Atlanta Qualifier Report

I did relatively well but my losses were so sad... Sorry for the lull in posting recently I actually haven't had much to post on.

Anyway I was running my Narukami build and this is what went down.

Me vs Ergodiel Angel Feathers
I double healed in the beginning of the game and let Ergodiel persona blast early on simply because I needed the damage anyway. Game goes on and she eventually rides to Circular Saw and called out a Heal Trigger to boost a rearguard... I take damage up to 4 and she puts heal trigger back in.... On my 3rd turn I rode Thunder Break Dragon btw (hence why I needed the damage as I couldn't hit Ergodiel and had nothing to boost with). Once I got to 4 damage I saw she had 5 cards in hand and had 5 damage. Declared Final Turn... Swung in with just enough so that she couldn't save herself.
1-0

Me vs Soulless Think Tank
Having never before played against this deck I was at a major disadvantage to begin with especially when he started playing Apollons which really confused me as I had no idea what it even did. Lo and behold he makes two Silent Tom lines and I having no Grade 0's all game due to never seeing a trigger could only guard for so long. Eventually I just had nothing left to block with and lost.
1-1

Me vs Tsukuyomi
He gets the Superior Ride to his Grade 3 and starts going putting out as much pressure as he could. I dismantle his lines. He Rides over Tsukuyomi to Amaterasu and calls Red-Eye and Cocoa... He puts the card back on top.. Swings with Red-Eye first and I let that through because he misplayed putting his Chocolat into soul via Red-Eye. Then Amaterasu swings at my rearguard... I let it through not knowing that Amaterasu's ability can work no matter who it hits... He checks a Heal Trigger keeping me safe from the plus 4. From there he had no shield and I had a gigantic hand the entire game... Eventually got him to say no Guard at 5 damage and I won.
2-1

Me vs Shamshiel Angel Feather
This girl misplayed tons so much that I forgot to use Saishin to retire Turiel. In the long run I had lines far too big for Shamshiel to deal with eventually winning by constant hits to the dome.
3-1

Me vs Narukami (I really didn't want to play against another Narukami deck because I want it to win)
I get grade stuck at 2 and play out the game perfectly taking 0 damage until I draw Rising Phoenix which gets me Vermillion to match hers. Game goes on for a long time I have perfect lines and she has none. I've gotten rid of anything she put in the front row allowing me to save more hand cards... Eventually she has 0 cards in hand after blocking my major swing... I have 3 cards in hand but she has only a 19k Vermillion... She Top Decks Shiden... Shiden locks down one of my Intercepts... I block the Vermillion swing guarding for 2 triggers to pass... I'm thinking after seeing so many Critical triggers all game she wouldn't check more than 1... She double Crits with her last two Djinns in deck... I am 3k Shield Short of making it to the next round. This is the only instance where I can say there is blind-luck occasionally involved in Vanguard simply by merit of there being a deck from which you draw cards randomly.
3-2

Goes home got 0 trades and the swag I did get for entering was minimal so all in all a wasted day aside from the fact that I now know I am one of the top players in Georgia simply because My only real loss was due to having no chance to play against the deck and in 1 and done format you need a lot of prior knowledge but with my small local and equally local small scene I only have so many deck to play against... all I do know is I did three times as good as Ryan Vignetti and his Tier-Whoring Spectral Duke self only switching from Spike Brothers because he saw Spectral Duke top thankfully he isn't a good player.

Anyway I'll go again next year with more preparation and just win it completely leaving no room for my opponent to hope to survive.

One thing I am noticing is that people keep treating Cardfight like a business... I'm like I have a full guard from the same set as your Full Guard... You want my full guard I want your full guard I shouldn't have to throw in cards simply because it has more resell value only due to bandwagoning. Such as Halo Shield Mark compared to something like Hades Hypnotist... One is like 10-13 the other is like 30-35... Simply due to hype... I'm like if we both get what we want why are you going for value of a piece of cardboard... It's one of the things that ruined Yu-Gi-Oh to me thanks to dumb inflation on prices that makes certain cards worth more than others that you have the same chance to acquire simply due to hype... I bet when Gold Paladin's stop winning and something like Pale Moon begin to rape the Tournament scene due to sheer numbers Hades Hypnotist will top 30 and Halo Shield, Mark will drop to 10-13...

