"The Survivor Rush Mayhem" - by Rob Cummins - Bishop Games, Coventry, UK

Date: 15/01/'05

Heya all,

This tournament was certainly a long time coming and its been 2 and a half months since I've had a Duel Masters tournament at the place as the shop had loads of other TCG's to cater for so nothing could be done about it. As it is all over the USA and Europe, pre-release tournaments of the new set, Survivors of the Mega Apocalypse were being played and not suprisingly, I planned to go to this one well in advance. Got up at 7am with older bro, left to catch bus and arrived at Birmingham New Street at 8:35am (too early!) and so we decided to catch an earlier train than we had planned and headed towards Coventry for the tournament! Got to the shop at exactly 10am, an hour before the tournament started and we decided to stick around and chat to Lee, the tournament organiser. We were the 1st 2 duelists to show up and were waiting for a while before other duelists decided to pop up and eventually we had a grand total of 16 duelists!

With this tournament being a Sealed Boosters tournament, the style of play was gonna be very different and I was slightly nervous with it being my 1st Sealed Boosters Tournament but also rather excited about it all to get my hands on the new cards. My bro and I met up with Shane and Andy Jennings and Stephen and Micheal Weaver, duelists who we've gotten to know over the last while through either YGO or some Duel Master forums and we were chatting away until the tournament was to start. The £12.50 entry cost was pretty steep for the boosters but the majority of duelists were able to pay it up. Shane Jennings and another duelist I knew called Aaron, however, hadn't the money to enter so they were left out. So it was just the 5 of us going into the tournament together.

At 11:30am, we were finally ready to start. Lee explained the rules of the tournament clearly and gave each duelist 5 packs to construct a 30+ card deck and we only had 30 minutes to make it. Normally I would have been nervous about this but with the articles Cecillbill put up on the Pojo forums late last night (Thanks for the information Cecillbill!) about the civilisations for the Sealed Boosters tournaments, I knew exactly what cards to look out for. I managed to pull some pretty nice cards from my boosters and so did the rest of us, except Andy, who pretty much got rubbish from his! I sorted my deck out within 20 minutes and here's the deck list for it!

"Survivor Rush Mayhem"

Deck no: 30

Fire: 8

Blazosaur Q x 4

Bombat, General of Speed x 2

Rikabu, the Dismantler

Kip Chippotto

Nature: 8

Crow Winger x 2

Enchanted Soil

Moon Horn

Smash Horn Q

Balloonshroom Q

Nocturnal Giant

Avalanche Giant

Darkness: 7

Wisp Howler, Shadow of Tears x 3

Gigaling Q x 2

Jewel Spider

Vashuna, Sword Dancer

Light: 7

Calgo, Vizier of Rainclouds x 3

Le Quist, the Oracle x 2

La Guile, Seeker of Skyfire

Gallia Zohl, Iron Guardian Q

(**Note: The water cards I pulled from the boosters weren't great and while there were 1 or 2 cards that I was interested to try, I didn't see the point in adding them in!**)

I managed to test this deck out against Andy to see whether in worked while I had 10 minutes left and won him 2-0 fairly easily which gave me some confidence going into my 1st duel.

(Tournament details were as follows......5 rounds of Swiss, best 2 out of 3)

Round 1 vs Little Neil

This little kid I had played in a warm-up match with my constructed deck and didn't prove to be too much trouble but with it being a limited deck, I couldn't let my guard down in case he suprised me. The kid was originally from Australia so his accent came through quite strongly and was flashing his 03.2004 promo Explosive Fighter Ucarn card, which was annoying me since I really wanted it myself, but after some initial distractions we got underway. 1st duel proved to be a bit easy for me as I got a good hand and rushed him from turn 2 to turn 5 and finished him off pretty quick. The 2nd duel was slightly tougher and he got out some nice cards like Vashuna, Le Quist etc. and was playing well but I managed to rush him a bit again and with the help of a lucky draw to get Bombat on the field, managed to finish him off. He was slightly disappointed but said to him he played well and he cheered up a bit.

