Tournament
Report
The Place:
Gamelot
The Time:
Sunday,
February 7, 2005
The Weapon of My Choosing:
Fire/Darkness
Human Assault
To the Right:
Joel begins round one
against Shane –
My son (close up in the blue) prepares his shields to off against face Alex.
Joel faces an army of blockers against Shane. Eventually, Joel will make a miraculous recovery to win the match!
Justin’s tiny Beast Folk take a pounding from Alex’s Explosive Fighter Ucarn and company!
Ding Ding!
Round One!
Emmanuel
I’ve never played Emmanuel and didn’t exactly know what to expect. I took noticed that his cards where sleeved, but a little worn so I could tell he’s played quite a bit casually at the least. He appeared cool, confident and ready to win.
Deck: Mono-Black Aggro
Key Cards Played: Marrow Ooze and Death Smoke
First game Emmanuel started out by slapping down Marrow Ooze. He seemed to choose to keep his Marrow Ooze for defense, feeling out my deck and seeing what I was going to play. Within a few turns I had forced through to his shields a few humans. More black came into play from his hand however, each one was promptly met by a Volcanic Arrows. Soon enough a Armored Blaster Valdios came into play on my side of the board and the first game was over in my favor.
Second game Emmanuel pulled off two Marrow Ooze in rapid succession. Apparently choosing to shift to a more aggressive form, Emmanuel shot both Marrow Ooze immediately. This eliminated me over two shields and the game had barely started. Despite his quick start, as the Marrow Ooze only gets one attack, I now had more creatures in play then he did. A few well placed Rothus, the Traveler and Volcanic Arrows rapidly ended this game for Emmanuel and took the win.
Match Result: 2/0
Tournament Record: 1/0 (2/0 games)
Ding
Ding! Round Two!
Tony
Unfortunately for Tony, he had a number of odds stacked against him coming into this game. First, he’s my stepson and I was the one driving him home – so he was already risky a walk home if he beat me – lol! Actually, the truth of the matter is Tony is a pretty good player, though he does not have anywhere near the experience I can claim to. In addition, I was the one who designed his deck and knew it just as well as he did, if not better.
Deck: Mono-Light Blocker (Alcadeias Version)
Key Cards Played: La Ura Giga
Game one was pretty cut and dry. Immediately was able to play La Ura Giga and soon after a Ruby Grass. I attacked with an early Brawler Zyler figuring he would block with the Ruby Grass – I guess I didn’t know him as well as I hoped. Instead he allow me to hit his shield. Critical miss here, though. As he turn passed he forget to attack my tapped Brawler Zyler, allowing me yet another attack. Now I was able to quickly kill anything larger that hit the table thanks to a hearty mix of Death Smoke, Rothus, the Traveler, and Volcanic Arrows. Game one was over with me as the winner.
The next game ran pretty similar as once again I never played anything larger than an Immortal Baron Vorg. The amazing thing that occurred was an impossible four Death Smokes drawn in a row. Needless to say, I quickly won this one also.
Match Result: 2/0
Tournament Record: 2/0 (4/0 games)
Ding
Ding! Round Three!
Alex
This was Alex’s first Duel Masters tournament as he was very excited and having a blast. As I understand it, he had managed to battle his way to a 2/0 record as of this point of the tournament. As he sat across from me his excitement remained, but his confidence in winning rapidly faded. I told him, “It’s not over until it’s over – you never know who will win” and we began our first game.
Deck: Mono-Fire Mixed Tactic
Key Cards Played: Deadly Fighter Braid Claw
Game one I opened my hand and thought I might have trouble pulling this one out. Two Armored Blaster Valdios, an Armored Groblav, a Death Smoke and a Terror Pit. Things didn’t look good, but I wasn’t about to let Alex know that. Alex immediately played a Deadly Fighter Braid Claw and quickly began assaulting me with it. I drew and still didn’t have anything to play. The Deadly Fighter Braid Claw continued to assault me as I was not able to drop my first human until my 3rd turn. Alex had pretty much run out of gas by this point and I had been delivered a handful of cards from my shields. In a flash the game turned around on Alex and I was able to finish him off will a couple of quick assaults from an Armored Blaster Valdios and some well placed creature removal.
The second game did not fair in Alex’s favor at all. He was not able to play anything until turn three. By then, anything that hit the board I was able to quickly kill. It was not long Rothus, the Traveler blew away the last of his creatures and Alex was forced met his demise.
Match Result: 2/0
Tournament Record: 3/0 (6/0 games)
Ding
Ding! Round Four!
Joel
He maybe one of smallest players at this tournament, but Joel is nothing to sneeze at. I’m sure we will see Joel vaulting through the ranks over the next few months – and he seems to be a pretty good kid to boot. We were playing for 1st place and neither of us were going to go easy.
Deck: Nature/Darkness Agro
Key Cards Played: Chaos Worm
The first game was a rough and tumble, back and forth endurance test in which both of our decks pounded the heck out of each other. Every time I would play a threat he would eliminate it and vice versa. Finally, I ran out of steam and he was able to throw down and threat and take the game.
Next game Joel never got off the starting line. The few threats he threw down I quickly eliminated and all five of his shields were gone in moments.
The last game was as tough as the first only this time neither of us were able to put up quite as good of a defense. Within a short time both of our shield zones had been reduced to zero. Despite this, I had managed to take out all of his creatures and now had three of my own. The turn passed to him and he faced three creatures, no shields and no defense. Later he told me his only hope was a Fighter Duel Fang and a Chaos Worm in hand. If only he could draw a Beast Folk or Parasite Worm he could take the game. Sure enough, he drew a Horrid Worm, evo-ed it into a Chaos Worm and swung for the win!
Match Result: 1/2
Tournament Record: 3/1 (7/2 games)
This knocked me down to 3rd place! Such shame, but what a blast!