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.