I don't even know anymore... (Locals rant about Gamerz)

Back when I first started Vanguard, I was extremely hotheaded with people.  This was largely due to a large chunk of people having no appreciation for any rogue decks I would build, essentially labeling them as unplayable in spite of any arguments, testing, or results I'd show without any consideration or testing of their own.  When I first moved to Indianapolis, I went to the Dugout, a card shop I had seen on Google.  That didn't exactly end well.  I don't have anything against the Dugout or its management, at least not anymore.  I heard that the primary guy that set those things into motion was banned from their store later on, anyway.  So that's all good.  It's too bad they don't have a Vanguard base anymore, but Midwest Gamez has taken on all of the Vanguard players in Indianapolis, especially after the events I'm about to speak to.

After I left the Dugout, I started going to a shop called Gamerz.  I really liked the atmosphere and the location.  They had great networking, a solid display of non-Bushiroad card games, and a spacious location for many people to enjoy playing card games at.  At the start of things, I liked the store and the store owner seemed to like me.  I offered to write articles for the store and use my connections (I had several toppers and even the Vanguard world champion at the time willing to write articles for them).  I didn't care about getting paid.  I just wanted to grow Vanguard because it was still a small game at the start of 2013.

After a few months of going to tournaments and buying boxes at their exorbitant prices (over 85 dollars per box was killing me, but I wanted to support my locals, so I purchased about 6 boxes from them over my time there, and I don't even typically buy boxes, and I also bought a bunch of Magic there), I tried to get them to stock some particular product so I could buy it from them.  I was told on multiple occasions that their "shipment didn't come in" or "it will be in next week".  Almost every time, when I heard this, it didn't happen.  At first, I believed their claims about shipments not coming in.  After going to Midwest Gamez and watching the owner of that store order the product that Gamerz said was out of stock from the same vendor, I realized that I was just being flat out lied to.

1st thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lying to their customers when lying isn't even necessary.

I would understand if they said, "I don't want to stock this product".  Or, "I can't take your word for it that you will buy this because other people have said they would and then didn't."  I'm an adult (at least most of the time), I'd like to believe that I can understand those types of things.  This led to other issues.  First, I waited a full month and a half after a set came out before I got the hint that they weren't going to be restocking it.  This led me to purchase boxes for that set online for significantly cheaper, and that was the dividing point where I decided I wasn't going to purchase boxes at Gamerz anymore. When I asked about lowering the price, I was angrily told that if I wanted to buy them for cheaper and could find them for cheaper, that I should go somewhere else to buy the product.  I wasn't banned at this point in time, but I was banned from the store before the next time I showed up.

2nd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Lack of willingness to listen to sound business advice in any way, shape, or form.

Now, not everyone is going to give sound business advice, but when someone wants to buy a box through their locals to support it, and their locals turns them down... I can't speak much to the defense of the locals.  Then, saying you're going to stock that product that your customer wants to buy from you and lying about how said product is coming in soon so that your customers won't buy them anywhere else, even though you aren't going to restock that product is just nonsensical and made me want to stop going to the store.  But I endured, still, for the sake of loyalty, and because I enjoyed the crowd and location.

Another thing to add to the silliness of how they were running Vanguard was, back when the OTT and Nova Grappler extra boosters came out in the tail end of season 2, we said we'd buy several boxes of them from the store because we wanted to support them, even though the prices were still pretty steep.  They said they were going to stock them.  They kept saying they were on their way for roughly 3 months.  We stopped asking after 2.  About 8 months after these sets came out, they decided to stock a carton of both.  Mind you, set 14 was out at about this time.  Even the new OTT extra booster was already out.  The cards in these boxes had become hopelessly obsolete, and no combination of RRR/SP in the box could possibly value as much as the box itself would cost, especially at the escalated price.  Nobody bought them.  And I have a feeling that the owner of the store felt like we were liars for not buying out the cards, even though it had been half a year since we requested them and had long since purchased everything we could possibly want from the boxes online.  I can't even feel bad for them for ordering the boxes without asking their playerbase if they were still wanted or relevant.

