Tournament Report 8/24/13 & 8/25/13

As usual, I went to locals this past weekend.  I was busy Saturday morning, so I just went to the evening Vanguard tournament with Aki.  However, I did have enough time to make a Yu-Gi-Oh deck for the new format.  Everyone on Team Snogal was excited for the new format, since we expected it to be a lot better than this one.  But, whether or not that'll actually be the case has yet to be seen.

Anyways, there were about 28 players there for the evening Vanguard tournament.  I was running my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck, Aki was running his Vermillion Narukami deck, my friend who plays Vanguard was running my Dark Irregulars deck, and the fourth Snogal was running my Pale Moon deck.

In the first round, I was paired against my friend.  So, we just played Yu-Gi-Oh.  We only had enough time to play one game, since we both had to sleeve our new decks.  I was running a Nordic Beast deck that also uses X-Sabers.  I figured that XX-Saber Hyunlei would be pretty good in a format with no Heavy Storm.  My friend was using Blackwings, so that was boring.  I was able to win the first game, and that's all we had time for.  We decided that I'd get the win because my deck had a better chance of winning.

Round 2: vs Dark Irregulars

I played against a new player with a somewhat random Dark Irregulars deck.  I lost the first game because he healed four times, but I was able to win the other two games fairly easily.

XOO

Round 3: vs Kagero (The End)

This was my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was just as bad as ever.  I won the first game because I got the ride chain, I lost the second game because he got double Critical Triggers, and I lost the third game because he got twice as many triggers as me.

OXX

With that, they cut to Top 8.  Aki and I made it, but my friend and the fourth Snogal did not.

Top 8: vs Narukami (Vermillion)

This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was very upset to have to play against me.  I completely missed the ride chain in the first game, but I put Ratoon in the front to bully him.  He didn't want to get beaten up by Ratoon again, so he used Vermillion's Limit Break to kill it.  He was also able to crossride afterwards, but I made 18k columns and kept pulling triggers to win.  He got gradestuck on Grade 0 on the second game, so when I had to ride a perfect guard, I could move Ratoon out and it could hit his Vanguard Spark Kid Dragoon.  It should be pretty obvious that I won that game.

OO

Aki won his Top 8 match, and we were in the same bracket, so he just gave me the win and we played Duel Masters.  My Round 3 opponent ended up losing in to Top 4, so I decided to just split with the other finalist.  We each got half a box of Set 2, so that was alright.  I pulled a Spirit Exceed, a Ruin Shade, a Kirara, and a Young Pegasus Knight.  The fourth Snogal kept the former two, and my friend kept the latter two.

That's it for Saturday.  I went back to locals yesterday for the Kaijudo tournament.  There were 10 players there in total.  I was using my LFN Megabug deck, and my friend was using his WDFN Dragon Rush deck.

Round 1: vs Mono-Light Rush

This was my Round 2 opponent from last weekend's Kaijudo tournament.

-Duel 1: I had two Heat Seekers and an Ambush Scorpion to wreck his progression.  I was able to drop Andromeda, and he scooped.
-Duel 2: He had a good progression, and I had no early plays, so I lost.
-Duel 3: He had a good progression, I only had a Manapod Beetle to play on turn 2.  I was able to live longer than I probably should've because I had two Stormspark Blasts in shields, but I didn't have anything relevant in my hand.

OXX

I was paired against my friend in the second round, and he gave me the win.

Round 3: vs WD Mid-Range

I was paired up against Stephen L.

-Duel 1: I got him down to zero shields and I would've been able to win if two of my Gilaflames weren't in my shields.  I tried to search it with Gigahorn Charger after my first one died, and it wasn't in my deck, so he had the opportunity to drop Squillace Scourge and win.
-Duel 2: I rushed him with two Manapod Beetles to win.
-Duel 3: He opened with three Grudge Weavers, so I basically couldn't attack him.  So, I lost.

Round 4: vs LWDF Dragons

-Duel 1: He opened up with a Lux and two Nix, and I didn't have any removal, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I was able to rush him with Manapod Beetle, Ambush Scorpion, and Mana Tick to win before he could do anything.
-Duel 3: I was able to go in and break shields with The Hive Queen, Lyra, and Keeper of Laws.  I got Steamtank Kryon off of The Hive Queen, so I was able to attack with Keeper of Laws to break his last shield even though he had a Herald of Infernus on the field.  He used its effect to drop Infernus the Awakened, but he had no shields or Blockers, so it didn't matter.

XOO

That was the last round, so I ended up going 2-2, which isn't that great.  I've been wanting to make a new deck, but with a new set coming out in three weeks, I feel as though there's no point.  I know that I would want to use Darkness, though...

