Tournament Report 12/3/11

I went to locals today, as usual. Also as usual, I took my T.G. Zombies.

There were 30 players there, including plenty of regulars.

Round 1: vs T.G. Zombies

A mirror match, really...? Anyways, I was playing against a regular who I hadn't played against before.

-Duel 1: We both had lackluster hands from what I could tell, and I just made a Leviair with his Sangan and my Spirit Reaper, which was Veiled, to beat him down. He Creature Swapped to take it, and I Creature Swapped it back. I had answers to most of his plays and was able to win fairly easily.

-Duel 2: The duel ended with my Brionac clearing his field and going for game. I don't remember the beginning; it wasn't too eventful.

Round 2: vs Malefic Skill Drain

I was playing against vadangchoinga.

-Duel 1: He opened with a bunch of back rows and a Beast King Barbaros. Skill Drain stopped my effects, Safe Zone protected Barbaros, and Dark Bribe protected the back row. Nothing I could do.

-Duel 2: He didn't have as many back rows, and I was able to Creature Swap his Ancient Gear Gajiltron Dragon to beat him down.

-Duel 3: I tried to make a push with Brionac, but got shut down by Skill Drain. From there, I made a Colossal Fighter to stall. He couldn't get through it, so we just ended up Setting back rows for a while. I drew into Heavy Storm to destroy the Safe Zone protecting his Barbaros and a Skill Drain, and my Set Compulsory Evacuation Device bounced his Gajiltron Dragon. I was able to beat him down with Colossal Fighter and Splendid Rose with his field cleared.

Round 3: vs Six Samurai

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened pretty badly, with two Kagemusha and no other Monsters, but I opened pretty badly, too. I couldn't get over the 1800 DEF of his Kagemusha and through his back row, so we were just sitting there until he made a Shi En backed by a full back row. My Gorz got Warned, and I scooped.

-Duel 2: I Dust Tornado'd and MST'd everything he Set and destroyed his Solidarities with Scrap Dragon. He couldn't do anything top-decking.

-Duel 3: He attacked with Mizuho, and I dropped Gorz. Kizan attacked over the Token, and he tributed the Kizan for Mizuho's effect. I had Effect Veiler, though, and he regretted not using Warning on the Gorz. I beat him up slowly with Gorz, but he played a second Solidarity, Kageki, and Grandmaster to run over my Monsters. I made double Synchro'd up to Black Rose Dragon using T.G. Striker, T.G. Warwolf, and Plaguespreader Zombie to destroy his field. He only had 400 LP left, so I revived Plaguespreader with its own effect to attack for game.

Round 4: vs Zombie Plants

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He drew a lackluster hand, and I was able to capitalize with Creature Swaps on the few good Monsters he did drop. Splendid Rose helped out, too.

-Duel 2: He opened with Reborn Tengu and a back row. Rai-Oh ran over the first Tengu, and I stole the second one with Mind Control to overlay for Number 39: Utopia. I attacked his Set Monster next turn, and he used Book of Moon on Utopia. He used his Set Spore and a summoned Zombie Master to make Magical Android. When he attacked, I used my own Book of Moon. But, when I Flip Summoned Utopia, I lost it to Solemn Warning. So, I Set T.G. Striker. He attacked it, and I got T.G. Warwolf. That let me make T.G. Wonder Magician with a second Striker on my turn, destroying his Set Soul Release (he forgot to play it last turn). Creature Swap switched our Synchros, and I attacked over my Wonder Magician with his Magical Android to draw a card. From there, I was able to beat him down with his Magical Android, and he didn't have any answers.

Round 5: vs Stun

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. This was the finals, but we decided not to split, since neither of us wanted anything specific, and the prizes were pretty good for both 1st and 2nd.

-Duel 1: I made an early push with Caius, but he got rid of it with D.D. Warrior Lady. Dark Hole cleared out his Monsters, and I made a push with Brionac to finish him off.

-Duel 2: I had pretty decent control over the duel, but he was able to chip away at my LP. He used Dark Hole to clear out my field, and I died to a Breaker.

-Duel 3: I opened with a Set Snowman Eater. He opened with King Tiger Wanghu and Dimensional Fissure. Snowman Eater's effect destroyed Wanghu, and I supposed Warwolf to overlay for Leviair and steal his banished Wanghu. I beat him down with those two Monsters for a bit, but his D.D. Warrior Lady banished my Leviair, and he made his own Leviair using Banisher of the Radiance and my Warwolf (Monster Reborn). I was forced to get rid of it with my Brionac's effect after failing to destroy it with Utopia, otherwise he would be able to use its effect to grab back his Wanghu, which I didn't have an answer to. That Brionac cleared his field on the following turn and allowed me to go for game.

