Tournament Report 5/25/13 & 5/26/13

Because I'm off from school tomorrow, I was able to go to locals both days this weekend.  I even stopped by on Friday to buy two boxes of Clash of the Duel Masters for Aki and myself.  I recorded a box opening video, but it was really boring, so I decided not to upload it.  I ended up pulling some alright stuff, but it's a big set, and I'd rather not just list everything I pulled.  The main thing I'm disappointed about is that I only pulled one Featherfin Stalker.

Regardless, I went to the usual card shop yesterday for the Kaijudo Set Premiere.  It ended up being a three round event, and each time you win a round, you get a promo card.  I pulled a Truthseeker Forion and a Tatsurion the Relentless from my five packs, made a terrible deck because it's sealed, and only won one round.  But, the shopkeeper had a lot of extra promos (no one wanted Fault-Line Dragon), so he gave people whom only won one round an extra Fault-Line Dragon.  I won a Wild Sky Sword, so that was good.

After that, I just waited around and watched the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  My friend who plays Vanguard couldn't make it until like 5:30, so I just watched a bunch of Evilswarm mirror matches and played the Vanguard video game.

My friend and I decided to go to the card shop where the Team League Regional will be located to check it out and maybe join their tournament.  They ended up having a free team tournament yesterday, but we didn't get there until a few minutes after they closed registration... It took like half an hour to get there from the usual two card shops, so we won't be going back there again, except for the Team League.The fact that it was so far away meant that we weren't able to make it back to the evening Vanguard tournament in time, so we just let all of the little kids play each other.

My friend was able to get me the Maiden of Trailing Roses I needed, so I've just about completed my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck.  So, I tried that out against my friend, who wanted to use my Pale Moon deck.  He won one of three games, and he got a sixth-damage Heal Trigger to save him in that game, so yeah.

We also played Kaijudo to practice for the tournament today.  I fixed up his Enforcer deck, but he wanted to use Aki's Dragon Rush deck, which Aki left with me before he left for Japan.  I added the one Infernus the Immolator that I got from the two boxes, and we played a few games.

Then, we got to watch the new episode of Vanguard on my phone, like we usually do every Saturday after the Vanguard tournaments.  I was personally satisfied by the outcome of the match between Aichi and Ren.  The loser had an opportunity to win, but misplayed (it was a really obvious misplay, too) and lost because of it.  Not that Vanguard takes much skill, since both sides were pulling triggers every turn.

But yeah, on the following day, we went to the Kaijudo tournament at the usual card shop.  I was using a four-Civ deck (everything except Fire), and my friend was using Aki's Dragon Rush deck.  There were three other people there, so it was a small tournament.

It was kind of silly, too, because I only played one round.  I just played the first round against Fwazalaza and lost because he rushed me with two Coriles, Keeper of Laws, and Paladio in the first game whereas I didn't have a play until turn 7, and then all of my finishers were in my shields, so my hand was just full of Spells in the second game while he built up a ridiculous field thanks to double Nix and Dreadclaw.

After that, I got a bye, while my friend, who had gotten a bye in the first round, got paired down and won.  So, I ended up getting a bye again because I couldn't play against Fwazalaza again, so he had to play against the my friend's previous opponent.  My friend ended up losing the finals because he ran out of patience, but whatever.

What was really stupid was that despite getting two byes, I got 2nd place.  I don't understand why, but I took the extra two packs and the Saracon.  My friend and I just got packs of Rise of the Duel Masters (the base set), since they were out of Clash, and I pulled a third Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning and a third Gigahorn Charger, so that was good.  The shopkeeper raffled out the remaining promos, and my friend got a Saracon, which he gave to me, so now I have three.  I doubt I'd use that many, but they're nice to have.

But yeah, that's about it.  I'm going to try and go to the Kaijudo tournament next weekend, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to.  I shouldn't have that much homework this week, but we'll see.  If I do go, I'll probably play Megacolony.  Yes, Megacolony in Kaijudo.  I'm going to make a Megabug deck, since I pulled one Hive Queen and was able to trade for a second one today.  But yeah, I'll have to figure all of this out by next weekend...

Tournament Report 5/18/13

As usual, I went to locals yesterday.  Unfortunately, my friend who plays Vanguard wasn't able to make it, and I needed three Maiden of Trailing Roses from him to complete my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck, so I wasn't able to use the deck yesterday.  I also decided that I didn't want to wait for like five hours between the morning and evening Vanguard tournaments by myself, so I just went to locals late in the afternoon.

