Tournament Report 10/13/12

I didn't have time to post during the previous week, but I've got an extra long tournament report for you all today.  First is the Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.

In the first round, I was paired up against my friend who plays Vanguard.  I was using my Invincible Overlord deck, while he was using the Royal Paladin deck we made for Aki.  I got gradestuck on Grade 2 for a little while, but Gancelot isn't that threatening of a Vanguard without Blaster Blade beneath it.  Also, one of his columns couldn't hit my Vanguard, Nehalem, since it was a Gigantech Charger with another Gancelot behind it.  My friend always got Gancelot off of Gigantech Charger, it's pretty funny.  So yeah, I won.

For the second round, I played against my Round 3 opponent from this tournament and his Leo-pald-based Great Nature deck.  He misplayed quite a bit, and even though I didn't get a Grade 3 all game, I kept getting my Stand Triggers to push in damage and win.

For the third and final round, I was against a Shamsiel-based Angel Feather deck.  I didn't get gradestuck at all this game, so that was good.  I was able to keep up with his damage-switching shenanigans pretty easily, and guarded early so that I could take attacks later in the game.  I was able to win with my "winning image" of Mr. Invincible and Dragonic Overlord.

So yeah, I won the small Vanguard tournament and pulled a Knowledge Drunkard from the promo pack.  I traded it for some Gold Paladin stuff that my friend wanted, but I kept a Speeder Hound.  It's a dog with bunny ears, so why not?

And, after a while of beating my friend's Crystal Beasts with my Gem-Knights, the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament started.  There were about 19 players there today.

Round 1: vs Valhalla Fairies

I was up against my Round 2 opponent from the preceding Vanguard tournament.

-Duel 1: He didn't have Kristya, and I kept drawing combos, so I was able to win.
-Duel 2: He used basically all of his draw cards and dropped Hyperion and Kristya with Herald of Orange Light in hand, so I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 3: I drew Dimensional Fissure so that he couldn't negate my effects.  I destroyed his Valhalla and rushed him with Scrap Dragon and Scrap Archfiend to win.

OXO

Round 2: vs HERO Beat

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Stratos into Alius and a back row.  I Set a Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, wishing that I had gone first, and ended.  He was able to gain advantage steadily by killing all of my Set Monsters with his Alius and Stratos, so once I cleared the field with Black Rose Dragon, he was still up a few cards.  One of those cards with Miracle Fusion and another was Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, so I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: He only opened with Stratos, which I negated with Effect Veiler.  So, I was able to hold him off with a Super-Nimble Mega Hamster that he refused to attack.  After a while, though, he drew into an Alius and was able to kill me with Blade Armor Ninja and Miracle Fusion.  To be honest, I didn't mind losing to him that much, since he knew what he was doing.  Most HERO Beat players are very predictable and can't really think through tough situations, while my opponent was very good at keeping his cards hidden and played well.

XX

My Round 3 opponent dropped, so I got a free win.  Then, Yugilo called me over to play in his place against JB, since they were paired up against each other.  I'm pretty sure that Yugilo will upload a video of the match onto his YouTube channel, so you can watch it there if you're interested (once it's uploaded).

As for my Round 4 match, I was paired up against spondo and his Wind-Ups.  Yugilo recorded this match as well, and it's already up on YouTube.  So there it is.

Either way, I didn't win any prizes, so I just got a Vanguard booster pack for participating.  I got a pack of Set 2 and pulled a Ruin Shade, which is a good Granblue RRR.  I'm going to see if I can sell it or something, since it's actually a really good card.

So after that was the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  I took my friend who plays Vanguard with me, as usual.  What's weird is that I got a free first round win because my Round 1 opponent said that he was too "mentally drained" to play Vanguard.  As if that's possible, but I'll take the free win.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

I was up against the same incompetent Gold Paladin player that I had to play against Round 1 in this Vanguard tournament.

-Fight 1: I got a good early start by retiring his Spring Breeze Messenger with my Gattling Claw Dragon.  Then, I enacted my "winning image" of Mr. Invincible/Dragonic Overlord, and he wasted a lot of cards guarding incorrectly.  Given, it's not very often that you have to guard your Nemean Lion against a 24k Dragonic Overlord, but you really should just let it go instead of guarding for 20k.
-Fight 2: He got to Superior Call Garmore off of Spring Breeze Messenger, but he didn't get any other Grade 3's, so I was able to win pretty easily.

