A History of Bushiroad's Vanguard World Championships

Every single year, world finals happens.  Every single year, people whine about the fact that the meta deck always wins.  That bad players top.  That Vanguard isn't competitive.  That they're quitting the game.  But, every single year, everyone seems to forget that the exact same thing happened the year before.  But, what people don't seem to realize is, if a non-meta deck tops, the game isn't competitive because someone sacked with a non-meta deck and happened to win.

This year, we had an exceptional amount of players attending worlds that either maliciously or unknowingly cheated.  Like, just about all of them.  This, honestly, isn't wildly different from any other Vanguard Championship Circuit, outside of the staff being more incompetent than normal and the stream doing the rulings for them.  It sucks when the judges aren't paying attention and things like this slip under the radar.  With the loss of exceptional staff members like JD Mercado, it seems that Bushiroad can't ensure the integrity of the game.  But enough about that, let's talk about the history of Vanguard World Championships.

2012 World Championships.

Brandon Smith (Spectral Duke Dragon) vs. Henry Suharto (Pellinore/Garmore)

Brandon expended a counterblast on Sleygal Dagger to make a 9k booster behind his Gigantech Destroyer to make a 21k row.  Against a 9k Vanguard.

Henry called a Flame of Victory behind his 10k base Pellinore to attack a 10k base Spectral Duke Dragon, then subsequently lost because he didn't have shield.  No, he didn't send it to the bottom of the deck with Pellinore to actually make a stage, either.

This was the first example of a World Championship that we had.  Both players misplayed, albeit one more than the other, and it was recorded.  Both players played pretty poorly, and people didn't really feel satisfied with the conclusion.  To my knowledge, neither player stayed relevant after this.  As a matter of fact, I don't believe we have a single person who got top 3 more than once at any World Championship.

2013 World Championships

While the decks were all pretty much what you would expect for a set 11~ time frame (DDD/DOtE won, Descendant was 3rd and 4th, Beast Deities had a surprise 2nd place finish, but Novas were the most supported clan and they had quite a bit going for them), that isn't what I wanted to touch on.

These finals weren't filmed.  We can't touch on misplays or cheating.  People were upset with Bushiroad for this, but they did nothing about it.  It's hard to assess what happened under these conditions.  But we can talk about the individual who became World Champion.  Almeida Stewart.  There have been allegations of Almeida cheating to win the Parisian qualifiers.  It was said that he was able to stack opponents' decks without them or the judge noticing.  As the article mentions, "According to our source, the statement 'If you cheat, cheat good' attributed to him by those that attended the tournament, has been a common saying from him throughout his career." has been a defining highlight of his reputation.  If memory serves, I believe he was also caught stealing cards from a child and ended up getting in some legal trouble.  I heard another report of him being in the news for stealing 4000 Euros of card gaming supplies in a gang-related incident.  The truth of these claims is up in the air, but something definitely doesn't sit right here.

2014 World Championships

This is the second consecutive year that Bushiroad did not film the World Championship.  The top three decks were all the same (Seekers).  It's really hard to make any positive or negative commentary.  However, 2nd place was KEVIN CHO!  (Not really salty he beat me and knocked me out of the championships at Chicago this year, but I wanted to fill up space.)  For all I know, this could have been the golden year of everyone being good at the game.  The world may never know...

2014 was also the year they decided to fire JD Mercado for being too vocal about cheating that occurred in the Asia-Oceania Finals.  Or, at least, that is my assumption of what happened.  In this video you can see a Genesis player cheating really hard by having his preferred grade 2 ride face down, standing it as his Vanguard, saying, "Oops!", then adding it to his hand for his draw for turn.

2015 World Championships

R I P P U L was the deck that won the tournament this time.  We got to see the grand finals get played.  The Ripple player failed just about every turtle check and hit a critical just about every drive check, in spite of running draws and heal triggers.  It was a very disappointing final match to watch, because he was rewarded for his opponent having a completely locked-out deck while playing a deck that was honestly trash, playing it like trash (never did top 7 search for Pavroth when riding Turtle, although that mattered less since he always had Odysseus, because he was a sack), then getting rewarded with triggers and with the ability to counteract the opponent playing the game in a pre-Sebreeze era.  If he didn't sack triggers in such an insane way and if his opponent was actually hitting offensive triggers, the game would have spiraled out of the Ripple player's favor, easily.  He had multiple grade 3's in hand game 2 and only had enough shield in hand because he hit a critical trigger every single drive check game 2.  I decided to count triggers and turtles, so you can see how much of a sacklord this guy was with triggers, and why playing Turtle in a deck with 8 grade 3's is a waste.

Ripple player:

1st Drive Check - No trigger (False sense of security)
2nd Drive Check - Heal Trigger (Heal goes off)
3rd Drive Check - Critical Trigger
4th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
5th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
6th Drive Check - Critical Trigger
7th Drive Check - Critical Trigger

1st Turtle - Whiff (Heal)
2nd Turtle - Whiff (Genovious)
3rd Turtle - Perfect Guard (Pretty much the worst case scenario for calling a top card)
4th Turtle - Whiff (A lot of glare, but looks like a crit to me)
5th Turtle - Penguin Soldier

2016 World Championships

Our top 3 were:

1st - Daniel Middlesworth - 7C's Rush
2nd - Andy Lo - 7C's Rush
3rd -  Liu Bo Chen - Thing Saver/Sanc Guard

As most of you are probably aware, there was a lot of misplaying going around.  I believe it was 1st place who would use Nightrunners that were milled off of Nightrunners (the timing would be missed).  The Gears player Time Leaped Gigi into Melem (Time Leap doesn't go to the same grade, and these are both grade 1's).  The 3rd place player didn't discard for Sebreeze's skill (why he was running Sebreeze in a Sanc Guard deck is beyond me).  Issues like this popped up all over the place.  You've watched it or heard about it, and now you are angry.  And here we are.  We have yet to, other than the mysterious WC2014 which I wasn't able to find any real information on, have anything remotely close to a solid final match or a champion that we can say earned the title by being good at the game.  And people are upset by it.

So the question lies:  Have we ever had a respectable champion for an official Bushiroad tournament?  Was there ever a player who legitimately outplayed the metagame and took advantage of how the game was played without locking people out of their own mechanics or luck sacking critical triggers left and right?  The answer is yes.

Challenge Cup 2013.  Before Team Leagues were a thing, this was how Bushiroad decided to do what eventually became "Spring Fest".  They had shop qualifiers at many, many card shops all over the country.  Winners of these qualifiers made it to a state qualifier.  Winners of that state's qualifier made it to nationals.  Sadly, nationals was where the event stopped.  The individual who won nationals for this event was a very skillful player named Kaden Kawakami.  Here is how he did it.

He ran the typical DOtE list.  A lot of back row retirement.  A lot of draw triggers.  Typical walling for a deck in a metagame that struggled greatly to hit 18k.  So, how was his list different?  He didn't run any critical triggers.  You might be thinking, "So, he's bad then?"  Nope.  He outplayed everybody.  You see, in a best of 1 format, you have no idea what your opponent's trigger line-up is going to be.  When you stare down a restanding Vanguard like DOtE, you can only assume that he is going to have the threat of increased critical pressure and a potential restand.  Thus, the standard play against DOtE was to always guard him if you are capable of doing so.  Kaden knew this and decided to run stand triggers to reinforce his rear guard pressure and end games.  Keep in mind that during this timeframe, the standard meta way to play was to no guard any attack that didn't kill you to access limit break as early as possible, increasing the value of stand triggers even more.  He legitimately outplayed the format, the players, and the metagame.  And he didn't even have to lock people out of stride to do it.

It is my hope that we have another champion like Kaden to restore our faith in the game.  In order for this to happen, Bushiroad needs to keep a better eye on R&D, keeping the game safe from an over saturation in the metagame along with the cheese mechanics of rushing.  The only reason Gears or Wiseman Loop haven't won the last two championships was because rushing was the counter deck of the format, but the counters to rushing can't be used against the standard meta decks.  Is it healthy?  If rushing kills the cancer, does that make it chemotherapy?  I doubt it.  Bushiroad has designed themselves into a corner, and they have not handled it well.

Chicago Regionals 2016 Tourament Report (Vanguard)

So, interesting things happened this weekend at Chicago.  I simultaneously went negative at a Buddyfight tournament for the first time ever and did the best I've ever done at any Vanguard event.

