So the day before yesterday I made up a Rabbit.dek list that I wanted to try out on Dueling Network. I found it quite difficult to rationalize what route I wanted to try and thought would be best, but I decided on a trap-heavy Moray build. I got one game in against some really random deck, stomped it, and decided I'd probably just end up facing against jank decks and not get productive testing done, so I stopped. Today I got to test 2 games against Mikey, he's never really used DN before and was helping customers while he was at work, and I had to leave to go meet the home inspector, hence why we only got 2 games in.
From what I've seen so far, it seems that having only 2 sets of normal monsters isn't enough. I tried 3 Kabazaulus and 3 Sabersaurus. If you get your Rabbit off once, and draw 2 of the other set (ie Rabbit for 2x Kaba, and draw into 2x Saber), any future Rabbit plays are dead unless you Avarice them back. You're pretty much relying on your guys staying on the field/playing the beatdown game. I also used 3 Hydrogeddon to go with the Morays. I dunno if my numbers just aren't right or if I'm taking the wrong approach to the deck or what, but the deck just seemed very clunky overall. I don't really want to "blame DN's randomization" either. It's like draw multiple of your guys and not draw Moray, or vice versa. I also incorporated the Tour Guide + Gold Sarc combo, but never got that off. I remember that combo being very hyped in Agents, I tried it out myself for a while, and I think I got it off like once, and have subsequently dropped Gold Sarcs altogether. That's probably what will happen for this deck as well.
I've seen the OCG build that got first out of a 70-man tournament, I'd kinda like to try that one and see how it fares, but undoubtedly Tour Guide is too good not to run in this deck, right? I've also read about people having some success with D-Fissure builds, so that's another option. This deck seems like it has so many ways it can be run, it's really hard to decide which one to go with and test. Unfortunately I don't have a great deal of time to test and dink around with decks to come up with this kind of stuff either. I've never been a particularly good deckbuilder, and with the advent of the Internet, it's just much easier to copy a deck that has proven itself in a large tournament and tweak it to your play preferences. I don't want to turn this into a net-deck vs originality post though, I may do that at a later time.
As for the deck, my current stance is that it will fail to perform as hyped in this upcoming YCS. Like I mentioned previously, Laggia and Dolkka are phenomenal monsters, but the inconsistency of drawing into multiples of the same normal monster is what I believe will ultimately hold this deck back. At one point I considered upping the deck count to 42 to try and minimize this, but decided against it and ran 41. I think the consistency and resiliency of the top decks we have now will outshine Rabbit's capabilities and inconsistencies, but I won't write the deck off quite yet. Three games with a crap build is hardly justification to do so.
Tomorrow I will get some more testing in and re-vamp the deck in general. I also want to test Karakuri and my Agents, since I know it's good and want to get in some actual good games with Mikey in general. It has been a long time since we got to play like we used to. If I start finding a decent amount of success with Rabbit in testing I will post a build of what I'm working with, but I'm not gonna post a crap build that fails.
As for me getting back into Magic, it actually hasn't gotten anywhere since I last talked about it. Between school, homework, work, selling cards, playing Yugz, and the whole house-buying process, I simply haven't had the time or the initiative to look into what's going on in Magic. I haven't even touched my PS3 in like 2 weeks. Realistically speaking I'll probably just sell or trade the cards I bought and nip it in the bud altogether. I don't want to hold onto 30-some cards, convince myself that I'm going to get back into it, never do, and lose the value that I had with what I bought.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
What's up with Team O? Status Update 2 + Captain's PHSW Report
So our team captain Danny ended up winning the Sneak Peek at Board Game Nation on Sunday, so we had domination over the Sneaks this weekend. We didn't play at Uncle's but Shiggs took that one lol. Danny wrote up a tourney report so I'd like to share that below:
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Wow seriously I feel like I turned over a new chapter in my life. They say that yugioh is just a card game well it is still very self validating. For a long time I question who I was, if I was still a good player and that made me question everything in my life. My job, my marriage, if I could be a good dad and they were all failing. My boss told me what happen to you? You walked around here and you held your head up high no matter what happened you use to be one of the best salesman we ever had here. I didn’t know what to say. Then he told me that I have to have a positive out look on my whole life so I have to take the good and understand the bad. Now I know I'm not gonna win every tournament I play in but I need to believe I can still win and this is how my day turned out.
Round 1 plants vs fairys
I play my long time buddie and teammate alan siebrecht now I thought damn seriously I cant get some chump first round. right out the gate one of the best players at the tourney.
Game 1 I win with t king lock and maxx c’s god I love this card
Game 2 I play maxx c on turn 2 he plays thru it and otk’s me how gutsy literally who does that lol
We go into time and I win.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 plants vs fairys again lol
Game 1 It was a really funky match he d prison my Tengu which I couldn’t believe lol I guess he had some logic behind it but spore and tengu won me this one.
Game 2 I hate fairys he otked me sweet love it.
Game 3 I open up T-King he sets Sangan loses it passes again, sets Shine Ball, passes again, sets Herald I think I got him on the ropes but he kills my King 8(. So I play One for One pitch Dandy and he chains Gozen match I'm thinking I sided out all 3 Mystical Space Typhoons I'm done. Spore and Dandy are wind tokens I summon Debris next turn swing for 1400 next turn summon Tengu lol all wind monsters still. He can't top to save his life. Next turn I synch for Orient Dragon still a wind monster then I go for Stardust basically you get it by now I take game 3.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 plants vs scraps
Now you think scraps what the heck but this kid makes it work he gets plus ones all day
Game 1 I really don’t remember but I win sorry.
