So I decided to use the vacation days I had accumulated over the last year before I lost them, and picked the last 2 Saturdays of the month (plus a Friday). That put me in the unique position of attending a local for the first time in at least 6 months (I without fail always work Saturday nights, the night my locals holds their tourny). By some freak chance Kyle gets the same Saturday off (he never gets Saturdays off either).
We go to locals about a hour before the tourney starts to do some trading and last minute adjustments to our decks I was originally going to run X-Sabers (having nothing else I was confident in) but once I get there I decide I’m just not feeling it and I go with a deck I spent a lot less time playtesting with. I then give a few choice synchros that I wouldnt need to Kyle for the Karakuri deck he was going to run. I end up running a deck I had much more confidence in due to the strong impression it made to me in the small amount of time I used it: Agent Fairies. After making a side deck and tweaking my extra deck and final build a bit, I’m ready to go into round 1.
Round 1: Code (Agent Fairies) vs Pedro A. (Quickdraw/Tengu Synchro):
I Lose the dice roll
Game 1: He opens with Tengu set 1 pass. I open with Earth into Venus and end my turn with Honest in hand and Mind Crush on the field. He Dualities into Foolish which I Crush, then rams Tengu into Earth I drop Honest he sets another card and ends. I make the Venus play but he has Veiler for it. I sync into Hyper Librarian kill a tengu he doesnt summon another (its in his hand). He ditches Tengu for Quickdraw normals Dopplewarrior and syncs for Nitro Warrior and 2 Dopple Tokens and he kills my Librarian and hits with a token on which I drop Gorz. From then on I’m firmly in control of the duel despite the fact he tries to rule shark me and make stupid claims about his cards at every turn (Last time I checked Nitro doesnt get a free direct attack after killing a monster). I keep pushing with Gorz and later Hyperion and when he finally activates Call of the Haunted for his Nitro Warrior I have Solemn for it.
Game 2: I open with Orange Light and not much else and he opens pretty nutty. I hold onto my herald for too long waiting for a big play that never comes, he just does a series of small rushes that individually arnt worth negating but end up giving him a decisive edge over me. On the final turn I use my Torrential too early not knowing he had Quickdraw and a Monster Reborn in hand to end me.
At this point I’m siding for game 3 and he notices that I have only 14 cards in my side deck (1 of my side deck cards got taken out for something else but I forgot to add it at the last min). So what else does he try to do but get me a game loss. I try to tell him that you can have whatever amount of cards you want in your side deck but the store owner comes over and sides with him (?!?). I have little choice then but to accept my game loss as it wasnt worth arguing over. I simply resolved to not lose another match for the rest of the day. [Later the store owner looks it up and finds out he was wrong, so this incident actually works in my favor in the grand scheme of things.]
Record: OXX [LOSS]
Round 2: Code (Agent Fairies) vs Tyler H. (40orPossiblyMoreCards.dek):
This is a little kid that has been going to my locals on free play day alot recently. He’s pretty cool, but has the tendency to announce his plays like he’s dueling on the show, have monologues about his current situation like Yugi, and tries to set his monsters in face up defence position. Still not a bad kid.
I lose the dice roll
Game 1: Just a complete wash. I’m still thinking about the previous round and I’m kind of on autopilot. My attacks are negated by stuff like Draining Shield, he has Scrap Iron Scarecrow and Reaper out and my deck didnt give me a stellar hand either, and I end up just sitting behind a Gachi for a while. After a while he gets over it and brings me down to 1200. I clean his clock after that in 2 turns with Kristia and Hyperion, so I make a big mistake and think that the duels already over and theres no way a little kid is going to beat me.
Game 2: A real grindfest, I get a very passive hand and make Gachi again and I sit on the Krystia in my hand for most of the duel. He just never does anything to my Gachi and I never feel inclined to do much of anything. Midway thru the duel things take a bad turn when he uses Fighting Spirit (!) on his Armageddon Knight, and he pokes over my monsters with that and Twin Sword Maurader to my defence position Shine Ball. Then later he Creature Swaps and takes my Gachi then attacks me for over 3000. I nuke the field with my in hand Birdman and a Mind Controlled Rhinotaurus, but next turn Gachi + a Marauding Captain rush puts me down to 200. I reborn my Black Rose, finish off my own Gachi then special summon Krystia and end turn with just those 2. He uses Tribute to the Doomed on Krystia, Axe of fools + 1700 monster and kills my Black Rose for game. A last minute effort cant make up for a entire game of doing almost nothing.
Game 3: We immediately go into time with me starting on turn 1. Duality into Earth then summon grab Venus set 2 end. He sets 5 and ends. I know I have to win this no matter what so I proceed to systematicly set off his traps and still come out ahead. I blind MST a Sakaretsu Armor, bait out another one with the Gachi I make, he uses draining shield on that attack next turn but at that point it doesnt matter because I have a Monster Reborn for the Gladiator Beast Andal I killed with Venus and on turn 5 I attack with all of my monsters to put him down to 4800 to my 7000 and win in time.
RECORD: OXO [WIN]
After I report this round the store owner apologizes to me because he looked up the rules and found out that you can indeed have less than 15 cards in your side deck >_>. So to make it up to me he said he would make my tiebreakers better than everyone else so that I will be ahead of everyone who has the same record as me which makes me very happy.
