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Mofox’s journey from Newbie to the UK National Tournament.
Another Turn by Turn Duel 

Duel 10 began on a different day.  I had spent sometime creating a new deck, it was based upon a strategy I had been considering based on pure hand destruction and draw disruption.  The idea was to force the opponent to over extend, make him discard from his hand and then stop him from drawing.  Cards like Don Zaloog, Spirit Reaper, Time Seal, Drop Off and an old combo using Gearfried the Iron Knight were used.  This duel however would be a quick one.

Ilya says:

hi

Ilya says:

are your ready, cause I am.

Paul says:

right deck shuffled and ready to play!!!

Paul says:

I’ll offer you to choose on who goes first

Paul says:

ready whenever you are

Ilya says:

ok

Ilya says:

8000-8000

Ilya says:

I'll start off

Ilya says:

drw6

Ilya says:

set s/t and summon E-hero Wildheart

Ilya says:

end turn

Ilya was inviting me to attack his E-Hero but I figured his set s/t was probably a Sak Armour or maybe a mirror force.  I tried to get rid of his monster before attacking.

Paul says:

ok I drw

Paul says:

I activate smashing ground

Ilya says:

chain activate (book of moon) [my set s/t]

This put E-Hero Wildheart FD and made him an invalid target for Smashing Ground.  Smashing Ground just went to graveyard instead.

Paul says:

I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight and atk Wildheart

Ilya says:

Gearfried?

Paul says:

yep

Paul says:

old school baby

This shows how a bit of originality can throw your opponent off guard.  I purposely selected Gearfried because he was so underplayed.  He fitted my strategy well, was involved in a 2-card combo (more reliable than a 3-card combo) a warrior that fitted with the other warriors I was using, and a reasonably good ATK value of 1800.  One thing that opponents fear is the unknown.  Just read Tebezu’s article to see what happened when he challenged a very well known top duelist to a duel.  Some people are very afraid of the unknown.

Paul says:

I set 1 s/t and end turn

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

set s/t and summon Blindly Loyal Goblin

Ilya says:

response?

Paul says:

no

Ilya says:

Blindly Loyal Goblin attacks Gearfried

Ilya says:

both are (1800)

Ilya says:

do you respond?

Paul says:

no

Ilya says:

so both of them die

Ilya says:

at the end of end step of battle phase I activate Call of the Haunted to special summon Wildheart

I have been thinking of something when looking back on this and was wondering if someone could help me.  Ilya had set his Call of the Haunted this turn and activated it in the same turn.  My question, is this allowed? I thought a trap card couldn’t be activated in the same turn it is set?  Your help readers please.

Ilya says:

and attack your points

Ilya says:

this is basically the advanced strategy of summoning monsters during battle phase

Ilya says:

same as de-fusion, cyber jar and others.

A strategy worth considering.  The battle phase is split into 5 steps.  In each step you can activate quickplay spells and traps.  The only exception is the damage step where you can only activate spells and traps that alter a monster's ATK/DEF values.  During the end step Ilya activated his Call of the Haunted and brought back another monster.  As it was done in the battle phase that meant Ilya could use the monster just summoned to attack me the same turn.

Paul says:

I chain my set s/t to the activation  of Call of the Haunted

Paul says:

Dust tornado

Ilya says:

call resolves and Wildheart is still there buddy

Here is an example when you should understand the difference between Negate and Destroy.  This again links to activation and resolution.  If we work through the chain you will see what happens:

1.       Ilya Activates Call of the Haunted and selects E-Hero Wildheart.

2.       I chain Dust Tornado but do not negate the activation of Call of the Haunted this therefore means that Call will still resolve.

3.       With no further additions to the chain we begin the resolution, starting with Dust Tornado.

4.       Dust Tornado resolves and destroys Call of the Haunted now Call’s effect says that if this card is destroyed the monster it is equipped to is also destroyed.  The difference here is that Wildheart has an effect that makes it unaffected by trap cards when on the field.  This means that Wildheart is not affected by Call’s effect when destroyed and therefore remains on the field.

5.       Call of the Haunted resolves (as it wasn’t negated during the chain) and Wildheart comes to the field, Call is destroyed but Wildheart remains on the field.

A point to note is that Wildheart’s effect is active only when it is on the field.  Therefore it is a valid target when it is in the graveyard.

Ilya says:

8000-6500

Ilya says:

end turn

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

I set 1 mon and end turn

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

set s/t and activate nobleman of crossout on your set monster

Ilya says:

and it was?

Paul says:

the Don himself

Ilya says:

wow

Ilya says:

bad hand huh?

Paul says:

probably one of the worst my deck could have

Ilya says:

I'll have wildheart stick you once more

Paul says:

but no excuses

Paul says:

I will come back

Paul says:

8000-5000

I was suffering from an absolutely awful hand.  Most decks I had been playing didn’t contain really contain any tribute monsters.  This deck had 2 and I had drawn both of them in my opening hand.  It wasn’t a good start but showing your opponent that you won’t give up lets them know you are strong in mind and won’t be easily put off by any mind-games or strategies.

Ilya says:

end turn

Paul says:

ok I drw

Paul says:

gutted

Paul says:

this isn't good

Paul says:

for me

I had just drawn another s/t and the only monsters in my hand were tribute monsters.

