Tournament Report 6/30/13

Before starting this tournament report, I'd like to take a moment to mourn the loss of the best player in the Cardfight Vanguard anime, Tetsu Shinjou.  Until this most recent episode (129), Tetsu has been undefeated since his first appearance in the show.  But now, because the writers wanted to take the most skillful player out, they had Tetsu lose to Reverse Kai.  If you say that this is a spoiler, then you're wrong, because there has to be a plot for there to be spoilers...

In memoriam of Tetsu's win streak:
Episodes 31 - 128

Alright, so now that we've gotten that out of the way, I can get on with the tournament report.  Aki and I went to locals yesterday and met up with my friend who plays Vanguard.  We skipped the morning Vanguard tournament and instead played The Settlers of Catan.

We then went to the other card shop, where there were nine other Vanguard players, seven of whom were little kids.  So, we decided to skip that Vanguard tournament too.  We spent the time playing Kaijudo and Yu-Gi-Oh.  We also found out that there would be a team tournament for the evening Vanguard tournament.  Aki cannot make it, and I don't know if Riku can make it or not.  We can tolerate a team tournament because it reduces the chance of getting sacked slightly, so if we can, we will probably participate in that one.

That's about it for Saturday.  So, my friend who plays Vanguard and I went to the Kaijudo tournament at the usual card shop this morning.  There were a total of 8 players there.  I was running my LFN Megabug deck from last weekend, having changed three cards.  My friend was running his WFN Aggro deck.

Round 1: vs WDF Dragon Aggro

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament.  He is running a 52-card deck.

-Duel 1: He opened with a pretty good progression: Umbra, Hyperspeed Dragon, then Chain-Lash Tatsurion to kill my Mana Tick.  I was able to get rid of his Hyperspeed Dragon, then drop The Hive Queen to go in and break shields.  He killed it by crashing his Chain-Lash into it because Umbra gave his Dragons the Slayer ability.  I dropped a couple Megabugs with the intention of going for game on the following turn.  He had no answer, so he just played Bottle of Wishes to try and sack something.  He got Overcharge, letting his two creatures kill my bugs, leaving me with basically nothing.  I slowly lost from there.
-Duel 2: He opened up with a progression of Umbra, Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow, then Hyperspeed Dragon.  I opened up with Manapod Beetle, then Mana Tick to grab Steamtank Kryon.  I had no turn 4 play, and on turn 5, I played the Steamtank.  He played Bottle of Wishes on his fifth turn, getting Overcharge, again... He attacked my Mana Tick with Scaradorable, which was a terrible misplay because Scaradorable cannot kill Level 4 or lower creatures, then he killed my Steamtank with Hyperspeed.  From there, I couldn't really do much.  I eventually was able to drop another Steamtank, which he killed with Death Smoke, then an Andromeda, which he killed with Terror Pit.  He was top-decking for basically the entire game, but he kept drawing the exact card he needed for the situation, so I don't know what else I could've done.  I drew Heat Seekers immediately after killing his Scaradorable using Humonculon, then I drew Tornado Flame after killing his Hyperspeed with another Humonculon.  He topped General Skycrusher to kill one Humonculon, then Infernus the Awakened to kill the other.  Since I had opened with all three Root Traps and had to charge two of them to ensure my progression, I had no outs and lost.

XX

Round 2: vs WFN Aggro

My friend ended up losing his first round to Bottle-sack (Infernus the Immolator on turn 5 is too good...), and we had to face each other.

-Duel 1: He rushed me and I didn't draw Blockers or removal spells, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I rushed him with Manapod Beetle and Ambush Scorpion before ensuring my win with The Hive Queen, which broke his remaining shields while getting me a Gigahorn Charger to search a Gilaflame.
-Duel 3: I played Keeper of Clouds on time to stop his Seneschal and Gilaflame from ruining me.  From there, I was able to stall out for a while until I could play Andromeda.  He bound it with Root Trap, then I played Gigahorn Charger to search for the other one.  But, it was in my shields, so I grabbed The Hive Queen for later.  He started slowly breaking shields with Gilaflame and gave me my second Andromeda, which he didn't have an answer to.  With that, I was able to win.

XOO

Round 3: vs LWDF Dragon Aggro

-Duel 1: He opened up with a progression of Lux, Logos Scan, then Nix.  I had two Heat Seekers to kill his chickens, and a Mana Tick to grab Steamtank and break a couple shields.  He played Herald of Infernus, and I played the Steamtank.  On the following turn, I evolved my Mana Tick to The Hive Queen.  With that and Steamtank on board, I would be able to break the last three shields and go for the win with whatever creature I could get off of The Hive Queen's effect.  Unfortunately, The Hive Queen showed me two copies of Reap and Sow and a Root Trap, so I couldn't win that turn.  He played Lyra to tap my Steamtank, then ran it over with Herald to drop Andromeda, so I lost.  I can't really complain about the Herald/Lyra combo since I gave him a bunch of cards, but not getting any creatures off of The Hive Queen's effect when about half of the remaining cards in my deck were Level 5 or lower non-Skirmisher creatures was pretty irritating.
-Duel 2: He had the same opening progression as last time, except that I didn't have any removal spells.  After that, he ended up playing three more Fire Birds so that his Dragons would cost almost nothing.  I was able to get him down to two shields using The Hive Queen, and I set myself up to win on the following turn by leaving out an Ambush Scorpion.  He played General Skycrusher to kill it, though, and that let his Moorna, Gatling Dragon, run over The Hive Queen.  I couldn't come back from that, so I lost.

