Tournament Report 1/7/12

As I said in yesterday's post, I went to locals today once more, this time with Aki.  I took my Scrap Worms, since they did really well yesterday, and Aki used his A Gladiator Lives deck.

There were about the same number of players as yesterday, but there were more regulars, so that was good.

Round 1: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

I won the first game somewhat easily.  I lost the second after he swarmed with Card Destruction and Return from the Different Dimension.  During the third game, he drew into two copies of Return from the Different Dimension, showed them to me, and conceded.  I would've won that game either way, since he didn't draw many Dark World Monsters...

Round 2: vs Six Samurai

This was Aki's Round 1 opponent.  Seeking vengeance for friends is fun.

-Duel 1: He opened with three (THREE!) Six Samurai United, summoned Mizuho, and used Asceticism for Hand of the Six Samurai, letting him draw six cards.  That's totally fair... He overlaid for Leviathan Dragon and detached one Xyz Material to boost its ATK.  After Setting two back rows, he ended his turn.  The only Scrap card I had in my starting hand was Scrapstorm, so I would be stuck only using the Worms this duel.  I summoned Xex to grab Yagan, Set two back rows, and ended.  He summoned Elder and used another Asceticism for Kagemusha, letting him make Shi En.  I forced its negation with Bottomless Trap Hole, then he flipped Double-Edged Sword Technique to make Naturia Beast.  Yagan could only deal with one of his huge Monsters, and I died to the overwhelming advantage.
-Duel 2: Yet again, no Scrap cards in sight.  I opened with the Xex/Yagan play and two back rows.  He made quite a few misplays, letting me control him easily with my Traps.  I was able to beat him down with a Utopia, courtesy of the Worms.
-Duel 3: He opened with Elder, Asceticism, Kizan, and a couple back rows.  Instead of Shi En, he made Naturia Beast, and that was kind of weird.  I drew to start my turn and frowned at my sixth card: Maxx "C".  I made the Worm Xex play and attacked his Kizan with Xex to bait out his Dimensional Prison.  I Set three back rows and ended.  He attacked with Naturia Beast, but that was met with a Dimensional Prison of my own.  He attacked with the Kizan, which I bounced with Yagan's effect.  He Special Summoned Elder and Kizan before ending.  I drew Dark Hole and contemplated playing it.  I decided against it, but I Set it to bluff.  He summoned another Kizan to get the ATK boost, letting him attack over my Yagan, then directly.  I cleared out the rest of his back rows with my Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado, then flipped the Dark Hole.  He was top-decking, but all I had was a Maxx "C" and a Book of Moon.  I Set both and ended.  He drew Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and attacked with it, but I used Book of Moon to stop its attack.  I drew Mind Control and ended.  He drew and summoned Kageki and attacked with both of his Samurai.  Finally, I drew a Scrapyard... It still wasn't that great of a situation, since he could bounce whatever Monster I wanted to take with Mind Control using Enishi's effect.  But he didn't.  I took Enishi with Mind Control, then triumphantly dropped the Scrapyard.  He was shocked; since I hadn't played any Scraps all match, he had no idea, even going so far as to side in Light-Imprisoning Mirrors.  I made the Scrap Dragon and ran over his Kageki.  He topped Dark Hole, but I revived Scrap Beast with Scrap Dragon's effect.  I topped Cyber Dragon and simply poked with the Scrap Beast.  He drew and Set a back row.  I attacked with Scrap Beast again after drawing Scrap Chimera.  I Tribute Set my Cyber Dragon to be safe and ended my turn.  He drew and passed.  I Flip Summoned the Cyber Dragon on the following turn, summoned Scrap Chimera to revive Scrap Beast, and pushed for game.  His Set card ended up being Musakani Magatama, and the card in his hand was Grandmaster.  Dead draws are to be expected, though, I suppose.

Round 3: vs T.G. Stun

-Duel 1: I drew the exact cards I needed to counter his cards.  Like, exactly; I didn't have any cards to spare.  I ended up killing him with a T.G. Rush Rhino I stole with Monster Reborn earlier to prevent his search.
-Duel 2: I forgot how I lost.  Him having Reborn Tengu and double Solemn Warning played a part in it, though.
-Duel 3: I started with two back rows and ended.  He summoned Reborn Tengu, Set three back rows, and attacked.  I summoned Scrap Chimera (sadness) and used Mind Control to take his Tengu and overlay for Utopia.  It was able to push an attack through, which was good.  I Set two more back rows and ended.  He played Dark Hole, then used Monster Reborn on his Reborn Tengu; all that work for nothing, and now I was out of Monsters.  I had to lock up his Tengu with Fiendish Chain while I stalled out.  I was eventually able to make a second Utopia with two Scrap Beasts, but he took it with TG1-EM1.  He had a Solemn Warning for my Scrap Chimera, and there wasn't much I could do.  Quite sad, seeing as how I should have a good match-up against Stun decks, but I suppose that he just drew counters to everything I had.

