Random Stuff #47

Normally, I would be watching Burn Notice today, but there aren't going to be any new episodes for about nine more weeks.  So, I have time for this blog post.

So recently I've been siding three Dust Tornadoes.  Yes, they can clump, but I've lost more games to not having an out to Skill Drain than I have to clumped Dust Tornadoes and Mystical Space Typhoons.  I feel as though it'll be even more important in the upcoming format with HEROes and Dark Worlds expected to be popular.  They may not Main Deck Skill Drain anymore, but they will probably side them.  Aside from that and Morphing Jar #2, I feel as though my Side Deck is pretty standard, so there's no point talking about it.

Either way, I'll be using Nordics next format.  Scraps auto-lose to Dino Rabbit, even with two Rabbits and Tour Guides, so there's no point in using them.  Nordics have a pretty decent match-up against everything now, so it's the deck I'll be taking to Regionals on September 8.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to play in the Kaijudo league on that day, though based on the limited info we've gotten about the Kaijudo league, it seems as though playing won't be necessary.  Apparently, you get points for opening packs in the store.  I guess I'll be making my Core Set box opening video in the store before the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament on September 9...

That's really all I can think of regarding Yu-Gi-Oh and Kaijudo.  I mean, there's really nothing new going on for either game, at least until the Kaijudo Core Set is spoiled next week.  So yeah, there's still nothing exciting to blog about.  Perhaps locals this weekend will be more exciting than I expect...

However, I've been thinking about how I want to build my Vanguard deck with only the cards I can get from my friend who plays Vanguard.  If he reads this blog, then here's a list of the cards I want:

1 Lizard Soldier, Conroe

2 Blue Ray Dracokid

4 Gattling Claw Dragon

4 Lizard Runner, Nafd

4 Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara
2 Dragon Monk, Gojo

2 Vortex Dragon

4 Mr. Invincible

4 King of Sword

4 Hungry Dumpty

4 Clay-doll Mechanic

4 Screamin' and Dancin' Announcer, Shout

And maybe that one copy of Wyvern Guard, Barri that you have.

If you couldn't tell, I want to drop the Gold Paladins from my deck and use Nova Grapplers with my Kagero instead.  The thing is that if my whole Grade 1 line-up is Kagero units, then I can run Conroe (which apparently costs less than $5), and I can also make all of my Triggers Kagero units instead of having half be Gold Paladins.  I'm thinking 4 Heals, 5 Draws, 5 Stands, and 2 Criticals.  I personally think that Stands are better than Criticals, but if you don't run Criticals, then your opponent has no incentive to guard your Vanguard's attacks.  So, all I have to do is run a couple Criticals, and my opponents will think that I run multiple.  At least, that's the plan.

And, I mainly want the Nova Grapplers because they unflip cards in the Damage Zone.  That lets me use stuff like Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast multiple times per game.  Having Mr. Invincible as a Vanguard also helps with Vortex Dragon's Megablast.  No one is going to let Mr. Invincible's attack hit, but having Vortex Dragon lets me use its Megablast at will.  But yeah, I probably wouldn't use the Clay-doll Mechanics or Shouts.

Either way, I don't know how well this deck would even work, but it doesn't really matter because it's Vanguard and it's mainly based on luck. I've actually been thinking about keeping track of the amounts of Triggers checked by each player during a game.  My hypothesis is that the player who pulls more Triggers would win more often.  Of course, getting a Critical Trigger when checking for damage for the last attack of the turn isn't going to do any good, so this study can't simply count the amount of Triggers each player checks.  It would have to keep track of when they pull their Triggers, in addition to which ones were pulled at those times.  Eh, I'll probably be too lazy to do such a thing, but it's something to think about.

Tournament Report 8/26/12

So, as stated in my previous post, I decided to go to locals today with my Nordic Diva deck.  I changed a few cards since the last version, basically just adding in Tour Guides to see how they would work out.  They did alright, I suppose.

Anyways, since school is starting back up for a lot of people tomorrow, many of the younger regulars (the high school and college students) weren't there.  As such, my friend who plays Vanguard wasn't there, so I wasn't able to get the cards for my deck.  I was able to go because my school doesn't start up for another month.

So yeah, there were about 30 players there today, with about half of them regulars.

Round 1: vs Fusion Gate HEROes

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Super-Nimble Mega Hamster.  He opened with Destiny Draw discarding Diamond Dude.  He then played E - Emergency Call to grab Stratos, which got him Voltic.  He attacked, letting me get Tanngnjostr (black goat).  From there, I was able to just keep Special Summoning stuff to keep killing his Monsters.  I drew all three Mystical Space Typhoons to deal with his two Fusion Gates and such, so he couldn't really do much to retaliate.
-Duel 2: As I expected, he sided into a more Stun-ish build, and I had sided accordingly.  He was able to get out a The Shining backed by Skill Drain, but then I Set Ryko and Dust Tornado, and since he had no other back rows, he couldn't do anything as I completely cleared his field and proceeded to swarm for game.

OO

Round 2: vs Blackwings

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  I knew what deck he was running, but he wasn't sure what deck I was running.

-Duel 1: He went first with Black Whirlwind and Shura, searching Blizzard.  Yeah, he already had Kalut.  He Set a back row and ended.  I Normal Summoned Deep Sea Diva and Special Summoned Lost Blue Breaker.  He used Book of Moon on my Blue Breaker, so then I Set two back rows.  He attacked with Shura, then got Kochi and attacked with that.  On that attack, I dropped Tanngnjostr (black goat).  He overlaid for Utopia, then Normal Summoned Bora.  I Chained MST to destroy his Black Whirlwind.  He ended there.  I used Tanngnjostr's effect to Special Summon Guldfaxe from my deck, then Normal Summoned a Tanngrisnir (white goat).  With my three Nordic Beasts, I Synchro Summoned Thor.  Thor negated Utopia's effect, then ran over Bora.  He then summoned Blizzard and used it and Bora to Synchro Summon Brionac.  He discarded Sirocco to bounce Thor, then attacked directly with both of his Monsters.  On my turn, I Special Summoned Guldfaxe and Normal Summoned Reborn Tengu.  That let me make Scrap Dragon, which destroyed the second Tengu and Utopia so that I could attack over his Brionac.  He summoned Armageddon Knight to dump a Vayu, then banished it and Sirocco using its effect for Armed Wing.  He attacked with Armed Wing and dropped Kalut to get over my Scrap Dragon.  That dropped me to 700 LP, but I dropped Tanngnjostr (black goat) from my hand to keep myself from dying.  He attacked it with Armageddon Knight, then played Creeping Darkness to grab Bora and Special Summon it.  On that summon, I flipped the Torrential Tribute I had had Set all game.  He was down to one card in hand, but I was top-decking.  I topped Effect Veiler and Set it.  From there, we played the draw-pass-draw-pass game for a while.  Using that Set Veiler and a Hamster I Flip Summoned that turn, which got me a Ryko, to Synchro Summon T.G. Hyper Librarian.  It ran over his Gravekeeper's Spy, which he had accidentally shown me earlier, and he got his second Spy.  He passed his next turn, and I Flip Summoned Ryko to destroy his Set Icarus Attack.  I attacked with my two Monsters, then ended.  He played Dark Hole, I flipped Solemn Judgment, and then he flipped Solemn Judgment.  He didn't have any follow-up, though.  So, I was able to resolve my last Tanngnjostr's (black goat) effect to finish him off with Scrap Archfiend.
-Duel 2: He opened with Black Whirlwind again and got several searches off of it.  He still had it by the end of the duel, and those of us who played in the Blackwing format(s) know that that means that the Blackwing player wins.
-Duel 3: He opened with Black Whirlwind AGAIN, but I had a Dust Tornado this time to destroy it when he Normal Summoned his Shura.  He attacked my Hamster and didn't have Kalut, so I was able to grab Tanngnjostr (black goat) and start making my plays from there.  By the end of my next turn, I had twice as many cards as him and had baited out all of his back rows.  Without Black Whirlwind, he wouldn't be able to keep up a constant stream of Blackwings, so I was able to win fairly easily.

OXO

Round 3: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 4 opponent from yesterday's tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Dragonfly and Hornet and I didn't have Effect Veiler, so I lost.  Oh well, that's why I side nine cards for this match-up.
-Duel 2: He drew his Dragonflies and Centipedes without Hornet and Ladybug, so he couldn't really do much.  I was able to take control of the game pretty easily, and once he finally did get his Hornet, I banished it with Crevice Into the Different Dimension.
-Duel 3: We both opened pretty passively.  After a few turns, his field consisted of three Set back rows, two Set Monsters, and a face-up Defense Position Sangan that he had gotten with Tour Guide.  I had a Lost Blue Breaker (which had run over the Tour Guide earlier), and two Set Monsters with five back rows.  I flipped Dust Tornado to destroy one of his back rows (Mirror of Oaths), then Flip Summoned Super-Nimble Mega Hamster.  That got me a Ryko, which he destroyed with Mirror of Oaths.  I then Flip Summoned Tanngnjostr (black goat) to grab Guldfaxe.  I used it and Hamster to Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon.  He flipped Solemn Judgment, and I negated with my own Solemn Judgment.  I summoned Tour Guide, and he used Effect Veiler.  Apparently, he had forgotten to use it on Tanngnjostr.  Anyways, I attacked his Set Ladybug with Stardust Dragon, then his Set Hornet with Lost Blue Breaker, then his Sangan with Tanngnjostr.  Of course, he searched Dragonfly.  I attacked directly with Tour Guide, then overlaid Tour Guide and Tanngnjostr for Wind-Up Zenmaines.  He played Dark Hole, which I negated with Stardust Dragon.  Then, he played Heavy Storm.  Well, he had the Limited cards he needed to break up my field, which ruined my plans.  He made his Dragonfly/Hornet play, knocking both Xyz Materials off of my Zenmaines.  He then overlaid Dragonfly and Centipede for Acid Golem and attacked my Zenmaines to destroy it.  He Set a back row and ended.  I revived Stardust Dragon, then Normal Summoned the Reborn Tengu I drew before ending.  He attacked Stardust Dragon with Acid Golem, then Set a Monster.  I topped Pot of Avarice and played it.  I drew Guldfaxe and Deep Sea Diva.  I summoned Diva to Special Summon another Diva from my deck.  I then used Lost Blue Breaker's effect to destroy his Set Bottomless Trap Hole.  I Synchro Summoned Brionac using Tengu and Diva, Special Summoning the other Tengu.  I pitched Guldfaxe from my hand to bounce his Acid Golem.  I then Synchro Summoned Scrap Dragon using Diva and Brionac.  Scrap Dragon's effect destroyed my Tengu and his Set Monster, then attacked directly for exactly game.

XOO

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  He knew what I was playing (but still voiced his discomfort at having to play against me and my crazy deck), but I didn't know what he was playing.

-Duel 1: He opened with Rescue Rabbit into Evolzar Laggia and three back rows.  One of those back rows was Skill Drain, which he flipped after using up Laggia's negation effect.  I didn't draw any Spell/Trap destruction at all, so I lost pretty quickly.
-Duel 2: He opened with Heavy Storm into Rescue Rabbit, then summoned Tour Guide on the following turn.  That left him with Dolkka and Laggia, so I lost pretty quickly... again...