The night started with me, Daniel, Zack, and Mike road tripping to Chicago.  We met up with Tommy and Steve at the hotel and had a good old time making fun of Aldnoah.Zero, which we were watching for some reason.  I wanted to be in the lobby representing my Buddyfight Gym (The Dank Meme Gym) so that I could take on challengers for the Dank Meme Badge, but they closed the lobby at midnight.  I really hope they change the venue next year, as this was the only location we've had that wouldn't let us play card games in the lobby.  Austin Somers was the only player able to defeat me on Friday for a badge.

Saturday rolls around.  I really didn't care what I was playing or what I was doing.  I expected maybe a round 5 finish or something and then I was planning on doing more badge fights.  Saturday had a lot more in store for me than I had bargained for.  I asked the Vanguard Complaint Group Chat what I should play for the day.  I got more votes for Seven Seas Rush than my other two options, Giraffa and Madew, so I went with that.

Here is a link to the decklist I ran.

It took barely any time to get my list done.  We had over 350 people show up at the venue for Vanguard.  After a delay, round 1 finally started.

Round 1 - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit)

This match was a bit of a wash.  I was able to secure my set-up, but I hit no triggers offensively or defensively the entire game, barring a single offensive stand when my entire field was already standing because I used Slash Shade.  He no guards my Vanguard at 4 twice and lives both times.  I end up not getting enough shield and have to no guard his Vanguard at 4 one time.  Neither of us hit the crits we needed to seal it, so I end up killing him with a 5 attack turn.

Round 2 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)

This match was terrifying.  They had out two Celtics for on-hit bounce and draws, and I didn't have the ability to guard one earlier, giving them more defense against the rush when they bounced their starter to hand.  I had to face a 2 crit Labrador for two swings.  I had to one-to-pass the final swing.  I end up winning only because he tried to break the two-to-pass the turn prior, so I had enough shield to survive the following turn.  I didn't hit any offensive or defensive triggers this game, and only narrowly won due to some luck and getting my set-up.

Round 3 - W vs. Bermuda Triangle (Prisms)

My opponent never rode to grade 3.  Their game plan was to stay on Celtic the entire game.  My game plan was to get gradelocked on 0.  I opened one of each trigger and Nightrunner.  I knew that I could ride Nightrunner if I had to, and that I could ride over it later for no net loss in cards, so I wasn't super worried about it.  I G-Assist just to see if I can get Raistutor, and he was my 5th card.  I was able to recover my field completely because this deck is bullshit, and I swung in as if I never negged in the first place.  I kept Celtic at bay, guarding it every time it swung.  I won the game hitting a crit trigger through either a one-to-pass or a no-guard on 4.  Don't remember exactly which.  It was my first crit so far in the tournament and it made me pretty happy that I actually hit a trigger.

Round 4 - W vs. Oracle Think Tank (Susanoo/Tsukuyomi)

This round was sad.  I had to fight my buddy Mike.  To put things in a very simple fashion, he missed every Tsukuyomi check, had to ride Susanoo against a grade 1 rush deck, and I sacked the ever loving shit out of him.  I ended up killing him by superior riding to Plegeton, making a large Nightspinel row, and hitting a crit to secure game.

Round 5 - W vs. Dimension Police (D-Robos)

I don't remember a lot about this match.  I remember he swung into rear guards, then I pooped them back out.  He kept trying to disadvantage the rush that can't be disadvantaged.  I destroyed him.

Round 6 - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)

So, I kind of knew I'd lose to Kevin Cho.  I didn't get a single grade 2 in hand or in drop.  I wanted to ride to 2 against him because Sanc Blaster doesn't use GBreak, really, Sebreeze would eat all of the counterblasts from Flogal, and 12k Blaster Blades are terrifying for 7k base Vanguards.  But, since I couldn't secure a bigger butt, he ended up killing me on a Blaster Blade/Flogal turn.  RIP.

Round 7 - W vs. Gear Chronicle (Chonojet)

This opponent seemed to mulligan heavily for getting a counter-rush to my rush.  I guess the 7Cs sleeves gave it away.  Lol.  But, uhh.  He rode Gigi.  And stayed on Gigi.  Staying on a 5k butt meant that even two damage triggers weren't enough to stop my swings.  I demolished the poor guy.  I have no idea whether he turbo-bricked, thought the counter-rush would help, or if he just wanted to have a full board like me because he thought it was cool.


Interestingly, I moved from table 4 to the very last table for round 7.  I thought that would kill my tiebreakers and I wouldn't make top cut.  I kind of didn't care one way or the other, since I don't think a BO1 Vanguard tournament can even pretend to be competitive.  Especially since I won about half of my rounds by praying that my opponent wouldn't crit me and succeeding.  Regardless, they ended up announcing top 8.  I heard 8th place get called.  I heard 7th place get called.  I was thinking, "Welp, I probably got 9th, since Austin had better tiebreakers than me."  Then I hear, "6th place, Timothy Emerson."  Oh shit.  I guess I did it.  Then 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd get called.  Austin's name isn't called.  Even though he was undefeated until the final round.  That's kind of bullshit.  Austin got 9th.  RIP Austin.



After deck check, I go to top 8.  Amazingly, there were many people who brought grade 1 rush to the tournament.  Far more than I ever imagined would.  And a whopping 3 of us made it to the top 8, all with the same list.  One person said they mirrored my list from my blog post.  I can't take credit for the deck, though, since it topped over a half-dozen times before I did with it.  Still, it's nice to see that my topping cannot be called a fluke since so many people went so far with the deck in so many tournaments in so many different countries.  The other two Seven Seas Rush players lost their first match in the top 8.

Quarter-Finals - W vs. Kagero (Overlord)

He was playing Greats and Legends, to my knowledge.  I don't remember super well the exact plays and triggers, but I'm pretty sure I won 2-1.  His deck was locked out of generation break.  He was able to make some decent retirement plays that would have crippled normal rush decks, but this deck just didn't care.  I wind up taking the series.

Semi-Finals - L vs. Royal Paladin (Sanc Blaster)

Kevin Cho ended up being my only losses all day.  Game 1 he hit defensive crit, heal (goes off), draw.  I lost for obvious reasons.  Game 2 I am putting on solid pressure.  Since he ran draws for some weird reason and I didn't have the shield to stop him if he double crit me anyway, I no-guard his swing at 3 damage.  Crit, crit.  That's Vanguard, all right.  RIP

Consolation-Finals - W vs. Gold Paladin (Gurguit/Ezel)

Game 1 I was struggling to get the game won.  He ends up only being able to 1-to-pass my Vanguard at 5.  I hit a stand trigger and push him to 6.  He heals out of lethal and takes the game after that.  Game 2 I have him on the ropes early from getting a 4 damage turn in my first turn swinging.  He never had the ability to get 5 RGs for Ezel Scissors to get his critical.  I end up winning that match.  The last game was pretty close.  He rode Gurguit.  I ended up getting him to 5 and having him in a situation where I could kill him through a 6th damage heal by doing a cool loop with multiple Ghosties and multiple Nightcrows.  I used that loop to make Nightspinel 26k, which secured the anti-heal for me.

All-in-all, I ended up getting 3rd place.  This has firmly solidified my opinion that the less I care and the less I try, the better my tournament results will be, based on my tournament history.  I am not sold if I'm going to California for the event.  If I did, I am not sold I'd want to play Granblue Rush when I could play a meme deck.  We'll see how that goes.

2015 Chicago Regional Tournament Report

I'd be lying if I said that I had anything short of an absolutely amazing weekend.  Friday night Brandon and Zach picked up Daniel and me, and we all headed over to Will's place in Chicago where we met Will's awesome room mates.  Tommy showed up later.  After a fun night of hanging out, playing Smash/card games, and drinking, we get a couple hours of sleep and head to the venue for some Vanguard.

I was going to play Seeker grade 1 rush, not because I wanted to, but because nobody had any Madews to loan me, other than one from Tommy.  So it's crunch time.  My BFF Daniel has all of the Cray Elementals I need in his binder, other than Madew.  I make a last minute snap decision to buy 3 Madews at Dirk's vending location so I can play Stardrive.dek.  There's only one problem.  I don't actually have the right grade 2's or G-Units.

I have to settle for not having a Samuel or Jirron in my final build, swapping those for Gablades.  Eww.  I also had to run Brede, the 12k GBreak attacker, in place of what could have been a potentially more useful grade 2.  Those limitations aside, I had most of the key units I needed to make the deck function.  I also didn't lose any games that Samuel might have won me other than maybe the final game, so the sub-optimal list didn't hurt too bad.  Here's the list:


You Madew Bro?

