Tournament Report 4/27/13

As usual, I went to locals yesterday for the Vanguard tournaments.

The morning tournament was the Set 8 Sneak Preview draft tournament, which I decided to actually participate in.  I decided to make Arboros Dragon ride chain Neo Nectar after testing it out on the video game.  The Musketeer build was meh, but the Arboros Dragon build was better than expected.  It just seems like a good deck to use in a format infested with crossrides and Aqua Force, since you can make 23k columns with Sephirot's Limit Break and will also have an 11k Vanguard so you don't get beat up by Basil.

But yeah, so I did the draft tournament.  I pulled a Hydro Hurricane Dragon, but no other holos.  Someone passed me the Musketeer version of Bedivere, which I kept, but eh, it's not that great.  My pulls were pretty bad in general; I didn't get any cards that I needed, but I did keep two Compass Lions and a Coiling Duckbill.  I see why people kept passing Compass Lions, but I was able to use them effectively.

There were a total of 14 players there for the draft tournament.  It ended up being a best-of-one double elimination tournament, so that's lame.  Whatever, I ended up getting pretty lucky while playing, so it didn't matter.  I won the first two rounds by trigger-sacking and rushing early.  I lost the third round by decking out, then got a bye in the fourth round since there were only five people left at that point.  I won the fifth round by rushing early, and that ended up being the final round.  I was in the Top 2, so I got a Great Daiyusha mat.  That was nice, I guess.

After that, my friend who plays Vanguard showed up, and I gave him all of the Tachikaze and Great Nature stuff I pulled.  He wants to build a Raptor-series Tachikaze deck for fun, so yeah.  I was also able to mooch some Neo Nectar stuff off of some people.  I got a couple Arboros Dragon, Branch and an Arboros Dragon, Timber.  That's about it.

We then went to the other card shop for the evening Vanguard tournament.  They also had Sneak Preview sets, but they were just holding a normal tournament.  People could choose to get six packs of Set 8 by paying $20, as opposed to entering the tournament normally for $3.  My friend and I just entered as usual and got packs of the Bermuda Triangle Extra Booster.

The reasoning behind this was that we didn't need anything from any other set, and that my friend's friend is building Bermuda Triangle.  My friend's friend also has all of the Neo Nectar holos from Set 5, so in an attempt to persuade him to stick with Bermuda Triangle and not make Neo Nectar, I wanted to help him finish his Bermuda Triangle deck so that he would give my friend his Neo Nectar stuff.  I ended up pulling a Grade 3 Riviere, which he needed, so I gave it to him.

There ended up being 12 players there for the tournament, and I was able to mooch some more Arboros Dragon cards off of people, so by the end of the day, I got four each of the Grade 1 and 2 Arboros Dragons, and two of the Grade 0.  So that was good.

Round 1: vs Dark Irregulars

What wasn't good was that I was paired up against my friend.  We ended up switching decks; I was using his Great Nature, and he was using my Dark Irregulars.  Anyways, I won the first game because he couldn't Death Brace me; I lost the second game because he Death Braced me; and I won the third game because I got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger, causing him to lose by deck-out.

OXO

Round 2: vs Megacolony

This was my Top 8 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I won the first game because he got gradestuck and I won the second because I killed whatever few attackers he drew into.

OO

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Vanguard team tournament.  I lost both games because I got gradestuck both games.  Oh, and his deck was also designed to beat up 10k Vanguards...

XX

Round 4: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel/Pellinore)

This as my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I won the first game because he doesn't know how to guard properly.  I lost the second game because he got double Heal Triggers when he was at five damage to my four damage, then he got a Critical Trigger on the following turn to win.  I won the third game because he doesn't know how to guard properly, despite me getting gradestuck.

OXO

At this point, I was 3-1.  My friend lost to trigger-sack in the fourth round, so he ended up going 2-2.  They cut to Top 4, and I made it.

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin (Pellinore)

This guy was very annoying.  This was the first time I had seen him, and he was just so annoying.  He just never stopped talking; he talked for the sake of talking.  And of course, he was playing an annoying sacky deck like Pellinore Gold Paladin.  Anyways, I got gradestuck both games, and he also pulled double Critical Triggers both games, so I lost both games...

XX

My friend and I were hoping to just shut out everyone and win since there was really no competition today, but it's Vanguard, so we weren't surprised to get trigger-sacked and such.

But, there was still hope.  The shop was going to raffle out the Great Daiyusha mats, but since almost everyone had left already, they just decided that we could play for them.  That meant that I could play out the match for 3rd place to try and win another mat, so that was nice.

3rd/4th Match: vs Royal Paladin

It was a rematch with my Round 3 opponent.  I ended up trigger-sacking him to win both games, so I got my revenge.

OO

So I won a second Great Daiyusha mat, so that was nice.  Still, I decided never to play my friend's Great Nature deck again since I keep getting gradestuck with it, and even if I don't, I just get beat up by 20k columns.  That's why I'm going to only play 11k Vanguards starting next weekend, whether it be Dark Irregulars, Megacolony, or Neo Nectar.  If I'm able to get all of the cards I need for Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar by next weekend, then I'll use that.

