Scrap Dragon after Scrap Dragon using Scrap Beasts and random non-Tuners like Photon Thrasher and Elemental HERO Bubbleman.  I realized that I couldn't out-advantage him, so I just rushed him as best I could and killed him before he could set up an OTK.
-Duel 2: I got a Macro Cosmos up (I don't have Soul Drains since I haven't bought any packs since Galactic Overlord, ha ha, I'll try and pick up some singles this weekend), preventing him from using any of his crazy effects.  It also let me Xyz Summon Maestroke to beat over his Thunder King Rai-Oh without him being able to negate it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't really do anything with the rest of my cards, as I had no other Monsters after he used Torrential Tribute to clear the field, so I died slowly to his Atlantean Dragoons.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Gravekeeper's Spy and a Dimensional Prison.  He opened with Heavy Storm, then Abyssmegalo, discarding Dragoons and another Water Monster.  With Dragoons, he searched Marksman, and he summoned it to tribute for Abyssmegalo to destroy my Set Spy.  He attacked twice, Set a card, and ended.  I set Scrap Beast and another back row, but he played Compulsory Evacuation Device, then Mystical Space Typhoon to clear my field again.  My hand was all Scrap Monsters, so I couldn't do anything to prevent him from killing me.

OXX

Round 2: vs Newbie Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend.  Basically, I 2-0'd him by rushing him in the first game with Scrap Dragon and Scrap Twin Dragon, and I won with Gozen Match in the second game.

Round 3: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  I just kept destroying her Necrovalley with Scrap Dragon's effect until she ran out, so I won 2-0.

My Round 4 opponent was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  He didn't really want to play, so he gave me the win.  That gave me time to play Kaijudo with my friend who plays Vanguard.  He likes the mono-Darkness deck I made randomly because he relates Hydra Medusa to Blaster Dark and Tekamora to Phantom Blaster Dragon.  Those are Shadow Paladins from Vanguard, for those of you who don't know.

That round ended kind of late, so if I were to play in the fifth round, we might not have been able to make it to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  Not to mention my tie-breakers were horrible... So, I decided to drop and leave.  I got a Tefnuit from the Astral Pack, so that was cool.  Two different people also gave me their Super Rare Mask Changes, since apparently it's the "worst" holo in the Astral Pack.  I don't mind having holo Mask Changes, ha ha.

So, lastly was the other Vanguard tournament.  There were 14 players there yesterday, and I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers, as usual.

Round 1: vs Spike Brothers

This guy was fairly incompetent, but he kept getting all of his Critical Triggers, so I had a difficult time winning 2-1.  Seriously, in the third game, his whole damage zone was Critical Triggers...

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

This was my Round 1 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game and I rushed him with double Stand Triggers to win.  I got gradestuck at Grade 2 in the second game, but I rushed him and kept getting triggers on my drive checks, so I was able to win before the advantage gap became too steep.

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin

This guy normally plays Spike Brothers, but he was playing his friend's Gold Paladin deck for some reason.  Anyways, I rushed him in the first game to win.  We both got a bunch of Heal Triggers in the second game (three each, to be exact), but I was able to win with my general rush tactics.

So then they cut to Top 4.  My friend was 2-1, since he lost to his friend, the bad Pale Moon player, who just trigger sacked him to win.  He somehow made it into the Top 4, and I was paired up against him.  He and the other two players (my Round 3 opponent and my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament) wanted to split the packs evenly, since the prizes were 10, 5, 3, then 2 packs for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, respectively.  That would mean that if we were to split, then each of us would get 5 packs.  However, I felt that the bad Pale Moon player didn't deserve to even be in the Top 4, so I would be able to beat him.  So, I ended up being the jerk who refused to split because I wanted to avenge my friend.

Semi-Finals: vs Pale Moon

He just kept misplaying over and over throughout the match, and when I pointed out his misplays, his excuse was that he was tired.  Yeah, as if Vanguard takes any thought.  He also asked me how much he'd need to guard my attacks occasionally, and I told him that I'm not going to do the math for him; that'd be taking away the only skill needed to play Vanguard: the ability to add multiples of 1000.  So, I won 2-0.  It also helped that his Grade 2 ride was often Dancing Princess of the Night Sky, which my Black Tortoise can hit unboosted...

Finals: vs Angel Feather

Now that I had avenged my friend and prevented the bad Pale Moon player from walking away with a bunch of packs he didn't deserve, I was ready to split.  Again, 10 and 5 don't split evenly, so we decided to each take 7 packs and play one game for the extra pack.  I ended up winning because I rushed him when I rode to Grade 2 with King of Sword and two Black Tortoise.  With White Tiger and a Stand Trigger, I was able to stand both of my Tortoises and attack his Heavenly Injector five times that turn.  With that overwhelming advantage, I was set to win the game.

As such, I was able to get 8 packs of Set 2.  I let my friend open them, and he pulled complete garbage.  The only good cards were a Captain Nightmist and a Top Idol, Flores.  I just need one more Twin Blader for me to be able to switch to a more Grade 3-heavy build without worrying about losing to drawing too many Grade 3's...  Oh well, I can keep trying for it next weekend...

Tournament Report 12/1/12

My weekend was really busy, which is why this week's tournament report is coming out so late.  But yeah, I went to locals yesterday for the usual three tournaments.

First was the small Vanguard tournament.  I decided to use my Nubatama deck (which features the Galahad ride chain and Hell Spiders) since I didn't want to get gradestuck on Grade 2 for like two games and lose because of it.  Well, I did get stuck on Grade 2 in the first round against a newbie Bermuda Triangle player who got double triggers each Twin Drive, so I lost.  I won the next three rounds against a Kagero player who decided not to play Heal Triggers, my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament and her Gold Paladin deck, and a Kagero player who played Lizard Runner, Undeux (not as his starting Vanguard, like, he used it to guard an attack...).

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament with my Debris HERO build.  There were 18 players.

Round 1: vs Newbie Lightraysworn

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He's a very annoying person, so I was quite frustrated when I lost 1-2.  He just drew everything each game, and I drew nothing.  That's part of why I put off playing HEROes for so long; if you don't draw Miracle Fusion, you can't do much.

Round 2: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He sided into Monarchs, which was interesting.  I don't think that he really thought it through; I just think that he really likes Caius and Zaborg.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many Monsters, so he was stuck stalling behind a Spirit Reaper.  So, I summoned E-HERO Ocean and used its effect to keep gaining cards.  There wasn't much he could do, but that's what happens when you don't draw Rescue Rabbit.
-Duel 2: He beat me down with a Caius after banishing my Snowman Eater, so I couldn't use my Debris Dragon.
-Duel 3: He drew a few Monarchs with not much to tribute for them.  After seeing the Monarchs in the previous duel, I made sure to kill all of his Monsters so he couldn't set up for a Tribute Summon, so I won.

OXO

Round 3: vs Newbie Six Samurai

"Newbie" because he was playing Great Shogun Shien and Tragoedia... Oh, and he was somehow undefeated, so I was paired up.

