The Flight of the Raven

Lael Brattan

Hall of Heroes, Echelon Mall

Voorhees, New Jersey

July 23, 2004 - 7:30 PM

Many, many participants

Entry fee is a minimum purchase of $4.

 

First place gets 4 packs, or 3 packs of LOB or AST.

Second place gets 2 packs, or 1 pack of LOB or AST.

The rest get nothing but their entry purchase.

 

Hi everyone, this is my first tournament report.  First off, thanks to Pojo for posting this.  Now, on to the report:

 

Deck:  40 cards

 

Monsters:  15

x1 Berserk Gorilla

x1 Don Zaloog

x1 Exiled Force

x1 Fiber Jar

x1 Jinzo

x1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

x2 Mystic Tomato

x1 Sangan

x1 Sinister Serpent

x1 Spirit Reaper

x1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

x1 Vampire Lord

x1 Witch of the Black Forest

x1 Yata-Garasu

 

Spells:  18

x1 Change of Heart

x1 Confiscation

x1 Dark Hole

x1 D. D. Designator

x1 Delinquent Duo

x1 The Forceful Sentry

x1 Graceful Charity

x1 Harpie’s Feather Duster

x1 Mirage of Nightmare

x1 Monster Reborn

x3 Mystical Space Typhoon

x1 Painful Choice

x1 Pot of Greed

x1 Premature Burial

x1 Raigeki

x1 Snatch Steal

 

Traps:  7

x1 Call of the Haunted

x1 Drop Off

x1 Imperial Order

x1 Mirror Force

x1 Ring of Destruction

x2 Waboku

 

No need to post the side deck or fusion deck, as I didn’t use them.  Obviously this is your basic control deck.  I don’t think it’s too bad, but I’ve never managed to win a tournament with it.  Read on to see if tonight was finally the night.

 

Pre-Tournament

Well, my friends Pat and Ken had left hours before I did to hang out in the mall, play DDR Extreme in Hall of Heroes, and such.  My parents (along with my younger brother Turner) arrived at about 6:30.  I met up with Pat and Ken, and announced that my brother was participating tonight.  I took some cards from my binder and put them in Turner’s deck, expecting them back later.  He doesn’t have money or access to cards, so he runs a rather cheap deck, and whatever cards I can give him.  With that, I went inside to sign up.  My brother entered with a pack of PGD and got a Dark Jeroid, which was pretty cool.  The manager of the store was nice and let me enter by only buying 50 card covers at $3.  I got some orange ones; they matched my shirt and bag, and I needed covers for the Zombie deck I’m working on.  I went into the dueling area and tried to find some more cards.  This man reading a Beckett book had a Book of Life, and then tried to sell it to me for $14 because “that’s what it’s worth according to the book.” -_-  Needless to say, I didn’t get it.  A group of kids came up to me and asked if they could buy some cards.  This included the guy I had won against first round last week, and his friends.  They bought my Destiny Board, my BPT Limited Edition Summoned Skull, and I think one or two other cards for a total of $10.  Not bad.  Anyway, we were goofing around for a little while before the tournament started.  My brother played a double duel while I was selling cards, and the kid he lost to was gloating and being a jerk.  I played him right afterward and Yata-locked him.  I hate snobby people.  But I digress.  The tournament started at 7:30.  There’s two divisions:  a 13 & up, and a 12 & under.  It was single elimination.  Unfortunately, there were about 50 people there, most of whom were kids.  Also to my dismay, the tournament is poorly run, and therefore disorganized.  But let’s get to the tournament…

 

First Round:

Lael (Control) vs. Shawn (No Tribute)

 

I had never met this guy before.  He asked me when we started if I was any good…I told him I had never won a tournament, and he sighed in relief.


Duel One

My opening hand was Waboku, Berserk Gorilla, D.D. Designator, Graceful Charity, and Painful Choice.  He went first and played Armor EXE and two face down cards.  I drew…he activated Skill Drain, bringing him down to 7000.  This was his “combo,” or so he told me.  I drew Harpie’s, and used it to destroy his cards.  I used Painful…I think the cards were Jinzo, V-Lord, Sinister, Exiled, and Kycoo.  He picked V-Lord because “I wouldn’t get to summon him.”  Didn’t see Sinister, I guess.  I played Graceful, and I forget what I discarded, but I set a Sangan and 3 cards down and let him go.  He attacked with EXE, only to let me get Sangan.  The rest of the duel was downhill from there for him.  I conquered by using Don Zaloog to deplete his hand and Premature Burial to get Jinzo back.

 

Duel Two

I won this duel quickly, using Don Zaloog and Tribe-Infecting Virus to dominate the entire duel.  I had every card I needed during this duel.  When he set 3 spell/trap cards, I drew Harpie’s.  This was a fast duel, and I moved on to Round Two.

 

Between Rounds

Well, Pat played the guy I had beaten in the first round last week, and won.  Kenny scored himself a bye to the next round.  Unfortunately, Turner played the best player in the younger division (who I know is over 13…) and lost to the hands of the Chaos deck.  I was told I would play the winner of a certain match.  One of those people was the person who had beaten me last week.  Sadly he lost…right before I dueled the winner, the manager gave me a reprieve, and I played someone nearby.

 

Round Two:

Lael (Control) vs. Mark (Exodia)

 

I had never faced an Exodia deck before, and I hoped that my control deck was good enough for it.  This person was behind me while I was watching the duel I thought I was going to play next, and I saw him use the Gearfried/Royal Magic Library/Elma combo.  I had to explain to Mark’s opponent the combo, because he didn’t understand it.  I admired that – I previously used Magical Marionette for my Elma deck.  In Mark’s second duel, he actually attached Elma to his opponent’s Gearfried for the win, hahaha.  But this is about my duel, so here we go.

