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Duel Masters Tourney Reports

From: Solaris Psychosis [mailto:majinsolaris@hotmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 7:12 PM

Subject: LadyBUG - by Lee Parker - Cutting Edge Cards, Nottingham, UK



LadyBUG

Nottingham Regional Championship/Nationals Qualifier

Cutting Edge Cards, Nottingham, United Kingdom

October 30th 2005

5 rounds Swiss, Top 8

26 players



I decided to run a tweaked update of the BUGy deck that had helped me qualify in Sheffield earlier in the month. For those of you who’ve read Lee Abraham’s report, you’ll know that a lot of these cards were new copies replacing the ones stolen during that event. I originally decided on BUG after reading Steve Cantrell’s Purple Deckout reports, and decided it seemed like a good deck to use for play testing purposes. Little did I know that the deck suited my style and very quickly became my favourite.



NOTE: The deck I decided to run (my baby) is not included due to the possibility that I may use it at the UK Nationals event, therefore I don’t want to give too much away. It will turn up at a later date :)



I travelled to the tournament with my brother and his friend, who had both also qualified at Sheffield. This would mainly be an exercise in building big tournament experience for us all.



Round One: versus Adam


First round, and I was paired with Adam, who I briefly know from the Duel Masters Forum. We both knew we were already qualified, so he had chosen to run a 5 colour Phal Eaga control due to the hype around it.



Game 1: This was a nervous start for me, as he got a Coco Lupia unchallenged, followed by hitting me with Magmadragon Jalgazor and taking a large chunk of my shields. Luckily, I managed to regain control thanks to his exhausted hand, and a well-timed Corile as I removed the pesky firebird. I then continued the standard fare of removal and field building until Cryptic Totem appeared and allowed me to swing unchallenged for the first game



1-0



Game 2: This game due to the constraints of my hand, and favourable fields, I ended up summoning Dava Torey by paying the actual mana for him, and he proved to be a pain taking 3 shields himself, while another creature took a fourth. It was at this point Cryptic Totem joined the party again, and helped with the last shield, which Adam revealed as Holy Awe, unable to help him and I finished him. It summed up his luck in this round; he never once saw his Forbos or Phal Eaga.



2-0



Adam’s key cards: Coco Lupia, Phantom Dragon Flame, and Phal Eaga



Round Two: versus Chris



AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH



Nothing like having to face your own brother in a tournament. The real kick of course, was I’d built his deck, and it consistently fared better than mine in play testing, so I wasn’t too confident. He was of course running Blue Black Red Control



Game 1: I decided to try and worry him by going for an aggro start, and we both pretty much traded shields until he was left with one shield and we both lacked fields. I then managed through lucky top decking to summon both Cryptic Totem and Essence Elf on the same turn, and he couldn’t remove either surprisingly, which gave me the first game.



1-0



Game 2: Not much to say here, I had an appalling opening hand and couldn’t play anything until turn 5. The first two early shields he broke were also Nexus, too early to help, so I could only delay the inevitable. He tore me apart.



1-1



Game 3: This was worryingly the same as the second game, with me unable to make effective plays, thanks to an opening hand of two Terror Pits and two Holy Awes. I lost again.



1-2



Chris’s key cards: Pyrofighter Magnus, Searing Wave and Corile



Round Three: versus Josh



Josh was a local player and had decided to run a Black Green Red dragon deck.



Game 1: Harshly, I managed to Corile his Coco Lupia twice in a row on my way to building a Cryptic Totem led swarm for the win, not really allowing him to get into the game.



1-0



Game 2: He managed to get a bit more into the game this time, although unfortunately for him, he couldn’t really make too much of his field presence before I dropped my bombshell on him; Holy Awe and a complete genocide on his side of the battle zone. After this, he struggled to recover thanks to a low hand and some Corile led fun before he caved under a Cryptic Totem attack again.



2-0



Josh’s key cards: Coco Lupia, Bolzard Dragon and Necrodragon Giland



Round Four: versus Ryan



Unfortunately I didn’t get too much of a chance to talk to Ryan, so he remains a bit of an enigma, he was running a Black Red aggro control deck that really left me not knowing what to expect.



Game 1: This was relatively routine, I kept his creature count under wraps and his attack diverted with blockers and counter attacks up until I summoned Cryptic Totem for the win.



1-0



Game 2: I made this game so much harder for myself. He summoned a Mini Titan Gett second turn followed by me summoning a Bloody Squito. Come turn 3, he attacked and I chose not to block. By his next turn, he was the proud controller of a Valdios, and I was forced to play on the edge of my seat until Corile came to the rescue, and I nervously kept him from dealing any more damage until I got some extra shields thanks to Nexus and could safely take the win.