XX

My friend won his third round match, so we both ended up going 1-2, which was sad.  At least we both got promo cards, so I got one each of Saracon and Grybolos.  I now have six copies of Saracon and four copies of Grybolos, because I'll obviously need all of them in the future... I also pulled a Spelljacker out of my entry pack, so that was nice.  I still need a third The Hive Queen, though.

Before I left, I ended up doing a deck profile video for Eman of TCGWise.  It was uploaded while I was typing up this blog post, so that was convenient.  It shows the version of the deck I took to the KMC last weekend as well as the changes I made to the deck for this weekend.

Based on these results, I'm still going to have to fix the deck.  I'm not exactly sure of what to do, though.  I could take out some of the cards that are meant for the Aggro/Rush match-ups in order to made the deck better against Control, but it just feels as though regardless of any changes, I'd still lose to a Herald/Lyra combo, or something similar.

Herald of Infernus is just so strong against Aggro decks.  There is a way around it, but that way involves playing a Control deck or having Death Smoke/Tornado Flame turn 5... Rusalka, Aqua Chaser is alright, but that's such an impermanent solution.  I don't even know if I'm going to run Megabugs next weekend, because I can't seem to think of any ways to fix the deck.  Maybe I'll try to figure out a different Aggro deck.  I suppose we'll see what happens...

Kaijudo Master Challenge Report 6/22/13

Aki and I were fortunate enough to be able to go to Las Vegas to attend the Kaijudo Master Challenge at the Little Shop of Magic this past Saturday.  The reason that this blog post is going up relatively late is because I was exhausted from the trip and my summer classes started today.  So yeah.

There were a total of 26 players there for the KMC.  That included three players from my locals, including Fwazalaza.  I was running my LFN Megabug deck, which I changed a little bit since the previous weekend, and was representing the Light Civilization for the tournament.  Aki was using the WDF Dragon Rush deck that he has been using, except that he borrowed a second Chain-Lash Tatsurion from Fwazalaza to use for the day, and was representing the Fire Civilization.

The tournament format was 5 rounds of Swiss with a cut to Top 8.  The tournament organizer also announced the prizing and such.  Top 2 would get invites to the Kaijudo Championship in Seattle and those cool hologram play mat.  Everyone else in the Top 8 would get the other, non-hologram play mats.  They also showed off the Civilization winner prizes, stating that they would be given out after Swiss.  In addition, they decided to award each player in the Top 8 $45 in store credit, so that was pretty nice.

They also had feature matches for the players who were on Table 2.  I don't know why not Table 1, but whatever.

Round 1: vs WDN Ramp

I was on Table 2, so I ended up getting a feature match.  I have no idea when these will be going up on YouTube, so I'll still summarize the match anyway.  Either way, since it's been a couple days since the tournament took place, I may not remember every detail of the matches.  To be honest, I didn't really know what the point of my opponent's deck was.  After the match, I asked him, and he said it was to ramp up to 9 mana to drop Squillace Scourge.

-Duel 1: He was able to break a couple of my shields with his random Beast Kin pokes, but I was able to drop The Hive Queen and get rid of his creatures.  He was at like 7 mana, but he had no cards, so I just took my time controlling the game before breaking all of his shields with my bugs.
-Duel 2: I had a Heat Seekers for his Razorhide and dropped The Swarmleader to start swinging at his shields early.  His only removal was Razorkinder (the original), so he couldn't deal with The Swarmleader, and I won.

OO

Round 2: vs Mono-Darkness Rot Worms

At first, I thought he was just playing generic Mono-Darkness, but when he dropped a Brain Squirmer, I realized it was based on Rot Worms.  For some reason, I was on Table 2 again, so I got another feature match.

-Duel 1: I rushed him really fast after killing his first Scavenging Chimera with a Heat Seekers.  I left him at no shields, and he just tried to build up his field before I could finish him off.  Too bad for him, I got a Gilaflame to win (I don't remember if it was from a broken shield or if I top-decked it).
-Duel 2: This time, he didn't get to use his Scavenging Chimeras, so I just controlled him and was able to break a couple shields each turn before winning with Keeper of Laws.

OO

Round 3: vs LWDF Control

I was on Table 3, so I didn't get a feature match.  How sad.  Either way, this was one of the players from locals, my Round 1 opponent from last weekend.  I'm pretty sure he was running the same 60-card deck, more or less, as last time.  Regardless, it was revenge time.

-Duel 1: I rushed him early and got him down to zero shields when he was at like 6 mana.  He was able to kill all but one of my attackers and hold it off with one Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow.  That meant that it was just a matter of drawing one of my many outs (Humonculon, Gilaflame, Heat Seekers, Tornado Flame, whatever)... I drew a Lyra, so I won.
-Duel 2: I rushed him early with two Manapod Beetles, which he was able to kill.  That was fine by me, since he just ramped me up two turns, which let me easily win the game before he could stabilize.  I was actually at 9 mana by the time I won; he dropped a Billion-Degree Dragon to kill my lone Steamtank Kryon on his last turn, and I topped Gigahorn Charger so I could search Gilaflame and win.

