Tournament Report 10/27/12

As usual, I've got a triple tournament report for you, starting with the small Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.

Before that, though, my friend who plays Vanguard brought me most of his Nova Grappler stuff; all that was missing was his one Twin Blader, his third Azure Dragon, and his one copy of Three Minutes.  So, I made the deck without those, opting to use a ninth Stand Trigger over the one Three Minutes that I lacked.  I also used an Azura Kaiser over the fourth Azure Dragon that I didn't have at the moment.  And, that's the deck I used for the small tournament.

In the first round, I played against the Spectral Duke Dragon Gold Paladin player I had played against in the fourth round from last week's small Vanguard tournament.  He got his ride chain off perfectly, and I wasn't able to rush him very effectively, so I lost.

My friend also lost, and we ended up getting paired up against each other in the second round.  So, we both just dropped and used the few Narukami cards he brought to make a deck for Aki.  At this point, it lacked Garudas, Dragonic Deathscythes, and basically all of the good cards.  It was pretty bad, honestly.  But yeah, we were just using what we had.  We were planning on making it better later that day, so yeah.

A while after that, the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament started.  There were only 14 players there today, since there was a Regional about an hour away, which I didn't bother to go to.  I was using my Nordic Diva deck, of course.  I really do want to try making other decks, but I don't really have time.  The only reason I have time to think of new Vanguard decks is because they're so easy to make.  Like, I thought of one on the way home from school on Friday (a Nubatama/Royal Paladin hybrid using the Galahad ride chain).  But that's besides the point...

Round 1: vs Chaos Dragons

This was my Round 1 opponent from last week's Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  We were even sitting at the same table as last time.  He told me that he tried going to the Regional, but he was turned away since there were too many people, not unlike the previous Regional I tried to attend.

-Duel 1: He OTK'd me with Dark Armed Dragon, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Darkflare Dragon...
-Duel 2: I went for an OTK with T.G. Hyper Librarian, Scrap Dragon, and Thor, but he guarded with Tragoedia, leaving himself at 1700 LP. He had no follow-up, so he just scooped afterwards.
-Duel 3: I summoned Thor and just beat his face in.  Effect Veiler and Bottomless Trap Hole protected Thor from Chaos Sorcerer and BLS, so there were no problems for me.

XOO

Round 2: vs Inzektors

This was my Round 5 opponent from this Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew Dragonfly, Hornet, and Monster Reborn, so he won.
-Duel 2: He didn't draw any Inzektors except Centipede, so I won.  That's honestly what it comes down to now.
-Duel 3: He drew Dragonfly, Hornet, Centipede, and Ladybug.  He opened with Dragonfly into Ladybug into Centipede into Tiras, searching Zektkaliber.  He later used Pot of Duality to grab BLS, and I couldn't deal with all of the advantage, so I lost.

XOX

He ended up playing the Duel Terminal and getting a bunch of the new Gem-Knight cards, which he gave to me, since he knows that I play Gem-Knights.  Now I have three Sardonyx, and I got them all for free.

Round 3: vs Dark Worlds

He was kind of a newb, but he at least knew how all of his cards worked and played fairly well.

-Duel 1: He Dragged me Down and spammed Grapha, like the deck is supposed to.  I couldn't make anything bigger than Grapha, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I just rushed him with a bunch of Synchros to win.
-Duel 3: Again, he opened with Grapha and I couldn't make anything bigger than it.  I had a Dimensional Fissure, but he had two MST's.

XOX

With that, I decided to drop.  I just played Vanguard with my friend for a bit, then we left for the other Vanguard tournament.  Earlier, he had given me another Dragonic Overlord so that I could play a fourth one, and I changed up my Invincible Overlord deck a little bit.  But yeah, there were like 18 players there today.

Round 1: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

This was the same OTT player from Round 4 of this tournament.

