Philippine Open Championships 2013 goes Highlander!

First post for this format! 

There's lots of players now compared to last format! Maybe because the Spellbook-Dragons domination is over. This could also be the reason why Konami sanctioned our annual Open Championships that concluded yesterday. They allowed tcg cards to be used but they made the format to be a singleton/highlander with the exemption of OOPArts/HC/Gimmick Puppet! This will be the first time a highlander tournament is held and lots of players joined to try to win with their decks.

Heard weeks before the tournament that Dragon decks were the best pick but was skeptical since you can only run 1 of each Dragon Ruler. My mind was completely shut-off from that idea. I admit I was kind of narrow minded with that so I originally planned to make a Chaos metabeat deck but was unhappy with playtest as a Storm or Dark Hole easily resets all my efforts. Tried Heroics to abuse Extra Sword but fails against staple traps. So i opted to use the Chaos deck instead though i'm not confident about it. Before the tournament started, I got to talk to my Jap friend Yuki and he asked me whether I would use Mermails. I asked him why would he assume that i'll use Mermails and he explained to me why. He convinced me to it so I quickly made a Mermail deck with his coaching. Thanks Coach!

Philippine Open Championships 2013
OCG/TCG allowed.
Except Forbidden cards, all cards are LIMITED. This does not apply to Chronomaly/H.C./Gimmick Puppet cards. 
6-round Swiss with Top 8 cut

Deck Used: Mermails

Round1: vs. William "Wslasher" Sy (Six Samurai) 0-x-0
Game1: He opened with RoTA + Ascetism + Kizan. Wtf? Isn't this a singleton tourney? Luckily his backrow wasn't as godly as I was able to bluff his Shien to not negate my Abyssphere and made Trishula with it and Diva.
Game2: RoTA + Dojo + Kizan. Wtf? Same as last game but he had Dimensional Fissure now and 2 backrows being protected by Shien. I drew Fiendish Chain, MST, and Royal Decree and set all three. His turn he attacked and I misplayed here when I activated MST to target DFissure. Shien negates it and I activated Fiendish Chain but he chains with Book of Moon to protect Shien. I should've activated Fiendish Chain first so that his Shien is forced to negate it instead of my MST and Booking Shien would have been no help there.
Game3; Can't remember much except he had Vanity's Emptiness and I was able to get red of it.

Standing: 1-0
Thoughts: Seriously regretted about forgetting to main Gozen Match considering I had it sided.

Round2: vs. Merix Bartolo (Dragon Ruler) x-0-0
Game1: Drew 4 traps with Solemn but no monsters. I set all and ended. He set a monster and I assumed it was a Ryko so I used Dark Hole on it on my turn but it was a Dandylion. I ended then he summoned LaDD and I was forced to use Judgment. He summoned Debris and made Black Rose that wiped my field and lost from there. 
Game2: Rushed him while he still had no grave thanks to my Transmigration Prophecy.
Game3: Tried to rush him again but he had Gorz. His Lyla took out a bluff instead of Breakthough Skill so I had an answer to his summon. Topdecked Duality got me Dark Hole that wiped all monsters except my Zenmaines which took his remaining 1500 LP.

Standing: 2-0
Thoughts: We realized Merix misplayed in Game 1 when he summoned LaDD then after it he summoned Debris Dragon. lol. Nevertheless, my initial mindset of Dragons not good in highlander is now changed.

Round3: vs. Benn Alcantara (Dragon Ruler) 0-0-
Game1: I think I really misplayed on this one + I took too much time to decide. I had Dragoon, Abyssteus, Foolish Burial, Salvage, and a Marksman in grave. The field I was able to develop was just a measly Dragossack + Armor Kappa to deal with his REDMD, Starform, Tidal, etc.
Lost next turn as I had nothing to stop his summons. 
Game2: Time was called and I wasn't able to kill all his LP as needed.

Standing: 2-1
Thoughts: Bought food and water after this game. Stressed a lot as I was a noob to spend so much time thinking then only making a poor play.

Round4: vs. (Chaos Dragons) 0-0-
Game1: He started first with Maiden + Chalice to summon BEWD then Azure Eyes Silver Dragon. Opened with mediocre stuff so I just summoned Trooper to mill out stuff. I was confident I would be able to block BEWD since I have a Tragoedia. His turn he used Mind Control at my Trooper (wtf) and Monster Reborn on his Maiden (wtfx2!) All my opponents are so lucky wtf. Was able to save part of my LP at least and went on a grindfest from there as he summoned Felgrand Xyz with Stardust and the free BEWD. End story was, he had a monster, 4600 LP, while my last card was Avarice with no stuff useful on my graveyard. Returned Infantry, and Diva back to the deck and miraculously I drew both of them! Luck sided on me this time as I was able to kill him at that point.
Game2: Rushed him as he looked like he drew bad.

Standing: 3-1
Thoughts: Really thought I would lose the 1st game as he drew all his best cards like Reborn, Mind Control, BLS, Maiden, Ravine, etc. Late game he didn't have enough stuff to finish me off.

Round5: vs. Gerald Hui (Dark World) 0-0-
Game1: I summon Trooper, set BTH, ended. He summoned Snow, I use BTH, we laugh for a while, and he uses Book to save Snow. Turns out he had Foolish Burial that's why he summoned Snow. lol. He went downhill from there.
Game2: He set 2 and a monster. I bet it was Morphing Jar. I drew Gorz and other stuff I can't summon so I just set a trap f/d His turn he set a third trap and flipped his monster which was really a Morphing Jar. He summons Sillva and Reborns my Gorz and attacks, only to face my Mirror Force! He tries to activate EEV to offer my Gorz but I said he cant since he just set that card so he uses Book on Morphing Jar instead (why not on Gorz?). My turn I picked off his traps 1 by 1, leaving the dead EEV and won.

Standing: 4-1
Thoughts:  By this time, the top tables were all Dragon Rulers except for 1 Fire Fist deck which was undefeated. Inevitably, my next opponent would be a Dragon Ruler too.

