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.