Starter - Shining Knight, Millius

12 Critical Triggers
4 Heal Triggers

4 Rainbow Guardian
4 Air Elemental, Fwarlun
3 Light Elemental, Peaker
3 Laurel Knight, Sicilus

4 Knight of Twin-Sword
4 Knight of Fragment
3 Transmigration Knight, Brede

4 Gigantech Charger
4 Stardrive Dragon

4 Rain Element, Madew
2 Shrouded Divine Knight, Gablade
1 Snow Element, Blizza
1 Miracle Element, Atmos


I was barely able to piece everything together before round 1 started.  I set off on a goal to win a match or two, then scrub out and eat pizza with friends.  My goal wasn't a number of wins so much as fighting a competitive player and killing them with Stardrive Dragon to inflict maximum salt.  I had no idea what I was in store for this day...


Round 1 - W vs. Royal Paladin (MLB/Jewel Knight/Thing Saver)

This deck used Wingal Brave with a Blaster grade 2 lineup to get more Blasters or MLB.  It has Jewel Knight grade 1's and triggers for Swordmy.  It had Thing Saver after MLB built up the soul to finish.  Unfortunately for my opponent, they were grade locked at 2 because they didn't shuffle well.  They damage checked 4 grade 3's over the course of the game.  That being said, I followed my own advice completely and didn't let Wingal Brave hit, keeping my opponent gradelocked.  I won by swinging in with my avatar, STARDRIVE DRAGON!  Opponent was a bro.  They weren't salty for losing to me so much as frustrated for not shuffling properly.


Round 2 - W vs. Link Joker (Amnesty Messiah)

This game was super awesome.  My deck can pretty much never be controlled through retirement, but he kept my board locked down for a long time.  I end up striding 6 times that game.  I only have one Gablade face down, and due to not having any more Madews to stride into, I couldn't stride on my final turn.  I swing with nothing more than a Stardrive Dragon at his Vanguard.  He is at 5 damage at this point.  He can't guard, so he lets it through.  Crit.  Crit.  THE WRATH OF THE COSMO DRAGON IS REAL.  We both had less than 7 cards in our decks at the end of this game.  It was beastly!  This guy was also a bro, and having seen the full capabilities of what my deck can do, complimented me for being an "evil genius".


Round 3 - W vs. Royal Paladin (Jewel Knights/Thing Saver)

I went second, calling a grade 1 to boost my starter on a side row.  I swing with my Vanguard to theirs.  They no guard, I crit, and they hit no damage triggers.  I swing with my 17k row to their 7k Vanguard.  They go to three.  The accidental sort-of rush put me too far ahead.  I won the game with a crit the turn I first strode.  Opponent was a bro.  We wished each other luck and went on our ways.


Round 4 - W vs. Royal Paladin (Sanctuary Guard Ragalie)

My opponent opened 3 perfect guards and didn't see a grade 3.  They had to pitch a null to G-Assist, then pitch another one (along with a grade 2) to stride.  They couldn't recover after that point.  Opponent was a bro.  We wished each other the best and went on our ways.


Round 5 - L vs. Link Joker (Amnesty Messiah)

This was another great game.  He omega locked my right side of the field for 4 consecutive turns, keeping himself in the game.  He only ran 4 crits, but he was able to hit 2 of them offensively over the course of the game.  He would alternate between his stride enabler and Blaster Joker to prevent deckout and build soul to draw more cards.  He played the deck very well.  It went all the way down to the wire, with me using every single Madew in my extra deck.  I eventually lost from not being able to output as much offensive pressure due to having my units locked.  My opponent was a bro.  I wished him good luck (partially so that my tiebreakers would be better, mostly because he was a bro) and we moved on.


Round 6 - W vs. Kagero (DOtX Stride)

My opponent was playing a DOtX build.  I was a little excited, because I knew my match-up against the deck was solid.  He nuked 7 of my rear guards with retirement effects.  I don't believe that I ever attacked with less than a full field at any point in the game.  This is a match-up where Gigantech Charger was truly able to shine.  I ended up expending all of my Madews this game, but I overtook him with card quantity and won the game.  My opponent was a bro.  I think he even called me a hero.  We wished each other the best and moved on.


Round 7 - W vs. Shadow Paladin (Diablo)

I went second.  Turn 3 had him hit with Judgebau boosting his Phantom Blaster "Abyss".  He called double Swordbreakers putting him at about a million cards in hand.  I stride into Madew the following turn.  He is at 3 damage.  He asks if Madew has any on-hit skills.  I say, "Nope."  He says no guard.  I double crit in my triple drive.  He doesn't heal.  I apologize for sacking him (in all honesty, he really SHOULD have guarded), but my opponent was a bro.  We wished each other the best and moved on.


Round 8 - L vs. Royal Paladin (Thing Saver/Jewel Knights)

I held on as long as I could, but early crits put me at 5.  I ended the game with all 4 of my heals in my 23~ card deck.  This is the only game where if I ran Samuel I might have won, but there's no guarantees on that.  Honestly, considering that I drew well, fielded well, and rode well every game, I can't complain about getting overwhelmed by early triggers and not seeing my heals.  This was the end of a damn good run.  My opponent was a bro.  We wished each other the best and moved on.



Final standings - After 8 grueling rounds, I ended up in the top 16 with a final record of 6-2.  This is the best I've ever done at any Bushiroad event for Vanguard to-date.  There was a massive hypetrain of individuals going to watch my matches and see me win with Stardrive Dragon.  Many people wanted me to top 8, or even win it all so that my decklist could be posted.  With my deck's name being, "You Madew Bro?!", it would have been even better.  Sadly, I didn't quite make it all the way, failing at the very last step before top 8ing.  Still, top 16 out of 431 players is an extremely solid result, and everyone is still calling it a top, even though it wasn't a final 8 top.  I certainly have no problems calling it a top.

Now, I will say that my finally topping a Vanguard event doesn't change my opinions on it.  I just happened to draw very well all day.  Now, while my deck is a troll deck, it is still solidly built with a ridiculous advantage engine.  My deck is a good, competitive deck.  It's just not the best deck.  It's not what I would consider top tier.  It just had a really good run.

Now, if you ask me if I accomplished my goal for the day, I would say, "No."  My goal was to beat a competitive player with Stardrive Dragon and make them incredibly salty.  that didn't work at all.  Everyone was super awesome, and greatly enjoyed my deck, even when they happened to lose to it.  STOP BEING SO AWESOME VANGUARD COMMUNITY!


Saturday night featured more drinking.  After the Disney sing-along, we reached the point where we decided it was a good idea to beat the crap out of each other with LARP weapons.  I went 10-1-1 in my LARP fights (those nerds don't know how to fight).  My one loss was me standing completely still not realizing we were actually fighting.  My one tie would have left me wounded and them dead.  I rekt them with my masterful sword abilities.  Also, spear is OP and autowin.  Real life, nerf spears.  thx.

Sunday happens.  I wake up, and it's 9:03.  Registration is already going on for Buddyfight and I'm like, "Uhh, guys.  We need to be there yesterday!"  We eventually make it there at 10:03.  We only barely made the registration cutoff.  Then I have to, with a much later start than I would have liked, write my entire decklist out.  But I hadn't adjusted my deck to put in the Champion Wrestler Asmodais that I just got.  Thus, I made a very rushed deck based on what I thought would do the best against Kaizerion.  Here was what I came up with.


