Once again I'm going to mesh Vanguard and Yu-Gi-Oh! into one upload while rambling on some side things...maybe. Let's get started!
Vanguard
Originally I was going to play Vermillion at this but then I learned that we were actually having a Sneak Peek for BTG4 which I was TOTALLY fine with as I want 3 clans worth of stuff from that set so I'd be hopefully able to pick stuff up and maybe win a mat? Turns out we held a vote for what kind of tournament it'd be and everyone wanted a standard best of 3 with 3 people getting the Nextage mat. So after cracking our packs, pulling garbage, trading for Genesis cards (2 Destruction Deity GET) and selling my Sanctuary Guard deck off I somehow ended up borrowing Ryan's Revenger deck and decided to go with it. If I did well despite never playing Revengers then it'd be a testament to how unbalanced the deck is though in retrospect I should have looked the deck over a bit more so I'd know what was in the deck/not. Still as for how it went;
Round 1 - vs Metalborgs (2-0)
He opens with a 5K VG which makes me greedy as I called Judgebau to the front which I realized was a stupid play as it forced me to call a Mordred to RG so I could resolve the skill. Otherwise he had never played against Revengers or Diablo before so he didn't commit much to the board which allowed me to resolve Diablo's no guard effect and donk him both games.
Round 2 - vs Revengers (2-0)
Oh boy, my first mirror match! While not as cancerous as the Nekroz Mirror in YGO, it does require a degree of finesse in making sure you don't leave yourself open to Diablo and dying. I should also note that Ryan's build runs 12 crit which I've repeatedly said is suboptimal, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I flipped more crits to get some sack wins, like what ultimately happened in this match. That and in both games I opened with BDR + Dorint, BDRA on RG for the Judgebau kill and was able to swing for 9k, 14k, 16k which really set him back.
Round 3 - vs DotX (1-2)
Turns out that DotX is actually a bad matchup now that I've been watching some Revenger list videos as Revengers are a combo deck and your really big disgusting turns require you to have specific units in play (Judgebau, Dorint) and Kagero can keep you from doing that. I was able to win a game through crit sacking but the other two I lost because I didn't have a hand to deal with The ACE who broke through my guard the first time and thus I took 2 damage and lost.
In the end I got third place though I'm not sure if it was due to playing Revengers or not. Pretty sure I could have used Brawlers and had the same result but anyway was I right in saying that the Revenger clan itself is so powerful that it's considerable to a Helmet Deck? Not quite. Revengers are interesting in that they DO have some badly designed cards *coughRAGINGFORMDRAGONcough* and due to Shadow Paladin getting consistently GOOD support has made the deck disgustingly good BUT it's also a deck that does have a higher ceiling than other decks of its ilk and thus anybody CAN pick up the deck and do GOOD with it, but a really good player will do GREAT things with it.
Does this mean I've finally turned full circle and would pick it up? That's a big, big maybe. Ryan's offered me the Revenger deck for my Nekroz (banlist hits pending) and I'm legitimately considering it.
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Speaking of Nekroz I decided to play them on this day which honestly is a shock given my less than stellar record with them but I figured that this would be my last opportunity to play the deck in its current capacity as I'm pretty certain the next time I'm able to go to locals (two weeks from now) the new banlist will have dropped and at the very least Unicore will be at one and the deck will have to play very differently. Thus I took my Clown Nekroz list from Salvation, swapped out Breakthrough Skills for Forbidden Lance as I wanted to catch the Qlique by surprise with it and Exciton vs their bullshit and sided a bunch of anti backrow as with the exception of Ryan, all of Regina's players rely on floodgate backrow to beat the deck and he wasn't playing Shaddolls on this day so I didn't have to worry about getting OTK'd (the other Shaddoll players are still stuck in magical world of springtime where Star Seraphs were good and Mistake was mained). I did also keep a couple cards in the sideboard that were okay in the Mirror as I thought there'd be one other Nekroz present, but the player using it wouldn't be as experienced as I was. Now equipped with a Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon Playmat and with the new KMC Mat sleeves I felt like I was ready to do things;
Round 1 - vs Heroics (2-1)
I have no idea if this was Heroes or what but all I know is he made me go first, I opened with no play and he turn 1 Rhongo Bongo'd with a Dark Hole on the following turn so I was dead before I knew it. In retrospect I misplayed horrendously here as I had a Damage Juggler in hand and for some reason though it was useless vs Rhongo. No good sirs it was in fact quite usable and now that I've JUST realized it I'm actually upset as I could have survived to the point where I could have played. In any case prior to the match when he was setting his stuff out I got a glance at his side and spotted Macro, so I knew he'd be bringing backrow into this and sided in my removal, opened with Hand Traps like a champion, played Unicore control and Trished him to oblivion in the other two games.
