Washington Regional Report 12/6/2014

A quick regional report from the Washington regionals that happened over this weekend.

‘Sup everybody, it’s me Kyle! Welcome to another edition of Kyle-doesn’t-do-very-good-at-regionals regionals report! I suppose I did alright, but I wish I had performed better. I think there was a lot of lack of knowledge on my part that caused a lot of losses, that could’ve been fixed had I known the intricacies of the format more, which I have almost no experience with other than this regionals.

I ended up going 4-3-1, that’s 1 tie, with Shaddoll Artifacts. I didn’t really want go with a non-meta deck and get smashed, so I just borrowed my friend Seth’s deck again and made some personal tweaks without any testing, like in Spokane, and pretty much rode in blind. I completely underestimated how bad the Qliphort match-up was, it feels nearly unwinnable, plus I had a knack for not drawing Fusion spells against them too, which means you double lose. I need a lot more experience versus Qliphorts with Shaddolls, and I also think some wiser deck building choices would’ve helped me in the Burning Abyss match-up, specifically maining Vanity’s Emptiness, which I thought to side, and I think was probably not the greatest idea, because I loved having it every time I sided it in versus BA. I wish I had played more mirror matches because they’re really fun.

So, no deck profile, it’s just a plain ‘ol Shaddoll Artifact deck. I ran Ignition and Beagalltach, so the expanded Artifact engine. My only “tech” I suppose was Book of Moon and I decided to try a second Shaddoll Core, both ended up being completely inconsequential. I almost never drew Book of Moon and I sided it out versus Qliphorts and the mirror, my thought process was it’s a generally good card and is a great out for Vanity’s or Majesty’s Fiend, but that never came up. I usually sided out the second Core, but game 1 I never drew 2 Core or used the second one, so I don’t think running a second Core is helpful at all. (It’s possible I drew into it more often, but it’s hard to say since I never play this deck) I also ran a Yazi, because I didn’t know what to put in 1 of my Extra Deck slots and we were pressured to make our deck lists before entering the venue, it won me one game versus BA.

With that I’ll get into the report:

Round 1: Me vs. Scott running Evilswarms

I was a little confused, my opponent didn’t really know what most of my cards did, and considering I was running Shaddolls I thought that was strange. If you’re running Evilswarms I would assume that you would know Shaddoll cards just because you typically use Evilswarms because you want to have a good Shaddoll match-up, but I suppose I was wrong. He also didn’t run what I would consider to be the optimal card choices to deal with Shaddolls, specifically Forbidden Chalice, which he said seemed more like a side deck choice.

Game 1: He goes first an summons Rabbit into Ophion, so it starts off with me a little scared. I go and set a monster, Dragon, and 3 spell and trap cards. He doesn’t attack so I’m still feeling a little tentative about how this match is going to go. I set another monster, Squamata, another spell or trap, and then end. He goes and summons Castor into Thunderbird and then attacks into Dragon, and I flip Dragon then say “Dragon target Ophion”. He then proceeds to ask “what does Dragon do?” and at that point I pretty much assume I’m going to win. As I said, he doesn’t run Chalice, so Dragon resolves. He goes to attack again and I do Artifact things to stop him, leaving him with one monster. At that point I take control of the game and he can’t come back.

Game 2: He opens a monster and set 3, which pretty much means I win. I use Artifacts to prevent him from ever getting a second monster and just beat him down over the course of a couple turns.

1 – 0

Round 2: Me vs. Max running Burning Abyss

I had almost no experience playing against new Burning Abyss with Shaddolls, I was scared of Fire Lake, so I played cautiously around it, which I suppose was helpful.

Game 1: I just end up controlling the pace of the game to whole time and eventually clean up with a Black Luster Soldier play.

Game 2: I don’t draw any Fusion spells and when I finally flip a Hedgehog he has Royal Command, which I didn’t have Artifacts or MSTs to deal with because I had pretty much opened all Shaddoll monsters.

Game 3: I literally open all Shaddoll monsters this game and he gets Royal Command again which essentially means my entire hand was useless. I get a Stormforth and summon a Beast from my hand to give me some minor field presence which will hopefully convert into an Arcanite the next turn, but it’s not enough.

I saw this guy at the table that had tables 1 to 4 during the final round, so apparently he does very well.

1 – 1

Round 3: Me vs. Nick running Chaos Shaddolls

I recognized him from YouTube because I am subscribed to the RJB0’s channel. If you’re familiar with Nick Gibson, then this is him. He told me all the correct pronunciations of the Yag Zing monsters which I thought was pretty interesting. Also, I said it before, but I love the mirror match with Shaddolls.

