SUBJECT: BATTLE SQUIRREL LOCK OUT - SPOOKY308 - BLUE SPRINGS, MO

ABC COMICS Blue Springs, MO JUNE 28, 2003 39 Competitors $5 Entry fee

All prizes were paid out in store credit.

Winner - $15 2nd - $11 3rd - $8 4th - $4

All right people, here's a true test of one of the newest deck types that you'll soon be seeing a lot of!
This is a Warrior deck, bent around Dream Clowns! The Warrior decks are now possible since the release of Legacy of Darkness, and I'm here to report GREAT RESULTS!

I have two strategies at work here, the first is a clown control deck, with the added support of Warriors like Exiled Force, and Marauding Captain. Then, I have the second part of the puzzle, where, if I can't get a quick win with the Warriors, then I can fall back on my YATA-GARASU. This deck is made up of a lot of cards which are bound to be on the restricted list, because they do work so well together. This deck (including the side deck!) can be built for around $185 (Ebay street prices). If you are lucky in pulling good cards from booster packs, you can trade for the cards in this deck and build it for a lot cheaper! (I took some of the higher prices from the cards I looked up), plus subbing in some Wabokus for Messengers won't hurt you too bad. If you notice, no Call of the Haunted, or Premature Burial. There is no Mirror Force or Magic Cylinder in this deck! Why? Cause I don't have the cards! I'm still looking, but I just don't have the money to spend on the "Great" cards, so I have to be very judicious with the trades that I make, and what I can get at the best possible price. You'll also notice the lack of other "Staple" cards, such as Change of Heart. But, that card isn't too good for me as it is. I find myself with a Change of Heart when I already have stopped their monsters from attacking. It would be too temporary, and wouldn't gain me anything. Snatch Steal, is the one card that I did leave in, (though I put it into the side deck) I like using it on Jinzo, after they go through all the work to get him out, I should have monsters on the field already, so Snatch Steal has won me games, but quite a few times it's dead in my hand. Change of Heart just gets in the way of this deck. At least it has in the past, but the way it performed on Saturday, I might put it back in. But, on to the deck!

Monsters (20)

3|Mrd|Dream Clown

1|Lod|Exiled Force

1|Lod|Freed the Matchless General

2|Lod|Marauding Captain

2|Lod|Throwstone Unit

2|Lon|Zombyra the Dark

1|Sdk|Trap Master

3|Mrl| BATTLE SQUIRRELS (KILLER SQUIRRELS)

1|Mrd|Magician of Faith

1|Lod|Injection Fairy Lily

1|Mrd|Sangan

1|Mrd|Witch of the Black Forest

1|Lod|Yata-Garasu

Magic(19)

1|Lob|Swords of Revealing Light

1|Lob|Raigeki

1|Sdp|Monster Reborn

1|Tp3|Pot of Greed

1|Sdy|Dark Hole

1|Mrl|Snatch Steal

1|Mrd|Heavy Storm

2|Sdp|Graceful Charity

1|Mrl|Mystical Space Typhoon

2|Mrl|Messenger of Peace

2|Psv|Nobleman of Crossout

2|Lod|Reinforcement of the Army

1|Lob|The Warrior Returning Alive

2|Sdj|Scapegoat

Trap(4)

2|Psv|Gravity Bind

1|Psv|Imperial Order

1|Lon|Torrential Tribute

Total of 43

-SIDE DECK-

1|Psv|Gravity Bind

1|Mrl|Messenger of Peace

1|Lon|Torrential Tribute

1|Lon|Skull Lair

2|Psv|Burning Land

1|Psv|The Fiend MegaCyber

2|Sdp|Robbin' Gobblin 

1|Mrl|Delinquent Duo

1|Mrl|The Forceful Sentry

2|Lod|Possessed Dark Soul (Lily and other Gravity Bind Decks)

2|Lod|Heart of Clear Water (Lily and other Gravity Bind Decks)

