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Nice Guys DO Finish Last: sHecKii Gets Robbed Again... Hey guys, it’s your boy sHecKii from the Card of the Day crew. For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been play-testing this rouge deck that my friend JAELOVE won with at San Mateo regionals: Strike Ninja. Now don’t get it twisted, I didn’t copy his deck by any means and I did get his permission to try to take San Diego regionals with it. I changed the deck with a couple “tech” cards like Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and such (and honestly, the strike ninja deck requires you to run 3 DD Scout Planes and 3 Strike Ninjas and such so the build is real tight). I had real “tech” in the sideboard too. I was going to run 1-2 Limiter Removal for my Jinzo, DD Scout Planes, Cannon Soldier, Blowback Dragon, Kinetic Soldier, etc...and the card I’m infamous for “Windstorm of Etaqua.” But I had to take out some how those just to put in King Tiger Wanghu and Hallowed Life Barrier just against maybe First Turn Kill decks revolving around Magical Scientist and such. WELL ANYWAYS, the point of this article is not what my deck contained, it’s about how I got robbed of my chance to qualify, not once, not twice, THREE times due to unlucky pairings, how nice guys like me finish last, and (since this is my article) my thoughts about Yu Gi Oh and it’s community. Our team “The Eileen Chapter,” with few of its members not going, came into San Diego regionals hoping that I would qualify. We already had one of our guys qualify and everyone believed that I would make it. We arrived, met friends/random people to say hi to, filled out our deck lists, and waited to start our rounds. First round goes by and I found out my friend lost to a FTK [First Turn Kill] deck revolving around the Magical Scientist/Catapult Turtle deck. There’s nothing he could do about it...He lost twice because he never got the opportunity to draw a card. BTW [by the way], he already qualified for Nationals...in fact he was the first one to qualify into Nationals in Southern California (being first place and all). This was probably an omen of bad luck already, I‘d probably play one today too. Well the rounds go by and I won my matches. Now it’s 4th round and I face an opponent I’ve played in regionals earlier in the season. The game ended up being called on time. 1-1 and first damage or life gain would win it. Well already that is pretty stupid right? So it ends up being that he had Snatch Steal for my Tribe Infecting Virus to attack me for game. Well since I knew he already qualified for Nationals, the prize payout for this regional was very little, and since he’s a nice guy I asked him if he would just skip his battle-phase and let me qualify. Now this is where the nice guy finish last idea comes in. If I was in his position (and I was last year when I qualified early) I’d scoop to the guy/girl if they asked me nicely. I wouldn’t even care about the prize (unless it’s like a Nintendo DS or laptop or even Cyber Stein) and it’d be the nice thing to do. Well I appreciate the guy for thinking/considering my proposal and I’m sure it’s not an easy decision for some people, but he just attacked me and well he won. I’m sad and kinda mad to tell you the truth, but maybe I should’ve beat him 2-0 in the beginning anyways. So I move onto the next round and win that match. I’m currently 4-1 and with 3 more rounds to go, it looked like I was in good shape still. BUT LIFE AND ITS UNPREDICTABLENESS BITES ME AGAIN!!! My opponent and I accidentally checked HIS name as the winner instead of me. I ended up being marked 3-2 and had to play another 3-2 opponent. Normally this would be the BEST thing that could happen to me since tie-breakers do not matter in this regional. Well be careful what you wished for and don’t make mistakes like that. The judge said that just play the match out and they’ll fix my record back to 4-1. So I sat down and got a peak of 2 cards in his deck when he was shuffling it: Reasoning and Mystic Wok. Now before I continue on with this story, let me tell you about my GenCon story... GenCon, the World Series of Yu Gi Oh (so to speak), was the best and worst time of my Yu Gi Oh career. I got to meet JAELOVE and SandTrap for the first time and also caught up with my Yu Gi Oh buddies f00b and Nate and even met some new people too. I had fun playing against the best of the best and even did pretty well for myself too. At the Shonen Jump Championship, I was running a meta-gamed deck myself too. I played 3 Dust Tornados main deck due to the Mirage of Nightmare abusers out there. Also I had my Asura Priest, Windstorm of Etaqua, Airknight Parshath all ready in the side deck for the Scapegoat/Metamorphosis abusers out there too. I was on my way to the top 8 until Henry Ke’s First Turn Scientist deck got me. The thing is, I know Henry and he’s my friend. He didn’t want to play me and cheat me out of something I deserved. But he didn’t qualify yet and he gets a great prize for doing well in a tournament like SJC so it sucked for me but that’s the way it went. Man, if I didn’t get paired with someone running FTK, I would’ve made top 8 that day and everyone