Tournament Report 2/23/13

So, yesterday was the Vanguard Team Tournament that we had been waiting for.  Aki and I met up with my friend who plays Vanguard at the usual card shop.  We were all wearing our lanyards that we got from the team tournament at the Vanguard Regional last year, but we each put a copy of Snogal on our lanyards, as we were Team Snogal.  My friend was our first player, and he was using Soulless Oracle Think Tank.  I was second with my Dark Irregulars, and Aki was third with his Narukami deck.

There were a total of eight teams there.  Three of the teams just consisted of random newbs who joined together at the tournament so they could play.  We scouted out the teams beforehand, and we determined that only one of the other teams would be a threat to our team.  Basically, we expected to win easily.  By the way, instead of best-of-one for each player, each match was best-of-three.  So, that was good.

Round 1: vs Narukami

We were paired against one of the random teams, and I was up against my Round 1 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament.  He hasn't really gotten any better.  Either way, I won 2-0 without having to Death Brace him.

My friend played against a The End Kagero deck and won 2-0, and Aki played against a Soulless OTT deck and won 2-0.  Apparently, Aki has had a lot of experience against Oracle Think Tank decks, which I did not know, so that's good.

OOO

Round 2: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This time, we were paired against the one team that we deemed to be a threat to us.  I was up against my Round 3 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament.  I got gradestuck on Grade 1 in the first game, and he got his Blaster Blade and Blaster Dark out to crit me both games, so I lost 0-2.  The main problem in this match-up is that I don't have a 10k vanilla Grade 2 so that I can effectively stop their Wingal Brave when I go first, but I'm not going to give up the easy crossride-hating 18k columns that Dark Irregulars provide just to play 10k vanillas, so yeah.

My friend played against a The End Kagero deck again and won 2-1, and Aki played against a Tsukuyomi OTT deck and won 2-0.

OXO

Round 3: vs Murakumo

This was the last round, so we were playing against the only other undefeated team for first place.  This team wasn't a threat to us because they had just beaten two bad teams in the previous rounds, so we didn't care.  Their first player was spondo, and he had just learned how to play.  Their second player was playing a bad Murakumo deck, so we assumed that we'd get those two matches easily.  And we were right.  I won 2-0 against their Murakumo player because he got gradestuck on the first game after riding Midnight Crow (despite having Bloody Mist), so I could beat him up with 18k columns.  I won the second game because even though he rode Mandala Lord, he just wasted all of his "ninja bunshin" skills and made terrible rear-guard columns.

My friend played against a The End Kagero deck... again... and won 2-1.  Aki played against a Soulless OTT deck and lost 1-2 (double Critical Triggers at 3 damage are too powerful).

OOX

It was almost too easy for us to go undefeated and win 1st place.  Best-of-three team matches mitigate the effect of sack so much more than just single matches, so getting sacked a few times (like how I lost in Round 2 and Aki lost in Round 3) wouldn't lose us the round. This is honestly the way Vanguard should be played, since it adds a little more strategy and reduces the impact of luck.  And to be honest, except for the second player on the team we faced in Round 2 and the third player on the team we faced in Round 3, everyone there had no idea of what they were doing, which is why we were so confident that we'd win the tournament.

And of course, winning got us a total of 18 packs, not including entry packs.  My friend and I each got six packs of Set 5, while Aki got six packs of Set 4.  My friend pulled Wingal Brave and Street Bouncer, and I pulled Glass Beads Dragon and Miracle Beauty.  Aki pulled nothing.  I traded my Miracle Beauty for my friend's Wingal Brave, since I've always liked Wingal Brave (I'll probably use it as a Token in Yu-Gi-Oh).  I also pulled another Masquerade from my entry pack and sold it, along with all of my Shadow Paladin stuff (including Phantom Blaster Overlord and the first Masquerade) to Aki.

After that, we found out that the third player on the team we played against in Round 3 had bought a case (as in, 12 boxes) of Set 5.  He had the Commons and Rares with him, and he just gave them to us.  So, I was able to get all of the non-holo Murakumo stuff I needed, while my friend was able to get all of the non-holo Neo Nectar stuff he needed.  We're going to be making the decks when Set 8 (Musketeers) and Set 9 (Magatsu ride chain) come out, so we decided to pick up the vanillas and stuff now.  The guy also had a few boxes of Set 10 (Japanese, of course) with him, so we mooched some Commons and Rares off of him.  I got some Nova Grappler stuff, like the new Beast Deities.  All three of us got Eradicator, Strike Dagger Dragons, because they're ferocious and adorable at the same time.  Yeah, this is how we get our cards; we mooch them off of the crazy people who spend all of their money on Vanguard.  And I now have more The Gongs, Hysteric Shirleys, and Dark Soul Conductors than I know what to do with, so I'll probably give them to Riku.

