Josh

Monster Removal Deck

Diamond Sports Cards and Comics

Austin, Texas

January 5, 2003

Roughly 65 Duelists Entered

Prizes:

1^st: 1 Legend of Blue Eyes Booster, 1 Pharaoh’s Servant Booster, Thousand Eyes Restrict

2^nd: 1 Legend of Blue Eyes Booster, 1 Pharaoh’s Servant Booster, Thousand Dragon

3^rd: 1 Pharaoh’s Servant Booster, Chain Destruction

4^th: 1 Pharaoh’s Servant Booster, Goblin Attack Force

This is my fourth tournament over all and I’ve never gotten past the fourth round before. But I was sure that my chances of winning would increase dramatically because my friend (yes, the same one from my last 2 reports if you’re keeping track) got a Jinzo in a pack, and his deck couldn’t use it, so he let me use it for the tournament. My friend and I got there a little early so we looked around for a few familiar faces. We found a guy named (hope he doesn’t mind me mentioning him…) Levi; he’s a cool guy with even cooler cards. And we also ran into T.J., the guy who beat me last week, but he’s cool (if you read my last report I may of made it unclear to who I dueled for the Mirror Force, it was not T.J.). I really wanted Levi’s extra Swords of Revealing Light, and he was a fan of the Gate Guardian elementals so I offered him my Sanga of the Thunder. He was a little unsure so I just had him trade me it until the end of the tournament, and if he wanted it back it would be ok. I also got him to throw in his extra Mirror Force to replace my Waboku. We signed up and they began to place names on the tables so we each found our names and sat down.

Round One

Me VS Sean

Ok I sit down and he has a HUGE stack of cards. I mean this had to be like 300 cards at least! I asked him why he had so many cards and he said last time he didn’t have enough, so he put more in it… I don’t see the logic in that but oh well. I started the duel and ended in 2 turns later. Same thing second round, only 4 turns later.

WIN: (8000-0) (8000-0)

I went to check on my friend (I hate saying "my friend" so let’s call him Chris)

and Levi, Chris won his duels no problem, but not such good luck for Levi. He was facing the adult who beat me in my second tournament. The adult ran a gravity bind deck when I dueled him, but now it looked like he was playing a dragon beatdown deck, and it did pretty good. Levi lost first round, oh well, better luck next time!

Round Two

Me VS Toby

I sat down and there was a boy about 12 years old, and his mother was sitting right beside him. We started the duel and I got out La Jinn and dominated the match with him and the rest of my L 4 1800 attackers. Second duel I drew Delinquent Duo and I didn’t want to play it because it’s a really mean card, and his mom was sitting right there and I didn’t to be mean or anything, so I didn’t play it. But that’s ok because in the next duel he couldn’t draw any >L 4 monsters so I just took him out with my Summoned Skull and Jinzo.

WIN: (7700-0) (8000-0)

Third Round

Me VS Kyle

I sat down and he was just a little kid, I got a flashback of last week when I sat down last week to a little kid, T.J., and he owned me for free. I got a little nervous because I didn’t want to face another unbeatable child prodigy. But my nerves were in vain, he didn’t stand a chance. First he tried to activate Appropriate (Trap Card: You can activate this card when your opponent draws cards outside of his draw phase. Draw two cards), and I told him that I had to draw outside of my draw phase like with Pot of Greed or Bristo Butcher. My next turn he tried to do it again when I drew, so I just played Heavy Storm and said "That’s not when you activate it. But now you don’t have to worry about it any more! =) I played Forceful Sentry and took out a Fissure and he placed it back in his deck, then shuffled. I would go on and on about how he didn’t know all the rules, but I won’t. I won both duels in about 4 or 5 turns.

