Power of the Duelist Pre-release at Milton Keynes by Matthew Fisher.

 

Date: Sunday 6^th August

Location: Milton Keynes
Event: Power of the Duelist Pre-Release

Participants: 19

Cost: £15

 

All prize boosters were Power of the Duelist boosters

Prizes: 1^st – Box of boosters (24 boosters) and a Power of the Duelist T-shirt

2^nd – 5 boosters

3^rd – 4 boosters

4^th – 3 boosters

5^th-8^th – 2 boosters

Lower than 9^th – 1 boosters

 

I'm quite a big fan of the tournament reports section of the site and so have decided to return something to it. Although most people will probably not know what half these cards are for the next two weeks I'll try and explain it.

 

I've only been dueling around a month and decided to go for the fun of it and to increase my card collection. When we (I went with a friend) got there it was quite an informal atmosphere with many laughs and friendly duels. We sat down and each received our five packs. It was in sealed pack format so boosters weren’t passed around. I drafted 2 2700 Def Lvl 4 Destiny hero’s (D-Hero Defender), 4 Lvl 6 Pierce Monsters with 2400 Atk (Bitelon), 1 Lvl 7 with 2500 Atk (E-Hero Neos) and a load of Alien cards (more about them later). I drafted 4 normal rares L and an ultimate rare Roid fusionJ. Although it was possible to fuse all monsters (except 1) legally, we were offered the option of counting fusions as normal effect monsters which the majority voted against.

 

The tournament was 5 rounds Swiss with an optional 6^th round / playoff should there be time or if it was needed. I used a 20 card deck with 3 Lvl 6 Tributes.

 

Round 1 – Matti vs. Claude
This guy is apparently excellent at these events – he won the previous day’s event and I wasn’t expecting a win

 

Duel 1 – He gets in early with his Lvl 7 monster (E-Hero Neos) and prevents me from playing my Lvl 6 tramplers (Atk 2400). He mainly receives counter damage from attacking into my 2700 defenders. But uses his alien cards to destroy my defenders and go for game

 

Me – 8000-5500-3300-2800-1900-0

Him – 8000-7800-7600-5600-4300

 

Duel 2 – I draw awfully and he gains field advantage quickly. By using a card (Mausoleum of the Deceased Emperor) which allows you to sacrifice life points instead of monsters for tribute summons he was able to summon his Lvl 6 Trampler and E-Hero Neos. My D-Hero Defender’s protect me for a few turns but he eliminates both of them and attacks for 4700 direct damage. I draw, and realising that I cannot save it, forfeit.

 

Me – 8000-3300-Forefeit
Him – 8000-6900-6700-5100

 

This was quite a good match and I didn’t mind losing to the eventual winner. It was a good learning curve and afterwards he told me my mistakes and how to improveJ.

 

Match 2 – Mat (0-1) against Tom

Quite a young kid, played very slowly and this match went into all the end of game procedures.

 

Duel 1 – He runs a massive deck (31 cards is a lot for this event). He put very few high level monsters in and mainly ran D-Hero cards. I did a lot of trample damage with my Bitelon but he holds out and eventually, due to his larger deck, I deck out.

 

Me – 8000-7600-6800-6000-5800-7800-7500 – Deck out

Him – 8000-5200-4900-4500-4100-2300-500-2500-700

 

Duel 2 – He doesn’t summon anything of worth and I trample him to death.

 

Me – 8000-7700

Him – 8000-7600-7200-4000-0

 

During that match Time was called. Because it finished at 1-1 we started a four turn sudden death game

 

Duel 3 – I go first and he comes up with an excellent combo that clears my field and attacks me directly for 2000 damage! I come up with a Defender that I special summon with a spell and I set another plus 1 trap. He sets another monster and ends. I tribute a Defender for by Bitelon and cause him 2000 trample damage. We immediately start sudden death and for two turns nothing happens apart from monster sets. He then Tribute summons a Bitelon and tramples my face down monster for 1000 damage. However rather than it being his game (sudden death rules – first life point difference) I activate my Trap card The Paths of Destiny. This card makes both players flip a coin and if it comes out heads that player gains 2000 Life points. However if its tails they lose 2000 Life points. He must flip a tails and me a heads to win. He flips first and gets tails. Its then my turn to flip. By then everyone’s crowded around our table eager to see the outcome. I flip the coin and it lands heads. I then hear a load of groans and luck remarks. That lets me gain 2000 which puts me higher giving me the automatic win.