-Duel 1: I random rush OTK'd him with a Miracle Fusion/Leviair play.
-Duel 2: He rushed me with a Shi En equipped with Spirit of the Six Samurai.
-Duel 3: I random rush OTK'd him with Miracle Fusion, Leviair, and Monster Reborn, pushing 3800 damage through his Kageki so that he couldn't drop Gorz.  By the way, he had a Tragoedia on the field and didn't know that he could discard his own Gorz to steal my Gorz, so he wasted his previous turn using Zanji to crash into my Gorz...

OXO

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and was able to keep me from doing anything with Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.  I was able to draw two cards off of Bubbleman's effect, but that didn't do much when he could clear my field with Grand Mole and attack for game.
-Duel 2: I was able to OTK him with Polymerization into Miracle Fusion and such.
-Duel 3: He beat me down with his 1900 beaters and I couldn't do much to stop him.

XOX

So I ended up going 2-2, oh well.  I did get a Gates of Dark World from the Astral Pack, and I traded it to my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament for two packs of Kaijudo Evo Fury.  But yeah, I'll probably change decks for next weekend.  I should have some free time later in the week (basically every day except tomorrow) to think of a new deck to use.  I may even go back to Nordic Diva, since I let my friend who plays Vanguard use it for the tournament, and we played a few games for fun, and it made me remember how good the deck was, how fun and challenging it was to play, and how difficult it could be to play against.

With that, my friend and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament, and Riku met us there.  I forgot to mention it last time, but Riku had made a Bermuda Triangle deck with two boxes of the Banquet of Divas Extra Booster, so I don't have to lend him a Vanguard deck anymore.  I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers, and my friend decided to be serious and use his Royal Paladins.

Round 1: vs Newbie Kagero

I was up against a little kid using a modified Kagero Trail Deck, so I won 2-0.

Round 2: vs Newbie Royal Paladin

I was up against a little kid using a modified Royal Paladin Trail Deck, so I won 2-1 (I lost the first game to multiple Critical Triggers...).

Round 3: vs Lawkeeper Kagero

This was my Round 4 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  For some reason, he got gradestuck both games again and lost because of it.  I asked him about his grade ratios after the match, and he said he played 13-12-8.  Well, let's just say that that's not a grade ratio I would ever use...

Round 4: vs Bermuda Triangle

He was using the Riviere ride chain, but also didn't seem to know that much about the game.  By that, I mean, he took a long time figuring out how to guard each attack and forgot some of his card's effects.

-Fight 1: He got gradestuck on the Grade 2 Riviere after failing to get either the Grade 2 or 3 when he rode the Grade 1.  So, I just beat him down with my Azure Dragon.
-Fight 2: He got his whole ride chain off, and I wasn't drawing Grade 2's for some reason, so I had to make columns of Grade 1's that could only reach 15k.  So, I just beat up his rear-guards until I could make some real columns.  It was enough to whittle down his resources though, and he didn't check many triggers, so I was able to win.

OO

So that was the last round and I was undefeated.  My friend was also undefeated.  I got to see him get double Critical Triggers against a Spike Brothers player in the third round for game, and he also had an interesting field in the fourth round against a Narukami player; he put the Grade 3 Galahad behind his Vanguard, King of Knights, Alfred, so that his Toypugals would get their bonus and so that not all of his Grade 3's would get destroyed by a Vermillion Thunderbolt.  It was pretty funny, having a Grade 3 behind the Vanguard, like when Aichi called a Gancelot behind his Alfred.

But yeah, so they cut to Top 4 after that.  I was supposed to play against my friend's Round 3 opponent, and my friend was supposed to play against my Round 3 opponent, but we all just decided to split the prize evenly between the four of us.  We each got five packs, but neither of us pulled anything notable.  But yeah, they were free, so that was nice.

After that we went out to eat, and Riku ended up trading his Bermuda Triangle deck for my friend's Dark Irregulars deck.  So yeah...

On the following day (today), I went to the Kaijudo league since it was the last day and I wanted the Sparkblade Protectors.  My friend also showed up, so he played using a mono-Darkness deck I made.  There were only nine people there, so everyone got Sparkblade Protectors, and I also got enough points to get the other two promos.  My friend got the Mother Virus and gave it and the Sparkblade to me.  So, now I have two Sparkblades for my deck, which will probably be changed to support more Enforcer Evolutions.

Right now, it's Light/Darkness/Nature, a weird combination, I know.  It's been working alright, but I'm going to change it up; maybe I'll drop the Darkness stuff, since the Darkness section is just a bunch of good cards that have very little synergy with the deck.  I'll see what I can do, but there's no rush, since I probably won't be able to play Kaijudo for another couple weeks.

Other notable moments include yesterday when Elaine actually kept her promise to save me when I was about to lose, and earlier today when I actually got to reach the stack that Drangal and the Galahads created at the bottom of my deck and won the game because of it.  But yeah, that was my busy weekend.

Tournament Report 11/24/12

So, as usual, I went to locals yesterday.  I took Aki with me, and my friend who plays Vanguard and Riku were there, so that was cool.  And as usual, first was the small Vanguard tournament.  I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers, Riku was using my Invincible Overlord deck, Aki was using his recently-completed Narukami deck (now with four Vermillions), and my friend decided to use a Gold Paladin deck with eight Draw Triggers...

I was paired up against Riku in the first round and lost because I got gradestuck at Grade 2.  I won the second round against a Tsukuyomi Oracle Think Tank player because apparently he drew poorly, despite getting his ride chain and six cards in the Soul.  I won the third round against my Round 2 opponent from this small Vanguard tournament.  He changes decks like every day, so I don't remember what he was using.  And I lost the fourth round because I got gradestuck at Grade 1.

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  Aki was using his Debris HERO deck that has been featured in recent videos.  I decided to make a Debris HERO deck of my own, since I've had all of the cards and such.  Instead of stuff like Neos, Necroshade, and Voltic, I used stuff like Woodsman, Tour Guide, and Cloudian - Poison Cloud.  Yes, Cloudian - Poison Cloud.

Round 1: vs Dark Worlds

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I got rid of her back row and she wasn't able to spam Grapha, so I was able to win pretty easily.
-Duel 2: She resolved Morphing Jar, so she won.
-Duel 3: I used Super Polymerization with my Bubbleman (my only Monster) and her Trance Archfiend for Escuridao.  I then read and destroyed her Dimensional Prison with Mystical Space Typhoon.  That was her only out to Escuridao, so I won.

OXO

Round 2: vs Stun

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.  It would be revenge time, if it weren't for the fact that he traded me a Twin Blader and an Asura Kaiser before the tournament.  I just need two more of each, now...

-Duel 1: He opened with Thunder King Rai-Oh.  My hand was all search cards, so I Set Debris Dragon.  He summoned Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, then attacked.  Apparently his deck has no outs to 2000 DEF walls, so we just played the draw-pass-draw-pass game for like ten minutes.  After a while, I tried to use Heavy Storm, but he used Solemn Judgment.  Then, a couple turns later, he used Heavy Storm, destroying my four Set Spells and his four Traps.  He Chained Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce his Fossil Dyna so that he could overlay for Utopia to run over my Debris Dragon.  I then made Black Rose Dragon using my other Debris Dragon to destroy his field.  At this point, card advantage was pretty even, but he he wasted a lot of his back row, so what he had left was mostly Monsters.  So, I was able to make some big plays, like with Miracle Fusion, to win.
-Duel 2: He beat me down with King Tiger Wanghu, then Doomcalibur Knight, and Rai-Oh until I was at 400 LP.  I was able to make a comeback with Miracle Fusion after getting rid of his back row to win, though.

