“Machine’s Way”
Tournament report by Creon316
Space Coast Games, Palm Bay, FL
October 25, 2003
$2 Admission, double elimination
About 25 participants
Hey out there in Pojo land,
I’m back with my 3rd tournament report, with another specialty deck type. I’ve never been one for beatdown decks. If you read my last report, you know of my quest to assemble a Machine deck. It’s now on the shelves, and here’s a report of my first tournament outing with it. After having a lot of success with online games with this deck, I felt it was ready to go to bat. Here’s the blueprint.
Deck name: “Machine’s Way”. My first idea was “Rise of the Machines,” but that was already taken. I got this name from the Stephen King book The Dark Half. The main character Thad Beumont wrote slasher horror novels, and his villain was named, I think, Alexis Machine. Machine’s Way was the name of his book.
Total cards: 41
Normal Monsters: (8) I think this is the most I’ve ever had in a deck. I’ve never even seen a real Mechanical Chaser, so don’t even ask.
3x Inpachi LOVE this guy! Spear Dragons and Gemini Elves bounce off him when defending. But why is a possessed tree glowing red a Machine? It says, “A log that attacks lost travelers in the forest. Originally a big tree, it was cut down and possessed by a wicked spirit.” That suggests Plant, or even Fiend, not nuts and bolts.
3x Gradius Weakling…but useful in this deck when used correctly.
2x Overdrive
Effect Monsters: (11)
3x Gradius’ Option Thank you Konami for the self-promotion.
Witch of the Black Forest Jinzo fuel.
Jinzo Sure he’s useful anywhere, but he absolutely rules this deck!
Catapult Turtle Had my doubts about this…it is a tribute monster. However, the number of games it’s singlehandedly won me makes it a keeper. Wish I had two actually.
Magician of Faith Yeah it’s outdated, but getting back that Limiter or Heavy Storm can be game-breaking. Just beware of Nobleman, Sasuke Samurai, Dark Hole, etc.
Cannon Soldier I will never badmouth this card again. You’ll see why later.
Shining Angel This is strictly to get Gradius on the field quicker as a special summon, so those useless Options in my hand can come out as SS and I can tribute for something really good, or set up the kamikaze run. Or, just put Gradius on the field to absorb another attack and cut into the damage.
Spell: (16)
2x Limiter Removal Enough said. I only own 2 of these, but it seems to work just fine. I still say it looks like the 60 Minutes logo.
2x Mystical Space Typhoon I’m really sick of these but you need them. I tried using none at first, counting on Heavy Storm, Duster, and Jinzo. Nothing doing.
Raigeki
Messenger of Peace A little out of place, but has bought me some time. A handful of my monsters can still go under it for when I face weenie rush decks.
Premature Burial
Graceful Charity
Fairy Meteor Crush It’s worth using when you have a Limiter run going…can still end a game in one shot, especially against that Spirit Reaper. And more versatile than Cyclon Laser.
Change of Heart
Dark Hole
Heavy Storm
United We Stand
Trap: (6)
2x Waboku
Imperial Order
Call of the Haunted
Mirror Force
Ultimate Offering Probably the weakest card in this deck. Hasn’t been an absolute godsend, but the number of times I wished I had it while fine tuning the deck made it worth trying. Did help a tiny bit.
A moment of silence for the cards that were made for this deck but didn’t make the cut: 7 Completed, Cyclon Laser. Also I pitched Heart of Clear Water (save Gradius on field) and Gaia Power (thought it might help with Limiter runs w/ Overdrive and Inpachi).
Side deck: (16…whoops)
Heart of Clear Water (still like the idea)
Bad Reaction to Simochi
Last Will (might work in this deck…didn’t use it today though)
Exchange
Prohibition
7 Tools
Reverse Trap
Giant Trunade
Fengsheng Mirror
Collected Power
Offerings to the Doomed
Vengeful Bog Spirit
Soul Release
House of Adhesive Tape
Ordeal of a Traveler
Ekibyo Drakmord
Right away I got put against the top guy at our tournament. The guy that wins EVERY SINGLE tournament, week after week. Can nobody figure out his deck and beat him? I thought who’d I piss off to get this pairing right away? Oh well, take it like a man. As I walked like one on his way to the electric chair, a couple people sneered at me “You got Mark?”
Match #1: Me vs. Mark and his Beatdown deck. “If it’s ultra rare, it’s in there!” He was quite vocal to my inquiry about Don Zaloog…he will NOT run that piece of crap. He wished me good luck and off we go.
