Thanks for all ya’ll that keep up with me on the website. I’ve tried to live up to your expectations. As for Kaiba, man it’s been a rough couple of tourneys. First off, some punk stole about 30-50 of my rare cards from my toolbox! Mind you it wasn’t the good stuff, but all of it was rare and all of it was mine. I curse that ingrate to be goat-raped to death! And while I’ve had a good run at the Toy Chest, I haven’t been able to get past the Final Four, so my tourney reports have been kinda brief and not worth repeating. While no first round blowouts, I have been getting caved in on occasion and some whiny people have begun to grate on me, trying to be more lawyer than duelist. So this week, I really went on a mission to see how good I could do when I was at my best. So to my fans and foes, you will definitely see some changes in my deck from the last time I posted. Some precautionary cards have been added, such as Solemn Wishes and Kuriboh to help! out with what I thought already was a good deck. Finally closed out on my Gemini Elves and finally got that Torrential Tribute I’ve been hunting for. And alas, I don’t run one of my fav cards anymore, Barrel Dragon! Other than that, I present to you:

Jinzo

Summoned Skull x 2

The Fiend Megacyber

Harpie’s Brother

LaJinn

Hayabusa Knight

Gemini Elf x 3

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer x3

Bazoo the Soul Eater

Maha Vailo x2

Goblin Attack Force x2

Witch of the Black Forest

Wall of Illusion x2

Cyber Jar

Penguin Soldier x2

Magician of Faith

Kuriboh

Harpie’s Feather Duster x 2 (Wasn’t restricted until after this Tourney!)

Axe of Despair x3

United We Stand

Mage Power

Mystical Space Typhoon x2

Monster Reborn

Change of Heart

Pot of Greed

Raigeki

Exchange

Snatch Steal

Swords of Revealing Light

Mirror Force

Magic Cylinder

Solemn Judgement

Imperial Order

Call of the Haunted

Seven Tools of the Bandit

Dust Tornado

Torrential Tribute

Solemn Wishes

Tornado Bird

Magic Jammer

Barrel Dragon

Offerings of the Doomed

Magician of Faith

Duelist: Darren Snead

Duelist Name: Ghetto Kaiba

Representing: Yu-Ghett-Oh! Duel Posse Raleigh, NC

Check out my site, Duel Monsters in Da’ Hood! and show some love!

Tourney Report

May 8, 2003

The Toy Chest, Cary NC 6-8pm

Entry Fee: 5 bucks

Prize: 2 Booster Packs of Choice (but everyone gets 1 Pack just for registering, sweet!)

Round 1
This is a chum of mine from Books-A-Million on Saturdays. He has a huge frickin’ deck, gotta be 70 + cards, but as usual, with fusion and the right search monsters, it really doesn’t matter. Needless to say, he’s beat me before with The Last Warrior and Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon more than once. So this will be tough right out the gate. Round 1 wasn’t really that long for me. After some monster removal, he got out his Twin-Headed way too early thanks to Fusion Gate and me with a handful of monsters and no Magic/Traps. I was in the hole and he beat me down perfectly as he went through me like tissue paper. The consolation round is looking mighty good now!

We both get out Swords of Revealing Light and his is set to run out 1 round before mine. I simply fill up my Monster fields with beatdown monsters including a facedown Hayabusa in case of Mirror Force. When his is over, I go head to head with him and flip Hayabusa with 2 Axes to take the opening and end the game. So at least we are even now.

Again I face the terror of his Twin-Headed dragon. Chris really makes Fusion look good. I get the dragon away, then here comes The Last Warrior. For those not in the know, you can’t summon any monster while he is in play. So of course, being Beatdown, I’m screwed. I somehow get Mirror Force and he dies. Back to a standing draw until I get Bazoo out and juke him all the way to 2500 for 2 good hits and that is the first match. A great duel all the way through! And to show this isn’t going to be easy…

My fellow Beatdownist from ToysRUs. Anyone that has read my past reports know Steve is a good one. He has some interesting twists on Beatdown as he has gotten some pretty sweet cards since last we dueled. Dude has went through at least 2 Exodia sets to my knowledge, so I know he has some heat.

