To my delight this past weekend our local game store Comic Readers became able to host Vanguard local tournaments, right down to using Bushiroad's tournament software and being able to give out Shop Promos. This should hopefully provide a nice shot in the arm for our community as by having tournaments we can eventually get Sneak Peeks which is a great thing to have going into a new series. Furthermore now that there are prizes on the line (hot Stamped Laurel right now), people will be more inclined to actually try to win which will raise the level of competition which is fine by me. Tougher opponents means that I'll have to work for my wins rather than steamroll people because I'm playing an optimized list vs their for funsies build.
That being said I sadly wasn't able to get my Nova Grappler cards in time for this so I had to fall back on my next best finished deck in Neo Nectar which had me a little concerned since we have 2 Chaos players in the room and I'm still having PTSD of my games with Nightrose in that regard.
Round 1 - vs Brave (1-1)
Game 1 - He wasn't able to ride Altmile v3 which is brutal as while Brave likes to keep a low hand for its keyword, you also kind of want to have a hand vs Bloom. In any case this game takes up almost the entire round as we spent a good bulk of the game counterplaying each other through the form of resource denial and trying to keep our damage low for the other's push turn (Velhemina for me, Fides for him). I eventually push him to 4 going into a Vel turn and manage to kill him...only for him to get a 6th damage heal and survive into his Immortal Fides turn. Thankfully I had stockpiled up on Perfect Guards through multiple Ihnes blooms and I was able to barely make it through his push and promptly killed him with my GB8.
Game 2 - Time got called pretty quickly after this and we ended up playing out Turns 0-3 with highest damage as the loser. Long story short I try to turtle out the game by setting up a defensive hand and taking the lead in damage but my plans are foiled by him being able to come up with a Multi-Attack turn that forces me to 5 damage which in itself isn't enough to lose me the game (and if the game ended in a draw then I won the round) but then he flipped a 5th damage heal to go down to 4 on the last turn and I lost. Lolreeeeeeeee.
Round 2 - vs Deletor (2-0)
Game 1 - It's not Allen so I'm considerably less frightened as he's the only person I know who plays the deck properly (ie the Given combo) wheras this guy is just playing a less explosive variant. Thing is when Deletors don't play to kill on the Turn 3 ride and the opponent gets to their Grade 3, it becomes harder to kill them since they're likely to have G-Guardians that allow them to block Rearguards even when he Vanguard is deleted (lol Antero) and the longer the game goes for Bloom, the easier it becomes for the deck to kill. Not that it matters here as I skillfully flip 2 crits on him to take him to 5 and kill him on my next turn with Lieta.
Game 2 - Same deal here. I know at this point he's not playing Given or the CB2 call a Deletor from deck guy so damage denying him isn't as important here thus I just play the game out as normal. I do make it a point to field Dianne and Kera so he can't lock my attackers and I end up killing him on my 2nd stride.
And that was it for me as I got a bye after this and finished in 7th place (tied for 4th). Rip.
Guess we'll see what happens when I play Victor.
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