First duel: Let’s see—a few turns in he had one monster defending. Managed to get him on the run. I squandered my hand to activate Limiter and Fairy Meteor Crush on a measly Gradius and 1 Option. Not bad, but it left me open. He whips out Yata and declares a win. I told him I had 6600 LP left and he’d have to start pecking. I pass of course, next turn he does it again.
You know a good counter for
a Yata lock? Marie the Fallen
One! If you have just one in the
graveyard, the lock alone will not end the game. In fact, your opponent would deck out if they keep
going. Of course, if you’re in a
situation this bad, and actually have Marie the Fallen in your deck to begin
with…might be time to activate your Millenium Puzzle.
Anyway, realizing I’m not scared, he instead summons Gemini Elf and hits me directly. Fine, I get to draw. The Heart of the Cards began beating furiously and I got Inpachi, set it in DEF. He brings out Yata, and his Elves bounce off Inpachi! HAHAHAHAHA! Now he’s really mad. I forget what I drew, but nothing helpful. His next turn, he plays Snatch Steal, and finishes me off. Oh well.
Second Duel: This one was interesting. I went first, and 2 or 3 turns in I managed to get him down to 5000-something after a Limiter Removal run, which included my Jinzo. Got him out quickly via Graceful Charity and Monster Reborn, and fried him with Limiter. I was holding Premature Burial and had plans for him. He got really nervous that I even did that much damage, and began furiously Potting and Gracefulling, and then with my 6 card hand he hits me with Forceful Sentry, Delinquent Duo, and Confiscation. He spent a full minute or two examining my cards with Confiscation—I could hear the wheels turning. He left my 2nd Limiter in my hand. Feeling more confident, he got out Gemini Elf, Spirit Reaper, and Mystic Tomato all at once. I use Mirror Force. He swears! Now he’s off his rocker and his concentration was fleeting. Gave me a huge advantage that had nothing to do with cards.
We now have 2 clear fields, and both our Jinzos are in the graveyard. He gets out Spirit Reaper, then plays Monster Reborn, and just to insult me takes MY Jinzo from the dead. Now, he knew I was holding Limiter. Guess Jinzo’s type escaped him. See, frustration can really work for you. He attacks directly with both. Okay, I survived. Then I MST on his one M/T card and it was Mirror Force, I think. Not a big deal with Jinzo out, but still a relief.
Then I drew and summoned Shining Angel. He has no M/T on the field, just those 2 ugly mugs. By now I was holding Change of Heart. I activate that on Jinzo, activate Limiter, he gets REALLY mad, and I attack Spirit Reaper head-on with both, dealing enough damage for the win. I actually dealt a deathblow with Shining Angel.
Third Duel: He’s still really flustered. Just with that, I thought I really had a shot here. Most people don’t even last 3 rounds with Mark. In fact, a small crowd had gathered by now. He abruptly declares that he’s going first.
This one began looking grim, as a few turns down the road I am at 1400 and he’s still at 8000. On the way I worked in Ultimate Offering, and got in some extra tomfoolery with Gradius/Option and Magician of Faith. To no avail…he popped Gradius and took the Options. With Magician, I did manage to get a Limiter back from my graveyard that he’d Confiscated on. Forgot to thank him for speeding up its trip to my hand. J
Another spectator walked up and thought he asked a rhetorical question, “Who won the first game?” He was then amazed that Mark was even being forced to play a third duel. Hmm…maybe my courage in the face of a Yata Garasu lock was the first step. Like Mai said, psychology is half of this game. And I was a Psychology major, I should know.
I don’t remember much else about this duel except my last turn. He had Spirit Reaper in defense mode and Witch OTBF in ATK mode, with no M/T. My field is empty except for Ultimate Offering faceup. In my hand were, among others: Cannon Soldier, United We Stand, and that one Limiter. I drew: my other Limiter. Who yelled CLEAR! on the heart of my cards? I had to check the math on the calculator before I made my move. Do it with me:
Cannon Soldier: 1400 ATK
Add United We Stand: 2200
Activate 1st Limiter: 4400
2nd Limiter: 8800
Soldier attacks his Witch that was carelessly left in ATK mode, dealing 7700 overflow damage. His eyes pop out of his head as he goes from 8000 LP to 300. Remember Soldier’s effect? Like Emeril’s garlic, BAM! From 8000 to 0 in one Battle Phase. Mark looks down at his field and blurts out “He won!” I’ve never seen this guy get unglued before. If you read my “Legendary Ocean” report and remember my reaction to losing…this must have been what I looked like.