Anyway going to try and run Royal Paladin's for awhile and take a break from Narukami. Besides Doctor K signed my Vermillion so I guess I didn't go home empty handed after all.

College going well so far I should have about a 4.0 in terms of GPA which is great for first semester which is when people normally mess up the most. Just gotta hold that for two more tests in each class...

Anyway thanks for viewing I'll eventually have more to post later but it may take awhile in-between posts. I may soon make another Deck Discussion.

AWA Vanguard fun

Anyway I went to Anime Weekend Atlanta and finished basically my Dark Irregular deck and had a few things stolen but ah well can't really get em back. My skill improved, I nearly beat the Spectral Duke deck that made top 4 with Narukami but got Grade stuck at 1 for too long and by time I could catch up he had amassed too much advantage. I held off Spectral Dukes second swing twice though. Any game I won that day I actually was able to declare Final Turn everytime quite decisively. One time I was able to declare Final Turn against a 4 damage 6 card hand... worked.

Obtained 4 Daiyusha for future use. Didn't get to enter the tourney but out of my packs pulled Pellinore, Shamshiel, Leo-Pald... Traded all of that away. Pellinore was really popular so I should have shopped around before trading it off.

Anyway I'm hoping to do this Draft Tourney this weekend if I can get there. A lot of people were building Pale Moon there which is a really good deck but one thing to remember... Don't waste a Berserk Dragon effect on the Girl who Crossed the Gap if I had that Counterblast open I could have Vermillion Thunderbolted twice. Also kill any Alice that hits the field all of them... IF running Goku... Snipe out Midnight Bunnies and run over Any Grade 3 they put at Rearguard (In the Sword Magician, Sara build) Against Lequier swing in madly early game so you can get back that advantage late game. As Narukami don't put Saishin behind the Vanguard against them even though they have a Retire Target unless you can ride a Garuda.

Narukami Tournament Report 5

NOTE: This happened last week but Blogger malfunctioned and didn't save it correctly and I didn't catch that until today.

Alright so this time it was quite a small turnout. The players from Columbus all decided to be no-shows so we only had a 4 man-tourney. The players who did come were mostly new to the game for the most part. The Lawkeeper Kagero deck from before made a reappearance and I also saw a Drangal Paladin build (All of the Galahad chain except the Grade 3).

We played it Round Robin style for the fact that there was no point in having a real swiss tournament with 4 people. So everyone played everyone.

Lawkeeper Kagero vs Narukami
I won this one via Good drive checks basically Draw and Heal Double Trigger won the game once I rode grade 3.

Drangal Paladin vs Narukami
Absolutely controlled the game and made sure to use Saishin as a free early game beater 13k Saishin Lines were small but still enough to force a 5k shield which worked quite well.

Goku-Blade vs Narukami
Extremely close game won due to Double Vermillion Limit Break.

I don't have an accurate account because this post should have been up last week but I guess blogger malfunctioned so I lost it. I was wondering why I had no post from last week.

Narukami Tourney Report 3

This weekend was pretty awesome...

I traded Spectral Duke, 2 Djinn the Lightning Flash, Garmore for 2 Alfred... then traded sleygal daggers for Goku's. Traded Blonde Ezel for a Alfred... Now all I need are some Palamedes and I can build Alfred-Palamedes...

Traded 2 Machina Fortress, Super Limiter Removal, and a Leviair for a stack of commons and rares and a Spectral Duke Dragon...

Round 1: Narukami (Me) vs Lohengrin Alfred (Awkward deck)
Game went really quickly as I got him to 3 damage and then used an unboosted Vermilion to attack for 13000 at all of his front row... he declares no guard... Double Crit for game...