I play at A to Z Comics in Blue Springs, MO. This is THE tournament to go to if you want to compete against the best in this region. This isn't league play at the Toys are Us. These guys are for real, and it's taken quite a lot of time for me to even make the finals with a Clown deck! I was told by the current Hotshot (8 consecutive wins), that I was the only person he remembers getting to the finals with a "Weenie" deck. The biggest reason for this, is because this is the land of the Removal/Beatdown. With all the Magic/Trap removal around, and then couple that with monster removal; the Clowns never worked well enough to get me higher than 5^th for the longest time, (I did stay at 5^th place for about 3-4 weeks in a row, that was frustrating…)

We play 4 people throughout the day, and keep record of all 3. I believe they call this a "Swiss Round". Then, after everyone has played 4 rounds of 3 games, those that are still undefeated (3 games complete one duel) after playing 4 people (the 4^th round pits all undefeated players against other undefeated players), move on to the finals. If there are no undefeated players, then the top 4 would be decided by number of individual games won. If you lost one duel all day, you'd probably have a record of 3 matches won and 10 games won. And that would beat out someone who had won 3 matches and only 9 games. If there is a tie after that, then everyone's total life points from all 4 matches are added up, and that will decide the final 4. It's hard to figure out at first, but you eventually get used to it. It's also a great environment to learn in, because you play 4 different people, you aren't eliminated if you sit down to your first game with the eventual winner.

If you are squeamish about reading, you should move on to another report. I've not had time to write reports for the last few weeks because I've been busy helping BigSpooky launch the Killer Squirrels Online Website. If you'd like to check out the site and submit a request for membership, check out the links at the bottom. But, I've had a lot of requests to keep writing, so before I go on to this weeks, I'm going to summarize everything up till this report. Be warned.

Now, on to the report…

MAY 24: In the last two weeks, I've made it to the finals both times. I've gotten a 4^th place and a 3^rd. I'm now trying to analyze what my weak points are, and how I can best solve them. In other words, I'm still tweaking my deck. This week, I try a drastic change, and move away from my tried and true strategy of a basic defensive rush, and try to get more aggressive. I add a Mage Power that I'd won in the packs from last week and a couple Hayabusa Knights, in order to get more aggressive, and speed up the duels. The Penguin Lock was working quite efficiently the last couple weeks, until 3-4 turns would pass, and a card would be available to break the lock. I was hoping, that I could line up a Hayabusa, and a Penguin, to speed up the damage by 1000+ points. In the mean time, I also destroy the most crucial element of any deck…The Monster to Magic/Trap ratio. I took the deck down to 17 monsters with around 43 cards total, and my monsters became few and far between. My first opponent, Gabe, also taught me a big lesson about playing against The Killer Squirrels! He ran a well balanced beatdown, and with my deck crippled by the thin amount of monsters, and Gabe almost always having something to fight with under my Gravity Binds and/or Messengers, he flattened me in 3 straight duels.

I went to my side deck, and brought in every monster that I had in there, and brought out some of the Magic/Traps that didn't mesh with my original Strategy, and low and behold, I win every single duel for the rest of the day. I eventually come in 5^th place, with a record of 9 wins out of 12, and it came down to a tie breaker on life points, (I lost the tie breaker by less than 6000 points). If I would have only been able to beat Gabe once in that first duel, then I would have made it to the finals. So, lessons learned: Do not try to run 18 or fewer monsters without having the "Fancy" recursion cards, like Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted!

The scores from the rest of the day looked like this:

The numbers reflect my life points. If there is a number besides zero, you can assume the opponent's LP was zero.

Gabe: 0000/0000/0000

Jamie: 5800/6200/8000

Joe: 7300/7000/7350

Eli: 6000/6900/7450

MAY 31: This was the first week we were allowed to run LOD, and I had a Secret Weapon! Yata! I was probably too over-confident about that fact, and without having much practice with "The Crow", I was very disappointed in the day. Disappointed in my self more than anything else, because I knew that I could play better than I did. Regardless, it came down to one tactical error, that shifted the entire day's momentum and turned it into a flop.

