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 Yugioh Tournament Reports

Traditional Gravekeeper/Zombie Mass Swarm Deck With Chaos Card Advantage Side Deck, Charles Devin Damrell, Heroes' Realm,
Lexington, Kentucky, Sunday, September 4th, 2005, 18 Players Participated

***

Traditional Format sucks. I'd much rather play Advanced Format. However, the best tournament in town is a Traditional one,
so I take what I get. Traditional Format is still a lot better than most duelists think that it is, though. As the
Advanced Format around my shop has evolved, so has our Traditional Format evolved with it. With the exception of Delinquent
Duo, hand control is mostly ignored. Our metagame is a mix of broken cards that should be banned and the Advanced Format's
current over abuse of cards which generate card advantage. The biggest deck at our shop is, of course, Chaos, but even with
Chaos Emperor Dragon available for our deck builds, our metagame chooses new Advanced Format favorites like Ceasefire and
Tsukuyomi over situational hand control cards like Yata-Garasu. With all that out of the way, let's look at the deck that
I'll be running today.

***

Traditional Gravekeeper/Zombie Mass Swarm Deck With Chaos Card Advantage Side Deck

MONSTERS (16):
Breaker the Magical Warrior
D. D. Warrior Lady
Gravekeeper's Guard
Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
Pyramid Turtle (2)
Sangan
Sinister Serpent
Spirit Reaper
Tribe-Infecting Virus
Vampire Lord (2)
Witch of the Black Forest

SPELLS (17):
Book of Life (2)
Book of Moon
Dark Hole
Delinquent Duo
Graceful Charity
Harpie's Feather Duster
Heavy Storm
Metamorphosis
Monster Reborn
Mystical Space Typhoon
Painful Choice
Pot of Greed
Premature Burial
Raigeki
Scapegoat
Snatch Steal

TRAPS (8):
Call of the Haunted
Ceasefire
Imperial Order
Mirror Force
Ring of Destruction
Rite of Spirit (2)
Torrential Tribute

SIDEBOARD (15):
Airknight Parshath
Bottomless Trap Hole
Change of Heart
Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
Creature Swap
Cyber Jar
Fiber Jar
Magician of Faith (2)
Jinzo
Sakuretsu Armor
Soul Exchange
Tsukuyomi
X-Head Cannon (2)

FUSION (108):
Bickuribox (3)
Charubin the Fire Knight (3)
Cyber Saurus (3)
Dark Balter the Terrible (3)
Dark Blade the Dragon Knight (3)
Dark Flare Knight (3)
Darkfire Dragon (3)
Deepsea Shark (3)
Dragoness the Wicked Knight (3)
Empress Judge (3)
Fiend Skull Dragon (3)
Flame Ghost (3)
Flame Swordsman (3)
Flower Wolf (3)
Gatling Dragon
Giltia the D. Knight (3)
Humanoid Worm Drake (3)
Kaminari Attack (3)
Karbonala Warrior (3)
King Dragun
Labyrinth Tank (2)
Master of Oz (2)
Metal Dragon
Mokey Mokey King (3)
Musician King (3)
Ojama King (3)
Punished Eagle (3)
Rabid Horseman (3)
Reaper on the Nightmare (3)
Roaring Ocean Snake (3)
Ryu Senshi (3)
Sanwitch (3)
Skull Knight (3)
St. Joan (3)
Super Robolady (3)
Super Roboyarou (3)
The Last Warrior from Another Planet
Thousand-Eyes Restrict
Thousand Dragon (3)
XYZ-Dragon Cannon (2)
YZ-Tank Cannon