Anyways, we also went to the evening Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  They were just having the usual Vanguard tournament, so yeah.  We all used the same decks as in the team tournament, of course.  There were 30 players there, and a few people were using The End (half of them were little kids, for some reason) and a few people were using Majesty Lord Blaster.  Otherwise, it was the usual spread of random decks.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He wasn't nearly as emo as he was the last two times I played against him, so I was nicer to him and such.  He even guarded two-to-pass against my Vanguard's attack when necessary, so he has gotten better.  I still won, though, since I just made 20k columns across the board to bully his 10k Vanguard.

OO

Round 2: vs Dimension Police

This was my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He said that he's going to use Great Daiyusha once Set 8 is released.  Anyways, he missed his ride chain both games and had to ride Miracle Beauty in the first game, so I won easily.

OO

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He said that he wouldn't feel bad losing to me since then I'd carry him into the Top 8 due to tie-breakers, and he also acted as though he expected to lose to me.  Well, he used to play Dark Irregulars, so he knows the power of Death Anchor.  But, in the first game, I tried Death Bracing him three times, but he had three perfect guards, so I decked out.  I won the second game by rushing him when I rode to Grade 2 and holding a perfect guard for when he did the Majesty Lord Blaster thing where both Blasters move to the soul.  I was able to win the third game by Death Bracing him twice when he didn't have any perfect guards, not to mention that I pushed through his two-to-pass guard when he was at 4 damage with a Heal Trigger and a Critical Trigger to do three damage, making his sixth-damage Heal Trigger useless.

XOO

With that, they decided to cut to Top 8.  Aki had lost the first two rounds, so he didn't make it, but my friend and I were both undefeated, so we made Top 8.

Top 8: vs Kagero (The End)

I was up against one of the little kids with a The End deck.  It was poorly built (there were multiple Flame of Promise, Aermo) and he didn't really know how to use it, but it is a powerful deck nonetheless.  I won the first game with my ridiculous columns.  13k doesn't really matter when my rear-guard columns are at 26k and 29k and my Vanguard column is a 33k Death Brace (I was holding three Dark Knight of Nightmare Land, so I just went for a final turn).  I lost the second game because even though I was able to make ridiculous columns again, he got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger on my last attack.  He even guarded my first rear-guard attack before just taking the last one at 5 damage, which shows that he's a bad player.  But then he got a Critical Trigger and a Draw Trigger on his Twin Drive on the following turn to win, so I guess I deserved to lose that one.  In the third game, I drew six of my seven Grade 3's over the course of the game.  Once I had ridden to Grade 2, my hand was literally four Grade 3's and nothing else, so I couldn't guard at all for the next two turns and lost because of it.

OXX

And this is why Vanguard takes no skill.  Yes, my sodium chloride levels were quite high after that.  At least my friend won his Top 8 match, so he made Top 4 and was guaranteed prizes.  However, he lost to my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament and his new Spectral Duke Gold Paladin deck.  Then, he proceeded to lose to my Top 8 opponent in the fight for 3rd place because he got gradestuck at Grade 2.  At least he got a couple packs of Set 5, which unfortunately had no holos.

Oh well, at least we won a total of 20 packs today as a team, so that was something.  I don't know what my friend is going to do for next weekend, since he said that he got really bored of playing Soulless OTT since it takes less skill than the average Vanguard deck.  I'm going to keep my Dark Irregulars deck the way it is, since I liked having four Hysteric Shirleys and some random Stand Triggers to mess with people.  But yeah, that's about it for this weekend.

And just in case anyone was expecting me to play Yu-Gi-Oh next weekend due to the new ban list, I'm still going to stay away from competitive Yu-Gi-Oh for now.  I mean, all the ban list really did was ban Sangan, Limit Wind-Up Magician, and Limit Solemn Warning.  Everything else was largely irrelevant, so nothing really changed.  If the game shows signs of getting better by the time Hidden Arsenal 7 is released, then I will reconsider.  Otherwise, I don't see any point in playing Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments anymore, since Kaijudo tournaments will start around that time.  Sorry if this is disappointing, but I played in this terrible format and never had any fun, and it only looks like it'll get worse, so I don't think it'll be much fun to continue playing Yu-Gi-Oh.

Hopefully Kaijudo takes off so I can start focusing on that instead of Vanguard.

Tournament Report 2/16/13

Yesterday started when I randomly woke up at 6:00 AM and I decided to check my blog for updates.  Sure enough, everyone had posted that the ban list was confirmed and such.  It's probably one of the shortest lists we've had in a while, and it's actually pretty good.  Hah, as if.  It would've been good if all of those changes were stuck onto the previous ban list, then last format would've been alright.  But no, it's six months too late to make all of these changes.  But yeah, as expected, the ban list did nothing but weaken (not kill) Wind-Ups.  The problem cards, Rat and Factory, still haven't been hit, so Wind-Ups can continue to do stuff, even though it won't be as explosive or consistent as it was before.  But, in a game where power creep is ridiculously fast, Wind-Ups might not be able to keep up without its consistent 2-card OTK.

