Tournament Report 9/22/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight...).  I got there early for the Vanguard tournament, but again, there weren't enough people.  So, we just got our free promo packs, and my friend who plays Vanguard and I played Yu-Gi-Oh, Vanguard, and Kaijudo until the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament started.

There were 22 players there for the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I was running my Nordic Diva deck because I'm lazy and didn't want to fix up my deck at all.

Round 1: vs Wind-Ups

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He did some crazy shenanigans using Tour Guide to go into Zenmaity to grab Magician, letting him Special Summon Shark from his hand and swarm.  He misplayed, though, so he just made Maestroke and Zenmaines to defend himself.  I made a Zenmaines of my own, and we just sat there for quite a while.  I eventually summoned Scrap Dragon to wreck his field, then he was able to kill my Scrap Dragon with another Zenmaines.  I made a reversal with Catastor, which he killed with Tiras, which I killed with Scrap Dragon, courtesy of Monster Reborn.  Honestly, this game took up most of the time in the round, so it would've been odd for me not to have drawn a bunch of power cards by then.
-Duel 2: I dropped Scrap Dragon quickly to dominate the field.  He didn't draw his combos, so he couldn't gain any card advantage, so I won.

OO

Round 2: vs Newbie Six Samurai

This guy wasn't horrible (you have to be pretty bad to play Six Samurai incorrectly), but he didn't have a Side Deck, hence, "Newbie".

-Duel 1: I had the perfect cards to counter his Synchro swarms.  Basically, I had two Guldfaxe and non-Tuners to pair them with.  So, I was able to force him into top-decking mode, which Six Samurai can't deal with.
-Duel 2: He swarmed and almost OTK'd me.  But, since I was still alive, I made a Thought Ruler Archfiend to run over his Leviathan Dragon, then his Excalibur, to gain back LP and win.

OO

Round 3: vs Wind-Ups

I was playing against spondo.

-Duel 1: He did his usual shenanigans and I didn't draw anything to stop him.
-Duel 2: He made a risky Zenmaity play by wasting a Rat and Shark from his hand, and I just shut it down with Book of Moon.  Guldfaxe killed his Set Zenmaity, and he couldn't do much after that.  I basically just beat him down with Guldfaxe all game.
-Duel 3: He made Zenmaioh to destroy my whole field, and I lost because I couldn't Set Monsters to protect myself.  I had two Traps to deal with the Zenmaioh, but I lost them to Dust Tornado and Mystical Space Typhoon, so yeah.

XOX

After that round, there were only two undefeated players left, which meant that there would only be one round left.  That was cool for us, since my friend who plays Vanguard and I wanted to go to the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.

Round 4: vs Newbie Six Samurai

This guy wasn't horrible (you have to be pretty bad to play Six Samurai incorrectly), but he didn't have a Side Deck, hence, "Newbie".

-Duel 1: I opened with a really passive hand and lost to a quick swarm.
-Duel 2: He didn't make Shi En, so I was able to just deal with the smaller Six Samurai that he put out.  I had to drag the game out a long time to capitalize on my Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters, but I was eventually able to keep control of the board.  Oh, and Mist Wurm helped tremendously in this duel.  There's a reason why it's there...
-Duel 3: He opened with United, Kageki, Kagemusha and drew two off of United.  He played another United, then Synchro Summoned.  He went for Catastor (after the match, I asked why, and he said he wanted to do something different...) and Set a back row.  I used Mystical Space Typhoon on his Set back row, then summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and Set three back rows.  He attacked, and I used Book of Moon.  I was able to run over the Catastor and control with Rai-Oh for all of one turn before he topped Dark Hole so that he could swarm again.  I had a Hamster to fall back on, so I was able to control him with that long enough for me to draw into more powerful cards.  I was able to win with Scrap Dragon, as is usually the case against Six Samurai.

After the match, he told me that playing against me was the only challenge he had today.  Um, I saw him lose the first round to my friend who plays Vanguard and his Photon/Gagaga deck.  If you want more of a challenge, play a deck that takes a significant amount of skill (yes, every deck takes some degree of skill, but Six Samurai and Lightsworn are basically at the bottom of the skill-requisite ladder).

XOO

So, since spondo ended up getting 1st place, and my Round 1 opponent ended up going 3-1, that helped my tiebreakers, netting me 2nd place.  I got more sleeves (my third unopened pack, but it's better to have them stockpiled than not to have them), a Kaijudo pack, and some Vanguard packs.  Set 2: Onslaught of Dragon Souls; it has the Kagero stuff I need like Gattling Claw Dragon and Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara.  I pulled neither of those things, but I did get a Spirit Exceed (Granblue Grade 3, RRR).

Either way, my friend who plays Vanguard and I abandoned Fwazalaza (how sad) and went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  When we got there, I had to buy a Lizard Soldier, Conroe; two Mr. Invincibles; a Gattling Claw Dragon; and an Iron Tail Dragon to complete my deck.  Since their singles are overpriced, it cost me $12, but my friend who plays Vanguard is going to reimburse me for some of my expenses since he was supposed to get me those cards anyways.  But, that made my deck more-or-less complete; I still needed more Gattling Claw Dragons, at least one more Kimnara, and some better Grade 2's.  Regardless, I entered the tournament with my Invincible Overlord deck.  There were 21 players there, which is more than usual.

Round 1: vs Granblue

-Fight 1: He never had more than three rear-guards out at a time, so I was able to guard easily and put pressure on him, even without Dragonic Overlord.
-Fight 2: He guarded incorrectly towards the end of the game, and I was able to win pretty easily.

