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 Yugioh Tournament Reports

The Seven Vanilla Lords and Friends

William John Brandofino

Life University

Marietta, GA

9/30/06

Well over 200 people (had to go 8 rounds)

Deck list: 40 total

Monsters: 20

x3 Summoned Skull

x2 Archfiend Soldier

x3 Luster Dragon

x3 Charcoal Inpachi

x1 Labyrinth Wall (Hah!)

x1 Neo Aqua Madoor

x1 Soul Tiger

x1 Battle Footballer (only had one ; ;)

x1 Mad Dog of Darkness

x1 Beast of Talwar (again, only had one)

And Friends!

x1 Sasuke Samurai #4

x1 Lava Golem (yes, lava golem. I will explain shortly)

x1 Man-eater Bug (why not?)
 

Spells: 12

x1 Nobleman of Crossout

x2 Dark Factory of Mass Production

x2 Heart of the Underdog (only had 2)

x1 Riryoku (This could easily be smashing ground)

x1 Heavy Storm

x1 Rush Recklessly

x1 MST

x1 Premature Burial

x1 Brain Control

x1 Graceful Charity
 

Traps: 8

x1 Raigeki Break

x2 Soul Resurrection

x1 Torrential Tribute

x1 Ring of Destruction

x1 Call of the Haunted

x1 Magic Cylinder

x1 Mirror Force 

End Formalities.

About the Deck

            So, I believe I have some explaining to do about my deck. It is a normal monster deck that I built at first to the response of reading the effect of heart of the underdog, and second to the bad publicity these vanilla guys get. I’ve worked on it on and off for the last couple years, but never finished it. I’m constantly taking it in new directions, but this one had to do for the regional. By the way, this is my first regional, but not first major event. That would be SJC Atlanta, but I wasn’t using this deck, so it doesn’t matter.
 

Does it Work?

            I understand some of you have already stopped reading. Those are you that are still here are probably interested if the deck worked in this metagame. I’d like to keep you all in suspense, but for the sake of those browsing, I went 6-2 in this eight round regional and some rounds were against people that had previously won the regional. I’ll go into detail about the rounds in a moment.
 

How does it work?

            Right. This is a concept that I have been forming for a while. Originally, it was to gain card advantage through heart of the underdog and dark factory of mass production. That theory fell through, as even though I held card advantage, my opponent was able to wreck every normal monster I tried to put on the field. Even with good stats, they were not good enough against effect monsters with even better stats or powerful effects.
 

            So, eventually I tried field presence, while still retaining the heart of the underdog and dark factory trick.   I used two-man cell battle and ultimate offering. Ultimate offering was soon limited, and two-man cell battle only worked for level 4 normal monsters. I still needed an answer for cyber dragon and the monarchs, as the former’s speed and power and the latter’s effects dug through my field and left me with setting normal monster after normal monster.
 

            At this point I tried teching effect monsters, along with soul resurrection and cards that worked well with soul rez, such as Beast of Talwar (2400/2150) and the 3000 def monsters. (For those of you that don’t know, Soul Resurrection is like Call of the Haunted, but for normal monsters, and instead of atk, it is in def mode.) This is the type I took to the regionals. Lava golem is mean when you have a large field, have a magic or trap card to abuse him, or have a 3000 def fattie. Sasuke Samurai #4 was brutal. I managed to call correctly the coin flip when it mattered. (SS4 is really a skill card that has a chance effect. I’ll get into that some other time.) Last, but not least, Man-eater bug threw off the opponent when what they were expecting was a 2100 def wall.
 

            Okay, now onto the rounds!

Tournament Rounds
 

Round 1: William vs. spellcaster CC
 

Game 1: Spellcaster CC is CC but with apprentice, and old vindictive magician, and therefore many opportunities for monarch abuse. Normal monsters kept the field presence and hand presence, and sasuke samurai #4 punished flips and aggressors alike.
 

Me-8000-6400-4500-3700
 

Him-8000-7700-5800-4600-2700-200-0
 

Game 2: I only remember how this game ended, sorry. He ringed luster dragon for game.

Me-8000-6800-5600-3500-1900-0
 

Him-8000-6100-5100-3000-1100
 

Game 3: Went a lot like game 1, and I chained ring to the activation of premature burial for game.
 

Me-8000-wherever the damage from ring put me.
 

