Tournament Report 12/29/12

So, I went to locals for the last time this year.  I have been wanting to post stuff other than tournament reports, but there hasn't been much to discuss, at least on the TCG side.  I haven't been keeping up with Fire Fists, Sacred (Constellar), and Verz (lswarm), but they're all doing stuff in the OCG, apparently.  I just haven't had the motivation to keep up with them anymore.  Part of that is because I've been playing Pokemon Colosseum (that really old game for the Gamecube with the Shadow Pokemon) and Assassin's Creed (both Revelations and 3).

But yeah, I went to the usual card shop for their Vanguard tournament yesterday.  There were actually like 16 players there.  Half of them were newbs who just started out, so yeah.  I was using my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck, since I actually wanted to win extra promo packs and try to pull No Life King, Death Anchor for Riku's Dark Irregulars deck.

In the first round, I played against a newbie with a Narukami Trial Deck who got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I won.  In the second round, I played against a newbie (Spectral Duke) Gold Paladin player, but I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for the whole game and lost, which is ridiculous since I play 16 Grade 1's.  For the third round, I played a mirror-match against one of the regulars who switches decks every week or something and won because he drew a bunch of Triggers.  In the last round, I played against a newbie (Spectral Duke) Gold Paladin player and won because I kept killing his rear-guards so he couldn't effectively put pressure on me.  However, I was paired down in that last round, which ruined my tiebreakers, so I didn't get any additional packs.  My friend (who still needs a name) got 2nd place with his Snogal Royal Paladins, but none of us pulled Death Anchors.

However, my friend brought all of his extra Dark Irregulars stuff for Riku, so we fixed his deck so he doesn't have to rely on Reijy and the Demon Bike things anymore.  Now it focuses on Demon Eater (until he gets Death Anchors) and Doreen to make 21k lines.

But yeah, after that was the other Vanguard tournament.  There were almost 30 players there or something.

Round 1: vs Shadow Paladin

Last week, I saw that this guy timed his Phantom Blaster Dragon very badly, so I wasn't too worried.  He didn't make any such mistakes this time, but it wasn't too difficult for me to win 2-1.  What was ridiculous is that he pulled his Critical Triggers as often as I did; he only has four, and I have twelve, so that shouldn't happen.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same Gold Paladin player that I played against in Round 1 of this Vanguard tournament.  I don't know what his deal is, since he always sighs before he does anything (including guarding, attacking, and even speaking...).  I asked why, and he responded with "Why do you hate me for guarding for so low?"  I told him that guarding one-to-pass on the Vanguard is wrong (in most situations), but he insisted that it was correct.  Well, I won 2-0, since he kept guarding one-to-pass on my Stern Blaukluger.  On the final turn of the second game, I did five damage, four of which was from Stern because he guarded one-to-pass (10k worth of shield) even though he had another 5k in his hand.  If he had guarded correctly, he would've taken two damage from the Critical Trigger, which would've gone to my rear-guard.  But instead, he tried to prove me wrong and lost because of it.  You can get lucky guarding one-to-pass against a Vanguard, but it's mathematically stupid.

Round 3: vs Dimensional Police

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend's Vanguard tournament.  For some reason, he likes to keep all of his cards in his hand instead of calling rear-guards.  So, although he had a bunch of cards to defend with, he couldn't force more than three cards out of my hand during each of his turns, meaning that my card advantage was keeping constant throughout the game.  Anyways, in the first game, he had like eleven cards in hand when my Vanguard Stern Blaukluger attacked his Enigman Storm.  He guarded two-to-pass and my first Drive Check was a Critical Trigger.  He was at four damage, and he had so many cards in hand, so he would've been able to guard even if I gave the Trigger to my rear-guard.  So, I gave it to my Vanguard and pulled a Heal Trigger to push through his guard and win.  Trigger-sacking at its finest.  I won the second game because I was able to whittle down his card advantage, but he didn't form any real rear-guard columns to pressure me with.

At this point, there were four undefeated players left, and the tournament organizer was in a bad mood and wanted to close early or something, so he cut to Top 4.  I made it, since I was undefeated.  The total prize pool was 22 packs, so we decided to split five packs each, then play our Top 4 pairing for the last two packs.  The winners of the two games would each get an extra pack, if that makes any sense.

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin

His starting Vanguard was Kyrph.  The other two Top 4 were both Spectral Duke Gold Paladin players.  Anyways, my opponent opened with two Gigantech Destroyers, so I was able to pressure him early.  He also used Kyrph's superior ride effect on his third turn (the turn where he could've normal ridden one of his Gigantech Destroyers) and used Ezel's Limit Break twice to call out a Speeder Hound and a Halo Shield, Mark.  He didn't trigger-sack me, so all of the early pressure I put on him helped me win the turn after that, since he didn't have much to guard with.

So, I won six packs of Set 4.  The only notable card I pulled was Blaster Dark, which I traded to the shop for a pack of sleeves for Aki.  I didn't even get any holos, and I already have all of the Commons and Rares that I would want from Set 4, so that sucked.