OO

Round 3: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Woodsman and two back rows.  He played MST on my Set Polymerization, then attacked into my Woodsman with D.D. Assailant.  That let me get back my Polymerization on my turn.  I steadily gained advantage on him over the next few turns, then I beat him down with one of my Fusions.
-Duel 2: I was able to stall him out using Woodsman again, and after a while, I went for an OTK using Polymerization, Tour Guide (into Leviair) and two Miracle Fusions.

OO

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  We were the last two undefeated players, and we decided not to split.

-Duel 1: He opened with a vanilla Dinosaur and two back rows.  I used King of the Swamp to grab Polymerization, then Debris Dragon to go into Black Rose Dragon and destroy his field.  I made Absolute Zero using Polymerization, Ocean, and Woodsman, then attacked directly.  He dropped Gorz.  "Absolute Zero does not care if you have Gorz," I declared.  He had no choice but just to attack Zero with Gorz and lose his field again.  I then used Monster Reborn on his Gorz to bait out his back row, then made a Miracle Fusion/Tour Guide play to swarm the field and win.
-Duel 2: He was able to beat me down with Thunder King Rai-Oh and such, and he had just enough back row to deal with all of my plays.
-Duel 3: He opened Rescue Rabbit into Laggia with two back row, while my only Set cards were Woodsman and Fiendish Chain.  I was able to destroy his back row with Heavy Storm, as I Chained the Chain to negate his Laggia's effect.  From there, I made a Tour Guide play and took his banished Rescue Rabbit.  That put the Tour Guide in my Graveyard, letting me use Miracle Fusion for Escuridao to run over his Laggia.  I was wary of Gorz, so I didn't attack with Leviair.  He killed it with Rai-Oh on the following turn, then I summoned Neos Alius.  He flipped Torrential Tribute, and I ended there.  He topped Monster Reborn for his Rescue Rabbit and made another Laggia.  All I had left was Cyber Dragon, Neos Alius, and Bubbleman.  I tried to bait out his Laggia's negation with Cyber Dragon or Neos Alius, and he did think about it for a while, but he didn't fall for it.  So I was unable to do anything against his Laggia.

OXX

So, I ended up going 3-1 and got 4th place.  Despite the fact that I only played against regulars today, my first three opponents went X-2, which hurt my tiebreakers.  Only the Top 3 got prizes today, so I got nothing...  It was quite disappointing.  Oh well, I'll just try again next weekend.

So after that, Aki, Riku, my friend, and I went to the other card shop for the Vanguard tournament.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

-Fight 1: He didn't guard until he was at four or five damage.  I have no idea of what he was doing, since he didn't call many rear-guards, but he also declined to guard when he had plenty of cards in hand.  One of his rear-guard columns was completely empty for the entire game...
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck at Grade 2.
-Fight 3: All of his damage was Draw or Heal Triggers, and he won with double Criticals.  I was really annoyed that I lost, since he really had no idea of what he was doing.  I even asked if it was his first time playing Gold Paladins, and he didn't answer.

OXX

Round 2: vs Pale Moon

I was up against one of my friend's friends.  I knew that he was a bad player, so I wasn't too happy to play against him.  He basically misplayed a lot throughout the match and I won 2-1.  I lost the second game because all of his damage was Draw or Heal Triggers...

Round 3: vs Invincible Overlord

I was paired up against Riku, so it was time for revenge for earlier.  I won 2-0.

So, Aki and I went 2-1 (Aki lost to my friend in the third round), Riku went 1-2, and my friend made it into the Top 4 with a 3-0 record.  He ended up getting 2nd place and getting five packs of Set 1.  He didn't pull any Asura Kaisers, sadly, but he got me some Common Granblue stuff.

But yeah, that's about it.  I'll be going to locals next Saturday, and possibly Sunday as well.  It's the last day for the Kaijudo league, and I want those Enforcer Evolutions...

Tournament Report 11/17/12

As usual, here's a triple tournament report, which technically took place yesterday, since it's after midnight.

First was the small Vanguard tournament, and I lost the first two rounds by getting gradestuck on Grade 0 and Grade 2, respectively.  Yeah, that's it.

Next was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I had made a new deck last Sunday that I wanted to try out, and it was a remade version of my T.G. Zombies.  Of course, I had to drop two T.G. Strikers, but Unknown Synchron and Tour Guide kind of made up for them.  But yeah, there were 13 players there.

Round 1: vs Machina Gadgets

I was paired up against Riku.

-Duel 1: He got two Gearframes to search his Fortresses, and since he didn't draw any back row, he was able to keep dropping Machines to revive his Fortresses.  I lost because I can't efficiently get rid of Machina Fortress.
-Duel 2: Same as the first duel.  And now that I think about it, I had a bad match-up against Machina Gadgets before Striker was Limited, too...

XX

Round 2: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  I kept destroying her Necrovalleys with T.G. Wonder Magician, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Dust Tornado, so I didn't have any problem winning 2-0.

Round 3: vs Stun

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: His Thunder King Rai-Oh and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo killed me when all I had was a Goblin Zombie.
-Duel 2: He played Heavy Storm and Dark Hole while he had a Reborn Tengu out to clear out my field and kill me when I was low on LP.

XX

So with that, I decided to drop.  I got a Vanguard booster pack (Set 2) with nothing relevant.  I also bought a box of Kaijudo Evo Fury for Aki and me to split.  We'll be opening that tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight) when we meet up.  So yeah, we'll finally be able to make some new videos after not being able to for like a month.

But yeah, my friend who plays Vanguard, Riku, and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  I let Riku use my Invincible Overlord deck while I used my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers.

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin

This was my Round 2 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He had a better understanding of the rules this time, but I still won 2-0.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

-Fight 1: I got gradestuck on Battleraizer and lost.
-Fight 2: He tried to use his Grade 2 Vortimer's skill when the Grade 1 Vortimer wasn't in the soul.  I don't know if he was trying to cheat or if he really didn't know that he couldn't do that, but my friend told me he tried doing that again later.  Either way, I lost because I couldn't guard early because I didn't have any 10k shields at all.

XX

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He abandoned his Gold Paladins, I guess, but his Royal Paladin deck isn't complete (like, it uses Wingal...).

-Fight 1: I rushed him and was able to win pretty quickly.
-Fight 2: He rushed me since I was gradestuck on Grade 2.  Honestly, I don't know if I should feel like being stuck at 2 is my fault since I only play five Grade 3's, but I'd rather not get a bunch of useless Grade 3's late-game.
-Fight 3: I won in a close game since I was able to rush in for early damage and he wasn't able to stabilize until it was too late.

OXO

Round 4: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

This was my opponent in the finals of this Vanguard tournament.  He was undefeated and I was 2-1, so I needed this win to make it to Top 4.