My first match up was with…Nick. The number one in the store, and at the time top twenty in North America! I'd never played him before, and most people would have resigned themselves to being eliminated when they sat down. But I knew how powerful the Crow was, and so, I was still confident, too confident. Nick was a good Beatdown player, his only lev 3 fighter was Sangan, and he had not even heard that we could use LOD yet, so, I thought that his fate was sealed. In the first game, I had successfully gotten Nick into the Yata Lock for 4 turns, but he was a good player, and had developed a technique of keeping cards in his hand. He held onto a Premature Burial, and used it to bring back Sangan, and when I'd destroy that, he got another monster. He'd get good effect monsters too, but I also had Nobleman, (I mean, I had him in the LOCK, or so I thought) and eventually I activated a Torrential Tribute to get his Sangan off the field, and he's able to get a Witch of the Black Forest and attack me under my Messenger, when I had just gone under 1150! The blasted shame, was that I had picked up and was holding a Gravity Bind in my hand! If I had played it, I probably would have gotten it! He won the second in quick time, by being able to Heavy Storm and Feather Duster me out of existence. But, one ray of hope shown through! In the 3^rd game, I got him! He hit me early and brought me down to 3100 but I did beat him in the 3^rd game! If only I'd been able to complete the lock in that first game…

The rest of the day was pretty anti-climactic. I went up against another Weenie deck next, Fire Princess burner. JR got me in the second game, but I was able to hit the 1^st and the 3^rd, but it cost me a lot of brain power. The 3^rd game was against a new guy and I got him 3 straight. Then for number 4, (I didn't realize this, but there weren't any undefeated players today, and if I would have pushed through, I still would have made it!) I was up against another challenging player, Joe M. He plays a good beatdown with heavy Magic/Trap removal, he plays MST, Dust Tornado, Jammers, just a little of everything, so it's always hard to keep my stall cards on the field against him. I felt drained by this time, and had to apologize cause I wasn't able to give him a good challenge. He got me first game, when I wasn't paying attention, and allowed him to play Tribute to the Doomed on my Freed! That was a blunder. On the second, he wiped me out as one of the first players to have a Lily. In the 3^rd duel, I found myself again, and was able to Yata lock him early, but still lost life.

Here's the run down of the day:

Nick:0000/0000/3100

JR:7300/0000/7000

Joe:6700/7400/6600

JoeM:0000/0000/2200

JUNE 7: It seems that this week everything came together. I took the advice of another Military Duelist, and removed all my Magic Jammers, and went totally unprotected, hoping that the game would flow better. I still used 7 stalls, (Swords, Binds and Messengers) but I concentrated on being able to put another one down as soon as one was destroyed. I dueled Ted first, who played a balanced beatdown. I went to my side deck, and brought in Possessed Dark Soul, because Ted also played Squirrels, and Troop Dragons, and another 3 that I can't remember. First game went smooth, second, he got me, and had 8600 left to my zero, and that's when I went to my sideboard. 3^rd game I was able to get out the Clowns fast, and protect them long enough to hammer with either a Clown, or a Marauding Captain to rock out. Second set was against Justin, who seemed like he had good cards, but he just wasn't aggressive enough. On his second game, he had an Imperial Order out on the second turn, and I had nothing but a hand full of magic for 2-3 turns! But he was setting all his cards face down! Eventually, he got skittish about playing the Order, and when that let up, I ripped out with all my draw/search cards, Raigeki, Snatch Steal, you name it and it was just over quick after that. I'd learned the Imperial Order lesson long ago. If you start paying for Imperial Order, you'd better be able to end the duel on the turn you stop paying for it, because if you can't your opponent will. My third game saw me matched up against another supremely challenging opponent. I had never beaten Chad before, he'd always had incredible counters to my monster removal strategy in his playing of The Fiend MegaCyber! So, when I had monster advantage, he'd always be able to put in an extra monster, to protect his life points, while he waited for his Heavy Storm. Today, I saw none of that, and I was able to absorb the punishment he dwelt to me, until I could bring out the Yata, and that's what ended most of my duels with Chad. I was able to get him 3 straight, which I never expected! I was feeling very good about my chances now!

