Keepers of the Grave
Shawn Patton
The Only Game in Town
Somerville, NJ
Janurary 18th, 2004

Roughly 20 people entered
4 Round Swiss, top 8 single elimination
$10 to enter and you get a pack of cards
3rd-4th get one pack, 1st-2nd split 18

My Deck (43 cards)

Monsters (18):

Cyber Jar
Giant Orc
Gravekeeper's Assailant x 3
Gravekeeper's Chief x 2
Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier x 3
Gravekeeper's Spy x 3
Injection Fairy Lily
Jinzo
Sangan
Spirit Reaper
Witch of the Black Forest

Spell Cards (19):
Change of Heart
Delinquent Duo
Graceful Charity
Harpie's Feather Duster
Magic Reflector
Mystical Space Typhoon x 3
Necrovalley x 3
Nobleman of Crossout
Pot of Greed
Raigeki
Royal Tribute
Snatch Steal
Terraforming x 2
The Forceful Sentry

Traps (6):
Imperial Order
Mirror Force
Ring of Destruction
Rite of Spirit x 3

Side Deck:
Despair From the Dark
Electric Snake x 2
Fear From the Dark
Gyaku-Gire Panda
Hayabusa Knight
Sonic Duck
Book of Moon
Final Countdown
Poison of the Old Man x 3
Soul Release
Swords of Revealing Light
United We Stand

You can also view the deck (and card descriptions) here:
http://www.yugioh-deck.com/ViewDeck.php?deckid=47951085

So, obviously this is my Gravekeeper's deck. I enjoy playing it and
I feel it is more cohesive then my other deck. The other deck really
had no central theme and I feel that that hurt it over-all. This deck,
well, the theme is obvious. Oh, and sorry I haven't written one of
these in awhile... (as if you care ; )

First duel:
Me vs. William (Beatdown)

Match 1:
    The first match went very quickly. Which of course, raised
my confidence level. My Gravekeeper's swarmed him.

Me: 8000 - 6800
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 5500 - 300 - 0

Match 2:
    Well, I just don't know what hit me... but it hit pretty hard,
this was a quick match too. Granted, this time, not in my favor : )

Me: 8000 - 6000 - 5100 - 1600 - 0
Him: 8000 - 6900 - 6400 - 4000

Match 3:
    I got in this huge attack with swarming Gravekeeper's...
And then, sensing victory I kept ramming monsters into traps... while
I should have been rebuilding my hand... I hit a Mirror Force and two
Sakuretsu Armors! ARGGGG! I ended up with two Chiefs in my hand and
nothing to tribute to bring them out... it was not fun.

Me: 8000 - 6300 - 4400 - 1900 - 0
Him: 8000 - 3850

Second Duel:
Me vs. Mike (Beatdown)

Match 1:
    Mike's cool, and we always have good duels. He had a Breaker
that was annoying my Necrovalley, but I got another and protected it with
Magic Reflector. It was close right till the end, but I got him...

Me: 8000 - 4700 - 3200
Him: 8000 - 7400 - 3700 - 2500 - 0

Match 2:
    This was another good match. I got in a hit at the beginning and
then we sat for awhile and I took some from a Swordswoman and lost a monster
to a DD Warrior Lady and even rammed a Witch into a de-countered breaker...
Then things began to look up : )

Me: 8000 - 7900 - 5800 - 5600 - 5100 - 3600
Him: 8000 - 5900 - 2800 - 600 - 200 - 0

We still had some time, so we decided to have a fun duel where we switch decks.
I had seen one of the Brians do this earlier, before the tourney started, and it
looked like fun. So we switched it up and we had two more awesome duels : )
I think I had the advantage though because he wasn't used to Gravekeepers fully...
That 50 you see in the first duel came from him change of hearting one of his/my
monsters.

Me: 8000 - 5550 - 5250 - 3750
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 6300 - 4850 - 4150 - 2250 - 350 - 0

Me: 8000 - 3900 (whew)
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 6600 - 4700 - 3000 - 0

Third Duel:
Me vs. Eric (sort of a beginner beatdown)

Match 1:
    Very nice (but sort of young) kid who asked in the beginning
whether he should draw 6 cards or not (it was his turn though ;)
Anyway... he tried to pump Bazoo with non-monster, and some other things
that are against tourney rules that sort of made me feel bad to call him on...
The first match, after some quick hits (on both our parts), the gravekeepers
swarmed...

Me: 8000 - 6800 - 4800
Him: 8000 - 4300 - 0

Match 2:
    This duel was actually pretty grueling. For awhile I had no monsters
to tribute for my higher guys (I'm thinking about only one Chief?) and the match
went on awhile with a couple calls to the judge... ah well... It was still fun
though... He even used Dian Keto once : )

Me: 8000 - 7700 - 5200 - 4200 - 3900 - 3100 - 900
Him: 8000 - 7900 - 5400 - 3100 - 3000 - 2800 - 3800 - 1800 - 0

Fourth Duel:
Me vs. Ryan (Burn with WMC and Lava Golem)

Match 1:
    I always have good duels with Ryan too. The first match I got
toasted, nicely toasted. There were Ceasefires, and maybe a Golem or WMC,
I can't really remember...