By the way, I ended up giving both mats and my three Diamond Aces to my friend who plays Vanguard so he can sell them for me.  He's going to the flea market on Wednesday, so hopefully he'll be able to sell all of that stuff and get some Sephirots for me.  Otherwise, I'll be playing Dark Irregulars or Megacolony next weekend.

But yeah, that's about it.  I am planning on going to the Kaijudo tournament next Sunday, though, so that'll be interesting.  I may or may not go to locals on Saturday, but we'll see.

Tournament Report 4/20/13

The Team League Qualifier at the usual card shop yesterday was our last chance to qualify for the Team League Regional.  Aki and I went to locals, but Aki isn't going to be able to go to the Team League Regional, so the team consisted of Riku, my nameless friend who plays Vanguard, and myself.

There were eight other teams there, which was a lot less than expected.  About half of them were just teams of the newbs who usually show up, so they weren't much of a threat.  Quite honestly, none of the teams were a threat to us, since I observed only one good player (my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament), and his team had one of the random newbs on it because one of his teammates didn't show up.  There was one team that was using three expensive decks (The End Kagero, Majesty Lord, and Tsukuyomi), but from what I saw, they were really bad... So, we were confident that Team Snogal would qualify.

As for our team, Riku was our first player using my Dark Irregulars, I was the second player using my Pale Moon deck, and my friend was our third player using the Great Nature deck he built earlier this week.  Just like the previous qualifier, the format for this one was double elimination, and the tournament would continue until two teams were left.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Agravain)

We were up against one of those newb teams.  I was playing against someone whom my friend had taught how to play, so I expected him to be a decent player.  However, I got double Critical Triggers to win, so that exemplified the skilllessness of Vanguard.

Riku won against a Gold Paladin player (I guess they cheated, but we didn't notice until afterwards, and it didn't really matter...), and my friend won against a Narukami player.

OOO

Round 2: vs Dark Irregulars (Reijy)

This was another one of those newb teams, because we were paired down for some reason, and my opponent was my Round 3 opponent from this morning Vanguard tournament.  He still doesn't really know what he's doing, but I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for the whole game, so he won.

Riku won against an Aqua Force player (I just knew someone would play Aqua Force with just the Trial Deck), and my friend won against a Neo Nectar player (my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's morning Vanguard tournament).

OXO

Round 3: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

This was one of the actual teams (as in, not a newb team), but we didn't really see them as a threat anyways.  I ended up winning because, despite me not getting many triggers, my opponent got gradestuck on Grade 0.  I told him that happened to me last round.

The only difference is that my teammates were able to pull through and win the match for the team last round.  Riku won against a Tsukuyomi Oracle Think Tank player, but my friend lost against an Ezel/Pellinore Gold Paladin player.  Leo-pald was supposed to strike Ezel three times, but apparently he got sacked.  It didn't matter, since we still won the match.

OOX

Round 4: vs Royal Paladin (Snogal)

This was one of the actual teams, and I had never seen any of them before yesterday.  Anyways, she used an interesting Snogal Royal Paladin build with Wingal Brave and Blaster Blade (so she could actually use Wingal Brave).  I knew that she wasn't playing Majesty Lord, so I let her Wingal Brave through, and she searched Exculpate the Blaster... So, I knew that I had to conserve my cards for when she dropped it.  To that end, I used Luquier's Limit Break early so that I could make a field for free, then beat her down with 20k columns.  She dropped Exculpate when she was almost out of cards (which was good timing, since she was able to use it to attempt final turn, and even if she failed, she'd be able to kill my field).  However, I had like ten cards in hand, so I perfect guarded my Vanguard to protect myself and let my field go.  I then made three 19k columns on the following turn to beat up the Blaster Blade she had to ride and win.

However, my teammates had let me down.  Riku lost to a Shadow Paladin player (he complained about not having gotten enough triggers), and my friend got sacked by a Pellinore Gold Paladin player again (he complained about not having gotten any boosters).  So we lost the match.

XOX

At this point, there were four teams left, including ours.  If the team we had just lost to (now the only undefeated team) were to win their next match, then the next round would be the last.

Round 5: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel)

We were playing against the team that had the one good player I mentioned earlier.  I just had to play against a Gold Paladin player, so 20k columns across the board won the game.

Before I even finished, Riku won against a Nova Grappler newbie (he played Cat Butlers...), and my friend won against a Spike Brothers player (the one good player) by getting double Critical Triggers.

OOO

So it turns out that the undefeated team played against our team's Round 5 opponents from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament (except that their third player, the The End Kagero one, couldn't make it, so spondo filled that spot with his The End Kagero deck).  The undefeated team won, so that ended up being the last round.

So, Team Snogal ended up making the Top 2 and qualifying for the Team League Regional.  We got the invite and the cheap little buttons they give out, so that was alright, I guess.  Either way, we accomplished our goal and have gotten the invite to go to the Regional, get free deck boxes, then get sacked and lose.  Our Regional will probably be in June, so that's when we'll go and get our free deck boxes.

But yeah, after that, Riku had to leave, so my friend, Aki, and I went to the evening card shop.  I also gave the one good player from before a ride there.  In between the tournaments, we had a few hours to just do whatever, like eat, play Vanguard, and play the Vanguard video game.

