*The Daigusto Phoenix was probably a Stardust Dragon in real life.
*The Gellenduo did not exist in real life.
Would these changes bring me my first Top? Let’s find out!
Round 1 vs Machina Geargia
Game 1
He opened with a set monster and three backrows. For some
reason I felt as if this match would be against Geargia, and I later turned out
to be right. I opened with Heavy, and despite him having the Solemn I still
couldn’t do hardly anything. I wasn’t drawing very many monsters, and the ones
I did have kept getting destroyed or whatever. On the last turn, he attacked
with two Fortresses. When I tried to (narrowly) save myself by bringing back a Trooper
with Call for him to swing into, he used Tidal Wave and only one of his
Fortresses died due to having a Gearframe attached. GAY.
Game 2
My hand was even worse this game, with even fewer monsters.
I was able to hold out for a while by bluffing, but died eventually anyways.
0-1
After the match, a friend of my opponent wanted to play me
using my opponent’s deck and my opponent and some other people watched:
(Single Game)
I started with Venus for triple Dragon Balls! My hand was not
perfect, but it was definitely good enough to get things going. He Warning’d a
Thunder King twice, and I hit him in the face with a Gachi-boosted Kristya. It
was very strange to watch my deck perform so well after it had just done so
badly, but either way I was not much happier due to having lost the round. From
here on, I’d have to win every round to be able to top.
Round 2 vs Gravekeepers
Gravekeepers are a popular lower-tier choice, and they are
one of the few decks that really give Agents problems (the deck is relatively
bare of bad matchups). My opponent was an older gentleman with gray hair, and
his family (or people that I presumed to be his family, at least) sat down to
watch the first game. Regardless, I absolutely could not afford another loss. It
was time to bare some teeth.
Game 1
Success! The gods granted me a Venus, who in turn granted me three Dragon Balls. Twice he
decided to use Tidal Wave against me, destroying his own set copy of Gravekeeper’s
Guard (yes, this literally happened two times). I Warning’d his Gravekeeper’s
Visionary and Master Hyperion continually Kamehameha’d his stuff and swung
until he died.
Game 2
Again I opened with Venus, this time for only two Dragon
Balls (as I typically side one out). I Typhoon’d his Necrovalley, then used
Prohibition to call that shit out. He drew barely any traps OR monsters, leaving
my boosted Magical Android to land some game-ending hits.
1-1
The dream lives! But would it stay alive?
Round 3 vs ???
My opponent this round looked kind of like Rick Ross. Enough
said.
Game 1
He opened with Level Limit – Area B and a set card. I
started with Earth for Venus and swung for 1000. Next turn, I got a little
feisty and summoned Gachi and the third Dragon Ball in attack, hoping to score
critical damage through Level Limit. When I attacked, he dropped Battle Fader,
but I had the Herald to stop it! He dropped to 1800. Next turn he revealed Golden
Ladybug to get to 2300, enough to activate Final
Countdown. AW SHIT! The race was on now. For the next couple of turns he
blocked me with One Day of Peace, Zero Gardna, and Swift Scarecrow, but I
dropped Hyperion, destroyed Level Limit and hit for game.
After this game my opponent had to leave (presumably for a
social life – I could not be any more jealous), so I got the match win. YES!
The dream was still alive!
2-1
Round 4 vs Gladiator Beasts
Game 1
I don’t remember much of this game, except getting off a
double-Dragon Ball play early on and beating my opponent’s monsters down with
Venus, Trooper and Thunder King until he had no more
Game 2
My opponent opened with five backrows, but I opened with
four! I swung with Earth repeatedly, getting him down to 5000 (Agent player
tip: if your opponent has a clear field, swing at them with the same weak
monster over and over. Nobody wants to waste removal on a shrimp!) but she
eventually died to a Kycoo. Soul Taker came to the rescue though, and even
though I got hit with Dark Bribe twice at critical times I managed to pull it
out.
FUCK BACKROW DECKS!
3-1
Round 5 vs Gravekeepers
My opponent was the same as Round 6 last week, who 2-0’d me.
Would this happen again?
Game 1
I don’t remember much besides getting triple Dragon Balls
early on. At one point my 2300 Trooper attacked into an open field, only for
him to use Memory of an Adversary. (The
only thing more unexpected than that was the fact that Konami made that card a
Super.) When Trooper later got destroyed, there was a minor ruling dispute over
whether or not I could draw from it – my opponent’s friend playing next to him
said that I could, which I also had said. At the time of this writing I’m not
so sure, though. A late-game Thunder King helped me to pull this one out after
I took very little damage.
Game 2
Similar to the last game 2 we had, my opponent used a sided
Cyber Dragon to get my Thunder King off the field. There was a point in this
game where I had almost given up: he had both Necrovalley and Macro Cosmos out,
and I had to fight him from 9000 life points due to that god damned Soul Taker.
Honest got in there like a brave soul and hit at least twice before meeting a
Dimensional Prison, but late game my opponent simply could not draw any
monsters and Hyperion came down from the skies, thanks to banishing Jupiter
from my hand. I used a Typhoon that I had hung on to for Necrovalley, then used
Kamehameha (and Dust Tornado) to clear backrow. I swung into a field of
facedowns for the victory! They were revealed to be Starlight and an extra
Macro Cosmos.
Not only a revenge 2-0, but a SECOND 2-0 against a bad
matchup! Whether I got prizes or not, this would certainly be a memorable week.
4-1
I made top 8! Only one more game and I would get something
(significant) for all my trouble. However, my opponent was the kid from Round 5
of last week (11/09/12) who is supposedly a very good duelist, and very popular
at the shop. I knew that he was playing Prophecy from his friend dicking around
earlier, so I thought I’d have a good shot. Let’s find out if it was meant to
be.
Top 8 vs Prophecy
Game 1
My only monster opening up was a Shine Ball. He started with
Spellbook Guy Who Is Really Good But Really Sucks to fetch Secrets, and then
fetch Wisdom. I suicided my Shine Ball with Magician, but drawing almost no other
monsters basically meant I didn’t get to play the whole game. I just sat there
and watched my opponent do stuff with his flashy, high-rarity cards all game.
Game 2
I made one misplay – opening with Thunder King instead of
Venus for double Dragon Balls. Had I remembered Billy Brake’s article about
Prophecy on ARG, I would’ve remembered that Thunder King is not hard for
Prophecy to handle, though it does stop some of their most notable cards. Although
I also had Prohibition (for High Priestess) and a backrow, my opponent started
with Breaker to kill my facedown Dimensional Prison, then used Spellbook of
Firebending to boost and swing over Thunder King – a textbook play. I spent
most of the game trying to defend myself from a consistently 3000+ Tragoedia (which
is NOT fun) as he had a huge hand size due to Spellbook Tower of Only Rich
People Can Afford This. We went into time which was very surprising. At the
final turn I had 2700 and he had 4500, and I made a push with a self-boosted Jupiter
and a Thunder King. Both were stopped by backrow. GOD DAMN IT!
I resolved to spend more time shuffling to try and avoid
this fate more often in the future. Still, it sucked really badly to lose
because:
1. My opponent played Prophecy, a deck that I thought was
really awesome yet didn’t have the money to even consider building
2. My opponent tried to trade with me earlier in the evening
and had four binders FULL of cards. I have almost nothing. Who needed the prizes
more?
But I didn’t win, and that was that. The Battle Pack I got
for entering was shitty too. Oh well, at least I made Top 8 for the first time
and beat two Gravekeeper decks. Maybe next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment