As usual, I went to locals once more. Shien was actually there this time, so he, Fwazalaza, and I were able to enact our wager. We would all use our Duel Terminal-themed decks (Gustos, Vylons, and Gem-Knights, respectively) and the person with the best record would get $2 from each of the other two. After yesterday's performance, I had confidence in my Gem-Knights and expected to win the glorious prize of $4.
Before the tournament started, Riku stopped by, and we played a couple games of Kaijudo. I helped him with his deck and such after the duels. He didn't bring his Yu-Gi-Oh deck, so he didn't participate in the tournament.
There were mostly regulars at today's tournament. But, as usual, there were still quite a few newbs. I think that there were around 30 people there today.
Round 1: vs Newbie Six Samurai
He wasn't necessarily bad (certainly not as bad as my Six Samurai opponent from yesterday's tournament...), but he wasn't really very good. I almost lost the first game because I missed with Snipe Hunter three times in a row, but won because Gorz is broken. In the second game, I got OTK'd, but I OTK'd him back in the third duel with a Prismaura loop. For those of you unfamiliar with how that works, it involves fusing for Prismaura using Gem-Knight Fusion, Gem-Knight Obsidian, and Gem-Knight Amber. Obsidian Special Summons Amber, Gem-Knight Fusion banishes Obsidian, and Amber gets back Obsidian by discarding Gem-Knight Fusion. If you have another copy of Obsidian, you can skip that last step and just fuse again, which was the case in this game. I just kept recycling my cards and he couldn't do anything about it. When I built Gem-Knights, I certainly didn't think that Amber's Gemini Effect would be this useful...
OXO
Round 2: vs Hieratics
I knew that this guy was running Hieratics, but he knew that I was running Gem-Knights. I think that he also had a vague idea of how they worked.
-Duel 1: I summoned Steelswarm Roach, but he killed it with Treacherous Trap Hole and OTK'd me.
-Duel 2: I summoned Steelswarm Roach, but he killed it with Dark Hole. He didn't have the pieces to OTK, so I kept beating him down for a bit with Citrine, but then he played Treacherous Trap Hole again, then OTK'd me.
XX
This makes me feel like I need to run more defensive back rows, but that would kind of hurt the consistency of my deck. We'll see, I guess.
Round 3: vs Inzektors
This was a regular whom I hadn't played against in over a year. He used to run Naturias when I was running Scraps a long time ago. I'm too lazy to go find the tournament where I last played him, so yeah... And we knew what each other was running.
-Duel 1: I went first with Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled. I then played Pot of Duality, grabbing and playing Future Fusion, dumping Batteryman AAA and Gem-Knight Amber for Prismaura. I ended at that. He summoned Inzektor Centipede and used its effect to equip it with Hornet. He used Hornet's effect to destroy my Future Fusion and searched Dragonfly. He Set a card and ended. I summoned Snipe Hunter and discarded Obsidian to destroy his bluff Foolish Burial. Obsidian's effect got me Amber, and I attacked with everything to kill his Centipede and drop him to 4800 LP. I then overlaid for Number 16: Shock Master and used its effect, preventing him from using Monster Effects. I Set a back row and ended. He Set a Monster and ended. I Normal Summoned Batteryman AAA, Special Summoning the one in my Graveyard and overlaying for Gem-Knight Pearl. I then used Shock Master's effect, detaching the Snipe Hunter to prevent Monster Effects. With Snipe Hunter and Gem-Knight Obsidian in my Graveyard, I played Dark Calling to make a 3000 ATK Evil HERO Dark Gaia. Dark Gaia killed his Set Monster, and Shock Master and Pearl attacked for game.
-Duel 2: He went first with a Set Monster. I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to Special Summon Garnet. I overlaid for Evigishki Merrowgeist and ran over his Set Monster. It was Centipede, so I let it hit the Graveyard. He used Dark Hole, then Monster Reborn on his Centipede. He equipped his Centipede with Zektkaliber, then attacked directly. I summoned Gem-Armadillo to grab Gem-Knight Obsidian, then used Monster Reborn on my Summoner Monk to overlay for Maestroke. I flipped his Centipede face-down to deprive him of Zektkaliber, then attacked over the Centipede. He Set a Monster and a back row and ended. I summoned Gem-Knight Iolite and used it to attack his Set Monster. It was Inzektor Dragonfly, so I took a bit of damage, but then I activated Gemini Spark, tributing Iolite to destroy his Dragonfly and draw a card. That let Maestroke attack directly, and I Set a card to end. From there, I just beat him down with random stuff, since he didn't draw his Inzektor Hornet and was unable to do anything.
OO
Round 4: vs Newbie Dark Worlds
He was a friend of my Round 1 opponent. He was also able to win a game off of me because he had Eradicator Epidemic Virus to rip all of the Spells out of my hand after playing Card Destruction while Skill Drain was up. I just OTK'd him in the first and third game, basically. It would've been an OTK in the third game if he didn't have a Tragoedia, but he just prolonged his defeat by one turn.
OXO
Round 5: vs Dino Rabbit
This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He's a friend of my Round 2 opponent, so he knew that I was playing Gem-Knights, but he had no idea of how they worked.
