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.