Deck Name: Gradius: The Futuristic Fighter Vic Viper Name: Voltaire Abaya(thunderv11@yahoo.com) Location: A World of Books, San Leandro, CA Date: 11/5/03 Deck List: Monsters(17): Jinzo 3x Gradius 3x Guardian of the Throne Room 2x Overdrive 2x Cannon Soldier 2x Bazoo the Soul Eater Patrol Robo Witch of the Black Forest Sinister Serpent Cyber Jar Magic(17): Change of Heart Raigeki Dark Hole Pot of Greed Monster Reborn Graceful Charity United We Stand Mage Power 3x Cyclone Laser Limiter Removal Heavy Storm Harpie's Feather Duster Mystical Space Typhoon 2x Shield and Sword Traps(6): Imperial Order Mirror Force Call of the Haunted Solemn Judgment 2x Magic Jammer Total: 40, +14 First of all, if you're ummm... observant, well, then you've seen the umm... changes. One of which, of course, is my complete disregard for monster removal except for the usual Dark Hole, Raigeki... etc. Instead, I went with more m/t removal. Harpie's & MST. Then, I went from 14 monsters to... whoo! (one of the most I've played) 17 monsters. Then, there's Shield and Sword. Not as n00bish a move as some of you might think. Cannon Soldier has 1300 DEF, Overdrive has 1500 and Guardian has 1600. They walk all over regular beatdown monsters' DEF. Then, of course, you'll notice Patrol Robo. That's right. 1100 for a 3-star. Plus I can peek at your face-down cards as long as it still stands during my standby phase. PWNAGE, baby. Surprise is at least 55% of the mental game. Did some other stuff, too... it went through a whole set of revelations this week. Thing is weak as heck vs. regular beatdown and clown control. Meh. Metagame-tweakage needed. ;p $6 to enter TP3 pack for entering, 3 for the championship. Points, too, of course. Round 1: Voltaire vs. Alex Well, I've seen Alex duel around here before. He's GOOD. He's usually hanging around the area with his dad, who is also a player. More on that later. ;p When Serf first calls my name, my pulse is racing. Another loss or more insane luck? Well, this will definitely show me... It starts out pretty slow, I'm still trying to judge his skill level. He gets out a nimble and I attack it. He grabs 2 more. Man, those things get on my nerves. He soon plays the Black Illusion Ritual and then tries to sacrifice a Nimble for it. Jam. I remember some other awkward moves like him TttD-ing my face-down Serpent and discarding his own Serpent. We go on a few turns not really making any big hits. Only touched his lifepoints once, and only for 300. My lifepoints are glowing kinda yellowish at a not-so-high 3500. I have Jammer and Solemn down. I notice something after a bit... empty field? 2 face-down magic and traps? Hell yeah! I monster reborn something, sac for Jinzo, equip with Mage Power and set a cyclone laser. 2000 and 2400. I have limiter. Go!!! To my idiocy, I don't check lifepoints. Meh. I only take him down to 1600. Wha...? My miscalculation could've cost me the duel. With my field open, I'm waiting him to take that last 3500. He sets 1 monster and 1 m/t. I draw... I summon... Cannon Soldier. Ceasefire. POW! POW! POW! My lifepoints dwindle and roll down to 2500. Agh! NO!!! Change of Heart his Sinister Serpent. "Attack, Cannon Soldier," is my command. He shouts, "Cylinder!" Desperate, I search my magic and trap field. YES! Solemn Judgment. 1400 attack goes through. Attack and launch. Reeling from the loss, but not surrendering, he comes back strong. He gets nimbles and Relinquished out early. Can't do much. I try playing HFD on his Relinquished, but to no avail. My monster's still his. Some obscure but cool cards, like Gilasaurus, appear. Whoa. I'm taken out fast. Man. Side deck in some removal? Maybe a Skull Lair? Maybe...? This duel drags on quite unneccessarily for quite a bit. 70% of the strategy on this deck is the setup for the dramatic ending. Big damage every pop. Quite the same with this one. Much stalling, removing magic and traps, and eventually, I get some power out there. Nimbles make another appearance... to my dismay. But eventually, my machines on Unlimited Juice barely snatch the win. Here's how the final hits went down: He had a face-down monster card, I had 2 Guardians and a Jinzo out. My Limiter is face-down on the field. I attack with a Guardian... he says that I lose lifepoints... it's a Giant Soldier. But wait! Limiter. Game. Set. Match. Round 2: Voltaire vs. Steffon Remember when I said surprise was 55% of the mental game? Well, that still stands and I'm shoving another number at you. The number is 35... 35%, that is... that's how much experience is key. Experience at dueling in general, and experience in dueling with your particular deck. Steffon, aka Black Joker, has been experimenting with his Exodia deck since he traded his Needle Worm for a whole set. He's getting "tips" and stuff from other players, but what he needs to remember is that it's all you. You make or brake your deck. I can't play anyone else's deck and play well. Likewise, no one has ever beaten me when we do the deck-trade-duel type things we do. Not one person can tell you how to run your deck. Do what you want, dude. Now then, onto the duel. This goes by fast in turns, and slow in time. First turn, I let him go first. Oh, and that's something that's needed to be mentioned. I don't care if I go first. In fact, I like it when you go first. No strategical reasons, but I don't like competing for first play. ;p I believe he sets something. I set 2 m/ts and attack. Cyber Jar. I get... guess what? Cyber Jar and 2 other monsters. He makes a few moves and ends. I flip and make some more moves. Here's where it gets long. He plays Pot of Greed, then Graceful Charity. Then, 2 Card of Safe Returns. Next, Monster Reborn. After, Shallow. Next, Premature. Whoa. He's