OO

At this point, there were three undefeated players left.  Since I had 2-0'd everyone so far, I didn't expect to get paired down.

Round 4: vs LWDn Control

I did not get paired down, so I was at Table 1 against another undefeated player.  By the way, the small "n" means that he splashed Root Traps.

-Duel 1: I rushed him really quickly, beating him by turn 8.
-Duel 2: Again, I rushed him quickly, winning by turn 8.  I couldn't really tell how good of a player he was, since he didn't seem to know what was happening.  To be fair, I rushed him, and he couldn't deal with it, but he made a few questionable plays along the way, including playing Mesmerize and Logos Scan while I had a Keeper of Laws out.

OO

Apparently, Aki was paired up against the third undefeated player and lost, so I had to play against him.  He wanted to play, because if he were to win, he'd be able to go first in every first game in the Top 8 (the higher seed chooses who goes first in the first game of a match in the Top 8).  I wanted to draw (you can take a draw instead of playing if both players agree, which gives each player one point instead of three for winning or zero for losing), since I wanted to ensure that I was the highest ranked Light player after Swiss.  Then, the tournament organizer told us that Civilization winner prizes would be given out after the Top 8, so we ended up playing for the top spot.

Round 5: vs Mono-Fire Rush

-Duel 1: I drew a Fullmetal Lemon early on, so I was able to survive and eventually drop Andromeda.  He scooped at that.
-Duel 2: I drew a Star Lantern early on, so I was able to survive and drop Andromeda.  He scooped again.

OO

To be honest, I was really afraid of losing to Mono-Fire Rush, but adding those Blockers really helped.  Not to mention I can kill a Blaze Belcher and ramp at the same time with Manapod Beetle...

With that, I had gone undefeated and took the top spot in Swiss.  My Round 5 opponent got 2nd, my Round 4 opponent got 3rd, my Round 3 opponent got 4th, and another player from my locals (my Round 2 opponent from last weekend) who was playing LWDn Control got 5th.  The player in 6th was playing some weird budget Control deck, the player in 7th was playing Blurple, and you'll see what the player in 8th was playing in just a moment, since I was paired against him.

Aki and Fwazalaza did not make it.  Aki lost to my Round 3 opponent in Round 2, then to Mono-Fire Rush in both Rounds 4 and 5.  Fwazalaza lost to my Round 5 opponent in Round 1, took a draw in Round 2 because the game went into time and wasn't finished within the five turn limit, then lost in Round 5 to my Round 3 opponent.

What was interesting was that everyone in the Top 8 had at least 10 points.  In fact, everyone except my Round 5 opponent and myself had 10 points.  To get 10 points, one would have to win three matches, draw one match, and lose one match.  I know that my Round 4 opponent intentionally drew with the 6th place player in Round 5 to ensure that they would make it into the Top 8 (which is legal).  My Round 3 opponent and the 5th place player were forced to draw in Round 4 due to time.  I don't know what happened with the 7th or 8th place players.

With the Top 8 sorted out, the judges took our decks for deck checks and told us we had "at least half an hour" to get lunch.  It ended up being exactly half an hour; Aki, Fwazalaza, the other two guys from locals, and I only had enough time to go to a Subway down the street and back before the Top 8 started.  So, I had to play my Top 8 match on an empty stomach while Fwazalaza and Aki ate.

Top 8: vs LWDF Dragons

I honestly don't know the point of this guy's deck.  I was able to see a deck list afterwards, and it was a 46-card deck with 15 Blockers... I guess he was really afraid of Rush.  Aside from that, it ran Lux, Nix, Herald of Infernus, Lyra, Infernus the Awakened, and Andromeda.  Aki and Fwazalaza helped me out by recording this match with my camera, so I'll put it up on my channel sometime.

-Duel 1: He stopped charging at 6 mana because he ran out of cards.  He just kept putting down Blockers which stopped me at first, but then I realized that I could just wipe his field and win in a few turns with Steamtank Kryon's help.  So, instead of rushing him, I just controlled him until I could win.
-Duel 2: Again, he dropped a bunch of Blockers which didn't really do much.  I just set up my field with Kryon and The Hive Queen before going in for the win.

OO

I was able to beat him relatively quickly, and since my Top 4 opponent who would be the winner of the match between 4th and 5th, I ended up having plenty of time to eat.  After all, it was a Control mirror-match.

Top 4: vs LWDF Control

This was my Round 3 opponent.  He ended up beating his friend in the Top 8 and got a rematch with me.  He wasn't too thrilled about getting paired against me, though.

-Duel 1: I opened with a handful of spells that I couldn't do anything with and one Andromeda.  I couldn't rush him, and I can't beat a Control deck in late game with Megabugs, so I lost.  I was able to break a couple of shields, and both were Shield Blasts, so that didn't help.  After the game, he flipped his shields face-up, and two more were also Shield Blasts, so there was no way I was going to win that game, no matter how well or poorly I opened.
-Duel 2: I opened with some decent aggression and was able to play my Mana Tick before he had a chance to use Mesmerize.  Unfortunately, I hit two more Shield Blasts when I went in, and he was able to capitalize off of it with Herald of Infernus and Lyra to drop Andromeda.  That lost me the game, and he showed me his shields again afterwards; another two Shield Blasts left...  Four Shield Blasts each game is too good.

