Tournament Report 7/27/13

I went to locals as usual yesterday.  I was busy in the morning, so I just went to the evening Vanguard tournament with my friend who plays Vanguard and the fourth Snogal.  Apparently, my friend went and built a Shadow Paladin deck.  He borrowed cards from Aki, and he's probably going to sell the remainder of the deck to Aki when he's done with it.  I don't know, they'll figure it out.

He decided to use that deck for the tournament.  The fourth Snogal was using his Ezel Gold Paladin deck, and I was using my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck.  There were 10 other players there, none of whom were good.

Round 1: vs Narukami

I was playing against a little kid with a Trial Deck.  I got gradestuck for one turn in the first game, and didn't get my ride chain either game, but I still won 2-0.

OO

Round 2: vs Aqua Force

I was paired down against a little kid with a terrible Aqua Force deck.  He drew a bunch of Grade 1's both games and just threw them all down.  As soon as I rode to Grade 2, all of his columns became garbage, so I won easily.

OO

So at this point, there were four undefeated players.  They were the three members of Team Snogal, and a little kid with Spike Brothers.

Round 3: vs Shadow Paladin

I was up against my friend, and the fourth Snogal was playing against the little kid with Spike Brothers.  Since I had worse tie-breakers than my friend, we decided that I would get the win.  Then, we played a match with me using my Dark Irregulars.  I won the first game because Stand Triggers are really good and I pushed through his two-to-pass with two Heal Triggers.  I won the second game with Dark Lord of Abyss' Limit Break and two Doreens boosting rear-guard Amons to make 23k columns.

OO

The fourth Snogal beat the little kid, so the three of us made it into the Top 4.  My friends were paired against each other, and I had to play against the other person who made it into the Top 4.  The prizes for yesterday were a box of EB06 for 1st place and 5 packs of EB06 for 2nd place.  My friends just told me to win so we could get all of the prizes again, so that's what I did.

Top 4: vs Narukami

This was my Round 3 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  He had at least two Vermillions this time, and he still used Koh Koh... I won the first game because he didn't put boosters behind his rear-guards.  I had to copy a Dancing Sunflower with the ride chain effect, but at least I had 8k boosters with Limit Break.  I won the second game despite him getting two sixth-damage Heal Triggers because I filled my back row with Corolla Dragons and he kept drawing Grade 3's.

OO

So Team Snogal took all of the prizes, again.  We pulled a Labrador, a Grade 3 Coral, two Clears, and an Eternal Idol, Pacifica.  My friend decided to make a Bermuda Triangle deck out of the cards we pulled, and it was pretty bad.  He still wants to improve upon it by winning more packs, though.

In other news, the fourth Snogal was able to get me almost all of the cards that I needed for a Rumble Gun/Dungaree Narukami deck.  I still need one more Guld from Set 9, but the rest of the deck is done.  And once Set 12 comes out, I can convert it to a Dungaree crossride deck.

And, I didn't go to the Kaijudo tournament this morning because I was too tired.  I'll probably go next week.  I mean, it's not like I needed more holo Sprouts...

Tournament Report 7/20/13 & 7/21/13

As usual, I went to locals this weekend for Vanguard and Kaijudo tournaments.

Aki was able to come with me on both days, but he wasn't able to go until the afternoon yesterday, so we missed the morning Vanguard tournament.  That is, we would have missed it if we cared about the EB06 Sneak Preview.  Apparently only two people showed up, so they didn't even have the Sneak Preview, so that was good.  The goodness behind this will be explained later.

Either way, we went to the other card shop for the evening Vanguard tournament.  There were 17 people there, including my friend who plays Vanguard and the fourth Snogal.  A group of like six players whom we had never seen before showed up today, and they were all using modified Trial Decks, so they were even less of a threat than the usual little kids.

I was running Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar, Aki was running Vermillion Narukami, the fourth Snogal was running Ezel Gold Paladin, and my friend was running Ergodiel Angel Feather.  He insisted on running Angel Feathers, so I convinced him to use Ergodiel, since it's better than Metatron or Shamsiel...

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin (Ezel)

This was my Round 1 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  He sold his Spectral Duke deck for Platina Ezels and such when it came out.  I got more triggers than him in the first game, and he got gradestuck in the second game, so I won the match.