-Fight 1: He missed his Grade 1 Tsukuyomi, riding Circle Magus instead.  I opened with a bunch of Grade 2's, so I just rushed him.  He couldn't really defend himself that well, so I was able to win with just random rush tactics.
-Fight 2: He got his ride chain off perfectly, but he didn't really commit to the field at all.  I understand that Tsukuyomi players tend to hold everything in their hand so that they can guard long enough to get to their stack, but it seems silly when your opponent gets to save all of their cards, too.  Either way, I just beat him up with my winning image while memorizing his whole hand.  There were times in the match were I was like, "You're going to intercept, then guard with a Tsukuyomi from your hand, right?" and he'd be all like, "Yeah, pretty much."  Either way, he got all of his Critical Triggers early when I was easily guarding them, so he couldn't apply much pressure late game.  The game went on long enough so that he decked out.  Yeah, he decked out before me, but that's mainly because he used Tsukuyomi's Counterblast four times over the course of the fight, and I didn't ride Mr. Invincible until later.

OO

Round 2: vs Royal Paladin

I was paired down against a little kid.  He didn't know all of the rules, so I was teaching him while we played.  But yeah, I won 2-0.

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same fairly incompetent Gold Paladin player from Round 1 of last week's Vanguard tournament.  He's been getting better though.  He still plays stuff like Nemean Lion and the Grade 3 Sagramore, though...  Oh, and I was paired down again.

-Fight 1: He got some Critical Triggers early on, so I was at five damage pretty early.  I ended up having to minimum guard against his Vanguard, and he flipped two Critical Triggers...
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 2 for a turn, which was pretty bad.  I just couldn't amass a field, since I had to guard for a bunch against all of his columns, so I lost.

XX

The tournament organizer decided to cut to Top 4 at this point.  I was the lowest 2-1, since I was paired down twice, so I didn't make it.  How sad.  Well, whatever.  My friend ended up getting a bunch of Narukami stuff from his friend, including Garudas and Deathscythes.  I also traded him some bad Kagero cards for all of the other stuff in his Narukami deck except the Vermillions, which he was supposed to give to my friend, but decided to keep because he likes to be irritating.

I also traded some of the Spike Brothers stuff I had been getting from my packs of Set 2 for a third Thunder Break Dragon.  With that, I was able to make a decent Narukami deck without Vermillions.  The main Vanguard is Thunder Break Dragon, of course, with Djinn of the Lightning Flash and Breakthrough Dragon as decent alternatives.  I made it according to Aki's specifications, with four Dragonic Deathscythes, since they're cool, and Spark Kid Dragoon as the starting Vanguard.  Also, I found out that Narukami has more than one Stand Trigger, so that's cool.  And since we're not using Vermillion, we can actually use Stand Triggers.

But yeah, assuming my friend brings the three Nova Grappler cards I still need next weekend, we'll be ready for the team tournament on Sunday.  And there's also the Vanguard Regional on Saturday, but that's not really the main point.  I mean, it takes a lot of luck to make it through 7-9 best-of-one double-elimination rounds in a game like Vanguard.  But whatever, I'll just mess with people with my Invincible Overlord deck, then play in the team tournament with my friend and Aki the following day.

Random Stuff #51

I don't think I'll have any time for another blog post until Saturday, so I figure that I might as well put one up now.  It's kind of a double-post, so don't forget to check out the previous post (a tournament report that was technically uploaded today, since it was after midnight).

So the Atlantean Structure Deck came out, which is really cool.  I'm really happy that Genex Undine is once again a good card, since I used to play Genex (like two years or so ago).  I kind of want to play Atlanteans competitively, but they're kind of lacking as a theme.  For one, it's quite difficult to use the Atlantean's secondary effects, since the only reliable way to send them to the Graveyard using a Water Monster's effect is by using Genex Undine.  There's Dragon Ice and Abyss Soldier, but you have to draw them as well as the Atlanteans, which can deplete your hand.  I don't know, I like the theme, but it doesn't seem that good, at least without Mermails...

Other than that, Yu-Gi-Oh has still been very stale.  I guess Wind-Ups are kind of new in Japan, and they've been wrecking the meta there from what I've seen.  But yeah, nothing really new.

It's the same with Kaijudo.  Until the new cards come out next month, there won't be much to discuss.  That, and the fact that my locals only has Kaijudo events on Sunday, which I am unable to attend.  Maybe I can convince the shopkeeper to consider moving the Kaijudo league to Saturday before the Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, at the same time as the Vanguard tournaments.  I mean, the leagues are just free play, so I could enter the Vanguard tournament then participate in the league afterwards.  And if there are actual tournaments, then Kaijudo takes precedence over Vanguard.

