Painful, salty tournament report (final part)

So, continuing last week's report, here is this week's

There were 6 players left, 2 in the winners' bracket and 4 in the losers' bracket

I faced the guy with 5 Spellbook decks again

Match 1: Dragunity vs. Spellbook

G1: I started with a Shock Master hand. However he had a Veiler, so I could only end up with Queen Dragun Djinn, Atum. Stardust Dragon and REDMD at full ATK. On his turn he used Judgment, then the Blue Magician to get Secret, then Power, then used Fate to flip Queen face-down. Blue Magician attacked over it, getting him another Fate. He get Justice in his endphase. On my turn I was left with only Stardust (and Ravine) courtesy of Fate and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast I think. That was a misplay from his side: I could use Ravine to get Dux and made Trident Dragion to end the game. But I'm a noob, so I made Crimson Blader and called back Tempest to attack for damage. Fortunately he had shit in hand, and scooped the following turn with High Priestess stayed dead

G2: He started dead due to my Droll & Lock Bird. I had a hand of Phalanx, Mystletainn, REDMD, Monster Reborn, and something irrelevant. Plan was: Phalanx and Mystletainn into Stardust, reborn Mystletainn, banish for REDMD, get Phalanx, made Trident Dragion and tribute that "something irrelevant" to attack for 8800. He had that fucking Veiler on Mystletainn, and I ended up with REDMD and Trident Dragion with 1 attack, and 5800 damage was dealed. He started his next turn with Library of Crescent, reveal Life, Secret, Fate. I picked him the Fate, and he scooped because he need a spellcaster on the field to get things going

OO

Match 2: Dragon vs. Spellbook

G1: I had Veiler for his Blue Magician, and that didn't matter because he locked me down with Jowgen + Fate + shit

G2: After some hard-fight turns, I had Dracossack with Book of Moon set, 3-color grave, and he had full hand and no field. He summon Blue Magician for Secret, activate Judgment, and I chained Book on the Magician. He couldn't start his Spellbook shenanigan, and I won

G3: I started with double Tempest, Tidal, Lightning, Stream, Super Rejuvenation. Normally that could be playable, but he went first and started with Dimensional Fissure + Jowgen + Fate + ...

XOX

Match 3: Dragon vs. Spellbook

G1: After sometime I had double Dracossack and 2 tokens with advantage in LP. He had Judgment, summoned Blue Magician, High Priestess, cleared 2 tokens with battle, cleared 1 Dracossack with High Priestess's effect, endphase cleared the last Dracossack with Fate, calling out Jowgen at the same time. GG

G2: I had 2 EEV and Fusilier. He Secrets for Master, summoned Kycoo, and I EEV'd, he revealed Jowgen wtf. Kycoo attacked. I drop Burner and Tidal for Blaster, stood there and ended. He top decked Blue Magician like a boss, summoned Jowgen, used effect discarding Blue Magician and attack. I cleared Kycoo with Blaster's effect, and had Lightning attacked the Jowgen (lol). He top decked that field spell for more Kycoos (like a boss), and hit me hard. I had only Swords in hand, then top decked Tidal, drew 2 cards which were another color and monster Reborn. Made Big Eye, stole his Kycoo, attacked, set the second EEV. GG

G3: We both started dead. He set 3 ended. I had Sword Stream double Tidal Blaster EEV or such. Banished Blaster for Sword, drew 2 more Blasters like a boss, searched Burner, banished it and another Blaster for Tidal, Stream for another Tidal, attacked for 2600, then made Big Eye. In my endphase he flipped Phoenix Wing Wind Blast on Big Eye, then passed. I drew stupid cards like more Swords and Rejuvenations and Reborn with only 1 Blaster in hand and no other colors to work with. So it came to a point when I was holding Blaster with Reborn and Psiblocker in hand and ONLY 2 Tidals in grave, he had a Veiler in attack position and 1 set card with Dimensional Fissure, Star Hall and La Masion. So, I banished 2 Tidal for Blaster, searching the 3rd copy, summoned Blocker calling Dimensional Fissure. Original plan was attacking over Veiler, Reborn it, tune for Scrap Dragon, destroy my set Rejuvenation and whatever he had. That last set card was Solemn Judgment, so I lost painfully.
Looking back, I should have Reborn Tidal to attack Veiler, and next turn banish Tidal and Blaster in hand for the other Tidal in grave. I suck. And that Warning was really hard to read. I still think Scrap Dragon is an okay move because I could banish it for something if he drew something like Life for Priestess. GG

So I'm out :<

Something I learned:

If you're playing an OTK deck, spend more than a month on it. I've played Dragunity REDMD for months but still lost due to not preparing the mid-game

Droll & Lock is a horrible card to have in your deck, but you still must play it in triplicate just because it was so good vs. Prophecy. Look at Library of Crescent :< I only sided Birds in Dragunity, drew it once and it saved my life

Super Rejuvenation is unreliable (at least for me). I always resolved it for nothing when I was dying. Swords and Sarcophaguses are much better

Forbidden Chalice is good. I kept 2 in my main deck after siding and wished for it all the time. Never appeared though

Compulsory Evacuation Device should be included in anything

Never mised Breakthỏugh Skill at all

REDMD is never used, not even once. I kept it in my main deck for easy EEV and it didn't work

I wanted LADD sometimes

But Reborn is still a card

...

