SQUIRRELS GONE WILD
Dream Wizards
Rockville, MD
April 6, 2003
About 96 People
$6.30 Entry Fee (with tax)
First Place - 5 Packs
Second Place- 2 Packs
1 Pack consolation prize.


Preface (written by BigSpooky)
"First, there was the great Spooky and his army of Killer Squirrels. But as King Spooky grew older, he found it increasingly difficult to maintain control of his vast armada as he once had. So the king bestowed the right to wield the awesome power of the Killer Squirrels on a select few. This is the story of one brave man who hearkened to the task..."

Once again it's time for me (Kris a.k.a. Daedalus) to bring you another exciting tournament report... or something like that. Those of you who remember me from about a month ago know I haven't been around lately.  I'd like to apologize as I've been busy and haven't been to many tournaments lately.  3 weeks ago I lost first round because of bad luck and stupidity and didn't submit a report then (though I'll tell you how I lost a bit later).  2 weeks ago my sister visited so I spent the time with her instead of dueling.  Last week I showed up late and wasn't able to complete, though it did give me time to focus almost exclusively on trading which really improved my deck for this week.  As a matter of fact, I almost don't recognize my original Rage deck.  Moving right along, this is my 3rd tournament and 2nd tournament report (though I will briefly go over the tournament 2 weeks ago). This tournament was an official Upper Deck single-elimination tournament.  Labyrinth of Nightmare and the new starter decks were legal for this tournament.  Magic Cylinder, Mage Power, and United we Stand were restricted.  Graceful Charity and Sangan were Semi-restricted.

Ok, now before I continue, I would like to "constructively criticize" (a.k.a. "rant") the current state of affairs of some "tournament reports" being submitted.  Now, don't get me wrong, many people submit high quality tournament reports.  These reports are informative, descriptive, and (most importantly) fun to read.  Now, if you submit a report and it doesn't have your deck list, how are we supposed to know your strategy and get tips for building our own deck?  Worse yet, I've seen reports where the entire duel is described with two words.  If your entire tournament report is just "Duel 1: I win.  Duel 2: I lose.  Duel 3: I win" then that's not very exciting , descriptive, or informative.  Deck lists are NOT a tournament report!  And while I know it's tempting to make your report look flashy, simpler really is better (i.e. black text, white background, ordinary font).

Ok, back to the action...

As promised, I'll give you the low-down of what happened three weeks ago.  I was still playing a variant of my Rage deck (named because it hurts me AND my opponent and doesn't really care about it's own life points just so long as it does more damage to my opponent) with the Blue-Eyes replaced with Tribute to the Doomed among other things.  During the first round, I face this guy named Kendel who was playing a Lord of D. deck with Blue-Eyes White Dragons and Tri-Horned Dragons.  Here's the gist of what happened.

Round 1: Kris (That's me!) vs Kendel (Dragons)
Duel 1: 
In this duel I was really, really stupid.  I had been so used to activating Metalmorph on my 1800 when the face-down creature turned out to be a 2000 defender that I tried to use it AFTER declaring an attack on his face-up Blue-Eyes.  He had a Seven Tools set and I stupidly lost a creature and life points.  On top of that, his Lord of D was still on the field (because I had attacked the Blue-Eyes first).  That's when I took a 4200 hit in life points.  I only managed to pelt him once with an 1800.
Me: 8000-6800-5600-1400-0
Him: 8000-6200

Duel 2:  I can't remember what exactly happened here, but I do know that I drew everything I needed this game and crushed him before he could get any dragons out.
Me: 8000-6200-5200
Him: 8000-6200-1200-0

Duel 3:  Unbelievably horrible luck on my part, or good luck on his part, or a combination of both.  I think the only damage he took was from his own Premature Burial.  Sometime during the duel I set cyber jar.  He attacks it (activating it) and draws Lord of D, Tri-Horned Dragon, Flute of Summoning Dragon, Tri-Horned Dragon, Blue-Eyes White Dragon.  I draw a Giant Soldier of Stone and some other cards that can't help me like Trap Hole and Megamorph.  During his Main Phase 2, he activates TWO Flutes of Summoning Dragon (one had been in his hand) and I'm now staring at about 9800 combined attack strength to my one 2000 defender.  I really needed to top-deck Raigeki or Dark Hole.  I defiantly reach for my deck and draw, raising the card high above my head as an aura of light surrounds it's foil shininess.  After My eyes adjust I find it's just Tribute to the Doomed and I can't target a Dragon because of Lord of D.  By the way, I know he didn't cheat because I even shuffled his cards before the duel.   I walk away baffled.
Me: 8000-7500-5700-4500-0
Him: 8000-7200

So that was the 2nd tournament.  After that fiasco, I knew it was time for some revamping of my deck.