As for Vanguard, there's one more weekend of local tournaments before the Regional and National in two weeks.  That means that there's one more week to test my decks before the Regional, which I don't expect to win, and the team tournament side event at the National, which is what I'm actually excited for.  Playing on a team with two of my friends like in the anime should be exciting.  We still haven't decided on a team name yet (I haven't even talked to Aki about it), though.  Most team names end up being cheesy, so I was thinking about making it purposefully cheesy.  "Team Speeder Hound" has a nice ring to it, ha ha.  My friend who plays Vanguard suggested "Team Sagramore", since he knows that I hate the Grade 3 Sagramore, but I'd be okay with the name, since it sounds good and I like the Grade 1 Sagramore.

Neither of my decks are ready for the Regional/team tournament, but my friend should be able to get me the cards I need by this weekend. I need a fourth Dragonic Overlord for my Invincible Overlord deck, and I already have the Wyvern Guard, Barri that I'm going to tech.  I'm not sure if I want to use that Barri or a third Demonic Dragon Mage, Kimnara.  Half the time, I kind of wish that I could have a Kimnara to retire my opponent's boosters.  But, I'm going to change out a Hungry Dumpty for a third Berserk Dragon, so I guess that should do it.

For my Nova Grappler deck, all I have are a few cards that I've been getting from packs and a few cards my friend has already given me.  He's basically going to be giving me a whole collection of Nova Grapplers, and I'm going to put the deck together as I see fit.  I'm thinking about going with a 16-13-4 or 15-13-5 grade ratio.  If that low Grade 3-count ends up not working out, then I might run a more conventional Nova Grappler build, but I'd really rather not do that unless I can get more Twin Bladers.  We'll see, I guess.

I'm also thinking about running Marvelous Hani, but I just can't stop thinking about how bad it is unless it has a Tough Boy supporting it.  My other Grade 2's will be Kirara, Black Tortoise, and either King of Sword or Brutal Jack, but I kind of want to maximize on-hit skills so that my opponent won't be able to stop them all.  I don't know, I just feel like Marvelous Hani is really bad after my third turn, so I may not run it.

As for Aki's deck, my friend who plays Vanguard should be able to get enough cards for a viable Narukami deck (without Vermillions, sadly) by this weekend.  We'll just have to work with whatever he has, I suppose.  Vermillion is cool, but it's not the only reason why Narukami decks are playable, right?  Right...?

But yeah, I'm just looking forward to the team tournament.  It sounds fun, and it'd be great if either of the card shops I go to could do something like that.

Tournament Report 10/20/12

As usual, I wasn't able to post during the week because school takes up a lot of time, but I was able to go to locals.  My friend who plays Vanguard gave me a Wyvern Guard, Barri, but I wasn't able to use it since I needed a fourth Dragonic Overlord to make it consistent enough to warrant playing.  He also gave me a Magician Girl, Kirara, which I put in my Invincible Overlord deck.  He didn't bring any other cards, despite me asking him to bring all of his Nova Grappler and Kagero stuff so that I could get my deck ready for the Vanguard Regional in two weeks.  But whatever, there's still time, I guess.

So, first was the small Vanguard tournament.  I was paired up against a Granblue player who didn't seem to use math when we played.  I had to ride up to Dragonic Overlord, and he filled his front row with 10k's without boosters.  So he kept attacking my 11k Dragonic Overlord with stuff like Commodore Blueblood, and he'd ask me why I don't take damage.  He caught on after a while, though.  It didn't matter, since he didn't get many triggers, while I just kept killing his rear-guards before killing him.  Since he basically couldn't damage me for most of the game, I had a bunch of 10k shields in my hand by the end of the game.

In the second round, I was up against my opponent from the finals of this small Vanguard tournament.  He was running Royal Paladins.  Basically what happened was that he attacked with his Vanguard Gancelot that had an extra Critical from its effect, then he got a Draw Trigger and a Critical Trigger to push through my two-to-pass guard.  Needless to say, I didn't get any Heal Triggers, so I lost.

