Subject: Nemesis- Sinister Orange Energy Assault (tournament report)

My Name: Nemesis
Deck Title: Sinister Orange Energy Assault
Tournament: Stony Brook Regional, New York, March 29, 2003 Number of Participants: 73


Personality Cards (4):
Vinegar (Hi-Tech Redemption)
Vinegar, the Battler
Vinegar, the Henchman
Vinegar, the Attacker

Mastery: Orange Style Mastery (Trunks Saga)
Sensei: South Kai Sensei

Dragonballs (3):
Dende Dragonball 3
Dende Dragonball 5
Dende Dragonball 7

Allies (1):
Android 14

Battlegrounds/Locations (2):
Winter Countryside
Gravity Chamber

Combats (13):
Gathering of Heroes
Cell's Threatening Position
Brothers In Training (3)
Run Away
Dream Fighting
Time Is A Warrior's Tool
Cell's Defense
Prepared Dodge (3)
Super Saiyan Effect

Drills (12):
Trunks Planning Drill
Vegeta's Quickness Drill
Jeice's Style Drill
Android 20 Absorbing Drill
Orange Off-Balancing Drill
Orange Energy Dan Drill
Orange Haulting Drill
Orange Leg Drill
Orange Aura Drill
Orange Focusing Drill
Orange Destruction Drill
Orange Special Beam Cannon Drill

Non-Combats (11):
Releasing the Sword
Awful Abrasions
A Helping Hand
Teaching the Unteachable Forces Observation
Hero's Lucky Break
Android 19's Distress (3)
Android 20 Is Caught Off Guard (3)

Physical Combats (10):
Orange Searching Maneuver (3)
Tien's Physical Attack (2)
Orange Fist Catch (3)
Vegeta's Physical Stance
Nappa's Physical Resistance

Energy Combats (27):
Power Boost (3)
Nappa's Energy Aura
Good Advice
Krillin's Heat Seeking Blast (3)
Tien's Tri-Beam (3)
Orange Scatter Shot (3)
Android 20's Energy Dive (3)
Android 20's Energy Burst (3)
Orange Energy Shot (2)
Orange Eye Beam (2)
Vegeta's Jolting Slash (3)


So I had done some research on this tournament about the previous year and 
found out that there were only 40 people who attended it, so I thought that 
this was a good environment to play other experienced players on a small 
scale.  Little to my knowledge, however, 72 other DBZ fanatics had 
intentions of playing in the tournament on that afternoon.  I always liked 
the idea of going right for the Life Deck and hitting them where it hurts, 
so I believe energy to be the way to go.  It gives them less to work with, 
depleating the cards available for them to use against me, kind of a 
defensive offense.  Although I had high hopes leading up to the premiere 
event, the day before my friend Trackstar handed me a humiliating defeat 
with his Majin Vegeta Black (Trunks Saga) Beatdown Deck.  I know that 
Vinegar is weak in regards to physical defense, but I received 4 straight 
losses within two hours.  With my confidence slightly shattered, I spent the 
night revamping my deck to overcome a flurry of physical attacks.  And here 
is the tale of my plight...


Match 1: Me vs. Piccolo the Trained, Namekian Deck (Trunks Saga) If there 
was a worst possible way of starting off the tournament, this was 
by far ten times worse than that could ever be.  I found out that this guy 
tied for 3rd at last year's World Championship Tournament; the player he 
tied with was also attending this regional.  Firstly, he started the game 
off with Victorious Drill.  Next, because of his personality (Vinegar's 
arch-nemesis), a large chunk of my strategy was completely negated.  And 
then, in two turns, he whipped out City in Turmoil to negate all of my 
Non-Combats.  Oh-Vey.  I don't remember that much of this duel.  Other than 
the fact that he was regenerating about 5-8 life cards per combat, and had 
just enough defense that I would get off just one successfull attack.  He 
defeated me within 20 minutes and I was shocked at the luck I had in drawing 
my first "random" match. [0-1]

Match 2: Me vs. Cell Ally, Red Deck (Trunks Saga)
This guy was a poor player.  He couldn't realize the fact that while he did 
have Android 17 (Androids Saga) in play as an ally, 17's power that I could 
not lower his anger did not work as a constant combat power because he was 
an ally.  He also didn't realize that despite the awe and power behind Cell 
Jr's, because of Cell's absurd pur (+1 becasue of Tokui-Waza), he could 
never use their powers.  Throughout the entire duel, he honestly got off 
only one successful physical attack.  His entire strategy was about getting 
out those damn allies, which were just wasted cards as I went straight for 
his Life Deck.  I got pretty lucky draws, as I had either an Orange Fist 
Catch or Vegeta's Jolting Slash in my hand in every combat.  With my drills 
and mastery I was doing at least 2 energy attacks for 10+ life cards every 
combat.  Short and to the very point of my deck. [1-1]