Round 2 - vs Nekroz (2-1)
Turns out the guy who got Ryan's Nekroz traded them to the Shaddoll player I faced when I was playing prediction dolls and he's been playing with the deck since, having made it to the Top 64 cut of YCS Toronto. Well then. According to Norden though he was still not as experienced with the deck as we were and he didn't have Performages which meant I had an edge here and that's what happened as I won the dieroll and went second. He opened pretty tamely, getting I think a Ju search? All I know is that he didn't have a Nekroz in grave so which gave me the green light to try and kill him and I do so despite being under Maxx "C". Game 2 he kills me quickly as I got hit by a surprise Decisive Armour when I tried to Lance his Valk and I had already taken too much damage prior so that was quick, but then Game 3 ended being anything but as I'm able to play around his Gungnir with Valk and Juggler so he's unable to do significant damage to me while I'm slowly playing catchup to his explosive start and ultimately taking control of it by resolving a Trish with Dance Princess in play so that he couldn't Maxx "C" me and I hit his own Trish. Now granted the game was still on and at this point I had a Rank 4 play that could have either been Dweller for the complete lockout, or Emeral on the grounds of he wouldn't top a Ju and I could shuffle back in several cards for the fresh draw. I make Emeral, he tops a Ju, we're in time and I'm ahead in life so as long as I'm able to Valk stall I have this. I instead rip Preparation of Rites like a champion and he scoops.
Round 3 - vs Shaddoll (2-1)
Game 1 was really saddening. I got him down to 200 Life as he's playing Seraph Dolls and bricked for the most part so I'm set to win on the next turn. Then he Stick Chair Chairs my board into oblivion and draws Mistake, flips it on my turn and then I literally lose because I can't draw into Kaleidoscope before he kills me. Game 2 I make him go first and blow him out with Denko Sekka to what I imagine was a set Mistake given his facial expression and follow that up with a Decisive Armour on his set Squamata. Game 3 I open with 2 MST + all 3 Mirrors and feel bad as I have basically no way to prevent being OTKed. Instead he sets 3 S/T and passes of which I end phase MST two of them and hit both of his Mistakes and draw Brionac for turn! Oh he was not happy about that and mentioned several times that game about the double MST on his double Mistake throughout the rest of the game as I droped Unicore and get my ball rolling, he can't catch up and I seal the game with a Trishula on one turn and a Norden into Abyss Dweller play another and win thanks Trish being able to beat over a Shekhinaga.
Top 4 - vs M&M (2-0)
...Yes you read that right. Yes this is Ryan playing the deck for the fuck all of it and yes the TCG no DOCS card version of the deck is as bad but fun as you think it is. He played it out as best his could but we both knew the matchup was a tad bit skewed in my favour. Game 2 he had a potential OTK but I had Valk so that didn't happen and I won.
Finals - Nekroz (2-1)
Oh boy, this thread again. Honestly I had considered scooping it up as I really did not feel up to playing anodda Mirror match and the overall commitment it requires out of the player in order to not get smashed which I know terrible as I'm basically saying "waaahhh I don't wanna do that because its hard!" and after Game 1 I was even more tempted after opening with 5 combo piece As and not seeing a B before getting killed. But then Game 2 happened where I opened with the kind of hand that would let me OTK him with Number 104 Masquerade which he didn't even know was a thing (he had Maxx "C" as per usual with a live Valk). At that point the motivation returned and the me from 2011-2012 was back if only for this match. Game 3 despite its time was more or less in my favour from the onset as despite basically broadcasting that I had hand traps by leaving a Valk on the board after going off (he again had Maxx "C") there was really no way for him to play around it as he wasn't able to get drop Trishula without me going +2-3 off of my Maxx "C" or being shut down by Veiler (hurray for drawing my own hand traps. I only run 8 of them post side!) so we traded blows with me dropping him down to Cowboy range but unable to kill him off due to his Unicore. We play the stall game for a bit by not letting either of us kill the other's Unicore before I'm able to set up a hand that would let me Trish his Unicore with a Dance Princess in play (turns out he had drawn Retaliating "C" the turn before that) and attacked for game with Masquerade instead of using Cowboy on the off chance he might have had Veiler.
So yeah I finally got a Locals win with Nekroz, after several failed attempts. Just in time for the deck to be hammered! And that was basically it. I played some Vanguard with Ryan but Sunday was just NOT my day for VG and then we talked D/D/D theory along with Derrick before I showed Ryan a few Sceptile EX lists for PTCG as he was interested in it or Tyranitar. I doubt he'll have little trouble picking up either one of those in Winnipeg if he doesn't go full art.