got like 20 cards in his hands. I'm like... damn. He hasn't normal summoned and he's got Cannon Soldier on the field. I ask him, "Let me guess? Sangan and that's game?" Then he tells me he has no Sangan in his hand. Let me remind you he has more cards in his hand than he does in his deck. He attacks for 4200 and launches 2 cards. Whoa. He coulda just beat me down, he's that good a beatdown player. But he's not playing beatdown, ;p. Anyhow, he has 3 cards set. He ends. 3 Jars of frikkin' Greed. Draws the last piece eventually. That's a LOT of cards. I laugh it off, thinking, after that performance, I'm finished. Maybe? Maybe not. I take it easy on letting him draw so much with Cyber Jar this duel. In fact, I believe I never did use it. I relax and attack him little by little. Take out his Sangan, try to control as much as I can. Eventually, I kick him off with my Unlimited machines. Pretty boring, unlike the first. Meh, and I thought Limiter kills were exciting. =/ As usual, I get some early hits in. He gets an early Card of Safe Return, which worries me. He gets back Mystic Tomato and Cannon Soldier a couple of times, but which does little to me. Finally, being recklessly impatient as I am, I flip Cyber Jar. Ouch. I see some stuff that's reall gonna hurt me. Dark Hole... a bunch of stuff. I peek at my face-down cards, and one is Limiter. My monsters are Guardian, Overdrive and Bazoo. He's only got a Cannon Soldier. I'm wary of his face-down card, but I still go on. Power up Bazoo and hit him. Attack... he lets it sink through... I remove their limits. Limitless power bursts and flows into my machines... as they shake and rattle... white steam coming out... they attack. A Waboku, Scapegoats or anything of that sort would've been my undoing. But none. He shows me his hand. Had I waited the extra turn, it would've been so much harder for me to defeat him. I won against 2. Man, this is luck. Will it last? Intermission: Well, Serf tells me I'm playing the winner of Rodel v. someone else. So, I go over there. They haven't even started. ~_~ And they take the LONGEST TIME to finish their duel. Anyway, I hang out just around the vicinity... I am challenged to an extra round vs. an Exodia player. Needless to say, I lose. Permission, permission, permission. The way I used to play. He controlled every aspect of the game from the field to the hands to the... well, everything. He had a Gravity Bind from the beginning of the game. I didn't want to Solemn it 'cause I had a Jinzo, Harpies, and Heavy. It never expired throughout the whole game. I played Jinzo and he Solemn'd it. Harpies? Imperial. Heavy? Jammer. >_< Jeez. I got one of his pieces into the grave via Cyber Jar and some other stuff, but damn. I got beat down by an Exodia deck. Well, I check out Roddel's duel some more, but it's just eating up more time. If Bazoo were a Time Eater, it'd be enough to fill his big arse up. So I start playing David's Toon/Exodia deck. Good stuff. Fun, and it'll get your mind off stuff. He manages to get a Toon Blue Eyes out, but that's when I'm called my number is up. I'm facing... Rodel. Round 3: Voltaire vs. Rodel Remember when I mentioned Alex's dad? Well... here he is. Father and son. Will he take revenge or will I go two-for-two against that family? Hmmm... well, only the cards can tell. First move, he puts down a monster. Hmm... I put Gradius with Cyclon Laser out and hit it. Bam! His lifepoints roll down by 1000. But for some reason, my Gradius turns rubbery and bounces off the dueling field. Next turn I'm hit for 1900. Gemini. Next turn, Dark Hole. Thwack! Guardian hits him. I'm enjoying this already... it's not a brain-to-brain duel, but instead an all-out thwack-out. I set 2. He uses harpie's. No way! I Jam it. He grins and says, "You're protecting that, huh?" and Mysticals my Mirror Force. NO!!! Ehem. Anyhow, hits me with Kycoo. Damn. Have to go defensive, all I've got are monsters and best of which is Bazoo, which can't do jack. ...or not. I draw pot. Play, then I have... *trumpet fanfare* Shield and Sword. Bazoo's DEF: 900. Kycoo's DEF: 700. The strange thing about using obscure cards to beatdown opponents' monsters and seeing their facial expressions: Priceless. Anyway, after, I'm too retarded to remove to protect him and he gets messed up. I don't last long against pure beatdown. Straight beatdown. Hmm... side-deck? Maybe not. Fissure? But for what? Hmmm... I must deliberate. ...or not. Being the recklessly impatient Eternal, I just go for it. He sets 3, and plays 1 monster. I try to dust it, but it gets blocked. I play Patrol Robo and set 1 m/t. He doesn't pay, then MSTs it. XD Fun! Fun! Fun! Well, he hits me up and I get pretty messed up. I dark hole, and he uses witch to grab... and he tells me this, the ladies. I play my best, but I just can't stand up to power. He also plays some obscure cards... and combos, like playng Collected Power/Gearfied. Hmmm... would've been a lot easier just to play "The Naked King" aka The Emperor's Holiday... (lame name) Well, I'll be back next week. Just you wait, everyone... oh, and for future notice... if you play at A World of Books, what's up? I'm the guy who has THE deck... It's "The Deck that's so Powerful that it needs to be tied down... with rubber bands." ;p Quite literally, it has to be tied down. Tournament Highlights: -Pulled another Tourney Rare: Kwagar Hercules. PWNAGE! -Fweh! Not a first-round knockout! Cons: -Meh, pure beatdown shuts this deck down. Actually, any deck that counters... anything shuts this deck down. Need... tweak... age... -Voltaire Abaya(Eternal) -Thunderv11@yahoo.com -Note: Special shout out to Froilan who made it to the finals. Tough competition out here, man. Stay cool, guys.