Goat Catapult aerosaucer Card Dog Cambridge, MA April 25, 2003 A total of 15 people participated in this tournament. First off, the deck: Normal Monster - 1: 1 Summoned Skull that's it! Effect Monster - 16: 1 Jinzo 2 Hysteric Fairy (1800 attack and to sacrifice goats to in a pinch) 2 Magician of Faith 1 Cyber Jar 2 Penguin Soldier 1 Goblin Attack Force 1 Cannon Soldier (goat launcher) 1 Sangan 1 Witch of the Black FOrest 1 Bazoo the Soul Eater 1 Unfriendly Amazon (2000 ATK level 4, can sacrifice goats for it) 1 Sinister Serpent (free Magic Jammer, Tribute to Doomed, and cheaper Graceful Charity, plus blocker in a pinch) 1 Amazon Archer (the best goat launcher) Magic Cards - 17: 1 Change of Heart 1 Dark Hole 3 Scapegoats (wheee!) 1 Heavy Storm 1 Raigeki 1 Tribute to the Doomed 2 Graceful Charity 1 Harpie's Feather Duster 1 Monster Reborn 1 Pot of Greed 1 Premature Burial 1 United we stand (add 4000 ATK when the goats are out) 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 1 NObleman of Crossout Trap Cards - 6: 1 Call of the Haunted 1 Mirror Force 1 Torrential Tribute 1 Magic Jammer 1 Imperial Order 1 Dust TOrnado Total Number of Cards: 40 The great thing about this deck is that it has incredible flexibility. Many of the cards, especially Scapegoat, can be used both defensively (as blockers) or offensively (when launched). Just make sure you activate Scapegoat at the end of your opponent's turn so that you can summon. Otherwise, this is a pretty strong beatdown deck. I built it because I got frustrated by people blocking my attacks with cyber jar, waboku, etc., so I made a deck that can simply do direct damage when it gets blocked. I went with my friend Josh, and we got there early and talked to the other duelists, all younger kids in the beginning of their teens except for us and a guy wearing a transformers T-shirt and his girlfriend. We befriended a cool kid named Peter, who ended up getting a bye after we picked numbers (because there were only 15 of us). One kid wielding an Exodia beatdown was particularly rude and cocky, and the three of us vowed to take him down. The kid made many pathetically obvious attampts to get people to tell him what was in their decks; we might have shown him if he hadn't been trying to trick us into it. Josh and I are both 21 years old. Nice try. Josh was running a Dragon Deck with 2 Lord of D. and 2 Flute of SUmmoning Dragon as well as 3 Blue Eyes and a Red Eyes. Otherwise, his deck was rather similar to mine, minus the scapegoats (and he got a little 7 Tools happy wiht 2 or 3 at a time). He won a few games in extraordinary fashion by comboing to bring out 2 Blue Eyes at once. First round: me vs. owner's son This kid must have been around 8 or 9, and he ran a deck that resembled what would happen if you mashed together Joey and Pegasus strater decks and then added a Gemini Elf and Exodia. It's kind of hard to summon Thousand Dragon when your hand is full of Toon Monsters and Exodia pieces. He was a good kid though, if a little ADD. Duel 1 (win): I actually had a hard time at first because the only monsters I drew were 2xMagician of Faith. He set a lot of M/T, but I used HFD and Heavy Storm to take them out. Neither of us could draw a monster, then I eventually managed AMazon Archered some goats and finally finished him with Summoned Skull. He made no moves of note. Duel 2 (win): Once again, I had a hard time drawing any monsters but MoF. I think he hit me with Baby Dragon at some point, but then Bazoo and Hysteric Fairy took him out. Record: 2 - 0 Josh: Josh beat up a little girl, even though he allowed her some illegal moves, such as equipping black pendant to a face-down monster. Second Round: me vs. Robert/Bobby: Duel 1 (win): This kid took me by surprise, and might have beaten me had his deck been better. He played a defensive burner, with Giant Germs and Nimble Nomongas for defense. He just kept dropping Ookazis and Final Flames on me, and I couldn't seem to get past his monsters. His deck could have really benefitted from Toll and perhaps a fire princess,he used too many weak direct-damage cards like Final FLame. However, it did give him a lot of fodder in his graveyard to feed Skull Lair. I thought I had him with an early goat/archer combo, but he Trap Holed it (one of the few countermoves I saw in the whole tournament. He had me down to around 1600 life and he had over 6000, but then I somehow managed to play a Fairy with United We Stand while 3 goats were out, then used Premature Burial to bring back summoned skull as well, dealing over 