When I got there, I talked to the shopkeeper at the usual card shop and learned about the format for next weekend's Kaijudo Set Premiere.  It's going to be a sealed deck tournament, with everyone using five packs of the new set, Clash of the Duel Masters, to make a deck.  There would be three rounds, and you'd get a promo card for each round you win.  I already asked my friend who plays Vanguard if he could participate to help me get promo cards, and he agreed to do so.  I'll need to teach him the basics of deck-building in Kaijudo, but it's not too difficult, especially since we'll only have 45 cards to work with, anyway.

Besides that, I sold my Number 11: Big Eye.  It was in my Gem-Knight deck, but I haven't been playing Yu-Gi-Oh, so I decided that I'd rather have cash than a shiny piece of cardboard that I don't even use anymore.  I was offered $80 for it, and that was good enough for me.  I mean, I got it for $12 a while ago, so that's a considerable amount of profit.

After that, I went to the other card shop for their evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 15 players there, two-third of which were little kids.  Again, there was really no challenge.  Regardless, I decided to use my Dark Irregulars since I haven't used them in a while and one kid was playing Aqua Dorks.

I got a bye for the first round, so that was nice.  I just scoped out the competition, as though it actually matters, since it's Vanguard...

Round 2: vs Tachikaze (Raptor-series)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He got gradestuck both games, so I won.

OO

Round 3: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  He was still using Raopia... Anyways, I lost the first game because I got gradestuck on Grade 0.  I won the second game because I drew well, and then I won the third game because he got gradestuck on Grade 2.

XOO

Round 4: vs Kagero (The End)

This was my Top 8 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I lost the first game because I the only triggers I got all game were my two Stand Triggers (not to say that Stand Triggers are bad, since they're not, but they were just the only triggers I got all game...).  But, I won the following two games because he got gradestuck both games.

XOO

So, I went undefeated because I got really lucky that my opponents kept getting gradestuck.  I literally won only one real game today, meaning that I only won one game where my opponent didn't get gradestuck.  And people think that Vanguard is a skill-intensive game...

But yeah, they cut to Top 4 after that.  My Round 2 and Round 4 opponents made it, along with my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament, who was using Machining Megacolony.  We just split and got four packs each.  I pulled garbage from my packs of Set 8, but it's not like I really needed anything.

So yeah, that's it.  My friend who plays Vanguard and I will go to the Kaijudo Set Premiere next Saturday, and I'll also be getting two boxes of the new set for Aki and myself.  And since I have school off on the following Monday (May 27), I should be able to go to the Kaijudo tournament on that Sunday as well, so that'll be cool.  I'll have less than a day to make two new decks (one for myself and one for my friend) with the new cards I pull, but I'll have plenty of time after the Set Premiere and before the evening Vanguard tournament to do so.

Speaking of which, for the evening Vanguard tournament, my friend and I intend on checking out a different card shop than the usual two.  That's the card shop where the Team League Regional that we're going to attend will be held, so we thought it'd be a good idea to check the place out before the Regional, even if it's a little bit farther away.  Oh, and apparently their Vanguard tournaments are free...

Tournament Report 5/11/13 & 5/12/13

Another entire weekend of playing card games.  As usual, yesterday was for Vanguard...

There were 11 players at the morning tournament.  I was playing Nova Grapplers for fun and my friend who plays Vanguard was playing Narukami, which he borrowed from his friend.

I lost the first round to a newbie Royal Paladin player who got eight triggers over the course of the game (including double Critical Triggers when I was at 3 damage, which ended the game), while I got a total of zero triggers.  Next, I played against Riku's Round 2 opponent from this Vanguard team tournament and won because he was using Hydro Hurricane Dragon... I was paired up against my friend in the third and final round, so I just gave him the win and we played Kaijudo for fun.

Unfortunately, neither of us won any packs, so that was sad.  We also pulled nothing of interest from our entry packs besides a Rumble Gun Dragon, which is now my fourth one.

Between tournaments, we just played Kaijudo to practice for today's tournament.  I'll discuss the decks a little more when we get to that part of the post.

Next was the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 11 players there, and aside from my friend and myself, they were all little kids.  Don't be mistaken, some of those little kids have good decks and are regulars, but everyone there was a little kid...  I decided to use my Pale Moon deck, because there were exactly zero Aqua Dorks there.  My friend stuck with the Narukami deck.  I pulled a Great Daiyusha out of my entry pack, so that was cool.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He got his ride chain all three games, as usual, because he appears to be insanely lucky.  I won the first round without even getting Crimson Beast Tamer into the soul because I got more triggers than him, but lost the next two games to double Critical Triggers...

OXX

Round 2: vs Granblue

He didn't really know what he was doing, so I just won by making 20k columns.

