Locals Report - More Derdles

Mashing Cardfight!! and Yu-Gi-Oh! again as the latter portion of this will be small due to how aids the format is.

I decided to build and play Anti-Meta this time around as I'd been dying to put my Lose 1 Turns I bought in Winnipeg to good use while also not wanting to think a whole bunch so I built something similar to Inch95's Budget Deck, except I made it not so budget.  Completely cancerous thing with Necrovalley, Banisher, Doomcal, battle traps and shit.  The kind of thing that'd make people go "this is bullshit, let's Vanguard."

How'd it go?  Well...

Round 1 - vs Nurse Burn (0-2)

And I'm paired up against the only deck more degenerate than mine.  Worse yet both games he has the combo and I get burned for 9k.

Round 2 - vs Dragon.dek (2-0)

This one was really silly as on paper my deck is in every way superior to his own yet his...did things that pushed me back.  He had removal for my monsters both conventional and downright absurd and summoned things that I had trouble getting over with outside of battle traps.  Alexandrite Dragon is SCARY when you don't have a Force or Prison.  Both games were grindy and came down to me waiting for him to overextend in order to clear his board and push back.

Round 3 - vs Heroes (2-0)

He had an explosive start with a Turn 1 Darklaw to my hand of Upstart Banisher Duality Prison and Macro to which I'm like :/ and set a bunch.  As luck would have it though I raw drew into a Mirror Force and he made another Darklaw and swung both of them into it.  Score!  Game 2 he opens with Fusion Gate and Great Tornado which I clear with Fiendish while flip summoning Fossil Dyna and win with my infinite backrow + monsters that don't let him do anything.

I'm so great at this game guys.

After proceeding to miss top cut I picked up an Infernoid Core and a Ghost Ogre and other cards before we all moved over to Robins/Burger King where I proceeded to make Woodhouse salty by dickbutting his Chaos Shaddolls with constant Necrovalley, Kycoo, etc including one moment where he called me out on opening with the "Turn 1 Power Card" that fucked his deck over.

Oh sweet irony.

Moving onto Vanguard to make an extremely lengthy story short I had completed Brawlers and Aqua Force with Lambrose ready for this weekend and I had several games with them and I won a good portion of them when sacking, bricking or getting overwhelmed weren't factors.  Aqua Force are VERY scary now that Lambrose is a thing and he's definitely worth the hype and that's really all it is, Lambrose.dek.  It doesn't matter if you're playing Malestrom or Thavas as your build as in the end it's your G-Units doing the work (though I must say Thavas' stride break skill is more valuable than I expected).  Brawlers continue to be an aggressive control deck that favours beatdown more than removal but has gained consistency with Chatura, plays outside of Legion and a kill move in Conquest.  They're going to be a consistent Tier 1 Deck threat for the duration of the format.  Eradicators and Vermillion?  That remains to be seen.

Props
-Finished Aqua and Brawlers!
-Got Primavera, Infernoid and Ghost Ogre
-Got to bust out my Mettaur Sleeves.  They're walking Helmets!

Slops
-Got Nurse Burn'd,
-That awkward moment when you're going to call someone out on running Baby Dragon Rulers in their deck before realizing "oh wait, they're unbanned..."

And while I'm at it...

Remember that post I made where I basically shat on the cancer/hipster players?

I've got more to say;

-"Oh man my deck topped a thing!  I bet he was really creative to use all the ni-he's playing non themed cards for Rank 4 Access?!  His deck SUCKS!"  Get it through your fucking thick skull that nobody is going to top anything with a shit deck running shit cards.  There's a reason nobody plays Great Shogun Shien in Samurai now and OF COURSE they're going to run Rank 4s and make Infinity.  Infinity + Shi En is really strong.

But no you hate it because it divulges from the "way it's supposed to be."  You think maybe that a deck being played the way it should is the GOD DAMNED REASON WHY IT'S SHIT!?

-If you think Nekroz is degenerate and takes no skill to play, you're bad.

-Zodiac Duelist is scum.  I refuse to even look at it because of how cancerous the community is.

-The Reddit is not much better.  In fact its worse which is sad.