Round6: vs. Junjun Agoto (Dragon Ruler) 0-0-
Game1: Overwhelmed and I lost.
Game2: He was able to set up Jewel Stardust and Vanity's Emptiness on his 1st turn. I was able to mill a Breathrough Skill so was just hoping to draw MST or Storm or Dust or Undine or Dark Hole or Vortex or any other stuff I sided in so I could start playing again. But no, they didn't come.

Standing: 4-2
Thoughts: Only two persons with 2 losses would get in the top 8. I had good tiebreaks (those who defeated me are all 5-1) so I'm hoping to get in and I did.

The Top 8 players/decks for this highlander tournament are
1: Joriel - Fire Fist 6-0
2: Chester Sombillo - Dragon Ruler 5-1
3: Junjun Agoto - Dragon Ruler 5-1
4: Benn Alcantara - Dragon Ruler 5-1
5: Yuki Karikomi - Dragon Ruler 5-1
6: Merix Bartolo - Dragon Ruler 5-1
7: Edsel Gozon - Mermail 4-2
8: Zaccheus Liwanag - Dragon Ruler 4-2

So officially, I was wrong to think Dragon Ruler wouldn't do well in singleton. lol. On the contrary, most ppl were thinking that Mermails was the inferior deck in highlander. 

Top8: vs. Chester Sombillo (Dragon Rulers) 0-0-
Game1: He went first, did plant stuffs and finished with Jewel Stardust, a few tokens, a set card, but no Dragon in sight. Did usual Mermail stunts and won.
Game2: Had Gozen Match early and was able make Bahamut Shark to beat him to death. Special mention is the Vortex against his Gorz. 

Semis: vs. Junjun Agoto (Dragon Ruler) x-x-
Game1: I Duality to get Reborn. He Duality to get Maxx C. Took too much time again to think of the best move against his Maxx C. In the end I let him get a +1 off his Maxx C to get rid of his Scrap Dragon. I weighed that it was the best move since I can't let Scrap stay at the field as it will kill me off. However, he pulled Kinka-Byo from Maxx C and took away my Foolish Burial from hand and the Armor Kappa I was relying on with his Trishula.
Game2: 2 mins left until time is called. So I was forced to rush in order to get me a chance to deplete his LP hoping he drew bad. He opened very well though so again I lost to him. 

Final Standing: 3rd-4th. Got 8 SHSP booster packs and a regular game mat as a prize. Pulled 2 crap SRs. Why no Mikazuchi nor Duplicity? :(( Bad luck streak. lol I got a freaking Noriko from my CPZ1 entrance pack also. -_-


The finals was Dragons vs. Dragons and ultimately, Junjun Agoto won the championships. Congrats to our 2013 WCQ rep for winning the 1st PH Highlander tournament!


Here's my decklist for the tournament. 
(Assume everything is 1 of)

Monsters:
Mermail Abyssmegalo
Mermail Abyssteus
Mermail Abysslinde
Mermail Abysspike
Mermail Abyssgunde
Mermail Abyssturge
Atlantean Dragoons
Atlantean Marksman
Atlantean Heavy Infantry
Deep Sea DIva
Fishborg Archer
Genex Undine
Genex Controller
Mother Grizzly
Snowman Eater
Aqua Spirit
Card Trooper
Cardcar D
Tidal
Tragoedia
Gorz

Spells:
Heavy Storm
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole
Pot of Duality
Pot of Avarice
Salvage
Foolish Burial
Forbidden Holy Lance
Lightning Vortex

Traps:
Bottomless Trap Hole
Call of the Haunted
Torrential Tribute
Mirror Force
Solemn Warning
Solemn Judgment
Trap Stun
Fiendish Chain
Breakthrough Skill
Abyssphere

Side:
DD Crow
Electric Virus
Ryko
Greenkappa
Mobius
MST
Soul Release
Transmigration Prophecy
Gozen Match
Imperial Iron Wall
Light Imprisoning Mirror
Debunk
Dust Tornado
Malevolent Catastrophe
Royal Decree

I guess part of why I lost was I mained and sided a lot of backrow hate. Shows what I was expecting to go up against. Completely underestimated Dragons, lol. 

Well, that's it for this very long post. 
Thanks for reading!

T-Report: March 2012 Monthly Open Tournament

Finally, after how many months, we had our open monthly tournament again. Its time we take away from all those restrictions that the Asia Format gives and play all promos and TCG cards!

Format: Open (all cards tcg/ocg allowed)
6 rounds of Swiss then cut to Top 8 elims

Deck used: Inzektors

Round1: vs. Prince (Light Antimeta) 0-0-
G1 = At first he was ahead by a lot of LP when I was forced to use Warning against his monsters instead of direct attacking me. But it was Inzecter stunts when I got to draw Hornet.
G2 = He had Banisher of the Radiance and set cards. I also set 2 cards. He summoned Breaker, I used Torrential, and he chained CED to return Banisher to his hand. He tried to summon it again but my other set card was Warning. Nothing prevented the Inzecter stunts then.
Result: 1-0

Round 2: vs. Dark World  x-0-0
G1 = He goes 1st and summoned Grapha with 2 sets. I set 2 and end but he used Reckless Greed. His turn he used Heavy Storm, summoned Raven, spammed plenty + field = gg
G2 = He got Skill Drain down but I got MST to chain.  He was also surprised that I was Inzecter since he didnt see much of my cards in game 1.
G3 = Again he used Reckless Greed but with Card Destruction however he wasnt able to capitalize since I also used Maxx C that I drew from CardDes to chain against his LV4 1600 monster. I did Dark Hole on my Zenmaines just to rid his field spell. That locked him out and was able to pick apart his cards.
Result: 2-0
(Was glad I was able to win 2 times after a loss since I didnt have a proper side against his deck)