My deck focuses on abusing the Special Summoning from Deck abilities of Gravekeeper's Spy and Pyramid Turtle as well as the
Special Summoning from Graveyard abilities of Book of Life and Rite of Spirit to add a large swarm element to the foundation
of a control deck. My usual Special Summoning targets are Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier for my Gravekeeper-oriented cards and
Vampire Lord for my Zombie-oriented cards, but I can also Special Summon more defensive monsters, as needed, with the
inclusion of Gravekeeper's Guard and Spirit Reaper in my deck. If my Gravekeeper/Zombie deck loses, I use my side deck to
transform my deck into an entirely different build, a less original but more powerful Chaos deck focused on gaining and
keeping card advantage over my opponent. This "Chaos Card Advantage" deck build doesn't include Black Luster Soldier -
Envoy of the Beginning, as I don't own it, but does include the $10 version of Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End which
I was willing to spend the money to obtain. My Chaos Card Advantage deck build also includes the most original card in my
entire deck list (excluding the Fusion Deck), X-Head Cannon, which I use as LIGHT Chaos food, an 1800 beat stick, and a
slight complication to my opponent's Book of Moons and Tsukuyomis. This card choice was inspired by the use of Skilled Dark
Magician by a few duelists at Shonen Jump Indianapolis for many of the same reasons as I'm using X-Head Cannon. My Fusion
Deck is huge merely for the fun of it, and because there's no reason for it not to be. (Heck, I won a duel thanks to
Dragoness the Wicked Knight once.) The final thing to note about my deck is that it's already set up for the likely
Limitations on Book of Moon, Tsukuyomi, Scapegoat, Metamorphosis, Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Night Assailant, and Limiter
Removal coming to America on October 1st. Now, without further ado...

***

HEROES' REALM WEEKLY YU-GI-OH! TOURNAMENT - TRADITIONAL FORMAT

"Tournament Name: 9/4/05
Premiere Level: Non-Premiere
Game and Format: Yu-Gi-Oh! Constructed Deck All Players
Challenge Value: 10
Date Held: 9/4/2005
Organizer Name: Charles Miller
Head Judge Name: Charles Miller
Assistant Judge Names:
Website:
Location: Heroes-Realm
3132 Richmond Rd.
Mistlake Plaza
Lexington, Kentucky 40509
United States
Phone:
Email: charlesmiller@dcr.net


18 Players and 45 matches in this tournament."

(http://entertainment.upperdeck.com/op/search/tournament_detail.aspx?tid=75578)

***

SWISS - ROUND ONE
CHARLES D. VS. MATHEW D.

GAME 1: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent
60 Breaker vs. Big Shield Gardna
59 Ring on Big Shield Gardna
56 Breaker vs. Gravekeeper's Guard
52 Blade vs. Tribe
44 Premature

HIS LP:
80
68 Pyramid
53 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
41 Gravekeeper's Spy
40 Ring on Big Shield Gardna
32 Imperial
0 Tribe + Pyramid + Sangan

LP WIN, 1-0

GAME 2: MATHEW D. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent
60 Vampire vs. Sangan
52 Pyramid vs. Vampire
42 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End vs. Vampire
12 Ring on Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End

HIS LP:
80
72 Premature
47 Ceasefire
27 Vampire
0 Ring on Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End

LP WIN, 2-0
MATCH WIN, 1-0

My little brother Mathew and his Chaos Zombie deck were my opponents for the first round. Mathew's one of my fiercest
rivals and a strong aggro player. He may only be in High School, but he made 63 rd place at Shonen Jump Indianapolis this
year and that was his first Shonen Jump Championship ever. It soon became apparent in this match that my deck's heavy
hitter was Vampire Lord, and that my Zombie cards were a little more effective than my Gravekeeper cards. I got hit for a
nasty surprise when my Breaker the Magical Warrior crashed into Mathew's Big Shield Gardna, which I had forgotten he was
using, and I had to Ring the Monster to get it out of my way. However, even though my deck was untested, except for a
slightly different version without side deck that I tested against a single person the day before, I still swept Mathew
aside without even having to switch to Chaos Card Advantage. At the end of Game Two, he suicided by Ringing Chaos Emperor
Dragon - Envoy of the End since I was about to finish him off.

***

SWISS - ROUND TWO
CHARLES D. VS. KRIS F.