Anyways, yesterday was the day of the Vanguard sneak preview for Set 5.  My friend who plays Vanguard showed up, but didn't participate in the sneak peek because he doesn't really want much from the new set and doesn't want the Kai play-mat.  However, I have wanted the Kai mat, so I had already pre-registered like a month ago.  There were over 30 players there, and basically no one there knew how to draft, since they're all Vanguard players.  There were a couple of people who used to play Magic that actually knew how to draft, but yeah.

I ended up pulling a RRR Phantom Blaster Overlord from my first pack.  I kept it, of course.  Later on, I pulled a Knight of Nullity, Masquerade, and I kept that too.  My grade ratio ended up being 11-8-4, as I drafted Grade 3's early on when no one was taking them. Unfortunately, I was only able to get 7 triggers as my Grade 0's: Ginger, the Neo Nectar Heal Trigger, the Neo Nectar Stand Trigger (I don't care about them, so I don't remember their names), Sharon, Sky High Walker, and two copies of The Gong.  So, as I had planned, my starting Vanguard was The Gong.  And since this was a Vanguard draft and everyone was just playing with a pile of 30 cards, I won't be doing an in depth report for this.

Basically, I won the first round against a newb who pulled Dragonic Overlord The End as his only Grade 3, so he never got to Twin Drive.  I won the second round against a player who shows up at the morning tournaments somewhat regularly and actually knows what he's doing; I was able to win mainly because I had Phantom Blaster Overlord as my Vanguard with Masquerade supported by Shijimamaru to make a 20k column.  I won the third round against an average player who got gradestuck both games.  After that round, there were only three undefeated players, including myself, meaning that I had a really good chance to make Top 4, which is what was required to win a mat.

I lost the fourth round against some weird guy (one of the other undefeated players) because he got double Critical Triggers when I was at three damage.  After the match, he offered to trade an entire Spike Brothers deck for my Phantom Blaster Overlord.  I wanted to keep the card since Aki wanted it, and I didn't even know what was in his Spike Brothers deck (it could have garbage like Especial Intercepts...), so I said maybe after the tournament.  The undefeated player who got paired down won his match, so there would be one more round.  In the fifth round, I played against another weird guy (he was wearing one of the Akatsuki cloaks from Naruto) who kept minimum guarding my Vanguard.  He paid for it when I finally got a trigger, my one Ginger, to win.

I ended up going 4-1 and got 3rd place, so I had accomplished my goal and won the Kai mat!  My Round 4 opponent got 1st place, and my Round 2 opponent got 4th place.  It was good to see my Round 2 opponent win, since he's actually a good player.  But after the tournament, my Round 4 opponent just left, so I guess he didn't want the Overlord that badly.  It doesn't matter, though, since I'm going to sell the Overlord and the Masquerade to Aki for his Shadow Paladin deck.  And here's a random picture of the Kai mat with the Phantom Blaster Overlord:

It's a pretty cool mat, but it's slightly smaller than normal-sized play-mats.  The card zones for the deck and such barely fit sleeved Vanguard cards, so I guess that's alright.  The mat is rubber, but it's a little thinner than usual.  So it's a nice mat, but it could've been much nicer.  I still have the mat in its plastic wrapper, so I may just leave it like that.  I haven't really decided if I want to use it or not.  If I do, I'll probably just leave it in the plastic to keep it clean.

After the sneak preview, I saw spondo.  He asked if I was happy with the ban list, and of course I said that I wasn't happy at all with the ban list.  He agreed, but said that he'd continue playing Yu-Gi-Oh regardless.  This is why Konami can get away with ruining the game, because most people will continue to play no matter how bad the game gets.  Well, my locals is going to start having Kaijudo tournaments in April, so hopefully I'll be able to find the time to attend those.  They're on Sundays, which is inconvenient for me.  I'll see what happens with my class schedule next quarter and figure it out.

Anyways, my friend and I went around bothering the people who had participated in the sneak preview for their Commons.  "Do you have Hysteric Shirley, Death Feather Eagle, or basically any Stand Trigger that you don't need?"  Basically, I was able to get four copies of Hysteric Shirley and a few Sharons, but not much else.  My friend got a set of Big League Bears and a couple Sky High Walkers.

We thought that the other card shop was also having the sneak preview, so we were going to just skip their tournament since I had already won a Kai mat.  But we found out that they're running it more like a Yu-Gi-Oh Sneak Preview, where you can pay $20 for the new packs, then enter a normal tournament.  They also gave us the option of the normal entry fee of $3 for a normal pack.  So, my friend and I discussed what we would do.