Me: 8000 - 7000 - 6600 - 4700 - 2800 - 1300 - 0
Him: 8000 - 7500 - 5100 - 2700

Match 2:
    Woah, this match was crazy. He was holding onto this Wave Motion
Cannon... he got greedy though. It was up to 5 when I finally drew an Imperial
Order... I paid for that the rest of the game, I had to. (You would have thought
with 5 S/T removal cards, I would have drawn one...) It was very close.

Me: 8000 - 6000 - 5300 - 4600 - 3900
Him: 8000 - 7900 - 6100 - 3400 - 0

Match 3:
    I had side decked in some Poisons of the Old Man, and they
came in handy this duel. I had a Golem for a while, but then I used a Witch
to search for Chief and I tributed the sucker for two Gravekeepers (Chief
brings a friend). I also got him with Delinquent and Forceful early on.
It was close again, but I burned the burner in the end. I snatch stole one
of his and used it against him : )

Me: 8000 - 7000 - 7200 - 6200 - 5400 - 4400 - 2900
Him: 8000 - 4600 - 3500 - 100 - 1100 - 0

Yay! I'm in Top 8! Whooot!

Top 8
Me vs. Mike (the rematch duel)

Match 1:
    So, we meet again Mr. Mike. He got one good pound in, but I had
the upper hand from the beginning Delinquent Duo... Darn him and his 50 ATK monsters...

Me: 8000 - 7000 - 4500 - 4100
Him: 8000 - 5600 - 5550 - 3050 - 550 - 0

Match 2:
    This duel was extremely similar to the first one. So, luckily,
that meant I won again. It was a good time though.

Me: 8000 - 7000 - 4800 - 4200
Him: 8000 - 4450 - 2250 - 550 - 0

Top 4
Me vs. Scott (Awesome Beatdown)
Scott used to run a discard/control/yata that would pretty much always beat me.
He recently switched to a more straight forward beatdown which he had beaten me
with last week. Well, the Gravekeeper's are back, attack!

Match 1:
    The first duel I got some good swarming and some good spell/trap removal
and I went in head first. And it worked! I remember MST'ing his Messenger of Peace and
Raigeki'ing his Lily.

Me: 8000 - 7600
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 4200 - 0

Match 2:
    This is of course the duel where he comes back and kicks my deck all
over the place with GAFs and Jinzo and hurting and ouching... POW!

Me: 8000 - 3300 - 4300 - 2800 - 400 - 0
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 6200 - 4700

Match 3:
    I had to prove the might of Gravekeepers! And I tried! And I guess I
did, even though Lily made the final attack. Boom! No Kuriboh to save him, whew!

Me: 8000 - 6000 - 4500 - 2500
Him: 8000 - 3000 - 0

So that means I actually made it to the top 2, whoot! Dan (my final opponent, and
someone I often lose to) suggested splitting the 18 packs 14/4, I suggested 13/5 and
he agreed. Yay! Not that I don't have confidence in myself mind you, just I felt
it more fair either way.

Top 2
Me vs. Dan (discard/control/yata)
Match 1:
    This was a very close duel! He got really lucky on some draws at the end,
I know, because he was like, I'm really lucky. I thought I had him... but anyway...

Me: 8000 - 6100 - 5700 - 700 - 0
Him: 8000 - 6100 - 3900 - 1900

Match 2:
    Arggg.... Crazy battling... I just couldn't seem to hold any advantage...
In the end, despite him having one of my monsters snatch stolen (so I was gaining 1000)
he had a Ha Des and Yata and I lost 1700 each turn even though I gained 1000... I don't
know exactly... stupid Yata...

Me: 8000 - 7300 - 8300 - 7300 - 5500 - 4950 - 5950 - 5250 - ... - 0
Him: 8000 - 7000 - 6900 - 5400


Well... that Yata... what are you going to do. Well, I was still very happy though!
And I went up front to collect my 5 packs. No Dark Crisis so I looked and there were
only 5 packs of Pharonic Guardian left on the shelf so I figured it was fate and I got
all of them. I pulled a Helpoemer and Mirage of Nightmare! I think I'm going to try
the Mirage in my deck next week, it should speed up my swarming even more. Awesome!

Props:
Getting 2nd place
Dueling very nice duelists!
Dueling a for fun duel where we switched decks!
Pulling Helpoemer and Mirage from my winnings!
Actually having winnings!
Not dying while driving in the snow to get there!

Slops:
Harpie's Feather Dusting before I tributed for Jinzo so an imperial order saved a face
down Ring of Destruction which toasted me later... arg!

Feel free to contact me (Shawn):
spatton@andrew.cmu.edu