Consequently, I didn't fill out my judge paperwork until Friday morning, because if Daniel wasn't coming and I wasn't there with family, I wasn't going to go.
Again, consequently, when I showed up with my Bushiroad shirt to judge the Vanguard event, they already were overstaffed and didn't need me, and since I had no confirmation from JD because I officially volunteered (even though I had verbally volunteered before) last minute, I ended up not judging.
Cardfight Vanguard
That's no biggie. I didn't feel like playing Vanguard, because I've been in a bad luck rut with it, but whatever. I went in with no expectations. After hearing that someone made it to round 6 or 7 with Ripple Rush in Chicago, I decided to go for that. It's my strongest and most consistent overall build, in my opinion, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.
Round 1 - Win vs. Dimension Police trial deck with at least one Daishield
This kid had just started playing the game. All I could think to myself was, "Wow. I never get easy wins. I'll take it." He actually played properly, only making one mistake the entire game. Granted, that doesn't help you win when you're forced to ride Cosmogreat, because he's your 4-of grade 3. I never see a Genovious, but I hit the first two pieces of the chain, and spammed my on-hit rear guard restand ability, since he was never in a strong spot to guard my Vanguard swings.
Round 2 - Lose vs. Breakride Galaxy with Draw Triggers
Ugh. I hate this build so much. Stern is just so much better. Crits are just so much better. I had to lose to crit Dragruler in Chicago and now this... but, I digress. He heals 3 times, hits two defensive draws (running 4), and offensively crits twice. I never see a Genovious. I do hit a clutch crit at the end, forcing him to dump out all of his remaining shield, or he was going to lose. He breakrides Mond over Mond and finishes me off the following turn.
Playing to 9 damage is kind of why I stopped playing Vanguard. But whatevs, I wasn't in this one to win it anyway. It's not them, it's me. I attract their heal triggers to the top of their deck.
Round 3 - Win vs. Silver Thorns
Holy shit. I actually won a dice roll and got to go first. Ride Sotorio, fish out Pavroth. Already have Pavroth and Genovious in hand. This is sacking for me, okay. GIVE ME MY MOMENT! Drop a 10k to guard his 7k+5k swing with no rear guards out. He hits a crit, I stay at 0. HOLY SHIT! THINGS ARE GOING OKAY! EVEN THOUGH I STARTED WITH 3 GENOVIOUS IN HAND AND HAD TROUBLE RUSHING. After neither of us hitting too many triggers after that (both of our decks were trigger floundering like crazy, I was unable to secure a rush), I end up winning solely because I went first (and was able to guard early), and going first is OP.
Round 4 - Lose vs. 8 draw break ride Venus Trap Reverse
Wat. No. This didn't happen. Next! What, you mean I have to write about this? Fuck. I hit the full chain again. With 3 Genovious in hand again. Yeah. No units could be fielded on turn 2 unless I wanted to make a perfect guard/trigger row, which was the only thing I had that I could field because of 3 Genovious. He hit 4 draws, 2-3 were defensive. We were neck and neck most of the game. He had boosted on-hit fetch rows with his maidens out on turn 2. I had to choose from the easy no-pass of his Vanguard and letting those on-hit rows hit, or risking him not hitting a trigger or me hitting a trigger to guard the on-hit rows. I chose to let him hit with his on-hit rows to guarantee I reduce my own damage. If I knew crits weren't a thing in his deck (being at 4), I'm not certain I would have made that decision. He still manages to crit me when I no guarded at 3 damage, bringing me up to 5.
I force 9 cards from his hand with a big Genvious persona blast push. He literally has 0 cards in hand and one open spot on his field. He gets the RG back with Venus Trap, attacks, and gets a draw/heal, bringing him up to 4 cards in hand. I guard using everything I had. I swing in next turn with the ability to win if I hit a trigger or he doesn't hit a fifth damage trigger, he does, I don't. He wins the next turn. I wasn't really sad or anything. It's just... eww. 8 draws. In hindsight, letting Glass Beads hit at any point in time to waste his counterblasts would have benefited me greatly. It is what it is.
