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.