2-0

Round 2 vs Little Screamer

I seriously couldn't remember the lad's name (Sorry m8) but the one thing I clearly remembered from the duel was that when he heard that I was playing him, he screamed out loud and scared the crap out of some of the other duelists, including myself. When I came over to sit across from him, he was half laughing/screeching, which was freaking me out a bit and just told him to calm down and regardless of the result, enjoy himself. He eventually calmed down and got down to business. 1st duel was a bit slow as both of us got poor hands but I was able to take full advantage of the situation by getting some good attackers later on and it was pretty much the same situation in the 2nd duel, except it was a slight bit quicker. I lost a far few shields in the duels but nothing that put me in any immediate danger. The kid was so what relieved to have finished dueling me and went on his way to trade some cards.

4-0

Round 3 vs Darren

With my 2 previous wins under my belt, the tournament was getting pretty fierce and in the 3rd round we were left with 4 duelists with no losses and they just happened to go against each other, with my older bro facing off against Micheal and myself facing off against this unknown duelist. I also played this guy in a warm-up match and he proved to be quite a good duelist so I was cautious when playing him in this match. 1st duel was intense and went all the way to the wire and I just managed to get Bombat on the field again from my last shield the following turn and took out all his shields in 1 turn (sickening!). 2nd duel I got a pretty bad hand but he got a great hand and from turn 4 onwards he got some good creatures on the field and took full control of the battle zone and I ended up losing pretty convincingly. The deciding 3rd duel was however not as dramatic as I ended up rushing him and he didn't have a chance and I went on to win, 2-1. Very tough match and a match I was certainly glad to finish!

6-1

Round 4 vs Jonathan (a.k.a my older bro)

This match up was coming a mile off and I was not looking forward to it as my older bro was in fact my main competition in the tournament along with Micheal (Jon won 2-0 over hm in the previous round) and with both of us on 3 wins each, it was gonna be pretty difficult against my bro as both of us had read Cecillbill's articles and we both built strong decks from out cards so it was gonna be a tough match. Pressure was also on us as whoever won the match was pretty much assured 1st place in the tournament so everything was on the line! 1st duel saw myself take an overwhelming lead on him by using Le Quist quite strategically and tapping his creatures and it lead to me taking the lead 1-0. In the 2nd duel, I got a taste of my own medicine and had the same tactic used against me and found it too difficult to counter. In the 3rd and final duel, it went all the way to the finals shields but Jon was able to take better control of the battle zone and had stronger creatures available to finish me off and take the win. I wasn't that disappointed in losing since it was to my older bro but no doubt, I will get my REVENGE!

7-3

Round 5 vs Micheal (Grudge Match!)

Now this match was gonna be interesting as I faced Micheal in the last tournament when it was constructed and I destroyed him 2-0 and since then has wanted total revenge on me and what better way to do it then to deny me 2nd place behind my bro and so I was determined to protect my place! 1st duel went pretty badly for me as Le Quist and the slayers played a big part in me losing this duel as I couldn't get anything decent on the field with it being sent to the graveyard or back to my hand. The 2nd duel I got a great hand while his hand was abysmal and so I got to rush him for the win. In the 3rd and final duel for me in the tournament, it was starting off identical to the 1st duel, which made me worry straight away so I changed my strategy and luckily enough, Micheal fell for it and I ended up controlling the field from then on and ended up winning 2-1. Was a great duel and I know he was disappointed but hey.....there's always next time!

Final score: 9-4

At the end of it all, I managed to get 4 out of 5 wins and came 2nd behind my older bro, who came 1st (congrats), which I was pretty proud of considering it was my 1st Sealed Boosters tournament. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good tournament and while the deck was completely limited to SotMA cards, I thought it was quite enjoyable and challenging. My bro and I between us managed to get 7 JDC Giliam, the Tormentors, 4 Twin-Cannon Skyterrors and 2 JDC alternative art Explosive Fighter Ucarns along with 2 boosters, which we were well happy with. Now to Pro's and Con's.....

Pro's:

Finishing 2nd

Getting 2 Fighter Dual Fangs

Got loads of Promo's

Cons:

Losing to my brother!!

Thxs to Lee for judging the tournament and I hope to see everyone soon! If anyone wants to get in touch with me over the report, just contact me at mexflash@hotmail.com !!

Rob Cummins