-Oh my god, it's a game on Dueling Network.  Do you really have to act like a dick and rule shark just to get a win on a site that is filled with neckbeards?

That's all.  I can feel the salt levels rising as I type.

YGO Locals Report - Derdles Intensify

Well this weekend was silly, mostly.  Originally I wasn't going to be writing this on account of working a 9 day stretch.  However I pleaded with a co-worker to switch shifts so that I'd have this day off over a Wednesday that was going to do me no good anyway and she agreed so here I am.  Not only do I get to go to locals and pick up some things I wanted (Soaring Blossom Box, Force of Will and Pokemon Boosters) but I get to play in my first locals since the Winnipeg Regionals!  Following that just out of top cut finish I'm obviously going to make a statement that I'm no slouch by playing Nekroz and dominating the field, right?

Lol no.  I made this instead;

Yes you're seeing this right.  I built a Heraldic Beast Hero deck for the purpose of screwing around as I think this current format is ebola level stupid and just wanted to sit back and have fun.  That being said despite this being a mash up of decks I've been trying to build but lack cards for (Unicorns for Heralds, Blazeman for Heroes) I actually put a fair amount of thought and theory into this as is the norm with me.  What can I say?  Even when I'm doing something for the lulz my deckbuilding sense is something I will never ignore.  Basically the idea behind this deck is my main goal is to use the semi okay Rank 4 engine of Heraldic Beasts to make Ptolemaeus while Shadow Mist will enable access to the all powerful Darklaw to lock my opponent out of many plays.  It's exactly the same concept of the Volcanic Hero deck that topped Bochum last month and I've been dying to execute it since.  Well here's my chance.  How did it go?  Well...

Prior to the tournament I arrived to meet up with friends and catch up on things.  Turns out Woodhouse traded off the Legion Rare Yggdrasil + Norn that was part of the deck I sold him to which I was disappointed.  That quickly turned into ire when I found out he got rid of the LR pair for twenty bucks.  

 Chances are I may have misunderstood him and he traded it for twenty bucks plus other stuff, maybe not.  Maybe if Woodhouse could some god damned speak English instead of alfkdsfd;lsfkdsjf;dslkjdfl;dsfj then I'd be able to fucking understand him.  Anyway after MUCH card purchases and a desire to build a Fairy Tale deck in Force of Will the tournament began;

Round 1 - vs Madolche (2-0)

Game 1 I open with a dead Mask Change and a hand of Heraldic Beast Leo + Amph so I was able to get my Rank 4s rolling while he tried to go off with a Madolche push but made a critical misplay that ultimately cost him the game as I set up Ptolemaeus into Pleiades and keep his field open.  Game 2 I flipped Emptiness and he had no outs.

Round 2 - vs Piper Relinquished (1-2)

This match was literally a coinflip as the games were decided on him having BLS or not.  Games 1 and 3 he did and I had nothing to stop the damn thing.  Game 2 my deck did things and I ended up with Darklaw + Pleiades which was kek.

Round 3 - vs Scrublord.dek (2-0)

Pretty much.  I bricked Game 1 and had to deal with 2000 Vanilla + Fissure shit and got beaten down to 2000 LP before my deck started doing things and I smash him.  Game 2 I opened Planeswalker and steamroll him with it and Castel.

And that was it as my Round 2 loss kept me out of top cut, so I went and learned a bit more about FoW before we went to Robins where I had games of Vanguard with updated Royal Paladins (more Jewel Knight based) and Brawlers (Chatura too gud) before calling it a day.  

Overall my deck performed okay for what it was supposed to do.  Heraldics are not a bad deck with the addition of Amphbaena + Patriarch to the lineup, although they've been power crept like many things released before DUEA.  The addition of the Clown Blade engine will be a huge boost to what the deck can do while Heroes are sort of in the same boat.  Mixing both together proved interesting but I'd in no way take it to a Regionals and expect it to do well.  I'd get my ass beaten by the good decks and I know it.  My deck may be "creative" and "original" but it's gimmicky, has consistency issues and loses to floodgates and Shaddolls.  Yet I'm not going to be the kind of dickbag that bitches at everyone for playing those decks while having a holier than thou attitude and believing I'm the real winner for playing a mash up of random cards.  I'm way too not retarded to spout nonsense like that.