Game 2 He sided Imperial Iron Wall now this was weird cause I thought that card sucks but none the less I have T-King out he has Tengu out, summons another, I play Bottomless on his last Tengu and he chains Imperial Iron Wall to save his Tengu. Then he XYZ summons for u top pia (lol that’s how we say it around my parts I guess). In my hand I have Gorz, Crow, BLS, and Tengu at this point. He draws real janky, plays TKing, I think I'm done cause my hand was bull only Gorz could save me and I can't summon BLS cause of the wall. I draw Dark Hole hit his face down and my TKing. I summon Debris thinking Black Rose time, oh my goodness Solemn Warning dotcom. Then he plays Heavy on his own Wall and passes I summon BLS and the rest is history but I never understood why he played heavy on his own card.
Record: 3-0
Top 4 plants vs agents (are you starting to see the trend I played agents all day)
Alan again this one ended quick sorry buddie much love
Game 1 I win
Game 2 He summons TKing and sets a back row. I summon Tour Guide and pull out Sangan from the deck, play Leeching the Light, hit him for 3900. He goes and passes. I summon Tengu and he tells me wow seriously even if he played Torrential wow the plusses. I win game 2. Good job to Alan he played for third and won his mat for the sneak peak.
Oh snap the finals
Record: 4-0
Finals plants vs scraps
Game 1 He wins I Solemn Warning his Scrap Dragon and he gets a ruling from the judge that he still gets the effect of Scrap Dragon and I was like wow seriously but I went with it. I wasn’t sure at this point if it was real or not and I still don’t know.
Game 2 I win
Game 3 Now I know game 2 was short but heres why game 3 was crazy he took my life poins down to 2200 and this game was his with his Tengu at 3300 cause of two Horn of the Phatom Beast I was like in trouble fast. Here are the fields: his field Tengu, 2 Horns, Monster Reborn my Hyper Librarian and a set monster and set trap. My field: Catastor, Tengu and my hand Crow, Pot of Avarice. Before I go into battle phase he Veilers Catastor so I go Glow up Bulb he Debunks it I play Crow for the fifth target for Pot of Avarice. I draw Tour Guide and Enemy Controller. I play Enemy on Tengu to take his Tengu, special mine from the deck, attack my Librarian to bring him down to 7200, attack his facedown Scrap Goblin with both my Tengu and Catastor. He has no target in the grave for Scrap Goblin. I XYZ summon both Tengus. He goes he sets one back row and summons Scrap Beast. My turn I draw Reborn I target Hyper Librarian. Now my field is Librarian Utopia and Catastor. I summon Tour Guide search out another Guide, XYZ summon Leviair, bring back Glow Up Bulb synchro for Brionac, draw off Librarian, pitch for his back row, attack for game and I'm the sneak peak champ go team overload.
Thru out this tournament I remained positive and believed I could win. I wanna thank my teammates for encouraging me the whole time and I wanna thank my manager at my job David for making me believe in myself. I told my teammates I was gonna win the sneak and I did there you have it yugioh players just have faith in you and you can accomplish anything.
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As for the state of the team, it looks like our active roster is Danny, Rob, Zach, Alan, and myself. I think Link is focused on Pokemon and Nate is re-building his deck. Dwight is busy with football, apparently their team is going to States (congrats). I think Antonio is pretty much off the team and done with Yugz, and don't really have much clue on Epler but seeing as how he hasn't been at his own turf's tourney in 6 weeks it seems safe to say he isn't in to playing all that much. Like I mentioned way back when I started the blog, we'd like to have a solid stable of people that are the best in skill that our area has to offer, actively playing, and a good teammate. If they aren't up to snuff in skill, then we at least need to see that they have the potential. You can usually tell when someone has reached their cap, or see that they have some kind of mental obstacle they need to overcome to reach "that" level. Some people, regardless of how much they play, spend money, or are coached, will simply just never get there. If that were not true, then one could say that anybody could be a professional [insert random sport here] player as long as they tried and practiced hard and long enough. That simply isn't true; people have a cap.
I finally ordered my set of Karakuri Merchant, and a Burei for Danny. I gotta trade for a Barkion though - I'm not gonna buy one since the deck doesn't go into level 6 all that much anyway. Seems like it's a "good to have, but not 100% necessary" kinda thing.
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Wow seriously I feel like I turned over a new chapter in my life. They say that yugioh is just a card game well it is still very self validating. For a long time I question who I was, if I was still a good player and that made me question everything in my life. My job, my marriage, if I could be a good dad and they were all failing. My boss told me what happen to you? You walked around here and you held your head up high no matter what happened you use to be one of the best salesman we ever had here. I didn’t know what to say. Then he told me that I have to have a positive out look on my whole life so I have to take the good and understand the bad. Now I know I'm not gonna win every tournament I play in but I need to believe I can still win and this is how my day turned out.
Round 1 plants vs fairys
I play my long time buddie and teammate alan siebrecht now I thought damn seriously I cant get some chump first round. right out the gate one of the best players at the tourney.
Game 1 I win with t king lock and maxx c’s god I love this card
Game 2 I play maxx c on turn 2 he plays thru it and otk’s me how gutsy literally who does that lol
We go into time and I win.
Record: 1-0
Round 2 plants vs fairys again lol
Game 1 It was a really funky match he d prison my Tengu which I couldn’t believe lol I guess he had some logic behind it but spore and tengu won me this one.
Game 2 I hate fairys he otked me sweet love it.