So, I went undefeated and got 1st place. Using the store credit I got, I bought a Super Rare Royal Decree, two Photon Sabre Tigers, a Secret Rare Gallis the Star Beast, and some Duel Masters-sized sleeves for Aki.

So yeah, I'm not sure what else I can do with the deck. It seems to be pretty solid now that I added more Spell/Trap destruction to the Side Deck and started playing Heavy Storm again.

Tournament Report 11/26/11

As I said yesterday, I would be able to go to locals again today. Of course, I took my T.G. Zombies, since all of the other decks I have right now aren't really good enough for tournaments... Sad...

There were 38 players today, including plenty of regulars. There's really too many to list. There were also plenty of new people; one of my friends said that many of them went to Sunday tournaments, but they're new to me.

Round 1: vs Newbie X-Sabers

He ran Gardestrike, hence "Newbie X-Sabers." Trishula is really mean to newbs...

Round 2: vs Blackwings

-Duel 1: I controlled with Traps and Gorz and such. He didn't really draw into many Shuras/Boras, and I Creature Swapped the one Shura he did draw, so it wasn't too difficult.

-Duel 2: I feared Heavy Storm and Icarus Attack and played conservatively with my back row. That doomed me when he just used a Mystical Space Typhoon to clear out my one card and OTK me.

-Duel 3: I drew out his Gorz fairly early, sent it back to his hand with Compulsory Evacuation Device, then summoned Trishula. I missed his Gorz (I had a 50% chance), but I was able to defend with Dimensional Prison and kill him with Splendid Rose.

Round 3: vs Vayusworn

I think that I had played against this guy before, but it would have been years ago.

-Duel 1: He milled a lot quickly with two Lylas, but I dropped Trishula to remove the Lumina in his Graveyard and the Wulf on his field to cut down on the Lightsworn count in his grave. I ended up dropping Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using his Ehren, Goblin Zombie, and Plaguespreader Zombie. That discarded his Judgment Dragon and went for game on the following turn.

-Duel 2: I made Decisive Armor very early in the duel, but his only Light was a Judgment Dragon, again. Either way, I was able to beat him up with the Decisive Armor and a Number 39: Utopia (I would've made Steelswarm Roach, but Decisive Armor showed me the Sirocco in his hand). Either way, there wasn't much he could do after that.

Round 4: vs Newbie Wind-Ups

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. Trishula was really mean to him both games. My Duel Terminal Trishula seems to be much more evil than the Secret Rare one, ha ha.

Round 5: vs Diva Zombies

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. I overheard his friends and brother tell him not to split, and I was perfectly fine with that (not because I expected to win, which I did, but because the prizes today were really good today because there were so many participants, even for second and third place).

-Duel 1: I opened with a Set Goblin Zombie. He Set Goblin Zombie and a back row. I Tribute Summoned Caius, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format, ha ha. After a while, he swarmed with my Spirit Reaper (Monster Reborn), a Goblin Zombie, and Dark Armed Dragon. I had enough outs in my hand to not care what he hit with Reaper. He missed my Dark Hole, so I played it. After that, I beat him down with Mystic Tomato for a few turns, and he didn't have any answers.

-Duel 2: I played conservatively with my back row again, fearing Heavy Storm, and lost out to Mystical Space Typhoon and a random swarm. I was already down too many cards since he Trishula'd me using Deep Sea Diva and Mystic Tomato.

-Duel 3: We started off just Setting Monsters, just like in the Zombie/Lightsworn format. I drew into my Caius, banishing his Set Goblin Zombie and running over the other one. He stalled for a bit behind a Spirit Reaper, and I just sat there gathering resources. I eventually made a Brionac/Mezuki play to bounce his field and swarm for game. He said that if I didn't kill him that turn, he would've killed me on his turn, but I had a Maxx "C" in hand and a decent back row, so I was pretty safe, even if he did have Gorz.

So yeah, I went undefeated and got 1st place and a mess load of store credit. I got a couple of packs of sleeves, some more Bottomless Trap Holes, and a Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon tin. From the packs in the tin, I pulled a Forbidden Lance and an Ultra Rare Gladiator Beast Essedarii. I traded both to the friend that I played against after this tournament, and we had a few duels afterwards.

He rebuilt his Gladiator Beast deck, and I used my not-so-great Karakuri deck to test it out. We played five duels, and I won four of them. Two were due to me sniping his Solemn Judgment/Starlight Road with MST, then playing Heavy Storm on his remaining three/four back rows. Good stuff.

