The Raven’s Call
Lael Brattan
Hall of Heroes, Echelon Mall
Voorhees, New Jersey
August 13, 2004 - 7:30 PM
Again, many, many participants
Entry fee is a minimum purchase of $4.
First place gets 3 packs.
Second place gets 2 pack.
Third and fourth place get 1 pack.
The rest get nothing but their entry purchase.
Hi everyone, and welcome to my fourth Tournament Report. Last week was great, as I made it to the semifinals and Nick won the tournament. Let’s see what happens this time.
Deck: 40 cards
Monsters: 17
x1 Jinzo
x1 Vampire Lord
x1 Despair from the Dark
x2 Ryu Kokki
x1 Patrician of Darkness
x3 Pyramid Turtle
x2 Spirit Reaper
x1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
x1 Witch of the Black Forest
x1 Sangan
x1 Sinister Serpent
x1 Fiber Jar
Spells: 17
x1 Pot of Greed
x1 Graceful Charity
x1 Raigeki
x1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
x1 Monster Reborn
x1 Dark Hole
x1 Change of Heart
x1 Mirage of Nightmare
x3 Mystical Space Typhoon
x1 Snatch Steal
x1 Premature Burial
x1 Painful Choice
x3 Book of Life
x1 Call of the Mummy
Traps: 6
x1 Mirror Force
x1 Imperial Order
x1 Call of the Haunted
x1 Ring of Destruction
x2 Waboku
I used my Zombie deck again, because it’s still doing better than my Control deck ever did.
Pre-Tournament:
For the first time since I began to write these, all four of us were able to go. Too bad we still haven’t decided on a name for the four of us…no, Pat, we’re not Team Red Fury. Anyway, Nick took me, and Pat brought Kenny and his sister. Nick and I got there around 6:00 PM. We played DDR (I averaged a C…crap, I’m getting better), and entered. They had the Exclusive Packs, and Pat bought two of those. Nick entered for Kenny, and took a pack of AST and an Exclusive Pack. I bought AST, and got my second Venus. I’ve gotten three packs of AST ever, and gotten Triangle Power and two Venuses. Anyway, the tourney began at the usual time.
Round
One:
Lael (Zombie) vs. Greg (Kaiba/Dragon)
I had never seen this guy before…from what he told me, he had been here before, but not competed. I heard his friend remark that they were from Philadelphia; what a long way to go for an unsanctioned tournament. Anyway, he was fairly nice, and we began.
Duel One
Wow…such a fast duel. My opening hand (as I always write down my opening hand on the first duel and not in any other duel the whole time) was MST, Graceful, Mirror Force, Harpie’s, and Pyramid Turtle. At some point, I played Book of Life on my Vampire Lord and attacked, bringing the score to 8000-3600. I won this game soon after.
Again, this was a very quick duel. On my second turn, I tributed my face down card (…Pyramid Turtle, maybe?) for Ryu Kokki, and it was quickly Trap Holed. I played Premature Burial after some contemplation, and he came back for an attack. Next turn, he summoned Lord of D., and brought out Blue Eyes to attack with both. I drew…top-decked Raigeki. Awesome. I destroyed his monsters and played Monster Reborn on his Blue Eyes. “Oh crap,” he said. I used a Pyramid Turtle and Blue Eyes to win the game soon after.
Turner lost in the first round to a burn deck (not Kenny’s). Nick lost to the same person he had beaten in the finals just last week in the first round as well. Pat lost his match too, to someone he and Ken pointed out as being a jerk. This is in the cleanest form, of course <_<. Kenny won, unbeknownst to me. I let Pete know I had won, and he told me to sit down at the table and he would find an opponent. He came back a minute later…with Kenny! We protested, but Pete said, “Sorry guys, sometimes it happens.” Eh…I don’t like playing friends at all. Especially those who I know have the ability to beat me. So the way it was, only one person out of the four of us were staying in the tournament, and the rest would be out.
Round
Two:
Lael (Zombie) vs. Kenny (Burn)
Kenny originally thought I was playing the control deck, and I let him know that my deck wouldn’t handle a burn. It was a fun duel, but still bull that we had to face each other, being friends.
There were two Fiber Jar flips on his part during the first duel. He used Lava Golem and took away most of my life points, leaving me with 2500. A few turns later, he took me out with Fire Princess.
Okay, knowing that Kenny’s burn deck (and for that matter, all burn decks) rely on mainly trap cards for their deck to be effective, I knew that the best way to win this was to get out my Jinzo as early as possible, and keep him out by any means necessary. I was successful when he paid for Imperial Order three times in the early game, and, having a hand full of magic cards, was able to take advantage of it as soon as I had a chance to use them. I used Book of Life to get out Despair from the Dark, Reborned my Jinzo, and used those two to win the game in a couple of turns.
Well, I thought I would lose 2-0, but it went to game three. He brought out Messenger of Peace very early, and kept me at bay for most of the duel, as I could only really attack with Pyramid Turtle, and his Fire Princesses kept getting in the way. My parents came back halfway through, and threw a bag of cookies at me. Kenny took the chocolate one, and I took this moment of weakness to strike! Muhahaha! I played Monster Reborn on my Jinzo, and while it took a while for him to react, finally played Solemn Judgment to bring his life points down to dangerous levels. Okay…flip Call of the Haunted, and Jinzo comes back. It took a few turns (thankfully Kenny didn’t draw Lava Golem in that time, as I had four monsters at one point), but I finally drew an MST to get rid of Messenger of Peace. My Despair and Jinzo, along with V-Lord and Pyramid Turtle, won me the duel. What a bittersweet victory.
Between
Rounds:
Nothing really to report…some kid wanted to trade me, and took 5 minutes to accomplish essentially nothing at all. I figured that as I was in the third round, this would be my wall. Hopefully I would be surprised.