XX

I was really upset at that.  He was playing a 60-card deck, opened Mesmerize and Logos Scan both games, had four Shield Blasts both games, and was able to follow that up with a Herald/Lyra combo in the second game.  Last time I checked, 60-card decks were supposed to be inconsistent.  I mean, I tried playing a 54-card LWDN Control deck for a week a while back and never drew my Logos Scan, Mesmerize, or even Reap and Sow.  But, I guess it happens, and I've gotten over it.  I'll just have to fix my deck for next weekend.

Either way, my opponent then went on to beat my Round 4 opponent in the Finals and win the tournament.  Unfortunately for me, my Round 4 opponent was a Light player, so I was only the second-highest-ranked Light player, and did not win the nice bag and such.  Oh well.

Anyway, I did a deck profile video for the shop.  I got compliments from a lot of the players and the two judges about my deck.  I guess they liked seeing Megabugs top.  I remember in particular that the 6th place player complimented my deck, then told me that he thought it was an odd build.  I just explained that I didn't have three Lyras or Andromedas, and he was satisfied with that.  And seriously, he was running Return to the Soil, so I really don't know why he thought my deck was odd.

So, I ended up getting the Top 8 play mat and $45 in store credit.  Fwazalaza recommended buying a board game: The Settlers of Catan.  All I knew about the game was what was said on The Big Bang Theory...  But, a bunch of other people said that it was amazing game, so I decided to get it.  It cost $45.40, but I don't carry spare change, so I just asked Aki for 40 cents so that I could buy it.  Fwazalaza then taught Aki and I how to play, and the three of us and the 5th place player played a game of The Settlers of Catan.  It was really interesting, and I was glad that I got it, especially since I didn't have to pay for it.

Also, about an hour after the tournament ended, the tournament organizer realized that the play mats that he gave out to the Top 8 were supposed to go to the Civilization winners instead.  It was too late for him to fix it, so I ended up being able to keep the mat.  I know that I wasn't supposed to get it, but I don't feel bad about it, since I felt as though I earned it.  I mean, I didn't travel all the way to Las Vegas and go undefeated in Swiss just to get The Settlers of Catan.

Regardless, I don't think I'll be making a deck profile for my Megabug deck, since the shop already did that for me.  I don't know when it'll be going up, but when I find it, I'll announce it somehow.  The fact that I did relatively well at the KMC also means that my real name will be revealed for the first time on the Internet.  I would try to subvert that fact, but I'm sure that you're all smart enough to look at the official Kaijudo website when it's updated and figure out that the person who got 3rd place with a LFN Megabug deck at the KMC in Las Vegas was me.  Not to mention that my name will probably be on all of the feature matches I was in and the deck profile video, whenever the shop decides to upload them.

So yeah, that's about it.  It'll just be back to the usual routine of school and homework during the week and children's card games on the weekends.  I may decide to play Vanguard on Saturday evening in an attempt to win some packs of Set 9, but I'm not sure yet.  I don't even consider it to be worth my time and money, especially if all of my friends are going to quit by Set 10.  It's just that my Vanguard friend has been considering playing in the evening tournaments again, so we'll see what happens.

I'm also not sure if I'll be going to Kaijudo tournaments or not.  I'll probably go next weekend, but I'll have to see how much time I have, since I don't know how much homework I'll have to do for my summer classes yet.  I was also able to get some cards I needed for my deck from Fwazalaza (a third Humonculon, a third Kryon, and a third Lyra), so I'll be fixing my Megabug deck sometime this week.  But yeah, we'll see how it turns out.

Tournament Report 6/16/13

So, I went to locals, as usual.  What was different was that my Vanguard friend and I decided to skip the Vanguard tournaments yesterday.  We just spent the day playing Kaijudo, so that was cool.  Apparently, there's a 72% chance of him outright quitting Vanguard because not only are most of the Vanguard players we encounter stupid, but the game is getting ridiculously broken.  That percentage will probably increase once we see the new episode of the Vanguard anime next weekend.

Today, we participated in the Kaijudo tournament at the usual card shop.  I was using my new LFN Megabug build, and my friend was using his WFN Aggro deck.  There were a total of 7 players there.

Round 1: vs LWDF Control

This was my Round 1 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament.  He was playing a 60-card deck with a bunch of Dragons, but I didn't see any Fire Birds.

-Duel 1: I opened up with a bunch of high-level creatures that I couldn't really do anything with.  I couldn't beat him before he got to turn 9, so I ended up losing.  I mean, I drew my Mana Ticks starting on turn 8, so that was way too late, and I didn't even get anything from the effects.  By that time, I had to start recklessly breaking shields, because the longer the game went on, the harder it would be for me to win, and he ended up having three Shield Blasts down, so there was no way I could've won that game.
-Duel 2: Again, I didn't open with any small creatures besides Keeper of Laws, which wasn't useful.  He was able to drop Andromeda, General Skycrusher, and a bunch of big Dragons to take control of the field.  I summoned Ra-Vu and Gilaflame in an attempt to slowly break his shields.  I attacked with Ra-Vu, tapping Gilaflame for Andromeda's effect, and I ended up hitting a Stormspark Blast, which let him kill all of my cards, including Ra-Vu because he had a Billion-Degree Dragon.  So, I basically lost as soon as I broke that first shield.