4^th Game pits all undefeated against each other, and this will decide who goes on to finals. I was up against Daniel, who in previous duels, has played a Burner, and a Dragon deck against me. Today, he played a "Bad Reaction" deck, with a surprise that I didn't find out about till later. I did nothing to start out, because I totally underestimated Bad Reaction to Simochi. In the 2-3 turn, he was able to play both, a Bad Reaction and Eye of Truth, which I thought would be too situational, but noooooo. It seemed that EVERY time I drew a card from there on out it was magic, and I took 1000 points every turn till I was at nothing! It was very fast. So, I went to my side board, brought in every monster and Trap in there! I took out as much magic as I could, and added MST and Heavy Storm, just in case. In the second and third duels, things didn't go Daniel's way, and I found out that he was also playing Exodia, good thing I had in my Robbin Goblins! So Exodia, never showed his head this match. I was in the finals!

Alright! I had played Jordan before too, and had always gotten a good reaming from it. But, I have improved a lot since then. He played a heavy beatdown, so he was looking for ways to stall me, until his MSTs and Feather Duster/Heavy Storm came around. In the first game, they didn’t come around fast enough, and as I played Imperial Order, to protect my Bind for most of the game, I went down to 4500 before I quit paying for it. By then I got Stormed, and then put out a Messenger, which stalled me down to 2000 points, and allowed me to get out Delinquent Duo, and Yata, to lock him out.

Now, here's where you could learn something about sportsmanship Jordan. (Not that I'm perfect, but I make a pretty good attempt at being a good sport.) In the second game, I saw a combo potential early on in the game, and was going to run my Sangan (Could have been a Squirrel) up against his Gemini Elf in order to go get my Crow, but Jordan activates Waboku! I said you can do that, but my monster will still die, and explain to him that Waboku just reduces the Battle Damage that my monsters do to zero, but his monster will still do 1900 damage to my Sangan, which would be more than enough to kill it, which was my plan in the first place. Jordan moans about how he never understood what that did, and he thought his monster would be protected, and could he get Waboku back? He asked me if he could get a do over (remember this, it will be important later). I said , OK. If you have the cards, you have the cards. So, I get my Crow, next turn, he summons a monster, I Torrential Tribute, to set up Yata. I bring out the Crow, he Wabokus, (I know it would have happened sooner or later). Next turn, with my empty field, he can Heavy Storm by Bind away, and he now has the momentum and runs me into the ground. In the third game, we start the play, and we are both nervous, and ramping up the pace, faster and faster, and all of a sudden, he plays Nobleman on a Squirrel! On reflex I begin to take my squirrel out of play, then I realize (I haven't even set the Squirrel on the table yet…) that I have an Imperial Order on the field that I can activate! So, I go about that, there might have been .8 seconds delay, and Jordan starts to moan about me not playing it quick enough! And that he wasn't going to let it happen! Jordan, if I let you have a GAME BREAKING CARD BACK AFTER YOU ACTIVATED IT, JUST CAUSE YOU DIDN'T KNOW HOW THAT CARD WORKED?!?! We're supposed to be in the finals here, and you pull that kind of thing, next time I'll give no quarter to you! So, I've learned my lesson from you Sir. Regardless, I relented, and Jordan got my Squirrel out of play. I was still able to come back and put the Lock of Crows around him in order to restore the planets to their rightful alignment. As it turns out, the player that I would have played for the win, had already forfeited and left, cause of an appointment that he had, so I was declared the victor, by default! So, I had won my first Tournament! Yippee! But, I would still have liked to have dueled him, so as to not have that footnote next to the record. But, it's still very nice.

