Tournament Report 6/5/10

Like I said in yesterday's post, I went with a control-based Genex deck. It mained Rai-Ohs and other controlling stuff, like Smashing Ground. I have to admit, I thought that triple Smashing Ground was overrated, but it's actually quite useful.

For some reason, a lot of people were playing Gladiator Beasts. There was only one guy with X-Sabers and no Infernities.

Round 1: vs Synchro Deck

-Duel 1: I got killed by Gorz.
-Duel 2: I sided in Royal Oppressions and D.D. Crows, but they didn't appear. I still won, though.
-Duel 3: It was almost time, so I kept poking for damage so that I wouldn't lose in time. It seemed as though he drew badly, and I ended up killing him when he ran into my Starlight Road.

Round 2: vs Machina Gadgets

-Duel 1: Gadgets get too many pluses...
-Duel 2: I had both of the Legendary Jujitsu Masters that I sided in. I also drew both Cyber Dragons, but I Chimeratech Fortress Dragon'ed off of his Cyber Dragon, using Genex Controller. When he finally drew a Gadget, I negated its summon with Solemn Judgment.
-Duel 3: He kept drawing everything he needed. He even had Oppression to stop me from making a comeback, and I drew Gorz one turn too late.

Round 3: vs Newbie Deck

I won both duels...

Round 4: vs Gladiator Beasts

-Duel 1: First turn Snowman Eater is too good. Then, I dropped Rai-Oh and kept reviving Dragon Ice to mess with him. He also drew his Chariot too late.

After he lost the first duel, my opponent gave me the match.

Round 5: vs Frog Monarchs

I had mixed feelings about this deck. It can draw dead, but when it draws well, there's no stopping it from winning.

-Duel 1: I started with Genex Undine, dumping E-Hero Bubbleman. Yes, Bubbleman. It's my one teched E-Hero for my one teched Miracle Fusion, which was conveniently in my hand. Next turn, I used it for Absolute Zero, and dropped Rai-Oh to prevent any Dupe Frog searching. His set Monster wasn't Dupe Frog, it was Ronintoadin, but it didn't stop me from attacking over it with Absolute Zero. However, he drew Treacherous Trap Hole to clear my two Monsters next turn. Closer to the end of the duel, he had regained control. But, when he Special Summoned Ronintoadin in Main Phase 2, I revived Dragon Ice. On my turn, I topped Genex Controller, which I tuned to my Treeborn Frog and Dragon Ice for Mist Wurm! I somehow won Game 1 against Frogs.
-Duel 2: I Creviced his two Treeborn Frogs, but it was too late, since he had already dumped all of his Frogs into the Graveyard for Ronintoadin. I also noted that he Special Summoned his Swap Frogs more often than he Normal Summoned them. I should start siding Swallow Flip for this match-up...
-Duel 3: He had Treacherous Trap Hole, again, but didn't have any Monarchs for a while, so he locked me with triple Dupe Frog. Fortunately for me, when he did summon a Monarch, it was Thestalos, which discarded my Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World! I was able to clear away all of his Dupe Frogs, and set up for an OTK next turn. Unfortunately, he had Gorz, which stopped my OTK. I tuned for Colossal Fighter in Main Phase 2, but he Brain Controlled it and tributed it for Caius. He won from there.

Unfortunately, I ended up with a 3-2 record, which means that I didn't win any store credit. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to fix up my deck and try again next weekend.

I mainly need to work on the Machina Gadget match-up, Frog match-up, and probably the Infernity match-up. I think that Consecrated Light is overrated, since Infernity players can easily deal with it with Fissure, Raigeki Break, or Book of Moon, and Blackwing players have Icarus Attack, and are starting to play Legendary Jujitsu Master and Ryko. Eh, I'm sure I'll figure out something...

Random Stuff #9

I haven't had the time this week to post, so I'm posting now.

For 5D's Episode 112, they waste half of the episode with Jack chasing the Crimson Devil or whatever. Then, Jack finally duels Synchro Fusionis--I mean, the Crimson Devil's "Familiar." It conveniently uses burn, which Jack gets owned by. But, based on some of the cards from Starstrike Blast, Jack will make up some new Red Dragon Archfiend-based cards to summon his Scar-Red Nova Dragon.

Anyways, I'm going to locals tomorrow. I'm short on money, so I'm just going to duel with a deck I have to win store credit so that I can buy a new Starter Deck, the Duelist Toolbox, as it's called...

So, I'll be taking a control-based Genex deck. Speaking of Genex, I found a lot of successful decks that used Genex Undine/Controller in the past on Shriek. That was like two years ago, but it's still nice to see Genex doing well. I was thinking about using something like some of the builds I saw, but with D.D. Crow running around, Treeborn Frog isn't the best card to rely on...

Well, Aki has been very busy lately, so we haven't been able to take videos. I've got a new deck I want to feature, since some people have been requesting it for some reason. The Infernity loops are more interesting than some other stuff, but they're not the first thing I would choose to watch.

Moreover, I'm going to try and sell all of my Infernity cards soon, since I don't really like the deck, and it's way too easy to side against. Besides, I kind of need the money for Gold Series 3. I want the Blackwing Synchros and some of the other nice Gold cards, but I'll probably just buy singles. A few of the Commons are nice, though.

So, with Infernity/Frog craziness occurring, it's not the best time to be playing decks that can be wrecked by D.D. Crow. Maybe that's why Machina Gadgets are doing so well; you can't chain D.D. Crow to Machina Fortress' revival, since it's an inherent Special Summon. That means that you would have to -1 yourself preemptively if you want to use D.D. Crow.

I'm not sure what else to talk about, so I think I'll just go and sleep...

Teaching Strategy

You're walking along, and you see two children playing a children's card game on the street. One of them sets a bunch of their cards face-down. You see that the other has a card in his hand that you know all too well: Heavy Storm.

What do you say? "Hey, kid, don't sell all of your Spells and Traps with no protection."

"But what if they're chainable?"

"Then don't set too many cards that aren't chainable."

"How many is too many?"

"The amount of Spells/Traps your opponent has plus one, minus the amount of chainables you have."

"But what if I do have protection?"

"Then make sure that the cards you set are worth protecting."

"How do I know if they're worth protecting?"

You run into trouble with that question. How are you supposed to define such a relative criterion like that? It's worth protecting all of your back rows from an Infernity player's Giant Trunade, but is it worth that much against a Gadget player's Heavy Storm?

This is actually a pretty simple example. What would you say when someone asks you to explain how to Side Deck or which Level 8 Synchro Monster they should play against their opponent's Shura and three back rows?

Basically, you can't teach someone something as complicated as strategy, even if it is for a children's card game. Strategy in general is basically something that can only be learned. To pick it up, you need to watch people who know what they're doing and try to understand the reasoning behind their plays.