God damn the weather can be a bitch, even for Sask. In this case we went from having to trudge through slushy sidewalks because of the above 0 temperature to braving arctic wind gusts that cut into the soul itself.
I almost wanted to stay home. Probably should have. The next time the weather is this douchy I won't bother. Just not worth it.
That said for putting up with the weather I rewarded myself with a box of Valiant and pulled alright. I got the second most valued Secret in the set but no ARK or Exciton Knight which made me sad. I did pick up some rarity upgrades for other decks, however. I wasn't judging today so I decided to play the Hieratic Rulers I had been testing on DevPro this week.
Round 1 - vs Dragon Plant (2-1)
Having to play while wanting to use the restroom really does affect your thinking (and lack of sleep) as I basically punted Game 2 on a misplay after dominating game 1. Then I open with Dracossack + Stardust Game 3 and take it from there.
Round 2 - vs Bujin (1-2)
I don't know what it is but Bujin give every deck I play problems and this was no different. There has to be a way that I'm supposed to go about battling this deck as trying to force out Crane, Turtle and Hare is an enormous problem in a deck that runs limited monster removal, especially of the non targeting kind. Game 1 I open with multiple Drains but no monsters to take advantage, Game 2 I burn his resources out and Game 3 I brick. I was able to take his Yamato with Memory of an Adversary (which I waited too long to do) but can't deal with Honest, Kaiser Colosseum and I forget what else.
Round 3 - vs Noble Knights (2-1)
Game 1 he goes off with the 3700 Artorigus with assloads of protection, but I survive with just enough LP to Blaster his Excaliburn and M7 his Knight and ride to victory. Game 2 I got Woodhoused and Game 3 I used Memory of an Adversary to take his Artorigus and I put lethal on my board next turn.
Top 4 - vs Chain Beat (0-2)
This game took far too long and I just couldn't do jack shit against his five million floodgate and anti cards. Must be fucking nice to open with the turn 1 Dimensional Fissure and Thunder King and I can go on. Game 1 I really only had Trap Stun to work with and couldn't get to Su for the life of me so I lost damn near my whole deck to that DiFi (and later Macro) and Game 2 it was more of the same garbage. I finally lost it and snapped, swearing and just generally being a ReRe. In my mind I thought I heard one of the more hipster people in the room snickering so I went back in and did a snarky retarded laugh with utter contempt in my voice. Then I felt bad and apologized. Floodgate.dek really brings out the worst in me and I need to work on it.
It's still fucking bull though. I sided in 3 MST and 2 Wingbeat and couldn't see any of them yet he god draws the perfect setup? Fuck that shit.
In fact for Regina Locals? Fuck playing combo decks in general. The most popular decks at locals are strictly stun based or something derpy; Fire Fist, Bujin, Prophecy, Stun and Dark World. Playing Dragons right now would be fucking suicide. I'm better off counter attacking with Anti Anti Meta and few decks do that better than Harpies
...Mistake is pushing 50 dollars? FUUUUUUUUU-
Props
-I bought a box of Yugioh cards and didn't get completely pooped on for it? Alot of the commons and rares in the set were actually pretty good, which was why I bought it to begin with. Even if I didn't get Black Roach Dragon, I'd still have gotten stuff to work with.
-Upgrading Mermails even MORE.
-Getting Scraps! I just need Orthros at this point!
Slops
-Being not allowed to play Yu-Gi-Oh!
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Thursday, 23 January 2014
Reflecting on BNU - Part 1 (The Avidgamer Stint)
It's hard to believe its been 10 years now. I know how incredibly cheesy this sounds but it really does feel like it wasn't that long ago when in 2004 that a webpage that I could consider to be a home of sorts was opened;
I'm talking about Mega Man Battle Network Universe, a message board with the premise of 3rd person text based roleplaying (hereby referred to as RPing from this point on) between its members. For those that may not familiar with the concept think of it as an interactive fanfiction done in real time between other writers. They were REALLY popular in the early 2000s and I remember being in a few of them during high school. To make a long story short I came across one based on the Mega Man X series called Cybertropolis and after working my way up from lowly newb to admin through my writing talents (I was bar none the best RPer on the site and had pretty much surpassed even the staff in ability from the get go) I pitched the idea of creating a sister site to CyberT in the form of a Battle Network RP as I saw that the series was REALLY popular with older fans like myself and newer people. The head Admin who we all call "Jazz" liked the idea and thus Battle Network Universe was born on the website Avid Gamers. I originally wanted no part in the site itself as I had never played any of the BN games but Jazz insisted I join anyway as he figured given my creativity I'd be able to manage something and so I did. I took my character from the X series campaign in Obelisk the Green Slayer shown here;
And rebooted him as a Net Navi in the form of Obelisk.exe;
I also created a human operator for him that was basically a spitting image of myself, right down to my name. I never liked that and regretted not being able to come up with a more flashy operator name for a long time.
Anyway the site started off simple enough. Sub Boards based on various parts of Battle Network's history were made along with original areas. A good majority of the members RPed original characters however as alot of people just weren't fond of playing the canon characters which is something I may talk about later. The admin had the honor of being able to RP multiple characters and they usually had about 3. These were usually a mix of an OC, Canon character and a boss character for the other members to fight though it was really Jazz that did this the most frequently. Eventually I got promoted to staff *again* for god knows what reason and ended up being the one who got to RP Lan and Mega Man in addition to myself and Obelisk and later on Prisma Shatterstone and Crystal Man.exe. That being said things progressed smoothly with a nice little conflict involving eco terrorists followed by some random trying to attack everyone with his own organization but was ultimately snuffed out by the LARGE number of heroes on the site. The good guy to bad guy ratio between the members was 10 to 1 which is something that looking back on it may have been an issue.
But I digress after some time had passed I decided to try my hand at creating a conflict for the site and I did so with a band of criminals referred to as the "Mavericks." I even got some of the other members to join my stable! There were attacks from them along with attacks from Jazz's own criminals that caused quite a bit of havoc on the site. In addition to this there was an N1 Grand Prix tournament being set up and it was going to be a Zoids Style team tournament with navi groups fighting in royals and stuff. Obelisk and I were pretty much at the center of the Maverick Storyline due to being the puppet master and due to my talents I had made quite the reputation among the other members as being the guy who usually wrote up massively descriptive, layered posts with strategy behind my fighting.
Which made it all the more exciting when the moment finally came that I fought Jazz. The reason was simple. Obelisk posted an open challenge in the Undernet and Jazz accepts after being out of the fold and missing for what I think was several months in story and people were PSYCHED to see this fight happen. To say that this was a marquee matchup was an understatement as it was a battle between the two best RPers and the two most prominent admins (I got another promotion lulz) and we tore the house down. The battle ended up being a draw for reasons I don't remember but it's a fight that I still remember to this day and its easily one of my all time favourites. Jazz at the time was not a great RPer compared to me but that fight made him raise his game and he'd keep improving from there on.
Turns out this would become a thing of mine. People who became involved with me got better in some manner be it as an RPer or IRL in some cases. I was like The Undertaker in that sense. That said the fight left Obelisk so damage he had to be upgraded to his v2 form;
After this things became a little hazy in regards to the Jazz storyline. He did do some more things but the major focus was on my Maverick Storyline and the N1 Grand Prix as after another incident the big bad leader of the Mavericks appeared and declared he'd be in the tournament. He also had Obelisk chase him into places unknown and disappear. Teams are formed and the tournament starts.
Sadly this part of the storyline never get very far as things spiralled out of control due to everyone having some form of finals coming up (it was May ish). Ultimately Sigma appeared with Obelisk as an ally and they proceeded to OWN everyone. I actually got complaints for being too much for the people to handle (think a Tier 0 deck like Tele-DAD going up against Cyberdarks. That was the gap) but it didn't matter as the blow off occurred a few weeks later with Sigma becoming a colossal sized real world Navi that was above the world and everyone banded together to fight him. Obelisk turns face and sacrifices himself to mortally wound Sigma and leaves Mega Man with his Soul Unison transformation to finish the job;
Charge attack was a 2x3 Slash that ignored Shields, Barriers, Auras and Invis, Elec Chips can be charged up for a x2 damage 9 panel explosion, Ominishoes are active and upon Unison all panels changed to water.
The world is saved and things go back to normal with the heroes taking a vacation at Willy's Water Works. However shit gets bad and the water works are out of control. Obelisk's operator returns with a new Net Navi based on my original writing hero but at this point we're all getting fed up with an increasing amount of server crashes from the site's host Avid-Gamers. Over the last few months it was possible to go days without being to log in which made posting in exciting storylines extremely difficult. I had often made cracks about AG's shittiness and wished there was an alternative. Jazz found one in Proboards and the decision to jump ship was unanimous from the userbase...at a cost.
Everything we had done at this point would be discarded. If we went to a new board we would have to start all over with a clean slate.
So be it.
In the end it was a hell of a ride. I grew as a writer and RPer despite everyone around me not being up to my level and I got my first real taste of what being a moderator/admin meant. Dealing with unruly members and whatnot. I was sad to see everything we all worked on be basically forgotten but I was also jumping at the chance to RP Obelisk again. I regretted killing him off and hated my new character, so a reset was fine by me. Thus the new Battle Network Universe was made and everyone moved over as the old site was basically blown up, but not before I took one last screenshot of member activity;
Jesus. I was a BEAST. And wow. Miaka was really fucking active for a newbie.
That being said I hoped you enjoyed this little tale from the past. With BNU's 10th anniversary coming up I definitely plan on posting more snippets heading into summer. I don't know when the next one will come but it'll be interesting in its own right as I get to talk about what I call "The Glory Years."
This'll be fun.
Sunday, 12 January 2014
Locals Report - Value
This was one of those rare weekends where I get BOTH days off and can go to both my Cardfight!! Vanguard AND Yu-Gi-Oh! Locals. This also means I could also write two blog posts except in this case I chose not to. Instead I'd rather make both reports in a single blog post as the content per post ratio is very, very high value and I know some people out there are all about value.
Saturday
I took Dragonic Descendant/Buster to this one as my order for the cards came in a few day before. Yes I literally ordered the entire deck online. So sue me. I knew full well that there would be at least 4 other people I'd have to compete with to build Eradicators so I saved myself the trouble and overpaying just to get all the cards I needed to build the deck as I saw fit. I ran a build very similar to some Japanese lists I saw with an emphais on Castor and Rising Phoenix to draw into cards but admittedly wasn't able to get a fully ideal build done.
Round 1 - vs Bermuda Triangle (Win)
The guy I played was awful to be honest and Narukami in general are a better deck. Gauntlet ate up resources early and Descendant did clean up.
Round 2 - vs Royal Paladin (Win)
He milled his only Majesty Lord Blaster and had to switch to Sanctuary Guard Dragon beats but I won it out afterwards.
Round 3 - vs Aqua Force (Lose)
This one pissed me off so much. Between him missing a ride, me dominating the entire game AND making no misplays he still managed to bullshit a win out of me. It basically comes down to Descendant attacking and not hitting triggers on both the first attack and the restand as he's able to block everything I throw at him, drop Malestrom Glory on Trans-Core Dragon and kill me because I don't have enough shield to guard the damn thing. I seriously fucking hate Malestrom Glory with a passion now as it's bullshit I can't Perfect Guard and I need to basically have 5 10k shields because he always gets a crit or some kind of trigger on it.
Round 4 - vs Eradicators (Lose)
This one was kind of back and fourth but unfortunately he hits two triggers off his Twin Drive and I die.
Round 5 - vs Nova Grapplers (Win)
This guy also wasn't good and I rolled him easily. Now how's THAT for confidence? I can only beat scrubs but choke against anything competent.
Round 6 - vs Eradicators (Lose)
I take the risk and no guard a Descendant at 4 damage and he crits. Not much else to say on that.
Round 7 - vs Liberators (Lose)
Stupid plot armour. That aside this was silly as Megamonkey and I were being weeaboo dramatic ala the anime.
After that we went to Cam's where many things happened, including talk of starting up a Beyblade League. This was awesome. LET IT RIP MOTHERFUCKERS. After that I go home, build Harpies and fall asleep.
Sunday
I get to judge today! Awesome as I honestly felt like being silly so I brought Chaos Lightsworn Dragon and Funbags with Wings (Harpies). I also bought a Mermail Deck for a good amount (160) and only need a single Megalo to finish it. Not going to lie, I missed playing Mermails alot. One of the things I've really regretted is trading that off. That and getting rid of my Scraps. I'm trying to get those back as well for when Factory comes out. I also picked up Generation Shifts and can now build Fire Kings the legit way. Onto the tourney!
Quick Reminder - When I judge my opponents automatically win the match and we play things out for fun. That said I'll say what REALLY went down.
Round 1 - Harpies vs Chaos Dragons (2-1)
Game 1 - I open with Pet Dragon and after wanting to kill myself and he puts BLS, Stardust and stuff on the field to my one Harpie Lady.
Game 2 - I open Summoner Monk and Hysteric Sign and it snowballs from there. Lightning Chidori clears any real threats and I push for game.
Game 3 - I resolve a Sign again and it goes from there.
Round 2 - Harpies vs DN.dek (2-0)
Honestly this one is not much to write about. The guy is honestly handicapped and had a 60 card mishmash of things. Both games I picked apart his board and murdered him with Hysteric Sign.
Round 3 - Harpies vs Spellbooks (2-0)
I was originally going to switch to Chaos here but then I realized I'd be playing against Fate.dek and that'd be bad and I wanted to see the Harpie vs Book matchup. Hunting Ground cleared Tower and popped face downs, I Torrential'd his Justice with a Maestroke on board and beat him down with Harpies game 1 then Chained a Blue Boy, Warning'd a Priestess and Evac'd Kycoo game 3 with a Dracossack and a Harpie 1 on the board which was enough damage for game
Top cut ended up being Harpies (another guy), Dragunity, Madolche and Chaos Dragon. Unfortunately I fucked up with the results as a Dark World player was 3 - 0 and I thought he was 2 - 1 (he didn't report his win to me and I misheard what his opponent said) so I ended up costing him a top. I legitimately felt bad about this but made amends by buying him food after locals at Robins. While there I showcased the awesome power of Chaos Lightsworn Dragon, smashed the living hell out of Spike Brothers and bounced ideas off my friends for a potential trip to Regionals in Feb. I may go to this and I may play Lightsworn.