Steve says he has never beat me, but I think he has. It looks like today will be his day as I get on the ropes quick again and get down to 4000 before I can set up any strategy. One of my favorite plays again presents itself, Hayabusa w/ Axe of Despair, which takes him from 8000 down to 0 in 2 quick rounds. Thanks for that!

I’m getting kinda tired at this point of coming back from behind just to make it a game. I have to Solemn Judgement a Feather Duster to save a prime backfield of Cylinder, Mirror Force, Raigeki (I had to put down or discard it!) and something else. So this time, the tables were turned as he brought out his Bazoo and did me in.

I don’t know how this is going to turn out. I elect to go first as Steve comes out blasting, COH my Bazoo and juked it up and hit me with 2 of them in like turn 3. I’m battling back to get him down with me, but Steve has total board control at this point. Its 3300-500 and he has out a Witch that keeps hitting me. He Monster Reborns a Goblin Attack Force to finish me off. I have only a Solemn Judgement to stop that, so at least now I can set a monster in Defense. His Witch attacks and it’s my trusty friend, Penguin Soldier. So now I clear his field and get my own set and Monster Reborn his own Goblin Attack Force and escape sudden death! I think I’ve used up all the luck I could on this round alone. I can’t imagine a harder road than this.

I don’t know this kid’s name, but I know he’s normally in the Final Four and I always play on the opposite bracket than he does. So, this is our first official meeting. I’m calling him Dr. Earth cause he was saying something about taking Earth Science in 10^th grade. So we’ll see if I can beat another great player

He kept the score, so notes on this one were kinda shaky. He had a full hand and discarded an Exodia leg, so I at least know 1 thing he is trying to do. I won the first round kinda quick as I just went through his defenses with Gemini and Maha equipped with Axes.

I remember getting my M/T zone filled up and waiting for him to do something so I could just get rid of a spot. But he held pat for a minute, no doubt getting plenty of Exodia parts while I wasted my turns away. Still, I finally got a chance to use Imperial Order and after not paying, I finally got some Equips on the field and beat him. I thought he would have pulled on me faster than that, but he used his Graceful Charities all up in like his first 3 turns. I’m sure he had 4 parts over there! Still a good match and glad to advance. Till next time, Dr. Earth!

Just an update, Robert is awesome. This guy has just shown up in the past month and I think won 3 out of the 4 tournaments, at least 2 I know. I think he and his girlfriend normally show up and kick everyone’s but, ala Bonnie and Clyde. That’s pretty cool. But I know for every great card I have, he has the counter and something that makes me look foolish for playing it. I’ve been watching him, but he is another one that seems to always be on the other side of the bracket during the tournament. I guess today is the day to see what my deck is made of.

So, I finally play against our current champion. Things look grim as my first hand is all equips and great cards that are useless at this point. My defenses are open to the wrong guy as he hit me with Maha Valio. He plays Imperial Order, so now things don’t look so good. His Bazoo is hammering me, as he keeps beating out my 1800 monsters. Down to 1825 LPs, I finally get rid of his monsters and get out my own Jinzo and let loose on that blue monkey. There is a momentary stalemate as Jinzo is removed and neither of us can set a monster. I call on the beauty of my Gemini Elf, after I clear his M/T zone with Feather Duster. The can’t defend at 4900 LPS and after that a LaJinn comes in and wins me the first round. There is so much tension here I can’t stand it. This feels like the Finals to me!

Not to be shown up, Robert hit me in the mouth the next round. I got maybe 2 monsters on the field, before he went with a big lineup of Bazoo and Gemini and just ran me down. A perfect match to him. What more can I say besides "Ouch!"