After that, I played against a Narukami player in the third round, since there were actually enough players there to give prizes past 1st place.  I got my winning image of Mr. Invincible and Dragonic Overlord to put constant pressure on him and win.

In the fourth round, I played against a Spectral Duke Dragon-based Gold Paladin deck.  Basically what happened is that he got two Critical Triggers to push through my two-to-pass guard.  Yeah... Now, don't be fooled into thinking that it's bad to guard for two-to-pass.  Statistically, it's the best way to guard, unless you have an abundance of shields.

So yeah, I didn't win anything, and neither did my friend who plays Vanguard.  I then entered the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament with my Nordic Diva deck.  There were about 18 people there today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight).

Round 1: vs Dark Worlds

-Duel 1: He didn't draw Grapha, so I was able to completely dominate him with a Scrap Dragon.  It made me miss playing Scraps...
-Duel 2: He didn't draw any back row removal, so I was able to completely shut him down with two Dimensional Fissures.  It's a good card, yo.

OO

Round 2: vs Newbie Dino-Rabbit

My opponent here was a little kid who kept talking about how people always underestimated him because he was a little kid.  He had a full Dino-Rabbit deck with everything a... more experienced... Dino-Rabbit would use, but he still played it wrong.  I 2-0'd him after struggling a little bit since he drew both of his Rabbits in the first duel.

OO

Round 3: vs Counter Fairies with Agents

-Duel 1: I used Bottomless Trap Hole on his Bountiful Artemis, baited out all of his back row, then I summoned Catastor.  Yeah, he tried to use Hyperion, but Effect Veiler is a good card.
-Duel 2: I baited out all of his back rows, which forced him to minus since he didn't draw Bountiful Artemis, then summoned Catastor.  Yeah, Catastor is a good card.

OO

Round 4: vs Machina Geargia

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  Apparently he switches decks a lot, and it was his second time playing with Geargia.  Also, this happened to be the finals, since there were so few people.  We didn't even discuss splitting, since the prizes were fairly low anyways.

-Duel 1: I opened with Spined Gillman and milled Lost Blue Breaker with Ryko, so that when I needed to make a Catastor with Deep Sea Diva to stop him from killing me with Machina Fortress, I couldn't.  Quite sad.
-Duel 2: I threw my Thought Ruler Archfiend into a Mirror Force, then revived it with Monster Reborn a few turns later.  His only answer to that was Machina Fortress, but I always save a Bottomless Trap Hole for Fortress, so I banished it.  He had nothing else, so I won with Thought Ruler.
-Duel 3: He gained advantage slowly with his Geargia engine, while I just kept Setting cards.  After a while, when I was at 1700 LP to his 8000 LP, he left three Machine Monsters out.  Alright, Cyber Dragon into Chimeratech Fortress Dragon at 4000 ATK.  That took out half of his LP in one swing.  He Special Summoned his own Cyber Dragon and tried to fuse it with my Chimeratech Fortress Dragon, but Chimeratech Fortress Dragon cannot be used as a Fusion Material, so he was left there with a vulnerable Cyber Dragon.  I ran it over with my Fortress Dragon, then Set a Super-Nimble Hamster.  He summoned Geargiarsenal after using Mind Control to steal my Hamster.  He overlaid to make Utopia and stall for a bit.  But it didn't matter, I was able to clear out his field in a few turns and win with attacks from another Hamster and Reborn Tengu.

XOO

With that, I went undefeated and got 1st place.  I used my store credit to get sleeves for Aki and vadangchoinga (who now owes me $5), as well as a double deck box for myself.  I spent the last few dollars on a couple of Battle Pack.  You know, those Epic Dawn ones that no one cares about anymore?  Well, I pulled a Rare Tour Guide, so that was cool.  I may or may not sell it, since I'm planning on getting three of the Hanzo tins, which have Tour Guides.  So, if I keep it, I'll have six Tour Guides.  Hmm, we'll see.

So after that was the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  There were only 11 people there for the tournament.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was the same fairly incompetent Gold Paladin player from last weekend.  He played somewhat better than last time, so that's good.

