Locals Report 10-15-11; Lightning Comics & Weekend re-cap

Warning: this post is extremely long because it is basically 3 different posts combined into one. It's a whole weekend re-cap rather than just the locals report.

Part 1 is what I had written up Saturday night but wasn't able to upload since I didn't have net access. Part 2 will consist of the events of Saturday night, and Part 3 will consist of today. If you're only interested in how I did at the tourney, just read Part 1. Most of the rest of the post is just me telling a story of Saturday night, (in case any of the local guys were curious how our night went) and a reflection on the state of card games in our area.

Part 1:

So before the tournament I try to do as much of my homework that I can, I get like 60% of it done so I'm happy. I go to the post office at 11 to see if my T-Kings show up (since I have a PO box), and sure enough they still weren't there. I was like wtf you gotta be kidding me. I received an automated e-mail from bbcards last night asking if I was satisfied with my order, I just think to myself like “no, I haven't even received yet.” I'll e-mail them on Monday, the wait is ridiculous.

So I show up at the tournament and some unfamiliar faces show up. I'm like sweet better turn-out. Nate shows up so I give him a hug and he tells me how he got promoted at his job just after 10 days of being there, while his girlfriend had been working there for like 4 months and is still in the same position. I'm like “damn, at this rate you'll be the CEO in 2 months” lol.

So I get some trades in, give Nate my Stardust I pull out of the Turbo Pack and a spare double deckbox I had and he gives me his Super D.D. Crow from LCGX. This guy with his wife shows up and I ask him if he has trades, we exchange binders and I have to look though pages of random commons but keep my eyes open for little gems like Dragged Downs, Sabersaurus, etc. I see 2 Safe Zones which I can at least sell to ARG so I tell him I was interested in those. He takes his binder and pulls them out and is just like “here.” I'm like “...are you sure?” He's like “yea, they'll be put to better use in your hands.” I was thinking like “not really, I'm just trying to pick stuff that I can sell.” Oh well, can't complain getting free playable cards! He ends up giving away a bunch of random cards to people.

I think the turnout was 13, which I'm happy about cuz playing with 7 or 8 is just like -_- There are more Agent players today so I'm glad I altered my side to include 2 Leeching the Lights. I move my 2 Maxx C from my Plant deck to my side as well, which were definitely boss all day not just for Agents, but against everything I played.

Round 1 vs New guy w/ Tengu Synchro

Game 1

I open Stardust + Gachi and he doesn't really get much going.

Game 2

My end field is Thought Ruler, Hyperion, Kristya, and earlier he Solemn'd my Torrential for 4K.

1-0

Round 2 vs New guy with his wife w/ Pure Karakuri

Game 1

He explodes like on turn 2 and hits me for 7400, I establish a board and maintain control, but eventually he deals the last 600 by running over something.

Game 2

He tries to go off but I Maxx C. I literally draw to a handcount of 18, Trag out, and I explode right back and hit him for over 8000. I don't know what the board was, I think it was Trag+Brionac+Leviair+Kristya.

Game 3

He explodes right back and I have a mediocre hand, no Maxx C, Gorz, Trag, so I get OTK'd. :(

1-1

I was pretty salty because I hate losing by OTK like that. I don't mind losing because the other player is better than me, but when it's just big Karakuri x3 swing for game, I'm just like whatever. He explained that's pretty much all his deck does, go big or go home.

Round 3 vs New guy (lots of new show-ups today!) w/ Agents

This is actually the first mirror match I've played in tournament so I'm actually kinda excited!

Game 1

I open Venus + Gachi, he tries to Venus but I Bottomless. I get out Kristya and he tries to Battle Fader (eh?) and I remind him he can't special. 2 turns later he scooped it up.

Game 2

This game is a lot more back and forth, I don't remember the specifics, but I know it was a good game. I win 4300-0.

2-1

Round 4 vs Kim w/ Sams

This guy hasn't played in quite a while, he's a good guy so I'm glad he played today.

I was sorta worried cuz I know Sams can still sack off, but figured I'll just do my best.

Game 1

Turn 1 he pops off and has a field like Shi En, Grandmaster, some other derka but Hyperion is just too easy to bring out and run over Shi En. I pretty much have control after that.

Game 2

I open pretty bad and he goes crazy with Gateway United Dojo.

Game 3

He over-extends too much and I can reclaim control and board.

3-1

So they do a top 4 cut, and the top 4 of us are 3-1 and we talk about who should end up playing who. I played each of the 3-1's so it doesn't bother me too much. Naturally I don't want to play the guy I lost to, so obviously I get paired against him. Sackfest here we go!