Ilya says:

and it may get worse

Paul says:

set 2 s/t and end turn

I was having to bluff Ilya and make out I was putting up a strong defense unfortunately Ilya had just the card he needed.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

offer wildheart as tribute for mobius

Ilya says:

designate your 2 s/t's as targets

Ilya says:

respond/chain ?

Paul says:

no

Ilya says:

what were the 2 s/t s

Paul says:

sak armour and heavy storm (bluff)

Ilya says:

ah

Ilya says:

mobius attacks

Ilya says:

8000-2600

Ilya says:

I end my turn

Paul says:

unless the next card I drw is good you will win next turn

Paul says:

I can't believe my opening hand

Ilya says:

yeah I figured it was rubbish

Paul says:

I set 1 mon and end turn

I’d finally drew a monster but it wasn’t one that was going to help.  However I personally feel it is important to always finish your duels.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

normal summon Mataza the Zapper

Ilya says:

Mobius destroys your set monster

Paul says:

flip dekoichi

Ilya says:

ok

Ilya says:

you've drawn right?

Paul says:

yeah but its still game over

Ilya says:

mataza strikes you twice dealing 2600 damage and that’s exactly enough

Paul says:

wow good game

So there we have it a break down of another of my duels against Ilya.  Now before I get a load of emails claiming how I made this stupid mistake and that stupid mistake.  Please take into context where I am coming from.  This was my 10^th ever duel, and at the present I only have 30+ duels worth of experience to be able to analyse this duel.  I will no doubt have made some mistakes which is fine, and I do want to know what they are so that I can improve my only request is no bashing and no flaming.  I want your help but I won’t tolerate abuse.

So hopefully now, you newbies can see more of my thought processes and hopefully they will help you in your own duelling decisions.  This duel in particular highlights the pitfalls of a bad opening hand.  My hand was probably the worst hand this deck could produce and although this will only happen very rarely it is important when deck building to ensure that this happens as little as possible.  When looking back at the deck, I didn’t have many cards that could have helped out in this situation.  No Reload, no Magical Mallet, no Card Destruction, no Morphing Jar.  The only card in the deck really was a Cyber Jar.  Still though I got beat in 5 turns and this was definitely the quickest duel I had taken part in so far.

Another thing the duel highlighted was the use of Dust Tornado.  Now chaining Dust to Call of the Haunted or Premature Burial is a useful move as it will (normally) destroy the monster it is equipped to, however in this case Ilya had carefully selected Wildheart due to its effect.  I also think this can apply to Horus LV6 and Premature Burial.

Now while I am mentioning this I would like to point out something important.  When I am writing these turn-by-turn duels and I explain my interpretation on rulings then remember something please.  I am not a judge and have very little rulings experience.  This may make some of you wonder why I even attempt to explain them if I’m not sure.  The reason is that if I am wrong I can then post the correct answer in the next article.  By writing out loud my thought processes then readers can learn alongside me as I learn.  I’ve not had any major complaints yet about my descriptions of rulings, but I felt after the tricky one in this duel then I thought I would explain.  So don’t take my explanations as gospel because more than likely they will not be 100% accurate.  There has been plenty of helpful players who have helped explain to me correct rulings (for which I am very grateful) and I will keep posting these accurate rulings to you the readers.  Hopefully we can all learn together.

There were some emails regarding our last duel in which after a Cyber Jar flip, Ilya selected my FD Mystic Tomato as a target.  Now many people have stated (and quite rightly so) that Ilya should not have been able to pick which card, as they were both FD.  In fact this was brought up at the time of the duel and we both agreed that this was right.  Ilya then selected at random one of my FD cards and he did in fact pick Mystic Tomato.  The conversation that led to this was too long to include in the turn-by-turn duel so I left it out.

I’ve also been getting some more great emails regarding my Ebay experience.  I would just like to thank all of you again for helping and offering advice.  I will be writing the Article called Ebay the Final Word soon, which will bring together all the advice I have received so far, so that all you newbies can get a fuller picture of buying and selling on Ebay.

Also thank you to those who are offering trades via emails.  My collection isn’t great but I am swapping rare/ultra rare/super rare/secret and promo rares for common cards.  Keep them coming in.  As for the very generous guy who offered me a HUGE collection FULL of very popular cards (Mobius, Jinzo, DDWL, DDA, Morphing Jar, Royal Decree, Horus’, Phoenix etc) although you only left a figure of 200 (didn’t know whether that was dollars or pounds), I don’t think I could justify to my Wife spending that much on cards when I have a baby due in less than 7 weeks.  Sorry, but thanx anyway.

I also recently got some positive support from my Wife towards my hobby.  I had decided (and was supported by my Wife!) to attend the EOJ sneak preview event held in Manchester.  Unfortunately my research into dates had let me down and I had a previous family arrangement on this day.  The positive outcome was the support from my Wife.  As such I will be looking out in advance for the next Sneak Preview Events in my local area, as I will definitely be attending!!!! (Unless it is around the time my next baby is due 7^th July).  If anybody has any information of when the next set is due for release (POTD I believe) and any preliminary dates for sneak previews then please let me know.

My email address is mofox9@hotmail.co.uk email me for any help or advice or even your opinions on my articles.  I would love to hear your opinions and if you have any suggestions to improve them then let me know.  I will reply to all emails that are sent to me.  Remember newbies no question is a stupid question.

Until next time fellow duellists!