Him-8000-7500-7200-5300-4300-4100-2200-0
 

            So I win round 1. Hurrah for normal decks. My friends who go to this regional tell me that he gets into the top 20 usually. Sweet. They also told me he looked pretty pissed. I guess I would be as well if I lost to vanillas. But always a good game, and he played it well.
 

            Five of my friends participated in this tourney with me, three won round one, rest would start the day off with a 0-1 record.
 

Round 2: William vs. a monarch CC with gravekeeper spies and hydrogeddon.
 

In his defense, the man didn’t have any sleep. He told me he has a nightjob, didn’t get any details.

Game 1: (He might’ve had other tech, but I’m writing this 3 days after the tourney, so I apologize for my memory lapse.) I saw ceasefire. Bwa ha ha. Ceasefire. Almost always a -1 for them with minimal damage against this deck, unless they hit man-eater bug. Or they chain it in response to mst or whatever.
 

Me-8000-5900-5100
 

Him -8000-5900-5400-4500-4100-1600-800-0

Game 2: All I have is the LP record and the knowledge that I lost, sorry.

Me-8000-5100-3000-900-0
 

Him-8000-4200-3400-2600
 

Game 3: I didn’t see his options, but a bad move from what I saw. Midgame he drops Injection Fairy Lily to go from 4900 to 2900, even though I had about 2 cards in the backfield, 2 monsters, and an average sized hand. I brain control lily and attack direct.
 

Me-8000-6100-4600-3800-1800
Him-8000-4900-2900-0

            Round 2 is in the bag! I’m feeling good at this point. All my friends won this round, so good beanz and whatnot.
 

Round 3: William vs. Macrocosmos
 

            He seemed like a nice guy. I was expecting something different after two CC shots, but I wasn’t expecting one of the weaknesses of my deck to show through in the entire matchup.

Game 1: I draw 4 tribute monsters and premature burial and call of the haunted. Ouch. I proceed to lose the match that might’ve let me top eight. He led off with dimensional fissure, so I knew I was done.

Me-8000-6400-5600-4800-4000-2400-2100-500-0

Him-8000...jeez...

Game 2: And here I though maybe I could come back. A similar hand, even though I sided out all my graveyard-related cards. I put up a fight this time.

Me-8000-7000-6700-4600-2900-800-0

Him-8000-7700-6700-6100

            So I lost. My friends were having tough times as well, seeing as how two of them had their deck stolen. I promised to give them my prizes (the good stuff, I’d keep the crap) in case I won anything. There’s all the difference in the world between a person who steals food to survive, and a person who steals yugioh cards to better their deck or collection. But I suppose being a leet yugimons duelist is all they will amount to when they have ethics as thus.

            Oh yeah, back to the report.

Round 4: William vs. CC with tech Strike ninja and tech dark world.

            This man won the regional in July, or at least that’s what he said. I was hoping for a more balanced hand this time around, and I got it.

Game 1: From the way the duel was going, I believed he did win the regional at some point. But few were prepared for the way my deck gains advantage, so I had both a mental advantage(surprise element) and actual game advantage(hand advantage and field advantage tricks).

Me-8000-5600(early Zaborg)-4800-4000

Him-8000-5600-5400-2900-2500-2300-1700-0

Game 2: His friend sitting next to my opponent at the table said something about my opponent losing his virginity if he lost. Considering that my opponent was male, this statement was an incentive for my opponent to win. I think it worked.

Me-8000-2900-2100-0

Him-8000-7500-6700-4300

Game 3: Both duels were taking a long time, so by the third duel, his friends had a chance to watch. Even though he managed to Graceful Charity into a Goldd and Silva he was dropped to 100 by a rush with summoned skull, luster dragon and sasuke samurai#4. I added a rush recklessly to summoned skull, but I didn’t calculate and just estimated, so he had 100 left. But I was playing a control game, so by his next turn he had 3 in hand and nothing on the field, while I had all the game elements on my side. I think he drew into strike ninja with a dark world tech in his hand along with a monarch. Overall good match.

Me-8000-7400-6400

Him-7700-7100-6400-100-0

            After that match, I hope the people viewing changed their perception about normal monster decks. Their reaction certainly made it seem that way.

Round 5: William vs. CC tomato control variant

            Good player, and I made a bad mistake. Put the two together and you have a nice match loss for myself.

Game 1: I think here I was simply outplayed, since I don’t remember much.

Me-8000-7200-3400-1700-0

Him-8000-7600-6600-5800-5600-3700-2700

Game 2: My mistake here is thinking I can rush him to death. I base on probability that he hasn’t drawn into mirror force, and since torrential tribute was already used, I rush with a 4 monster field into mirror force. My fault completely, and it eventually led to game.