Tuesday 29 September 2015
Tuesday 22 September 2015
Fan Booster Update - Themes and Lore
Remember how a long time ago I wrote out contents for a fan booster set? Yeah I'm going to follow up on that by posting an outline of where I'm going to go with it and additional things as now that I've not only written up even MORE cards but have had some of my friends submit ideas for cards of their own I might be able to actually create a full on series of boosters or at the very least a lore for the boosters!
The themes
While Konami has made it a routine habit to shoot themselves in the foot what with the abandoning their Video Game Development in favour of mobile games and pachinko machines in what I can only be their attempts to outfuckup Capcom and EA, one thing I do have to give them credit on is how they've managed to take the idea of stories being told in their Yu-Gi-Oh! booster sets (also known as Lore) and run with it. They've been creating lores for quite a while with Warrior Dai Grepher, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland and The Six Samurai being prominent examples but where Konami really hit their stride was with the Hidden Arsenal sets as the "Duel Terminal Storyline" has been going on since 2008-2009 depending on the territory and it shows no sign of stopping now that the DT plot has been integrated into core booster sets. Why they opted to do so we'll never know (though part of me thinks this was influenced by Cardfight!! Vanguard's booster sets having 5 pack storylines) but it's made for some really sweet artwork and I like the concept, thus I've made it a personal goal to try and do the same thing with my project and I've made some significant progress on how I want to do things.
Like with the DT series I've got archetypes for each of the Attributes that have gimmicks and focus on a mechanic or two. Half of them I've made up myself while the other half have been ideas that my friends have come up with for shits and giggles but were totally on board with me using them. They are;
-Storm Deity: A Wind Thunder-Type theme that can use multiple summon types and focuses on field removal via killing multiple special summoned monsters. They also have skills that prevent floaters from activating their effects and many of their cards work with generic thunder-monsters.
-Abyssal: A Dark theme of multple monster types that plays different summon styles that focus on restricting the opponents' summoning options, such as making them pay LP or tribute extra monsters to Normal Summon. Like Evilswarm and Shaddolls many of the monsters used in this theme are hellspawn version of other creatures both famous and obscure while also possessing effects that destroy their own cards and are triggered on being destroyed.
-Pyromancer: A Fire theme of Spellcasters that special summon a Pyro-Type Normal Monster from hand/deck/graveyard which is needed to use their effects. This theme also uses Fusion Summons though it hasn't been decided if it's going to be a form of Contact Fusion using the Pyromancer and Pyro Monster or not.
-Graviton: A Earth type them of either Dragon-Type or Wyrm-Type monsters that are based around Banishing and Ritual Summoning. Graviton Monsters have an effect to Banish another card to use 1 Effect and a second effect that is triggered from being banished. Originally I was going to make them all dark based and an upgraded Red-Eyes B. Dragon as the ace monster in the form of Crimson-Eyes Graviton Dragon, but then CORE happened and Red-Eyes got actual support...
-Snow Flame/Frost Knight: This one is the most hazy one as I haven't given much thought of this theme yet. Originally I was going to make them Water Pyro Monsters that operated much like Vanguard's Bluish Flame deck, but now that I'm including Pyromancers in these sets I don't want to double up on types if I could. So instead I'm going to make this a Water Rock Archetype that uses Xyz Summons and a Reverse Scry mechanic, meaning you'll be looking at the bottom X cards of your deck and doing things, with many monsters having effects that trigger from being summoned/dumped from the deck so that older Rock Support works with them. I foresee Frost Knights inheriting the monster spammy nature of the Vanguard deck that initially inspired them.
-There is no Light theme as of yet.
And there's the themes. In addition to them I'd like to create some generic cards and legacy support for things such as Iron Chains (there you go Matt) or a reptile theme. As it is I can definitely create a Hidden Arsenal type set based on the 6 themes alone, or I could attempt to create core booster sets using about 3-4 of the themes per set. Problem with that though is that core boosters are 80 cards per set and usually have "show" cards comprising the first half which is kind of an issue given that I don't have a "show" to work with outside of fanfictions, except the fanfiction characters would actually be using decks based on the six themes. Looks like the legacy support may have to be expanded to be more than just one or two cards ala Koa'ki Meiru but be more of the Red-Eyes/Black Luster Soldier style.
