Tournament Report 3/30/13

As usual, I went to locals for the Vanguard tournaments. After two weeks of skipping the morning Vanguard tournament, I actually participated this week.  My friend who plays Vanguard was there, as well.  He sold his Tsukuyomi deck because it had failed him too much, and he ended up making a Spectral Duke Gold Paladin deck and finishing his Pale Moon deck.  Despite the existence of crossrides, Spectral Duke seems to be quite popular.

Anyways, I used my Dark Irregulars deck and my friend used his Pale Moon deck.  There were about nine players there for the morning Vanguard tournament.  Apparently, the shopkeeper decided to make the rounds best-of-one because that's how Bushiroad likes it: skillless.

I played against a newbie Royal Paladin player in the first round and won; I almost lost due to drawing a bunch of triggers, so I was unable to make a real field.  I lost the second round against my Round 4 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament.  He switched to a Reijy build, happened to open with an amazing hand, and got Draw Triggers as the first two damage I dealt him, so he was just able to swarm me, while I didn't get any triggers.  I ended up playing against my Round 3 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament in the third round.  He was playing an incomplete Phantom Blaster Overlord deck, and he got gradestuck, so I was able to win pretty easily.

With that, I ended up going 2-1 and getting 3rd place, winning me one additional pack.  I ended up getting packs of EB01 so I could get Machining Megacolony stuff, Nova Grappler stuff (specifically Wall Boys), and Murakumo stuff.  I pulled a Wall Boy, a High-Powered Raizer Custom, and a Perfect Raizer from my two packs.  That was annoying, since I don't like the Raizer series.  I ended up giving the Raizer stuff to my friend, and he gave me his Megacolony and Murakumo stuff, including a Dueling Dragon, ZANBAKU.

After the tournament, my Round 3 opponent gave me the Rumble Gun Dragon that he pulled from the new promo pack along with a Machining Stag Beetle, so I gave him the Aqua Force promo I pulled (it's bad, so I didn't care).  My friend pulled a Flare Whip Dragon and gave it to me, so that was cool, too.  I also traded the Mandala Lord I pulled a long time ago to my Round 2 opponent for a Machining Stag Beetle.  I was able to mooch a bunch of Megacolony Commons from EB01 off of various people, so all I needed from EB01 at this point was Stag Beetles, ZANBAKUs, and Wall Boys.

Between tournaments, my friend and I played Kaijudo.  I was using a Light/Water/Darkness Cobalt Control deck that will be featured in videos on my YouTube channel later this week, and he was using the Water/Darkness/Nature Dragon deck that I built for him, at his request.  He realized that Nature isn't good late game, so we discussed it, and we're going to drop the Nature section to add a Fire section to the deck.  I'll be working on that later this week.  He may even participate in the Kaijudo Duel Days starting next weekend.

After all that, I asked to try out his finished Pale Moon deck.  So, I used it against his Spectral Duke deck; we ended up playing four games, and we each won two (I won the two where he missed his ride chain, and I lost one game due to getting gradestuck on Grade 0).  I thought about it, and decided that I wanted to use his Pale Moon deck in the evening Vanguard tournament.  He didn't care, since he'd just be using his Spectral Duke deck, so I ended up using it.  I figured that even though I wanted to win packs of EB01, it didn't really matter, and I was getting kind of bored playing Dark Irregulars.

But yeah, the Pale Moon deck I used was one based around Crimson Beast Tamer.  The main Grade 3's are Barking Manticore and Midnight Invader.  He teched in a Luquier and a Mistress Hurricane.  I took out the latter for a third Midnight Invader, which I just happened to have on me.  Anyways, there were about 20 players there for the evening Vanguard tournament.

Round 1: vs Nova Grappler

I recognized this guy as a Pellinore Gold Paladin player, so I wasn't too worried.  But then he told me that he had sold his Gold Paladin deck.  Anyways, he didn't play very well; he attacked in incorrect orders, which matters a lot in Nova Grapplers.  I ended up losing the first game because he kept getting Critical Triggers, but I won the other two because he refused to attack my Vanguard with his rear-guards.  He wanted his on-hit effects to work (Azure Dragon and White Tiger), but I actually know how to play, so I was able to win.