OO

Round 3: vs Kagero (Lawkeeper)

He didn't really know what he was doing (he was using Raopia...), so I just won by making 20k columns.  I also got lucky with triggers, which made it easy to win.

OO

With that, they cut to Top 4.  My friend was undefeated, and I was 2-1, so we both made it.  The other two players who made Top 4 were a couple of the regular little kids who were both playing The End Kagero.  We all just split and got three packs each.

I pulled nothing important, and my friend pulled a Maelstrom.  He sold it to the shop and used the store credit he got to get me a Neo Nectar perfect guard.  The reason he did that was because earlier, I was able to get a perfect guard off of my Round 2 opponent's older brother for $10, and another one (and a RRR Dungaree) from my Round 3 opponent in exchange for the Great Daiyusha I pulled earlier.  So, now I have three Neo Nectar perfect guards.

That means that I'll be able to play Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar next week, so that's cool.  It's not the most consistent deck, but it's about the only deck that can make 23k columns and have an 11k Vanguard at the same time.  And most of the time, 21k columns are good enough, and those are fairly easy to make in the deck thanks to Sephirot's Limit Break.  So yeah, I'll probably be playing that next weekend.

Anyways, the Kaijudo tournament was on the following day (today).  I changed my deck, taking out all of the Darkness cards and the Cobalt engine, instead opting to use Nature (including Manapod Beetle, Lepidos the Ancient, and Gigahorn Charger) and Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning.  So, I was now using a weird LWN deck that had Lepidos and stuff in it.  That meant that my whole Darkness section, including my new Razorkinder Puppet, was put into my friend's deck.  In fact, I just took seven cards (two Andromeda, two Lyra, and three Stormspark Blasts) out of my Cobalt Control deck, replaced them with some other cards, and let my friend use that.  Aki also came with me to the tournament, and he was using his Dragon Rush deck, except we added a Darkness section, including Necrodragon of Vile Ichor.  So we were all trying out new stuff.  I didn't expect my deck to win, since I was just testing a bunch of new stuff all at once, but I was hopeful.

There were seven players there today.  Also, I was hoping to start a new(-ish) keyword for "send into the mana zone": bind.  Yes, I got the idea from Vanguard, but it makes sense.  In cards like Root Trap or Ensnare, the creature getting sent to the mana zone ends up being bound by plants.  To be fair, Root Trap and Ensnare use artworks that are both used for Root Trap in Duel Masters (that is, the artwork on Ensnare is just the alternate artwork for Root Trap in Duel Masters), but still.  It's a lot easier to say "bind" than it is to say "send to your mana zone".

Round 1: vs LWD Cobalt Control

I was up against my friend, so that was kind of bad.  Either way, he won the first game because he just Terror Pitted all of my big creatures and decked me out.  I was able to win the following two games by using Lepidos and Ra-Vu.

XOO

Round 2: vs LWD Control

I was paired against Fwazalaza.

-Duel 1: I was able to win using Lepidos, Andromeda, and Ra-Vu to control the game.  I also got a lucky Stormspark Blast off of a Bottle of Wishes so that I could wipe out his field.
-Duel 2: I opened with no draw or ramp cards, so I was just stuck playing at a slow pace while he was able to build up his field.  In the end, he was just able to drop a bunch of Level 9 Dragons that I wasn't able to deal with, so he won.
-Duel 3: Again, I opened with no draw or ramp, instead having a hand of two Root Traps, Ra-Vu, Lyra, and Spark Cage.  That wasn't the main thing, though.  What lost me the game was him getting an Andromeda off of Bottle of Wishes on turn 6.  It's sad that such a sacky card exists in Kaijudo, but I guess I'll just have to figure out a way to deal with it.

OXX

Round 3: vs LWF Dragons

This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Kaijudo tournament.  Both games played out about the same.  I would go first and open Manapod Beetle and Spark Cage to deal with his Nix while also functioning as draw and ramp (albeit lesser draw and ramp than Logos Scan or Reap and Sow), but he had another Nix and was able to win from there by dropping a chain of big Dragons.  I had Lepidos to deal with his Lyra and bind some of his shields, but I couldn't deal with the multiple Level 9 Dragons and ended up losing.  It was pretty frustrating, too, since he didn't really know what he was doing.  But he had the outs and I didn't, and that happens sometimes.

XX

So I ended up going 1-2, which is sad.  My friend and Aki didn't do any better.  They both went 1-2, with their wins being byes (my friend got the bye in Round 2, and Aki got it in Round 3).  At least we were able to get one of each promo card in the raffle (being three of the seven people there helped our odds quite a bit)...