Game 3 I open up T-King he sets Sangan loses it passes again, sets Shine Ball, passes again, sets Herald I think I got him on the ropes but he kills my King 8(. So I play One for One pitch Dandy and he chains Gozen match I'm thinking I sided out all 3 Mystical Space Typhoons I'm done. Spore and Dandy are wind tokens I summon Debris next turn swing for 1400 next turn summon Tengu lol all wind monsters still. He can't top to save his life. Next turn I synch for Orient Dragon still a wind monster then I go for Stardust basically you get it by now I take game 3.
Record: 2-0
Round 3 plants vs scraps
Now you think scraps what the heck but this kid makes it work he gets plus ones all day
Game 1 I really don’t remember but I win sorry.
Game 2 He sided Imperial Iron Wall now this was weird cause I thought that card sucks but none the less I have T-King out he has Tengu out, summons another, I play Bottomless on his last Tengu and he chains Imperial Iron Wall to save his Tengu. Then he XYZ summons for u top pia (lol that’s how we say it around my parts I guess). In my hand I have Gorz, Crow, BLS, and Tengu at this point. He draws real janky, plays TKing, I think I'm done cause my hand was bull only Gorz could save me and I can't summon BLS cause of the wall. I draw Dark Hole hit his face down and my TKing. I summon Debris thinking Black Rose time, oh my goodness Solemn Warning dotcom. Then he plays Heavy on his own Wall and passes I summon BLS and the rest is history but I never understood why he played heavy on his own card.
Record: 3-0
Top 4 plants vs agents (are you starting to see the trend I played agents all day)
Alan again this one ended quick sorry buddie much love
Game 1 I win
Game 2 He summons TKing and sets a back row. I summon Tour Guide and pull out Sangan from the deck, play Leeching the Light, hit him for 3900. He goes and passes. I summon Tengu and he tells me wow seriously even if he played Torrential wow the plusses. I win game 2. Good job to Alan he played for third and won his mat for the sneak peak.
Oh snap the finals
Record: 4-0
Finals plants vs scraps
Game 1 He wins I Solemn Warning his Scrap Dragon and he gets a ruling from the judge that he still gets the effect of Scrap Dragon and I was like wow seriously but I went with it. I wasn’t sure at this point if it was real or not and I still don’t know.
Game 2 I win
Game 3 Now I know game 2 was short but heres why game 3 was crazy he took my life poins down to 2200 and this game was his with his Tengu at 3300 cause of two Horn of the Phatom Beast I was like in trouble fast. Here are the fields: his field Tengu, 2 Horns, Monster Reborn my Hyper Librarian and a set monster and set trap. My field: Catastor, Tengu and my hand Crow, Pot of Avarice. Before I go into battle phase he Veilers Catastor so I go Glow up Bulb he Debunks it I play Crow for the fifth target for Pot of Avarice. I draw Tour Guide and Enemy Controller. I play Enemy on Tengu to take his Tengu, special mine from the deck, attack my Librarian to bring him down to 7200, attack his facedown Scrap Goblin with both my Tengu and Catastor. He has no target in the grave for Scrap Goblin. I XYZ summon both Tengus. He goes he sets one back row and summons Scrap Beast. My turn I draw Reborn I target Hyper Librarian. Now my field is Librarian Utopia and Catastor. I summon Tour Guide search out another Guide, XYZ summon Leviair, bring back Glow Up Bulb synchro for Brionac, draw off Librarian, pitch for his back row, attack for game and I'm the sneak peak champ go team overload.
Thru out this tournament I remained positive and believed I could win. I wanna thank my teammates for encouraging me the whole time and I wanna thank my manager at my job David for making me believe in myself. I told my teammates I was gonna win the sneak and I did there you have it yugioh players just have faith in you and you can accomplish anything.
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As for the state of the team, it looks like our active roster is Danny, Rob, Zach, Alan, and myself. I think Link is focused on Pokemon and Nate is re-building his deck. Dwight is busy with football, apparently their team is going to States (congrats). I think Antonio is pretty much off the team and done with Yugz, and don't really have much clue on Epler but seeing as how he hasn't been at his own turf's tourney in 6 weeks it seems safe to say he isn't in to playing all that much. Like I mentioned way back when I started the blog, we'd like to have a solid stable of people that are the best in skill that our area has to offer, actively playing, and a good teammate. If they aren't up to snuff in skill, then we at least need to see that they have the potential. You can usually tell when someone has reached their cap, or see that they have some kind of mental obstacle they need to overcome to reach "that" level. Some people, regardless of how much they play, spend money, or are coached, will simply just never get there. If that were not true, then one could say that anybody could be a professional [insert random sport here] player as long as they tried and practiced hard and long enough. That simply isn't true; people have a cap.
I finally ordered my set of Karakuri Merchant, and a Burei for Danny. I gotta trade for a Barkion though - I'm not gonna buy one since the deck doesn't go into level 6 all that much anyway. Seems like it's a "good to have, but not 100% necessary" kinda thing.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
PHSW Sneak Peek Report 11-5-11; Lightning Comics
Last night I hopped on DN to test some Karakuri, but all I could get matched against were decks like Cloudians, this weird lifegain deck, so I was like screw it I'm just wasting my time. Zach and I talk a bit about what he should run for the Sneak and I tell him I got the majority of Plants, and Karakuri minus the Merchants, and that I was running Agents. He has "Jankents" (Jank-Agents) and asks me what his options were since he doesn't have Tour Guides, I was like "well you could play Pure or TG", and he talked about how he liked Danny's Gallis deck but wasn't going to borrow it.