Props

-Lulz were had.

-Cards were accquired

Slops

-Fuck BLS.  He's a bitch.

Things that make me facepalm

Whose up for some spiteful remarks about Card Games and its player base?  I am!

-Players who crap on someone because they aren't being "original and creative" and playing "the same skilless deck" that everyone else does.  Take your fucking high horse and shove it.

-People who bitch about the lack of creativity and originality.  News flash; creativity and originality are horseshit.  Most Japanese based TCGs tend to be so restrictive in deck building its damn near impossible to go too outside the intended structure.  Yu-Gi-Oh! being so archetype based and Cardfight Vanguard's Clan system are clear examples of this.  Yet casual and hipster players routinely bitch about the lack of "diversity" in decklists.

-When we do get a diverse format people will complain about how there's too much randomness and that anything can win.

-When we have a 1-3 deck format people bitch about how it's all the same thing.

-Nobody fucking cares how different you are from the rest or how unique your deck is if what you're doing is jackshit.

-I also don't care how well your deck did at your locals.  It's locals.

-Oh you beat "lots of meta decks" with your Rogue deck on DN?  Taking that one with a huge grain of salt as you either got really lucky or what is most likely the case you were paired against bad players playing bad builds of good decks because you too are bad and are stuck in the bottom rankings of DN, where there is shit to the left and shit to the right.

-Adding in things to an established deck just so you aren't "like the rest" isn't going to make it better.  You've actually made it worse because the cards you're running were already tested and discarded because they fucking suck.  Anyone Mermail Abyssmander?  Yeah exactly.

-Competitive players will play what's good, not what's fun, cute and lulzy.  Fucking get over the fact that no self respecting pro is going to play your pet deck at a YCS.

-Complaining because you lost to an opponent using a good deck is a crutch.

-It's not innovation if it doesn't work.

-There is literally no satisfying YGO Hipsters.  "God I hate how it's all the same archetype based decks running around!  Why can't people come up with something unique!"  *Clownblade is made* "God I hate how everyone is playing this Clownblade shit!  Those cards aren't supposed to be used that way!"

-Oh and let's not forget the issue of people refusing to play decks except only when not many people are playing them to begin with.  When Wind-Ups were first released?  Hipsters loved them.  When they became good and everyone played them?  Hipsters hated them.  When they got gutted by the banlist and power crept out?  Hipsters loved them.  Why should it fucking matter if a deck is seeing lots of play or not.  Just play the damn thing.

-No, I'm NOT a bad player for running a good deck.  I'm actually a good player because I'm playing something that requires me to know what the hell I'm doing in order to get the most out of it.  You and your 60 card mash up on the other hand are bad and the fact you claim to be better than me because you aren't running a tier deck is laughable.  This is especially so when the exchange happens when I'm playing something that's Tier 2 or 1.5 but happen to kick your ass because I have good deckbuilding sense.

-Not that this means much these days due to the lack of them but Staple Cards are Staples for good reason.  They are really that damn good and every deck benefits from running them so stop fucking bitching when someone plays Upstart Goblin in combo decks or Chatura in every Narukami deck.

-People who hate meta because they think any tier deck is degenerate, but then play troll decks like Burn and Exodia piss me off to no end.  That said it is oh so enjoyable to beat them and watch these assholes get mad because their attempt at being a dick failed.

I'm sure I'll follow up on this at some point.  If any of these remarks offended you then get better.

Winnipeg Regionals Report - BRUH!

Turns out everything is a lie.  That last Regionals?  Not my final one.  Turns out I had 2 more in me with this being one of them while the next one will be in the fall.

However let's talk about the now and the unexpected trip I took this past weekend to Winnipeg for their last Regionals of the season.  Like before I decided to play Nekroz as it's the only thing I'm familiar with at the moment (though I did pick up a U.A. core recently) however this time around I wasn't as thirsty for the top given that there was no way I'd be going to Nationals this year.  The format in itself is not a good one and I can say with utter confidence that I'd probably get smashed by the large number of people who've been keeping up on the game wheras I've been well...look at the amount of posts I've had on here recently!