Top 4

Vs Pure Karakuri guy

Game 1

He doesn't get much going and I end up like +3 or 4.

Game 2

He tries to goes off but I have Maxx C. Again he lets me draw like infinite cards, he thinks he has game when he has Brio + 3 Karakuri guys but I have Trag. He uses his last card to bounce Trag, and from Maxx C I drew Cyber Dragon, BLS, Hyperion, Tour Guide, obviously it's going to happen if you let me draw that many cards.

Top 2

Vs Kim w/ Six Sams

I joke around that I got revenge on the Karakuri guy and beat him, so now it was his turn to get revenge and beat me.

Game 1

He doesn't get much going and I take a quick lead with Trish and Hyperion and maintain the board.

Game 2

Turn 1 He opens with a field of X-Saber Wayne (why??), Hand, and like Kizan. I Gorz and it's pretty much all downhill from there.

So I win out for the 3^rd weekend in a row. Couer d'Alene ain't got nothin' on me lol :) I get to feel better about this win since there was actually decent competition today. No Team O members besides me (Nate had to drop and leave), so I was pretty much expected to win. I cashed in my store credit for a LCGX thing, pulled kinda crap. Best pulls were a Gallis, Laquari, War Chariot, 2 Lumina, and Instant Fusion; no T-King :S I shoulda just got the Wind-Up tin like I thought I should've, ah well.

After the tournament Kim and the Karakuri guy were all like “OK we gotta figure out what to play against these damn Agents.” I was just like “play Leeching the Light”, I knew they had no idea what it was so I pulled out one from my side and they were like O_O. By the time they're “set” against Agents though we're gonna have Darkworld and it'll just be a different can of worms, lol. I won't be able to run them next weekend though since the box I ordered won't get here till next week, unless I decide to go to the store and buy 3. I don't want to fall into that temptation though, since I'm getting 4 of the decks (½ a box). I may just up my side deck Crow count to 3, or run a Kycoo or something. No one has Dragged Downs, Ravens, or Tour Guides though so if they do run Darkworld, it's probably gonna be a crappy version. Kim asks me for help on his Agent build, he obviously doesn't have Tour Guide (since he didn't even have Trish and Catastor in his Extra) so he wants to run Junk Synchron. I'm like eh it's alright, if I didn't have Tour Guides my dark line-up would probably be Gorz, 2 Trag, Sangan, DD Crow+Breaker/2x Spy, Birdman.

Here was my deck:

3 Hyperion

3 Venus

3 Earth

3 Shineball

2 Kristya

1 Gorz

1 Trago

1 BLS

3 Tour Guide

1 Sangan

2 Orange Light

1 Veiler

1 Honest

1 Birdman

2 Gold Sarc

1 Duality

2 MST
1 Heavy

1 Mind

1 Reborn

1 Hole

1 Torrential

1 Mirror Force

1 D-Prison

1 Dustshoot

2 Bottomless

Side

2 Crow

2 Leeching

2 Maxx C

2 Breaker

2 Cyber Drag

1 Chimeratech

2 Pulling

1 MST

1 Mind Crush

Extra

2 Gachi

1 Leviathan

1 Leviair

1 Armory

1 Catastor

1 Librarian

1 Brio

1 Orient

1 Black Rose

1 Scrap Archfiend (should be Wyvern, but too hard to find and don't wanna buy)

1 Stardust

1 Scrap Drag

1 Thought Ruler

1 Trish

In retrospect, I really liked having Trag. It kept me alive against Sams and Karakuri when they went for their pushes. The Duality was pretty meh, and overall I liked D-Prison over Judgment. In any instance where I D-Prison'd, it was better doing that rather than paying half life for basically the same end result. These people have to realize that when I Maxx C, they shouldn't special like crazy to try and go for game. Just develop a reasonable board, and stop. Speaking of C, I sided 2 in every single game. I may try to run 1 main next week, I dunno. It's just so good against certain match-ups, especially when people don't know that they should just end their turn. It doesn't have too much synergy per-se since it's not a dark or a fairy, but it's just solid overall in the appropriate meta. The 2^nd Gachi didn't do anything for me, maybe I'll switch it out for an Android, I dunno. Most of my Extra deck I don't even use that much, but it's all about the toolbox factor. 