-Fight 1: He dumped his hand onto his field.  I killed all of his rear-guards.  Yeah, that's how my deck works.
-Fight 2: I didn't get a Grade 1, so I lost.
-Fight 3: I constructed my winning image to rip apart his field.  When I was attacking with Dragonic Overlord after using its Counterblast, I even told him that he didn't have enough to guard, since I had memorized his whole hand.  I can be quite evil sometimes.  It's the Stand Triggers, yo.

OXO

Round 2: vs Narukami

This was the same Narukami player that I played against in the third round of this small Vanguard tourmament.  Oddly enough, a third of the players here were running Narukami.  It was weird.

-Fight 1: Basically what happened is he got a Draw Trigger and a Critical Trigger to push through my two-to-pass guard when I was at four damage.  This happened to me too much today.
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 2 and lost because of it.  At least Nehalem did a good job holding down the fort until I died was banished from the planet Cray.

XX

Round 3: vs Nova Grappler

This was my opponent from the semi-finals of this Vanguard tournament.

-Fight 1: I drew a bunch of my Grade 3's, so I didn't have enough to guard mid-game.  Not only that, but I had to anticipate Stand Triggers, so I basically just had to no-guard and hope for a Heal Trigger.  But yeah, I didn't get a Heal Trigger.
-Fight 2: I got gradestuck on Grade 1, so I lost.  This (getting gradestuck in general) happened to me too much today, as well.

XX

So, neither my friend nor I made it into the Top 4 this week, which was sad.  So, we just left after getting a few cards.  I was able to get two more Magician Girl, Kirara and a Beast Deity Azure Dragon for $16.  Yes, I spent a little more money on Vanguard, but I'll be selling some cards next weekend, so it'll even out.

Basically, those cards are going to be for the pure Nova Grappler deck I'm going to make.  But, why would I want to make a Nova Grappler deck?  Well, first of all, it's one of the clans that I like, mainly since it uses Stand Triggers.  But also, because the team tournament that Bushiroad is hosting on November 4 as a side event to the Vanguard National Championship requires single-clan decks.  I'm planning on entering with my friend who plays Vanguard and Aki.  My friend is supposed to be getting a Narukami deck for Aki, and hopefully that'll happen by next weekend so that Aki will have some time to practice with it.

But, back to the reason why I want to run Nova Grapplers.  I don't want to have to run a bunch of Grade 3's.  I know what those of you who play Nova Grapplers are thinking: "But Asura Kaiser and the Death Army people turn drive-checked Grade 3's into Stand Triggers!"  Yeah, but they don't turn them into shields for defending yourself.  I want to play a deck that runs as few as four Grade 3's, all of which are Azure Dragon.  Azure Dragon can be searched using the Grade 1 and 2 Beast Deities, so it'll hopefully work out.  I may play a fifth or sixth Grade 3 depending on how the deck shapes up, but I really don't want to play too many.

And for my Invincible Overlord deck, I feel like I want to run more Dragonic Overlord.  Every time I ride into Dragonic Overlord, the fact that it's an 11k Kagero helps a lot.  It lets me still use Kimnara and Gattling Claw Dragon, and it prevents Gold Paladins from making weak 15k lines to force 10k cards.  It'll also let me tech a Barri, so yeah.

By the way, I was able to finally use Mr. Invincible's Megablast today while playing against my friend's Royal Paladin deck.  I just attacked his rear-guard and he let it go, so my whole field stood back up.  Of course, that was because I hadn't drawn any Dragonic Overlords all game, so all of my damage was face-up.  So that was cool.

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.

Tournament Report 10/7/12

Aki and I went to the first Kaijudo tournament my locals hosted this morning.  There were only three other players, so it was a short tournament.

I was using my Everything Except Nature (EEN) Control deck.  I was able to get a Skull Shatter from Fwazalaza before the tournament to replace the tech Death Smoke I was using.  Overall, I'm not impressed with Skull Shatter.  It warps the game in the sense that people won't keep a bunch of cards in their hand once you're near 8 mana because of it, but it was never really devastating when I played it.  I'd definitely prefer a Razorkinder Puppet to Skull Shatter.

