Locals Report - Still not the saltiest

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.