Either way, I was able to trade my Battle Sister Chocolat for a damaged Twin Blader and an Epitome of Knowledge, Silvest.  Now I have three Twin Bladers, so that's cool.  I'm going to add it to my deck and change it around a little bit.  Asura Kaiser has been pretty useless, so I might take it out for a third Moai the Great, which has been the opposite of useless.  Dancing Wolf has also been kind of useless; if my opponent can't guard Stern Blaukluger the first time, they probably won't be able to guard it the second time, especially if I get a Trigger.  Dancing Wolf pushes out another 5k guard on the second attack due to its +3k effect, but it seems like overkill.  So, I'll probably drop one for the third Twin Blader, and I'll drop the other Dancing Wolf for something else.  And, I'm considering using some Draw Triggers again, we'll see...

Tournament Report 12/22/12

So, since the world didn't end on Friday, I went to locals.  This will be a fairly short post since I didn't enter the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

First was the small Vanguard tournament with nine players.  I was using a Megacolony deck I made entirely out of Commons and Rares that I got for free from people who didn't want them.  I got a bye, then beat my friend who plays Vanguard and his new Pale Moon deck, then lost to a Megacolony deck since he got a sixth damage Heal Trigger... twice...  I got 2nd place and two of the new promo packs, but didn't pull anything good.

So, while the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament was in progress, my friend and I went to Panda Express to have lunch.  Riku ended up going 1-2 and dropping.  The tournament was won by a little kid who apparently had no idea of what he was doing (or so I'm told) and his Six Samurai deck.  I think that this pretty much sums up what I was talking about in the previous post: this game doesn't take skill anymore; it has basically just degenerated into Vanguard where luck decides everything.  If skill somehow returns to Yu-Gi-Oh, I'll play in tournaments again, but otherwise, it's not worth it.  At least Vanguard tournaments are free, yo.

After that was the other Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  I was using my new Nova Grappler build that uses the Blau- ride chain.  I had gone to the flea market on Wednesday and gotten two Blauklugers and a third Stern Blaukluger for $18.  But, I sold a random holo for $2, so that brought up my net spending on Vanguard to $70.  So yeah, I could finally stop running White Tiger.  I have nothing against it, but 5k boosters suck against crossrides.  The reason why this matters is because someone there runs the Grade 4 Great Nature card with 13k Power, so I'm basically playing right now as if crossrides exist so I won't auto-lose to him.  Yeah, that also means that I traded in my Stands for Crits, sadly.  And as usual, my friend was using his Royal Paladins (now with 12 Critical Triggers) and Riku was using Dark Irregulars.  We're going to try and get some Death Anchors so he doesn't have to run Reijy anymore.

But yeah, I won the first round against an Oracle Think Tank player that normally uses Tsukuyomi, but was trying out a Soulless build.  He misplayed by putting down front-row rear-guards for me to attack, so I didn't have to give him two damage by the time he rode Scarlet Witch, Coco.  So, I was able to win easily.  I won the second round against a Dark Irregulars player who really had no idea what he was doing.  I won the third round against a Spectral Duke Gold Paladin player since he didn't realize that Moai the Great boosted by Tough Boy is a 20k column, so he guarded incorrectly.  I lost the fourth round against a Dimension Police player who got his Enigman Ripple every game.

So, my friend, Riku, and I all went 3-1.  My friend and I made it into the Top 4, but Riku's tiebreakers weren't good enough, apparently.  The other two players in the Top 4 were my Round 3 opponent and my friend's Round 4 opponent (whom he lost to).  We all decided to split and get six packs each.  I got Set 4 and pulled an Enigman Wave, which I gave to my friend since he wants to build Dimension Police, and a fourth Stern Blaukluger for my deck.  I just hope I don't pull any more, ha ha.  And I don't even know what I want to take out for it.  I'll figure it out later.

But yeah, so I got a bunch of free Vanguard cards today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).  Not bad, I suppose.  I also got custom play mats printed up for Aki and myself.  I just used my Rotom picture again, except without the rectangles for the zones.  I also made the picture a little brighter, but it ended up being printed a lot brighter, so I don't know how I feel about that.  Aki chose to use a picture of Valkyrie Windbreaker Dragon for his mat.  We'll probably use the mats in the next set of duel videos, which we'll be recording on Wednesday, so you'll get to see them then.

The Current State of Yu-Gi-Oh

It's gotten pretty bad, to be honest.  I really don't know where to start; there's just so many things that are wrong with the game now.  I guess the main thing is that power creep has gotten more ridiculous than I would've ever imagined.

So, over four years ago (for the OCG), we got a nice themed searcher for this obscure archetype called "Genex".  That card was Genex Searcher.  It had to be destroyed in battle and sent to the Graveyard to recruit a Genex Monster with 1500 ATK or less.  Two years ago, we got a few searchers for another obscure archetype, "Gusto".  One of them was Gusto Gulldo, who could Special Summon a Level 2 or lower Gusto from your deck when it's sent from the field to the Graveyard.

