Wrom: TZRCLBDXRQBGJSNBOHMKHJYFMY Local tournament at Wizard’s of the Coast in San Diego, CA for 7 Sep 02. My current deck is bizarre as some people may find it, but it’s the closest thing America has to a good Deck Destruction Deck: Monsters (23) 2x Sangan 2x Witch of the Black Forest 3x The Bistro Butcher 3x Magician of Faith 3x Hane-Hane 3x Man-Eater Bug 3x Wall of Illusion 3x Big Eye 1x Kuriboh Magic (14) 1x Raigeki 1x Dark Hole 1x Monster Reborn 1x Change of Heart 1x Pot of Greed 2x Swords of Revealing Light 2x Card Destruction 2x Heavy Storm 3x Fissure Traps (4) 1x Mirror Force 3x Trap Hole While most people would take Deck Destruction to mean Discard, its not. Discard targets a player’s hand whereas Deck Destruction targets their deck (and hand incidentally at times). The basic objective is to find a way to clear the field, and knock them around with Bistro Butchers forcing them to draw stuff and then Card Destruction it all away. A nice concept, but I’m finding that it doesn’t always work out exactly like that since I never seem to have both a Butcher and a Card Destruction at the same time. Incidentally, this strategy also seems to find its way into beating up beatdown decks which is good since that’s what most people use. Generic beatdown deck: 3x Summoned Skull 3x La Jinn 3x 7 Colored Fish _x Battle Ox (typically newer players) _x Neo the Magic Swordsman (also newer players) 0-2x Barrel Dragon (great card, nothing else to say) 3x Man-Eater Bug 0-3x Wall of Illusion (not entirely uncommon) 2-3x Magician of Faith 1-3x Mask of Darkness _x Catapult Turtle (gaining popularity as it provides that extra push) 2x Witch of the Black Forest 0-2x Sangan (some people avoid it, after all, if it can’t get you Skull, its useless, right?) 0-3x Princess of Tsurugi (nice direct damage, but only used for an extra push) 1x Rageki 1x Dark Hole 1x Monster Reborn 1x Change of Heart 1x Pot of Greed 0-2x Card Destruction (pretty rare in most beatdown decks I see now) 0-2x Heavy Storm (depends on how much they like their traps, but common in beatdowns) 2x Swords of Revealing Light (used to self-eliminate Man-Eater Bugs and for Fissure) 1-3x Fissure (usually gives a helping nod to direct attacks) 1-3x Tribute to the Doomed (same point, but for face-down stuff) 0-1x Sword of Deep-Seated (firepower) 0-3x Stim-Pack 0-3x Sword of Dark Destruction (newbie beatdown decks like this) 2-3x Soul Exchange (typical for decks with Skulls) 1x Mirror Force (nothing wrong with the Big 6) 2-3x Trap Hole 2-3x Waboku 1-3x Horn of Heaven (up and coming card so your enemy doesn’t revive their Raigeki) 1-2x Magic Jammer 0-2x Seven Tools of the Bandit 1-3x Solemn Judgment (1 = desperation for many, 3 = for fanatics) And that is just about a majority of what people are using for the decks you’ll see in a nutshell. That is what a good chunk of the experienced players use anyways, well the UNINVENTIVE experienced players that is. Well, today’s tournament was pretty typical of our Saturday tournaments at Wizards of the Coast. Not official Upper Deck tournament, but we still tend to attract a lot of very skilled duelists who are typically better than the ones who go to the official tournaments at another store. Only 3 rounds today because there wasn’t a very big crowd which was actually a good thing because about half of the players entering were really skilled and the other half were little kids. Pairings went pretty good, mostly good people vs other good people and kids vs kids. Round 1: Ok, so onto the first round. Last week’s 2nd place winner. I’ve never seen him NOT get in the top 3 besides today. First duel went pretty back and forth, but my Magicians and combos eventually got the better of his deck. He got out a Summoned Skull, and managed to nail me a few times with stuff like La Jinns and 7 Colored Fishes. The Robin’s Goblin got a bit frustrating but I managed to Heavy Storm it after only 1 or 2 rounds so I only lost 1 card to the effect. Only had about 1200 left by the time I pulled off a victory. (1-0) Second match he squashed me pretty good. Lot of strong combos and it was over pretty quickly. Don’t remember the details but it did involve a loathsome Summoned Skull. Beatdown decks gets very tiring after a while. (1-1) Third match was a complete and total squash on my part. Dark Hole, Raigeki, Monster Reborn, Pot of Greed, Heavy Storm, 2 Magicians of Faith, and Change of Heart all within the first 2 or 3 turns. It ended very quickly with 8000 – 0. When we said the champion would be decided by out first match he, I think it was pretty literal. (2-1) Round 2: Round 2 was some guy I’d never seen before. He’s from the other local store around here that holds the official tournaments. It wasn’t very entertaining otherwise I’d remember it. Stereotypical uninventive beatdown with Jinn, Fish, and Skull deck. No Robin’s Goblins as I recall, but otherwise almost identical to my first opponent. It ended with 2-1 again. He liked Solemn Judgment and it was his downfall in the end, as the life cost caught up to him in both of my winning duels. (4-2 total) Round 3: Unbeknownst to me at the time, this was the final round. We were supposed to have 4 rounds. Another guy from that other local shop that holds the official tournaments. Rude guy if you ask