XOO

Round 2: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was my opponent from the finals of this evening Vanguard tournament.  He saw my previous match, so he knew what I was playing.  I got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game, but I kept pulling triggers on both drive checks and damage checks, so I was able to keep up with him.  He ended up drive checking three Grade 3's over the course of two turns, so I was able to finish him off after riding to Grade 3.  I won the second game because Turquoise Beast Tamer behind Barking Manticore is a 22k column, which laughs at Majesty Lord Blaster's 12k defense.

OO

Round 3: vs Kagero (The End)

This was my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  He still played as badly as ever, but he gave me a couple Wall Boys, so that was nice of him.  Oh, and apparently, my Round 2 opponent was using this guy's Majesty Lord deck, so this guy wastes more money on this game than I thought.  Anyways, I was able to win the first game because he got gradestuck on Grade 2.  I lost the second game because I couldn't amass a full field (which is unusual in Pale Moon, seeing as how you can use your soul to create a field).  I won the third game because he rode The End before Dragonic Overlord, despite having them both on his third turn, because he wanted to try and force through the Persona Blast.  He complained afterwards that he didn't drive check another The End after I let it through.  The chances of that aren't exactly in your favor, silly person.  Anyways, because he left himself with an 11k Vanguard, my 21k columns of Midnight Invaders and Turquoise Beast Tamers won me the game.

OXO

So, I somehow made it through the Swiss rounds undefeated with Pale Moon.  My friend also went undefeated, so that was cool.  At this point, they cut to Top 8.  We both made it, of course, but unfortunately, so did three other Spectral Duke players.

Top 8: vs Megacolony

This was my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He's a competent player, and his deck was less incoherent than last time, but it was still weird.  Anyways, he missed the Giraffa ride chain in the first game, but I got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I still lost.  I won the other two games with my 21k columns, though.  What lost him the game was that he refused to put a booster behind his Vanguard unless it was Stealth Millipede, so I was just able to guard his Vanguard with one 10k shield each time.

XOO

So I was in the same bracket as my friend, so if he were to win, we would've been paired up against each other.  He ended up losing to double Critical Triggers against another Spectral Duke player.  Oh, and the other two players who made it to the Top 4 were Spectral Duke players.  Yeah, I don't get how Spectral Duke can get this far since it's supposed to auto-lose to crossrides.  I mean, Gold Paladin decks in general cannot make 18k rear-guard columns reliably...

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my opponent from the finals of this evening Vanguard tournament.  He got double Critical Triggers when I was at like 2 damage when he rode up to Spectral Duke Dragon, and he was already at 4 damage because he didn't guard anything at all, so he stood back up and killed me.  After that game and before the second, the other Top 4 match had finished (my Top 8 match took forever).  The loser of that match decided to just take the prize for 4th place and leave.  That allowed the winner of that match, my opponent, and I to discuss a split.  We agreed that if I were to win the next game (evening the score for the match), then the three of us would split the prizes for the Top 3.  If I were to lose, then I'd get 3rd place and they would split the prizes for 1st and 2nd.  In the second game, he ended up riding the Grade 1 Vortimer and grabbing the Grade 2 Vortimer with the Grade 0 Vortimer's effect, but he had no Grade 1's or 0's to call and retire next turn.  That was great, so I was actually able to keep up in card advantage despite him getting the ride chain.  In the end, I was able to win with the 21k columns after withstanding his Limit Break.

XO-

With that, we split the prizes for the Top 3, as agreed.  I got 7 packs of EB01, in addition to the entry pack.  Out of those 8 packs, I pulled a Golden Beast Tamer, High-Powered Raizer Custom, ZANBAKU, and Machining Stag Beetle.  I also got some Wall Boys, so I gave one to my friend, who just needed one more.  I also gave him the Grade 2 Raizer, so now he has three (he pulled one himself).  Now I have two ZANBAKUs and three Stag Beetles, so that's good.  I'll probably continue to get EB01 until I get a fourth Stag Beetle, which shouldn't take too long.

