Dramatic much? Well to be truthful it really is for me and this deck. Between now and Christmas I'll only be able to go to Locals once more and when that time rolls around we'll be in Legion format and there's no way in hell Eradicators will be able to compete in that environment. Even when Egg Helm comes out, I just don't see the deck being able to avoid its fate of becoming irrelevant. Not when Brawlers are a much better Narukami Deck and I'll have access to Blue Flames (traded off my Blaus for a Liberator Core + Cash) and Yggdrasil.
With that said since today was the last tournament I'd be able to go to before Legion Format I decided to give Eradicators one last run, but not without teching it to deal with some troublesome matchups, namely Glendios and The Rebirth. I'm confident in the deck's ability to handle everything else post BT 14 and 15, but those two have been giving even my Regalia deck a hard time. My solution? Run a pair of Tempest Bolt Dragon so that I can clear the board after both decks have commited a fair number of cards for their plays in addition to being a sometimes giant beatstick. Since I'm running Tempest Bolt I also opted to cut my Draw Triggers in place of Stands after noticing that the OCG has been doing so. Their reason? To get more value out of their columns in addition to being 10k shields. I wanted to see how well this translated over to the TCG.
Moot point as both Jordan and Nord weren't present. OH WELL. Actually we only had a small turnout, so the tournament ended up being a best of 3 style which after going through just a couple rounds I can already see it being a bad way to play out Legion games. Those things are already long enough as is (unless one player completely dickbutts the other).
Round 1 - vs Revengers (Raging Form/Dragruler) (2-0)
G1 and 2: He opens up with multiple Raging Forms, doesn't see many triggers and I pick off his RGs while hitting my Stands and crit with Descendant.
Round 2 - vs Pale Moon (1-2)
G1: He's playing Pale Moon so I smash him.
G2: Fuck gradelock.
G3: Damage check and drive check beaters, then draw triggers for 4 turns straight. There's really not much I can do with JUST a Vowing Sword Dragon on the board outside of hoping for double triggers, but I'm not Derrick.
Hey, if you're gonna say shuffling a hand of triggers back into the deck is pulling a me, then nailing clutch crits is pulling a you.
Round 3 - Bye
Pet Peeve of mine actually. When I lose a game that I feel I had no business losing, I want to play immediately after in order to get back on track. Getting a bye round following that kind of loss is infuriating as I'm forced to sit and wait while stewing over it. So I went and bought some Pokemon cards and proceeded to pull foils I know I'll be able to trade for better stuff down the road.
Round 4 - vs Dimension Police (2-1)
Game 1 - I manage to keep my damage low so that I'm able to survive a Daikaiser into Great Daiyusha Break Ride turn, then kill him.
Game 2- Fuck Daikaiser.
Game 3 - I keep him at 3 damage until I'm ready to go off with a Ignition Dragon into Descendant combo and rack up triggers onto my Rearguard who is swinging for about 30k or something. He actually just gives up and when I see his hand full of triggers ask why he didn't guard. He complained that everyone was calling him out for running a cheap deck and I think his spirit was broken or something. I KINDA want to give him sympathy, but...
1.) Star Gate is a bullshit nation. All of their decks are retarded.
2.) Dimension Police are incredibly sacky and boring. HURR HURR PUMP MY VANGUARD, SWING FOR EXTRA CRITS. COMMANDER LAUREL RESTAND. They're right up there with Dark Irregulars for most auto pilot deck in the game.
3.) Daikaiser is the single most degenerate, unbalanced and bullshit Break Ride in the game. Don't give me any spheal over Dauntless/Nouvelle, Tetra/Trans-Core or Ethics/Reverse being overpowered. They're just really dumb interactions. When it comes to horribly designed cards, we have this asshole who for a counterblast gives you a Crit and Punting which has ridiculous interactions with the Dimension Police Clan. Playing this card and playing around this card literally comes down to luck and while I admit Vanguard's luck factor is far more erratic than YGOs, there is still some room for basic card game plays like advantage/tempo and etc. Daikaiser throws all of that out of the window for an all or nothing approach and that's no fun at all. Luck happens and I know that, but relying on it and sacking to win? I can't get behind that.
While I sort of feel bad for him getting ragged on by everyone, in the end you have to accept that this is going to happen whenever you play Dimension Police, Dimensional Robos and Daikaiser. No competent players likes that deck. They hate it. Not surprisingly 95% of our Vanguard community hates Daikaiser with a passion.
So in short, fuck Daikaiser.
After that the tourney concluded and I got third place which disappointed me as I KNOW I would have gotten first had I not dropped my Round 2, which came as a result of bricking. Sure tops here mean jackshit and competitive CFV in Canada may never go anywhere, but my pride as a competitive duelist demands that I do well and a gradelock game literally cost me 1st Place.
Now for my final thoughts on Eradicators;
It was a fun ride with them at the beginning. I admit to buying into the hype that was the "best deck" and I was excited for Narukami to be the best. Unfortunately over here Eradicators never managed to amount to anything compared to Kagero, Link Joker and later on Revengers. Our lack of a restricted list had a major impact on their ability to play here as I feel Descendant's OCG Dominance came about as the result of DOTE, MLB and etc being banhammered. Still I enjoyed the deck for what it was worth, but the number of bad beats I've had have really put a damper on my overall experience with the deck. Gradelock, bricking, getting heavily sacked. The lack of consistency compared to Kagero, the Paladins or Link Joker reared its head several times and it ultimately made me drop the deck a few months ago in favour of Regalia. I've only played the deck about 3 times since summer and after today I doubt I'll ever play it again. In regards to the Dragons of the clans and the ones I liked, here are my top 5;
1.) Eradicator, Dragonic Descendant
2.) Eradicator, Guantlet Buster Dragon
3.) Eradicator, Vowing Saber Dragon "Reverse"
4.) Eradicator, Spark Rain Dragon
5.) Eradicator, Tempest Bolt Dragon
Speaking of which Tempest Bolt was pretty okay. He's a decent beatstick and the field nuke does come in handy now and then. The Stand Triggers were also really helpful as it allowed for my 9ks and 10-12ks to get multiple attacks off. Moment of the day had to be when I checked 2 stands and restood and entire column.
All in all it was a pleasurable experience with the deck, though I admit that I had more fun playing Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and "The BLOOD" during the Limit Break Format. In regards to the Break Ride Format that is coming to and end all I can say is thank god. We've seen some really dumb shit happen during this time, but I'm afraid that the retardedness is not going anywhere as we head into the future.
The Legion Format is coming.
Props
-Played Eradicators!
-Getting Liberators!
-Picked up some neat Pokemon Cards?
Slops
-Fuck Gradelock
-Fuck Daikaiser
-Got third...
What the hell Bro?
-Tramps ordering only 3 boxes of Fighters Collection 2014. I really wanted to see if I could pick up some Shotgun Blow Dragons, be a bad and run a pair in Eradicators for the lulz.