The Story
Now that the themes have been laid out, what about the storylines? Well that one's the easy part. To put it simply X years after the events of the latest DT Storyline ends (which at this moment is the whole Dracoslayer vs Dracoruler thing) peace has returned to the DT world, however the constant wars have been taxing on the world and unfortunately the gates to the Abyss have been weakened to the point of bursting open. The ruler of the abyss, known as the Tyrant sees this new world to conquer and immediately leads his hellish army out of the gates and declares war on everything. At this same time a rogue lancer happens to be travelling the lands in search of strong opponents to fight and sees that the Tyrant would be the perfect test for his skill, but in order to get to him he is forced by the gods of the storm to lead an army to take back the world from his clutches. Reluctantly the lancer does so and the next great war is fought.
It's a very rough concept at this point but hey its a start. Obviously the rogue lancer is Obelisk the Green Slayer who ends up being the Storm Deity's champion who leads the armies of good against the abyss despite A) not being an actual Storm Deity card and B) he goes along with it for purely selfish reasons at the start of it. It's a nice reference to an old Battle Network Universe storyline I considered before going with the horrendous Liberation Mission plot instead.
Set Contents
No I'm not going to list every card made so far! Instead I'm just going to lay out the current plans for the sets and with the case of the first few their names. Then I'll upload posts with the contents of the sets. With that said the sets are;
YGOXS1 - Storm of the Abyss - Abyssal, Storm Deity, Pyromancer, Thunder-Type, Red-Eyes
YGOXS2 - March of the Skies - Storm Deity, Pyromancer, Iron Chain, Scrap
YGOXS3 - Descent into Chaos - Pyromancer, Abyssal, Chaos Dragon
YGOXS4 - Glory of the Duelist - Storm Deity, Frost Knight, Graviton,
YGOXS5 - War Against Darkness - Storm Deity, Abyssal, Frost Knight, Graviton
Yeah Storm Deity and Abyssal get 4 sets of support vs the other 4 theme which is due to them being the primary protagonist and antagonist of the block. And yes you read that right, set 3 has "Chaos" in its name, set 4 has "Duelist" and set 5 has "Darkness" in their names. I will try to design these sets accordingly ;)
The themes
While Konami has made it a routine habit to shoot themselves in the foot what with the abandoning their Video Game Development in favour of mobile games and pachinko machines in what I can only be their attempts to outfuckup Capcom and EA, one thing I do have to give them credit on is how they've managed to take the idea of stories being told in their Yu-Gi-Oh! booster sets (also known as Lore) and run with it. They've been creating lores for quite a while with Warrior Dai Grepher, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland and The Six Samurai being prominent examples but where Konami really hit their stride was with the Hidden Arsenal sets as the "Duel Terminal Storyline" has been going on since 2008-2009 depending on the territory and it shows no sign of stopping now that the DT plot has been integrated into core booster sets. Why they opted to do so we'll never know (though part of me thinks this was influenced by Cardfight!! Vanguard's booster sets having 5 pack storylines) but it's made for some really sweet artwork and I like the concept, thus I've made it a personal goal to try and do the same thing with my project and I've made some significant progress on how I want to do things.
Like with the DT series I've got archetypes for each of the Attributes that have gimmicks and focus on a mechanic or two. Half of them I've made up myself while the other half have been ideas that my friends have come up with for shits and giggles but were totally on board with me using them. They are;
-Storm Deity: A Wind Thunder-Type theme that can use multiple summon types and focuses on field removal via killing multiple special summoned monsters. They also have skills that prevent floaters from activating their effects and many of their cards work with generic thunder-monsters.
-Abyssal: A Dark theme of multple monster types that plays different summon styles that focus on restricting the opponents' summoning options, such as making them pay LP or tribute extra monsters to Normal Summon. Like Evilswarm and Shaddolls many of the monsters used in this theme are hellspawn version of other creatures both famous and obscure while also possessing effects that destroy their own cards and are triggered on being destroyed.
-Pyromancer: A Fire theme of Spellcasters that special summon a Pyro-Type Normal Monster from hand/deck/graveyard which is needed to use their effects. This theme also uses Fusion Summons though it hasn't been decided if it's going to be a form of Contact Fusion using the Pyromancer and Pyro Monster or not.
-Graviton: A Earth type them of either Dragon-Type or Wyrm-Type monsters that are based around Banishing and Ritual Summoning. Graviton Monsters have an effect to Banish another card to use 1 Effect and a second effect that is triggered from being banished. Originally I was going to make them all dark based and an upgraded Red-Eyes B. Dragon as the ace monster in the form of Crimson-Eyes Graviton Dragon, but then CORE happened and Red-Eyes got actual support...