-Fight 1: He got gradestuck at Grade 1 and I rushed him.  By the time he got his Lawkeeper and Dual-Axe Archdragon out, it was too late; I had like ten cards in hand and a full field to his three cards total.
-Fight 2: Same thing as the first game, sadly.  It's a really terrible way to lose, getting gradestuck, but that's part of why Vanguard is a stupid game.

OO

So I made it into the Top 4, getting 3rd place.  Riku was 3-1, but all of his tie-breakers were little kids, so he didn't make it.  My friend got 4th after going 3-0 for the first three rounds, then losing to my Round 2 opponent, who got 1st.  They had to play against each other in the semi-finals.

Semi-Finals: vs Oracle Think Tank (Soulless)

This was my opponent from the semi-finals of last week's Vanguard tournament.

-Fight 1: He had to ride up to Oracle Guardian, Apollon, but he got a Scarlet Witch, Coco soon afterwards, so he was able to gain his crazy pluses.  He had too many cards for me to be able to rush him, so I lost.
-Fight 2: He got gradestuck at Grade 2 for a couple turns, so he basically gave up at that point.  I slowly killed all of his rear-guards so he wouldn't be able to make a comeback once he got a Grade 3, so I won.
-Fight 3: This game was really close, but he really should've won a lot faster that he did.  Basically, all of his Triggers were at the bottom of his deck, so he didn't have any 10k shields.  But, I didn't have much to guard with, so I kept having to minimum guard against his Vanguard.  So, since he had no Triggers at all, that would be enough for me to survive.  However, he got a lot of free cards off of Coco and such, so he was able to win once he finally got some Triggers.

XOX

My friend won his revenge match, keeping in line with the whole "we never play each other in the Top 4" thing.  But, we all just decided to split at that point since we didn't care enough to play it out.  I got three packs of Set 2 and my friend got eight packs of Set 1.  I pulled another Kirara, so now I have four.  Eh, it could've been worse, I guess.  My friend pulled a Battle Sister, Chocolat and a Maiden of Libra, and he'll be using those in his Oracle Think Tank deck once he gets around to making it.

He also gave me a bunch of the Commons and Rares that I wanted.  So now I have a full set of Elaines from Set 1, which matters because it has a better flavor text than the one from the Trial Deck.  The Elaines from the booster pack literally promise to save you (not that they keep that promise very often).

But yeah, that's about it.  Aki and I will be meeting up tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight) to make videos, so yeah.

Tournament Report 11/10/12

I went to locals yesterday, as usual.  I was too tired to type up this report last night, though, so I left it for today.

As usual, first was the small Vanguard tournament.  I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers after adding some Death Army Guys, one Twin Blader, and one Asura Kaiser.

In the first round, I played against a Dark Irregulars player who got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I won.  Next, I played against the Narukami player from Round 2 of this Vanguard tournament, except that he had switched to Spike Brothers.  He didn't get to use his Limit Break, since on the final turn, he started with two damage and ended with six; I basically out-rushed Spike Brothers.  In the third round, I lost to the Narukami player from Round 3 of this small Vanguard tournament.  It came down to his Critical Triggers, which let him kill me the turn before I would finish him off.  In Round 4, I played against the Royal Paladin player from Round 2 of this small Vanguard tournament and won.  I ended up getting 2nd place because of good tie-breakers, so I got two promo packs.  Both packs got me that Grade 2 Dark Irregulars card that Soulcharges when it enters the field, and I gave both to my friend who plays Vanguard.

Next was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I was using my Nordic Diva deck, but I'm planning on making a new deck today, since I actually have some free time.  There were like 26 players there, by the way.

Round 1: vs Wind-Up

I was playing against spondo and his Wind-Ups.

-Duel 1: He drew three Wind-Up Rabbits, so he couldn't really swarm that effectively.  He didn't draw much back row, so I was able to counter all of his swarms (mainly with a Mist Wurm) without him being able to do anything.
-Duel 2: He opened with Tour Guide and Wind-Up Shark, so he made Zenmaity and Shock Master, prohibiting Spells.  I didn't draw any Spells, so I didn't care, but he had such overwhelming advantage at that point, so I wasn't able to do much.
-Duel 3: The only Monsters he drew were Magicians and Rats, so I won pretty easily.

OXO

Round 2: vs Atlantean

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  By the way, he sold me two Duel Terminal Gem-Knight Zirconias, so maybe I'll remake my Gem-Knights soon.

-Duel 1: I rushed him with T.G. Hyper Librarian and Scrap Archfiend.  He tried to counter with Gungnir, but that gave me a card off of Librarian.  He was able to destroy my whole field, but then I just swarmed again on the following turn using Guldfaxe and Monster Reborn.
-Duel 2: His deck worked like it was supposed to and he out-advantaged me, mainly with Atlantean Marksman.
-Duel 3: I played Dimensional Fissure, and he couldn't do anything about it.

OXO

Round 3: vs Monster Mash

I was up against JB, and his all-Monster deck that uses the Birdman/Gallis OTK and a newly-added Frog engine.

-Duel 1: He gained a lot of advantage off of Light and Darkness Dragon and his Monarchs due to his Frog engine.  He did have the Birdman/Gallis/Doom loop, but I ruined it with Compulsory Evacuation Device, but I ended up dying due to burn from Gallis in the end anyways.
-Duel 2: I got him down to 3400 LP or something like that with Thought Ruler Archfiend, then he got rid of it using Volcanic Queen.  Then, I started using Volcanic Queen to deal damage by sacrificing my own cards.  Once he realized I could burn him to death with it, he banished it with Caius.  Regardless, he was at too low LP to use the Gorz he got off of Witch of the Black Rose, so I was able to win.
-Duel 3: He got the Birdman/Gallis OTK after a few turns, so I lost.

XOX

In the fourth round, I ended up going up against Yugilo.  I decided to just give him the win and drop, since there wasn't enough time to finish the tournament, then go to the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop afterwards.  So, I just played a few games in the new Yugilo Format with my Koa'ki Meiru deck.  You can see it fail spectacularly in this video on Yugilo's channel.

So yeah, my friend who plays Vanguard and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  He was using his Royal Paladin deck, while I was using my Nova Grapplers again.  Yeah, I realized that my Invincible Overlord deck kind of auto-loses to Lawkeeper, so I didn't really want to run it anymore.  Yeah, Lawkeeper is one of those cards that hates on hybrid decks.  But yeah, there were only 12 players there today.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same weird guy as last weekend.  I kept pointing out his misplays, but he insisted that he thought through all of his plays.

-Fight 1: Every time I went to finish him, he'd get a Heal Trigger or a Draw Trigger, and I'd get no triggers on my Twin Drive.  This game took forever, and I ended up losing.
-Fight 2: I rushed him really quick and he misplayed a lot, so I won.
-Fight 3: This game came down to whether or not he'd get a Critical Trigger when I was at 3 damage (I didn't have enough to guard if he were to get a Trigger).  He didn't, so I won.

XOO

Round 2: vs Narukami

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He switched from Nova Grapplers to Narukami, for some reason.

-Fight 1: I got gradestuck at Grade 2 for a turn, then he wrecked my field with Vermillion.
-Fight 2: I had to ride up to Asura Kaiser, sadly, and lost to a Critical Trigger.