XX

Skill Drain isn't a bad choice for the deck, I suppose.  Anyways, I was considering dropping at this point, since I don't really need any of the Hobby League cards.  But, Fwazalaza, who had already dropped after losing two rounds, still wanted Crystal Beacon.  I offered to trade it to him for a Lightray Sorcerer if I were to win my next match (and therefore get the Hobby League card), and he accepted.

Round 5: vs Dark Worlds

My opponent this round was a little kid.  I've been seeing him at locals pretty often recently, and he has been doing okay.  He's can't really keep his composure during a duel, though, and I suppose that's to be expected of a little kid.  At least he kind of knew what he was doing.

-Duel 1: He went first and did some Dark World stunts.  He ended up with Gates and Grapha with a couple back rows.  I made Thor after a couple turns, and since he had wasted his Grapha's discard already, he had nothing to deal with Thor, so I won.
-Duel 2: He swarmed with two Graphas, but then I cleared his field with Black Rose Dragon, followed up with a Guldfaxe and a Set Bottomless Trap Hole.  Bottomless dealt with his Normal Summon, and he didn't have any back rows to prevent me from going for game on the following turn.

OO

So, I ended up going 4-1 and getting 4th place.  I got the Lightray Sorcerer from Fwazalaza and gave him the Hobby League Crystal Beacon I won.  If you're wondering, I decided to get Lightray Sorcerers because of Michael Bonacini's video showing his Chaos deck.  It's quite interesting.

In my Turbo Pack 8, which Fwazalaza advised me to get because he wants Super Rare Gadgets, I pulled an Ultra Rare Skill Drain.  That's the third one I've gotten, so that's cool.  Like the other two, I'll probably trade this one away.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

So yeah, next Saturday marks the start of the next format.  I may or may not play in a tournament next Saturday, though.  I probably will, and then if I scrub out early, I'd go and play in that Vanguard tournament my friend who plays Vanguard told me about.  That probably won't be the case, though, since it's generally very easy for me to win at the start of new formats.  I guess we'll have to wait and see...

Tournament Report 8/25/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesteday, since it's after midnight...).  Nothing special; the format's still bad, so I still played Gem-Knights for fun.

Before the tournament started, though, I won a few games of Kaijudo against Fwazalaza.  I can't wait for the base set, even though I won't be able to get it the day it comes out or even the day after because it comes out on September 7, and there's a Regional on September 8.  I'll be getting at least two boxes of the base set for Aki and myself the day after the Regional, though.

Since Shien was there and his Gustos were ready, he, Fwazalaza, and I agreed to enact our wager for what will likely be the last time (at least for a while).  Fwazalaza would be using his Ice Barriers, having given up on his Vylons.  But yeah, we were just doing this for fun since the format is really bad, and hopefully it'll get better with the ban list.  So, we'd actually be able to play without getting Wind-Up looped or Inzektor looped all the time.

But yeah, there were 27 players there today.

Round 1: vs Fabled

This was this guy's first tournament.  How sad.  He wasn't bad, though.

-Duel 1: He does a few Fabled tricks, but I just make my Gem-Knight Fusions and run him down after forcing out all of his back rows.
-Duel 2: I had to waste my whole hand on Snipe Hunter's effect because I kept missing and had no way of dealing with his The Tricky and The Fabled Ganashia.  I was finally able to wipe out his whole field at the cost of all of my cards, but then he topped Monster Reborn, so I lost.
-Duel 3: He summoned The Fabled Kudabbi with no cards in hand.  I made two Gem-Knight Prismaura using the Amber loop and overlaid for Number 11: Big Eye to steal his Kudabbi.  Yes, it's quite evil.  He drew nothing to save him, so I won on the following turn with his Kudabbi.

OXO

Round 2: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  I won 2-1 after losing the second duel to Dark Hole.  Yes, it's my only weakness.  It's okay, I got revenge in game three by going for an OTK with 10000 damage.  Even if you guard with Lizard Runner, Undeux, the attack will still hit; that's how powerful it was.

OXO

Round 3: vs Wind-Ups

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and looped four cards, leaving me with Gem-Armadillo.  I got a Gem-Knight Obsidian with it, then let it get killed by Leviathan Dragon.  I topped Gem-Knight Fusion, meaning that I might have a chance, since I had a Garnet in the Graveyard.  He attacked me with Leviathan and Wind-Up Rabbit, and I hoped for a Pyro or Thunder Monster.  I topped a second Gem-Knight Fusion, which means I lost.
-Duel 2: I opened with Summoner Monk, discarding Heavy Storm.  I Special Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and Set two back rows.  He Special Summoned Junk Forward, then Normal Summoned Wind-Up Hunter, then Special Summoned Wind-Up Shark.  He used Hunter's effect, tributing the Shark, then overlaid for Zenmaity in Defense Position.  I declined to negate with Rai-Oh.  He used its effect to Special Summon Wind-Up Rat from his deck.  He tried to use its effect, but I negated with Forbidden Chalice.  He then played Instant Fusion, then overlaid for another Zenmaity.  I negated that one with Rai-Oh's effect, and he Set two cards.  I drew into Amber with Garnet in hand, which was pretty bad.  I summoned Garnet, and he tried to use Solemn Warning after much consideration.  I flipped Solemn Judgment to push it through, but he was able to bounce my Garnet back to my hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device.  I had failed to kill the Zenmaity, so I lost to the loop.

XX

At this point, both Fwazalaza and Shien were 1-2, while I was 2-1.  Unfortunately, they both still had a chance to win our bet, so I needed to win the next couple rounds to ensure my victory.

Round 4: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.  We knew what each other was playing, so we talked for a bit about next format.  He said that he's going to try to make Inzektors work, but if he can't, then he'll play Blackwings.

-Duel 1: I had no defenses against his Dragonfly and lost to it and Hornet.  I'm glad they're both getting Limited...
-Duel 2: He drew Ladybug, then Hornet, but no other Inzetkors.  So, I was able to beat him down with my Gem-Knights without much trouble.
-Duel 3: I did some stunts with Snipe Hunter to destroy his whole field after taking some hits from Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo.  I had Prohibition for Inzektor Hornet, but he didn't even draw any Inzektors.  I drew into Obsidian and Amber one after the other, letting me do the Prismaura/Amber loop against his Acid Golem, with the addition of reviving a Garnet when I discarded Obsidian for Prismaura's effect.  I attacked with Amber, then Garnet, then he dropped Gorz.  I killed the Token with Prismaura's attack, then contemplated my next move.  He had two cards in hand, and all I had was Gem-Knight Fusion.  I decided to fuse my Prismaura and Garnet for a second Prismaura, then grab back the Gem-Knight Fusion and pitch it to destroy Gorz.  That left out my Gemini Summoned Amber so that I could recycle Obsidian on the following turn.  However, he scooped after seeing his draw, then revealing his hand of Solemn Judgment (which he just drew) and two Giga-Mantis.

XOO

Fwazalaza had lost the fourth round, while Shien was able to win.  That meant that he was still a threat, sadly, so I had to win my last round.  Fortunately, I was paired down against vadangchoinga.  Since he was already X-2 and couldn't top, he gave me the win with the condition that I would buy him a Gravity Warrior if I topped.

So, I technically went 4-1 and got 3rd place.  Not only did I get $10 in store credit, but I won $4 from Shien and Fwazalaza.  I spent my store credit on some more sleeves for Kaijudo and a booster pack of The Dojo Edition.  Unfortunately, the Rare was King Bullfang (I almost typed Bluefish... EarthP0w3r reference...).  Oh well, it was free, so whatever.  vadangchoinga decided to get a Gravity Warrior from Shien, and I agreed to take a few dollars off of the debt he owes me for Escuridao.  And now I feel like I should get a Gravity Warrior.  It's not bad; it would basically take the spot of Flamvell Uruquizas.  If I don't happen to get one, then I'm content with my Gaia Knight and Orient Dragon.

After the tournament, we continued vadangchoinga's Kaijudo training so that he'll be better prepared to play in the Kaijudo leagues once they start.  And, I played Vanguard against my friend who play Vanguard using my Gold Kagero deck.  I was able to win all of the games against his fun decks, and about half of the games against his competitive decks.  The fact that I can win with that much consistency with a $29 deck against his expensive Gold Paladin and Nova Grappler decks kind of displayed how luck-based Vanguard is.  It's nice that I don't have to spend money to win, though.

In fact, another card shop has been hosting Vanguard tournaments Saturday evenings.  My friend who plays Vanguard said that we should go there and play in the tournaments, since it'd be easy to win the prizes.  He said that the players there aren't very good, so it'd be easy to win.  I'm honestly not surprised, so I may decide to do that next Saturday if I scrub out of the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

Also, he's going to hook me up with some cards for my Gold Kagero deck.  The fact that it's a multi-Clan deck means that it's somewhat difficult for him to find cards that would be useful in my deck.  For instance, he has the perfect guard for Kagero, but it doesn't do any good when my Vanguard is a Gold Paladin half the time.  But, it does allow me to play the best cards from each Clan that aren't dependent on running a single-Clan deck.  For instance, he's going to get me some Mr. Invincibles, which will help unflip cards in the Damage Zone so that I can use Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast multiple times per game.  I think that I'm only going to run two Mr. Invincibles, though, since they're kind of useless in Rear-Guard.  Dragonic Overlord is actually the most powerful in the Rear-Guard circle because you can use a Stand Trigger to Stand it if your opponent guards its first or second attack.  And, as much as I hate the Grade 3 Sagramore, it's more useful in the Rear-Guard than Mr. Invincible or Garmore.

But, how could this be possible?  Thought and strategy in Vanguard?  Don't worry, this only happens when you run a multi-Clan deck.  It's my way of making the game a little more challenging for myself.

So yeah, I'll be going to locals again tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight...).  I'll be running Nordic Diva with two Tour Guides.  Honestly, the Tour Guides have been pretty useless.  I never get Sangan; I just go double Tour Guide into Zenmaines every time.  So far, it has been just as lackluster as I had expected.  I'll probably take them out for tech cards depending on how next format shapes up.

Random Stuff #46

So, I went to the flea market today to pick up Yu-Gi-Oh cards for next format.

The first things I got were three of the new tins, two Excalibur and one Dolkka.  As I stated in this post, I was able to get a bunch of the singles from the tins that I needed, so getting these three tins filled out the rest of the cards that I needed.  So, now I have three Excaliburs and Zenmaines, so that's cool.  I've also got three Wind-Up Rabbits in case I decide to run either Wind-Ups, Beast Stun, or Chain Burn.  And, I've got the Evolzars (Laggia and Dolkka) so that I can side Jurrac Guaibas if I want.  And then there's the garbage like Blizzard Princess and Dark Highlander which may somehow become good in the future, so I might as well hold onto them.

From the packs in the tins themselves, I pulled a Gem-Turtle, Alexandrite Dragon, some other bad holos, and a Dark Smog.  The Dark Smog was great, since it's the last card I needed for competitive Dark Worlds, which I probably won't play next format.  But, I'll have it just in case, and the artwork is very nice.