We'll see.
Props
-Descendant/Buster is far and away better than either of those guys with Vowing Sword. I have to fine tune it but the strategy is very sound. Buster pressure for 2 turns, then Descendant finish.
-Picking up Mermails and finishing Fire Kings
-Kicking ass with Harpies. These things are legit good. Hysteric Party is honestly a viable choice to be hit on the list.
Slops
-Scrubbing out with "the best deck in the game" for Vanguard, until Link Joker come out. *Shudder*
-The fuckup with the tournament. I take this stuff very seriously and if it were a regionals there would be consequences.
Saturday
I took Dragonic Descendant/Buster to this one as my order for the cards came in a few day before. Yes I literally ordered the entire deck online. So sue me. I knew full well that there would be at least 4 other people I'd have to compete with to build Eradicators so I saved myself the trouble and overpaying just to get all the cards I needed to build the deck as I saw fit. I ran a build very similar to some Japanese lists I saw with an emphais on Castor and Rising Phoenix to draw into cards but admittedly wasn't able to get a fully ideal build done.
Round 1 - vs Bermuda Triangle (Win)
The guy I played was awful to be honest and Narukami in general are a better deck. Gauntlet ate up resources early and Descendant did clean up.
Round 2 - vs Royal Paladin (Win)
He milled his only Majesty Lord Blaster and had to switch to Sanctuary Guard Dragon beats but I won it out afterwards.
Round 3 - vs Aqua Force (Lose)
This one pissed me off so much. Between him missing a ride, me dominating the entire game AND making no misplays he still managed to bullshit a win out of me. It basically comes down to Descendant attacking and not hitting triggers on both the first attack and the restand as he's able to block everything I throw at him, drop Malestrom Glory on Trans-Core Dragon and kill me because I don't have enough shield to guard the damn thing. I seriously fucking hate Malestrom Glory with a passion now as it's bullshit I can't Perfect Guard and I need to basically have 5 10k shields because he always gets a crit or some kind of trigger on it.
Round 4 - vs Eradicators (Lose)
This one was kind of back and fourth but unfortunately he hits two triggers off his Twin Drive and I die.
Round 5 - vs Nova Grapplers (Win)
This guy also wasn't good and I rolled him easily. Now how's THAT for confidence? I can only beat scrubs but choke against anything competent.
Round 6 - vs Eradicators (Lose)
I take the risk and no guard a Descendant at 4 damage and he crits. Not much else to say on that.
Round 7 - vs Liberators (Lose)
Stupid plot armour. That aside this was silly as Megamonkey and I were being weeaboo dramatic ala the anime.
After that we went to Cam's where many things happened, including talk of starting up a Beyblade League. This was awesome. LET IT RIP MOTHERFUCKERS. After that I go home, build Harpies and fall asleep.
Sunday
I get to judge today! Awesome as I honestly felt like being silly so I brought Chaos Lightsworn Dragon and Funbags with Wings (Harpies). I also bought a Mermail Deck for a good amount (160) and only need a single Megalo to finish it. Not going to lie, I missed playing Mermails alot. One of the things I've really regretted is trading that off. That and getting rid of my Scraps. I'm trying to get those back as well for when Factory comes out. I also picked up Generation Shifts and can now build Fire Kings the legit way. Onto the tourney!
Quick Reminder - When I judge my opponents automatically win the match and we play things out for fun. That said I'll say what REALLY went down.
Round 1 - Harpies vs Chaos Dragons (2-1)
Game 1 - I open with Pet Dragon and after wanting to kill myself and he puts BLS, Stardust and stuff on the field to my one Harpie Lady.
Game 2 - I open Summoner Monk and Hysteric Sign and it snowballs from there. Lightning Chidori clears any real threats and I push for game.
Game 3 - I resolve a Sign again and it goes from there.
Round 2 - Harpies vs DN.dek (2-0)
Honestly this one is not much to write about. The guy is honestly handicapped and had a 60 card mishmash of things. Both games I picked apart his board and murdered him with Hysteric Sign.
Round 3 - Harpies vs Spellbooks (2-0)
I was originally going to switch to Chaos here but then I realized I'd be playing against Fate.dek and that'd be bad and I wanted to see the Harpie vs Book matchup. Hunting Ground cleared Tower and popped face downs, I Torrential'd his Justice with a Maestroke on board and beat him down with Harpies game 1 then Chained a Blue Boy, Warning'd a Priestess and Evac'd Kycoo game 3 with a Dracossack and a Harpie 1 on the board which was enough damage for game
Top cut ended up being Harpies (another guy), Dragunity, Madolche and Chaos Dragon. Unfortunately I fucked up with the results as a Dark World player was 3 - 0 and I thought he was 2 - 1 (he didn't report his win to me and I misheard what his opponent said) so I ended up costing him a top. I legitimately felt bad about this but made amends by buying him food after locals at Robins. While there I showcased the awesome power of Chaos Lightsworn Dragon, smashed the living hell out of Spike Brothers and bounced ideas off my friends for a potential trip to Regionals in Feb. I may go to this and I may play Lightsworn.
We'll see.
Props
-Descendant/Buster is far and away better than either of those guys with Vowing Sword. I have to fine tune it but the strategy is very sound. Buster pressure for 2 turns, then Descendant finish.
-Picking up Mermails and finishing Fire Kings
-Kicking ass with Harpies. These things are legit good. Hysteric Party is honestly a viable choice to be hit on the list.
Slops
-Scrubbing out with "the best deck in the game" for Vanguard, until Link Joker come out. *Shudder*
-The fuckup with the tournament. I take this stuff very seriously and if it were a regionals there would be consequences.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
L-l-l-loc-c-c-cals Rep-p-p-p-ort-t-t-t
First off before I go into this I'd like to take a moment to shamelessly promote my fanfiction;
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9625138/1/Yu-Gi-Oh-X-Stars
It currently has 3 chapters, is based on the concept of the game being played in space in a Star Trek like era and the main character is basically Aki 2.0;
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9625138/1/Yu-Gi-Oh-X-Stars
It currently has 3 chapters, is based on the concept of the game being played in space in a Star Trek like era and the main character is basically Aki 2.0;
This costume is awful. I'll need to change this next story arc.
This definitely won't be the last time I discuss any of my writing on here. Between my Original stuff, Yu-Gi-Oh! and Mega Man Battle Network stuff I've got more than enough subjects to ramble about. That said back to the report for this locals which can be summed up as IT WAS TOO DAMN COLD.
-50 C is stupid. I swear we must have been colder than the Arctic. Whatever its the new banlist and last week I was in some Skype calls with a few of my friends from the Dragon Community discussing what Disaster could do this format. I decided I'd try some of the things we talked about and took this there;
1 Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon
1 Blaster, Dragon Ruler of Infernos
1 Redox, Dragon Ruler of Boulders
1 Tempest, Dragon Ruler of Storms
1 Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls
1 Yamata Dragon
3 Flamvell Guard
3 Masked Dragon
2 Blizzard Dragon
2 Koa'ki Meiru Drago
2 Delta Flyer
2 Exploder Dragon
1 Debris Dragon
1 Totem Dragon
3 Dragon Shrine
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Book of Moon
1 Burial from a Different Dimension
1 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation
1 Gold Sarcophagus
2 Castle of Dragon Souls
2 Fiendish Chain
1 Burst Breath
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger
1 Abyss Dweller
1 Star Eater
1 Trident Dragion
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Stardust Spark Dragon
1 Ancient Fairy Dragon
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Exploder Dragonwing
1 Dark Hole
2 Smashing Ground
1 Eradicator Epidemic Virus
2 Vanity's Emptiness
2 Rivalry of Warlords
2 Dust Tornado
2 Light-Imprisoning Mirror
2 Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror
To further prove how serious I was about this, I busted out my 2012 Regional Mat that I got with this deck. How would I fare? Well...
Round 1 - vs Chaos Dragon (2-1)
Game 1 was a bit disappointing. Despite being able to establish REDMD and Stardust with backrow I was not able to keep the deck from exploding and establishing an unbreakable board. Games 2 and 3 were "protect the Drago." The game was somewhat difficult to keep concentrated on due to an autistic slapnut constantly ReReing it up over what is banned and what is not. You want to know how to figure out what's banned?
www.google.com
Round 2 - vs Photons (2-0)
Naturally I have an advantage on this deck because of Koa'ki Meiru Drago. However I also know that this guy plays a fuckton of anti monster cards to protect Galaxy-Eyes and Fegrand so I have to force that stuff out with Masked and Rulers, but ultimately win the first game without too much trouble and grind out the second game.
Round 3 - vs Dual Axis Fire Fist (1-2)
Game 1 he opens up the combo which ends up with a Horse Prince, Rooster, a Tensu and a Tensen set. At this time I have no real way of breaking such a board with my main. Don't get me started on Fire Formation Gyokku always hitting my Book, Bottomless or Torrential and never the bluff Castle of Dragon Souls or Shrine that I set. Game 2 he doesn't open the combo and his deck functions more like 4-Axis. Despite Vanity's Emptiness in play I win because Blizzard Dragon and Koa'ki Meiru Drago are beasts in a Grind. Game 3 he opens the combo with a Swallow coming, pops my monsters and kills me with Tensen. Finals ends up being the same.
Top 4 - vs Gravekeepers (2-0)
I damn near lost Game 1. I was down 100 LP to his over 7000 at one point but then I realized "wait he's playing Decree, he can't stop me from doing ANYTHING!" and dropped Yamata Dragon, swung to a hand that allowed me to revive Blaster from grave, make Dracossack and proceeded to stomp on him. The look on his face and the way he seemed after I managed to make the Game Plane in a turn told me everything. He was disappointed that once again Dragons can still function.
Game 2 I again smacked him around because Gravekeepers without traps are not threatening in the least.
Finals - vs Dual Axis Fire Fist (1-2)
See round 3. More of the same. It looks like I need a great deal of disruption to stop that Leopard/Tensu combo and the sheer advantage it brings. That and actually drawing them. Fiendish, BtH and Evac would have been hella nice game 3. And fuck Gyokku.
An ultimate Tenki was pulled but I couldn't get it. I did pick up everything I needed for Harpies so that'll be a thing in future reports. Then we went to Robins and I played games of Vanguard trying out a very, VERY different tactic than what I normally do. It doesn't work with Eradicators.
In regards to the deck itself these are some things I've noticed;
-Shrine is definitely a good card. The grave setup is really, REALLY good and it's technically a card that when maxed out gives you a 34 card deck.
-I...don't really like Debris. Without a constant target like Kidmodo or Mythic Wood he's just not as helpful.
-Yamata is far superior to Light and Darkness Dragon.
-Masked Dragon is the best of the normal summonable monsters.
-Castle was good for what it was.
-Burst Breath is amazing. Definitely better than Mirror Force for this deck. Chainability is integral.
-D.D.R. I'm on the fence about. We'll see how 2 work.
Props
-Playing Disaster in a tournament for the first time since GAOV's release. Damn it's been too long.
-Converting yet another person to the Disaster Dragon philosophy.
-Getting Harpies. Funbags with Wings will be a deck!
Slops
-My Fire Fist games. They went so badly.
-The cold.
Monday, 9 December 2013
Locals Report - Judgment Day
First up I have to say YAY HUNDERS!!! It makes me happy to see a deck I love to play get 2nd Place at ARG Montreal. Looking over the build I must say its very standard with techs to beat the Dragon Ruler matchup. I also won't be surprised if more people hop on the Hunder bandwagon now the deck has done legit well during a format that decks like it struggle. Not that it bothers me any. Stuff like this stopped bothering me long ago when I came to the realization that people will try out something that topped for many reasons;
-It topped a major event
-It's something new in a format that many except the extreme competitive (like Pat Hoban) find to be stale now
-They want to know how it works
My only issue with this is that retarded hipsters will not realize these points and call anyone who plays Hunders after this weekend an uncreative, netdecking piece of shit tryhard. Fuck you buddy. Fuck you.
Secondly I didn't actually legit play at locals. Instead I was offered the chance to be Head Judge which I won't lie is something I've contemplating trying to get into after talking to the guys who ran our last Regionals. Mind you this is locals, in Regina, during a -45 C winter nightmare. To say this was small was an understatement.
Anyway the way we do things here at Locals is the judge "plays" against people but anyone who faces him gets 2 wins. You may remember me mentioning this in one of my reports during the Genex Undine portion of Mermail format. I decided much like Cameron do bring multiple decks with the intention of changing what I played between rounds and a totally legit Extra Deck.
Turns out it may have been a good idea to play today as I was on FIYAH with each deck, beating my opponents 2-0...even if for all intents and purposes I lost 0-2 against them. Undefeated yet winless at the same time. Oh the contradictions!
Round 1 - Assault Rulers vs Gagaga.dek
The guy is your typical ReRe that overextends, has no concept of strategy and runs a handful of destruction cards meaning anything that puts out Stardust has a field day with him. This went downhill oh so fast.
Round 2 - Herald Agents vs Yugi Reloaded
This was the guy playing Exodia last week so I thought it fitting to use a deck that does largely the same thing; not allowing the opponent to do jack shit at all. Difference is I still win my games through monster attacks.
Round 3 - Constellar vs Photon
This was where I had to bust out my old Dueling Network Moderator muscles as a couple of things came up that I had to explain like Veiler vs Pollux and how Galaxy-Eyes works. Not to be mean or anything but...even if the person has been playing Photons for a long while (and admittedly his build has improved since the last time) when it comes to Dragons I know all.