However, I may stop playing in Vanguard tournaments on Saturdays.  I'll probably go the next three weeks (next week because I'll likely have nothing else to do, and the following two weeks due to the Vanguard Team League), but after that, I may start going to locals on Sundays instead.  I've just been playing in the Vanguard tournaments because I've had nothing better to do.  I'm going to start playing in Kaijudo tournaments starting next Sunday, and I found a card shop that has Vanguard tournaments every Sunday afternoon, so I could just go to those after the Kaijudo tournaments.

I'm definitely going to the Kaijudo tournament next Sunday with Aki, and my friend who plays Vanguard will likely be there.  But after that, whether or not I'll be able to attend locals on both Saturday and Sunday ultimately depends on how much homework I get.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

Tournament Report 3/23/13

As usual, I went to locals and such.  Today, the usual card shop was having the Extra Booster 1 Sneak Preview, which exactly five people showed up for.  None of them were good players, so my friend who plays Vanguard and I could've easily gone in there and won, assuming we could make decent decks with the horrible grade ratios provided by EB01.  But, we decided that our money was better spent on other things.

I spent my money on two Kaijudo boxes of DragonStrike Infernus, which Aki and I are splitting.  We got some pretty good boxes, so that was good.  Including the random holo card that is included in each sealed box, we got three Super Rares and six Very Rares from each box. For the six Supers, we got two Infernus the Awakened, two Andromeda of the Citadel, one Issyl of the Frozen Wastes, and one Kurragar of the Hordes.  For the Verys, we got two each of Ragefire Tatsurion; Sok'ran the Untamed; Dreadclaw, Dark Herald; and Lyra, the Blazing Sun as well as four Kindrix the Psionic.  I was happy to get the Andromedas and Lyras, since I'm going to be playing Light for sure.  I think Aki is going to be running a Fire/Water/Nature Dragon deck, so the two Infernus would probably help a lot.  We also got three Herald of Infernus from the two boxes, so those will probably be going into Aki's deck.

I'm unsure of exactly how I want to build my Kaijudo deck, since I'm definitely going to be using Light.  I was initially planning on using Enforcers, but that was before I got access to two Andromedas and two Lyras.  I may play my own Dragon-based deck, since we got plenty of Fire Birds from every Civilization.  I'm just not sure about which other Civilizations I would want to use for my deck.  Every one of them is good, though the Darkness Dragons kind of suck, but Darkness is just good in general.  I kind of want to use Fire because they have all of the Fast Attackers and good early game removal like Heat Seekers, but they have no late game removal at all.  I feel like I have to use either Nature or Darkness because those are the only decks with hard removal, but then the question would be what other Civilization to use.  If I use Darkness, I'd have to use Water so that I could gain card advantage with the draw cards.  If I use Nature, then I could use Nature cards to generate advantage (well, they would generate mana, but that just means I have to put less cards down into the mana zone from my hand), so then I could use Fire.  It's a really difficult decision.  Well, I have a few days to figure it out, so yeah.

Anyways, my friend spent his money finishing his Pale Moon and Dimension Police decks.  So, we played a few games with me using his horrible Pale Moon deck and him using his Dimension Police deck.  The Pale Moon deck is horrible because it focuses on Mistress Hurricane.  Mistress Hurricane is not a bad card, but running four of them is ridiculously redundant.  Half the time, there's nothing worth calling out from the soul...

After that, we played a few games with my using my Megacolony deck against his finished Tsukuyomi Oracle Think Tank deck.  I was able to mooch some Shelter Beetles off of one of the people who did the draft, so I added them to my deck and won most of the games against my friend's Tsukuyomi deck.  I mean, if you read the flavor text on the cards, you'd notice that Elite Mutant, Giraffa's flavor text says: "Even the Moon is nothing but a target for the Megacolony."  Yes, this is why I always beat Tsukuyomi decks when I use my Megacolony deck.  Oh, and it's not hard to play against Tsukuyomi because they can't really apply early game pressure, meaning that you can just hold all of your cards until they reach their stack and deck them out, or you could just rush them when they can't do anything about it.

I even tried out my friend's Tsukuyomi deck and realized that it's not nearly as good as I thought it would be.  I could stack the bottom of the deck, as expected, but a lot of things have to go right for you to make it there and win because of it.  Being stuck with Amaterasu as your Vanguard could ruin your stack and deck you out, and there's no guarantee that your stack will be any good once you get to it.  I was able to make some ridiculous stacks, but it's often not enough.  I mean, Misaki was able to stack amazingly in the anime, but what people don't realize is that she was ridiculously lucky to be able to get to her stack the way she did.  The deck is good, but it's not as good as I had hoped.