That said I went into this with the intention of doing as best as I can while aiming for a top as I've been without one since 2013 and I prepared my deck to deal with a field that I expected to consist of Nekroz, Shaddolls, Tellarknights and Qliphort as the most prominent decks;

Not much to say.  It's a modified version of my list from Locals with some tech here and there.  Chiefly I ran a copy of Gungnir as she's strong against Qli/Rogue with the bonus of being able to protect my monsters from Hole/Geki while I ran Swordmaster and Zubaba to out Spell Fragrance/Towers respectively.  The Tellarknight Xyz I ran for the Doll/BA matchup and Galaxy Cyclone was played over Twister for its ability to out Floodgates easier through Chain.

With my build decided upon we make the long drive to Winnipeg, arriving after midnight and once again stay at a friend's place because his family is OP where we theorize some more, I alter the list to what it is and I make the futile attempt of trying to sleep before a tournament.

Seriously it's impossible.  It's not nerves or anything.  I just cannot physically fall asleep until after 4-5 am which is bad when you have to get up at 7-8.  3 hours of sleep later we get up and leave as Ryan is one of the judges thus the rest of us came along with him to set up the venue and stuff which was neat.  It also meant that we all got first crack at the vendors and I immediate sought to pick up cards that I needed for my tournament and side decks like a playset of Cyclones and the Tellar Xyz.  A few hours later the tournament begins with a turnout of about 50 people which meant 6 rounds of swiss meaning that if I went X-2 I'd basically have no hope of topping;

Round 1 - vs Spellcaster Dek (2-0)

Game 1: He summoned Defender the Magical Warrior and passed turn.  I crush him in 2 turns.

Game 2: He leaves himself open to several Trishes so I smash him again.  He was clearly new or not well informed as I noticed while he was picking up his cards that he had a Dark Magician of Chaos in his deck.  I then had the fun of trying to get him to understand why it's a bad card and told him (nicely) that he needed to go to the judges and sort things out as having a Pre-Errata DMoC in your deck is kinda stupid and his opponents would shark the hell out of him for it.  To be honest in this circumstance I probably would have called a judge over if he summoned it this game.

Round 2 - vs Star Seraph Dolls (2-0)

Oh boy right off the bat I'm paired up against one of Manitoba's best players if not the best in addition to being the guy I played the Blue-Eyes Dragon Ruler Mirror Match with back at the Regina Regionals and got creamed 2-0'd by.  Needless to say I was a bit intimidated by the pressure to keep up with him was on and hopefully make the score 1-1 as he definitely knew my deck better than I did at this point.

Game 1: I won the die roll and went second as he summoned Math-Man and passed while I opened with a hand of Trish/Djinn/Combo pieces for a Lock and protection.  I attempt to Trish which gets Veiler'd but set up a Lock with Gungnir behind it and eventually win it through some good draws.

Game 2: I don't remember the details on this one too well other than I opened with Djinn/Clausolas and set up another lock while getting some pretty strong draws to make it stick and eventually win.

Round 3 - vs Satellarknights (0-2)

Game 1 and 2: I really can't say much about these as I just could not get through his backrow as he was maining Anti-Spell and in both game had it, Fiendish Chain, Call and Oasis while setting up Triverr and started looping on me.  I literally did not get to play a single turn of Yu-Gi-Oh!  I was really disappointed by this and it was a real low point of the day.  

Yu-Gi-Oh! 2015: If you're not comboing off to kill someone in one to two turns or locking them out of the game you are doing it wrong.

Yeah I can see why Cody (my Round 2 opponent) hates this format.  It's really become stupid.

Round 4 - vs Satellarknights (2-1)

So after playing against Cody I'm now up against Jordan who is the friend whose place we were staying at for the trip!  At this point I'm thinking that this day is going to be one of THOSE kind where it gets sillier and sillier.