Magic Burn

Flag - Magic World
Buddy - Magical Artist, Andy

Size 1

2 Dragowizard, Burning Wand
2 Magician of Glass, Will Glassart
3 Magic Power Researcher, Ren Kogasaki
4 Magic Artist, Andy
4 Dragowizard, Qinus Axia

Size 2

4 Magical Secretary, Genjuro Saki
2 Center of the World, Mary Sue

Size 3

2 Champion Wrestler Asmodai

Spells

1 Oops!
2 Solomon's Shield
2 Abra Cadabra!
2 Kosher
2 Trans-flame
3 Chillax!
4 Magical Goodbye
4 Nice One!

Items

3 Gunrod, Del Gesu
4 Gunrod, Bechstein


Sideboard

2 Champion Wrestler Asmodai
2 Demon Lord Asmodai
2 Gunrod Stradivarius
2 Destruction
1 Trans-flame
1 Dragowizard, Burning Wand


First, let's discuss the decklist.  I made a few mistakes in my hurry.  First, I had no Begones.  This was due to them not being in my Magic World dual-deckbox.  In one side of that box I keep my deck.  In the other side, I have playsets of just about every relevant Magic World card in the game.  I'm missing 4 Eligos, 3 Devil Advantages, one Mary Sue, one Clock, and 4 Zagan.  Apparently, my Begones worked their way back to my common box at the bottom of my bag, and I didn't have time to dig.  I just gave in and settled without them.  After playing around with my list and extras, I decided to focus more on Ren Kogasaki over Will Glassart.  This was due to gauge management being difficult.  Ren Kogasaki also helps close out games with Abra Cadabra.  My second mistake was adding in a second Mary Sue.  If I had Merlin in her place I would have likely done much better.  I couldn't manage the guage cost of Mary Sue without Andy.  Finally, I don't know what the proper balance is between Champmodai, Destruction, and my own hand and gauge management.  This made my main board deck often have the same cards sided out over and over again as I learned what mistakes I made in crafting the main deck in terms of gauge management.  I should have used 3 Kosher, but I always draw all 3 copies when I play 3, and I just couldn't risk that.  This made me have almost no outs for gauge recovery, and I had to rely on Genjuro Saki and Andy for my deck to function at its basic level.  That's not an inherently large problem, but it increased the likelihood of dead draws, and I was cautious of that, too.


Round 1 - W vs. Hero World (Gaigrander)

I fought against Dirk in round 1.  I happened to open with my 1-of Oops! both games.  By removing his Gaigrander01 in battle phase, I neutered his offense and defense, leaving him largely helpless.  This was mostly due to opening with Oops!, but I  was also able to burn effectively.  The first game was a little more tough, due to my opening with 4 cards that cost 2 gauge or more.  My deck doesn't run many of them, but if I draw enough of them, it can be an auto-loss.  Fortunately, I recovered and won that game.  I won game 2 without any issues.


Round 2 - W vs. Dragon World (Crimsons w/ size 3s)

This deck ran Gatling and Inferno Armor for board control and defense (and some burn in Gatling's case).  I believe that he took game 1 due to simply having 8 crit on the board while I didn't draw any defense.  Game 2 was close, but I narrowly survived a turn (Impact would have killed me if he had it) and was able to swing for game the following turn.  The final match was where he misplayed.  He played Inferno Armor Dragon to his center to protect himself and intentionally prolong the game.  That gave me time to slowly ping him down and build up card advantage, being Magic World and all.  I was able to gather plenty of defense to weather his turn after I destroyed Inferno.  Then I pinged for game.


Round 3 - L vs. Hero World (Quartet Five)

Ugh.  He opened pretty awful first game (two size 1s), but not as awful as I did (4 gunrods, 2 chillax).  Every time I played a creature, he swung into it with everything.  His playstyle was nonsensical, especially against Magic World.  Playing for card advantage against a deck that auto-wins grind games is really dumb.  But he got rewarded for it.  I drew nothing all game to cycle out or fix my hand.  I finally got a Nice One! on turn 4.  I cast it and draw two more Nice Ones.  I lose the following turn.  Next game he gets out his 9/3/7 on the first turn.  I sided in Destruction and blew it up.  He continues blindly attacking my sides when my deck is literally a timer.  Only, the Destruction play put me too far down in card advantage, I opened awful again, and I just didn't recover.  We both run out of cards.  I see no Nice Ones, Koshers, Mary Sues, or what have you.  He top decks into his Grimoire clone, then wins by refielding after that.  Bad draws happen.  I'm not really salty that I lost to the guy so much as why was he undefeated at this point?  Oh well.  Can't fix it.


Round 4 - W vs. Hero World (Kaizerion)

My opponent was playing cancer.  I think I took game 1 by burning him effectively.  Game 2 was his due to 4 crit double attack penetrate.  This was the game I used Champion Wrestler Asmodai to completely remove a 2 soul Kaizerion.  I just couldn't recover from the self-inflicted card disadvantage.  He eventually got another one out because they have 8 effective copies, and I lost.  Game 3 was where things got silly.  After three turns a piece, he has me at 3 life with 1 soul in his Kaizerion.  He enters battle phase.  He has penetrate on his Kaizerion, I believe.  He also has a 2 crit unit on the side.  I'm at 0 gauge with Genjuro Saki, Bechstein, and Burning Wand on the board and 2 cards in hand.  He is at 2 life.  He skips his battle phase and goes straight to final phase.  I don't respond.  He casts his impact.  I respond with Chillax, bringing me to 4, then knocking me to 1.  I win by burning him the following turn.


Round 5 - L vs. Hero World (Kaizerion)

This time I played against Jason.  I kept trying various things against Kaizerion to try and get over it.  Game 1 I had lethal on board and I was swinging in with it with a spell negate in hand.  Mach Braver said, "Lolnope".  I didn't have the defense I needed to stop his next turn.  Game 2 he accidentally shuffled his buddy into his deck.  There wasn't really a way to fix that, and it was ruled that he got a game loss.  Game 3, I'm in a solid position to win if I can survive one more turn.  The only problem is that he has a 9/3/7, 4 soul, 4 crit, double attacking Kaizerion (fortunately, without penetrate).  He attacks my center, which I let go.  He attacks again.  I respond with Chillax.  He negates it, bringing me down to 4.  He impacts for 6.  ggnore.  I tried dropping, but I was peer pressured to stay in.  I knew I wasn't likely to top, but I thought, "Meh, I'll give it a try."  Jason is a good friend, so I wasn't upset about losing.  I knew coming into this that I had about a 50/50 matchup to Kaizerion with my deck.


Round 6 - W vs. Hero World (Gaigrander)

My opponent was playing Gaigranders.  Game 1 I was able to simply overwhelm him with offense.  Game 2 I sided in Destruction.  I blew up his 01, and it was all over after that.  He couldn't really hold up due to my opening well and eliminating his offense and defense.


Round 7 - W vs. Hundred Demons (Yamigedo/Lindwurm revival spam)

I was surprised to see a 4-2 Hundred Demons deck.  I hadn't seen many that day.  Unfortunately, Hundred Demons just don't have enough support to be competitive at the moment.  I steamroll him both games without really caring at all about Thunder Mine.  He does get out a Yamigedo game 2, but Champion Wrestler Asmodai put an end to him really fast.


Final results for Buddyfight were 5W 2L.  A solid run.  I had a chance of topping, so I stayed at the venue waiting for the top 8 to be announced.  I glanced at the paper and saw that I was 10th, so I missed the cut by a small margin.  I still had fun, so it was an awesome day.  After that, we all got pizza.  It was good pizza, too.

That wrapped up the tournament.  I got top 16 out of 431 players for Vanguard going 6W 2L.  Then I got 10th place out of 88~ players going 5W 2L in Buddyfight.  I had no expectations of topping either event due to trolling the Vanguard tournament and playing a deck with no new cards printed for it since the Golden Buddy Pack in the other, so my results were extremely pleasing.

We ended the day watching Eragon, which was so bad it was good.  I woke up the next morning singing "I Feel Pretty", to which Will's roommate just pops out of nowhere and picks up where I left off, and that's awesome.

Nashville Tournament Report

I was in a weird spot with the start of this tournament.  Until the day I left, I didn't know who was going with me.  Until the week before I left, I wasn't sure if I was already going to be in the state from a family visit, or if I was going to drive down with friends.  Due to the in-laws having a hospitalization, they postponed their family visit that was going to be for this week, so I ended up driving down with my bestie Daniel.

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.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 1

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.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 2


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.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 4

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.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 5

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

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 6

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.

Sixth damage hea Glory Seeker Saves: 7


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.

Games gradeloc Games where I couldn't field units from dead drawing: 1

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

Games gradeloc Games where I couldn't field units from dead drawing: 2

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.