Round 3: vs. Orlando Rivera (Wind-up) x-0-x
G1 = Went first but made a misplay of summoning Gruf by mistake when I thought it was Damsel I'm holding. On his turn he looped me.
G2 = I set 3 cards with Judgment. He activated DFissure and summoned Damsel. I used Torrential. He also misplayed when he played Reborn thinking Damsel was on his GY. His 2nd misplay was when he made Leviair first then activate his 2nd DFissure (i got rid of the 1st one) so I just chained my Veiler on it.
G3 = Looped me again. No Maxx C or Veiler. =((
Result: 2-1

Round 4: vs. Karlo Bonillo (Inzektor) x-0-0
G1 = He used the 1500LP superweapon against me. He had it mained.
G2 = I used the 1500LP superweapon against him. Had it sided.
G3 = He used Storm against my lone backrow and it Transmigration Prophecy. I return his Hornet and Gruf at gy leaving him with no Inzecter plays while I had mine.
Result: 3-1

Round 5: vs. Dominic (Inzektor) 0-0-
G1 = 2 Card Car Ds ate his Veiler and Torrential. It was trench wars when he still had no Inzecter play but eventually I drew what I need.
G2 = I used torrential on his Damsel but he used Chain Disappearance on himself. That removed all my Damsels in my deck. However, he got another Damsel in grave so I used the Superweapon again to borrow his own Damsel.
Result: 4-1

Round 6: vs. Gravekeepers 0-x-x
G1 = No Necrovalley. Easy win.
G2 = He got Necrovalley + Sin Cyber End. lol
G3 = We both went into topdecking mode (I had no Inzecters drawn) until he searched Necrovalley with Commadant and Royal tribute with Pot. He activated Necrovalley, I used Solemn, but he used Dark Bribe. lol. Reborn and other sh1ts that I could have used all went numb. 
Result: 4-2
(No side against this kind of deck again. >_< I regret removing the Decrees from my side)

Luckily I got 7th place so its on to Top 8 elims.

Top 8: vs. William Sy (Six Samurai) x-0-x
G1 = I misplayed when I used Solemn to negate his CED that wanted to save his Kagemusha from my Chain Disappearance. I should have saved it to negate his 2nd Kizan that destroyed my f/d Damsel.
G2 = Drew crap again. Only had Gruf and Gigamantis to beat his Kizans down but eventually he was able to make Revise. I drew Damsel and won.
G3 = 1st turn Shien :(

Final Result: Top 8 and a few boosters as consolation prize that all contained crap. Yuki, who also used Inzektor, lost in Top 8 and his boosters were also crap. Where's all the foils and Card Cars? haha

Watched the semis.... It was Laval vs Six Samurai.

Game 3, William got Gateway, Shien, 2 Kizans, GM, and Book of Moon set. His opponent used Storm, Shien negated. That let him use Sweltering Heat to mill Cannoneer and the lv1 tuner that also milled >> lv1 tuner >> lv1 tuner >> lady of burning lake. Used Burning Lake and 1 tuner to destroy Book then Rekindling!!! That made him a Librarian with a lv1 tuner left. He normal summoned Battle Fader to synchro Formula. Draw 2! He got another Rekindling!!! He made Laval Dragoon? (Lv5) to return Shien to extra deck and made Quasar Dragon!! GM and Kizan died and Quasar is now staring at William who conceded in his turn.

Epic duel. Both players god drawed. :))
wasnt able to watch the finals as it was getting late but I hoped the Laval won.^^ I miss Lib+Formula.

Thanks for reading!

So Rabbit's weakest matchup is Grapha? lol

Dark World won TCG's 100th YCS Anniversary Tournament that was attended by who-knows-how-many-there-are-really duelists that were estimated to be 4200+.

Congratulations to the winner - Michael Balan - as (quoting him) he defeated a total of 7 Rabbit matchups.
The first thing that came to my mind was...

.......how the hell did Grapha survive Macro Cosmos???

Surely it was not because of the Gellenduo that Balan sided. (lol, what happened to good ol' Snowman?)
Royal Decree may be a relevant factor but it wasn't like Rabbit players don't expect it against them. Decree is the first card I WOULD side in against Rabbit (after Snowman Eater/Rykos).

So how did Grapha and his armies win?
(im surprised I dont see Grapha making a proud post at the Konami blog yet)

Its coz the Rabbit player drew the worst hand possible in a finals match.

Triple Kabazauls?
Double Fiendish Chain? (y didnt he side this out?)
No Rabbit drawn?

lolgg. I see what he did there. :))

T-Report: Local Open 12/11/11

Got time to play at a local shop at Marketplace Mall, Mandaluyong City.

Simple 12-man tournament with a 4-round Swiss with Top 4 cut.

Open tournament. All cards are legal.

Deck Used: Wind-Up Inzecter (Asia-format)

Round1: vs. Anti-meta 0-x-0

G1 = Zenmai loop burned his hand.

G2 = Banisher of the Radiance on his field locked me out of any of my monster effects. Tried to summon Revise Dragon but died to BTH. He showed me that he also had Warning and Solemn Judgment set. wew

G3 = Snowman Eater (sided) survived and started Zenmai loop as I had Royal Decree up. Dumped his hand and summoned Leviair to summon an Inzecter.

Standings: 1-0

Round2: vs. Lightlord 0-0-

G1 = He went 1st and went CotLB... milled 1 Wulf... summoned Lumina + Garoth and ended. Milled Gardnas. Wow. I set Hunter, Torrential and Solemn. He summoned Lyla and I use Torrential. My turn I did Damsel combo to destroy my Solemn (he had no field), proceed to do Zenmai loop and dumped his imbal hand cards: Dark Hole, BLS, Monster Reincarnation. He wasn't able to top deck a JD. haha

G2 = He went 1st and summoned a Lyla. I activate Foolish Burial then Dimensional Fissure, did Damsel combo and proceeded to do Zenmai loop. Half his hand went to RFG. gg

Standing: 2-0

Round3: vs. Agent Herald x-0-x

G1 = 1st turn Perfect Herald. troolll

G2 = He got Herald again in def. Managed to set a Damsel and it survived until my next turn. Summoned Centipede and he didn't got enough Fairies in hand to negate all of my monster effects.