But yeah, on to the short tournament report:

Round 1: vs Light/Water/Darkness

-Duel 1: I got to check my shields with Crystal Memory and saw that I had four Shield Blasts down.  That's cool.  But, I wasn't really able to generate much card advantage, so he was able to slowly beat me down after devastating my field with a Stormspark Blast.

-Duel 2: I got to check my shields with Crystal Memory and saw that I had three Shield Blasts down.  Also cool.  I drew into a lot of my Water cards and was able to generate card advantage to take control of the duel.  In the end, I just rushed to break all of his shields and he had no Shield Blasts to protect himself.

-Duel 3: I summoned two Moorna, Gatling Dragon to control the board.  He couldn't deal with Moorna, so I was able to win.

XOO

Round 2: vs Water/Darkness/Fire

I was paired down, while Aki (who had gotten a bye in the first round) and Fwazalaza were paired up against each other at the top table.

-Duel 1: He discarded a bunch of my cards with Fumes, Specter Claw, Razorkinder Puppet, and finally Skull Shatter.  However, I just kept drawing powerful cards that he couldn't deal with to rush and break all of his shields.  I got pretty lucky, to be honest.

-Duel 2: He locked down my Moorna with Waterspout Gargoyle, much like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.  So, we just sat there for a while charging a bunch of mana.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any more relevant threats once he drew into Crystal Memory to search his Terror Pit to destroy my Moorna.

-Duel 3: I drew very few Water cards towards the beginning of the game, so I couldn't generate much advantage.  He got to rip apart my hand with Razorkinder Puppet, and then I started drawing my Water cards.  It was a bit late, since he had his boss Creatures like Moorna out already to render all of my cards useless.

OXX

Fwazalaza ended up beating Aki 2-1, so since he was the last undefeated player, he won the tournament and the glorious prize of $5 in store credit.  Yeah...

So yeah, I'll see what I can do to improve my Kaijudo deck for next time.  Not that I'll be going to next week's Kaijudo tournament if there is one, since I'll probably be busy next Sunday.  But, I'm just hoping that once Evolutions come out, Water won't be the only Civilization with draw power.  We'll see, I guess.

Tournament Report 10/6/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight...).

First was the Vanguard tournament, which was best-of-1 single-elimination.  I won the first round against one of the regulars playing Royal Paladins; she's still kind of new to the game, so it wasn't too difficult.  I won against a competent Oracle Think Tank player by decking him out; he didn't summon more than two rear-guards at a time, and one of them was just supporting his Vanguard CEO Amaterasu, so I could guard really easily.  I lost the third round to the Narukami player that I played against in the semi-finals of this Vanguard tournament; I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for a turn, but got all four Heal Triggers over the course of the game to make up for it.  Unfortunately, though, I only drew one Grade 3 (Dragonic Overlord), so I couldn't really put any pressure on him.

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I was playing my Nordic Diva deck, same as it was last week, except I switched out Fiendish Chain for Solemn Warning.  There were like 28 players participating in the tournament.

Round 1: vs Newbie Jurrac

He was pretty nice, but he didn't really understand competitive play.  He played stuff like Fighting Spirit, Mage Power, and United We Stand.  So yeah, Scrap Dragon wrecked him.

Round 2: vs Frog Monarchs

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  We're friends, and he expected to lose to me, so we just had fun while playing.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw any Frog cards, so I just rushed him.
-Duel 2: He actually drew his Swap Frog, so he was able to get his Frog engine going.  But, I banished one of his Treeborn Frogs with D.D. Crow and the other with Dimensional Fissure followed up by Dark Hole.  He had nothing left to use as tribute fodder without his Frogs, so I won from there.

OO

Round 3: vs Inzektors

I knew that Billy Brake did well with Inzektors at a recent YCS, but I didn't expect people to actually play the deck.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw any Inzektors except Centipede, so I just beat him down.  I didn't have the cards needed to swarm, but he didn't have his Hornet, so it didn't matter.
-Duel 2: I had Cyber Dragon and Bottomless Trap Hole.  He had Heavy Storm and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.  Yeah...
-Duel 3: He drew both his Inzektor Dragonfly and Hornet, and the only Trap I had was Dust Tornado.  I didn't have Effect Veiler either, so I lost to the Dragonfly.