GAME 1: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
60 Magic Cylinder on Vampire
44 Ring on Breaker
34 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End vs. Vampire
10 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
0 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning vs. Gravekeeper's Spy

HIS LP:
80
65 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
63.5 Vampire vs. Mechanicalchaser
53.5 Gravekeeper's Guard
37.5 Ring on Breaker
27.5 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
15.5 Gravekeeper's Spy

LP LOSS, 0-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 2: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80

HIS LP:
80
70 Ceasefire
42 X-Head + Sangan
0 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End + X-Head + Sangan

LP WIN, 1-1

GAME 3: KRIS F. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent
60 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End

HIS LP:
80
56 Jinzo
26 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
5 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
0 Tribe

LP WIN, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 2-0

My next opponent was one of my rivals' friends who boasts a pretty mean XYZ-type Chaos Machine deck. First game, I got hit
with some hard luck as Kris brought out Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, used its effect to wipe our resources
clean, and top decked Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning two turns later for the win. I switched my deck to
Chaos Card Advantage, and got the first good test of this Chaos build of mine. X-Head Cannon showed the first signs that it
was a good choice for me to include in my deck as it really helped to hold my field with its solid ATK power. Ceasefire was
hit with Spell/Trap removal in game two, forcing me to use it with only two effect monsters on the field. 1000 Life Point
damage is really nothing to scoff at, though. Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End was the real winner in this match, as
it continued to show me just how broken it really was, single-handedly shoving me the win for this round. This is really
only the third time I've used Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End in an official tournament, and it's won me around ten
games already. This is why I hate Traditional Format. I also started to take note in this match that I was sacrificing my
Pyramid Turtles for Vampire Lord more often than I was using my Pyramid Turtles to bring Vampire Lord to the field from my
Deck. I don't really mind too much, though. If Pyramid Turtle can stay on the field long enough to provide Tribute bait
for Vampire Lord, that's a good effect in itself. My opponents may just have been holding back some of their attacks since
they knew they were likely to hit either Gravekeeper's Spy or Pyramid Turtle if they attacked. Oh well.

***

SWISS - ROUND THREE
CHARLES D. VS. TREY P.

GAME 1: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
76 Jinzo vs. Vampire
49 Jinzo + Spirit Reaper
45 Jinzo vs. Vampire
37 Jinzo vs. Breaker
0 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning + Jinzo

HIS LP:
80
72 Premature
71 Breaker vs. Rocket Warrior
61 Delinquent

LP LOSS, 0-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 2: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
72 Jinzo vs. Tribe
63 Jinzo vs. D. D. Warrior Lady
51 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End

HIS LP:
80
61 Airknight
51 Airknight vs. Cyber Jar
36 D. D. Warrior Lady
18 X-Head
8 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
0 Sangan

LP WIN, 1-1

GAME 3: SUDDEN DEATH: TREY P. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
69 Ring on Witch

HIS LP:
80
69 Ring on Witch
62 D. D. Assailant vs. Sangan
51 Witch

FORFEIT WIN, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 3-0

As I continued to win my matches, I continued to be paired up against strong opponents, some of which had eliminated me from
quite a few tournaments. In this round, I was forced to take on Kris' friend, Trey, another of my fiercest rivals. Unlike
my brother, Mathew, Trey is a heavily conservative Yu-Gi-Oh! player. Quite a few times I've kicked my brother's butt with a
new deck I've created only to be hit with a match loss by Trey's more defensive style (and vice versa). However, Trey was
the person I had tested my deck against just yesterday, and I had managed to beat him four out of seven duels that day,
showing me that I had a great chance of winning this match today. First game, however, I make a horrible mistake that cost
me the entire duel. I had seen Trey add Tsukuyomi to his hand with one of his searchers earlier in the duel, and was
currently trying to deal with the high ATK power and trap-negating effects of a previously defeated Jinzo he had managed to
recur. I summoned a top decked D. D. Warrior Lady in Attack position to accompany my Vampire Lord on the field and planned
to take out Trey's Jinzo with D. D. Warrior Lady before continuing my offensive with Vampire Lord. However, I made the
mistake of first attacking a facedown monster on Trey's side of the field with my Vampire Lord, hitting Tsukuyomi and
causing my D. D. Warrior Lady to be flipped facedown where it fell to Trey's Breaker after I ended my turn. My last way to
rid the field of Jinzo gone, I was continuously assaulted by the Machine until a Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the
Beginning finished me off.