OO

Round 2: vs Spike Brothers

-Fight 1: He got a Critical Trigger when he was attacking with his lone Vanguard, but that just let me retire his Mecha Trainer with Berserk Dragon before he could do anything.  I rushed him and guarded appropriately to win.  I'm glad I randomly decided to watch a match between Goku Kagero and Spike Brothers on YouTube (I was researching Goku Kagero and realized I don't really want to make it).
-Fight 2: I drew my one Gattling Claw Dragon to retire his Mecha Trainer, and the rest was just a repeat of the first game.

OO

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin

-Fight 1: He never got to Grade 3, so I just rushed him and pulled a bunch of triggers to win.
-Fight 2: He rode up to King of Knights, Alfred, but only had three rear-guards.  I was able to guard easily, since he wasn't really putting any pressure on me, and I killed him with the combination of Dragonic Overlord and Mr. Invincible.

OO

Round 4: vs Angel Feather

-Fight 1: He was using the ride chain (do Angel Feathers have more than one ride chain?  I don't know, but I assume not) and got his chain off perfectly.  He kept healing, and I couldn't keep up with all the healing.
-Fight 2: I was able to win with the combination of Dragonic Overlord and Mr. Invincible.  That's the point of the deck, yo.
-Fight 3: We each only got three turns, which kind of sucked.  I drew too many Grade 3's and I couldn't guard, so he won at the end of the six turns.

XOX

Either way, that was the last round of Swiss, and I made the Top 4.  My friend went 3-1, but had bad tiebreakers, so he didn't make it.

Semi-Finals: vs Narukami

This guy saw one of my matches earlier and commented on how "original and unique" my deck was.  Invincible Overlord isn't by any means a new idea, as far as I know.  Once I figured out the concept, I heard that it had been done before, so while it may be unique for a deck to run multiple clans, this combination isn't anything new.

-Fight 1: He got very few triggers on his drive checks, while I got Draw Triggers on my damage checks and various triggers on my drive checks.  I probably pulled three times as many triggers as him, which is jacked up.  Either way, he used Vermillion to attack my front row once, and it killed two of my cards.  I made sure to guard early so that I could take the attack and not lose too much to it.  After that, I was able to beat him down with Dragonic Overlord and Mr. Invincible.
-Fight 2: We both had very few cards left and he basically had me.  We were both at five damage and it was his turn to attack.  I guarded against the first rear-guard's attack, then let the Vanguard's attack through.  I only had enough left to guard the other rear-guard (it may be odd that I guarded the first rear-guard, but my reasoning is that I know exactly how much I need to guard against it, and if I take it and get a Heal Trigger, I would still have to over-guard against the Vanguard; this way, I at least make sure that I live if he doesn't get a Critical Trigger and I get a Heal Trigger).  He got no triggers on his Twin Drive... Damage check: Heal Trigger.  I guarded against the third attack and won on the following turn.  This game is mostly luck, yo.  He was a good sport about it, though; he overheard me saying that I was going to get Set 2 booster packs for Gattling Claw Dragons and decided to give me a couple Gattling Claw Dragons after our match.

OO

Finals: vs Angel Feather

This was a rematch against my Round 4 opponent.

-Fight 1: I had to ride up to Dragonic Overlord, which was helpful defensively, but I couldn't put on the constant pressure that I would've been able to if my Vanguard were Mr. Invincible.  Either way, I was able to draw a second Dragonic Overlord and a Mr. Invincible.  That let me mount an offensive.  Unfortunately, I was pretty close to decking out after having to Soulcharge every turn.  At one point, he only had five cards left in his hand to guard when he was at 5 damage.  I attacked using Dragonic Overlord after using its Counterblast, and he guarded with two cards.  I had three cards left in deck, and one of them was a Stand Trigger.  I used my Vanguard Mr. Invincible to attack his Vanguard.  He guarded using two more cards.  Twin Drive, first check: Nehalem; second check: Nehalem... The last card in my deck was Lizard Runner, Nafd!  I lost by decking out.
-Fight 2: He declined to attack my Vanguard because he was afraid of giving me damage with which I could use Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast.  Alright, I call Hungry Dumpty, ha ha.  I was able to use Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast basically every other turn to keep killing all of his rear-guards before finishing off his Vanguard.

At this point, his ride showed up, so he had to leave.  Since the match was even, I offered to split the prizes for 1st (14 packs) and 2nd (6 packs), so we'd each get 10 packs.  He was quite grateful and accepted, so he got 10 packs of Set 6: Breaker of Limits, while I got 10 packs of Set 2.

I opened them with my friend, and I pulled the Granblue Megablaster, a Chain-Attack Sutherland (horrible Kagero RR), and a perfect guard for Spike Brothers.  I pulled some other stuff like Mecha Trainer and Dragon Egg, so those weren't bad Rares.  As for the cards I was looking for, I pulled two Iron Tail Dragons and two Gattling Claw Dragons.  So now I have three Iron Tails, which I wouldn't need more than two of, and five Gattling Claw Dragons, which I can only use four of.  I also got a Lady Bomb (Megacolony Grade 2) which replaced the Flame Edge Dragon in my deck.  Soulcharging isn't very useful for my deck.

But yeah, so now my Vanguard deck is actually viable, and I'm surprised that I made it so far in the tournament.  But yeah, I still need some better Grade 1's and 2's, though my Grade 1 line-up is about as good as it's going to be for now.  I wish Kagero had more Grade 1 8000 Power vanillas, but I guess that'd be way too good.  Iron Tail Dragons are a decent substitute, I suppose.

So yeah, I'll be going to the Kaijudo league tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight) with Aki.  And I still need to look for the cards Aki needs for his Yubel deck.  But, I'm way too tired, so I'm going to do that in the morning if I have the time.  So yeah...