Ted:7100/0000/5600

Justin:3700/5000/7600/

Chad:1100/3300/3900/

Danial:0000/4000/3600

Jordan:1000/0000/1800

JUNE 14: I was pretty confident going into today. That didn't last long. My first victim would be Rita, whom I knew to play a Relinquished deck, with some Beats thrown in for an Offensive Wall. I wasn't totally confident that she was still playing it though, and the last time we had dueled, I'd beaten her without a side deck change, so I went straight up. Big mistake. She has a slow playing style. And I mean SLLLOOOWW. No offense Rita, but she takes a lot of time to think when a combo isn't going to materialize out of thin air to break a lock that I have. She, was able to keep monsters on the field though, and so was I. I should have folded, and just gone to the side deck, but no. I was always confident, because right up till the end, I was always in control and ahead on Life Points. I won't let that happen again. She eventually got her Giant Trunade/Raigeki up, and finished me off after about 28 minutes. Between games, I didn't think we had time for a side switch so I went straight to it. In the Second game, I felt for sure, that we would run out of time, so I was doing the suicide mission to get first blood. I did, but when the alarm went off, it was actually for the 10 min warning, so I then realized that I'd ditched a lot of the wrong cards from Graceful Charity. I was tapped out, and she got me a bit quicker, with Raigeki, and a Snatch Steal and a couple more monsters. 3^rd game was a Draw. The rest of the day was pretty painless, if not productive. I'd pretty much quit, because, without winning that last game the best I could hope for would be a 3/9. As it turns out, today, no one went undefeated, so a 3/8 would have gotten in…Which is another lesson. No matter how badly you think you are doing, chances are your competition is feeling the same way. Never quit! I came out in the middle of the pack today, cause I gave up, and didn't play with my heart in the cards after that. Don't ever give up.

JUNE 21: This was also a learning experience, in that I once again realize that "A Warrior Returning Alive" doesn't give you the ability to run fewer than 19 monsters without Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted. I also learned that Bait Doll used to be effective, when I didn't have any continuous traps to worry about. But my first game with a newbie, that tried to equip a magic card to a monster still in his hand, showed me that I have to have a way to straight up destroy a Magic/Trap card when I need to. My first opponent was a noob, but he got himself a Tornado Wall out with A Legendary Ocean. So, I folded up the cards, cause I wasn't going to deck him out, and brought in the Storm and an MST, and won the next two handily. My luck turned south after that, when I had to play Joe M. again! He's a very smart player that always makes me work. And this time, I was still dealing with too few monsters, and so, could never capitalize on the opportunities that I'd get to end the game, so, he got me two games, but I came back in the last. I played another beatdown player in the end who was good, and played Yata too. But, the problem remained. I gave up the first game, because at one point I played a Reinforcement of the Army, and had no Warriors left, in the last 14 cards! So, I folded and we started the second game which I won with Yata. The 3^rd game was interesting, and turned into a race to get Yata! We both got to search for the Crow at the same time! I should have gone after my Lily instead, but oh well. I Yata him, he Yata me, I Yata him, and then I realize that he's ahead on points. So, I concede. If you do not have Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial, you must have at least 19 Monsters!

Now we're back up to present day. I've learned a lot of lessons in the last few weeks. Number one: I need about 19-20 monsters to be effective without the extra recursion cards. Number two: Gravity Bind/Messenger of Peace won't hold back Lily or Yata. Number 3: Any well rounded deck will now have to contend with killing a lot more Magic/Traps, that weren't around a couple weeks ago. So, I added in a couple other high Defense Warriors, with cool effects…Throwstone Unit. It can work like an Exiled Force on face up Beatdown creatures, and with people moving away from equipment besides UWS, and Mage P, chances are it'll survive an attack from an Elf, or Kycoo. Then you can tribute it next turn or leave it to defend. I took out the Bait Doll, brought in MST, and Heavy Storm, so that I could use Yata a lot earlier in the game if I had the opportunity. I also main decked 1 Trap Master, because I can search from him (if I need to) with Witch, Sangan or Reinforcement of the Army! That also brought up my monster ratio! Probably the most useful change, was main decking 2 Scapegoat and side decking one Bind and one Messenger respectfully. So, in theory, even when Yata reared his ugly head, I'd have a defender close. And that also upped my removal as well! That put a total of 28 monsters under my control if I needed them, and had a 43 card deck, with some heavy draw power. So, let's get to the duels!

My first game was against Danny, who was so very new, I gave him some help with his deck right off. We had to take out like 10 tribute monsters out of a 55 card deck, and we also had to take out 2 extra copies of Card Destruction, and one extra Sangan. We then went for it, after the pointers that I'd given him. Through out the duel, I explained to him how the Chain system worked, and how he could play his Just Desserts in response to my Dark Hole in order to do me the damage before the monsters were destroyed. But, I hope it was a good lesson, and not too harsh for him. Hopefully he'll keep at it. I had all 3 games.