Part 2

So I get to Danny's around 7 and Jared is over, watching Danny play MW2. Jared and I try to connect to his wireless but he doesn't know the password and Nat doesn't know it by memory either, so I just open my text editor and start typing the locals report. We are all starving and end up leaving to go to Denny's around 8 I think. I drive us to Denny's and totally drive past it the first time, never realizing there was a Denny's there in the first place lol. We go to the lounge and I buy our first round of drinks, Long Islands for each of us. They were might tasty! Heather comes and I'm like "wow last time I saw you you were like a little kid", even though she was 18-19 lol. We talk about old times a little. I'm the first one done with my Long Island and I wasn't feeling much of anything. I had the most ice out of all of us, wtf. We order food and I offer to pay for Heather's meal since I'm just a nice guy like that. Once we're done we drive back to Danny's and I continue writing the locals report while everyone else gets ready to go out. I think I remember Jared saying we've been waiting for 45 minutes for Danny to get ready, I was like "when he comes downstairs we all gotta be like 'daaaammnn!'" lol. We're finally out the door and on our way at like 10. 

We go to this Chinese restaurant place so Danny can hit up karaoke, we walk in and immediately notice we're the youngest people there by like a good 30 years. They're all older hill-billy/redneck folk. Jared was like "the next youngest person is 64!" I thought it was rather odd that all these redneck people were at the Chinese restaurant/lounge singing country, lol. I have another Long Island, this one was bigger and stronger than the one I had at Denny's. 

We then go downtown, we get stuck at a railroad crossing and it's the longest wait ever. Sooo sloooow. I was like "we should get out and hop on and see where it takes us".

We find a parking spot downtown and we go to this bar, no idea what it was called. There were a ton of hotties, I was like dayum!! In retrospect though I had my beer goggles on, and as I sobered up a little I was like ew, your face is kinda busted. But, there were quite a few hotties nonetheless. We end up ordering another drink, I think it was a shot of something, don't remember. This short lady with fangled teeth stands next to Jared and they start talking, apparently she asks if they can Facebook each other and they talk while I'm just like ew :S Like she was 40, redneck lookin', with gnarly teeth. We go back and forth between dancing, going to the bathroom, and getting drinks. As I'm waiting in line to order a round of shots of Jack for everyone, this douchebag walks up to me and deliberately bumps me so that he can move past. At first I was like huh? then like oh hell nah, I looked at him and he smirked at me like a punk, I really wanted to go to town on him but I refrained since I was supposed to be "out of town" for the weekend, and if I did anything there would undoubtedly be cops involved, and I just couldn't afford to go through all that BS. Plus being Navy, that wouldn't look good in my superiors' or junior sailors' eyes. Man I was freakin' PO'd though, what a dick. 

After some more dancing we go for more drinks, this time I order a shot of 151 for Jared and me, and Danny ordered something for him and Heather. I literally couldn't feel my tongue after taking that shot lol. We go outside and there's a taco wagon right next to the bar, they don't take cash so I order for Jared (wow this seems like a recurring theme lol), we got these amazing beef burritos, omg I need to go back and get more. Not quite as good as the taco wagon in Walla Walla, but in the stupor that we were in, it was like heaven in my mouth. We walk over to Danny's car and Jared goes to sit in the backseat while the rest of us stand around and talk. There's a cop car that's circling the area and we're like well that's awesome. Eventually Jared is like laying down with his head hanging over the edge of the car and he pukes. We realize that 151 is Jared's kryptonite lol :) Heather and Danny get in the car, and Danny backs up the car a little so I don't have to walk over the puke. I get in the car and help Jared up and I'm like holding him in my arms lol. He rests his head on the passenger side headrest but his head keeps slipping off so I use my right hand to hold his head up. That's love right there, lol. 

We get back around 2am and Danny and I carry Jared back into the house and help him go to the bathroom so he can puke some more. Once he's done we help him lay down on the couch and I change to get ready for bed while Danny and Heather are talking outside in his car. Jared walks over to the kitchen and pukes some more in the sink, I go over and hand him some bread telling him it would help absorb the alcohol. I help him back to the couch and grab his cell phone and other stuff and put it by him so he doesn't lose it. I think I end up passing out around 2:30.

Part 3

I wake up at 5 because I need to move my car so Nat can back her car out of the driveway to go to work. I have a pretty good hangover. I also grab my water bottle out of the car and drink what's left of it, come back, brush my teeth, and go back to sleep. I think I wake up again at like 7 or so to the sound of Danny's son saying "mommy I did potty" over and over again. Fall back asleep again after a while and Danny hops on MW2 and I wake up at like 8:30. Relax for about another hour and I get up to work more on my homework that's due today. I figured if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to go to a tournament today so just get as much done so I'll be OK for tonight. We all get dressed to go out at around 11, we take Danny's sons to his in-laws so they can be watched and drive to Burger King for some much needed food. We arrive at Board Game Nation around noon.

