Beatdown-No-Longer-4-Free
Michael Lucas
Jahinie Productions, Munhall, PA
March 23, 2003
20-24 participants (??)

Last week, I didn’t write up a deck report.  I should have, but I was too angry at myself for losing to Jesse in the finals last week at Jahinie’s.  Even more so when the prize ended up being a Raigeki and a GEMINI ELF.  He traded it to me, since he has 3 in his deck already – but at a steep price – a Goblin and an Axe.  I wanted my revenge, and I wanted it TODAY.  Fate would provide the opportunity, the same way it always has.

Before I get to the Deck list and the tourney report, I would like to go over some things that happened at the Toys R Us YGO League last week – a pre-decklist props and slops:

Props:
To the kid who traded me a Confiscation, Limiter Removal, and IMPERIAL ORDER for Gaia the Fierce Knight and two rares
To the kid who traded me a Confiscation for one of the Buster Blader promos (Just to have an extra on hand)
To Lou, the TrU store manager, for loaning me his discount card when I picked up the Pegasus starter
To Lou again, for giving me a free Dungeon Dice Monsters booster pack for running a Dungeon Dice Monsters demo last week at the League
To Steve, for giving me his booster pack (which he opened and discovered a Flash Assailant)
To the pack I chose for having a Blue Eyes White Dragon (Hey, it’s trade bait!)

Slops:
The tables we have to run Yu-Gi-Oh League – out of 5, 2 are broken – one collapsed while we were playing!

Well, I was up the whole night before the tourney, trying to figure out what went wrong.  After scouring various internet websites (YTCO and Pojo being the big ones), I finally said to myself, “Self, why are you playing two Summoned Skull, and only one Axe and one United We Stand?”  The situations where a SS proves more useful than an Axe are few (Reborning purposes), and Axe seems to be much more useful.  So the deck ended up being as follows:

Monsters: 18
2 Gemini Elf
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Bazoo the Soul Eater (got a second after the tourney, now I run two and no Harpie’s Bro)
1 Harpie’s Bro
1 Goblin Attack Force (Dark Elf comes out when I get a second)
1 Dark Elf
2 Hayabusa Knight
2 Magician of Faith
2 Man-Eater Bug
1 Summoned Skull
1 Cyber Jar
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Jinzo

Magics: 19
2 Axe of Despair
1 United We Stand
2 Fissure
1 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Heavy Storm
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
5 Staple cards (Reborn/Raigeki/Hole/Pot/Heart)
1 Graceful Charity (read end of report for a sidenote on these)
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Scapegoat

Traps:  7
2 Trap Hole
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Magic Jammer
1 Seven Tools of the Bandit
1 Mirror Force
1 Imperial Order

Side Deck:  15
1 Summoned Skull
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Exchange
2 Prohibition
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Axe of Despair
1 Card Destruction
2 Dust Tornado
1 Royal Command
2 Seven Tools of the Bandit
2 Solemn Judgment

The lack of Infinite Dismissal/Light of Intervention in my Side Deck is due to NO, and I repeat, NO Clown Control around here.  I decided to Side Deck a Summoned Skull and an Axe so I could alternate between 0 Skull/3 Axe, 1 Skull/2 Axe, or 2 Skull/1 Axe.  Never did have to switch.
The extra Seven Tools were for Jesse, whom is my rival Duelist.  We’ve met at the previous two tourneys, in the finals each time.  I won the first, he won the second.  Would history repeat?  The report shall tell.

The tourney got underway rather quickly, so we got to Round 1.

Round 1:  Mark (Disorganized deck with some good cards)
Mark was less than thrilled with having to duel me.  He pretty much knew his run in the tourney was over (I have built a reputation of ending every match against a non-prepared Duelist in under 6 minutes).  He had to take out 5 of the 6 Monster Reborns in his deck (apparently his friends let him use 6?)  Basically, I told him if we ran into any other illegal duplicated, we would just nullify the effect of the second card (he was pretty young, and his deck was quite large, so I didn’t want to take the time to search through it.)
On my Turn Three, Gemini Elf and Man-Eater Bug attacked directly.  Turn Four, add Harpie’s Brother.  Turn Five, end-game.  My only damage taken was 450 from one of his Man-Eater Bugs, and 400 somewhere else.
Duel 2:  He got me down to 6800 with a Fissure and a direct attack, then I took 800 for burial, then he hit me for 1150 (Strong monster hit my Bug.)  The first damage I did was for 900…then a direct attack of 9700 with United We Stand and a lot of Reborn-type cards.

Duel 1 LP:  8000-7550-7050 to his 8000-5650-1500-0
Duel 2 LP:  8000-6800-6000-4850 to his 8000-7100-minus 2600 :P

My reputation stayed with me, but apparently my next opponent was ready as well.  We were going to look at each other’s decks and make suggestions but before we sat down, we were informed we were in the same bracket and ready to Duel.  He REALLY didn’t want to face me.  He made it competitive though.

