This was my first tournament at this store, so I was a little nervous as to the caliber of decks I would duel against. I was fairly confident in my deck however, as I have a great record among friends. Anyway, here’s my deck:
Skull and Crossbones:
Monsters:
2x La Jinn
2x Big eye
1x Mask of Darkness
2x Magician of Faith
1x Gearfried the Iron Knight
1x Cyber Jar
2x Dark Elf
3x Man-Eater Bug
3x Wall of Illusion
1x Jinzo
3x Summoned Skull
Magic:
1x Change of Heart
1x Pot of Greed
1x Tribute to the Doomed
1x Monster Reborn
1x Messenger of Peace
2x Fissure
1x Heavy Storm
1x giant Trunade
1x Dust Tornado
1x Snatch Steal
1x Confiscation
Traps:
3x Trap Hole
1x Magical Hats
1x Mirror Force
1x Imperial Order
1x Magic Jammer
1x Seven Tools of the Bandit
When I first arrived at the store, me and friend Stefan (whose mom drove us up, thanks Mary) put our stuff down and looked around to trade with people. We both walked out of the store at the end of the day with new and really cool cards. I don’t know about him, but my trades were the best part of the day. I got some really great stuff, most of which went into my deck, like messenger of peace, imperial order, confiscation, jinzo, and magical hats. I was barely done finishing altering my deck with the new cards when the tournament began. It was double elimination, so two loses got you booted out. The prizes were: 1st: $45, 2nd: $35, 3rd: $25, 4th: $15, 5th: $10 (all store credit). Pretty good for a $5 tournament.
Round 1:
This was my first match, the kid I played said he wasn’t very good and I assured him I wasn’t phenomenal. He was playing a fairly aggressive beatdown deck with goblin attack forces and maha valya’s attacking for loads of damages. In game one I drew enough monster removal to subdue his forces, getting in enough shots out of dark elves and La jinns to lower his life enough for a final blow, on the last turn I had a Dark elf out, he was at 3500, and I had a magic jammer and a tribute of the doomed in my hand, he set a monster, and I drew a pot of greed, getting me a jinzo and a monster reborn. I reborned a summed skull, doomed his monster (man eater bug) and tributed dark elf for jinzo, he said game over and revealed his only card now on the board, Mirror Force, negated by Jinzo. In game two I had a less dramatic finish, but it turned out the same.
Me: 1/0
Round 2:
This time I was played a kid who was playing his friends deck. I was talking with his friends during the match (he wasn’t in the tourney, he was just his deck being played) and I found out he played magic before yu-gi-oh, as I did. We had a great conversation about the old magic decks and how their concepts work well in yu-gi-oh decks. As I soon found out, this deck was not unlike the millstone decks in past magic days. The deck stalls big time while removing cards from your opponent’s deck until his deck is gone, winning you the game. In game one, I had a steady stream of good monsters and he couldn’t take the heat. Game one goes to me. Game two was probably the best single game of yu-gi-oh I have ever played. I got a substandard hand to begin with, but it was increasingly better as the game progressed. He was killing creatures left and right while I fought to remain in an advantageous position. After my Jinzo made an appearance, I had to fight to keep him on the board. He was killed like four time, I reborned him, then magic of faithed to reborn him again, then my opponent reborn him but I snatch stole him, then my opponent magician of faithed to reborn him, each time he died via some cruel bug or doom. The game was over when jinzo was finally reborned to my opponent and my life pummeled away. The third game was less eventful, but due to my opponent’s plethora of monster removal and counter traps, I was unable to finish him off as I watched my life fall from 8000 to 0 by multiple sources of cheap damage.
Me: 1/1
Round 3:
I knew this kid was one of the better players at the place, so I braced for a difficult duel. He was playing a very strange beatdown deck that utilized some stall cards to get out of tight spots. In game one, I locked him out with a messenger of peace and I negated many of his plans to destroy it. I finished with a summoned skull breaking through his defenses. Game two was tougher. I don’t recall the name of the card, but it gave 500 life points to him whenever he drew a card, anyway, he got two of those out, so 1000 life per turn got him up to 12500 even with me beating him down. I lost the monster advantage when he dark holed, but I regained it when my cyber pod netted me three monsters and a heavy storm, which stopped his life gaining. After that he couldn’t stop two summoned skulls brining from 12500 to death in a few turns.
Me:2/1
Round 4:
My opponent was playing a deck utilizing multiple swords of revealing light to stall until a blue eyes can finish the game. I really like his deck, but my imperial order came out both games to shut him down. The first game was finished when I monster reborned his blue eyes for the win. The second victory was flashier, when I had been in a swords of revealing light lock for like eight turns via magician of faith, and I drew imperial order. I set it and on the next turn, I wiped out his monster with a fissure, a man-eater bug and a tribute, and I summoned skull took him down to about 3000. He played a face down wall of illusion, and one my turn I drew a change of heart. Now this is where I took a chance. I tributed my summoned skull for jinzo, negating imperial order, I changed his wall’s heart, and to my satisfaction, flipped it and attacked for 3400, ending the game.
Me: 3/1
Round 5:
This was a quick. This guy was also a very esteemed duelist, as I could gather from people’s attitude toward him. He was playing a very efficient killing machine utilizing flash assailants (underrated card) and axe of despairs for a tidy beatdown death. In both game I seriously blundered causing my defeat. In game one I lost in about seven turns. He had raigekied me and I devised a cunning strategy to magic jammer it, discarding jinzo, which I would reborn next turn. To my distaste, he reborned my own jinzo, foiling my plan, also resulting in a resounding defeat. Game two was longer, but due to serious misplays on my part. I lost the game. I had a mirror force face and a face down mask of
darkness on the board. He had two flash assailants out and when he attacked my mask with his first assailant, I forgot about my mirror force, I forced his second attack, but that misplay nearly lost me the game. Later I imperial ordered to stop him from killing me with a monster reborned summoned skull. I had talked to a guy I know knows the rulings on cards, and he said that you may choose to pay the life for imperial order, allowing you to end its effect on any turn. When my hand was full of magic cards, I tried to do that, and a judge was asked if that was legal. She said I couldn’t since the card says, “if you CANNOT pay the life, discard this”, not “if you CHOOSE NOT TO pay the life, discard this.” This was the final blow, and my hand of all magic cards was helpless to stop a single La jinn from killing me. I found out this morning from the official web page, and I can choose not to pay the life for imperial order, which could have saved me from death. Oh well…
Me 3/2
At this point I was tired and needed to head home, I could have stayed and played for 5th place, but there was nothing I wanted for $10 store credit anyway, so I left, satisfied with my outcome, knowing if I had played better, I had a shot at 1st or 2nd place. Overall, it was a great day, resulting in fine tuning my deck with excellent trades, and extremely great duels.
Props:
Stefan’s mom for taking us up
The guy that used to play magic and is awesome deck
The kid that the aforementioned deck, and the best game ever against him!
Excellent trades
Bubonic vermin, for almost losing me a game in round 4
Manchu-Wok, the best mall Chinese food place ever.
Slops:
Not having an official ruling on imperial order
Poor misplays on my part.
Someone stole my second Seven tools of the bandit!!!!!!!
Hope you enjoyed my report!!
Chaz Formichella
Contact me at: www.hoopzero@hotmail.com