Because I got that Galaxy-Eyes tin, I once again have two Solemn Warnings, and now I have three Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo. I don't think I'll be using them in my T.G. Zombie deck, but we'll see.

Tournament Report 11/25/11

I was fortunate enough to be able to go to locals today, in addition to being able to go tomorrow, as usual. Yay Thanksgiving, I suppose.

So, I was thinking about using Karakuri, since the deck seems good. So, I made a Karakuri deck and tested a little bit with it. It sucks. I don't know how Karakuri decks do so well at big events; they're so combo oriented and there are some situations where you just can't do anything at all for turns at a time just because you drew an awkward hand. So, I just fixed up my T.G. Zombies Side Deck and took that deck to locals... We'll probably be seeing the Karakuri deck in some duel videos, eventually, though.

There were 23 players there today with only four or five regulars. On the upside, there were only a few little kids. But, who do I have to play against first...?

Round 1: vs Newbie Evil HEROes

So maybe he wasn't a little kid, but he was a newb. I OTK'd him with his own Evil HERO Dark Gaia in the first duel and ran him through with Trishula on the second duel.

Round 2: vs Dino-Rabbit

Normally, I would call it Rabbit Laggia, but it's also based around Dolkka in the TCG. By the way, this was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with no Monsters and played defensively. I wasn't really able to make a push, so I just waited until he made a random push with Brionac (he stole my X-Saber Pashuul with Mind Control). I responded with Gorz, and he had to waste his Smashing Ground. I had the T.G. Striker and Warwolf to make Ally of Justice Catastor and kill the Brionac. I held out behind that Catastor for a while, but he had his own Gorz, which destroyed my Catastor. Trishula got rid of his Gorz and I ran him through with that.

-Duel 2: He opened with Rescue Rabbit to Xyz Summon Evolzar Laggia and Set a couple cards. I attempted to Special Summon Striker, but he used Solemn Warning. So, I just Set Warwolf and Dust Tornado. He summoned and attacked with Sangan to destroy Warwolf and with Laggia directly. I Chained Dust Tornado, hitting his Torrential Tribute, so that I could drop Gorz. I searched another Striker with Warwolf's effect in the End Phase and ran over Laggia with Gorz, leaving my Token in Defense Position and Setting Call of the Haunted. He summoned Tour Guide to grab a second one and make Number 17: Leviathan Dragon. He detached a Tour Guide to boost Leviathan Dragon's ATK, then dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. He attacked Gorz with BLS, then my Token with Leviathan Dragon. He tried to attack with BLS again, but I pointed out that it couldn't use its second attack since he already attacked with his Leviathan Dragon. I took 1000 damage from Sangan, though. I Special Summoned my Striker, Normal Summoned Goblin Zombie, and Special Summoned Warwolf with Call of the Haunted to make Trishula. That banished his BLS and a Kabazauls from his Graveyard, but he didn't have any cards in hand to banish. I tried to run over Leviathan Dragon, but he flipped Magic Cylinder. He used Leviathan Dragon's effect to boost it to 3000 ATK and run over Trishula. I made a Brionac with my third Striker and the Goblin Zombie I searched after Synchro Summoning Trishula. That let me search Mezuki, which I pitched to bounce the Leviathan Dragon. From there, it was draw-pass-draw-pass, since I didn't want to kill the Sangan and let him grab another Rescue Rabbit. We weren't really building up resources, however, since I kept drawing into Mystical Space Typhoons and Dust Tornadoes to destroy the back rows he kept drawing. After a while, I drew a Caius and tributed Brionac to summon it and banish Sangan. He dropped Gorz off of the 1000 damage, burning me for 1000. I sent a card from my hand (Snowman Eater) to the top of my deck for Plaguespreader Zombie so that I could make a Scrap Dragon and run over the Gorz. From there, I continued to destroy what few cards he had left, and I rode that Scrap Dragon to victory.

Playing against Dino-Rabbits isn't as bad as I thought, I suppose. It would still horrible to lose to them, though, since it's a luck deck like Six Samurai or Lightsworn...

Round 3: vs Macro Cosmos Stun

-Duel 1: He drew the perfect hand to counter my hand. He almost OTK'd me, but I blocked with Gorz. I kept the 2700 Token (he Trishula'd me...) in Defense Position to block, but he topped Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind to kill me.

-Duel 2: I drew four of my five Spell/Trap destruction cards over the course of the duel to keep his Dimensional Fissure/Macro Cosmos off of the field. He couldn't do much without them.