But yeah, the only tournament today was the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 13 players there today, and most of them were incompetent players, as usual.  I was playing my Dark Irregulars, while my friend was playing his Tsukuyomi deck.

Round 1: vs Oracle Think Tank (Tsukuyomi)

What are the chances that someone other than my friend would be playing Tsukuyomi today?  Well, about zero, so I was paired up against my friend.  So, after contemplating the conspiracies that occurred to have us paired against each other, we decided to just play for it.  In the first game, he had to ride Silent Tom as his Grade 2, so I won pretty easily.  In the second game, I just rushed him so I could prevent him from making it to the stack, so I won pretty easily, again.  It's not hard to beat a Tsukuyomi deck if you know how they work.

OO

Round 2: vs Kagero (The End)

This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was still as incompetent and lucky as ever.  He made several misplays throughout the match, but kept getting triggers to mitigate the impact of his misplays.  In the first game, I had him at four damage to my zero damage because he didn't attack my Vanguard for some reason.  I put my Devil in Shadow out in front, and he felt compelled to attack it with his Grade 2 Vanguard boosted by Conroe to ensure that it would die.  Alright then... But then he pulled three Heal Triggers in a row so that he ended up being at three damage, and I lost because of it.  After that, I was frustrated enough that I started pointing out his bad plays, and his excuse for them was that he was tired.  Anyways, my deck must have felt my frustration, since I started Crit-sacking him to no end after that to win the following two games.  I didn't even get to Death Brace him.

XOO

Round 3: vs Kagero

I was playing against an incompetent player with a random Kagero deck based around Blazing Flare Dragon, I think... Anyways, he had a 10k Vanguard, so 20k columns win easily.

OO

With that, they cut to Top 4.  My friend lost in the third round to a The End Kagero deck (not the one I played against in Round 2), so he didn't make it.  I made it, having gone undefeated in the Swiss rounds.  Since there were so few people, there were only prizes for the Top 2, so we had to play out the Top 4.

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's Vanguard tournament.  He missed his ride chain in the first game, riding Gareth, then Beaumains, then Garmore.  So, I just made 20k columns across the board to win.  I didn't even need to Death Brace him.  In the second game, he got his ride chain and I didn't have any boosters, so I couldn't even hit his Spectral Duke Dragon half the time.  In the third game, he missed his ride chain again (as it should be) and I was able to make 20k columns across the board again to put a bunch of pressure on him.  He made a desperate last attack with Spectral Duke Dragon's Limit Break.  I used a perfect guard and he got a Critical Trigger, so I just used another perfect guard on his final attack.  I then proceeded to Death Brace him and pull a Critical Trigger to deal 3 damage while he was at 5 damage to win.

OXO

My opponent in the finals was my opponent from the finals of this evening Vanguard tournament.  He also went undefeated in Swiss and won his Top 4 match (obviously), so both of us were undefeated for the whole tournament.  We decided to just split the prizes and get seven packs each.  I got Set 5 and pulled a Masquerade, so that's alright, I guess.

So my friend was very disappointed in his Tsukuyomi deck, even though he just got pretty unlucky today.  He's going to give it another chance next weekend, but we'll see how that goes.  He said that he now wants to make Shadow Paladins, since he likes the deck.  So, he'll most likely buy Aki's Shadow Paladin deck.  We still need to discuss the exact build he's going to use, so yeah.

That's about it.  Just two more weeks until the first official Kaijudo tournament in April.  Aki and I will be going to that, despite the fact that it's on a Sunday, which is still horrible.  Depending on how it works out, we may go to additional Kaijudo tournaments.  Hopefully, I'll be able to convince the shopkeeper to move the tournaments to Saturday, but I don't really have high hopes for that.  We'll see, I guess.  Next weekend, however, will just be the usual Vanguard tournaments.

Tournament Report 3/17/13

I went to locals on Saturday, as usual, but I couldn't post this yesterday because Aki and I were making videos, and after that, I had to memorize stuff for the finals that I took today.  But yeah.