After that, I got five copies of the GX manga Volume 9 for the Elemental HERO Escuridaos.  I got two for Aki, one for vadangchoinga, and two for myself.  They were a little pricier than they should've been (everyone was selling them for $12, but I was able to find some for $11), but I guess it's fine.

Then, I picked up a couple Starfoil Tour Guides, which are nice.  I might as well get them now, since they're going to be Semi-Limited for at least another six months.  And, if I don't find any use for them, I can just make Koa'ki Meiru again with M-X-Saber Invoker.  I also got a Number 11: Big Eye just to have, and also because my Gem-Knights can make use of it.  I have not yet decided whether or not I'll be putting it in my Gem-Knight deck, since space is kind of tight.  I would normally take out Amethyst or Ruby, but they each won me two games, so I can't really be mean to them anymore.  Maybe I don't really need three Prismaura, but I have managed to pull three out in one game once or twice, so I'm still hesitant to drop it to two.

And, the last things I got, which are sitting on my deck and kind of making me regret even buying them, were two Cardfight Vanguard Trial Decks.  Yes, I spent money on Vanguard; I'm disappointed in myself, too.  They were just so cheap that I figured that if I'm ever going to buy them, I might as well get them now.

I decided to get two different Trial Decks since you wouldn't really have enough good cards from two of the same Trial Deck to make a decent deck.  At least with two different Clans, I can use more than four of the 8000 effectless Grade 1 Booster and such.  It's the same for a lot of the cards, since the Trial Decks are basically all the same, with only one or two cards different between them.  Also, it means that I don't have to spend any money on stuff like Perfect Guards or those expensive starting Vanguards that actually have effects.  Just so you know, I have no intention of spending any more money on Vanguard, besides possibly entering tournaments.  Yeah, my locals will start having Vanguard tournaments before the Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, so I'd be able to join those and win more store credit and such.

But yeah, I got the Kagero and Gold Paladin Trial Decks.  I was going to go with Kagero and Narukami, but then I realized that the Gold Paladin Trial Deck is slightly better than the Narukami Trial Deck.  So yeah, I'm going to see how good a deck I can build with two different Trial Decks and such.  Also, if my friend who plays Vanguard reads this blog, if you have extra copies of Dragon Monk, Gojo and Lizard Runner, Undeux, I'd appreciate it if you were to bring them to locals this weekend so I can trade for them or something.  I've got a Photon Sabre Tiger if you still need it.

And those of you who play Vanguard are probably wondering why I would want to have more than one Lizard Runner, Undeux if it's only used as a starting Vanguard.  Well, it doesn't have to be used only has a starting Vanguard.  I mean, Kai used it to guard in Episode 1 of the anime, and I might want to use it as a Token or something...

My Perspective on Next Format

This was supposed to be a random stuff post, but I suppose it's time I talked about the ban list and how next format will be.

Well, the only things we don't really have to worry about any more are a consistent Wind-Up Hunter loop and a consistent Inzektor destroy-everything-you-put-on-the-field loop.  Chaos Dragons and Dino Rabbit got minor hits.  HEROes and Dark Worlds didn't really get hit at all.

So, the obvious conclusion to draw from this is that HEROes and Dark Worlds will be the most popular decks at the start of next format.  People already have them and people already know how to use them.  Dino Rabbit will probably also be as popular as it used to be, seeing as how the difference between two and three Rescue Rabbits is negligible.  And I think that people will still stick to Chaos Dragons because it is still viable, but honestly it wasn't that great of a deck to begin with.  It's like how Agent Fairies were when they were viable.  They were inexpensive and easy to play, so everyone played them.

Tele-DAD and Plants won't do anything; they'll be just as dead as they used to be.  Getting one Spore back at the cost of Brionac is not really going to help Plants, and all Tele-DAD got back was one Emergency Teleport and one Destiny Draw.  I know that a lot of people didn't play back when Tele-DAD existed, but here's a history lesson for you all: the top Tele-DAD builds only played two Emergency Teleports.  Also, they played three Malicious.  You can try to replace Malicious with Reborn Tengu, but it's not going to be nearly as powerful.  Not to mention, a Stardust Dragon and a Thought Ruler Archfiend aren't really that hard to get rid of nowadays.  Oh, and we only have one Dark Armed Dragon.

Continuing on with Emergency Teleport, the only decks it really helps by being at three are pure Psychic decks.  Decks that only splash a Psychic engine would only play two anyways.  And, I tried to make a Psychic deck a while ago.  It's good, but if you're using the banishing Psychics, then you're too dependent on Serene Psychic Witch and Esper Girl.  It may become popular, but it's probably too difficult a deck to use for it to become a top tier deck.

Agent Fairies got back almost everything they lost, which is basically just Earth.  They can still make due with one T.G. Striker, so I expect to see some Agent Fairy decks at locals at least.  They're still going to be worse than they were before, and they weren't that good to begin with.

Besides Dark Worlds, HEROes, and Dino Rabbit, the deck that worries me the most is Six Samurai.  It literally did not get hit at all (unless you count Brionac), and a couple of its worst match-ups (Inzektors and Chaos Dragons) got hit, meaning that it will be a more powerful force in the meta.  Also, it's supposed to have good match-ups against Dark Worlds, HEROes, and Dino Rabbit from what I can tell, which means that it might actually be a good meta pick for next format, which scares me...

I guess that's about it.  I still don't know what I want to play next format.  Assuming that top decks are Dark Worlds, HEROes, Dino Rabbit, and Six Samurai, my options would be to use Scrap Worms and lose to Dino Rabbit or to use Nordic Diva and lose to Six Samurai.  If I could just figure out a deck that only loses to Dark World and then side heavily for that match-up, then it'd be great.  I guess I'll have to keep looking...

By the way, basically none of the cards from Return of the Duelist will affect the meta at all.  That's why there were no money cards in the set, because nothing was competitive, except maybe for the Geargia.  Everything will change when the Atlantean Structure Deck and Abyss Rising come out over the next three months, though.

Tournament Report 8/19/12

So, that small chance that I wouldn't be able to make it to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight) did not occur.  So, I got my Scrap Worms together for the tournament.  Yes, Scrap Worms.  I didn't feel like using Gem-Knights again; they're good, but they're pretty inconsistent until we get Zirconia.  And, I didn't feel like using my Nordic Diva deck because I wasn't able to get one of those new Super Rare Wind-Up Zenmaines yet.  Perhaps next weekend...

Anyways, before the tournament started, I played a few games of Duel Masters/Kaijudo against Fwazalaza.  Hyperspatial Vice Hole is really good, yo.  Also, I traded the Super Rare Black Whirlwind I pulled last weekend to spondo for a bunch of the promos from the Excalibur and Dolkka tins.  Basically, I got one of everything except Zenmaines.  That's because I'm still planning on getting a few of the tins, and I don't think I need more than three Zenmaines.

Also, AquaBass was actually there.  He was excited about Atlanteans and said that the Duel Terminal Super Rare Genex Undine has gotten very expensive.  I just happen to have three of them, since I used to play Genex.  When I said that I was thinking about playing Atlanteans, AquaBass said that we can't play the same deck.  Then, he said, "We're going to go on a cruise, and I'm going to throw your Atlantean deck into the ocean. Then he [Fwazalaza] is going to jump in to save it, and he's only going to get two pieces."  We started cracking up at the hilarious reference to the third episode of the first season of the Yu-Gi-Oh anime.  But seriously, I might decide to play Atlanteans when the Structure Deck comes out, which will be in October at the latest.

There were about 24 players there today (really yesterday).  About half of them were regulars, and most of the regulars got paired up against each other in the first round.

Round 1: vs Wind-Ups

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  He said that he won't play Wind-Ups next format because they're bad with only one Zenmaity.  I disagree, but I guess he doesn't really know how to use them aside from the loop.

-Duel 1: He went first, summoning Tour Guide and Special Summoning Sangan.  He Set two back rows and ended.  I Set Scrap Goblin and four cards.  He used Mystical Space Typhoon blindly on my Solemn Judgment in the End Phase (I knew that it was blind because the Solemn Judgment in my Scrap Worms deck is a Common, so he couldn't have used the foil trick).  Then, he played Heavy Storm, clearing out my three back rows and his one.  He then summoned Wind-Up Magician and overlaid his Tour Guide and Sangan for Zenmaity.  He looped to pull out two Zenmaities and a Zenmaines after discarding the Scrap Chimera I was holding, then attacked my Scrap Goblin with all of his Monsters.  When he ended his Battle Phase, Goblin destroyed itself and got me back my Chimera.  He Set two back rows and ended. I topped and played Heavy Storm, destroying both Zenmaities and forcing him to use up both of Zenmaines' Xyz Materials, since I ended without playing Chimera.  He topped a Wind-Up Rabbit and beat me down with it and Zenmaines.  I topped Pot of Duality to grab Worm Yagan, which I Set.  He drew another Rabbit and summoned it.  He considered his options, but just decided to attack my Yagan with Zenmaines.  He took 300 damage and I bounced his Zenmaines back to his Extra Deck.  He ended there.  I topped Blackwing - Zephyros the Elite and summoned it.  He flipped Torrential Tribute and both of his Rabbits escaped to safety.  I ended and he brought back both of his Rabbits after drawing Wind-Up Shark.  He summoned it, then attacked with all of his Wind-Ups, dropping me to 800 LP.  I topped Fiendish Chain and summoned Scrap Chimera.  I revived Goblin with Chimera's effect, but he flipped my Chimera face-down with Book of Moon.  I Set Fiendish Chain and ended.  He summoned another Shark and leveled them both up to Level 5.  He overlaid for Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh, and I activated Fiendish Chain in response to its summon.  He attacked both of my Scraps with his Rabbits, and Goblin got back my Chimera at the end of the Battle Phase.  I summoned the Chimera again, reviving the Goblin again (yay, Chimera/Goblin loop!), then bounced my Fiendish Chain with Zephyros' effect.  I dropped down to 400 LP with that.  I then overlaid Chimera and Zephyros for Utopia, then Chaos Xyz Changed into Utopia Ray.  I detached Scrap Chimera from Utopia Ray to gain 500 ATK and reduce Zenmaioh's ATK by 1000.  I attacked over the Zenmaioh, re-Set my Fiendish Chain, and Set Scrapstorm before ending.  He topped Instant Fusion for a random Level 3 Fusion Monster, then overlaid it and one Rabbit for Acid Golem.  I had to use my Fiendish Chain on the Acid Golem so that I wouldn't die, and he ended.  In the End Phase, I flipped Scrapstorm on my Scrap Goblin to pitch a Scrap Beast to the Graveyard.  I drew a card for Scrapstorm, then destroyed Goblin and got back my Chimera.  I summoned the Chimera and revived Beast to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon.  I used Utopia Ray's effect on Wind-Up Rabbit twice, then used Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy Acid Golem and Fiendish Chain.  That allowed me to push through 6300 damage against his 5300 LP and win.
-Duel 2: He went first with Magician and Shark and looped four of my cards.  I Set a Monster and a back row.  He summoned Zenmaioh and destroyed both of my cards before going for an OTK.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Scrap Goblin and two Set back rows.  He looped my two Scrap Beasts and Scrap Chimera out of my hand, then played Pot of Avarice and did some more looping to amass a bunch of boats.  He let me get back my Scrap Chimera with Goblin's effect, but then had a Solemn Warning to negate its summon.  I Flipped Dark Hole, and he had Solemn Judgment.  I had nothing with which to stop him from OTK'ing me on the following turn, so I scooped.