After that, I was able to play a match against a new format Prophecy deck using my Nordic Saber deck.  It was very discouraging because I just sat there while he got numerous free cards and destroyed my field, so I'll probably continue to stay away from competitive Yu-Gi-Oh for now...  But yeah, that's about it.

Tournament Report 8/17/13 & 8/18/13

So, I went to locals as usual.  Yesterday morning was the Vanguard Welcome Campaign thing, so I got a free deck box and there was no tournament.  Aki, my friend who plays Vanguard, and the fourth Snogal all showed up as well, so they got free deck boxes, too.

After that, Aki bought my friend's Shadow Paladin deck, so my friend had the money to make a new Kaijudo deck.  Unfortunately, he forgot his Kaijudo cards, so he just bought the cards he needed and we had to make the deck later.  So, the four of us just had a few Vanguard tag fights.  The fourth Snogal and I won because Platina Ezel's Ultimate Break is really good when you can use it at least two times per game.

So then after that, we went and got my friend's Kaijudo cards so that he could make his deck.  I had to lend him 20 cards, literally half the deck, but he was able to make a WDFN Dragon Rush deck using Hammer Dragon, Foulbyrn and a bunch of ramp spells.  It seems pretty good, and it has been something he has wanted to make.

Then came the evening Vanguard tournament.  There was a total of 18 players.  I was using Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar, Aki was using Vermillion Narukami, my friend was using my Pale Moon deck, and the fourth Snogal was using his Ezel Gold Paladin deck.

Round 1: vs Shadow Paladin

I played against a bad Shadow Paladin player who opened with her Blaster Javelin both games.  She kept guarding either one-to-pass or no-pass (almost never two-to-pass), so it was easy to see that she didn't know what she was doing.  I opened really badly in the first game, but I got triggers and she didn't, so I was able to win after a long while.  I won the second game because I got my ride chain.  She was really upset because of the first game for some reason, so she dropped and left after I won.

OO

Round 2: vs Pale Moon

I got paired against my friend.  He just got paired up against the fourth Snogal in the previous round, so that was bad.  I decided to give him the win so that he could drag us both up, even though I 2-0'd him because Pale Moon doesn't have any good 11k Grade 3's yet.

Round 3: vs Megacolony (Machining)

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He got gradestuck on Grade 2 both games, so I won.

OO

Round 4: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel)

I don't know why there was a Round 4.  Apparently they wanted to do four rounds then Top 4, instead of three rounds then Top 8.  Anyways, I was paired down against my Round 3 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was able to crossride both games, but I kept killing his attackers so he couldn't make good columns, so his Ultimate Break was ineffective.  I won the first game after withstanding his lackluster Ultimate Break, then I won the second game with like 12 cards in hand because I got the ride chain and he didn't have a full field.

OO

So they cut to Top 4.  My friend and Aki made it to the Top 4, and they were paired against each other.  So, they decided to let my friend go on to the finals to play against a bad Narukami player.  But, he ended up getting trigger-sacked, so we only got 2nd and 3rd place.

Either way, the fourth Snogal was able to get a Demon World Marquis, Amon so that he'll have it when Set 12 comes out, so that was good.  Other than that, we didn't really get much.

So, on the following day (today), my friend and I went to the morning Kaijudo tournament.  There was a total of 10 players there.  I was playing Aki's LWF Dragon Aggro deck, and my friend was playing the WDFN Dragon Rush deck he made yesterday.

Round 1: vs LWDF Dragons

This was my Round 4 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Nix and had a good progression, while I opened with two Bottle of Wishes and no plays until turn 6, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I was able to resolve Herald of Infernus' effect to drop an Infernus the Awakened to win.
-Duel 3: We both worked to simplify the gamestate, and I was in a better position by the end of it.  But, he kept top-decking Dragons, and I kept top-decking Piercing Judgments, Hyperspeed Dragons, and Tatsurion, so I lost.

XOX

Round 2: vs Mono-Light Rush

This was my Round 1 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament.  He decided to run Mono-Light Rush for some reason.

-Duel 1: He got a good progression and was able to rush me, and I didn't draw any Blockers, so I lost.
-Duel 2: I got a few Shield Blasts and was able to withstand his initial rush so that I could win.
-Duel 3: I was able to get a Bottle of Wishes (variance!) in the shields to get a Nix when he attacked me on turn 4.  That let me play Hyperspeed Dragon on turn 4.  He broke another shield, which gave me Piercing Judgment to stop the rest of his attacks.  I drew a Herald of Infernus and summoned it after charging.  That killed his Rodi Gale, letting me drop another Herald.  That Herald killed his Shaw K'Naw and let me drop Infernus the Awakened to kill his last creature, Keeper of Laws.  The Awakened won the game because he's playing Mono-Light Rush.

