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Duel Masters Tournament Report
Steven Cantrell
Galactic Quest in Buford, Georgia
Saturday, July 30, 2005
Five Dollar Entry Fee
Twenty-two Duelists in 14under Division
Six Swiss Rounds, Top 4 Cut
 

This is it. The big day. All or nothing. I was nervous as heck the morning of the first Invitation Circuit in Georgia. About 20 people were already at the new GQ location when I got there around 11am. The hour before the tournament started seemed to fly by. I got in a couple practice duels, pulled a trade or two, and filled out the decklist sheet. Take a look at what I decided to run:

Water [20]
3x Emeral
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Corile
4x Illusionary Merfolk
2x Thrash Crawler
2x Energy Stream

Nature [12]
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
2x Cryptic Totem
2x Faerie Life
4x Mana Nexus

Darkness [12]
3x Bloody Squito
4x Locomotiver
4x Terror Pit
2x Lost Soul

Light [04]
4x Holy Awe

Total: 48 Cards
Mana Curve: 4.16

Built this about a month ago and been tweaking things ever since. It usually runs smoothly once the draw power and mana acceleration get going. My preferable start is with Emeral on turn two setting something nasty. I like waiting for a one-turn-knockout, maybe picking off a shield or two before then. Overall the cards have great synergy together. Hopefully “The Purple Deckout” would behave today.

So after some furious Terror Pit hogging and speculation, round one pairings were announced to kick of our Invitation Circuit. It’s time to d-d-d-d-d-duel! (Couldn’t resist, sorry.)

Round One: Vs. Joshua Geary (Blue/Red Aggro)
My first opponent was somebody I had not met before. He didn’t appear to be much of a threat, but I could not afford any mistakes this early on.

Joshua played mostly blockers early on with a couple attacking threats. It didn’t take long for me to have control of the game and get him topdecking. I took my time in both duels to set up the shield zone, summon a massive army of creatures, and go for the guaranteed win. Even played two Merfolk on the same turn once. I felt kinda sorry for having to pummel the guy, but there’s no room for mercy in such an important tournament.

Record: 2-0
Cumulative Record: 1-0 matches, 2-0 duels
His key cards: Aqua Surfer, Pyrofighter Magnus, Blockers
 

Round Two: Vs. Justin Florio (Water/Fire/Nature Awe splash)
Oh great. Neither of us wanted to face off this soon. Any match against Florio would be one of my biggest tests all day, and the pairings said it would happen now…

Quite simply, I drew the right stuff and he could not. Once my field was a decent size (3-4 small creatures) I developed the strategy of going for a few shields before he could hit me with Searing Wave. Played Merfolk several times and smacked down Florio’s 5 card hand with Lost Soul at one point. Everything worked out for me to easily take the match.

Record: 2-0
Cumulative Record: 2-0 matches, 4-0 duels
His key cards: Aqua Hulcus, Searing Wave, Bronze-Arm Tribe
 

Round Three: Vs. Stephen Fordham (Black/Red/Green/Yellow Deckout)
This is not a match-up I was thrilled about. Stephen made a rough copy of Florio’s deckout creation from about two months ago. Every creature in my deck has summoning sickness, making it very difficult to survive a slew of board destruction.

Game one went badly. Stephen got out Propeller Mutant early and kept summoning Phal Eega to reuse Ghost Touch. My hand suffered, so I lost the first duel. Before game two I developed a plan to handle all of his creature kill. Basically I waited to summon two creatures on the same turn, as well as hitting his hand with Lost Soul and Locomotiver. Around turn ten Cryptic Totem came out to clean up. We begin the pivotal final game tied 1-1. Once again, my strategy for handling Stephen’s deck came through. Cryptic Totem was incredible here because about half his shields were unusable triggers. Won by summoning something like three creatures on the same turn and he couldn’t kill enough of them. Match ends in my favor after about forty minutes of tough duels.

Record: 2-1
Cumulative Record: 3-0 matches, 6-1 duels
His key cards: Ghost Touch, Rothus the Traveler, Mana Nexus, Phal Eega

Round Four: Vs. Matt Gracek (Black/Blue/Green/Red Control)
Somehow my camera screwed up Matt’s picture. Anyway, we were both undefeated up to this point. Matt beat me last week with a lucky pull late in game three. Would this match spell sweet revenge or a disastrous defeat?

