Deck Name: Hunter of the Dead Name: Voltaire Abaya(thunderv11@yahoo.com) Location: A World of Books, San Leandro, CA Date: 6/7/03 Deck List: Tribute Monsters(2): 2x Airknight Parshath Monsters(15): Banisher of the Light 2x Gilasaurus 3x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 2x Marauding Captain 2x Goblin Attack Force Sinister Serpent Exiled Force Sangan Witch of the Black Forest Cyber Jar Magic(14): 2x Graceful Charity Pot of Greed Raigeki Dark Hole Monster Reborn Change of Heart Snatch Steal Harpie's Feather Duster Heavy Storm 2x Mystical Space Typhoon 2x Soul Release Traps(9): 2x Magic Jammer 2x Solemn Judgment 2x Torrential Tribute Mirror Force Imperial Order Call of the Haunted Vital Stats: ~Total: 40 Cards ~Deck Name: Hunter of the Dead ~Deck Theme: Graveyard Control Well, well... back here and now. So, what's with this new deck? Soul Release? Gilasaurus? Banisher of the Light? What do these things accomplish? More than many could ever imagine. First of all, this is version 0.5, which means its untested. This Sunday at World, that was the testing ground for this deck. I'm telling you, if I can get this working at 100%, then I could possibly come back next week and OWN the competition. Need... a... Fiber... Jar... ehem. Well, so what's this 'Graveyard Control' crap all about? Well, let me tell you: It's about the untapped resource that is the graveyard. Complete control of the graveyard makes these, and many more, useless: Magician of Faith, Mask of Darkness, Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, Premature Burial, Sinister Serpent, Twin-Headed Behemoth. I mean look: With Banisher,I can eliminate the threat posed by creatures that are very popular in my area: Sangan, Witch, Troop Dragon, Nimble, Giant Germ... etc. But, I still need some things: Bottomless, Graverobber's Retribution, Noblemans, and especially, a Fiber Jar. GRRR!!! $6 to enter TP3 pack for entering, 3 for the championship. I guess TP4s will have to wait... ;_; Round 1: Voltaire(Eternal) vs. Josh(???) Season 4!!! Whoo! The season of... total and complete new-ness!!! YESSSHH!! Hopefully, I'll have new luck to bring with me into the season. I haven't seen Josh around here before, but he doesn't seem like a newbie to me. He didn't strike me as a regular advanced player... he just doesn't have that usual confidence that I'm used to here at A World of Books. He's more like a challenger at my old hangout, D&R Sportscards and Comics. Blah blah blah... I'm babbling. Time to hunt... Whoa. He apparently plays some very old-school beatdown cards... or whatever. First turn he summons a monster in defense mode and plays a magic or trap card. Whatever. Mystical. It's Imperial. Dinosaur runs into the arena, and so does a Sangan. I whack!!! It's Sangan. I whack his life for some damage. Then, he sets a card. Whatever. I close in by bringing out a Kycoo. Whack that little hiding-in-his-pants monster... go Zaurus! It runs into something and bounces off the field into my hand... what the heck?!? Oh, whoa, I haven't seen that in a while... Wall of Illusion. Whatever. End. My Goblin would be more than happy to oblige... Next turn, he summons the ultimate ugly that is Jinzo. Piece of crap! He even gives it a damned axe. Whack! My Destroyer is gone. Oh well, my turn, I steal his piece of crap and whack him back. Kuribo! As a typical anime character response, a blood vessel in my head increases its size to that of an oversized poker table. I still hit him for 1000 and 1400 from the Zaurus I summoned. Fine, whatever. Next turn, he sets a monster. Attack, Zaurus! WHAT? Another Wall? Pfft! End my damn turn. His turn... guess what? Skull. With ANOTHER AXE. WTF??? Kill Jinzo. Reborn Jinzo? WHAT? Okay, set Sinister. Wham! 2 of my little critters take it up the arse. I take a big hit from a Goblin. Urge... to... kill... rising... RaGH!!! Beefer SMASH!!! I grab Cyber with Sangan's effect. Set. Boom! He has 1 monster to set in defense mode, and I have Kycoo and Goblin. At this point, he tries to start shtuff, and I stop it by Ordering seconds... and more... I take back my Kycoo and start whacking his lifepoints and emptying his grave. Soon, he's locked down and out and can't do jack squat. With an empty grave and an empty lifepoint counter, I guess I hunted his dead, didn't I? *maniacal laughter* ...ehem. With no doubts about losing the first match, he goes in again and takes the early lead, using my Airknight against me on turn 2. I'm down bigtime. But I take back control by using my removal and being careful and whacking his life really fast to empty his grave. Kycoos and Soul Releases eat the grave faster than Bazoo can. Hunters mainly hunt for one thing... well, at least they did in the classic past. No... further than the fur trade... nope, further than that... WAAAAAYYYY... back... there. Yep, for food. We hunt the dead, and eat the corpses. But field control is foremost. My Imperial Order stops him dead for like 4 turns, eating away at my lifepoints like they're some