-Duel 1: I went first, going for Gem-Armadillo, which he used Effect Veiler on. I Set a back row and ended. He used MST on my MST, then played Tour Guide to grab another Tour Guide. He made Wind-Up Zenmaines and Set two back rows before ending. I considered my options, since I had a lot of options, then opted to play another Gem-Armadillo to search Gem-Knight Obsidian. I used Gem-Knight Fusion to fuse Obsidian with Garnet for Citrine, Special Summoning the Garnet with Obsidian's effect. I overlaid my two Armadillos and Garnet for Shock Master, but he used Solemn Warning. I entered my Battle Phase, and he used Forbidden Lance before I declared an attack with Citrine. I guess he didn't know that Citrine doesn't prevent Zenmaines from protecting itself with its Continuous Effect. So, I just ended. He summoned Rescue Rabbit to get two Kabazauls and make Evolzar Laggia to run over my Citrine. I topped Future Fusion and activated it, and he declined to negate it. I sent Amber and Batteryman AAA to the Graveyard, revealing Prismaura. I then summoned Debris Dragon, and he negated the Normal Summon with Laggia's effect. I ended my turn there. He Normal Summoned Sabersaurus and attacked with it and Laggia. I Normal Summoned Summoner Monk and retrieved my Gem-Knight Fusion from my Graveyard by banishing Citrine. I pitched it with Summoner Monk's effect to get Snipe Hunter. I got back my Gem-Knight Fusion again, banishing Obsidian, to discard with Snipe Hunter's effect. I missed the dice roll, but I could keep trying thanks to the awesome power of Gem-Knight Fusion. So, I got it back again, banishing Garnet, and successfully destroyed his Laggia. I then overlaid for Gem-Knight Pearl and ran over his Sabersaurus. I banished Amber to get back Gem-Knight Fusion for the last time and Set a back row. He Set a Monster and a back row and ended. I contemplated destroying his back row with Raigeki Break in the End Phase, and decided to. It was a good choice, since he had just Set Compulsory Evacuation Device. I simply attacked his Set Kabazauls on my next turn and passed. He drew and Set another Monster before ending. I attacked it, and it was the Snowman Eater that I knew that he was Main Decking. He destroyed my Pearl, letting me banish it from the Graveyard to grab back my Gem-Knight Fusion once more. I ended at that. He switched his Zenmaines to Attack Position and attacked directly, dropping me to 2000 LP and letting me drop Gorz. He played Dark Hole, detaching one Xyz Material to save his Zenmaines, but since it was the only card on the field after that, he had to detach the other Xyz Material to protect it from its own destruction effect. From there, I had several options, and decided to use Monster Reborn on my Summoner Monk and pitch Gem-Knight Fusion to grab Gem-Knight Garnet and overlay for Utopia. I attacked over his Zenmaines and ended. He topped Monster Reborn and took my Gorz. When he attacked, I negated with Utopia's effect. I topped Dark Calling and summoned the Snipe Hunter I was holding. I banished the Garnet I had detached from Utopia to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion and pitched it to destroy Gorz. However, I missed the dice roll. It didn't matter, since I then played Dark Calling to make a 3200 ATK Dark Gaia, which was just enough for me to go for game (he had like 4300 LP or something like that).
-Duel 2: He went first, Setting three back rows and summoning a Sabersaurus. I Set Gem-Knight Iolite and three back rows. He flipped Macro Cosmos in the End Phase, which I allowed. He Set another back row and passed, afraid of the Snowman Eaters that I don't play, but probably should. I Set another back row and ended. He summoned another Sabersaurus and I flipped Book of Moon to turn it face-down. He passed. I played Gem-Knight Fusion, then Chained MST to destroy his Macro Cosmos. I expected him to flip another Macro Cosmos, which is what I wanted since I had a second Gem-Knight Fusion in hand and Return from the Different Dimension Set, but he let it through. So, I made Prismaura using my Set Iolite and the Amber in my hand. He immediately bounced it with Compulsory Evacuation Device, and I just got back my Gem-Knight Fusion before ending. He Flip Summoned his Sabersaurus and overlaid his two Dinosaurs for Evolzar Laggia. He attacked directly and ended. I topped and Set Forbidden Chalice before ending. He attacked with Laggia, and I activated Raigeki Break in an attempt to destroy Laggia, discarding Gem-Knight Fusion. He Chained Laggia's effect, and I Chained Forbidden Chalice to negate it. His Laggia died, and he ended. I topped and summoned Gem-Knight Garnet. He negated its summon with Solemn Warning. I played Monster Reborn on his Laggia, and he negated with Solemn Warning. I banished Garnet with Gem-Knight Fusion's Graveyard effect, then flipped Return from the Different Dimension, and he negated with Solemn Judgment. That left LP at 2800 to 2000, but all I had was two Gem-Knight Fusions, so I ended. He played Level Limit - Area B and Set a back row. I topped and summoned Gem-Knight Obsidian and attacked to drop him to 500 LP. He topped Tour Guide and made Leviathan Dragon to kill my Obsidian and drop me to 1800 LP. I drew Dimensional Prison. I shuffled my hand and quickly Set one Gem-Knight Fusion. I pretended to think for a bit before Setting Dimensional Prison. He drew for his turn and used MST on my Gem-Knight