OXX

Dang, loops all three games.  Oh well, at least it won't happen nearly as frequently next format.

Round 2: vs Hieratics

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I opened with a Worm Xex play, but he did his Hieratic stunts and destroyed my Yagan with Nebthet before swarming for an OTK.
-Duel 2: He went for a loop, but failed to OTK me.  So, I made Scrap Dragon and ripped apart his field.  He couldn't retaliate, so I won.
-Duel 3: He went for a loop, but I used Solemn Warning on his Su to protect my Set Gozen Match.  He tributed the resulting Wattaildragon he got off of Tefnuit's effect for another Wattaildragon to attack directly.  I flipped Gozen Match, then bounced it with Zephyros.  I then Normal Summoned Scrap Beast allowing me to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon.  I ran over his Wattaildragon and re-Set the Gozen Match.  He played Monster Reborn on my Zephyros, and I flipped Gozen Match.  However, he had anticipated this, and Tribute Summoned Caius the Shadow Monarch in an attempt to banish my Scrap Dragon.  Too bad for him, I had an Effect Veiler.  He couldn't get over my Scrap Dragon after that, and lost soon after.

XOO

Round 3: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.  When he realized he was up against me, he asked, "What deck are you using this time?"  Last time, I 2-0'd him with Gem-Knights.  The time before that, I 2-0'd him with Nordic Diva.  And this time, I was using Scrap Worms, whose worst match-up is Dino Rabbit.  Yeah...

-Duel 1: He didn't open with Rescue Rabbit, thankfully, and Set a Monster and two back rows.  I Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked his Set Monster.  "Set Kabazauls, Lance in Damage Step?" I asked.  He flipped Forbidden Lance, then his Set Kabazauls.  Ha ha.  I took 200 damage and Set two back rows.  He summoned another Kabazauls, which I attempted to use Book of Moon on, and he Chained another Lance.  He overlaid for Evolzar Laggia and ran over my Cyber Dragon.  I summoned Worm Xex, and he used Effect Veiler.  I then played Foolish Burial, which he negated with Laggia's effect.  Sadly, he knew how the Worms work.  I Set another back row and ended.  He summoned Rescue Rabbit to get two Sabersaurus and make another Laggia.  They attacked over my Xex, then directly.  He Set a back row and ended.  On my turn, I summoned Scrap Beast.  I then flipped Call of the Haunted, on Cyber Dragon.  He flipped Solemn Warning to negate.  I flipped my other Call of the Haunted, and he had to use his second Laggia to negate.  I Set a back row and ended.  He Set a Monster and a back row before attacking with both of his Laggias.  I was somehow able to make a Stardust Dragon to protect myself against what I assumed to be a Set Snowman Eater, but then he Flip Summoned his Sangan and summoned Effect Veiler to Synchro Summon Armory Arm.  Armory Arm let his remaining Laggia run over my Stardust and the Tour Guide he searched with Sangan sealed the duel for him.
-Duel 2: I opened with a Set Yagan and a couple Traps.  He opened with Rescue Rabbit for two Kabazauls, and I flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to banish them both.  From there, we played the waiting game, since neither of us really had anything we could attack with, not to mention he played Level Limit - Area B.  I cleared out his back row slowly with Dust Tornado and MST, then played Heavy Storm to get rid of the rest of both of our back rows.  That let me kill his lone Sabersaurus with Cyber Dragon.  But, another Rabbit let him grab two more Sabersaurus to make Laggia and lock me down.  With so few cards, I couldn't do anything against his Laggia.

XX

With that, I decided to drop.  After that, I played a few duels against Shien's improved Gusto deck.  Thankfully, I decided to use Evigishki Merrowgeist over Maestroke in my Extra Deck for my Scrap Worms, so I was able to easily deal with his annoying recruiters.  I actually like Gusto Gulldo and Gusto Egul, though; they're cool.  Not cool enough for me to waste a bunch of money on Gusto cards, though.

But yeah, I'm planning on going to the flea market on Wednesday to get some of the new tins, some (probably four) copies of Elemental HERO Escuridao, maybe Tour Guides, and some other random stuff for next format.  I should probably make a list or something.

Also, I am planning on making a blog post discussing the new format.  It's honestly very difficult to determine exactly how the format will play out, since the very worst parts of this format (Wind-Up loop and Inzektors) were hit by the ban list, and everyone's just trying out random things.  I'd rather not get into it right now, so I'll save that discussion for a future post.

Tournament Report 8/18/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).  What was unusual was that there was the Return of the Duelist Sneak Preview going on before the tournament.  I guess I didn't really discuss REDU at all, but that's because it was covered so well by other bloggers.  In summary, REDU is a pretty horrible pack on the TCG side, since all of the good cards are Supers, Ultras, or Secrets.  Yeah, there's no point in buying packs to pull bad Commons and Rares.

Anyways, I got there early to play Kaijudo and such, so I played Kaijudo and Yu-Gi-Oh against spondo, then used my new Duel Masters deck against vadangchoinga using my Kaijudo deck.  It's pretty unfair, but after the tournament, I let vadangchoinga use my Duel Masters deck against me using my Kaijudo deck and I won 2-0.  Skill plays a big role in Duel Masters/Kaijudo.  Oh, and Saint Ave Maria is pretty cool, too.

But yeah, Fwazalaza and Shien were there, but Shien's Gusto deck wasn't ready or something, so he used his Six Samurai, and Fwazalaza used his Ice Barriers.  I was using my Gem-Knights, but since we weren't all using our DT-themed decks, we did not enact our wager.

As expected, quite a few random people stayed after the REDU Sneak Preview to participate in the tournament.  There were about 26 players there with about half of them being regulars.

Round 1: vs Dark Worlds

This guy was off drinking or smoking or something (some activity that kills your brain cells) and showed up late the the duel.  This was quite irritating, since there's no way of giving out game losses for showing up late at the local level, since there are no judges.  Either way, he wasn't very good.

-Duel 1: He drew all three of his Graphas and ways to discard them, so he won.
-Duel 2: I used Prohibition on "Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World" and he couldn't summon anything bigger than a Gem-Armadillo or a Gem-Knight Garnet, so I won.
-Duel 3: I beat him down with Gem-Armadillo for a while until he played three Reckless Greed and summoned a Tour Guide to make Leviathan Dragon (I had banished two of his Graphas).  With all of his back rows gone, I had the opening I needed to declare "Final Turn".  I made Gem-Knight Prismaura and Citrine using Gem-Knight Fusion, Amber, Obsidian, and Garnet.  Prismaura cleared out his Leviathan Dragon, and Citrine prevented him from dropping Gorz, letting me go for game unhindered.

XOO

That was the first time I was able to actually declare "Final Turn" in a Yu-Gi-Oh duel, since there are so many variables that you can't account for.  Also, I was really frustrated and just wanted to beat him so that I wouldn't have to keep smelling his horrible breath.

Round 2: vs Wind-Ups

I was playing against spondo.  I assumed that he was playing Evols, since he stated that he didn't want to play Wind-Ups today or something like that.

-Duel 1: I summoned Gem-Armadillo and searched Gem-Knight Amber.  He Wind-Up looped three of my cards, but he hit Garnet and Gem-Knight Fusion as two of those cards, which effectively nullified one of the discards.  He didn't Set any back rows, so I was able to swarm with Gem-Knight Fusion and such, destroying his whole field.  Unfortunately, he played Magician and Shark, and I had to use Bottomless Trap Hole on the first Shark, forcing him to get another Shark and use Instant Fusion to make Tiras, Keeper of Genesis.  Tiras cleared out my field and he ended.  I topped Gem-Turtle with nothing in hand and Set it.  He attacked with Tiras to kill my Gem-Turtle, letting me search another Gem-Knight Fusion, then considered attacking with Wind-Up Magician.  He was at 1800 LP or something like that, and he figured that with only Gem-Knight Fusion in hand, I wouldn't be able to attack over the Magician for game on my next turn.  So, he attacked with Magician.  Unfortunately for him, he was wrong.  I top-decked Summoner Monk, letting me make Utopia and run over his Magician for game.
-Duel 2: He went first and looped me.  My hand was all Spells/Traps, so I couldn't retaliate afterwards.
-Duel 3: I opened with Rai-Oh and a couple back rows.  I was doing pretty well at beating him down with the Rai-Oh, but then he was able to get rid of it somehow before looping for an OTK.  He didn't have Hunter, but going for game is the next best thing.

OXX

Round 3: vs Wind-Ups (September 2012 Format)

-Duel 1: He just Set one Monster, and I didn't know what he was playing, so I wasn't sure of what to do.  I summoned Gem-Armadillo to search Gem-Knight Obsidian, then fused it and Amber into Prismaura using Gem-Knight Fusion.  Obsidian revived Amber and I overlaid Amber and Armadillo for Evigishki Merrowgeist.  I had no idea of what his Set Monster was, but I had a feeling that Merrowgeist would be a good choice.  It attacked and kicked his Set Sangan back to his deck.  Prismaura attacked directly and I ended.  He had no Monsters, so he scooped, showing me the two Wind-Up Factories in his hand.  So, instead of keeping that information from me and preventing me from siding correctly, he told me he was playing Wind-Ups so that I could side for them.  Alright then.
-Duel 2: He opened Magician/Shark, and when I put my hand down for him to start looping, he said something along the lines of, "Don't even trip.  I don't play Hunter."  Alright then.  However, he could still swarm the field and kill me, as my hand had nothing much in it.  Well, it had some Traps, but he had Heavy Storm, so yeah...
-Duel 3: I opened with Thunder King Rai-Oh and one back row.  He summoned Genex Ally Birdman.  Then, he activated Wind-Up Factory, Set a card, and played Mage Power on his Birdman.  Alright then...  He ran over my Rai-Oh and ended.  I summoned Snipe Hunter and used its effect to destroy his Birdman by discarding a Gem-Knight Garnet.  After that, I was able to summon another Rai-Oh on my next turn, and he scooped.

OXO

Round 4: vs Chaos Dragons

-Duel 1: The only boss Monsters he drew were Darkflare Dragon and Dark Armed Dragon.  Once I killed them both, he had nothing else with which to beat me with.  So, I just beat him down from there.
-Duel 2: He didn't mill any Dark Monsters, so I was able to beat him down pretty easily.  Without access to their boss Monsters, well, Chaos Dragons stop functioning as a deck.  It's basically just an all boss Monster deck...

OO

Round 5: vs Lightsworn

I was up against vadangchoinga.  Again, he was not happy to be paired up against me, but I don't see why, especially today.  I mean, I'm running Gem-Knights, and he's running Lightsworn, so his luck could easily carry him through this.