G3 = 1st turn Perfect Herald with Gantetsu. trollll.

Standing: 2-1

Round4: vs. Arrive Gladiator Beasts 0-0-

G1 = Herak 1st turn. Noticing everyone is summoning their Boss monsters in 1st turn except me. lol. Lucky me he didn't have enough negaters for all my monster effects and he didnt have any backrow. He only had 1 Veiler in hand.

G2 = Herak again... but this time he got something set.... I use MST on it to reveal Waboku. I proceeded to do Damsel combo + Zenmai loop. gg

Standing: 3-1

Since I only lost to the only 4-0 guy, I went into Final 4.

Top 4: vs. Merix (Tengu Junk Doppel) x-0-0

G1 = Summoned Hunter and used Instant Fusion; he chained Maxx C. I hate Junk Doppel decks when I'm using this deck coz they can main Veilers and Maxx Cs. Since Zenmai loop is senseless against Maxx C, I stopped, he farmed his advantage from there.

G2 = Got Damsel, Hornet, DFissure, BTH, MST, and Solemn (from Duality). Perfect hand and controlled from there.

G3 = He set a card, I used Damsel to destroy it and it was Sangan. He fetched Veiler. Proceeded to summon Centipede and attacked. Made a Zenmaighty to lure out the inevitable Veiler. Few turns passed and he got to flip Ryko but didnt destroy my DFissure. Then he got his Kycoo to remove both my only Hornets in GY. Stalled with a set Damsel (1800 DEF) and Chain Disappearance to take care of Dandy and Trooper. From there I got to draw Gigamantis and used that to equip Damsel to attack Kycoo. Won from there.

Funny the Agent Herald user lost in his Top 4 match. Again, Curse of a Perfect Swiss ate another soul. :))

Finals: vs. Miko (Offering Machina Gadget) 0-0-

G1 = He set 1 backrow. I had a possible Damsel into Zenmai loop but I also had Solemn and BTH in hand. So I just set Hunter and set BTH and Solemn. He summons Cydra and a Gearframe and attacked. My turn I went ahead to do the Damsel + Zenmai cheat. ^^

G2 = He set 2 backrow cards only. I set Greenkappa. He summons Cydra again and a Gadget and attacked. I destroyed his set Warning and Torrential. Those two cards were important since he didn't have counters to my combo next turn. My turn his field and hand were all destroyed. Cheat again, haha. Miko hates me now. Haha.

Final Result: 1st place! Nice! 1st actual tournament using my Wind-up Inzecters and it was great. I only hand the chance to play this deck in Dueling Network before and I dont trust how I draw cards there.

My build is Asia-format-friendly but it still won against decks with promo cards. Of course, one consideration is that the matchups were not that hard except for the Junk Doppel guy. All Agent decks except the Herald lost in Swiss.

Noticed something different? Card names on this tournament report are colored the same way as the cards themselves (Monster, Spell, Trap, Xyz/Synchro, Fusion). Took this idea from how LFN makes his t-reports. They're cool imo. What do you think? Should I use colors or not?

====================================================

Gold Series 2012 roster is sooooooooooooo good.

Although personally I dont like Duality to get reprinted, but that is inevitable. Hopefully it and BLS don't become commons (not NR) because that would likely be a sign of them getting hit hard by the March bans (just like what happened with CCV).

*Woot! Zenmaines and Armageddon Knight! Zenmaines is a nice addition to the Asia-format family! Hooray also since I wont need to borrow my friend's Armageddon Knight anymore. Yeah!

Thanks for reading!

Deck distribution per block of last tournament

Here's a deck distribution per block of the tournament in my last post.
http://duelingblog-ph.blogspot.com/2011/10/tengu-junk-doppel-9-round-tournament-is.html

Also with it is their total score accumulated after 7 rounds of round robin. Red names means they made it to top 4.

BLOCK A

TERENCE (Chaos Lightlord) – 14 Points
KARLO (Chaos Lightlord) – 14 Points
PONGZ (Chaos Samurai) – 13 Points
ROY (Junk Doppel) – 13 Points
ECKZ (Monarch) – 9 Points
DWAINE (Gate Hero) – 8 Points
MIKE (Junk Doppel) – 7 Points
HANIE (Vayu Lightlord) – 6 Points

BLOCK B

ALVIN (Junk Doppel) – 16 Points
EDSEL (Junk Doppel) – 14 Points
WILLIAM (Six Samurai) – 14 Points
RAMPY (Agent Angel) – 14 Points
BRIAN (Junk Doppel) – 9 Points
JUNLY (Machina Gadget) – 8 Points
JEFF (Gusta) – 7 Points
CHALDEAN (Dark World) – 0 Points

Junk Doppel = 5

Lightlord = 3
Six Samurai =  2
Agent Angel = 1
Hero = 1
Monarch = 1
Gusta = 1
Dark World = 1
Machina Gadget = 1

Just a quick update for my previous post.
Ciao!

Tengu Junk Doppel: 9-round tournament is tiring but fun!

Sorry, its not actually a 9-round Swiss tournament but a 8-player Round Robin tournament with a cut to Top 4.

Yesterday I joined a tournament organized by fellow players which was planned to give away a PSP if attendance reached 30 players. However, only 16 persons showed up (although many were invited and agreed to come) so it was decided that the cash pool collected from the entrance fees would be the prize.

Swiss format should have been used however we only had 16 players. Eliminations would have been too short. So they split the players into 2 blocks and held a round robin point system. The 4 players from both blocks with the highest points will get to play into the Top 4.

Point system is as such:

2-0 = 3 points

2-1 = 2 points

1-2 = 1 point

0-2 = 0 point

Open format is applied for card pool. Therefore, promos and TCG exclusives are allowed.