It's not time to kick it SQUIRREL STYLE!!!

SQUIRRELS GONE WILD (40 cards)

MONSTERS (20)

Tribute
1x The Fiend Megacyber
1x Summon Skull
Non-Tribute
1x Cyber Jar
2x Dark Elf
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2x Gearfried the Iron Knight
2x La Jinn, Mystical Genie of the Lamp
2x Magician of Faith
2x Man-Eater Bug
1x Penguin Soldier
1x Witch of the Black Forest
3x Nimble Momonga (KILLER SQUIRRELS!!!) [Fully endorsed by the Squirrel Master himself, BigSpooky]

MAGIC (13)

1x Black Pendant
1x Change of Heart
1x Dark Hole
2x Heavy Storm
2x Tribute to the Doomed
1x Monster Reborn
1x Pot of Greed
1x Premature Burial
1x Raigeki
1x Snatch Steal
1x Swords of Revealing Light

Traps (7)

1x Call of the Haunted
1x Magic Jammer
1x Mirror Force
1x Seven Tools of the Bandit
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Imperial Order
1x Ceasefire

Sideboard (15)

1x Delinquent Duo (vs Exodia)
1x Soul Release (hoses Exodia)
1x The Forceful Sentry (vs Exodia)
1x Card Destruction (hoses Exodia)
1x Man-Eater Bug (in case I need even MORE removal)
2x 4-starred Ladybug of Doom (vs Beatdown Variants)
1x Sangan (Might be useful?)
2x Seven Tools of the Bandit  (vs Control)
1x Mystical Space Typhoon (vs Control)
1x Magic Jammer (vs Control)
1x Exchange (hoses Exodia)
1x Metalmorph (vs Beatdown that has really big monsters, like Lord of D decks)
1x Megamorph (vs Burner)

    Ok, here's the basic strategies for the deck:  Beatdown your opponent.  'Nuf said.  In the sideboard, "hoses" means that it just cripples that genre of deck while "vs" means it just gives you an advantage against that deck.

    Those of you who remember my last report (or you can find it in the March 2003 section of Pojo) will notice a large change to my deck.  Some cards I replaced with better versions of similar cards (like replacing Harpie's Brother with Kycoo) and others to make the deck more consistent.  Megamorphing a Blue-Eyes White Dragon was always sweet, but that really didn't happen that often.

    Not wanting to make the same mistake as the previous week, I arrived about 30 minutes early to Dream Wizards.  I gave them my newly acquired Duelist ID number (Yay!) and some of my friends who I had met from previous tournament were there as well.  There was Adam who has tons of awesome cards and plays an Acceleration deck, Matt who plays a Stall deck and a Dragon deck, and Tim, Matt's little brother, who plays a Legendary Fisherman deck.  Only Adam was actually in the tournament as Matt and Tim aren't quite in the same league as they don't have all the staple cards, though they're fun to hang with and duel for fun.  Tim's always trading me cards and I give him a few cards every now and then.  It's funny because he always take out all the ultra rares from my deck and says he wants to trade for them.  Earlier in the week I had decided to try to make English God Cards by scanning cards into the computer and then changing the text and pictures.  I printed them up to scale and then used an X-acto knife and a ruler to cut them out and then pasted them over other cards.  The end result was some really realistic English God Cards, minus the foil but with the little holographic stamp in the bottom right corner (thanks to some skillful cutting).  I put the fake cards in my trading binder just for kicks (not for trade, as I would never trade fake cards unless the person knew they were fake).  With the God Cards in my binder, I soon got a LOT of attention, especially from little kids who wanted them.  Some people were confused because they thought that English God Cards weren't out yet.  Some little kid offered to trade me anything in his binder for one so he could play against his friends with it.  I told him they were fake but he still really wanted them.  I really couldn't trade them to him.  I kinda felt sorry for him and was about to just give them to him when he came back with a Chinese god card  That saved me the trouble.  Someone else looked really closely at the cards and didn't believe me that they weren't real until I pulled one out of it's sleave and peeled back an edge.  Someone else came by and commented on how stupid it was of Upper Deck to make God Cards.  All and all it was a very humorous experience.  Anyways, Adam and I were the only two of us playing, so Matt and Tim ended up cheering us on as we played, which was cool.  After they posted the first round pairings, we found our opponents and sat down.  Adam, definitely lacking in the tact department, jests on how both him and I get to play kids in this round.  My opponent's already revealed that he has a Gemini Elf, so I tell Adam that this might not be that easy for me.

