Deck Name: “Murderous Mages”

My Name: Andy J.W

Tournament Site: Dream Wizards Games

Site Location: Bethesda, MD

Date: Sunday, January 4, 2004

Number of Participants: 56

The return of the Black Paladin! Hello again, everyone. Today was another regular Dream Wizards tournament- $6.30 to get in, Single Elimination, 3 TP4 (yes!) packs for the winner, 2 for the runner up, and 1 for everybody else. Here’s my deck- It’s changed a little, but has been practically untouched by the dawn of Dark Crisis:

MAIN DECK

-Dark Magician x2 (more support than Buster Blader)

-Jinzo x1

-Skillful Dark Magician x3 (one of the best 1900’s there is- especially in a D.M. deck)

-Exclusivity Virus x1

-Spear Dragon x3 (Meteor Crush, boosts Paladin, and 1900 ATK- what’s not to like?)

-Luster Dragon (MFC) x2 (Solid- what more can be said?)

-Witch of the Black Forest x1

-Cyber Jar x1

-Fiber Jar x1

-Mystical Sheep #1 x1 (fusion material under level 5- that’s just so nice)

-Beastking of the Swamps x1 (See above)

-Imperial Order x1

-Mirror Force x1

-Magic Cylinder x1

-Torrential Tribute x1

-Call of the Haunted x1

-Ring of Destruction x1

-Raigeki x1

-Harpie’s Featherduster x1

-MST x3

-Nobleman of Crossout x1 (Free removal, at the very least)

-Graceful Charity x1

-Pot of Greed x1

-United we Stand x1

-Mirage of Nightmares x1 (This deck is painfully slow without it)

-Snatch Steal x1

-Painful Choice x1 (More speed- it’s a beautiful thing)

-Polymerization x2

-Monster Reborn x1

-Premature Burial x1

FUSION DECK

-Supreme Swordsmage Black Paladin x3

-Black Flare Knight x3

(Total Cards: 6)

Anyway, today was great- care to hear why? Good- then, read and enjoy…!

ROUND 1:

Andy v. Matt

Duel 1

Life Points:

ANDY: 8000-7000

MATT: 8000-5600-3200-2700-0

Winner: Me

Poor Matt. Didn’t get a thing he needed. Of course, with a 63-card deck, that’s prone to happening. This 5-turn duel went pretty smoothly for me. I got him with a Jinzo twice, and then he played Tremendous Fire (hence the 1000 damage I took), dropping his score to 2700. Unfortunately, my Jinzo ran into a Fiber Jar when I was about to sick him for the win (okay, so he got one thing he needed), of course, he didn’t come up with much to hit me in my monster-free state, and we just stalled for a couple of turns until I came up with a Skilled Dark and United we stand- exactly the 2700 I needed for the win.

Duel 2

Life Points:

ANDY: 8000-7000-5000-6000-5500-5000-4900-4100

MATT: 7500-6700-5700-6700-5800-8000-4200-2300-1200-0

Winner: Me

Needless to say, this was a long one, and with close scores, too. One thing I forgot to mention before- Matt loves his Nimble Momongas and Giant Germs. That’s about all I faced for the first half of the game. He started, and did so with a Tremendous Fire. He set a monster, and I attacked it on my turn with Spear Dragon. It was a Momonga, so there was a net loss of 800. On his turn, he flipped his 2 new squirrels, fissured my spear, and summoned Giant Germ. He attacked with all 3, but I cylindered one of them. On my next move, I Snatch Stole one of his Nimble Momongas and summoned a Luster Dragon. I ran the momongas into each other and we both gained 1000. I attacked his germ with my Luster, took 500 in exchange for him taking 900, and ended my turn. He activated Dian keto and Poison of the Old man, gaining 2200 life points and going all the way back up to 8000. He set 1 M/T and played Mage Power on his Germ and ran over my dragon for 100 damage. I somehow (don’t remember how) got rid of that thing, summoned a Luster, used Call of the Haunted on Skilled Dark, and hit Matt for 3800 damage. He played Raigkei, though, clearing out my monsters. He failed to come up with any of his own, though. On my next turn, I revived one of my Skilled Dark Magicians via Premature Burial and hit him with it. He killed it with a Dark hole. Then, I summoned Witch of the Black Forest and attacked him with it. He set a defense monster and ended his turn. I drew Spear Dragon, and knew how to win. I summoned it and chained my Torrential Tribute I had set a few turns back. With my Witch search, I got my Mystical Sheep, played Polymerization and unleashed- what else?- but a 5400-point Black Paladin. Best attack I declared all day.