OO

Round 2: vs Spike Brothers

I was playing against a little kid.  He tried to rush me in the first game with Dudley Emperor's Limit Break when I was at 2 damage... I got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the second game, then won the third game.

OXO

Round 3: vs Narukami

This was my Round 1 opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard tournament.  He was running the most random Narukami deck I had ever seen.  He didn't have play-sets of Vermillions or The Bloods, but he played at least one of each, along with Grade 3 Djinns and Breakthrough Dragons...  He also used Koh Koh as his starter, so I won both games...

OO

My friend had won all three rounds so far, but Aki and the fourth Snogal were paired against each other in the third round.  Aki won, so he, my friend, and I were all undefeated.  Instead of cutting to Top 4 like they usually do, they cut to Top 8 because the tournament organizer didn't want our team to take up 3 of the Top 4 spots.  If they had let us, we would've split with the 4th place player so that they would've at least gotten something, but whatever.

After Swiss, my friend was in 1st, I was 2nd, Aki was 3rd, and the fourth Snogal was 7th.  As such, he was paired up against me.  The winner of our match would play against the winner of Aki's match.  Aki had to play in a Vermillion Narukami mirror match against one of the regular little kids.  He lost because he got gradestuck on Grade 0 in the first game, then his opponent got double Critical Triggers in the second.  The fourth Snogal gave me the win for our match so that I could go on to avenge Aki.

Top 4: vs Narukami (Vermillion)

He was a pretty bad player.  Apparently, he only made it this far because he kept double Crit'ing people, which he is apparently proud of because he runs 12 Critical Triggers and plans to run 16 once the Eradicator Trial Deck comes out...  I lost the first game to double Critical Triggers.  I got my ride chain in the second game, but had to duplicate my perfect guard.  The 9k boost helped against his crossride, though, so I was able to win that game.  In the third game, I opened with two Maiden of Trailing Rose, one Sephirot, one Timber, and a Heal Trigger.  I top-decked Branch to search another Timber, but I couldn't duplicate anything when I rode it.  I called out two more Timbers, though, with the intention of intercepting with one and cloning the other.  However, I topped my first booster: Caramel Popcorn.  I skipped my ride to call Caramel Popcorn so that I could duplicate it on the following turn.  Sephirot's Limit Break gave me 10k boosters so that I could hit his crossride.  He used The Blood's Ultimate Break twice because he got a Heal Trigger after the first one, and I replaced my front row with two Corolla Dragons.  With the boost from the Limit Break and Caramel Popcorn's own effect, I was able to win with a field of Grade 1's.

XOO

My friend ended up beating my Round 1 opponent in the Top 8, then one of the new players with a Gold Paladin Trial Deck (the only one who managed to get into the Top 8, by the way) in the Top 4 to make it to the finals.  The prizes were only for the Top 2, which was us.  So instead of splitting the Top 4 so that at least one player outside of our team could get something, we walked away with all of the prizes.

I imagine that the tournament organizer doesn't appreciate how we always win the tournament, but his efforts to foil us failed.  We honestly wouldn't win this much if other Vanguard players made an effort to be competent, but they don't care because they can just win with double Crits one in every ten games.

Either way, out of the 18 packs we won, we pulled an Illuminal Dragon, Glory Maelstrom, Tri-stringer Dragon, Shirayuki, Tamamo, Farah, Vayu, and Blaster Dark Spirit.  There may have been other stuff, but whatever.

We played a few tag fights after that.  Aki and my friend teamed up, and I was with the fourth Snogal.  They all used the same decks as for the tournament, and I used my Beast Deity Nova Grapplers.  The fourth Snogal and I won every single game except for one.  Two of the games we won involved me pulling a ninth-damage Heal Trigger; to be fair, I hadn't seen any Heal Triggers until that point, so it's not like there was a horrible chance of that happening.

On the following day (today), my friend, Aki, and I went to the usual card shop for the Kaijudo tournament.  I was running my LFN Megabug deck, Aki was running a LWF Dragon Aggro deck, and my friend was running a DFN Aggro deck.  They both decided to change their decks significantly, since they weren't satisfied with their performances last weekend.  There were 7 players total.