Chicago Regional Tournament Report

Vanguard:

Game 1 - Have Glendios, Colony Maker, 3 triggers. Put back three triggers, get Magnet Hollow, Trigger, Trigger. Think, "Well, ****. I have 20 outs left in my deck that either are grade 1 or fish for grade 1. Maybe I'll be okay." Top deck into a Reverse. Pitch, check top 5, no grade 1's. Ride up the following turn. Time passes, I no guard at 3, get double crit, 5th damage heal, saving myself from losing. I catch back up, and reach a situation where I'm at a solid spot to win. I have a front row locked, and the other row has nothing in it. He calls a Dragruler as a RG and attacks with it. I drop 5k to guard it. He attacks with Raging Form. I'm anticipating that he doesn't having Raging Form in hand because he didn't check one and had two in damage. I no pass it instead of two-to-passing it, thinking that he doesn't run stands because he's bad at Dragruler, and he doesn't have Raging Form. Turns out Raging Form was in his hand the whole time, so he superior rides and hits me to 6 for game.

My opponent was playing crit dragruler, so I died from cancer before I lost the actual cardfight.

Game 2 -

I open 1, 2, 1, 2, reverse. I think to myself that I can fish Glendios. Boy was I wrong.

1st World Line, nothing. Grab a 12k beater.
1st Damage, Glendios.
2nd World Line, nothing. Grab a second Magnet Hollow (5th grade 2 at this point.)
Hit with Magnet Hollow A, thin deck of non-Glendios. Keep fishing.
Second Damage check, Glendios.
3rd World Line, nothing. Grab a Ruin Magician.
Opponent has now taken 5 damage. They're at 4. I've only taken 2 damage. **** this game. They heal on this drive check bringing them to 3.
4th World Line, nothing. Cry.
Attack with VG, crit, get another Reverse unit. Score is now 7 to 3. Still no Glendios.
They breakride, swing with everything, I guard, they activate Peace before calling their second unit to the field, so the judge is like, "It's optional, so we'll play it as you only calling one."
They swing with Vanguard, I have enough to stop the second VG swing and the RG. I need them to not double crit me. I get double crit anyway. No healsack.

Final score 6-7, but that means they win since they had more points, right?

After scrub-a-dub-dubbing out, I can't honestly say I was disappointed.  There's no possible way a round 1 loss would permit me to make the top 8 cut unless I got paired up and won much later, so losing the second round essentially just finalized my results.

I go have fun for a while, and come back to the semi-finals.  Very first thing I see is a Pale Moon player hitting a stand trigger with a 12k attacker and a 7k Zelma frontrow that is at rest.  He stands Zelma and gives the power to the 12k when his opponent has out an 11k and a 9k front row.  This wasted a card he could have forced from his opponent by attacking into both rear guards by giving Zelma power, but instead he went for the crossridden Vanguard when his opponent had an interceptor.

Vanguard is a game that's all about skill, right?

And yet again we have more consistent top 8's from previous years, which once again proves that because I refuse to cheat (it is general consensus that topping a 400 man Vanguard tournament cannot be done consistently, right?  This is my best guess on how they're doing it.), I will never top a large-scale Vanguard tournament.  I am probably done with competitive Vanguard, and will switch to judging all of the Vanguard events I attend.




Buddyfight:

Round 1 (Vs. Katana World)  W

Game 1:  I enter a point where I push him down to 3 life.  If I draw a creature, I can push, but I just drew all defensive spells.  He said, "This is just a trial deck."  So I cast a spell while he has Lethal Formation and 3 gauge, and he Star Crushers me.  I call him a dirty liar, and he explains it's the only non-trial deck card he has.  After evil glares, we both laugh it off and play game 2.

Game 2:  I got my set-up and won 11-0.

Game 3:  I had to fight a little bit for this one, but had Sakurafubuki in hand and attacked with my full field of 5 crit for game, countering his Oborogenbu (What a liar!).  Lol.

Round 2 (Vs. Dungeon World)  L

Game 1:  I essentially got shit stomped.  Didn't see anything good.  Couldn't make the plays.

Game 2:  I fought like hell with absolutely nothing.  I got one Hades Fall out, but got neither Yamigitsune or Return to the Underworld.  He plays an Addrick with a Brave Drum out, trying to bait my Hades Fall.  I just said, "I'll allow it." and let him keep his 1 crit on the board.  He kept going after my field (which is how you beat Katana World if they don't draw into Return) and i was playing with 2-3 cards at most for the whole game.  I had a painful choice where I Star Crushered his Pillar of Flame on my Tempest, Garo-oh.  He had called Tetsuya, which I had Hades Falled at this point.  He continued to get Tetsuya and a Fate Skeleton back, but he had a Glory Seeker equipped with that Fate Skeleton in the middle.  I used Tempest the following turn to kill off his Drum and Tetsuya, leaving him with just his Fate Skeleton in the middle, keeping me safer.  I was able to hold out for another turn or two, but I just fizzled.  Top 4 cards of my deck when I lost were Return, Kimensai, Return, Return.  Oh well.  Both of us played really well with what we had.  I used the mindgames and blackmailing to prolong the game and turtle, and my opponent said he was very impressed with my depth of strategy.  This guy went on to get 2nd place, and was a really cool guy.  No regrets or salt for losing to him.

Round 3 (Vs. Danger World) W

Game 1:  Opened Item Blast.  Blew up his weapons mid attack, he couldn't get around my defenses very easily.  I was able to win quickly and efficiently.

Game 2:  I godhanded, which always feels nice.  Too bad it was against a Danger World trial deck.  Although, considering I've been losing to Mike's Danger World trial deck all weekend for literally no reason, I'm not sure what to say on it. 

The guy asks me for some advice on deckbuilding, since he just started playing.  I help him out by building a Dungeon World deck for him.  I showed him my deck and its combos and he was like, "This shit's dumb.  I want a more balanced deck.  Wait, Rock Paper Scissors?  WE'RE DOING THIS."  He pulls a foil Mimic with a Prize to add to the awesome.

Round 4 (Vs. Faggot Bran-Bran) L

Game 1: I fuck up and for whatever reason use Hades fall on a Tasuku.  Why I did this, I don't know.  Bran was distracting me, okay?!  After that misplay (which I realized as I did it) I tried to play a bit better.  I dead drew too many times, though.  He ends up winning the game by swinging into my creatures, which is how you beat Skulls when they have no Return. Sadface.jpg.

Game 2:  I get Hades Fall and Return in my opening hand.  11-0.  Bran was intentionally misplaying and using sub-optimal strategies on purpose.  I'm starting to get annoyed with him.

Game 3:  He is borderline trying to lose on purpose at this point.  He is doing everything in his power to just have three Gummi Slime on the board with no other plans.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is our champion.  I hit absolutely none of my strategy.  I end up drawing into 3 Lethal Formations in a row (Shut up, Elliot), and I had so many points where him playing incorrectly would have led to me winning the game if I'd just draw into something.  No Yami, no Kimensai, no Setsujishi, no Hades, no Return.  My deck just wanted to lose.  After running out of ways to not beat me, Bran ends up killing me right at time.  I have a salty catfight with him trying to get him a warning for not declaring battle phase.  He counter-tries to get me a warning for not declaring that I'm paying life for abilities, even though I totally always do it.  Elliot agreed with me.  Will said I wasn't.  The world may never know.  The judge was just like, "Ladies, please.  Stop fighting."  Well, that didn't actually happen, but that would have appropriate.

I end up going 2-2.  On one hand I could say I lost to 1st and 2nd place, which is understandable.

On the other hand, I could say that I only beat trial decks.  Or at least I think they're trial decks?

Bran trying to lose and still beating me because my deck refused to function made me quite a bit salty, too.  Especially since his big idea for playing the game is,"Screw tactics, win with Gummi Slime."

I think what I've learned is that card games just aren't for me.  And that I totally should have said, "Fuck all of you, I'm playing Dungeon World".  But meh, I didn't want to be that guy.  But you know what, that guy was all top 4 spots.

There was a top 8 cut, and my friend Will didn't make it, despite being 4-1.  This was because a guy who already has the full-trip secured decided he still wanted to play in the top 8.  Will was pissed off, especially because fucking Brandon made it in, literally with the worst earlier tie-breakers, and only because he was the lucky one who got paired up and somehow managed to win in round 5.

Will and I grew increasingly salty.

Brandon gets an auto-game loss for having an improperly filled out decklist.  Naturally, he fights the Ancient World player.  Who doesn't draw into Seiger on game one, and gets Rolling Stoned turn 2 in game 2, so Bran moves on anyway.

Saltiness gains one level.

Top 4, we're like, "Fucking Brandon.  He's NOT EVEN TRYING and he's already qualified.  Well, at least if he does win this round, we're staying in his hotel room."

Brandon wins again, for literally no reason.

We're just like, "Fuck it.  This is bullshit.  But at least we have a place to crash.  Okay, fucker.  Lose already."