..

.

And that concluded my tournament report. Thanks for reading xD

Also, I'm out for the rest of the format (maybe longer)

Meta calls

When you don't want to play the meta because you're trolling people, you do something called meta calls

Basically you gather a pile of anti-meta cards together, put it in an anti-meta deck, and go to tourney

This strategy is only good if you're playing a tournament full of top tier decks

So, for the Dragon and Spellcaster meta, just auto include: 3 Imperial Iron Walls, Book of Moon, Effect Veiler/Breakthrough Skill/Forbidden Chalice/whatever that hates monster effects

So, for some solid choices for the meta, this is a basic list:

1. Gravekeepers: Royal Tribute is a good card to open against Dragons and Mermails. And even though it does basically no damage to Prophecy, you have Necrovalley to handle Fate, and Priestess at some extent. Your monsters are bigger than Kycoo which is a good thing. So watch out for the Star Hall ATK boost.

And the deck can side Malefic Cyber End Dragon, Fuslisier, Skill Drain and EEV too

And if you're on DN, you can easily summon No 66 Master Key Beetle and protect Necrovalley/Iron Wall/Vanity's Emptiness

Aren't those advantages enough?

2. Gadget/Hunder/Fire Fist (teched with Kycoo and such): Which can make Shock Master/Abyss Dweller easily. Enough said lol. Gadget is a better pick thanks to the ability to push for damage and make Dweller with 2200 ATK thanks to Goldfish, and the generally better match-ups against the rogue deck

3. Infernity: For fuck's sake, Infernity Brick Break and Infernity Barrier are too good cards. The only disadvantage of the deck is itself: Draw 4-5 monsters anyone? I tried the deck my self, and those kinds of hand sucked. You can also list Dark World here, you can EEV everyone, and Grapha is bigger than anything

4. Piles of good cards: I'm serious, because top tier decks now often die to 1 card

Just make a deck that consists of: Thunder King Rai-Oh, Fossil Dyna Phachycephalo, Banisher of the Radiance, Macro Cosmos/Imperial Iron Walls/...

I'm deadly serious

And you can also consider Dragunity/Hieratic/Karakuri/any other OTK-based deck. Maxx "C" is a thing, Effect Veiler is another thing, but there're good cards like Debunk and Mind Drain

However I'm not gonna list those decks for meta calls, because I played them all and scrubbed. Guess that's because I suck, however

So, until Sunday, for the second part of the tourney report

For the Europeans: Good luck this weekend ;)

Tourney report part 1

Format: Double Elimination (which is basically, going home after losing 2 rounds)

Each players prepare FIVE decks, and a round versus another player would consist of 3 MATCHES, the winner of 2 matches remains in winners' bracket, the other is kicked out of the tourney, or at least kicked down to losers' bracket

16 participants

So, I play 2 Dragons, 2 Mermails and 1 Dragunity (yes, Dragunity)

Round 1:

Match 1: Mermail vs. Spellbook
Game one: He opened Judgment Secrets whatever. I tried to OTK with Megalo and Diva, he flipped Book of Moon. GG
Game two: I open Gaios, Undine, Pike. He summon that blue magician, eats Gaios, then simply Judgment Secrets for some more. I tried to OTK with some Deep Sea Diva tricks, he flipped Book of Moon again. GG

XX

Obviously Mermails die to Spellbook. But dying to a staple spell card sucked.
And apparently he had only 1 deck (all 5 of his decks were Spellbook), fml

Match 2: Dragon vs. Spellbook
Game one: I got destroyed, because Spellbooks suck and I started with 2 Chalices and irrelevant cards
Game two: I started with Dracossack, generated 2 tokens. He asked for LADD, I reveal Psi Blocker on Secrets. He Judgment and played bad spell cards to get a blue guy to the field and 2 Spellbooks to hand. I OTK'd him next turn after Psi-Blocking Book of Moon (I really feared it lol), and he revealed a set Secrets. wew
Game three: Neither of us had a good hand. But Dragon's bad hand is better than Spellbook's bad hand, so I won with Gaia Dragon, Tidal, Tempest and Reactan beatdown by turn 4-5

XOO

Of all my decks, Dragons have the best Spellbook match-up. So we didn't change decks

