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Duel Masters Tourney Reports

From: Lee Abrahams [mailto:leea@boltons.co.uk]
Sent: Thursday, October 06, 2005 9:20 AM

Subject: Chuck Norris Special Deck, Patriot Comics, Sheffield, England by Lee Abrahams



Chuck Norris Special Deck

Lee Abrahams
Date: 17th September 2005
Patriot Comics, Sheffield, England
15 entrants
5 rounds Swiss + top 4



I’m back again from the glorious shores of the United Kingdom. At least that’s what they tell me when I get let out of my padded cell. Firstly, let me explain the name of my deck (for those of you that care, ha ha) as I was playing today one of my opponents decided I look like Chuck Norris and the name stuck, probably crazy talk but it amused me at the time. I am nowhere near old enough to be Chuck Norris by the way. Also, sorry for the delay in writing this report but I totally forgot what deck one of my opponents was using and had to wait for someone to remind me. Whoops. Anyhow I used a pretty similar deck from my last event:



Water: 23
4 x Aqua Guard
4 x Aqua Hulcus
3 x Emeral
4 x Illusionary Merfolk
4 x Corile
2 x Crystal Lancer
2 x Crystal Paladin


Darkness: 25
4 x Bloody Squito
4 x Locomotiver
4 x Horrid Worm
4 x Terror Pit
3 x Proclamation of Death
2 x Future Slash
2 x Chains of Sacrifice

2 x Hopeless Vortex



After my blocker related struggles last time I decided to put Paladin in, plus I added a couple of hopeless vortex for extra kill and, for some reason I can’t quite recall, a couple of Future Slash. It seemed a good idea at the time as I planned to identify and get rid of my opponents key cards but it turned out to be useless. I would have been better off running Lost Soul really, but I was in a rush pre tourney and just chucked it in stupidly without thinking it through.



Round 1 vs Dan (Fire/Water)



Dan’s my pal who uses my collection to build his decks (cos he’s tight) and I had beaten him in the final last time out. Today he was using a deck he had thrown together prior to coming. It was a mixture of humans (with Valdios) pyrofighter and spells, plus the usual water suspects of Corile, Emeral and Hulcus. I had totally owned him in practice games prior to the tourney so felt confident. Very confident. Where did it all go wrong?



We traded games to start with, he got lucky on a shield trigger to win the first but that didn’t concern me too much as I knew it would take a perfect run for me to get beat. Sadly in game 3 he got just that, he managed to get a perfect curve of cards and just wipe me out. He played, Aqua Guard turn 1, then Vorg Turn 2, Crimson Hammered my Emeral Turn 3, Valdios came out turn 4, then turn 5 he Searing Waved the creatures I did have. This was over fast.



As you can imagine I was upset, beaten by a deck that had been put together off the cuff. Things were not boding well. I took my defeat poorly, so apologies to Dan for dissing him. He deserved to win this one. But it gave me a lot of concerns about my decks abilities versus Fire, of which there was a lot today.



1-2



Round 2 vs Nobody (bye)



At this stage the last thing I wanted was a bye. My deck had underperformed badly and I needed to play someone to get my confidence back. As it was I wandered around felling worse and worse as I saw a lot of Fire decks out there. My fear was growing.



2-0



Round 3 vs Wakas (Nature)



This was a surprise, as Wakas has normally gone down the route of darkness. He may have had a splash of something else but if so I can’t remember seeing it. Basically he was running the usually array of Beastfolk backed up by evos like Barkwhip and Dual Fang. Plus, the nature spell staples of Snare and Man Nexus.



The first game went well, I even used a Future Slash (only time of the day) to get rid of his Dual Fangs, and my various kill spells wrecked havoc on his creatures. A solid win. The second game was the opposite as he rushed through my shields, Barkwhip proving to be my undoing as I started with an appalling hand where my cheapest card was 5 mana. The last game I seemed fully in control of, I built up a few hitters and cleared his side of the field then I started hitting his shields. Only to run into five shield triggers!!! Three of which were Natural Snare, the other two were Torcon. He was left with no shields but I only had one myself at this point and he now had three creatures thanks to the Torcons, sadly I only had one blocker so all my hopes were on my last shield. He played a Duel Fang (for some reason) and attacked for the win, his Torcon hit……a Terror Pit. WOO HOO, I couldn’t help but gloat slightly after his luck with the shields, and promptly destroyed his Dual Fang. His remaining creature died on my Aqua Guard and my solo hulcus attacked for the win. Sweet relief.



2-1



Round 4 vs Matt Coombs (Water/Fire/Darkness)



Thanks to Chris Leeson for reminding me what deck Matt was using as I had totally forgotten. Sorry bout that. Anyway I think this was the only duel where I felt in complete control of the match, I seemed to draw what I needed at the right times and finally got Merfolk working for me.



Matt was running a deck similar to mine only he had a few fire cards in there as well, basically things like pyrofighter, wave and vise. I ended up winning both games comfortably as I managed to get Squitos down early to stop pyrofighter (he was only running two copies) and then control the board with Corile and Lancer. He wasn’t running anything that could remove my blockers fast enough and I also used Emeral to rig my shields with Terror Pits. Often I would let him attack my shields for card advantage rather than blocking his creatures. Which worked a charm as a steady stream of shields, hulcus and merfolk meant I had answers every turn.