So this morning I make breakfast, take a shower, and throw my backpack in the trunk while my wife takes a shower since I have to drive her in to work since she was going to be hanging out with her friends afterwards. Drop her off, drop the dog off at daycare, and I go to pick Zach up. I have to drive to the ATM since I needed to give him money from selling his stuff, and the night before I looked online to see if there are any ATMs that don't charge a fee. I wrote down the address and GPS it, we get there, I go to withdraw the money, and it asks if I'm OK with the $3 ATM fee. I'm like "what the f, the website said this ATM doesn't charge a fee! I shoulda just gone to Wal-Mart since I know they just charge $1.50!" So much for that crap, what a waste of time lol.
We pick up Burger King on the way in, walk in to Lightning, set our food and drinks down on the table, and Zach's bag falls on top of his drink and it spills everywhere. Smooooooth dude, lol. Way to make an entrance :) Lightning was pretty much packed with people, and apparently they allowed people to get packs all the way from like 11am (we got there around noon). I was like "god damnit, I bet people have sniped the good stuff already", but the tournament hadn't started so that was a plus. I eat my food real quick and ask Kim if he knows what people are running. He gives me a pretty good low-down so I make my side accordingly. Then I help Zach build his Agent deck and make the best 41 that I thought he had. He picks up a set of T-Kings from someone and buys 2 Maxx C from Kim so that helps his deck tremendously. I give him an Earth, let him borrow 2 Warnings and an Orient Dragon. I convince him to take the Pot of Duality's out, cut the Book, and cut random crap like Jupiter, Return from DD, and have him play 3 Earth and 3 Venus (I think it's pretty much mandatory). I pick the best 15 cards out of the cards he's got for his side and he's good to go.
I get in some trading with some peeps, and ask Big Mike if anyone pulled Rescue Rabbit but he shakes his head. I finally got rid of my extra DW structure deck to this guy for a few lower-end holos and a bunch of common staples. I'm soo glad I was finally able to get rid of that deck. Epler shows up for like 5 minutes and I was like "wtf dude, where've you been? I've won the past 5 tourneys" and he's just like "oh I didn't know you've been coming out here I would've if I had known". The whole point is to come out because I don't want to anymore, lol. Round 1 pairings get posted, and I notice that basically half the people in the room had disappeared. I was shocked that so many people just straight-up didn't want to play.
Total attendance for the tourney is 16.
Zach and I get paired against each other Round 1, we're like "wow this is stacked we should be playing each other in like the 4th round." Oh well.
Round 1 vs Zach (Agents)
Game 1 he stops my Venus play with Maxx C, he Dustshoots me later, but I'm able to bring out Kristya and maintain control.
Game 2 he opens with T-King, I draw pretty poorly, and the T-King shuts down the Earth I have in my hand. I get Dustshooted, he brings out Venus + Gachi, I Dark Hole, but he has Hyperion for anything I can get going. Too little too late.
Game 3 more or less the same but I try to put up a better fight. He Dustshoots me again when I have a hand of Sangan, Ball, Hyperion, and I think Storm. He obviously picks Sangan and it's pretty much all downhill from there for me. I think I get Trish'd and Kristya'd lol.
Record: 0-1
Maxx C shuts me down more than it does for him and I just drew too poorly games 2 and 3. Getting Dustshooted each game don't help either lol.
At this point I'm like "great, I gotta win out the rest to make sure I make the top cut" but I'm confident that I can manage that.
Round 2 vs Ross (Gishki?)
Game 1 I summon Earth, and he summons this 1800 Gishki guy, I have no idea what these cards are or do but I guess it's based on this lackluster Ritual guy. He's ahead of me in life for the majority of the game, but I just outright win in card advantage. He has the 1800 guy and the 2500 ritual dude so I Dark Hole then double Hyperion for the last of his 4800.
I go to my side and put in 1 Pulling the Rug (since that's all I had) and he whines about me siding. I'm just like whatever kid.
Game 2 I don't really let him get anything going since I figure out what the goal of his deck is. Veiler, Pulling, and Warning pretty much stop him from doing anything.
Turns out most of his deck was from the new DT set which isn't legal yet since the Hidden Arsenal for it hasn't come out. Oh well I honestly didn't give a crap since it was terrible lol.
Record: 1-1
Round 3 vs Eric (Chaos? w/ D-Alchemist)
Game 1 This ends up being a pretty good game, he Judgments a Tour Guide when he was at 7300, and I think this is what cost him the game. Between BLS and Hyperion I have too many boss monsters to take advantage of how much life he lost.
Game 2 Another good game, he brings out DAD and tries to blow up but I Torrential, next turn I bring out Kristya and he just can't deal with her.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs Kim (Sams)
Game 1 I summon T-King which basically shuts his whole deck down, at least whatever he had in his hand. All I take is 100 damage from attacking into a set Kageki. I Venus + Gachi so T-King can run over it, and next turn I swing in for 4300 on his last 42.
Game 2 He goes pretty aggro and we both use a bunch of cards so we don't have much by the mid-game. His field becomes Irou and Shi En, I set Sangan and he attacks it, I search Birdman since I have Puppet Plant in hand. He attacks w/ Shi En bringing me down to 700 (him at 6100). I Puppet Plant Shi En, summon Birdman and synch for Stardust and run over Irou. Get 2 more attacks in with Stardust and he's down to 300. He ends up Reborn'ing his Irou and has 2 facedown S/Ts. My turn I'm just totally confused as to what he could have face down, so I summon T-King, attack Irou with Stardust, he Cunnings to get Shi En back from the grave, but I just suicide and then swing with T-King for game.
That was a very close and good game.
Record: 3-1
I squeak into the Top 4 by getting 4th, and Top 4 ends up being me, Zach, Nelson, and this guy running Diva Zombie Plants (I guess?) with Lost Blue Breaker. I get paired against Nelson which I'm actually quite relieved about since he was running X-Sabers. Nothing against him personally in terms of his skill or anything, I just don't feel that that deck can beat Agents.
