Tournament Report 10/13/12

I didn't have time to post during the previous week, but I've got an extra long tournament report for you all today.  First is the Vanguard tournament at the usual card shop.

In the first round, I was paired up against my friend who plays Vanguard.  I was using my Invincible Overlord deck, while he was using the Royal Paladin deck we made for Aki.  I got gradestuck on Grade 2 for a little while, but Gancelot isn't that threatening of a Vanguard without Blaster Blade beneath it.  Also, one of his columns couldn't hit my Vanguard, Nehalem, since it was a Gigantech Charger with another Gancelot behind it.  My friend always got Gancelot off of Gigantech Charger, it's pretty funny.  So yeah, I won.

For the second round, I played against my Round 3 opponent from this tournament and his Leo-pald-based Great Nature deck.  He misplayed quite a bit, and even though I didn't get a Grade 3 all game, I kept getting my Stand Triggers to push in damage and win.

For the third and final round, I was against a Shamsiel-based Angel Feather deck.  I didn't get gradestuck at all this game, so that was good.  I was able to keep up with his damage-switching shenanigans pretty easily, and guarded early so that I could take attacks later in the game.  I was able to win with my "winning image" of Mr. Invincible and Dragonic Overlord.

So yeah, I won the small Vanguard tournament and pulled a Knowledge Drunkard from the promo pack.  I traded it for some Gold Paladin stuff that my friend wanted, but I kept a Speeder Hound.  It's a dog with bunny ears, so why not?

And, after a while of beating my friend's Crystal Beasts with my Gem-Knights, the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament started.  There were about 19 players there today.

Round 1: vs Valhalla Fairies

I was up against my Round 2 opponent from the preceding Vanguard tournament.

-Duel 1: He didn't have Kristya, and I kept drawing combos, so I was able to win.
-Duel 2: He used basically all of his draw cards and dropped Hyperion and Kristya with Herald of Orange Light in hand, so I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 3: I drew Dimensional Fissure so that he couldn't negate my effects.  I destroyed his Valhalla and rushed him with Scrap Dragon and Scrap Archfiend to win.

OXO

Round 2: vs HERO Beat

This was my Round 5 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened with Stratos into Alius and a back row.  I Set a Super-Nimble Mega Hamster, wishing that I had gone first, and ended.  He was able to gain advantage steadily by killing all of my Set Monsters with his Alius and Stratos, so once I cleared the field with Black Rose Dragon, he was still up a few cards.  One of those cards with Miracle Fusion and another was Neo-Spacian Grand Mole, so I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: He only opened with Stratos, which I negated with Effect Veiler.  So, I was able to hold him off with a Super-Nimble Mega Hamster that he refused to attack.  After a while, though, he drew into an Alius and was able to kill me with Blade Armor Ninja and Miracle Fusion.  To be honest, I didn't mind losing to him that much, since he knew what he was doing.  Most HERO Beat players are very predictable and can't really think through tough situations, while my opponent was very good at keeping his cards hidden and played well.

XX

My Round 3 opponent dropped, so I got a free win.  Then, Yugilo called me over to play in his place against JB, since they were paired up against each other.  I'm pretty sure that Yugilo will upload a video of the match onto his YouTube channel, so you can watch it there if you're interested (once it's uploaded).

As for my Round 4 match, I was paired up against spondo and his Wind-Ups.  Yugilo recorded this match as well, and it's already up on YouTube.  So there it is.

Either way, I didn't win any prizes, so I just got a Vanguard booster pack for participating.  I got a pack of Set 2 and pulled a Ruin Shade, which is a good Granblue RRR.  I'm going to see if I can sell it or something, since it's actually a really good card.

So after that was the Vanguard tournament at the other card shop.  I took my friend who plays Vanguard with me, as usual.  What's weird is that I got a free first round win because my Round 1 opponent said that he was too "mentally drained" to play Vanguard.  As if that's possible, but I'll take the free win.

Round 2: vs Gold Paladin

I was up against the same incompetent Gold Paladin player that I had to play against Round 1 in this Vanguard tournament.

-Fight 1: I got a good early start by retiring his Spring Breeze Messenger with my Gattling Claw Dragon.  Then, I enacted my "winning image" of Mr. Invincible/Dragonic Overlord, and he wasted a lot of cards guarding incorrectly.  Given, it's not very often that you have to guard your Nemean Lion against a 24k Dragonic Overlord, but you really should just let it go instead of guarding for 20k.
-Fight 2: He got to Superior Call Garmore off of Spring Breeze Messenger, but he didn't get any other Grade 3's, so I was able to win pretty easily.