I let my friend play using my Maelstrom Aqua Force deck so I could convince him of how bad Maelstrom's Limit Break is.  He understood after playing it, and he has decided to make a Navalgazer build until Set 9 comes out with Glory Maelstrom.  I'm planning on making a Tristinger Dragon build, so we'll see how that goes.  But yeah, I let him rack up VP by playing random matches so that I could get cards for other decks, so that was good.

In between tournaments, Aki said that he wanted to try out my Dark Irregulars for the tournament.  Then my friend said that he wanted to try Aki's Narukami deck for the tournament.  So then I asked my friend if I could use his Great Nature deck for the tournament.  And so we all rotated decks.

There were 14 players there for the evening Vanguard tournament.  Aside from Team Snogal, the one good player whom I gave a ride to the evening tournament, and my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament, everyone there was a newb and/or a little kid.

Round 1: vs Nova Grappler

I was up against my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament... Anyways, I ended up winning the first game since I got two triggers to push through his two-to-pass guard, and I won the second game because I got more triggers than him.  And also, Nova Grapplers aren't that great.  It's sad, since Nova Grappler is my clan, but they're honestly pretty bad, and I may just give up on making them since they're not worth the cost.  I mean, Ethics Buster and Illuminal Dragon will probably be hyped and cost a bunch (I mean, apparently Twin Bladers cost $25 right now), but they're really not that great.  But whatever, maybe I'll test out an Illuminal Dragon crossride deck on the video game and see how it goes.

OO

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Top 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  It's always worrying to play against Spectral Duke, since the ride chain is so good and Spectral Duke's Limit Break is quite powerful, too.  Luckily, he missed the entire ride chain in the first game, so I was able to win by making 20k columns in the beginning, then a 25k column later in the game.  I won the second game because I got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger.

OO

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

I was up against the guy whom I had given a ride here.  He had borrowed my Round 1 opponent's Spectral Duke deck.  Also, earlier, he predicted that the two of us, Aki, and my friend would end up being the Top 4 because there wasn't much competition here today.  Well, we were on the first table, and my friend and Aki were up against each other on the second table, so that was a good prediction.  Anyways, he ended up getting the Grade 1 Vortimer each game, but he never got the Grade 2 Vortimer.  I won the first game because 20k columns are good, he won the second game because he got two triggers to push through my two-to-pass guard, and I won the third game in time because the time limit is too short.

OXO

Round 4: vs Narukami

I was up against my friend.  We knew we'd both make Top 4, so we just had fun with our match.  In the first game, he had to ride the Grade 3 Djinn, so I expected to win.  But of course, he ended up getting a bunch of triggers, and I couldn't pull a trigger to push through his one-to-pass guard... twice... so I lost.  In the second game, he killed me with a Critical Trigger and 20k columns.  Ugh, this is why I don't like playing 10k Vanguards.

XX

Aki ended up beating my Round 1 opponent, and my Round 3 opponent beat a little kid with Granblue, so we were all 3-1, and my friend was undefeated.  The four of us made Top 4 and split the prizes.  Aki and I shared seven packs of Set 2 (apparently Twin Bladers are $25 right now...) and I pulled a Scarlet Witch, Coco.  My friend got the Bermuda Triangle Extra Booster and I didn't care what he pulled, so yeah.  And my Round 3 opponent got three packs of Set 7 and pulled a Dark Lord of Abyss and a Sword Magician, Sarah.  We were talking earlier, and he mentioned that he wanted to make a Soulless OTT deck again, so I traded my Coco to him for those two cards.

Now I finally have a third Dark Lord of Abyss, and I now have one Sarah.  If I could get two or three more, that'd be cool, but it's not too important.  The reason being that I will not be using Pale Moon after Set 8 is legal.  Aqua Force is really hyped, so I expect a lot of people to use it.  In my experience, it's really difficult to win against an 11k Vanguard using Aqua Force, so I want to use an 11k Vanguard to mess with those people.  One of my options is to switch back to Dark Irregulars, but I'm not sure yet.

But yeah, next weekend is the Sneak Preview for Set 8, and I probably won't be wasting my money on it.  I mean, who would want an ugly Great Daiyusha mat...?  I don't even use the awesome Kai/The End mat I have, so I don't see a point in going to the Sneak Preview.  We'll see what happens, though.

Post 500

So apparently, this is the 500th post on this blog.  I didn't want it to be a generic Vanguard tournament report, so here's something different.

For those of you who don't know, Aki and I record videos for my YouTube channel in advance, then I upload them every so often (recently, it's been about three videos per week).  Aki and I won't be able to meet up to record this weekend, so I'll probably run out of videos to upload soon.  But that's not really the problem.  Even if we had the opportunity to make videos, what would we even record?

We're kind of done with Yu-Gi-Oh.  I got a third Duel Terminal Gem-Knight Amber from Fwazalaza, so aside from a Lavalval Chain, my Gem-Knight deck is done.  Other than that, we have no idea of what kinds of new decks we could make.  Aki wants to try a new HERO variant, but we've already made so many, and there isn't much else we could think of.  I would rather not spend any more money on Yu-Gi-Oh, given the direction the game is headed (becoming irreparably broken...).