knows it too. Frustrating but that’s the way it went. The very next day, another regional opportunity came up. This was a very small field to tell you the truth. Only 6 rounds I believe. Well I lost to a friend who’s really good and hasn’t qualified yet so I wasn’t too sad. But then I had to play a guy who was running First Turn Kill deck AGAIN! *sigh* I couldn’t believe it. Also he was running 1 Mystical Space Typhoon is his MAINDECK which is pretty weird. He then Mystical Spaced my 1 Book of Moon out of the 4 Magic/Trap cards I had set on the field. If he didn’t do that, I would’ve won next turn. Also, I did have a lot of things to board in against his deck. I had Hallowed Life Barriers, Compulsory Evacuation Device...basically a lot more than what I could’ve done at SJC. Second game, I Painful Choiced into the game winning solutions and we moved onto the next game. Well it looked like he was NOT going to win because he only had Gilasaurus and a facedown Monster Gate. He reloads for 2 cards. After the shuffle and cut, he draws into Last Will and LAST WILL. He did draw that Last Will which might’ve won him the game anyways, he also could’ve drawn a Catapult Turtle instead of the second Last Will to win the game, and he could’ve got lucky from the Monster Gate but the fact remains, I DIDN’T GET TO DRAW A CARD! I can’t tell you how frustrating it was for me that day. 13th at the SJC and 13th the next day BOTH due to FTK scientist. Also, do you guys remember the “Best Player of the Week” prize? Well on a day before, I won the Win-A-Box Traditional AND Advanced format. That’s putting me in first place for the player of the week points. Well this one tricky guy...let’s call him Guy A...purposely did NOT enter the SJC and entered the side events that had the Win-A-Box. We won the 2 that was held that day. The thing is, that tournament was with bunch of kid who did NOT have good tournament decks. It’s your neighborhood Sunday kid tournament kids. He beat everyone and that was that. Now back to the day I lost to Reload for 2, I believed they counted the 13th place (which earned 1 box at the SJC) I got and put my box total up to 3. Well they said that they didn’t count the SJC. -__-;; yes I know...They didn’t post anything like that the whole day at GenCon but all of the sudden, last day of GenCon, they make that rule up. Unfair to me since I got judged out on a Friday regional due to a guy stalling when I had the game won. I don’t even want to get into that because this article is long enough already. I also got decked checked 3-4 times at the Shonen Jump Championship probably due to the “ruckus” I caused on Friday (I got a bit mad at the judges). Back to Sunday though, Guy A placed almost near the bottom half. I placed 13th on Sunday. Well they said that since Guy A was 2nd place in one of the Win-A-Box tournament I won, HE HAD THE BETTER OVERAL RECORD!!! Wait, so I placed 13th on the last day when he basically didn’t place, I did technically win 3 Boxes that week, and they say that because of his second place he gets the CYBER STEIN AND THE HOLO-CUT SHEET THAT I WANTED BADLY?! How can you say he’s the better player when a) I did better than him in everything during the week, b) I did spend more money on the events then he did, and c) base on something where I, me, TONY LEE won?! It doesn’t make sense to me at all!!! Well, as you can tell, it got me really mad and sad AND even depressed; for a week I had a hard time in college for a week because I was still mad about it. So as you can tell, I was personally robbed out of many things due to that stupid FTK deck. It’s a good deck but it doesn’t test how good of a duelist and/or (even though it’s a far stretch) how good of a person you are. It’s like cheating on a test really. Well some of the main cards in a FTK are Reasoning, Monster Gate, and Last Will. I already knew what I was against. First game, he gets it off. I didn’t even draw a card. Second game, he side decked in 15 cards and changed it to a Last Turn deck. It didn’t matter, I got to go first and he couldn’t do anything. Eventually he actually got off Self-Destruct Button which basically says restart the whole game and we had to go again. He side decked back into his FTK and lost because I drew the King Tiger Wanghu and he couldn’t summon any monsters on the field. Well next game, he got to go first and once again, he got it off. I’m going through so many emotions right now. I couldn’t believe I got robbed of my nationals spot due to a First Turn Kill deck. If you think about it, I’m very unlucky. Due to the mistake on the match slip, I basically had to play this guy with the First Turn Kill deck. I explained to this guy “Hey, since you are x-2 (x being any number like in algebra) you can NOT qualify for nationals. Me on the other hand, I can still qualify to Nationals.” I even had a judge come over and explain him that he can’t make it to the top 8. I even bribed him his tournament entry fee + $5 AND another kid who tried to help me offered $5 more dollars to his incentive just so he could give me the win. Nice guy finishes last right? I tried to win fair and square by not playing these cheap First Turn Kill decks and for 3 