I was prepared to go and play my Dark Irregulars, but my friend's Pale Moon deck wasn't finished yet because he didn't think there'd be any normal tournaments this weekend.  He decided to use my Megacolony deck, which I've been neglecting lately.  Well, I'll probably fix it up to combat crossrides when I can.  It kind of sucks that Megacolony doesn't have many good 7k boosters to go with their 11k attackers, but whatever.  We also discussed how he could base his Pale Moon deck around Mistress Hurricane instead of Sword Magician, Sarah.  The problem with that would be that he'd have to get at least three Mistress Hurricane by next weekend for the team tournament, but we'll deal with that somehow.

So, we went to the other card shop for their tournament.  There were 36 players there, and most of them opted to get six packs of Set 5.  That meant that we could go bother them for their Commons!  I was able to get two Death Feather Eagles for Aki and two Sky High Walkers for my friend, and that's basically it.  Some crazy kid pulled a Mistress Hurricane and wanted to trade it for a Majesty Lord Blaster.  As if anyone would do that, though Majesty Lord isn't a very good card anyway; it's really crazy that Majesty Lord Blaster is worth about as much as the crossrides, but whatever.

My Round 1 opponent was one of those people who just joined the tournament to get the new packs then left, so I got a free win.

Round 2: vs Kagero (Goku)

I basically just trigger-sacked him like crazy the whole game.  I kept getting triggers as damage, yet I also was able to get double triggers on a few of my drive checks.  So he couldn't keep up, and I finished him with the Breakdown Death Brace.

OO

Round 3: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  Apparently he sold his Spectral Duke deck to make this Lawkeeper Kagero deck, which he planned on selling to make another Spectral Duke deck.  Well, alright then... He got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the first game, then drew (not checked) a bunch of triggers in the second game so he couldn't really build a field.  He did make a weird play that kind of affected the second game, though; he used Conroe to search for Barri, but then never let me get to five damage with Death Anchor as my Vanguard.  If you're not going to let me use the Death Brace, then why search a perfect guard in the first place?

OO

Round 4: vs Narukami

This was my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  And he went back to playing Stand Triggers... Anyways, he got Heal Triggers in both games after using his Vermillion Thunderbolt, so he was able to use the Limit Break again and completely wreck my field.  I drew and/or Soul Charged all four of my Heal Triggers within the first three turns in both games, so there wasn't much I could do.

XX

With that, there were three undefeated players left, including my friend.  They cut to Top 8 at this point, and both of us made it, but we were up against each other.  That meant that at least one of us would make it to the Top 4 to win packs, but still...

Top 8: vs Megacolony

This was the first time that this had ever happened... I had to ride Evil Eye Basilisk... Oh, and he kept drawing perfect guards to stop my ridiculous columns in the second game.  So, I basically couldn't do anything and lost.  At least he knows how to use my Megacolony deck correctly.

So I spent the rest of the time there helping one of our friends make an Angel Feather deck.  He's the Yu-Gi-Oh player who always hooked me up with Duel Terminal cards like the Worm Yagans I needed all those years ago and the Gem-Knight Zirconias I got within the past few months.  I also got a second Prismaura, along with a Master Dia(mond) and a Seraphi(nite) from him yesterday.  But yeah, he wants to play Vanguard now, so I helped him make an Angel Feather deck and taught him how to play.  He ended up buying most of my friend's Ergodiel Angel Feather deck, so now he has a full Ergodiel Angel Feather deck of his own.  He'll probably start playing in evening Vanguard tournaments starting next weekend, so that's cool.

While this was happened, my friend had avenged my Round 4 loss against that Narukami player by beating him in the Top 4.  He then decided to split the Top 2 prizes with the other finalist, with them each getting 12 packs of Set 5.  He ended up pulling a Mistress Hurricane, like he wanted; a Bedivere, which he traded for a Leopald plus cash; a Street Bouncer, which he'll use in his Perfect Raizer deck; and a RRR Majesty Lord Blaster!

We're currently (like, as I'm typing this) discussing what he should do with his Majesty Lord.  I say that he should sell/trade it for other stuff that he wants while its price is still ridiculously high, but he wants to make the deck.  It's not even a good deck in general, so I don't think it's worth the money he'd be putting into it.  But it's his money to waste, so we'll see what happens.

As for me, I've already fixed my Dark Irregulars deck for next weekend's team tournament, taking out the Knowledge Drunkards and adding Hysteric Shirleys, along with a few other changes.  Aki's Narukami deck should be ready; we took out the Helenas because they can't make good 18k columns without the 12k Grade 3's, so that's basically it for his deck.  The only thing yet to be determined is my friend's deck.  As I was typing this, he has decided to make the Majesty Lord Blaster deck, against my wishes.  So, if that works out, then that'll probably be what he uses for the team tournament.  If not, then he could use either his Pale Moon deck, if he finishes it, or my Megacolony deck.  But yeah, we'll figure it out.  In any case, Team Snogal is planning on winning the team tournament.

Tournament Report 2/9/13

As usual, more Vanguard tournaments, and still no Yu-Gi-Oh content.  An acquaintance of mine who was there actually tried to convince me that the format for Yu-Gi-Oh is really good since it's very diverse.  Diversity isn't indicative of a healthy format, and it isn't even required for a healthy format.  But yeah, the format is still bad because bad players can win as often as good players with the ridiculous power creep that has occurred.