This is just what I've come to expect from this game. I want to pretty much exclusively judge it at this point, since I am fairly certain that mixed decks will be banned for next year's regionals, and rush decks are just cheese and don't feel that technical or comboish.
Future Card Buddyfight
I was debating between Big Awesome Dog (a deck focusing on using Alerta with soul guard size 3's and size 0's to get free counterattack retires against my opponent, and using Demon Lord's Dungeon for infinite recycling on my size 0's) and Fabulous World (Standard Legend World Hero Build). I needed some Dominion Rods (I somehow have none after opening 4 boxes) to finish Big Awesome Dog. I need two Merlins (you know, the one card that makes the deck work) to make Fab World function. I tried to get what I needed, but many people were looking for Merlin and nobody had him.
I was thinking, "I guess I'll just go back to old faithful, Katana World." But I remember how Dungeon World wrecks my shit because I don't have card advantage with Skull Warriors unless I happen to draw one of my 4 Return to the Underworld. I thought about playing Dungeon World mix myself, but I found out that I actually am a hipster, and don't want to play it specifically because of how overpowered it is. It's also brainless, and auto-pilot. And forces you to play the game properly by giving you card advantage for removing the opponent's card advantage.
I could bitch about it some more, but I'll leave that for another day. I eventually settled, after much deliberation, on Magic World Burn. After going through my box of commons looking for a sideboard, I find Abra Cadabra. I read the card. Then I wonder why it wasn't in my deck and why I'm an idiot. I put it in at two, hoping to get a cheese victory by swinging at an open center with a big link attack and countering their attack negation spell for game. This never happened, but Abra Cadabra saved my nuts twice, so I'm not complaining.
I didn't have this deck completely done, either, but the cards I'm missing aren't actually mandatory for the deck to function, like Dominion Rod and Merlin are for the other two decks I wanted to run.
Deckname - #Tim's Totally Meta Mega Serious Magic World Burn Deck™
Decklist
Flag - Magic World
Buddy - Dragowizard, Burning Wand (Foil)
Items (7)
4x Gunrod, Bechstein
3x Gunrod, Stradivarius
Spells (21)
4x Magical Goodbye
4x Trans-flame
4x Solomon's Shield (Useful. You know, except against Dungeon World.)
4x Nice One!
2x Kosher (I needed gauge fixing so bad. I gave away my Keys of Solomon to my buddy Elliot, thinking I wouldn't need them. I may up this number later, or switch to the Keys. I feel like this is more slot efficient, though.)
2x Abra Cadabra!
1x Chillax! (WHY OH WHY DO I ONLY HAVE ONE OF THESE?!)
Size 1's (16)
4x Demon Lord, Asmodai (Staple)
4x Dragowizard, Burning Wand (Tap to deal 1. If I could use multiple of this effect, this deck would be much stronger, but I'll take what I've got. Great for a going first turn 1 ping.)
4x Kenjy of the Explosive Fists (Going to become Qinus Axias or Glassarts later I suppose)
3x Magician of Glass, Will Glassart (should be maxed)
1x Dragowizard, Qinus Axia (1 gauge wasn't too big of a deal)
Size 2's (6)
3x Center of the World, Mary Sue (I want to drop this down to 2. Gauge cost was just too high.)
2x Magical Secretary, Genjuro Saki (I want to up this to 4)
1x Herb Magician, Soichiro Tenjiku (Worse Genjuro that's going to be taken out later)
Round 1 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)
I was expecting it. I figured that roughly half of the people there would be playing Dungeon. There weren't that many from what I could see, though. Every table I would look at (didn't go poking around too much, though) didn't have Dungeon World on it.
I guess I just get lucky, and get to get the "fun" match-up out of the way.
Game 1 he starts off relatively strong, but I had a perfect hand. Kosher, Nice One, Genjuro, Will Glassart, Bechstein, Magical Goodbye. I had gauge and cards secured for the remainder of the game. He did equip Glory Seeker turn 1, though. Turn 3 happens, and he's at 5. Transflame, Bechstein, equip new Bechstein, Burning Wand. He's at 1, and I have 3 crit on the board. Swing with Asmodai, expecting him to Shalsana so I can win with my 2 crit swing. He takes it. Glory Seeker reveals a spell, and he goes to 3. Swing for 2, he goes down to 1. I fend off his next turn. My turn, ping for game.