Match 3: Me vs. Goku, Saiyan Deck (Cell Saga)
This guy had the strategy to have a good deck, but not the experience to 
understand how to use it effectively.  It went back and forth in the early 
goings, him having more physical attacks than I expected, and me doing some 
damage with my unstoppable attacks.  Then, after a few turns, he did 
something I have never seen anybody do in a match before- he actually used 
Goku's Farewell.  I had not seen any anger in his deck up to this point, and 
was shocked to see him make such an ametuer mistake when it was so early in 
the game (we both must have had about 40-50 cards still in our decks).  
Well, he could have done some serious physical attack damage if Lady Luck 
had not been with me at that moment.  In the turn in which he declared 
combat and used Goku's Farewell as his first attack, I actually drew Cell's 
Threatening Position into my hand.  As soon as he went up to his level 5 
Goku the Legendary, I sent him back down to his level 1, but now he was 
going to lose in five turns.  He didn't even get to perform one attack while 
there.  I just skipped combats and waited him out to play smartly, not 
rashly.  When the five turns ended, we still had about 30-40 cards left in 
our life decks each, but a win is a win nonetheless. [2-1]

Match 4: Me vs. Cell (Hi-Tech level 1 Redemption), Red Deck (Cell Saga) This 
was annoying.  With his mastery, every combat he was using Cell's power 
to deliver 2 physical attacks doing +6 power stages of damage.  That with 
all the other physical attacks he had in his deck (including using Red 
Shattering Leap 3 times) would prove to be my downfall.  I had a lot of 
physical defense, but not enough, as I just did not have the power stages to 
perform attacks.  This was the second of the level 1's that I was worried 
about, so it figures that after winning so easily in my last match that I 
would have to fight this uphill battle.  He beat me, but not significantly, 
as he had less than 20 cards left in his deck when it was over. [2-2]

Match 5: Me vs. Goku, Black Deck (Cell Saga)
His sole strategy was pretty narrow-sighted too.  He relied too hevily on 
the mastery to make me discard.  He had a pretty solid routine though, 
because every combat we entered he would use Goku's level 1 power (World 
Games) to draw Black Thought Focus from his discard pile, and then use the 
mastery to discard it and make me discard.  Unfortunately for him though, he 
had nothing in his deck to affect my Non-Combats and Drills.  Haha.  At one 
point in the game I had Orange Energy Dan Drill, Orange Aura Drill, Orange 
Haulting Drill, Orange Destruction Drill, Vegeta's Quickness Drill, Jeice's 
Style Drill, Android 20 Absorbing Drill, Orange Special Beam Cannon Drill, 
Orange Focusing Drill, all three Android 19's Distress, and two Android 20 
Is Caught Off Guard in play at the same time.  Oh man.  Well, after I 
realized he had only 5 card in his life deck, I decided that you can just 
never be too careful, so I used every 19's Distress and 20 Caught Off Guard 
that I had.  Next was my combat, so I declared and he only had 2 cards left. 
  Well, a simple unstoppable energy attack for 7 cards and it was over.  I 
finished the game with a total of one (1) card in my discard pile and the 
three 19's Distress in my removed from the game pile. [3-2]

Match 6: Me vs. Majin Vegeta, Saiyan Deck (Trunks Saga)
Luckily I held out long enough to draw A Helping Hand five turns into the 
game which negated his mastery ability.  Not too much to say here as I don't 
quite remember it (guess it didn't really make an impression on me).  The 
only thing I can say about this guy was that given more experience, he will 
get a lot better.  He usually had 6-8 cards in his hand every combat, but 
despite being a saiyan deck, he had way too many blocks to make it worth his 
wild.  He did get off Saiyan Truce and successfully took about 20-30 cards 
from my deck in that single combat, but he just didn't hit hard enough to 
make the damage unbearable.  I managed to work him down with my level 1 
power and Krillin's Heat Seeking Blasts, and took advantage of Orange Energy 
Dan Drill to search his life deck and discard both Nappa's Energy Aura and 
Time Is A Warrior's Tool.  When it counted, he just couldn't hold onto a 
powerful stand in the combats and folded to my energy barrage. [4-2]

I finished the official tournament with a 4-2 record, not bad, but not good 
enough to make it to the top 16 either.  Anyway, I performed the way I 
wanted to and came up with expected results.  I then dueled a new friend I 
met at the tournament who did make it to the top 16...

Match: Me vs. Bardock, Non-Tokui-Waza (Take a guess!!!)
We had talked about our decks to each other earlier and I knew that he had 
both Cosmic Backlash and a strategy for Dragonball victory in his deck of 
only 50 cards.  Well, with his first turn, he scared me when he put two 
Dragonballs and Vegeta's Smirk into play.  In my following turn, I used my 
sensei to put Android 14 into play and declared combat.  I thought it was 
over when he used Straining Hand-Blast Move as his first attack, because 
what was I going to do to him, physically attack him to death?  In his 
second turn, the third of the game, he declared combat and put another 
Dragonball into play with Vegeta's Smirk.  I then used an energy attack from 
my hand which he stopped.  And guess what his next attack was.  Cosmic 
Backlash.  I drew...one...two...three...four...oh no...five...yes!  Orange 
Fist Catch!  What spectacular luck.  And guess what, I still had 7 cards in 
my hand.  Well, accoring to the rules, 14's power can be used an infinite 
number of times per combat so I let him have it.  He didn't have any 
physical blocks in his hand, haha.  Well, when you have someone with a 
1,500,000 power level physically attacking someone with an 800 power level, 
you get some beefy physical attacks for 7 life cards of damage each.  
Multiply that by the 7 cards in my hand and factor in that he only has 50 
cards in his deck, and you get instant victory.  Yup, three turns and it was 
over.  The victory almost went to him as quickly, but I ended up on top.  
Not bad for a day's events, eh?



Name: Nemesis
Email: mcq26@hotmail.com