Anyway the first game is ridiculous with me opening triple Pollux and two Algs so I'm forced to make Paladynamos and such. It ends up being 300 vs 100 LP thanks to a clutch Forbidden Lance and I hang on just long enough to topdeck a Sombres and cowbell for game. Game 2 I open ALL THE BACKROW and have Trap Hole, Void Trap Hole, TT and much more to stop several summons and such. Then I start drawing monsters and win.
After that the top cut is announced and Megamonkey defeats Agents with Inzektors to win it. The tournament went smoothly and I had a few judge calls. I was able to respond to them quickly and I tried to keep the rounds moving while also throwing down the gauntlet on a few things that at this point have become really fucking dumb. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing this again. Once the tourney wraps up rades are done and I pick up more DT Constellars (!!) before we head to Robins, play some Vanguard then later on I talk with Monkey about the secret to immortality and other evil stuff. The universe will be mine in due time after all. Nah, I'm just kidding.
-It topped a major event
-It's something new in a format that many except the extreme competitive (like Pat Hoban) find to be stale now
-They want to know how it works
My only issue with this is that retarded hipsters will not realize these points and call anyone who plays Hunders after this weekend an uncreative, netdecking piece of shit tryhard. Fuck you buddy. Fuck you.
Secondly I didn't actually legit play at locals. Instead I was offered the chance to be Head Judge which I won't lie is something I've contemplating trying to get into after talking to the guys who ran our last Regionals. Mind you this is locals, in Regina, during a -45 C winter nightmare. To say this was small was an understatement.
Anyway the way we do things here at Locals is the judge "plays" against people but anyone who faces him gets 2 wins. You may remember me mentioning this in one of my reports during the Genex Undine portion of Mermail format. I decided much like Cameron do bring multiple decks with the intention of changing what I played between rounds and a totally legit Extra Deck.
Turns out it may have been a good idea to play today as I was on FIYAH with each deck, beating my opponents 2-0...even if for all intents and purposes I lost 0-2 against them. Undefeated yet winless at the same time. Oh the contradictions!
Round 1 - Assault Rulers vs Gagaga.dek
The guy is your typical ReRe that overextends, has no concept of strategy and runs a handful of destruction cards meaning anything that puts out Stardust has a field day with him. This went downhill oh so fast.
Round 2 - Herald Agents vs Yugi Reloaded
This was the guy playing Exodia last week so I thought it fitting to use a deck that does largely the same thing; not allowing the opponent to do jack shit at all. Difference is I still win my games through monster attacks.
Round 3 - Constellar vs Photon
This was where I had to bust out my old Dueling Network Moderator muscles as a couple of things came up that I had to explain like Veiler vs Pollux and how Galaxy-Eyes works. Not to be mean or anything but...even if the person has been playing Photons for a long while (and admittedly his build has improved since the last time) when it comes to Dragons I know all.
Anyway the first game is ridiculous with me opening triple Pollux and two Algs so I'm forced to make Paladynamos and such. It ends up being 300 vs 100 LP thanks to a clutch Forbidden Lance and I hang on just long enough to topdeck a Sombres and cowbell for game. Game 2 I open ALL THE BACKROW and have Trap Hole, Void Trap Hole, TT and much more to stop several summons and such. Then I start drawing monsters and win.
After that the top cut is announced and Megamonkey defeats Agents with Inzektors to win it. The tournament went smoothly and I had a few judge calls. I was able to respond to them quickly and I tried to keep the rounds moving while also throwing down the gauntlet on a few things that at this point have become really fucking dumb. I enjoyed the experience and look forward to doing this again. Once the tourney wraps up rades are done and I pick up more DT Constellars (!!) before we head to Robins, play some Vanguard then later on I talk with Monkey about the secret to immortality and other evil stuff. The universe will be mine in due time after all. Nah, I'm just kidding.
Or am I?
Monday, 2 December 2013
Locals Report - Fine Tuning
First up I'm sorry I didn't write anything else last month. The only other Locals I was able to make it to ended terribly for me and I wound up coming home late, tired and not really motivated to blog.
Long story short I took Red-Eyes Dragon Rulers to Locals and god did the deck ever brick out on me. From losing to bad players to getting smashing grounded by good players the inconsistent nature of the deck was just too difficult to overcome. Don't give me that garbage of "you just have to believe! Anything can work if you give it a chance" that hipsters like to say.
Some things just don't work. Some cards are just flat out AWFUL. I'm looking at you Red and Blue Six Samurai monsters. And its not just "oh that's because people don't try to make them-"
WRONG ASSHOLE. Established decks do NOT play shitty situational cards that are a part of your awesome 5 card OTK that loses to a finger poke because the skilled players are quick to realize that some cards of an archetype completely suck. Fine deckbuilding comes from being able to realize what theme cards don't work and what non theme cards go with the deck. Just because you're playing a theme doesn't mean you HAVE to run all of the theme cards. It's not required. If you're doing so because "you have to" then you're holding yourself down with a shitty mindset and you'll lose to the people who expand their horizons. Don't be like these people, dear readers. You're better than that.
...
I have no idea how I went from talking about a bad tournament experience to shooting on Hipsters for what feels like the bajillionth time. Let's just say Red-Eyes Rulers looks nice in theory and when it wants to work plays quite well. However its got issues like the Blue-Eyes build. Both are bad compared to Standard Rulers which is what I took to this tournament. Megamonkey was sitting this one out and lent me his Sixth Sense to use. Would I actually be able to use it?
Round 1 - vs T.G. Madolche (2-1)
I forget a good bulk of this match. I know two of the three games I lost due to bricking. It seems that the more techy Dragon Rulers become and the less monsters it runs, the more passive its early game is and tendency to draw outright unplayable hands. All monsters? You lose. All Spells? Oh you lose that too.
Anyway he's able to build advantage off of Ticket and I can't really do much about it. The one game I Maxx "C" him and don't draw into the Fader and get OTKed, the other I do Dragon things and the last one I resolve Black Rose and leave him topdecking which is never good against this deck.
Round 2 - vs fuckingfaggotbullshitstallretardsolitarefest...I mean Exodia (2-1)
I hate alternate win condition decks. I always have and always will. Game 1 he hits all of the draw cards and sadly the stall cards needed to get all 5 pieces. I'm talking Threatening Roar and Waboku for 6 straight turns. Do you know how frustrating it is not being able to do jackshit during your turn? People complain about lockdown cards and guess what? Alt Win decks basically do the same thing. They lock you out of your turns and your ability to play a normal game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Not only that but they do it s-l-o-w-l-y.
I honestly would have much rather preferred Dark Hole and Power Bond into Cyber Twin for game. OTKs > Alt Win decks.
Game 2 goes much more to my favour thanks to Star Eater's ability to not be Swift Scarecrow'd and all that jazz. The critical moment comes to when while under Reckless Greed he goes off with a 3 card chain with Accumulated Fortune at the end;
I've got Trap Stun. GG.
Game 3 was basically Star Eater beats as he burns his Battle Faders early and runs out of steam.
Round 3 - vs Mecha Phantom Beast Karakuri (2-1)
This one was crazy and derpy. The one game had him going completely the hell off against my set monster and being able to power past my Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to put lethal damage on board. Unfortunately for him that set was a Fossil Dyna that completely annihilated his board and won me the game.
Oh yes, I main deck Dyna now. Why run Vanity's Emptiness when you can have it on legs while being food for Redox?
The other game has him going off again and being unable to kill me, but I can't do anything to his board and get Cowboy'd. Then in the last game I'm forced to go out of my way to answer a Dracossack + Power Tool Dragon with United We Stand on it play. I do so by clearing the sack, taking Power Tool with Big Eye and using Sacred Sword to banish it for the draw 2. I'm pretty sure I also flipped Return at some point.
Top 4 - vs 3 Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
I opened kind of weird in the first game and maybe misplayed? I remember leaving myself with a Tidal without protection and I get Blader'd but play out of it with Blaster popping and some other things. Fire Fist Swallow is interesting to deal with but even with these new tricks the deck can't compete with Dragons without heavy siding and he didn't get to his anti Dragon cards.
Final - vs Bujin (2-0)
This was big. I got knocked out the last tournament by this deck opening extremely anti Dragon (Kaiser Colosseum and Fossil Dyna) and me opening piss poor game 3. I dedicated several cards in my side to this matchup as it's going to be very relevant next format.
Mind you this is all moot as I flipped Return in both games, with the second duel having a Sixth Sense that resulted in me drawing 6. I didn't JUST play it however as I was low on life in both games and could not afford to have him Honest or even Crane me. I spent a few turns trying to get the Yamato off the field or having a way around it. Game 1 was via my spells and traps while Game 2 was with my sided in Exploder Dragon and Smashing Grounds. The Return play in Game 2 ended with Exploder and enough damage on board to OTK him.
After the tourney I pick up several card needed to build Harpies, Mecha Phantom Beasts, Photon and Bujin. I may not care for the deck currently but the next format may well be a three way contest between Noble Knights, Bujin and Gravekeepers. I'd play NKs but well...Medraut. Fuck Gravekeepers.
Props
-Beating Exodia. Fuck that deck.
-Fossil Dyna. He's an extremely good Meta call right now. Honestly because of him I could see Battle Fader being dropped for Scarecrow again BECAUSE of Dyna. It's very possible to set up a Return play that has him coming out.
-Taking Power Tool Dragon and using Sword to get rid of it. That was some crazy shit right there.
-Beating Bujin.
Slops
-Losing a game to Exodia. Fuck that deck.
-Bricking. I should honestly name my deck Xbox 360.
-Return and Sixth Sense sacking.
Long story short I took Red-Eyes Dragon Rulers to Locals and god did the deck ever brick out on me. From losing to bad players to getting smashing grounded by good players the inconsistent nature of the deck was just too difficult to overcome. Don't give me that garbage of "you just have to believe! Anything can work if you give it a chance" that hipsters like to say.
Some things just don't work. Some cards are just flat out AWFUL. I'm looking at you Red and Blue Six Samurai monsters. And its not just "oh that's because people don't try to make them-"
WRONG ASSHOLE. Established decks do NOT play shitty situational cards that are a part of your awesome 5 card OTK that loses to a finger poke because the skilled players are quick to realize that some cards of an archetype completely suck. Fine deckbuilding comes from being able to realize what theme cards don't work and what non theme cards go with the deck. Just because you're playing a theme doesn't mean you HAVE to run all of the theme cards. It's not required. If you're doing so because "you have to" then you're holding yourself down with a shitty mindset and you'll lose to the people who expand their horizons. Don't be like these people, dear readers. You're better than that.
...
I have no idea how I went from talking about a bad tournament experience to shooting on Hipsters for what feels like the bajillionth time. Let's just say Red-Eyes Rulers looks nice in theory and when it wants to work plays quite well. However its got issues like the Blue-Eyes build. Both are bad compared to Standard Rulers which is what I took to this tournament. Megamonkey was sitting this one out and lent me his Sixth Sense to use. Would I actually be able to use it?
Round 1 - vs T.G. Madolche (2-1)
I forget a good bulk of this match. I know two of the three games I lost due to bricking. It seems that the more techy Dragon Rulers become and the less monsters it runs, the more passive its early game is and tendency to draw outright unplayable hands. All monsters? You lose. All Spells? Oh you lose that too.
Anyway he's able to build advantage off of Ticket and I can't really do much about it. The one game I Maxx "C" him and don't draw into the Fader and get OTKed, the other I do Dragon things and the last one I resolve Black Rose and leave him topdecking which is never good against this deck.
Round 2 - vs fuckingfaggotbullshitstallretardsolitarefest...I mean Exodia (2-1)
I hate alternate win condition decks. I always have and always will. Game 1 he hits all of the draw cards and sadly the stall cards needed to get all 5 pieces. I'm talking Threatening Roar and Waboku for 6 straight turns. Do you know how frustrating it is not being able to do jackshit during your turn? People complain about lockdown cards and guess what? Alt Win decks basically do the same thing. They lock you out of your turns and your ability to play a normal game of Yu-Gi-Oh! Not only that but they do it s-l-o-w-l-y.
I honestly would have much rather preferred Dark Hole and Power Bond into Cyber Twin for game. OTKs > Alt Win decks.
Game 2 goes much more to my favour thanks to Star Eater's ability to not be Swift Scarecrow'd and all that jazz. The critical moment comes to when while under Reckless Greed he goes off with a 3 card chain with Accumulated Fortune at the end;
Game 3 was basically Star Eater beats as he burns his Battle Faders early and runs out of steam.
Round 3 - vs Mecha Phantom Beast Karakuri (2-1)
This one was crazy and derpy. The one game had him going completely the hell off against my set monster and being able to power past my Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to put lethal damage on board. Unfortunately for him that set was a Fossil Dyna that completely annihilated his board and won me the game.
Oh yes, I main deck Dyna now. Why run Vanity's Emptiness when you can have it on legs while being food for Redox?
The other game has him going off again and being unable to kill me, but I can't do anything to his board and get Cowboy'd. Then in the last game I'm forced to go out of my way to answer a Dracossack + Power Tool Dragon with United We Stand on it play. I do so by clearing the sack, taking Power Tool with Big Eye and using Sacred Sword to banish it for the draw 2. I'm pretty sure I also flipped Return at some point.
Top 4 - vs 3 Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
I opened kind of weird in the first game and maybe misplayed? I remember leaving myself with a Tidal without protection and I get Blader'd but play out of it with Blaster popping and some other things. Fire Fist Swallow is interesting to deal with but even with these new tricks the deck can't compete with Dragons without heavy siding and he didn't get to his anti Dragon cards.
Final - vs Bujin (2-0)
This was big. I got knocked out the last tournament by this deck opening extremely anti Dragon (Kaiser Colosseum and Fossil Dyna) and me opening piss poor game 3. I dedicated several cards in my side to this matchup as it's going to be very relevant next format.
Mind you this is all moot as I flipped Return in both games, with the second duel having a Sixth Sense that resulted in me drawing 6. I didn't JUST play it however as I was low on life in both games and could not afford to have him Honest or even Crane me. I spent a few turns trying to get the Yamato off the field or having a way around it. Game 1 was via my spells and traps while Game 2 was with my sided in Exploder Dragon and Smashing Grounds. The Return play in Game 2 ended with Exploder and enough damage on board to OTK him.