I wasn't going to let one game loss get me down, however. Second duel I switched to my Chaos Card Advantage deck and kicked
things up a notch. Airknight Parshath led my initial offensive, and although time was called before the duel finished, I
managed to claim myself a game win before three turns was up, even after Trey summoned Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the
End to the field, forcing Trey and I into sudden death. Trey didn't understand the new rules of sudden death very well, and
played extra conservatively, thinking that the first change in Life Points would win the game for me or him. I was up to
date on current tournament policy, however, and pushing a strong offensive with a slight abuse of Creature Swap (a card
which Trey had said wasn't very good in the duel before) forced Trey to forfeit the match over to me within a few turns of
the new game.

***

SWISS - ROUND FOUR
CHARLES D. VS. BOBBY H.

GAME 1: BOBBY H. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
60 Ring on Vampire
45 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier

HIS LP:
80
60 Vampire
40 Ring on Vampire
28 Gravekeeper's Spy
18 Ceasefire
0 Vampire

LP WIN, 1-0

GAME 2: BOBBY H. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent
60 Ceasefire
45 Ring on Gravekeeper's Guard
40 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier vs. Gravekeeper's Spy

HIS LP:
80
65 Ring on Gravekeeper's Guard
0 Vampire (2) + Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2) + Gravekeeper's Spy

LP WIN, 2-0
MATCH WIN, 4-0

My fourth round was an interesting match-up as I had to face another high quality player named Bobby who today was playing,
for the first time to my knowledge, a pure Gravekeeper's deck. I didn't expect to be able to overcome a pure Gravekeeper's
deck with my Gravekeeper/Zombie hybrid as, in theory, Necrovalley would shut down half of my main deck theme, killing my
Book of Lifes and Rite of Spirits, as well as my more common monster recursion cards, namely Call of the Haunted, Monster
Reborn, and Premature Burial. However, I'm not sure if Bobby really understood the strengths of the Gravekeeper's deck as
I hit facedown DEF position Gravekeeper's Assailants two turns in a row in the first duel, rather than Gravekeeper's Spys,
Gravekeeper's Guards, or any other useful DEF position monster. Bobby complained about getting a bad starting hand, but he
was in a bad mood that day and everyone says that they drew a bad hand when they lose to you, you know? Anyway, Vampire
Lord proved to be something Bobby's deck could not draw a suitable response to today and thanks to my big, bad Zombie king,
I hammered Bobby's life to 0 in the first duel, and swarmed him beyond swarmed him for a harsh victory in game two, not even
needing to bring out my Chaos Card Advantage deck build. Bobby had apparently been undefeated up to this point, but whether
he got two bad hands in a row against me or simply wasn't feeling too well, I managed to claim a match win from him without
an extraordinary amount of effort.

***

SWISS - ROUND FIVE
CHARLES D. VS. JOSH S.

GAME 1: JOSH S. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent
51 Ring on Airknight

HIS LP:
80
61 Airknight
42 Ring on Airknight
38 Vampire vs. Breaker
0 Vampire + Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier + Gravekeeper's Spy

LP WIN, 1-0

GAME 2: JOSH S. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
61 Airknight
41 Vampire v. Sheep
21 Vampire
0 Vampire + Magical Merchant

HIS LP:
80

LP LOSS, 1-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 3: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
73 Imperial
70 Ring on Sinister

HIS LP:
80
56 Jinzo vs. Sheep
39.5 Airknight vs. Sinister
36.5 Ring on Sinister
46.5 Snatch
31.5 D. D. Warrior Lady
41.5 Snatch
26.5 D. D. Warrior Lady
36.5 Snatch
0 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning + D. D. Warrior Lady