The usual card shop had a Kaijudo Sneak Preview event for DragonStrike Infernus.  When I walked in, the shopkeeper handed me the sign-up list for the Vanguard tournament, though.  I told him that I wanted to do the Kaijudo event, "Kaijudo takes precedence over Vanguard, always."

They were out of boxes of the new set, unfortunately, so I just got three packs and pulled two Dragon of Reflections.  I played a few matches against Fwazalaza to fulfill some of the "Achievements" necessary to get the promo cards, so I got both promos.  I also traded an Orion, Radiant Fury, for a Colbalt the Storm Knight, Hyperspeed Dragon, and Gigahorn Charger.  I'm planning on making an Enforcer-based deck, but I'm going to wait and see what we pull from DragonStrike Infernus.  Aki and I are going to split a box, see what we get, then maybe get a second box.  But, that'll have to wait until next weekend.

There were like six people at the morning Vanguard tournament, if you're wondering.  My friend who plays Vanguard, Riku, and spondo were all there.  spondo won the tournament because he trigger-sacked everyone, or so I was told.

After a while, my friend, Riku, and I went to the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 15 players there.  I bought a couple Werewolf Siegers to put in my deck, since Blue Dust hasn't been doing anything.  My Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament gave me an Edel Rose that was collecting dust in his binder, and I used it to replace the one Evil Eye Basilisk that hasn't been doing anything, either.

Round 1: vs Bermuda Triangle

This guy was actually a fairly competent player.  He was using a Raindeer-based deck, but it's Bermuda Triangle, so it's not that much of a threat.  Anyways, he got more triggers than me all three games, but the Breakdown Death Brace and ridiculous Doreen columns are enough to win regardless.  In the third game, I went for a final turn when he was at 5 damage with four cards in hand by making all of my columns at least 30k using Doreens to boost my rear-guards.  He needed three perfect guards, but that obviously wasn't going to happen, so I won.

OXO

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  He got his ride chain both games, and even though he got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the first game, he kept getting triggers both games, while I got very few (like, less than five total), so I lost.

XX

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament, the one who gave me the Edel Rose earlier today. Anyways, I made ridiculous columns in the first game to win, but lost the following two games because he got more triggers than me.  I couldn't even Death Brace because I didn't draw my Death Anchor in the third game.  But yeah, it's Vanguard.

OXX

And the fact that Vanguard is so luck-based is what makes me glad that Kaijudo tournaments will start next month.  They're still going to be on Sundays because the shopkeeper of the usual card shop has no faith in the game.  I would like to be able to go to the Kaijudo tournaments, but my schedule makes it really inconvenient.  It's mainly the fact that I'd have to give up 12 hours of playing card games with friends every week just to go to a short Kaijudo tournament that none of my friends, except maybe Fwazalaza or Aki, assuming they're able to attend, will be at.

I guess I could try going to the first one, on April 7, with Aki, and we'll see how it goes.  I shouldn't have any homework on that weekend, so I should be able to go.  After that, though, I'll just have to see how my schedule works out.  And I guess I could potentially start going to Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments with my Gem-Knights after Hidden Arsenal 7 is released, but I don't think that it's worth it.  But yeah, this is all stuff that I'll have to figure out.

Anyways, the tournament organizer cut to Top 8 after the third round.  My friend was undefeated, so he obviously made it.  Riku went 2-1, and just barely made it at 8th place.  He played against my Round 2 opponent and lost because his opponent got the ride chain two out of the three games.  My friend won his Top 8 match against a little kid using Narukami without Vermillions (I don't know how he made Top 8, but it's Vanguard...), then beat my Round 3 opponent in the semi-finals.  He refused to split, as usual, and ended up beating a The End Kagero deck in the finals to win the tournament and 10 packs.

My friend decided that he wanted to finish his Tsukuyomi Oracle Think Tank deck, finally, and got packs of Set 3.  He pulled a Grade 2 Tsukuyomi and a Grade 3 Tsukuyomi, and he traded for another Grade 2 Tsukuyomi so he now has all of the cards he needs for the deck.  Seriously, he was just sitting on the entire deck except for two copies of the Grade 2 Tsukuyomi.  So he should be able to finish the deck by next weekend, since he's gotten bored of Soulless OTT.