-Duel 3: He made a passive play with Reborn Tengu and one back row. I summoned Zombie Master to run it over and Set a back row. He drew into Dimensional Fissure and played it. I ran over the second Tengu, and the third was in his hand. He drew a D.D. Survivor to crash with my Zombie Master, though. I held the Survivor off for a bit with Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth. He drew into a Dimensional Prison to get rid of my Gaia Knight, but I drew into a Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Dimensional Fissure. From there, he Set a bunch of Monsters, and I wanted to used Torrential Tribute, but I was worried he had Starlight Road. Under the assumption that he had Starlight Road, I just pushed through the two Monsters, making a Leviair with my Spirit Reaper and T.G. Warwolf to grab his banished D.D. Warrior Lady. Leviair got removed by a Dimensional Prison, but the Warrior Lady ran over a Set Gale. I ran over his other Set Monster next turn, and it turned out to be Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo, which destroyed the Warrior Lady. With my field cleared, I was ready to make Trishula with the usual Striker, Warwolf, and Goblin Zombie, but he used Debunk on Warwolf. So, I settled for making Brionac and pushing for a little damage with that. He was able to kill the Brionac with Dark Hole, however, and I just Set a couple of Snowman Eaters over the next few turns, while he apparently didn't draw playable Monsters (that's what happens when you play Guardian Eatos). He eventually summoned Deep Sea Diva to make Gachi Gachi Gantetsu. I Flip Summoned both Snowman Eaters to get rid of Gantetsu's Xyz Materials, then summoned Striker to make Scrap Dragon and push for game.

Round 4: vs Gadget Stun

-Duel 1: He drew all of his Smashing Grounds/Fissures to keep killing my Monsters, but I was able to defend myself well enough with Traps so that I didn't die to a Gadget swarm. That gave me the time to outsearch him with my T.G.'s and Goblin Zombies and such. I was able to make a Scrap Dragon and push for game with that.

-Duel 2: I only drew a couple of Traps over the course of the duel, and he beat me down with his Gadgets, Doomcaliber Knights, and seemingly endless Smashing Grounds/Fissures.

-Duel 3: I drew even less Traps than last time (one) and the outcome was the same as the second duel. He just kept drawing Smashing Grounds and Fissures...

Round 5: vs Agent Fairies

I was paired down, so that was kind of disappointing. However, I was paired up against someone really nice, and we had a fun duel (not a "Happy Duel"--there was no crazy Johan OTK... um, actually, now that I think about it...).

-Duel 1: Apparently, he drew two Mystical Shine Balls and no Agents, so I beat him down with Zombies. He dropped BLS, but Torrential Tribute dealt with that, and he had no follow-up.

-Duel 2: Apparently, he drew all three Mystical Shine Balls, but he broke up my hand with Trap Dustshoot (not really, it was Monster Reborn, Mind Control, Dimensional Prison, Mystical Space Typhoon, Warwolf, and Striker, and he sent back the latter). Warwolf ran over a couple of Shine Balls, but he drew into a Rai-Oh, summoned it, but declined to attack. I summoned Goblin Zombie and used Mind Control. He dropped Maxx "C", so I attacked before overlaying for Steelswarm Roach. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, which I negated with Roach, and then summoned Earth, whose effect I Veiled. He dropped BLS, and I had to use Roach's effect again. Finally, he banished the Earth on the field to drop Hyperion and banished one of the three Shine Balls from his Graveyard to destroy my only back row (Dimensional Prison). He attacked over Roach and ended with one card in hand and just Hyperion on the field. I considered my options and decided to drop my hand onto the field. I used Monster Reborn on Goblin Zombie, and he Chained Maxx "C". Ha ha, I was actually happy that he did that. In response to Goblin Zombie's Special Summon, I dropped another Warwolf. I overlaid the two Warwolves for Leviair and used its effect to Special Summon his banished Earth. I Normal Summoned Zombie Master and Synchro Summoned Ally of Justice Decisive Armor using it, Goblin Zombie, and Earth. I searched Mezuki with Goblin Zombie and Set my MST. Because of Maxx "C", he had drawn five cards--five cards that I could see with Decisive Armor's third effect. It turns out that he had drawn into Hyperion, Venus, and Kristya with only 4500 LP left. Yay, Decisive Armor!

So I ended up going 4-1, but because of lackluster tiebreakers, I was the lowest 4-1 (4th place). Today's prizes were only for the Top 3, so that was really disappointing... The Turbo Pack wasn't even good (another Zombie Master...).

Oh well. I guess I'll just try again tomorrow.