By some miracle, I was able to attend locals this week! There appeared to be a large number of competitive players amongst the (rumored) field of 48 entrees, so I hoped desperately to do well. Let's take a look at the build I used:
Round 1 vs ???
After leaving 40 minutes late, I was forced to stand in line behind a very young child and possibly his older brother as he got set up to enter using a freshly-bought Water structure deck. As it turned out, I would be playing the possible older brother for Round 1.
G1: I was able to start despite only rolling a six! I set my Sangan along with MST and a Trap and passed. My opponent summoned Atlantean Marksman - if this guy was playing meta, I could be in trouble. But he proceeded to activate Aqua Jet, then attempt to Special Summon Shark Stickers. I literally had to explain to him that the window for response timing had closed. After that, his Marksman killed my Sangan and I searched Earth, which I then summoned on my turn to grab Venus. I Reborned Sangan and went into Catastor, searching Effect Veiler (I seriously had no idea what else to get), and he died quickly due to repeated attacks from Catastor and Venus.
G2: Opening up, he went Diva into Marksman and then simply ended his turn. I started with a subpar hand, but drew Earth! I summoned her to get Venus, then hit his Diva for 800 and set D-Prison. Next turn, he summoned Atlantean Heavy Infantry, then used its effect and literally summoned Snowman Creator, using its three counters to destroy my Dimensional Prison. You should've seen my face; I was literally like "what the fuckkkkkk". I hate it when bad cards used by bad players encourage said players to keep using said cards. But no fear, as he forgot to even activate Marksman's effect when it killed Earth and I lost only 2000 points altogether.
Next turn I used Dark Hole, then summoned Venus, got Gachi, and hit for 2000. He summoned Abyss Soldier and I held my breath - I hate when my Gachi gets bounced or banished. Yet again, his lack of skill showed as he simply attacked into Gachi, totally forgetting about its stat boost despite me reminding him about it at least twice during the match up to this point. He took 200 (he had a Lemuria out), and simply ended with a facedown.
I suicided Venus with his Soldier (he seemed surprised that I would even do such a thing. Come on now, you've never heard of a suicide?), then summoned Raioh in MP2. He knee-jerked into a Torrential, and I ended.
Next turn, he summoned Mermaid Archer and used Double Summon to bring out Atlantean Attack Squad, which I Bottomless'd. He picked up the card, reading, and said out loud "But it only has 1400..." to which I simply tapped his Lemuria. More importantly though is the fact that this play basically proved that he did in fact have a Water monster in-hand on the previous turn that COULD have been discarded to bounce Gachi with Abyss Soldier's effect, then run Venus over! Unbelievable.
I'm sorry if I'm coming down on this guy a little too hard, but not only is Abyss Soldier one of my favorite cards, but I also got my comeuppance later. Anyways next turn I dropped two Hyperions and raped him in the ass for game.
1-0
I realized when I sat in my car after the match that I had almost literally just played against a Water structure deck.
Round 2 vs Wind-Ups
Sitting at Table 1, I knew this was going to be a tough game. My opponent had the same Galaxy-Eyes mat that I did, which was unexpected.
Game 1
My hand sucked, and I went second. My opponent started with the dreaded Magician + Shark - but I ditched Herald and Shine Ball to cut off Shark's effect, stopping the entire play! Next turn I summoned Honest to kill the Magician despite his two backrows. Despite this lifesaving opening and later drawing more monsters, my hand was simply too poor to carry on and I couldn't keep up with his repeated Factory searches.
Game 2
Another subpar hand. I started with Trooper to mill two copies of Venus and a D-Prison, then set two and ended. He started with Dimensional Fissure and Rabbit, but when Rabbit attacked I responded with Typhoon on his Fissure. I used Call to bring back a Venus and enlist Gachi, but for a long time I wasn't drawing any helpful monsters (nor ANY of the cards I sided). However, I eventually got to a point where every time he summoned a monster, I had an answer to it. I literally used both Bottomlesses and both Warnings, even hitting the feared Temtempo to protect my buddy Gachi. Late-game Earth draws improved my position substantially, and I took the game. Could I do it again?
Game 3
He Shock Locked me.
1-1
Round 3 vs Fabled
It's depressing to lose to something that shouldn't even be legal in the first place, so I went into Round 3 feeling low. My opponent was Kevin Petriella, who topped YCS Atlanta earlier this year with Empty Jar - weird coincidence since I happened to be at that event. I believed I'd be out, but it was okay.
Game 1
I opened with Venus into Gachi and a D-Prison. He summoned Snipe Hunter, but instead of destroying my backrow he summoned Chawa and Cerburrel with Chawa's effect and went into a Catastor, which was then banished by Prison. One turn later, he had a clear field and I had a Warning set, with Venus and Raioh out. I wanted to win, but more than that, I didn't want to lose. I summoned Trooper, milled 3, turned Gachi to attack, and banished Venus to summon Hyperion. He tried to summon Tragoedia after the third attack, but Warning sealed the deal.
Game 2
I didn't have a real Side for this matchup, but I took out a Shine Ball and Sangan to put in both Soul Drains. Spoiler Alert - I never drew them.
Opening up, he set two backrows. He chained Reckless Greed in response to my Heavy, but his Typhoon was destroyed. I forgot a lot of this game, but a critical point came when he made Fabled Ragin with nothing in hand. I was about to let it go, but at the last second remembered I had Effect Veiler! He was stuck, and I pulled out the win again.
2-1
Round 4 vs Inzektors
I felt a little better going into Round 4, but still not amazing - one more loss and that'd be it. My opponent was the Inzektor player from a past tournament whom I had also played in Round 4 back then. It was a little frustrating to have to play him since I had overheard him after Round 2 telling his dad (the GK player from 11/16/12) that he had already lost two games, but was going to continue to play anyways. If I lost, that would mean technically my chance to move forward was stolen by somebody who had no reason to steal it. Not to mention Inzektors are immoral, but it's whatever. Let's get into it!
Game 1
He did a million derpy played enabled by Call of the Haunted - similar to the last Game 1 we had. I got tired of him playing with himself and just moved on.
Game 2
A million unfair plays ensued, but I was able to summon two Hyperions to try and fight back. I had to attack his Zenmaines twice for 2400 damage, allowing it to destroy one card in the End Phase. He was going to destroy one of my Hyperions, but instead decided to hit my freshly-set MST. He thought it was a bad play, but had he not done that I would've been able to chain it to a Hornet equip and keep my last monster safe. God, I hate this game sometimes.
2-2
I dropped, but was able to get my first-ever Astral Pack! I traded for the other cards pictured below earlier in the evening.
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