XOO

Round 3: vs LWdF Dragons

This was my Round 3 opponent from this Kaijudo tournament.  The small "d" means that he splashed Terror Pits.  Anyways, I don't really remember the first two games, but I know that I won the third game because I dropped Infernus the Awakened using Herald of Infernus on turn 6.

XOO

So I ended up going 2-1 and got 4th place.  My friend went 2-1 after losing to my Round 3 opponent in the first round and got 5th place.  Neither of us won any packs, but I got a Magris the Magnetizer in the raffle and pulled a Steamtank Kryon.

So that's about it.  They actually ran out of Clash of the Duel Masters packs after the tournament was over, so I'll have to decide which packs to get next weekend, if I can make it, that is.  I'll definitely miss the morning Vanguard tournament next weekend, but I don't know about the evening Vanguard tournament or the Kaijudo tournament.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

Tournament Report 8/10/13

As usual, I went to locals.  Aki couldn't make it this weekend, so I was able to go to the morning Vanguard tournament.

The fourth Snogal, my friend who plays Vanguard, and one of his friends were there.  There were four other players, all of whom had no idea what they were doing, so it was going to be pretty easy.  So easy, in fact, that I decided to use my Rumble Gun/Dungaree Narukami deck for the tournament.  The fourth Snogal decided to use my Dark Irregulars deck, and my friend used my Pale Moon deck.

In the first round, I had to play against the fourth Snogal.  I was able to retire a bunch of his units using Dragonic Deathscythe, Rumble Gun Dragon, and Sealed Demon Dragon, Dungaree, but I ended up having to depend on a sixth-damage Heal Trigger to save me.  I was then lucky enough to get a Critical Trigger when he was at four damage when I only had two left in the deck to win.

In the second round, I had to play against my friend.  I rode Dungaree so that his 20k Tamer column wouldn't do anything, and my Lizard Soldier, Yowsh was able to bully his Grade 2's.  I just kept retiring his rear-guards and won.  Then, in the third round, I had to play against his friend, so I ended up playing against the only other good players there yesterday...

Anyway, he was playing an Angel Feather deck my friend helped him build.  I retired the only Thousand Ray Pegasus he played with Dragonic Deathscythe, then I was able to retire the only Million Ray Pegasus he played with Dungaree's Limit Break.  The thing is that I didn't open up with any Grade 3's, then I drew three and damage checked two, so Rumble Gun would be useless for the rest of the game.  I also got a total of zero triggers, but all of the retiring I did was good enough to allow me to win.

So, I was able to win the tournament with a fun deck, so that was cool.  My friend ended up going 2-1 and getting 3rd place, while the Angel Feather player got 2nd place.  We got a total of 8 packs of Set 3, and all we got was an Edel Rose...

After that, we went to the evening Vanguard tournament.  What was odd was that there were a bunch of people there.  A group of like five little kids who used to go to the morning Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop decided to stop going there and go to this other card shop instead.  I don't know why, but it meant that more packs would be going into the prize pool, so we were fine with that.

There was a total of 24 players there yesterday.  I was running my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck, my friend was running his Shadow Paladin deck, and the fourth Snogal was running his Ezel Gold Paladin deck.

So in the first two rounds, I played against little kids who used to go to the morning Vanguard tournaments and won 2-0.  In the third round, I got sacked really badly by a Nova Grappler player who didn't really know what he was doing.  But, you don't need to know what you're doing if you keep getting double triggers and Heal Triggers.  I also missed the ride chain, but at least I got double Critical Triggers in the second game to win.

So yeah, I ended up going 2-1 after the three rounds of Swiss.  My friend also went 2-1, and the fourth Snogal went 3-0.  They cut to Top 8 and we all made it.  None of us were paired up against each other, so that was good.

I played against a little kid who was using Spike Brothers and was able to win the first game because he got gradestuck on Grade 2.  I got gradestuck on Grade 2 for a few turns in the second game, but I got my triggers and he didn't, so I still won the match.

The fourth Snogal got paired up against a kid who used to go to the morning Vanguard tournaments who used Royal Paladins and won easily.  My friend played against an Ezel Gold Paladin player and won using Phantom Blaster Overlord's Persona Blast.  And just like that, we took up three spots in the Top 4.  The other player was the Nova Grappler player I had to play against earlier.

