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.