XX

Round 2: vs Mono-Fire Rush

Ugh, the dreaded Mono-Fire Rush...

-Duel 1: He rushed me and I lost by turn 6.  I had no Shield Blasts down or small creatures to kill his small creatures.  I had to use Tornado Flame on his Blaze Belcher; that was how bad it was.
-Duel 2: He couldn't rush me from the start, so I was able to stabilize and drop two Ra-Vus to prevent him from killing me.  My bugs didn't even do anything in this game.
-Duel 3: He rushed me and I lost by turn 4... I had a Stormspark Blast in the shields, but that was the last shield he broke and there was nothing left that hadn't attacked...

XOX

So that was pretty terrible.  I ended up getting a bye in the third and final round.  I think that I'm going to have to take Ra-Vu out of the deck in favor of some smaller Blockers, even if they can't attack shields.  Aside from that, I don't know what else I could do.  I know that some sort of control deck would probably be a better option, but the control mirror-match is disgusting.  Over half the people at locals play control, and I hate sitting through control mirror-matches because as soon as one side takes control, the rest of the game is just a formality, but takes an additional 20 minutes...

On the bright side, my friend went 2-1 and got 3rd place, winning one additional pack.  We didn't pull anything good, though.  At least we both got promo cards, even if both of them were Grybolos...

So, that's about it.  I'm just going to spend the rest of today doing nothing, and I'll figure out my Kaijudo deck tomorrow or something. I'm getting the feeling that I'm going to have to start running Ambush Scorpion, though...

Random Stuff #53

So I've been on summer break for about two days, and I'm already bored.  I used to have so much homework that I didn't have free time during the week, but now that that's gone, I don't know what to do with all this time I have.  First world problems...  Anyways, I'm going to start summer classes in less than two weeks, so I'll only have about a week of free time to be bored with.

The weekend before summer school starts, Aki and I will be going to Las Vegas for the Kaijudo Master Challenge there on June 22.  I've been watching videos of duels from various KMC's (mostly uploaded by EarthP0w3r and CVH), and honestly, the skill level of the players that I've seen is significantly lower than what I expected.  I guess I just expected everyone to be better than the players at my locals, but most of them aren't.  I guess that Kaijudo just started less than a year ago, so the level of play isn't going to be spectacular, and the players at my locals are relatively good, so I shouldn't worry too much about the KMC, I suppose.

But yeah, I've just been getting my Megabug deck ready.  I'm going to try a LFN build this weekend and see how that works.  My thoughts right now are that I should have a relatively good match-up against Dragon-based decks because they usually don't play a bunch of Blockers, but I may have trouble with non-Dragon-based Control decks.

I could probably play a LWD Control deck, but I really rather not play a 60-card deck and lose because I didn't draw my Logos Scans in the mirror match.  I think that I should be able to outspeed Control decks with this new LFN Megabug build, but we'll see what happens.  I mean, if I could outspeed control with LDN, then it should be a lot easier with Fire instead of Darkness.  I may miss that control aspect that the Darkness section brought to the deck, but it just slowed the deck down too much, causing me to lose to Control.

So yeah, I'll be able to practice with my new deck tomorrow.  My Vanguard friend and I decided to stop playing in Vanguard tournaments, at least until Set 10 is released.  There's just no point in continuing to play since both of the tournaments are filled with little kids who are either really bad and win through trigger-sack or play really boring decks to play against like The End or Spectral Duke.  So, we're done with Vanguard for a while.

My friend is going to start spending his money on Kaijudo instead.  He already got some more starter decks (the General Skycrusher ones) so that he could fix his deck.  We'll see how that goes tomorrow.

Anyways, I guess I'll go back to being bored...

Tournament Report 6/8/13 & 6/9/13

My friends and I were very busy over the past few days.  We went to Vanguard tournaments on Friday and Saturday, then a Kaijudo tournament yesterday.

I don't really want to do an in depth report on the Team League Regional that we went to on Friday, mainly because I don't remember everything that happened, and also because it's Vanguard... Basically, there were 19 teams there, which was over twice the amount that was supposed to be there.  I don't really know what happened, and they structured the tournament format really weirdly, but whatever. We played in five rounds and ended up losing in the Top 8 (again, I don't know how their tournament format worked, because it was weird...).  That's about as well as we expected to do, since it's Vanguard.  But enough about that.

Aki got back from Japan on Friday night, so I was able to pick up all of the souvenirs that he got for Riku, my friend who plays Vanguard, and myself on my way to locals on Saturday morning.  He got us a bunch of deck boxes (mainly ones that come with Japanese cases of Vanguard Set 11).  And in addition to the Accel World WeiB Schwarz cards and the Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree sleeves I was expecting, he got me some random Duel Masters cards (including Raiden Hole and the pieces for Volg Tiger, which I was really surprised to see) and a few deck separators (a Wingal Brave one and two Dungaree ones).  My friend also asked him to get three Liberator Trial Decks and a few other cards (Liberator Epona, Flogal Liberator, Liberator Phallon, and Wingal Liberator).  So, my friend was really happy to be able to play Liberators, despite how bad they are.