Deck used: Tengu Junk Doppel

Block: B (so unlucky as this block includes both Philippine Champions: Alvin Lim and William Sy)

Round1: vs. Alvin Lim (Debris Junk Doppel)

G1 = Was able to make Lib+Formula earlier than him. I was able to take game with Brionac to return his Catastor and DAD with my BLS killing two Doppel tokens.

G2 = He set a monster. Had cards to make Quasar but I set my Bulb first coz I can use Foolish Burial for Spore so that if he does have Crow when I target Spore with Junk Synchron I can still make the Lib+Formula. He flipped Ryko, Bulb get destroyed, he summoned Kycoo and banished bulb! My turn I tried to make the combo but he has Crow for Spore! Despair scoop.

G3 = Was able to make Lib+Drill. He made a Trishula and removed Doppel in GY. Drill took back a useless Junk Synchron but didn't have any nontuner in GY. My hand had DAD and BLS but was lacking 1 DARK for DAD and 1 LIGHT for BLS, lol. I misplayed when I didnt run over his Raioh with Drill Warrior. He was able to use that as nontuner to take the game.

Result = 0-x-x

Total Score = 1 point

Round2: vs. Rampy (Agent Angel)

G1 = He took Soul Release with Duality in his 1st turn and was able to play around it.

G2 = Stopped 2 Venuses in consecutive turns with 2 Maxx Cs. But Banisher sealed my off.

G3 = Another misplay! T_T He had Venus, Banisher, and a set card while I had BLS and Veiler in hand. BLS was successfully summoned but I attacked and rammed into Mirror Force. Too greedy as I thought I can kill two cards since I dont need to worry about Honest coz of Banisher. Forgot about MF.

Result = 0-x-x

Total Score = 2 points

Round3: vs. Debris Junk Doppel

G1 = He used Foolish+Debris to make Stardust Dragon on his 1st turn. I did Quasar+Drill on mine.

G2 = He had 1 card in hand and 4 tokens with Bulb in GY. Underestimated his hand card so I went all out with Scrap Dragon and BLS to wipe his tokens out. His turn he used Dark Hole. lol wasted 1 point

G3 = Maxx "C" and Crow killed his combos.

Result = 0-x-0

Total Score = 4 points

Round4: vs. Gusta

G1 = Lonefire+Reborn into Trish removed his cards.

G2 = Again, Trishula wrecked havoc.

Result = 0-0-

Total Score = 7 points 

Round5: vs. William Sy (Six Samurai)

G1 = He had Samurais and 2 sets. MST'd one backrow and baited out his Divine Warning with Drill Warrior.Then, I made Lib+Formula into Trishula and win.

G2 = Misplay again. sigh. Should have killed his Kageki instead of Kizan. I was afraid of Trish/Brionac even though I had BTH and Veiler in hand. He made Shien + Dimensional Fissure and I was sealed.

G3 = Godly draw. lol. He made Shien + a samurai and 2 backrows. I MST, he negated. I used Heavy Storm. He had Double-Edge and Warning where my previous MST targeted the latter. After that, I used Dark Hole! Haha, sorry William.

Result = 0-x-0

Total Score = 9 points

Round6: vs. Dark World

G1 = He set a card. I made Lonefire+Reborn into Trishula and removed his f/d Sangan and his DW Scarr in hand. His turn he activated his field and set a monster. My turn made Lib+Formula+Drill.

G2 = It was late and he needed to go so he gave me the win. Lucky!

Result = 0-0-

Total Score = 12 points!

Round7: vs. Junely (Machina Gadget)

G1 = Got my worst hand of Quickdraw, Doppel, Bulb, Veiler, and another card. Why worst hand? Coz I still cant find space in my extra deck for Nitro Warrior. He was first and took BTH from Duality. I used Veiler on his Gearframe. I set bulb. He made Merrowgeist. Tried to summon Gorz next turn but he had Warning. scoop.

G2 and G3 = Again the place we were playing at was getting dark (we were outdoors, on a public park) so he agreed to let me win so that I can still have a chance at playoffs.

Result = x-0-0

Total Score = 14 points!

Me, William, and Rampy all tied to 4th place. Getting so dark now so we decided to gamble on who'll get the spot with a roll of 3 dice.

William went first and got: 1-1-2! Total: 4! haha

Rampy rolled and got: 5-1-1! Total: 7! 

I took my chance and got: 5-2-3! Total: WIN!

Haha, looks like my luck is starting to roll! Next is top 4 playoffs with a roster of 2 Lightlord decks and 2 Junk Doppel decks. We decided to split the prize so that everyone from top 4 can have something.

Semis: vs. Karlo (Lightlord)

G1 = Was able to make Tengu+One for One into Lib+Catastor+Tengu to kill his Lumina+Garoth. However, he got Gorz when Lib attacked. His turn he summoned Garoth and his Gorz attacked Lib, Garoth killed Tengu, but he forgot his token cant get over Catastor. My turn I tried to attack Garoth with Catastor but he used Gardna. Looks like he had Celestia so I used Junk to get Ryko to make Decisive Armor with Catastor. Summoned what I could and dumped my hand to use its effect and he had Celestia and 2 JDs. win!

G2 = Forgot how I won... maybe Quasar or advantage through Lib+Formula?