Top 4 vs Nelson (X-Sabers)
Game 1 It's pretty back and forth, and Maxx C puts in work. Late game I'm just poking at him with 2 Earths that were at 1200 cuz of Gachi w/ 1 material. He Reinforce Truth's for Pashuul, and his field ends up becoming Stardust, Urbellum, and Faultroll while I have Gachi and 2 Earth with 4 in hand. He swings Urbellum into Earth so I Honest. He gets rid of my other Earth and 1 more Gachi material. I summon Venus, special my 3rd ball, synch Earth and Ball for Armory Arm, equip, and swing at Stardust for game (he was at 800).
Game 2 He sets an Emmersblade. I set Sangan and Bottomless. He Mind Controls, summons Fulhelm, synchs for Hyunlei, which I Bottomless. I take the hit from Emmersblade and I Trag out. Activate Maxx C, attack Emmers, he specials Darksoul so I draw a card. I did this play cuz I had 2 Tour Guide in hand and I knew he'd go Darksoul, so I pitched to take control of it, make Trag level 3, and make Leviathan out of them. I later Debunk his Emmersblade and with the help of Maxx C it's pretty much a textbook finish from there. Pretty much just out-advantaged him.
Record: 4-1
So I wait for the other guy and Zach to finish, it looked like it was a pretty good back-and-forth match but Zach ends up taking it. I tell Zach that I'd like to just split so we could leave and grab dinner. He whines a little but in the end accepts. We both get a whopping $16.50 store credit and we buy Galaxy Eyes tins (I pulled crap) and I also get a pack of sleeves to empty out my credit. He pulls a Debunk and Wind-Up Factory so not bad. Danny explains his store credit situation with the worker guy but he can't help him, so Steve Sr. and Danny went to Big Mike about it and reminds him of the time they didn't write down their credit, so Danny ends up getting $14 and buys a Galaxy Eyes tin as well. I lend Danny 2 Warnings and a T-King he needs for tomorrow's Sneak event.
So Team O takes the Sneak, I guess technically my streak is still good since we split for 1st :) We say our goodbyes to everyone at the store and head to Top of China Buffet for food. We had one waiter guy come up to us and start sputtering random sounds to Danny while Zach and I are just quietly cracking up. He was trying to ask us if we came up from Spokane which we said yes to. Then he says like "Ta yu fo" to me and I'm just like what? He wanted me to keep my fork while he took my plate lol. He walks away a little then Danny goes like "Do you got any trades?" and we just bust up laughing. We talk some Yugz and then they talk sports while I think about Yugz, I was randomly like "wait is Elder (of the Six Sam) a tuner?" since we talked about the OCG playing 2 in their Agent builds. I thought it was, so you could synch it with Shine Ball, but it's not, and Danny reminded me that Earth was a tuner lol. I was like ohh that's actually kinda sweet. Eh, I think Shi En's attack is just took weak to be viable this format when Leviathan, Utopia, and Hyperion are just so easy to bring out. We say our goodbyes and call it a day.
I thought I could be finally done with going to Lightning, but turns out that Uncle's won't be running tournaments between now and like January since Christmas shopping will be picking up and they need their space. Soo looks like if I want to play on the one day I have free, Saturday, then I'd have to go to Lightning. I'm not sure what I'll do. I have grown to really enjoy playing at Lightning, but it's just such a long drive. However, our offer on the house that we wanted was finally accepted by the seller, so looks like we'll be moving to the Valley in the near future. This will be incredibly convenient for playing, since Board Game becomes even closer and the drive out to Lightning becomes not nearly as bad. Basically cut by a third, and I'm OK with driving that distance. Between now and then though, I'm not sure. I may not even really have time to play since we will undoubtedly be busy packing up.
Speaking of which, I now have to prepare selling off a good portion of my cards. I have decided to pick Karakuri as my secondary deck, so that means I can sell my Plant stuff. The only things of value are the Bulb and Tengus though I guess. If anyone wanted to buy them, I'd sell my 1st ed Bulb for $35 and the Tengu (Ultra) set for $35 as well. Leave a comment if interested. I need to order 3 Karakuri Merchants since Jeff didn't have any *sigh* :(. If I do well enough with Karakuri and/or Tour Guide becomes a solid $200, I will be selling those off as well.
All in all I had a very fun day of trading, playing, and hanging out. I didn't really buy anything, which I'm fine with. I didn't buy into the 5 packs + promo, primarily because Alexandrite sucks, until they make some broken Rank 4 requiring 2 Normal dragons or something (if ever). No one pulled Rabbit and I don't think anyone pulled Zenmaines or Dolkka either. I saw 1 D-Boyz, 1 Dark Smog, and some other bad secret I think. I had the opportunity to buy an Ulti Laggia for $50 but ultimately passed on it. I literally picked up no cards from PHSW, but am satisfied enough with the trades I did, and with our case coming in I think we will have our fill of PHSW. It was nice seeing some more competition and people coming out for the Sneak itself. 16 is a disappointing number for the tournament attendance, but what can ya do when people are too scared to play? I had a feeling that would happen; good turnout for packs but everyone leaving once the tourney started.