It's alright that we lost, though, since I now know what to do with my deck.  Oh wait, it doesn't even matter, since a new set is coming out in two weeks.  And until then, I may not go to Kaijudo tournaments.  Meaning that the next time I go to Duel Days would be in June.  I mean, there's literally just one more Kaijudo tournament (May 19) until the new set becomes legal (May 25), so I don't see a point in going, especially since we already got one of each promo card.

As such, I may just get lazy and not change my deck until Aki and I get cards from the new set.  I mean, it won't matter, so why bother?  That being said, I'm still really excited to see what cards are in the new set.  Aki and I are planning on getting two boxes, but I kind of want to get three just to ensure we get everything we want.  I suppose that after we get the first two boxes, we'll be able to determine whether or not we need to get more packs.

But yeah, I guess I'll only be going to locals on Saturday next week.  It'll be nice to take a break from going both days.  Ideally, I'd like to go both days every week, but it gets pretty exhausting, especially since I have to go to school the following day...

Tournament Report 5/4/13 & 5/5/13

I ended up going to locals both days this weekend.  First was the Vanguard tournaments...

I expected there to be a lot of Aqua Force players because people are crazy and think Aqua Force is a good deck.  So, I decided to use a deck that has an 11k Vanguard so that Basil can't make a successful attack while enabling four attacks.  I was thinking about using Megacolony so that I could have Master Beetle, but then I wouldn't be able to hit good numbers against crossrides.  So, I thought I'd try out Narukami this weekend.  I asked Aki to borrow his deck, since Narukami would be quite good against Aqua Force in theory, because as long as I have an 11k Vanguard, "there's no reason for me to fear anything from your silly Aqua Dorks, is there?"  The Vermillion Thunderbolt is also pretty nice.

There were about 10 players there for the morning Vanguard tournament, including my friend who plays Vanguard.  He was using his Great Nature deck, now featuring new cards from Set 8.  He didn't want to play against any Aqua Dorks, since then his Leo-pald and Bison would get beat up by Basil.

I played against a newbie Spectral Duke player in the first round and won because I got more triggers than him and he missed his ride chain.  I lost the second round against spondo and his The End Kagero deck because I only got two triggers all game.  I then lost the third round against a newbie Majesty Lord player because he trigger-sacked me like crazy.

My friend ended up getting trigger-sacked and only got 3rd place.  Neither of us pulled anything of interest.

Between tournaments, since we had a few hours to spare, we went to the flea market so that I could get Neo Nectar stuff for my Arboros Dragon deck.  We ended up running into my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He sold me two Sephirots for a total of $12, which was a great price.  That's probably because we're friends, and also because I sold him three Diamond Aces for a total of $24 (through my friend who plays Vanguard, who did the actual transaction at an earlier date).

I went around and looked for Neo Nectar perfect guards, Maiden of Trailing Roses, and Sephirots, but they were all priced too high (who would pay $5 for a Maiden of Trailing Rose...?).  So we just left after that.  Either way, I found out earlier today that my friend would be able to get me three Trailing Roses and three perfect guards in two weeks, so that'll work out well.

But anyway, we also had the evening Vanguard tournament to attend.  There were 24 players there, including exactly one Aqua Force player.  I saw him play, and he was really bad.  Like, he ran a bunch of Critical Triggers and didn't know how Maelstrom's effect worked... Either way, my friend was still afraid of getting beat up by Basil, so I let him use Aki's Narukami deck, while I used his Great Nature deck.

Round 1: vs Kagero (Goku)

I was relieved to see that he was running Goku and not The End.  I mean, Great Nature can make 20k columns to keep up with crossrides, but it's hard to make a 23k column without sacrificing power from the other columns.  But that wasn't important.  The main thing was that I just beat him up with 20k columns, and he couldn't retire my Stamp Sea Otter, so I won.

OO

Round 2: vs Tachikaze

I got paired down, so I was playing against a little kid who was using a Set 3 Tachikaze deck (that is, he had no cards from Set 8, not even triggers).  He made bad columns and didn't know what he was doing, so I won.

OO

Round 3: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Top 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He got his ride chain all three games, but got gradestuck on Grade 1 for one turn in the first game.  I was able to win that game, but lost the other two because he got his ride chain and got more triggers than me.

OXX

Round 4: vs Tachikaze (Raptor)

Thankfully, I had a lot of practice with Raptor-series Tachikaze on the Vanguard video game, so I know how the deck works.  The only difference was that he was playing those bad swapping units (Brachioporter, Brachiocarrier, and Brachiocastle), so those cards could never make good columns.  So I just out-advantaged him and won.

OO

With that, they cut to Top 8.  My friend was undefeated, so he made it.  I also made it, since I was 3-1.

