Tournament Report 1/26/13

As usual, I went to locals for the Vanguard tournaments.  Riku was kind enough to go out and get some Megacolony cards for me (two perfect guards and a Grade 3 Giraffa), which I traded some Psychic cards for so that he could make a new Yu-Gi-Oh deck.  That let me finish my Megacolony deck, more or less.

So, I used it for the tournament.  My friend who plays Vanguard was using the Kagero deck he put together randomly, and Riku decided to try out my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck.  Again, there were only six players, so it ended up being best-of-three.

Round 1: vs Dark Irregulars

I don't really think that this guy knew what he was doing.  He purposefully did not ride his Edel Rose (the fact that he was playing Edel Rose at all told me that he was a newb) until he planned on using its Counterblast.  So, I just beat up his rear-guards and saved a perfect guard for his Edel Rose's attack to win both games.  He did do one clever thing, though: he used Greedy Hand to put Werewolf Sieger into the Soul when he didn't get to ride it.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

Another newb; I could tell because he was playing Blade Feather Valkyrie and Flash Edge Valkyrie.  He had the money for stuff like Ezel and Spectral Duke, so he should be able to afford Vivianes... Anyways, I got my Grade 1 Giraffa to ride over my Grade 0 Giraffa and grab my Grade 2 Giraffa both games, so I didn't have much difficulty winning.

Round 3: vs Kagero

I was up against my friend, and this was the finals.  He trigger-sacked me a bunch (he got all four Draw Triggers on trigger checks in the first game), but I trigger-sacked him back with my Stand Triggers.  I also was able to use my Grade 3 Giraffa's effect to retire all of his boosters, which made it quite easy to guard.  So, I was able to win both games.

I ended up getting 1st place, but neither my friend nor Riku topped.  Disgraceful.  Ha ha, just kidding.  But no, it is still disgraceful.  My friend's tiebreakers were bad (he got paired down in the second round), and I don't know what happened to Riku.  I'm pretty sure that he just didn't know how to use my deck properly.  He still expressed an interest in it, though, so we're planning on trading my Blau-series deck for his Dark Irregulars deck next weekend.  I'll have to show him how to use the deck when we do that, but it shouldn't be too hard; it's not a difficult deck.

Anyways, I got a total of four packs and pulled a Blaster Dark and a Phantom Blaster Dragon.  I asked Riku to sell the Dragon when he goes to the flea market next week, and I held on to the Blaster Dark.

While we waited for the next tournament, I taught Riku how to play Z/X.  Yeah, that new-ish card game that's out in Japan.  When I first heard about it, I asked Aki if he knew anything about it.  He surprisingly had a couple starter sets that he had gotten the last time he went to Japan.  So, we tried it out last weekend before recording duel videos and it is a very interesting card game.  I would say that it's almost as skill-intensive as Kaijudo.  But yeah, I taught Riku how to play and we played a few games.  We also played some Vanguard, and I used what I call my "most powerful deck".  It's the Royal Paladin/Nubatama deck featuring Hell Spiders and Silvest.  For some reason, I kept drawing the one Silvest I have, so I taught Riku and my friend the importance of 18k columns.

But yeah, last weekend, since we spent a lot of time on Z/X (each game takes a while), Aki and I decided to only record Kaijudo videos.  We didn't have any new Yu-Gi-Oh decks to use, so the content on my channel had been getting a little stale.  All Aki has is his HERO deck and his Wind-Up Rabbit deck (featuring Yubel).  All I've got are Nordic Diva, Scraps, Gem-Knights, and the Debris HERO deck I used for like two weeks.

So, the plan was for me to record some Yu-Gi-Oh duels at locals between the Vanguard tournaments.  The problem was that none of the really good players showed up today.  I mean, spondo was there, but that was about it.  But the end of the tournament, the people at the top tables were people whom I had seen earlier making ridiculous misplays with easy decks like Gravekeeper's.  This is what Yu-Gi-Oh has degenerated to, sadly.