Fusion, falling for my bluff. He attacked and I banished Leviathan Dragon with Dimensional Prison. He ended there. I got back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian, then ended. He Set a Monster and ended. I topped my second Obsidian, letting me fuse it with the Amber I drew last turn using Gem-Knight Fusion. That let me Fusion Summon Prismaura in Defense Position, and Obsidian let me revive Amber in Defense Position. I Gemini Summoned Amber and banished Obsidian from my Graveyard to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion. I pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to grab back Obsidian. At this point, all I had in hand was Obsidian and a Gem-Knight Fusion with only Amber and Prismaura on the field. I declined to destroy his Level Limit - Area B, because it also prevented him from making any aggressive plays, so I ended. He Set a Monster and ended. At this point, I decided to use Prismaura's effect, discarding Obsidian to destroy his Level Limit - Area B, but he negated with Effect Veiler. So, I grabbed back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian and grabbed back Obsidian with Amber's effect, discarding the Gem-Knight Fusion. I ended there. He dropped Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning in Defense Position and banished my Prismaura. He also Set a back row before ending. I played my Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing the Amber on the field with the Obsidian in my hand, letting me recreate my previous set-up of Prismaura and Amber. I banished Obsidian to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion, Gemini Summoned Amber and used its effect to pitch Gem-Knight Fusion and grab back Obsidian, then pitched Obsidian with Prismaura's effect to destroy BLS. I grabbed back my Gem-Knight Fusion by banishing Obsidian and ended. As you can see, the Prismaura/Amber loop is amazing. On my next turn, I was able to do the little loop again to destroy his Level Limit - Area B for free, then I switched my Monsters to Attack Position and attacked his Set Kabazauls with Amber. He played Forbidden Lance on my Amber, so I took 700 damage, but then I killed the Kabazauls with Prismaura. I Set a card and ended. He played Dark Hole, which I negated with Solemn Judgment, then he played another Level Limit - Area B. My Gem-Knights were forced back into Defense Position, and he ended. Again, I just used the Prismaura/Amber loop to destroy his Level Limit - Area B for free and swung for game.
OO
To think, I didn't even want to run the Gemini Gem-Knights until we got Sanyx. I really underestimated Amber's effect when combined with Obsidian. It makes me want to play a third Obsidian, but I'd rather not draw multiples. Two seems like the right number. Also, I only have two Duel Terminal Obsidians...
So yeah, I went 4-1 again with my Gem-Knights and got 4th place. That got me a Hobby League Shining Angel, which I'll never use, but it's nice to have. I also got a decent Turbo Pack 1 with both Ryko and Armageddon Knight, so that was nice.
As for the little wager, Shien went 1-1, drop (I think he had to leave during the tournament to go do something, but then he came back afterwards), and Fwazalaza went 3-2 and got 10th place. Much better than his 1-4 record from yesterday, ha ha. Still, I was able to win our little bet, and Shien and Fwazalaza each pitched in $2 for me to get a Kaijudo Dojo Edition booster pack. The Commons and Rare were bad, but I got a second Ghost Spy, a third Super Bazooka Volcanodon, and a ninth Hydro Spy, so that was cool.
But yeah, my Gem-Knight build turned out to be much better than I had hoped. I didn't expect to be going X-1 with it; all I wanted was to be able to beat Fwazalaza and Shien's DT-theme decks, but Gem-Knights actually seem like they could be competitive. I think that I'm going to make a few changes for next week. Batteryman AAA has been pretty good; I haven't dead drawn it yet, but I don't think it's really worth the space in the deck. As I said earlier, I also want to add more defensive cards and drop the Iolites and Gemini Sparks, but I guess I'll have to figure it out sometime this week.
I will most likely post up a deck list sometime this week before I change the deck. I know that Fwazalaza is quite eager to see it, and I'd be cool to show off a non-Rescue Rabbit-based competitive Gem-Knight deck.
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Tournament Report 8/4/12
So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight). But, this time I took my magical Gem-Knight deck that I had worked so hard to put together. Gem-Knights are really hard to build well, especially without access to Rescue Rabbit, Lavalval Chain, and the various Gem-Knight Fusion Monsters that the OCG has.
Either way, before the tournament, I played several Kaijudo duels with Fwazalaza, and won all but one of them. I had added Gilaflame to my deck, and it worked out quite well. Level 4 for a 5000 Power Fast Attacker is too good, yo. Overcharge is also awesome for the time being. It will cease to be awesome once we get Stormspark Blast, of course.
Anyways, there were about 26 players there today. There were quite a few regulars (about half, I think), but also a lot of newbs...
Round 1: vs Ninja
This guy honestly wasn't very good, but he drew really well. I mean, you're not supposed to draw all three Hanzos every game; that's just too good.
