The Raven’s Call
Lael Brattan
Hall of Heroes, Echelon Mall
Voorhees, New Jersey
July 30, 2004 - 7:30 PM
Again, many, many participants
Entry fee is a minimum purchase of $4.
First place gets 2 packs, or 1 pack of LOB or AST.
Second place gets 1 pack.
The rest get nothing but their entry purchase.
Hi everyone, and welcome back. This is my second Tournament Report. Here is my deck, and some comments. Then, onto the tournament!
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 Royal Keeper
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 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
My deck is a change from last week, as you can see. I’ll explain soon, but as you can see, this is a Zombie deck. On to the tournament, and enjoy the review.
Pre-Tournament:
Well, for the convenience of everyone, my dad decided to drive us to the tournament. Turner once again was able to go, as well as Kenny, and Nick was well enough to make it too. Pat was in Baltimore for Otakon with some other people. While in the car, Nick gives me a Despair from the Dark and trades my Cost Down and Fusion Sword Murasame Blade for two Book of Lifes. My Zombie deck is complete! We get there, and the usual group is already crowding the tables. We make a scan of who’s there, and while Nick and Ken secure their places in the DDR line, I take my dad to the front counter. Turner wanted a deck box, and he bought him one while I got the entry packs for us, both of which PGD. I pull a Wandering Mummy (Zombie…it’s a sign), and Turner gets Trap of Board Eraser. At least it’s a Super Rare. I had fixed Turner’s deck with my cards again, so I gave him the ones I took out. He had gotten a Cost Down the day before through dueling, and I told him to see if anyone would trade his Cost Down for a Raigeki or HFD. Nick goes on the prowl selling his cards, and I sit at the tables. Chiro comes in announcing at the top of his lungs that he had just bought an entire box of cards (LON, I think). Whoopie, that’s great, Chiro, now shut it. This one guy with a voice I would have had a field day with was asking me for Exodia pieces or the Envoys. Then he wanted my Drop Off. I didn’t trade because I just wanted doubles of the cards from my Control to go into the Zombie deck. After he leaves, I contemplate whether to use my tested Control or release the debut of my Zombie deck. I decide to test my Zombies before coming to a decision. I dueled a kid and beat him rather handily, and then duel Nick after he gets done DDR. He fell to my deck too, and said that he couldn’t catch a break against me. Before I was able to switch my cards back, the tournament begins, so I don’t have a choice – the Raven calls the demons from the grave to wreak havoc upon his opponents. Will this finally be the night I make it past the quarterfinals? Let’s see…
Round
One:
Lael (Zombie) vs. D’Andre (Jumble)
I don’t really know how to classify his deck. I saw him use control cards, he used Destiny Board, and lots of other cards. This was the person I had faced two weeks ago in the first round. He sighed when he found out he had to play me, and I just smiled.
Duel One
My opening hand was Sinister Serpent, Witch, Ryu Kokki, Fiber Jar, and Snatch Steal. I used Book of Life twice during this duel to give my Ryu Kokki rebirth. At one point, he activates the trap card Ordeal of a Traveler (I think this was the name). Anyway, what this card does is, each time I attack, I have to choose a card in his hand and decide what type (Monster, Trap, Spell) it is, and if I’m wrong, the attacking monster is returned to my hand. This was only used once, and I got the card right. He used cards such as Slate Warrior and Dark Jeroid to lower the ATK points of my monsters. I won the duel when I had Jinzo and Ryu Kokki on the field, then used Snatch Steal on his Sangan to attack for the win.
He went first and played a The Unhappy Girl (I think this is the card) in attack mode, then set a card and ended. I drew, summoned Tribe-Infecting Virus, and discarded Despair from the Dark to destroy his card (Spellcaster). I had Monster Reborn in my hand, so hey, why not use it on the Despair? This gave me the advantage for the whole duel, and I used it, Jinzo, and Royal Keeper to end the match and advance to Round Two.
Turner plays a child whose father was the person who offered me Book of Life for $14 last week. By the time I had won, Turner had already won one duel. I watched as, for the first time, Turner won a match in a tournament! The kid said, “I guess it’s another week that I won’t make it past the first round,” and I almost felt sorry for him, if it weren’t for the attitude of his father. He was complaining earlier that using Magical Scientist’s effect four times in one turn wasn’t right, and that he was writing to Beckett about it, because that didn’t seem like a legal move, and “Blah blah blah I don’t know what I’m talking about!” Beckett is not the ultimate authority on Yugioh, sorry to tell you. The move’s perfectly legal, and Polymerization is essentially obsolete with the cards we have now. Anyway…Kenny won, and so did Nick. My dad told me that the man had left the store in a huff, which was pretty funny.