obscure luxurious luncheon meats. But feeding my army their balanced diet of lifepoints and corpses, filled with protein and nutrients, pays off when I win the match only a few turns later. Round 2? Well, I go tell David that I'm done with match #1, and I ask who I'm playing next. Thrill of the chase? Maybe... Anyhow, I'm informed that I'm playing, "The winner of: Steffon, Carlos and Bruce." My reaction is simply this: o_O -WTF?!? I wondered: Is this a triple-threat-deathmatch-sundae-with-whipped-cream-and-cherries, or whatever those wrestling things are... I'm no good with lingo... well... ...ehem, anyway, is that one of those "LEGENDARY" things? Apparently not. Well, I'm not sure if I got a by/bi(whatever) either the first round or the second round. I don't know, but however David wrote it on the paper made it look like I got a by/bi second round. Carlos vs. Bruce? Carlos. Carlos vs. Steffon? Steffon. Steffon it is, then, for the 3rd time. First time it was my first time at A World of Books. He eliminated me. It was my Gate of Babylon(Light) deck vs. his deck. I think it was called Shoot 'Em, or Drive By... or something. I lost. Second time it was him vs. me in a tourney, my Gradius, the Futuristic Fighter: Vic Viper(Gradius/Machine) deck vs. his Exodia deck. This time... it's my Hunter of the Dead(Graveyard Control) deck vs. his... I think it's a hand control deck? Round 3: Voltaire(Eternal) vs. Steffon(Black Joker) Steffon... Black Joker. Formerly ZeenO. *gulp* Fweh. Snappy intro? Well, he's a great player, and he was third last season. Isn't that cool? He's been at the top for a long time... pretty much from Season 1, I think. You know how there's that saying "It's lonely at the top?" Pure bullshit. He knows everyone at the top. They're all friends. Donald(1st) and Brandon(2nd) even have their own thing of figuring out who wins and loses their matches. Meh, but I'm not stepping down. NEVER! First round is pretty typical. We exchange some hits. This game takes ugly turns as I can't seem to empty his graveyard, I'm forced to discard my Soul Releases, and I'm forced to do various other types of crap. He Forcefuls my Snake away. I can't take control. What is this? Surprisingly, he is the only one I played today that played Magic Jammer against me. Everyone else has switched over to drains. I didn't get rid of his field. Damn. But I get both little hits and big hits in. I get him down to the neighborhood of 1300 lifepoints, while I'm down to 1500. He gets a Gemini hit in over my Cap'n. I'm down to 800. He has 4 monsters on me. I'm thinking it's game. I set a monster, and he's like, "Game", and he summons Cannon Soldier. I Torrential. He protests that he can still launch a monster. I say, "Yeah, but you can only do it once." Oh well, I have another turn. Damn, I've got Sinister, Cyber Jar and 2 magic cards. Where are my Gilazaurus when I need them? Set Cyber. Go! He attacks it. ... ... ... ... ... ...2 monsters. 3 of my own. One is Goblin. I can do it... he says, "Well, that's game anyway..." I looked: it was Cannon Soldier. GAH! That piece of crap can clinch a close game like that... GRRR!!! This time... I'm going all out. I remove like 2 cards pretty early from Kycoo. We do our little dance... exchanging pulled shots. We don't want to overextend ourselves, lest we lose out whole hands. I seem to have field control, but I don't have enough, apparently, since I get attacked all over the place. So I'm staring straight down the barrel of the gun: My opponent has a monster on me, and I'm looking at my field with a 2 face-down traps: Imperial and Mirror Force, with only Sangan and Gilasaurus protecting my life. He MSTs Mirror Force, but it's denied. He tries to take out my monsters but they run into mirror images of themselves, projected with the same ammount of force as themselves so that they destroy each other. But I'm caught on the defensive. I try to stall with Imperial but it doesn't do much. I draw Jammer, Jammer, and then Solemn. Needless to say, I'm at the recieving end of this whoop-ass session. Tourney Highlights: -Hunter of the Dead made out pretty well out of the tournament. Just need to get the neccessary cards to crank it up to 100%, and then... we'll see then... Cons: -Well, I didn't get my Mirror Force back. I was forced to get a new one. And before you e-mail me about being rich and crap enough to replace a Mirror Force, let me tell you this: I traded my stuff. And I haven't really spent that much money on this stuff so back off. By the way, I know who stole it, but he really wanted it and I'm not really worried about it. -Voltaire Abaya(Eternal) -Thunderv11@yahoo.com -Note: What's up to all you cool people at A World of Books, Distant Realms, and duelists everywhere. And you guys at A World of Books, (you know who you are ;P) don't get so pissed off, man... whoever it is, they're just messing with you. And I don't think it's who you think it is anyway. Calm down, guys. ;) To all you duelists out there: Stay cool forever!!