So yeah, there were actually like 15 people there for the morning Vanguard tournament, which was nice, I guess.  Most of them were newbs, but that's to be expected of Vanguard players.  I was using my Dark Irregulars, which I haven't changed since last week because there was no reason to change the deck.  My friend who plays Vanguard who still doesn't have a name was using his Ergodiel Angel Feather deck, which I disapprove of, but whatever.  Riku was using a random Kagero deck that he bought for some reason, and he brought his girlfriend, who was playing a Great Nature deck they made last week.  Aside from our group, there was only about one relatively good player there, so yeah.

Round 1: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

This guy was using a Lawkeeper deck with Amber Dragon, Dawn as his starting Vanguard.  I asked him why, and he said that he was just testing it.  Um, yeah, I don't know what there is to test.  Conroe is one of the best starting Vanguards ever, so I wouldn't drop it for the Amber Dragon ride chain... Anyways, I just won using my Breakdown Death Brace both games.

OO

Round 2: vs Angel Feather (Ergodiel)

I was up against my friends.  So, after contemplating the conspiracies that would have occurred to pit us against each other, we played a fairly straightforward match.  I won the first game with my Breakdown Death Brace, because you can't guard it for more than like two turns in a row without losing.  I decked out in the second game because he refused to give me a fifth damage, so he was able avoid the Death Brace.  And I won the third game with the Breakdown Death Brace, because it's just that good.

OXO

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin

This was my Top 8 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  His main deck is Narukami, but he makes a secondary deck and sells it soon afterwards, then makes another secondary deck with the money he gets, or something like that.  He was using the Galahad ride chain (minus the Grade 3) because it's the right thing to do, but he didn't realize that he needs the Grade 3 Galahad to Soul Charge twice with the Grade 2.  Anyways, he got gradestuck on the Grade 2 Galahad and I just Breakdown Death Braced him to death.  He had to leave after the first game, so he just gave me the win.

O-

Round 4: vs Dark Irregulars

This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's morning Vanguard tournament.  I honestly don't know how he got to the finals (by the way, this was the final round).  He had beaten Riku in the previous round, which was sad, but whatever.  He got gradestuck on Grade 1 both games, so it was easy for me to win.  I didn't even have to use my Breakdown Death Brace, since I never got to five damage.  Anyways, I asked him what his grade ratio was after the match, and he said it was 17-10-6.  I told him to make it 15-11-7, and he accepted my advice.

OO

So I went undefeated and got 1st place, getting eight packs of Set 4 in addition to the entry packs.  I pulled a fourth Paralyze Madonna, which went into my Megacolony deck; a third Blaster Dark, after getting two from the kid who gave me all of the free Megacolony stuff in exchange for the Phantom Blaster Dragon I pulled a while ago; an Enigman Storm, which I gave to my friend for his Dimension Police deck; and a Rugos for Aki's Shadow Paladin deck.  The Paralyze Madonna was honestly all I wanted, which is why all of the other stuff went to my friends, but yeah.

I was also able to get the fourth Lozenge Magus I needed for my random Oracle Think Tank deck, so now it's more-or-less complete.  Riku pulled a Maiden of Libra and gave it to me for my Oracle Think Tank deck, and I think he's going to bring me a Battle Sister, Glace, so that I can replace the stupid Security Guardians I had to put in the deck.

So normally I don't talk about this next part in the tournament reports, but something important happened between the tournaments.  I usually go across the street to get Panda Express for lunch, but when I walked in, the manager told me that they don't have Mandarin Chicken anymore.  She knows that I always get Mandarin Chicken for lunch, which is all I get there because it's the only thing there that isn't spicy or mixed with vegetables.  So, now I won't be able to have Panda Express anymore between tournaments.  It's quite saddening, since now I have to eat fast food that's even more unhealthy, like McDonald's.  Oh well, I'll deal with it.

But yeah, I told my friend that the reason he hasn't been topping is that he purposefully plays bad decks (along with the fact that he shuffles lazily).  He said that he just doesn't want to think while he plays, so he usually misplays, which is why he hasn't been topping.  He then said that he'll try to play smart for the evening tournament.

There were only 14 players there for the evening Vanguard tournament, which is odd.  A lot of the people who usually come in groups didn't show up, which would explain why there was a relatively low turnout.  But yeah, my friend and I were using the same decks as before, and Riku and his girlfriend couldn't make it to this tournament.

Round 1: vs Pale Moon

It's the bad Pale Moon guy.  I just won because he doesn't know how to make proper columns.

OO

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Pellinore)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  He made it to the Top 4 last weekend by Pellinore-sacking everyone, or so I heard.  He went first both games and used his Spring Breeze Messenger while I was at Grade 1, so he wasted the only gimmick his deck really had.  I won 2-0 with the Breakdown Death Brace.

