DUEL MASTERS

Andrew Phillips

Galactic Quest-Lawrenceville

1-8-05

I started playing Duel Masters when it debuted in the U.S. I took a break from the game around the time Evo-Crushinators was released. Now we have a large following and a diverse metagame for our area and I play at Galactic Quest and T&T Toys in Atlanta. You may recognize the store name if you read the other tournament reports that are posted on Pojo. Before you start inundating me with emails; yes, I have met Lee Sandow; no, I haven’t dueled him since the base set was released. My opinion of Lee is that he is a very competent duelist that recognizes the synergy that exists in the game and has extremely valid opinions on cards in the environment (Lee is also correct that Light is by far the worst civilization!) I am primarily a Magic player, but Duel Masters attracted me not because it was a simplified version of Magic, but a game based entirely on tempo and using card advantage to the fullest. I believe that Duel Masters gets an undeserved reputation for being the “little kid Magic” or an “inferior Yu-Gi-oh”. Duel Masters is similar to both games in some aspects, but it has mechanics and strategy all its own. The deck that I played this past weekend tries to abuse the mechanics in the game to create a consistent mana curve and game-winning tempo. I used that theory of controlling the tempo of a match to build an aggressive tempo-disruption deck. I only spent a day on the theory but I came up with a list that led to a victory on its first attempt. Here is my deck list that won on Saturday 1-8-05 at Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville.

Liquid Beast

Water

4 x Aqua Hulcus

4 x Aqua Vehicle

4 x Aqua Guard

4 x Spiral Gate

4 x Corile

4 x Crystal Lancer

Nature

4 x Burning Mane

4 x Bronze-Arm Tribe

4 x Barkwhip, the Smasher

4 x Fear Fang
2 x Natural Snare

I’ll briefly go over my card choices and explain why I chose these particular cards over others.

Aqua Guard – I chose Aqua Guard because he is a cheap blocker with the added bonus of being a Liquid Person for the Crystal Lancer evolution. I was having trouble with fast Fire decks or decks that had a better tempo start. Aqua Guard allows me to deal with the first turn Braid claw or Marrow-Ooze and allows me to recover against the mirror match if the opponent goes first and has a great aggressive start.

Aqua Vehicle – This guy is obviously sub-par, but I needed consistent creatures on turn two and he also is a Liquid Person. After the tournament he was replaced with Aqua Jolter.

Aqua Hulcus – This guy is a tempo dream since he is relatively cheap and replaces himself when played. In a game where every card is mana and some difficult decisions must be made, this guy is a staple in every Water deck. Because this game is based on mana curves and tempo theories, Aqua Hulcus shines because the card advantage that is built into him. If you go first, you miss the first draw step, Hulcus allows you to make up that card disadvantage by replacing the card you couldn’t draw. I also like the synergy that Hulcus has with Crystal Lancer. The opponent is much more likely not to bounce a Lancer with a Hulcus underneath it and this allows for some breathing room during an intense game.

Spiral Gate - Played in every Water deck, great for tempo advantage and tricks. Don’t be afraid to use this card second turn against a slower opponent or to simply disrupt an opponent if you don’t have a second turn drop.

Corile - I’ve talked to a number of people who believe that he isn’t really worth putting into decks. I see Corile as the ultimate embodiment of tempo control. The placing of a creature back on top of the deck is HUGE!! This helps buy a turn and is tech against evolution creatures. I certainly don’t believe that Corile should be played in every Water deck, but he should be considered as a suitable card in any deck that wants to use Water.

Crystal Lancer – This is one of the best evolution creatures in the game currently. He is an unblockable, 8000 power double breaking monster that combos well with Aqua Hulcus. All for 6 mana. Freakin’ Nuts.

Burning Mane – Now we turn to the nature side of the deck. This guy is the second in the deck that costs two and has the correct power for his cost. This guy helps insure the mana curve and is the Beast Folk necessary for evolving.

Bronze-Arm Tribe – This guy does belong in every Nature deck. This man is amazing at every thing he costs 3, he puts mana directly into play, he is easy to evolve, and nobody wants to bounce this man back to your hand, ever! He should always be played on turn three regardless of what else is in your hand (including Aqua Hulcus!).

Barkwhip, The Smasher – A great evolution creature for this deck because of his cheap cost, decent effect, and that half the creatures in this deck evolve into him. You may consider removing one of these for a Fighter Dual-Fang if you happen to have one to put in.

Fear Fang – Now I know this guy sucks almost as much as Aqua Vehicle, but it was all I had that was a cheap Beast Folk and decent power-to-cost ratio. He has since been replaced with Torcon, the shield triggering beast boy.

Natural Snare – I only play two because I don’t like having to pay 6 to destroy a creature, even with the shield trigger, I believe it is too expensive for this deck and will probably be cutting these out entirely.