Round 1: vs LWDN Control

I was up against Fwazalaza.  He was running the same deck as usual...

-Duel 1: I opened with Keeper of Laws so that he couldn't play spells without giving me free cards, and that was about enough to win.
-Duel 2: Same as the first game, Keeper of Laws is so ridiculous that it overshadowed everything else that happened.

OO

Round 2: vs WDF Mid-range

I was playing against Eman of TCGWise.

-Duel 1: I didn't want to give him any shields, since he ran out of cards pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, I waited too long, and he was able to play Infernus the Awakened.  I still had a chance to win, though, since I broke all but two of his shields, and I had two Keeper of Laws out to finish the job over the next couple of turns.  He decided to go for game, but hit Stormspark Blast, which let me win with The Hive Queen, which he opted not to kill because he wanted to go for game.
-Duel 2: I was more aggressive with my bugs and broke shields more quickly.  I didn't want that Infernus to drop again, so I had to play around a Herald of Infernus.  Once he ran out of cards, I got aggressive with The Hive Queen and was able to win before he could do anything crazy.

OO

Round 3: vs LW Aggro

I was playing against Stephen L. This was the finals, by the way.

-Duel 1: My opening hand consisted of The Hive Queen, The Swarmleader, Root Trap, Stormspark Blast, and Tornado Flame.  I had to play Ambush Scorpion on turn 3, and he opened with a decent progression, so he was able to break a bunch of my shields, then lock down The Hive Queen with Lyra so that I couldn't do anything.
-Duel 2: I had no opening plays again and lost pretty quickly.  I had to play around Lyra and General Finbarr late game, and I didn't have anything to do early game, so there wasn't much I could do.  I noted after the game that I did not see any of my Heat Seekers or Blockers all match...

XX

So I went 2-1 and got 2nd place.  Aki got 3rd place, so that was good.  My friend lost both of his matches against Control decks, so that was sad.  I'll discuss with him tomorrow to see what he thought went wrong.

Either way, I won two packs, Aki won one, and we got three entry packs, so we got a total of six packs.  We pulled a third Magma Dragon Melgars, a fourth Spelljacker, and a fourth Truthseeker Forion... At least we got a total of two promo Sprouts in addition to the packs, though.

Thinking ahead, to when school will start back up, I once again tried to convince the shopkeeper to move the Kaijudo tournaments to Saturday.  Although he is still reluctant to do so, there is still hope.  The fact that Vanguard is such a terrible game with poor marketing and tournament attendance in the United States means that he may stop selling Vanguard products and holding Vanguard tournaments.  That's great, because it frees up Saturday morning for the Kaijudo tournament.  This won't affect me for another two months, so I'm hoping that he decides to move on this by then.

That's about it for this weekend.  My friend who plays Vanguard is starting to plan for Set 12, but we don't even know when it's going to be released.  I'll try to convince him not to get ahead of himself, since we still haven't gotten Sets 11 or 10 yet.  At the same time, I wouldn't mind having Dungaree support from Set 12, and I could certainly play Link Joker, since no one else on my team wants to...  We'll see what happens...

Tournament Report 7/13/13 & 7/14/13

Aki and I went to locals yesterday.  We couldn't make it to the morning Vanguard tournament, but we met up with my friend who plays Vanguard, who won the morning Vanguard tournament with a terrible Bison Great Nature deck...  Apparently, all he had to do was beat a bunch of Magatsu Murakumo decks, since that was what the majority of the players there were using.

So, before going to the other card shop, Aki and I got three Triple Strike decks for Kaijudo.  He foiled out a bunch of the cards in the new WDF Dragon Aggro deck we put together, and I just foiled out my Tornado Flames.

We ended up going to the evening Vanguard tournament.  I was using my Arboros Dragon Neo Nectar deck, Aki was using his Narukami deck (now featuring The Blood), and my friend was using my Pale Moon deck.  There were 13 players there.

Round 1: vs Gold Paladin

This was my Round 4 opponent from this evening Vanguard tournament.  I won the first game because I got the ride chain and beat up his 10k Vanguard with my 25k Vanguard column and 20+k rear-guard columns.  I won the second game despite missing the ride chain because of Maiden of Trailing Rose's Persona Blast and because I killed his rear-guards.