Me-8000-6600-6500-6300-5300-4200-3000-1800-400-0

Him-8000-7600-7100-6100-5800-3400

            So, 3-2...ouch. Shook his hand and whatnot like I always do. Good sportsmanship is important in any competition, so even if your opponent doesn’t show you respect, show him your best.
 

Round 6: William vs. CC with tech

            He seemed to be distracted by some player drama happening at the end of the table. I make sure he at least notices my plays, and the second round he gets back into shape.

Game 1: Like I said, he was distracted. I win with a bad hand, surprisingly. He plays confiscation early on and forgets that I had lava golem. He has a cyber dragon that isn’t a floater and a twin headed behemoth that hasn’t used it’s effect yet. I toss him a golem, the behemoth doesn’t come back, and I riryoku the golem’s power into my monster. A good play, but nothing compared to game 2...

Me-8000-6100-4400

Him-8000-7000-5100-3200-1300-0

Game 2: He jumped back into the game full force, but lost to my play of the day. Okay, my field has beast of talwar and two face down charcoal inpachis. He has two goats, a set monster and a spent breaker. I have a Lava golem and brain control in my hand. Sweet play for game, and with 600 lp to spare.

Me-8000-7000-6000-4900-1400-600

Him-8000-6100-700-0

            Well, 4-2 isn’t bad. Only me and one other friend is 4-2 at this point. Other two had deck stolen, and one guy dropped.

Round 7: William vs. Exodia!

            Finally! After too many rounds of CC, a not-too-used deck pops up. He’s 4-2, so it must be decent.

Game 1: I have one burn card in my deck. Lava Golem. I use it, and apparently he didn’t have toon cannon soldier. I finish this with a flip summon>torrential>Dark Factory of Mass Production>1900 beatstick for game

Me-8000-7200-6800

Him-8000-6900-5900-4900-3900-2900-1900-0

Game 2: I think I just rushed him for game, seeing has he had no stall in his deck, just draw power. Weird.

Me-8000-7200

Him-8000-7100-6100-3600-1100-0

            5-2, getting better. My friend is too. We were both worried about facing eachother in the finals.

Round 8: William Vs. CC with teched decree and minimal traps and hydrogeddon

            ugh, last round. I’m told that regional usually don’t have this many people so there are on average less rounds. My opponent seems pretty eager to win, eager to the point where he’s nervous.
 

Game 1: Very close. I finish with 100 left. I think magic cylinder won it for me.

Me-8000-6400-5600-4600-2700-2200-100

Him-8000-6400-5600-4000-3800-1900-1100-1000-0

Game 2: I get the dreaded tribute hand. I go ahead and flash my hand. The second most important rule of yugioh: If you know you’re going to lose, lose with style. I need to fix that aspect of the deck.

Me-8000-4900-1800-0

Him-8000 untouched

Game 3: You would think that with 8 traps it would suck for me to see a decree on the field, but I ended this duel with two summoned skulls and a beast a talwar rushing for game.

Me-8000-7800-7600-6900

Him-8000-7500-4600-0

            A 6-2 record in big regional. I hope that puts normal monsters on the map! Or, at least simply respected by other people. I learned that the top 4 of the regional don’t battle it out, instead they split the top prize 4 ways and they all get the invite.

            I won 3 packs from POD. I let my friend who had his deck stolen open them(the other one only wanted a top 8 mat, but I didn’t get that, and he didn’t want anything else.) and he pulls an ultimate rare first edition ultimate tyranno! Why don’t I get luck like that? Eh, he deserved it anyway. I only piloted a normal monster deck to a 6-2 finish. Lolz.

Ok, since I see other people finishing reports with this, I think I should too.

Props and Slops:

Props: going 6-2 with a normal monster deck, woo!

-making some new friends at the regional

-winning some prizes

-getting some experience with a deck I want to make the best

-my friends for driving me and supporting me in the way the friends do

-Proving to myself and others that you don’t have to run CC to make good showings

Slops: there were only 8 people who made a 7-1 record, and they all top 8'ed

-not top 8'ing

-getting bad hands twice in a row in round 3

-my friends’ decks getting stolen

-CC still having a power hold over the dueling community

            So, until next time, duel like you want to become hokage!

            -William John Brandofino

            You can reach me at Voshaythedrk@hotmail.com