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Manchester Vs Saikyo Cardfighter

I spent over a hundred on several trains and a taxi. Was it worth it?

Of course I was going to go to Manchester. Why wouldn’t I? I no longer have any education obligations and I have come into money. Unfortunately, everyone I could have gone there with wanted to stay the 2 days, so it was me going all alone.

But whatever. I got there, I played games, that’s all that matters. Have to say that the venue was uber roomy, if a bit…bleak. I guess that’s what happens when you compare a small shop hosting Team League to a massive-ass building hosting Worlds. Among other things.

And so, armed with nothing but my own Kagero deck, I got paired for about 9 rounds. As I need to stave off my writer’s block for another week and decided an ego-stroking was as good an exercise as any, I recorded the type of decks I fought on my phone so I wouldn’t forget and set myself away.

Round 1: Claret Sword Shadow Paladins. This one was definitely not surprising to me. I knew a lot of people would want to run this. However, this match was over and done with pretty quickly. Largely the opponent opened rather badly and couldn’t Stride as soon as Claret hit the field. Not without destroying his hand, and I’d already destroyed his David starter. And then I got 2 Critical Triggers while he was on three damage. I briefly wondered if I should say something since he got a bit salty but then I remembered that I designed the deck in the hopes it would do things like this and I’m horrible anyway.

Round 2: Dimensional Robo Dimension Police. The opponent was one of those knobgoblins who stayed on Grade 2 to deny Stride. Not that it did him any favours: he couldn’t get a board up and so he couldn’t punch back. Add onto the fact he had to ride Great Daiyusha as his Grade 3 and lacked the soul, the match was quickly sealed. On the plus side, it reminded me why the End was soooooo useful as a G3-ride. Pressure from turn 3. I knew someone else running a Blau deck in the tournament and this was basically how he was succeeding.

Round 3: Liberator Gold Paladin. This could easily have gone wrong for me. Again, the opponent was one of those douches. He actually had a decent lead and he was able to use Prominence Glare on me while I was on 3 damage, but luckily he didn’t Crit me and I lived. After that, he couldn’t spring Glare again so I was able to defend everything, retire everything, and eventually win. Again, had to resort to riding the End to bring turn 3 pressure. I love that card so much. I would use him as my fail-con almost everywhere.

Round 4: Abyss Shadow Paladin. This deck was running Mordred Phantom and Phantom Blaster “Abyss”, with the main skeleton being Revengers. Fight was interesting enough, but he simply couldn’t put down a board after I wiped his field so often. I don’t think he was even using anything that would allow him to plus easily such as Tartu or even Mana: the main plusser in the deck was G Macha. This, I suspect, was the reason he had to resort to Stride so often: he couldn’t gather the pure Revenger field needed to justify Abyss and he just sort of stuck to Mordred rather sadly. When he could Stride no more, I clinched it.

Round 5: Messiah Link Joker. If the opponent I fought is reading this: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I took you from 0 to 4 in a turn and destroyed you before you hit Grade 3. I didn’t think it would end this way. But I really, really hoped.

Round 6: Brawlers. This wasn’t really a good time for me. Motherfucker kept wiping whatever board I made and was Striding constantly to the top, while my hand clogged and I only ever got to Stride once. The only reason I even won at all was another double Critical Trigger on my part, and I hadn’t even performed Stride yet. He ended up being a rather bleak reminder (for both parties involved) that sometimes, all it takes is a trigger. Don’t go fucking moaning to me about luck unless you want a huge-ass lecture. Or another column.

Round 7: Abyss Shadow Paladin. Another Abyss player, except I saw his deck had more non-Revengers. Or maybe he had the same amount as the other guy and was drawing into them more. Then again, fairly sure the last one didn’t run Darkheart Trumpeter. Apart from that, nothing too different from the last Abyss player and he got owned in similar fashion. He can take pride in one thing though: he was the first opponent of the tournament that had to make me resort to using Overlord the Ace.

Round 8: Machining Megacolony. This round made me realise that as good as a strategy looks, it’s really only as good as the effort you can put in to maintain it. Yeah, the guy was able to use Destroyer to cheaply force me to ride two more times, but after dropping Zahm and eventually a Root Flare, he hadn’t the field to do it again. One dud check later and I was able to beat this guy too.

Round 9: The X Kagero. This one sticks out in my mind for so many different reasons. First off, this was literally the only round before Top 8 where I lost my game. Secondly, my opponent was a girl (not unusual in and of itself) and she was using the last clan I was expecting: Kagero. I never met a female Vanguard player using Kagero, every other one I know used Spike Brothers, Genesis, Neo Nectar, Pale Moon and one used Bermuda Triangle, the manliest clan in Vanguard. She also turned out to be a notorious trigger-sack, taking herself from 4 to 2 damage with 2 Heal triggers on Triple Drive. I couldn’t push through and she sealed it with a VG attack.

With the end of that, my only loss was to the girl with the Kagero who was undefeated, so I made the top 8 cut! Couldn’t enjoy the feeling though since trains don’t give a shit how long I want to stay, so I moved on to single elimination while staring nervously at my watch.

Top 8 Match: New opponent again. This one was using Maelstrom-based Aqua Force, and seemed to have taken the infinitely sensible option of NOT making the deck mono-Blue Storm, meaning I had to fight the usual suspects like Tidal Assault. And Lambrose. Fucking thing. Should have by rights lost this one, but I was able to get a Heal Trigger at the last moment and when my attack came, I got a Critical trigger needed to win.

Top 4 Match: Got paired up with Kagero Chick after I watched her finish a protracted match with a Black Graver Angel Feather deck. Got owned again for…pretty much the same reasons as last time, seriously, her Heals kept showing up PRECISELY when I didn’t want them, and no other time. She had to use the Ace to seal it this time, but to be brutally honest my hand sucked so much monkey-dicks she really didn’t need to. By the way, if she’s reading this, congrats on choosing Sadegh as your starter. He’s the best one after Conroe. Also, fuck you for running him and searching a Perfect Guard with him. Fuck you. I still like you though, don’t worry.

So that was it. I was able to call myself one of the four theoretically best fighters in Manchester, I got promos, and all was good. Well, except getting back was a fucking bitch (FUCK rugby games) and my train times meant I literally couldn’t spare a moment to fill out a form giving me a free bye at the next tournament. But even then, I dunno if I’d go. These things are like high school reunions: I like you guys. I just don’t like you enough to put myself through all that misery to hang out with the other fuckers there.

Tell me to take a car next time at saikyocardfighter@outlook.com