Duel Masters Tournament Report

Steven Cantrell
Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville, Georgia
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Five Dollar Entry Fee
About 16 Duelists
Matches best 2 of 3; 4 Swiss Rounds

I’m back with yet another tournament report from Galactic Quest for you to enjoy! Saturday morning before the tournament I spent time testing out other deck ideas because I was planning on running something other than my Murky Riptide. The best I could come up with was a fun deck that abuses shield triggers.

When I got to Galactic Quest at noon, I borrowed the Snares needed to complete my new “Advanced Trig” deck. Then I got some much-needed testing in against Stephan and Matt to figure out what the heck I was doing. Literally right before the tournament I whimped out and decided to stick with my beloved Black/Blue control. So here is the one and only, the Murky Riptide:

Darkness [20]

4x Bloody Squito

4x Horrid Worm

4x Locomotiver

4x Death Smoke

4x Terror Pit

Water [20]

4x Aqua Guard

4x Aqua Hulcus

4x Corile

2x Crystal Paladin

2x Crystal Lancer

4x Brain Serum

Total: 40

Mana Curve: 3.8

Today would be a JDC tournament, meaning that there are promos up for grabs, but the DCI value is only 8k instead of the normal 16k. I used the exact same version of my deck as last week at the Five Civs. Enough with the boring intro, let’s get started….

Round One: Vs David Fordham (Nature/Darkness)

This kid is about twelve years old, but better than the other noobs here. He used an interesting semi-control deck with a good bit of mana gain.

Okay, both duels this kid liked to give me more mana via Natural Snare. I can get a decent size hand, so allowing me more mana in which to use my cards is asking for trouble. David also used Bronze-Arm and Poisonous Mushroom to jumpstart his own mana pool. Both times control took over mid-game and worked to perfection. Making kids topdeck is fun, yet I feel like the big bully at the same time. I won both duels without too much trouble.

Record: 2-0

Round Two: Vs Stephan Slak (Nature/Fire)

Slak took a well-deserved win last week at the Five Civilizations event. For this tournament he threw together a red/green deck featuring Barkwhip, Valdios, and some destruction.

First duel he rushed me quickly with Barkwhips down to just one shield. From there my hand advantage took over to restore order. Then Stephan crushed three or four of my creatures with Searing Wave and I almost lost control. In the end I played a Hulcus, drew Lancer, and evolved to finish the duel. Second round Slak rushed again but with Zylers and a Mane. I luckily drew a good amount of blockers early on to handle them until Corile came in to screw him. So Stephen was de-throned but he put up a good fight without his usual deck.

Record: 4-0

Round Three: Vs Matt Gracek (Light/Water D-Cutter)

Matt #2 as Lee calls him is somewhat of the resident idiot, but he’s a good guy. Today Matt was running Diamond Cutter that he had no business messing with.

These duels were not overly exciting so excuse this brief description: Both duels Matt got tons of creatures out but failed to finish me off properly. He made a few mistakes that allowed Paladin and Lancer to rape him.

Record: 6-0

Round Four: Vs Austin Ladshaw  (Fire/Darkness)

Austin is one of the top duelists here. He runs the revamped “Incinerator” which attempts to kill everything you summon then deck you out. We both had six points so whoever won would also be the tournament victor.

First game he simply failed to control my field while I kept his options low. Next duel my creatures were lined up and killed one after one. I did manage to get Austin down to zero shields but he succeeded in decking me out. Before the third duel to decide who won, we agreed to split the prize but still duel for points and such. So we started off about even, but Horrid Worms and Locomotivers became too much for Austin to handle. Eventually a squad of attacking Coriles destroyed his shields. His valiant attempt fell short, but Austin is still a great duelist who I have utmost respect for (okay, now I’m just sucking up).

Record: 8-1

The Aftermath:

This was a darn good day, but so is every day that I get to spend in the presence of the Almighty Lee Sandow (who told us Yugioh stories today, don’t ask). My prize for winning was 4 packs from random sets. Look forward to another report next weekend, but after that I might not be able to duel as often due to scheduling conflicts with my soccer team. And now for the quote of the day, which I will do whenever I can remember something good.

Lee: I don’t want Austin to lose because I have to drive him home.

Austin: But I’m always in a good mood.

Lee: Oh no you’re NOT!

Props:

Great stuff in my prizes, four foils

Winning for the third time

Getting some good trades

Justin for running the tournaments

Lee got 20+ Holy Awes to fill up 2 binder pages

Slops:

Not having the gut to play something else

Once again my name is Steven Cantrell. Email is Smcman7@aol.com and my screename on the Realms is Thrash-494. If you get a chance, come out and duel at Galactic Quest. www.galacticquest.com DCI tournaments are every Saturday starting around noon.