OO

Round 3: vs Angel Feather (Ergodiel)

I was playing my friend again.  I was able to win both games with the Breakdown Death Brace, and I didn't let him heal with his Persona Blast, which people let through far too often.

OO

Round 4: vs Megacolony (Giraffa)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  His deck was just about as incoherent as the last time we played, but he was somehow undefeated.  In fact, we were the last two undefeated players.  In the first game, I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for a while, then on Grade 2 once I finally got there.  I obviously lost that game.  In the second game, he had to ride Violent Vesper, which I rubbed in his face since I told him not to run that card at all.  Because of that, I could easily make 19k columns to beat him up with, along with my Breakdown Death Brace.  In the third game, he missed his ride chain again (he missed it all three games, in fact) and had to ride Master Fraude.  That was good, since I could just make 20k columns across the board to win.  He did get close to winning by pulling double Stand Triggers the turn after my first Breakdown Death Brace (which he perfect guarded), but his 15k column was weak to my 11k Death Anchor, so I was able to guard for 35k total against his rear-guard attacks (the Vanguard was perfect guarded).  That was every single card I could guard with (since I don't get triggers as often as I should, all I had were five 5k shields and one 10k shield, along with the perfect guard and Grade 3).  He wasn't able to guard the Death Brace on the following turn, but his sixth damage was a Heal Trigger.  "You need one more," I said, evilly, as my Death Anchor had the built-in Critical.  He didn't get another Heal Trigger, so I won.

After that, they cut to Top 4.  I made it, of course, being the last remaining undefeated player.  My Round 4 opponent also made it, of course.  My Round 3 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament also made it with his Spike Brothers deck; I don't know what happened to his Dark Irregulars.  And my friend... was not a disgrace this time.  He made the Top 4 with a 3-1 record, after having lost to me in the third round.

The prizes were 10-5-3-2 for 1st through 4th, so we decided to just split and get five packs each.  Even if both my friend and I won our Top 4 matches, we'd just get an additional five packs, which was not worth the consequences of losing.  So, I got Set 4 and he got Set 7.  He pulled bad Pale Moon cards, while I pulled a Dark Metal Dragon and an Enigman Wave, the latter of which I gave to him for his Dimension Police deck.  Sometime during the day, I forgot if it was from the morning or evening tournament, I also pulled another Diamond Ace, which I kept for myself.  I plan on making the Zeal build once Set 8 comes out, but if I give up on it, I could just sell the perfect guards later, since that Great Daiyusha deck might become popular then.

So yeah, Death Anchor was quite good.  It's nice to not have to trigger-sack people to win, since Death Anchor has his built-in Critical/+10k.  The 20k columns also help a lot.  The deck should continue to be good once crossrides come out, since it can make 18k columns ridiculously easily, though I will have to drop the Knowledge Drunkards at that point.  Oh, and Hysteric Shirley will be nice to have, too.

But yeah, next Saturday morning will be a Vanguard draft tournament for Set 5.  I'm not sure how many people are going to actually do that, but I already pre-registered because I want the Kai/DOTE mat.  I already have a strategy for what I'm going to draft, and I assume that most of the people, seeing as how they're Vanguard players (implying most Vanguard players are bad), won't have any strategy at all for drafting.  My friend has yet to decide whether or not he's going to do the draft, and I'm pretty sure that Riku has decided against it.  I'm pretty sure that the evening tournament isn't going to be a draft, though, which I don't care about either way.

Anyways, I don't have any time at all to do anything this week, so I'll probably have to skip my semi-annual "Hopes for the Ban List" post.  You can just assume that it's the same as last year, plus Mermail and Fire Fist cards, and maybe Wind-Up Magician.  That's basically what I do every six months: take the previous "Hopes" post and add the new broken cards that Konami has released, along with minor changes according to the ban list, assuming Konami actually fixed anything.  Hopefully they'll fix enough of the broken stuff to convince me to play in tournaments again, but I highly doubt that that'll happen.  In any case, I'll be waiting for Hidden Arsenal 7, and we'll see what happens then.

Tournament Report 2/2/13

More Vanguard, yay... Well, I traded my Blau-series Nova Grappler deck (with only one perfect guard) for Riku's Dark Irregulars deck (with only one perfect guard), then I bought his other two perfect guards from him.  I also bought a couple Yellow Bolts, since they're supposed to help if I don't ride Death Anchor.  The Yellow Bolts didn't do anything yesterday, but that's because I never had to ride Evil-Eye Basilisk, which is good.  So, although it feels like a great waste of money, the fact that Yellow Bolt did nothing was actually a good thing.

At the morning tournament, I used my Megacolony deck, because why not?  There were seven players there, including Riku, my friend, and myself.  The other four players were newbs.

Round 1: vs Dark Irregulars (Edel Rose)

This was the same guy from last weekend.  I 2-0'd him again, though he did play a little better this time.