Round 3: Code (Agent Fairies) vs Hai K. (Dark World Fableds):
I win the dice roll
Game 1: I do the Earth into Venus play. He plays Card Destruction, and I discard 3 faries and draw into Krystia and other good cards. He then kills Earth with a Fabled monster. Next turn I drop Krystia and thats all she wrote. Seriously after that he had no plays as I have Herald in hand for a counter attack he tried to make that used all the cards in his hand.
Round 4: Code (Agent Fairies) vs Michael N. (Perfect Agents)
I win the dice roll
Game 1: 1st Turn I set a Mind Crush and Solemn Judgement. He summons Manju and adds Dawn of the Herald to his hand. I Crush it and he reveals his hand of 2 Herald of Perfection, 1 Hyperion, 1 Jupiter, and 1 Dark Hole. From then on its really easy for me to play around his cards and I save my Solemn Judgement for his Hyperion when he inevitibly plays it. Later he has Reborn for it and pokes for some damage but by that time I have my own Hyperion that has him scooping it up.
Game 2: He 1st turn Dualities for Dawn, then sets 2 and ends. I play my own Duality, pick out Mind Crush and set it along with Cards from the Sky because I was fairly certain he had MST. Just like I thought he end phase MSTs my bluff and I rough him up with Mind Crush again. From then on its kind of back and foward with him using Chain Dissapearance on my Earth (Though fortuantely I resolved it’s effect). But he never makes Herald of Perfection the rest of the game as he’s losing too many resources to my attacks and since I didnt run into much disruption I was able to resolve a Trishula, which won me the game by plucking Dark Hole out of his hand of 2.
RECORD: OO [WIN]
Round 5: Code (Agent Fairies) vs Joeseph M. (Barbaros Drain):
I win the dice roll
Game 1: I absentmindedly ask him what deck he’s running pre match after I had asked for his name. He replied Barbaros Drain. This information basically won me game 1 as I set a MST and Mind Crush and passed to him. He blind MSTs my Mind Crush to which I chain and say Barbaros. He drops 2 from his hand and reveals a hand of 2 Beast Machine King Barbaros Ur, Skill Drain, and Thunder King. Even with this advantage I open very slow and it takes a while for my deck to get momentum as I spend the next few turns hiding behind Honest while he draws no monsters. Eventually I draw Earth and I summon it, wait for him to chain Skill Drain, then I chain the MST I was sitting on the whole time to it burning him for 1000lp. I resolve Trishula next turn (but lose it to bottomless) which puts him on the edge. He comes back with some monsters to try to grind me down, but he scoops when I drop the Honest he forgot I had when he attacks my 2nd Earth.
Game 2: He summons a Chainsaw Insect sets 3 and ends. I rip Heavy for my 6th card and play it hitting 2 MSTs and a Drain. Despite this, once again I have a horrific hand with my only monsters being 2 Master Hyperion and 1 Krystia. Thankfully I draw some of the traps I sided in which buys me time to Duality into Duality, then Duality into Mirror Force, and then draw Duality next turn (!) and use it for my first useable monster since the beginning of the duel: Earth (Finally!). I get 2 draws off a Chainsaw Insect he summons, once when he kills my Earth and 2nd time I DPrison it but still get the draw. Eventually he gets Drain up the second half of the duel with Barbaros and Lei-Lei and my wellspring of traps starts to run dry. But by that time I have enough weapons to make use of the stupid amount of boss monsters in my starting hand. His life is at 5800, my grave is Earth and Venus, and a Gachi is the only thing on my side of field with 2 Shine Balls under it. His field is Barbaros and Lei-Lei with Drain being the only S/T. I play Dark Hole killing my Gachi instantly due to drain and clearing the field. I then drop Krystia (No special summoning effect negated), then 2 Hyperions and boss rush for game.
FINAL RECORD: 4 – 1
So I end up getting 4th after the owner tweaks the tiebreakers, putting me at the front of the 4-1 people and behind the 3 people who went undefeated. I pick up the Piercing Moray card stack and pull Red Dragon Archfiend from my turbo pack ;(. I then make a few trades then head over to Mcdonalds to make more trades and discuss the tourny with Kyle.
2 Tragoedia
3 Master Hyperion
1 Honest
3 The Agent of Creation – Venus
3 The Agent of Mystery – Earth [Phantom Mystery~] 2 Archlord Krystia
3 Mystic Shine Ball
3 Herald of Orange Light
1 Sangan
1 Genex Ally Birdman
Strategies for Side Decking:
I would normally side out my 2 Mind Crush and 1 Dustshoot if I went first and won because I would be going second next game where Crush And Dustshoot are fairly weak. I would also side out things like Cards from the Sky and Trag, along with unhelpful cards and side in traps to catch my opponent off guard (since he/she probably sided out their MSTs due to my low trap count). Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute and Book of Moon usually got sided in in place of Crush and Dustshoot and the other traps I sided in on a match by match basis.
TRAGODIA AND GORZ: Were worth their weight in gold, they created problems for my opponent and let me consolidate my advantage.
CARDS FROM THE SKY: A very valuable asset for all the wrong reasons. It allowed me to do stupid things because it was a magnet for blind MSTs that day. I believe it got hit 3 times when I set it. I usually only used it when I was REALLY desperate for answers. Most of the time it would sit in my hand and I would have things I didnt want to remove or it would interfere with my plays so I wouldnt use it.
If you want, try getting a Light End Dragon and a Genex ally Triforce so you can regenerate your Light monsters. It would work really well with Venus and Birdman.
Duly noted. Now to try to find a Light End Dragon…