Apr 14/2018 Locals Report - Granblue Fantasy

Took me a few days to realize I hadn't put anything up yet from the recent weekend.  Better fix that!

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At this point I'm starting to entire "no fucks given" mode as I wait for the reboot to kick in and with it the rule changes along with the introduction of Standard Format.  As such I decided to play my (sadly) outgunned Nightrose deck as at this point nobody is playing Chaos or Gredora so I don't have to worry about getting completely fucked over by the no fun police.  Jury's still out on Dominate as that deck has the same non existent early game as Nightrose BUT because of Granblue's play style I could in theory not care about guarding early game pressure attacks or calling things out to rush only to have them die as I fight for first stride since they'll only come back.  In regards to Rinne I'm pretty certain the Negrolilly combo completely shuts it down if we break it down on a step by step basis;

-Rinne forces me to call 2 units from hand to R as dominated, one of them attacks VG
-G-Guard into Negrolilly, use it's effect to retire one of my non dominated RGs to call a Ghostie Normal unit to R.  Proceed to call the Ghostie on top of the non attacking Dominated unit.

...holy shit.  Negrolilly itself just stops the combo.  Nightrose's GB2 isn't even needed here!  God damn I love this deck.

Anywho I arrive and complete my trade of ZtB for Magia and have a good bulk of the deck now;

I should probably grab a few Silver Thorn strides in case Luquier ends up being the main unit of V-Series (and she probably will) but I've already done a bit of gold fishing using an ideal list and I'm seeing the potential for Premium format.  It should also be reasonably not expensive to touch up the deck so perhaps within a month I'll have a competitive Magia deck?  We'll see.

Round 1 - vs Messiah (Win)

He literally picked up the deck on this day and had never really played it before therefore a good bulk of this game was spent him reading his cards and figuring out plays.  Meanwhile I get to GB8 on third stride and shank him.

Round 2 - vs Dimensional Robos (Win)

I counterblast deny him early game so that he can't use Daihawk to go into Daiearth to gain advantage which is the one good thing about this otherwise shitty deck but unfortunately my start is weak and I have to first stride Obadiah in order to actually do anything.  I think he goes into Daikaiser Leon after this to my 4 damage and I throw down two PGs (well, one from hand and one from drop using my G-Guard) meaning he has to flip two 3s in order to break through which he doesn't.  Meanwhile because I had 3 Heals I was able to second stride my GB8 but he barely lives through it, I get through his turn and kill him on my following turn with Rosate.

Round 3 - vs ZtB (Lose)

This match ends up as loss as I ride Starlight Nightrose but play out my turn as if I'm on OG Nightrose and create an irreparable game state as a result.  Then we play a funzies in which I second stride GB8 but his constant defensive trigs and ZtB's inherently better consistently lets him survive and Heritage me.

Like I said before Nightrose is simply outgunned in this format.  She's a good rogue deck but against ZtB, Victor and Regalia she'll struggle.  Her G-Guards inherently counter Dominate and Darkness which happen to be high roll decks anyway.

April 7/2018 Locals Report - Beyond the Time

We're back!  Last week was more or less an 'off' day as we never had a tournament and instead played 2v2s and relay fights which could be summed up as; RNG hated me that day.  I still pulled my weight and won games because Zodiac Time Beast is a fucking dumb deck but hoo boy when RNG is not on your side you know it's gonna be rough.  I ended up trading away my Regalia deck for an Oracle Think Tank core (It's missing 2 Still Water and a GB8) in preparation for Premium Format and mentioned I was looking to get rid of Bloom to which I had a couple people interested.

That said let's get on with today;

Initially there wasn't gonna be a tournament due to a MtG event happening but they were conveniently wrapping up by the time the Vanguard playerbase arrived so we were able to do a thing.  Someone wanted to trade for Blusha but didn't have enough trade power for the deck so I just let him borrow it for the tournament while I decided to play ZtB as I figured since the YGO crew was in Winnipeg trying their best to get their tops that I should try and do the best I could and just maybe cause the RNG gods to favour them.  That and I felt like it was finally time for me to put my money where my mouth is and prove that ZtB was the BDIF and not Dominate;

Round 1 - vs ZtB (Win)

Ah it's the Jet mirror.  Usually I win these due to surviving his inherent sacking long enough to grind out a win through being a better player (and he has admitted as such).  Not this time.  Today I outright savaged him with an early game rush that pushed him to 3 damage despite hitting 3 straight defensive triggers and him never flipping any offensive ones while I got first stride and killed him with Phoenix.

