The_Worst_Deck_On_Urth_cecillbill_Comic_City_Saint_Louis Deck: The Worst Deck on Urth Player: cecillbill Venue: Comic City City: Saint Louis, MO Date: April 17, 2004 Participants: 4 Format: Round Robin; best of 3 duels Entry Fee: $5 Prizes: Store Credit to 1st & 2nd Place Notes: Small turnout, but the game's just getting started with organized events. Hope to see upwards of 20 players soon. Hope to see those JDC promos too. I play a Fire/Light deck that sets me up defensively, does some monster clearing, and brings out the big boys for the win. My comfort mana zone is 6, though the fun games top at 7. Most will notice the high number of blockers and high mana guys and think my deck doesn't work. But it does. And you'd be surprised how often you can have an army of Urths and Gatlings out with Gure as protection if you know what this deck can and can't do and play accordingly. Tahaha, well maybe not that often, but it has happened. I have yet to play this deck against a Speed Control aka Turbo Control deck that utlilizes Nature, but there are ways to tweak this deck to make it go up against that deck type. For example, get the count down to 40, ditch the filler like Burning Power which I never used--it's no secret why not, add in some early game hitters, jack the Holy Awe to full count, top the mana at 6, and add in a more removal. Here's my deck, sorry of this report is too long (lol): \\The Worst Deck on Urth// \\Creatures// Fire--16 4x Brawler Zyler 3x Onslaughter Triceps 4x Fire Sweeper Burning Hellion 2x Rothus, The Traveler 1x Explosive Fighter Urcan 2x Gatling Skyterror Light--15 3x Ruby Grass 4x La Ura Giga, Sky Guardian 2x Dia Nork, Moonlight Guardian 2x Gran Gure, Space Guardian 3x Urth, Purifying Elemental 1x Hanusa, Radiance Element \\Spells// Light--5 2x Solar Ray 3x Holy Awe Fire--7 2x Crimson Hammer 3x Tornado Flame 2x Burning Power \\Total// 43 cards I am going to recount the final match of each duel were someone won the best of 3 in great detail. I give highlights of the other matches for each pairing in the round robin I had. Reason: each 3 duels pretty much had the same tone and pace and the most exciting and pivotal duels are the ones I give the most detail about anyway. Basically, my gameplay was the same for each situation--set up defense, deal with early threats, then bring out the big guns. Even though all the decks were different, that gameplay worked for the most part because that's what it takes ot make the deck work. Bad plays spelled some trouble when I was matched against another Fire/Light. I give a break down of the Early and Late Game because it helps one see exactly how I play this deck and how it matches up to the other decks over the course of the entire duel. Plus, it's always been my style to write tourney reports that way. It's nice to be different. :-) /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Duels: 1st Matchup--Vs Darkness/Water Discard, Removal, Bounce Winner: Me Cards in my opponent's deck included: Aqua Sniper, Death Smoke, Ghost Touch, Wandering Braineater, Bone Assasin This was a good matchup. I took the first win, and he took the second. I took home the 3rd win thanks to shield trigger action. The first match had me down before I came out on top because he was very aggresive with his pegging off my defense setup--thus controlling the field. I didn't latch onto the tempo of his gameplay until the tail end of the first match. His deck and gameplay was very strategic, and he had control elements running the whole way through. Just when you thought you had him won, he Smokes your fatties or forces you to ram a slayer. Sometimes it came down to me deciding whether or not to lay down a remover as mana or save it for that slayer hitter. If I saved a Hammer or Flame, it usually meant slowing down the time it took me to get to an Urth and I had to compensate by making sure I could get blockers out. But I learned that dealing with the small guys of his deck as early as possible was game owning. Below are the details of the last match in the best of 3: Early Game: My opening move is to play either Giga or lay down Fire mana for Brawler. I got out Giga fast due to having a better light opening hand. Though Giga Ura can easily get pummeled, he's still a blocker and that spells no hit for that attack. I got out some early hitters, as did he. He was first to knock off a shield after clearing away my defense. He pegged off a lot of my opening