My second was against Kyle, which I had remarked on turning into quite a good duelist the last time I played him! Unfortunately for Kyle, I had gotten better too. What had helped Kyle before, was my defensive playing style, which allowed him time to amass his own defenses as well. With this new incantation of Battle Squirrels, I play a lot more aggressively! And have quite a few more openings for attack! Our first match lasted 5 turns, and was a blur, I was able to amass a lot of troops, and overwhelmed him with monster advantage. I took 800 damage from a single Spear Dragon on my facedown Squirrel I believe. Our second saw Kyle get much tougher, taking me down to 3000 points before I was able to bring about the Yata lock. And in our 3^rd duel, the lock was on after he'd gone much of the game unscathed, Early on Kyle Dark Holed and Reborned one of my Clowns, that became a bain upon my existence, but I persevered, and when I leapt to the offensive, I never allowed him to regain his momentum, and the Yata Lock was complete. 2 and 6!

Going into the third duel, I was faced against none other than my own Daughter! She knows how I play, and yet, didn't go to her side deck, or really try hard at all. She had already given up when she knew she'd have to duel me. Oh well, sometimes life's lessons are hard. She put up very little resistance, and to her credit, she wasn't feeling too good, and complained of a headache. I looked into getting her something, but she of course wasn't playing up to her full potential, and after two games conceded the third out right. She should know, that the better she gets, the more often we'll have to play each other, so, I'll try to get her to practice more during the week. But that would make another 3 games…3 and 9!

My 4^th duel would be the hardest! Gabe! Gabe had already taught me a few lessons in humility, and I expected no less from this match. I went to my side deck to get a Possessed Dark Soul, Skull Lair, and another Torrential Tribute, since I knew he didn't have a Jinzo yet. First game didn't bode well, I had a Messenger out after eating 1100 points that I took from somewhere, that kept me safe until Summoned Skull came out after a Typhoon and hit my Sangan. I was at 5200 now, and I'd only gotten him down to 5600. I was able to put down another Messenger, and held steady. I also got him to attack all 3 Squirrels, but soon, he brought out a Gemini, and was able to Premature Bazoo to take me to zero.

I changed out cards in the side deck again, though I can't remember what, and the second game showed me holding in a little better. He was able to get in 2500 points right off my Dome at first, and I was able to respond by doing a quick swarm with a Marauding Captain, and Dream Clown to take him down to 5600. I got out my insulation (Bind) and before he could remove it, I was able to knock him down to zero points. Our third duel, I was gritting my teeth the whole time, especially when MY stall cards allowed him to get two monsters on the field that he could tribute for BARREL DRAGON! I hate that card, I was really in trouble now, because all he'd need would be an MST and I'd be fried. Luckily, he got unlucky on his coin tosses, and I got in the shots I needed at just the right times to finish the game before he overran my perimeter! I had finally beaten Gabe! That was very satisfying, because Gabe was so good that it could have gone either way in no time flat. Thanks for a great duel Gabe! With a record of 4 and 11, I was definitely going to the finals. And my first opponent would be Paul, whom I'd practiced against before, so I knew he had a Jinzo in a good Removal Beatdown. So, I brought in a little bit more removal myself, to try and keep Jinz off the field to start with. I was down to 17 monsters by now, but that's the way Paul played as well, so with all the removal I had, my best bet, was to try to get out the Crow as quickly as I could.

First game, he nearly took my head clean off by hitting me straight up with a Goblin Attack Force. I was able to take that out, but then he hit me again to bring me to 4200. This was going back and forth between us, and was getting very close. For the final move, I was at 1400, and Paul was at 1600, I pulled a Dark Hole, and was able to Summon Marauding Captain, and a Squirrel for the game. Now on to the game breaker! This was lucky as all get out. My opening hand, I have a Bind, Yata, and Dark Hole, Nobleman of Crossout, Torrential Tribute…I'm able to set a Bind, and the Torrential Tribute, when I activate the Tribute to try and kill his GAF, Paul plays 7 Tools, doing himself 1000 points damage. I then can activate the Bind when Paul tries to attack. Next turn I'm able to clear his field and attack with a Captain and a Clown, but then I come up dry for a bit, unable to do any damage but for an odd 600 points from somewhere. I then have the Yata Lock on, and it's all over from there…