OO

Round 3: vs Angel Feather

-Fight 1: He was using the Ergodiel ride chain, except I never saw the Grade 3 Ergodiel.  I feel as though he didn't have any, but whatever.  He got the Grade 1 to get the Grade 2 from the top seven cards of his deck, but he wasn't able to put up much of a threat after that.  I enacted my "winning image" to rip apart his field and win.
-Fight 2: He got a Draw Trigger to push through my minimum guard against his Vanguard when I was at 5 damage, so I lost.  I feel as though I didn't draw many Triggers this game, but I don't really remember.
-Fight 3: He did a common guarding mistake on the final turn.  He had a 10k Vanguard (Circular Saw, Kiriel, I think) against my 19k Dragonic Overlord column, 16 Mr. Invincible Vanguard column, and my 16k Brakki column.  He had 20k worth of guard and decided to guard against Dragonic Overlord.  He let Mr. Invincible's attack through, and I didn't get any Triggers.  I attacked with Brakki and used its Soulblast, since I knew that one of the two cards in his hand was a Grade 3, so he couldn't guard and lost.

OXO

At this point, the tournament cut to top 4.  My friend and I were both undefeated, so we both made it.

Semi-Finals: vs Nova Grappler

-Fight 1: He pulled a Critical Trigger on his first attack, but that just let me use Berserk Dragon on his White Tiger on my second turn.  I knew how his deck worked, since I like Nova Grapplers, and was able to prevent him from mounting an offensive.  It was weird, though, he played a lot of Critical Triggers as far as Nova Grappler decks are concerned.
-Fight 2: I put together my "winning image" to win.  It's sad to have to trample all over Kirara and Black Tortoise with a 24k Dragonic Overlord, but it's what the deck does.

OO

Finals: vs Lawkeeper Kagero

My friend had failed to win, sadly, so he was stuck playing for 3rd place.  Meanwhile, I was in the finals and my opponent and I agreed to a split.  The prizes for 1st and 2nd were 12 packs and 8 packs respectively, so we would each get 10.  However, a promo pack would also be awarded to 1st place, so we were basically playing for that.

-Fight 1: I didn't get (m)any of my Stand Triggers, while he was able to apply pressure with his Critical Triggers.  That's what Lawkeeper does, I suppose.
-Fight 2: I set up my "winning image" plus Hungry Dumpty, so that when he binds my field with Dragonic Lawkeeper, I can unflip a damage with Hungry Dumpty upon its return.  It didn't matter, though, since I didn't draw any of my Triggers, so I had to waste my entire hand to minimum guard.  He pulled a Heal Trigger to push through the attack, so I lost.

XX

How sad.  But, I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to get free booster packs.  My investment of $44 has been giving me great returns so far.  Although most of those returns are terrible Commons, Rares, and RR's, I have gotten a few good holos.  For instance, out of my 10 packs of Set 2, I pulled the Granblue perfect guard and an SP Blazing Flare Dragon.  Blazing Flare Dragon's not that impressive, but it's cool to have, either way.

Also, my friend ended up falling in love with Royal Paladins again after going so far in the tournament (and by that, I mean getting 4th place).  He likes how Drangal and the Galahad ride chain reduces the chance of getting gradestuck, as opposed to his Gold Paladins, which seemed to get him gradestuck half the time.  So, he took apart his Gold Paladin deck and is now going to concentrate on the Royal Paladins.

But, that means that Aki won't be getting the Royal Paladin deck.  Instead, my friend is going to work on getting a Narukami deck for Aki.  This should work out pretty well, since Aki wanted to play Narukami all along.  I'm not sure how many Dragonic Kaiser, Vermillions we'll be able to get, but if we don't get any, it opens up the deck a little more for innovation.  For instance, Vermillion is literally the only reason why Narukami decks can't play Stand Triggers.  But, if you've got Djinn of the Lightning Flash or some other strong unit as a rear-guard, then it's the perfect thing to use a Stand Trigger on.

Also, I've been thinking about using both Spark Kid Dragoon and Lizard Soldier, Saishin in the same deck.  There's nothing in the rules against switching your starting Vanguard between games in a best-of-three match, so long as both of them are in your 50-card deck.  So, theoretically, you could play one each of Spark Kid and Saishin, then use the one that's more appropriate in the match-up as your starting Vanguard.  I mean, drawing either isn't that bad, since they're 10k shields, and you could still potentially use their effects if you draw them (well, Saishin not so much...).  But yeah, it's something to think about, at least.

And, I'm planning on getting a bunch of Nova Grappler and Kagero cards from my friend who plays Vanguard.  I want to make a pure Nova Grappler deck with Azure Dragons, but I won't be able to make it until I get four each of Azure Dragon and Kirara.  I'm also thinking about a pure Kagero deck that's not Goku Kagero or Lawkeeper Kagero, but nothing really stands out.  I'll think about it, so yeah.