Alright, so we started off with a terrible battle recruiter that couldn't even search itself in a pathetically weak theme.  Now, I do like Genex as a theme, but I have to admit that they're terrible... So, the Gusto theme comes along and they get a pretty decent recruiter.  It doesn't even have to be destroyed by battle, so long as it being sent to the Graveyard is the last thing to happen (it can miss timing).  And, it was also limited in what it could search (it could search like two decent cards, both of which are battle recruiters).

Nowadays, we have this card called Mermail Abysslinde that if it's destroyed and sent to the Graveyard allows you to Special Summon a Mermail Monster from your deck.  That's right, any Mermail Monster (except itself), regardless of ATK or Level.  It also doesn't care how it's destroyed; it will work either by battle or by card effect.  It doesn't even miss timing.  And let's not forget that it has a themed Trap that will Special Summon it and destroy it for you so that you can just grab whatever you want later.

We could even bring up XX-Saber Darksoul, which was seen as a very powerful card when it was first released.  Like Abysslinde, it didn't care how it got from the field to the Graveyard (well, it needed to be on your side of the field, but yeah).  You could even use it for a Synchro Material and still get its effect later.  But, you didn't get to put a huge beater on the field right away like with Abysslinde.  During the End Phase, you'd get an X-Saber to your hand.  You couldn't even use the card that turn.

In a game like Yu-Gi-Oh where cards and themes tend to be very different in how they work, it's hard to find a direct comparison like this to show how power creep has really affected the game.  I mean, you wouldn't compare Drill Warrior and Legendary Six Samurai - Shi En, both of which were format-defining cards in their times.  But, seeing the power of these themed search cards increase to ridiculous levels shows how fast the game has gotten.

This format has basically degenerated to the point where whoever can OTK first wins.  Steadily gaining advantage over your opponent isn't a way to win anymore.  The deck that comes closest to that is Dino Rabbit, and it barely fits that description; it's just a lock-down deck that prevents the opponent from doing anything for a few turns while they get beat down with Dinosaurs.

That's not even the worst part.

This OTK-happy format was manufactured by Konami.  They're the ones who make these archetypes for people to use.  They made Inzektors broken, they made Wind-Ups broken, they made Mermails broken.  They make these overpowered themes so that people will buy their products, and they don't care that it takes all of the skill out of the game.  In fact, they encourage a more luck-based game, since it means that anyone can win.

I mean, you can't even argue that their card designers are overlooking these problems.  If it were something like the Birdman/Gallis/Doom FTK, then yeah, they probably didn't realize that there would be such a powerful interaction between those cards.  But, they make these themes that are more powerful than those that already exist and are even blatantly broken.  I don't see any other way to look at this; Konami meant for these problematic cards to be introduced into the game.

But where does that leave the players?  Well, Yu-Gi-Oh players have been pretty loyal, for some reason.  I mean, there have been some terrible formats, and people still play regardless.  However, this has gotten pretty ridiculous.

Personally, I don't even enjoy going to locals anymore.  I don't even feel like I stand a chance this format.  In the past, I could just continue playing my random decks like Scrap Worms or Nordic Diva and still go X-1 every week at locals.  Now, I can barely go X-2.  I'm making the right plays, I'm making the correct reads, but it's not enough anymore.  Think about it this way: you can play against someone who's playing with their hand revealed for the whole game, but you still lose because their cards are just that much more powerful than yours.  That's how I feel about this format.  It's like all of the skills and tricks I've acquired over years of playing this game don't even matter anymore.  It doesn't matter if you know how your opponent is going to OTK you if you can't do anything about it.

So, I don't know if it's still worth playing competitively anymore.  If I can't win without buying new cards, then I don't think it's worth entering tournaments just to lose and get an Astral Pack for $7.  It's not even fun anymore.  Locals now just consists of newbies with terrible decks that are easy to beat and the people who have the money to buy the broken decks.  It's not fun beating newbs and it's not fun losing to broken decks where I didn't even have a chance to win in the first place.

This is actually the first time I've seriously considered quitting competitive Yu-Gi-Oh.  I'll still play for fun, like how I play Duel Masters, WeiB Schwarz, and such just for fun.  I'd just stop playing in tournaments.  I'd probably still go to locals to hang out with my friends and maybe play Vanguard and Kaijudo, but I don't see any point in playing in Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments anymore.  If I do decide to stop, then maybe I'll start back up again when Hidden Arsenal 7 is released, since Gem-Knights could potentially stand up to the meta at that point, but we'll have to see.

I understand that this is a very, very pessimistic post, but it's hard to be optimistic with Konami's track record.

So, what do you guys think about this?  Am I way off in trying to compare themed recruiters over the past few years, or is such a comparison justified?  What are your views on Yu-Gi-Oh right now?  Do you have any hopes that the game might get better?  I really have no idea what to do with regards to Yu-Gi-Oh right now, so I want to see what you guys think.