-Duel 1: He dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning quite early to kill my Gem-Armadillo and attack again directly.  Unfortunately for him, I played Dark Hole and Monster Reborn to steal it and kill him with it.  BLS is broken, yo.
-Duel 2: He had too many Judgment Dragons, and I couldn't deal with all of them.  Judgment Dragon is broken, yo.
-Duel 3: I was in control of the duel with Steelswarm Roach and Gem-Knight Prismaura out, but then he played Monster Reincarnation on his Gorz.  I couldn't kill the Gorz and its Token (he had Necro Garnda in grave), so I didn't want to attack.  Unfortunately, that gave him the time he needed to draw his Ryko and kill my Roach.  That let him drop his BLS and kill me.  Gorz and BLS are broken, yo.

OXX

So yeah, I ended up going 3-2, but I forgot to check what exactly my ranking was.  I'm pretty sure that I did better than both Shien and Fwazalaza, though.  vadangchoinga ended up getting 2nd, and spondo got 1st, so that was good.  I'm not sure what spondo spent his store credit on, perhaps Kaijudo; I can ask him tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight) if I remember.

Actually, I may or may not be able to make it to locals tomorrow (really today).  I will probably be able to go, but there is a chance that I won't be able to.  We'll see, I suppose...

The List is Real

The "Satoshi list" is correct, including the Semi-Limit on Tour Guide.  Quite interesting.

I shouldn't have to translate this, should I?  Everyone should already know the list by now.

EDIT: But now that I have some free time after watching Burn Notice and Suits, I guess I could type it out:


Forbidden:

• Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
• Future Fusion

Limited:

• Inzektor Dragonfly
• Inzektor Hornet
• Evigishki Gustkraken
• Chaos Sorcerer
• Spore
• Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity
• Tsukuyomi
• Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
• Ultimate Offering

Semi-Limited:

• The Agent of Mystery - Earth
• Debris Dragon
• Blackwing - Kalut the Moonshadow
• Rescue Rabbit
• E - Emergency Call
• Pot of Duality
• Hieratic Seal of Convocation
• A Hero Lives
• Reasoning
• Mirror Force
• Tour Guide From the Underworld*

*Just like with Reborn Tengu last time, there's a little asterisk next to Tour Guide that says that it'll be released in Japan in the near future.

Unlimited:

• Necro Gardna
• Marshmallon
• Emergency Teleport
• Destiny Draw
• Swords of Revealing Light
• Level Limit - Area B
• Magic Cylinder

Tournament Report 8/12/12

So yeah, as I stated yesterday (really two days ago, since it's after midnight), I went to locals today (really yesterday).  Shien wasn't there, so there was no DT-theme wager this time.  I still used my Gem-Knights because there's really no reason not to, and Fwazalaza used his Ice Barriers for fun.

There were about 40 players there today with not that many regulars.  It helps me, I guess, since the regulars know what I'm playing, so the obscurity of my decks isn't as effective.

Round 1: vs Inzektors

-Duel 1: He opened with Tour Guide into Sangan and a back row.  I played Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy his Set card, then Pot of Duality to grab a Gem-Knight card (I don't remember exactly which one it was).  I then summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, forcing him to waste an Effect Veiler.  I attacked over his Tour Guide and Set a card to end.  He switched his Sangan to Defense Position and Set a back row.  I attacked with Rai-Oh and he used Mirror Force.  So, I summoned Gem-Armadillo to search Gem-Knight Garnet and ended.  He used Book of Moon on my Armadillo and ran it over with his Sangan before Setting another card.  I played Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing Garnet and Amber to make Citrine.  Citrine ran over his Sangan, depriving him of its effect.  He played another Tour Guide, however, grabbing the third one from his deck.  He overlaid for Leviathan Dragon and I flipped Bottomless Trap Hole.  He Chained Forbidden Lance to protect it, then detached a Tour Guide to boost its ATK.  I played Heavy Storm, then did a bunch of crazy shenanigans with Gem-Knight Fusion and Obsidian to destroy his Leviathan Dragon with Prismaura and drop a bunch of Monsters for game.  I didn't see any Inzektor cards since I killed him so quickly, so I sided generically and somewhat incorrectly.
-Duel 2: He opened with Dragonfly and Hornet to do all of his shenanigans this time.  I didn't side my Prohibitions in, so I couldn't effectively stop his plays and lost quite quickly.  However, I held on long enough to learn that he was running Hopper and multiple Zektkalibers, since I basically had to let him OTK me.
-Duel 3: I went first, Setting a Raigeki Break.  He played MST, summoned Centipede and equipped it with Zektkaliber, then attacked directly.  I Set another back row and ended.  He attacked directly and ended.  I drew another card I couldn't use and ended.  He attacked directly again, played Dimensional Fissure, and ended.  I topped Pot of Duality and grabbed Lightning Vortex off of it.  I played Lightning Vortex, discarding an MST (I had drawn two MST's, Dust Tornado, and Heavy Storm...), and banishing his Centipede, depriving him of Zektkaliber's effect.  I then played Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet and ended.  He Set a Monster and a back row, and I played Dust Tornado in the End Phase to destroy the latter.  I topped another Pot of Duality, grabbing Gem-Armadillo.  I summoned it to grab Gem-Knight Garnet.  I then used Snipe Hunter's effect, pitching Heavy Storm to target his Set Monster.  I missed, which sucked, so I pitched Dark Calling to try again and destroy his Set Dragonfly.  I attacked with both Snipe Hunter and Gem-Armadillo before Setting MST and ending.  He played Dark Hole, Set a back row, and ended.  I flipped MST in the End Phase to destroy his back row.  I topped another Gem-Armadillo and summoned it to grab Amber and attacked directly.  He Set another Dragonfly as a last resort, but my Garnet was able to kill it, allowing Armadillo to go for game.

OXO

Round 2: vs Newbie Six Samurai

I hadn't seen this guy before, but based on his play-style, I could assume that he wasn't very good at this game.  Unfortunately, he drew Gateway two out of three games, letting him win 2-1.  He somehow made it to the finals where he was defeated by one of the regulars, so that was good.  Apparently he just drew Gateway all the time...

XOX

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

-Duel 1: I had access to Gem-Knight Fusion, so I won.  That's basically what it boils down to in the Six Samurai/Dino Rabbit match-up, whether or not I draw Gem-Knight Fusion and a few Gem-Knights.  Also, I dropped a 5300 ATK Evil HERO Dark Gaia by fusing Gem-Knight Pearl and Gorz to finish him off.  That tech Dark Calling is really putting in work.
-Duel 2: He opened Gateway, Elder, and Asceticism, into Shi En and two Kizan with one back row and one card in hand.  He misplayed his Gateway, but it's so powerful that it doesn't matter.  I summoned Snipe Hunter and pitched a total of three cards to destroy his two back rows (Gateway and Magatama, which he tried to Chain).  I then used my last two cards, Book of Moon and Dark Hole, to clear the field.  Unfortunately, on his turn, he summoned Kageki and Zanji to beat me down.  I topped something of no use and died over the next two turns.
-Duel 3: I drew all three Gem-Knight Fusions and not enough Gem-Knights to make use of them.  This is what I meant by, "in theory, any bad hand can be turned around with Gem-Knight Fusion, unless that bad hand happens to include multiple Gem-Knight Fusions already."  Also, I actually drew Gozen Match, but it didn't do anything to stop his Kizan from beating me down over a few turns.

OXX

So, after losing to Six Samurai twice in a row, I decided to drop.  I really hate Six Samurai a lot.  It's literally the easiest deck to play, and if you draw Gateway, you don't even have to play anywhere near correctly to win.  I guess that's why I made my Scrap Worms deck a while back.  Well, if the format gets cleaned up by the ban list, they might be viable again.  It's like the deck I can always fall back on, like how people often use Gladiator Beasts after a meta-nuking ban list.

But yeah, Fwazalaza didn't do any better than me.  In fact, he dropped after losing the first three rounds.  So, he, Riku, my friend who plays Vanguard, and I just spent the rest of the time playing Kaijudo and Vanguard.

I might actually become part of a Vanguard team with my friend who plays Vanguard.  Apparently, his other friends who play Vanguard are really bad at it, which is saying something, since, well, it's Vanguard.  So yeah, I offered to be on my friend's team since his other friends whom he would be on a team with wouldn't be able to win.  Of course, I won't build a deck or anything; I'd just use whatever deck he would provide me with.  It may be shocking for me, someone who bashes on Vanguard all the time, to offer to join a Vanguard team, but it is a fun game.  It's not balanced or skillful or worth any monetary investment, but it's fun.  But yeah, none of this is for sure.  There may not even be any team events any time soon.  We shall see...

Also, my locals will be having regular tournaments after the Return of the Duelist Sneak Preview, which is good.  Return of the Duelist isn't a very good set, so I wasn't planning on entering the Sneak Preview, but the fact that there will be normal tournaments gives me a reason to go to locals next weekend.  I may decide to enter the Sneak Preview once or something, we'll see.

Tournament Report 8/11/12

So, I bet you're expecting me to talk about the supposed ban list that has been floating around over the past 24 hours.  Honestly, it looks like something Konami would do and it seemed to have come from a reliable source.  But, who cares?  I mean, does knowing the ban list a few days early really matter?  I don't think so, so I'm not going to waste much time on it.

Anyways, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight) with my Gem-Knights, of course.  I changed the deck a little bit since last week.  I think like six cards in the Side Deck and one card in the Main Deck got changed.  The Main Deck is about as solid as it's going to get, but the Side Deck still needs work.

But yeah, both Shien and Fwazalaza were there, so we enacted our wager once more.  Again, we each bet $2, basically, meaning that the winner would walk away $4 richer.  I was a little worried, since I knew that both of their decks (Gustos and Vylons, respectively) had improved since last time.  But still, I expected my Gem-Knights to shine brightly and win me the $4.

Before the tournament, though, I played a little Vanguard with my only friend who plays Vanguard.  Apparently, he had gotten third in his block at the Vanguard "Kick-Off" event last weekend, so that's cool.  He only has two decks, so he used his Gold Paladins while I used his Nova Grapplers.  We played a few games, with me winning 2-1.  As expected, the game basically takes very little skill, and the winner was decided by Triggers.

So yeah, there were about 22 players, with about half of them being regulars.

Round 1: vs Newbie Morphtronics

I won both games with Shock Master because Shock Master is Shock Master.  Yes.

OO

Round 2: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  I was a little worried because Necrovalley kills Gem-Knight Fusion, Dark Calling, Batteryman AAA, and all that.  But, with Raigeki Break and Snipe Hunter, I was able to destroy all of her Necrovalleys and win decisively.

OO

Round 3: vs Evols

I was playing against spondo, who was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  I guess he got bored of Wind-Ups, again.

