That said I had just finished my Vanguard deck and I really, really wanted to get some playtesting done so off to Readers I went...and found only 2 people. Turns out alot of people weren't coming and much to our dismay we went over to Tramps, but not before I traded off some garbage cards for a 1st Edition Dante.
We arrive and there's only 2 other people. Well shit it looks like I'm better off heading home and sketching or something when Nord, Damon and the 2 Asian guys arrive and we end up having enough people for a tournament. I think this was Damon's first time playing at Tramps locals in years and he quickly found out why we left for Readers. A few minutes later the pairings are done up and it's time for me to figure out how to play this game again, featuring Satellarknights.
Round 1 - vs Six Samurai (2-0)
Normally I'd make a crack about Samurais, bad players and leave it at that but screw it, the 4 people who read this do enjoy my commentary. He opens with a Shi En and a Kizan, but no backrow which I clear with Castel and I out advantage him to victory game 1. Game 2 I disrupt his first Acetiswhatever play while flipping up Calls, beat him within an inch of death and Cowboy him the following turn.
Round 2 - vs Denko Dolls (2-0)
This isn't actually as bad of a matchup as people like to think. Winda is really the only threat to the deck so unless they make it, I don't really care much about their fusion spells. This build of the deck is also light on backrow so I can be as offensive as I want and that's what I did here. I opened with Bujintei Tsukyomi whose 2300 ass forced him to go Winda, then Castel to try and clear it which I negated with BTS. It snowballed from there and despite him summoning Denko into my 4 backrow...he kind of did it when I had a face up Xyz on the field.
Game 2 he let me go first again which I think was a bad idea as I was able to set up answers to what was a really bad play of summoning Geddon Knight and dumping Falco and setting backrow, telegraphing the Shadow Games. I ended up Novaing it and blow the game out from there, leaving him in topdeck mode and this time around he doesn't rip Fusion so I win decisively.
Round 3 - vs 4 Axis Fire Fist (2-1)
It's Cody. The guy hasn't changed at all since I first played him back in 2010 and that's pretty bad. Even Skull has grown (slightly) since I first met him.
In any case it's Fair Fists vs slightly Unfair Fists and game 1 I wipe the floor with him, bouncing his field away and using Cairngorgon to keep his Gyokku away from my traps. Game 2 I made a horrendous misplay that let him flip Light Mirror on me and I couldn't clear it. No MST, DT or Twister. Didn't even draw another monster so I died. Then it came full circle in Game 3 where I annihilated him with Deltaco and Trever.
Top 4 - vs Qliphorts (0-2)
I once again made the fatal mistake of giving Woodhouse too much credit and assumed he'd play the deck like the majority of Qli players. Nope. He pretty much blows through me game 1 with an OTK thanks to Trap Stun cutting off my CotH and the Field Spell, dropping both Disk and Shell while clearing my board. I had a chance to Warning his Pendulum Summon and I should have done it, but opted not to as I wanted to negate his Disk (this was before he grabbed the Field Spell). Game 2 he opens with Evac, Summoners Art, Skill Drain, Odd-Eyes and a beater which honestly is really fucking stupid against my deck. I try to play out of this, hoping to draw into one of my 9 outs to Drain as I have Warning and Bottomless to break up any of his major plays. He then proceeds to rip MST, blind space my Bottomless which was the better card for where the game was going, plays Qlip to make my Warning dead and beats me down to low LP. At this point I finally draw backrow hate for the first time this match, pop the Drain and with Soul Charge and Unuk make a Castel to spin his Scout and Rhapsody to power it up. He's got no cards in hand, no Scout and I have a 3200 attacker.
He rips Saqlifice and I scoop it up. Sacked by Woodhouse, who'd a thunk it?
We go over to Robins and I talk Satellar theory with Damon. We have some contrasting opinions on the deck and where it should go, but unlike typical pojoer or Regina player he's willing to give what I've presented a shot to see if he can apply any of the monster heavy style to the backrow style he's currently playing. Then I had some games of Vanguard with Derrick where my deck operated kind of inconsistently which bothers me. I think on at least 5 occassions with Yggdrasil when I used her effect and my opponent was at 3 damage I never checked a crit which annoys me as everyone I play AGAINST hits the trigger on their check. I do like my Grade 1 lineup though.
Props
-Got a Dante for cheap!
-Topped with Tellars in a tournament that doesn't matter, yay...
-Roasted Cody so hard I'm sure I burned his mullet off.
-Utterly smashed one of the Asian players.
Slops
-Floodgates
-Swung with a 50000 Yggdrasil at the opponent. Got no passed. Profound sadness.