Tournament Report 12/15/12

I went to locals yesterday, as usual.  I got a couple Fighting Battleship, Prometheus from one of the other Vanguard players yesterday, so I switched my Nova Grappler build to a Crit-heavy build with Death Army people and eight Grade 3's.  That way, I wouldn't get gradestuck as often on Grade 2, and since the small tournament has best-of-1 matches, I really didn't want that to happen.

So yeah, there were nine people there for the small Vanguard tournament.  I played against the newbie Bermuda Triangle player again for the first round and won.  I beat my Round 2 opponent and his Spectral Duke Gold Paladin deck to get to the final round against my friend who plays Vanguard.  He was using an Angel Feather deck with only Commons and Rares (R's, no RR's or RRR's), and his key card was Calamity Flame.  He ended up winning since I got gradestuck on Grade 0...

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I decided to play my Nordic Diva deck since I haven't used it in a while.  If you couldn't tell, I'm basically switching between all of my decks every weekend since they all have about the same chance of winning nowadays, which is sad.  I think I'm going to make Wind-Ups, though, since all I need are Rats and Sharks, now.  But yeah, there were about 22 players there yesterday.

Round 1: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

-Duel 1: I guess he opened up pretty awkwardly, since I was able to just mess with him with my Super-Nimble Mega Hamsters and Deep Sea Divas to win.  He was pretty confused, which is good, since that is what the deck is supposed to do.
-Duel 2: I opened up with Macro Cosmos, but I didn't really draw that many Monsters.  So, once he was able to resolve a Deep Sea Diva, I basically lost.
-Duel 3: I had Macro Cosmos again, but he had Mystical Space Typhoon this time, so he was able to OTK me with Megaloabyss and such.  He did play correctly, so I wasn't too upset to lose, but still... I just don't like how this game is all about OTK's now.

OXX

Round 2: vs Watts

A bunch of people there today were playing Watts, for some reason... Probably because of Thunder Seahorse.

-Duel 1: He had me cornered at 1000 LP, but he made a misplay by unnecessarily summoning his Wattcobra, letting me clear the field with Torrential Tribute.  From there, I was able to swarm and make a reversal to win.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw many Monsters, so I was able to kill the few he did draw with basic removal cards like Smashing Ground to win.

OO

Round 3: vs Agent Fairies

I was up against AquaBass.

-Duel 1: He opened with Sangan (which he used to search Earth) and two Master Hyperions, so he could counter all of my plays with his Hyperions.
-Duel 2: I opened up with Macro Cosmos, and he basically gave up at that point.  I just stalled out with various Synchro Monsters, and he was able to summon Hyperions from his hand to run over them, but I was able to grab Catastor to destroy them without much trouble.
-Duel 3: He opened with Venus into Dark Mist, and my hand was all Monsters, so I just Set a Hamster.  For some reason, he sides Nobleman of Crossout, so he banished all of my Hamsters and I lost.

XOX

With that, I decided to drop and just play Kaijudo and Vanguard with my friend who plays Vanguard.  I switched my Nova Grappler deck back to the Beast Deity version to prepare for the other Vanguard tournament.  So yeah, I got a Terraforming out of the Astral Pack, so that was cool.

So yeah, we ended up going to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament, and there were 24 Vanguard players there.  My friend told me that quite a few people told me that they wanted to wait until Set 4 comes out to start playing, since they are crazy for Shadow Paladins.  Well, there were some Shadow Paladin players there, but honestly, Shadow Paladins (at least the way that people want to play them) are horrible.

Regardless, before the tournament started, we found out that my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament had gotten multiple boxes of Set 4.  He was building Dimensional Police and he traded away all of his holo Shadow Paladin stuff to his friend or something.  So, my friend and I asked him for some of his Commons and Rares.  I got his Megacolony and Nova Grappler stuff, and my friend got his Royal Paladin and Shadow Paladin stuff.  I also got some Flame Seed Salamanders, Snogals, and Brugals just to have.  I ended up giving a Brugal to a little kid who was using Stardust Trumpeter as his starting Vanguard, so yeah.

But yeah, onto the uneventful tournament report:

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin

I was up against my friend... We believe that they rigged the pairings so that we couldn't both make Top 4, as usual, ha ha.  But yeah, we spent a little while remaking our decks with the new cards we got.  I added Dancing Wolfs to my deck, taking out the random Death Army Guys that I wasn't really able to make good use of.  I also switched out my Red-Card Dealers for Grapplemanias.  He added a set of Beast Knight, Garmores and Snogals.  He also got two Fang of Light, Garmores, and added them to his deck.  As for the match, he guarded correctly against my Beast Deities to prevent me from searching my Azure Dragon, so I got gradestuck and lost.

My Round 2 opponent didn't show up, so I just watched my friend play against his bad Pale Moon friend.  My friend won, so that was good.