So, aside from remaking old decks or using special rules, there's not much else we can do for Yu-Gi-Oh, and I'd really rather not do either of those things.  The reason for this is that the decks that were usually featured on my channel were creative decks that could actually stand a chance against the meta.  If we used outdated decks or special rules, that wouldn't be true anymore.  There'd be nothing significant about the duels, since they wouldn't really apply to the game as it is today.  Maybe a few people would enjoy them, but I'm not so sure.  I mean, most people don't go and watch really old duel videos, since they wouldn't really help them learn anything that would apply to the present.  I guess you could learn about how the game used to be (more skillful), but it seems a little pointless.

I feel like I'm being really pessimistic, but at the same time, I know I'm not.  This is basically what's happening, and because the majority of Yu-Gi-Oh players will continue to play regardless of how badly Konami treats them, Konami can make the game as broken and skillless as they want.  What's ironic is that some people leave Yu-Gi-Oh to play Vanguard, the latter of which takes even less skill, but I guess it also costs less money to play Vanguard...

That's part of why I started playing Vanguard.  I basically got my first deck for about $50, and it was good enough to win tournaments. With a sound strategy behind my deck, all it took was being luckier than my opponents to win.  That's all that Vanguard takes.  And that's why I don't really want to make Vanguard videos.  I guess some less-experienced players could learn (how to do basic math) from them, but it'd get really boring really quickly.

Anyways, Kaijudo is the card game that has the most promise.  I probably won't get to go to a Kaijudo Master Challenge (the closest one to me is a three-hour drive away...), but we can still go to Duel Days and make videos.  Even with the limited card pool, Aki and I could probably make a lot of different decks.  After all, we've been buying at least a box of each booster pack that has been released, so we have most of the cards.

The main problem, however, would be that it takes a lot of time to make a good Kaijudo deck.  You have to put a lot of thought into every single card you play.  I mean, we could probably throw together decks based on intuition, but even then, there's still a lot to consider.  When I made my Light/Water/Darkness Cobalt Control deck, even though I had seen EarthP0w3r's Cobalt Control profiles and was getting ideas from them, it took me a few days of just thinking through each card to finish it.  Even then, I ended up regretting some card choices (Dragon of Reflections...) and changing it soon afterwards.

It's much more difficult to make a good deck in Kaijudo than it is in a game like Vanguard. I mean, just two days ago, my friend who plays Vanguard and I talked through a Great Nature deck over the phone in a few minutes.  We only disagreed on one thing, and I quickly convinced him to use my idea.  And just like that, we made a Great Nature deck in like three minutes.  That's all Vanguard takes.

But yeah, for Kaijudo, it would take quite a while to make each new deck, and we really don't have that kind of time.  In fact, when I made my Cobalt Control deck, I was on spring break, so I had the time necessary to build the deck.  The point is that we wouldn't have the time to make new decks to feature in duels on my channel.  I mean, we generically make the decks we're going to use before we even meet, then record the duels.  We don't usually have enough time to make an entire deck immediately before recording videos.

So, since we basically don't have the time to make any new Kaijudo decks or the motivation to make any new Yu-Gi-Oh decks, I don't know what we're going to do for videos.  I'm sure that we'll eventually be able to make new Kaijudo decks and videos, but videos will be quite sparse.  But I suppose it's been like that for a while, now.  Oh well, we have busy lives, so it can't be helped.

To end on a somewhat happier note, I decided to import a Japanese Nintendo 3DS earlier this week.  It arrived two days ago, and I bought the new Vanguard video game on the eShop.  I haven't gotten very far into the game since I don't really have that much free time, but it's been fun so far.  I've been using Aqua Force because it's the only deck you can easily start with that requires thought.  It seems to confuse the AI a lot, too.  It's like they don't realize that Coral Assault gains +3k on the third attack or later, or that the Storm Riders switch places with the unit behind them after attacking.  It could be better, but the AI is actually more intelligent as the average Vanguard player, which is really sad.

Anyways, the main reason why I got the game is so that I wouldn't have to waste money on bad decks that I wanted to build for fun like Aqua Force, Magatsu ride chain Murakumo, or Musketeer Neo Nectar.  I may still build Aqua Force, though, since I've found a way to make it better than expected.  I just hope Basil and Paschal aren't too expensive...

As for tomorrow, I'll be taking Aki to locals.  He won't be able to participate in the Team League Qualifier that the usual card shop is holding because he won't be able to make it to the Team League Regional, so Riku will be the third member of our team.  So yeah, that's about it.

Tournament Report 4/13/13

As usual, I went to locals yesterday for the Vanguard tournaments.  I took Riku with me, and my friend who plays Vanguard was also there.  Of course, the main event would be the Team League Qualifier at the other card shop in the evening, but first we went to the usual card shop for their usual Vanguard tournament.

There were about 16 players there for the morning Vanguard tournament.  As usual, most of them were incompetent players.  Anyways, I was playing Pale Moon, Riku was playing The End Kagero, and my friend was playing Majesty Lord.