Round 2 - vs Dominate (Win)

Here we are.  ZtB vs Dominate.  The one guy's been staunch in his belief that Dominate is the best deck of the format to which I (and anyone who keeps an eye on the format) will always say no that's not the case.  ZtB is.  Dominate is a good deck because Rinne exists and that is literally it.  If Dominate can't kill with Rinne then they lose because the rest of the Nuba G-Zone is shit.  It's a highroll deck to the highest degree and simply does not hold a candle to ZtB as;

-ZtB has an early game (Rewind Tiger and the ability to start pushing from G1 onwards) wheras Dominate literally does fuck all until Stride
-ZtB can fight for first stride better than any deck in the game due to Jet Z's free stride.  Being able to call Revolver Dracokid down and poke from the onset is big.
-Chronojet Dragon Z > Shiranui Zanki
-ZtB have some of the best G-Guards in the game including Heterohound Dragon who singlehandedly fucks over a Rinne Turn
-ZtB have the most free PG in the game
-ZtB are the most consistent deck in the game
-ZtB have the best finisher strides out there (Nextage, Gear Groovy, Gearnext, Abenir, Heritage)
-ZtB have Heritage
-Dominate struggles against any deck that can keep up a large hand as Rinne becomes weaker when the opponent can shrug it off (such as the upcoming Bermuda Triangle decks).
-Dust > Drachma

But no, he refuses to admit this because his bias for Nubatama will not let him look at things rationally.  He's alot like Solemn and Aqua Force in that regard.

Now with that all being said I promptly am forced to go first and fail to find a Grade 1 after Mulligan and whiff my G-Assist so I'm forced to sit on Dran Z for a turn.  He does not take the chance to punish me for this by only calling a Doge and swinging with both so I only take 1 damage and fail to draw a 1 for turn so I G-Assist again and finally hit something.  I think I flip a crit here to put him to 2, he doesn't really aggro me on the following turn while I hit a PG with Dran Z and he chooses not to stay down on 2 for a turn which means I get to first stride Abenir Phoenix and it's gets me a couple more attackers and I take him to 5 damage while he G-Guards meaning I have to deal with Rinne's GB3 on his turn.  He does just that using Zanki to wear my hand down followed by Rinne but one of the cards I called was Metal Party who can't attack if the user has no bound cards (and it's not an Auto skill) AND he had no bound cards so I only had to deal with one big RG.  He calls down a board and goes RG (which I take), VG (which I G-Guard for a 2 pass which he doesn't get) and RG (I G-Guard that one) to survive his turn at 5 damage and promptly stride into Chronovisor Heritage because I had opened with 2 Heals and was able to use two of the ZtB G-Guard and he has about 5 cards in hand and I've got Metal Party + Merry Block and a Sheep in hand.  He's able to survive my first wave of attacks but dies after I take my 2nd turn.  Did Heritage decide this?  Not really as 5 cards in hand meant I could have killed him with Gearnext if I didn't have the 2nd G-Guard play.

And that's the thing.  I have multiple ways to win.  My deck is flexible and consistent and doesn't need to rely on the opponent low rolling to get its wins.  I also need to point out that I had to G-Assist but I still won.  Losing cards in hand to G-Assist made this game closer but otherwise this is pretty much how I feel the GC vs Dominate matchup pans out.  ZtB pretty much wins unless Dominate is able to sack their opponent into a unfavourable game state.

Round 3 - vs Dimensional Robos (Win)

Ah yes the deck that wins through literally sacking.  Well normally does unless you kill it fast enough and that's what I did here.  I don't really have the hand that lets me fight for first stride that well but I make up for it by flipping 2 crits and pushing him to 5 damage, comfortably living through his Daiearth turn and pulling off one of the most godly Abenir turns possible as I already had a 18 column going into it and drew Metal Party + Merry Block + Hypnosis Sheep which meant I had a potential 7 attacks with my opponent at 5 damage and only 5 cards in hand with none of them being PGs or a G-Guard.  He was super dead.

My deck is fair.

And that was that.  I got 1st place (no duh) and for the most part won my games pretty convincingly like ZtB does.  Subsequently I'm now offloading the deck due to it pretty much being worthless in Premium format and am picking up Magia for it.

LIFE IS A CARNIVAL.