Tournament Report 10/7/12

Aki and I went to the first Kaijudo tournament my locals hosted this morning.  There were only three other players, so it was a short tournament.

I was using my Everything Except Nature (EEN) Control deck.  I was able to get a Skull Shatter from Fwazalaza before the tournament to replace the tech Death Smoke I was using.  Overall, I'm not impressed with Skull Shatter.  It warps the game in the sense that people won't keep a bunch of cards in their hand once you're near 8 mana because of it, but it was never really devastating when I played it.  I'd definitely prefer a Razorkinder Puppet to Skull Shatter.

But yeah, on to the short tournament report:

Round 1: vs Light/Water/Darkness

-Duel 1: I got to check my shields with Crystal Memory and saw that I had four Shield Blasts down.  That's cool.  But, I wasn't really able to generate much card advantage, so he was able to slowly beat me down after devastating my field with a Stormspark Blast.

-Duel 2: I got to check my shields with Crystal Memory and saw that I had three Shield Blasts down.  Also cool.  I drew into a lot of my Water cards and was able to generate card advantage to take control of the duel.  In the end, I just rushed to break all of his shields and he had no Shield Blasts to protect himself.

-Duel 3: I summoned two Moorna, Gatling Dragon to control the board.  He couldn't deal with Moorna, so I was able to win.

XOO

Round 2: vs Water/Darkness/Fire

I was paired down, while Aki (who had gotten a bye in the first round) and Fwazalaza were paired up against each other at the top table.

-Duel 1: He discarded a bunch of my cards with Fumes, Specter Claw, Razorkinder Puppet, and finally Skull Shatter.  However, I just kept drawing powerful cards that he couldn't deal with to rush and break all of his shields.  I got pretty lucky, to be honest.

-Duel 2: He locked down my Moorna with Waterspout Gargoyle, much like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.  So, we just sat there for a while charging a bunch of mana.  Unfortunately for me, I didn't have any more relevant threats once he drew into Crystal Memory to search his Terror Pit to destroy my Moorna.

-Duel 3: I drew very few Water cards towards the beginning of the game, so I couldn't generate much advantage.  He got to rip apart my hand with Razorkinder Puppet, and then I started drawing my Water cards.  It was a bit late, since he had his boss Creatures like Moorna out already to render all of my cards useless.

OXX

Fwazalaza ended up beating Aki 2-1, so since he was the last undefeated player, he won the tournament and the glorious prize of $5 in store credit.  Yeah...

So yeah, I'll see what I can do to improve my Kaijudo deck for next time.  Not that I'll be going to next week's Kaijudo tournament if there is one, since I'll probably be busy next Sunday.  But, I'm just hoping that once Evolutions come out, Water won't be the only Civilization with draw power.  We'll see, I guess.

Tournament Report 10/6/12

So, as usual, I went to locals today (really yesterday, since it's after midnight...).

First was the Vanguard tournament, which was best-of-1 single-elimination.  I won the first round against one of the regulars playing Royal Paladins; she's still kind of new to the game, so it wasn't too difficult.  I won against a competent Oracle Think Tank player by decking him out; he didn't summon more than two rear-guards at a time, and one of them was just supporting his Vanguard CEO Amaterasu, so I could guard really easily.  I lost the third round to the Narukami player that I played against in the semi-finals of this Vanguard tournament; I got gradestuck on Grade 0 for a turn, but got all four Heal Triggers over the course of the game to make up for it.  Unfortunately, though, I only drew one Grade 3 (Dragonic Overlord), so I couldn't really put any pressure on him.

After that was the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament.  I was playing my Nordic Diva deck, same as it was last week, except I switched out Fiendish Chain for Solemn Warning.  There were like 28 players participating in the tournament.

Round 1: vs Newbie Jurrac

He was pretty nice, but he didn't really understand competitive play.  He played stuff like Fighting Spirit, Mage Power, and United We Stand.  So yeah, Scrap Dragon wrecked him.

Round 2: vs Frog Monarchs

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.  We're friends, and he expected to lose to me, so we just had fun while playing.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw any Frog cards, so I just rushed him.
-Duel 2: He actually drew his Swap Frog, so he was able to get his Frog engine going.  But, I banished one of his Treeborn Frogs with D.D. Crow and the other with Dimensional Fissure followed up by Dark Hole.  He had nothing left to use as tribute fodder without his Frogs, so I won from there.

OO

Round 3: vs Inzektors

I knew that Billy Brake did well with Inzektors at a recent YCS, but I didn't expect people to actually play the deck.