After the tourney I pick up several card needed to build Harpies, Mecha Phantom Beasts, Photon and Bujin. I may not care for the deck currently but the next format may well be a three way contest between Noble Knights, Bujin and Gravekeepers. I'd play NKs but well...Medraut. Fuck Gravekeepers.
Props
-Beating Exodia. Fuck that deck.
-Fossil Dyna. He's an extremely good Meta call right now. Honestly because of him I could see Battle Fader being dropped for Scarecrow again BECAUSE of Dyna. It's very possible to set up a Return play that has him coming out.
-Taking Power Tool Dragon and using Sword to get rid of it. That was some crazy shit right there.
-Beating Bujin.
Slops
-Losing a game to Exodia. Fuck that deck.
-Bricking. I should honestly name my deck Xbox 360.
-Return and Sixth Sense sacking.
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Locals Report - Good to be Back
FINALLY, the Green Slayer HAS COME BACK...to Comic Readers.
Welcome to the Blue Corner on Blogspot dear readers and to a bit of a different report from Locals.
Yes Locals. Not Lolcals.
Turns out it wasn't just me who was unsatisfied with the competitive scene in Regina. In fact several people expressed an interest in changing things up in addition to being less than pleased with how Tramps has been conducting themselves over the last while. The way things were going I honestly saw something ugly happening down the road. Just saying.
However it ended up never coming to that due to a really lucky break coming up in the form of Comic Readers expressing interest in having Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments which made me really happy. For those that may not know for a long time Regina had TWO places to go to for Yu-Gi-Oh! Locals. Tramps and Comic Readers. Of the two Comic Readers was the more competitive place to be as all the good players went there wheras Tramps was where all the retards and scrubs played. Topping Comic Readers actually took considerable effort because of the player quality present.
Unfortunately as time went on many of those good players stopped coming to Readers and the challenge there dropped significantly. Ultimately we stopped going entirely as Cardfight!! Vanguard Locals was just a better use of our time and the end result was the discontinuation of tournaments.
Fast forward to now and through some negotiations Comic Readers has opted to start having Local Tournaments again, this time on a Sundays! This is again great as I was never able to go to Readers tournaments in the first place because of my work schedule so it's great to know I can actually take part in the GOOD tournaments on a frequent basis and actually improve my game (which honestly I feel has been slipping. You're only as good as your competition you know). Furthermore if the tournaments have decent turnouts on a frequent basis we could end up doing things ala Collector's Lane from Saskatoon (Box Tournaments, Sealed Play, maybe Goat Format)!
That in itself is a long ways away. Right now we just have to get things rolling. I am really hopeful though that we can make these things happen. Regina REALLY needs this. I've said this a few times now but in comparison to Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Alberta we're a laughing stock. I want to change this. I want Regina players to be able to command respect. I told everyone in the room as such while we were opening our Shadow Specters Sneak Peek packs. I pulled the Bujin Ultra Rare, Ulti Dragluon and picked up dragon stuff that I needed before getting ready for a regular tournament using Dragon Rulers with Dragon Shrine and some other oddball card choices. My reasoning was;
-Dragon Shrine is another copy of Ravine to get cards into the graveyard without having to rely on chancy milling aspects like Card Trooper.
-No Cards of Consonance as I want to use my tuners for either Synchros or for Shrine.
-Trap Stun over MST can just lock out all of the things that this deck hates; traps and floodgate cards.
-Battle Fader over Scarecrow as you can Fader a Star Eater.
-No Vanity's Emptiness as I want real traps to disable my opponent.
Ultimately I had a build teched out for not just the Mirror but the randomness of Regina. Much to my surprise Magnus was present and playing Megamonkey's Dragon Rulers. Good to see him back.
Round 1 - vs Mermail (1-2)
This was rather unfortunate. Game 1 I open with the hand that puts out 2 Sacks and 3 Tokens with a Ravine in hand but he has both Maxx "C" AND Effect Veiler to stop my combo dead at AFD. Afterwards he summons Leed from his hand (lol), pops AFD with Infanty, summons 2 Aqua Spirit and a Marksman for the OTK. Game 2 I get rid of his Iron Wall and Warning a clutch Abyss-Sphere play while Game 3 he had all of his answers to my one MST. I should note I had 3 Maxx "C", 1 Fader, 3 MST, 3 Wind Blast and 2 Trap Stun in my deck post siding. I only saw 1 MST out of those. No hand traps at all against a deck that I really wanted them for.
With that said I'm now out of top cut as I lost a round. Unfortunate.
Round 2 - vs T.G. Synchro (2-0)
I can't help but feel kinda sad when I play Mr. Hobo. He was fucking on FIRE two months ago at the Regina Regionals and the day after with his Madolche deck. We played in the finals of the locals following that tournament and he gave my Blue-Eyes Rulers a really good fight. Since then he's stopped being serious and opted to start dicking around again and it makes me again a bit sad. At the rate he was going I honestly felt he could have very well topped the next Regionals or consistently made it into the finals of Locals. Perhaps I'm being hard on him but I call it as I see it and that's something that the people reading this blog apparently enjoy. Especially when I rip baddies a new one.
I still hate that fucker who plays the dumb as hell Ground Collapse Gravity Bind faggot stall decks, by the way.
Anyway back to this one. He's playing T.G.s the way Konami wanted them to be meaning he'd be minusing the HELL out of himself to get combos off against a deck that pluses all day long. Both games were lopsided.
Round 3 - vs Utopia Zexal Weapons (2-0)
And I end up finishing on the bubble. I pull crap from my Astral Pack and end up doing some Pokemon stuff. I scrape someone with my In Game team before we all head over to Robins where more games are played. Megamonkey and I had a Ruler mirror that wasn't very good on both ends and I got to playtest my Sweep Command Dragon deck on some people before we called it a night.
Props
-Playing at Comic Readers for the first time since May. It does feel good to be back.
-Sweep Command Dragon is a boss surprisingly.
-Got almost everything I wanted from the Sneak. Just gotta wait for Mistake and Felgrand to drop in value (both are under 30 now).
Slops
-Not topping. This was the worst I've done with Rulers at a Locals. Gonna have to give E-Con and Book a try...
Welcome to the Blue Corner on Blogspot dear readers and to a bit of a different report from Locals.
Yes Locals. Not Lolcals.
Turns out it wasn't just me who was unsatisfied with the competitive scene in Regina. In fact several people expressed an interest in changing things up in addition to being less than pleased with how Tramps has been conducting themselves over the last while. The way things were going I honestly saw something ugly happening down the road. Just saying.
However it ended up never coming to that due to a really lucky break coming up in the form of Comic Readers expressing interest in having Yu-Gi-Oh! Tournaments which made me really happy. For those that may not know for a long time Regina had TWO places to go to for Yu-Gi-Oh! Locals. Tramps and Comic Readers. Of the two Comic Readers was the more competitive place to be as all the good players went there wheras Tramps was where all the retards and scrubs played. Topping Comic Readers actually took considerable effort because of the player quality present.
Unfortunately as time went on many of those good players stopped coming to Readers and the challenge there dropped significantly. Ultimately we stopped going entirely as Cardfight!! Vanguard Locals was just a better use of our time and the end result was the discontinuation of tournaments.
Fast forward to now and through some negotiations Comic Readers has opted to start having Local Tournaments again, this time on a Sundays! This is again great as I was never able to go to Readers tournaments in the first place because of my work schedule so it's great to know I can actually take part in the GOOD tournaments on a frequent basis and actually improve my game (which honestly I feel has been slipping. You're only as good as your competition you know). Furthermore if the tournaments have decent turnouts on a frequent basis we could end up doing things ala Collector's Lane from Saskatoon (Box Tournaments, Sealed Play, maybe Goat Format)!
That in itself is a long ways away. Right now we just have to get things rolling. I am really hopeful though that we can make these things happen. Regina REALLY needs this. I've said this a few times now but in comparison to Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Alberta we're a laughing stock. I want to change this. I want Regina players to be able to command respect. I told everyone in the room as such while we were opening our Shadow Specters Sneak Peek packs. I pulled the Bujin Ultra Rare, Ulti Dragluon and picked up dragon stuff that I needed before getting ready for a regular tournament using Dragon Rulers with Dragon Shrine and some other oddball card choices. My reasoning was;
-Dragon Shrine is another copy of Ravine to get cards into the graveyard without having to rely on chancy milling aspects like Card Trooper.
-No Cards of Consonance as I want to use my tuners for either Synchros or for Shrine.
-Trap Stun over MST can just lock out all of the things that this deck hates; traps and floodgate cards.
-Battle Fader over Scarecrow as you can Fader a Star Eater.
-No Vanity's Emptiness as I want real traps to disable my opponent.
Ultimately I had a build teched out for not just the Mirror but the randomness of Regina. Much to my surprise Magnus was present and playing Megamonkey's Dragon Rulers. Good to see him back.
Round 1 - vs Mermail (1-2)
This was rather unfortunate. Game 1 I open with the hand that puts out 2 Sacks and 3 Tokens with a Ravine in hand but he has both Maxx "C" AND Effect Veiler to stop my combo dead at AFD. Afterwards he summons Leed from his hand (lol), pops AFD with Infanty, summons 2 Aqua Spirit and a Marksman for the OTK. Game 2 I get rid of his Iron Wall and Warning a clutch Abyss-Sphere play while Game 3 he had all of his answers to my one MST. I should note I had 3 Maxx "C", 1 Fader, 3 MST, 3 Wind Blast and 2 Trap Stun in my deck post siding. I only saw 1 MST out of those. No hand traps at all against a deck that I really wanted them for.
With that said I'm now out of top cut as I lost a round. Unfortunate.
Round 2 - vs T.G. Synchro (2-0)
I can't help but feel kinda sad when I play Mr. Hobo. He was fucking on FIRE two months ago at the Regina Regionals and the day after with his Madolche deck. We played in the finals of the locals following that tournament and he gave my Blue-Eyes Rulers a really good fight. Since then he's stopped being serious and opted to start dicking around again and it makes me again a bit sad. At the rate he was going I honestly felt he could have very well topped the next Regionals or consistently made it into the finals of Locals. Perhaps I'm being hard on him but I call it as I see it and that's something that the people reading this blog apparently enjoy. Especially when I rip baddies a new one.
I still hate that fucker who plays the dumb as hell Ground Collapse Gravity Bind faggot stall decks, by the way.
Anyway back to this one. He's playing T.G.s the way Konami wanted them to be meaning he'd be minusing the HELL out of himself to get combos off against a deck that pluses all day long. Both games were lopsided.
Round 3 - vs Utopia Zexal Weapons (2-0)
And I end up finishing on the bubble. I pull crap from my Astral Pack and end up doing some Pokemon stuff. I scrape someone with my In Game team before we all head over to Robins where more games are played. Megamonkey and I had a Ruler mirror that wasn't very good on both ends and I got to playtest my Sweep Command Dragon deck on some people before we called it a night.
Props
-Playing at Comic Readers for the first time since May. It does feel good to be back.
-Sweep Command Dragon is a boss surprisingly.
-Got almost everything I wanted from the Sneak. Just gotta wait for Mistake and Felgrand to drop in value (both are under 30 now).
Slops
-Not topping. This was the worst I've done with Rulers at a Locals. Gonna have to give E-Con and Book a try...
Sunday, 20 October 2013
Lolcals Report - Shoot
Regina Yu-Gi-Oh! is fucking shit.
Even more saddening is that for the few competitive players that want to grow and become better its really discouraging to play it out because it's not worth the effort (or the lack thereof). At this point I'm not really going to Locals for competition. I'm just going to play a few non meaningful games before the REAL stuff happens at the Robins AFTER the tournament.
Again though things could be better. For one we could have a tournament organizer who knows their shit and actually keeps up with the game. I don't mind being asked for rulings help and such but when people are coming up to a player and not the judge for Rulings, Mechanics and other things that the judge is required to know about...there's problems. Also the things that other locals have. More packs for winning, box tournaments, player of the year rankings. Yes these things cost money and would require customers to pay up front to participate but they would be so worth it as A) Better reasons to win and B) Because there is more of an incentive to win people will actually TRY to win. They'll raise their game to beat out everyone else which in turn increases the level of competition in the environment. If this were to consistently happen then the overall skill level of everyone participating at these tournaments would increase and create....a good community. If you're going to the trouble of coming down to Locals which is located downtown why not make it worth the effort with a rewarding experience?
Obviously this kind of thing is doomed to fail because everyone is poor as fuck and would feel left out, the playerbase is again 80% retarded and they would be against it as it would "suck the fun out of the game", "everyone will just try hard and play the same boring, unoriginal decks because they win" and all of that other garbage that casualfags spout. Since Tramps caters to these nincompoops obviously they'd side with them. Oh and there'd be the whole issue of the current owner being a cheap as fuck pennypinching moron who is known for being horrendously out of touch. I can only imagine the issues that would come up.
Whatever. I don't care at this point. Again I'm not going with the intent of gaining anything from my duels. Let's just get on with this actual report;
So I decide to build Gishki on a whim and I tech it out to deal with Dragon Rulers. Turns out the other Ruler players that don't fail are playing other decks. Well then.
Round 1 - vs Badstellar (2-1)
He's got Honest and Dark Hole game 1. Game 2 he takes a Gigas fist up the ass and Game 3 he opens up with all of his sided cards but like a champion I live off just enough to Wing Blast his Prohibition and start swinging with Gigas. Also who the fuck runs Pitch Dark Warwolf and Horn of the Phantom Beast in Constellar?
Round 2 - vs Badstellar (1-2)
He takes too long to show up for the match and loses game 1. 3 Minutes people. Game 2 he opens up all backrow and of course I can't draw anything to play around it. Every one of my Gishki Abyss got hit by Fiendish Chain and my one Gigas was Bottomless'd. Game 3 I couldn't draw monsters and I lose after resolving Morphing Jar 2 and several Xyz Encores. Turns out I'm up against THAT GUY who runs Hyades AND a 22+ monster count. The first thing that I thought? "I lost to a fucking awful Constellar player. That is NOT how you play this deck."