But yeah, that's about it.  There's the Sneak Preview for Extra Booster 1 for Vanguard next weekend, but I don't really care about that, so I'm just skipping the morning Vanguard tournament.  I'll spend that time sleeping, probably.  I can just show up later and get the Kaijudo box(es) before going to the evening Vanguard tournament.  Oh, and the Edel Rose didn't really help, so I may replace it with a third Dark Lord of Abyss.  I'm hesitant to take it out, though, since I feel like I get gradestuck more often than I should.  Eh, I'll figure it out.

Tournament Report 3/9/13

The usual card shop was having one of those Stand Up Challenge local qualifier things, so I participated in it because it was free, as I stated in the last post.  I was using my Dark Irregulars, as usual, though I decided to add a fourth Death Anchor and a fourth Doreen.  There were almost 50 people there, and most of them were bad players, which is a given, given that this is Vanguard.

Of course, in typical Bushiroad style, it was best-of-one double elimination, a tournament format that invites all sorts of sack to occur.  Basically, I lost the first round against a The End Kagero player because I couldn't guard The End's attack and he got a Critical Trigger, then used the Persona Blast.  My friend who plays Vanguard was using his Soulless Oracle Think Tank deck and lost the first round against a Murakumo player (the deck was bad, but the player actually knew what she was doing) due to trigger-sack.

And, seeing as how losing one round before the final round means that you can't get Top 2, the rest of the tournament wasn't important.  We left early, so I don't know who got Top 2.  However, I did see the last four undefeated players in the second-to-last round; two of them were using The End Kagero decks (one of them was spondo, who had been trigger-sacking people all day), one of them was using a Majesty Lord Royal Paladin deck, and the fourth one was using a Nova Grappler deck.  I didn't see the match between spondo and the Royal Paladin player, but spondo ended up losing.  I watched most of the match between the other The End player and the Nova Grappler player, and they were both pretty bad.  I didn't see the end of the match, though, so I didn't know who won.

But yeah, both my friend and I ended up failing, not that it matters.  Our main goal is the Team League, about which we still don't have any information.

Anyways, we went to the other card shop for their evening Vanguard tournament.  There were about 30 players there, including Riku and his girlfriend.  Riku was using a Dark Irregulars deck similar to mine (very similar, in fact, seeing as how I laid out the deck's skeleton for him when I first helped him make the deck, you know, the one that I traded him for and am now using), and his girlfriend was using a Great Nature deck, like before.

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  The pairings are like rigged or something.  Anyways, I won the first game because I was able to make his Wingal Brave useless, which is all you really need to do to win against Majesty Lord if you play an 11k Vanguard.  In the second game, I couldn't do much since I didn't draw any boosters, so I lost to generic beatdown.  I lost the third game because I got gradestuck for a turn, then he broke through my two-to-pass against his 30k Majesty Lord with a Heal Trigger and a Critical Trigger.

OXX

Round 2: vs Kagero

I was up against a little kid with a modified Trial Deck, which is never fun.  I won pretty easily, so yeah...

OO

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

I was up against another little kid, but this one at least kind of knew what he was doing.  He got his ride chain in the first game and pulled two big attackers out from the Grade 1 Vortimer's effect, so he was able to beat me down before I was even at Grade 2, which lead to his victory.  He missed his ride chain in the other two games, so I was able to win easily enough.  In the third game, I Death Braced him after he exhausted most of his cards on Spectral Duke Dragon's Limit Break, then pulled two unnecessary Critical Triggers, forcing him to take four damage when he was already at four damage.  I apologized, but yeah, it's Vanguard...

XOO

There were four undefeated players left at this point, including Riku.  My friend and I were both 2-1, while Riku's girlfriend was 1-2.  They cut to Top 8 at this point, which is really odd, but I guess they wanted to finish the tournament early.  Anyways, Riku made it, but my friend and I had pretty bad tie-breakers, so neither of us made it.  Unfortunately, Riku lost in the Top 8, so he didn't get prizes, either.  So, none of us won anything today.  Oh well, it's Vanguard...