In the first round, I played against Neo Nectar and lost for three reasons: I couldn't make a full field for far too long, I couldn't get Crimson Beast Tamer into the soul until late game, and I didn't get a trigger on my final twin drive when six of the ten cards left in my deck were triggers.  It's Vanguard, so I didn't really care.  Regardless, I won the second round against a Shadow Paladin player who only played 11 Grade 1's, and therefore got gradestuck on Grade 0; when I asked him how many Grade 1's he played after the game, he didn't know and had to look through his deck and count them... I was paired against Riku in the third round, and he had better tie-breakers than me, so I gave him the win after beating him.  I played the last round against an incompetent Gold Paladin player who kept guarding one-to-pass against my Vanguard, and I kept getting Critical Triggers.  I explained to him afterwards why it's mathematically stupid to guard one-to-pass, so he'll hopefully stop doing that.

My friend ended up winning the tournament with his Majesty Lord deck, so he got 1st place and 7 additional packs.  Riku ended up getting 3rd place and 3 additional packs.  We all got packs of Set 7, and out of 13 packs, none of us pulled any Popcorn Boys... I just needed one more... Either way, I pulled Rumble Gun Dragon from my promo pack, so I was happy about that.

So after that short tournament, I decided to reform my Pale Moon deck so that I could hit 18k more easily.  The reasoning behind this was that I'd probably play against more crossrides at the team tournament.  So, I ended up buying a Crimson Beast Tamer from Riku (I only had three, which was kind of sad), and I got a Popcorn Boy off of him in exchange for a Candy Clown and two Nitro Jugglers.  Well, I gave him the Nitro Jugglers, then ended up just trading the Candy Clown for Popcorn Boy right before the team tournament started.

But yeah, we went to the other card shop for the team tournament, and apparently we had to fill out deck lists.  We had gotten there early, so that wasn't much of a problem.  This is the main reason why I needed the Popcorn Boy, so that I wouldn't have to waste additional time putting the one Candy Clown on my deck list... Anyways, there were about 26 teams there, which is ridiculous.  A lot of them were people who just travel around to all of the qualifiers, which is kind of stupid, because there's basically no prize support (or skill) in Vanguard, so even if you were to make it to the top, it wouldn't really mean anything...

Regardless, we were Team Snogal, Snogal lanyards included.  I was our team's first player with my Pale Moon deck.  Riku was second with The End, and my friend was third with Majesty Lord.  We had a strategy behind this, but it was kind of ruined because the tournament organizer didn't tell anyone that the order in which the team members signed up determined their order.  Therefore, only a few teams knew this and all of the other teams just had random orders.  Well, whatever, it's Vanguard, so it's basically just all luck.

The tournament structure was double elimination with each player playing a best-of-one game.  The team's total score would determine which team would win each match.  The tournament would continue until only two teams remained, and those teams would qualify for the Team League Regional.

Round 1: vs Royal Paladin

I was up against a little kid who knew what he was doing (but seeing as how it's Vanguard, how can you not?) and was running a generic Royal Paladin deck.  He got triggers and I didn't, so I lost.  I remember every time I did a twin drive, I'd flip over the two cards and say, "No trigger."  It happened far too often.

Riku ended up winning and my friend lost, so that was a pretty bad start.

XOX

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

We were playing against a team of three bad players who just banded together to play in the tournament.  We all won because they're all bad...

OOO

Round 3: vs Angel Feather (Ergodiel)

We were playing against a team of three little kids who were regulars at this card shop.  My opponent missed his ride chain, and his Grade 3 Ergodiel was stuck as a 10k Vanguard.  So, I basically just abused it to death with my 20k columns and won.

Riku ended up losing against Spectral Duke and my friend won, so we won the match.

OXO

Round 4: vs Kagero (The End)

My friend scouted out this team earlier, so we knew what they were playing.  They were one of the few teams who knew about the team order thing, so our strategy was effective against them.  Anyways, my opponent got gradestuck on Grade 2, so I won.

Riku lost against Majesty Lord and my friend won against Soulless Oracle Think Tank, so we won.

OXO

Round 5: vs Pale Moon

My friend scouted out this team as well, so I knew that my opponent was playing a bad Pale Moon build with four Luquier.  The other two members of the team were at the morning Vanguard tournament.  Anyways, I ended up winning because I just made 20k columns and wore him down faster than he could do to me.  I started with a pretty bad hand (three Midnight Invaders...), but his deck doesn't really have any way to generate advantage, so the Midnight Invaders were able to make the 20k columns I needed to win.

Riku won against Narukami (the Narukami player got gradestuck) and my friend lost to The End Kagero (a player whom my friend had beaten at the morning Vanguard tournament, but he got double Critical Triggers early game to win).

OOX

There were four teams remaining at this point.  One of them was undefeated, so if they were to win the next round, then that would be the final round.

