KMC Report 10/5/13

I was able to go to the KMC in Anaheim, since it was held at the locals I usually attend.  Aki and the fourth Snogal were also able to make it.  So, I was finally able to get the General Finbarrs I needed from the fourth Snogal.  Unfortunately, Aki's deck also needed General Finbarrs, and the shop only had one of those starter decks left, so I still had to borrow Finbarrs from Fwazalaza.  Other than that, my LWF Aggro deck was done.

There were 33 players there.  Overall, there were quite a few Eternal Haven decks and also a surprising amount of Rush and Aggro decks.  There was nothing too far out of the ordinary.  I was running my LWF Aggro deck, which I had changed a little bit since last week, Aki was running a LWFN Dragon deck that he made earlier this week, and the fourth Snogal was running his LWN Aggro deck.

Round 1: vs LF Rush

-Duel 1: I was able to rush him, but I didn't have the necessary Fast Attackers to finish him off once he had cleared by field with Blinder Beetle Prime.
-Duel 2: He started off with a Magris, so he was able to take a few shields for free.  I was able to hold him off with Star Lantern and Plasma Pincer, then go in to break his shields once I knew I was safe.  I was able to control the game well enough to win.
-Duel 3: He rushed in with Magris again, so I played the control game again.  I kept clearing his field with Tornado Flames, Blade Barriers, and such so that I could win regardless of a Shield Blast Stormspark Blast.  My plan didn't work out that well, since he was able to get me down to zero shields, so I just went in.  I got lucky, hitting zero Shield Blasts, so I won.

XOO

Round 2: vs LWFN Dragons

So I was paired against Aki, which was sad.  Four of the other players from locals were also paired against each other at the top tables, so we were forced to knock each other out early...  Regardless, since Aki and I had tested his new deck on the previous night, we had a general idea of how this would go.

-Duel 1: I rushed him before he could do anything and won using Falkora.
-Duel 2: I rushed him, but not fast enough to win before he got to 9 mana thanks to his ramp.  Fortunately, he didn't have Andromeda, so I still won.

OO

Round 3: vs LWFN Aggro

I was paired against Eman of TCGWise, who had just beaten one of his teammates in the previous round.

-Duel 1: He opened with two Pricklebacks, then followed them up with Bronze-Arm Sabertooth, and I couldn't deal with them.
-Duel 2: Same as the first duel, except he also had a Weaponized Razorcat, which I also couldn't deal with.  The creatures that I could drop that early were just too small.

XX

Round 4: vs WFN Aggro

-Duel 1: This guy just wasted all of his cards really quickly.  I was able to kill his Cyber Scamp and Aqua Seneschal before he could get any free pluses by using my Seneschal and Falkora, so I was in a good position.  I just waited for a while before I could go for game and won from there.
-Duel 2: I was fortunate enough to draw a bunch of Seneschals and Flamespitters, so I just went in and broke all of his shields while drawing a bunch of cards.  It was pretty much over from there, since before that point, I had him down to zero cards because he was being rather wasteful.

OO

Round 5: vs LWDN Haven

So at this point, there were two 4-0's, two 3-0-1's, and six 3-1's.  That means that even if all of the players with at least 9 points were to draw, then two of them wouldn't make it to the Top 8.  So, being one of those players with 9 points, I had to play it out.

-Duel 1: I got a decent start and was able to start breaking shields early with stuff like Plasma Pincer and Aqua Seneschal.  Unfortunately, he got three Shield Blasts and was able to ramp up to 9 mana to drop Andromeda after I got him down to zero shields.  That was fine, but then he dropped another Andromeda, and then another.  I strongly considered scooping, but I just played it out until I lost.
-Duel 2: I got a good start with Cyber Scamp, so I was able to just keep pushing through, even though he got Shield Blasts.  He didn't draw any ramp this time, so I was able to win well before turn 9.
-Duel 3: I opened with Cyber Scamp, but no other Water cards, despite the fact that half of my deck is Water.  So, I couldn't really keep up card advantage and quickly lost once he ramped up to 9 mana and played three Andromedas, again... Oh, and I was able to break all of his shields again, and at least three of them were Shield Blasts, again...