Round 1: Kris (That's me!) vs Kid with Gemini Elf and Jinzo [Beatdown]
I'd have to say that this kid was around 12 or so.  Unlike some of the other kids I've faced, this one could duel.

Duel 1: I decide to give my opponent a slight edge and ask him if he wants to go first or second without flipping a coin or anything.  He chooses to go first and we get started.  I don't know what it is with me and facing people dramatically younger than me, but my opening hand ends up being ridiculously good: Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, Summoned Skull, Tribute to the Doomed, and Dark Elf.  He sets 2 Magic/Traps and a monster.  I draw Gearfried and then played Heavy Storm and Dark Hole.  I then summoned Dark Elf and attacked for 2000.  Next turn he sets a monster and ends his turn.  On my turn I draw Premature Burial.  I then Tribute to the Doomed his monster and discarded Summoned Skull.  Then I Premature Burial my Skull and summon Gearfried and attack with everything for the win.
Me: 8000-7000-6200-5200
Him: 8000-6000-0

Duel 2: This duel was a lot less one-sided and took a lot longer.  I rarely ever sideboard anything in unless I'm playing Exodia and this was no exception.  In a strange move, he plays the magic card that adds 800 life points (I forget it's name.  This was unusual for 2 reasons.  1) Why would you play that card in the first place?  2) If you needed life points, why not play The Cure Master from the starter decks that gives you 1000 life points?  Anyway, I eventually got my trusty Dark Elf out and 2000 attack points ends up hitting him for several turns.  At the end of the duel, he draws a card looks at me and says "I drew my favorite card" and I thought "Oh no!" since this was a fairly close duel.  With no monsters on his field and only 2 cards in his hand, he plays Exchange forcing me to take his favorite card which happened to be... JINZO!  I show him my hand (which had 4 or 5 cards in it) and he almost took my Summoned Skull until he realized he couldn't use it and instead took my Man-Eater Bug.  With two monsters on my side of the field and my own Man-Eater working against me, I thought the duel was going to last a couple more turns.  However, I ended up drawing Tribute to the Doomed and the match ended there.
Me: 8000-6450-6150-5150-4150-3150
Him: 8000-7750-8350-7750-5750-1750

After the duel I ask to see his deck (as I do with everyone to see what people are playing and the like).  This kid had all the staples including Jinzo and a Gemini Elf.  Soon afterwards his dad comes up and starts talking to me.  He was very cheerful and proud of his son (as he should be, as he could duel skillfully and with pride).  In between idle chat he informed me that the cards in his son's deck weren't for trade but that he had a whole binder for trading.  I looked through it and found a couple of rares that I wanted but when the dad asked his son if there was anything I had that he wanted, he couldn't find anything.  Oh well, it was still a fun duel.  I found my friends and Matt and Tim were busy trading.  Tim's kinda funny in that he's always trying to trade his cards, but then has to go get two people's opinions on whether or not the trade is a good one.  At least he's not getting ripped off, I say.  I try to do a bit of trading and end up trading my Maha Vailo for another Kycoo, which I put into my deck (it replaced Harpie's Bro, and the above deck list is the revised deck).  Adam comes by and says that he's still in the tournament as well.  Soon after, the new pairings get posted and I was off to round 2!

