The Raven’s Call
Lael Brattan
Hall of Heroes, Echelon Mall
Voorhees, New Jersey
August 20, 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.
Hello again, and welcome back. It’s time again for my fifth Tournament Report at Hall of Heroes. If you have been reading my reports, you’ll find that last week, I came in third place, losing only due to a careless mistake on my part. Read on to see what happens tonight, as it was very event-filled.
Deck: 40 cards
Monsters: 15
x1 Jinzo
x1 Vampire Lord
x1 Despair from the Dark
x2 Ryu Kokki
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: 7
x1 Mirror Force
x1 Imperial Order
x1 Call of the Haunted
x1 Ring of Destruction
x1 Torrential Tribute
x2 Waboku
Zombie deck again, with one difference: I took out Patrician of Darkness, after getting a suggestion from someone who read my report and contacted me. In its place, I added a card I had side decked: Torrential Tribute. I figured that with all of the recursion that I could do, it wouldn’t be much of a loss to have my monsters destroyed.
Pre-Tournament:
Before I start, I need to make a correction. Pat wanted me to tell you that he lost in the third round last week, not the first. I told him I’d fix that, so here you go.
All of us went again. Pat left at 1:00 so that he could play DDR for hours beforehand (-_-), and Nick took me. Ken had to take the bus to get to the mall. Tonight there were a lot of new players who frankly were annoying me constantly. One kept trying to sell me his Blue Eyes Shining Dragon for $15. Unfortunately, the curve of the metagame is steep: there are only a few good players, and the rest aren’t as good, or they use strategies and combos that are easily defeated. I was talking with my friends, and someone came up behind me and asked where somebody in particular was. He showed me a paper with the name, and it was my own. I believe his name was Jack, and he had come all the way from Piscataway, NJ to our tournament in Voorhees. For those who don’t know the area, it’s approximately 45 minutes to an hour drive. Amazing. It was cool, though: he had two decks, but the one he prized involved Chaos Emperor Dragon. The strategy was to get his opponent to have as many cards as possible in hand through cards such as Cyber Jar, Sasuke Samurai #3, and others, and then unleash CED to finish the job. He had told me that he once did 17,000 LP damage with CED in a 4-way duel before. Unbelievable. Well, Pete then came out and set up the brackets.
Round
One:
Lael (Zombie) vs. D’Andre(?) (No idea..)
Well, this person I had played twice before in my tournaments, and won rather handily both times. I was confident, but I didn’t underestimate him.
Duel One
He won the Rock, Paper, Scissors (I should just call it Jangen to save myself from typing it, but I don’t care) and went first. My opening hand was Pyramid Turtle, Spirit Reaper, Call of the Mummy, Sinister Serpent, and Mirage of Nightmare. He used the card Gravekeeper’s Servant on me early in the duel, which forces me to discard one card from my deck whenever I attack. Unfortunately, I had no luck in this duel – I lost quicky when he used Jinzo, Mad Dog of Darkness, Newdoria, and my Reborned Ryu Kokki to end the duel.
*sigh* He won again, although it lasted longer than the first duel. He used Guardian Angel Joan to raise his life points as high as 9900, and I was forced to use Fiber Jar at least twice during the duel. My Reaper held him off for a while, but he managed to get to my LP with Nightmare Wheel on my Kokki, and a Cyber Jar flip that resulted in him getting 1900 beatsticks against my Reaper and Pyramid Turtle. Again, I lost handily. Email me your taunts at your leisure.
Post-Tournament:
I was out in the first round. That sucked. I wasn’t angry or anything, just rather disappointed. Nick had won, as had Pat. Ken was still playing his first match, but he ended up losing. Jack had lost too, unfortunately. Turner ended up making it to the third round before losing to some girl. He was protesting it, but he’s eight years old and is still at the “girls are dumb” phase. I played Jack, and lost the first time, but won the second. Pete came by, and I turned to him and said, “You know, Pete, I’m bringing business here.” He sarcastically said, “Yeah, I know,” but I responded by saying, “I’m serious. This guy,” pointing to Jack, “is from Central New Jersey.” He stopped and looked at me. “What do you mean?”
I then started talking to Pete about these reports, and how I’ve been writing them for the past 4 weeks. He was extremely interested. He told me that while he didn’t know Yugioh, he knew that if I had been getting so much traffic from these, that he would definitely want to know how to generate business and get people to come to the store. He wants people to want to come to HoH expecting to get something out of it. That means he’ll want my opinion on the condition of the tournaments, he wants me judging, and it might mean some monetary gains out of this. Not bad. It’s very intriguing, and I hope that I can help the tournaments get better. I’ve got some ideas on how to better improve the quality of my local tournament. Therefore, I ask for your help.
So I ask this of any of you reading this tournament report right now. What do you want out of your tournaments? Are you expecting better prizes, better competition? Do you want different types of play, such as Limited or Sealed, to be more common? Let me know what your opinions are. It would really help me out to know what would make the Yugioh experience better for you. Heh.
Incidentally, I figure that since Pete will be reading these now, I should say that anything inappropriate I may have said regarding him was simply written out of anger and frustration. It means nothing personal, really. …Wow, I sound like a kiss-up. I’ll stop now to spare you all. (But the stuff about Chiro was said in all honesty. J)
Pros:
- Pete’s compliment on how Turner is a “more advanced” duelist than the other 12 & under kids
- Meeting Jack from Piscataway
- Pete commending me on my reports, and asking for my advice, of all people, to help him
- Pat for coming in third place
- Turner for doing better than me
Cons:
- Losing in the first round, although it didn’t prove to be too bad
- The store selling out on cards early on in the night
- Turner for doing better than me
That’s it for this edition of my weekly tournament report. I doubt I’ll write one next week, because I start my new job. Don’t hesitate to contact me at NMaster1223@aol.com, or through AIM at NMaster1223. Thanks for reading, and please keep reading my reports and sending ways to help. And again, I thank all of you who send me emails and IMs on deck fixes, suggestions, help, and so on. If anyone is in the southern New Jersey area and wants to come to my tournament to play, feel free to swing on by. Let me know and I’ll give you details if you need them.
-Lael