The prize for 1st place was a box of Set 6.  We all agreed to a four-way split, meaning that he would get 8 packs, and we would get the rest.  So, we got 22 packs of Set 6, and ended up pulling all of the RRR's.  We got a Desert Gunner, Shiden; Battle Cupid, Nociel; and Blond Ezel.  We also got another Cosmo Healer, Ergodiel; a Love Machine Gun; Nociel, and a Pure Keeper, Requiel.  It was like the same stuff as last time, except that we pulled an Ezel.

So that's about it.  The fourth Snogal is planning on making a Kaijudo deck, so that's cool.  And my friend also wants to make a new Kaijudo deck, so we're going to figure that out this week.  I'll probably try to make a new deck, too, since I don't just want to run Megabugs forever, especially since Dragons are popular at my locals.  But yeah, we'll see what happens.

Tournament Report 8/3/13 & 8/4/13

I went to locals as usual this weekend.

My friend who plays Vanguard, the fourth Snogal, and I showed up at the usual card shop for their morning Vanguard tournament.  There were about 9 other players, all of whom were bad.  My friend was using his Shadow Paladin deck, the fourth Snogal was using his Ezel Gold Paladin deck, and I was using my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck.

In the first round, I played against a The End Kagero player, and he had no idea of what he was doing at all.  Like, he attacked my rear-guard Glass Beads Dragon with his Vanguard The End, checked a Critical Trigger and a Draw Trigger, and gave the Critical to The End and all of the power to his rear-guard.  I put my Glass Beads Dragon in the drop zone, and he just sat there waiting for me to take two damage.  He didn't even have another copy of The End to use the Persona Blast.  But yeah, he was really bad, so I just beat him up with 21k columns once he finally decided to attack my Vanguard.  It's not that he was afraid of the Limit Break, since he didn't even know what Sephirot did; he just liked attacking my rear-guards with his Vanguard for some reason.

In the second round, I was paired against the fourth Snogal, and I gave him the win because he had better tie-breakers than me.  After that round, there ended up being three undefeated players left: the fourth Snogal, my friend, and a little kid.  I got paired up against the little kid, who was using Royal Paladins.  He rode Majesty Lord Blaster and called Star-call Trumpeter, but didn't use its effect.  He didn't have the Blasters to put into the soul, so I just beat him up with 20k columns to win.

My friend had worse tie-breakers than the fourth Snogal, so the fourth Snogal gave my friend the win.  The fourth Snogal ended up getting 2nd place, and I got 3rd, so since my friend got 1st, we got all of the spots in the Top 3 and all of the prizes, which were 12 packs, excluding entry packs.  We pulled a Battle Sister, Cookie and a Chrome Jailer Dragon, but that's about it.

Between tournaments, we mainly played a fun format of Vanguard that my friend and I made up: the Snogal Format.  In that format, all cards are treated as being from the same clan, so all clan-based effects work the way they're supposed to.  However, you can only play one of each card, meaning that a deck would be composed of 50 different cards.  There's also a limit of 4 Grade 1 8k vanillas and perfect guards are banned.

It makes the game a lot more interesting.  Building a deck is actually difficult, since there are so many different good cards to choose from, and you have to consider interactions between cards of different clans.  For instance, High Dog Breeder, Akane can superior call any High Beast, including stuff like Silver Wolf, Dark Metal Bicorn, Geograph Giant, and Luck Bird.  There also interactions like those between Deadly Spirit and Winged Dragon, Skyptero.  Not to mention all of the different options you have for triggers.  Of course, you would use Lozenge Magus and Sunny Smile Angel, since those are the only Heal Triggers with practical effects (if you decide not to play 16 Critical Triggers, that is), but for the rest of the triggers, you can use any combination that you want.

But yeah, it's a really interesting format.  Ironically, both my friend and I came up with similarly-themed decks.  But, I'm going to try and figure out another possible Snogal Format deck if I have the time.

After all of that interesting Vanguard, we went to the other card shop for the usual boring Vanguard at the evening tournament.  There were actually 20 other players there, all of whom were still bad, but there were a lot more than usual.  I realized that it was because of the Welcome Campaign.  However, that card shop doesn't even give out the free stuff.  They raffled off two of the deck boxes and a few promo packs, then kept the rest, since they're really cheap and greedy and stuff.

Either way, the prize for 1st place would be a box of Set 6, so that was nice.  We used the same decks as before, except for the fourth Snogal, who decided to use my Dark Irregulars deck after seeing at least four other people using Ezel Gold Paladin decks.