Round 2: Kris (Me again!) vs Greedy (Might have misspelled your name) [Beatdown]
My notes on this round are really sketchy.  However, I do remember adding the suffix "Foil" to any card which has a non-foil counterpart that I played this round.  For example, I tribute Man-Eater Bug FOIL for Summoned Skull FOIL!


Duel 1:
  He set a monster which I attacked with La Jinn which ended up back in my hand because it was a Wall of Illusions, so he had an open field on his next turn.  I managed to get some creatures on the field and then used a Dark Elf as creature removal for the Wall of Illusions.  I really wish I had taken better notes on this, but this duel was pretty uneventful and nothing stood out enough for me to commit to memory.
Me: 8000-7950-6950-5350-4350-3800-4800
Him: 8000-7300-6300-5600-4900-2650-1650-1150-0

Duel 2:  This duel was very one sided.  Almost like my first duel of the tourney only not quite as bad (4th turn kill as opposed to 3rd turn).  I basically just pummeled him with 2 1800s 4 turns in a row (first turn got rid of his witch, then I drew some removal).
Me: 8000
Him: 8000-4400-800-0

If you've read my previous tournament report, you would know that I was eliminated 2nd round in my first tournament and a pitiful 1st round in my 2nd tournament so having defeated my 2nd round opponent, I was breaking new ground.  Woo!  I found Adam and he was also still in the tournament.  Matt had been trading some of his super-rares for Japanese Ultra Rares to go with his dragon deck.

Round 3: Kris (You...err... I mean... Me!) vs Ryan [Beatdown/Mirror Match]
This ended up being the craziest match of the day as we were playing nearly identical decks with 3 Killer Squirrels, The Fiend Megacyber, and the usually assortment of supporting magics.  Ryan and I both agree that Killer Squirrels are the best defensive creature in the game right now as they are ultra annoying to go up against as they reproduce en mass!


Duel 1:
  This duel went back and forth.  I did manage to hit him hard for 5400 points one turn, but he Raigekied or Dark Holed or Torrential Tributed or SOMETHING to get rid of all my monsters.  He then got a Killer Squirrel in defense mode and I was forced to attack them to try and clear the field but after attacking all of his squirrels, he cleared my side of the field and hit me directly for the win.  Guess the extra life I gave him didn't really matter.
Me: 8000-7200-6200-4800-2400-1000-0
Him: 8000-7500-2100-3100-2000-3000-4000

Duel 2:  This duel both Ryan and I have dubbed "The Most Retarded Game of Duel Monsters EVER in the History of EVER."  Between Squirrels and Ryan's Snatch Steal, life points were all over the place.  The craziest move of the game had me change of hearting my own The Fiend Megacyber which Ryan had Snatch Stole which I had equipped with a Black Pendant after Call of the Haunting it.  Right about here both Ryan and I look at each other with very confused faces as we cannot believe the mayhem ensuing on the table.  We actually called a few people over to witness the craziness.  When we finally regained our senses, I used my Fiend Megacyber to attack and kill his The Fiend Megacyber, but control then returned to him at the end of the turn.  Somewhere during all this, I managed to go through all 3 Killer Squirrels.  Just when it seemed like I was about to die from Ryan's amassed army, I top-decked Mirror Force, which promptly took out all of Ryan's monsters on his turn (including my Fiend Megacyber) and set me up for the come-from-behind win.
Me: 8000-7300-7100-6900-7900-8900-9900-3900-4900-750-1750
Him: 8000-5800-4050-3550-1550-200-0

Duel 3:  So, I needed to win this duel to advance, but Ryan had the advantage because he could choose to go first or second.  Naturally, he chose to go first and the duel commenced.  While I was able to hit Ryan early with a Summoned Skull (I think I change of hearted his creature and tributed it for the Skull), Ryan managed to get out a Squirrel which I ran into.  With no removal in my hand, I was forced to plow right into them.  However, that only delayed the inevitable as Dark Elf soon took control of the field and the game.
Me: 8000-7300-5800-5100-4100-3100-2100
Him: 8000-5500-7500-8500-6800-4800-1700-0