I mean, this could just be an opportunity for me to start playing in Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments again and beating all of the bad players, but Yu-Gi-Oh isn't like that anymore.  Everyone plays decks that minimize player interaction nowadays; Mermails, Wind-Ups, Dino Rabbit, and even Six Samurai and Lightsworn.  It doesn't matter if you're better than them if there's no player interaction anymore.  It's sad, but now that I think about it, the decks that I've been considering using competitively (Gem-Knights and Infernities when Hidden Arsenal 7 comes out) also minimize player interaction; they test the skill of the user, but not the skill of the opponent.  I really enjoyed using my Nordic Diva deck because it forced my opponents to misplay all the time; it was a deck that thrived on the skill gap between myself and my opponents.  But, decks like that don't work anymore.

Ironically, Megacolony in Vanguard is a deck that has the same concept of testing the skill gap between myself and my opponents, which is why I enjoy the play-style of Megacolony despite not liking the artwork.  Obviously, it wasn't to the degree of Nordic Diva, but the underlying concept is still there.

So yeah, that was just a random rant about how Yu-Gi-Oh is still really broken.  Back to the original point, I was unable to record Yu-Gi-Oh videos for my YouTube channel.  So, it'll probably just be Kaijudo for now.  And, Aki and I won't be able to hang out again for a few weeks, so there aren't going to be many videos until then.

Anyways, there were a little over 20 people for the other Vanguard tournament.  Riku wasn't able to make it, though, so it was just my friend and I.

Round 1: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He switched to the Tsukuyomi build for some reason.  Before the tournament started, I asked if he had gotten Dark Cats from the new Trail Deck.  He said that he hadn't because he didn't want to waste $20 just to get Dark Cats.  That was disappointing because I was hoping to mooch off of him to get some of the Commons from the Trail Deck, ha ha.  Anyways, he had overwhelming hand advantage in the first game, so I knew that I couldn't win by normal means.  I set out to deck him out, but I ended up being 5k short of shields when he only had one card left in his deck, so I just barely lost.  I won the second game because he missed his Grade 2 Tsukuyomi, so I just rushed him.  I won the third game with early pressure, and when I was going in for my final turn, I used Master Beetle's Limit Break to stun most of his field, so even if he were able to survive, he wouldn't be able to make a comeback.

XOO

Round 2: vs Angel Feather (Ergodiel)

This was my opponent from the finals of this evening Vanguard tournament.  He purposefully did not ride a Grade 1 when he went first in an attempt to draw the Heavenly Injector.  That failed, and put him back quite a bit, so I was able to win easily.  I won with generic tactics in the second game, and he didn't get many triggers.

OO

Round 3: vs Megacolony

I watched him play earlier and I saw that his deck was pretty incoherent.  He played Violent Vesper on purpose (not because he didn't have other Grade 3's), but not only did he never have to ride it, but he also never pulled triggers off of its superior call effect.  That's pretty lucky... Anyways, I just wore him down with generic Megacolony tactics, then double-trigger-sacked him on the final turn of both games to win.

OO

With that, they cut to Top 8.  Being undefeated, I made it, but my friend was 2-1 with bad tie-breakers, so he didn't make it.

Top 8: vs Narukami

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend's morning Vanguard tournament.  I chuckled at how his Saishin was just sitting there, making a bad column behind his Garuda or his Deathscythe.  But, I pulled a total of five triggers for both games, so I obviously lost.

XX

Unfortunately, only Top 4 wins prizes, so I didn't get anything.  I just sold the Blaster Dark I pulled earlier and the Cosmo Beak I pulled from the entry pack to get some new sleeves.  I was able to buy a third Megacolony perfect guard off someone for cheap, though, so now I have three.  With that, my Megacolony deck is basically done.  I'll have to change the build once crossrides come out, unfortunately, but we'll see what happens.

After that, my friend helped me put together my random Oracle Think Tank deck that I'd use to teach new players how to play.  I barely had enough cards for it; I had exactly enough Grade 2's, and I had to use a bunch of random Grade 1's.  When I was messing around with the deck against my friend's Angel Feather deck, I had to keep riding the Grade 1 Tsukuyomi over my Little Witch, Lulu.  But yeah, the deck is really incoherent, so I need more Grade 1's.  I also had to proxy a Heal Trigger since I only have three Lozenge Magus...

But yeah, I think that that's about it.  I'll probably use my Megacolony deck next weekend, but I am prepared to trade my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck for Riku's Dark Irregulars.  So, we'll see what happens.