me. Another fan of those beatdown decks. Apparently, he’s won a few times at the other store, and he had a little pack of groupies hanging around. Maybe he’s better than I think he is or something. First match went very clean. Very clean-cut and pretty. Obliterate the magic and trap cards, then abuse my effect monsters to deal with the rest. Take out the life points slowly. (1-0) Second match was a lot more interesting. This one was the longest match of the day and took close to 30 minutes on its own. Very back and forth with our life points remaining close to each other at first. I had a good reason to think I was going to lose this one… I was running low on cards. He had knocked me down to 2100 while he was still at about 5700. Few clever twists later I had my Sangan out knocking him down to 4700, but I knew I was low and had to do more damage so I the best I could do… Kuriboh in ATK mode, but I back it up with Swords of Revealing Light, but I also only had a few cards left. Fortunately, I had obliterated so many of his monsters by this point that he couldn’t defend himself against me and I still had 1 face-down monster out. I summoned a Witch of the Black Forest to attack him, but he nailed me with Just Deserts, I was now at 100 life points, but I took him down to 2300. His turn came and went, he put a monster face-down and it was about at this point that I realized I was on my last card. After I drew this next card, I would have no more left so I had to finish it or lose. It was also at this point that he claimed Swords of Revealing Light ran out even though it clearly had 1 more turn, but that is beside the point for the moment. Last turn… last card… just a Fissure, already had 1 in my hand even so that wasn’t going to help. I just went with my instincts knowing that if he had Waboku or Mirror Force out, he would’ve used it by now. I was just hoping he didn’t have a Kuriboh to block some of my damage. Flip Summon on my Man-Eater Bug to destroy his monster. Attacked for 1100 with my Witch… leaving him at 1200. Attacked for 1000 with my Sangan knocking him down to 200. Attacked with my Kuriboh… ending his life points. Won the match 2-0 though after I walked off I heard him tell his groupies I cheated on Swords of Revealing Light. That was his problem, not mine to deal with as I had counted the turns for him. (Victory #32 for my Kuriboh) So, time for the placing… and the store does this a little weirdly. They keep records of how well people do and of their opponent’s so instead of having the winner being the person who has taken out everyone else in an elimination style, the placing goes off of the quality and not quantity of the opponents you beat and how well you beat them. I was honestly expecting 5th place, but that went to Reggie, the guy I beat in Round 3. So, I’m like ok… I’m going to get 4th place… well went to the guy I beat in Round 2. At this point, I’m almost wondering if I placed at all, but since I did beat the 5th place guy, then I KNOW I placed somewhere. 3rd place went to a friend of mine. So, I was waiting to be announced for 2nd placing seeing as how I was not entirely undefeated and a friend of mine was. Well, he got 2nd because he didn’t face the same caliber of players that day that I did. I was given 1st Place and 6 Metal Raiders packs… not a bad investment for six bucks. The guy I faced in Round 1 ended up being 6th. Ok, onto my prize… well for $6 getting 6 packs isn’t bad. Getting a Gate Guardian, Solemn Judgment, and Magician of Faith in 3 of those packs is a steal. The other 3 weren’t that great. After the tournament was over, I dueled against the 3rd place guy for fun, best 2 out of 3. This guy at least doesn’t go for as much of a beatdown deck as other people go for so it was a nice change. The first match was just funny with a bunch of weird wacky stuff happening. I was left pretty high on the life point scale by the time I took him down to 550. Had a Witch and Sangan out and he killed them I think. He also blocked one of my fatal attacks with a Kuriboh. Brought Magician of Faith and Kuriboh to my hand so everyone knows what I’m planning, or they think they do. Got the Magician down, snagged my Monster Reborn. Used Dark Hole. Summoned my Kuriboh in ATK mode. Used Reborn on the Kuriboh he discarded a few turns back. Finished him with a pair of furrballs. (Victory #33 for my Kuriboh) We went for the second match. He didn’t get much and it was a squash. I knocked him down to something like 50 life points. Pulled a combo, got my Kuriboh, finished him out with my little furrball again. (Victory #34 for my Kuriboh) Overall, pretty good tournament, and I deserved the 1st place seeing as how I beat the other 3 top placers and the runner-up. Didn’t have time to duel my friend who got 2nd place before he left, but I’ve beaten him a pretty good % of the time before. I’m not sure what type of deck he runs. I’ve gotten jipped a bit by the system before, but hey considering how I had a 69% to 55% (for 2nd place guy) something-or-other lead on however the computer factors stuff, I’d say I earned it with that high of a margin. Don’t ask me what the %s mean… I think they factor in the other players’ winning %s into your own somehow. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com