After reading the list above and why I made these card choices you are probably asking yourself, why doesn’t he have Mana Nexus or Crystal Paladin or Fighter Dual Fang? The reason I don’t run the Mana Nexus is that I don’t fell that it is right for this aggressive build. It costs 4 mana to use a resource from your mana zone and doesn’t function as an aggressive card. I understand the benefits of a shield trigger that replaces itself with a potentially useful card, but I believe card in this deck must function as an aggressive or disrupting force. Yes I know that an excellent shield trigger can slow an opponent down, but it doesn’t help break their shields any faster now does it? Mana Nexus is perfect for slower control decks and shield manipulation decks, but is not needed in an aggressive deck. Crystal Paladin is in my opinion inferior to Crystal Lancer because of the lower power and isn’t a double-breaker. I know people will email me saying that I am “retarded” for not playing him, but I stick to my guns on this one. I didn’t want to play Fighter Dual-Fang because I already had eight evolution creatures in my deck and didn’t need another one, even though he is a really great evolution creature.

Here is a simple rundown of the tournament, I promise in the future to have better coverage and provide a play-by-play feature.

Round 1

My first opponent was James playing a combination of Fire and Darkness. He had all the typical kill spells you would expect; Terror Pit, Tornado Flame, Crimson Hammer, Rothus, Death Smoke, etc. I won the first game with an almost perfect curve where I was able to use all my available mana each turn. During the second game things were going my way until I started breaking shields, his shield triggers were amazing. I believe it was double Tornado Flame, Double Terror Pit, and a Dark Reversal for Rothus, The Traveler. Needless to say I was beaten by sheer card advantage and couldn’t recover fast enough. The third game went smoothly with only a little hiccup when I didn’t cast anything stellar on turn four.

Round 2

The name of this opponent escapes me at the moment; I definitely will try to find your name next time. This opponent was playing a Light/Darkness deck and I swept the match and prepared for round three.

Round 3

I played Austin, who if you’ve read Lee’s reports, is the arch-nemesis to Mr. Sandow (Correct me if I’m wrong Lee). I’m trying to remember what Austin played but I believe that it was Darkness and Fire, or it could have been just Darkness, so if I got it wrong Austin don’t rip me a new one. I remember the Darkness cards because he had Horrendous Worm, Chaos Worm, Terror Pits, Mongrel Man, etc. Our match was very back and forth with it coming down to the third game and I just got the nuts hand and out tempo-ed Austin before he could recover enough to kill all my men.

Round 4

The final round had me paired against Justin (not Justin Florio, for those of you asking), who was the head judge of this particular tournament. Justin’s deck consisted of a combination of Water, Light, and Nature. I believe that Justin splashed Light for that game-winning Holy Awe and a few other choice cards. His Nature was typical aggressive Nature; cards such as Bronze-Arm Tribe, Fighter Dual-Fang, Torcon, Natural Snare, Barkwhip, and Mana Nexus. His Water consisted of Spiral Gate, Aqua Hulcus, Crystal Lancer and a few other cards that I’m forgetting. The first game I had a great tempo curve and managed to squeeze out the last few shields needed for the W. The second game wasn’t much better for Mr. Justin; he had the dreaded hand of all Evolution creatures and nothing in play to evolve. My hand wasn’t stellar, but because of Justin’s awful hand I could take my time and not have to put as much pressure on him early game. I do believe his starting hand was like two Barkwhips and a Dual-Fang. To top it all off his first creature of that game was an Aqua Hulcus. Boo.

I certainly enjoyed playing this deck for this tournament and have since then made some changes. With Justin’s help I got the Torcons and Aqua Jolters that I needed to help make the deck more consistent and a better late game threat. Anyone that is in the Atlanta area for Duel Masters, you owe yourself to come to Galactic Quest and play in a sanctioned event. The prize support at GQ is phenomenal! We receive a large amount of booster packs for the top three finishers as well as a slew of promos just for entering. Galactic Quest by far has the best prize support for any of the Atlanta based stores that support Duel Masters. I also encourage anyone that is thinking of this design to try and experimenting and emailing me their results. I believe that the core of the deck is aggression, but individual card choices vary and I would like to know what other people figured out what the tech was in their area.

Here are some gratuitous snap shots of people from Galactic Quest so that you can put a face to some infamous names.

This man proudly displaying his stuff is none other than Card of the Day reviewer Mr. Lee Sandow. Yeah, I was let down too when I met him. Just kidding Lee…

The person to Lee’s left is James who I played first round and the person to Lee’s right is the Head Judge Justin who I played fourth round.

Here’s a shot of Lee playing Justin in the Survivors Release Tournament. I will hopefully have a report ready before the end of the week about the release.

This here is Kyle Puttkammer who owns Galactic Quest and has played in a few tournaments for Duel Masters. He has a befuddled look on his face due to the fact the Kyle has never seen a camera before and believes that they steal your soul.

That’s it for this week. Please email me with any questions or comments that you have and get more people interested in this amazing game. Beware his taco flavored kisses!!!

Peace Out!

Andrew Phillips

magic707@hotmail.com