[Vancouver] Team Tournament Report 25/08/12

Hey guys,

This past Saturday, Chan held one last Team Tournament before school starts for us all. The turnout was a little lower than last time, with only 6 teams registering, which is still a solid 18 players. For those of you that aren't familiar with the format, you register as a team of 3 and play a best of 1 vs another player of another team, then after that both players switch out for two new players to play creating a best of 3. Since we only had 6 teams this time around, we played round-robin style playing each team once then top 2 playing for the top prize - a whole box of BT07 in Japanese. My team was arranged kind of last minute, as both of my friend's regular teammates bailed on him, so my friend and I ended up joining his team. Our team composition consisted of Narukami, Pale Moon and Lawkeeper Kagero played by yours truly. I was the starter, Narukami second, and Pale Moon was our anchor. I was supposed to have the best deck, but let's see how that panned out shall we?

Round 1
Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Royal Paladin
Well to be honest there's not much to say about this game. His starter was Wingal Brave, but due to the point system (decks are worth a certain amount of points and a team must be at or under 20 points) I didn't think it was Majesty Lord Blaster since it was worth a whopping 11 points. He rode Marron and put Wingal Brave behind his Vanguard, tipping me off that he probably had a Blaster Blade in his hand. I only swung with my Vanguard and dealt the 1 damage. He rode Blaster Blade (as expected) and boosted with Wingal Brave. I gave him minimum guard, and he checked another Blaster Blade so now he's stuck with the Wingal Brave boosting his Vanguard. I ride Nehalem, call another Nehalem, get a Bahr with Conroe and dealt two more damage. He rides Holy Disaster Dragon (lol) and calls a few more rearguards. I guard the easy rearguard attacks, and while I'm at 2 damage he uses Holy Disaster Dragon's skill of ditching a card from his hand to gain 5k power to swing for 20k!!!11one. While I'm at 2 damage. Yeah... no guard. He actually does this again next turn while I'm at 3 damage so he essentially just gave me two cards from his hand for free. Because of this he can't guard my 20k columns with Lawkeeper/Dual Axe and I take the game pretty easily.

Use this thing wisely kids

Narukami (Why) vs. Gold Paladin
I didn't actually watch most of this game, but Why took the game pretty easily.

1-0

Round 2
Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Narukami
He starts with Lizard Soldier Saishin which is REALLY ANNOYING. He ends up going first which means that my Conroe has a pretty high chance of getting picked off. I look at my hand and see that I have 1 Grade 1 which means I will have no boosters, increasing the usefulness of Conroe by a lot. He rides his 8k vanilla and ends. I have to ride my lone Grade 1 - Kimnara and put the Conroe behind my Vanguard. I attack with Kimnara unboosted. Why? As to not give him the 1 damage he needs to snipe off my Conroe while still getting to do a drive check. If I get a trigger, I simply give the effects to Conroe. I don't check a trigger, and I end. He attacks me on his next turn, giving me the counterblast I need to use Conroe, so I dodge that bullet. Game goes on, he rides to Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and I misplay by playing both my Dual Axes when he has 3 open damage to Vermillion Thunderbolt me, which he does in his following turn. Luckily for me I had the hand advantage for most of the game, even after he got off some clutch heals to get in a better position, but my 21k columns started becoming harder and harder to guard and I eventually win the game. This player wasn't too bad, I don't think he made any play that I would consider questionable, so props to him.

Oh god why

Narukami (Why) vs. Gold Paladin
Why checked triggers well and played a solid game, but nearly threw the game when at 3 damage he decided to guard a 28k Blonde Ezel. He gave up 25k Shield for it which was not worth it at all in my opinion. During his opponent's last turn, had his opponent simply called the Ezel in his hand as a Rearguard instead of using Ezel's Limit Break and calling a trigger, Why wouldn't have been able to guard everything, but instead he does and takes the game the following turn. Quite the close game.