-Duel 1: He opened with Hanzo and four back rows, one of which was the Super-Transformation he searched. I played Pot of Duality to grab Gem-Turtle and Set it. I Set a back row and ended. He passed without making a play. I Flip Summoned Gem-Turtle to get my Gem-Knight Fusion. I Normal Summoned Snipe Hunter, and he flipped his Super-Transformation to get White Dragon Ninja by sending my Snipe Hunter and his Hanzo to the Graveyard. In my End Phase, he flipped Ninjitsu Art of Duplication, sacrificing his White Dragon Ninja for a Hanzo and three Crimson Ninja. Okay...? He used a Crimson Ninja to destroy my Set Raigeki Break, which I Chained to destroy one of his back rows. He then attacked my Turtle with his Crimson Ninja, then directly with Hanzo. I Fusion Summoned Gem-Knight Prismaura, then grabbed back the Gem-Knight Fusion and pitched it with Prismaura's effect to destroy his Duplication. Unfortunately, he proceeded to drop BLS after using Upstart Golden Ninja to Xyz Summon Maestroke and killed me with it.
-Duel 2: I dropped Gem-Knight Pearl and he had no answers to it. Super-Transformation has nothing on Xyz Monsters. Seriously, I just killed him with three attacks from Pearl and a final attack from Number 16: Shock Master to prevent Gorz or Tragoedia from jumping out.
-Duel 3: Since the first duel had taken so long, this duel went into time. He Xyz Summoned Steelswarm Roach using Upstart Golden Ninja, which made no sense, but I wasn't complaining. He then declined to attack with it. I summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and he burned a Solemn Warning on it, making it impossible for him to recover from the LP gap that let me win at the end of the three turns.
XOO
Round 2: vs Chaos Dragons
This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. His deck had improved since last time.
-Duel 1: He only milled Light Monsters, and when he tried to make a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon play, I had Raigeki Break ready to destroy it. So, I just beat him down with Gem-Armadillo and Snipe Hunter.
-Duel 2: I was sitting behind a Rai-Oh and a Bottomless Trap Hole. He played Mind Control, then summoned Eclipse Wyvern, which I used Bottomless on. He then played Monster Reborn on the REDMD he had milled earlier, then revived an Apocralyph to overlay with my Rai-Oh and go for game. Mind Control is too broken, yo.
-Duel 3: I was beating him down with a Gem-Knight Prismaura, but then he dropped Chaos Sorcerer to banish it. On my turn, I flipped Return from the Different Dimension, bringing back my Prismaura and all of the Gem-Knights I had banished for Gem-Knight Fusion's effect. I started making a series of Fusion/Xyz plays to play around Tragoedia and Gorz, but then he just scooped, revealing to me a hand of two REDMD and a Mind Control.
OXO
Round 3: vs Newbie Six Samurai
This guy was a friend of AquaBass', but he wasn't very good at all. He played Effect Veiler, but never used it, even revealing it to me at the end of the game, saying that there was nothing he could do, despite the fact that he had several opportunities to use his Veilers. He also made very poor plays, like using Monster Reborn on a Kizan when I had Prismaura out just to protect himself from damage. It's hard for me to believe, but I think that he's not even good enough to use Six Samurai effectively, which is saying something... Unfortunately, his luck and his deck had carried him through the first two rounds with him beating vadangchoinga and Fwazalaza (using his Vylons, of course). It's quite sad, and I had easily beaten him 2-0.
Round 4: vs Inzektors
This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. The fact that I almost always beat him was still stuck in his mind, and the fact that he had no idea how my new Gem-Knight deck worked didn't help his confidence either. Unfortunately for me, Inzektors are my worst match-up. I'm really hoping that the deck gets destroyed by the ban list...
-Duel 1: I opened with two back rows and a Gem-Knight Amber. He Set two back rows and ended. I attacked with Amber and Set another back row. He tried to make an Inzektor play with Dragonfly, but I had Raigeki Break Set to destroy his Dragonfly after Hornet got equipped. Soon afterwards, after he killed my Amber, I blindly used Mystical Space Typhoon on one of his back rows, which turned out to be Ultimate Offering, then made a push for game. I played Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing Amber and Obsidian from my hand, getting Prismaura. Obsidian's effect let me revive Amber, and I Gemini Summoned Amber to enable its effect. I banished Obsidian to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion, then pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get back Obsidian using Amber's effect. I banished the first Amber to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion again, then fused the Amber on the field with the Obsidian in my hand to get a second Prismaura. Obsidian's effect revived Amber again, and that was just enough for game.
-Duel 2: I lost to generic Inzektor shenanigans. Perhaps I should side more cards for this match-up, since it's my worst match-up. Still, I'd rather not sacrifice from other bad match-ups just to beat Inzektors.
