Tournament Report 1/5/13

So yeah, first tournament of the year.  But, since I'm still on break from Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments, all it contained was Vanguard, unfortunately.

First was the Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.  There's actually a significant number of players there now (like 20 or something), even though the vast majority of them don't really know what they're doing.  For instance, some of them tried to argue that Stardust Trumpeter is better than Brugal.  Now, Brugal isn't a good card, but there's really no reason to play Stardust Trumpeter over Brugal...

Anyways, since the store owner decided to start charging an entry fee for these tournaments, I decided to use my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck, since I didn't want to pay $5 and walk away with just a couple of packs.  I won the first round against the same newbie Narukami player I had to play against last weekend.  I won the second round against a Megacolony player who said that the Grade 3 Giraffa is bad and that Stardust Trumpeter is better than Brugal.  He got gradestuck, so that was good for me; he usually luck-sacks all the time, but you can't really luck-sack your way out of being stuck on Grade 0.  I won the third round against the Narukami player that I played against in Round 2 of this Vanguard tournament.  I got double Critical Triggers on my first attack with my Stern Blaukluger, and although he guarded it, he couldn't guard the rear-guard that I gave the Triggers to.  I played against another Narukami player in the last round and won because he had no idea of what he was doing.

So yeah, I ended up going undefeated and getting 1st place.  I won 8 packs of Set 4, and got one more as my entry prize.  I also pulled a No Life King, Death Anchor from the promo pack and gave it to Riku so that he could complete his deck.  But yeah, out of my packs, I pulled a Dark Metal Dragon, Commander Laurel, and a RRR Stern Blaukluger.  That was my fifth Stern Blaukluger, so I sold it to the store to make back my $5.

After that, my friend who plays Vanguard, Riku, and I went out to eat.  We had like four hours until the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop, so we just played Vanguard and Kaijudo.  My friend and I decided that since he had been having bad luck with his Snogal Royal Paladin deck recently (he hasn't topped in a month), we would switch decks for the tournament.  He'd use my Nova Grapplers, and I'd use his Royal Paladins.  It would also confuse people, and that's always fun.

So there were almost 40 players for the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  Vanguard is getting pretty popular, which isn't really a good thing.  But whatever, it ends up working well for us later...

Round 1: vs Dark Irregulars

I was up against Riku.  He ended up killing me 2-0 with his Death Anchor's "Breakdown Death Brace" and his 20k rear-guard lines that all of the 10k Vanguards in Royal Paladins are defenseless against.  It made me regret not using my 11k Stern Blaukluger...

Round 2: vs Narukami

He was a little kid, and he got gradestuck, so I won.

Round 3: vs Pale Moon

This was my friend's bad Pale Moon friend.  He got gradestuck both games, so I won.

Round 4: vs Narukami

This was my Round 4 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  I don't think he plays Stand Triggers anymore.  Anyways, he got Vermillion in the first game, along with drive checking a bunch of Critical Triggers, so he won.  He didn't get Vermillion in either of the other two games, so I won 2-1.

At this point, my friend, Riku, and I were all 3-1.  Now, the tournament organizer really surprised us, since he cut to Top 8.  Prizes were still only for the Top 4, but now we all had a chance to win.  After Swiss, Riku was 4th, my friend was 5th, and I was 8th.  So, my two friends had to play against each other, and I had to play against the 1st place player.

Top 8: vs Oracle Think Tank (Soulless)

This was my opponent from the semi-finals of this Vanguard tournament.  He had been running Great Nature with the Grade 4 before, but decided to use his Soulless build today.  He was also the player who beat both of my friends in the Swiss rounds, so I would be trying to avenge them.  Anyways, I lost in the first game because I couldn't set up my "three-fourths Blizzard Formation" (three Snogals in the back row), despite getting a sixth damage Heal Trigger (Elaine was just fulfilling her promise).  In the second game, I got gradestuck on Grade 2, but that Grade 2 was Galahad.  So, I was able to stack 24 cards at the bottom of my deck.  Once I finally got a Grade 3 (Palamedes), I was able to reach the top of the stack after my Twin Drive.  He attacked with his Vanguard Scarlet Witch, Coco, and I guarded with my Grade 0's.  He got a Draw Trigger and gave the power to Silent Tom, which he attacked with next.  "Elaine, power to Vanguard," I declared, then revealed the Heal Trigger at the top of the stack.  I lived through that turn, but I was unable to kill him on the following turn, even with the double Critical Triggers I stacked previously (he had three perfect guards...), so I lost to Silent Tom.  Still, it was cool to reach my stack perfectly.

My friend ended up beating Riku and played against my Top 8 opponent in the Top 4.  He lost since his opponent got Scarlet Witch, Coco's ridiculous draw power every game.  He played against an incompetent Narukami player for 3rd place and won, so he got 4 packs of Set 1.  He was going for the Iseult or CEO Amaterasu, but pulled Maiden of Libra instead.

And with that, we vowed never to use each other's decks again.  I hate how Garmore is just a flimsy 10k Vanguard, which is why I started playing Nova Grapplers in the first place.  And I don't know why he doesn't like my deck; he kept getting Blaupanzer, but I think that he also kept drawing a bunch of extra Grade 3's or something.  Hey, at least I have Twin Bladers; he only has one Iseult.

So yeah, the other card shop is also going to start charging an entry fee for their Vanguard tournaments.  It's a $3 entry fee, and you'd get a Vanguard pack for entering.  It seems better than the usual card shop, which still has best-of-one matches, which just invite luck-sack.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do next week.  I know that Riku would only go to the earlier tournament because of scheduling conflicts, and my friend would only go to the other tournament because it's cheaper and the prizes are better.  I haven't decided what to do, but I may just go to both because I can.  I'm also thinking about cutting the Death Army people from my deck in favor of King of Sword and Queen of Heart, but I'm not sure yet.