2-0

Round 3
Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Gold Paladin
I open with no Grade 3 in my hand, so I hoped I draw into it before Turn 3. My opponent rides Gareth, then Beaumain and during his third turn, he says he's gradestuck yet calls another Gareth and has Kyrph on the field. He attacks with his Vanguard, but then his teammate points out that he can superior ride into Ezel. He then stands his Vanguard and does so, which is the most blatant case of backseat playing I've ever seen. I tell Chan what he did, but he didn't do anything about it but give the team a warning. Meanwhile I'm gradestuck at 2, so I fall behind and end up losing the game. I was pretty fucking salty losing because the guy was told how to play, but at least he seemed like a nice guy. Wish I could say the same about his teammate.

Grade stuck with Kyrph lolwut

Narukami (Why) vs. Tsukuyomi
Why starts off being Grade stuck at 2, which is not good. Luckily for him, Tsukuyomi is a slow deck in the early to mid game, and the Tsukuyomi player missed the Grade 1 Tsukuyomi, so it wasn't the worst of happenings - although he did have the Grade 2 in hand. Tsukuyomi player gained hand advantage through Full Moon's effect, which also allowed him to put the missing Grade 1 Tsukuyomi into the soul, but Why's ability to check triggers was pretty good, so he kept that in check. Both players had decently sized hands throughout the game, but the Tsukuyomi player was nearing his stack. Why however was aware of this and started to overguard/perfect guard the Vanguard, and dealt with the stack perfectly, although his opponent did miscount by 1 card. The Tsukuyomi player was running out of cards in his deck, so all Why had to do was stall him out until he decked out - which is exactly what happened. The Tsukuyomi player was also the player that told my opponent to ride Ezel, so I'm glad Why got revenge.

Pale Moon (Godtin) vs. Narukami
Now Godtin here joined our team because we needed a third player, or else he would've just played Weiss Schwarz. He expected Why and I to take everything 2-0 so he could play Weiss and get a $10 box but clearly that wasn't to be the case. I only watched the last past of the game, where Godtin is looking in a bad position, but the opponent no guards Godtin's Vanguard attacks at 4 damage. Godtin rips the Critical Trigger and takes the game and the match! Justice is served.

3-0

Round 4
Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Narukami
We are all friends with the opposing team, so we thought it was going to be a good match. Until I got gradestuck. Again. Luckily for me my opponent also got Grade stuck at 2, but he drew into a Grade 3 before me. I ended up losing the game before I could even draw into a Grade 3. FML.

Narukami (Why) vs. JI ENDO

With Narukami being 6 points, and Angel Feather (the team's third player) being 3 points, they had the 11 point availability to fit a Dragonic Overlord The End player on their team. We thought it was going to be a tough match... until the The End player got Grade stuck at Grade 1. Why didn't miss a single ride and just completely crushed The End. WHAT A GREAT SERIES SO FAR EH.

Godtin (Pale Moon) vs. Angel Feather
Not much to say about this match other than the Angel Feather player ripped some critical (see what I did there) Critical triggers which skewed the game into his favour. Godtin was low on hand, and checked a solid 1 trigger I think all game, falling behind. Eventually there was nothing he could do about the power boosts the Pegasus and Calamity Flame gained due to the damage swapping occurring due to Shamshel's Limit Break and dropped the game. Our first loss, while the other team was undefeated.

3-1

Round 5
We could still get to the finals if we beat the next team, regardless of the results of the undefeated team. Let's DO THIS.

Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Gold Paladin
This kid. THIS KID. He was the absolute most annoying and hate-able kid I have ever had the misfortune to meet. He was loud. He was annoying. He was arrogant. He was cocky. He was telling me HOW TO PLAY MY OWN DECK. "What Kagero deck are you playing? OH LAWNMOWER EH? ARE YOU GOING TO LAWNMOW MY CARDS?" He was the very embodiment of the kids you think of that are bad at this game (he called a Vivianne behind his Beaumain), play Gold Paladins and think they are good players. And what could possibly make things worse? I GOT GRADESTUCK. AGAIN. FOR THE THIRD GAME IN A ROW. ON GRADE 2. I was actually giving him a run for his money even after him superior riding Ezel but I fell too far behind even after managing to draw into Lawkeeper and checked a whopping 1 trigger all game while he checked like 5-6 (I guess the extra drive checks help). I hope I never have to be in the same room as this kid ever again.