M: 28
3 Hyperion
3 Venus
3 Earth
3 Ball
3 Guide
1 Sangan
2 Maxx C
2 Veiler
2 T-King
1 BLS
1 Gorz
1 Trag
1 Kristya
1 Honest
1 Birdman
S: 6
1 Hole
1 Reborn
1 Heavy
1 Mind
2 MST
T: 7
2 Bottomless
2 Warning
1 Torrential
1 Force
1 Dustshoot
Side:
1 MST
2 Breaker
2 Debunk
1 Shadow-Mirror
2 Puppet Plant
2 Leeching
2 Gemini Imp
2 Cydra
1 Pulling
So this morning I make breakfast, take a shower, and throw my backpack in the trunk while my wife takes a shower since I have to drive her in to work since she was going to be hanging out with her friends afterwards. Drop her off, drop the dog off at daycare, and I go to pick Zach up. I have to drive to the ATM since I needed to give him money from selling his stuff, and the night before I looked online to see if there are any ATMs that don't charge a fee. I wrote down the address and GPS it, we get there, I go to withdraw the money, and it asks if I'm OK with the $3 ATM fee. I'm like "what the f, the website said this ATM doesn't charge a fee! I shoulda just gone to Wal-Mart since I know they just charge $1.50!" So much for that crap, what a waste of time lol.
We pick up Burger King on the way in, walk in to Lightning, set our food and drinks down on the table, and Zach's bag falls on top of his drink and it spills everywhere. Smooooooth dude, lol. Way to make an entrance :) Lightning was pretty much packed with people, and apparently they allowed people to get packs all the way from like 11am (we got there around noon). I was like "god damnit, I bet people have sniped the good stuff already", but the tournament hadn't started so that was a plus. I eat my food real quick and ask Kim if he knows what people are running. He gives me a pretty good low-down so I make my side accordingly. Then I help Zach build his Agent deck and make the best 41 that I thought he had. He picks up a set of T-Kings from someone and buys 2 Maxx C from Kim so that helps his deck tremendously. I give him an Earth, let him borrow 2 Warnings and an Orient Dragon. I convince him to take the Pot of Duality's out, cut the Book, and cut random crap like Jupiter, Return from DD, and have him play 3 Earth and 3 Venus (I think it's pretty much mandatory). I pick the best 15 cards out of the cards he's got for his side and he's good to go.
I get in some trading with some peeps, and ask Big Mike if anyone pulled Rescue Rabbit but he shakes his head. I finally got rid of my extra DW structure deck to this guy for a few lower-end holos and a bunch of common staples. I'm soo glad I was finally able to get rid of that deck. Epler shows up for like 5 minutes and I was like "wtf dude, where've you been? I've won the past 5 tourneys" and he's just like "oh I didn't know you've been coming out here I would've if I had known". The whole point is to come out because I don't want to anymore, lol. Round 1 pairings get posted, and I notice that basically half the people in the room had disappeared. I was shocked that so many people just straight-up didn't want to play.
Total attendance for the tourney is 16.
Zach and I get paired against each other Round 1, we're like "wow this is stacked we should be playing each other in like the 4th round." Oh well.
Round 1 vs Zach (Agents)
Game 1 he stops my Venus play with Maxx C, he Dustshoots me later, but I'm able to bring out Kristya and maintain control.
Game 2 he opens with T-King, I draw pretty poorly, and the T-King shuts down the Earth I have in my hand. I get Dustshooted, he brings out Venus + Gachi, I Dark Hole, but he has Hyperion for anything I can get going. Too little too late.
Game 3 more or less the same but I try to put up a better fight. He Dustshoots me again when I have a hand of Sangan, Ball, Hyperion, and I think Storm. He obviously picks Sangan and it's pretty much all downhill from there for me. I think I get Trish'd and Kristya'd lol.
Record: 0-1
Maxx C shuts me down more than it does for him and I just drew too poorly games 2 and 3. Getting Dustshooted each game don't help either lol.
At this point I'm like "great, I gotta win out the rest to make sure I make the top cut" but I'm confident that I can manage that.
Round 2 vs Ross (Gishki?)
Game 1 I summon Earth, and he summons this 1800 Gishki guy, I have no idea what these cards are or do but I guess it's based on this lackluster Ritual guy. He's ahead of me in life for the majority of the game, but I just outright win in card advantage. He has the 1800 guy and the 2500 ritual dude so I Dark Hole then double Hyperion for the last of his 4800.
I go to my side and put in 1 Pulling the Rug (since that's all I had) and he whines about me siding. I'm just like whatever kid.
Game 2 I don't really let him get anything going since I figure out what the goal of his deck is. Veiler, Pulling, and Warning pretty much stop him from doing anything.
Turns out most of his deck was from the new DT set which isn't legal yet since the Hidden Arsenal for it hasn't come out. Oh well I honestly didn't give a crap since it was terrible lol.
Record: 1-1
Round 3 vs Eric (Chaos? w/ D-Alchemist)
Game 1 This ends up being a pretty good game, he Judgments a Tour Guide when he was at 7300, and I think this is what cost him the game. Between BLS and Hyperion I have too many boss monsters to take advantage of how much life he lost.
Game 2 Another good game, he brings out DAD and tries to blow up but I Torrential, next turn I bring out Kristya and he just can't deal with her.
Record: 2-1
Round 4 vs Kim (Sams)
Game 1 I summon T-King which basically shuts his whole deck down, at least whatever he had in his hand. All I take is 100 damage from attacking into a set Kageki. I Venus + Gachi so T-King can run over it, and next turn I swing in for 4300 on his last 42.
Game 2 He goes pretty aggro and we both use a bunch of cards so we don't have much by the mid-game. His field becomes Irou and Shi En, I set Sangan and he attacks it, I search Birdman since I have Puppet Plant in hand. He attacks w/ Shi En bringing me down to 700 (him at 6100). I Puppet Plant Shi En, summon Birdman and synch for Stardust and run over Irou. Get 2 more attacks in with Stardust and he's down to 300. He ends up Reborn'ing his Irou and has 2 facedown S/Ts. My turn I'm just totally confused as to what he could have face down, so I summon T-King, attack Irou with Stardust, he Cunnings to get Shi En back from the grave, but I just suicide and then swing with T-King for game.