XOX

So that was really disappointing.  Like, seriously depressing.  Just like I lost my chance to win the KMC in Las Vegas due to multiple Shield Blasts, I lost my chance here to the same thing.  I do admit that I was playing a really cheesy deck this time, but that's because in this meta, you have to either play Control or some sort of Rush or Aggro.  Mid-range doesn't exist anymore, which is sad.

Anyways, Aki also went 3-2, and the fourth Snogal went 2-3.  I don't know what their final rankings were, but apparently I was the highest-ranked 3-2, because I got 9th place.  Well, whatever.

Fwazalaza, Eman, and Stephen L. all made Top 8.  Eman and Stephen had to play each other in the Top 8, a match which Eman recorded and uploaded to his channel.  I haven't seen it yet, but there it is.  Fwazalaza ended up playing against a Megabug player in the Top 8 (from what I could tell, he was the only Megabug player at the whole tournament, and he was running LWFN for some reason).  Fwazalaza lost that match, despite having considerable experience playing against Megabugs...

While that was happening, Aki, the fourth Snogal, and I went out to eat, since we didn't want to watch a bunch of control mirrors.  After that, we came back to hear that Fwazalaza had lost, which was sad.  The only Light player in the Top 8 also lost his match, so that was disappointing, since I had chosen Light (obviously...).

After that, Aki, the fourth Snogal, Fwazalaza, and I decided to go to the other card shop for their Vanguard tournament, since it was relatively early.  It was Fwazalaza's first Vanguard tournament, but he was quite good.  As I was telling Kaijudo players who asked me about Vanguard (because I had my SP Dungaree out while playing in the KMC), "If you play Kaijudo, then you're already overqualified for Vanguard."

When we got to the other card shop, we met Ray and his friend there.  The six of us entered the tournament: Aki was running his Shadow Paladin deck, Fwazalaza was running Aki's Vermillion Narukami deck (the easiest deck we had with us), Ray was running his Liberator garbage deck, his friend was running Soulless OTT, the fourth Snogal was running my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck, and I was running my Rumble Gun/Dungaree Narukami deck.  There were about 24 players there in total.

And, because the usual card shop cancelled their Vanguard tournament due to the KMC, most of the little kids who go to the morning Vanguard tournament came to the evening Vanguard tournament instead.  I got paired against the one whom I played against in the first round of last weekend's morning Vanguard tournament.  I won 2-0 because he's still bad at this game.

Aki ended up losing his match because he got gradestuck and otherwise sacked.  Ray won his match, but his friend got gradestuck and lost.  There's more to it than that, but it's Vanguard, so it's not important.  Fwazalaza and the fourth Snogal got paired against each other, and the fourth Snogal won.

In the second round, I was paired against the fourth Snogal, so I gave him the win.  Aki and Fwazalaza were paired against each other, so Aki gave Fwazalaza the win.  Ray and his friend won their matches.  In the third round, I was paired against Aki, so he gave me the win and we played Duel Masters instead.  Fwazalaza, the fourth Snogal, Ray, and his friend all won their matches.

The fourth Snogal and I were paired against each other in the Top 8.  Ray also made it, but his friend didn't.  Fwazalaza got 9th, so he didn't make it.  I gave the fourth Snogal the win and just played Kaijudo with Fwazalaza.  Ray lost his Top 8 match to Aqua Dorks, again... The fourth Snogal won his Top 4 match, but lost in the finals, so he only got 6 packs.  We pulled nothing of interest.

We also got the new promos packs.  Out of the six of us, two of us pulled Gerard, which were given to Ray so that he could trade or sell them.  One of us pulled Machining Armor Beetle, which went to me.  The other three pulled garbage.  And, using the Gerard I gave him last weekend, Ray was able to get me a Machining Stag Bettle and a Sword Magician Sarah, so now I just need two more Armor Beetles to finish my Machining Deck.

So that was it for this weekend.  I did go to locals this morning for the Kaijudo tournament because I didn't have any homework, but no one was there except for Fwazalaza, so we just got some free promos and played Vanguard.  That's about it.  I will be going to locals next Saturday after getting Pokemon X on Friday (I assume I'll get it a day early because I have a Japanese 3DS and will be buying it from the eShop...).