A month or two after this, they have their "Vanguard judge" come in to run a sneak peak for set 15.  They weren't a bad person or anything, but they had no business being in charge of a sneak peak when their most recent deck was from set 8, they didn't know that all cards were all clans in that format, and they didn't know what a break ride was in the break ride format.  Long story short, the judge made an incorrect ruling and I took over the tournament, undermining their judge, and we carried on.  The next time I came back to the shop, I was banned.  Ehh, fair enough.  Undermining a judge is a pretty serious offense, no matter how unqualified the individual is.  I definitely overstepped a boundary.  Would a warning have made more sense?  Probably.  I didn't have any previous infractions at the store (but the owner was quick to tell me that he wanted to warn me on several occasions for my prior conduct, which I had received no indication of previously, so what he said was completely meaningless).  I just rolled with it.  I was already feeling pretty at-odds with the store, so I took my business over to Midwest Gamez full-time at this point, convinced that the Vanguard community at the store, of which over 60% was my group of friends, was going to die shortly thereafter.

3rd thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Liberal usage of banning players and groups of players, resulting in a large loss of consumers.

For the year in which I was banned from the store until its closing, I heard horror stories about how many people would get warnings or banned for stupid things like joking about banging their head on the wall, disagreeing with the shop owner, or being too loud or rowdy in the store.  After I was banned, they apparently banned over half of their Yu-Gi-Oh! playerbase, causing them to move on.  The Vanguard community moved on as well.  Other players had received warnings for the most minor of infractions and chose not to come back.  Many players went to newer card shops like Game Paradise.  I have met people who would complain about Gamerz and how rude they were before I even got to put my say into the conversation.  Customer satisfaction seemed to go down the drain to the point where I could swear it was intentional.


4th thing that led to the spiral of Gamerz going out of business - Blatant bullying of customers, up to and including legal threats.

In the conversation I had with the owner as I was banned from the store, I ended up venting a bit to him about how poorly the store was managed and about how I legitimately tried to help make the location the biggest store in the Midwest for Vanguard. 

He responded with another lie.  "We are." 

I ask him, "How are you the biggest store for Vanguard?"

He said, "We have the largest supply of Vanguard cards."

I bring up how Midwest Gamez doesn't just have more supply than him, but individual players like Aaron Netabai have a bigger stock than he does.  And that's just in Indianapolis.  Chicago sellers have way more stock.  I probably even had more stock at the time, honestly.  I donated two large boxes of commons/rares, which I'm fairly sure exceeded his bulk in Vanguard, to Midwest Gamez for the sole purpose of guaranteeing that his claim was a lie after this.

I then go on to speak about how his pricing for boxes was keeping people from buying them from the store, stagnating the growth of the game.

He replied with, "My prices are the same as Troll and Toad, which is the lowest you're going to find boxes."

With him selling his for 80 bucks a box, I said, "I will get out my phone right now and prove you wrong.  Troll and Toad has them for cheaper."

He changes the subject, of course.

He knew about my article on the Dugout.  He knew that I liked to write about things like this.  He knew that I had at least some popularity in the community, being an admin on NACFV and having a relatively popular blog and YouTube channel.  So he literally threatened me with a lawsuit if I attempted to defame Gamerz in any way, shape, or form.  No, I'm not joking.

Additionally, literally a week after I had gotten back from judging a regional tournament for Bushiroad, he said, "I called Bushiroad.  They said that you're not a judge, judges for Vanguard don't even exist, and you are blatantly lying in my shop about being a judge.  And the "judge test" which you supposedly helped write also doesn't exist."



Except I have proof that my questions were used and that I was solicited by Bushiroad for them to use my questions on my unofficial test I created.  And I literally just got done judging an event.  But sure.  Okay.

At this point, I was fuming.  I decided that further conversation wasn't in my best interest and the entire Vanguard community headed home that day, essentially.

Naturally, my kneejerk reaction was to laugh at the audacity of his comments, especially the legal threats.  I chuckled audibly and let him know that I didn't feel threatened whatsoever by them.  I had planned to write out, essentially, what I've written out today.  But I sat down and thought very deeply about the implications of the actions that he took, and made a decision.

The first conclusion I drew was that, after the extra boosters fizzled, there was an extremely good chance that Gamerz didn't want a Vanguard playerbase.

The second conclusion I drew was that, after seeing how I reacted to the Dugout, there was a chance he was intentionally riling me up so that I would defame his store and remove his Vanguard playerbase so he would be able to say, "The game has died", and no longer stock it.

The third conclusion I drew was that if I did go out and make an article about Gamerz, they would be getting attention.  And, because I don't have it in me to write a partial review of the store, I'd have to be honest and say that the location was great and their MtG selection and playerbase was top notch, and that might have given them exactly what they wanted.