He wins the finals against the first guy who beat me, declaring an attack against, "Big Awesome Dog." (Maybe I still love Bran-Bran a little bit.)

Nope.jpg

Apparently, even in a game like Buddyfight, I can still get gradelocked, and Brandon can literally go full-retard and win it all.  I was pretty salty.

Maybe after my intense and burning anguish dies down, I'll actually congratulate the little bitch.  Maybe.

GenCon Buddyfight Tournament Report

I decided to play in my first ever Buddyfight tournament. Now, I play Buddyfight all the time, but it's always my decks vs. my decks, fighting baddies online (which I stopped, because TCO can't "hide" the cards I set for Hades Fall and Secret Formation), and fighting what are at best modified trial decks.

As some of you might know, I've actually judged more Buddyfight events than I've played. ~_~

That being said, after shaking down the Bushiroad booth at GenCon for four copies of Oborogenbu (I don't usually abuse my connections, but making a mandatory-to-play card an exclusive promo is kind of dumb), I decided that I wanted to play Katana World for the day. Katana World is easily my favorite World, despite Dungeon World being significantly stronger.

The tournament showing was pretty weak. Only 39 for Vanguard on Friday and only 13 for Buddyfight on Saturday. After getting the ever-living **** sacked out of me in Vanguard on Friday, I came to the Buddyfight tournament with absolutely no expectations of winning, considering 1: People from out of state who are hardcore Buddyfighters showed up and 2: This was literally my first ever Buddyfight tournament. To my great surprise, there was only one Dungeon World player, and they dropped after they lost in round 3, even though they had a solid chance to get second/third place. The prize support was a deckbox (manga-styled artwork, front is Gao and Drum attacking, back is chibi-Drum eating pudding, Kawaii as ****), mat (set 3 mat), and sleeves (Black/Gold World sleeves for Magic, Danger, and Dragon). Top 6 all got the same prize.

Decklist:

Flag - Katana World
Buddy - Blood Knife, Kimensai

Weapons - 3x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Switched to from Munechika before the tournament. With a plentiful amount of lifegain in the game, my win condition is no longer swing with 2-3 things with penetrate and counter their attack negate for the win.)

Impacts -
4x Secret Sword, Lethal Formation
2x Secret Sword, Star Crusher (I took out Moon Fang. I left it in my side deck, but the only impacts I ever see anymore are non-counterable, or are used early, like Ancient World's or another Secret Formation. Proved too unreliable for use.)

Spells (Defense) -
4x Demon Way, Oborogenbu (prioritized this over Art of Body Replacement to stop link attacks with an open center.)
3x Ninja Arts, Snake Gaze (Easily the best double-attack counter in the game. Generic enough to be useful against everything. Can stop Dungeon World shenanigans, and shuts down Seiger for an entire turn.)
2x Art of Body Replacement

Spells (Sets)
4x Art of Explosive Hades Fall
4x Return to the Underworld

Spells (Other)
2x Demon Way, Sakurafubuki (I won an entire game with this card on turn 1, since I stopped a Seiger from existing because of it.)
2x Clear Serenity
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (I abused this card greatly against Seiger, since I ran an extra copy in my sideboard for that match-up)

Size 1's
4x Blood Knife, Kimensai (I love this card.)
4x Evil in Heart, Yamigitsune (Obvious engine that makes everything work)
3x Steel Wall, Beheading Crab (Steel Wall, lel)
2x Undefeatable Setsujishi (This card won me more games through shenanigans than I thought possible)

Size 2's
4x Tempest, Garo-Oh (Sadly, this guy didn't shine for me that much. He's still strong, and paid for himself with Setsujishi.)

Size 3's
2x Wanderer, the Gold (Never once used this card, since I fought nothing but Dragon World and Ancient World. Well, I did use it against Ancient with Art of Explosive Hades Fall, but more about that down below.)

Sideboard:
3x Aftermath, Gagaku (This is how I chose to fight Seiger)
2x Art of Body Replacement (Swap in against Seiger, since Oboro is strictly worse if the opponent's deck doesn't Link Attack)
1x Five Heavenly Swords, Onimaru (Left this in if I wanted to swap for it to have 4 weapons, didn't end up using it.)
1x Demon Way, Geppakugiri (Teched in against Seiger)
1x Secret Sword, Moon Fang (Didn't end up using this.)
1x Clear Serenity (Setsujishi fixed my gauge incredibly well, I never needed to have a third Serenity)
1x Art of Item Blasting (I fought Dragon World, but one build was Beistand focused, and the other one was Thunder Knights without many equips. Didn't end up using it.)

I never bought any EB1, so I never bothered to get Half-Kills. Too much of a direct hate card, anyway. It feels cheesy putting them in against Seiger between rounds.

Round 1 - Vs. Ancient World (Seiger) - 2W 0L

Game 1 was exhausting. It grinded out until the 6th or 7th turn before I finally got a set-up. Ended up getting Lethal Formation out with 3 gauge. He swings in and puts me to 1. I swing in with Kimensai and another unit in a Link Attack against his center unit which had Lifelink 1 (Seiger died uneventfully without evolving before that). He had 3 life, so this was going to kill him. He countered it with Dragonlution, which I Secret Formationed for game.

Game 2 I teched in my Gagaku's, Arts, and took out a size 3 for it. I ended up drawing two Hades Falls and my now one size 3, and was facepalming. I still used Hades Fall, choosing size 2, and hilariously, he had no seiger. I blew up his size 2, and swung in for game on turn 3. His deck just fizzled really hard. Hades Fall on a lifelink unit hurts quite a bit.


Round 2 vs. Dragon World (Jackknife) 2W 1L

Game 1 drags out terribly. He ends up having a non-opened center and no defensive cards. If I top deck into any creature, I can bring back Kimensai and kill him, since he had 2 life. Draw was an Oborogenbu. Charged it and drew a Sakurafubuki (I had 2 life left). If I had held onto the Oborogenbu, then charged the Sakurafubuki, my top card was a Beheading Crab, so I could have won by waiting a turn, since my opponent had no size 1's. Oh well, I had no way of knowing that.

Game 2. I thought really hard about teching cards in, but decide not to. I start off with a Hades Fall -> Setsujishi -> Buddy call a Kimensai -> Swing with Kimensai for 2, move him to gauge to have enough for Lethal Formation. He cast a spell on his turn, which I countered, bringing him down to 5. I won after another two turns. It was a pretty clean win. Setsujishi into Lethal Formation secured about 3 victories for me over the course of the day, due to me also being able to use Hades Fall on turn 1.

Game 3 I played it the way I love playing Katana World. He had an open center. I link attacked with everything for 5 crit (Setsu, Crab, Yami). He had 5 life. He Green Dragon Shields, but I Sakurafubuki for game.


(Semi-Finals) Round 3 vs. Ancient World (Seiger) 2W 1L

Game 1 he went first. Normally, I like going second, but he chained off Creation, Legend, Rise and Fall, and set Dragonverse all on his first turn, along with playing Seiger. It was unfortunate that I had Serenity and two Lethal Formations. I set them on my first turn, then he never needed to cast a spell ever again. He only used ACT monsters after that. I got him to no soul on second form, but I wasn't able to secure victory.

Game 2, I teched in everything I teched in before. Again, I drew into Hades Fall and my one size 3, since I teched out my second copy again. All of my "meh". I set one and play a Return to the Underworld. He notices that I don't proc it on Seiger's first form and gets a really worried look on his face. He, knowing that I run size 3's, decided to destroy my Hades Fall over my Return to the Underworld. After seeing my Tempest Garo-Oh in soul, he was just like, "wat". Return to the Underworld won me the game, just like it's supposed to. I was still in a good position to win this game, regardless. I drew into another Hades Fall, abusing Setsujishi for free plusses from it later. Snake Gazed the guy two turns in a row, so his Seiger was literally doing nothing for those two turns.

Game 3, I didn't tech in the second grade 3 to hit it. I mean, odds are low that I draw it, right? Right. I don't see it. I set Hades Fall, choosing my 3. He never sees Seiger this entire game. Can't complain, since I end up winning for it.