 

Duel One 

I didn’t write too detailed notes in this duel.  I know that I used Painful Choice early (I always draw Painful early-game for some reason) and put Jinzo in the grave, then he reborned it later on and hit me with it.  Fortunately, I got Snatch Steal, and he was never able to get rid of it.  I used Jinzo and Tribe to win the first duel before he could get his Forbidden Cat out.

 

Duel Two

In the second duel, I had Berserk Gorilla, Don Zaloog, and Spirit Reaper on the field at once at one point.  I attacked…Penguin Soldier.  He chose Don and Reaper, and Reaper was destroyed while Don returned.  I put Don back out, and used Monster Reborn on Reaper.  It was a good thing, because he used Gravity Bind when I attacked.  My Reaper got through his wall, though, and I brought him down to 1200 LP.  On my next turn, I drew Fiber Jar and set it.  A turn later, I flipped Fiber to restart.  I needed a monster with 1200 ATK or more…I drew my hand.  Raigeki…good but not needed…HFD…not now…Snatch Steal…no…Dark Hole…please let me draw the card…Don Zaloog!  Yay!  I attacked with Don and won the match.  We shook hands for a good duel.

 

Between Rounds

Nothing too notable, I just walked around.  My brother was dueling for fun against some people, and the crowd had thinned out a bit.  Pat faced this guy Chiro, and was told if he beat him he would advance to the final round, although there were many people left.  Pat runs a Dark Magician of Chaos deck, but he lost to Chiro unfortunately.  Kenny’s burn deck lost as well, but the guy who beat him had to leave, so Kenny got to stay in.  The person who really won was at least 25 years old, and he was with his mom or grandma or something…that’s a bit bad that this old woman forced the guy to leave…so sad.  There are many people like that at this tournament, though.

 

Round Three:

I had waited what seemed like forever for the manager to return…he was at the food court with his girlfriend :-\.  He got back and told me I had to play Chiro next.  Now, Pat had lost to him, and he was told he would advance to the finals should he win.  Wouldn’t that work both ways?  I was a bit upset that I had to play him, because I’ve never beaten him.  He was nowhere to be found too, but he finally showed up.  We found a spot and began.

 

Lael (Control) vs. Chiro (Chaos)

 

I didn’t like this from the beginning.  I HATE Chaos decks.  They’re way too cheap.  Before the duel started, Chiro asked me if I had Yata…his deck hates Yata…ugh.  I’m already irritated.

 

Duel One

He got some good monsters out early, and tried to ruin my field with his Blowback Dragon.  I don’t like Blowback, because I find him unreliable…his first two flips to destroy my field failed.  At one point, I used Imperial Order on his Pot of Greed, and when I summoned my Tribe next turn…he called out that because I had summoned, my Standby Phase had passed and I was forced to pay for IO.  I was upset, but he went and asked someone next to us, and they said I had to pay.  I could have just not paid…*sigh*  He had Blowback and Reflect Bounder on the field, and I discarded Sinister from my hand and called Machine.  “Oh, my deck REALLY doesn’t like you now!” said Chiro.  I sighed.  Anyway, a few turns later, he got two Blowbacks on the field when I had Mirror Force and Fiber Jar face down.  He was insistent that he flipped the coin and caught it, then flip it onto his hand.  When he failed to catch it and it instead landed on the ground (on tails), he wanted a reflip.  He got two heads for both my Fiber and Mirror Force, and I lost, 0 – 6400.

 

In between duels…the “judge” of the tournament comes over.  He’s about 12 and 5 feet tall…I obviously am older and could easily overpower him.  He turns to me and says, “Do you just want to concede now and save face?”  I respond, “Do you just want to go away and leave me alone?”  He goes into a rant on how he’s in charge here, and he has the power, and if I know what he’s capable of…if he had asked me if I knew what he could do, I nearly said, “Hmm, going away?”  Unfortunately the opportunity never came up, and he walks away.

 

Duel Two

This duel was too short, and is the sole reason that I hate Chaos decks.  He won on the second turn by getting out CED, using his effect, and chaining Ring to CED to do 6000+ damage.  I lose that turn, because I had taken damage before.

 

Post-Tournament

I find someone with a Pyramid Turtle, and trade my holo Trap Hole for it and Royal Keeper.  That Trap Hole was the first card I pulled out of a pack…but I needed the third Turtle.  No one other than the guy at the beginning had a Book of Life, so I still need two of those and Despair from the Dark to complete my Zombie Deck.  Kenny ended up getting third place, and bugged the manager to get a pack for it.  He took the last pack of LON, and pulled Destiny Board.  He then traded it for a common Pot of Greed.  You’d think it would suck, but it’s cool – Ken’s cool like that.  Now for the pros and cons…

 

Props:

-         Pat and Kenny for being there

-         Kenny for getting third place

-         Getting my third Pyramid Turtle

-         My cool looking orange sleeves

-         My parents for taking me

-         My dad for giving me $20

-         Selling cards and gaining $10

-         Not spending all of my money

 

Slops:

-         Nick for being sick…get well soon.

-         Turner for losing first round

-         Pat for losing to Chiro

-         Chiro’s attitude

-         The young “judge’s” attitude

-         The disorganization of the tournament

-         The man who wanted $14 for Book of Life

-         Still not making it past the third round/quarter-finals

-         Losing to someone who acts cocky

 

And that’ll about do it for my first ever Tournament Review.  Anyone who wants to contact me for a duel, tips, or ways to help me out can email me at NMaster1223@aol.com or through AIM at NMaster1223.  Thanks again.

 

-Lael