But, since we've been hating Vanguard recently, we skipped the morning Vanguard tournament to sort out all of the souvenirs Aki got us and also make my friend his own Kaijudo deck.  He ended up buying three Bull Rush decks, and with a few cards I provided, he was able to make a relatively good WFN Aggro deck, not unlike the one EarthP0w3r discussed recently.  So, we just spent most of the afternoon playing with his new Liberator deck and practicing for Sunday's Kaijudo tournament.

Riku met up with us a little later, and we decided to participate in the evening Vanguard tournament because there was simply nothing better to do.  There were 10 players there, six of whom were little kids...  I played my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck (now with Dungaree sleeves), Riku played his Arboros Dragon deck, and my friend used his Liberators.  He asked each of his opponents if they would let him use them ("I can either use my complete English deck that has four perfect guards and you'll lose, or you can let me use Liberator Trial Decks with no perfect guards.").  They let him use the Liberators...

In the first round, I won 2-0 against a little kid with The End Kagero because he didn't know what he was doing, his deck was incomplete, and he got gradestuck in the second game.  I got paired down against Riku, who had lost the first round, and he just gave me the win.  We played WeiB Schwarz instead, since I had my Accel World deck, and he had gotten two Disgaea Trial Decks.  I lost the third round 0-2 against my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament because I got a total of three triggers throughout the match, and instead kept drawing all of my Grade 3's.

That didn't matter, though, since I still made Top 4, along with my Round 3 opponent.  My friend also made Top 4 with his Liberators after going 2-1 (losing to a Spectral Duke Gold Paladin player in the second round who kept getting the ride chain and who also made Top 4).  We all just decided to split and get three packs each.  We pulled garbage, because it's Vanguard.

After that, we watched the newest episode of the Vanguard anime.  I was hoping that Naoki would be using Dungaree "Unlimited", but no.  He had to use the new brokenness that is Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse".  It's a Crossbreak Ride, which is ridiculous and blatant power creep.  It was so ridiculous that even my friend is considering quitting Vanguard.  I probably will.

There's no point in playing anymore, so why bother?  Whether it'll be when Set 12 comes out (which also releases Link Joker, which might as well be a Zoo clan because it totally invalidates Megacolony) or sooner than that, I've yet to decide.  Regardless, since all of my decks are really inexpensive, I'll probably just keep them and play for fun, as opposed to selling them, like I did for Yu-Gi-Oh.

More importantly, my friend who plays Vanguard, Aki, and I went to the Kaijudo tournament yesterday.  I was using my LDN Megabug deck (I had only changed two cards since last weekend), Aki was using his WDF Dragon Rush deck, and my friend was using the WFN Aggro deck I helped him make.  There were about 12 players there.

Round 1: vs LWD Dragon Control

I was up against Fwazalaza.  I knew that unless I could rush him early, this game would get really boring.

-Duel 1: I opened with Mana Tick, but missed on its effect.  I didn't have any other cards to gain card advantage, so he just controlled the game while I couldn't do much.
-Duel 2: This game turned out about the same as the first one.  I was able to get two Mana Ticks, but missed on both of them, and had no big creatures in my hand, so I just sat there and lost.

XX

That wasn't a good start.  At least my friend and Aki were able to win their matches.

Round 2: vs LWN Aggro

This guy was playing a deck without any of the new cards.  That didn't really mean that he was at a disadvantage, he just told me that his deck was outdated.

-Duel 1: He tried to swarm early with a bunch of floaters (Aqua Seneschal and Bronze-Arm Tribe, mainly), but I was able to stabilize with Ra-Vu and The Hive Queen to win.  He was also playing Blockers like Grand Gure and Star Lantern, so I think that his deck didn't really have a focus.
-Duel 2: I was able to control him and build up a ridiculous field before going for game.  He got a Stormspark Blast as his last shield to save him, but it was far too late for him to be able to win, as I had Andromeda out and he had no creatures on board.

OO

Aki lost his second round, but my friend was able to win his match.  At this point, there were three undefeated players, including my friend.

Round 3: vs WDF Dragon Aggro

I got paired up against the undefeated player who had just beaten Aki, my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's Kaijudo tournament.

-Duel 1: I actually was able to hit my progressions (like Mana Tick, Reap and Sow, The Hive Queen) and was able to win pretty easily, since he didn't have Nix to give him a bunch of unwarranted pluses.  He actually hard-cast a couple Bottle of Wishes in desperation and hit nothing good.
-Duel 2: Again, no Nix, so I was able to rush him with The Hive Queen and win.  Because he didn't play Andromeda, I wasn't forced to beat him before turn 9.  It's ridiculous how Andromeda puts that type of time limit on the game, but I guess it can be played around.

Since I beat the third undefeated player, that was the final round.  My friend ended up beating my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's Kaijudo tournament to win the tournament.  So, he won 1st place and won 7 packs.  Aki and I both went 2-1, but neither of us won any prizes.  My friend pulled a Steamtank Kryon for me, so maybe I'll be able to put Fire in my Megabug deck for next weekend.

I've been feeling like the Darkness section of my deck is just there and doesn't really accomplish anything.  It's great against Rush decks, since it lets me control them so that I can stabilize and win, but it's not that great against control decks because it doesn't allow me to rush them or generate advantage.  So, I think that I may be playing LFN Megabugs next weekend; I just have to figure out a good build.  Sadly, Ra-Vu and Lepidos probably won't have a place in a fast-paced build, but we'll see what happens.