Round 4: vs Chaos Agents

-Duel 1: Once again, I opened with no connection to my Scrap cards, but Worm Xex was enough to hold out for a while.  He had gone first, and passed, leaving me to make my Xex/Yagan play and Set two back rows.  He summoned Earth to search Venus, then milled T.G. Warwolf for Gallis the Star Beast, burning me for 600 LP and letting him make an Ally of Justice Catastor.  I banished it with Dimensional Prison, and he ended.  I attacked with Xex, letting him drop Gorz.  Yagan bounced his Token, and I overlaid for Utopia and Set another Dimensional Prison.  He summoned Venus and used its effect twice; I negated with Effect Veiler after he summoned the first Shine Ball in Attack Position.  He banished the Venus on the field for Hyperion, and I used Solemn Warning to negate its summon.  He attacked with Gorz and I negated with Utopia.  That left me to attack through his Mystical Shine Ball for 2000 damage.  He summoned another Shine Ball from his hand, then attacked with Gorz.  This time, I banished the Gorz with Dimensional Prison, leaving him with just his lone Shine Ball.  I attacked over it for another 2000 damage, then Set Solemn Judgment.  He Special Summoned T.G. Striker, then Kristya.  I contemplated using the Solemn Judgment, as I had a Dark Hole in my hand.  I let it go, and he pushed through my Utopia with the Kristya and another Venus.  I played Dark Hole and summoned Scrap Chimera to go for game.  I could've won the turn earlier by summoning the Scrap Chimera before running over his Mystical Shine Ball, but I hadn't used any Scrap cards that duel, and I wanted to hide the true identity of my deck.  Unfortunately, it failed, but I still won, so it was okay.
-Duel 2: I opened with both of my Worm Yagans.  I ended up having to bounce his Hyperion using one of them, then I had to Mind Control his Spirit Reaper to kill it because I had no outs.  After a while, once I finally had my Scraps set up, I lost my only Chimera to a Herald of Orange Light, so he proceeded to beat me down with a Thought Ruler Archfiend.  I had made a risky move, summoning Avenging Knight Parshath to pierce through his Set T.G. Monsters, which allowed him to capitalize with the Thought Ruler Archfiend.  But, if I hadn't done that, he would've made Trishula and Gachi Gachi Gantetsu instead, so it wasn't really as bad.  I Monster Reborned my Avenging Knight Parshath to run over his Thought Ruler, but he dropped Kristya and I lost to it.
-Duel 3: I opened Scrapyard, Scrap Beast, Scrap Orthros, Scrap Goblin, Worm Yagan, and drew another Scrap Beast as my sixth card.  Yeah, I lost.  I was able to hold out for a little while, but he killed my only Chimera with Herald of Orange Light, then OTK'd me with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning and Honest...

That was pretty demoralizing... losing two matches I shouldn't have.  T.G. Zombies would've been able to rip through that Agent deck, but I probably would've had a harder time against the T.G. Stun deck.  It's so hard to decide what deck I want to use...

Round 5: vs Burn

-Duel 1: I swarmed with Worms and Scraps to destroy his back row and go for game.
-Duel 2: He burned me for a lot really fast; after I made a Xex/Yagan play, he used Ojama Trio, then Just Desserts and Thunder Short.  He then played One Day of Peace and played Messenger of Peace.  I flipped Yagan and overlaid for Steelswarm Roach.  That gave me room to summon Scrap Beast and Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon using two of the Ojama Tokens.  I destroyed the third using Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy his Messenger of Peace.  He tributed both of my Monsters to give me a Lava Golem, then he gave me a Grinder Golem.  He Set two back rows and ended.  I drew and took 1000 burn from the Lava Golem.  I played Heavy Storm, but he Chained Remove Brainwashing to take back his Golems.  I dropped Cyber Dragon and Scrap Beast to make Scrap Twin Dragon, then used Monster Reborn on my Scrap Dragon.  I used my Dragons to attack over his Grinder Tokens, leaving him at 400 LP.  He drew a Battle Fader and lost to his own Lava Golem.

So, I went 3-2, which is pretty sad.  I pulled a Lightning Warrior from the Turbo Pack 7, which isn't horrible, though.

The whole reason I stopped playing Scraps is because they're too slow for this format.  They're decent against Stun decks, but they can't keep up with faster decks.  While T.G Zombies can keep up with the faster decks, they have some trouble against Stun and other lockdown-based decks like Six Samurai and Dino Rabbit.  It's such a dilemma... and there's a Regional coming up next weekend, which I may or may not attend, so I need to decide soon...

On an unrelated note, Aki and I each bought a new WoW TCG Starter Deck.  I got the Horde Mage, while Aki got Alliance Death Knight.  Last time I checked, Death Knights were exclusive to the Horde, but I don't play World of Warcraft, so maybe there's something going on that I don't know about...

We're also looking into Battle Spirits, so if any of you want to chime in about that or the WoW TCG, feel free.