To be honest, I thought that this guy was a good player, since although I had never played against him before, I knew that he did pretty well in tournaments.  But he made so many noticeable misplays, didn't have a very good grasp on game mechanics, and took way too long to make simple decisions.  I don't mean to sound salty, but I honestly don't think that he deserved to win.  He's still a decent player, but he's not nearly as good as I thought he was.

OXX

Round 4: vs "Plant" Synchro

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He really couldn't get anything going, so I just out-advantaged him.  Not to mention once he was finally able to do damage to me with a Scrap Dragon (after having used its effect to destroy my lone Set Monster), I just dropped Gorz.  He scooped at that, since he had no other cards left.
-Duel 2: Again, he couldn't really do anything significant.  He was able to make a Scrap Dragon with Debris Dragon, Dandylion, and a Fluff Token against my Scrap Dragon and Set Tanngnjostr (black goat) (from Super-Nimble Mega Hamster).  He knew that I had another Tanngnjostr in my hand from a Gleipnir, so he used his Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy my Set Tanngnjostr, then crashed Scrap Dragons.  Uh, I Special Summon Tanngnjostr.  He overlooked the fact that I could Special Summon the black goat from my hand regardless of what play he made.  From there, I beat him down with Scrap Archfiend for a bit, then he used Dark Hole and made a One for One/Dandylion play (after Pot of Avarice, shuffling back the Dandylion, of course).  He Special Summoned Spore with One for One, then tuned it to a Token for Formula Synchron.  He Set two back rows and ended there.  I Special Summoned Guldfaxe from my hand, but he had Bottomless Trap Hole, so I just Set a Monster.  He Tribute Summoned Cyber Dragon using the other Fluff Token.  "You don't play Chimeratech," he said.  He ran over my Set Ryko, which destroyed his other Set back row.  He ended with just Cyber Dragon and Formula Synchron.  I entered my Main Phase and Special Summoned Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.  Yeah, I do play it, and have been for like a month now.  He was at 1400 LP, so he scooped.

OO

Round 5: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened up with Dimensional Fissure and Thunder King Rai-Oh.  So, half of my hand was ruined (Sangan, Tanngnjostr, Gleipnir).  Yeah, I had a Bottomless Trap Hole, but he went first, so yeah... He was able to win off of that Rai-Oh.
-Duel 2: He searched Rescue Rabbit off of a Sangan, and I negated the Rabbit's effect using Solemn Warning.  He then made Leviair with Tour Guide, and I lost from there.  I wanted to negate the Xyz Monster with my Warning, but there was no guarantee that he would overlay before attacking.  My Set Monster was a Tanngnjostr (I couldn't Special Summon it since Dimensional Fissure was up), so I had to protect it.  Perhaps I should've risked it, but he still had a bunch of cards that I didn't get to see, so there's no way of knowing whether or not that would've changed the outcome of the duel.  I'm guessing no.

Either way, he saw my Morphing Jar #2 when I was siding out after the match, and he offered to give me a Super Rare Morphing Jar #2 that he pulled from the new Legendary Collection.  So that was cool.

XX

So yeah, I went 3-2 and didn't win anything, sadly.  I decided to get a Vanguard booster pack instead of a Turbo Pack.  I got a pack of Set 2 since I still need some Kagero stuff from there, and I ended up pulling a Silent Tom.  So that was cool.  I should probably sell it, since it's apparently like a $20 card.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

And, the shopkeeper decided to run a Kaijudo tournament tomorrow morning (really today, since it's after midnight).  So, I'm going to go with Aki, and we're going to meet up with my friend who plays Vanguard (who couldn't make it today) so that we can get Aki's Royal Paladin deck.  We won't be staying for the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, though, since I still have homework to do.  But, I want to support Kaijudo at locals, so it's worth spending the extra time to make sure that Kaijudo events will continue to occur at my locals.  So yeah, expect a short Kaijudo tournament report tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight)...