I decided to be completely silent for three reasons.

1.  I knew that with or without my action, the Vanguard playerbase was going to die without me.  And it did.
2.  I didn't want to accidentally give them good publicity leading to good business.
3.  I didn't think they would actually go out of business, but now I am able to make this post after they crashed and burned and get the satisfaction of knowing that during my post.

So, I stayed silent on my blog about the store until I believed the time was right.  It's been half a year since they've shut down, and there doesn't seem to be any indication that they are ever opening back up again.  I believe that the time to tell this story is now.

I don't really have too much more negative to say about the store.  I do have a conspiracy theory, though.  I honestly believe that the store owner wanted to go out of business.  That doesn't sound like it makes a single lick of sense, but I can't fathom why he would have taken the actions that he took unless that's what he was going for.

Reasons why I think Gamerz was intentionally trying to go out of business:

1.  Nobody would ban large sections of their consumers unless they weren't making money off of them.  I could see an argument here for their Vanguard playerbase.  I don't think they managed Vanguard wisely enough to profit off of the game, even with those box prices, so I could see them making the business decision to stop supporting the game.  But Yu-Gi-Oh!?  That's their second biggest game.
2.  You don't just casually make legal threats at your consumers who have done absolutely nothing remotely illegal against you, even if you're banning them from the store/don't plan on them being consumers anymore.
3.  You don't make grandiose claims of being the biggest and the best at something without someone calling you out on it.  You don't ban people who call you out on your bullshit when you are, in fact, spouting bullshit.
4.  You don't intentionally piss off your customers and expect to not have repercussions.

I have two different scenarios of what could have happened with the store.

1.  They could be genuinely incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing, keeping a well-stocked inventory, and drawing in new customers.
2.  They could be intentionally incompetent at managing a business, especially in the areas of customer satisfaction, card pricing (non-MtG), keeping a well-stocked inventory (non-MtG), and drawing in new customers.

Considering how good the company has proven to be at networking, hosting large events for everything at their shop, getting huge turnouts for MtG pre-releases, and selling mountains of MtG cards, I just can't believe that they could go out of business on accident.  I have no business management experience, and I could have remained in business with that prime inventory and business location by just not being an asshat to my customers.  I can't help but think that maybe the owner decided it was time to hang up his hat and move on to something different.  He stated that he was going to change locations, then ended up never getting a new location.  It wouldn't be the first lie he told.  I can't imagine it would have been hard to get a new location, either, but maybe I'm wrong.  I don't think it matters as much at this point, but I can't help but shake the feeling that after seeing the good business practices instantiated by Gamerz that they could bomb this badly.

Regardless, I am personally glad that the store is out of business, just so that people don't have to deal with the abuse.  Midwest Gamez, my new locals, has gotten the entirety of the Vanguard playerbase in the Indianapolis area, and the game has continued to remain stable for well over a year, so there were benefits to this turn of events as well.

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.

A Good Day for Cardgames

I don't usually blog about tournament results.  I definitely don't blog about non-Vanguard related things.  Today I'm going to do something a little different.  Today I just had a great day all around with the three card games I do play and I even got talked into a little Yu-Gi-Oh! cubing with a bunch of old cards, which got me excited about playing without all the new cheese.

To start off, we'll talk about Buddyfight.  A guy who had pulled an SP Asmodai said he wasn't interested in the game anymore.  That made me sad, but then he offered to give me all of his card if I bought him 5 packs of Weiss.  I got 10 bucks off the packs for hitting 100 bucks spent in the store again, so I got an SP Asmodai and some other cards for 10 bucks.  Bitchin'!

The actual Vanguard tournament for the day was great.  Since I have all of the set 12 cards I need, I got a pack of Buddyfight for joining.  Pulled a King the Dominator.  Not so great.  Turns out that the pack of set 12 I could have gotten had a Promethium in it, which would have made excellent trade fodder.  :(  Still, the tournament begins.  We only had 8 people today, but them's good numbers.

Round 1 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Amon "Reverse"

First game I win by getting 2 Doreens out early and power slapping him.  I hit no critical triggers the whole game, but we both healed twice.  I win with a 28k Amon "R" bonus crit attack that he couldn't guard.