(Finals) Round 4 vs. Dragon World (Thunder Knights) 2W 0L

Game 1 I should have lost. It went down to the wire at the very end. I had 2 life left, and he had no creatures out. I stopped his weapon attack that was going to win the game for him, but he had Thunder Formation and 4 gauge. I had a Snake Gaze in hand, and could account for one monster attack. He top decks two 2 critical creatures. I was thinking to myself, "Well, I'm ****ed." He swings his first creature into my Yamigitsune. I blink. It registers that he just messed up, and I immediately respond by playing Snake Gaze on his other creature. He asks how much life I have left. I say, "1." He begins facepalming. I swing for game next turn.

Game 2 was a good game for me. I did my Hades Fall -> Kimensai -> Setsujishi -> Lethal Formation Wombo combo, since I went first. I secured too large of an advantage and snowballed the game pretty hard, winning the tournament. My penetrate was nullifying his advantages. He kept misplaying by using cards that specified that you need an open center to use, and not using them before battle phase started/while he was moving his creatures to center.

He was the only one smart enough to cast a defensive spell when I had out a Lethal Formationed when I had 2 gauge during my battlephase (and used Setsujishi to move Kimensai to the gauge after that so he couldn't cast on his turn). I wasn't super worried about him stopping one attack, though.

All-in-all, I noticed a few things.

1. I'm the only person with a common buddy. Everyone else had BR Jackknife, Thunder Drum, or Seiger that I played.

2. Everyone kept misplaying. I didn't really mess anything up, so I was able to secure large advantages over my opponents that way.

3. Seiger seems inconsistent. That pay 2 gauge to get Seiger promo seems like it might be the juice they need to make the deck function. I haven't bothered to build the deck, so this was my first time encountering it. It wasn't that difficult to tackle, even without half-kills.


Not too much else to report, other than, "I had a blast" and that a bunch of people at my locals are playing now, so hopefully I can keep entering more than yearly tournaments.

Ripple Rush Statitistics

Current tournament standings for Ripple Rush are as follows:

Tournament Game Winrate: 22W - 4L (84.62%)

Match Winrate: 11W - 0L (100%)

Rounds Swept (2W 0L) - 7 out of 11 (63.64%)

Tournament Standings:

1st Place - 3 Times
2nd Place - 0 Times
3rd Place - 0 Times
4th Place - 0 Times
Non-Tops - 0 Times

6-0 Wins: 3 games out of 26 (11.54%)

Turn 2 Wins (One-turn kills): 1 game out of 26 (3.85%)

I've always had a 70% winrate with it online, but I feel like it just does better without the Area shuffler giving me 3 crits in my opening hand post-mulligan.  I feel like this might be legitimately the strongest deck in Vanguard, with only a few weaknesses to lesser played decks.  I feel that if Eradicators surge in popularity next set and if they opt to forego break riding to nuke my field with Gauntlet Buster, I might be in a bit of trouble.  If they wait to break ride, then I have a stupidly high chance of killing them before they get the chance to do anything.  Turn 3 control decks (like Dark Band if people would ever use it, lawl) can counteract the deck pretty well, but nobody uses them.  This is one of the few rush decks not countered by Stern.  So far, I haven't faced anything too far outside the meta to actually pseudo-counter this deck, which is adding to its winrate significantly.  I've beaten Chaos Breaker Dragon 6 out of 6 times, because they kept riding Infinite Zero first, then either dying, or having to discard their Chaos Breaker with a null guard to stay alive, and being unable to break ride.  All-in-all, my previous testing is coinciding with my current testing.  This deck is most likely Tier 0.  If more people play it, it might even top a major event.  There is a middling amount of technical skill and a few risk vs. rewards decisions this deck can force you to make (like deciding between one Genovious drive check for a win vs. hitting 2 triggers), but for the most part, the deck is easy to play and easy to master.

Much Tourmanet, Such Win, Very Wow

I've been having a blast going to two local tournaments and spending my weekends playing card games.  It's been pretty great.  I've been getting sacked, gradelocked, and what have you, so I decided this weekend that I felt like winning.  Naturally, I play the deck I feel is the most competitive in the current meta to choose for this task: Ripple Rush.

Ripple Rush has a list on here, but for those unfamiliar with how it works, it uses the Ripple Ride chain for Pavroth's on-hit effect (if you land the chain), Sotirio's top 7 search for a grade 2/3 when you ride it on the starter, Sotirio's top 7 search for Pavroth if you ride the wrong grade 2 over him, Turtle's top card check for a grade 1 or 2 to superior call (which can be used as VG over Sotirio for a plus 1 and still hitting the chain), and passing crits to Tidal Assault for a multi-crit restanding rear guard.  That's the gist of it.

I played on Saturday with Ripple Rush.  I won two games on the first turn attacking.  One game I went Tidal -> Same Tidal -> VG attack (nulled) crit -> Tidal w/ Crit -> Tidal w/ Crit.  It was dirty.  If my VG had hit, my other Tidal would have stood at 7k power, though, and swung again.  I ended the night 6-1, and opted to get 5 packs of Gatecrash with my prizes.  Didn't pull anything spectacular, but it felt good to get some prize support.  I feel like Ripple Rush is cheesy and try-hardy, so I avoid using it.  But winning cards feels nice, so I might stop having all of these reservations about playing it.

Sunday's tournament I played Ripple Rush again.  I was determined to win since I haven't won at Midwest (lost in the final round the week before this one, somehow went from undefeated to like 7th place and got no packs).  I end up going 8-2 for the day, winning every round, and netting 6 packs of prize support or 18 bucks.  I opt to use that money for the wife and I to enter the Weiss Schwartz tournament, having never played it before.  I beat the two veterans in the 8 man tourney, and lose to the other trial deck.  Lawl.  I get 5 packs and pull one RR out of it.  So meh.  Decided on a whim to get two more packs, and I pull a 100~ dollar SP Cait Sith Silica and another copy of that RR.  I won card game forever, I guess.

Then I also traded my 4 extra Binoculus and Monoculas Tigers for a Naruto deck.  I decided that now that it's dead I'm going to get in on it.  Got an Earth/Wind Hyuga/Mind Power/Lawl1stHogakeFTW deck.  Got to play it once before my wife was beating me up to head back home since the in-laws were watching the kids.  I had a lot of fun playing the Naruto game and want to play it some more.  Looking forward to a few games of WS and Naruto in the near future.

Planning on going in on Kill la Kill for Nudist Beach.dek with purple nipples everywhere.  Hell yeah!

Chicago Regional Tournament Report

So, we'll start with the two big things, my placement and the deck I was using.  I decided to go with Tom and Jerry this year, since I felt like it's one of the strongest possible mixed decks in the game right now, with its only major weakness being a straight OTT deck.  I'm running the same decklist that I have on this blog:

Starter - Flask Marmoset

4x Ruler Chameleon (Crit)
4x Triangle Cobra (Crit)
4x Psychic Bird (Crit)
4x Oracle Guardian, Nike (Crit)

Grade 1's

4x Silver Wolf
4x Coiling Duckbill
3x Tank Mouse
2x Chocolat
1x Tic-Toc Flamingo

Grade 2's

4x Binoculus Tiger
4x Silent Tom
3x Maiden of Libra

Grade 3's

4x CEO Amaterasu
4x Battle Sister, Cookie

Now, my standings.  There were about 360 people there, and I ended up 47th (Pics or it didn't happen?), losing in round 6.  There were less than 32 people for round seven it seems, so I could totally just say "top 32 if you don't count tiebreakers".  So, because I'm an egomaniac, we'll go with that.  Top 32.  I felt very fortunate that I got to use almost all of the tricks that the deck has to give, and neither myself nor my opponents were gradelocked in any of my games.   Now for the play-by-play.

Round 1: W vs. DOtE

I rushed the guy super hard.  I think he said he was a Pojoer (Flying Teapot?) and immediately knew who I was when he saw the mixed decks.  He had no idea what to expect when he saw the Psychic Bird boosting my Vanguard on turn 1.  I went second and drive checked into the Libra that I needed to ride, since I had no grade 2.  I put him to 4 damage turn 3, then he crossrode into DOtE with only one card left in hand.  I had a pretty good hunch he had no other DOtE's, and I ended up being correct.  He attacks, I no guard at 3 damage, he checks a grade 1 and 2, and I get put to 4.  I soul charge and check top-card with CEO seeing a critical and leaving it there.  I knew that he checked a grade 1 and 2 last turn with one unknown card in his hand.  I anticipated it being a perfect guard (it was actually a 10k).  Since he was at 13k defense and my row was Coiling and Tom, I decided to pump up Coiling a bit.  I used the effect of a Tank Mouse I already had out on Coiling, then called another one over it, doing the same thing, making Coiling a 15k boost, in case he checked double heals or some other shenanigans.  I use my unboosted row to swing at his grade 2, retiring that.  Then I attack with CEO, which he ended up one-to-passing from a misplay.  Had he guarded that attack, I would have gone in with a 28k 2 crit Tom, which is the first cool thing this deck can do.  Make crossrides shit their pants.  Dude was a total bro and I'm happy to say he beat his goal of not losing in two rounds.  I think he got to round 4.