-Duel 1: I had a hand that could OTK if I had Gem-Knight Fusion.  Unfortunately, since I didn't have Gem-Knight Fusion, that just left me with a horrible hand that can't do anything.  Evolsaur Cerato at 2100 ATK and Evoltile Westlo with its 1900 DEF are too big to kill with Garnet, and I couldn't do much other than miss a bunch of rolls with Snipe Hunter and lose.
-Duel 2: I made Citrine to shut off his Westlo, then performed an OTK involving fusing Snowman Eater with Obsidian for Gem-Knight Amethyst and reviving Garnet with Obsidian's effect.  Yes, I can use the same excuse for using Snowman Eater as I can for using Thunder King Rai-Oh: I can fuse with it.
-Duel 3: The only Monster I drew was Gem-Knight Amber, which promptly died to a Normal Summoned Cerato.  Oh, and he had two Set Solemn Warnings that he didn't even need to use.

XOX

Round 4: vs Wind-Ups

This was a regular whom I hadn't played against in a while, so I'm too lazy to look up the previous time I played against him.  But yeah, he usually plays stuff like Lightsworn or Dino Rabbit, but recently he's been playing Wind-Ups.

-Duel 1: He went first with a Set Monster.  I went first with Summoner Monk, pitching Gem-Knight Fusion and grabbing Batteryman AAA.  I overlaid for Evigishki Merrowgeist and kicked his Sangan back to his deck.  I Set a back row and ended.  He summoned Wind-Up Rabbit and ended.  I summoned Batteryman AAA to revive the one I detached from Merrowgeist earlier, then overlaid for Gem-Knight Pearl.  I beat his face in a little bit while his Rabbit ran away, and I Set another back row.  He brought his Rabbit back and played Heavy Storm.  I Chained Raigeki Break to make sure it wasn't on the field, and he let it go.  That let him revive the Rabbit with his Wind-Up Rat, then make two Zenmaities and Acid Golem.  His Acid Golem killed my Pearl, he Set two cards, and ended.  I topped and played Heavy Storm, which he negated with Solemn Judgment, bringing him under 2000 LP.  I got back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Pearl, which was my intention all along, then summoned Gem-Armadillo to grab an Obsidian.  Armadillo and Merrowgeist killed his Zenmaities and I ended.  He drew and detached an Xyz Material from Acid Golem.  Then, realizing that he couldn't kill me in the next two turns, he scooped.  Yet another win given to me by Acid Golem.  Now that I think about it, Temtempo would've been better in this situation, since he could've detached Xyz Materials from both my Merrowgeist and Pearl to get up to 2700 ATK, but I'm assuming that he doesn't play Temtempo.
-Duel 2: He went first and looped me.  I didn't have any cards I wanted discarded in my hand, like Gem-Knight Fusion or any Gem-Knights, so the loop was devastating and I lost.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Thunder King Rai-Oh.  I contemplated Setting one or more back rows, since I had Monster Reborn and Heavy Storm in hand, but I didn't have any Traps.  I Set the Monster Reborn and ended.  He summoned Tour Guide, getting Sangan in Attack Position.  He attacked with Tour Guide, then played Book of Moon on my Rai-Oh.  He then attacked directly with Sangan and Set a back row.  I flipped my Monster Reborn, and he was shocked.  He could've looped me last turn, but was afraid of my back row, ha ha.  I revived Rai-Oh, but then he flipped Torrential Tribute and grabbed a Wind-Up Shark with Sangan's effect.  I used Gem-Knight Fusion to fuse Amber and Obsidian, getting Prismaura and Special Summoning Obsidian.  I banished Obsidian to get back Gem-Knight Fusion, Gemini Summoned Amber, and then used its effect to get back Obsidian.  I attacked with both Monsters to drop him to 3950 LP, then Set my Heavy Storm and ended.  Even if he were to Wind-Up loop me, I'd be able to kill him next turn with the field I had amassed.  Unfortunately, he played Dark Hole, then Wind-Up looped me, leaving me with no cards against his field of Utopia, Zenmaity, and Zenmaines.  Nothing I could draw could save me at that point, so I just struggled futilely until I died.

OXX

As expected, I don't lose too badly to the Wind-Up loop.  I do lose to Dark Hole, though, so that's unfortunate.  And this ended up being the last round because the third undefeated person, who was paired down, lost.

So yeah, I went 2-2 and got 12th place.  Out of my Turbo Pack 1, I pulled a Super Rare Black Whirlwind, which is cool, but I don't really need it.  Maybe if Blackwings make a comeback, I'll be able to trade it or something.

As for Fwazalaza and Shien, they had played each other in the first round.  Shien won the match 2-1.  After that Fwazalaza won his second round, and Shien lost his second round to JB.  Fwazalaza won his third round, and Shien was paired down in the third round (so he was playing against someone who had lost the first two rounds) and won.  Fwazalaza lost the fourth round, which was good for me.  Unfortunately, Shien was paired down, yet again, in the fourth round against a little kid.  He was able to win, leaving him with a 3-1 record. That meant that he had won the bet this week, and Fwazalaza and I each paid him $2.

Other than that, nothing else that important happened.  I played some more Vanguard after the tournament, again using my friend's Nova Grapplers against his Gold Paladins.  This time, I lost 1-2, losing the third game to double Triggers.  Eh, it's not like I play Vanguard because it takes skill.  It's fun, but again, I'm not going to spend any money on it.

But yeah, I'll be at locals tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight), once more.  I'm too tired to change up my Gem-Knight deck at all from today.  I'll just see how it does tomorrow and figure it out from there.

Gem-Knight Deck List

As promised, my Gem-Knight deck list, in both picture and text form:

Monsters: (21)

3 Gem-Knight Garnet
3 Batteryman AAA
1 Debris Dragon
3 Gem-Armadillo
3 Gem-Knight Amber
2 Gem-Knight Obsidian
1 Gem-Turtle
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Snipe Hunter
2 Summoner Monk

Spells: (13)

1 Book of Moon
1 Dark Calling
1 Dark Hole
1 Future Fusion
3 Gem-Knight Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Pot of Duality

Traps: (6)

2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Raigeki Break
1 Return from the Different Dimension
1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: (15)

3 Gem-Knight Prismaura
2 Gem-Knight Citrine
1 Gem-Knight Amethyst
1 Gem-Knight Ruby
1 Evil HERO Dark Gaia
1 Number 16: Shock Master
1 Gem-Knight Pearl
1 Number C39: Utopia Ray
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Evigishki Merrowgeist
1 Steelswarm Roach
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

The Side Deck isn't that important.  I'm probably going to change it for next weekend.  That's just the version I used on Sunday.  On Saturday, I used a third Gemini Spark instead of the Forbidden Chalice, if you care.

But yeah, there's the deck list.  I don't really want to type out all of the crazy combos that you can do with Gem-Knight Fusion, especially since I don't even know them all yet.  The deck is really more complex than I had thought when I first built it, so it would probably be difficult to use at first.

So yeah, if I update the deck, I may do a deck profile video or something.  I probably won't use this deck next format, but it all depends on the ban list.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

Tournament Report 8/5/12

As usual, I went to locals once more.  Shien was actually there this time, so he, Fwazalaza, and I were able to enact our wager.  We would all use our Duel Terminal-themed decks (Gustos, Vylons, and Gem-Knights, respectively) and the person with the best record would get $2 from each of the other two.  After yesterday's performance, I had confidence in my Gem-Knights and expected to win the glorious prize of $4.

Before the tournament started, Riku stopped by, and we played a couple games of Kaijudo.  I helped him with his deck and such after the duels.  He didn't bring his Yu-Gi-Oh deck, so he didn't participate in the tournament.

There were mostly regulars at today's tournament.  But, as usual, there were still quite a few newbs.  I think that there were around 30 people there today.

Round 1: vs Newbie Six Samurai

He wasn't necessarily bad (certainly not as bad as my Six Samurai opponent from yesterday's tournament...), but he wasn't really very good.  I almost lost the first game because I missed with Snipe Hunter three times in a row, but won because Gorz is broken.  In the second game, I got OTK'd, but I OTK'd him back in the third duel with a Prismaura loop.  For those of you unfamiliar with how that works, it involves fusing for Prismaura using Gem-Knight Fusion, Gem-Knight Obsidian, and Gem-Knight Amber.  Obsidian Special Summons Amber, Gem-Knight Fusion banishes Obsidian, and Amber gets back Obsidian by discarding Gem-Knight Fusion.  If you have another copy of Obsidian, you can skip that last step and just fuse again, which was the case in this game.  I just kept recycling my cards and he couldn't do anything about it.  When I built Gem-Knights, I certainly didn't think that Amber's Gemini Effect would be this useful...

OXO

Round 2: vs Hieratics

I knew that this guy was running Hieratics, but he knew that I was running Gem-Knights.  I think that he also had a vague idea of how they worked.

-Duel 1: I summoned Steelswarm Roach, but he killed it with Treacherous Trap Hole and OTK'd me.
-Duel 2: I summoned Steelswarm Roach, but he killed it with Dark Hole.  He didn't have the pieces to OTK, so I kept beating him down for a bit with Citrine, but then he played Treacherous Trap Hole again, then OTK'd me.

XX

This makes me feel like I need to run more defensive back rows, but that would kind of hurt the consistency of my deck.  We'll see, I guess.

Round 3: vs Inzektors

This was a regular whom I hadn't played against in over a year.  He used to run Naturias when I was running Scraps a long time ago.  I'm too lazy to go find the tournament where I last played him, so yeah... And we knew what each other was running.

-Duel 1: I went first with Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled.  I then played Pot of Duality, grabbing and playing Future Fusion, dumping Batteryman AAA and Gem-Knight Amber for Prismaura.  I ended at that.  He summoned Inzektor Centipede and used its effect to equip it with Hornet.  He used Hornet's effect to destroy my Future Fusion and searched Dragonfly.  He Set a card and ended.  I summoned Snipe Hunter and discarded Obsidian to destroy his bluff Foolish Burial.  Obsidian's effect got me Amber, and I attacked with everything to kill his Centipede and drop him to 4800 LP.  I then overlaid for Number 16: Shock Master and used its effect, preventing him from using Monster Effects.  I Set a back row and ended.  He Set a Monster and ended.  I Normal Summoned Batteryman AAA, Special Summoning the one in my Graveyard and overlaying for Gem-Knight Pearl.  I then used Shock Master's effect, detaching the Snipe Hunter to prevent Monster Effects.  With Snipe Hunter and Gem-Knight Obsidian in my Graveyard, I played Dark Calling to make a 3000 ATK Evil HERO Dark Gaia.  Dark Gaia killed his Set Monster, and Shock Master and Pearl attacked for game.
-Duel 2: He went first with a Set Monster.  I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to Special Summon Garnet.  I overlaid for Evigishki Merrowgeist and ran over his Set Monster.  It was Centipede, so I let it hit the Graveyard.  He used Dark Hole, then Monster Reborn on his Centipede.  He equipped his Centipede with Zektkaliber, then attacked directly.  I summoned Gem-Armadillo to grab Gem-Knight Obsidian, then used Monster Reborn on my Summoner Monk to overlay for Maestroke.  I flipped his Centipede face-down to deprive him of Zektkaliber, then attacked over the Centipede.  He Set a Monster and a back row and ended.  I summoned Gem-Knight Iolite and used it to attack his Set Monster.  It was Inzektor Dragonfly, so I took a bit of damage, but then I activated Gemini Spark, tributing Iolite to destroy his Dragonfly and draw a card.  That let Maestroke attack directly, and I Set a card to end.  From there, I just beat him down with random stuff, since he didn't draw his Inzektor Hornet and was unable to do anything.