Round 6: vs Royal Paladin (Majesty Lord)

We were playing against a team of somewhat competent players.  Somewhat competent because they know how to make proper columns, but not much else.  My opponent was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was playing multiple Wingal Braves and didn't realize that his triggers wouldn't work if the only unit on his field was Blaster Dark, both of which showed me that he was a bad player.  However, I didn't draw any attackers, so I had to wage war with my Grade 1's; thankfully, Turquoise Beast Tamer behind Dark Metal Bicorn hits 17k, so I was at least able to wear him down a little bit even though I couldn't fill up my field.  But he got too many Draw Triggers and I didn't get many triggers, so I lost.

Riku ended up winning, but my friend lost against a Soulless Oracle Think Tank player who kept getting his Critical Triggers, so we lost the match and were knocked out of the tournament.

XOX

Basically every round, one of my friends won but the other lost, so I'd have to win my game to win the match.  So, whenever I lost my game, we'd lose the match.  My friends need to play more consistent decks and not crossride garbage... So yeah, that was disappointing.  But it's Vanguard, and the only real prize for qualifying is getting the Team League deck boxes at the Regional.  So I don't see any point in being so invested in such a luck-based game.

That's why I'm going to try going to locals on Sundays starting next month so I can play Kaijudo every weekend.  After the Kaijudo tournament at the usual card shop, I would be able to go to a Vanguard tournament at a different card shop, so I could still spend an entire day at locals.  Unfortunately, it would be Sunday, so I'd probably get home late and have no time to do anything until Wednesday, since my schedule for Monday and Tuesday is pretty busy.  That's one of the reasons why I don't want to go to locals on Sunday, but none of this is for sure yet, so we'll see what happens...

The main reason that I won't be doing that this month, aside from the fact that I don't need any more copies of Dorado or Billion-Degree Dragon, is that next weekend will be the other Team League Qualifier that Team Snogal is planning on attending, and the weekend after that will have the Set 8 Sneak Preview, which my friend and I are planning on attending.  After that, though, there should be no more major Vanguard events, so I'll concentrate more on Kaijudo starting in May.

As for the Team League Qualifier, we (my friend who plays Vanguard and I) don't know if our third member will be Aki or Riku.  We were planning on having Aki on the team, but he might not be able to make it to the Team League Regional because he'll be going to Japan around the time when the Regional should be.  We don't know the date for the Team League Regional since Bushiroad hasn't posted those for North America, so we don't know whether or not Aki can make it, assuming we qualify.  Aki told me that we should have Riku play as our third member if we don't find out the Regional dates by then, but we'll just have to see what happens by next weekend.  Regardless, both Aki and Riku will be there with us next weekend, so we'll have right up until the start of the tournament to decide.

But yeah, that's about it.  Hopefully Bushiroad gets their act together and posts the dates for the Regionals.  I really doubt it though...

Tournament Report 4/6/13 & 4/7/13

EDIT: The deck profile video for my Kaijudo deck is up.  I've linked to it in the post.

The reason why this post is coming out relatively late is because I went to the Kaijudo Duel Day this morning.  But that'll be discussed in the last part of this post; first is the usual Vanguard tournaments.  So yeah...

I went to the usual card shop yesterday, and neither my friend who plays Vanguard nor Riku were able to make it.  So, I just played my Dark Irregulars deck and such.  There were 13 players there, which is more than usual, but half of them were little kids whom I had never seen before.

I played against a little kid and his Narukami deck in the first round; I just made 20k columns to win, since he didn't have Vermillion.  My second round opponent was Aki's Round 3 opponent in this Vanguard team tournament; he was still playing Soulless Oracle Think Tank, and I was able to win with my ridiculous columns since Coco is 10k.  I won the third round against my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's morning Vanguard tournament because he's playing Reijy Dark Irregulars and doesn't really know what he's doing.  So I was undefeated going into the final round.  My opponent was my Round 2 opponent from the Set 5 draft tournament, and he was playing The End Kagero.  He got gradestuck on Grade 2 for most of the game, but kept getting Critical Triggers on his drive checks, so he was able to keep up pretty well.  However, without his 11k defense, I was able to beat him up with my 20k columns and such, so I won.

So I went undefeated and got 1st place.  That won me six packs of EB01.  Out of those packs and the entry pack of EB01, I pulled a third ZANBAKU and a Miss Mist.  The ZANBAKU was nice, since I think three is enough to serve as a back-up Vanguard in any post-Set 9 Murakumo deck.  I got the Tachikaze card from the promo pack, so that was bad.

After a while, my friend who plays Vanguard showed up.  He told me that he traded his Ergodiel Angel Feather deck for another Spectral Duke Gold Paladin deck, so now he has two.  He then explained that he planned on selling one of them to make a Majesty Lord Blaster deck, like he wanted all along.  But yeah, he'll probably do that this week, and end up using the Majesty Lord deck for the team tournaments.  And since Riku has sold his Dark Irregulars deck to make a The End Kagero deck, we're going to be just like every other team in the sense that we'll have crossride player(s).

Anyways, I showed my friend the fixed-up Kaijudo deck I made for him.  It's now a Fire/Water/Darkness mid-range deck that uses Kindrix the Psionic.  He wanted to use Kindrix because he claims it looks like Glory Maelstrom, so yeah... It ended up being much better than the previous version of the deck, which wasn't saying much.  But yeah, it was a viable deck.