Round
Three:
Lael (Zombie) vs. Shane (Chaos)
Yeah, a Chaos deck. Fortunately my
Zombie deck is better prepared against Chaos than my Control. This particular person was the “jerk” who
had beaten Pat in the first round.
He got his Chaos Sorcerer about mid-game, and was able to remove both of my Ryu Kokkis, as well as my Spirit Reaper. He played Swords on me afterward, which was essentially pointless, as he activated Imperial Order a turn later. When he had 1800 LP left, I summoned Tribe and played Book of Life on my Pyramid Turtle, as it was the only Zombie in my grave (I think a Fiber flip was done a few turns ago). I won the first duel.
Well, apparently he doesn’t know how Vampire Lord works, or didn’t realize what kind of cards were in my deck. On the second or third turn, he summoned Giant Orc, played Change of Heart on my Vampire Lord, and called Monster. Well, that wasn’t too smart, was it…let’s see, there’s a card in my deck that benefits from being discarded directly from the hand or deck. Any guesses? Anyone? Ah yes, the “Mack Daddy” of my deck, if you will. So yeah, Despair was summoned to the field. He still won this game, though, as he summoned Chaos Sorcerer and removed my Despair, then used it and Giant Orc to win.
Well, all I remember was at the very end of the duel. The LP count was 1300 (him) – 2900 (me). He had Archfiend Soldier out, and attacked my face down Fiber Jar. He chained Return from the Different Dimension, which brought his Theban Nightmare and Kuriboh back to the field for half of his life points. Now, here’s the part that caused a bit of controversy: assuming they stayed on the field rather than being returned to the deck, would it still be his Battle Phase after he drew five cards for Fiber? And, if Watapon were to be one of the five cards he drew, would it be special summoned to the field? Anyway, he had 650 LP to my 2900. He used Theban, Watapon, and Kuriboh to attack for 2000, leaving me with 900. I drew, and used the first card that I knew would win me the duel – Change of Heart. I don’t even remember the other cards in my hand, but I CoH his Theban and attacked Watapon for game.
Between Rounds:
Holy crap, I was in the fourth round. Even better, I was one of only THREE people left! Holy crap, I had NEVER done this well, even last week, because I’m not sure how I really did. Anyway, I didn’t get the bye, so I had to play one round before I went to the finals. I faced Dolan, an old rival of sorts, but still cool.
Round Four (Holy crap!):
Lael (Zombie) vs. Dolan (BIG Chaos)
Dolan has a rather big deck in conventional terms – 46 cards. He plays it well, though, and he knows his deck.
He played Delinquent Duo rather early, and let me discard…muhahahaha…Despair from the Dark from my hand. He used Nobleman of Crossout twice during the duel, once early on to destroy my Fiber Jar, and later on to my Spirit Reaper. He played Stray Lambs near the end of the duel, but I used Despair, Ryu Kokki, and Pyramid Turtle to win the duel.
Well, he took out Magical Scientist, and summoned Ryu Senshi to prevent me from any traps. He brought out Black Luster Soldier, and attacked…I had Mirror Force and Ring face down. Next turn, I rang BLS to bring the score to 700-1000, with him in the lead. He played Premature Burial on his BLS, I believe, to attack for game. Unfortunately, if I had played Mirror Force when he had Senshi out, he would have lost 1000 and I would have won. *sigh* It’s mistakes like that cost people the game.
I did a move during this duel that I thought was rather clever for me – he summoned Injection and attacked me, and then on my turn, played Monster Reborn on my Ryu Kokki and attacked Injection. He boosted her up, and lost 2000 LP while I only lost 1000, and both monsters were destroyed (Injection through Kokki’s effect). Later on, I played Snatch Steal on his Zaborg (an underrated card, in my opinion), and used it and Pyramid Turtle to deplete his LP. He set Fiber next turn, only for me to flip it. I had 1200 LP left, and drew two Wabokus and a Mirror Force after the flip. I lasted two or three more turns, but after he had summoned Scientist on one turn, Spear Dragon the next, and summoned Ryu Senshi, I lost after his Dragon attacked my face down Sangan.
Post-Tournament:
Well, I had legitimately won third place – better than ever before. And so I won one pack of any set. Since AST was sold out, I took Invasion of Chaos and pulled a Berserk Gorilla – not the best card in IOC, but definitely not the worst. Dolan lost in the finals, but I finally had a chance to eat dinner! My dad was laughing because he had made fun of Pat’s sister earlier without knowing who she was, and then realized once Pat appeared with her later, along with Turner (who was announcing rather loudly how he had beaten Pat in a duel). It was a great night, and I enjoyed it immensely.
Pros:
- (Definitely) coming in third place!
- Chiro not making it even to the semifinals
- Pete for being cool
- Chick Fillet for good food, as usual
- People who read my reports and compliment me
- Matt showing up and teaching us the art of “Lying, cheating, and stealing”
- Walter for winning the tournament
- Keeping the straight face during the duels, and showing no emotion
- Kenny mooching off of my parents…I guess this is a plus because it’s funny
Cons:
- Little kids who blow me off for not having any “good” cards to trade
- Turner for constantly annoying me during my duels
- Having to play Kenny in the second round
- Everyone losing early on in the tournament
- Wanting to play DDR more…nooooo!!!
- Getting a second Venus out of my AST pack
- The Simpsons possibly being canceled…PLEASE tell me it’s not true! PLEASE!!!
- The guy who’s also going to write Tourney Reports from HoH…you terk mah jerb!!!
And that’ll do it this time. As always, anybody who would like to contact me for anything can do so at NMaster1223@aol.com or through AIM at NMaster1223. Thanks for reading, and please keep reading my reports and sending ways to help.
-Lael