Round 2:  Jake (Equip beatdown)
Apparently, he put all of his effort into one combo:  1800 monster + Malevolent Nuzzler + Mage Power + Face-down Magics.  Once his hand was empty, he was defenseless.
Duel 1:  He healed quickly with a Dian Keto, and got a good hit of 3100 by MOWING over my Gemini Elf with a FIVE THOUSAND ATTACK Harpie’s Brother (Nuzzler + Mage Power + Full M/T field.)  I have two words for him:  Heavy Storm.  Once that hit the field, I was able to score with one of my trademark Reborn many monsters and United We Stand combo.
LP:  8000-5900-5100 to his 8000-9000-6650-6350-0 (Side note:  The 6350 was taken out EXACTLY.  I didn’t overkill, I did exactly enough damage.  Man-Eater delivered the final blow.)
This dude has some potential – Let’s see if he can’t get a hold of a few Maha Vailos.

With tourneys the way they are, more than 16 people, but less than 32, some people always seem to get a bye.  Some may have to go through 3 people to get to the finals, some have to go through 4.  It’s just how the bracket works out.  I was fortunate and would be one of the 4-rounders.

Round 3:  Garrett (Lucky kid, don’t know how he got as far as he did)
He had some good cards, but they’re just the ones in the Starter Deck.

These duels were really uneventful, me taking no LP damage...a mis-read of Scapegoat caused a Replay...unfortunately, we both packed up our stuff already.  We agreed between ourselves that since we both took Scapegoat’s wording wrong, we would just re-duel.  He did better in the erroneous duel.

Now I had to wait for my final opponent.  Jesse had ended up in the opposite bracket (again), and was dueling with a kid (Nick?  Sorry, I’m bad with names) for the right to go to the finals.  Their Match went into Duel 3!!!  If Jesse got knocked out, it would ensure my victory.  However, I was looking forward to playing Jesse, getting my revenge.  Fate would smile on me…and Jesse pulls out and wins. 

I have MAJOR trap problems with this guy (Spellbinding Circle/Magic Cylinder), and he loves playing Nimble Momonga and Man-Eater Bug face-down.  When I saw him with 1 MeB on the field and 2 in his hand at one point, it was time to head to the side deck.  One TH out, one 7 Tools in.  One Fissure out, 1 Crossout in.  The 7 tools didn’t prove to have any effect, but the Crossout was the best decision I ever made.

FINALS:  Mike vs. Jesse (Hyper Beatdown)
Duel 1:  Started off the same way as any other Beatdown vs. Beatdown duels do:  Man-Eater bug stalls.  The “heart of the cards” gave me the Crossout I needed.  Down went his Man-Eater…and the OTHER TWO from his deck!  I was able to pull a field clear and Haya + Axe + UWS (2800, attacking twice.) plus something?   I hit direct and he went down to 400.  Sweeet…He got no counter, but played a F/D M/T.  I decided to risk it…Hayabusa’s 1st attack hit the Magic Cylinder…but the second one hit direct, for the game.

LP:  8000-5200 to his 8000-400-0

Duel 2:  This one went down to the WIRE.  He got his Momongas out and took an early lead.  I kept losing life.  4900 in one hit to start it off! Then I went down to 3000…1100…and he was still at 6750!  I started to mount a major offensive, paying another 800 for Premature (only 300 now!) to knock him down to 2550.  He Raigekied when I had FOUR MONSTERS on the field!  I got a monster, but Spellbinding Circle stopped it.  Then, he got a face-down.  Had to risk it.  Played Bazoo (was my draw).  Discarded 2 cards to get him up to 2200, but didn’t need to – it was a Beatdown monster in DEF.  It was gone.  He gets no counter.  Bazoo hits for 2500 by removing 3.  LP now:  300-50, my favor.  Somehow, the field got completely cleared.   I. Raigekied something away, set down a Mirror Force.  We both keep drawing nothing. He had one Face-down M/T.  I drew a Man-Eater bug.  If it was a second Cylinder, or a MF, I would most likely lose.  I HAD to risk.  Play Man-Eater Bug in ATK mode…Attack direct…GAME!

I didn’t get to see what his face-down was, but he got stuck with a useless Axe in hand.  It’s what I feared from playing less Summoned Skull, but apparently I have the perfect balance.

Props and slops:
Props: 
For one of the prizes being a United We Stand!
The kids who traded me a combined total of 3 Graceful Charity and 2 Bazoo the Soul-Eater
Jesse, for an awesome final game
My LoN booster for entering Jahinie’s for having a Super Rare for once

Slops:
Jesse, for interfering in trades of mine, out-bidding me deliberately to stop me from getting an Axe when I only had 1, not only at Jahinie’s but at my HOME TURF of West Mifflin’s Toys R Us League.  Screwing with staff usually isn’t a good idea…
The other prize, for being a PSV Thousand-Eyes Restrict, when I’ve been trading away the promo TERs for weeks now.  (Why no Magic Cylinder?)

So, I win 2 out of 3 tourneys I’ve been in.  Me and Jesse meet 3 consecutive times in the finals.  What’ll happen next time?  That all lies within the heart of the cards…

Comments?  Suggestions?  E-mail ‘em to MewtwoStruckBack@aol.com