That's basically it.  I'll be participating in the Kaijudo Sneak Preview event for DragonStrike Infernus next weekend at the local card shop.  My friend may also participate, but he may just decide to play in the Vanguard tournament as usual, instead.  Also, I rebuilt my Gem-Knight deck, featuring cards from Duel Terminal 7.  I just need one Gem-Knight Lazuli and it will be complete, so I'm just waiting on that.  But yeah, that's about it.

Tournament Report 3/2/13

Sorry this tournament report is kind of late.  Homework takes precedence over Vanguard, of course.  But yeah, last weekend, I went to locals, as usual.  My friend who plays Vanguard was also there, as usual.

First was the morning Vanguard tournament.  There were 11 players total.  I was using my Dark Irregulars and my friend was using Soulless Oracle Think Tank.  About half of the other players were using Majesty Lord Blaster decks, by the way.

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

I got gradestuck both games and lost.  I was disappointed, but I really didn't care because it doesn't really matter.  I mean, it's Vanguard.

XX

Round 2: vs Kagero (The End)

This guy was new to the game, and he was using his friend's deck, or so I assume.  Anyways, in the first game, I checked a total of zero triggers for the entire game.  But it didn't matter since I Death Braced him twice to win.  That's why I play Death Anchor (and Dark Irregulars in general); I can't trigger-sack like everyone else, so I have to make ridiculous columns to even stand a chance.  The second game was similar, except that I actually got some triggers that time.

OO

Round 3: vs Shadow Paladin

I was paired up against the kid who gave me free Megacolony stuff and traded me the Blaster Darks for Aki.  I was able to win 2-0 because he doesn't really know what he's doing and the Death Brace is really powerful.

OO

Since I was paired up and won, that ended up being the last round.  I went 2-1 and got 4th place, but I didn't win any packs.  My friend went undefeated and got 1st place, winning him 6 packs of Set 5.  If I'm not mistaken, he pulled another Street Bouncer, so now he has three.  He also got a Bedivere, which he traded for a Mistress Hurricane.  I pulled a No Life King, Death Anchor from my promo pack, so now I have the option of using four if I want to.  I'm still considering it, since it's nice to be able to ride it consistently, but I don't know if it's worth it.  I'd honestly rather have a third Dark Lord of Abyss, now that I think about it.  But yeah...

We also preregistered for the Stand Up Challenge thing that Bushiroad is doing for some reason.  It's like a local qualifier that could get you invited to a regional qualifier that could get you invited to a Continental Championship.  But it's honestly really stupid.  It's best-of-one double elimination, like their Regionals, which is kind of ridiculous.  Best-of-one is ridiculous enough, but it might as well just be single elimination.  I mean, the Top 2 of each qualifier get to go the next event, but because of the way tie-breakers work in double elimination tournaments, the Top 2 is almost always going to be the last two undefeated players.  If there isn't an even number of players, then there may be like three undefeated players going into the final round, or something like that.  But basically, you have to be undefeated going into the last round to even have a chance to Top 2, which is stupid, especially in a terribly luck-based game like Vanguard.

But it was free to enter, so there was no reason not to...

Anyways, during the time between tournaments, my friend and I just played Vanguard for fun.  I was using my Invincible Overlord deck (now featuring Flame of Promise, Aermo), and my friend was using a proxied Gold Paladin deck with Solitary Liberator, Gancelot and Platinum Ezel.  It was my idea to combine those two cards to give your field +50k for a final turn.  It's not as broken as I had feared, since it's harder to pull off that combo than I thought, but it's still pretty overpowered.

But yeah, after that was the evening Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  There were 17 players there, with half of them running either The End or Majesty Lord.  My friend and I were using the same decks as before, of course.

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  Again, he expected to lose (because he knows the power of the Breakdown Death Brace).  He won the first game, I won the second, then I got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the third, so I lost the match.  Yeah, I've been getting gradestuck too much today...

XOX

Round 2: vs Nova Grappler

My opponent was a little kid who I think was just using a Nova Grappler Trial Deck.  Anyways, I won the match after losing the first game by getting gradestuck on Grade 0, again...

XOO

Round 3: vs ...

I was paired up against my friend, who was undefeated at this point.  So, I just gave him the win and we played for fun.