After the tournament, Aki and I taught my friend the basics of WeiB Schwarz so that he'll know how to play when he gets his Madoka Magica Trial Decks.  We also played some Duel Masters using the new cards Aki got.

And after that, Aki and I were able to record some Kaijudo videos, finally.  However, I won't have enough time to edit them until Wednesday night, which is after my finals are over, so that's the earliest I'd be uploading a new videos.  We can't really figure out anything that we'd want to do for Yu-Gi-Oh videos, so I doubt that there's going to be any new Yu-Gi-Oh duel videos for a long time, if ever.  As much as I miss playing, there's just no point in doing so with how much the game has devolved.

So yeah, that's it.  I'll be going to locals next Saturday (I may or may not participate in the Vanguard tournaments...) and Sunday (for the Kaijudo tournament).  I'm going to try to make the LFN Megabug deck after my finals are over, so we'll see how that turns out.

Tournament Report 6/1/13 & 6/2/13

So I ended up being able to go to the Kaijudo tournament today, but the Vanguard tournaments from yesterday were first, so yeah.

There were 12 players at the morning Vanguard tournament.  I was using Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar, Riku was there and was using Arboros Dragon as well (both of us decided to make the deck independently, and his build is just one card different from mine, so that shows how simple deck-building in Vanguard is...).  My friend who plays Vanguard also showed up, and he decided to use a Soul Saver Dragon Royal Paladin deck that Riku made for fun.

I played against a bad Shadow Paladin player who left Nemain out on the field without a booster for the entire game and won.  I played against a newbie Royal Paladin player who got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the second round and won.  I got paired down against Riku in the third round and lost, but he gave me the win because I was still undefeated, while he had already lost the second round.  I then played against a newbie Spectral Duke Gold Paladin player and won because he got gradestuck on Grade 2.

So I ended up getting 1st place and winning five packs of Set 8.  I pulled an Armed Instructor, Bison and a Musketeer Rebecca (I know the Musketeers' names from testing them on the video game, but not their titles...).  That's about it.

Between tournaments, the three of us discussed our strategy for the upcoming Team League Regional on Friday.  My friend is probably going to run Pale Moon, but he may use Narukami or something.  Riku is either going to use his Arboros Dragon deck or my Dark Irregulars deck, and I'm going to use whichever one he doesn't use.  It doesn't really matter to me which deck I use; I'll just let him use whichever deck he's more comfortable with.

Anyways, after that was the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 15 players there.  We were using the same decks as in the morning tournament.

I got a bye in the first round, so I just watched Riku's game.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin (Spectral Duke)

This was my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I lost the first game because I drew all of my Grade 3's (literally all of them) and therefore had no boosters.  I won the second game because he got gradestuck for a turn.  I lost the third game because he got his ride chain and I didn't get mine.  Oh, and I only drew two triggers all game and didn't drive/damage check any.

XOX

Round 3: vs Shadow Paladin (Ildona)

This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I won both games because Ildona is a 10k Vanguard that gets beat up easily by 25k columns.  I didn't even get the ride chain in the first game, he just let through my Maiden of Trailing Rose's Persona Blast.

OO

Round 4: vs Neo Nectar (Arboros Dragon)

I was up against Riku.  We decided to play, then see how our tie-breakers did.  We both got our ride chains in the first game, but I got gradestuck on Grade 2.  Even so, he had a bunch of Grade 3's in hand, so my early rush allowed me to win, since I kept pulling triggers.  We both missed our ride chains in the second game, but he got more triggers than me, so I lost.  In the third game, he got his ride chain, while I did not, so I lost.  And afterwards, it turned out that his tie-breakers were better than mine, so that worked out well.

OXX

With that, they cut to Top 4.  I obviously didn't make it, but both of my friends did.  Unfortunately, my friend lost to getting trigger-sacked and gradestuck.  It was such a quick match, so Riku and his Top 4 opponent (my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament) were still playing.  However, they just agreed to a three-way split with the guy who sacked my friend.

They each got five packs, and although Riku pulled nothing, his opponent pulled a Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree.  I asked him to trade for the Dungaree, along with another copy I saw in his binder earlier.  I had pulled a Dimensional Robo, Daidragon from my entry pack, and traded it for the two Dungarees, so now I have three RRR's and one SP.  Maybe I'll play the Dungaree crossride when it comes out, who knows...?

So that's about it for the Vanguard tournaments.  And now we get to the important part of the post: the Kaijudo tournament.

There were 11 players there today, including my friend who plays Vanguard.  There were no new promos for this month, so we were playing for the same promos as before (Saracon and the other one), as well as packs.  I was using Light/Darkness/Nature Megabugs.  Yes, Megabugs, just like I said in the previous post.  My friend was using Aki's WDF Dragon Rush deck, again.

Round 1: vs WDF Dragon Control

This was the guy who had traded me The Hive Queen last weekend.

-Duel 1: He ended up wasting a lot of his cards really quickly, and he didn't have the Logos Scan to replenish his hand.  I simply swarmed the field with a bunch of floaters (cards that pay for themselves when they enter the battle field) like Mana Tick, Fumes, and Gigahorn Charger.  Then, I wiped out his field with The Hive Queen, which got me a Humonculon the Blaster, so that I could kill his Umbra.  After that, I just broke all of his shields in one turn (he was at 7 mana, so I knew he couldn't respond with a big Level 9 creature on the following turn), so I won.
-Duel 2: He ended up summoning Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow and getting really aggressive with it.  It took a few shields, but then I controlled the game with The Hive Queen and Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning.  He wasn't able to do much, since I rushed him before he could drop all of his big creatures, so I won.