OO

Round 4: vs Newbie Dark Worlds

He was a friend of my Round 1 opponent.  He was also able to win a game off of me because he had Eradicator Epidemic Virus to rip all of the Spells out of my hand after playing Card Destruction while Skill Drain was up.  I just OTK'd him in the first and third game, basically.  It would've been an OTK in the third game if he didn't have a Tragoedia, but he just prolonged his defeat by one turn.

OXO

Round 5: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He's a friend of my Round 2 opponent, so he knew that I was playing Gem-Knights, but he had no idea of how they worked.

-Duel 1: I went first, going for Gem-Armadillo, which he used Effect Veiler on.  I Set a back row and ended.  He used MST on my MST, then played Tour Guide to grab another Tour Guide.  He made Wind-Up Zenmaines and Set two back rows before ending.  I considered my options, since I had a lot of options, then opted to play another Gem-Armadillo to search Gem-Knight Obsidian.  I used Gem-Knight Fusion to fuse Obsidian with Garnet for Citrine, Special Summoning the Garnet with Obsidian's effect.  I overlaid my two Armadillos and Garnet for Shock Master, but he used Solemn Warning.  I entered my Battle Phase, and he used Forbidden Lance before I declared an attack with Citrine.  I guess he didn't know that Citrine doesn't prevent Zenmaines from protecting itself with its Continuous Effect.  So, I just ended.  He summoned Rescue Rabbit to get two Kabazauls and make Evolzar Laggia to run over my Citrine.  I topped Future Fusion and activated it, and he declined to negate it.  I sent Amber and Batteryman AAA to the Graveyard, revealing Prismaura.  I then summoned Debris Dragon, and he negated the Normal Summon with Laggia's effect.  I ended my turn there.  He Normal Summoned Sabersaurus and attacked with it and Laggia.  I Normal Summoned Summoner Monk and retrieved my Gem-Knight Fusion from my Graveyard by banishing Citrine.  I pitched it with Summoner Monk's effect to get Snipe Hunter.  I got back my Gem-Knight Fusion again, banishing Obsidian, to discard with Snipe Hunter's effect.  I missed the dice roll, but I could keep trying thanks to the awesome power of Gem-Knight Fusion.  So, I got it back again, banishing Garnet, and successfully destroyed his Laggia.  I then overlaid for Gem-Knight Pearl and ran over his Sabersaurus.  I banished Amber to get back Gem-Knight Fusion for the last time and Set a back row.  He Set a Monster and a back row and ended.  I contemplated destroying his back row with Raigeki Break in the End Phase, and decided to.  It was a good choice, since he had just Set Compulsory Evacuation Device.  I simply attacked his Set Kabazauls on my next turn and passed.  He drew and Set another Monster before ending.  I attacked it, and it was the Snowman Eater that I knew that he was Main Decking.  He destroyed my Pearl, letting me banish it from the Graveyard to grab back my Gem-Knight Fusion once more.  I ended at that.  He switched his Zenmaines to Attack Position and attacked directly, dropping me to 2000 LP and letting me drop Gorz.  He played Dark Hole, detaching one Xyz Material to save his Zenmaines, but since it was the only card on the field after that, he had to detach the other Xyz Material to protect it from its own destruction effect.  From there, I had several options, and decided to use Monster Reborn on my Summoner Monk and pitch Gem-Knight Fusion to grab Gem-Knight Garnet and overlay for Utopia.  I attacked over his Zenmaines and ended.  He topped Monster Reborn and took my Gorz.  When he attacked, I negated with Utopia's effect.  I topped Dark Calling and summoned the Snipe Hunter I was holding.  I banished the Garnet I had detached from Utopia to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion and pitched it to destroy Gorz.  However, I missed the dice roll.  It didn't matter, since I then played Dark Calling to make a 3200 ATK Dark Gaia, which was just enough for me to go for game (he had like 4300 LP or something like that).
-Duel 2: He went first, Setting three back rows and summoning a Sabersaurus.  I Set Gem-Knight Iolite and three back rows.  He flipped Macro Cosmos in the End Phase, which I allowed.  He Set another back row and passed, afraid of the Snowman Eaters that I don't play, but probably should.  I Set another back row and ended.  He summoned another Sabersaurus and I flipped Book of Moon to turn it face-down.  He passed.  I played Gem-Knight Fusion, then Chained MST to destroy his Macro Cosmos.  I expected him to flip another Macro Cosmos, which is what I wanted since I had a second Gem-Knight Fusion in hand and Return from the Different Dimension Set, but he let it through.  So, I made Prismaura using my Set Iolite and the Amber in my hand.  He immediately bounced it with Compulsory Evacuation Device, and I just got back my Gem-Knight Fusion before ending.  He Flip Summoned his Sabersaurus and overlaid his two Dinosaurs for Evolzar Laggia.  He attacked directly and ended.  I topped and Set Forbidden Chalice before ending.  He attacked with Laggia, and I activated Raigeki Break in an attempt to destroy Laggia, discarding Gem-Knight Fusion.  He Chained Laggia's effect, and I Chained Forbidden Chalice to negate it.  His Laggia died, and he ended.  I topped and summoned Gem-Knight Garnet.  He negated its summon with Solemn Warning.  I played Monster Reborn on his Laggia, and he negated with Solemn Warning.  I banished Garnet with Gem-Knight Fusion's Graveyard effect, then flipped Return from the Different Dimension, and he negated with Solemn Judgment.  That left LP at 2800 to 2000, but all I had was two Gem-Knight Fusions, so I ended.  He played Level Limit - Area B and Set a back row.  I topped and summoned Gem-Knight Obsidian and attacked to drop him to 500 LP.  He topped Tour Guide and made Leviathan Dragon to kill my Obsidian and drop me to 1800 LP.  I drew Dimensional Prison.  I shuffled my hand and quickly Set one Gem-Knight Fusion.  I pretended to think for a bit before Setting Dimensional Prison.  He drew for his turn and used MST on my Gem-Knight Fusion, falling for my bluff.  He attacked and I banished Leviathan Dragon with Dimensional Prison.  He ended there.  I got back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian, then ended.  He Set a Monster and ended.  I topped my second Obsidian, letting me fuse it with the Amber I drew last turn using Gem-Knight Fusion.  That let me Fusion Summon Prismaura in Defense Position, and Obsidian let me revive Amber in Defense Position.  I Gemini Summoned Amber and banished Obsidian from my Graveyard to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion.  I pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to grab back Obsidian.  At this point, all I had in hand was Obsidian and a Gem-Knight Fusion with only Amber and Prismaura on the field.  I declined to destroy his Level Limit - Area B, because it also prevented him from making any aggressive plays, so I ended.  He Set a Monster and ended.  At this point, I decided to use Prismaura's effect, discarding Obsidian to destroy his Level Limit - Area B, but he negated with Effect Veiler.  So, I grabbed back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian and grabbed back Obsidian with Amber's effect, discarding the Gem-Knight Fusion.  I ended there.  He dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning in Defense Position and banished my Prismaura.  He also Set a back row before ending.  I played my Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing the Amber on the field with the Obsidian in my hand, letting me recreate my previous set-up of Prismaura and Amber.  I banished Obsidian to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion, Gemini Summoned Amber and used its effect to pitch Gem-Knight Fusion and grab back Obsidian, then pitched Obsidian with Prismaura's effect to destroy BLS.  I grabbed back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian and ended.  As you can see, the Prismaura/Amber loop is amazing.  On my next turn, I was able to do the little loop again to destroy his Level Limit - Area B for free, then I switched my Monsters to Attack Position and attacked his Set Kabazauls with Amber.  He played Forbidden Lance on my Amber, so I took 700 damage, but then I killed the Kabazauls with Prismaura.  I Set a card and ended.  He played Dark Hole, which I negated with Solemn Judgment, then he played another Level Limit - Area B.  My Gem-Knights were forced back into Defense Position, and he ended.  Again, I just used the Prismaura/Amber loop to destroy his Level Limit - Area B for free and swung for game.

OO

To think, I didn't even want to run the Gemini Gem-Knights until we got Sanyx.  I really underestimated Amber's effect when combined with Obsidian.  It makes me want to play a third Obsidian, but I'd rather not draw multiples.  Two seems like the right number.  Also, I only have two Duel Terminal Obsidians...

So yeah, I went 4-1 again with my Gem-Knights and got 4th place.  That got me a Hobby League Shining Angel, which I'll never use, but it's nice to have.  I also got a decent Turbo Pack 1 with both Ryko and Armageddon Knight, so that was nice.

As for the little wager, Shien went 1-1, drop (I think he had to leave during the tournament to go do something, but then he came back afterwards), and Fwazalaza went 3-2 and got 10th place.  Much better than his 1-4 record from yesterday, ha ha.  Still, I was able to win our little bet, and Shien and Fwazalaza each pitched in $2 for me to get a Kaijudo Dojo Edition booster pack.  The Commons and Rare were bad, but I got a second Ghost Spy, a third Super Bazooka Volcanodon, and a ninth Hydro Spy, so that was cool.

But yeah, my Gem-Knight build turned out to be much better than I had hoped.  I didn't expect to be going X-1 with it; all I wanted was to be able to beat Fwazalaza and Shien's DT-theme decks, but Gem-Knights actually seem like they could be competitive.  I think that I'm going to make a few changes for next week.  Batteryman AAA has been pretty good; I haven't dead drawn it yet, but I don't think it's really worth the space in the deck.  As I said earlier, I also want to add more defensive cards and drop the Iolites and Gemini Sparks, but I guess I'll have to figure it out sometime this week.

I will most likely post up a deck list sometime this week before I change the deck.  I know that Fwazalaza is quite eager to see it, and I'd be cool to show off a non-Rescue Rabbit-based competitive Gem-Knight deck.

Tournament Report 8/4/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).  But, this time I took my magical Gem-Knight deck that I had worked so hard to put together.  Gem-Knights are really hard to build well, especially without access to Rescue Rabbit, Lavalval Chain, and the various Gem-Knight Fusion Monsters that the OCG has.

Either way, before the tournament, I played several Kaijudo duels with Fwazalaza, and won all but one of them.  I had added Gilaflame to my deck, and it worked out quite well.  Level 4 for a 5000 Power Fast Attacker is too good, yo.  Overcharge is also awesome for the time being.  It will cease to be awesome once we get Stormspark Blast, of course.

Anyways, there were about 26 players there today.  There were quite a few regulars (about half, I think), but also a lot of newbs...

Round 1: vs Ninja

This guy honestly wasn't very good, but he drew really well.  I mean, you're not supposed to draw all three Hanzos every game; that's just too good.