Round 2: vs Angel Feather

I was paired up against my friend, who was just messing around with his bad Angel Feather deck.  Well, it's not as bad as it was before, since he now had the full Ergodiel ride chain and some Kiriels.  Either way, we both basically prevented each other from using our on-hit effects for the whole match, since we actually know how to play.  It was a very epic and close game, but I won 2-1 after losing the first game.

Round 3: vs Nova Grappler

This was my Round 2 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament.  He switched to Nova Grapplers for some reason.  It wasn't even a good build; the Grade 3's were Asura Kaiser and Mr. Invincible.  He kind of got lucky not having to ride Mr. Invincible.  Anyways, I was in complete control of the first game, killing all of his rear-guards so he couldn't rush me, but then when I went for game, he got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger, so I lost on the following turn.  In the second game, I drew all Grade 2's, so I couldn't defend myself early game and lost because of it.

So, I went 2-1 and got 2nd place.  Neither my friend nor Riku topped, again...  I got three total packs of Set 4 and pulled nothing of significance.

After that, I fixed up the Dark Irregulars deck I got from Riku, adding Stand Triggers and Knowledge Drunkards.  The Knowledge Drunkards helped by getting garbage like extra Death Anchors or Draw Triggers out of my hand, and I added the Stand Triggers to mess with people.  I'm playing what I like to call the "Future Knight, Llew, with Flogal, and Margal will guard" trigger ratio, because it's the trigger ratio my friend used when he played his bad Royal Paladin deck to replicate that moment from the anime.  I kind of want to keep it a secret, though, since it's a really good trigger ratio for messing with people who don't know about it.

But yeah, my friend gave me some more Oracle Think Tank stuff for my newb-friendly deck.  It was basically finished at that point, so  I let spondo try it out, since it'd be easier to use than my Megacolony, Dark Irregulars, Invincible Overlord, or my "most powerful deck".  Yeah, I still carry around my Invincible Overlord deck.  It's still a good deck, and it was my first competitive deck, so I wouldn't want to rip it apart or anything.  But yeah, I played a game with spondo, then he had to play in the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.

Riku had to leave, so my friend and I just played more Vanguard.  I was seeing how the Dark Irregulars deck worked out, testing out a bunch of different Grade 2's.  I'm still not sure on what exactly I want to use for my Grade 2 line-up for now, but once crossrides come out, then there'll be no question (since Knowledge Drunkard can't make good columns against a 13k Vanguard).

Anyways, while we were playing, people asked me for rulings for Yu-Gi-Oh.  Even though I kind of stopped playing, I still know the rulings because most of them are very logical, and the new card text helps clear up a lot of the confusion.  But, the people who weren't regulars didn't believe me since I was playing Vanguard, ha ha.  So they called the store owner, and he basically said to go with whatever I said.  If you're wondering, the question was whether a second Mirror Force could be Chained to Evolzar Laggia's effect, which was negating the first Mirror Force, in response to attack declaration.  The answer is yes, you can activate any number of cards or effects that respond to attack declaration within the one Chain that is allotted to responding to attack declaration.  If something like Solemn Judgment were used to negate the first Mirror Force, the second Mirror Force could not be Chained because it cannot be Chained to a Counter Trap, and once that Chain resolves, then the timing during which you could activate cards or effects that respond to attack declaration is gone.  But yeah, I still know rulings.

So then there was the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 25 players, and I decided to use my Dark Irregulars deck.

Round 1: vs Megacolony (Giraffa)

This guy was kind of a newb who just made the deck.  I don't know why so many little kids want to make Megacolony decks; it's kind of weird since they're one of the more skillful decks in Vanguard (which isn't saying much), and they don't really look very cool, in my opinion.  Anyways, he doesn't have perfect guards, so the Breakdown Death Brace wins without fail.

OO

Round 2: vs Nova Grappler (Blau-series)

This guy had just beaten my friend in the previous round, so I had to avenge him.  I don't really think he knew what he was doing, since he wasn't really familiar with Stern Blaukluger's effect, and he also attacked in the wrong order when he had Death Army people and/or Asura Kaiser out.  His deck was alright, but he didn't use it very well.  Anyways, I won the first game because I kept killing his rear-guards and wasted all of his cards, so he couldn't do anything against the Breakdown Death Brace.  I got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger in the second game, then he got a sixth-damage Heal, so it evened up.  I was able to win that game somehow; I don't really remember since it wasn't too eventful besides the Heals.

OO

Round 3: vs Dark Irregulars (Death Anchor)

Apparently he had just built his deck recently, since he didn't really seem to be too familiar with it.  He didn't have many cards that Soul Charge, so when he had to ride Evil-Eye Basilisk instead of Death Anchor, he couldn't do anything.  In the first game, I didn't even get my Death Anchor; I had to ride Dark Lord of Abyss and beat him up with it and 21k columns.  He was able to ride Death Anchor over his Basilisk after a while, but it was too late; he only had like four cards in soul.  In the second game, we both got our Death Anchors, and he kept trying to Breakdown Death Brace me.  I had two perfect guards, and I re-rode Dark Lord over Death Anchor so as to not deck out, so he ended up decking out because he foolishly overused the Breakdown Death Brace.

