, 51^st Street and Avenue C, Bayonne NJ 07002

Nine participants

$3.00 Entry

Double-Elimination

 

(This is our first tournament.  We expect about twenty people for the next one, since more people will have a chance to prepare.) 

 

Upper Deck Official Rules (no Magic Ruler yet, restricted list in effect, English cards only, etc.  We did make one additional ruling in the interests of reducing cheating: the Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan force the opponent to reveal the card.)

 

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Greetings my fellow duelists.  I bring you: 

 

Blood for Power, the Necromancer’s Deck

 

Mortals have the silly notion that life is somehow precious.  I know better; by paying in my own blood I have not only the services of the most fearsome minions (Jirai Gumo and the Dark Elf)  but also the power to attract them at a frightening speed that lays waste to my opponents (Ultimate Offering.) 

 

I play a full bevy of creature destruction, as I wish ample opportunity to send my minions after my opponent’s life points.  Some would say this was overkill; those people are dead. 

 

To complete the theme there are no counter-spells or defensive creatures in the main deck—what use have I of protection when I fear not death? 

 

Creatures:  (22)

 

3x 7-Colored Fish

3x La Jinn, Mystic Genie of the Lamp

3x Jirai Gumo

3x Dark Elf

3x Summoned Skull

3x Man-Eater Bug

2x Witch of the Black Forest

1x Magician of Faith

1x Time Wizard

 

Magic and Traps (18)

 

3x Trap Hole

3x Fissure

2x Tribute to the Doomed

2x Heavy Storm

2x Ultimate Offering

1x Mirror Force

1x Raigeki

1x Monster Reborn

1x Change of Heart

1x Pot of Greed

1x Dark Hole

 

Side Deck: 

 

My side deck was constructed after my main deck was largely completed.  Usually I believe in constructing the side deck while constructing the main deck, since one will spend more time playing _with_ the side deck than without it. 

 

3x Wall of Illusion

1x Barrel Dragon

 

2x Card Destruction

3x Reinforcements

3x Magic Jammer

1x Seven Tools of the Bandit

2x Dragon Capture Jar

 

I don't think that you should use this side deck, since it's rather tilted towards my small environment, but I’ll give you an idea as to what I use them for. 

 

The Walls of Illusion are for decks that use any form of two tribute creature, or for decks that boost up a single target. 

 

Reinforcements is particularly helpful against enemy Dark Elves-- they’ll die, my creature will live, AND the opponent will take at least 1,300 damage.     

 

Magic Jammers are for burn decks, especially the Swords of Revealing Light that are so often a part of this deck.  Yes, I know people play Swords in many decks, but they’re particularly dangerous alongside burn cards.   

 

The Card Destructions were the most interesting part of my sideboard.  They were NOT to stop Exodia, since I expected no Exodia decks at the tournament.  No, its purpose is far more sinister… you see, Heavy Storm is quite popular where I play—and most players have been badly smashed by it on occasion.  So by default they store magic cards in their hands.    Now I admit, it’s a hard choice, since to plan for Card Destruction a player has to play their magic cards, and to avoid Heavy Storm he has to keep them.  But if my opponents hoard their magic, I bring in Card Destruction to punish them.  Typically after they get hit with Card Destruction they become shaken, and they start to play out their magic cards.  Quite often that first Card Destruction hands me the Heavy Storm, and I wreak more havoc.  I don’t do this against decks that have Waboku, however.  If I did, they would play their magic cards, and I wouldn’t know if they had Waboku.   

 

The Dragon Capture Jars should have been Swords of Revealing Light or Tremendous Fires.  I seriously overprepared for the Kaiba-style Flute combination.  In hindsight I realized that I would have the Walls of Illusion AND the Magic Jammers at my disposal for that deck—if I were to bring in the Jars also my deck would be diluted. 

 

 

 

I’ll give only interesting play highlights from my matches.

 

Osama, Round Two, Game One

 

I set Ultimate Offering and Witch of the Black Forest; he steals it with Soul Exchange and summons Summoned Skull—an unbelievably bad play for what I found out was a strong opponent.  I decide that the spell he’s set is Trap Hole, as it’s early to lay Mirror Force.  I Fissure away the Summoned Skull, and when I don’t get Jammed I flip Ultimate Offering.  He can’t stop it and I gate in Jirai, the Time Wizard and the Dark Elf— I don’t get Trap Holed, so risking Mirror Force I tribute the Wizard, summon the Skull and serve for 6,700.  He paid the price for leaving me so open a field.  He proceeds to flip Raigeki and lay what turned out to be Witch of the Black Forest, but I draw more creatures than he can deal with and finish him a few turns later. 

 

Granted this was game one, and he had no idea I could dish out that kind of beating in one turn, but any number of cards could have really ruined his day.  Losing an attack that early and not having any other creatures down meant that Fissure or Trap Hole would leave him wide open to attack. 