I'M GONNA LAWNMOW YOUR CARDS

Narukami (Why) vs. Tsukuyomi?
This was a weird match. The Tsukuyomi player's deck was extremely strange. He rode the Grade 1 Tsukuyomi, but only ran 1 Grade 2. Instead of riding another Grade 2, he purposely kept himself on the Grade 1 Tsukuyomi to "super-stack" his deck, then rode up to Grade 3 to use his stack. Why unfortunately had a subpar hand and couldn't quite exploit the fact that his opponent's Vanguard was 7k for most of the game, leading to the Tsukuyomi player actually having hand advantage. Eventually the Tsukuyomi player rode up to Grade 3 and actually reached his stack, which Why managed to stave off. With some solid trigger checking, Why started depleting the hand of the Tsukuyomi player, and eventually poked for the 6th damage and took the game. Quite the strange game.

Pale Moon (Godtin) vs. Spike Brothers
I actually missed this game completely for some reason, but later got the gist of it. The Spike Brothers player was playing a Seifried/Sky Diver build apparently. The opponent did some Sky Diver plays, killing Godtin's rearguards, and then next turn he rides Silver Thorn Dragon Tamer, Lequier and Limit Breaks and pushes with a huge Lequier to win the game. We make it to the finals!

4-1

Finals
So we made it to the finals to play the only team we lost against - the team that we're friends with. I'm hoping I have a better showing. Here we go!

Lawkeeper Kagero (HerO) vs. Narukami
Aw yeah, here we go. First game for the Finals. Fair amount of pressure, but I thrive on it. Narukami isn't too bad, I should be able to handle it and do well. I'm so hyped, alright here we go, and...

What.

No Grade 2? No, I'll draw into a Grade 2, what are the chances I get gradestuck 4 games in a row?

That's not a Grade 2. Or this. Oh god, oh no.

I'M GRADESTUUUUUUUUUUUCK. FOR THE FOURTH. GAME. IN. A. ROW.

Grade 3's and Grade 1's were apparently all that I ran in this deck, and I died before I could ride to Grade 3. MAD SALTY. But I hoped my teammates would carry me once again!

Narukami (Why) vs. JI ENDO
Well last round Why had an easy time because the JI ENDO player got gradestuck on Grade 1, so we were hoping something similar happened. Why started off with no Grade 3 in hand, and was gradestuck at 2 for one turn, but it didn't seem to hurt him too much since The End player's hand was full of triggers and couldn't really abuse Why's 9k Vanguard. Why rode Dragonic Kaiser Vermillion and since he actually had rearguards poking the opponent, he took hand advantage early on. This, coupled with the fact that the opponent didn't have a JI ENDO in hand meant that Why was dealing simply with an 11k Vanguard with no silly Persona Blast. The lack of rearguards for the JI ENDO player carried on throughout the game, giving Why a huge hand advantage. Eventually it was just too much and Why took the game! There were misplays from the JI ENDO player's end though, guarding with potential rearguard units instead of triggers namely. But it's all tied up and we go to the ace match!

Pale Moon (Godtin) vs. Angel Feather
The game started off slowly, but just like the first time around, the Angel Feather player got some clutch Critical Triggers putting Godtin in a really bad spot. At 5 damage and with low amount of cards in hand, there wasn't a lot he could do. With the Angel Feather at 3 damage, he just dumps his hand on the field to pressure as much as he can. He attacks with a rearguard first, and it gets blocked. He attacks with his Vanguard (Sword Magician, Sarah) and his opponent doesn't guard. And...

... this is what happens.

First damage check, nothing.
Second damage check, nothing.
Third damage check...
..
..
..
..
..
..
NOTHING.

GODTIN WINS IT FOR OUR TEAM WITH A CLUTCH DOUBLE CRITICAL TRIGGER WOO!

So yeah, I got carried 'cas I'm bad and can't shuffle and we won the box of BT07. We opened the box and shuffled them on a table, and each picked 10 at a time. Why pulled 1 RR and the rest R's, I pulled a RRR Lequier and RR Cable Sheep (Great Nature perfect guard) which I then sold for $20 and $12 respectively, and Godtin of course pulled the other two RRR's and 3 other RR's. 

And that was the last team tournament that will be held at our locals, since it's being torn down for new and fancy apartment buildings.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading this huge post, and thank you if you did,

HerO


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