Duel Masters Tournament Report

Steven Cantrell
Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville, Georgia
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Five Dollar Entry Fee

Eighteen Duelists
Four Swiss Rounds

Today we had a normal, DCI sanctioned tournament. The solid turnout of eighteen people included a few newcomers from our Five Civs tournament. Look forward to more of these reports on a regular basis now that my soccer season has ended.

Nature [16]

4x Crow Winger
4x Bronze-Arm Tribe
4x Barkwhip, the Smasher
4x Rumbling Terahorn

Light [20]

4x Sarius, Vizer of Suppression
4x Miele, Vizer of Lightning
4x Magris, Vizer of Magnetism
4x Craze Valkyrie, the Drastic
4x Holy Awe

Darkness [08]

4x Locomotiver
4x Terror Pit

Total: 44
Mana Curve: 3.9

As you can see, I figured it was time to give the Murky Riptide a rest. This is a new deck I created during the past week. Props go to NMZmaster on the Realms for coming up with the basic concept. The build looks nice on paper, but I had precious little testing before the tournament began. My first opponent is none other than...

Round One: Vs. Lee Sandow (Black/Blue Control)

Lee and I are somewhat of rivals. I enjoy dueling against him because we present such a challenge to each other. This time felt a bit different than usual because it came in round one.

The first duel started badly. I could not find a way to kill one Horrid Worm, so he took several shots quickly. Lee ripped my hand to win easily. In the next game Valkyrie busted out at all the right times. I had a field day tapping creatures to slaughter them. Even Lee’s solid Lost Soul could not hinder my swarm. I won with most shields still remaining. Then we began the deciding duel. Both of us pulled of some nice moves to keep the duel close for a while. Then Lee summoned a simple Zaagan to cause trouble. My chump blockers took the fall before I could come up with a solution, so Lee won rather abruptly.

Record: 1-2

Cumulative Record: 1-2 duels, 0-1 in matches

Round Two: Vs. Shaun Coleman (Red/Black “Thing”)

Shaun is a complete n00b. Justin Couch already dismantled him in the first round, so I came in pleased with the great match up. My only worry was becoming too complacent and giving the kid a shot.

His Pyrofighter Magnus caused major trouble when he got going in the mid-game. My Locomotiver luckily solved that problem after a couple shields went down. Then Shaun summoned big Double Breakers two turns in a row. I handled Zaagan with Valkyrie, and then managed to turn on the offense. Bark and Valkyrie together finished off Shaun one turn before he could have killed me. In our second game, Shaun failed to draw Pyrofighter. He could only become a minor nuisance with kill spells like Proclamation. I took that game with all five shields remaining.

Record: 2-0

Cumulative Record: 3-2 duels, 1-1 in matches

Between rounds the store owner, Kyle Puttkammer, forced me into a duel against him. He still runs a Nature/Water/Darkness combination featuring Rumbling Terahorn. My tapping effects of Valkyrie, Miele, and Awe worked to perfection against his creatures. I won with two shields left to spare.

Round Three: Vs. Stephen Fordham (Black/Blue Merfolk)

Stephen is the oldest and best of the three Fordham brothers. Despite being only about twelve, he really is a pretty good duelist. Unfortunately the kid still abuses Merfolk long after the fad has ended.

Duels number one and three were nearly the same. Valkyrie made a powerful tandem with Crow Winger by tapping his creatures and then attacking them. I managed to take most of his shields at once both times. Stephen did however win game two. We were evenly matched until he pulled off two Merfolk draws. Everything went downhill in that duel, but I still won the match overall.

Record: 2-1

Cumulative Record: 5-3 duels, 2-1 in matches

Round Four: Vs. Patrick Smallwood (Blue/Green)

Patrick and I are paired against each other way to often. I swear we duel at least every other tournament. Anyway, Patty has played some variant of Blue/Green for quite a long time. By now I know exactly how to manhandle his deck strategy.

In Patrick’s own words, “I whipped him”. Miele started by tapping stuff so Sarius/Crow Winger could kill it. He never really presented a threat because I kept any evolution bait off the board. Most of his shields disappeared in one clean swipe by my swarm. In duel two he managed a couple Barkwhips to attack me. One hit a Terror Pit shield triggered and the other fell to a hardcasted Pit. From there my own Whips won with ease to finish the tournament.

Record: 2-0

Cumulative Record: 7-3 in duels, 3-1 in matches

The Aftermath:

My record was good enough to claim fifth out of the eighteen people. Tyler Smallwood finished first using Survivors, Jason Marella second with Pyrofighter, and Justin Florio third with Future Slash deckout. Overall the day went well considering I ran an entirely new deck. This fun build will see more play in the future (maybe next week). My prize was one pack, containing nothing spectacular, and a Marinomancer promo. There is also a rumor going around that T&T Toys closed up shop. This means the Invitation Circuit(s) will thankfully be at Galactic Quest instead.

Props:

Fifth place finish not bad at all

Completing this deck even though it cost me $16 for 2 Valkyrie

Justin Fordham rushing Lee to death

Slops:

Lee letting Justin Fordham rush him to death

Matt Gracek and Stephen Fordham STILL running Merfolk

My DCI ranking slipped somehow

I’m always open to discuss strategy, decks, etc. My AIM contact is Smcman7 or email Smcman7@aol.com. Let me know what you think of these reports so I’m not wasting my time writing them. Good luck to all in the upcoming Circuit events!