Round 3: vs Pale Moon

Yes, I was up against the bad Pale Moon player again.  For the first game, I got gradestuck at Grade 2 and I was still able to win because his columns were terrible and I actually know how to play this game.  In the second game, he foolishly emptied out his Soul with Luquier's Limit Break, so he couldn't use any of his switching effects and lost.

Round 4: vs Narukami

This guy was running Stand Triggers, which was weird... Anyways, I got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game and kept drawing Grade 1's so I couldn't even attack him effectively, so I lost.  In the second game, I didn't have any Grade 1's after my Grade 1 ride, so my rear-guards couldn't hit his Vermillion.  Unable to pressure him like I'm supposed to, I lost.

So that was it.  My friend ended up getting 5th place, so he didn't make it.  Riku was there too, and he went 3-1 with his Dark Irregulars, but also failed to make Top 4.  So, my friend and I just spent out time organizing all of the free cards we got.  We basically got every Common and Rare (he wants SP Blaster Darks, so he didn't care about not getting Rares) we wanted.  He also traded his two Vivianes for two Stern Blauklugers and gave them to me, so that was cool.  Now I just need two Blauklugers, and I can play the deck in tournaments.

I'll also be able to make a Megacolony deck now, though the only holo Megacolony card I have is one Master Beetle.  I'll just use Megacolony Battler C as my starting Vanguard and see how it works.  It's just a fun deck, so yeah.

Aki and I are also planning on getting new playmats, so that'll be cool.  I'm still not sure what I want on mine, but I think Aki has already decided for his.  I have a week to figure it out, though, so I'll come up with something.

Tournament Report 12/14/12

I decided to go to locals today since my winter break started yesterday.  I remade my Gem-Knights (sadly without Sardonyx or Zirconia, since they're not legal yet) for fun, because why not?  I mean, a bunch of people are playing Mermails now, so every game turns into who can OTK who first, and whatnot.

There were like 17 players there, with about half of them being regulars.

Round 1: vs Newbie Dark Sage Deck

I 2-0'd him, as it was his first time at a tournament.  He was good enough to recognize my Amber loops once I made them, though he couldn't do anything to stop them.

Round 2: vs Genex Atlanteans

I was up against JB this round.  Yugilo recorded this match, so it should go up on his channel soon.  This match showed how I'm kind of getting out of touch with the meta, but I'll talk more about that in another post eventually.  So yeah, I won't spoil the surprise of how the match ended, so you can watch the video.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

I couldn't tell if this guy was a very good player or not.  He didn't make any huge misplays, from what I could see, but he did think a lot about very simple plays.  Of course, since he was playing Six Samurai, it was difficult to judge his skill level regardless...

-Duel 1: My only Monster was a Tour Guide, which grabbed Sangan.  Neither of those, nor my two Rank 3 Xyz Monsters (Leviair and Zenmaines) could kill his Set Kagemusha, so he just sat there on it until he could kill me, since I didn't draw any of my Gem-Knights...
-Duel 2: I locked him down with Thunder King Rai-Oh.  I also had a Set Gozen Match, but the Rai-Oh was enough to prevent him from doing anything.
-Duel 3: He went first with United, Kageki, Kagemusha--the dreaded opening play.  He drew two cards, made Shi En, and Set a card.  I opened with Summoner Monk, discarding Gem-Knight Fusion to Special Summon Gem-Knight Amber.  He used Bottomless Trap Hole on Amber so I couldn't make Maestroke.  So, I Set Gozen Match and Mirror Force to end.  He summoned Legendary Six Samurai - Enishi and attacked with it, but on attack declaration, I activated Gozen Match.  He let it go and sent his Enishi to the Graveyard.  He killed my Monk with Shi En and ended.  I revived it with Monster Reborn (he let it through), then discarded Dark Hole to Special Summon Snipe Hunter from my deck.  With them, I was able to make Maestroke and kill his Shien.  From there, Gozen Match locked him down, so there wasn't much he could do.

XOO

Round 4: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

I was up against spondo.  As expected, he had the money to make such an expensive deck.

-Duel 1: I lost very quickly to a Megaloabyss and Moulinglacia swarm.
-Duel 2: I opened with Thunder King Rai-Oh, Dimensional Fissure, and two back rows.  He played Mind Control, then summoned Genex Controller (wrong order, by the way), so I negated the summon of the Controller with Solemn Judgment.  He Set two back rows and gave my back my Rai-Oh.  In the End Phase, I destroyed his Dust Tornado with my Mystical Space Typhoon; apparently, that was his only out to Dimensional Fissure.  I was out of Traps, so I just Set a Gem-Knight Fusion after attacking with Rai-Oh.  On his turn, he used Abyss-sphere to get Megaloabyss and run over my Rai-Oh.  I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched my other Gem-Knight Fusion to grab a Thunder King Rai-Oh from my deck.  His Megaloabyss died in the End Phase due to Abyss-sphere, and I ended.  He asked his deck for a Dark Hole, and sure enough, he drew Dark Hole to clear out my field.  He attacked with Atlantean Dragoons and ended.  I summoned Gem-Knight Obsidian and ran over his Dragoons with the help of Forbidden Chalice.  He summoned Deep Sea Diva and grabbed Atlantean Heavy Infantry to Synchro Summon Armory Arm to run over my Obsidian.  I then topped Gem-Knight Garnet to run over his Armory Arm.  He played another Diva to grab Atlantean Marksmen to Synchro Summon Ally of Justice Catastor to kill my Garnet.  I topped Return from the Different Dimension and used it on his turn, since I was at 1400 LP.  That protected me for a turn, so I could use Dark Hole to kill his Catastor.  Now it just came down to if he could draw a Monster with at least 700 ATK.  Genex Undine has 1200 ATK, so I lost.