Then, like usual, we went to the other card shop for the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were about 20 players there, and three of them were using Neo Nectar for some reason.  My Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament ended up deciding to make a Spectral Duke Dragon deck and borrowed one from one of his friends.  He then lent my friend his Majesty Lord deck.  It's a little more complicated than that, but that's the general idea.  Regardless, I borrowed my friend's Pale Moon deck once again.  I requested that he make a few changes to the deck, and he did: replace Skull Jugglers with Dark Metal Bicorns and add Skyhigh Walkers.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

I was paired up against the guy from whom my friend was borrowing the Majesty Lord deck.  We get paired up in the first round quite a bit... Anyways, he ended up getting the ride chain all three games, so he rushed me with the free cards he got.  I was able to win one game because he got gradestuck on Grade 1.

XOX

Round 2: vs Kagero

This guy was a new player using the Amber Dragon ride chain.  He asked me for tips and stuff so that he could get better, so that's good.  The main thing I told him was to not run the Amber Dragon ride chain, since he had a Conroe.  But yeah, I won with my 21k columns pretty easily, although our match went into time.

OO

Seeing as how that match went into time despite the fact that I 2-0'd him, I asked the tournament organizer how long the time limit for each round was.  30 minutes.  That's ridiculously short for Vanguard, since one game can take as long as 30 minutes or more provided both players are competent.  I'm going to see if I can complain about it next weekend, but we'll see.

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

My opponent was a little kid who had borrowed the deck he was using from another little kid.  He won the second game because he got the ride chain, but I won the first and third games because he didn't get the ride chain in those games.  I ended up winning the third game in time because the time limit is too short.

OXO

With that, they cut to Top 8.  My friend and my Round 1 opponent were both undefeated, so that was good and that helped my tie-breakers, respectively.  I ended up making it into the Top 8.

Top 8: vs Neo Nectar

So apparently the three Neo Nectar players all made Top 8.  I was up against one of them, and my friend was playing against another.  My opponent didn't have a complete deck, which is weird since it's Neo Nectar; it's probably the second cheapest deck in Vanguard or something... Anyways, I won 2-0 because I didn't let his on-hit effects through and I was able to make 20k columns.

OO

My friend also won his match against the other Neo Nectar player, and the third Neo Nectar player ended up playing against a Spectral Duke deck and lost.  So, all of the Neo Nectar players got knocked out of the Top 8, as it should be.  I have nothing against Neo Nectar, and I actually like the clan, but the deck isn't very good at all at this point in time.  I mean, it's practically a vanilla deck with some inconsequential on-hit effects.  Seriously, most decks in Vanguard are relatively bad, and Neo Nectar is one of them, at least until Set 8 is released.

Back to the actual tournament report, the other two players in the Top 4 besides my friend and I were the person who lent the Majesty Lord deck to my friend and my Top 4 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  We all decided to split the prizes for Top 4, getting five packs each.  My friend got Set 5 in an attempt to pull some Majesty Lord stuff, but ended up pulling The End instead, which was good.  I got Set 7 in an attempt to pull some Pale Moon stuff, mainly Popcorn Boys.  My friend's Pale Moon deck was using two Candy Clowns and two Popcorn Boys, and I wanted to replace the ugly Candy Clowns.  Unfortunately, I didn't pull anything I wanted.

Regardless, it was a pretty good day, having won a total of eleven packs.  Afterwards, my friend and I played some more Kaijudo and such.  He also decided to give me his Pale Moon cards because he has owed me a bunch of money for a while, since I've been buying him food and paying his tournament entry fees fairly often.  So I said I'd take the Pale Moon deck as payment, and he agreed.  I really like the deck, since it can make 21k columns so easily and consistently along with having some other nice tricks.  In addition, there are so many different builds I could use so that if I ever get bored of the current version of the deck, I could try various other builds.

Anyways, I was able to go to the Kaijudo Duel Day on the following day (today) with Aki.  My friend who plays Vanguard showed up, and I paid his entry fee with the condition that I'd get any cards that he got, and seeing as how he doesn't even want Kaijudo cards and just wanted to play, it worked out for both of us.  I was using my Light/Water/Darkness Cobalt Control deck, Aki was using his Fire/Water Dragon Rush deck, and my friend was using the deck I built for him (Fire/Water/Darkness Kindrix mid-range).  There were 15 players there, including Fwazalaza and some other Kaijudo regulars.

Round 1: vs Light/Water/Darkness Control

He told me after the match that his good Light cards like Andromeda and Lyra were in his brother's deck, so I don't really know why he was running Light.

-Duel 1: He dropped two small blockers (Scaradorable and Star Lantern, I think), so I was able to punish him with two Fumes.  After having to discard two cards over two turns, he soon ran out of cards, so winning the game through attrition was fairly straightforward from there.
-Duel 2: I was able to use Fumes again to punish him for dropping Creatures early, and I was able to clear out what he had from there pretty easily.  Cobalt and Andromeda ensured that he wasn't going to be winning through battle.

OO

Round 2: vs Mono-Darkness

My friend who plays Vanguard lost to this guy in the first round, so I had to avenge him.