-Snow Flame/Frost Knight: This one is the most hazy one as I haven't given much thought of this theme yet. Originally I was going to make them Water Pyro Monsters that operated much like Vanguard's Bluish Flame deck, but now that I'm including Pyromancers in these sets I don't want to double up on types if I could. So instead I'm going to make this a Water Rock Archetype that uses Xyz Summons and a Reverse Scry mechanic, meaning you'll be looking at the bottom X cards of your deck and doing things, with many monsters having effects that trigger from being summoned/dumped from the deck so that older Rock Support works with them. I foresee Frost Knights inheriting the monster spammy nature of the Vanguard deck that initially inspired them.
-There is no Light theme as of yet.
And there's the themes. In addition to them I'd like to create some generic cards and legacy support for things such as Iron Chains (there you go Matt) or a reptile theme. As it is I can definitely create a Hidden Arsenal type set based on the 6 themes alone, or I could attempt to create core booster sets using about 3-4 of the themes per set. Problem with that though is that core boosters are 80 cards per set and usually have "show" cards comprising the first half which is kind of an issue given that I don't have a "show" to work with outside of fanfictions, except the fanfiction characters would actually be using decks based on the six themes. Looks like the legacy support may have to be expanded to be more than just one or two cards ala Koa'ki Meiru but be more of the Red-Eyes/Black Luster Soldier style.
The Story
Now that the themes have been laid out, what about the storylines? Well that one's the easy part. To put it simply X years after the events of the latest DT Storyline ends (which at this moment is the whole Dracoslayer vs Dracoruler thing) peace has returned to the DT world, however the constant wars have been taxing on the world and unfortunately the gates to the Abyss have been weakened to the point of bursting open. The ruler of the abyss, known as the Tyrant sees this new world to conquer and immediately leads his hellish army out of the gates and declares war on everything. At this same time a rogue lancer happens to be travelling the lands in search of strong opponents to fight and sees that the Tyrant would be the perfect test for his skill, but in order to get to him he is forced by the gods of the storm to lead an army to take back the world from his clutches. Reluctantly the lancer does so and the next great war is fought.
It's a very rough concept at this point but hey its a start. Obviously the rogue lancer is Obelisk the Green Slayer who ends up being the Storm Deity's champion who leads the armies of good against the abyss despite A) not being an actual Storm Deity card and B) he goes along with it for purely selfish reasons at the start of it. It's a nice reference to an old Battle Network Universe storyline I considered before going with the horrendous Liberation Mission plot instead.
Set Contents
No I'm not going to list every card made so far! Instead I'm just going to lay out the current plans for the sets and with the case of the first few their names. Then I'll upload posts with the contents of the sets. With that said the sets are;
YGOXS1 - Storm of the Abyss - Abyssal, Storm Deity, Pyromancer, Thunder-Type, Red-Eyes
YGOXS2 - March of the Skies - Storm Deity, Pyromancer, Iron Chain, Scrap
YGOXS3 - Descent into Chaos - Pyromancer, Abyssal, Chaos Dragon
YGOXS4 - Glory of the Duelist - Storm Deity, Frost Knight, Graviton,
YGOXS5 - War Against Darkness - Storm Deity, Abyssal, Frost Knight, Graviton
Yeah Storm Deity and Abyssal get 4 sets of support vs the other 4 theme which is due to them being the primary protagonist and antagonist of the block. And yes you read that right, set 3 has "Chaos" in its name, set 4 has "Duelist" and set 5 has "Darkness" in their names. I will try to design these sets accordingly ;)
Sunday 13 September 2015
Winnipeg Regionals Report - And the Saltiest Person this weekend is...
To the two people who were expecting a different title all I have to say is psyche!
But really this Regionals was both good and ugly and I wish it could have gone better, yet at the same time I'm okay with how some things turned out. The trip itself was filled with much drama as there was whining, backstabbing and politicking behind peoples backs to the point I thought I was in a booking meeting where Triple H and Hulk Hogan were fighting to see who would go over. People were upset and it got to the point that one person dropped and I considered it as well, but decided to come along regardless while ignoring some jabs made at my expense from ironically enough one of the people who threw a bitchfest in the first place.
So we head out to Winnipeg and for once the weather was not shit. We make it to Jordan's OP as hell place and meet up with the other clique and at this point I sleeve up my Igknight deck so that they'd think I'd be using it at the tournament and side accordingly when in fact I planned to use Clownblade, but then Matt blew my cover and I was like "oh well." and after switching back to Clownblade we all futilely try to sleep for the next day.