Round 3 - vs Bad Rulers (2-0)
Oh hey I'm up against Dragon Rulers!
"My build is different. It runs things that other people don't."
Translation from Hipster talk; I'm running cards people deem as shitty because I'm so intent on being different from everything else even it comes at the cost of making my build VASTLY inferior to the other players. I'm just too stubborn or terrible to realize this.
Anyway I flip Iron Wall on him Game 1 and he can't do jack about it. Game 2 he resolves Return but my Swift Scarecrow cockblocks him and I sweep his board clean with Dark Hole, Gishki Beast and Zealgigas.
Apparently I made top 4 but because the TO failed to have someone keep an eye on the computer the results got messed up when nobody was looking? How the hell does someone tamper with your station twice now? Anyway because of stupid things there is no top four and we all get punished because of some random dickwad being a dickwad. Would have gotten Astral Packs 3. I also lament on my inability to play Blackwings after seeing Monkey's build. He'd have KILLED me if we played btw.
We all head to Robins where some more games are played, except this time my Neo Lightsworns are used and glorious things happen. Also I had a best of 3 Pokemon X/Y battle against Darkzane;
Game 1 - I lead with Greninja after seeing his team of Delphox, Lucario, Blaziken, Yveltal (I scolded him for bringing an Uber into this fight), Sylveon and Talonflame so I knew it would outspeed anything he had. We traded hits but I had 2-3 Pokemon to his Yveltal and Gardevoir took it down.
Game 2 - Leadninja into Ampharos to spread some T-Waves. I was able to paralyze his Mega Blaziken which set the stage for Gardevoir to come in, copy his Speed Boost and do dirty things. Then it went down and Gogoat saved the day with Earthquake.
After that monkey and I discussed ideas for a 100 card Dragon deck and called it a night.
Props
-New Lightsworn Tuners are good. They aren't AMAZING but they're actually enough to add speed. Those extra mills make up for the lack of CotH.
-Evolved Haunter into Gengar. Yay.
-MOTHERFUCKING GRENINJA.
Slops
-Everything else.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013
Lolcals Report - Thy Kingdom Come
This locals was terrible even for Regina.
And that's how I am going to start off one of my best reports ever. Why you ask? Well simple. You see many of the good players in the city had to work on Sunday which meant that overall quality would be down. Thus I took it upon myself to be the shining example of greatness that our lost and disorganized Tramps Universe needed to remain decent at best. If that meant that I had to become a villain then oh well. In the end it would be best for business to do this and so I did. Before starting the tournament I did some trades and picked up Trigons, sleeved up Dragon Rulers and set out to accomplish my one single goal for the tournament;
Put myself over in a manner befitting the head of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Lunch Club, even if it meant I had to BURY a few people along the way.
Round 1 - vs Blackwings (2-0)
Game 1; He plays Swallow's Nest and Elphin the Raven. Of course I scrape him. Colossal Fighter too stronk.
Game 2; He's a fucking hipster playing a shitty build of a good deck because it's "original." Like I'm going to lose to this garbage. Only fellow members of the Lunch Club can pin me.
Round 2 - vs Ophion.dek (2-1)
Game 1; I win the dieroll but open 2 Redox, 2 Maxx "C" and Sword into my third Redox. He makes Ophion like any mid carder does and I can't clear it.
Game 2; He summons a monster and sets five. None of those five are negates so I Black Rose him and win.
Game 3; He puts me down to under 900 but I've got Skill Drain up and by the time he clears it I've got the outs to his plays. Anyone who thinks Ophion.dek auto-wins Dragon Rulers is a fucking moron.
Round 3 - vs Lightsworn
Game 1; Lightsworn sacking the shit out of me? Like that's never happened before.
Game 2; He doesn't sack the shit out of me therefore I win.
Game 3; He tries to sack the shit out of me again with BLS, Sorc and Trag snatching my Colossal Fighter but I've got Book. I make Big Eye, take BLS and attack over his Sorc and my Fighter who attacks over his Leviair.
Top 4 - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1; He summons a Gene Warped with 4 backrow. I Black Rose him and win.
Game 2; He opens with Mind Drain but I play around it like a boss, picking off his set cards then making Black Rose again to wipe his board and win. Another mid carder buried.
Finals - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1; He goes Dragon set five but unlike the other mid carders one of those is a Breakthrough Skill for my Black Rose! Oh well I make Dracossack and wreck him.
Game 2; He opens with Dragon set a bunch but like I'm worried about Fire Fist sets. I make Colossal Fighter and pin him for the 1-2-3.
I win lolcals, burying the competition in the proccess. Unfortunately I was hungry so I didn't even think to cut a glorious 45 minute promo that would have the crowd hanging on every word I said while putting myself over even more and making sure mid carders like Dolph Ziggler would never amount to anything.
...too soon?
Then we went to Robins for Vanguard and to chat it up with the Apex Predator of the Lunch Club before calling it a day.
Hunter
-Putting myself over
-Burying Mid-Carders
-Securing a spot in the main event
-Black Rosing idiots who set their hand to the backrow without thinking
-Making people regret facing me at my maximum power
Hearst
-No epic promos
-Not having a 3 Disc DVD Set of my own
Helmsley
-Turning a bad Lolcals report into a lulzy one.
And that's how I am going to start off one of my best reports ever. Why you ask? Well simple. You see many of the good players in the city had to work on Sunday which meant that overall quality would be down. Thus I took it upon myself to be the shining example of greatness that our lost and disorganized Tramps Universe needed to remain decent at best. If that meant that I had to become a villain then oh well. In the end it would be best for business to do this and so I did. Before starting the tournament I did some trades and picked up Trigons, sleeved up Dragon Rulers and set out to accomplish my one single goal for the tournament;
Put myself over in a manner befitting the head of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Lunch Club, even if it meant I had to BURY a few people along the way.
Round 1 - vs Blackwings (2-0)
Game 1; He plays Swallow's Nest and Elphin the Raven. Of course I scrape him. Colossal Fighter too stronk.
Game 2; He's a fucking hipster playing a shitty build of a good deck because it's "original." Like I'm going to lose to this garbage. Only fellow members of the Lunch Club can pin me.
Round 2 - vs Ophion.dek (2-1)
Game 1; I win the dieroll but open 2 Redox, 2 Maxx "C" and Sword into my third Redox. He makes Ophion like any mid carder does and I can't clear it.
Game 2; He summons a monster and sets five. None of those five are negates so I Black Rose him and win.
Game 3; He puts me down to under 900 but I've got Skill Drain up and by the time he clears it I've got the outs to his plays. Anyone who thinks Ophion.dek auto-wins Dragon Rulers is a fucking moron.
Round 3 - vs Lightsworn
Game 1; Lightsworn sacking the shit out of me? Like that's never happened before.
Game 2; He doesn't sack the shit out of me therefore I win.
Game 3; He tries to sack the shit out of me again with BLS, Sorc and Trag snatching my Colossal Fighter but I've got Book. I make Big Eye, take BLS and attack over his Sorc and my Fighter who attacks over his Leviair.
Top 4 - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1; He summons a Gene Warped with 4 backrow. I Black Rose him and win.
Game 2; He opens with Mind Drain but I play around it like a boss, picking off his set cards then making Black Rose again to wipe his board and win. Another mid carder buried.
Finals - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1; He goes Dragon set five but unlike the other mid carders one of those is a Breakthrough Skill for my Black Rose! Oh well I make Dracossack and wreck him.
Game 2; He opens with Dragon set a bunch but like I'm worried about Fire Fist sets. I make Colossal Fighter and pin him for the 1-2-3.
I win lolcals, burying the competition in the proccess. Unfortunately I was hungry so I didn't even think to cut a glorious 45 minute promo that would have the crowd hanging on every word I said while putting myself over even more and making sure mid carders like Dolph Ziggler would never amount to anything.
...too soon?
Then we went to Robins for Vanguard and to chat it up with the Apex Predator of the Lunch Club before calling it a day.
Hunter
-Putting myself over
-Burying Mid-Carders
-Securing a spot in the main event
-Black Rosing idiots who set their hand to the backrow without thinking
-Making people regret facing me at my maximum power
Hearst
-No epic promos
-Not having a 3 Disc DVD Set of my own
Helmsley
-Turning a bad Lolcals report into a lulzy one.
Sunday, 22 September 2013
3rd Place September 21, 2013 Regional Report - It's Clobberin Time!
At last. The day that I've been preparing (and dreading) for the last month has finally come and gone and I must say things went VERY well. Granted I started things off like any self respecting person would; shower, shave, deodorant, etc before heading down to Tramps to meet up with friends and people that I haven't seen since March. To my complete shock the place was packed the the highest turnout yet.
Me: Jesus that's alot of people.
Megamonkey: Thing is though we have a So Cal guy here and he said this is basically the size of a small locals to him.
Well that's disheartening. Still I don't believe that a turnout alone doesn't detract from the results. The quality of the player base at our Regionals has improved each time and the guy that I'm talking about did lose games. To top a Regional you will have to beat good players to finish well. I've done this in the past.
That said lets get to the good part of this post. The tournament itself. I decided to play the Blue-Eyes Dragon Ruler deck that has talked about by alot of people (Jeff Jones posted an article on the deck for instance) as I felt more and more comfortable with it as I continued to play. I dislike the mill aspect of Standard Rulers and Hand Traps are 4x Super Effective against Dragunity Rulers wheras the Blue-Eyes Ruler had the speed of the second version without having to worry about Hand Traps as much. However this comes at the risk of drawing absolute SHIT. This is a longtime weakness of the Blue-Eyes engine (see SOL Hopeless) and while it's not as bad here it's possible to flat out lose games because you opened with all of your draw pieces but nothing to use them. It's very Dark World esque in that you rely on alot of two card combos to thin out your deck. Still it was something that I knew alot of people were not aware of and that's always something that will give you an edge in an environment where many things could be played.
The most played decks at this were; Dragon Ruler variants, Prophecy, Mermail, Fire Fist variants, Evilswarm, Constellar, Infernity, Madolche with alot of rogue and stun decks. Gravekeepers, Malefic Stun, Light Zombie Hero Beat. What would I face first? Well...
Round 1 - v Last Warrior.dek (2-0)
Are you kidding me? I have to face one of our local guys off the bat? Not only that but its the guy who plays awful stuff. There's not really much I can say on this. He AHLs into a Prisma that I Veiler then Blader Game 1 while I Wing Blast his Last Warrior game 2 and summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon to win the match with WHITE LIGHTNING.
So I've won my first round, but it was against a bad deck. My confidence isn't feeling awful at all right now. Nope.
Round 2 - vs Dual Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
Dragons have a strong matchup against this and Game 1 went on for a little bit, buuuut I was able to burn out his resources and resolve a wonderful Scrap Dragon + MST play. Game 2 he got off both of his Debunks on my Blaster summons but Fencing Fire Ferret gets in there and stops his momentum when I pop his Bear. I'm able to out advantage and win.
Got paired up with a Sask player and a really good one at that. I've always wanted to duel Jay and now I have. It was enjoyable.
Round 3 - vs Madolche (2-1)
It's been a LONG time since I played this guy and as expected he gave me a good fight. Madolche Ticket is a fucking annoying card but I opened the nuts. I'm talking multiple Sacred Swords, Cards of Consonance, Trade-In AND Dragon Ravine. When this deck resolves three to four of its draw spells in a turn you are at a TREMENDOUS advantage and thanks to it I was able to keep the pressure on him with my beaters and Hand Traps. Game 2 goes by shortly after I get a Game Loss for drawing too many cards by accident and creating an irreparable game state. Well shit. Game 3 comes down to me setting up a Skill Drain + Blaster that he can't get around.
A little rattled by that game loss. Granted I drew shit anyway so I may have lost regardless.
Round 4 - vs Samurai (2-0)
How the hell is THIS DECK at the top tables. Magnus said he even got destroyed by his previous opponent. Whatever. He goes turn 1 Barkion set a few which I force out or something. I end up Bladering him. Game 3 he opens with Mind Drain to my Sword, CoC, Skill Drain and Maxx "C" which makes me sad. He beats me down to 2500 when I top a White Stone, CoC it off to draw Dragon Rulers which I sword off and it goes from there. I Skill Drain him as he attempts to make a comeback and that's that.
Easy 2-0. Samurai suck against Dragons.
Round 5 - vs Four Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
Another Regina player and it's the man known as Boss. He's been playing this deck for a long time now and we're both aware of how the matchup vs Dragons go. I'm able to deal with his backrow and win game 1 while drawing two MSTs to deal with his turn 1 Mind and Soul Drain. It snowballed from there as he couldn't draw monsters and I had Stardust + TRA.
So now I'm sitting at the undefeated spot at 5-0. So are a few other people, namely the only person aside from myself that was running Blue-Eyes. Guess who played him next?
Round 6 - vs Blue-Eyes Dragon Ruler (0-2)
I open complete ass game 1. Triple Cards of Consonance without things to pitch for them set me back alot compared to him hitting the kind of hand that I got against Madolche. Not good. He disrupts my attempt to clear his Colossal Fighter but I have the Veiler for his Blader play. Sadly I have to scoop it up. Game 2 went alot better as I was able to set up the Colossal with a Wing Blast that I use to get around a Big Eye. But then he flipped Return.
Oh.
Disappointed? Yes. That game 1 will haunt me for a while. Definitely need to hammer consistency some more.
Round 7 - vs Spellbooks (2-0)
I made several misplays both games but thanks to Ravine I keep him from advantaging off his Tower and timely Blaster pops cleared the way for my beaters to do things. Game 2 I ultimately Big Eye ZA WARUDO and win.
After ALLLL of that was said and done I ended up in 3rd place, earning this;
More trades and such were done before we went to Boston Pizza where I had pasta and Megamonkey had a pizza burger which looked amazing. I swear if god (uuuhhh) made food i would be this. Then we chatted there and at Cam's before wrapping it up.
