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.