-Duel 1: He didn't draw any Inzektors except Centipede, so I just beat him down.  I didn't have the cards needed to swarm, but he didn't have his Hornet, so it didn't matter.
-Duel 2: I had Cyber Dragon and Bottomless Trap Hole.  He had Heavy Storm and Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.  Yeah...
-Duel 3: He drew both his Inzektor Dragonfly and Hornet, and the only Trap I had was Dust Tornado.  I didn't have Effect Veiler either, so I lost to the Dragonfly.

To be honest, I thought that this guy was a good player, since although I had never played against him before, I knew that he did pretty well in tournaments.  But he made so many noticeable misplays, didn't have a very good grasp on game mechanics, and took way too long to make simple decisions.  I don't mean to sound salty, but I honestly don't think that he deserved to win.  He's still a decent player, but he's not nearly as good as I thought he was.

OXX

Round 4: vs "Plant" Synchro

This was my Round 4 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He really couldn't get anything going, so I just out-advantaged him.  Not to mention once he was finally able to do damage to me with a Scrap Dragon (after having used its effect to destroy my lone Set Monster), I just dropped Gorz.  He scooped at that, since he had no other cards left.
-Duel 2: Again, he couldn't really do anything significant.  He was able to make a Scrap Dragon with Debris Dragon, Dandylion, and a Fluff Token against my Scrap Dragon and Set Tanngnjostr (black goat) (from Super-Nimble Mega Hamster).  He knew that I had another Tanngnjostr in my hand from a Gleipnir, so he used his Scrap Dragon's effect to destroy my Set Tanngnjostr, then crashed Scrap Dragons.  Uh, I Special Summon Tanngnjostr.  He overlooked the fact that I could Special Summon the black goat from my hand regardless of what play he made.  From there, I beat him down with Scrap Archfiend for a bit, then he used Dark Hole and made a One for One/Dandylion play (after Pot of Avarice, shuffling back the Dandylion, of course).  He Special Summoned Spore with One for One, then tuned it to a Token for Formula Synchron.  He Set two back rows and ended there.  I Special Summoned Guldfaxe from my hand, but he had Bottomless Trap Hole, so I just Set a Monster.  He Tribute Summoned Cyber Dragon using the other Fluff Token.  "You don't play Chimeratech," he said.  He ran over my Set Ryko, which destroyed his other Set back row.  He ended with just Cyber Dragon and Formula Synchron.  I entered my Main Phase and Special Summoned Chimeratech Fortress Dragon.  Yeah, I do play it, and have been for like a month now.  He was at 1400 LP, so he scooped.

OO

Round 5: vs Dino Rabbit

This was my Round 2 opponent from this tournament.

-Duel 1: He opened up with Dimensional Fissure and Thunder King Rai-Oh.  So, half of my hand was ruined (Sangan, Tanngnjostr, Gleipnir).  Yeah, I had a Bottomless Trap Hole, but he went first, so yeah... He was able to win off of that Rai-Oh.
-Duel 2: He searched Rescue Rabbit off of a Sangan, and I negated the Rabbit's effect using Solemn Warning.  He then made Leviair with Tour Guide, and I lost from there.  I wanted to negate the Xyz Monster with my Warning, but there was no guarantee that he would overlay before attacking.  My Set Monster was a Tanngnjostr (I couldn't Special Summon it since Dimensional Fissure was up), so I had to protect it.  Perhaps I should've risked it, but he still had a bunch of cards that I didn't get to see, so there's no way of knowing whether or not that would've changed the outcome of the duel.  I'm guessing no.

Either way, he saw my Morphing Jar #2 when I was siding out after the match, and he offered to give me a Super Rare Morphing Jar #2 that he pulled from the new Legendary Collection.  So that was cool.

XX

So yeah, I went 3-2 and didn't win anything, sadly.  I decided to get a Vanguard booster pack instead of a Turbo Pack.  I got a pack of Set 2 since I still need some Kagero stuff from there, and I ended up pulling a Silent Tom.  So that was cool.  I should probably sell it, since it's apparently like a $20 card.  We'll see what happens, I suppose.

And, the shopkeeper decided to run a Kaijudo tournament tomorrow morning (really today, since it's after midnight).  So, I'm going to go with Aki, and we're going to meet up with my friend who plays Vanguard (who couldn't make it today) so that we can get Aki's Royal Paladin deck.  We won't be staying for the Yu-Gi-Oh tournament, though, since I still have homework to do.  But, I want to support Kaijudo at locals, so it's worth spending the extra time to make sure that Kaijudo events will continue to occur at my locals.  So yeah, expect a short Kaijudo tournament report tomorrow (really today, since it's after midnight)...