XX

That ended up being the last round, and sadly, I didn't win anything.  I pulled a Super Rare Kagemusha of the Six Samurai from my Astral Pack and traded it to Fwazalaza for an Ultimate Rare Wind-Up Carrier Zenmaity.  Now all I need to make Wind-Ups are Rats and Sharks.  So, I may actually consider making Wind-Ups...

But yeah, I'll be at locals tomorrow, as usual, for the Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.  I have yet to decide whether or not I'm going to use my Gem-Knights again tomorrow or not.  I kind of feel like using my Nordic Diva deck again, since it's the best deck I have and I need to get some more sleeves...

Tournament Report 12/8/12

As usual, I went to locals yesterday for the Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments.  I haven't been able to post as much as I'd like to since I've been busy with school, but I get 3.5 weeks off for winter break starting this Thursday, so that'll be nice.  Well, it's not like there's been much to discuss, since Yu-Gi-Oh has gotten pretty stale, and everyone else is doing a good job covering the big events.  But yeah, I'll probably talk about where I am with regards to the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh scene and such in another post once I'm done with finals

So first was the small Vanguard tournament.  There were only five people, including myself and my friend who plays Vanguard, and there ended up being only two rounds.  I got a bye in the first round, then played against one of the undefeated (1-0, LOL) players and their poorly-built Tachikaze deck to win the tournament, since the other undefeated player got paired down and lost.  So that was really silly, but I suppose that's Vanguard...

Next was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  There were about 25 players there yesterday, and I was running a new Scrap deck I made for fun.  It uses a few Gravekeeper's Spies and some other random stuff as non-Tuners for the Scraps.  Despite the fact that winning with Scraps in this ridiculously fast format depends on whether or not I draw Scrap Chimeras, I decided to just try it out and see what happens.

Round 1: vs Mermail/Atlanteans

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  He was using an incomplete deck (it lacked Abyss-sphere and only had one Mermail Abyssmegalo).

-Duel 1: I kept throwing cards down and rushing him by making Scrap Dragon after Scrap Dragon using Scrap Beasts and random non-Tuners like Photon Thrasher and Elemental HERO Bubbleman.  I realized that I couldn't out-advantage him, so I just rushed him as best I could and killed him before he could set up an OTK.
-Duel 2: I got a Macro Cosmos up (I don't have Soul Drains since I haven't bought any packs since Galactic Overlord, ha ha, I'll try and pick up some singles this weekend), preventing him from using any of his crazy effects.  It also let me Xyz Summon Maestroke to beat over his Thunder King Rai-Oh without him being able to negate it.  Unfortunately, I couldn't really do anything with the rest of my cards, as I had no other Monsters after he used Torrential Tribute to clear the field, so I died slowly to his Atlantean Dragoons.
-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Gravekeeper's Spy and a Dimensional Prison.  He opened with Heavy Storm, then Abyssmegalo, discarding Dragoons and another Water Monster.  With Dragoons, he searched Marksman, and he summoned it to tribute for Abyssmegalo to destroy my Set Spy.  He attacked twice, Set a card, and ended.  I set Scrap Beast and another back row, but he played Compulsory Evacuation Device, then Mystical Space Typhoon to clear my field again.  My hand was all Scrap Monsters, so I couldn't do anything to prevent him from killing me.

OXX

Round 2: vs Newbie Six Samurai

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend.  Basically, I 2-0'd him by rushing him in the first game with Scrap Dragon and Scrap Twin Dragon, and I won with Gozen Match in the second game.

Round 3: vs Newbie Gravekeeper's

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  I just kept destroying her Necrovalley with Scrap Dragon's effect until she ran out, so I won 2-0.

My Round 4 opponent was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.  He didn't really want to play, so he gave me the win.  That gave me time to play Kaijudo with my friend who plays Vanguard.  He likes the mono-Darkness deck I made randomly because he relates Hydra Medusa to Blaster Dark and Tekamora to Phantom Blaster Dragon.  Those are Shadow Paladins from Vanguard, for those of you who don't know.

That round ended kind of late, so if I were to play in the fifth round, we might not have been able to make it to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament.  Not to mention my tie-breakers were horrible... So, I decided to drop and leave.  I got a Tefnuit from the Astral Pack, so that was cool.  Two different people also gave me their Super Rare Mask Changes, since apparently it's the "worst" holo in the Astral Pack.  I don't mind having holo Mask Changes, ha ha.