XX

Round 3: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

So this was weird.  My opponent was supposed to be this one random guy, but he had to leave, so his friend who works at the card shop stepped in to fight me.  I had talked to him earlier, and he said that he believes that Vanguard is a game of skill.  However, he seemed to make many of his plays based on random whims.

-Fight 1: I kept whittling down his card advantage with my Stand Triggers and such, and he missed his ride chain, so I was able to win pretty easily.
-Fight 2: He got his ride chain off and put pressure on me with Silent Toms.  However, since I run more Grade 1's and 2's than usual, I was able to guard against them more easily than other decks.  Regardless, I still lost to the overwhelming advantage he got from Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi.

OX-

At this point, since we were the last ones playing, my opponent decided to drop and give me the win.  Besides, he wasn't supposed to be playing anyways.  So yeah, I ended up making it into the Top 4 by getting 3rd place.  My friend got 5th place by going 2-1, but the 4th place person had left before the Top 4 started, so my friend got his spot.

Semi-Finals: vs Oracle Think Tank (Soulless)

-Fight 1: He had to ride Oracle Guardian, Apollon instead of Coco, so I won.
-Fight 2: He rode up to Coco, so he won.
-Fight 3: He had to ride Apollon, so I won.  Honestly, the only advantage of playing the Soulless build is drawing free cards with Coco, but without being able to ride Coco on the third turn, the deck really has nothing going for it.

OXO

Finals: vs Narukami

This was my Round 2 opponent from earlier, so it was revenge time.  The prizes for today were 7 for 1st and 4 for 2nd.  We couldn't split those numbers easily, so we decided to each get 5 packs and play one game for the extra pack.  I rushed him really quickly when I rode to Grade 2, and he didn't have Vermillion, so I won.

My friend, unfortunately, got 4th place with his Royal Paladins (again) and got two packs of Set 1.  I got 6 packs of Set 2 and pulling nothing of note except Spirit Exceed and Kimnara.  But whatever, it was free.

So yeah, since my Royal Paladin/Nubatama hybrid deck that now features Megacolony units is now complete (or as complete as it'll be for now) and I won't be getting Granblue cards any time soon, I'm going to concentrate more on Yu-Gi-Oh and Kaijudo.  I'm planning on making a new Yu-Gi-Oh deck for locals today, and I'll be getting at least a box of the new Kaijudo booster set next weekend.  Aki and I may split a box, I'm not sure what he wants to do yet.

There is one thing I still have to figure out for Vanguard, though.  I feel as though my Draw Triggers in my Nova Grappler deck aren't really doing anything unless I check them as damage.  I feel like I would want to use less of them and more Stand Triggers or maybe even Critical Triggers.  And also, I'm not sure how I feel about NGM Prototype; it did alright, but I feel as though its spot in the deck could easily go to some other Grade 2 unit.

Vanguard Regional Report

So, I was at the Vanguard Regional/National all weekend.  Since it's Vanguard and basically every game is "I trigger sacked/my opponent trigger sacked/I got gradestuck at [insert integer from 0 to 2]/my opponent got gradestuck", I'm not going to be posting details of each game.  But yeah...

So, I took my friend who plays Vanguard to the event, and we signed up for the Regional.  We had both preregistered, so we were guaranteed spots, but we still had to wait in line for like an hour.  What was cool was that we got free stuff for entering, including a deck box and a storage box.  I ended up being in C Block, while he was in F Block.  For those of you who don't know what that means, I'll explain the tournament structure.

It's best-of-one double-elimination.  So, each round is one game, and if you lose two games, you're eliminated from the tournament.  Everyone was split into blocks, and there was no tournament-structure-based reason for this.  Basically, everything was done on paper; every player had a score sheet, and they'd mark off their results.  Judges would verify the results, then collect the papers after each round, then pair people with people who had the same record.  They would do this by placing the score sheets on the tables, and the players would have to go and find their own score sheet, as opposed to crowding around a board with names and corresponding table numbers on them.  There are pro's and con's to any tournament structure, but the main flaw was that this tournament structure didn't really take into account tie-breakers when pairing players.  Tie-breakers for X-1's at the end of the tournaments were calculated based on when those players took their one loss.  But yeah, the reason for the blocks is so that it would be easier for the judges to pair people, since they'd only have to keep track of a subset of players.  Blocks were merged as the tournament progressed.

So yeah, I used my Invincible Overlord deck, and my friend used his Gold Paladins.

I won my first round against a competent Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke) player (neither of us really got triggers all game), lost my second round against a Gold Paladin (Garmore/Pellinore) player, won my third round against an incompetent Angel Feather player, won my fourth round against something (it was probably Narukami, but I don't remember), and lost for the second time in the fifth round against a good Kagero player.  I decked out in that fifth round, so that was significant.

My friend lost his first round against Soulless Oracle Think Tank, won his second round, and lost his third round.  When we had both lost twice, we went to play in the "Free Fight" event to get the free promo cards (Dragonic Vanisher and Sphere Magus).  Yeah, you could get both promos by just playing four rounds of casual play.  There was nothing remarkable about this side event, except that my friend was able to superior ride Pellinore twice in one turn.  Unsurprisingly, that was the final turn of that game.

With that, we left to go to the evening Vanguard tournament at the other card shop (by "other," I mean not the usual card shop).  My friend gave me the fourth Azure Dragon and the fourth Three Minutes, but he didn't have the Twin Blader.  So, I just fixed up my Nova Grappler deck as best I could and decided to use it in the tournament.  There were 24 players there.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This guy was like emo or something, since he was always looking down and talking in a really dreary voice.  It's not that he was shy, it was something else...  But yeah, I lost to getting gradestuck in the first game and taking a double Critical Trigger in the third game.

Round 2: vs Angel Feather

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He abandoned his Royal Paladins or something.  But yeah, I won the first fight, but lost the other two.  My Nova Grapplers are generally weak against Angel Feather because I can't rush them for early damage that easily.

But yeah, with that, I was basically done.  Although there was no chance for me to top, I played the last two rounds for fun.  But yeah, not important.  My friend ended up going 3-1 after losing the first round to Soulless Oracle Think Tank.  He didn't top, so we left.

And, on the following day, we returned to the convention center for the Vanguard Nationals and team tournament.  This time, Aki was able to come too, and together we were Team Snogal.  Yes.  We were one of the first few teams to register apparently, since we were team number 007.  Yes.  We also got more free stuff for entering this tournament; they basically gave us the same goodie bags as from yesterday's Regional.  But yeah, we didn't really put any thought into the team order, since my friend just grabbed the first lanyard and I took the third one, leaving Aki with the second one.  I was playing Nova Grapplers, Aki was playing Narukami, and my friend was playing Royal Paladins, since his Golden Pals had failed him so badly yesterday.  Aki was able to get two Vermillions and a second perfect guard for his deck, so that was good.

By the way, the format for the team tournament was best-of-one matches, but the collective score for the team would determine which team won.  So basically, the team to win two games would win.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

I went first, but when I rode to Grade 2, I rushed him so fast that he couldn't do anything.  He was at like five damage by the time he got to Grade 3.  Aki lost to Granblue and my friend won against Dark Irregulars.