LP WIN, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 5-0

Fifth round I have to play one of the only tough opponents in the tournament that I hadn't faced off against yet, Josh.
Josh was playing a solid Chaos build with a touch of interesting tech, mainly in the form of Magical Merchant, a card I even
considered using in my own Gravekeeper/Zombie deck, and one of the few versatile Insect-type monsters in the entire game.
First game, I swarmed Josh for the win, but second game, I had a lot less luck. After Creature Swap, I believe it was, gave
me an Attack position Sheep token, I even took a direct shot of 2000 Life Points damage when Vampire Lord obliterated my new
Attack position Sheep. I didn't even scratch Josh. Even though my Gravekeeper/Zombie build had been playing solid all day,
even making excellent use of the now mostly neglected Spell card, Book of Life, I continued my tournament trend of switching
my current deck build to my Chaos Card Advantage deck build for the rest of the match after losing a game to my opponent.
As I'd seen all day, Chaos Card Advantage did better against my opponent than Gravekeeper/Zombie after I switched to it and
after beating Josh over the head with his own Snatched D. D. Warrior Lady for a while, I finished him off by getting a hold
of his just summoned Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. (No, I don't remember why I used Ring on Josh's
Sinister. I only remember thinking that it was slightly funny at the time. I remember having a pretty good reason for
doing it, though.)

***

SINGLE ELIMINATION - QUARTER-FINALS
CHARLES D. VS. JOSH S.

GAME 1: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
65 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 D. D. Warrior Lady + Airknight + Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

HIS LP:
80
53 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier + Gravekeeper's Spy
43 Delinquent
31 Pyramid

FORFEIT LOSS, 0-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 2: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Delinquent

HIS LP:
80
66 Airknight vs. Night Assailant
48 X-Head
0 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End + Jinzo + Magician of Faith + D. D. Warrior Lady

LP WIN, 1-1

GAME 3: JOSH S. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
77 Airknight vs. D. D. Warrior Lady
72 Blade vs. Witch
70 Exarion Universe vs. Witch
60 Delinquent
59 Blade vs. Breaker
51 Premature
61 Snatch
71 Snatch

HIS LP:
80
69 Witch
50 Breaker
40 Sangan
30 Delinquent
18.5 Exarion Universe vs. Sinister
5 Magician of Faith + Sangan
0 Ceasefire

LP WIN, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 6-0

Yes, I had to face-off against Josh, again, in the first round of the finals. Having a Win/Loss record of 3-2, he barely
made it into the finals, and, thus, had to face the only undefeated player in the first round of single elimination, which
was me. This round he annoyed the crap out of me by purposely using his sunglasses to distract me. Truthfully, all he
really did was slow the match down, as I still made basically the same moves I would have if I had not been distracted, but
I took longer than normal to ensure that I was carefully figuring out what I wanted to do on my turn and to double-check my
thinking to make sure that I had not overlooked anything. First round, Josh and I both made critical mistakes that could
have cost either one of us the game, and, in fact, might have cost me the game. I forgot to attack directly with a monster
after killing his Tsukuyomied Tribe, I believe it was, and he screwed up the order of his attacks when he had several
monsters including Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning on the field, which cost him 1500 damage that he could have
inflicted to my Life Points. I forfeited the game when, facing off against multiple monsters including Black Luster Soldier
- Envoy of the Beginning with only 100 Life Points left and nothing on my field or in my hand, I topdecked Painful Choice,
and could not find even five cards in my deck to select with it that could keep me alive for another turn.

Once, again, I switched to Chaos Card Advantage in game two, a deck build which saw a lot more play in the finals as matches
really started to heat up. Game two, I swarmed with Chaos Card Advantage for a clean win, even trampling through Night
Assailant with Airknight Parshath and continuing to abuse the strong ATK of my Chaos food X-Head Cannon before winning the
game with the aid of Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End's brute ATK power of 3000. Game three, I used Chaos Card
Advantage to really abuse my Witch of the Black Forest, getting its effect four times in the course of the duel. With these
four Witch of the Black Forest searches, I added Tsukuyomi, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Tribe-Infecting Virus, and Sangan
to my hand in that order, and, yes, I had Sinister Serpent in my hand when I got Tribe-Infecting Virus from my deck. In
game three, I even took a piece of Josh's freshest tech from him - the 1800/1900 DARK/Beast-Warrior Exarion Universe from
the new Collector's Tins, using it against him until the end of the duel, even trampling through his Sinister Serpent with
it. It's not a bad little card. I would never consider it staple or anything, but it's a nice piece of tech. Anyway, Josh
knew something was up at the end of game three when, with field advantage, I switched all my monsters to DEF and didn't even
bother to attack, ending my turn. After Josh drew a card from his deck, I activated Ceasefire for a win in the Draw Phase
with at least four Effect monsters on the field at the time. I had won my first match of the finals, and ensured $6 store
credit for myself. There was still an additional $34 store credit I could win, though, and I was going to try my very best
in my next match or two to win it all.