I wasn’t a jerk about it though. I just grinned a lot and thanked him for an interesting match. I went to tell the coordinator that I’d won this match, wondering if he’d believe me. A couple people were talking about how I’d won.
To think I had my doubts about Cannon Soldier. I figured Turtle was more valuable with it’s effect that can do more damage. I’ve seen the light, he stays.
Wiping the sweat off my brow, it was time to defend the title.
Match #2: Me vs. Sam, with pieced-together beatdown deck. “Don’t be a playa-hata, be a beatdown deck imatata!”
First duel: Wow, for once I’m not heading straight for the loser’s bracket. I don’t remember all the details here, just that I pulled off a massive Limiter kill again. I used Ultimate Offering to fill out my field to 4 after getting Gradius and some options out. I carefully did the math first, and then tributed an Option for Catapult Turtle in attack mode, used Change of Heart on something, activated Raigeki, then Limiter, attacked with what I could, then tributed everything with Turtle for the win. Did I mention I like Catapult Turtle? To think it was only a sidedecker in my Ocean deck.
Second Duel: Coming off 3 wins in a row, I’m feeling pretty good now. However, I drew too many monsters at the top. Take a look at my monsters’ stats…they don’t work just on their own. Also I kept getting Options and no Gradius or Shining Angel.
I made a mistake here. I was staring down a 7 colored fish, which will kill most anything in my deck. He set another in DEF…I was holding Turtle and planned to Change his 7 colored so I could tribute it away to summon Turtle. Thinking I would then attack that FD with my Overdrive, I reached for…the FD. I blew it. It was Sangan. Had I taken the Fish like I’d meant, I’d have killed his Sangan and lasted a bit longer. Couldn’t attack with that, and I wasn’t about to sac it and give him its effect. (Huh huh…I said sac.) I couldn’t move the Fish and had to end, having wasted a Change of Heart. He then plays Raigeki and gets another 1800 out, and I couldn’t recover.
Third Duel: Nothing I did seemed to work here. I set up a nice Limiter run, including Cannon Soldier but no Jinzo, and he flips Mirror Force. That wiped me out. He killed me with an Opticlops a few turns later.
So I beat the top guy, but then gave it up to Sam whom I can normally beat. Heck, my Gravity Bind decks run roughshod over him. A few of my new fans criticized me for giving that match up. I felt really ashamed for not having defended the title. Kind of took away from that mega-victory I scored. Oh well. If only I hadn’t changed that Sangan, I might not have been here.
The first guy, Mark, was still a bit shaken, and told me we might face each other again in the losers’ bracket now. Yep, right back in the gutter where I belong. He continued to make a few wary comments throughout the day. It was funny. He stated he did NOT want to play me again, and called me “Mr. Limiter Removal.”
Third match: Me vs. trade fiend with sleek, efficient beatdown, albeit with older cards. “Run the best…trade the rest!”
YAWN…am I the only one with any imagination here? This guy’s deck was top of the line about the time LOD came out. About the same time I was good with beatdowns.
This guy and his buddy managed to rack up complete sets of both Exodia and FINAL during this one stay. Yep, all 10 cards, from scratch. They’ll be salesmen when they grow up. At first they wanted my foil Magic Jammer and Asura Priest, but changed their minds. They also wanted my 1000 Eyes Restrict, but I have plans for him. (I got my first Metamorphosis at the flea market.)
I lost this match 0-2. It was my turn to be flustered. I kept drawing my weak monsters. In fact when I went first, I got 6 in hand. That, and the guy sitting next to me kept talking and was commenting to me about what I was holding. Nothing specific, but it gave the other guy an idea of what I was holding. Then he got offended when I asked him to stop. He asked me if I knew who he was, too. Hmm…maybe I’ve been talking to him online, I don’t know. I bet he’s reading this right now. Anyway, again, I lost. The opposing deck was just loaded with the usual counters and flowed quickly. He was using old crap though—he finished me off with 2 La Jinns.
I was down to 3200 and had nothing to defend with, and I quit before a direct attack bumped me right out of the tournament. Way to go, champ.
Figured I’d stay and play some more free duels since the day wasn’t a total loss. So I did some trading. There was a noob around with a couple super and ultra rares in his deck. He was waving around his Imperial Order and trying to trade for it. Nobody would let him, we all had mercy. One guy offered him a common and was pounced on. I traded with him twice though: scored my 2nd Messenger of Peace, in exchange for a Graceful Charity, then I got his Spirit Reaper in exchange for my only Magic Cylinder and a common Change of Heart. (He has IO but not Change of Heart?) He really wanted my Stop Defense. I just gave it to him as a gift of purchase, I’m never going to use it. I can remember when I really wanted one of those too. I remember playing this kid a couple weeks ago with my Clown deck. He summoned a Moisture Creature and thought he had me beat, but my Gravity Bind, followed by Dream Clown proved otherwise.