Second game I have no grade 3, but 3 Doreens.  I miss grade 3 for one turn, but push him straight to 5 without hitting a crit.  Drive check an Amon.  He attacks my frontrow Doreen.  I go, ride Amon, move a Dimension Creeper to soul to retire one of his units, move Greedy Hand to soul to get another Dimension Creeper from my deck, soul blast both creepers to soul charge 4 more times, making both of my Doreens 27k boosts.  I win that turn.

Results - 2-0


Round 2 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Dauntless/DOtE

First game I win without hitting any critical triggers the whole game until he has to no guard at 5 damage and I double crit him with regular Amon.

Second game I lose because I got gradelocked for two turns.  Could have won if I hit triggers, but I'm me.

Third game he heals 4 times and I only hit one offensive critical trigger.  Win with a 2 crit Amon "Reverse" swing that he can't guard after his heals had all been removed from his deck.  Only took 3 damage that game.  Amon and Gwynn make for good control, and he couldn't break through my crossridden defense without boosters.

Results - 2-1


Round 3 - Amon "Reverse" vs. Catapult/Dragger

First game he gets gradelocked and I win.

Second game I get gradelocked (and double check grade 3's later on in the game when 5k shield would have saved me or hitting a trigger would have won it since he one-to-passed my 2 crit Amon "Reverse").

Third game he runs out of null guards as I swing in with a 31k Amon "Reverse" with 2 crit.  He's at five damage and has to no guard.  Crit.  Crit.  Facemelt Extravaganza!

Results - 2-1

Total results:  6-2

Before we got around to playing Vanguard, though, I was playing Magic.  I run a Blue White enchantment deck styled off of the deck in Magic 2013.  The first game I won, but the second game was the cleanest victory I've ever had.

Turn 1 -  Play a land.
Turn 2 - Play Kor Spiritdancer, which is a 0/2.  He is unable to kill it.
Turn 3 - Play two Etheral Armors, Kor gets +4/4 for each enchantment on her (1/1 for each enchantment, 2/2 from her own ability), so she's an 8/10.  Kor's second effect triggers, and I draw once for each enchantment I played, so two draws.  Swing for 8, they take it.
Their turn 4 - They play a creature to block Kor next turn.
Turn 4 - I play an enchantment that gives Kor flying, I draw a card.  Their card was neither flying nor did it have reach.  Kor gained +4/+4, making her 12/14.  I attack for 12 and win.

Legitney Houston.

After Vanguard we had a 5 man EDH game that lasted 108 minutes.  Yep.  I killed all 3 of the other competitors except for one person who got the finishing blow on the guy after I did all of the work.  But I wound up losing because every single person that I killed gave me a final, "Fuck you!"

Player 1 milled half of my deck.
Player 2 dealt enough combat damage to me that I had to block with a creature for another attack which would have won me the game.
Player 3 scooped before my attack killed them so I couldn't untap with my Derevi.

I ended up drawing the last card of my deck when Player 4 had 4 life and a 2/2 flyer.  I had a 3/3 unblockable and Derevi out.  The card I drew was "Target creature gains (Tap), return target creature to their owner's hand.  I literally could not win that turn, and my opponent would auto-win from me running out of cards.  If I had my other card untapped the previous turn, I could have won.  If I didn't get half my deck milled, I'd still have cards.  If I had that one card I had to block with and sack, I would have had enough damage to kill him.  So I cycled my land to draw a card and took my loss into my own hands.

Mind you, the player that won made no moves the last 7 turns other than calling his commander.  For 18 mana.  Yeah.  He literally only won without doing anything because everyone else gave me a final fuck you on my way out.  I'm not complaining, though.  That game was really fun.

Finally, after EDH, a friend of mine (Player 3) got out a bunch of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards and wanted to play cube.  Since there was no extra deck, and most of the new shenanigans that cards can do nowadays were gone, it was really nostalgic.  I got to draft some of my favorite old cards like Fissure, Slate Warrior, Guardian Sphinx, and Copycat.  It felt pretty good.  I wound up winning 5 out of 6 games, since he drafted a good 4 double sacrifice creatures while I got some pretty damn good pick-ups.  I also love that I won a game because of Twister.  But my favorite game was the game I lost.

He played Ancient Gear Golem when I had nothing but battlephase-only trap cards.  So I literally couldn't do anything to stop it.  But better than that was that we both said, at the exact same time the card hit the field, "My love for you is like an Ancient Gear Golem."  Fuck yeah, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Abridged!