We all wake up and are late getting to the venue as there was barely enough time to get registered and I was unable to pick up a second Exciton Knight but decide to roll with it as I was not confident in Igknight's ability to play against Shaddolls and Qliphort which were in droves including all 3 players of the other clique. Shard I can understand as he's been playing the deck forever and like Colby and Dark World for the longest time only plays it after getting a top with the deck. Colby and Damon on the other hand literally picked up the deck because they got destroyed by it and tried to build it with the hopes of helmeting their way to a top to which I was less than impressed. Colby I can see why as like Dark World it's a deck that takes absolutely zero thought or interaction with the opponent except this time around fucking with your opponent's hand has been replaced by floodgating them to death. Damon on the other hand I just facepalmed inwardly at as he already had Satellarknight, zero experience with Qli (though again, doesn't take much to play them) and by switching to Qli made his Burning Abyss matchup harder while basically opening himself up to getting smashed by any competent Doll player as they'd likely had more experience playing vs Qli, but he likely had no experience dealing with Dolls outside OMGFLIPFLOODGATES.
Hell Tellarknights even topped this Regionals.
As for me, well...
Round 1 - vs Blackwings (2-0)
This guy was horrendous. First up he was playing Blackwings in 2015, he shat his entire hand on his turn 1, played the Level 1 Tuners and made Vortex the Whirlwind to my hand of Retaliating Cs and I forget what else. I just know I ARK his Vortex and read that his set was a Mirror Force and kept him from resolving Whirlwind. Game 2 is a bit hazy but I'm pretty sure I ARK an Armed Wing and make Diamond to blow him out of the game.
Round 2 - vs Qliphort (1-2)
Floodgates! Floodgates everywhere! More than the eye can see! Yeah there was no way I was winning this one as he drew godly two games in a row and I could not answer Lose 1 Turn, Emptiness and Soul Drains before Qliphort Stealth annihilated me in all of his poorly designed stupidity. Seriously why did they give that thing a "cards cannot be activated in response to this effect" effect?
Round 3 - vs Satellarknight (2-0)
He opens with Rai-Oh set a couple which were revealed to be Fiendish Chains and Call of the Haunteds so it takes me a while to finally get that thing off the board but it's pretty clear at this point he's playing Tellars. We both make some misplays (me forgetting to Archfiend off my chained ARK) as he reads my set S/T as a Torrential and tries to Triverr it, but instead I blow him out with Warning for Game 1. Game 2 was a bit back and forth as I opened with some multiple Rank 4 shenanigans to his Maxx "C", but I'm able to keep him from getting his ball rolling, Rhapsody his 2 Denebs and swing with my Rank 4s and win.
Round 4 - vs Watt Burn (1-2)
The moment I saw this guy I got the vibe of him being another one of those randy people you meet on DN as he didn't know a majority of what my cards do and flips up stalling battle cards like Thunder of Ruler as I'm building a board. Then he flips Ceasefire and 3 Just Desserts to burn me for 6000 damage and I'm left dumbfounded (no Damage Jugglers were drawn this game). Game 2 I have a Damage Juggler for a huge burn play and I have Warning to stop his Wattdragonfly and Castel for his Watt battle phase stopper thing and kill him. Game 3 I don't have a Damage Juggler in hand nor see my Decrees and am not able to summon a turn 1 Trapeze Magician without leaving myself open to Lava Golem so he burns me down to 2800 and stalls out the rest of the match with Swift Scarecrow, Waboku and lastly when he had no cards on field or in hand rips Threatening Roar and beats me in time with flipping Watt Burn. Wonderful.
At this point I decided to drop out of the tournament as now I was X-2 with my most recent loss opting to drop out himself and the turnout was only 65 people meaning I had zero chance of topping and I didn't feel like playing out the rest of the day when I could be trading and hanging out with people and enjoying myself than playing 3 more rounds while likely on tilt. In regards to my deck it actually performed well as most of the hands I drew were playable and the theory behind the card choices were solid, I just failed to draw optimal hands against my worst matchup and got Yu-Gi-Oh!'d in another instance. The mainboard itself was prepped to deal with Dolls and Nekroz with 6 "C" cards and I drew Retaliating "C" in every single game I had it in so on paper I would have annihilated Dolls/Nekroz? Whose to say. The deck is fun as hell (unless you play burn, but nobody has fun playing that...) and I urge people to give it a try. Clown Blade is by no means a bad deck just because one card got banned. It can still function very well.
The tournament continues without me and Ryan ends up getting 5th place with Clown Dolls, Shard scrubbed out, Matt got 17th place as is tradition, Magnus finished 20th and both Damon and Colby got fucked over by the bubble (sucks, doesn't it), complete with Damon getting visibly upset and from what I heard very salty over being "so close" to the top.