***

SINGLE ELIMINATION - SEMI-FINALS
CHARLES D. VS. MATHEW D.

GAME 1: MATHEW D. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
70 Ceasefire
55 Ring on Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
47 Premature

HIS LP:
80
65 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
55 Ceasefire
40 Ring on Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
29 Witch
17 Pyramid

FORFEIT WIN, 1-0

GAME 2: MATHEW D. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
60 Vampire
44 Ring on Tribe
0 Breaker + Vampire + Gravekeeper's Guard

HIS LP:
80
70 Delinquent
54 Ring on Tribe
34 Vampire
44 Snatch
24 Ceasefire

LP LOSS, 1-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 3: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
61 Ring on Airknight
42 Breaker

80
73 Imperial
63 Delinquent
44 Ring on Airknight
0 X-Head + Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End

LP LOSS, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 7-0

Well, I was facing my brother, again, in the Semi-Finals, which wasn't a good thing. You see, the more that's on the line,
the better a game of Yu-Gi-Oh! my brother plays. Also, since he had lost to me earlier in the day two games to nothing,
Mathew was especially determined to take vengeance on me in this match. I had my work cut out for me. First game,
Ceasefire continued to show its effectiveness, even in the Traditional Format, as it had done all day, even though I only
hit and got hit by my brother for 1000 Life Points damage from each Ceasefire in this specific duel. I got a good
advantage, however, and Mathew forfeited when it became apparent that he was about to lose. Game two, I continued using my
Gravekeeper/Zombie build that had not lost a single duel to Mathew yet today, but even though I inflicted 2000 Life Points
damage to Mathew using Ceasefire, I was swarmed to death when the Gravekeeper's Spy I was using to defend myself was bounced
back into my hand thanks to one of my brother's teched Gravekeeper's Guards. I even had another Gravekeeper's Spy in my
hand that I was holding onto for later use. I guess I should have gone ahead and set it on the field next to my other
Gravekeeper's Spy. That would have saved me from losing for at least another turn, I believe. It happens.

Game three, I switched to Chaos Card Advantage, giving my brother his first taste of my best deck of the day. In fact, this
was the first time he had even faced this deck of mine. Fortunately, however, after a series of exchanged attacks, card
advantage gave me the edge I needed and I was able to attack with X-Head Cannon and a newly summoned Chaos Emperor Dragon -
Envoy of the End for the win, continuing to show how unbelievably broken even a single Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the
End in a deck is. I had managed to make it to the Finals of Single Elimination, and now had $20 store credit waiting for me
after the tournament, but there was still a final $20 store credit up for grabs, and I wanted to win it, not just for the
money itself, but so I could say that I went through the entire tournament with a match record of 8-0.

***

SINGLE ELIMINATION - FINALS
CHARLES D. VS. JARED A.

GAME 1: JARED A. CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
47 Jinzo + Sangan
0 Jinzo + Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning + Vampire

HIS LP:
80
72 Premature
64 Premature

LP LOSS, 0-1

SIDE BOARDING:

-Book of Life (2)
-Gravekeeper's Guard
-Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier (2)
-Gravekeeper's Spy (2)
-Pyramid Turtle (2)
-Rite of Spirit (2)
-Spirit Reaper
-Vampire Lord (2)

+Airknight Parshath
+Bottomless Trap Hole
+Change of Heart
+Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End
+Creature Swap
+Cyber Jar
+Fiber Jar
+Magician of Faith (2)
+Jinzo
+Sakuretsu Armor
+Tsukuyomi
+X-Head Cannon (2)