-Duel 3: I opened with Duality into Solemn Judgment, then Set it and another back row. I activated Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet, then summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled. He Set some back rows and a Monster and ended. In his End Phase, I used MST on his bluff Dimensional Fissure. I drew Gem-Knight Iolite and summoned it. I attacked his Set Sangan, letting him search Tour Guide. I attacked directly with Armadillo and Set another back row. He played MST on my Solemn Judgment then summoned Tour Guide to make Wind-Up Zenmaines. He attacked my Armadillo with Zenmaines, letting him detach an Xyz Material. He destroyed my Prohibition in the End Phase. I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Garnet, then used Garnet and Armadillo to kill his Zenmaines and attacked directly with Iolite. At this point, I had Return from the Different Dimension in hand, Gemini Spark Set, and my three Gem Monsters. He had one back row and two cards in hand. I had to ponder my next decision for a while, then decided to overlay for Shock Master and prevent him from using his Monster Effects. I Set the Return and ended. He summoned Inzektor Hornet, then used Call of the Haunted on his Sangan. He made Leviathan Dragon, since he had let his friend borrow his Acid Golem, then Set a card and ended. I used Shock Ruler's effect to prohibit Monster Effects once more, then attacked over his Leviathan Dragon. He Set a Monster and passed. I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Iolite. I used it to attack his Set Centipede, then directly with Shock Master. I prohibited Monster Effects once more and ended. He Set a Monster and ended. I drew and summoned Snipe Hunter, discarding my Gem-Knight Fusion to destroy his Set Dragonfly. I attacked with Iolite, but then he flipped Call of the Haunted to revive his Leviathan Dragon. I Chained my Set Gemini Spark to tribute Iolite and destroy Call, letting me draw Dark Calling. Snipe Hunter and Shock Master attacked to leave him at 100 LP. Upon realizing that he couldn't do anything on his turn, he offered me the handshake.
OXO
So, I was undefeated going into the final round... with Gem-Knights. I certainly did not expect to do this well with my Gem-Knights. Unfortunately, I was playing against...
Round 5: vs Inzektors
This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He had let his friend use his Inzektors for a while, but I get he switched back to Inzektors now.
-Duel 1: I opened with Future Fusion pitching Batteryman AAA and Gem-Knight Garnet for Prismaura. I summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled, then Set one back row. He opened with Centipede and Ladybug, which I allowed. He searched Dragonfly, then equipped Giga-Mantis to Centipede. He attacked, and that's when I had to use Raigeki Break. He Set a back row and ended. I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get Snipe Hunter, and he flipped Torrential Tribute. I was perfectly okay playing into that Torrential Tribute, since all I was doing was setting up for Dark Calling. However, I just passed. He used Dragonfly and Ladybug to search another Dragonfly and make Tiras, which attacked and destroyed my Future Fusion. I played Dark Calling, banishing Snipe Hunter and Gem-Armadillo for Evil HERO Dark Gaia at 3200 ATK, which ran over his Tiras. Unfortunately, he made another Dragonfly/Ladybug play to make Adreus and destroy my Dark Gaia. With that, he was out of Dragonflies and Centipedes, so it was okay. The downside, though, was that I had no more power plays, since I had nothing else to fuse with. So, I lost to that Adreus.
-Duel 2: I opened with Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet and a Set Gem-Turtle. He attacked with Thunder King Rai-Oh, denying me my search (I didn't care, my hand was all Spells/Traps, including one Gem-Knight Fusion), then Set a few back rows. I stalled out for a bit, then eventually fused for Prismaura. He flipped Torrential Tribute, then Safe Zone on his Rai-Oh. I had no follow up, since I had no Monsters left, and ended. He summoned Centipede and equipped a Dragonfly to it, for some reason... He attacked directly with the Centipede and ended. I topped Snipe Hunter and pitched my whole hand to destroy his whole field, but then he dropped Gorz. I got my Gem-Knight Fusion back one more time and pitched it to destroy his Gorz, then ended. He crashed his Token into my Snipe Hunter then ended. I drew a second Gemini Spark, which was useless since I hadn't drawn any Gemini Gem-Knights, and ended. He drew a Monster before I did, was able to kill me before I could make a comeback. That's the main problem with Gem-Knights, I can make a couple big plays, but once those are done, I can't do much else. Gem-Knight Fusion can help generate card advantage, but it's mostly empty card advantage.
XX
But yeah, I went 4-1, with Gem-Knights... and got 2nd place, with Gem-Knights... I really wasn't expecting to do this well with my Gem-Knights, especially since I had just thrown the Side Deck together when I made the deck. With a deck with as much synergy as my Gem-Knight variant, it's hard to side a significant amount of cards. I generally have to side out all of my Batteryman AAA's and Future Fusion just to make space. But yeah, I guess it works pretty well. I did play against a couple not-so-good players, unfortunately, but my Gem-Knights still did better than expected.
With the store credit I won, I got a second Ultra Rare Night Beam, some more sleeves, and one Battle Pack. I pulled Gem-Knight Pearl from the Battle Pack, which was cool. And, I got the Night Beam in case MST gets Limited on the next ban list, so I'll have more replacements than just Dust Tornadoes.
As for my friends' rankings, my Round 4 opponent got 3rd, AquaBass got 4th, vadangchoinga went 4-1, and Fwazalaza went 1-4 with his Vylons. He won the first round against Machina Gadgets, then lost against Six Samurai, Dark Worlds, Hieratics, and Six Samurai again, or something like that.
Shien wasn't there, but he came by after the tournament while we were at Panda Express and finished his Gusto deck. vadangchoinga and I helped Fwazalaza with his Vylon deck, and I traded AquaBass a bunch of cards that he needed for his Ninja Crane deck. Out of the trade, I got some Duelist League Royal Tributes, a Super Rare Dust Tornado, and a Bat-Breath Scaradorable. That last one is a Kaijudo card, if you didn't know. It's the Darkness Civilization Super Rare from The Dojo Edition, and my second Bat-Breath Scaradorable, which is cool. It replaced the Keeper of Dawn in my deck, since that lone Keeper of Dawn hasn't been doing much recently.
Tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight), Fwazalaza, Shien, and I will be running our Duel Terminal theme decks, and we'll probably make a small wager or something. Since only 1st place gets a noteworthy prize on Sundays, a small wager will give us an incentive to keep playing after losing one round, so that should be fun.
So yeah, I'll be using my Gem-Knights probably until the next ban list. Once September 1st arrives, assuming the format is cleansed of brokenness, it'll be a great time to make new creative decks to take charge of the format. But, I guess we'll have to wait another couple weeks to see what exactly will happen on the ban list...
Either way, before the tournament, I played several Kaijudo duels with Fwazalaza, and won all but one of them. I had added Gilaflame to my deck, and it worked out quite well. Level 4 for a 5000 Power Fast Attacker is too good, yo. Overcharge is also awesome for the time being. It will cease to be awesome once we get Stormspark Blast, of course.
Anyways, there were about 26 players there today. There were quite a few regulars (about half, I think), but also a lot of newbs...
Round 1: vs Ninja
This guy honestly wasn't very good, but he drew really well. I mean, you're not supposed to draw all three Hanzos every game; that's just too good.
-Duel 1: He opened with Hanzo and four back rows, one of which was the Super-Transformation he searched. I played Pot of Duality to grab Gem-Turtle and Set it. I Set a back row and ended. He passed without making a play. I Flip Summoned Gem-Turtle to get my Gem-Knight Fusion. I Normal Summoned Snipe Hunter, and he flipped his Super-Transformation to get White Dragon Ninja by sending my Snipe Hunter and his Hanzo to the Graveyard. In my End Phase, he flipped Ninjitsu Art of Duplication, sacrificing his White Dragon Ninja for a Hanzo and three Crimson Ninja. Okay...? He used a Crimson Ninja to destroy my Set Raigeki Break, which I Chained to destroy one of his back rows. He then attacked my Turtle with his Crimson Ninja, then directly with Hanzo. I Fusion Summoned Gem-Knight Prismaura, then grabbed back the Gem-Knight Fusion and pitched it with Prismaura's effect to destroy his Duplication. Unfortunately, he proceeded to drop BLS after using Upstart Golden Ninja to Xyz Summon Maestroke and killed me with it.
-Duel 2: I dropped Gem-Knight Pearl and he had no answers to it. Super-Transformation has nothing on Xyz Monsters. Seriously, I just killed him with three attacks from Pearl and a final attack from Number 16: Shock Master to prevent Gorz or Tragoedia from jumping out.
-Duel 3: Since the first duel had taken so long, this duel went into time. He Xyz Summoned Steelswarm Roach using Upstart Golden Ninja, which made no sense, but I wasn't complaining. He then declined to attack with it. I summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and he burned a Solemn Warning on it, making it impossible for him to recover from the LP gap that let me win at the end of the three turns.
XOO
Round 2: vs Chaos Dragons
This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament. His deck had improved since last time.
-Duel 1: He only milled Light Monsters, and when he tried to make a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon play, I had Raigeki Break ready to destroy it. So, I just beat him down with Gem-Armadillo and Snipe Hunter.
-Duel 2: I was sitting behind a Rai-Oh and a Bottomless Trap Hole. He played Mind Control, then summoned Eclipse Wyvern, which I used Bottomless on. He then played Monster Reborn on the REDMD he had milled earlier, then revived an Apocralyph to overlay with my Rai-Oh and go for game. Mind Control is too broken, yo.
-Duel 3: I was beating him down with a Gem-Knight Prismaura, but then he dropped Chaos Sorcerer to banish it. On my turn, I flipped Return from the Different Dimension, bringing back my Prismaura and all of the Gem-Knights I had banished for Gem-Knight Fusion's effect. I started making a series of Fusion/Xyz plays to play around Tragoedia and Gorz, but then he just scooped, revealing to me a hand of two REDMD and a Mind Control.
OXO
Round 3: vs Newbie Six Samurai
This guy was a friend of AquaBass', but he wasn't very good at all. He played Effect Veiler, but never used it, even revealing it to me at the end of the game, saying that there was nothing he could do, despite the fact that he had several opportunities to use his Veilers. He also made very poor plays, like using Monster Reborn on a Kizan when I had Prismaura out just to protect himself from damage. It's hard for me to believe, but I think that he's not even good enough to use Six Samurai effectively, which is saying something... Unfortunately, his luck and his deck had carried him through the first two rounds with him beating vadangchoinga and Fwazalaza (using his Vylons, of course). It's quite sad, and I had easily beaten him 2-0.
Round 4: vs Inzektors
This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament. The fact that I almost always beat him was still stuck in his mind, and the fact that he had no idea how my new Gem-Knight deck worked didn't help his confidence either. Unfortunately for me, Inzektors are my worst match-up. I'm really hoping that the deck gets destroyed by the ban list...