OO

Round 2: vs Narukami

This was my opponent from last weekend's evening Vanguard team tournament.  He discarded his good Arboros Dragon deck for a crummy Narukami deck with Plasmabite Dragon and Thunder Break Dragon...  He took a bunch of damage really early so he could use Vermillion's Limit Break in the first game when he rode to Grade 3.  I then replaced my retired rear-guards with the ones I actually wanted to keep and won because I got the ride chain.  I won the second game despite missing the ride chain because I trigger-sacked him.

OO

Round 3: vs Narukami

I was paired up against Aki, who was also undefeated.  I had worse tie-breakers than him, so he gave me the win and we just played Kaijudo instead.

Aki and I ended up making Top 4.  My friend lost the first round to a bad The End Kagero player (he was using Flame Edge Dragon and the Especial Intercept...) because his opponent got double Critical Triggers.  It didn't matter too much, though.  Everyone in the Top 4 just decided to split, so we got four packs each.

Aki pulled a Magatsu Storm, but that's about it.  We didn't really get what we were looking for, which was Platina Ezel for the fourth Snogal's Gold Paladin deck.

Next was today's Kaijudo tournament, which we were all able to attend.  I was using my LFN Megabug deck, which I changed a little bit since last weekend.  Aki was using the WDF Dragon Aggro deck I mentioned earlier, and my friend was using his usual WFN Aggro deck.

There were 9 players there today.

Round 1: vs WDF Dragon Aggro

I was paired against Aki, which was sad.

-Duel 1: I won the die roll and opened with a decent progression.  I was able to kill his Herald of Infernus with Tornado Flame so that it wouldn't cause any problems.  Then, I dropped the Hive Queen to swarm and win.

-Duel 2: He opened up with Nix, and I wasn't able to effectively deal with it.  He used Galzak to kill The Hive Queen and the rest of my small bugs, so I lost.

-Duel 3: I went in with The Hive Queen on turn 6 to kill his Hyperspeed Dragon, which he broke a shield with earlier.  He Blocked, then hard-cast Bottle of Wishes.  He needed Infernus the Immolator or Terror Pit to kill The Hive Queen, and he got Terror Pit.  That lost me the game.  I had it planned perfectly, too, since he couldn't cast Terror Pit on turn 6, and I didn't mind if he played Grip of Despair, since I had two small bugs out already, but the Terror Pit off of Bottles was really upsetting.

OXX

I ended up getting the bye in the second round.

Round 3: vs LWDn Control

This was my Round 4 opponent from last weekend's Kaijudo tournament.  His play improved from last time.

-Duel 1: I opened up with a Mana Tick to grab Steamtank Kryon.  I was able to play Steamtank on turn 5, then Lyra on turn 6 to get rid of his Blocker.  I played The Hive Queen soon after to swing at his shields and win.

-Duel 2: I opened up with an odd progression, since I got Mana Tick on turn 6 after having played Reap and Sow on turn 4.  So, I was able to play Mana Tick to grab Mana Tick to grab Kryon.  I was holding The Hive Queen, so I was able to play it on the following turn to swing at shields.  He declined to charge mana on turn 8, which prevented him from threatening me with Andromeda on turn 9, so I got an extra turn with which to win.

OO

So, I ended up going 2-1, kind of, but I didn't top.  My friend lost the first two rounds to multiple Andromedas (he had to play against Fwazalaza, then my Round 3 opponent), so he went 1-2, with his win being a bye.  Aki lost to Stephen in the finals, so he got 2nd place.

Aki got a holo Sprout for getting Top 2, and I got one in the raffle, so now we have two.  Aki also got three packs for getting 2nd, so we got a total of six packs, pulling King Poseidon and Truthseeker Forion.  That makes three Forions, which is excessive... Unless there's some ridiculous Shield Blast spell that costs more than 10 that it can be used with to break it, then he's not all that great.

I think that's about it.  I should be able to make it to locals next weekend, but I don't know if Aki will be able to.  But yeah, I don't know what I could do with my Megabug deck; I'll probably just cut it down closer to 40 cards or something.