CFV Locals Report - The Long Grind

Today's turnout was actually decent considering the last couple months.  A handful of 'Stoon people came down so we probably could have held a tournament but ultimately didn't, instead the Stoon guys just played games against our much more experienced playerbase.  One of them happened to be an Ahsha player and she actually understood the nuances of Bloom so it was really refreshing to discuss Neo Nectar theory with someone for a change.  Unfortunately they forgot to bring trade binders with them so I couldn't help her touch up the deck by trading my spare Glorious Ahsha or Jingle Flowers but it's something to keep in the back of my mind for next time.

Anyway one of them wanted to play a game against someone and I volunteered;

Vanquisher vs Gear Chronicle (2-0)

This one wasn't a fleshed out Gear deck so I didn't have to worry about the Cancer Combos which made defending against his plays alot easier.  He left things out on the board for me to kill every turn which helped me set up 2 large Voltage turns and a Conquest that got in there.  Second game he makes me start and I land a couple Chatura hits and see my draws, so I'm able to keep advantage while doing Narukami things and kill him with a Conquest.

After I had another game against a different person

Vanquisher vs Nightrose (1-0)

We both try to anti meta a bit as I stay on G1 for a turn, then I re-rode to 2 to avoid Seabreeze with the 2 being Martial Arts Dragon to get a retire/bind off and lastly he let my first stride Voltage hit and I just so happen to hit his Grenache and lone Negrolazy which slowed him down ALOT.  From there its a grind as while he is able to keep his front row clear due to hollow, he kept leaving Negrobones out in the backrow which were easy pickings for my G2s to retire which in turn set up Chain Bolts who set up Bulwark Dragon who set up Conquest/Voltage.  Surprising level of synergy we've got going here.  Anyway I'm able to survive his pushes and push back with  my own strides, put him to 5 damage and finally VMAX him.

Cancerjet vs Nightrose (1-0)

So I misride into my ONE non Chronojet VG, but Warp Drive + Ur Watar and History Maker allowed me to dig out of what was an awkward start and I manage to get the Gear engine rolling on my following Phoenix, Nextage and Warp Drive turns and overwhelm him with my attack strings.  He never properly sets up his board to deal with mine whereas I do and it's never really close.  I only went to 5 damage so I could Heal Block and have CB.

After that, Jordan arrived and we decided to relay fight!  My team mates were our resident non Bad End Spike player and the guy I just played.  We agreed to have the Spike player lead with Dudley, I would follow up with Vanquisher as playing Cancer Gears in this format is kind of BM and our last player would be Nightrose because Granblue is REALLY good in the format.

Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Ahsha/Messiah/Gear Chronicle (Win)

Dudley had a decent start, but the Ahsha player kept flipping triggers at the worst timing, so ultimately he got defeated.  I start with 9 cards and not only do I not see Vanquisher among them, but 6 of them are triggers.  I make due by going into Voltage and using Rock Climb to set up a bind zone and get the kill and end up having to deal with Link Joker.  Fortunately this isn't Chaos so I just have to outlast some of the locks and thanks to Dudley Jessica's defensive skill, I have a 13k Vanguard which made it easier to guard his shit.  I Voltage again and build up some more binds and we go back and forth before I start threatening him with 2 straight VMAX pushes that don't go through, but whittle down his resources before I kill him with a Conquest.  I don't last long against Gears, opting to give our third player a hand to work with and he doesn't see Nightrose, but he still has enough cards to close the game out in a few turns.

Dudley/Vanquisher/Nightrose vs Great Nature/Musketeer/Diablo

I'm so glad I didn't have to lead as the amount of resist units in Great Nature now is ridiculous.  Instead the opponent goes on and on about the cards he'll draw, this and that but then he got Spike Brother'd before he could Breakride Legion.   RIP.

Musketeer player comes in and makes a suboptimal Legion play, Dudley fights back to pick away at the hand and is finally defeated in the face of a swoll Blizza.  This time I get to see a G3 and Mighty Bolt so I search a Vanquisher after striding Voltage and just chip away at his board before going to face with Conquest or something.  I know I end up facing the Diablo player soon after and he goes into a SBD and eats enough of his board away while not checking a trigger in 4 checks that I get off the easiest VMAX of the day and ping him.  Then I opt to die with a 9 card hand so our Nightrose player can combo.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and Tramps had to close before we could finish, so it ended up never panning out but I can assume that we would have won on the following Gouache turn.

So that was that.

Props
-Got to get some more play testing in with Vanquisher outside of CFA because fuuuuuuuuuuck that place.
-Found another Neo Nectar player who knows about the Sunwheel deck!
-It was absurdly awesome how Dudley Jessica carried Spike Brothers and Narukami on her back.
-Every time you win off of VMAX's ping effect it's a Pro.

Cons
-That feeling when someone double perfect guards to avoid VMAX.
-Not seeing Vanquisher in my opening hand of 9 in both relays.

Some Thunder Support - Thunder Dancer

I'm like *this* close to making a mock Light Thunder Structure Deck just because there's barely enough non Batteryman/Watt cards out there to fill out a list.  Making up 5 cards to support would be easy enough outside of trying to create a good boss monster.  I like the route they're going with Ultimate Conductor Tyranno though, so perhaps something that's as easy to summon as Master Hyperion but with an effect that's adjusted to power creep?

Anywho this is something I came up with the other day;

Thunder Dancer
Rank 4 Light
Thunder/Xyz/Effect/2000/1400
2 Level 4 Monsters
Once per turn, you can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 Level 5 or lower Thunder-Type Monster from your hand or graveyard.  You can only use the effect of "Thunder Dancer" once per turn.

It's simple, the materials are generic and its range is just enough that you can summon any Thunder Dragons you may have in hand/discarded to the graveyard.  Notably you can go Ma/Pahunder + Brohunder, add Rai-Oh, Xyz into this, detach Ma/Pa and revive it, then Normal summon Rai-Oh.

CFV Locals Report - Except Not Really

Kinda digging for straws here as there really hasn't been much of a locals scene for the last while.  We have the playerbase for it, but conflicting schedules has made it harder to actually organize any weekly tournaments which in turn makes it difficult for me to get legit games in outside of CFA which is notoriously iffy for testing.  I did play about 3 matches worth of games though which equates to the number of rounds of a YGO Locals so fuck it let's roll with this.  I REALLY wanted to test out my ideas for Dragonic Vanquisher and EDD in an actual gameplay setting and that's what I did;

Round 1 - Descendant/Sweep vs Galahad/Altmile

Yeah it's against a bad deck among bad decks but my deck here is a glass cannon among glass cannons so short of mirage decks, the matchup doesn't matter here as it's more of can my deck do its thing?  If it does then the chances of winning go up exponentially.  If not then I'm playing a worse Vanquisher Deck.

Anyway in both games I get the start which allows me to put some early pressure with Chatura and come my Stride Turn I have multiple chances of trigger First Thunder Dracokid's skill (Zorras and Voltage Horn).  In Game 1 I whiff the first Sweep Command attempt but hit it on the following turn while in the other I resolve both superior Rides and put him to 5 damage going into a Zillion Turn.

Round 2 - Descendant/Sweep vs Nubatama

We both G-Assist and he gets really lucky with hand snipes, taking away my G-Guardian that legitimately would have given me a chance to survive his turn so I die despite somewhat fighting back having gotten a Sweep Command ride off.  I'm impressed that the success rate of performing the combo seems to be at the 50% range by the time I get to my Stride turn but still salt over having to deal with Nubas.  Fuck that deck.

Round 3 - Luard vs Fenrir

I decided to borrow Derrick's deck as with a $800+ price tag I am in NO WAY attempting to build that.  Christ even my Gear Chronicle Deck doesn't match up to that.

Anyway I make plays and win off advantage and aggression.  I'm sure I played the deck differently than others as my playstyle for Vanguard tends to be less on the now and more of the turn after when it comes to decks that need to manage their resources (ie Granblue).

Round 4 - Vanquisher vs Nightrose (2-0)

And then Allen asked to play a match.  Hoo boy.  The Granblue matchup for Narus is iffy at best due to them being able to make their board go away.  We're slightly better equipped to deal with it than Kagero due to having better G-Units but them not having things to kill can be a problem.  That being said he makes some odd moves, chiefly not playing out the matchup vs Narukami proper and as the result I punish him by killing and binding his Negrolazy, Cannoneer, Negrobone and Gauche in the first game followed by a Vanquisher Voltage push that he didn't have enough to guard following Voltage landing a hit.  Game 2 I get a Chatura hit in and he again calls out a board but leaves a few things for me to kill so I'm able to get to Thunderstrike 5 quickly, but end up having to use up my hand trying to survive his G4 Nightrose push and am topdecking.  I don't top a stride, but force him to use up some hand lest he deal with a 3 crit Vanquisher while checking double Heals so I'm able to survive his second push, top nothing relevant and win via flipping a draw trigger to his 3 card hand.

So close games basically.  The Granblue matchup based on observation is I'd say a toss up.  If they get rolling and you have a weak hand you'll probably die.  On the other hand if you can get some key binds (Negrolazy, Gauche) it slows down their ability to be aggressive.

And that was it as I left pretty much immediately due to getting hungry.

Props
-Finally got some IRL games in with Narus
-EDD/Sweep performed okayish.  It's by no means able to compete with the meta but against decks of its class (Raging Form) it's actually really good.
-Pulled a Mond Blau from my packs.
-Picked up some AqF Adelaides.  Thavas is going to be a long term project like Viktor and Blue Wave

Slops
-Getting sacked by Nubatama
-Failing on the rest of my pack pulls