Round 4: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was also 1-2, and we were just disappointed that we both did so badly.  Anyways, he wasn't trying to help anyone's tie-breakers, so he just agreed to give me the win so I could help my friend's tie-breakers.  We played a match for fun, and I used my Megacolony deck.  I won the match because he got gradestuck on Grade 0 in one of the games.

They decided to cut to Top 4 at this point, and the tournament organizer also told us that it would be winner-take-all.  As in, 1st place would walk away with 20 packs, and everyone else would get nothing.  My friend was being greedy, so he decided not to split with anyone.

He played against a Spectral Duke deck in the semi-finals and trigger-sacked (sixth-damage Heal Trigger, included) to win.  He then played against a The End Kagero deck in the finals and trigger-sacked to win (again with a sixth-damage Heal Trigger).  That's why he plays Vanguard.

So he ended up winning 20 packs of Set 5.  Before he got them, one of the shopkeepers offered him a deal: pay another $10 and get a whole box (that's 10 additional packs, for those of you who are smart and don't buy Vanguard products).  He didn't have any money (I had to lend him money for his entry fee), so I paid the $10, with the condition that any The Ends or SP Wingal Braves that he pulled were to be given to me, in addition to all of the cards he'd normally give to me because he doesn't use them.

Out of the 30 packs, he pulled one holo that he wanted: Evil-eye Princess, Euryale.  He pulled a Phantom Blaster Overlord, which I have already sold to Aki.  He also got a Maiden of the Trailing Rose.  The other holos he pulled were a Murakumo perfect guard, a Midnight Crow, a Beelzebub, and an SP Wingal Brave, all of which went to me.  Yeah, even though he won the tournament, I ended up being the real winner, ha ha.

Although I'll never use the Midnight Crow or Beelzebub, the Murakumo perfect guard and the SP Wingal Brave are quite nice.  The Wingal Brave will just be a Token, but it'll be one of the best Tokens I'll ever have ("one of the best" because Rotom is better).  To be honest, I've always wanted a Wingal Brave, just to have, which is why I traded him for the RR Wingal Brave last weekend.  But, I got the SP Wingal Brave, the one I really wanted due to its better flavor text, and gave my friend back the RR Wingal Brave.

But yeah, Wingal Brave is cool.

Anyways, a few other things happened that are of note.  I tried to convince the shopkeeper of the usual card shop to have Kaijudo tournaments on Saturday instead of Sunday.  He said that he won't move it unless it becomes more popular.  That's kind of jacked up, since people are less likely to show up on Sunday than on Saturday, meaning that his perception of whether or not it becomes popular is going to be skewed.  Not only that, but he told me that he thinks that Wizards of the Coast doesn't even care about Kaijudo, so he doesn't think that it's worth supporting.  Well, if you're going to have that kind of attitude, how will the game grow?  Regardless, I still don't know if I can make it to Sunday morning Kaijudo tournaments.  I want the game to succeed and maybe get moved to Saturday where it'll be more convenient, but if I can't go, then I can't help it.

Throughout the day, I saw several Yu-Gi-Oh players that used to be regulars at the usual card shop, but have started going to the other card shop for some reason.  Most of them asked me why I stopped playing.  I don't see any incentive to play in tournaments anymore; the prizes weren't good to begin with, and now the game isn't fun anymore.  So, I'm just going to finish up my Gem-Knight deck, then I probably won't be spending any more money on Yu-Gi-Oh.  I'm basically done with competitive Yu-Gi-Oh.

The Sneak Preview for the next Kaijudo set, DragonStrike Infernus, is going to be in two weeks, on a Saturday.  So, I'll be going to that, since it's on a Saturday... Which means I won't be participating in the Vanguard tournament that morning, as if it matters.  My friend may also do the Kaijudo event instead of the Vanguard tournament, so we'll see what happens.

And, like I said earlier, next week is the Stand Up Challenge local qualifier for Vanguard.  I'll be playing in that because it's free.  I'm not planning on winning, since I'll probably end up losing to getting gradestuck.  But maybe I'll get lucky, who knows?  My main goal is to win the Team League, which should be in April, if Bushiroad ever decides to announce the dates... But yeah, Team Snogal should have no problem winning again, whenever that may be.