-Duel 1: He opened with Hanzo and four back rows, one of which was the Super-Transformation he searched.  I played Pot of Duality to grab Gem-Turtle and Set it.  I Set a back row and ended.  He passed without making a play.  I Flip Summoned Gem-Turtle to get my Gem-Knight Fusion.  I Normal Summoned Snipe Hunter, and he flipped his Super-Transformation to get White Dragon Ninja by sending my Snipe Hunter and his Hanzo to the Graveyard.  In my End Phase, he flipped Ninjitsu Art of Duplication, sacrificing his White Dragon Ninja for a Hanzo and three Crimson Ninja.  Okay...?  He used a Crimson Ninja to destroy my Set Raigeki Break, which I Chained to destroy one of his back rows.  He then attacked my Turtle with his Crimson Ninja, then directly with Hanzo.  I Fusion Summoned Gem-Knight Prismaura, then grabbed back the Gem-Knight Fusion and pitched it with Prismaura's effect to destroy his Duplication.  Unfortunately, he proceeded to drop BLS after using Upstart Golden Ninja to Xyz Summon Maestroke and killed me with it.
-Duel 2: I dropped Gem-Knight Pearl and he had no answers to it.  Super-Transformation has nothing on Xyz Monsters.  Seriously, I just killed him with three attacks from Pearl and a final attack from Number 16: Shock Master to prevent Gorz or Tragoedia from jumping out.
-Duel 3: Since the first duel had taken so long, this duel went into time.  He Xyz Summoned Steelswarm Roach using Upstart Golden Ninja, which made no sense, but I wasn't complaining.  He then declined to attack with it.  I summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and he burned a Solemn Warning on it, making it impossible for him to recover from the LP gap that let me win at the end of the three turns.

XOO

Round 2: vs Chaos Dragons

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.  His deck had improved since last time.

-Duel 1: He only milled Light Monsters, and when he tried to make a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon play, I had Raigeki Break ready to destroy it.  So, I just beat him down with Gem-Armadillo and Snipe Hunter.
-Duel 2: I was sitting behind a Rai-Oh and a Bottomless Trap Hole.  He played Mind Control, then summoned Eclipse Wyvern, which I used Bottomless on.  He then played Monster Reborn on the REDMD he had milled earlier, then revived an Apocralyph to overlay with my Rai-Oh and go for game.  Mind Control is too broken, yo.
-Duel 3: I was beating him down with a Gem-Knight Prismaura, but then he dropped Chaos Sorcerer to banish it.  On my turn, I flipped Return from the Different Dimension, bringing back my Prismaura and all of the Gem-Knights I had banished for Gem-Knight Fusion's effect.  I started making a series of Fusion/Xyz plays to play around Tragoedia and Gorz, but then he just scooped, revealing to me a hand of two REDMD and a Mind Control.

OXO

Round 3: vs Newbie Six Samurai

This guy was a friend of AquaBass', but he wasn't very good at all.  He played Effect Veiler, but never used it, even revealing it to me at the end of the game, saying that there was nothing he could do, despite the fact that he had several opportunities to use his Veilers.  He also made very poor plays, like using Monster Reborn on a Kizan when I had Prismaura out just to protect himself from damage.  It's hard for me to believe, but I think that he's not even good enough to use Six Samurai effectively, which is saying something...  Unfortunately, his luck and his deck had carried him through the first two rounds with him beating vadangchoinga and Fwazalaza (using his Vylons, of course).  It's quite sad, and I had easily beaten him 2-0.

Round 4: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  The fact that I almost always beat him was still stuck in his mind, and the fact that he had no idea how my new Gem-Knight deck worked didn't help his confidence either.  Unfortunately for me, Inzektors are my worst match-up.  I'm really hoping that the deck gets destroyed by the ban list...

-Duel 1: I opened with two back rows and a Gem-Knight Amber.  He Set two back rows and ended.  I attacked with Amber and Set another back row.  He tried to make an Inzektor play with Dragonfly, but I had Raigeki Break Set to destroy his Dragonfly after Hornet got equipped.  Soon afterwards, after he killed my Amber, I blindly used Mystical Space Typhoon on one of his back rows, which turned out to be Ultimate Offering, then made a push for game.  I played Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing Amber and Obsidian from my hand, getting Prismaura.  Obsidian's effect let me revive Amber, and I Gemini Summoned Amber to enable its effect.  I banished Obsidian to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion, then pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get back Obsidian using Amber's effect.  I banished the first Amber to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion again, then fused the Amber on the field with the Obsidian in my hand to get a second Prismaura.  Obsidian's effect revived Amber again, and that was just enough for game.
-Duel 2: I lost to generic Inzektor shenanigans.  Perhaps I should side more cards for this match-up, since it's my worst match-up.  Still, I'd rather not sacrifice from other bad match-ups just to beat Inzektors.
-Duel 3: I opened with Duality into Solemn Judgment, then Set it and another back row.  I activated Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet, then summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled.  He Set some back rows and a Monster and ended.  In his End Phase, I used MST on his bluff Dimensional Fissure.  I drew Gem-Knight Iolite and summoned it.  I attacked his Set Sangan, letting him search Tour Guide.  I attacked directly with Armadillo and Set another back row.  He played MST on my Solemn Judgment then summoned Tour Guide to make Wind-Up Zenmaines.  He attacked my Armadillo with Zenmaines, letting him detach an Xyz Material.  He destroyed my Prohibition in the End Phase.  I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Garnet, then used Garnet and Armadillo to kill his Zenmaines and attacked directly with Iolite.  At this point, I had Return from the Different Dimension in hand, Gemini Spark Set, and my three Gem Monsters.  He had one back row and two cards in hand.  I had to ponder my next decision for a while, then decided to overlay for Shock Master and prevent him from using his Monster Effects.  I Set the Return and ended.  He summoned Inzektor Hornet, then used Call of the Haunted on his Sangan.  He made Leviathan Dragon, since he had let his friend borrow his Acid Golem, then Set a card and ended.  I used Shock Ruler's effect to prohibit Monster Effects once more, then attacked over his Leviathan Dragon.  He Set a Monster and passed.  I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Iolite.  I used it to attack his Set Centipede, then directly with Shock Master.  I prohibited Monster Effects once more and ended.  He Set a Monster and ended.  I drew and summoned Snipe Hunter, discarding my Gem-Knight Fusion to destroy his Set Dragonfly.  I attacked with Iolite, but then he flipped Call of the Haunted to revive his Leviathan Dragon.  I Chained my Set Gemini Spark to tribute Iolite and destroy Call, letting me draw Dark Calling.  Snipe Hunter and Shock Master attacked to leave him at 100 LP.  Upon realizing that he couldn't do anything on his turn, he offered me the handshake.

OXO

So, I was undefeated going into the final round... with Gem-Knights.  I certainly did not expect to do this well with my Gem-Knights.  Unfortunately, I was playing against...

Round 5: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He had let his friend use his Inzektors for a while, but I get he switched back to Inzektors now.

-Duel 1: I opened with Future Fusion pitching Batteryman AAA and Gem-Knight Garnet for Prismaura.  I summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled, then Set one back row.  He opened with Centipede and Ladybug, which I allowed.  He searched Dragonfly, then equipped Giga-Mantis to Centipede.  He attacked, and that's when I had to use Raigeki Break.  He Set a back row and ended.  I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get Snipe Hunter, and he flipped Torrential Tribute.  I was perfectly okay playing into that Torrential Tribute, since all I was doing was setting up for Dark Calling.  However, I just passed.  He used Dragonfly and Ladybug to search another Dragonfly and make Tiras, which attacked and destroyed my Future Fusion.  I played Dark Calling, banishing Snipe Hunter and Gem-Armadillo for Evil HERO Dark Gaia at 3200 ATK, which ran over his Tiras.  Unfortunately, he made another Dragonfly/Ladybug play to make Adreus and destroy my Dark Gaia.  With that, he was out of Dragonflies and Centipedes, so it was okay.  The downside, though, was that I had no more power plays, since I had nothing else to fuse with.  So, I lost to that Adreus.
-Duel 2: I opened with Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet and a Set Gem-Turtle.  He attacked with Thunder King Rai-Oh, denying me my search (I didn't care, my hand was all Spells/Traps, including one Gem-Knight Fusion), then Set a few back rows.  I stalled out for a bit, then eventually fused for Prismaura.  He flipped Torrential Tribute, then Safe Zone on his Rai-Oh.  I had no follow up, since I had no Monsters left, and ended.  He summoned Centipede and equipped a Dragonfly to it, for some reason... He attacked directly with the Centipede and ended.  I topped Snipe Hunter and pitched my whole hand to destroy his whole field, but then he dropped Gorz.  I got my Gem-Knight Fusion back one more time and pitched it to destroy his Gorz, then ended.  He crashed his Token into my Snipe Hunter then ended.  I drew a second Gemini Spark, which was useless since I hadn't drawn any Gemini Gem-Knights, and ended.  He drew a Monster before I did, was able to kill me before I could make a comeback.  That's the main problem with Gem-Knights, I can make a couple big plays, but once those are done, I can't do much else.  Gem-Knight Fusion can help generate card advantage, but it's mostly empty card advantage.

XX

But yeah, I went 4-1, with Gem-Knights... and got 2nd place, with Gem-Knights... I really wasn't expecting to do this well with my Gem-Knights, especially since I had just thrown the Side Deck together when I made the deck.  With a deck with as much synergy as my Gem-Knight variant, it's hard to side a significant amount of cards.  I generally have to side out all of my Batteryman AAA's and Future Fusion just to make space.  But yeah, I guess it works pretty well.  I did play against a couple not-so-good players, unfortunately, but my Gem-Knights still did better than expected.

With the store credit I won, I got a second Ultra Rare Night Beam, some more sleeves, and one Battle Pack.  I pulled Gem-Knight Pearl from the Battle Pack, which was cool.  And, I got the Night Beam in case MST gets Limited on the next ban list, so I'll have more replacements than just Dust Tornadoes.

As for my friends' rankings, my Round 4 opponent got 3rd, AquaBass got 4th, vadangchoinga went 4-1, and Fwazalaza went 1-4 with his Vylons.  He won the first round against Machina Gadgets, then lost against Six Samurai, Dark Worlds, Hieratics, and Six Samurai again, or something like that.

Shien wasn't there, but he came by after the tournament while we were at Panda Express and finished his Gusto deck.  vadangchoinga and I helped Fwazalaza with his Vylon deck, and I traded AquaBass a bunch of cards that he needed for his Ninja Crane deck.  Out of the trade, I got some Duelist League Royal Tributes, a Super Rare Dust Tornado, and a Bat-Breath Scaradorable.  That last one is a Kaijudo card, if you didn't know.  It's the Darkness Civilization Super Rare from The Dojo Edition, and my second Bat-Breath Scaradorable, which is cool.  It replaced the Keeper of Dawn in my deck, since that lone Keeper of Dawn hasn't been doing much recently.

Tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight), Fwazalaza, Shien, and I will be running our Duel Terminal theme decks, and we'll probably make a small wager or something.  Since only 1st place gets a noteworthy prize on Sundays, a small wager will give us an incentive to keep playing after losing one round, so that should be fun.

So yeah, I'll be using my Gem-Knights probably until the next ban list.  Once September 1st arrives, assuming the format is cleansed of brokenness, it'll be a great time to make new creative decks to take charge of the format.  But, I guess we'll have to wait another couple weeks to see what exactly will happen on the ban list...