WIN: (6900-0) (8000-0)

Fourth Round

Me VS T.J. Rick

I’ve seen Rick at all the other tournaments, but I’ve never dueled him before, he uses very rare cards like Jinzo, Relinquished, and Premature Burial. Just before the duel he traded for a Call of the Haunted and Snatch Steal, good thing you have to play with the deck you started with! PHEW! First duel was all mine, I quickly trap holed all of his monsters and took out a chunk of his life points each turn with a L4 1800 attacker. I destroyed his Sangan and he searched his deck for a card, and I asked him to show it to me to prevent cheating, but he said he didn’t have to, he only had to show it to a judge. He was the only person who ever refused to show me the card he searched for, I mean I’m going to see it in a second anyway. Everyone surely knows the unwritten rule where you have to show your opponent the card you got to prevent cheating, but he was just being difficult. I guess he can do that if he wants. I ended the duel quickly with my Jinzo. Second duel I got him down to 100 LP in about 5 turns, while I was still at a healthy 6900, the duel was mine… right? No. I have no clue how but he came back and every time I drew a monster he trap holed it or something like that. He freakin’ won after being down with only 100 LP! Kudos to him! Too bad it didn’t do him any good. I Cyber Jar’d the field early on in the third duel and used Change of Heart on his only monster and obliterated him for the win. Very good match, each of us played very well.

WIN: (5500-0) (0-100) (4300-0)

After that match I went to look at the prize table, I’d never gotten this far so I figured I’d lose really bad and get fourth place, Goblin Attack Force. I really wanted that card so I didn’t mind losing at all. I didn’t want 3^rd or 4^th place because I already have a Thousand Dragon and I don’t need a Chain Destruction. I wouldn’t mind a Thousand Eyes Restrict for trading, but how in the world could I get first?

Semifinals (never made it this far!)

Me VS He took off his name tag and when I shook his hand and said "Hi my name’s Josh" he just didn’t take the hint and tell me his name so I don’t know it

I sat down at the semifinal table (actually its just two small tables put together with 4 chairs around it) and my opponent was a guy I’ve never seen before, but he was with a guy I knew from school, so maybe he went to my school… or maybe not. We got started by trap holing our monsters left and right, I finally got a 7 Colored Fish out and got first hit. He eliminated it, and attacked me, then I eliminated his monster, then I attacked him. After a few rounds of that I pulled out Jinzo (good thing cuz he had a trap hole down) and equipped him with Malevolent Nuzzler and finally took the win. I surprisingly won the next duel with ease. I was so happy I was going to my first final!

WIN: (4600-0) (6900-0)

Finals (AAHHHH! PRESSURE!)

Me VS Mike (Ok this guy is good. T.J. had to play him earlier on and the second he found out he had to play him he told everyone he knew he would lose. So if the guy who beat me last week knows he doesn’t stand a chance against a guy who I’m playing in the finals, what chance do I have to win? Slim to none)

We start out by trap holing like crazy (FYI if you want to win, monster removal is the key, get 3 trap hole!) and then I play a Witch of the Black forest and attack. His turn he plays Snatch Steal on it, and plays Giant Trunade (brings all M/T cards back to their owners hands). I get a memory relapse of the Pojo Card of the Day 10/24/02:

Thrusday - Snatch Steal

Sorry for the off day yesterday. I was rather busy. Anyway's today's card is Snatch Steal. This is the watered down version of Change of Heart. You can take
control of an opponent's face up monster and he gains 1000LP ever of his standby phases.

This card is best for tribute material. Take his monster, and then tribute it right away so that he doesn't gain any LP. One thing this card has over
Change of Heart is that it is permanent until the Snatch Steal is destroyed. You shouldn't hold on to the monster for too long though, since the opponent
gain gain a lot of LP fast if he is able to stall you. Unlike Premature Burial, you cannot use giant trunade with this card to use it over and over. Once you
return it to your hand, the opponent gets his monster back.