Round 2: Narukami (Me) vs Lawkeeper Kagero
This one was pretty close the final turns were when I used Shiden to lock down a Nehalem and then played a Thunderstorm infront of it so I could force a 5k shield... all of that goes through and he is at 5 damage... he draws and uses Lawkeeper to get rid of my 5 rearguards... I guard everything perfectly as in just enough shield... Final Turn... returns everything but Shiden to the field leaving me with Thunderstorm, Breakthrough, Shiden with a backrow of nothing, red river, draw trigger... I call a 5k boost behind thunderstorm... swing in and he has 2 cards in hand by the final hit with a 5k intercept... he only has 2 Grade 3's so I get through for the last damage.

Round 3: Narukami (Me) vs Goku-Blade (Ernest)
My brother and I played for 1st... I miscalculated when to use Vermilion and used it far later than I should have and the advantage eventually was just too much to keep up with.

so 2-1 and second place to my brothers 3-0 first place finish... The table beside us had a grand total of 3 Final Turns in a row. We get our first epic Deckbox and he gets 3 packs of Set 3... Pulls Dark Irregular full guard, Grade 2 Tsukuyomi, and Crimson Beast Tamer...

All in all really good day considering... and if i'm lucky I may be able to sell all of my yugioh binder stuff for 400-500 dollars which would go towards Ravnica and BT03 and BT07 boxes.

Changes to my Narukami build...
-2 Djinn of the Lightning Flash
-2 Lightning of Hope, Helena
+1 Rising Phoenix
+1 Red River Dragoon
+2 Breakthrough Dragon

I need to work on my sheer skill level... The deck is meant to be able to actually declare a Final Turn but it takes so much skill sometimes.

Narukami Tourney Report #2

I once again headed to Quest Comics on a saturday morning for Cardfight! Vanguard.

Pre-Tournament: I made some small talk and tried to get a few trades in. set up a trade to give 2 Ezel's and some random Gold Paladin stuff to someone for 45 dollars (A minus in value to me but I got those Ezel's and the Gold Paladin stuff for basically free as we traded a few cards for a PGless Gold Paladin deck.)

Tournament: Round 1 I am paired with someone I used to know from my last local (If anyone remembers my other blog and that Mirror Force, Divine Wrath play.) He's running a Netdecked Spike Bros. build (The Dudley version) I'm running Vermillion Control. The game starts out terribly in his favor and because this is one and done if you don't do research earlier then you will probably lose... He wound up winning with the Dudley effect... I just drive checked too many cards that couldn't block and didn't get to use Saishin due to going second. If I had 5k more shield I could have won the next turn but ah well.

Round 2 They pair me with my brother who I traveled to the tourney with. We both lost me to Dudley being hard to beat if you don't already know how and he lost to Angel Feather because he was helping the guy play correctly and helped him make more advantageous moves. He was running Goku Kagero with only 2 Barri and only 3 Goku. I had a really narrow match with him but after counting his checks I sealed the game by Crossriding to Thunder Break Dragon and barely making him unable to guard the last swings.

Final Round I am paired with the Angel Feather from before and I know he's a new player so I give 0 fucks. The game basically ends with Vermillion Thunderbolt followed with a heal trigger to put me at 3 damage. Finished the game out 3-6.

I make second behind the Dudley deck (The pilot wasn't too good but the deck itself doesn't care who the pilot is if the opponent doesn't know how to deal with the deck). So better than last time which is good.

First Real Local Tourney Report

So I finally got to go to locals. It was fun but eh my record wasn't very good. Bad draws coupled with an incompleat deck playing against a complete Spike Brothers and getting sacked by an Aleph deck (I had nothing to guard with kept checking Grade 3's... only run 7 of em). The tourney format this time was 1 Round Match Swiss... I went 2-2 in our four round tournament and got 4th (out of 9 people with a unfinished deck is pretty nice).


