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.