-Duel 1: He didn't open with the early aggression that I'm used to seeing from mono-Dark (I did have a mono-Dark deck before, so I know how it plays), so I was able to take my time killing his Scavenging Chimeras.  Those Scavenging Chimeras are basically the only way for mono-Dark to gain steady advantage, so I just dealt with those, then dropped Andromeda three times in one game (Dark Return is good) to win.
-Duel 2: He didn't get his Scavenging Chimeras, so I was able to win pretty easily.  He kept dropping Dark Scaradorables to break my shields one at a time, though.  He got me down to one shield before I dropped Andromeda, then Cobalt, to protect myself before going for game.

OO

At this point, my friend who plays Vanguard, whom I avenged, was 0-2, and ended up getting the bye for the third round.  Also for the third round, Aki was paired up against Fwazalaza, who was using his weird Storm Patrol deck.

Round 3: vs Water/Light

This guy was running Skyforce Champion, Enforcer, and Cyber Lord Evolutions.  His deck wasn't really complete, and he admitted that it was a fluke that he was undefeated so far.

-Duel 1: He didn't get to evolve anything since his deck lacked focus, so I was able to whittle away at his card advantage and win with Andromeda, which he has exactly zero answers to.
-Duel 2: I kept killing the Creatures he put onto the field to prevent any potential Evolutions.  I played Andromeda, then Cobalt, and broke four of his five shields in one turn.  He couldn't kill me on the following turn, so I finished him off after that.

OO

At this point, the last two undefeated players were Aki and myself.  That was quite nice.

From there, to ensure that both of us would get Top 2 (tie-breakers could give the loser a lower ranking), I figured out our current tie-breakers.  My Round 2 opponent and my Round 3 opponent were paired against each other, so one of my tie-breakers would be 3-1 and the other would be 2-2.  My Round 1 opponent was 1-2 and dropped after losing the third round to Aki's Round 2 opponent.  Fwazalaza was 2-1, of course, and his Round 4 opponent dropped, meaning that he would be 3-1.  Aki's other two previous opponents were both 2-1, I think.  One of them ended up winning, and the other one lost, so Aki's final tie-breakers were 3-1, 3-1, and 2-2.  Mine ended up being 3-1, 2-2, 1-3.

So, we decided that I would get the win, since Aki had better tie-breakers, to ensure that he'd get 2nd place.  We also played Duel Masters for fun, and I ended up winning 2-0, so it's not like I didn't earn the win, ha ha.

Apparently my friend's opponent for Round 4 dropped as well so he basically got another bye, meaning that he lost every match he played in today.  That's alright, since he's fairly new to the game and doesn't get much practice, so he'll get better as he continues to play.

But yeah, I ended up getting 1st place, winning 8 packs, and Aki got 2nd place, winning 4 packs.  Seeing as how we share our Kaijudo cards, we basically just won 12 packs altogether.  We also got our entry packs, including my friend's entry pack, so we got a total of 15 packs.  1st and 2nd place also each got a promo, so I got Dorado and Aki got Billion-Degree Dragon; we just wanted to have one of each just in case, though we're not planning on using either.  From the 15 packs, we pulled two Ragefire Tatsurions (that makes four...), a Sok'ran the Untamed (that makes three...), and a Dracothane of the Abyss, which is the last Super Rare from DragonStrike Infernus that we needed.  That will probably go into my deck, since it's pretty good.

The shopkeeper also raffled off four more promos.  Fwazalaza got a Billion-Degree Dragon, but I don't know who got the other three.  And there were actually enough people for a prize for 3rd place.  My Round 2 opponent ended up getting 3rd place, and he also asked Aki and I if he could profile our decks for his YouTube channel.  Aki's deck was pretty self-explanatory (it's Dragon Rush), and he was pretty tired, so he didn't feel like it.  But I let them do a deck profile for my deck.

EDIT: The deck profile video is now up on their channel.

After the tournament, my friend and Aki played some more Kaijudo while I re-sleeved the Pale Moon deck.  He hadn't given me the deck yet, since he wanted to keep his Misaki sleeves (the deck was in Misaki sleeves, which is random, but alright...), so I un-sleeved the deck and sleeved it using generic white sleeves while they played Kaijudo.

My friend expressed an interest in Aki's Dragon Rush deck and contemplated making one for himself.  So, he may buy a box of DragonStrike Infernus, get Hyperspeed Dragons and Foulbyrns, then trade me for staple-esque stuff that he might need, like Tornado Flame, and he'll have the deck.  He's still thinking about it, though.

As for next week, my friend, Riku, and I will all be going to the Vanguard tournaments on Saturday.  We'll be going to the usual card shop for their morning tournament so we can do some last-minute testing for the decks we'll be using in the Team League tournament that the other card shop will be having in the evening.  The way it is right now, I'll probably use Pale Moon, my friend will probably use Majesty Lord but may use Spectral Duke instead, and Riku will be using The End.  We aren't completely certain on the team order, or maybe I'm just saying that in case any rival teams read my blog so they won't know our strategy...

But yeah, that's the plan for next weekend.  I won't be going to the Kaijudo tournament because I'll likely be busy.  Oh, and we don't need any more of the promos...