Subject: The Tournament Scene(not report) and how you can better your experience-Camex Subject: The Tournament Scene(not report) and how you can better your experience-Camex Hey, my second post on Pojo. I wasnt going to make one but the replys that I recieved from my last report inspired me to make a second so here I go. Almost all if not every serious duelist has attended tournament play and has approached the tournament generally with the same goal in mind. That goal is to go in there and win the tournament, but is that what its all about? Absolutely not! So far in my dueling career Ive been to approximately 5 tournaments. The highest Ive ever placed in any of those 5 times was the semi final round. At this point since I didnt win the tournament any time, I could have given up, but cheesy as it may sound I didnt. Thats becuase when I go to a tournament, one of the last reasons I go is to actually win the tournament. Dont get me wrong, Id love to win it but there are other advantages to going to tournaments. Going to a tournament means that there obviously will be other duelist there! Some people dont seem to understand that as they hide in a corner until the tournament starts. Since there are so many people there, there is certain to be plenty of cards to trade and thats one of the places you can totally get your times worth. In my last article I discussed strategies in trading so I wont go into that (atleast I dont initially intend to) rather I will emphasize how crucial it is to introduce yourself to the people there and find out as much (within reason, you dont have to become best friends or anything) information as possible. Once at a tournament, I believe it was my forth time (this wont go into becoming a Tournament report ) I witnessed a truly amazing trade wise. A collector came in with absolutely NO intention on dueling, rather he was looking for 1 card. He wanted this card very badly, how would I know that? Well he traded a Don Zaloog for it. That may not seem all that amazing until I tell you that the one card that he traded Don Zaloog for was Blue Medicine, a Tournament Pack 1 Rare! Now I understand that this is a reasonably rare card and he probably was attempting to complete the set, but WOW a Don Zaloog. That same person that recieved the Don Zaloog lost the tournament, but do you think he went home angry? Not at all, he was quite pleased that he traded something so worthless to him for something so sought after. Tournaments also allow you to see cards that you may be considering at the moment in action. If you were thinking of building that Magical Scientist Deck and you saw some clever combos played with him it may sway you to actually acting on the impulse of making that magical scientist deck. You may also have the opportunity of seeing a card such as Butterfly Dagger Elma being played. Just throwing in a Butterfly Dagger Elma into a Deck that dosent cater to it, you'll see it become little more than dead weight. However, if you saw someone who consistantly won with it in his/her deck you may also see that nearly every non-staple card that they play supports Butterfly Dagger Elma in one way or another whether it be to bring it out as quickly as possible and/or bringing out Gearfried as quickly as possible so that the cycle can begin. Tournaments are great sources of research and cards. If you go into a Tournament focussing on this than you wont leave very dissapointed. In fact, you may even surprise yourself and win it! Please send me, Camex your questions and comments to camex85@aol.com and I will respond promptly to any constructive e-mails I receive.