Hello again duelists! This is a tournament review for this past weekend’s regional in Indianapolis, Indiana. I don’t normally travel to Indy that much for regional events, but I had the weekend off from work, so I figured I would give it a go. I get to my good friends place about midnight (lol), and we leave early morning, which sucks for me due to the lack of sleep… but nothing stops me from going to a regional I guess!

So after the roughly two and a half hour car trip from basically Columbus, OH, we arrive in Indy on staff is usually on top of every ruling and always tries to help players whenever possible. Props go out to Chris; he’s one of my personal favorites when it comes to judging. I was however disappointed in their vending. It was one sole person, with roughly one filled table top showcase filled with cards all over the place, poorly organized and the prices were far from accurate. The prices he tried to buy cards at were also FAR from fair. He offered me 8 dollars on my Glow Up Bulb, I think I’ll pass chief, but thanks anyway.

ROUND 1

ME (Blackwings) vs. Brian Evans (Hopeless Dragon)

This was the first regional I have ever played Blackwings in. It’s pretty much an auto pilot deck which takes little skill to use, so I figured I would dream crush and use such a sack deck to rid people of their possible invitation to Nationals. I sit down and wait for Briand to come to his seat. The first thing I look for when I play someone is how they arrange themselves. Do they come prepared with mat, notepad etc etc. Brian sat down with all of the above, so I figured I would have to take him seriously. However, the second I saw a Red Eyes Black Metal Dragon hit the field, I knew I would win this round pretty easily. I win the round 2-0 and move on to round 2. Brian was very courteous though, and I did like the originality aspect he tried when building his own version of Hopeless Dragon.

ROUND 2

ME (BW) vs. James Barrer (Blackwings)

It sure didn’t take me long to run into a mirror match in this eight round regional event, that’s for sure. James approached my table, and didn’t seem to know how to act when he saw me. I don’t know if that was good or bad considering I don’t remember ever having to play him before, but I could be wrong. This match went to game 3. Once play that stuck out to me, was when I had both a Gale and a Shura on the field and a facedown bluff. He summoned Sirocco, and FORGOT to use his own Siroccos effect to pump him up above a possible Kalut counter from my hand, and just straight up attacked my Shura. I obviously did have a Kalut in my hand, and proceeded to smash face and win the game after that point. Little plays like that can make or break a game; obviously the better players utilize such plays 9 times out of 10, as compared to the average player. But no complaints here, I win and move on 2-0!

ROUND 3

ME (BW) vs. Cody King (Gravekeeper’s)

I had seen Cody during round 2 when I was walking around, and already knew that I was going to be going up against GK’s. Game 1 I never touch his life points, and have to go -2 just to get some sort of field presence during the game. I get my face smashed and go on to game 2. My side deck contained 3 copies of Goldd, Wu Lord of Dark World because I was seeing a ton of GK while I was walking around before registration was over. So obviously I side them in against Cody. Game 2 I open with a Goldd in my hand. I’m loving it if he goes turn 1 Royal Tribute. I T-set and pass. He does his turn, gets out Necrovalley and such, sets two in the back and a spy, then passed. I draw a second Goldd. I’m thinking to myself, if he just Royal Tributes once, I win the game for sure. He clears my field and hits me with a Recruiter for the second time. I draw… and draw my third Goldd! Now I’m mad, because he has only 2 cards in hand, and I have yet to see a Tribute. I lose game 2 just as bad and go on 2-1 in the regional. I come to find out through conversation with him that he had actually sided out all three copies of Royal Tribute game 2, so I was up a creek without a paddle, or a boat for that matter. Oh well.

ROUND 4

ME (BW) vs. Tyler Frick (Gravekeeper’s)

Like I said earlier, there was a ton of GK in this event. This was this kids first regional I come to find out, so playing GK made sense to me. One of the cheapest decks to build minus the Duality’s, and it can win. I beat Tyler 2-0. Nothing special happened here worth mentioning, just a normal sack courtesy of Blackwings.