Result: 0-0-

Finals: vs. Alvin (Debris Junk Doppel)

G1 = Made Quasar 1st turn but didnt draw into Avarice so almost all my Synchros are in the GY.  His turn he dump some cards along BF-Zephyros with Trooper. He returned Trooper, summoned Zeph in def and set 3 cards. My turn he used Trap Dustshoot. He used Torrential when I was making Trish and I negated it. Trish removed his other f/d (CotH), and his Tragoedia in his hand. I attacked Zeph with Trish, and attacked directly with Quasar but he had Gorz! Wow, 4000 ATK token in def. I attacked Gorz and ended. Coz of the token the game dragged on. I was seriously blaming myself why I dont have Shooting Star in my extra. He rammed the token into Quasar and I was left with a f/d Ryko. I was hoping for an Avarice so that my synchros are recycled but drew Tengu; attacked with it and destroyed his f/d card with Ryko. His turn he made Lib and ran over Tengu. I summoned another. My turn I tributed Ryko and Tengu to summon Gorz and attacked Lib. His turn he set a card each. My turn drew Veiler and made Scrap Dragon with Gorz. He used MST to my stuck CotH. Got no feed for the dragon so I summoned Quickdraw to destroy his set Veiler and made a direct attack dropping him to 200 LP. His turn he finally drew nothing and I won. Yey. Stressed!

G2 and G3 = It was starting to rain so we agreed to split the prizes of the 1st and 2nd place.

Final Result: 1st-2nd place! 

Went home with +500% of the entrance fee! It looks not much but it is already large considering the number of players that participated and the split of the cash pool before top 4.

Alvin Lim is really a formidable and a great duelist. Who would have thought someone would survive a 1st-turn-Quasar and almost won? Dueling him twice in one afternoon was so tiring but it was fun.

Here's a decklist of what I used:

Monsters: 26

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning

1 Gorz

1 Tragoedia

2 Junk Synchron

2 Quickdraw Synchron

2 Doppelwarrior

1 Dandylion

1 Grow-up Bulb

1 Spore

1 Lonefire Blossom

1 Sangan
1 Card Trooper
1 Debris Dragon

2 Ryko, Lightlord Hunter

3 Reborn Tengu

2 Effect Veiler

2 Maxx "C"

Spells: 9

1 Tuning

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Reinforcement of the Light

1 Heavy Storm

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Foolish Burial

1 One for One

1 Pot of Avarice

Traps: 5

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Call of the Haunted

Extra: 15

1 Shooting Quasar Dragon

1 AOJ Decisive Armor

1 Trishula

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Brionac

1 TG Hyper Librarian

1 AOJ Catastor

1 Arms Aid

1 Formula Synchron

1 TG Recipro Dragonfly

1 Junk Destroyer

1 Drill Warrior

1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Its Quick Junk Doppel with Reborn Tengu basically. Quickdraw doesn't work well with Tengu here coz I forgot to put in Level Stealer. Maybe I'll just side 1 Maxx C to make space for it. Dont ask about Tour Guides. Even though they're allowed in this tournament, I dont have those.

Im wondering how the TCG will make Quasar since most Tengu Plant decks they have dont use Junk Synchron.

Thanks for reading!

Maxx C and 2 T-Reports: 10/1/11 Asia Format & 10/2/11 Open

Weekend school is over and I now have time to join the weekend tournaments! :)

Its almost a week since the release of EXP4 here in the Philippines and I thought I'll have a hard time getting Maxx "C"s. I wanted to get at least 2 copies since I wanted to main 2  in my Junk Doppel. Luckily, I got 2 copies that day although I didn't get the 2nd copy before the Ranking tournament.

10/1/11 Asia Format, Ranking Tournament Pod 2

Participants: 16 players

Single Eliminations

Deck: Quick Junk Doppel (No Gorz, Librarian, and Quasar T_T )

Round1: vs. Yuki (TG Agent Angel) 0-0- *won die roll

G1 = Cant remember well here but I was able to do Junk Synchron play making Catastor + Formula. Catastor destroyed his Earth. MP2 I summoned Stardust Dragon and set Torrential and Book. He summoned Hyperion and I used Book on it when it attacked. Memory fades from there but I remember negating MST with Stardust and using Torrential on a Venus play while I have Sangan f/d.

G2 = Drew spells and traps with my opening hand but I have Maxx "C". Epic time was when I had both Ryko and Book f/d with 4 cards in hand and 5600 LP left. He SS'd Striker and normal summoned Venus. He used its effect and I chain Maxx "C" to draw. He continued to summon 3 Balls (+3 cards to me), I Book'd his Striker. Made a Gantetsu (+1 draw). Used Monster Reborn for another Striker (+1 card). Summoned BLS (+1 draw). Made Arms Aid (+1 draw). Equipped it to BLS and attacked Ryko. It destroyed his BLS and he wasn't able to OTK me. Was able to Trishula him next turn despite him having DD Crow and got rid of his last hand card.

Round2: vs. Dark World  x-0-0 *lost die roll

G1 = He set a monster and 2 backrows. I didnt know he was using DW so I just set a Ryko. His turn he used Lightning on Ryko, set some cards, flipped Morphing Jar, used Dragged Down into the Grave and I lost. He also had Skill Drain f/d when I tried to make Black Rose Dragon.

G2 = He drew poorly he said so I did Junk Synchron play into Trishula and spammed more synchros there.

G3 = He set 3 cards to his backrow. I summoned Trooper, milled, and attacked. He didn't do anything. I didnt set my traps thinking he got Lightnings set as bluff and I was right. Pressured him with Trooper to make him summon his Beige and killed it with another Trooper.

Semis: vs. Chris (Quick Junk Doppel) x-x- *won die roll

G1 = Got the things to make Quasar 1st turn but unfortunately this was Asia format so I just left Dandy in defense. He set a monster and I removed it with Trishula next turn. Should have won from there but I made plenty of misplays because of being conservative and he was able to mill cards with Ryko to recover and win.

G2 = My punishment for my misplay wasn't over yet. I drew 2 Quickdraws, 1 Doppel, Veiler, and more useless cards. Passed and his turn he only set 1 backrow. I drew Bulb but he used Trap Dustshoot to return Veiler. Could have made a Nitro Warrior + Formula or a Nitro Warrior into Trishula... but I didnt have Nitro Warrior in my extra deck. lol fail. His turn he made a Trishula, Formula, Drill Warrior, Shooting Star Dragon.