ROUND 2:

Andy v. Josh

Before I begin this one, I would like to say that I have changed the name of my opponent for this report. Why? Because he was the most pompous, condescending duelist (if you wanna’ insult the term) I’ve ever faced, but not even he deserves to be humiliated by being named. Oh, and if your name is Josh, this is not intended towards you.

Duel 1

Life Points:

ANDY: 8000-6100-4200-2300-1400-300

JOSH: 8000-7000-4500-2600-3600-4600-3500-1000-0

Winner: Me

Josh started with a Delinquent Duo (he ditched Dark Magician and I got rid of Raigeki) and Swords of Revealing Light. No monsters, though. I summoned a Skilled dark and played harpie’s featherduster, in the hopes of working up 3 magic counters. But what does he activate? Judgment of Anubis, killing my Skilled Dark and dishing me 1900 damage. I revived my Dark Magician with Monster Reborn, though, and set Imperial Order. I ended my first turn of Swords. He went and set another M/T. My turn again. I draw, activate Imperial Order (at which point he grills me on whether or not Order had been on the field for more than a turn, neglecting to admit it was his fault he wasn’t paying attention), and attack directly with Dark Magician for 2500 damage. He Raigeki’s my Dark Magician on his next turn and attackes me directly with Spear Dragon. I set some bluff M/T on my turn and end. He hits me again with Spear, setting a M/T himself. I draw and Snatch Steal his Spear Dragon and attempt to attack directly, but he flips over Scapegoat. I still deal 1900, though. I don’t remember the next part too well- I only wrote down that I took 2800 damage over a few turns from Spear and a Breaker-over-Beastking attack, while he only lost a total of 100 (gained 1000 from Snatch steal then lost 1100 from a Witch attack). Okay- another gripe about this guy. At some point, when I had no monsters and he had Swords of Revealing Light on me, I played MST on his face-down Judgment of Anubis (he had two, apparently), and he says, “okay, activate it.” So, I wait for him to discard, and he doesn’t. I follow him up, and he says, “I’m not activating it.” I inform him- trying hard to hide my frustration with him at this point- that he had just declared that he had activated the card. He says there’s nothing to do it on. Answer- Yes, on my MST. So, the jerk just says to forget it, and I do, not wanting to make a federal case out of it. Anyway, now that I was determined to destroy this jackass, I ended my turn after setting Magic Cylinder. He revived my Dark Magician and tried to take a swing at my Witch for the game, but I cylindered it right back into him. Okay, one important thing- at about this point I heard the judge announce my (pending) victory: “3 more minutes!” I was at 1400- he was at 1000- all I had to do was keep him on this thread long enough to let the judges disqualify him for me. So, I play Swords on him, and set something, changing my Witch of the Black Forest to Defense Mode as well. He goes and ends. I draw the card that really gave me a tough decision: Ring of Destruction. “I could murder my Witch for the game,” I thought, but then realized that, since we would have to start a new game, he could possibly reduce my score so that he’d be higher at the end, and we’d have a draw- 1 win each. So, I set ring, hoping the answer would come to me another way. He does nothing, so I go. The judges come over to our table now, as we’re the last pair still dueling. The judge says, on Josh’s next move, 1 more turn each. So, under my swords for the last turn, he ends and I go. I set another monster and end, letting him take the last turn of the duel. He tries to summon something, but I ring my witch, reducing my score to 300 and his to nothing. Naturally, Josh shouts at his very confident and morally satisfied opponent that I “just got lucky” (which I hope you can see was not the case). He then says to the judges that, since we had only played one game, we should finish the match. The judges tell him no, he persists in arguing, and I tell him that he’s lost and that he should accept defeat like the man he’s not and go get his TP4 pack. He gets his booster and storms away. I have never been more satisfied with the outcome of a round.