guys, especially the blockers. I found myself reluctant to hit his slayer with my shields because I knew they were the key to stalling for an Urth. So did he, so I figured not to help him unless my hand had another blocker I could cast or a red guy that could bring on the heat (Triceps) or remove the threat (Rothus). He got quick wind of this and was merciless against my early blockers. Late Game: He killed off my fatties several times and was able to make a beeline for more of my shields. Ghost Touch laid into the only card I had in my hand during one turn which was an Urth! Lucky for me Gatlings and another Urth eventually come to my rescue. I had 2 shields left when he shield triggered Holy Awe. I came around next turn for the win with my double breakers. When I checked my remaining shield it was another Holy Awe. I hate to say it, but Holy Awe is now one of my favorite Light cards. I've jumped onto the Holy Awe bandwagon and I may even start to run 4 of them in my decks. //////////////////////////////////////////////////// Duels: 2nd Matchup--Vs Water/Light Unblockable & Bounce Winner: Me Cards in my opponent's deck included: Candy Drop, Fairie Child, Spiral Gate, Toel, Revolver Fish, Giga Ura, Holy Awe, Aqua Sniper I won this matchup 2-0, and it was also a good one. Not because of the sweep. But, because both players had stall elements--and my deck had a slight advantage in that department. I pegged off the Drops and Childs as much as I could with Hammers, Flames, and tapping them to kill them with a hit during both duels. My opponent was a very smart duelist. He knew the synergy of his deck inside and out. Everything worked off another card. Example: he used Toels to keep me from hitting the Drops and Childs most of the time. When that happened, the key was to tag off the Toel, usually through a Flame and then peg off that unblockable--things that can happen in the same turn. This deck would have been a bigger headache for me to deal with had it more of a permenant way to deal with my fatties or a guy like Depthcon with more Sniper action. Still it was not cakewalk. I had to earn the wins. Below are the details of the last match in the best of 3: Early Game: We both set up blockers for like the first 3 turns. You can't beleive how beautiful that is--my deck thrives off the ability to setup defense and my opponent was handing a way to me! That's because the unblockables are turn 4 guys. His 4th turn saw a Drop. Mine saw a Hammer. Next up I played a Triceps and he sends it packing. He then played Revolver Fish--blockers at 5000--he was pretty much safe until I got out an Urcan and then an Urth which was no problem since my mana was high due to the first couple of turns that were played on the defensive by us both. Got rid of the Revoler which stood in the way fo shields and hitting Childs for too long. Late Game: What keep me at bay were his blockers. In both matches I was able to get out 2 Urths and at least one Gatling. I even got out Hanusa in the last match. I couldn't get directly to his shields for a while, so my big guys were slamming blockers. He had a dead hand for a couple of turns which let me lay into his blockers some more. He did a good job of keeping me at bay because he bounced my fatties back to my hand, often with Spiral Gate being shield triggered, buying himself some time. It wasn't enough time because I played an Holy Awe and just went into him with Urths and Gatlings. ///////////////////////////////////////////////// Duels: 3rd Matchup--Vs Fire/Light Weenie Rush with Bolshack Winner: Opponent Cards in my opponent's deck included: Giga Ura, Holy Awe, Senatine Jade Tree, Brawler Zyler, Immortal Baron Vorg, Crimson Hammer, Tornado Flame, Urth, Gran Gure, Bolshack Dragon, Ruby Grass, Rothus, Braid Claw In the first match that he won, which was our second match, Bolshack gave me the beat down. I played a bit sloppy, so he just gunned through everything until I had no blockers out to oppose Bolshack. His mirror removal was key, and he played it better than me (I am always deabting whether or not to drop Hammers and Flames as mana or cast them--lol). Great example of how a keen opponent can exploit your mistakes. In our first matchup, I won beating him with Urth because I was able to peg off his defense and early hitters. Below are the details of the last match in the best of 3: Early Game: Both of us played La Giga Uras on our first turn. His 2nd turn saw a Baron