OO

Round 2: vs WDF Dragon Aggro

-Duel 1: He didn't have Nix, so he ran out of cards really quickly.  He had a Herald of Infernus out, but with no cards in hand, it was no threat.  So, I just slowly built up a field with all of my floaters, then went for game with The Hive Queen and Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning.
-Duel 2: Same as before, he didn't have a Nix (he charged it this time, for some reason), so I didn't really have much to worry about.  I wasn't able to beat him before he got to 9 mana, but he couldn't really do much to stop me from winning anyway.

OO

At this point, there were only three undefeated players left, including myself.

Round 3: vs 5-Civ Dragons

This was my Round 2 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament, Eman of TCGWise.  He was one of the other undefeated players.  I asked him why he was running all five Civilizations, and he said that he didn't know what to run, so he just made the deck for fun.

-Duel 1: He didn't have any early plays and took a minus when he hard-cast Bottle of Wishes and hit Stormspark Blast, which was wasted.  So, I was able to just overwhelm him with my floaters and win with Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning and Lyra, the Blazing Sun.
-Duel 2: Again, he didn't have any substantial early plays.  He ended up drawing all three Bottle of Wishes, charging one and hard-casting the other two.  He got a Root Trap (to bind my Mana Tick) and a Lux.  I was able to drop The Hive Queen and control the game from there.  I also made a very evil play, tapping his last creature with Spark Cage, killing it with The Hive Queen, and getting Fumes off of The Hive Queen's effect to discard the only card in his hand.  But yeah, I was able to win pretty easily.

OO

The third undefeated player, who was paired down, won his match, so the next round would be the final one.

Round 4: vs LWD Dragon Control

He was excited to be in the finals, since he really wanted to win a tournament.  I had seen him play earlier, so I knew what to expect.

-Duel 1: He rushed me with Nix, Lyra, and two Lux.  I couldn't field a creature until turn 6 (I opened up with some low-cost spells, but not creatures), so I lost.  I had Mesmerized him on turn 3, and his hand was Nix, Lyra, and Andromeda.  I chose to discard Andromeda, but in retrospect, Nix wouldn't have been a bad option, either.  I just didn't want him to drop Andromeda and make it really difficult for me to break all of his shields in one turn, since I didn't have a Terror Pit or Root Trap.  I probably should've chosen Nix, since he topped another Lyra, which didn't really help him.  At the same time, I wasn't expecting him to rush me, since he was playing a Control deck.  Either way, I'll take that into consideration next time.
-Duel 2: I was able to rush him with my floaters this time.  I dropped The Hive Queen and The Swarmleader, but he killed them with Terror Pit and Lyra, respectively.  However, he had to crash his Lyra into The Swarmleader since I killed his Andromeda with Terror Pit before he played the Lyra.  So, I just rushed him with Fumes, Keeper of Laws, and Gigahorn Charger to win.
-Duel 3: He got really aggressive with Scaradorable of Gloom Hollow.  That gave me all of the cards I needed to rush him with The Hive Queen and two copies of Ra-Vu, Seeker of Lightning.  My deck doesn't have trouble dealing with Gloom Hollow, since I have stuff like Gigahorn Charger, Humonculon the Blaster, and Keeper of Dawn to deal with it.  So, I dealt with it, swarmed the field with floaters, and won.

XOO

So, I ended up going undefeated (only losing one game, in fact) and getting 1st place.  That won me another Saracon and six packs of Clash of the Duel Masters.

My friend ended up going 3-1.  He got a bye in the first round, lost the second round 0-2 to my Round 3 opponent, won the third round  2-0 against my Round 2 opponent, and won the fourth round 2-0 against a LWD Control deck that used Azuri, the Dawnbreaker.  He was able to get 3rd place, winning him two packs.

In total, including our entry packs, we got a total of 10 packs.  Out of those packs, I got a Squillace Scourge, Shapeshifter Scaradorable,  Magma Dragon Melgars, and Starseed Squadron.  Those are all cards I either didn't have or didn't mind having more of, so that worked out well.  I don't use Starseed Squardon anymore, and I don't think I'd use more than one Shapeshifter Scaradorable, but they're nice to have.

So, overall, my Megabug deck worked much better than expected.  I had to put a lot of work into it, since I haven't seen any other Megabug decks to get ideas from.  I would go more in detail about how I made the deck and what's in it, but I'm probably going to be using it at the KMC in Las Vegas, which Aki and I are going to attend, so I'd rather not spoil the deck quite yet.

I will say that I noticed that I would usually win before my opponent got to 9 mana.  The deck worked pretty well to prevent my opponents from dropping all of the big Level 9 Dragons that they rely on.  It was also pretty versatile, allowing me to either rush or stall out and try to control the game.  It certainly fit my play-style better, since I didn't really like just sitting and waiting for 20 turns before attacking shields.  I know that Fwazalaza does, though, since I saw that in one of his matches, he waited until he had like 15 creatures on the field before attacking shields...