So, lastly was the other Vanguard tournament.  There were 14 players there yesterday, and I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers, as usual.

Round 1: vs Spike Brothers

This guy was fairly incompetent, but he kept getting all of his Critical Triggers, so I had a difficult time winning 2-1.  Seriously, in the third game, his whole damage zone was Critical Triggers...

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

This was my Round 1 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game and I rushed him with double Stand Triggers to win.  I got gradestuck at Grade 2 in the second game, but I rushed him and kept getting triggers on my drive checks, so I was able to win before the advantage gap became too steep.

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin

This guy normally plays Spike Brothers, but he was playing his friend's Gold Paladin deck for some reason.  Anyways, I rushed him in the first game to win.  We both got a bunch of Heal Triggers in the second game (three each, to be exact), but I was able to win with my general rush tactics.

So then they cut to Top 4.  My friend was 2-1, since he lost to his friend, the bad Pale Moon player, who just trigger sacked him to win.  He somehow made it into the Top 4, and I was paired up against him.  He and the other two players (my Round 3 opponent and my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament) wanted to split the packs evenly, since the prizes were 10, 5, 3, then 2 packs for 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place, respectively.  That would mean that if we were to split, then each of us would get 5 packs.  However, I felt that the bad Pale Moon player didn't deserve to even be in the Top 4, so I would be able to beat him.  So, I ended up being the jerk who refused to split because I wanted to avenge my friend.

Semi-Finals: vs Pale Moon

He just kept misplaying over and over throughout the match, and when I pointed out his misplays, his excuse was that he was tired.  Yeah, as if Vanguard takes any thought.  He also asked me how much he'd need to guard my attacks occasionally, and I told him that I'm not going to do the math for him; that'd be taking away the only skill needed to play Vanguard: the ability to add multiples of 1000.  So, I won 2-0.  It also helped that his Grade 2 ride was often Dancing Princess of the Night Sky, which my Black Tortoise can hit unboosted...

Finals: vs Angel Feather

Now that I had avenged my friend and prevented the bad Pale Moon player from walking away with a bunch of packs he didn't deserve, I was ready to split.  Again, 10 and 5 don't split evenly, so we decided to each take 7 packs and play one game for the extra pack.  I ended up winning because I rushed him when I rode to Grade 2 with King of Sword and two Black Tortoise.  With White Tiger and a Stand Trigger, I was able to stand both of my Tortoises and attack his Heavenly Injector five times that turn.  With that overwhelming advantage, I was set to win the game.

As such, I was able to get 8 packs of Set 2.  I let my friend open them, and he pulled complete garbage.  The only good cards were a Captain Nightmist and a Top Idol, Flores.  I just need one more Twin Blader for me to be able to switch to a more Grade 3-heavy build without worrying about losing to drawing too many Grade 3's...  Oh well, I can keep trying for it next weekend...

Tournament Report 12/1/12

My weekend was really busy, which is why this week's tournament report is coming out so late.  But yeah, I went to locals yesterday for the usual three tournaments.

First was the small Vanguard tournament.  I decided to use my Nubatama deck (which features the Galahad ride chain and Hell Spiders) since I didn't want to get gradestuck on Grade 2 for like two games and lose because of it.  Well, I did get stuck on Grade 2 in the first round against a newbie Bermuda Triangle player who got double triggers each Twin Drive, so I lost.  I won the next three rounds against a Kagero player who decided not to play Heal Triggers, my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament and her Gold Paladin deck, and a Kagero player who played Lizard Runner, Undeux (not as his starting Vanguard, like, he used it to guard an attack...).

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament with my Debris HERO build.  There were 18 players.

Round 1: vs Newbie Lightraysworn

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He's a very annoying person, so I was quite frustrated when I lost 1-2.  He just drew everything each game, and I drew nothing.  That's part of why I put off playing HEROes for so long; if you don't draw Miracle Fusion, you can't do much.

Round 2: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament.  He sided into Monarchs, which was interesting.  I don't think that he really thought it through; I just think that he really likes Caius and Zaborg.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw many Monsters, so he was stuck stalling behind a Spirit Reaper.  So, I summoned E-HERO Ocean and used its effect to keep gaining cards.  There wasn't much he could do, but that's what happens when you don't draw Rescue Rabbit.
-Duel 2: He beat me down with a Caius after banishing my Snowman Eater, so I couldn't use my Debris Dragon.
-Duel 3: He drew a few Monarchs with not much to tribute for them.  After seeing the Monarchs in the previous duel, I made sure to kill all of his Monsters so he couldn't set up for a Tribute Summon, so I won.

OXO

Round 3: vs Newbie Six Samurai

"Newbie" because he was playing Great Shogun Shien and Tragoedia... Oh, and he was somehow undefeated, so I was paired up.

