Duel
Masters Tournament Report
Steven Cantrell
Galactic Quest in Lawrenceville, Georgia
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Five Dollar Entry Fee
Sixteen Duelists
Matches best 2 of 3; 4 Swiss Rounds
Howdy from
Today was again a normal tournament. We had a nice
turnout with Lee Sandow, Justin Florio, and Austin Ladshaw finally coming after
missing the last few weeks. A couple guys converted to DM from Magic were also
here. I ran my good ole Black/Blue control once again. Here’s the list:
Darkness
[20]
4x Bloody Squito
4x Horrid Worm
4x Locomotiver
4x Death Smoke
4x Terror Pit
Water [20]
4x Aqua Guard
4x Aqua Hulcus
4x Corile
2x
2x
4x Brain Serum
Total: 40
Mana Curve: 3.7
Round
One: Vs Daniel Deponte (Mono Red)
Let’s get started with round one! Daniel is about
20 and a skilled Magic: the Gathering player. This was his first DM tournament,
so I tried to help him out beforehand with tips and supplying some common cards
I had extras of.
The first duel he rushed me down to two shields
before I could stabilize with blockers. Then his hand stalled out, allowing me
to set up shop. From then on I smoked, coriled, and loco’d any threats for an
easy win. Next duel was closer because he started to get a better understanding
of my deck. His Rikabu and Kipo almost got me, but to no avail.
Daniel showed a lot of potential despite making a
few n00b mistakes. He also decided to use a more stable decktype in the future,
probably Blue/Green.
Record: 2-0
Round
Two: Vs Sean Patterson (Green/Yellow/Black)
Sean doesn’t come here all too often. He has a
medium skill level and a decent card pool to build from. I expected this match
to be easy.
The first duel started out just how I like it. He
took me down to a few shields by turn five. This allows my hand to grow for the
late game while the opponent burns out their own hand. Then Corile screwed him
multiple turns in a row until I could summon Crystal Lancer. Game over. The
second duel was even worse for Sean. At one point he wasted an entire turn on
Dimension Gate to tutor a Fighter Dual Fang. I simply used Locomotiver to
destroy FDF because it was the only card in his hand. Later on, Paladin bounced
three of his blockers to let my weenies through.
Record: 4-0
Round Three: Vs Lee Sandow (Black/Blue) *begin dramatic music*
Yes, this is the same guy who writes CotD. I
consider Lee to be the greatest duelist here at Galactic Quest. We have had
some incredible duels in the past. Our track record is about even, but he beat
me 2-0 at the last Five Civs. This is our first tournament match since then.
Dun dun dun…
The first duel began with Lee summoning Horrid
Worm, then destroying my Horrid Worm with Death Smoke on his next turn. Not a
great start for me. From there he unwisely began attacking to pump my hand. I
also Brain Serum’d a couple times to gain more advantage. That allowed me to
outlast Lee deep into the game and win. The second duel was in my favor all the
way. Paladin and Lancer were both kind enough to show up in the late game. From
there Locomotiver and Corile stopped any comeback attempt on his part.
Whew. Great duels versus Lee are what I play Duel
Masters for. Better luck next time buddy. (And ditch the Zaagan already.)J
J
J
Record: 6-0
Round
Four: Vs Tyler Smallwood (Blue/Red/Black Merfolk)
Ah, Tyler Smallwood and the ultimate deck of
cheapness. Merfolk is slowly taking hold here, with 3-4 people each week
falling to temptation. I have now made it my personal mission to take Merfolk
users down. Hard.
Both games went along the same lines.
Record: 8-0
The
Aftermath:
My undefeated record was good enough for first
place. I believe this is the fourth time I have won a tournament at Galactic
Quest, which is quite an accomplishment. My prize packs were decent including
Ladia Bale and my fifth Gigargon, wohoo! I also got an Olgate, Nightmare
Samurai promo.
Next week I cannot come due to a soccer tournament.
But the week after that (April 8-9th) is a huge Gamers Marathon here
are Galactic Quest. If you live anywhere near
Props:
Winning the Tournament, including my revenge
against
I can buy lots of Stompatrons at the Gamers
Marathon coming up, woot!
Slops:
Illusionary Merfolk and the people who
repeatedly use it for ruining Duel Masters.
WotC for not having enough guts to do
anything about Merfolk.
Now I am going to spend a short bit of your time to
explain my view of certain trends in Duel Masters. When you break this game
down to its core, there are two types of decks. Aggro that likes to win quickly
and Control that likes to set up for the long run. WotC has managed the balance
between the two fairly well up to this point.
But I see so many players making simple mistakes by
forgetting their deck’s strategy and trying to be what they are not. I believe
that this often comes down to the decision of who goes first. Somewhere along
the line it was unanimously decided that going first is better, but this is
never examined or questioned as the game progresses. My belief is that the
decision should be based on your deck type. Aggro prefers time advantage over
resources, so going first is the right move. Control prefers card advantage
over the early game, so taking the second turn is often better. The past few
weeks, including this tournament, I have gone second 90% of the time and posted
very nice results. Please consider this in the future.
Now to wrap things up.
The future of Duel Masters looks very bright with Stompatrons of Invincible
Wrath just around the corner. I’m excited about the new base set, because it
presents an excellent opportunity to get new players into the game. Please
recruit new people! You never know who could turn out to be the next great
duelist/contributor to the game.
My name is Steven Cantrell, and I hope you have enjoyed this report. Contact me at Smcman7 (AIM) or Thrash-494 (DMRealms). Feedback is much appreciated.
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