2-0



Round 5 vs Chris Leeson (Water/Fire/Darkness)



Chris was unbeaten up to this point, but my deck had started performing a bit better so I was feeling quite confident. Plus I knew that Chris had a few blockers up his sleeve and I was confident that my Paladins would come in handy. I think I won this match two games to nil (we played twice at this tourney so my memory is hazy) but it may have been 2-1 so apologies if I got it wrong.



This was basically a control match up, but I was running a number of extra darkness kill spells while he had opted for Wave and Vise from fire as well as the ever useful Pyrofighter. But the difference in this match seemed to be Lancer as I managed to get him on the board in both games, and while he didn’t last too long his instant ability to break shields helped in the long run. Usually I hang back and try and control the board, limiting my opponents creatures before going for a OTK. But I decided that against a control deck I may not fair too well if he got the key cards first, so I opted to try and rush him. Which worked superbly, though I did get lucky with him having no triggers (I think he only had Locomotiver and Terror Pit).



2-0



Top 4 vs Chris Parker (Fire / Water)



Due to only 15 people turning up we only had a top 4. Chris’ brother Lee usually plays but was absent today ironically, had he showed up we would have had a top 8. Oh well, I had made the cut so I was feeling quite chipper.



Chris was running a fire/water deck and I had been lucky to see it in action when I was wandering around during my Bye round. Basically all of his water cards were control creatures and spells (Corile, Unicorn Fish, Spiral Gate) designed to keep creature off the field, plus a few draw cards (Hulcus and Stream) then his fire cards were similar with a number of spells for creature removal (Hammer, Wave, Vise) and then his threat cards of Twin Cannon and Baza Dragon. His game plan was to build mana and keep the opponents field down until either Baza or Twin hit the field.



Having watched him play, and knowing his tactics I felt pretty comfortable. I used Emeral to rig my shields with Terror Pits and kept a supply of Locomotiver cards back to help me discard his Baza. I used my creatures to chip away at his shields (knowing he had virtually no triggers) and my blockers to stall his bigger creatures until I could destroy them. This ploy worked superbly as his game hinged around getting his big creatures on the field and I was able to disrupt this tactic in both games. Or at worst I was able to make his Baza charge into a Terror Pit.



2-0



Final vs Chris Leeson (Fire/Water/Darkness)



I was a bit worried going into this duel, as Chris now knew what was in my deck and would be able to play specifically to counter it. I was able to surprise him in our first duel but I doubted I would get away with that here.



To my shock I won the first duel. I got Emeral out early and followed it up with Merfolk, then I managed to keep him in check with a few Corile before finally swinging for the win. To be honest this duel lasted for a long time (as control decks do) as we both tried to eke away at each others field, but in the end my early hand advantage won out. This duel went on for so long that I thought I had already won 2-0, ha ha ha. Sadly that wasn’t the case and the match went on.



The second game he owned me, I was particularly stuck when he played Corile three times in a row to decimate my field but he administered the coup de grace with a nice Searing Wave that removed four creatures at once. I had no comeback from that and he cruised to victory. It was at this stage that it dawned on me that my deck had no real answer to rush, as despite all of my kill spells I had no way to remove multiple small creatures. It was something I would have to change before the next tourney came around.



The last duel I got lucky. There is no other way to say it as I only won thanks to a mistake from my opponent. We both swapped early shields but just as I was gearing up for a win he swept my field with Vise. That left him with two shields to my one, with both of us having little on the board. He then played a few blockers meaning I had no way to finish him off, we were both just playing whatever we drew, I had one blocker and a couple of attackers while his side of the field was growing ominously. He got to four attackers (all weenies, enhancing my thinking to add some mass removal) and should have gone for the kill. I could have blocked one, then the next would have hit a set Terror Pit, but he would still have had one attacker to get the win. He declined. So I knew that he would go for the win next turn. I drew a Lancer and almost played it on my Aqua Guard, but I needed three shields not just two so I played Paladin on my Guard, removing his blockers and leaving me with 3 creatures to take two shields.



I got lucky and he got no triggers. Phew, I game I didn’t deserve to win, but big thanks to Paladin.



2-1



Breakdown:



I was lucky. Very lucky. Not to mention the fact my decks weaknesses were all too apparent, having said that I still managed to win which can’t be all down to luck. But it was obvious what cards worked and what didn’t. Clearly I need to ditch Future Slash (what was I thinking) and I am tempted to drop Chains and Horrid Worm to make way for some mass removal from fire. I was also considering dropping my dark/water blockers and adding in a touch of Light, in the form of blockers, Awe and maybe Phal, as Cecillbill has inspired me with her outrageous yet superb decks. I want to keep Paladin though as he proved his worth on numerous occasions, though with Awe he may not be required. Back to the workshop methinks.



If anyone has any suggestions then feel free to drop me a line. But suffice it to say that my beloved dark/water deck has seen its last day in this form.



The prizes were a lot less this time around, only a few packs and a couple of promos, though I did get a second deck holder as well. As usual I managed to pull junk, and I still failed to find anyone who is willing to trade me a Bolmeteus. Sob, not even the lure of my five Ballom can do the trick.



Well, I'm Lee Abrahams drop me a line at:
death_slayer_of_worlds@yahoo.com

Stay lucky.