-Duel 1: I random rush OTK'd him with a Miracle Fusion/Leviair play.
-Duel 2: He rushed me with a Shi En equipped with Spirit of the Six Samurai.
-Duel 3: I random rush OTK'd him with Miracle Fusion, Leviair, and Monster Reborn, pushing 3800 damage through his Kageki so that he couldn't drop Gorz.  By the way, he had a Tragoedia on the field and didn't know that he could discard his own Gorz to steal my Gorz, so he wasted his previous turn using Zanji to crash into my Gorz...

OXO

Round 4: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

-Duel 1: He went first and was able to keep me from doing anything with Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.  I was able to draw two cards off of Bubbleman's effect, but that didn't do much when he could clear my field with Grand Mole and attack for game.
-Duel 2: I was able to OTK him with Polymerization into Miracle Fusion and such.
-Duel 3: He beat me down with his 1900 beaters and I couldn't do much to stop him.

XOX

So I ended up going 2-2, oh well.  I did get a Gates of Dark World from the Astral Pack, and I traded it to my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament for two packs of Kaijudo Evo Fury.  But yeah, I'll probably change decks for next weekend.  I should have some free time later in the week (basically every day except tomorrow) to think of a new deck to use.  I may even go back to Nordic Diva, since I let my friend who plays Vanguard use it for the tournament, and we played a few games for fun, and it made me remember how good the deck was, how fun and challenging it was to play, and how difficult it could be to play against.

With that, my friend and I went to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament, and Riku met us there.  I forgot to mention it last time, but Riku had made a Bermuda Triangle deck with two boxes of the Banquet of Divas Extra Booster, so I don't have to lend him a Vanguard deck anymore.  I was using my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers, and my friend decided to be serious and use his Royal Paladins.

Round 1: vs Newbie Kagero

I was up against a little kid using a modified Kagero Trail Deck, so I won 2-0.

Round 2: vs Newbie Royal Paladin

I was up against a little kid using a modified Royal Paladin Trail Deck, so I won 2-1 (I lost the first game to multiple Critical Triggers...).

Round 3: vs Lawkeeper Kagero

This was my Round 4 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  For some reason, he got gradestuck both games again and lost because of it.  I asked him about his grade ratios after the match, and he said he played 13-12-8.  Well, let's just say that that's not a grade ratio I would ever use...

Round 4: vs Bermuda Triangle

He was using the Riviere ride chain, but also didn't seem to know that much about the game.  By that, I mean, he took a long time figuring out how to guard each attack and forgot some of his card's effects.

-Fight 1: He got gradestuck on the Grade 2 Riviere after failing to get either the Grade 2 or 3 when he rode the Grade 1.  So, I just beat him down with my Azure Dragon.
-Fight 2: He got his whole ride chain off, and I wasn't drawing Grade 2's for some reason, so I had to make columns of Grade 1's that could only reach 15k.  So, I just beat up his rear-guards until I could make some real columns.  It was enough to whittle down his resources though, and he didn't check many triggers, so I was able to win.

OO

So that was the last round and I was undefeated.  My friend was also undefeated.  I got to see him get double Critical Triggers against a Spike Brothers player in the third round for game, and he also had an interesting field in the fourth round against a Narukami player; he put the Grade 3 Galahad behind his Vanguard, King of Knights, Alfred, so that his Toypugals would get their bonus and so that not all of his Grade 3's would get destroyed by a Vermillion Thunderbolt.  It was pretty funny, having a Grade 3 behind the Vanguard, like when Aichi called a Gancelot behind his Alfred.

But yeah, so they cut to Top 4 after that.  I was supposed to play against my friend's Round 3 opponent, and my friend was supposed to play against my Round 3 opponent, but we all just decided to split the prize evenly between the four of us.  We each got five packs, but neither of us pulled anything notable.  But yeah, they were free, so that was nice.

After that we went out to eat, and Riku ended up trading his Bermuda Triangle deck for my friend's Dark Irregulars deck.  So yeah...

On the following day (today), I went to the Kaijudo league since it was the last day and I wanted the Sparkblade Protectors.  My friend also showed up, so he played using a mono-Darkness deck I made.  There were only nine people there, so everyone got Sparkblade Protectors, and I also got enough points to get the other two promos.  My friend got the Mother Virus and gave it and the Sparkblade to me.  So, now I have two Sparkblades for my deck, which will probably be changed to support more Enforcer Evolutions.

Right now, it's Light/Darkness/Nature, a weird combination, I know.  It's been working alright, but I'm going to change it up; maybe I'll drop the Darkness stuff, since the Darkness section is just a bunch of good cards that have very little synergy with the deck.  I'll see what I can do, but there's no rush, since I probably won't be able to play Kaijudo for another couple weeks.

Other notable moments include yesterday when Elaine actually kept her promise to save me when I was about to lose, and earlier today when I actually got to reach the stack that Drangal and the Galahads created at the bottom of my deck and won the game because of it.  But yeah, that was my busy weekend.