Round
Two:
Lael (Zombie) vs. Jimmy (Zombie)
*Gasp!* Another Zombie deck! Last time I had faced Jimmy in the tournament, it was my Control deck against his burn deck. I found out he was playing Zombies when I got Painful Choice first turn. Pretty funny. Jimmy’s a cool guy, and I had fun in this duel. Throughout it, we were comparing the differences in our decks, and it was a fun duel. His deck was very creative – he used Elma, Rush Recklessly, and other cards I’d have never thought of using against me. The equip cards were meant to be effective against Spirit Reapers, and they certainly were. I thoroughly enjoyed this match.
This was a very long duel. In about the middle of the duel, he had two Spirit Reapers on the field, and I couldn’t destroy them. I got Patrician of Darkness out, and he attacked, so I forced him to destroy my Witch. He had just said, “Man, Tribe would wipe me out,” so guess what I took! I finally got through, and I nearly decked out. I finally got Fiber Jar to flip, and after a few more turns, I used Jinzo and Spirit Reaper to take the game. When I had 6100 life points left still, he forfeited the first duel.
The second duel was much quicker than the first. My Zombies overpowered his from the beginning. I finally won when I attacked with four monsters (I think it was two Kokkis, Reaper, and Sangan) for 5900 LP damage. We shook hands afterward; it was the first time either of us had faced another Zombie deck, and it was a very good duel.
Between
Rounds:
Turner unfortunately lost after winning the first duel in the second round. Kenny won his match, and advanced to the quarterfinals along with me. Nick was winning his match, but Pete, the manager, eliminated both him and his opponent for “taking too long.” Complete and utter bull.
Round
Three:
Lael (Zombies) vs. Chaos Deck
I never got this person’s name, sorry.
He ran (sigh) a Chaos deck. It
was very original (and big) for a deck of this type, using Magical Merchant and
other cards to gain drawing power.
Unfortunately I didn’t take notes on this duel, so forgive me for my
lack of detail in this duel.
This was a long duel. We traded blows, but I remained on top for the whole of the duel. I eventually won somehow…I can’t remember.
Unfortunately, I lost the second duel quickly when I couldn’t draw anything I needed. He finished me off with his BLS-EotB and Injection.
This was a very long duel as well. I was winning throughout the duel, bringing his life points down to 1900 when I had 4200. This was mostly due to him paying for IO a few times during the duel. I actually had five monsters on the field at once. Then, to my dismay, he flipped Cyber Jar, then Special Summoned *sigh* Chaos Emperor Dragon. I took 5100 LP damage, and lost the duel. Chaos decks are such a cheap way to win, and take little to no skill to use. I am disgusted at the extent to that CED and BLS are abused.
Post-Tournament:
Well, I’m still stuck in quarterfinal purgatory, never to emerge. I’m glad that I got closer with my Zombie deck, though. Afterward, Turner traded his Cost Down for Raigeki, and did a victory dance when he got it...yeah. My parents got us dinner from Chick-Fillet, and we ate while waiting for the results of Kenny’s semifinal duel. He won, and advanced to the finals! Chiro lost to the person I had lost to, so excuse me while I celebrate once again. So Ken played the chaos deck in the finals. In Kenny’s duel, he nearly won using his burn deck. Had he used Solemn Judgment when his opponent used HFD, he probably would have won. Since it was late, they only played one duel, and Kenny lost when his opponent had 800 LP left. As a prize, he got one pack (WHAT?!), and I said something to Pete. “Oh, we never offered four packs for winning, and two for second,” he said as he was talking on his phone. Once again, I call bull on that. I said, “Changing the rules, oh yeah!” loudly as we were walking away, but I don’t really know (or care) if he heard me. Kenny got a pack of LOD and pulled Thunder Nyan Nyan, then gave the pack to Nick “as a token of their friendship.” Ken is one of the coolest guys I know. On the way home, we were talking about the obnoxiousness of the people at the tournament, and how Pete fixes the brackets so that the people he likes face easy people (see Chiro’s duels). It was a fun night regardless. And now, for the high (and low) lights of the night:
Pros:
- My Zombie deck for doing slightly better than my Control
- Nick for being well enough to come
- My dad for taking us
- My parents for paying for dinner for us
- Turner for winning the first round
- Kenny for winning second place
- Auntie Anne’s for having the best pretzels
- Jimmy for a fun Zombie vs. Zombie duel
- The person who responded with a deck fix to my previous report
- The kid at the tournament who complimented me on writing the first Hall of Heroes report
- The $14 Book of Life-man getting P.O.’ed at his son’s loss
Cons:
- The disorganization of the tournament (again)
- Chiro for gloating over buying a box of LON, and for being a jerk once again
- The tourney winner’s complete lack of care for his cards, namely throwing his graveyard everywhere
- Pete for allegedly fixing the tournament
- Pete for screwing Nick over and eliminating him
- Pete for screwing Kenny over and only giving him one pack
- Pete in general!
- STILL not advancing past the quarterfinals
- Chaos decks for their cheapness and lack of skill to use
- Little kids who yell at the top of their lungs for no reason
- Turner for interrupting me constantly while I’m dueling
- Fathers of kids who brag over their child’s achievements excessively
And that’ll about do it for my second Tournament Report. 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.
-Lael