That was a very close and good game.
Record: 3-1
I squeak into the Top 4 by getting 4th, and Top 4 ends up being me, Zach, Nelson, and this guy running Diva Zombie Plants (I guess?) with Lost Blue Breaker. I get paired against Nelson which I'm actually quite relieved about since he was running X-Sabers. Nothing against him personally in terms of his skill or anything, I just don't feel that that deck can beat Agents.
Top 4 vs Nelson (X-Sabers)
Game 1 It's pretty back and forth, and Maxx C puts in work. Late game I'm just poking at him with 2 Earths that were at 1200 cuz of Gachi w/ 1 material. He Reinforce Truth's for Pashuul, and his field ends up becoming Stardust, Urbellum, and Faultroll while I have Gachi and 2 Earth with 4 in hand. He swings Urbellum into Earth so I Honest. He gets rid of my other Earth and 1 more Gachi material. I summon Venus, special my 3rd ball, synch Earth and Ball for Armory Arm, equip, and swing at Stardust for game (he was at 800).
Game 2 He sets an Emmersblade. I set Sangan and Bottomless. He Mind Controls, summons Fulhelm, synchs for Hyunlei, which I Bottomless. I take the hit from Emmersblade and I Trag out. Activate Maxx C, attack Emmers, he specials Darksoul so I draw a card. I did this play cuz I had 2 Tour Guide in hand and I knew he'd go Darksoul, so I pitched to take control of it, make Trag level 3, and make Leviathan out of them. I later Debunk his Emmersblade and with the help of Maxx C it's pretty much a textbook finish from there. Pretty much just out-advantaged him.
Record: 4-1
So I wait for the other guy and Zach to finish, it looked like it was a pretty good back-and-forth match but Zach ends up taking it. I tell Zach that I'd like to just split so we could leave and grab dinner. He whines a little but in the end accepts. We both get a whopping $16.50 store credit and we buy Galaxy Eyes tins (I pulled crap) and I also get a pack of sleeves to empty out my credit. He pulls a Debunk and Wind-Up Factory so not bad. Danny explains his store credit situation with the worker guy but he can't help him, so Steve Sr. and Danny went to Big Mike about it and reminds him of the time they didn't write down their credit, so Danny ends up getting $14 and buys a Galaxy Eyes tin as well. I lend Danny 2 Warnings and a T-King he needs for tomorrow's Sneak event.
So Team O takes the Sneak, I guess technically my streak is still good since we split for 1st :) We say our goodbyes to everyone at the store and head to Top of China Buffet for food. We had one waiter guy come up to us and start sputtering random sounds to Danny while Zach and I are just quietly cracking up. He was trying to ask us if we came up from Spokane which we said yes to. Then he says like "Ta yu fo" to me and I'm just like what? He wanted me to keep my fork while he took my plate lol. He walks away a little then Danny goes like "Do you got any trades?" and we just bust up laughing. We talk some Yugz and then they talk sports while I think about Yugz, I was randomly like "wait is Elder (of the Six Sam) a tuner?" since we talked about the OCG playing 2 in their Agent builds. I thought it was, so you could synch it with Shine Ball, but it's not, and Danny reminded me that Earth was a tuner lol. I was like ohh that's actually kinda sweet. Eh, I think Shi En's attack is just took weak to be viable this format when Leviathan, Utopia, and Hyperion are just so easy to bring out. We say our goodbyes and call it a day.
I thought I could be finally done with going to Lightning, but turns out that Uncle's won't be running tournaments between now and like January since Christmas shopping will be picking up and they need their space. Soo looks like if I want to play on the one day I have free, Saturday, then I'd have to go to Lightning. I'm not sure what I'll do. I have grown to really enjoy playing at Lightning, but it's just such a long drive. However, our offer on the house that we wanted was finally accepted by the seller, so looks like we'll be moving to the Valley in the near future. This will be incredibly convenient for playing, since Board Game becomes even closer and the drive out to Lightning becomes not nearly as bad. Basically cut by a third, and I'm OK with driving that distance. Between now and then though, I'm not sure. I may not even really have time to play since we will undoubtedly be busy packing up.
Speaking of which, I now have to prepare selling off a good portion of my cards. I have decided to pick Karakuri as my secondary deck, so that means I can sell my Plant stuff. The only things of value are the Bulb and Tengus though I guess. If anyone wanted to buy them, I'd sell my 1st ed Bulb for $35 and the Tengu (Ultra) set for $35 as well. Leave a comment if interested. I need to order 3 Karakuri Merchants since Jeff didn't have any *sigh* :(. If I do well enough with Karakuri and/or Tour Guide becomes a solid $200, I will be selling those off as well.
All in all I had a very fun day of trading, playing, and hanging out. I didn't really buy anything, which I'm fine with. I didn't buy into the 5 packs + promo, primarily because Alexandrite sucks, until they make some broken Rank 4 requiring 2 Normal dragons or something (if ever). No one pulled Rabbit and I don't think anyone pulled Zenmaines or Dolkka either. I saw 1 D-Boyz, 1 Dark Smog, and some other bad secret I think. I had the opportunity to buy an Ulti Laggia for $50 but ultimately passed on it. I literally picked up no cards from PHSW, but am satisfied enough with the trades I did, and with our case coming in I think we will have our fill of PHSW. It was nice seeing some more competition and people coming out for the Sneak itself. 16 is a disappointing number for the tournament attendance, but what can ya do when people are too scared to play? I had a feeling that would happen; good turnout for packs but everyone leaving once the tourney started.
