Deckname: Ladies of Duel Monsters Name: Voltaire Abaya Location: D&R Comics, Union City, CA Date of Tourney: 2-02-03 Deck: Monsters: Level 5+(2): Jinzo(Get off my case! I know it's not a girl!) Flame Champion Level 4-(17): Beautiful Headhuntress* Invader of the Throne Witch of the Black Forest 2x Wall of Illusion Hibikime Maiden of the Moonlight Princess of Tsurugi 2x Dark Elf Maha Vailo 2x Magician of Faith Spirit of the Harp 2x Mystical Elf Cyber Jar Magic(14): Pot of Greed Monster Reborn Premature Burial Raigeki Dark Hole Change of Heart Swords of Revealing Light 2x Malevolent Nuzzler Heavy Storm Mystical Space Typhoon Nobleman of Crossout 2x Soul Release Traps(7): 2x Shadow of Eyes Solemn Judgment Ceasefire Waboku Imperial Order Mirror Force Side deck(15): Axe of Despair, White Magical Hats, Fissure, Share the Pain, Michizure, 2x Trap Hole, Prohibition, Card Destruction, Delinquent Duo The Forceful Sentry, Rush Recklessly Infinite Dismissal, Commencement Dance Performance of Sword Yikes! What a deck, eh? I know, I know... you're probably thinking I'm crazy... but hey! It's just in the name of good-clean fun, right? Errr... or maybe not? $5 to enter the tournament Unrestricted entry, but it's rigged certain ways so there are a couple of bis to make the numbers manageable. But there were about 20+ people. Prize: $15 of store credit Round 1: Voltaire vs. Oliver(Clean beatdown) Damn. First round and we have a high-level player with no remorse. First round we have a playa killa. Oliver plays beatdown... what I call 'clean' beatdown, which is basically beatdown with no corners cut. 3 Man-Eaters, 3 Magicians, 1800 attackers, some defense monsters(Wall of Illusion), Jinzo and Skulls. Basically, he "Sweep"s the field clean and cleans your clocks. :p First round is pretty bad. I draw 5 cards and let him go first. Bad hand. 4 Magic and Solemn. My turn. Draw. Pot. Draw 2 more. Dammit! Still no monsters. Swords. I waste 2 turns and draw... Magician. I play it face-down and keep going. More defense monsters for me and he has some bugs and a skull out on me. Then, a few turns and battle phases later, I'm down to no monsters on the field. I lay a newly-drawn Ceasefire and Magician. He lays a monster and I play Ceasefire... but then, I change my mind. I'm staring down a Skull. Grrr... My Magician can't protect me from that, so I pull Ceasefire back down. (I'd flipped it halfway only...) To NO surprise, the facedown monster he played on the previous turn was Man-Eater. Dammit! I should've known! 2 turns later, after I got him down to 2600, I lose. I should've taken some cards from my side deck and changed them out, but I knew my loss was impending anyway. I'm somewhere between a newbie and an intermediate, so I have virtually no chance against a high-level player. But next round I do better. I manage to pull a crossout on his bugs, getting rid of all 3. But later, (I knew it coming) he got out summoned skull. Boom. No more defenses for me. But wait! I drew mirror force. In another NEWBIE mistake, I play Jinzo while my force is down. He takes it out. But later, with me at 1150 lifepoints, and his skull with a horn of the unicorn, I manage to dent his lifepoints by a bit with my dark elf and 2 malevolents. I manage to stall this way, for a few turns, me unable to attack. He has 5 monsters on the field. Desperate to end it, I play Raigeki and then attack his lifepoints with Maiden of the Moonlight. Next turn, powered-up harpy's bro ends it. Friendly: Voltaire vs. Joe A newcomer to the store, far as I could tell... Joe is a man in his thirties, and he seems pretty cool. He told me and Chris(the storeowner) that he's 28 cards from completing the 4 sets. Obviously he hasn't met Karina.(woman also in her thirties, has pretty much all the cards except for maybe some tournament ones) Well anyway, it seems he's had experience playing something similar to Yu-Gi-Oh, but not quite that, since he had a bit of trouble with some effects and kept having to read his cards. NICE burn deck. In a few turns, I'm down from 8000 to 7200, 6400, 5800, 5000, 3000, 2400, 1800. Ouch. That was a damn quick duel. Then, minor goblin official and giant germs finish me off. He's gonna be a force to be reckoned with. If he comes next week, I'm going to introduce him to one of my more serious-minded decks. ;) AND THE WINNER IS... ...Jevel Moral. Hmm, I think I know who that is. I didn't stay till the end(had to go home to finish an English paper) but I heard from Harry(last week's winner, great player, runner-up this week) that he won. Winning play: Summoned Skull and Jinzo, both with Axes. If just goes to show you that beatdown can still kick ass. Tournament Highlights: -My buddy Mike pulled Dragon Seeker, and Misprint Starboy(even though he TRADED THEM) Cons: -No rares in tourney pack -Nobody would trade for a Robbin' Goblin! -Voltaire Abaya -Email: Thunderv11@yahoo.com -NOTE: Maybe next week... hmmm... Lights?