Round 2: W vs. Pacifica/Vert

Only individual I fought with a bad deck.  Only individual I fought with a bad attitude.  Maybe the only individual I fought who wasn't aware of who I was or who didn't see someone walk up to me and be like, "Wait, you're that Tim?"  I was polite, didn't boast, didn't gloat.  I mean, for me, that's definitely my best behavior.  She was pissed that I was stomping her.  I mean, it sucks to be losing hard in the second round, but it wasn't like I was sacking her.  She drew into a great hand.  Continued to get great draws.  But she had to keep guarding with all of her boosters since I was intentionally leaving Tom at low power so she would do so.  She checked two stands with no front-row rear-guards to place them on since she had to guard Tom with all of them.  I used Tank mouse to make a Tom row hit an extra stage, to which she responds, "I don't think you can do that."  I explain to her that Tank Mouse only needs a Great Nature target and not a Great Nature Vanguard.    After this point her attitude switched from irritated to bitchy.  I get her to five, and with a break ride draw into Pacifica's skill for another +1, she only had 3 RG's out total that turn.  Even with the card draw and bouncing from Pacifica and break riding, I swing with my 21k Amaterasu which she had to no guard.  Crit.  Crit.  She looks absolutely livid (like the criticals actually mattered), refused to check her damage, and began picking up her cards and gathering her other belongings.  I extend my hand and say, "Good game."  She says, "No it wasn't!" and storms off.  Good game, I guess?

Round 3: W vs. Sephirot/Laurel

I got two Toms in my starting hand.  I get him to four damage very quickly since I had a double Tom whammy that they couldn't guard with grade 0's.  My inability to win dice rolls helped secure all of the rushes.  He ended up riding Laurel on his third turn, which pretty much secured the victory for me.  Tom trick #134 won the game for me.  He had enough grade 0's in hand to guard my Vanguard, and a few 1's and 2's, but not enough if I pumped Tom up.  I had no Tank Mouse or Binoculus out, so I wasn't in a good position to pump units up.  Then I looked at my Marmoset, and was like, "This is going to be awesome."  I used his skill twice on himself, since I was at 4 damage myself.  This made my Tom row 5+8+8, which is a nice 21k.  I scried a critical, so I took the game that turn.

Round 4: W vs. The Blood

I felt bad.  This was the only game that I felt like I turbo sacked.  I crit him turn 2 and double crit him turn 3.  I mean, 16 crit is there for a reason, but I still felt bad.  I apologized profeusly, but my opponent was like, "Nah man.  It's cool."  We wished each other the best of luck.  Then all of my friends left to go do other stuff since they got eliminated, and I was like, "NO!  Friendship!  I will lose if you don't support me with your friendship!  Has Yu-Gi-Oh! taught you nothing!"  My predictions ended up being true.

Round 5: L vs. The Blood

I secure an amazing rush early, getting the guy to 5 damage.  For the first and third turns after this, hitting a single trigger would have secured game for me... but he ended up winning the game of pressure, getting an ultimate break out, and continuously swinging for good numbers with crossridden defense.  I make a pretty cool move by using Marmoset to off himself while calling a Coiling to cycle it into a new card while using him as a pretty legit beater.  Each turn after the opening turns would start with me drawing a crit, soul charging a crit, scrying a non-crit, putting it at the bottom, and hitting two non-crits, save turn 4 when he had a perfect guard to handle the bonus crit Tom.  I made a big push on the fifth turn, sacking two of my boosters to hit some magic numbers.  A single crit could have won the game for me, but I only had 3 left in my 18~ card deck.  No cigar.  It was a great match all-around that could have gone either way.

Round 6: L vs. DOtE

He hit no less than 4 draws in the first 3 turns.  I knew he had his extra DOtE's in hand.  Since I got him to 3 damage on my first turn from hitting a crit, I was very surprised that he went straight for my rear guards since I was at no damage for a few turns.  He ended up amassing an enormous hand, but stayed at 3 for quite a while.  I was in a bad spot, though, since my first damage check was a Tom, and my first soul charge was a Tom.  I had a Tom in my opening hand, but he attacked it with his Vanguard Dragonic Overlord, and I didn't have the ability to guard that and his rear-guards from getting Tom.  I was able to prevent a bonus critical because of his decision, so I was literally at 0 damage to his 3 when he rode DOtE.  Since he used Conroe to fetch a Barri, I'm not sure that it mattered.  I kept guarding DOtE since it had a draw trigger booster, and as I said, I knew had that DOtE in his hand.  The guy made several misplays throughout the match.  He said he had only been playing for 2 weeks, and he was super surprised he got as far as he did.  I end up checking Tom with my scry, and with two gone I wasn't sure what to do.  I decided to put it at the bottom, but that might not have been the best choice.  He had two nulls and I had other units I could call to the front, so I wanted more things to guard with.  The game edged on into turn 5 or 6, I had 2 cards left in my hand, and I knew I had no chance to survive the next turn since I couldn't force out much guard over his 13k wall, I had no more Toms, and he had 9 cards in hand.  ~_~  But the card I drew into for turn was a Psychic Bird.  I moved it to soul and drew a card.  I swing with CEO at his Vanguard, and he no guards it since he's going to be able to block everything after that easily.  Since he was new, he didn't know about CEO's megablast.  Psychic Bird secured the 8th soul for me, so I was able to draw 5 from my deck, which put me back in the game.  A little cheesy, but it helped make up for (albeit way too late) all of the cards he drew into earlier.  I burn most of the cards to guard all of his attacks.  I have enough for a full field, and nothing more.  I end up hoping beyond hope that he two-to-passes me the next turn, since I had plenty of crits in my deck, and manmode was my only way out.  He's at 4 at this point.  He nulls me, I double crit, passing one trigger to each rear-guard.  He guards both of those and still has a good 2-3 cards in hand.  I didn't have enough to guard all of his units and have no heals, so I one-to-pass DOtE, win the one-to-pass, but lose to a rear guard attack.  Not much I could have done to sway the game back into my favor since my deck was at only 5 cards from sitting on CEO for so long.  No complaints though, I put up a hell of a fight given the circumstances and I'm very satisfied with the results that Tom and Jerry gave me for the tournament.

Kageroyals piloted by Dustin Henry - Side Special

Poor, poor Dustin.  He got sacked so hard.  ;__;  It's not him, it's me.  My luck did this to him.

Game 1 - L vs. Ezel

His opponent went first.  Dustin attacks, crits and it's now his opponent's turn.  Turn 2 superior ride into Ezel.  They use two self-damagers, bringing themself up to 4, limit break with Ezel getting a 9-10k out, and now he can't guard Ezel at all.    Double crit.  Power got passed to a RG row with a boost which also couldn't be guarded without dropping 3 cards.  The Ezel style superior rides are extremely tough for Kageroyals to handle since it's based around guarding Vanguard attacks early with single cards, and both Ezel's 1k for each GP rear guard and Twin-Drive!! get in the way of that.  Securing that into a double crit is the ultimate disaster for Kageroyals, because it takes away the cheap, single-card guarding advantage that the deck utilizes.  After losing all of the momentum in an instant, he attacks with his grade 2.  His opponent swings in again for huge numbers, and he just couldn't hold up.  Ezel has always been registered as a counter deck, but this is the absolute worst-case scenario for the match-ups.

Game 2 - L vs. Master Beetle Megacolony

He ended up taking a lead against his opponent and pushing them to 5 damage.  He gets knocked to 5 as well.  He starts his turn, attacks with Dragonic Waterfall, "persona blasts" for 31k, and his opponent is like, "Wow, 31k!  I can't guard that!".  Drive check 1, crit.  Drive check 2, crit.  His opponent says, "Wow.  I'm not even going to check my damage.  Good game, man."  Dustin, being a bro, is like, "Dude, check your damage.  You never know."  Heal.  Heal.  Heal.  Dustin loses the next turn.  Words cannot describe...