There were a couple guys trying to build Gravekeeper decks, and I was the only person there with a Terraforming, so a bidding war began. I finally traded it for a Book of Moon. When I used that in my sea deck, it ALWAYS came in the first hand. It did the same for the Gravekeeper guy when I played him later. It really is magic. Also, someone just gave me a free Roulette Barrel since it was a Machine.
I had a lot of success in the free duels I played. I played the noob and beat him on my third turn with a Limiter’d Jinzo and Overdrive. He flipped Nightmare Wheel, I had to explain Jinzo to him. (WHERE is he getting these cards?) Then for round 2, we used each others’ decks and I beat my own machines, using Dark Jowls of Demise’s effect for the win. I took apart another quiet kid with the double whammy of Limiter Removal + Catapult Turtle. Not sure what kind of deck it was, he wasn’t around long enough to see many cards.
I lost pretty bad to another regular who already had a decent Dark Magician deck. Yugi’s favorite was summoned by turn 2. He played Wave Diffusion Cannon or whatever the hell that thing is…I didn’t understand what spell counters were and how they damage me, I just took his word for it and stopped playing when he told me he’d won. Then I played the kid that got my Terraforming. We played 3 duels, and he won 2 and I got the last one. You know something, Gravekeeper decks are not scary if you can keep Necrovalley down. Without that, you have a bunch of guys that will be dogmeat unless Messenger of Peace is active. Between my Heavy Storm, Feather Duster, and 2 MST’s I kept it at bay most of the time. He kept chaining my removal with his Rite of Spirit to get their effects. I guess it’s the same with any Field-based deck. I tried Legendary Ocean and hit all the obstacles myself.
By the way, Mark won the tournament anyway. After I sent him to the losers’ bracket, he clawed his way up to the finals and defeated the finalist of the winners’ bracket. Then, when he won, he gave the runner-up all of the cards he’d received, because he said he looked truly upset about losing. That was really sporting of him. He pulled an XYZ cannon, and would NOT let me have that as a reward, fearing that he’d have to face it someday. You know, I didn’t see any sympathy from him 2 months ago when his kid destroyed my Water deck with a Warriors Gone Wild deck. (See my “Legendary Aqua” report from August 2003 for a detailed description of this.)
Hmmm…would Last Turn work with Limiter? Activate it first to double attack, then flip Last turn and watch them lose. I wonder. Although, I didn’t really seem to have the problem of being below 1000 LP. Except once…in another free duel I was holding Jinzo, United, and Limiter, but couldn’t get him on the field. I flipped Ultimate Offering, but only had 300 lp…I could have turned that around.
I really need a Solemn Judgment—I hate that card, but Waboku and Imperial Order seriously messed me up today. If I could stop those and pull off the game-winning move, what’s the difference with LP loss. Think I will try decking a 7 Tools for now.
Later I switched out both Overdrives for Robotic Knights. His DEF is 300 higher, and different Attributes, otherwise they’re the same.
WHY didn’t they make a field card for machines? Many of them are different Attributes, and decking any field card is a shot in the dark. If Gradius were Earth, I’d stick with Overdrives and use Gaia Power. +500 is very good—factor in a Limiter and more fun. Is there another Light machine out there? If so, I would try the Luminous Spark and use Guardian of the Throne Room instead of Overdrive. Having all 2100 ATK monsters is nothing to sneeze at, and Gradius would instantly be 1700. If Mechanical Chaser were Light, I’d already just use them with GOTTR and Gradii. Oh, and if I’d ever seen a real one. If Machine Conversion Factory were a Field and not an Equip, I’d actually use it. All my 1600 machines would become Gemini Elves.
Oh, I pulled off a neat trick in the team duels. I had Witch set in DEF and Call of the Haunted ready. She was attacked with Harpie’s Brother. When a 2nd HB attacked, I chained it with Call and had her beat up again. I got 2 searches from her effect.
Thought of a nice 2 card combo—set some Dark Coffins, then activate Emergency Provisions on them. You gain big LP and your opponent has to discard. Just a thought. Please don’t deck either of these cards. J
Now I’m just rambling, so on to the props and slops:
Props:
-Me for taking down the reigning champ, at least for a while, pulling the upset and the sleeper hit of the day.