GAME 2: I CHOOSE TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
78 Kycoo vs. Tribe

HIS LP:
80
62 Kycoo
72 Snatch
71 Kycoo vs. D. D. Assailant
56 D. D. Warrior Lady
0 Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End + Airknight + Magician of Faith + Cyber Jar

LP WIN, 1-1

GAME 3: JARED CHOOSES TO GO FIRST

MY LP:
80
63 Ring on D. D. Assailant
27 Airknight + D. D. Assailant
19 Premature
12 Imperial

HIS LP:
80
63 Ring on D. D. Assailant
44 Premature
25 Airknight
17 Premature
1 Breaker
0 Jinzo

LP WIN, 2-1
MATCH WIN, 8-0

And it all came down to one game. In the finals, I faced another of the few tough players that I hadn't yet played all day.
In fact, Jared doesn't come to the store every week, and I hadn't actually played against him in a while. He has a very
interesting playing style. I think it would best be described as a swarm playing style. He'll go a few turns without doing
all that much until he suddenly unleashes a wave of several big resources that sweep your feet right out from under you.
First game, that's exactly what he did to me. Jared was using a Chaos deck, like most serious players around here, but his
deck had more cards utilizing the removed from play mechanic than most Chaos decks, these cards including D. D. Assailant
and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. After getting swarmed out of nowhere first game, I switched to Chaos Card Advantage to use
my biggest guns against such a worthy adversary. The tournament had gone so long today that the store had already been open
almost an hour after normal closing time, and Jared's mom, who was waiting at the table behind him, was getting impatient.
We had to hurry. However, we would not rush ourselves. Game two, I made a comeback, swarming Jared myself after taking his
own Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer with Snatch Steal and using it against him. Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End gave my
final assault the extra ATK power that it needed to finish Jared off and we moved into game three. In game three, I got
pretty low on Life Points after Jared hit me with a harsh direct swarm attack through the use of Airknight Parshath and D.
D. Assailant. I really cut things close when I used a few cards that further lowered my own Life Points - Premature Burial
and an extra turn of Imperial Order. However, in the end, I managed to bring forth a victory using the Breaker I had
resurrected with Premature Burial, the Imperial Order I protected him and myself with, and the Jinzo I tributed Breaker for
to unleash the final blow on Jared.

I had done it. I had won the tournament and the $40 store credit prize. I was 8-0 for the day, and had really got some
great testing done on my deck, both in its Gravekeeper/Zombie Mass Swarm form and in its Chaos Card Advantage form. I had
learned a lot today, but I had to leave the store in a hurry for the sake of my waiting mom, Jared's waiting mom, and the
store worker who wanted to leave. I spent my $40 store credit on 11 packs of the Inuyasha Trading Card Game's Yokai
expansion pack, pulling some cards I needed for my deck like two You're Alive's and two rare Ryukotsusei's from my packs, as
well as Human Inuyasha and Kikyo's Chibi cards. These packs only cost $33, in actually, and the last $7 of my store credit
was spent to pay for my entry to Saturday's next Duel Masters tournament, and $2 to remain as store credit for the next time
I was a buck or two short from buying something that I wanted from the store. I hope you enjoyed reading my tournament
report. I know it was a long one, so I doubt you read the whole thing, but I hope you learned something from whatever parts
of this tournament report that you did read. Until next time, um... yeah.

***

Final Tournament Standings of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Players in This Report and Their Basic Deck Types

Charles D. - 1st Place with Gravekeeper/Zombie
(Me)

Jared A. - 2nd Place with Chaos
(Single Elimination - Finals)

Trey P. - 3rd Place with Chaos
(Swiss - Round Three)

Mathew D. - 4th Place with Chaos/Zombie
(Swiss - Round One + Single Elimination - Semi-Finals)

Bobby H. - 5th Place with Gravekeeper
(Swiss - Round Four)

Kris F. - 6th Place with Chaos/XYZ
(Swiss - Round Two)

Josh S. - 8th Place with Chaos
(Swiss - Round Five + Single Elimination - Quarter-Finals)

***

Charles Devin Damrell
kentregal@yahoo.com