Ryan and I sat back for a second after this round, looking at each other dumbfounded because neither of us knew what really had happened.  Somehow I had come from behind and won but it could've just as easily been me receiving my consolation pack.  We look around and realize that we're the last ones still dueling a tournament game.  Matt comes by and says something to the effect of "Are you finished yet?"  I guess it shocked him because I usually take him down by turn 3, MUAHAHAH.  Anyway, during the short break before the 4th round, I find Adam as he's dueling someone for cards.  On top of still being in the tournament, he ended up winning his opponent's painful choice, which was cool.  I started dueling Matt for fun using my Machine deck which only has 5 rares in it (Limiter Removal, Cannon Solider x2, Mirror Wall, and Dust Tornado) so I basically use Overdrive and Guardian of the Throne Room equipped with 7 Completed and Malevolent Nuzzler to do my hits.  After struggling a bit against Matt's Dragon deck, I hit his cyber jar which rewards me with Limiter Removal, 7 Completed x2, and some machines.  I tried hitting him for 7400 next turn but he had an Enchanted Javelin set(ARG!).  If the match kept going, I doubt I would've been able to make a comeback but lucky for me the Round 4 postings came up and we couldn't finish our game.  Me: 3450, Matt: 7500.

Round 4: Kris (Wow, I'm still in the tourney!) vs Adam [Acceleration Beatdown]
Yes, this is the same Adam who I'm friends with.  I had played Adam the first time I came to Dream Wizards with a modified version of my Rage deck and beat him senseless 3 times in a row, which really pissed him off but earned me much respect by him.  The odd thing was that he definitely had superior cards to me yet I laid the smackdown on him... MUAHAHA!  What was kinda funny was that we only played the 3rd game because he didn't want to leave me undefeated yet I still trounced him.  Sometime during those duels I had Call of the Haunted set and a Summoned Skull in my graveyard and he tried to Monster Reborn my Summoned Skull and I chained it to my Call of the Haunted so his Monster Reborn fizzled and Adam says something to the effect of "What?  Not many people know about that!"  Apparently he hadn't expected me to read the Upper Deck Rulings or play the video game :-/  After I beat him for the 3rd time he was shocked at how he could lose mentioning something about "I'm the best at my school, and he's playing TWO Summoned Skulls (I had actually been playing 3) and he still wins.  I just took it as a compliment.  At a later date, I schooled him because I declared an attack with my Harpie's Bro and he Call of the Haunted his Goblin Attack Force and said that I took 500 damage and lost my creature.  I told him that I didn't have to attack anymore because he reset my attack by bringing another monster onto the field.  He contested that since I had already declared and attack and couldn't take it back... WRONGO!  If the number of monsters on the field change, the attack phase is reset and you can choose not to attack.  He called a judge over to our table even though we were playing a fun game and the judge obviously ruled in favor of me but it was still fun watching Adam argue with the judge.  Adam mysteriously had to leave before we could finish our game after that.  He's a good duelist, just a bit cocky at times.

Duel 1:  Ok, let me just say that Adam seriously revamped his deck since the last time I played him.  He was now running Cannon Soldiers, Bazoos, and Scapegoats among other things.  I figured that my Kycoo would help me stop his Bazoo from pumping itself up but he still managed to get enough cards in his graveyard to activate Bazoo's effect.  Without a Farie's Meteor Crush, I wasn't able to do any damage to Adam as he activated Scapegoat when I THOUGHT he had an open field and Adam's deck rarely let me get a plural number of monsters on the field.  I stupidly never activated Swords of Revealing Light this game even though I had it set because I wanted to 1) Flip his Effect Monsters at inappropriate times and 2) I usually had a monster on my side of the field to defend my life points.  This move proved fatal as my lone monster was snatch stolen from me and then used to beat me down.  I never even got a chance on Adam's life points.  Adam tells Matt that he still has to play one more duel and I look at him defiantly and say "Two more, because I'm going to win the new two."  He looks at me with a smirk that said that he was partially cool about it, but partially dreading my comeback.
Me: 8000-6200-4400-400-100-1100
Adam: 8000

