Mechanical Switchblade

Donny Knowles

March 22^nd through 23^rd

Dragons Lair Games, and Learning Express

Davie, Florida

Monsters: 19
-        3x Cannon Soldier
-        3x Nimble Momonga
-        3x Goblin Attack Force

-        2x Magician of Faith
-        2x Barrel Dragon
-        2x Man-Eater Bug
-        1x Witch of the Black Forest

-        1x Penguin Soldier
-        1x Cyber Jar
-        1x Jinzo
Magic: 11
-        1x Tribute to the Doomed

-        1x Graceful Charity

-      1x Scapegoat
-        1x Swords of Revealing Light
-        1x Change of Heart
-        1x Raigeki
-        1x Dark Hole
-        1x Pot of Greed
-        1x Monster Reborn
-        1x Axe of Despair
-        1x Premature Burial
Traps: 10
-        2x Seven Tools of Bandit
-        2x Trap Hole
-        1x Ceasefire

-        1x Spellbinding Circle

-        1x Magic Jammer
-        1x Call of the Haunted
-        1x Mirror Force
-        1x Imperial Order
Side Deck: 15
-        5x Exodia the Forbidden One
-        2x Sangan
-        2x Big-Eye
-        2x Backup Soldier

-        1x Graceful Charity
-        1x Card Destruction
-        1x Monster Recovery
-        1x Painful Choice

Woo! My first tournament report! Well I’m happy to see I did pretty well today. I won’t ruin the surprise though. I got to my friend James’ house around noon and we started editing his deck. His friend Kevin shows up and we head for the tournament. I don’t know how many people participated, but there were a lot of them. I was a bit intimidated… well, on to the tournament.

Round One

Donny vs. Derek

Duel One: His deck was pretty big, at least two hundred cards. We shuffle and cut, and I asked him if he wanted to duel for cards. He declined. Derek had dueled my friend James earlier, and I don’t know how it turned out. They were calling names. Anyway, I went first. Most of this duel was forgotten later on, so bear with me. I played a Cannon Soldier and two Trap Holes face down. He summoned, but I trap holed it. I drew another Cannon Soldier and attacked his life points. He went, and tried to summon again, I trap holed again. I drew Harpies Brother (Its not on the list because it was replaced with Goblin Attack Force.) and summoned, then attacked, offering my Cannon Soldier for 500 damage and the win. He was pissed that he had to duel me… heh.

Duel Two: Duel two was almost exactly the same as duel one… again he didn’t touch me, and I took out his cards before he attacked. Well, works for me…

Round Two

Donny Vs. Rasta Guy

Duel One: I was so close to getting to the third round b\by getting a bye, but this guy had to show up and make me earn it. Well, I can barely remember this round. But I remember he beat me… He was using some kind of Light deck, Guardian of the Throne Room, etc. He quickly got through and killed me.

Duel Two: I went first and played a Cannon in defense. He played defense as well. I used Tribute to the Doomed, discarding Barrel Dragon, and destroyed his face down card. Then I used Premature Burial (My favorite combo!) and revived it. I flipped Cannon, and summoned Harpies Brother (which I replaced) and attacked him directly. Then I offered everyone doing the extra damage I needed to win.

Duel Three: This duel went pretty much the same as the last one, but I didn’t get the Barrel combo until a few turns into the game. He was pretty disappointed, but took the loss with good humor. Don’t worry about the shortness of this duel, the next one will be much better.

Round Three

Bye J

Round Four – Semi Finals

Donny Vs. Kevin

Duel One: I was very nervous in this duel. I faced him because two other players rolled die and one got a Bye to the finals. The one who got the bye called be a Wanna Be and Rookie throughout the duel. I’d show him… I was dueling the person who was setting up the tournament. This was the hardest match of my life… Near the end of the duel, I had barely ten cards left in my deck. He was constantly gaining Life Points because of a new LON card called Marie the Fallen One, which boosts your life points if its in your graveyard. He had three, giving him 600 extra life points per turn. He also had a card causing me to lose life points every time he gained, and a Dancing Fairy in face up defense (Light of Intervention) giving him 1000 more life points a turn. He also had Messenger of Peace and Gravity Bind… Needless to say, the tables weren’t in my favor. I was only drawing my strong attackers, Goblin, Barrel, etc., and I used Witch to grab a Penguin Soldier. I set it, but then I realized… Light of Intervention! Cursing myself, I played it in defense mode. The finals boy said I should have grabbed Jinzo. He was right. Eventually I summoned Barrel Dragon, my deck looking light as air. I used his effect to try and destroy two of his cards in two turns, but neither time it worked. The only cards that could attack were my two Nimble Momonga’s and my Penguin Soldier. My field was full, Barrel, Nimbles, Cannon, and Penguin. I closed my eyes and drew my card… Jinzo! I sacrificed my Penguin Soldier for Jinzo! My Cannon Soldier could attack! I used my Barrel Dragon to annihilate his card that made me lose life points, and Cannon took care of his Dancing Fairy. I attacked with the two Nimbles then used cannon Soldier to offer everyone for the remaining damage. Hopelessly looking at his face down cards, Kevin accepted defeat.