OO

After the match, he just laid out his deck and asked for my opinion.  I told him that he needs to run more Soul Charging cards so that he doesn't have to rely so much on Death Anchor.  I also said that he should consider using Dark Lord as a back-up Vanguard instead of just running three Evil-Eye Basilisks.  But yeah, later during the tournament, I overheard that he felt as though I made him feel stupid because I made comments on his card choices.  For instance, when he first played a Prisoner Beast, I would say something like, "Prisoner Beast, hmm, interesting..." and it would make him feel like he had made a mistake.  Well, playing Prisoner Beast is kind of a mistake.  Dark Irregulars have so many Grade 1's and 2's with good effects that playing the vanillas is kind of a waste of space.  I mean, why play 8k boosters when you can play 9k boosters?  I mean, sure, it helps with your early game, but Dark Irregulars is a late game deck, so it doesn't really contribute to the main strategy.

So yeah, the tournament organizer cut to Top 8 after that round.  I was 3-0, so I made it, but my friend was 2-1 with bad tie-breakers (he won against my Round 1 opponent and his bad Pale Moon friend), so he didn't make it.

Top 8: vs Megacolony (Giraffa)

Another Megacolony player.  Why is it so popular now...?  Anyways, he actually had perfect guard(s) in his deck, as opposed to the kid I played in the first round.  I actually have very few objections to his card choices and such, since he seemed like he knew what he was doing.  The only things I would object to are his Ironcutter Beetles and Lady Bombs.  Ironcutter is alright if he has four Grade 3 Giraffas, but it just never seems that useful to me, since Megacolony decks aren't desperate to make 20k columns like Nova Grapplers are.  Lady Bomb is just a waste of Counter Blasts...  But yeah, I won the first and third games with my Breakdown Death Brace.  If you're wondering, he got his ride chain in the first game, but he had to ride Phantom Black and Megacolony Battler B in the second and third games, respectively.

OXO

So, since I had made it into the Top 4, I was guaranteed some prizes.  My opponent was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament.  The other two players were my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament and my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard tournament, who I heard was just Pellinore-sacking everyone today.  Anyways, the four of us agreed to a split.  The total prize pool was 25 packs, so we'd each get 6 packs and play out the Top 4 for the final pack.

Semi-Finals: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

In the first game, I was able to make 20k columns and Breakdown Death Brace him when he didn't have a perfect guard, so I won.  In the second game, I was 5k short of being able to guard two-to-pass at four damage, so I just said "no guard" and lost to a Critical Trigger.  In the third game, my first Breakdown Death Brace was countered by Wyvern Guard, Barri.  But, he couldn't deal with the second one, since he only had 20k worth of shield and my Death Anchor was attacking his 10k Lawkeeper for 30k.  That's right, you don't have to put Amon or Doreen behind Death Anchor to hit good numbers against a 10k Vanguard; Alluring Succubus or Yellow Bolt will do the job quite well.  But yeah, that won me the game.

OXO

Finals: vs Grade 1 Rush

Since Pellinore-sacking doesn't work against Grade 1's, I was up against my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  I was somehow able to win the first game because the Breakdown Death Brace is quite powerful against a deck with no perfect guards, especially since he pushed me to 5 damage before my Grade 3 ride.  I lost the other two games because I wasn't so fortunate, though.  Although I was able to easily make 18k columns to prevent him from guarding easily, he kept getting Critical Triggers on his drive checks and Draw Triggers on his damage checks, so I couldn't keep up with all the trigger-sacking.  This trigger sacking happened in the first game, as well; I just got lucky with my Death Anchor.

OXX

So, I only got six packs of Set 4.  I pulled a Diamond Ace (perfect guard for Dimension Police), so that's cool, but nothing else of note. My friend pulled a Grade 2 Giraffa and gave it to me, so now I have four.  I don't think I'd play more than three, though.

So yeah, the Dark Irregulars deck did quite well today.  I still don't know how I want to fix the Grade 2 line-up, but it seems good for now.  Like I said at the beginning of the post, the Yellow Bolts basically did nothing, but that meant that I didn't have to ride Evil-Eye Basilisk, so that's good.  At the same time, though, that prevented me from testing out whether or not the Yellow Bolts would actually help enough in that situation to warrant keeping them.  I think that I will continue to use two, since they're not bad at all.  And, just like with the Megacolony deck, I don't like how ugly a lot of the Dark Irregulars cards are, but I like the play-style of the deck, as it requires some degree of skill.  So I will probably use them next weekend, which is sad, since I recently finished my Megacolony deck.  Eh, maybe I'll switch decks every so often or something, we'll see.