Round 1: Narukami (Me) vs. Lohengrin Royal Paladin
I basically kept his hand count low by swinging in with big hits on his 10k Lohengrin. Eventually I got him to 4 damage with 3 cards in hand... I draw for my turn and declared "Final Turn", "Limit Break" I took all of his front row on at once... first check nothing... second check Critical Trigger for game.
1-0

Round 2: Narukami (Me) vs. Dudley Emperor Brothers
I had some bad luck coupled with Morikawa draws so by time I finally got to Grade 3 I had taken 5 damage didn't help that my grade 3 was a 10k Thunder Break... he never got Dudley but his swings were just too big every turn and I succumbed.
1-1

Round 3: Narukami (Me) vs. Cocytus Granblue
Basically once again with big swings he had to guard more than he wanted. Eventually with a Grade 3 Cocytus in hand he Superior Rides to Deadly Swordmaster after minusing to get out the Nightmare... Putting his hand lower... He swung and me being at 2 damage let it through. He gets a Critical... I'm at 4 with Vermilion on field. He decided not to attack my rearguard with his rearguard and just passed the turn. I attacked and he survived at 5 damage. He got a heal back up to 4. I swing in with everything to lower his hand because I know he has a Gust Jin. He decides not to use it but still makes it through without damage just barely. He swings in and deals 1 Damage I get a Heal Trigger back to 4... He has 3 cards in hand and I have 5 unflipped damage. I draw and do not declare Final Turn though I already know it is he can't block my rearguard hits though he is at 4... I call Dragonic Deathscythe to retire a random rearguard. Then I use Vermillion Thunderbolt and attack his whole front row. He guards for the Vanguard I check a Draw Trigger and a blank. Power to Deathscythe. Which is now big enough with a boost to force a 15k shield he takes it and the Djinn's attack which would require a 10k and thats game.
2-1

Round 4: Narukami (Me) vs. Aleph Kagero
He pulls off the Superior Ride and along with that constantly is able to use kimnara on my backrow so eventually I had a Djinn and 2 Vermillion on field as I kept checking Grade 3's... I was doing well but eventually he was able to use Aleph to get 3 free damage unflipped for Dragonic Overlord and that was the end of that. I blocked it and tried to block the Aleph but he got Double Crit... and that was game.
2-2

All in all not a bad day.

My brother went 3-1 also losing to Spike Brothers with his Goku-Blade (Only has 2 Goku right now though).

I bought some packs of BT03 and pulled Grade 3 Amon and some rares... yadda yadda... my brother traded our Angel Feather money cards for 2 Ezel 1 Garmore 2 Vivianne and pretty much an entire Gold Paladin deck technically we got the worse end of the deal but got some free sleeves to help out along with some more Tradebait or enough cards to run Gold Paladin again.

I traded 2 Shock Ruler and 1 T.G. Hyper Librarian for 1 Spectral Duke Dragon 1 Wyvern Guard Guld and 1 Master Beetle which was fair.

I traded some Granblue stuff for a bunch of Dark Irregular rares and commons (Worth it)

Then got my Prize Packs 1 BT03 and 1 Cardfight Pack Vol. 2 and 1 Promotional DVD with the first 4 episodes subbed. My Brother got the same and the first manga chapters instead of the DVD. I pulled Knowledge Drunkard.

I then bought a box of BT03...
Of note I pulled:
1 Nightmare Doll, Alice RRR
1 Hades Hypnotist RR
2 Toypugal R
1 March Rabbit of Nightmareland RR
1 Edel Rose RR
1 Goddess of the Full Moon, Tsukuyomi RRR
1 Crimson Beast Tamer RR
1 Doreen the Thruster RR
1 Stil Vampir RRR

So I made a bit more than my money back mostly because of Tsukuyomi and 2 two full Guards... I paid 70 and just those 3 cards are about 70+ throwing in Doreen and Stil Vampir and Alice Nearly made 100 in card value. Sad thing is i'm using the Full Guard, Stil Vampir, Doreen, Amon...

If Ernest feels like posting his experience at the local he may as I don't even know how his games went. I'll be able to bring a new tourney report every 2 weeks or so maybe sooner. I'll post my Narukami build tomorrow probably.