2-0



Ryan’s key cards: Armored Blaster Valdios, Terror Pit and Vile Mulder

Round Five: versus Jacob



Jacob was running a deck that a few months ago I was all too familiar with, Liquid Folk splashing Holy Awe. It would turn out it was still very strong to deal with.



Game 1: This was frustrating. It just so happened that he managed to get his Merfolk engine running before I could remove the Cyber Lord, on a couple of occasions, and he proceeded to keep me off the field as he worked through what was unfortunately good shield triggers. I fought back when I could, but his hand dominated and Lost Soul didn’t come to my rescue. Eventually I had to break his last shield without a Totem, and the Holy Awe that came from it allowed him to finish me off



0-1



Game 2: This time he didn’t draw into his removal, which allowed me to build a Totem army with little problem, and so I swung for the win.



1-1



Game 3: This round wasn’t to be. He rushed out the gates and piled on the pressure as my deck wilted and became incapable of any coherent defence, until my deck gave way and allowed him to take the win.



1-2



Jacob’s key cards: Illusionary Merfolk, Aqua Surfer, and Holy Awe.



What followed was a nervous wait to see if I would make the Top 8 cut. Luckily I did in 6th place, which worryingly meant another match with Jacob under single elimination. Chris had won all his rounds and qualified in first place, whilst his friend Rob had finished in 12th.



Top 8: versus Jacob (again)



Game 1: This game was handed to me on the back of a piece of good luck. I went for the strategy of pecking his shields, and hit into a mana nexus chain ending in a Holy Awe, which he willingly played before realising how much he’d damaged his mana pool. This allowed me a few turns grace to wrap things up.



1-0



Game 2: This time I managed to have answers to his Cyber Lords and some well timed shields as I built up my field. The icing on the cake was top decking Corile, who gladly removed his only blocker so the invaluable Cryptic Totem could help me into the Top 4.



2-0



Top 4: versus Lemar (sic?)



Lemar was also running the same deck as Jacob had decided to, so I wasn’t overly optimistic, but there was no pressure on me, which I think played a large part. Unfortunately I didn’t take many notes here, the only major event being in the third game when he didn’t see the Aqua Surfer in his mana zone and used Nexus to set up a Torcon, which allowed me to take his last shield, and my final attacker to finish him off for a place in the Final.



2-1



Final: versus Darren

Another player, another Blue Green Aggro Control Splashing Awe, guess they must be really popular here lol. Yet again, it was a worry for me, and I was starting to feel the effects of an early morning and long car trip catching up. All the same, I’d come this far and I wasn’t prepared to roll over and die to a headache.



Game 1: I built an army, yet both my Totems ended up in mana thanks to Bronze Arm Tribes. I then ended up going for a peck strategy and hitting some Crystal Memory on the way, which led to me throwing caution to the wind and continuing to remove his shields, which luckily contained no removal and I took the first round.



1-0



Game 2: This was a completely different game; neither of us interfered with each other’s field and instead built large armies off the back of 5 Illusionary Merfolk between us!! My Lost Soul refused to show up, and I casually played a Cryptic Totem, declaring its limited use due to his superior field presence and large number of blockers. He felt safe enough to spend his next turn playing an Aqua Hulcus and a Crystal Memory to set up his win condition for next turn, not realising the bomb shell in my hand. As soon as he ended his turn, my poker face broke and I declared myself the winner. Holy Awe followed by a Totem led swarm won me the game, and the Nottingham Regional Championship.



2-0



Props:



My girlfriend Rachel for being supportive of my hobby. Even to the point of politely listening to me talk about it too much before reminding me not to.



Steve Cantrell and the Galactic Quest players for reviving BUG decks and inspiring me.



My parents for giving up an easy Sunday for 4 hours of driving round.



Earning some form of title relevant to Duel Masters (Nottingham Regional Champion).



Generous prizes from WoTC.



Holy Awe and Cryptic Totem, and their sexy partnership winning me games.



Slops:



Chris losing in the Top 8 after fantastic swiss rounds, although he couldn’t have lost to a better person (salutes Rob Cummins).



13 Booster packs for my prize only yielding 1 foil. Which was an Astral Warper.



The nameless player who shot his mouth off about anyone who beat him being lucky, and really ruined the atmosphere.



So many Blue Green splash decks that I chased out of my home metagame a few months ago.



Until next time, I’ve been Lee Parker and can be reached at majinsolaris@hotmail.com



And for those who observed my peculiar play manner, may you one day experience the joys of a Locomotiver ‘yoinking’ the card your opponent needed.



Lee x