ROUND 5

ME (BW, 3-1) vs. Jesse Scarbough (X-Sabers)

I was kind of surprised to run into Sabers at this event for some reason. I didn’t see any at all during pre-registration, nor in between rounds while I walked around. Unfortunately for me, I could not contend with his Saber build, and I lose. He had an answer for almost every play I tried. Basically he drew the God Hand two games in a row. Cold Wave or something similar, Boggart, Fulhelm and Faultroll. Obviously I can’t do anything against that. So I suck up what little pride I had left and go on to round 6.

ROUND 6

ME (BW, 3-2) vs. Dan Coffelt (Blackwings)

Dan was a nice guy when he first sat down. Not so much later on as you’ll read. Game 1 I have complete control, 2 monsters on the field, a solemn warning face down, and he has 1 card in hand. He draws, plays MST, then Dark Hole and passed. I draw Book of Moon, set it and pass. He Draws Kalut, summons and attacks. Before that attack, our life points were me at 7700, and Dan at 2300. SIX TURNS PASS by and I do not draw a single monster. So I go from complete control to a bs loss. Such is life I guess. We side and go to Game 2. ONCE AGAIN I HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL! And of course, he top decks like a champ. At one point he summoned a Sirocco and didn’t pump it over my Blackwings for massive damage when I had 3 BW on my field. Again, I realize I’m going up against a subpar player, but can’t do anything about it. This is where he gets kind of pissy. I start to make a slight comeback. I draw a Sirocco of my own and summon it. His exact words when it hits the field are “ok”. Anyone in their right mind at that point in the game can assume he’s saying ok it’s good, right? So after about a minute of checking graveyard’s and such to see the odds of him having a possible Kalut in hand, I attack. He flips Bottomless Trap Hole. I’m like, what are you doing? He says, “I’m playing it on your Sirocco”. I obviously respond with, what was the “OK” you said for then? He has no answer to that obviously and says he was “just acknowledging the fact I had a Sirocco, not that the summon was good.” Obviously after the damn card has been on the field for a good 2-3 minutes now, he realized he had no immediate answer for it, and tries to shark me on it. I find out after the duel he also had a set torrential. So I assume he was waiting to see if I summoned again, and if not he would try to shark me on the single summon. I didn’t and proceed to attack, at which point he says in his mind, oh crap that didn’t work like I planned, if that makes any sense to you readers out there, lol.

I DROP AFTER ROUND 6 AT 3-3

 

            I was annoyed and tired, so much so that I dropped from the regional and our group leaves after some major trading. I got some guy to value his Emmersblade’s at $50 in trade each, which made my day. I will never play Blackwings again, that is for sure.

PROPS:

·         Robbie Kohl, congrats on the Top 16!

·         Ben Dabrey, came up to me and gave me props on my Youtube videos, and overall cool guy to talk to.

·         Seeing Eddie, Steven, Kenny, Jeremy and Eric

·         Pastimes Events for giving up a scheduled lunch break!

·         Chris Goff (sorry if I misspell your last name), just cause he’s sweet.

·         My entry packs, I pull a Glow Up Bulb, Ultimate Red Nova Dragon, Formula Synchron and Gravekeeper’s Recruiter

·         Bobby Clark, professional ice road driver

·         The $2 deer hunting game at the truck stop that I only had to pay 50 cents for!

 

CONS:

·         My round 6 opponent. Rule sharks are a sign that a player is weak…

·         The vendor at the regional event. Very unprofessional and tried hardcore to rip people.

·         The lack of players that take a shower before going to an event, dear god I thought I was being gassed by riot control the stench was so bad!

·         Phone dying so I couldn’t take any vids or pics for this article (fml)

 

As always thank you for taking the time to check out my articles, and remember to play every game like its game 3!

Nick “wwncd” Curtis

www.youtube.com/wwncd

ssjtrunks756pojo@gmail.com