 

Me – 8000-6000-5000-7000(Coin flip)

Him – 8000-6000-4000(Coin Flip – Sudden Death Loss)

 

After dueling him I did feel happy yet sad. Although I was happy that I won, I did feel bad about the fact that I had beaten him by luck and that he probably did deserve to win. However I did win and I move on.

 

 

Match 3 – Mat (1-1) vs. Harry.

This kid was a local kid that attended a lot of tournaments.

 

Duel 1 – He gets me into a lock for 6 turns where he attacks me directly with a Submarineroid. This is a card which has an 800 Atk and the ability to attack directly; it then changes to defense position after the attack with a defense of 1800! None of my level 4 cards were powerful enough to beat it so I had to wait for my Bitelon to come out and trample it to the sea-bed. I then caused him lots of trample damage however he managed to deck me out by using his D-Hero Defender.

 

Me – 8000-7200-6400-5600-4800-4000-3200-3100-5100-4700-4000 -Decked out
Him – 8000-7200-6200-5100-4100-3500-5500-5400-4200

 

Before I go on I better mention the effect of D-Hero Defender. It allows your opponent to draw a card during their standby phase (non-optional). Usually it would be counted as the negative effect of a Lvl 4 monster (it does have more defense that Big Shield Gardna) but in this tournament with most duelist’s having small decks it really helps to Deck out your opponent. Luckily most people only drew 1 and I drew 2 (Yaaayy!!).

 

Duel 2 – He uses his tramplers on me before I can get my own into play and when I do and clear his away I only inflict a small amount of trample damage before he get a E-Hero Neos out and Attacks for the win with Submarineroid’s help.

 

Me – 8000-7200-5000-4200-3600-3000-2800-2000-0

Him – 8000-7400-6600-6500-6000

 

He goes on to get a Top 8 spot so I’m not really too miffed about it, besides I’ve learnt quite a bit about effective dueling so far.

 

Match 4 Mat (1-2) vs. Jamie.

This kid regularly wins the local tournaments I was told and he was wearing an Elemental Energy T-shirt which told me he had a lot of experience and would be a tough opponent.

 

Duel 1 – He summons a Bitelon early and causes me all sorts of trample damage. I’m only able to cause a small amount via an attack by one of my Aliens.

 

Me – 8000-6400-4800-3200-2400-1600-0

Him – 8000-7700

 

Duel 2 – I get him into a Defender lock and he decks out.

 

Me – 8000-6600-5600

Him – 8000-6500-6100 - Deck out

 

Duel 3 – I get a Bitelon out early and trample whatever he puts out. He manages to get a Submarineroid out and give me 800 damage but I summon another Bitelon which destroys the Submarineroid and causes 600 trample damage whilst the other direct attacks for 2400. He tries to defend himself but next turn its all over.

 

Me – 8000-7200

Him – 8000-7800-7200-6600-4400-400-0

 

Just goes to show – you cant judge a book by its cover.

 

Match 5 Mat (2-2) vs. Alex (2-2)

This is my best friend and the one who I had traveled to the pre-release with. He had taught me how to play Yu-Gi-Oh and was the one person I didn’t want to duel. He was the only person who had drawn the strongest monster out of the packs that was legally summonable anyone in the tournament (Ultimate Tyranno Lvl8 Atk 3000 Def 2100 Effect: It must attack all monsters on you opponent’s side of the field at the start of the battle phase)

 

Duel 1: This was close with neither of us gaining any room. We both got each other into defender locks but he got his out 3 turns earlier and by the time I had 2 on the field it was too late.