-Catapult Turtle and Jinzo for consistently being game-breaking
-Cannon Soldier for the uber-win
-Everyone there for being so friendly today, even that one kid I was complaining about in my last 2 reports. He was polite as could be today. None of my cards were stolen, so I don’t know what changed.
-My partner in the team duels, Greg, for being especially nice. He sat out 2 games and I won those singlehandedly.
-Getting my first Spirit Reaper, Book of Moon, and 2nd Messenger—Fire Princess shall return.
-Mark for giving away the prize cards when he won anyway.
Slops:
-One little kid that I saw cheating against the noob. He was drawing extra cards. He also equipped his monster with United. He hit Wall of Illusion, and took back both the monster and the United card, since the other didn’t know any better. It wasn’t a tourney game so I just stayed out of it.
-Losing more than once simply because they played one Waboku. Seriously, one of those ruins an entire duel when you rely on kamikaze attacks. Usually I hit one when I tried to use Heavy Storm…they’d chain activate Waboku, and my Limiter would stay right in my hand, and I’d end up losing the machines before my next turn.
-To the cheaters…I just don’t get the point. Guess it’s because I’m not a kid.
In case you’re wondering, I
advanced quite far in the team duels, but was finally wiped out by….the noob,
specifically because of the Change of Heart and Magic Cylinders I gave him, and
his Imperial Order. I SHOULD have
traded for it! That is irony. Also in the team duels, I had a rematch
of sorts against Mark, and he destroyed me with Jinzo. He said it was REALLY satisfying.
That’s all for today. I can’t seem to get past a 1 win / 2 loss ratio in actual tourney games, but my free duels keeping improving, so today was my best day yet. Now that I have an extra Messenger and 3 Fire Princesses, along with the Jinzo killa Book of Moon, I think my Fire Princess deck may be next up. I also acquired a Snatch Steal at the flea market. HA HA HA! If it’s interesting enough, I’ll post it right here. So long for now.
One last note…I got an Aitsu for 25 cents, simply because I was intrigued that cardboard and ink were wasted on this. Can ANYBODY think of a purpose for this? Skull Servant is a secret rare by comparison. In case you don’t know it—it’s normal, Fairy type, ATK 100 / DEF 100, Fire attribute, and the kicker….it’s level 5. A Sam’s Club case of alphabet soup still doesn’t have enough Y’S. WHY would you want this? I thought about it a lot and came up with 3 purposes.
1: To tribute for it and then set it to psyche out your opponent, who will have to wonder if it’s Beast of Talwar, Labyrinth Walls, Marie the Fallen One, Catapult Turtle, Jinzo, Summoned Skull, etc.. If you often tribute/set monsters, you could throw this in to confuse/piss them off. That should be printed actually, and it should be a flip effect monster. “FLIP: This card’s owner points and laughs at their opponent who just wasted a good card.” Think about this though—if a tribute monster is set, odds are your opponent WANTS you to attack it. So while this paper airplane guy is sitting on your field upside down, he might actually be safe. You know what, forget it. If this is your strategy, just use Labyrinth Walls, and let me know how your Serpent Knight Dragon equipped with Dragon Treasure does with Electric Lizard and Illusionist Faceless Mage backing him up.
2: Ever had a Sangan or Witch on field that you want dead but your opponent won’t kill? Now you can wipe them out via tribute. Sure, there’s better ways to do it, but Summoned Skull is so ugly, while this guy is kind of cute.
3: Creature Swap bait. Guaranteed overflow damage. I dunno, I’m just guessing. There must be a reason.
Seriously, I don’t get it. If you’re going to put in a weak tribute monster, just use Marie the Fallen One for the gift that keeps on giving. I hope there is a major equip card I don’t know about that only works on him. Please share if you have any ideas.
You know what I was thinking would be a nice Trap card? Something that gives life points every time a card effect instructs you to shuffle your own deck. Think of the fun…Tainted Wisdom, that MFC card that does nothing but get more of the same from your deck, Sangan, Cat of Ill Omen, the guy with the “?” hat in that one PGD card, Nimble Momonga, Painful Choice, etc. That would be so broken. Fire Princess fodder.
Thanks to Pojo for posting this and my other reports. I’m honored to be a part of this website and have met a lot of new people because of it. Thanks for reading this long. Again, I don’t have many people to discuss this game with.
Advice, comments, challenges—send on to
AIM: crooner316