Game 2 I am the ping machine. He equips Glory Seeker again, but I just have too much ping. He is down to 1 on the start of my turn. I ping for 1, popping Glory Seeker. He hits a spell. I ping for two more, and swing in with 2 creatures. He Shalsanas the first one, and loses to the second one.
Round 2 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)
Game 1 he isn't able to keep a strong offensive on the board. He kept not link attacking with Brave, Drum, so my Solomon's Shields kept him on lock-down. He equips a Glory Seeker. Turn 3, I ping him down to 0, he reveals a spell. I have too much momentum. He used the remainder of his resources just staying alive. He equips another Glory Seeker, and this time he just keeps swinging at my side units with no Defeat Monsters out, since I have too much life. My turn rolls around again. I ping down his Glory Seeker, he gets another spell. I swing for game.
Game 2 was much better for him. He got a massive offensive force out, and I had squat for defensive spells. I had plenty of burn, though. He, uhh... equips a Glory Seeker with Brave Drum in the middle. I can't get around Drum, but I ping him to 0. He reveals a spell. I swing into his creatures to soften the blow the next turn. Tetsuya is called, and I can't stop 7 crit to my face if he wins the Rock/Paper/Scissors. He does win it, unfortunately, so I lose this game.
Game 3 he didn't get Glory Seeker, so when I pinged him to 0 he wasn't there anymore. Woot!
Round 3 - L vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)
Game 1 was pretty even. I pinged him down to 0, but, you know, Glory Seeker. He revealed a spell. After that, I was in a solid position to win again, even though he got another one out. I could live if his Drum didn't win Rock Papers Scissors. He lost the Rock Papers Scissors! But then impacted me for game. Lol
Game 2 he swung in hard early with... Glory Seeker. We had a difference in damage on our sheets. I had him at 3, he had himself at 4. We had no clue how to resolve it. I told him I had exactly 3 damage in hand, but he had Glory Seeker out. Mason happened to be there and convinced him to take my reasonable offer. We were going to see if the top card of his deck was a spell. If it was, then he auto-wins because of Glory Seeker. If it wasn't a spell, we would roll for game. He takes my offer, reveals a spell, and we didn't need to roll for it at all, as the outcome was decided with or without our damage disparity. I felt bad about what happened, because I'm not sure if he missed one of my pings or if he gained a life and I missed it, but fortunately it was in a position that didn't make a difference.
Round 4 - W vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)
Game 1 he equipped something that wasn't Glory Seeker. I was in shock. My body wasn't certain how to respond. He played Gagnar turn 1. He told me his hand was 3 Shalsanas, Dungeon Explosion, and his weapon he equipped (5k/2 trial deck one for one gauge, assuming he didn't finish his deck completely, or thought that it was as good as Glory Seeker for the purpose of killing creatures with Defeat Monsters, and one gauge is cheaper than a card from hand.) I end up filling my field up and getting ready to swing in. He casts Dungeon Explosion, losing two life. Abra Cadabra saved my life, there. Kosher gave me the second gauge I needed, then I got out Stradivarius to have a big enough Kenjy to take out Gagnar, dealing two lifelink to him. He couldn't Shalsana because he burned all of his gauge. I pinged him for game the following turn.
Game 2 was almost a literal repeat of game 1. He Gagnared, Explosioned, I Abra Cadabra'd, then called Asmodai over Burning Wand after I rested him, discarded, and swung in for 5 damage on top of my Bechstein and Burning Wand, 2 life for Explosion, and 2 life for Gagnar's lifelink.
Woot! No Glory Seekers!
After this, we cut to top 8. I was convinced my tiebreakers were terrible, but I miscounted how many undefeateds there were. We had 2 left, and I thought there would be 4 undefeated players. So then there were 8 players that were X-1 vying for the top 6 spots. I ended up making 4th place on the top 8 cut. The guy who played me in round 3 was 5th, so I end up getting paired against him. Deck check passed with flying colors. They got to enjoy my tech Wizard, Merlin.