Match 3: Dragon vs Spellbook
Game one: He started dead. I had full colors hand, and OTK'd with Dracossack, Tidal and a tribute summoned Blaster
Game two:  He Judgment for 2, ended with a blue guy, a Star Hall and a set s/t. My hand was 2 Tidal, Monster Reborn, 2 EEV and Forbidden Chalice. Seemed dead? I pitched 2 Tidals for Fusilier in graveyard, revived it with Reborn, attacked for damage, and set some EEV. He didn't die, but the other EEV was a good bluff for my key Forbidden Chalice, which I used on his blue guy for game (like 4-5 turns after the EEV). The finish move was Big Eye his Gachi Gachi, tribute both for Blaster, then Tempest + Dracossack + Blaster attacked for game

OO-

Round score: XOO

3 consecutive Spellbook matches emptied my mind, and I felt like shit after. Fortunately the last pair, winner of which played me, lasted for so long (like... 150 minutes) so I had some time to relax


Round 2:

Match 1: Dragunity vs. Six Samurai
Game one: I started with Stardust Dragon, Queen Dragun Djinn, Photon Strike Bounzer and REDMD. He drew his sixth card, and scooped
Game two: He started with Shi En, Vanity's Emptiness and Macro Cosmos. I drew my sixth card, and scooped
Game three: I started with Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, REDMD and Shock Master calling spell. He set Macro Cosmos, Vanity's Emptiness, double Bottomless, Kageki and ended. He chained Cosmos and Emptiness when I declared traps with Shock Master, so I summon Debris Dragon and just attacked for 6200 damage (Shock Master attacked Kageki). He drew his seventh card, and scooped

OXO

His deck is kind of built for Dragons. He mained Dimensional Fissure, Vanity's Emptiness and Imperial Iron Wall. Luckily I won the roll... The whole match lasted for 5 turns, but still took 30 minutes due to our side-decking lol

Match 2: Dragons vs Six Samurai
Game one: At one point I had ridiculous advantage over him, but he had Kizan + Dimensional Fissure + Vanity's Emptiness + Compulsory Evacuation Device. I had double Rejuvenation, double Forbidden Chalice and a gazillion dragons. However I didn't realize I could have crashed Reactan into Kizan, so I scooped. Whether he Compul'd it or not, the Emptiness is still destroyed. I suck, I guess...
Game two: I started Dracossack 2 tokens. He cleared with Catastor + Kizan + Zanji, set Fissure, Cosmos and Emptiness. I MST'd the Cosmos, Psi-Block the Fissure, and did my stuff. He couldn't win, of course
Game three: I just destroyed him like any usual Dragon vs Samurai match

XOO

Round score: OO-

Round 3:

Match 1: Dragons vs Spellbook
He just did his stuff like a boss. I never had any chance to win. Quick 0-2

XX-

Match 2: Dragunity vs Spellbook
Game one: He won the roll, did stuff. I managed to established a field of Atum, REDMD, Shock Master on spell after Dux attacked to clear his Jowgen.  However, he just summon Priestess, then a second Jowgen, for game
Game two: I started with a better hand, which can even play through Effect Veiler. However, he had DOUBLE FUCKING EFFECT VEILERS

XX-

Round score: XX-

So, I lost and dropped to losers' bracket. It sucked to lose to that DECK, not that PLAYER

Next Sunday we'll play the remaining rounds. I just hope those Spellbook players won't have the same luck again...

Also, playing 5 Spellbook matches (11 duels) really, really sucks. Just like playing a tier 2 deck against a tier 0 deck all day :<

Until next... week

Peace

Dragons, the sick tricks

1. Ancient Sacred Wyvern

Drop Dragosack, normal summon Veiler, tune for the Wyvern, attack. You deal 7300 damage, which means even Forbidden Chalice on Dragosack can end the game. The damage is too much for anything to handle, because opponent won't be confident summoning any monster with 2100 ATK or less in ATK position

2. Armory Arm

Drop Dragosack, make tokens, summon a tuner, make Armory Arm. Now Dragosack can attack over anything at 3500 or less, dealing a guaranteed 3600 damage.