Round 1: vs Narukami (Vermillion)

This was my Top 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He assumed that he would lose because he had to play against me again.  I won the first game pretty easily despite missing the ride chain, then I got gradestuck on Grade 2 in the second game.  I missed the ride chain entirely, riding Caramel Popcorn, moving Ratoon to the front and calling another Caramel Popcorn behind it.  I was able to keep getting triggers and killing his rear-guards so that I could stay in the game, and he exhausted a lot of his cards in an attempt to prevent my Vanguard Glass Beads Dragon from hitting his rear-guard Dusty Plasma Dragon, so once I finally got my Sephirot, I was able to win through use of the Limit Break.  He complained constantly that I guarded his Grade 2 Vanguard for no pass when he attacked without a booster and he checked a Critical Trigger.  "If only that Crit made it through..."  He also complained about getting beat up by a Grade 0.  That Ratoon put in a lot of work, though it didn't survive through the entire game.

OO

Round 2: vs Narukami

I was playing against a new player with a modified Trail Deck.  He didn't use Plasmabite Dragon's effect wastefully, though, so that showed that he was at least somewhat competent.  I just made 20k columns with the Limit Break to win.

OO

Round 3: vs Neo Nectar (Arboros Dragon)

This was my Round 2 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He was using his cousin's Arboros Dragon deck or something.  Anyway, he got the ride chain in the first game, and I got gradestuck, so I lost.  I got my ride chain in the second game and he didn't, so I won.  And he got his ride chain in the third game and I didn't, so I lost.

XOX

With that, they cut to Top 8.  My friend was undefeated and was ranked 2nd place.  The fourth Snogal was 2-1 and got 12th place, unfortunately.  I was 2-1 and got 7th place, meaning that I would have to play against my friend.  He decided to give me the win, since I had a better chance against the rest of the Top 8.

I had to play against the winner of the match between 3rd and 6th, which was an Ezel Gold Paladin player.  He had beaten a Machining Megacolony deck, sadly.

Top 4: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel)

This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I got gradestuck for a turn on Grade 1 and missed my ride chain in the first game, but he got gradestuck for three turns, so it didn't matter.  I got my ride chain in the second game, so I won.

OO

The match between the 4th and 5th place players was between Ezel Gold Paladin and a little kid with a modified Aqua Force Trail deck (I don't even know how he got 4th place after Swiss...).  The Gold Paladin player won, of course.  He ended up playing against the 8th place player, who had beaten my Round 3 opponent in his Top 8 match using The End Kagero.  The Gold Paladin player was really bad, so if he were to win, my friends said that I should just play for it and win the box.  However, if the Kagero player were to win, they were okay with accepting a split.  Well, the Kagero player won, so we split the box with him.

So, we got 15 packs of Set 6, pulling a Desert Gunner, Shiden; Battle Cupid, Nociel; Cosmo Healer, Ergodiel; and Pure Keeper, Requiel.  Not bad, I suppose.

On the following day, my friend, Aki, and I were able to make it to the Kaijudo tournament.  There were a total of 5 players there, which was because of the Kaijudo Championship occurring on the same day (today...).  The other two players were Riku and Fwazalaza, so it was a pretty relaxed tournament.

My friend was using his DFN Aggro deck, Aki was using his LWF Dragon Aggro deck, Riku was using a DFN Aggro deck, and I was using my LFN Megabug deck.

Round 1: vs LWDN Control

I was playing against Fwazalaza.

-Duel 1: I attacked with Manapod Beetle on turn 4, hitting Bottle of Wishes, which got him Andromeda of the Citadel.  If I were impatient, I probably would have scooped.  However, I continued playing long enough to see that he had three more Shield Blasts down, which meant that I was doomed from the start.
-Duel 2: He was able to ramp with Reap and Sow to play Andromeda on turn 8.  That, along with another Andromeda and a total of 6 Shield Blasts in his 9 shields meant that I couldn't win.

XX

After that, I ended up getting a bye.  Aki beat Riku in the first round, so Aki and Fwazalaza were paired against each other in the second round.  Riku was paired up against my friend who plays Vanguard and won, meaning that that was the final round.  Aki ended up beating Fwazalaza in the finals to get 1st place.  I recorded the match, so that will go up on my YouTube channel later this week.

So, since there were only 5 people, everyone got a holo Sprout, and Aki got another one because he got 1st place.  That brings our holo Sprout total to 8.  Because Sprout is such a good card, right?  To be honest, it's nice that most of the promo cards aren't that great, so that they wouldn't be very expensive, and it wouldn't even matter if you missed out on getting them.

Anyways, Aki got 3 packs for winning.  Riku and Fwazalaza tied for 2nd place and each got one additional pack.  All Aki pulled was a King Poseidon, which was sad.  We didn't pull any other holos.

So that's about it.  I'll probably be able to attend locals both days next weekend, so yeah.