Duel 2:  Adam put Cannon Soldiers into his deck for the combo with Scapegoat, but it also goes well with Cyber Jar, Snatch Steal, and Change of Heart.  Within the first few turns, Cyber Jar blessed Adam with a Cannon Solider along with some other creatures and he then took control of my creatures leaving me defenseless and then attacked me and then launched creatures at me for a butt whooping 7450 damage.  After Adam tells me that it's my turn, and during my turn asks how much life I have.  I inform him that I have 550 life points left and he looks down at his 2 set monsters that he didn't launch and groans.  MUAHAHA!  Adam never touched my life points after that, though I was going to try to do my Tribute to the Doomed discarding Summoned Skull and Premature Burialing it combo until I realized I didn't have enough life points for that.  Oh well.  I still managed the comeback.
Me: 8000-550
Adam: 8000-7500-6800-2500-2000-0

Duel 3:  In this game I didn't pull any of the cards I needed and Adam ate away at my life in chunks.  I did manage to snatch steal his creature but he Wabokued, got life the next turn and then dark holed everything.  I often had control of the field but Adam's %#&*@$! scapegoats protected his life and he managed to whittle my life away before I had a chance.
Me: 8000-6200-5400-1800-900-0
Adam: 8000-9000-8200

So for the first time ever Adam beat me, and then did it again.  I must say that he did have a significantly improved deck.  Now if I only had my Jinzo... ;)  I ended up getting Destruction Punch in my LON pack (because TP3 isn't out yet) and was a bit disappointed because I really need a Skull Lair.  I walked by the trashcan and ended up finding a slew of cards in there (about 3 packs worth) and I picked them out of the garbage as commons are useful for fun decks and/or proxies (or making fake god cards).  As I shuffled to the lot, I found a rare Tornado Bird.  Not amazing, but still useful and a rare!  Come on kiddies, have some heart in your cards.  What would Yugi say if he saw you throwing away cards?

I stuck around and tried to trade some more but just about all my good cards were in my deck and the only thing people wanted from my binder was my Metalmorph but they offered really stupid trades.  Like, I wanted some guy's foil Change of Heart to replace my starter deck one (If I can replace it and 1 of my Man-Eaters and my La Jinns, my entire deck will be foil.. Yay!) but he wanted my Metalmorph AND something else for it.  I mean, come on.  Going price for a Metalmorph on E-Bay: $15.  Going price for a Foil Change of Heart: $4 or less.  Besides, Metalmorph is incredibly nasty.  Also, I have 1 Magic Jammer and 2 Seven Tools in my trading binder but little kids don't want them because they have the starter deck versions.  Needless to say, I didn't get much trading done.  Oh well just wait until I get my Morphing Jar!  By the way, I have to tell BigSpooky that I hate him because him and I are friends online and he bought a Morphing Jar on E-bay and I subsequently HAD to have one as well, so now I'm really broke.  Thanks a lot Spooks.  Hehe, you know you're awesome.

Anyways, back to the tournament.  Even though I was out, Adam got a bye in the semi-finals and ended up winning in the finals.  That was his first time winning ever.  He was definitely stoked about that but we ragged on him about how it was probably a fluke, hehe.  He ended up pulling nothing but rares from his packs, which kinda sucked.  Earlier that day some kid got a Gemini Elf in their pack and a bunch of little kids around him (who all watch anyone who's opening a pack) "Oooohhed" and "Aaaahhhed" at it and Chris, the guy in charge of store trading immediately tried to trade for it, hehe.

What's Good and Pure:
-
Adam for winning the tournament!
-Matt's mom for giving me a ride back to the Metro
-Matt, Adam, and Tim for being my posse
-Adam for beating me
-BigSpooky for writing awesome tournament reports and for being the inspiration for my tournament reports
-BigSpooky for the new name to my deck and for giving me permission to use Killer Squirrels
-Dream Wizards for hosting the tournament and for finally getting some new tables!
-Me for being 7-3 in  official duels for the day, which isn't bad
-Me for making it to round 4, which is the furthest I've even been (though I should've been able to beat Adam ;)
What's Evil and Wicked:
-People who think a deck list and a tournament report are the same thing... you know who you are.
-Me, for losing to Adam who I've schooled so many times before
-People who offer bad trades (I mean, COME ON... it's a PROMO METALMORPH!)
 

Comments?  Suggestions?  In dire need of Tornado Bird?  E-mail me (Kris!) at rage4zero@yahoo.com