Sicker: Equip Armory Arm to opponent's monster with 2000 or more ATK. Summon some more dragons and ram into it. Armory Arm will deal damage to YOUR OPPONENT, so 2600 (Dragosack) + 2800 (Blaster) + 2600 (Tidal) can end the game quickly

And you can also equip Armory Arm to Trident Dragion. It's a little hard to do (you need Reborn or Redox effect to summon the second tuner), but it's just like BLS + Armory OTK

3. Colossal Fighter

Opponent Maxx "C"? Make Colossal Fighter, then use Armory Arm (yes, Colossal-Armory OTK) or Forbidden Chalice on opponent's monster. From there just ram Colossal Fighter into that monster, let your opponent draw until he/she loses by game mechanic

And he can also bring back your/your opponent's Crimson Blader. However, this rarely happens because with Blader in graveyard, Colossal will be at 2900 ATK, quite hard to be destroyed by battle

4. Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 "Burei" and Gaia Dragon the Thunder Charger

They have the same primary use: Chopping through the Dragosack tokens. 2600 damage is respectable, trust me. Dragons can easily put 5000ish damage on board, so some early damage may change the tempo of the game

So, that's some of it! I'll come back to this later on

Until next time xD

Scrubbed Hieratic Report

It's late, but still... I'm a lazy man

Because I wasn't confident of neither Dragons or Mermails (I'm not so familiar to Dragons, while drawing Genex Controller is sweet), I decided to pick Hieratic for the tournament. The reason for this is that the deck has pretty much auto-win match-up against Dragons (unless people Maxx "C" into Veilers, which happens a lot during testing lol)

Basically it's Hieratic with 12 Hieratic dragons, 3 normal monster (including Curse of Dragon), Genex Ally Birdman (for Crimson Blader), and of course Maxx "C"s and Effect Veilers. Side deck was 6 Brain Controls (3 Electric Viruses and 3 Puppet Plants), along with 3 Vanity's Fiend, Mystical Space Typhoon, and that Droll and Troll Bird

I was really confident with the deck. The only thing I'm really concerned about was Evilswarm, but 2 main-decked Breakthrough Skills and 3 Electric Virus (then tribute Ophion for a random dragon) gave me confidence

Onto the report!

Round 1: Evilswarm...

G1: I got destroyed fast. Not to mention I'm too desperate to forget dropping Tragoedia when he attacked with a non-material Ophion and 2 other Evilswarm. Of course a second Ophion appeared and I scooped with my OTK hand. Actually I only looked for Breakthrough Skills, so after I saw no pink cards, I didn't even look at my hand from there lol

G2: He start with Heliotrope, attacking into Tragoedia. I OTK'd him next turn, Gustaph Max involved

G3: He start with Ophion and I cleared it somehow, but ate Torrential. I was low in life, having Breakthrough Skill in grave, but he didn't even summon another Ophion. He beat me down with Thunder King Rai Oh, and I scooped after drawing Vanity's Fiend to pair with my in-hand Wattaildragon

XOX

This round is so important because after losing round 1, I had less chance of meeting Dragons, which is my auto-win matchup. Instead, I faced all the stun-based decks that scrubbed to Dragons in round 1

Round 2: Evilswarm/Gravekeepers/Dark Gaia mix

This deck is hilarious. He played Rabbit for Ophion, then Dark Calling with Tour Guide and Doomcaliber Knight for Dark Gaia lol

G1: He won the roll. Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, set Bottomless Trap Hole and Breakthroush Skill, holding Gorz in hand, lol. I break through all of them, recycle my Su with M7, having Atum beside it, then attack into Gorz. He summon Tour Guide for Acid Golem, beat over M7 and Atum, direct'd with Gorz. I was low in life (again), then made Gautlet Launcher to shoot Gorz and Acid Golem, sitting behind the 2800 wall. He Dark Calling, banishing Acid Golem and Gorz for a 5700 Dark Gaia lol. I see my top deck (prolly Solemn Warning), and scooped

G2: I drew 3 normal monsters

XX

So, with 0-2 record....

Round 3: No show

Of course I have to face another scrub lol. Free win but it hurt my tie-breaker much

Round 4: Malefic

G1: He started with Gearframe, ate Veiler, set a trap. I Night Shot'd the trap, then OTK'd

G2: He started with Card Car D, ate Veiler, summoned Fortress, set a trap. I Night Shot'd the trap, then OTK with Electric Virus on Fortress

OO

2-2. I still had a chance to top, or at least push my teammate to the top

Round 5: Herald Agent

G1: He started with Earth/Manju. I OTK'd, involving Crimson Blader

G2: He started with Prohibiton on Atum, then summoned Earth. I did my job, he Maxx "C", I went on. Tried to clear Prohibiton with Su, he dropped Herald of Orange Light. I made M7, he drew his second Orange Light. He pushed with Venus, Balls,... I drew nothing next turn, died

G3: I Cardcar D, then passed. He summon Earth/Manju, ate Breakthrough Skill, ended. I proceeded to set up an OTK field, attacked into Swift Scarecrow (wut!?). He dropped Dark Hole, lol

XOX

Later I found out he sided 1 Scarecrow, and he got it to his hand along with Dark Hole. Perfect counter to Hieratic, hnng

Overall score 2-3. Scrubbed

I WILL PLAY DRAGONS FROM NOW ON. META CALLS? FUCK THEM