 

 Same opponent, Round Two, Game Three

 

I go first and set Witch of the Black Forest and Holy Barrier-Mirror Force; I’m holding Summoned Skull, 7-Colored, and random other stuff.  he sets two spells a creature.  I summon a 7-Colored Fish and attack—it’s Man-Eater Bug and he bites my Fish.  He Summons Skull and flips Tribute to the Doomed, discarding Blue Eyes White Dragon.  I anticipate Monster Reborn but I haven’t sided in Magic Jammer since he didn’t play Swords of Revealing Light on me so far in the match.  I was going to get Man-Eater Bug, hoping that he’d Reborn this turn and I could summon the Man-Eater on my following turn—with only two cards in his hand he’d have to pitch his draw to Tribute to the Doomed again and still Monster Reborn—unless his last spell card was Tribute or Monster Reborn.  With 5,500 life on the line I didn’t want to play.  So I grabbed my Time Wizard, figuring I still had the Mirror Force to fall back on.  I won the flip—good thing too.  He plays La-Jinn and attacks my Time Wizard—I Mirror Force, and he flips the trap—it was Seven Tools of the Bandit.  I’d have been at 1,200 life.  This was an excellent play on his part, as he was holding a Trap Hole in hand.  By laying Seven Tools all by itself he seemed to imply Trap Hole or Mirror Force. 

 

Brian, Final Round, Game Two

 

I go first and set Ultimate Offering, then play Witch of the Black Forest in defense and pass.  I’m holding Dark Elf, Jirai Gumo, Time Wizard, and Tribute to the Doomed.  He plays 7-Colored and sets a spell.  He crunches the Witch and I go get Summoned Skull.  I draw Man-Eater Bug.  I flip Ultimate Offering.  I summon the Man-Eater, then Jirai, then Dark Elf, and then Summoned Skull tributing the Bug.  He looks on with dismay as I fire the Time Wizard into the graveyard to cast Tribute to the Doomed and proceed to serve him for 6,700.  I lost the flip for Jirai, however, and drop to around 2,900.  He draws and lays a spell and another 7-Colored.  He flips his original spell, and the Dark Elf falls into a Fissure.  He flips the other spell—the mighty Pot of Greed.  Inside he finds—nope, not Raigeki.  Not Dark Hole.  Not Mirror Force.  That’d be too easy.  Try two more Fissures.  Yep, he ­_triple Fissures_ and then proceeds to smack me with a big wet Fish.  I cling to life-- he tributes the Fish for Summoned Skull-which gets Trap Holed.  So he plays Kuriboh and beats me to death with that instead.  Oh the agony! 

 

In hindsight I suppose I could have played more conservatively.  The way I saw it though, he needed Raigeki, Mirror Force, or Time Wizard to stop me from killing him on the very next turn—and I liked that sort of pressure.  A more conservative approach could have been disrupted with a single creature destruction spell.  Besides, if I dropped him to less than 1900 life, _any_ creature I summoned would kill him.   What do you think? 

 

 

Also against this same opponent, third game of Final Round

 

I pulled Ultimate Offering early and battered him for quite a lot, but a Waboku followed by a Pot of Greed into a Magician of Faith for Raigeki stopped me from finishing him. 

 

He has one spell set and a La Jinn.  I set Witch of the Black Forest, and he crunches it.  It’s late in the game, so I go get Magician of Faith; I’m assuming his trap is Trap Hole, since he has only one in his graveyard.  My plan is to use Magician to get Monster Reborn, since that special summon will get me past his Hole.  He bites, so my plan comes together with his Shadow Ghoul.  I’m surprised really.  In order to prevent people from searching for illegal targets, it is the custom of our group to show the opponent the creature searched for with the Witch of the Black Forest—so he knows it’s a Magician of Faith.  He plays Kuriboh from his hand and attacks my Magician of Faith—then Fissures my Reborned Ghoul.  Very well played.

 

This duel grinds on for a few more turns, and eventually I get Jirai Gumo and La Jinn down.  I attack and he flips Waboku.  He Reborns his Ghoul and uses Change of Heart to pop my Jirai with a Summoned Skull— but does not attack (probably because he fears Mirror Force, the only restricted card I haven’t played yet.)  This leaves me at about 2,000 life with a La-Jinn. 

 

I draw my card—and it’s 7-Colored Fish.  Not helpful.  I could stall for one more turn by turning my La Jinn to defense mode and summoning the Fish in defense mode also—but I’d have to draw Dark Hole as my Raigeki is already in the graveyard. Besides he still had one more Tribute to the Doomed potentially.   I bite my lip and say those four words no opponent likes to hear—“Anyone have a coin?”  In true Yu-Gi-Oh! style, the final round against this difficult opponent came down to the flip on a Time Wizard.  

 

 All suggestions are appreciated, especially suggestions on how to deal with the various and sundry burn-stall decks. 

 

A salute goes out to the crowd at Bayonne Comics Center.  I learned to play this game competitively in seven weeks by watching you, after all.  All hail Dave Miller, who for the last nine years has graciously allowed our group shelter to blast each other into oblivion at everything from Magic to Warlords to Dungeons and Dragons and Yu-Gi-Oh!—and kept us well supplied with pineapple soda, chocolate, Doritos and microwavable chicken-and-Swisses the whole time.  And last, but not least, let’s hear it for Time Wizard, the ultimate in Heinie-Saving Technology. 

 

Frank A. Schifano, evilmask@hotmail.com