We both seem to be enjoying ourselves. Rare is the match like this, just each move so well thought out and it seems as if a mutual respect is forming for each other’s decks. I’ve seen him discard Exodia parts too, so I know that is in there, plus the same beatdown monsters I have. So I elect to go first and I set up a Goblin Attack Force. I know something is going to happen to a big monster like that first round, but I’d rather loose a GAF and have it in Def. Next round than get pounded twice by another of my monsters. Just as I thought, he seeks to Change of Heart my GAF and hit me with his Gemini Elf. I wisely play Imperial Order and hold off on the magics. I don’t pay and try and hit him with my newly summoned Megacyber, but that doesn’t go as he plays a Kuriboh. I thought both of our beatdown strategies were kind of similar!! Still, I manage somehow to keep field advantage and get rid of his many M/T with a Feather Duster. Now he is on the ropes and after 1 final ! push, he falls. Someone needs to give me a pack just for playing my man. Hats off to a awesome duelist. So, finally, I get out of the Final Four and get back into the Finals after about a month.

Anyone that has read any of my reports to date knows how ironic this is! This is like my nightmare match-up here at the Toy Chest! I have had this match twice before and have lost them both. The last time I made the Finals was under the exact same situation and I choked! What a way to go out. Oh well, its do or die. Of course Justin had already gone to my site and knew exactly what deck I had. First thing out of his grill is "You have a lot of powerups, Darren. This is going down to who decks out first." I gasp! I know dude has TWO NEEDLE WORMS and that is going to be horrible if he plays that on me! So, with the entire store gather behind me, including all the aforementioned veterans, we go at it. This is Yugi Vs. Kaiba for real!

I get a good hand, a few monsters and a few magics, but wait; they are all sacrifice! D’oh! I take a hit to start off the match. Justin smells blood. Man, not today! I draw and get a Wall of Illusion to put up in defense; strangely, Justin does the same thing. I get a Pot of Greed and seeing that he has a full M/T zone, I go for the ol’ Feather Duster routine, denied! Dude plays Magic Jammer and discards that Sinister Serpent. I begin to ponder his idea. He’s just going to run those crappy Serpents out until I deck out or he gets Exodia! No! I finally begin clearing those serpents, but of course, on top of that, he plays Scapegoat. So now his field is full of crap to remove and having used my Raigeki, I am forced to try and hit them. But there is a catch. I know he has a Magic Cylinder due to a draw on Cyber Jar and a Mirror Force, so until I can counter them, it’s a suicide run to go at him. So I patiently have to wait until either Jinzo or my other Feather Duster co! mes up. Meanwhile, Justin is steadily drawing cards. I get out a Witch of Black Forest and then sac her for a Summoned Skull. No way can I lose him or feel his wrath bounced back on me. Instead of searching for Jinzo, I search for my only Magician of Faith and let a flipped Penguin Soldier start sniping those Scapegoats. So I’m down to just the accursed Serpent and I have now a MoFaith and a Facedown Penguin Soldier. This is kinda what I wanted to hold out for, so here we go! He has 2 M/T cards left; gotta be Cylinder and Mirror Force. He knows I can’t kill him with 1 turn, or can I? He is at 6000 LPs, so that would have to be a huge play. So here is the huge play. I flip my Penguin Soldier to remove his 2 monsters on the field, flip MoFaith to regain my Feather Duster, Dust his backfield, play a normal Summon of Bazoo and Monster Reborn Hayabusa Knight from my graveyard. A nice play, but the last card in my hand was sweetest of all: UNITED WE STAND!! In hindsight, I should ! have equipped it oh Hayabusa to ensure the win, but I figured 2500+3200+2000 from Hayabusa was enough. Justin, carefully tallied every attack, hoping I had left him an ounce of life, but I didn’t. That was game and all the guys gave me my props! Ghetto Kaiba had finally won a tournament! And for sure, the hardest possible road I could take was taken. The storeowner smiled and handed me those 3 boosters, man I could have floated home! A few trades ensued as I traded a Jinzo and got one back (always how I try and do it) but got another Mirror Force and another Raigeki, two cards I was looking to score. So, finally, I can say I actually won the whole thing. That is such a relief!

Finally winning the Tourney

Seeing some new faces to duel

Got another Mirror Force (That’s 11 now!)

Great pull in my Tourney Pack – Mechanicalchaser at last!

Missed a trade for some Exodia parts! D’oh!

Figuring out what to replace my extra Feather Duster with in my deck

Or

{Peace from Ghetto Kaiba}