There's no one there so we chill a little, Danny and I finish our trade for the secret Laquari and War Chariot and some other things, I go to the bathroom, come out and Shiggs is there. Time passes and we come to the realization that there most likely won't be a tourney. Danny and I test, then Rob comes and he plays with Jared. I hadn't seen Rob in quite a while so it was nice to see him again. Jared continuously makes jokes about Shiggs going to jail and purposely throwing down the soap so he can get some lovin'. We all crack up and the jokes keep on coming throughout the day. We love you Shiggs <3 

I tell Shiggs that I would pay money for a CD of him singing, and that he should first start out as a Youtube star singing popular songs and then release an album. I come up with his first album title, "Shiggified", when I use it in a sentence saying "every song I hear on the radio now is all Shiggified." I think we have stumbled on to something here :) I would gladly pay for enough booze for Shiggs to get drunk enough so that he can sing on camera and make Youtube videos. They would be instant hits I have no doubt about it. Screw Rebecca Black, there's a new Internet star in town, Shiggy Shigz!

We get done with our play-testing session around 4, and Danny and I get to talking about Magic. He says that Steve Sr. has been hanging out with Roy a lot lately and spending a lot of money on Magic. Magic has seem to boomed in popularity lately in our area. I half-jokingly tell Danny "yea, all these people think they're the shit at Magic. I should start up again and put them in their place. Can't have people feeling good about themselves, take them down a peg or two." In my peak I had about a 3 month win streak at Merlyn's followed by my undefeated Portland regional win in 2007. This was back when Merlyn's was literally the only place in the Spokane area to play Magic. Now it seems like every single shop has their own FNM. I could probably get back in the swing of things in a relatively short amount of time. We look at some of the new singles they have for sale, apparently black-blue-white Solar Flare is in again. I ask the owner if the new set is a good money set and he says yes. He's selling the new Liliana for like $55 and this 2/1 blue flash guy for like $25. I'm sure it's higher than what their real values are, but it's probably somewhere in that range. And he says all the new lands come in that set and they're decent money. If I get back in I may start with a box of Innistrad. Need to do more research.

I tell Danny that my big-picture goal is for Team O to basically dominate every local of every card game that was out there. Link and Nate got the Pokemon side of things, I have been dominating the Lightning Comics locals and Rob has been dominating the Board Game Nation ones, earlier it was this Corey guy playing Scraps who thinks he's the shit now cuz he has a few local tops under his belt. I guess he plays at Uncle's now, good job, everyone there sucks.

I really don't want to play at Lightning anymore cuz it's just too damn long of a drive and the payout just doesn't warrant it. But without me there, we wouldn't have a "representative" for Lightning. I don't know where Epler is, he freaking lives in CDA and hasn't been showing up. Nate not playing I can understand. I would most likely like to switch to playing at the downtown Uncle's on Saturdays. It's much much closer. I don't want to support Uncle's, but at the same time I don't like hearing about people running their mouth thinking they're hot shit when they don't even have to play a Team O member to win.

Danny and I talk a bit more in the BGN parking lot and I tell him that I felt that when I first came back to Spokane, everyone on the team had a hunger/passion to do extremely well and dominate. Nowadays it seems like that passion is gone. I understand life takes precedence over Yugz, but Danny brought up a good point of "do we want a team of good players that don't play, or have an active team that's not as good?" I don't know, my first preference is for those good players to play, but I obviously can't force anyone to play, as I'm busy on particular days too. Saturdays are basically my only days now. All this ties back in with my one post where I explained that there were too many different places to play and that results in each local having smaller attendance. 

I tell Danny that honestly I would like it if both Uncle's locations closed down to force those players into our locales of play. He says Andrew has pretty much killed competitive YuGiOh in our area, and I agree 100%. Danny also told me that the owner of Uncle's told him that YuGiOh was what was keeping her business afloat for some of the periods/monthly reports. Knowing that they have much lower attendance now that Team O doesn't play there anymore, it is probably just a matter of time before they close down. Either that or get rid of Andrew, I dunno how he has them wrapped around his finger like he does. The one thing they have going for them though is that they sell board games and that kinda stuff in general and have a location in the mall, so around Christmas time they are good business. I rarely see people any time else during the year though. I doubt a good holiday period is enough to support them for the whole rest of the year though and mall space rental can't be cheap.

Overall I had an amazing weekend. It was great to hang out in a non Yugioh-only atmosphere. Unfortunately I spent way more $ than I had hoped for, but when I think about the ratio between the number of years I've been gone and the night, it comes out to a pretty small amount. If we go out again though I ain't buyin' so many rounds of alcohol and not paying for peoples' meals, lol. 

It's late, this post is extremely long, and I still gotta get our sheets out of the dryer, get my wife to get out of bed so I can make it, and go to bed.