From here on my notes get worse and worse. Forgive the lack of detail. Alright, back to match. I started off well in the first game. Managed to avoid any hugely damaging Searing Waves from Matt and took the duel fairly easily. The next time around wasn’t as favorable. It basically came down to Matt pulling his Merfolk/Lost Soul before me. I enter game three against Matt for the second week in a row. It comes down to the wire where either one of us could have taken the match. For the second week in a row, Matt pulls a couple good topdecks to steal a rather anticlimactic win via Cryptic Totem. I’m left with a disappointing loss…

Record: 1-2
Cumulative Record: 3-1 matches, 7-3 duels
His key cards: Lost Soul, Illusionary Merfolk, Cryptic Totem, Searing Wave

Round Five: Vs. Brandon Schmidt (Black/Blue Control)
I was looking forward to dueling Brandon sometime today. He’s a good duelist, but doesn’t have much tournament experience. This match would be interesting to see how I could handle good old Black/Blue.

Brandon quickly set the pace with a turn-two Propeller Mutant. Throughout the duel we both kept summoning threats and doing our best to deal with the other’s threats. Eventually he had one blocker and no shields left, while I have a lone Emeral. Brandon also has Lancer and some other stuff to finish me off on his turn. Holy Awe was in my hand though, so I just play it to tap his blocker. Then Emeral swings for the uncontested win. A streak of bad luck in our next duel hit Brandon. He drew nothing but Aqua Guard for about five straight turns, partly due to my steady Corile’ing. Cryptic Totem sealed the deal by leading my army of creatures through his shields without resistance. Chalk up another win. 

Record: 2-0
Cumulative Record: 4-1 matches, 9-3 duels
His key cards: Crystal Paladin, Aqua Hulcus, Death Smoke

Round Six: Vs. Justin Fordham (Blue/Red Aggro)
Another extremely important match here. Winning guarantees my spot in the Top 4, while a loss could be the end of my day. Fortunately I already knew Justin’s deck strategy having helped him build it earlier.

Here’s the abbreviated recount of our match from memory: Justin tries to rush but falls short. I get him topdecking, game over. Kooc Pollon and Pyrofighter Magnus did cause me some grief though. Overall a much easier win than I was expecting against Justin.

Record: 2-0
Cumulative Record: 5-1 matches, 11-3 duels
His key cards: Aqua Jolter, Kooc Pollon, Pyrofighter Magnus

Top Four Semifinals: Vs. Brandon Schmidt
Brandon snuck into the top four with a 4-2 match record. I was confident having beaten him earlier, but knew this was a must-win situation. Florio and Gracek were paired up in the other semifinal.

This match is a blur. Brandon seemed determined to get the upset. We went all the way to duel three here. I took the first while he pulled out Paladin to win number two. In the end Brandon was topdecking, but I still only had a small hand advantage over him. That turned out to be enough though. I got more attackers than he could handle (maybe from Merfolk?) and Mana Nexus provided shield security. At that time the victory seemed strangely surreal. But Florio won his semifinal as well, and this tournament wasn’t over just yet…

Record: 2-1
Cumulative Record: 6-1 matches, 13-4 duels

Top Four Finals: Vs. Justin Florio
Everything comes down to this. Two games to decide the Invitation Circuit champion. One of us takes a trip to LA while the other stays at home. To describe the situation here as nerve-racking would be a severe understatement.

In Florio’s own words, “You f---ing raped me.” The entire match was over after about ten minutes. Corile + Merfolk over and over = pwnage. Cryptic Totem spectacularly ended game two by hitting Mana Nexus and Holy Awe that couldn’t be activated. Then my other creatures attacked his last shields and dealt the final blow. Florio took the loss well even though this was his only shot at the trip before he turns fifteen.

Record: 2-0
Cumulative Record: 7-1 matches, 15-4 duels

The Aftermath: Boo-yah! I’m going to Los Angeles for the Continental Championships! Aside from winning the biggest tournament this year and getting the trip, the prize support was excellent. I ended up with 2 Aqua Hulcus, 5 Terror Pit, and 18 Thundercharge packs. Justin Florio ended up second of course. I believe Matt beat Brandon for third place in our division.

Props:
- Winning the trip to LA!
- Matt trading me his promo Hulcus for 6 packs
- Now I have everything from Thundercharge I wanted
- Slack beating Andrew Philips to win the 15+ division
- A nice boost to my DCI ranking soon

Slops:
- Lee’s next tournament will be his last
- Might have to miss the Five Civilizations on August 13th
- Still need the secret puzzle piece for Thundercharge
 

That wraps up another great tournament. Feel free to contact me at Smcman7@aol.com or on AIM at Smcman7 about anything Duel Masters. With the trip secured, I probably won’t be going to as many tournaments from now on. Expect a report maybe every other week or so. Till next time…