On to the Gold Medal Round! Damon and I are going for 1^st and 2^nd at this point. We make our side deck changes, and stupidly, I didn't put my deck back to the normal configuration, or I think I would have done better, but, I was pretty proud of my performance. I can say that I didn't make any grave tactical errors, and so the entire match went to Damon. I was pretty much just so stoked to be there by now, that I really wasn't worried about my side deck as much as I just wanted to play the best game that I could. I was already happy with the outcome. So, this is how it went. I opened up by bringing out a Messenger of Peace, and summoning a Clown. Damon killed it with a Fissure, then Reborned it to hit me with 1200! My next turn I was able to bring out a Captain, and Lily, so I killed the offending Clown, and did 3400 to Damon. At which point momentum began to turn. Somewhere in the mix, I was able to kill Damon's facedown Cyber Jar, and he was forced to Premature Burial it in order to keep fighting. But that he did! I got him down to 4800 points, before he zeroed me out.

Afterward, he told me that at this point, he sided in 2 extra Dust Tornadoes. Somehow, they never showed their faces. This duel I was able to get to him eventually, though he plays a good defensive beatdown, with Yata, Lily, and Rocket Tree, so I was pretty sure that I'd never get an opening to Yata Lock him. Cause he'll never play out his hand, and he'll also keep something in Def, or facedown in reserve. So, I found myself going for Lily more, so that I could do as much damage as possible, when I did have an opening. Lily did her job, and I was able to start out the match 4600 to my 6000. Messenger of Peace had to come out to keep his Gemini Elf at bay, and Throwstone Unit was helping me out along with Exiled Force to above all, keep Rocket Tree from getting flipped. The timing was perfect, when Damon played Snatch Steal on my own Squirrel, so, since I had another Battle Squirrel in my hand, I just attacked it to give myself 2000 points, and another Battle Squirrel. I then had the momentum, and was able to get ahead on the monster removal game, and finished him off.

Before this game Damon again went to his side board, and afterward I learned that he finally brought in the Fiber Jar that I had been so scared of in the first place. Regardless, this one was pretty silly. Damon attacked a face down Squirrel, so I was at 9000. From here we both whittled away at each other, taking 1000-2000 from each other when we could. The final blow was taken, when I finally had an opening for Yata, after I played a Swords, and next turn, Damon played a Swords. I Heavy Storm, and Damon uses Solemn Judgement. Going from 4000 to 2000. That stopped my only opportunity, and the next turn, brought in the Feather Duster, and more attacks to finish me off!
After the Duel, when counting out my side deck, I found that I had made a big error before I even sat down to this duel...I only had 17 monsters in the deck when I was up against Damon!  So, I had reverted back to the same problem that had plagued me in the last couple weeks.  Would it have made a difference?  Maybe, maybe not, but either way...Great Game! I have yet to beat you, Damon (for a 3 game match), but I do get better every time we face each other. I look forward to our next Battle!

So, 2^nd place in this tournament, and ending up the season in 4^th place in the store! I'm very happy with those results, and want to thank everyone who's ever given me a tip! Thanks a lot!

Props and Slops?

For Someguy, who I recollect as the brainchild of the Clown Army, (Thank you, even though it took me awhile to figure out how to get one to work for me)

For Debbie, who runs A to Z Comics, for hosting the Tournaments, putting up with people leaving their trash all over her store and being rude.

For Debbie, who runs the tournaments. This includes Jeremy and all the other guys that help you out. If it weren't for you guys, we wouldn't have a tournament to report on.

To Punks that leave their trash around a great store and don’t respect other people enough to just be polite.

To other punks that think that they can steal from My youngest daughter (or anyone else for that matter)! The only thing saving you is that I can't prove it. You think you're getting away with it, but you'll think differently when you're doing hard time and can't figure out where your life went to $**>

If you are interested in Killer Squirrels Online, you can contact Cody at milkman406@yahoo.com for Membership information.

Check out our website:

http://209.242.16.197/auction_pictures/Cards/images.html

http://209.242.16.197/cgi-bin/yabb/yabb.cgi

Any (reasonable) suggestions (don't tell me that I need a Mirror Force)

You can contact me at:

Spooky308@comcast.net

I might not get back to you immediately, I stay pretty busy.