In case you weren’t sure, I advanced because our only duel took the entire allotted time for the round.

ROUND 3

Andy v. David

Duel 1

LIFE POINTS:

ANDY: 8000-6100-7100

DAVID: 8000-6600-5600-3700-1800-0

Winner: Me

Quite unlike last round, these games were short and sweet. Also quite unlike last round, I was facing a worthy opponent. I started with Spear Dragon and 1 M/T. He started with just a Defense card. I attacked it- Fiber Jar. He took 1400. Main phase 2, I summon Luster Dragon and- for lack of other moves- end my turn. He played Snatch Steal on it and hit me directly. He played Delinquent Duo, costing him 1000. I gained 1000 on my next turn and MST’d Snatch Steal. I attacked him directly with Luster in his Monster-free state. He came up with one defense monster on his next turn. I summoned Skilled Dark, attacked his Yata-Garasu with Luster and him directly with Skilled Dark. He was REALLY monster-screwed and couldn’t come up with another monster. I attacked with Luster again, and with Skilled Dark for the game.

Duel 2

LIFE POINTS:

ANDY: 8000-7700-6000-4300-2600-2300-600-0

DAVID: 8000-7000-5600-4200

Winner: David

If the fact he had Yata wasn’t a dead giveaway to his control strategy, this duel was. He hit me directly with a Spirit Reaper and ditched a Snatch Steal from my hand. He also played Confiscation that turn. By the time of his next attack, I was open, so he hit me with his Reaper and his Don Zaloog, but Don discarded 2 cards from the top of my deck. I took another 1700 next turn after losing a monster to his Exiled Force. He attacked so, I cylindered Don and only took damage from the Reaper. Next turn, he hit me for another 1700, and on my turn, when I tried to retaliate with my first monster in forever, he destroyed his own Don with Ring of Destructon for the game.

Duel 3

LIFE POINTS:

ANDY: 8000-7700-5300-1000-0

DAVID: 8000-6100-4200-3500

Winner: David

This one’s pretty foggy to me- I got hit with a reaper once, then I think I killed it and hit him with a Spear Dragon. I did that twice, actually. He must’ve killed that and somehow sicked me with a Jinzo later. Anyway, it about went downhill for me from there, ‘cause he just summoned a Spear dragon to do away with my defenders. I then killed Jinzo (somehow) and tried to Snatch Steal his Spear Dragon, but he used Imperial Order on it. He played don next turn and beat me.

Can’t win ‘em all, I guess. A few rounds later, my good (if somewhat tired) friend PJ was playing in the Finals with his (awesome) Dark Scorpion deck. That was a sight to see- especially since PJ had little to no faith in that deck prior to the tourney. Anyway, props and slops:

PROPS:

-To me for crushing that jackass Josh who didn’t even deserve to be in the tournament, much less win it

-To PJ for winning the tournament

-To Upper deck for proving that good tourney packs really do exist (Exile of the Wicked, Giant Red Seasnake, and Dragon Seeker- mistake packs rule!)

-To people who traded me Dark Crisis cards I needed

-To Pojo’s for posting this

-To you for reading it

SLOPS

-To Josh for being a jackass

-To Josh for being an official UDE judge

-To Josh for thinking that his status meant that his word is law

-To Josh for making up b.s. rulings while facing my friend Teddy in a free duel

-To Josh for breathing

-To Dream Wizards for charging $6.30 admission

-To Josh for making me waste so much time typing about him

Thanks for reading, everyone. Any REASON-BACKED comments, deck fixes, or whatever (except spam, trade/buying/selling offers) are welcomed by duelistemporerandy@hotmail.com (a.k.a. me). Oh, and “Josh,” if you’re reading this, go buy yourself a coffin and put it to good use.