I give this card a 4.0/5. It will be restricted to one for sure.

wartortle32

The part I highlighted is what I remembered. So then I tell him I get my Witch back because Snatch Steal went back to his hand, I told him no so he called a Judge over. The Judge found Snatch Steal in their Store Rulings, but it didn’t cover what would happen if Snatch Steal got returned to the owner’s hand. The Judge then looked up Giant Trunade and that ruling went with what I was saying, so I was right. But the whole time I was arguing with the Judges Mike was just saying "Hey it’s ok I won’t do that move then, I won’t play Giant Trunade." He was being all cool about it while I over-reacted. And it turns out all the arguing was in vain b/c he ended up beating me in the first duel anyway! I would also like to correct myself because in the duel I used SORL and he Heavy Stormed it, and tried to attack with his Wall of Illusion. I told him that he couldn’t attack on a turn that SORL was active. I was wrong, the only way that works is if I used a Giant Trunade or something like that, if SORL is destroyed, you are free to attack, but it doesn’t even matter cuz he won the duel anyway! Onto the second duel! I won this one, don’t remember how, just LOTS of trap holing. Then about 5 turns into the third duel I got a Cyber Jar out and flipped it, this was the turning point of the duel. After that I had out 2 Wall of Illusion, one Sangan, and a Harpie’s Brother. I played change of heart on his only monster, a face down Wall of Illusion. I added the monsters attack point together and got 5800, I looked at his life points, he only had 5300. I attacked and he took one look at the sheet and said "You win." I couldn’t believe it. I was in so much shock that I kept repeating "I WON?!?!?!" After it sunk in I turned straight towards Chris (about 20 feet away in the mall’s crowded food court) and shouted "Hey Chris! I WON!" Half the mall looked at me but I was too happy to care. I happily took my Thousand Eyes Restrict and 2 free boosters.

Aftermath

I got Mad Sword Beast and Final Flame in the boosters, whoopee! Not. Mike got a SORL, that I needed, and another Super Rare but I dunno which one. So maybe I would have been better off losing… nah! Chris traded his Blue Eyes Toon Dragon, Jinzo (the one I was borrowing from him), and Chain Destruction for a ton of cards like Raigeki, Mirror Force, Dust Tornado, Heavy Storm, and few others I don’t remember. I gave Levi (who stuck around for the whole 5 hours of dueling even though he lost) his Mirror Force and SORL back along with a Harpie’s brother for letting me borrow the cards. He’s still thinking about trading the SORL to me for my Sanga of the Thunder. Some kids with a few really good cards showed up towards the end and I traded my Invader of the Throne, Serpent Night Dragon, Thousand Dragon, and Catapult Turtle for a Snatch Steal and Imperial Order. Some might say that’s a bad trade on my part but I have doubles of each card, I don’t want or need any of them, and I make very generous trades.

Props:

Slops:

Oh yeah here’s my deck, I put it in the end cuz reading through a person’s deck in the beginning is just down right boring!

Monsters:

1 Witch of the Black Forest

2 Hayabusa Knight

2 Magician of Faith (I got a mask of Darkness, I’ll put it in when I get Mirror Force, but what should I take out?)

2 Summoned Skull

1 La Jinn

1 Cyber Jar

2 Wall of Illusion

2 7 Colored Fish

2 Sangan

1 Man Eater Bug (should I take out a Harpie’s Brother or another card to put more of these in?)

1 Jinzo (I will probably put in my Barrel Dragon since I don’t have this card anymore)

3 Harpie’s Brother

Magic:

1 Raigeki

1 Megamorph (should I replace this with an Axe of Despair?)

1 Monster Reborn

2 Malevolent Nuzzlers (I want to replace these with Axe of Despair)

2 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Tribute to the Doomed (should I take this out cuz I have Raigeki? Or should I replace it with a fissure or two?)

1 Pot of Greed

1 Change of Heart

1 Card Destruction

1 The Forceful Sentry

2 Heavy Storm

1 Delinquent Duo (should I take this out?)

(I’m putting in the Snatch Steal that I got)

Traps:

1 Magic Jammer (I have a 7 tools but I took it out b/c I got 2 heavy storm, should I put it back in? )

1 Waboku (Need Mirror Force)

3 Trap hole

( I am putting in the Imperial Order that I got)

Please feel free to e-mail me about tips, strategies, cards, comments, and deck changes at josh_a_y@hotmail.com

Tip from me to you-TRAP HOLE! TRAP HOLE! TRAP HOLE! Nuff’ said.