-Duel 1: I opened with two back rows and a Gem-Knight Amber. He Set two back rows and ended. I attacked with Amber and Set another back row. He tried to make an Inzektor play with Dragonfly, but I had Raigeki Break Set to destroy his Dragonfly after Hornet got equipped. Soon afterwards, after he killed my Amber, I blindly used Mystical Space Typhoon on one of his back rows, which turned out to be Ultimate Offering, then made a push for game. I played Gem-Knight Fusion, fusing Amber and Obsidian from my hand, getting Prismaura. Obsidian's effect let me revive Amber, and I Gemini Summoned Amber to enable its effect. I banished Obsidian to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion, then pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get back Obsidian using Amber's effect. I banished the first Amber to grab back Gem-Knight Fusion again, then fused the Amber on the field with the Obsidian in my hand to get a second Prismaura. Obsidian's effect revived Amber again, and that was just enough for game.
-Duel 2: I lost to generic Inzektor shenanigans. Perhaps I should side more cards for this match-up, since it's my worst match-up. Still, I'd rather not sacrifice from other bad match-ups just to beat Inzektors.
-Duel 3: I opened with Duality into Solemn Judgment, then Set it and another back row. I activated Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet, then summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled. He Set some back rows and a Monster and ended. In his End Phase, I used MST on his bluff Dimensional Fissure. I drew Gem-Knight Iolite and summoned it. I attacked his Set Sangan, letting him search Tour Guide. I attacked directly with Armadillo and Set another back row. He played MST on my Solemn Judgment then summoned Tour Guide to make Wind-Up Zenmaines. He attacked my Armadillo with Zenmaines, letting him detach an Xyz Material. He destroyed my Prohibition in the End Phase. I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Garnet, then used Garnet and Armadillo to kill his Zenmaines and attacked directly with Iolite. At this point, I had Return from the Different Dimension in hand, Gemini Spark Set, and my three Gem Monsters. He had one back row and two cards in hand. I had to ponder my next decision for a while, then decided to overlay for Shock Master and prevent him from using his Monster Effects. I Set the Return and ended. He summoned Inzektor Hornet, then used Call of the Haunted on his Sangan. He made Leviathan Dragon, since he had let his friend borrow his Acid Golem, then Set a card and ended. I used Shock Ruler's effect to prohibit Monster Effects once more, then attacked over his Leviathan Dragon. He Set a Monster and passed. I drew and summoned Gem-Knight Iolite. I used it to attack his Set Centipede, then directly with Shock Master. I prohibited Monster Effects once more and ended. He Set a Monster and ended. I drew and summoned Snipe Hunter, discarding my Gem-Knight Fusion to destroy his Set Dragonfly. I attacked with Iolite, but then he flipped Call of the Haunted to revive his Leviathan Dragon. I Chained my Set Gemini Spark to tribute Iolite and destroy Call, letting me draw Dark Calling. Snipe Hunter and Shock Master attacked to leave him at 100 LP. Upon realizing that he couldn't do anything on his turn, he offered me the handshake.
OXO
So, I was undefeated going into the final round... with Gem-Knights. I certainly did not expect to do this well with my Gem-Knights. Unfortunately, I was playing against...
Round 5: vs Inzektors
This was my Round 1 opponent from this tournament. He had let his friend use his Inzektors for a while, but I get he switched back to Inzektors now.
-Duel 1: I opened with Future Fusion pitching Batteryman AAA and Gem-Knight Garnet for Prismaura. I summoned Gem-Armadillo, which he Veiled, then Set one back row. He opened with Centipede and Ladybug, which I allowed. He searched Dragonfly, then equipped Giga-Mantis to Centipede. He attacked, and that's when I had to use Raigeki Break. He Set a back row and ended. I summoned Summoner Monk and pitched Gem-Knight Fusion to get Snipe Hunter, and he flipped Torrential Tribute. I was perfectly okay playing into that Torrential Tribute, since all I was doing was setting up for Dark Calling. However, I just passed. He used Dragonfly and Ladybug to search another Dragonfly and make Tiras, which attacked and destroyed my Future Fusion. I played Dark Calling, banishing Snipe Hunter and Gem-Armadillo for Evil HERO Dark Gaia at 3200 ATK, which ran over his Tiras. Unfortunately, he made another Dragonfly/Ladybug play to make Adreus and destroy my Dark Gaia. With that, he was out of Dragonflies and Centipedes, so it was okay. The downside, though, was that I had no more power plays, since I had nothing else to fuse with. So, I lost to that Adreus.
-Duel 2: I opened with Prohibition on Inzektor Hornet and a Set Gem-Turtle. He attacked with Thunder King Rai-Oh, denying me my search (I didn't care, my hand was all Spells/Traps, including one Gem-Knight Fusion), then Set a few back rows. I stalled out for a bit, then eventually fused for Prismaura. He flipped Torrential Tribute, then Safe Zone on his Rai-Oh. I had no follow up, since I had no Monsters left, and ended. He summoned Centipede and equipped a Dragonfly to it, for some reason... He attacked directly with the Centipede and ended. I topped Snipe Hunter and pitched my whole hand to destroy his whole field, but then he dropped Gorz. I got my Gem-Knight Fusion back one more time and pitched it to destroy his Gorz, then ended. He crashed his Token into my Snipe Hunter then ended. I drew a second Gemini Spark, which was useless since I hadn't drawn any Gemini Gem-Knights, and ended. He drew a Monster before I did, was able to kill me before I could make a comeback. That's the main problem with Gem-Knights, I can make a couple big plays, but once those are done, I can't do much else. Gem-Knight Fusion can help generate card advantage, but it's mostly empty card advantage.