After that there was a win a mat tournament that I entered with Igknights. I played against a horrendous BA player but I didn't open Library which G1 is your win con against the deck and Game 2 didn't see any of my floodgates (yeah yeah hypocrite I know) and got wrecked by Spell Shattering arrow and drew poop. It's okay though, we all went for wings and to Jordans for shenanigans including but not limited to cubing, watching Cody opening fucking busted, swapping stories of scrubs in action and just having a blast the entire night when I was awake followed by going to Galaxy the next day in which I talked Pokemon with Cameron and got some sweet swag. Hell the Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon Mat might even be mine as I know Ryan will part with it if I give him a good enough deal. Plus I finished my other decks! So with that said I'm now officially done giving two shits about the game until DOCS comes out when Nord, Matt, Magnus and I will break Performages.
Fun times will eventually be had. Just not while the format is utter shit. Ryan may be finding some enjoyment in this. But not I.
Props
-Seeing one of my buds get the top
-Seeing no Qliphort decks topping
-Getting to watch the Synchron Extreme Structure Deck Tournament. God that entertaining.
-Picked up much swag
-Finished Red-Eyes, Gem-Knights, Vespiquen
-Got to hang out with the Winnipeg crew again.
-Snagged some hilarious photobombs.
-Despite my Round 4 opponent and the drama leading up to this event I was not the saltiest person this weekend. ;)
-Jordan's parents.
Slops
-I'm now 3 for 8 on the Regional Circuit. This is not exactly good for my confidence.
-Qliphort
-Floodgates
-Losing to a deck that on paper I should auto-win because of Trapeze Magician and to a player who I had to call a Judge to confirm that yes, you cannot chain the MST you just set on your turn. "I didn't know about that." It's in the rulebook!
But really this Regionals was both good and ugly and I wish it could have gone better, yet at the same time I'm okay with how some things turned out. The trip itself was filled with much drama as there was whining, backstabbing and politicking behind peoples backs to the point I thought I was in a booking meeting where Triple H and Hulk Hogan were fighting to see who would go over. People were upset and it got to the point that one person dropped and I considered it as well, but decided to come along regardless while ignoring some jabs made at my expense from ironically enough one of the people who threw a bitchfest in the first place.
So we head out to Winnipeg and for once the weather was not shit. We make it to Jordan's OP as hell place and meet up with the other clique and at this point I sleeve up my Igknight deck so that they'd think I'd be using it at the tournament and side accordingly when in fact I planned to use Clownblade, but then Matt blew my cover and I was like "oh well." and after switching back to Clownblade we all futilely try to sleep for the next day.
We all wake up and are late getting to the venue as there was barely enough time to get registered and I was unable to pick up a second Exciton Knight but decide to roll with it as I was not confident in Igknight's ability to play against Shaddolls and Qliphort which were in droves including all 3 players of the other clique. Shard I can understand as he's been playing the deck forever and like Colby and Dark World for the longest time only plays it after getting a top with the deck. Colby and Damon on the other hand literally picked up the deck because they got destroyed by it and tried to build it with the hopes of helmeting their way to a top to which I was less than impressed. Colby I can see why as like Dark World it's a deck that takes absolutely zero thought or interaction with the opponent except this time around fucking with your opponent's hand has been replaced by floodgating them to death. Damon on the other hand I just facepalmed inwardly at as he already had Satellarknight, zero experience with Qli (though again, doesn't take much to play them) and by switching to Qli made his Burning Abyss matchup harder while basically opening himself up to getting smashed by any competent Doll player as they'd likely had more experience playing vs Qli, but he likely had no experience dealing with Dolls outside OMGFLIPFLOODGATES.
Hell Tellarknights even topped this Regionals.
As for me, well...
Round 1 - vs Blackwings (2-0)
This guy was horrendous. First up he was playing Blackwings in 2015, he shat his entire hand on his turn 1, played the Level 1 Tuners and made Vortex the Whirlwind to my hand of Retaliating Cs and I forget what else. I just know I ARK his Vortex and read that his set was a Mirror Force and kept him from resolving Whirlwind. Game 2 is a bit hazy but I'm pretty sure I ARK an Armed Wing and make Diamond to blow him out of the game.
Round 2 - vs Qliphort (1-2)
Floodgates! Floodgates everywhere! More than the eye can see! Yeah there was no way I was winning this one as he drew godly two games in a row and I could not answer Lose 1 Turn, Emptiness and Soul Drains before Qliphort Stealth annihilated me in all of his poorly designed stupidity. Seriously why did they give that thing a "cards cannot be activated in response to this effect" effect?
