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.