Props
-Getting my third invite
-Getting a new deckbox
-Getting a Star Eater mat
-Playing a deck with Blue-Eyes in it
-WINNING a match with Blue-Eyes White Dragon
-Trades
Slops
-Awkward hands. Especially in the Mirror
-Misplays. I should have Veiler'd Temperance of Prophecy, not what it brings out.
-Getting that game loss.
All in all I was satisfied with how things went. I played well and barring the Prophecy matchup I don't think I misplayed really badly. I ran a deck that was good and something I was comfortable with and it worked. Will I continue to run Blue-Eyes Rulers? For now, yes.
Until next time!
Me: Jesus that's alot of people.
Megamonkey: Thing is though we have a So Cal guy here and he said this is basically the size of a small locals to him.
Well that's disheartening. Still I don't believe that a turnout alone doesn't detract from the results. The quality of the player base at our Regionals has improved each time and the guy that I'm talking about did lose games. To top a Regional you will have to beat good players to finish well. I've done this in the past.
That said lets get to the good part of this post. The tournament itself. I decided to play the Blue-Eyes Dragon Ruler deck that has talked about by alot of people (Jeff Jones posted an article on the deck for instance) as I felt more and more comfortable with it as I continued to play. I dislike the mill aspect of Standard Rulers and Hand Traps are 4x Super Effective against Dragunity Rulers wheras the Blue-Eyes Ruler had the speed of the second version without having to worry about Hand Traps as much. However this comes at the risk of drawing absolute SHIT. This is a longtime weakness of the Blue-Eyes engine (see SOL Hopeless) and while it's not as bad here it's possible to flat out lose games because you opened with all of your draw pieces but nothing to use them. It's very Dark World esque in that you rely on alot of two card combos to thin out your deck. Still it was something that I knew alot of people were not aware of and that's always something that will give you an edge in an environment where many things could be played.
The most played decks at this were; Dragon Ruler variants, Prophecy, Mermail, Fire Fist variants, Evilswarm, Constellar, Infernity, Madolche with alot of rogue and stun decks. Gravekeepers, Malefic Stun, Light Zombie Hero Beat. What would I face first? Well...
Round 1 - v Last Warrior.dek (2-0)
Are you kidding me? I have to face one of our local guys off the bat? Not only that but its the guy who plays awful stuff. There's not really much I can say on this. He AHLs into a Prisma that I Veiler then Blader Game 1 while I Wing Blast his Last Warrior game 2 and summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon to win the match with WHITE LIGHTNING.
So I've won my first round, but it was against a bad deck. My confidence isn't feeling awful at all right now. Nope.
Round 2 - vs Dual Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
Dragons have a strong matchup against this and Game 1 went on for a little bit, buuuut I was able to burn out his resources and resolve a wonderful Scrap Dragon + MST play. Game 2 he got off both of his Debunks on my Blaster summons but Fencing Fire Ferret gets in there and stops his momentum when I pop his Bear. I'm able to out advantage and win.
Got paired up with a Sask player and a really good one at that. I've always wanted to duel Jay and now I have. It was enjoyable.
Round 3 - vs Madolche (2-1)
It's been a LONG time since I played this guy and as expected he gave me a good fight. Madolche Ticket is a fucking annoying card but I opened the nuts. I'm talking multiple Sacred Swords, Cards of Consonance, Trade-In AND Dragon Ravine. When this deck resolves three to four of its draw spells in a turn you are at a TREMENDOUS advantage and thanks to it I was able to keep the pressure on him with my beaters and Hand Traps. Game 2 goes by shortly after I get a Game Loss for drawing too many cards by accident and creating an irreparable game state. Well shit. Game 3 comes down to me setting up a Skill Drain + Blaster that he can't get around.
A little rattled by that game loss. Granted I drew shit anyway so I may have lost regardless.
Round 4 - vs Samurai (2-0)
How the hell is THIS DECK at the top tables. Magnus said he even got destroyed by his previous opponent. Whatever. He goes turn 1 Barkion set a few which I force out or something. I end up Bladering him. Game 3 he opens with Mind Drain to my Sword, CoC, Skill Drain and Maxx "C" which makes me sad. He beats me down to 2500 when I top a White Stone, CoC it off to draw Dragon Rulers which I sword off and it goes from there. I Skill Drain him as he attempts to make a comeback and that's that.
Easy 2-0. Samurai suck against Dragons.
Round 5 - vs Four Axis Fire Fist (2-0)
Another Regina player and it's the man known as Boss. He's been playing this deck for a long time now and we're both aware of how the matchup vs Dragons go. I'm able to deal with his backrow and win game 1 while drawing two MSTs to deal with his turn 1 Mind and Soul Drain. It snowballed from there as he couldn't draw monsters and I had Stardust + TRA.
So now I'm sitting at the undefeated spot at 5-0. So are a few other people, namely the only person aside from myself that was running Blue-Eyes. Guess who played him next?
Round 6 - vs Blue-Eyes Dragon Ruler (0-2)
I open complete ass game 1. Triple Cards of Consonance without things to pitch for them set me back alot compared to him hitting the kind of hand that I got against Madolche. Not good. He disrupts my attempt to clear his Colossal Fighter but I have the Veiler for his Blader play. Sadly I have to scoop it up. Game 2 went alot better as I was able to set up the Colossal with a Wing Blast that I use to get around a Big Eye. But then he flipped Return.
Oh.
Disappointed? Yes. That game 1 will haunt me for a while. Definitely need to hammer consistency some more.
Round 7 - vs Spellbooks (2-0)
I made several misplays both games but thanks to Ravine I keep him from advantaging off his Tower and timely Blaster pops cleared the way for my beaters to do things. Game 2 I ultimately Big Eye ZA WARUDO and win.
After ALLLL of that was said and done I ended up in 3rd place, earning this;
More trades and such were done before we went to Boston Pizza where I had pasta and Megamonkey had a pizza burger which looked amazing. I swear if god (uuuhhh) made food i would be this. Then we chatted there and at Cam's before wrapping it up.
Props
-Getting my third invite
-Getting a new deckbox
-Getting a Star Eater mat
-Playing a deck with Blue-Eyes in it
-WINNING a match with Blue-Eyes White Dragon
-Trades
Slops
-Awkward hands. Especially in the Mirror
-Misplays. I should have Veiler'd Temperance of Prophecy, not what it brings out.
-Getting that game loss.
All in all I was satisfied with how things went. I played well and barring the Prophecy matchup I don't think I misplayed really badly. I ran a deck that was good and something I was comfortable with and it worked. Will I continue to run Blue-Eyes Rulers? For now, yes.
Until next time!
Monday, 9 September 2013
Locals Report - The Fire Still Burns
So I started my day off like any other. I got up, ate breakfast and took a shower before heading out because you know, that's how the awesome people do it. Unlike some people though I went the extra mile and actually used soap and deodorant before leaving for locals! Fascinating, is it not? Well results speak as I was one of the few people who DIDN'T attract the flies. No I'm not kidding. There were at least 5 flies in the shop and they were attracted to the individuals who have always placed Card Games as a higher priority than hygiene.
And yet for all of that they still amount to scrubs whose decks stink even more than they do. Ever wonder why they also never sleeve their decks? I know. It's because the smell of rotting flesh and feces would cause Ultra Pros to wither up like leaves from a dying tree. In that case I can understand why spending money on sleeves that you'll ruin in a matter of hours would be bad.
Or you could spend the money on some fucking soap you filthy bastards.
Condescending? Perhaps. But it is the truth. You DAMN RIGHT. Onto the locals where I decided to play Fire King because I had Wolfbarks that I wanted to get some use out of before possibly selling them! It's not the first time I've made a deck just because all of the pieces fell into my lap.
Round 1 - Dragunity Ruler (0-2)
Game 1 - Unfortunately not much to say on this. He had answers and I made a misplay that ultimately cost me the match.
Game 2 - He's got the answers again. Vanity's Emptiness is a real pain for this deck to deal with if you don't draw the MSTs which I didn't.
Anyway with my spot in top cut now confirmed I was now disappointed. If you lose just a single round at locals with the turnouts we have you're pretty much screwed out of a top finish unless the people you beat have good records which would require them to be good..
....
Yeah exactly. My chances of being paired up against competent players were extremely slim. This was confirmed after the next pairings were announced.
Round 2 - Typical DevPro Player.dek (2-0)
Game 1 - ...did he seriously use Sakuretsu Armor on a Fire King monster?
Game 2 - I'm surprised he wasn't running 60 cards. What, you were expecting more elaborate stuff? "Oh I played against a scrub using a random pile of cards that did nothing but stall and annoy me! It's okay though because I CRUSHED him."
Yeah whoop dee FUCKING do. Next round.
Round 3 - vs Junk Doppel (2-0)
Game 1 - He makes Librarian which is cool but then I played trap cards that disrupted his strategy and won.
Game 2 - Bottomless on Road Warrior is a painful thing. I resolve an Onslaught and it's over.
As I thought I finished out of top cut which was disappointing. I got to see Dragunity Rulers vs Inzektor Agents and Prophecy. The last one was a near 40+ min long match.
On that note I've got a lot of mixed feelings about Dragunity Ruler. I can see its power and speed but I don't know. I've been testing it as well and I'm not quite getting the hang of things. It's easy to just play it as a Dragunity deck with extra monsters to summon or vice versa (which is considered to be "doing it wrong" but I'm certain there is a style of play that intertwines the two decks. Can I understand enough of this deck to take it to Regionals where I KNOW the Mirror Match and things using Maxx "C" will be present? Time will tell.
That said we all went to Robins where games of Vanguard were had and I played Cubed where I had both pleasant and REALLY salty experiences. Fucking Divine Wrath. Fucking super situational combination of random cards. Take my Crimson Blader then BOOK IT so I don't get it back.
I did resolve some turn 1 Dustshoots and made a Trishula. He should not come back.
Props
-Proving that once again when it comes to Fire Kings I AM the better player. Woodhouse has nothing on me and I've only played the deck sporadically since release.
-Picking up an Ultra Upstart Goblin for various purposes.
-Played as well as I could with what I had
Slops
-Misplays. They cost games
-Fucking flies everywhere.
BONUS: Derps
-Return from the Different %(*ing Dimension. This card is SO getting banned.
And yet for all of that they still amount to scrubs whose decks stink even more than they do. Ever wonder why they also never sleeve their decks? I know. It's because the smell of rotting flesh and feces would cause Ultra Pros to wither up like leaves from a dying tree. In that case I can understand why spending money on sleeves that you'll ruin in a matter of hours would be bad.
Or you could spend the money on some fucking soap you filthy bastards.
"I don't bite!"
Condescending? Perhaps. But it is the truth. You DAMN RIGHT. Onto the locals where I decided to play Fire King because I had Wolfbarks that I wanted to get some use out of before possibly selling them! It's not the first time I've made a deck just because all of the pieces fell into my lap.
Round 1 - Dragunity Ruler (0-2)
Game 1 - Unfortunately not much to say on this. He had answers and I made a misplay that ultimately cost me the match.
Game 2 - He's got the answers again. Vanity's Emptiness is a real pain for this deck to deal with if you don't draw the MSTs which I didn't.
Anyway with my spot in top cut now confirmed I was now disappointed. If you lose just a single round at locals with the turnouts we have you're pretty much screwed out of a top finish unless the people you beat have good records which would require them to be good..
....
Yeah exactly. My chances of being paired up against competent players were extremely slim. This was confirmed after the next pairings were announced.
Round 2 - Typical DevPro Player.dek (2-0)
Game 1 - ...did he seriously use Sakuretsu Armor on a Fire King monster?
Game 2 - I'm surprised he wasn't running 60 cards. What, you were expecting more elaborate stuff? "Oh I played against a scrub using a random pile of cards that did nothing but stall and annoy me! It's okay though because I CRUSHED him."
Yeah whoop dee FUCKING do. Next round.
Round 3 - vs Junk Doppel (2-0)
Game 1 - He makes Librarian which is cool but then I played trap cards that disrupted his strategy and won.
Game 2 - Bottomless on Road Warrior is a painful thing. I resolve an Onslaught and it's over.
As I thought I finished out of top cut which was disappointing. I got to see Dragunity Rulers vs Inzektor Agents and Prophecy. The last one was a near 40+ min long match.
On that note I've got a lot of mixed feelings about Dragunity Ruler. I can see its power and speed but I don't know. I've been testing it as well and I'm not quite getting the hang of things. It's easy to just play it as a Dragunity deck with extra monsters to summon or vice versa (which is considered to be "doing it wrong" but I'm certain there is a style of play that intertwines the two decks. Can I understand enough of this deck to take it to Regionals where I KNOW the Mirror Match and things using Maxx "C" will be present? Time will tell.
That said we all went to Robins where games of Vanguard were had and I played Cubed where I had both pleasant and REALLY salty experiences. Fucking Divine Wrath. Fucking super situational combination of random cards. Take my Crimson Blader then BOOK IT so I don't get it back.
I did resolve some turn 1 Dustshoots and made a Trishula. He should not come back.
Props
-Proving that once again when it comes to Fire Kings I AM the better player. Woodhouse has nothing on me and I've only played the deck sporadically since release.
-Picking up an Ultra Upstart Goblin for various purposes.
-Played as well as I could with what I had
Slops
-Misplays. They cost games
-Fucking flies everywhere.
BONUS: Derps
-Return from the Different %(*ing Dimension. This card is SO getting banned.
Monday, 2 September 2013
Locals Report - Just who the hell do you think I am!?
I was originally going to go with "Storming into a new format" but then things happened. Awesome things happened.
Anyway welcome to the new format! Isn't it grand? I'm throughly enjoying myself even if I've only played a few games in this. In fact the first Locals of the new format kicked off today and I decided to run Dragunity. Turns out today was a good day for Dragunity in general as one got Top 8 and a Dragunity/Dragon Ruler hybrid got Top 4 at YCS Toronto. My build wasn't anywhere near as aggro, however. I opted to focus on being consistent and having traps to back up a simplified game state of even Stardust Dragon or to be able to hold down the fort for a turn while I assemble a nutty hand. Threw together a side to deal with what would be sided on me and some matchups I didn't like and proceeded to take flight.