Game 1: I go first and set Hedgehog, Shadow Games, Sanctum and Ignition. He goes, summons Mathematician send Squamata then Beast and draws, then sets two and passes. During his end phase I use Ignition to pop a back row and get a Moralltach, then Sanctum to get Beagalltach to pop Moralltach to pop his Mathematician. Then I use Shadow Games to flip Hedgehog adding El Shaddoll Fusion and sending Dragon to pop his last back row. My turn, I put everything in attack mode use Shaddoll Fusion to summon a Construct with the Hedgehog getting me a Dragon. I Normal Summon Dragon then attack with everything then use El Shaddoll to fuse again and attack for game.

Game 2: This was an incredibly long game, we literally did almost no lifepoint damage until both of use where almost out of Shaddoll monsters because of a weird turn of events forcing us both to leave our Fusion monsters on the field causing a huge Fusion festival with Shaddoll Fusion from the deck. He ends up running out first though and I lock him out with Shekhinaga after he can’t Fusion anymore. Multiple times in the game we negated Shekhinaga with Shekhinaga who was negating Construct. Craziness. Probably my favorite game I had over the whole tournament.

2 – 1

Round 3: Me vs. Alex running Burning Abyss

I’m a little salty about how this game ended up, but Alex was a cool guy. I feel like I sat next to him or very near him every round after this one.

Game 1: I pretty much dominate game 1, I don’t take damage and I just grind down his advantage until he scoops when I get a Winda and a Yazi on board.

Game 2: This game goes on for freaking forever and then I eventually get him locked down with a Winda. I have have card advantage significantly, but he has more lifepoints because he had stalled with Fortune Tune and I had taken some chip damage earlier. I have Winda, set Falco and Shekhinaga in grave I want to bring back with it eventually and set Beast and 1 Beagalltach and 1 Moralltach set. He only has a Dante with one material and a Cir and Tour Guide in hand. I basically have game unless he mills Alich with his Dante and he does, allowing him to stall out in time and he wins by lifepoints during time causing a tie… ugh.

2 – 1 – 1

Round 5: Me vs. Christopher running Qliphorts

This guy tied a game as well, which was surprising. So we have to same record. I don’t remember how the game played out particularly well.

Game 1: He basically overwhelms me and quickly wins. I recall him using Emptiness on me at a crucial time and I don’t have an out for it so I have to just end my turn. He then OTKs me next turn after we wait on a rulings dispute about Emptiness going to the graveyard when you tribute for Disc over a monster equipped with Saqlifice.

Game 2: I lose control of the game really quickly, but I’m in power survival for what seems like forever. Basically I keep drawing cards that will keep me alive for another turn and I don’t concede unless I’m 100% sure the game is over. Either way, I end up losing eventually.

2 – 2 – 1

Round 6: No show.

I end up sitting next to the RJB0 himself, so I chat it up most of the round as we both wait because we both got no shows.

3 – 2 – 1

Round 7: Me vs. Jesse running Burning Abyss

Game 1: Much like every round versus BA, I dominate game 1.

Game 2: I get back an El Shaddoll Fusion from the graveyard with Core I sent with Construct that he use Bottomless on. I plan to use it next turn to summon Winda on his Tour Guide that I know is the only card left in hand. I set 2 Sanctum and El Shaddoll Fusion and he end phase blind MSTs the Fusion. If he had hit either Sanctum I would have won the game easily.

Game 3: I open double Emptiness, Squamata, Beast and Moralltach. I set both Emptiness and set Squamata. He opens by Special Summoning Rubic, then normal summons Graff, to which I activate Emptiness. He sets 3 and ends. I flip Squamata and use his effect targeting Rubic. He chains Breakthrough Skill, which I mentally take as a happy plus one. I attack his Graff and he chains Book of Moon on my Squamata, which is questionable. (I’m not sure if I would keep in Book against Shaddolls, since you can only really use it against Winda in the match-up) I set an MST and pass. He draws switches Graff to defense and passes. My turn I flip Squamata and he activates Bottomless Trap Hole before I choose my target so I decide to hit Graff. Emptiness doesn’t die ’cause Squamata is banished. I then pass. There are 2 turns of him attacking directly with a Cir and me passing. I then draw into Dragon, summon it and attack Cir and end. He draws and then ends. He has no back row at this point and I draw into Shaddoll Fusion. I have a BLS from prior turns doing nothing. I MST my own Emptiness then Fusion for Construct sending Hedgehog and get a Squamata and Normal it. Then I special BLS and attack with all 4 for game.

4 – 2 – 1

Round 8: Me vs. Zeyang running Qliphorts

Game 1: I don’t draw any Fusion cards and he has Skill Drain for my Sanctums and he smashes me.

Game 2: I probably could have played better this game maybe letting me win, but I doubt it, and at this point I had already mentally scooped making me play worse. I get smashed.

4 – 3 – 1

An that’s the way the cookie crumbles…

Written by: Kyle Oliver