Duel Two: This went pretty much as the first round did, but I gained an early advantage by Trap Holing his Fire Princess. He got out some UFO Turtles, but my Cannon Soldier took out the defense mode one, and my other Kamikazied itself to take out his other, but I flipped Call of the Haunted and did 100 damage by destroying his new card. This duel went on for a long time, but it ended with me having a mere 400 life points left.

Round Five – FINALS

Me Vs. “You’re such a Rookie”

Duel One: This was the annoying kid… first in the store… I had to put out everything if I was going to defeat him. No matter what I got packs, so I was happy even if I got second place. My Cyber Jar exploded early in the game, him getting one monster, and me stupidly playing my Cannon Soldiers next to my Goblins in defense mode… if I played them in attack mode I would have won. I played Raigeki and destroyed his field and attacked directly… He quickly destroyed me after that.

Duel Two: I got Scapegoat out early, but he summoned a Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer with a Fairy Meteor Crush. I lost quickly… oh well! Second was good. I got okay cards in the packs (He and Kevin got great cards like Gemini Elf and Destiny Board…) besides two Destiny Board pieces and Marie the Fallen One. I had traded for Destiny Board earlier, so that was good.

Props: For getting to the finals!

For getting a bye in round three.

For getting my third Goblin Attack Force and some other good cards.

For Kevin for getting to the third round.

For the kid who called me a Newbie for admitting I was pretty good at the end of the tournament.

Slops: To losing in the finals…

To James for getting eliminated in round one.
To the kid who called me a Rookie.

To kids who steal cards.

To everyone else getting really good cards…

Don’t worry, still one tournament to go!

I got to Learning Express with my classic Seto Kaiba look. I signed up and opened my pack, Two-Headed King Rex was the only decent card. I asked the judge if I could look at his deck… Morphing Jar… he said we still had some time before the tournament, so he challenged me to a duel. I accepted, and people began to crowd around us.

Pre-Tournament Duel

Donny Vs. Judge

He ran a burner/decking deck that almost got me. It was a lot like the duel with Kevin… almost the same. He used Fire Princess’, Marie the Fallen One, UFO Turtle, almost the same deck! Early on he used Morphing Jar #2 and got all of my staples and my Barrel Dragons… bah. He used Morphin Jar when I had no cards in my hand, and he used Messenger of Peace. Eventually I got him down to 1900, and had just enough monsters on the field to Cannon Soldier my way to victory. I dueled him three more times, and I won every one.

My best friend’s brother Robbie showed up with his friend Harrison during the fourth duel. Harrison’s sister was there too… once it took her three hours to finish a duel at Dragon’s Lair. Bah. The judge paired us up, and I ended up against a kid in a yellow jersey. Or maybe that was round two… either way, neither dues were worth mentioning. Sorry. In between round one and two I took Harrison and Robbie on at the same time. They beat me… Damn. They announced Round Two was starting. Robbie vs.… Harrison!? Dueling your best friend in a tournament can be tough. I got another easy opponent, and I dueled the judge while I waited. I won again, and he told me how he got into the game. He and his friend were watching football when the power went off. They went to a gas station and saw the decks. Maybe they would have something to do… so that’s how it started. Robbie, Mokuba to my Kaiba, defeated Harrison, and the judge called out for the Semi’s… Me vs.…. Robbie…

Round Three – Semi-Finals

Donny vs. Robbie

Duel One: We began the duel with Robbie and me taking heavy damage early on. We began to hit each other back and forth with our stronger cards. I used my Cyber Jar, and he special summoned his. For the hell of it, he flipped his, and I got no cards… He had most of his strong monsters out, and even some of mine. If he attacked he would win… He let loose, but met my Mirror Force. His cards were blasted away and I reborned some of my monsters and attacked for the win.

Duel Two: This game was very similar to the first one, with me and Robbie making some bad choices. Eventually I was able to defeat him with Cannon Soldier (The best card ever!) and I was in the Finals. Robbie collected his third place prize, a booster.

Round Four – FINALS

Duel One and Two: Is it just me or was this tournament way too easy? I’m definitely coming back next week… The boy told me he was actually eliminated, but his opponent had to leave. He didn’t know a lot of the rules (He thought he could chose if he wanted to Special Summon Garuda the Wind Spirit), so both duels were easy. The only challenge was facing Robbie. I got ten bucks and I used it to get three packs. Infinite Cards and Bazoo the Soul Eater were the better cards I got. All in all it was an easy tournament, but I was hoping to get a harder opponent next week.

Props: To getting Bazoo the Soul Eater.

To winning a tournament for the first time.

To Robbie for beating Pokemon Sapphire.

Slops: To the tournament for being too easy.

To kids who get far in tournaments when they don’t k now the rules.

To the tournament for pairing me and Robbie up. He should have been second.

Well, if you wanna chat, my IM’s are DKCardMaster, DKingOfGames08, and TheHeroOfTime08. Or e-mail me at donnyk@attbi.com See ya!

- Donny Knowles