Duel Masters Tournament Report
The Place:
Gamelot
(inside
Purple Cactus)
8180 Tezel Rd
San Antonio, Texas 78250
(210) 722-3236
Street Map
The Time:
Sunday, April 17th, 2005
The Weapon of My Choosing:
“The Answer” – 5 Civ. Control
This week I introduce
Andrew! Andrew is a former Magic player who
actually started playing Duel Masters during
Base and thus a couple of months before me.
However, despite this has had a great deal of
less experience with the lack of ability to
attend tournaments and such. I told him I could
help to remedy the situation and offered him a
ride to the other side of town to play at
Gamelot!
So, that this
weekend I walk in with a total of 4 players -
Justin, Tony, Andrew and myself. Just a few more
and I won’t even need to worry about anyone else
showing up a tournament as I’ll be bring one
wherever I go. Any rate, we showed up early,
however the trading didn’t go to well. Justin
was playing a rather new Fire/Nature Survivors
deck and Austin helped us finish off some of the
cards needed to complete the deck (thanks again,
Austin). Pretty much from there we just hung out
while we hurried up and waited.
Enough!
Let’s get
this thing started!
Everyone finds
their seats and prepares to duel!
Justin eagerly
shuffles his new Fire/Nature Survivor deck!
The duels begin!
About My Weapon
of My Choice:
As I mentioned
in my last tournament report – I always
eventually drift toward pure control. Well, it
appears I’ve arrived. The weapon of my choosing
has become a variation on Ill-Folk utilizing
strengths from all five civilizations. In
play-testing, this deck could find itself in the
worst of predicaments and always have a way of
weaseling its way out (even if I was to stupid
to see it until after the game – then
again, that’s what play-testing is for). Because
of this I have dubbed this deck “The Answer.”
This may sound presumptuous but then I never
said I wasn’t.
“The Answer” – Five Civilization Control
Total Cards: 42
4x Emeral
3x Hypersquid Walter
4x Corile
4x Teleportation
3x Illusionary Merfolk
3x Rothus, the Traveler
3x Searing Wave
4x Natural Snare
4x Terror Pit
4x Holy Awe
2x Sundrop Armor
4x Mana Nexus
Let’s see how
well I this new deck took control of the game…
Ding! Ding!
Round One!
Kyle
I don’t believe that
Kyle and I have ever dueled. We sit-down,
introduce ourselves and pretty much get right
into it.
His Deck: Mono-Water Agro/Control
Kyle piloted his
Mono-Water deck well enough. Despite this,
through the entire game I was able to maintain
complete control. Anything he played I was able
to immediately take care of or I purposely held
back to allow him to break a couple of my
shields. Despite the fact that “The Answer” is a
control deck I am often able to finish off my
opponent quickly. Kyle was not an exception.
Results:
A very swift and under control 2/0
Ding! Ding!
Round Two!
Shane
If you have read my
previous tournament reports then you know Shane
well by now. Every time I draw up a report I
seem to play him. Actually, that means, every
time I play in tournament I wind up playing him!
Anyway, Shane is
good and while I can beat him with consistency,
I always have to be sure that I keep my guard
way up! If I don’t, he’ll find that hole and
exploit the heck out of it.
His Deck: Light/Darkness Control
While I have
previously mentioned Shane playing a
Light/Darkness deck this is not the same deck.
Shane decided to experiment with a new deck and
take advantage of a great many of the brand,
spanking new Stomp-a-Trons cards. While he had
some good concepts, I believe he needs to work
on it some more though it does have some
potential.
Still, I was able to
maintain control of the game. The end was swift,
much like my match against Kyle.
Results:
2/0
Ding! Ding!
Round Three!
James
The tournament was going
just the way it was suppose to. I was
maintaining complete control of every match!
I don’t believe
I’ve played James very often and so I honestly
wasn’t sure what expect out of him. He’s pretty
close to me so I knew I had to be careful.
His Deck: Fire/Darkness
Okay…I have
this! Fire/Darkness? No problem! His deck will
run out of gas in a short period of time, right?
Not exactly…
Actually, this match was
mine! Or so I thought. One card I never thought
about play-testing against Pyrofighter Magnus.
What a pain of a card!
Our first game
was pretty drawn out. I quickly identified the
threat that Pyrofighter Magnus was to my deck
and began evaluating my strategy against the
card. Ultimately, my only answer was Terror Pit.
Worse yet, I had to get those Terror Pits in my
shields for them to work against the Magnus!
Still, I managed to do just that with some very
strong and quick card drawing effects. As his
last Pyrofighter Magnus went down I looked at my
deck. There wasn’t more than five cards left in
my deck, I had no creatures in play and he had
at least three shields. While there was no way I
was going to land the last blow, I was
determined he wasn’t going to either. I managed
to pull just that off as I drew my last card to
loose the game.
Our second game
went much worse than the first. I knew I had to
save my Terror Pits to shield trigger against
his Pyrofighter Magnus and I only managed to
pull one and that was while he had no Magnus on
the table. Game and match to James!
Results:
0/2
Ding! Ding!
Round Four!
Matt
Another new opponent for
me. Matt seemed really quite, perhaps a little
shy.
His Deck: Fire/Nature Rush
While I never
had a doubt about winning this match as it was
going, Matt did force me to watch my cards
carefully. Several plays on his part nearly
caught me off guard. Still, I was able to fight
him off.
Results:
2/0
So, this
tournament went pretty well, however sent me
back to the drawing board to try and figure out
a way to take care of Pyrofighter Magnus. This
weekend we’ll see if the fix I came up with
works.
Final results
for me put me in second. Shane ended meeting up
with Phillip (first in San Antonio and pretty
high ranked in the nation) in the last match and
lost to him dropping him down to third because
he had lost several games during previous
matches and I dropped none other than to him.