OXO

Round 2: vs Angel Feather

My worst match-up, apparently.  He rode Thousand-Ray, then Million-Ray Pegasus, so I couldn't rush him.  He didn't even know what he was doing most of the time, but I still lost, sadly.  Aki ended up losing too, so despite my friend's win, our team lost this round.

OXX

Round 3: vs Spike Brothers

I couldn't rush him very effectively, since he drew a decent amount of 10k shields.  He then rode up to the Limit Break guy and used all of his Counterblasts on one big push.  I got a Stand Trigger as a damage, so I was able to survive, but I couldn't do anything on the turn after, so I lost anyways.  Aki also lost, while my friend won.  What was odd was that in each of these three rounds, my friend would always finish first, winning his game, then Aki would finish after that, losing his game, and then the result of the match would depend on me.  I'm playing Nova Grapplers, my games are supposed to be quicker than that, yo.

OXX

With that, we were eliminated from the team tournament.  So, we just entered the Free Fight side event again to get more free cards.  This time, it was Exile Dragon and some other terrible Kagero card.  Aki gave me his terrible card, and I gave both of them to my friend in exchange for his Exile Dragon.

We then did some trading.  My friend traded away his Pellinores for Dark Irregular stuff and some Nova Grappler stuff for me.  I traded my Sphere Magus for a Dark Lord of Abyss for him.  Aki and I also bought some random Commons and Rares, including one and a half sets of the Galahad ride chain between us.  I got the whole set for myself, but Aki was supposed to get some from his friend, so he didn't want to buy the whole set.  I was also able to sell my Granblue perfect guard for $13, and I traded by Spike Brothers perfect guard for a Twin Blader.  So now, the net total of all of the money I've spent on Vanguard is $53.  I'm going to work on getting that number to zero by winning cards and selling them.

So yeah, that's basically everything relevent that happened over this past weekend.  Now I can concentrate less on Vanguard and more on Kaijudo, since the new set is coming out next week.  But yeah, that's about it...

Tournament Report 10/27/12

As usual, I've got a triple tournament report for you, starting with the small Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.

Before that, though, my friend who plays Vanguard brought me most of his Nova Grappler stuff; all that was missing was his one Twin Blader, his third Azure Dragon, and his one copy of Three Minutes.  So, I made the deck without those, opting to use a ninth Stand Trigger over the one Three Minutes that I lacked.  I also used an Azura Kaiser over the fourth Azure Dragon that I didn't have at the moment.  And, that's the deck I used for the small tournament.

In the first round, I played against the Spectral Duke Dragon Gold Paladin player I had played against in the fourth round from last week's small Vanguard tournament.  He got his ride chain off perfectly, and I wasn't able to rush him very effectively, so I lost.

My friend also lost, and we ended up getting paired up against each other in the second round.  So, we both just dropped and used the few Narukami cards he brought to make a deck for Aki.  At this point, it lacked Garudas, Dragonic Deathscythes, and basically all of the good cards.  It was pretty bad, honestly.  But yeah, we were just using what we had.  We were planning on making it better later that day, so yeah.

A while after that, the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament started.  There were only 14 players there today, since there was a Regional about an hour away, which I didn't bother to go to.  I was using my Nordic Diva deck, of course.  I really do want to try making other decks, but I don't really have time.  The only reason I have time to think of new Vanguard decks is because they're so easy to make.  Like, I thought of one on the way home from school on Friday (a Nubatama/Royal Paladin hybrid using the Galahad ride chain).  But that's besides the point...

Round 1: vs Chaos Dragons

This was my Round 1 opponent from last week's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  We were even sitting at the same table as last time.  He told me that he tried going to the Regional, but he was turned away since there were too many people, not unlike the previous Regional I tried to attend.

-Duel 1: He OTK'd me with Dark Armed Dragon, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Darkflare Dragon...
-Duel 2: I went for an OTK with T.G. Hyper Librarian, Scrap Dragon, and Thor, but he guarded with Tragoedia, leaving himself at 1700 LP. He had no follow-up, so he just scooped afterwards.
-Duel 3: I summoned Thor and just beat his face in.  Effect Veiler and Bottomless Trap Hole protected Thor from Chaos Sorcerer and BLS, so there were no problems for me.

XOO

Round 2: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 5 opponent from this Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew Dragonfly, Hornet, and Monster Reborn, so he won.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw any Inzektors except Centipede, so I won.  That's honestly what it comes down to now.
-Duel 3: He drew Dragonfly, Hornet, Centipede, and Ladybug.  He opened with Dragonfly into Ladybug into Centipede into Tiras, searching Zektkaliber.  He later used Pot of Duality to grab BLS, and I couldn't deal with all of the advantage, so I lost.

XOX

He ended up playing the Duel Terminal and getting a bunch of the new Gem-Knight cards, which he gave to me, since he knows that I play Gem-Knights.  Now I have three Sardonyx, and I got them all for free.

Round 3: vs Dark Worlds

He was kind of a newb, but he at least knew how all of his cards worked and played fairly well.

-Duel 1: He Dragged me Down and spammed Grapha, like the deck is supposed to.  I couldn't make anything bigger than Grapha, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I just rushed him with a bunch of Synchros to win.
-Duel 3: Again, he opened with Grapha and I couldn't make anything bigger than it.  I had a Dimensional Fissure, but he had two MST's.

XOX

With that, I decided to drop.  I just played Vanguard with my friend for a bit, then we left for the other Vanguard tournament.  Earlier, he had given me another Dragonic Overlord so that I could play a fourth one, and I changed up my Invincible Overlord deck a little bit.  But yeah, there were like 18 players there today.

Round 1: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

This was the same OTT player from Round 4 of this tournament.

-Fight 1: He missed his Grade 1 Tsukuyomi, riding Circle Magus instead.  I opened with a bunch of Grade 2's, so I just rushed him.  He couldn't really defend himself that well, so I was able to win with just random rush tactics.
-Fight 2: He got his ride chain off perfectly, but he didn't really commit to the field at all.  I understand that Tsukuyomi players tend to hold everything in their hand so that they can guard long enough to get to their stack, but it seems silly when your opponent gets to save all of their cards, too.  Either way, I just beat him up with my winning image while memorizing his whole hand.  There were times in the match were I was like, "You're going to intercept, then guard with a Tsukuyomi from your hand, right?" and he'd be all like, "Yeah, pretty much."  Either way, he got all of his Critical Triggers early when I was easily guarding them, so he couldn't apply much pressure late game.  The game went on long enough so that he decked out.  Yeah, he decked out before me, but that's mainly because he used Tsukuyomi's Counterblast four times over the course of the fight, and I didn't ride Mr. Invincible until later.

OO

Round 2: vs Royal Paladin

I was paired down against a little kid.  He didn't know all of the rules, so I was teaching him while we played.  But yeah, I won 2-0.

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same fairly incompetent Gold Paladin player from Round 1 of last week's Vanguard tournament.  He's been getting better though.  He still plays stuff like Nemean Lion and the Grade 3 Sagramore, though...  Oh, and I was paired down again.

-Fight 1: He got some Critical Triggers early on, so I was at five damage pretty early.  I ended up having to minimum guard against his Vanguard, and he flipped two Critical Triggers...
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 2 for a turn, which was pretty bad.  I just couldn't amass a field, since I had to guard for a bunch against all of his columns, so I lost.