Hahah. See what I did there? I r so gud.
Round 1 - vs Heroes (2-0)
Game 1 - He T Roar'd my first attack then tried to do some stuff. I remember Compulsing his Shining and that was it.
Game 2 - I open with the Mystletainn, Ravine, Phalanx hand and go the fuck off. I decided to end my combo with a Crimson Blader to shut off his fusion plays...and he has Threatening Roar again. He Dark Hole's my field and I'm forced to recover after making such a giant push. I do because this guy is bad and running Jaden cards like Woodsman and he's unable to answer Crimson Blader.
Round 2 - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1 - He opens with a Bear and backrow, drops Dragon and swings into Mirror Force. I establish Stardust and Thought Ruler over a couple turns and take it.
Game 2 - I open "the hand" and go off.
Round 3 - vs Fire Fist (2-1)
Game 1 - I open all monsters with 2 of them being Tempest. Not ideal when dealing with a competent player and several backrow. I bait out Fiendish Chain with Aklys so that Legionnaire can score the +2 on my next turn before he Bears and swings for game using Tensen. I could have Veiler'd the Bear but I opted not to because I wanted to use it on his Xyz play and was not expecting the trap. My mistake.
Game 2 and 3 - These are kind of a blur. I know between the two of them a Maxx "C" is dropped and I consider taking the challenge but don't when I really should have given well...what do Fire Fist run that I'd have to worry about them drawing into sans Veiler? They're not like D. Rulers who benefit from a 15 card hand. Also basically it became a grind of Stardust, Redmd and Tempest just poking and poking. He ultimately clears the board but my own backrow starts to put in work and Legionnaire + Phalanx + Tempest get enough shots in to win the match.
Top 4 - vs Chronomoly (2-0)
Game 1 - Every single of my Dux summons were hit by Veiler or Breakthrough Skill. I'm able to get around this with Mystletainn in one instance and grinded it from there.
Game 2 - After getting around a negate I get "the hand" and go off.
Finals - vs Ophion.dek (2-0)
Game 1 - This is a clear example of how people will say "well if he does that I have this for that" but then it actually never does. In a perfect world you will always have your ideal setup with your counters to their counters. However this is the real world and you don't always get that. Win the dieroll and make a Turn 1 Ophion? Thats fine. Guess what? I've got the Legionnaire + Aklys combo that my deck has to get around that. No Safe Zone or Forbidden Dress? Well too bad! Anyway I +2 on him (and get his Pandemic off the board with Aklys) and Fiendish Chain his second Ophion because he's able to drop another one the following turn. I play Mystletainn and he tries to tell me I can't before I have to tell him about Fiendish Chain (this combined with his general aura that I got from him pre match allowed me to determine his player level by the way). Afterwards I Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend over anything else because everyone knows just how much Evilswarm LOSE to Master of Blades and well, TRA is alot like that and my decision was correct as he tried to Forbidden Dress him and things went downhill from there. He also tried to Prison the Stardust I summoned later but I dodged that and took it.
Game 2 - He opens with a Heliotrope and protection but I've got Dark Bribe and a hand that allowed me to drop Thought Ruler and Stardust again. It snowballed from there. He looked really disappointed that he lost, especially to a deck that I've noticed alot of Ophion players think they they roflstomp.
Newsflash. The Dragunity matchup is nowhere near that simple. We have just as many outs to your deck as Dragon Rulers. Legionnaire + Aklys is very real. Zerofyne is also a thing. Your deck is ass and the only reason it will ever relevant is Ophion. By the way how about that YCS Toronto? I'm pretty sure Ophion.dek did a whole JACKSHIT after top 32! I have no problem with Evilswarm as a theme. I think they're neat. What I do have a problem with is the snobby elitist attitude that the people who play the deck because of Ophion's power have.
Ophion is not god. This is;
After that we went to Cam's place and watched Gurren Lagann and got to see the epicness that is SUPER TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN. Jesus fucking christ. Oh and I saw a bit of Aladdin before Megamonkey and I talked about how awesome it is seeing Daniel GOD DAMN Bryan being so over.
Props
-Storming into a first place finish at the first Locals of the new format with Dragunity.
-Picking up alot of good stuff via trades. 3x Hootcakes, 4x Secret Blaster, Gold Rare Lonefire.
-Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan. Jesus christ. IT SHITS OUT GALAXIES. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?
Slops
-Misplays. There were two of them and they cost me dearly.
Anyway welcome to the new format! Isn't it grand? I'm throughly enjoying myself even if I've only played a few games in this. In fact the first Locals of the new format kicked off today and I decided to run Dragunity. Turns out today was a good day for Dragunity in general as one got Top 8 and a Dragunity/Dragon Ruler hybrid got Top 4 at YCS Toronto. My build wasn't anywhere near as aggro, however. I opted to focus on being consistent and having traps to back up a simplified game state of even Stardust Dragon or to be able to hold down the fort for a turn while I assemble a nutty hand. Threw together a side to deal with what would be sided on me and some matchups I didn't like and proceeded to take flight.
Hahah. See what I did there? I r so gud.
Round 1 - vs Heroes (2-0)
Game 1 - He T Roar'd my first attack then tried to do some stuff. I remember Compulsing his Shining and that was it.
Game 2 - I open with the Mystletainn, Ravine, Phalanx hand and go the fuck off. I decided to end my combo with a Crimson Blader to shut off his fusion plays...and he has Threatening Roar again. He Dark Hole's my field and I'm forced to recover after making such a giant push. I do because this guy is bad and running Jaden cards like Woodsman and he's unable to answer Crimson Blader.
Round 2 - vs Fire Fist (2-0)
Game 1 - He opens with a Bear and backrow, drops Dragon and swings into Mirror Force. I establish Stardust and Thought Ruler over a couple turns and take it.
Game 2 - I open "the hand" and go off.
Round 3 - vs Fire Fist (2-1)
Game 1 - I open all monsters with 2 of them being Tempest. Not ideal when dealing with a competent player and several backrow. I bait out Fiendish Chain with Aklys so that Legionnaire can score the +2 on my next turn before he Bears and swings for game using Tensen. I could have Veiler'd the Bear but I opted not to because I wanted to use it on his Xyz play and was not expecting the trap. My mistake.
Game 2 and 3 - These are kind of a blur. I know between the two of them a Maxx "C" is dropped and I consider taking the challenge but don't when I really should have given well...what do Fire Fist run that I'd have to worry about them drawing into sans Veiler? They're not like D. Rulers who benefit from a 15 card hand. Also basically it became a grind of Stardust, Redmd and Tempest just poking and poking. He ultimately clears the board but my own backrow starts to put in work and Legionnaire + Phalanx + Tempest get enough shots in to win the match.
Top 4 - vs Chronomoly (2-0)
Game 1 - Every single of my Dux summons were hit by Veiler or Breakthrough Skill. I'm able to get around this with Mystletainn in one instance and grinded it from there.
Game 2 - After getting around a negate I get "the hand" and go off.
Finals - vs Ophion.dek (2-0)
Game 1 - This is a clear example of how people will say "well if he does that I have this for that" but then it actually never does. In a perfect world you will always have your ideal setup with your counters to their counters. However this is the real world and you don't always get that. Win the dieroll and make a Turn 1 Ophion? Thats fine. Guess what? I've got the Legionnaire + Aklys combo that my deck has to get around that. No Safe Zone or Forbidden Dress? Well too bad! Anyway I +2 on him (and get his Pandemic off the board with Aklys) and Fiendish Chain his second Ophion because he's able to drop another one the following turn. I play Mystletainn and he tries to tell me I can't before I have to tell him about Fiendish Chain (this combined with his general aura that I got from him pre match allowed me to determine his player level by the way). Afterwards I Synchro Summon Thought Ruler Archfiend over anything else because everyone knows just how much Evilswarm LOSE to Master of Blades and well, TRA is alot like that and my decision was correct as he tried to Forbidden Dress him and things went downhill from there. He also tried to Prison the Stardust I summoned later but I dodged that and took it.
Game 2 - He opens with a Heliotrope and protection but I've got Dark Bribe and a hand that allowed me to drop Thought Ruler and Stardust again. It snowballed from there. He looked really disappointed that he lost, especially to a deck that I've noticed alot of Ophion players think they they roflstomp.
Newsflash. The Dragunity matchup is nowhere near that simple. We have just as many outs to your deck as Dragon Rulers. Legionnaire + Aklys is very real. Zerofyne is also a thing. Your deck is ass and the only reason it will ever relevant is Ophion. By the way how about that YCS Toronto? I'm pretty sure Ophion.dek did a whole JACKSHIT after top 32! I have no problem with Evilswarm as a theme. I think they're neat. What I do have a problem with is the snobby elitist attitude that the people who play the deck because of Ophion's power have.
Ophion is not god. This is;
After that we went to Cam's place and watched Gurren Lagann and got to see the epicness that is SUPER TENGEN TOPPA GURREN LAGANN. Jesus fucking christ. Oh and I saw a bit of Aladdin before Megamonkey and I talked about how awesome it is seeing Daniel GOD DAMN Bryan being so over.
Props
-Storming into a first place finish at the first Locals of the new format with Dragunity.
-Picking up alot of good stuff via trades. 3x Hootcakes, 4x Secret Blaster, Gold Rare Lonefire.
-Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan. Jesus christ. IT SHITS OUT GALAXIES. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT!?
Slops
-Misplays. There were two of them and they cost me dearly.
Saturday, 10 August 2013
Locals Report - No Lols, just Sacking
A Saturday post? Quite rare indeed. Also rare was the chance to play either Pokemon or Vanguard at locals today because nobody plays Yu-Gi-Oh! at Comic Readers anymore.
I opted to play Vanguard over Pokemon despite this being the last possible weekend that I could play Zekrom/Eels at a tournament and roflstomp everyone because everyone at Pokemon Locals except for the organizer is over the age of 13 and don't play the game seriously.
It's totally not awkward at all.
...yeah. So Vanguard locals it is! Turns out we got to choose the format and it ended up being Tag Fights. I partnered up with Megamonkey who was playing his DOTE Deck much to the chagrin of many in the room. We called ourselves Team Fire Storm which is badass and all but now that I've had some time to think on it I have a better name;
Team BLOODY END.
With the two most try hard peopl-*remembers that this is a Vanguard Locals* okay nevermind. There's at least 3 people who are more try hard than us. Still with two SKILLED people teaming up this thing should be a snap, right?
Oh how little you know.
Round 1 - BLOODY END vs I don't even fucking know (Loss)
I open awful with no Grade 1s for a turn which is far too long in this game. I also draw all 3 of my Heal Triggers so was up to Monkey to keep us alive while I tried to recover.
But then the opponents got 2 Critical Triggers when we were sitting at 6 damage and it was over.
Round 2 - BLOODY END vs DOTE/Bermuda Triangle (Win)
This one was much, much better as I opened strongly and the Bermuda Triangle player was an idiot or something according to the opposing DOTE player. Anyway I'm able to hit the Crossride and BLOOD's 13k causes him to burn more resources than he wanted to on defense. I also resolve an Ultimate Break to set things up for Monkey's end game push.
Round 3 - BLOODY END vs Kagero/Triangle (Win)
These two were in over their heads, basically. We pretty much dominated them from the start and between DOTE and BLOOD they just couldn't keep up.
Round 4 - Narukami vs DOTE (Win)
Our team had no opponents, so we ended up "playing" each other. Instead we pissed around and read "YGO Players you would Fuck" and other riveting topics from DuelistGroundz. Oh and we played a War Duel.
Round 5 - BLOODy END vs Bermuda/Zeal (Loss)
I have no idea what the hell happened here. We both played well and made correct moves. They just...blargh. I never saw a Perfect Guard and I'm certain Monkey only saw 1. The Zeal Player was able to sack into a Megablast that put Monkey's DOTE at 7000 and neither of us didn't have enough defense to stop it. Did we hit a Heal Trigger? Oh no. Certainly not! After all we don't sack. We beat our opponents with skill.
By the way. Just because you managed to beat someone with a card that is widely considered bad by many players that doesn't mean the card is good. It's still bad.
After that we were eliminated from top cut. Being the Captain (I guess) I was entered into another tourney without really knowing. It was to win a BLOOD mat.
Round 1 - Bye
Yeah I got to play no one.
Round 2 - vs DOTE
The DOTE guy from an earlier round. He hits me with a double Crit. I try to do the same but sadly I don't get the double crit and my YOLO drive fails. I storm back and beat him down.
Finals - vs Sacky McLucksack (Loss)
The Zeal guy from Round 5. I had every intention of paying him back in full for what happened before and frankly this almost seemed like it was right out of the anime. A ferocious start that puts him on the ropes with a Cross ridden Vermillion "The BLOOD" with 2 Intercepts staring him down. Unfortunately I'm not drawing near as well as I could (my Drive checks were either 5k) and he pulling triggers up the ass. Would it have been too much trouble for me to get a Perfect Guard? Ugh, I had him beat at least THREE times if it wasn't for Heal Triggers. Worse yet he's also "that guy" who runs Stand Triggers in decks that aren't Aqua Force or Nova Grapplers and after he Zeal's my BLOOD down to 8k and attacks with his RGs what does he do? Rips 2 Triggers off the top, one of them being a Stand. I of course don't get a Heal off of my damage check and victory is stolen from me.
I flat out called him a fucking sack and this opinion has not changed. I had that game won. I kicked his ass from the start, played damn near flawless and he gets rewarded with some of the most bullshit lucky breaks I've seen in a long time. I don't fucking care if this makes me sound like a pretentious asshole. I don't care if "its part of Vanguard, man."
That was complete and utter horseshit. I swear to Triple H that I'd better get some kind of karma reward down the line and start 4x critting people with Dragonic Descendant in the winter.