6000 damage and saving my butt. Duel 2: (loss): I didn't think to sidedeck out my defensive cards, and simply got caught up in his direct damage. All the attack damage I did got refilled by his Nimbles, and a SOlemn Wishes, but it was a bonehead move that killed me: I flipped magician of Faith during my turn without any protection for it. With it stuck in attack mode, all he had to do was attack it with A 7-Colored Fish to finish me off. I might have been able to hurt him a turn earlier if I had had enough life points to use the 7 Tools I had to counter his Waboku, but I only had 700 at that point. Duel 3 (win): I sidedecked in Ceasefire and Skull Lair (for face-up Nimbles and Germs). However, HIS skull lair kept me at bay even when I had Skull in my graveyard and Monster Reborn in my hand. After an incredible turn in which I used Graceful Charity to get Pot of Greed to get Graceful Charity #2 to get HFD, I destroyed his skull lair and finished a great match with my reborned skull. Record: 4-1 Josh: won a tough duel against Transformers Guy, staying undefeated. Sadly, Cool Peter lost to the cocky Exodia beatdown kid in the third duel with only a few minutes left (grrr exodia). Third Round (SEMIFINALS): me vs. Katrina (Transformers Guy's girlfriend) Transformer guy had built her a good beatdown deck full of rare cards, I felt kind of bad beating her because she was a very sweet girl. Duel 1 (win): She hit me a few times with 1800 attackers such as Harpie's Brother and 7 Colored Fish and using change of heart, but I had another lucky draw of 2 GC and PoG in the same turn and was thus very effective at eliminating her monsters and M/T and attacking with Bazoo, Jinzo and others. It was a close game, and she had me on the ropes with a 7CF with Black Pendant, but I lucked out with Raigeki and struck back. Duel 2 (win): Won this one in 4 turns with a Scapegoat/UWS/Archer combo when she was having a very hard time drawing useful cards. Record: 6 - 1 Josh: Josh also lost to cocky Exodia kid (Magic Cylinder Prevented Josh from using his Lord and Flute to summon the 2 Blue Eyes in his hand that would have won him the third duel). So the finals were me and the brat...I had to defeat him to avenge my friends! Josh's record: 5-2 Fourth Round (FINALS): me vs. cocky Exodia brat This was for all the marbles. WHile I was sidedecking in Soul Release, Card Destruction, and MOrphing Jar #2 to counter Exodia, the kid actually came up to me and snidely said that he would "beat me just like I beat your friend." I calmly told him not to be so cocky. I'm not getting into an argument with a 12-year-old. This kid (or more likely his parents) must have spent hundreds on his deck, because he had 3 Gemini Elf, 2 Goblin Attack Forces, Magic Cylinder, Raigeki, Mirror Force, Exodia, 2 Backup Soldier, Jinzo...the whole works. Duel 1 (win): I had a really lucky draw, and smacked the smirk off his face with Bazoo and rather quickly took him out. I only took 1900 damage from one Gemini Elf attack. When he got the GE out, I thought I was in big trouble, but I luckily Torrential Tributed it the next turn when he summoned another monster. What was that you were saying about beating me? Duel 2 (WIN!!): I Mirror Forced his Gemini Elf and another attacker a few turns in, but he soon shut down my defenses with a well-timed Jinzo. I thought I was a goner, until I had a magestic turn in which I managed to use Card Destruction to get GC and PoG, wiped out his entire field, played Goblin Attack Force, used Premature Burial to get back the Summoned Skull I discarded with GC, then Monster Reborned HIS JINZO and massacred him! Josh was keeping score, and when he saw me draw summoned skull and monster reborn with Graceful Charity, he said "it's all over." Damn, that was satisfying. Final record: 8-1 The prizes: 1st place (me) got 3 more TP3 tournament packs (we each got one at the start), 2nd (cocky kid) got 2, and 3rd and 4th (Josh and Katrina) got one each. No one pulled anything interesting except I got a White Hole (which is going straight to ebay). CHEERS: -Being the champion -BEATING THAT BRAT!! -Getting White Hole -Trading for an Axe of Despair, Graceful Dice, Pot of Greed (for my girlfriend's deck) and the 2nd Graceful Charity. -The cool people I met (what up Pete, Katrina, Rob, the owner of Card Dog and his son) JEERS: -Cocky Kid -Cocky Kid beating Josh and Pete -People who hoard cards they don't use Credit goes out to Josh for getting us spots and the owner of Card DOg for being an awesome host! aerosaucer PenForSword@hotmail.com