XX

The tournament organizer decided to cut to Top 4 at this point.  I was the lowest 2-1, since I was paired down twice, so I didn't make it.  How sad.  Well, whatever.  My friend ended up getting a bunch of Narukami stuff from his friend, including Garudas and Deathscythes.  I also traded him some bad Kagero cards for all of the other stuff in his Narukami deck except the Vermillions, which he was supposed to give to my friend, but decided to keep because he likes to be irritating.

I also traded some of the Spike Brothers stuff I had been getting from my packs of Set 2 for a third Thunder Break Dragon.  With that, I was able to make a decent Narukami deck without Vermillions.  The main Vanguard is Thunder Break Dragon, of course, with Djinn of the Lightning Flash and Breakthrough Dragon as decent alternatives.  I made it according to Aki's specifications, with four Dragonic Deathscythes, since they're cool, and Spark Kid Dragoon as the starting Vanguard.  Also, I found out that Narukami has more than one Stand Trigger, so that's cool.  And since we're not using Vermillion, we can actually use Stand Triggers.

But yeah, assuming my friend brings the three Nova Grappler cards I still need next weekend, we'll be ready for the team tournament on Sunday.  And there's also the Vanguard Regional on Saturday, but that's not really the main point.  I mean, it takes a lot of luck to make it through 7-9 best-of-one double-elimination rounds in a game like Vanguard.  But whatever, I'll just mess with people with my Invincible Overlord deck, then play in the team tournament with my friend and Aki the following day.

Random Stuff #51

I don't think I'll have any time for another blog post until Saturday, so I figure that I might as well put one up now.  It's kind of a double-post, so don't forget to check out the previous post (a tournament report that was technically uploaded today, since it was after midnight).

So the Atlantean Structure Deck came out, which is really cool.  I'm really happy that Genex Undine is once again a good card, since I used to play Genex (like two years or so ago).  I kind of want to play Atlanteans competitively, but they're kind of lacking as a theme.  For one, it's quite difficult to use the Atlantean's secondary effects, since the only reliable way to send them to the Graveyard using a Water Monster's effect is by using Genex Undine.  There's Dragon Ice and Abyss Soldier, but you have to draw them as well as the Atlanteans, which can deplete your hand.  I don't know, I like the theme, but it doesn't seem that good, at least without Mermails...

Other than that, Yu-Gi-Oh has still been very stale.  I guess Wind-Ups are kind of new in Japan, and they've been wrecking the meta there from what I've seen.  But yeah, nothing really new.

It's the same with Kaijudo.  Until the new cards come out next month, there won't be much to discuss.  That, and the fact that my locals only has Kaijudo events on Sunday, which I am unable to attend.  Maybe I can convince the shopkeeper to consider moving the Kaijudo league to Saturday before the Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, at the same time as the Vanguard tournaments.  I mean, the leagues are just free play, so I could enter the Vanguard tournament then participate in the league afterwards.  And if there are actual tournaments, then Kaijudo takes precedence over Vanguard.

As for Vanguard, there's one more weekend of local tournaments before the Regional and National in two weeks.  That means that there's one more week to test my decks before the Regional, which I don't expect to win, and the team tournament side event at the National, which is what I'm actually excited for.  Playing on a team with two of my friends like in the anime should be exciting.  We still haven't decided on a team name yet (I haven't even talked to Aki about it), though.  Most team names end up being cheesy, so I was thinking about making it purposefully cheesy.  "Team Speeder Hound" has a nice ring to it, ha ha.  My friend who plays Vanguard suggested "Team Sagramore", since he knows that I hate the Grade 3 Sagramore, but I'd be okay with the name, since it sounds good and I like the Grade 1 Sagramore.

Neither of my decks are ready for the Regional/team tournament, but my friend should be able to get me the cards I need by this weekend. I need a fourth Dragonic Overlord for my Invincible Overlord deck, and I already have the Wyvern Guard, Barri that I'm going to tech.  I'm not sure if I want to use that Barri or a third Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara.  Half the time, I kind of wish that I could have a Kimnara to retire my opponent's boosters.  But, I'm going to change out a Hungry Dumpty for a third Berserk Dragon, so I guess that should do it.

For my Nova Grappler deck, all I have are a few cards that I've been getting from packs and a few cards my friend has already given me.  He's basically going to be giving me a whole collection of Nova Grapplers, and I'm going to put the deck together as I see fit.  I'm thinking about going with a 16-13-4 or 15-13-5 grade ratio.  If that low Grade 3-count ends up not working out, then I might run a more conventional Nova Grappler build, but I'd really rather not do that unless I can get more Twin Bladers.  We'll see, I guess.

I'm also thinking about running Marvelous Hani, but I just can't stop thinking about how bad it is unless it has a Tough Boy supporting it.  My other Grade 2's will be Kirara, Black Tortoise, and either King of Sword or Brutal Jack, but I kind of want to maximize on-hit skills so that my opponent won't be able to stop them all.  I don't know, I just feel like Marvelous Hani is really bad after my third turn, so I may not run it.

As for Aki's deck, my friend who plays Vanguard should be able to get enough cards for a viable Narukami deck (without Vermillions, sadly) by this weekend.  We'll just have to work with whatever he has, I suppose.  Vermillion is cool, but it's not the only reason why Narukami decks are playable, right?  Right...?

But yeah, I'm just looking forward to the team tournament.  It sounds fun, and it'd be great if either of the card shops I go to could do something like that.

Tournament Report 10/20/12

As usual, I wasn't able to post during the week because school takes up a lot of time, but I was able to go to locals.  My friend who plays Vanguard gave me a Wyvern Guard, Barri, but I wasn't able to use it since I needed a fourth Dragonic Overlord to make it consistent enough to warrant playing.  He also gave me a Magician Girl, Kirara, which I put in my Invincible Overlord deck.  He didn't bring any other cards, despite me asking him to bring all of his Nova Grappler and Kagero stuff so that I could get my deck ready for the Vanguard Regional in two weeks.  But whatever, there's still time, I guess.

So, first was the small Vanguard tournament.  I was paired up against a Granblue player who didn't seem to use math when we played.  I had to ride up to Dragonic Overlord, and he filled his front row with 10k's without boosters.  So he kept attacking my 11k Dragonic Overlord with stuff like Commodore Blueblood, and he'd ask me why I don't take damage.  He caught on after a while, though.  It didn't matter, since he didn't get many triggers, while I just kept killing his rear-guards before killing him.  Since he basically couldn't damage me for most of the game, I had a bunch of 10k shields in my hand by the end of the game.

In the second round, I was up against my opponent from the finals of this small Vanguard tournament.  He was running Royal Paladins.  Basically what happened was that he attacked with his Vanguard Gancelot that had an extra Critical from its effect, then he got a Draw Trigger and a Critical Trigger to push through my two-to-pass guard.  Needless to say, I didn't get any Heal Triggers, so I lost.

After that, I played against a Narukami player in the third round, since there were actually enough players there to give prizes past 1st place.  I got my winning image of Mr. Invincible and Dragonic Overlord to put constant pressure on him and win.