STRAIGHT REGIONALS I lose because of these decks. I’m not going to lie, I have all that stuff ready for regionals anytime I want to play First Turn Kill, but I won’t. I love this game to much to say “Hey I’m going to cheat to qualify.” He just wouldn’t let his pride go to waste and give me the win instead when he really had no chance of qualifying and I did. You know what’s the worst part? I was practically crying because everyone around me knows how HARD I worked on my strike ninja deck. I made tweaks with this deck a LOT and it finally got to where it needs to be. Just these First Turn Kill decks got me. The FTK guy came over to me and told me “Hey, go back to the judge and see if he’ll let you change the results.” JUST TO MAKE ME FEEL 100% WORSE AFTER WE ALREADY TURNED THE SLIP IN!!! Of course I asked the judge anyways but they said it’s too late and that was that for me. All of my hard work and dedication to qualify since October 23rd, 2004 just to qualify...all goes down the drain because of the First Turn Kill ABUSE. NOW HERE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART ABOUT THIS ARTICLE AND LISTEN CLOSELY I’m a great Yu Gi Oh player. It’s not like I’m a fluke that qualified with randomness. I want to even say I’m top 100 in the world in this game. I never stole anyone’s cards, I never cheated anyone out of a tournament, and I’ve always respected this game because it’s fun and creative and even challenging. Nice guys like me who works hard to find side deck cards that are good or even card like Freed the Matchless General that I ran in the Advanced format to qualify for nationals with. I actually had my $3000+ card collection stolen before also. I used to have 3 complete Yu Gi Oh tournament ready decks and 2-3 Magic: The Gathering Decks ready to play. I worked HARD to get a lot of cards again just so I can have fun making decks and such. Nice guy like me helps out anyone who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge on this game and give them pointers. A nice guy like me always gets paired with the First Turn Kill decks when no one else seems to have problems with. A nice guy like me is always the target for no reason. Honestly, ask anyone in the Southern California area, I might be the unluckiest player because I always play against First Turn Kill decks when it matters. Also, take a look at what happened that day. One guy qualified already to Nationals but didn’t want to give up X amount of packs and wanted the “glory” of qualifying again. He couldn’t find it in his heart (like what JAELOVE did on his top 8 match in San Mateo Regionals) to scoop it up and let me move on. He knew my deck was good and he was puzzled on how to play against it also. I want to really put out there that I appreciate that he at least thought about scooping to me. But I think you guys can agree with me that who cares about the packs? We already have most of the cards we want to play in tournaments with. Just let a good guy, who deserves a spot, move on up. *shrugs* I probably should’ve won the game 2-0 anyways (I made one minor mistake that probably caused me the game) Once again, nice guys finish last. Finally, please understand the Swiss system guys. Honestly it’s a math equation and it’s very concrete. In that case, the FTK guy COULD NOT HAVE moved onto the top 8 while I still had the chance. That’s why we go to regionals right guys? To qualify for nationals and have fun; not to win 2-15 packs. Most of us have all the cards we want to make a deck with anyways right? And realize that First Turn Kill decks are cheap. It’s like cheating on a test in school. It’s not how the game should be played. Also, if it’s that good, why is it that no one gets 1st place with it? Think about it...don’t cheat out players like I got cheated out 3 times... Moral of the article is please be NICE to all the players. If they ask you politely, play friendly with you, and has a reasonable request, and/or if you already qualified, think about a guy like me. I’m not saying scoop the game up to a random kid who wants to qualify and they know you already did. If he/she is generally a good person, then do the favor back, help out. So next time you witness an unfair trade between an older kid and a younger kid, stop it from happening. Next time you see anyone steal cards, tell it to the store owner or stop him yourself. Next time you play a tournament or even build a deck like FTK, remember that some people have worked hard on their decks and do not wished to be “cheated” on. Next time when a humanitarian opportunity comes up with little draw back for you personally, help out. And to the younger kids, remember your parents are spending a lot of money to help you have fun. Never forget to thank them and always respect your elder dxP. Sorry for the long article guys but I really needed to get that off my chest. I’m honestly thinking about quitting the game I love because I got cheated out of it so many times. *shrugs* I don’t know...I just don’t know anymore =\ E-mail me at jinutym03@cox.net if you ever want deck fixes and/or advice on cards or decks. I’ll respond as quickly as possible. - sHecKii aka Tony
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