Tournament Report 9/29/12

So, starting this weekend, I'd only be able to go to locals once per week.  As expected, I decided to go today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight...).

First was the Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.  There were seven people there, but it was basically single-elimination.  I lost the first round because I got gradestuck on Grade 1.  My opponent was really bad, too, but he just kept getting Critical Triggers and I didn't get any Grade 2's.

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  There were about 25 players there, and I used my Nordic Diva deck, as usual.  I was too lazy to try and make a new deck, but I did add a Spined Gillman to my deck so that I can still call out a Level 3 Sea Serpent with Deep Sea Diva if I'm unfortunate enough to draw Lost Blue Breaker.

Round 1: vs Wind-Ups

This guy wasn't a regular, but he apparently topped the recent Regional that I didn't get to attend with Wind-Ups.  That doesn't necessarily make him a good player, of course, but he was above average, for sure.

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Sangan.  He opened with Mind Control, Wind-Up Magician, and Wind-Up Shark.  Alright then...

-Duel 2: I opened with a Set Sangan.  He opened with Mind Control and Wind-Up Rabbit.  He overlaid for Zenmaity to grab Magician, then Special Summoned Shark.  Alright then...

XX

Round 2: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I was able to make my Nordic plays unhindered, since the only Monsters he drew were Dinosaurs.

-Duel 2: He only draw one Monster: Sabersaurus, which I killed with a Guldfaxe boosted by Gachi Gachi Gantetsu.  So, I just beat him down from there.

OO

Round 3: vs Monster Mash

I was playing against JB.  Yugilo filmed our match, so the videos will be up on his YouTube channel.  I won't spoil the ending for you all, as if any of you care...

Round 4: vs Wind-Ups

This was my Round 3 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: I opened up with Spined Gillman and Lost Blue Breaker.  He opened up with Wind-Up Rabbit and Wind-Up Factory.  He just kept generating advantage off of his Factory, so I couldn't do much.

-Duel 2: He made a desperate play with Rat and Shark to try and make a push.  I banished his Zenmaity with Bottomless Trap Hole, forced the game into a top-decking war, and won from there.

-Duel 3: He opened with Wind-Up Rabbit, then drew Factory as his seventh card.  I didn't have anything to destroy the Factory, so I lost.  That's basically what it comes down to, now.  I can deal with the Magician/Shark swarms if I don't die, but the Factory just sets them up for more swarms.

XOX

That ended up being the last round of the tournament, so yeah.  I didn't win anything, having gone 2-2 and such.  I did play some fun games with my Gem-Knights against my Round 2 opponent and my friend who plays Vanguard (who won the Vanguard tournament earlier, which shouldn't be a surprise).  I kind of want to play Gem-Knights, but they just aren't consistent enough yet.  As soon as we get Gem-Knight Zirconia, it'll be great.

So, after the tournament, my friend who plays Vanguard and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  I had added a few copies of Highspeed, Brakki to my Invincible Overlord deck so that I wouldn't deck-out as fast.  It's a common tech choice for decks that don't make effective use of the Soul.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Starter: Kyrph)

This was one of the incompetent Gold Paladin players there.  He didn't know how half of his own cards worked...

-Fight 1: I didn't draw a Grade 3, so I lost.

-Fight 2: I drew all three Dragonic Overlords and beat him down with them.

-Fight 3: I finally drew my Mr. Invincible/Dragonic Overlord combo and won with it.

XOO

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Starter: Vortimer)

-Fight 1: He missed his ride chain, so I was able to beat him down pretty easily.

-Fight 2: He healed three times, so I decked-out before I was able to win.  Quite sad.

-Fight 3: I won with my Mr. Invincible/Dragonic Overlord combo, as expected.  It's my "winning image", as they say in the anime.

OXO

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin (Starter: Spring Breeze Messenger)

-Fight 1: I had to ride up to Dragonic Overlord, but I was able to draw a Mr. Invincible and another Dragonic Overlord to enable my combo.  I beat him down with it, since Dragonic Overlord supported by Bahr forces a 20k guard to protect Lop Ear Shooter when I use Overlord's Counterblast.  That's what you get for playing 9k Grade 2's.

-Fight 2: I had to ride up to Dragonic Overlord, but he basically dumped his hand onto the field.  When he only had three cards in hand, I used my Vanguard Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast and destroyed one of his rear-guards.  My drive check got me a Draw Trigger, so I gave the power to my Overlord and wrecked his whole field before finishing him off.  I should've said "Final Turn", but oh well.

OO

Round 4: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

-Fight 1: He missed his ride chain completely and rode up to CEO Amaterasu.  Every time he checked the top card of his deck with Amaterasu's skill, it was a Critical Trigger.  Not only that, but the card below that was another Critical Trigger.  I got double crit'd twice.

-Fight 2: He missed his ride chain completely, and I was able to rip through his field with my Mr. Invincible/Dragonic Overlord combo.  I'm glad that Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi is only at 9k in the rear-guard circle when you miss the ride chain.

-Fight 3: He got his ride chain off perfectly, with a Psychic Bird to put that sixth card into the Soul.  I drew all of my Heal Triggers over the course of the game and lost to several double triggers again.

XOX

Either way, that was the last round of Swiss, and I made it into the Top 4.  Again, my friend who plays Vanguard failed to do so.

Semi-Finals: vs Kagero

-Fight 1: He rode up to Dragonic Lawkeeper (but I don't think that he bases his deck solely on Lawkeeper; it just seemed like a random beatdown-style deck).  He attacked while I was at three damage and I let it through.  Double Critical Trigger, as if that hadn't happened to me enough today.

-Fight 2: I didn't draw any Grade 2's, so I lost.

XX

I was supposed to play for 3rd place, but my opponent was tired and just gave me the win.  So, I ended up getting three packs of Set 2.  I pulled the effectless Grade 2 for Bermuda Triangle and a RRR Sky Diver.  Still, no Demonic Dragon Mage Kimnara...

But yeah, a lot of the people who I played against told me that they didn't want to play against my deck.  I guess they were scared of the thought of me being able to use Dragonic Overlord's Counterblast every turn.  Most people also don't know how to deal with Stand Triggers.  I'm actually thinking about playing eight Stand Triggers for next week, since I always felt like I didn't have enough Stand Triggers...

So yeah, I'm not sure what else I can do in terms of Vanguard.  My card pool is very limited, so I'm going to be playing the same deck for quite a while, unless of course my friend lets me borrow one of his decks for the tournament.  He's trying to build two different Great Nature decks and also improve his Gold Paladin deck with the new rabbit-based cards from Set 7.

As for Yu-Gi-Oh, the format is still quite stale, so I don't really have much reason to work on any new decks.  Aki and I are going to record videos tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight...), and I'll probably just use my Gem-Knights, since there's really nothing else.  Aki was able to make his Yubel deck, so that'll be cool.

And of course for Kaijudo, there's really nothing new happening until November, so we'll probably concentrate on other things for the time being.  I mean, we've gotten basically everything we can out of the Core Set, so we'll just have to wait for the new set to come out, then hopefully for tournaments next year.  But yeah, we'll see what happens.