Top 8: vs Kagero (The End)

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  This was worrying, because Great Nature loses its main advantage (being able to make 20-21k columns) against crossrides.  I ended up pulling about seven triggers over the course of the match, but I was still able to win the first game because he kept drawing Grade 3's.  I didn't even draw my triggers, like in the last two games, I would look at my drop zone at the end of the game, and the only triggers there would be the few triggers that were in my starting hand.  Seriously, not getting any triggers all game for two games in a row meant I was terribly unlucky.

OXX

My Top 8 opponent went on to beat my Round 3 opponent in the Top 4 to make Top 2.  My friend also made it to the Top 2, and they ended up splitting.  So my friend got nine packs of Set 8.  He pulled a Sephirot and an SP Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree, both of which went to me.  My friend tends to pull cards that I want quite often, which is good (for me).  Now I'll only need one more Sephirot for my Arboros Dragon deck, and I wanted the Dungaree because I like its artwork.

So, even though I didn't win anything, I got three Sephirots, so that was good.

On the following day (today), there was a Kaijudo tournament at the usual card shop.  I decided to go because I had nothing better to do today (meaning that I was done with my homework from the previous week) and I wanted the new promos.

There were a total of ten players, including my friend who plays Vanguard.  I borrowed Aki's Dragon Rush deck for him to use, since he didn't really want to continue using the WDF deck he's been using.  I was using my LWD Cobalt Control deck, which I changed a bit since last month.

Round 1: vs LWF Dragons

We played several games after the match for the tournament, so I don't really remember how it went.  But basically, he didn't get Nix in either game, so I was able to win pretty easily.

OO

Round 2: vs LWD Control

I was up against Fwazalaza and his weird deck.  It still has Paladio and such, so yeah...

-Duel 1: I was able to control the game pretty easily with Andromeda and such, so I won.
-Duel 2: He ended up getting a bunch of shields from Andromeda, so I tried to deck him out.  However, I didn't have enough creatures to combat his, so he was able to break all of my shields and win.
-Duel 3: The second game took so long that this game went into time.  When time was called, I had two shields to his five, so I had to try and rush him.  But he had a bigger field presence than me, so I wasn't able to beat him before time was up, so my forced recklessness allowed him to win before the final turn.  It was really frustrating, too, since I had gotten him down to one card, but he kept topping Logos Scans and other cards to gain card advantage, so he was able to come back from a disadvantage of about four cards to win.

OXX

Round 3: vs LWD Dragon Control

This was my Round 3 opponent from the previous Kaijudo tournament.

-Duel 1: I had control of the game with him having only one card and me having just dropped Andromeda, but he topped Terror Pit to kill my Andromeda, then his own Andromeda to take control.  I didn't have an answer, so I just lost slowly while he amassed a field full of Dragons.
-Duel 2: I had control of the game with him having just a couple creatures out and nothing in his hand, but then he topped two Orions in a row to kill my whole field.  I was able to deal with them, but then he topped Dreadclaw, Dark Herald to get back all of his Dragons and win.

XX

So that was really disappointing.  My friend wasn't able to do any better, as he also went 1-2.  We got Rise of the Duel Masters (the base set) packs for our entry packs, since I don't need any more cards from DragonStrike Infernus.  We pulled a Mighty Shouter and a Stormspark Blast, so that was alright.  I also bought a Razorkinder Puppet from the shop for $10; I was surprised it cost so little, compared to before.

Anyways, I kind of don't know what to do now.  I felt like I lost because I wasn't running enough boss creatures.  Basically, most of the games that I lost ended that way because my opponent played more Dragons than me.  So, I just feel like I should run more Dragons or something like that.  But at the same time, I don't want to do that, because then you risk opening with no plays for the first five turns, and that's how you lose to rush or really any relatively fast-paced deck.  Maybe I'll try running Fire again, I'm not sure.

So, I'll just have to figure out what to do, since I really want to have at least one Saracon, Storm Dynamo, and it seems like the only way to get one is to get Top 3, since the Top 3 get promo cards, and the other three are raffled off.  The Top 3 get the first pick, the ones that get raffled off are generally the worse of the two promos, so since no one wants the other one, I'd have to top to get Saracon.

I also need to fix my friend's deck for next weekend.  He won't be able to use Aki's deck next time, since Aki will probably be coming with me to the Kaijudo tournament next Sunday.  So, I'll have to find the time to fix both my own deck and my friend's deck, and I barely know where to start, so yeah...

As for Vanguard, I'll just play Dark Irregulars or Nova Grappler next weekend.  No big deal, since the game is just luck.