If I had my 2nd Maxx "C", could I have survived that turn? The next day I joined another tournament to try again when I had 2 Maxx "C"s mained.

========================================================

10/2/11 Open Format

Participants: 16

Single Eliminations

Deck Used: Quick Junk Doppel (promos alllowed now ^^)

Round1: vs. Relinquished/Spell Village 0-0- *won die roll

G1 and G2 = Somewhat lucky for this matchup. Was able to draw with Maxx C here when he made a Naturia Beast (+2 draws) and a Relinquished (+1 draw). 

Round2: vs. Lightlord Junk Doppel 0-0- *lost die roll

G1 = Drew 3 with Librarian + Formula + Dragonfly and Trishula'd him on his turn.

G2 = Maxx C won me again when he: summoned Junk Synchron for Bulb (+1 draw), SS'ed Doppel (+1 draw), made Librarian and tokens (+2 draw), made Formula (+1 draw). He got 2 draws while I got 5, lol. Won against him with Leeching the Light that I drew with Maxx C

Round3: vs. Arrive Gladiator Beast 0-0- *lost die roll
G1 = He was able to make Heraklinos early with 3 hand cards and 3 backrows. Made a Black Rose but it got negated with Solemn Judgment. I thought that was his last card to stop summons and was right. Next turn made a Junk Synchron play to spam synchros and BLS.
G2 = He used A Hero Arrives, I chain Maxx C. He summoned Prismer (+1 draw), revived his GB (+1 draw), fused into Gyzarus (+1 draw), I veilered it to prevent it from tagging out. He attacked and I dropped Gorz. Gorz and its token ate all his backrows when I attacked and in MP2 I spammed Synchros.

The final match was against a friend so we agreed to share the prize and go home early.

It was really fun to draw plenty of extra cards with Maxx C when your opponent tries to OTK you only to be stopped by a 3000-6000 ATK Tragoedia, Gorz, or Effect Veiler. The extra cards you draw also gives you more options to play next turn as you might have drawn Reborn, BLS, boss monsters, etc that can make you overpower what your opponent summoned last turn.

Maxx C can also be summoned by both Junk Synchron and Debris Dragon ^^. It hasn't disappointed me so far so it looks like I'll keep it mained in the meantime. I'll try to test maining them with my Chaos Lightlord next time.

Thanks for reading!

2011 Phil. Open Championships Report

Four days ago we had the 2011 Open Championships. Lots of players and trader alike went to see who will be the winner that will take home the PS3 prize. Wasn't able to make this post earlier since a typhoon hit our region and electricity and internet was cut.

Champion: brand new PS3 console + trophy
2nd place: DREV complete card set + trophy
3rd place: 1 box EXP4+ trophy
4th place: 12 PHSW packs
5th-8th: 7 PHSW packs


Door Prize: 1 pack JP or AE Booster Pack + 1 Commemorative Tshirt
Total Participants: 76 players!


Deck Used: Frog Monarchs
Im expecting a lot of Agent matchups that day so I didnt use my Junkdo deck.

Round1: vs. Infernity x-0-0 *lost die roll

G1 = Didnt draw frogs until he was able to swarm

G2 = Early LaDD control. Noticed he didnt have any Barriers in his deck

G3 = Went back and forth. He was always lucky with his top draws since game1. He should be able to Trishula me 1 time but he didnt have it, so lucky me.

Standing: 1-0

Round2: vs. Cliff (Tengu Scrap) x-x- *lost die roll?

G1 = Got Trapdust, Mind Crush, and Aoi in hand but no frogs. Knew what his cards and his moves will be but didnt have anything to summon

G2 = Same draws. Should've really mained Dualities if I knew my luck was this bad.

Standing: 1-1

Round3: vs. Jag (Tour Guide Gallis Agent Angel) 0-x-0 *won die roll

G1 = Summoned Swap Frog, he Veiler. I return it then SS it again, he Orange Light pitching Kristya. I Reborn his Kristya to win.

G2 = He summoned Tour Guide 1st turn. Killed Sangan and he fetched Gallis. I Mind Crushed Gallis when he used its effect and also saw 2x Chaos Sorcs, Birdman, Venus, Gorz! Too imba hand.

G3 = Early LaDD won again.

Standing: 2-1

Round4: vs. Terrence (Dark World) 0-0- *won die roll

G1 = Got to see his hand with Mind Crush and Aois. Controlled from there

G2 = Saw his hand again. I Reborn his Grapha to control.

Standing: 3-1 

 
Round5: vs. Alvin Lim (Agent Angel) x-x- *lost die roll
G1 = Got frogs but no Monarch/LaDD

G2 = Saw his hand with Aoi. He got Venus (from Earth), Kristya, Reborn, Orange, and something else. Got no choice but to discard his Venus. He revived it, spammed Balls, and got his setup for Kristya. I should have set the Torrential Tribute instead of saving it (was scared of early Storm).

Standing: 3-2 (losing confidence of making it to top8 now)

Round6: vs. JB (TG Agent Angel) 0-0-? not sure *won die roll

G1 and G2 = not really sure how it went. I kinda forgot. But I remember when I had LaDD which negated most of his cards. 

Standing: 4-2

After this round I saw that my rank for the tournament was Rank 11 and got my hopes up again. I know that if I win the last round, I'll have a chance for Top 8.

Round7: vs. Noel (Chaos Metabeat) 0-x-0 *won die roll

G1 = Saw his hand and was able to control from there though I didnt have Frogs again. His Doomcaliber was always killed by Veiler.

G2 = He Trapdust+Mind Crush me. Payback, lol? haha, I got the same hand as game1. Aois and no frogs.

G3 = Very close fight. From 5 cards in hand, we went to 2 cards, then back to 5 again. I decided to use 1 Mind Crush and guess wrong just to see what he had. He had Gorz (he had no field), Cydra, Chaos Sorc? and other things. I used another Mind Crush to get rid of Gorz and used Swap Frog to poke his LP without giving him a chance to summon Cydra.