 

Me – 8000-7000-6000-5100-4100-6100-4700-Deck out

Him – 8000-7900-9900-9100-8500-8100

 

Duel 2: Although he got the most powerful monster and a defender he didn’t draw all that well on his 5 packs and it showed in this duel. I used my advantage to slip under him with my tramplers.

 

Me – 8000-7000-6200-6000-5900-4900

Him – 8000-7700-6300-5900-5200-2200-0

 

Duel 3: Time was called in-between duels so we started a four turn duel. He played a monster face down and ended. I special summoned my defender with a spell card and tributed it off for a Bitelon which attacked the face down for 300 damage. He then played the Mausoleum of the emperor card and paid the 2000lp to summon his Ultimate Tyranno plus he special summoned a D-Hero. He then attacked me and my Bitelon for 1400 damage. I couldn’t make up the Life point totals in the turn and he won.

 

Me – 8000-6600

Him – 8000-7700-(Four Turns win)

 

There was no need for a playoff and the 6^th round wasn’t played.

 

Final Result: 13^th out of 19 with 2 wins and 3 losses. Prize of 1 booster.

 

Although it would have been nice to get a top 8 (Alex did with his win against me – he got 8^th) it was my first tournament and I’m happy with my results. Also for never participating in a sneak peak before the organizer gave me 35 random common cards from the Power of the Duelist set for an “excellent result for a newbie” (The cards were good ones as well!).

I said that I would explain what they were and Alien cards are a series of cards that place “A-Counters” on opponent’s monsters and utilize them. These A-Counters mean that whenever an monster with Alien in its name battles a monster with  A-Counter’s the defender loses 300 Atk and Def points for each A-Counter on it.

 

Pre-Release tournaments are half luck and half skill and its how you balance these two factors out that makes the difference. The successful duelists were the ones that built the best decks possible from the cards that they drew. The only tips I can offer are run at least 12 monsters so that you can always play something onto the field and play the highest tribute attackers possible.

 

Although this won’t mean much for the next few weeks until you know these cards I ran this deck (I’ve quickly summed up their effects)

 

Total 20

 

2 Destiny Hero – Defender (Lvl 4 2700 Def)

3 Bitelon  (Lvl 6 2400 Atk Trample effect)

2 D-Spirit (spell)(Special summon 1 Destiny Hero from your hand)

1 Orbital Bombardment (trap)(destroy a Alien monster to destroy a spell or trap)

2 Alien Gray (Flip place a A-Counter on a monster. When destroyed by battle draw a card)

1 Alien Skull (Lvl4 Atk 1600 Def 1800 can special summon to other side of field)

2 Alien Hunter (lvl4 Atk 1600 can attack again if it destroys a monster with a A-counter)

2 Brainwashing beam (trap)(take control of a monster with A-Counters)

1 The paths of Destiny (both players flip a coin, if heads +2000lp if tails -2000lp)

1 Black Ptera (Lvl3 Atk 1000 if sent to graveyard add to hand instead apart from when destroyed in battle)

1 Alien Hunter (Lvl4 Atk1800 when destroyed in battle place 2 A-counters on the monster that destroyed it)

1 Crop Circles (trap)(send any amount of alien monsters to the graveyard, special summon from deck a alien with a level equal to the combined levels of the sent monsters)

1 Royal wall of Taxation (trap) (select a card randomly in your opp’s hand. If its not summoned/activated by end of your next turn your opp loses 1000lp if it is you lose 1000lp

 

These cards have a lot of potential. For example Bitelon is a Level 6 with a average attack (2400) and a pierce effect. This will allow it to still kamikazie with most other level six’s whilst being a strong trampler. Also the defender cards can help with creating draw-out lockdowns whilst stopping the attacks of most monsters whilst the aliens show great potential. This is quite a good set that I thoroughly enjoyed playing with at the Pre-release.

 

My email is longorefisher@gmail.com should you wish to contact me

 

Matthew Fisher