XX
But yeah, I went 4-1, with Gem-Knights... and got 2nd place, with Gem-Knights... I really wasn't expecting to do this well with my Gem-Knights, especially since I had just thrown the Side Deck together when I made the deck. With a deck with as much synergy as my Gem-Knight variant, it's hard to side a significant amount of cards. I generally have to side out all of my Batteryman AAA's and Future Fusion just to make space. But yeah, I guess it works pretty well. I did play against a couple not-so-good players, unfortunately, but my Gem-Knights still did better than expected.
With the store credit I won, I got a second Ultra Rare Night Beam, some more sleeves, and one Battle Pack. I pulled Gem-Knight Pearl from the Battle Pack, which was cool. And, I got the Night Beam in case MST gets Limited on the next ban list, so I'll have more replacements than just Dust Tornadoes.
As for my friends' rankings, my Round 4 opponent got 3rd, AquaBass got 4th, vadangchoinga went 4-1, and Fwazalaza went 1-4 with his Vylons. He won the first round against Machina Gadgets, then lost against Six Samurai, Dark Worlds, Hieratics, and Six Samurai again, or something like that.
Shien wasn't there, but he came by after the tournament while we were at Panda Express and finished his Gusto deck. vadangchoinga and I helped Fwazalaza with his Vylon deck, and I traded AquaBass a bunch of cards that he needed for his Ninja Crane deck. Out of the trade, I got some Duelist League Royal Tributes, a Super Rare Dust Tornado, and a Bat-Breath Scaradorable. That last one is a Kaijudo card, if you didn't know. It's the Darkness Civilization Super Rare from The Dojo Edition, and my second Bat-Breath Scaradorable, which is cool. It replaced the Keeper of Dawn in my deck, since that lone Keeper of Dawn hasn't been doing much recently.
Tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight), Fwazalaza, Shien, and I will be running our Duel Terminal theme decks, and we'll probably make a small wager or something. Since only 1st place gets a noteworthy prize on Sundays, a small wager will give us an incentive to keep playing after losing one round, so that should be fun.
So yeah, I'll be using my Gem-Knights probably until the next ban list. Once September 1st arrives, assuming the format is cleansed of brokenness, it'll be a great time to make new creative decks to take charge of the format. But, I guess we'll have to wait another couple weeks to see what exactly will happen on the ban list...
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Gem-Knights
My Gem-Knight deck is complete.
Yeah, I finished it last night, including a Side Deck, since it will be the deck I use at locals this weekend. Of course, this means that Fwazalaza and Shien will be using their Vylons and Gustos, respectively, as well. Hopefully their decks will be ready by then...
So yeah, Fwazalaza already got a sneak peek of my Gem-Knight deck, since I played one duel against him on Dueling Network earlier today, but I'd rather not put up the whole deck list until next week. It's quite fun going into a tournament with a brand new deck, since no one knows what to expect and you can really surprise people.
As with most of my decks, it's mainly based on theory. I don't really get the opportunity to test my decks outside of locals, but since this is a fun deck that I'm not expecting to win with, it's fine. But, in theory, any bad hand can be turned around with Gem-Knight Fusion, unless that bad hand happens to include multiple Gem-Knight Fusions already. In that case, it'll just take a couple turns to draw into a couple Monsters to make use of those Gem-Knight Fusions. Yeah, Gem-Knight Fusion is awesome.
I'm honestly surprised at how the deck has performed so far. If only we had Lavalval Chain...
But yeah, this is a short post. It's mainly just a heads-up to Shien so that he'll know that he'll be using his Gustos this weekend.
Yeah, I finished it last night, including a Side Deck, since it will be the deck I use at locals this weekend. Of course, this means that Fwazalaza and Shien will be using their Vylons and Gustos, respectively, as well. Hopefully their decks will be ready by then...
So yeah, Fwazalaza already got a sneak peek of my Gem-Knight deck, since I played one duel against him on Dueling Network earlier today, but I'd rather not put up the whole deck list until next week. It's quite fun going into a tournament with a brand new deck, since no one knows what to expect and you can really surprise people.
As with most of my decks, it's mainly based on theory. I don't really get the opportunity to test my decks outside of locals, but since this is a fun deck that I'm not expecting to win with, it's fine. But, in theory, any bad hand can be turned around with Gem-Knight Fusion, unless that bad hand happens to include multiple Gem-Knight Fusions already. In that case, it'll just take a couple turns to draw into a couple Monsters to make use of those Gem-Knight Fusions. Yeah, Gem-Knight Fusion is awesome.
I'm honestly surprised at how the deck has performed so far. If only we had Lavalval Chain...
But yeah, this is a short post. It's mainly just a heads-up to Shien so that he'll know that he'll be using his Gustos this weekend.
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