In the fourth round, I played against a Spectral Duke Dragon-based Gold Paladin deck.  Basically what happened is that he got two Critical Triggers to push through my two-to-pass guard.  Yeah... Now, don't be fooled into thinking that it's bad to guard for two-to-pass.  Statistically, it's the best way to guard, unless you have an abundance of shields.

So yeah, I didn't win anything, and neither did my friend who plays Vanguard.  I then entered the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament with my Nordic Diva deck.  There were about 18 people there today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).

Round 1: vs Dark Worlds

-Duel 1: He didn't draw Grapha, so I was able to completely dominate him with a Scrap Dragon.  It made me miss playing Scraps...
-Duel 2: He didn't draw any back row removal, so I was able to completely shut him down with two Dimensional Fissures.  It's a good card, yo.

OO

Round 2: vs Newbie Dino-Rabbit

My opponent here was a little kid who kept talking about how people always underestimated him because he was a little kid.  He had a full Dino-Rabbit deck with everything a... more experienced... Dino-Rabbit would use, but he still played it wrong.  I 2-0'd him after struggling a little bit since he drew both of his Rabbits in the first duel.

OO

Round 3: vs Counter Fairies with Agents

-Duel 1: I used Bottomless Trap Hole on his Bountiful Artemis, baited out all of his back row, then I summoned Catastor.  Yeah, he tried to use Hyperion, but Effect Veiler is a good card.
-Duel 2: I baited out all of his back rows, which forced him to minus since he didn't draw Bountiful Artemis, then summoned Catastor.  Yeah, Catastor is a good card.

OO

Round 4: vs Machina Geargia

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  Apparently he switches decks a lot, and it was his second time playing with Geargia.  Also, this happened to be the finals, since there were so few people.  We didn't even discuss splitting, since the prizes were fairly low anyways.

-Duel 1: I opened with Spined Gillman and milled Lost Blue Breaker with Ryko, so that when I needed to make a Catastor with Deep Sea Diva to stop him from killing me with Machina Fortress, I couldn't.  Quite sad.
-Duel 2: I threw my Thought Ruler Archfiend into a Mirror Force, then revived it with Monster Reborn a few turns later.  His only answer to that was Machina Fortress, but I always save a Bottomless Trap Hole for Fortress, so I banished it.  He had nothing else, so I won with Thought Ruler.
-Duel 3: He gained advantage slowly with his Geargia engine, while I just kept Setting cards.  After a while, when I was at 1700 LP to his 8000 LP, he left three Machine Monsters out.  Alright, Cyber Dragon into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon at 4000 ATK.  That took out half of his LP in one swing.  He Special Summoned his own Cyber Dragon and tried to fuse it with my Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, but Chimeratech Fortress Dragon cannot be used as a Fusion Material, so he was left there with a vulnerable Cyber Dragon.  I ran it over with my Fortress Dragon, then Set a Super-Nimble Hamster.  He summoned Geargiarsenal after using Mind Control to steal my Hamster.  He overlaid to make Utopia and stall for a bit.  But it didn't matter, I was able to clear out his field in a few turns and win with attacks from another Hamster and Reborn Tengu.

XOO

With that, I went undefeated and got 1st place.  I used my store credit to get sleeves for Aki and vadangchoinga (who now owes me $5), as well as a double deck box for myself.  I spent the last few dollars on a couple of Battle Pack.  You know, those Epic Dawn ones that no one cares about anymore?  Well, I pulled a Rare Tour Guide, so that was cool.  I may or may not sell it, since I'm planning on getting three of the Hanzo tins, which have Tour Guides.  So, if I keep it, I'll have six Tour Guides.  Hmm, we'll see.

So after that was the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  There were only 11 people there for the tournament.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same fairly incompetent Gold Paladin player from last weekend.  He played somewhat better than last time, so that's good.

-Fight 1: He dumped his hand onto his field.  I killed all of his rear-guards.  Yeah, that's how my deck works.
-Fight 2: I didn't get a Grade 1, so I lost.
-Fight 3: I constructed my winning image to rip apart his field.  When I was attacking with Dragonic Overlord after using its Counterblast, I even told him that he didn't have enough to guard, since I had memorized his whole hand.  I can be quite evil sometimes.  It's the Stand Triggers, yo.

OXO

Round 2: vs Narukami

This was the same Narukami player that I played against in the third round of this small Vanguard tourmament.  Oddly enough, a third of the players here were running Narukami.  It was weird.

-Fight 1: Basically what happened is he got a Draw Trigger and a Critical Trigger to push through my two-to-pass guard when I was at four damage.  This happened to me too much today.
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 2 and lost because of it.  At least Nehalem did a good job holding down the fort until I died was banished from the planet Cray.

XX

Round 3: vs Nova Grappler

This was my opponent from the semi-finals of this Vanguard tournament.

-Fight 1: I drew a bunch of my Grade 3's, so I didn't have enough to guard mid-game.  Not only that, but I had to anticipate Stand Triggers, so I basically just had to no-guard and hope for a Heal Trigger.  But yeah, I didn't get a Heal Trigger.
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 1, so I lost.  This (getting gradestuck in general) happened to me too much today, as well.

XX

So, neither my friend nor I made it into the Top 4 this week, which was sad.  So, we just left after getting a few cards.  I was able to get two more Magician Girl, Kirara and a Beast Deity Azure Dragon for $16.  Yes, I spent a little more money on Vanguard, but I'll be selling some cards next weekend, so it'll even out.

Basically, those cards are going to be for the pure Nova Grappler deck I'm going to make.  But, why would I want to make a Nova Grappler deck?  Well, first of all, it's one of the clans that I like, mainly since it uses Stand Triggers.  But also, because the team tournament that Bushiroad is hosting on November 4 as a side event to the Vanguard National Championship requires single-clan decks.  I'm planning on entering with my friend who plays Vanguard and Aki.  My friend is supposed to be getting a Narukami deck for Aki, and hopefully that'll happen by next weekend so that Aki will have some time to practice with it.

But, back to the reason why I want to run Nova Grapplers.  I don't want to have to run a bunch of Grade 3's.  I know what those of you who play Nova Grapplers are thinking: "But Asura Kaiser and the Death Army people turn drive-checked Grade 3's into Stand Triggers!"  Yeah, but they don't turn them into shields for defending yourself.  I want to play a deck that runs as few as four Grade 3's, all of which are Azure Dragon.  Azure Dragon can be searched using the Grade 1 and 2 Beast Deities, so it'll hopefully work out.  I may play a fifth or sixth Grade 3 depending on how the deck shapes up, but I really don't want to play too many.

And for my Invincible Overlord deck, I feel like I want to run more Dragonic Overlord.  Every time I ride into Dragonic Overlord, the fact that it's an 11k Kagero helps a lot.  It lets me still use Kimnara and Gattling Claw Dragon, and it prevents Gold Paladins from making weak 15k lines to force 10k cards.  It'll also let me tech a Barri, so yeah.

By the way, I was able to finally use Mr. Invincible's Megablast today while playing against my friend's Royal Paladin deck.  I just attacked his rear-guard and he let it go, so my whole field stood back up.  Of course, that was because I hadn't drawn any Dragonic Overlords all game, so all of my damage was face-up.  So that was cool.