Game 1: I sort of got to play Yu-Gi-Oh! by setting up a Gorgon and a Trish that got Veiler'd but I wasn't able to close it out before he broke my board and started looping Triverr with Fiendish and Calls to which I scooped it up and sided differently than the last round.

Game 2: He at some point ends with a Triverr on board with 2 Denebs under it and what I believed to be a Nova set to my MST with Trish in hand.  I hit the Alpha and kill the Triverr so that he summons a Deneb from grave and gets to search before moving to MP2 and Trishing him for the eventual win.

Game 3: This game he flips an Anti-Spell but I see my Decree and Hands to deal with it and the game becomes a slow grind.  I'm able to drop a Unicore to put him on a clock as he tries to set up a kill play through Valk via Mind Crush but after he sees that I have double Veiler it's just not going to happen.

Round 5 - vs Star Seraph Dolls (0-2)

Game 1: I go second and open up with with a Valk + Rank 4 play and push him down low for damage to his Math-Man and decide not to go for a Djinn Lock but instead Ptolemaeus into Diamond largely because I wanted to see if it'd actually work which was a BAD idea then and part of me knew it and decided to go with it anyway.  As karma would have it he had Stick + Chair + Chair and ripped me a new one a few turns later and I just could not recover in time.

Game 2: He opened with Thunder King to my hand of Manju/Brio/Unicore/Trish/Clausolas and I drew Senju for turn.  I cried inside.

Round 6 - vs Volcanics (2-1)

Game 1: This was his first encounter versus Nekroz while this was my 7th vs Volcanics.  Long story short you Trish their Scattershots and the deck can't touch you.

Game 2: On the other hand they flip up Iron Wall and you don't draw search pieces or your Jus get negated you can't touch them.

Game 3: Hands bitchslap rogue decks.

I finish X-2 in swiss and placed 11th, tied with several other people for the last 3 slots which disappointed me but unlike last time I did not freak out or anything.  I took it well given that finishing on the bubble is sort of respectable?  The thing is I kept my end of a deal I made with Ryan that I would not act like a salt packet on the ground that he'd keep his ego in check.  Who will win this little contest?  We shall see!

After the main tournament several of us participated in side events including Dinosaur's Rage structure deck tournaments which was hilarious to watch and in my case 5Ds Starter Deck duels.  I win my first round because of drawing my hate and being able to make the giant 2900 Normal monster stick but lose to Cody in the next round due to running out of steam.  Sadface.

After that we all went to Applebees where I had an okay sandwich but would never order it again while we all chatted with the rest of the judges and their friends before heading over to Jordan's to play with Magnus' Cube and Cody's Battle Box (which is a neat concept I'll elaborate on in a later post) or rather everyone else did while I watched as I was donezos for card games that night.  I was totally fine with this as I got to see hilarious things from all over the bloody place including one of the guys in the cube named Nicholai building Disaster Dragon Ruler and even referring it to that because he too played and enjoyed the deck and we talked dragons for a bit because FUCK YEAH DRAGONS.  He proceeded to wreck people in the first cube before Tag Team Cube happened and Magnus and another man named Dao won the second by around 4 am.  We were all donezos at that point.

The following day we head to Galaxy Games which had Vanguard singles which had things I had been looking all over for like MLBs and even got to trade off some Pokemon cards I didn't need!  Then we went back to Regina, ninjaing our way through a snowstorm in May even.  That was some straight up ebola shit right there.

Props

-Pulled the Water Doll Fusion from my entry packs which was dope.

-Picked up ALOT of stuff for really cheap or good value.

-Played against alot of quality opponents and even got the win vs some of them.  While I'm clearly not on the level of Winnipeg's best players I can say with confidence that I can either go toe to toe with them on occasion when not given an ass hand to work with (see my "clutch" opening vs Cody in the Ruler Mirror) or give them one hell of a fight if I'm going to lose.  I will make you WORK for your win.

-Finished the highest of our group of people (myself, Magnus, Matt) and narrowly missed the top cut.

Slops

-Almost doesn't count.

-Made some questionable decisions that cost me.

-Spent money obviously.

-Learned that the Poop Deck is exactly what I thought it was.