OO

Round 3: vs Angel Feather

-Fight 1: He was using the Ergodiel ride chain, except I never saw the Grade 3 Ergodiel.  I feel as though he didn't have any, but whatever.  He got the Grade 1 to get the Grade 2 from the top seven cards of his deck, but he wasn't able to put up much of a threat after that.  I enacted my "winning image" to rip apart his field and win.
-Fight 2: He got a Draw Trigger to push through my minimum guard against his Vanguard when I was at 5 damage, so I lost.  I feel as though I didn't draw many Triggers this game, but I don't really remember.
-Fight 3: He did a common guarding mistake on the final turn.  He had a 10k Vanguard (Circular Saw, Kiriel, I think) against my 19k Dragonic Overlord column, 16 Mr. Invincible Vanguard column, and my 16k Brakki column.  He had 20k worth of guard and decided to guard against Dragonic Overlord.  He let Mr. Invincible's attack through, and I didn't get any Triggers.  I attacked with Brakki and used its Soulblast, since I knew that one of the two cards in his hand was a Grade 3, so he couldn't guard and lost.

OXO

At this point, the tournament cut to top 4.  My friend and I were both undefeated, so we both made it.

Semi-Finals: vs Nova Grappler

-Fight 1: He pulled a Critical Trigger on his first attack, but that just let me use Berserk Dragon on his White Tiger on my second turn.  I knew how his deck worked, since I like Nova Grapplers, and was able to prevent him from mounting an offensive.  It was weird, though, he played a lot of Critical Triggers as far as Nova Grappler decks are concerned.
-Fight 2: I put together my "winning image" to win.  It's sad to have to trample all over Kirara and Black Tortoise with a 24k Dragonic Overlord, but it's what the deck does.

OO

Finals: vs Lawkeeper Kagero

My friend had failed to win, sadly, so he was stuck playing for 3rd place.  Meanwhile, I was in the finals and my opponent and I agreed to a split.  The prizes for 1st and 2nd were 12 packs and 8 packs respectively, so we would each get 10.  However, a promo pack would also be awarded to 1st place, so we were basically playing for that.

-Fight 1: I didn't get (m)any of my Stand Triggers, while he was able to apply pressure with his Critical Triggers.  That's what Lawkeeper does, I suppose.
-Fight 2: I set up my "winning image" plus Hungry Dumpty, so that when he binds my field with Dragonic Lawkeeper, I can unflip a damage with Hungry Dumpty upon its return.  It didn't matter, though, since I didn't draw any of my Triggers, so I had to waste my entire hand to minimum guard.  He pulled a Heal Trigger to push through the attack, so I lost.

XX

How sad.  But, I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to get free booster packs.  My investment of $44 has been giving me great returns so far.  Although most of those returns are terrible Commons, Rares, and RR's, I have gotten a few good holos.  For instance, out of my 10 packs of Set 2, I pulled the Granblue perfect guard and an SP Blazing Flare Dragon.  Blazing Flare Dragon's not that impressive, but it's cool to have, either way.

Also, my friend ended up falling in love with Royal Paladins again after going so far in the tournament (and by that, I mean getting 4th place).  He likes how Drangal and the Galahad ride chain reduces the chance of getting gradestuck, as opposed to his Gold Paladins, which seemed to get him gradestuck half the time.  So, he took apart his Gold Paladin deck and is now going to concentrate on the Royal Paladins.

But, that means that Aki won't be getting the Royal Paladin deck.  Instead, my friend is going to work on getting a Narukami deck for Aki.  This should work out pretty well, since Aki wanted to play Narukami all along.  I'm not sure how many Dragonic Kaiser, Vermillions we'll be able to get, but if we don't get any, it opens up the deck a little more for innovation.  For instance, Vermillion is literally the only reason why Narukami decks can't play Stand Triggers.  But, if you've got Djinn of the Lightning Flash or some other strong unit as a rear-guard, then it's the perfect thing to use a Stand Trigger on.

Also, I've been thinking about using both Spark Kid Dragoon and Lizard Soldier, Saishin in the same deck.  There's nothing in the rules against switching your starting Vanguard between games in a best-of-three match, so long as both of them are in your 50-card deck.  So, theoretically, you could play one each of Spark Kid and Saishin, then use the one that's more appropriate in the match-up as your starting Vanguard.  I mean, drawing either isn't that bad, since they're 10k shields, and you could still potentially use their effects if you draw them (well, Saishin not so much...).  But yeah, it's something to think about, at least.

And, I'm planning on getting a bunch of Nova Grappler and Kagero cards from my friend who plays Vanguard.  I want to make a pure Nova Grappler deck with Azure Dragons, but I won't be able to make it until I get four each of Azure Dragon and Kirara.  I'm also thinking about a pure Kagero deck that's not Goku Kagero or Lawkeeper Kagero, but nothing really stands out.  I'll think about it, so yeah.