Standing: 5-2

Since I won, I really thought I would get to play in the Top8. However, when the final standings were up, I saw that I went down to Rank 12 even though I won my last match. T_T Didn't know how and why that happened but they said the Konami software's tiebreakers is very different from the Mantis software we were used to.

Final Rank: Top 12. Got a ANPR booster as extra prize and pulled a Rooklord which I sold for $5. Got money for dinner now, lol.

Here's a decklist of what I used today:

Monsters: 24
2 Treeborn Frog
3 Swap Frog
2 Dupe Frog
1 Ronintoadin
1 Snowman Eater
3 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Dark Dust Spirit
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
2 Effect Veiler
1 Gorz
2 Tragoedia
1 Battle Fader

Spells: 7
1 Heavy Storm
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
2 Enemy Controller

Traps: 9
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Trap Dustshoot
2 Mind Crush
3 Spiritual Water Art - Aoi



I stayed a little more to see what would happen.

Here's the top 8 players and decks *in no particular order since I didnt get to record the final ranks

• Chito Racimo - Agent Angel
• Alvin Lim - Agent Angel
• Timothy Vivit - Agent Angel
• William "Wslasher" Sy - Six Samurai
• Kenneth Magcaleng - Arrive Gladiator Beast
• Cliff Georpe - Tengu Scrap
• Melvin Sta. Maria - T.G. Stun
• Dominic Magbutay - T.G. Drain

 Here's some pictures of the top 8 and who won each match:

Top 8 = Alvin Lim (Agent Angel) vs Cliff Georpe (Tengu Scrap) win

Top 8 = Kenneth Magcaleng (Arrive GB) vs. Chito Racimo (Agent Angel) win

Top 8 = Timothy Vivit (Agent Angel) win vs. William Sy (Six Samurai)

Top 8 = Melvin Sta. Maria (TG) vs. Dominic Magbutay (TG Drain) win

The Top 4 matches are as follows:

Top 4 = Cliff (Tengu Scrap) win vs. Timothy (Agent Angel)

Top 4 = Dominic (TG) vs. Chito (Agent Angel) win

Final results are:

3rd Place:

Timothy Vivit with Agent Angel

2nd Place

Cliff Georpe with Tengu Scrap

Champion: Chito Racimo with Agent Angel

Congratulations to the winners!

As you can see, Agents won the tournament, occupied almost half of the Top 8 and I am sure it is the deck most represented today. The next major tournament will be the Asian Team Tournament on November and I am sure Agents will also be the deck to beat next month.

Thanks for reading!

Veggies, Tourneys, and PS3

Don't be fooled by the title, this post still talks about Yugioh. :p

It's 4 more days until the 2011 Phil. Open Championships and here is a picture of the prize for 1st place!

Last year was a PSP... now it is a PS3!

I know the PS3 is already out for a few years now but who wouldn't want to own a new console, right? I dont even have one yet. >.<

For those wondering, here in the Philippines we have 2 kinds of tournaments: Sanctioned and Open. Sanctioned tournaments are those Konami-ranked tournaments that only allows Asia-legal cards in it. However, we also have a good number of players that only play TCG cards and that is why the Open tournaments are held where both OCG and TCG cards are allowed. Annually, an Open Championship is held and this usually is attended by lots of players coz of the bigger prize pool, chance to sell cards, and have good trades.

It's the 3rd Open Championship now and looking back to the previous ones...

2009 = 1st: Christian Discipulo with Anti-Meta
2010 = 1st: Alvin Lim with Hero Metabeat

I dont have a list for the 2009 deck (EDIT: Got a link to it now) but it is almost the same as the 2010 deck but without the Heroes. Why anti-meta? Open tournaments are the only events where anti-meta cards such as Raioh, DCK, and Fossil Dyna are allowed and most PH players are not accustomed to playing against them. So should we expect another Anti-Meta-ish deck to win once again on Saturday?

===================================================

Last time I said I was using a deck I called "chopseuy". Here it is...

Monsters: 26
1 Dark Armed Dragon
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
2 Tragoedia
1 Gorz
2 Card Trooper
1 Lightlord Summoner Lumina
1 Lightlord Sorceress Lyla
3 Lightlord Hunter Ryko
3 Lightlord Beast Wulf
2 Necro Gardna
1 Plaguespreader Zombie
1 Grow-up Bulb
1 Spore
1 Dandylion
1 Sangan
2 Destiny Hero - Malicious

Spells: 13
1 Allure of Darkness
2 Destiny Draw
3 Solar Recharge
1 Charge of the Light Brigade
1 One for One
1 Foolish Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Monster Reborn
1 The Warrior Returning Alive

Trap: 1
1 Trap Dustshoot

Talk about bad deckbuilding, right? lol

I guess you can now guess why I called this chopseuy. Its a deck made by mixing together Plant, Lightlord, Chaos, and Dhero, just like how you make mixed vegetables: just throw everything in and hope it tastes good! For me, I made this just so I can use all the "draw" cards available!

Its great when...
= you draw Solar Recharges and a LS
= then you draw another Solar Recharge and a LS, OR
= you draw Destiny Draw with Malicious
= you draw Trooper, mill great +/- Wulf/s, and have a Trago/Gorz in hand
= you can do the Plant tricks

Its SOOO bad when...
= you draw Solar Recharge but no LS
= you draw DDraw but no DHero (happens aLOT at early game)
= you draw Warrior Returning Alive but got no mill yet
= you dont draw Trooper and/or Trago/Gorz
= you draw the plants and gardnas
= you draw multiple Wulfs
= you draw 2 Malicious or milled them both
= OR wtf... you draw 3 Wulfs and 2 Destiny Draws/2 Malicious! (believe me, this happened to me 2x!)

What can I say... Pls dont even attempt to try this deck out competitively, unless you want your friends have fun laughing about what you drew with your 1st six cards. :))

Thanks for reading! :)