Tournament Report 11/10/12

I went to locals yesterday, as usual.  I was too tired to type up this report last night, though, so I left it for today.

As usual, first was the small Vanguard tournament.  I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers after adding some Death Army Guys, one Twin Blader, and one Asura Kaiser.

In the first round, I played against a Dark Irregulars player who got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I won.  Next, I played against the Narukami player from Round 2 of this Vanguard tournament, except that he had switched to Spike Brothers.  He didn't get to use his Limit Break, since on the final turn, he started with two damage and ended with six; I basically out-rushed Spike Brothers.  In the third round, I lost to the Narukami player from Round 3 of this small Vanguard tournament.  It came down to his Critical Triggers, which let him kill me the turn before I would finish him off.  In Round 4, I played against the Royal Paladin player from Round 2 of this small Vanguard tournament and won.  I ended up getting 2nd place because of good tie-breakers, so I got two promo packs.  Both packs got me that Grade 2 Dark Irregulars card that Soulcharges when it enters the field, and I gave both to my friend who plays Vanguard.

Next was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I was using my Nordic Diva deck, but I'm planning on making a new deck today, since I actually have some free time.  There were like 26 players there, by the way.

Round 1: vs Wind-Up

I was playing against spondo and his Wind-Ups.

-Duel 1: He drew three Wind-Up Rabbits, so he couldn't really swarm that effectively.  He didn't draw much back row, so I was able to counter all of his swarms (mainly with a Mist Wurm) without him being able to do anything.
-Duel 2: He opened with Tour Guide and Wind-Up Shark, so he made Zenmaity and Shock Master, prohibiting Spells.  I didn't draw any Spells, so I didn't care, but he had such overwhelming advantage at that point, so I wasn't able to do much.
-Duel 3: The only Monsters he drew were Magicians and Rats, so I won pretty easily.

OXO

Round 2: vs Atlantean

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  By the way, he sold me two Duel Terminal Gem-Knight Zirconias, so maybe I'll remake my Gem-Knights soon.

-Duel 1: I rushed him with T.G. Hyper Librarian and Scrap Archfiend.  He tried to counter with Gungnir, but that gave me a card off of Librarian.  He was able to destroy my whole field, but then I just swarmed again on the following turn using Guldfaxe and Monster Reborn.
-Duel 2: His deck worked like it was supposed to and he out-advantaged me, mainly with Atlantean Marksman.
-Duel 3: I played Dimensional Fissure, and he couldn't do anything about it.

OXO

Round 3: vs Monster Mash

I was up against JB, and his all-Monster deck that uses the Birdman/Gallis OTK and a newly-added Frog engine.

-Duel 1: He gained a lot of advantage off of Light and Darkness Dragon and his Monarchs due to his Frog engine.  He did have the Birdman/Gallis/Doom loop, but I ruined it with Compulsory Evacuation Device, but I ended up dying due to burn from Gallis in the end anyways.
-Duel 2: I got him down to 3400 LP or something like that with Thought Ruler Archfiend, then he got rid of it using Volcanic Queen.  Then, I started using Volcanic Queen to deal damage by sacrificing my own cards.  Once he realized I could burn him to death with it, he banished it with Caius.  Regardless, he was at too low LP to use the Gorz he got off of Witch of the Black Rose, so I was able to win.
-Duel 3: He got the Birdman/Gallis OTK after a few turns, so I lost.

XOX

In the fourth round, I ended up going up against Yugilo.  I decided to just give him the win and drop, since there wasn't enough time to finish the tournament, then go to the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop afterwards.  So, I just played a few games in the new Yugilo Format with my Koa'ki Meiru deck.  You can see it fail spectacularly in this video on Yugilo's channel.

So yeah, my friend who plays Vanguard and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  He was using his Royal Paladin deck, while I was using my Nova Grapplers again.  Yeah, I realized that my Invincible Overlord deck kind of auto-loses to Lawkeeper, so I didn't really want to run it anymore.  Yeah, Lawkeeper is one of those cards that hates on hybrid decks.  But yeah, there were only 12 players there today.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same weird guy as last weekend.  I kept pointing out his misplays, but he insisted that he thought through all of his plays.

-Fight 1: Every time I went to finish him, he'd get a Heal Trigger or a Draw Trigger, and I'd get no triggers on my Twin Drive.  This game took forever, and I ended up losing.
-Fight 2: I rushed him really quick and he misplayed a lot, so I won.
-Fight 3: This game came down to whether or not he'd get a Critical Trigger when I was at 3 damage (I didn't have enough to guard if he were to get a Trigger).  He didn't, so I won.

XOO

Round 2: vs Narukami

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He switched from Nova Grapplers to Narukami, for some reason.

-Fight 1: I got gradestuck at Grade 2 for a turn, then he wrecked my field with Vermillion.
-Fight 2: I had to ride up to Asura Kaiser, sadly, and lost to a Critical Trigger.

XX

Round 3: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

So this was weird.  My opponent was supposed to be this one random guy, but he had to leave, so his friend who works at the card shop stepped in to fight me.  I had talked to him earlier, and he said that he believes that Vanguard is a game of skill.  However, he seemed to make many of his plays based on random whims.

-Fight 1: I kept whittling down his card advantage with my Stand Triggers and such, and he missed his ride chain, so I was able to win pretty easily.
-Fight 2: He got his ride chain off and put pressure on me with Silent Toms.  However, since I run more Grade 1's and 2's than usual, I was able to guard against them more easily than other decks.  Regardless, I still lost to the overwhelming advantage he got from Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi.

OX-

At this point, since we were the last ones playing, my opponent decided to drop and give me the win.  Besides, he wasn't supposed to be playing anyways.  So yeah, I ended up making it into the Top 4 by getting 3rd place.  My friend got 5th place by going 2-1, but the 4th place person had left before the Top 4 started, so my friend got his spot.

Semi-Finals: vs Oracle Think Tank (Soulless)

-Fight 1: He had to ride Oracle Guardian, Apollon instead of Coco, so I won.
-Fight 2: He rode up to Coco, so he won.
-Fight 3: He had to ride Apollon, so I won.  Honestly, the only advantage of playing the Soulless build is drawing free cards with Coco, but without being able to ride Coco on the third turn, the deck really has nothing going for it.

OXO

Finals: vs Narukami

This was my Round 2 opponent from earlier, so it was revenge time.  The prizes for today were 7 for 1st and 4 for 2nd.  We couldn't split those numbers easily, so we decided to each get 5 packs and play one game for the extra pack.  I rushed him really quickly when I rode to Grade 2, and he didn't have Vermillion, so I won.

My friend, unfortunately, got 4th place with his Royal Paladins (again) and got two packs of Set 1.  I got 6 packs of Set 2 and pulling nothing of note except Spirit Exceed and Kimnara.  But whatever, it was free.

So yeah, since my Royal Paladin/Nubatama hybrid deck that now features Megacolony units is now complete (or as complete as it'll be for now) and I won't be getting Granblue cards any time soon, I'm going to concentrate more on Yu-Gi-Oh and Kaijudo.  I'm planning on making a new Yu-Gi-Oh deck for locals today, and I'll be getting at least a box of the new Kaijudo booster set next weekend.  Aki and I may split a box, I'm not sure what he wants to do yet.

There is one thing I still have to figure out for Vanguard, though.  I feel as though my Draw Triggers in my Nova Grappler deck aren't really doing anything unless I check them as damage.  I feel like I would want to use less of them and more Stand Triggers or maybe even Critical Triggers.  And also, I'm not sure how I feel about NGM Prototype; it did alright, but I feel as though its spot in the deck could easily go to some other Grade 2 unit.