Round 3 - vs Satellarknight (2-0)
He opens with Rai-Oh set a couple which were revealed to be Fiendish Chains and Call of the Haunteds so it takes me a while to finally get that thing off the board but it's pretty clear at this point he's playing Tellars. We both make some misplays (me forgetting to Archfiend off my chained ARK) as he reads my set S/T as a Torrential and tries to Triverr it, but instead I blow him out with Warning for Game 1. Game 2 was a bit back and forth as I opened with some multiple Rank 4 shenanigans to his Maxx "C", but I'm able to keep him from getting his ball rolling, Rhapsody his 2 Denebs and swing with my Rank 4s and win.
Round 4 - vs Watt Burn (1-2)
The moment I saw this guy I got the vibe of him being another one of those randy people you meet on DN as he didn't know a majority of what my cards do and flips up stalling battle cards like Thunder of Ruler as I'm building a board. Then he flips Ceasefire and 3 Just Desserts to burn me for 6000 damage and I'm left dumbfounded (no Damage Jugglers were drawn this game). Game 2 I have a Damage Juggler for a huge burn play and I have Warning to stop his Wattdragonfly and Castel for his Watt battle phase stopper thing and kill him. Game 3 I don't have a Damage Juggler in hand nor see my Decrees and am not able to summon a turn 1 Trapeze Magician without leaving myself open to Lava Golem so he burns me down to 2800 and stalls out the rest of the match with Swift Scarecrow, Waboku and lastly when he had no cards on field or in hand rips Threatening Roar and beats me in time with flipping Watt Burn. Wonderful.
At this point I decided to drop out of the tournament as now I was X-2 with my most recent loss opting to drop out himself and the turnout was only 65 people meaning I had zero chance of topping and I didn't feel like playing out the rest of the day when I could be trading and hanging out with people and enjoying myself than playing 3 more rounds while likely on tilt. In regards to my deck it actually performed well as most of the hands I drew were playable and the theory behind the card choices were solid, I just failed to draw optimal hands against my worst matchup and got Yu-Gi-Oh!'d in another instance. The mainboard itself was prepped to deal with Dolls and Nekroz with 6 "C" cards and I drew Retaliating "C" in every single game I had it in so on paper I would have annihilated Dolls/Nekroz? Whose to say. The deck is fun as hell (unless you play burn, but nobody has fun playing that...) and I urge people to give it a try. Clown Blade is by no means a bad deck just because one card got banned. It can still function very well.
The tournament continues without me and Ryan ends up getting 5th place with Clown Dolls, Shard scrubbed out, Matt got 17th place as is tradition, Magnus finished 20th and both Damon and Colby got fucked over by the bubble (sucks, doesn't it), complete with Damon getting visibly upset and from what I heard very salty over being "so close" to the top.
After that there was a win a mat tournament that I entered with Igknights. I played against a horrendous BA player but I didn't open Library which G1 is your win con against the deck and Game 2 didn't see any of my floodgates (yeah yeah hypocrite I know) and got wrecked by Spell Shattering arrow and drew poop. It's okay though, we all went for wings and to Jordans for shenanigans including but not limited to cubing, watching Cody opening fucking busted, swapping stories of scrubs in action and just having a blast the entire night when I was awake followed by going to Galaxy the next day in which I talked Pokemon with Cameron and got some sweet swag. Hell the Red-Eyes Flare Metal Dragon Mat might even be mine as I know Ryan will part with it if I give him a good enough deal. Plus I finished my other decks! So with that said I'm now officially done giving two shits about the game until DOCS comes out when Nord, Matt, Magnus and I will break Performages.
Fun times will eventually be had. Just not while the format is utter shit. Ryan may be finding some enjoyment in this. But not I.
Props
-Seeing one of my buds get the top
-Seeing no Qliphort decks topping
-Getting to watch the Synchron Extreme Structure Deck Tournament. God that entertaining.
-Picked up much swag
-Finished Red-Eyes, Gem-Knights, Vespiquen
-Got to hang out with the Winnipeg crew again.
-Snagged some hilarious photobombs.
-Despite my Round 4 opponent and the drama leading up to this event I was not the saltiest person this weekend. ;)
-Jordan's parents.
Slops
-I'm now 3 for 8 on the Regional Circuit. This is not exactly good for my confidence.
-Qliphort
-Floodgates
-Losing to a deck that on paper I should auto-win because of Trapeze Magician and to a player who I had to call a Judge to confirm that yes, you cannot chain the MST you just set on your turn. "I didn't know about that." It's in the rulebook!
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