Quarter Finals - L vs. Dungeon World (Dungeon/Adventurer Mix)
Game 1 I don't know what happened. I spent a good 5 minutes shuffling. It seems that when I shuffle too much the same cards clump together for no reason. But it was really bad... I got all three of my Mary Sues. He got a Glory/Drum set-up with something else that wasn't an adventurer that he was using to pick off the center. Probably Fate Skeleton. He killed my center, then swung for 6, which I Chillaxed. His offensive pressure outweighed my pinging significantly this game since I hit that hard, early dead draw with 3 Mary Sues. I end up swinging with my Bechstein and Burning Wand into his monsters. I had a Mary Sue in hand and one gauge. I had a Kosher in hand, and no other wizards I could play. I died a little on the inside right there. My deck absolutely fizzled.
Game 2 was even worse. I wasn't even hiding it. I said audibly, "Why deck, WHY?!" After shuffling the shit out of my cards and moving each Mary Sue to the opposite ends of my deck... I had a Nice One! in hand, and thought, "I can salvage this." when they slowly started to appear early. I had one Abra Cadabra in my starting hand, one Mary Sue, one Asmodai, one Will Glassart. I charge Asmodai, get another Abra Cadabra. Fuck. Use Nice One! Draw two more Nice Ones. *Facepalm* Next turn draw Mary Sue #3. Charge it. Draw into Qinus Axia. Here's the situation.
Opponent has Glory Seeker equipped and 7 life. I have 3 gauge and Abra Cadabra in hand, along with a Bechstein equipped, two Trans-flame, a Mary Sue, and a Qinus Axia. Of course, I had a Nice One! in hand, too. I sat there figuring out if there was any possible combination to make this combo finish my opponent off. I kept getting to 6 guaranteed damage, but no 7th.
If we exclude the Trans-flames and Bechsteins, and remove their damage, I needed to do 4 damage with 3 gauge. The easiest way to secure damage would be to swing with 4 crit and Abra Cadabra their Shalsana (I didn't know if they had one or not). Literally, only because I kept dead drawing and getting all of my gauge monsters (literally, all 4 of them, and no vanillas, non-gauge monsters), I had no outs. If I had a Key of Solomon, first volume, I could have used Mary Sue to get that, use that to refill my gauge, call Qinus Axia to ping them for 1 (3), then swing for game.
With what I had though, because all of my creatures took gauge, I ran out of options. I decided to try top decking into what I needed. I used my Nice One! and got Will Glassart and something else. Decide to call Mary Sue to get a Kosher. Play Will Glassart to attempt to cast Kosher, but he destroys it with Pillar of Fire (which is honestly a misplay on his part. He should wait until I declare combat, then take my units out so I can't replace them. He got pretty lucky that I drew all of my gauge monsters and none of my vanillas, considering how my deck is ratiod.) I end up losing the following turn. He casts Shalsana in response to my attack anyway, so I don't think I could have burned enough to win the game without having drawn into some actual creatures earlier. I was told that the top card of his deck that turn was a spell, so I would have lost anyway. Lol
All in all, I finally topped at a regional qualifiers for a Bushiroad game. I didn't think that would ever happen, considering my piss-poor luck. Still, I do wish I could have fought something other than Dungeon World with my deck. Match-up is so boring. Deck is so auto-pilot. Waaaah. WAAAAAAH! Okay, I'm done crying about it.
Obligatory, "You're welcome" to all of the other toppers for being that one guy who took out all of the Dungeon World players for them except the guy who beat me twice. Everyone else was talking about all of the modified trial decks, DDW decks, Legend World decks, Dragon World decks, etc. that they played against. I fought nothing but tier 1 metashit all day while luck was taking a chainsaw to my nutsack because I'm Tim, dammit, I'm not allowed to do well at card games.
I do feel oddly inspired to finish out this deck, though. I will probably be doing that over the next while, while looking at the Magic World trial deck and set 5 stuff to see if we get any new burn support.
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