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.