Vorg, mine saw a Crimsom Hammer. Repeat the process the next few turns-blockers and weenie hitters were laid down. I had out Giga and Ruby Grass, and he had some weenie hitters and Senatine Tree. I got out a Triceps. Then he laid down a Rothus and I said goodbye to a blocker (Giga) and he the Rothus (now, I see the beauty of that guy--lol). Next time up he pegged off my blocker with a Flame and hit a shield. Should have seen that play coming. I could easily have survived off a blocker for another turn as opposed to wanting to hit so bad Triceps. I got back at him next time for 1shield, but the shield advantage still belonged to him. I could have kept the shield to set up a big play 2 more turns in. Basicially through removal of my blockers he was able to knock me down to 2 shields were he had 3 shields. Late Game: I'm down to no shields and he has 1. This is good stuff. I had out 1 Hellion, 1 Zyler, 2 Gran Gure, 2 Urths, 1 Gatling--just a powerhouse. I played another Gatling and was setting up to bring the final heat next turn with a Holy Awe in hand ready to cast. He had out more blockers than I could count, the most important being Gran Gures because nothing I had could get through them. I should have taken that into account and waited for my next turn setup. I made the dumb mistake of going for one of his tapped threats with Gatling forgetting that he had out Gran Gures. 1of my Gatlings bit the dust and that kept me at bay. It wasn't as bad as I make it out to be, but nonetheless a very bad play considering it was a complete waste of a double breaker. My thinking at this time was I had the game won next turn. I had out 3 Double Breakers, 2 Blockers with 9000 atk (to peg off his tapped hitters) and a Holy Awe in hand that I could hard cast! I had nothing to worry about next round, or so I thought. His next draw: HOLY AWE! Needless to say, he cast it and tapped all my beautiful guys for one awesome win with...a Brawler Zyler and a Braid Claw! I could not beleive the beauty of that moment. That's why I have mad love for this game. Sweet moments like that--even if it spells my undoing. That, my friends, is what they call "A Kodack Moment." This was a great duel even though I lost. Funny thing is I lost to the guy who was beat in both his other duels by the guys that I beat. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Tourney Results: I won 1st place and netted $11.90 store credit. 2nd Place prize of $6.90 store credit went to the player running the Darkness/Combo deck. Hopefully the JDC tourney kits and league play will be up and running next weekend. I also hope to see a bigger turnout and wear weather appropiate attire. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Props: *Winning. This was my first Duel Masters tourney--and I ran a deck I hadn't playtested enough with some last minute (iffy) changes. I played better than I thought. Yaay! *Fun loving opponents. These guys were cool about being whipped by a girl (yea, I'm that girl). And it was even fun when I got beat by that sweet Holy Awe draw. Handshakes were common and everyone made me laugh. They were hilarious and just made my first DM tourney great. Thanks! Now, no more "but she's a girl" quips. LOL. Slops: *Making costly mistakes that were just sloppy. Some amounted to forgetting to look at all monsters on the field before attacking and playing a Hammer or Flame too early as mana. 100% of the time right after I laid down Hammer or Flame as mana they were needed the very next turn. LOL. *There not being at least 10 players. This is a crazy GREAT game. Most fun I have had in a long time. People need to pick up this game and give it a go. *Waiting until after the tourney to drink my soda. I should have done it before the start of the dueling. It was luke warm by the time I drank it, and my throat hurt. Drinking luke warm Vanilla Coke is like drinking that slug that forms in some coffee makers. Aweful. /////////////////////////////////////////////////// Final Comments: I'm a girl gamer and darn proud of it! Always play the deck you love; one that fits the way you know you can play. I'll be back with another detailed tourney report this weekend. The competition is revving up and I will finally get to test one of my stall decks (maybe the one above) against a Turbo Control with Nature. Spicy. Now, go play Duel Masters! My contact info: kaiserpso@hotmail.com _________________________________________________________________