Props
-Tag Fights! These are mad fun when you can choose your own partner. There's at least 5 people I'd enjoy Tag Dueling with.
-Picking up a playset of Eradicator, Spark Horn Dragon. First of the new Archetypes in the game!
Slops
-Getting super sacked. Two games were outright STOLEN from double triggers at the worst possible time.
-Buying a box of Judgment of the Light and pulling A-S-S. You're guaranteed a Secret and an Ultra in the box, right? Nah I ended up being the poor sap who bought THAT ONE bad box in a case. Yeah I'm done buying YGO boosters again.
I opted to play Vanguard over Pokemon despite this being the last possible weekend that I could play Zekrom/Eels at a tournament and roflstomp everyone because everyone at Pokemon Locals except for the organizer is over the age of 13 and don't play the game seriously.
It's totally not awkward at all.
...yeah. So Vanguard locals it is! Turns out we got to choose the format and it ended up being Tag Fights. I partnered up with Megamonkey who was playing his DOTE Deck much to the chagrin of many in the room. We called ourselves Team Fire Storm which is badass and all but now that I've had some time to think on it I have a better name;
Team BLOODY END.
With the two most try hard peopl-*remembers that this is a Vanguard Locals* okay nevermind. There's at least 3 people who are more try hard than us. Still with two SKILLED people teaming up this thing should be a snap, right?
Oh how little you know.
Round 1 - BLOODY END vs I don't even fucking know (Loss)
I open awful with no Grade 1s for a turn which is far too long in this game. I also draw all 3 of my Heal Triggers so was up to Monkey to keep us alive while I tried to recover.
But then the opponents got 2 Critical Triggers when we were sitting at 6 damage and it was over.
Round 2 - BLOODY END vs DOTE/Bermuda Triangle (Win)
This one was much, much better as I opened strongly and the Bermuda Triangle player was an idiot or something according to the opposing DOTE player. Anyway I'm able to hit the Crossride and BLOOD's 13k causes him to burn more resources than he wanted to on defense. I also resolve an Ultimate Break to set things up for Monkey's end game push.
Round 3 - BLOODY END vs Kagero/Triangle (Win)
These two were in over their heads, basically. We pretty much dominated them from the start and between DOTE and BLOOD they just couldn't keep up.
Round 4 - Narukami vs DOTE (Win)
Our team had no opponents, so we ended up "playing" each other. Instead we pissed around and read "YGO Players you would Fuck" and other riveting topics from DuelistGroundz. Oh and we played a War Duel.
Round 5 - BLOODy END vs Bermuda/Zeal (Loss)
I have no idea what the hell happened here. We both played well and made correct moves. They just...blargh. I never saw a Perfect Guard and I'm certain Monkey only saw 1. The Zeal Player was able to sack into a Megablast that put Monkey's DOTE at 7000 and neither of us didn't have enough defense to stop it. Did we hit a Heal Trigger? Oh no. Certainly not! After all we don't sack. We beat our opponents with skill.
By the way. Just because you managed to beat someone with a card that is widely considered bad by many players that doesn't mean the card is good. It's still bad.
After that we were eliminated from top cut. Being the Captain (I guess) I was entered into another tourney without really knowing. It was to win a BLOOD mat.
Round 1 - Bye
Yeah I got to play no one.
Round 2 - vs DOTE
The DOTE guy from an earlier round. He hits me with a double Crit. I try to do the same but sadly I don't get the double crit and my YOLO drive fails. I storm back and beat him down.
Finals - vs Sacky McLucksack (Loss)
The Zeal guy from Round 5. I had every intention of paying him back in full for what happened before and frankly this almost seemed like it was right out of the anime. A ferocious start that puts him on the ropes with a Cross ridden Vermillion "The BLOOD" with 2 Intercepts staring him down. Unfortunately I'm not drawing near as well as I could (my Drive checks were either 5k) and he pulling triggers up the ass. Would it have been too much trouble for me to get a Perfect Guard? Ugh, I had him beat at least THREE times if it wasn't for Heal Triggers. Worse yet he's also "that guy" who runs Stand Triggers in decks that aren't Aqua Force or Nova Grapplers and after he Zeal's my BLOOD down to 8k and attacks with his RGs what does he do? Rips 2 Triggers off the top, one of them being a Stand. I of course don't get a Heal off of my damage check and victory is stolen from me.
I flat out called him a fucking sack and this opinion has not changed. I had that game won. I kicked his ass from the start, played damn near flawless and he gets rewarded with some of the most bullshit lucky breaks I've seen in a long time. I don't fucking care if this makes me sound like a pretentious asshole. I don't care if "its part of Vanguard, man."
That was complete and utter horseshit. I swear to Triple H that I'd better get some kind of karma reward down the line and start 4x critting people with Dragonic Descendant in the winter.
Props
-Tag Fights! These are mad fun when you can choose your own partner. There's at least 5 people I'd enjoy Tag Dueling with.
-Picking up a playset of Eradicator, Spark Horn Dragon. First of the new Archetypes in the game!
Slops
-Getting super sacked. Two games were outright STOLEN from double triggers at the worst possible time.
-Buying a box of Judgment of the Light and pulling A-S-S. You're guaranteed a Secret and an Ultra in the box, right? Nah I ended up being the poor sap who bought THAT ONE bad box in a case. Yeah I'm done buying YGO boosters again.
Monday, 5 August 2013
Lolcals Report - Zero Fucks Given
Well this was an interesting day. Judgment of the Light's Sneak Peek was yesterday and to be blunt everyone pulled S-H-I-T. Nowhere near as well as Saturday's Sneeks apparently.
Whatever, I got mostly what I needed? Picked up some Shwarzchild Limit Dragons which is a card that's flown under the rader imo. Its basically a free 2000 Beatstick at Level 8 if the opponent has a monster with 2000 attack or more which honestly what deck DOESN'T pump out monsters like that? I see tremendous potential with this thing. I just don't know how to use it at the moment outside of "stick it in Blue-Eyes."
Then I participated in my first Locals since the end of June! My deck of choice? Constellars.
Round 1 - vs Fire Fist (2-1)
Game 1 - Tengu set four with my only form of backrow removal in hand a Heavy Storm? Yeah I wasn't going to get much done here. This was made clear when I had no choice but to Heavy or lose and saw the Starlight Road and lose regardless.
Like it was basically summon a monster? Bottomless/Compulse/Warning. My hand was all monsters too.
Game 2 - Much like the first one except I open with backrow too! It took ALOT of tries but I finally got monsters on the board! I also got to make Omega and I rode it to victory.
Game 3 - I summon a monster and it dies or gets bounced. I use backrow on a monster and it gets Lanced or something. It got down to use topdecking and he topdecks a Tenki into Bear and I do the same, except my Tenki into Bear was enough to win.
Round 2 - vs Wind-Up Zexal Weapon (2-0)
Game 1 - He's got Summoner Monk into Magician/Shark but I've got the Veiler for anything threatening and just sit on Thunder King.
Game 2 - I don't remember much on this one either. I just beat him down with Constellar plays.
Round 3 - vs Prophecy (2-0)
Game 1 - I won the dieroll and that's the only reason I didn't get blown out here as I had the all mighty, super powerful and once format definining play of turn 1 Thunder King Rai-Oh. Priestessless Prophecy I think might actually have some difficulty against him since you need a fuckton of spell counters on Star Hall or Power to get over him. He didn't have those so I beat him down.
Game 2 - I had EEV.
Top 4 - vs Fire Fist (0-2)
Game 1 and 2. Backrow. Backrow for days. Days. I couldn't do jack shit. Between Fire Formation Gyokku, Bear/Gorilla picking off my field (he managed to pin down the exact cards that he needed to hit out of my backrow, it was disappointing) and Solemn Judgment I scooped it up and I had to take a breather AGAIN out of frustration. At the time I thought I was pissy because of the way things were. Nah. I just hate being 2-0'd without getting a fighting chance. That's something that will always upset me to the point of being unable to think straight or talk to people.
Then I traded for Tour Bus and German Super Rare Debris Dragon and all was kay. Playset of German Super Debris now. GET ON MY LEVEL.
Then we went to Robins and I played some games of Yu-Gi-Oh! against Megamonkey's Zero Fucks Given - Synchro with my Zero Fucks Given - Gishki deck. I'll just leave these here;
PROPS
-Getting that 2nd Debris.
-...LOOK AT THOSE PICTURES.
SLOPS
-Sloppy play all around. I made several moves I wish I didn't in the Fire Fist games.
-Pulling GOD AWFUL at the Sneak. Yeah I pulled Armades but I did not come close to making back the money I dropped.
Whatever, I got mostly what I needed? Picked up some Shwarzchild Limit Dragons which is a card that's flown under the rader imo. Its basically a free 2000 Beatstick at Level 8 if the opponent has a monster with 2000 attack or more which honestly what deck DOESN'T pump out monsters like that? I see tremendous potential with this thing. I just don't know how to use it at the moment outside of "stick it in Blue-Eyes."
Then I participated in my first Locals since the end of June! My deck of choice? Constellars.
Round 1 - vs Fire Fist (2-1)
Game 1 - Tengu set four with my only form of backrow removal in hand a Heavy Storm? Yeah I wasn't going to get much done here. This was made clear when I had no choice but to Heavy or lose and saw the Starlight Road and lose regardless.
Like it was basically summon a monster? Bottomless/Compulse/Warning. My hand was all monsters too.
Game 2 - Much like the first one except I open with backrow too! It took ALOT of tries but I finally got monsters on the board! I also got to make Omega and I rode it to victory.
Game 3 - I summon a monster and it dies or gets bounced. I use backrow on a monster and it gets Lanced or something. It got down to use topdecking and he topdecks a Tenki into Bear and I do the same, except my Tenki into Bear was enough to win.
Round 2 - vs Wind-Up Zexal Weapon (2-0)
Game 1 - He's got Summoner Monk into Magician/Shark but I've got the Veiler for anything threatening and just sit on Thunder King.
Game 2 - I don't remember much on this one either. I just beat him down with Constellar plays.
Round 3 - vs Prophecy (2-0)
Game 1 - I won the dieroll and that's the only reason I didn't get blown out here as I had the all mighty, super powerful and once format definining play of turn 1 Thunder King Rai-Oh. Priestessless Prophecy I think might actually have some difficulty against him since you need a fuckton of spell counters on Star Hall or Power to get over him. He didn't have those so I beat him down.
Game 2 - I had EEV.
Top 4 - vs Fire Fist (0-2)
Game 1 and 2. Backrow. Backrow for days. Days. I couldn't do jack shit. Between Fire Formation Gyokku, Bear/Gorilla picking off my field (he managed to pin down the exact cards that he needed to hit out of my backrow, it was disappointing) and Solemn Judgment I scooped it up and I had to take a breather AGAIN out of frustration. At the time I thought I was pissy because of the way things were. Nah. I just hate being 2-0'd without getting a fighting chance. That's something that will always upset me to the point of being unable to think straight or talk to people.
Then I traded for Tour Bus and German Super Rare Debris Dragon and all was kay. Playset of German Super Debris now. GET ON MY LEVEL.
Then we went to Robins and I played some games of Yu-Gi-Oh! against Megamonkey's Zero Fucks Given - Synchro with my Zero Fucks Given - Gishki deck. I'll just leave these here;
That's over 15000 damage on board.
Monkey throwing poop at me (get it!? LOLOL!). Haven't even taken my turn. Thank god for Maxx "C".
My hand upon finally getting my turn.
Much to my sadness this was all I could do.
PROPS
-Getting that 2nd Debris.
-...LOOK AT THOSE PICTURES.
SLOPS
-Sloppy play all around. I made several moves I wish I didn't in the Fire Fist games.
-Pulling GOD AWFUL at the Sneak. Yeah I pulled Armades but I did not come close to making back the money I dropped.
Thursday, 1 August 2013
Locals Report - You Won't Be Able to Get Up Anymore!
It's been pretty dead on here, eh? That's what happens when you don't Yu-Gi-Oh! for a while I guess.
Oh well I can write down some stuff regarding Vanguard and Pokemon. So lets do it!
Pokemon
I didn't play this as much as I thought I would. Only made it to 2 Locals and at those I played Zekrom/Eels and dominated Team Plasma. Highlight of the whole experience? Getting Zekrom EX to annihilate a Lugia-EX with Strong Volt for 300 damage. Good deck is good. Too bad it dies next month.
Vanguard
Pretty much summed up as;
Oh well I can write down some stuff regarding Vanguard and Pokemon. So lets do it!
Pokemon
I didn't play this as much as I thought I would. Only made it to 2 Locals and at those I played Zekrom/Eels and dominated Team Plasma. Highlight of the whole experience? Getting Zekrom EX to annihilate a Lugia-EX with Strong Volt for 300 damage. Good deck is good. Too bad it dies next month.
Vanguard
Pretty much summed up as;
Vermillion Catastrophe!
Thanks to friends (mainly Megamonkey) I was able to pick up a playset of Vermillion The Blood, Spark Edge Draco Kid and Dusty Plasma Dragon which was all I needed to complete my only good deck in the game; Narukami.
I'll spare you all the gushing over having a finished deck and just say The Blood puts in a TON of work. 13000 on offense/defense is an incredible asset and it forces the opponent to play around it. Oh and I also have a 10k Booster so I'm swinging for 23000. I've played and defeated;
-Dungaree Narukami
-Narukami the Blood
-Great Nature
-Aqua Force
-Murakumo
-Oracle Think Tank
-Pale Moon
-Dark Irregulars
-Dimension Police
-Mega Colony
-DOTE Kagero
It really is the little changes that help. Having Blood and Plasma gives the deck a ton of offensive power. The fact that I can go toe to toe with DOTE is really impressive. In the hands of a skilled player Narukami could honestly do serious damage in the format. Easily Tier 1.5.
Oh and I also participated in the Dazzling Divas Sneak, pulled an SP, the Break Ride and got 2nd Place earning me a mat that is well...
...yeah.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)