M: 28
3 Hyperion
3 Venus
3 Earth
3 Ball
3 Guide
1 Sangan
2 Maxx C
2 Veiler
2 T-King
1 BLS
1 Gorz
1 Trag
1 Kristya
1 Honest
1 Birdman
S: 6
1 Hole
1 Reborn
1 Heavy
1 Mind
2 MST
T: 7
2 Bottomless
2 Warning
1 Torrential
1 Force
1 Dustshoot
Side:
1 MST
2 Breaker
2 Debunk
1 Shadow-Mirror
2 Puppet Plant
2 Leeching
2 Gemini Imp
2 Cydra
1 Pulling
Friday, November 4, 2011
Do You Remember?
This is just a little thing that I'm doing for myself/for fun to recall all of my best YuGiOh memories for the sake of nostalgia, and having them typed out so I never forget them. I'll start out with these and as I remember/think of more I will just add them at the end of my regular blog posts. This is intended to be kinda like David Letterman's top 10 list, and to stir up memories of these things that I know others have as well.
Do you remember:
1. When Adam Corn got caught cheating at Shonen Jump Seattle and literally crying about it in front of everyone. He had to write a letter explaining the situation, and I caught a glimpse of it, and it started off with "Hello, My name is Adam Corn" in like a 3rd graders penmanship.
2. Pulling off Pot-Graceful-Duo but still losing that game.
3. When that big black guy came up to Zach (Elton) all pissed off at Northtown while we were playing and said "Hey man, why you fuck my sister?!?" Then realized it wasn't who he was looking for and walked off. I think we both shat ourselves lol.
4a. Making Ian cry at the Sneak when I only gave him 3 Draw phases out of 2 games when I played Magical Explosion OTK.
4b. Lon thinking I was an idiot for playing Allure of Darkness when I had 8 spells in my hand, dumping everything, and ending my turn. (And then winning the next Draw phase.)
5. When people used to play Gadgets and Monarchs in the same deck.
6. Sitting across from Cesar Gonzalez at Seattle Shonen during decklist hand-in, and asking him why he was called Princess.
7. Playing against that fat Lightsworn kid in Texas and everyone watching our game, and when he played Heavy Storm all non-chelantly, flipping (with authority) Starlight Road and saying "Nekkah!" causing everyone to laugh.
8. Trading an Earthbound Immortal for an Archlord Kristya.
9. When I thought my Dark Necrofear deck was so badass.
10. Playing on the floor in a corner of the bottom floor at Northtown, and a girl and her friend walking up toward us and throwing her cup full of ice at Jared.
11. Going to my first tournament and watching this kid play Exodia, seeing him draw his last card, and still not getting all 5 pieces. Which resulted in crying on his part.
12. Tom and his 2 kids that reeked of cat pee.
13. Getting wreaked by Robert Lim at my first Regional in Cyber Dragon + Warrior Tool-box format.
14. Beating the guy who ended up getting 3rd at Seattle Shonen in Swiss 2-0, but not making top 16 cuz of tie-breakers.
15. When randoms thought that MST negated everything cuz it says destroy.
16. Going to my first local at Gamer's Den in Texas, and within 2 hours everyone talking about how "pro" I was (conversely, this shows how bad the meta was before I came along).
17. When Don Zaloog was played.
18. Whooping up on Elton with Gadgets all day when they came out, even though he talked about how bad and useless they were.
19. All of us leaving Klinger to fend for himself the night of the Seattle Shonen since he went out to dinner with the judges. We couldn't get a hold of him since he didn't have a phone, and he didn't show up where we told him to meet us. He couldn't get his stuff and slept in his judge's uniform that night with the other judges.
20. Standing in line in front of the convention center for an hour in the cold winter with everyone waiting for the Sneak to open.
Do you remember:
1. When Adam Corn got caught cheating at Shonen Jump Seattle and literally crying about it in front of everyone. He had to write a letter explaining the situation, and I caught a glimpse of it, and it started off with "Hello, My name is Adam Corn" in like a 3rd graders penmanship.
2. Pulling off Pot-Graceful-Duo but still losing that game.
3. When that big black guy came up to Zach (Elton) all pissed off at Northtown while we were playing and said "Hey man, why you fuck my sister?!?" Then realized it wasn't who he was looking for and walked off. I think we both shat ourselves lol.
4a. Making Ian cry at the Sneak when I only gave him 3 Draw phases out of 2 games when I played Magical Explosion OTK.
4b. Lon thinking I was an idiot for playing Allure of Darkness when I had 8 spells in my hand, dumping everything, and ending my turn. (And then winning the next Draw phase.)
5. When people used to play Gadgets and Monarchs in the same deck.
6. Sitting across from Cesar Gonzalez at Seattle Shonen during decklist hand-in, and asking him why he was called Princess.
7. Playing against that fat Lightsworn kid in Texas and everyone watching our game, and when he played Heavy Storm all non-chelantly, flipping (with authority) Starlight Road and saying "Nekkah!" causing everyone to laugh.
8. Trading an Earthbound Immortal for an Archlord Kristya.
9. When I thought my Dark Necrofear deck was so badass.
10. Playing on the floor in a corner of the bottom floor at Northtown, and a girl and her friend walking up toward us and throwing her cup full of ice at Jared.
11. Going to my first tournament and watching this kid play Exodia, seeing him draw his last card, and still not getting all 5 pieces. Which resulted in crying on his part.
12. Tom and his 2 kids that reeked of cat pee.
13. Getting wreaked by Robert Lim at my first Regional in Cyber Dragon + Warrior Tool-box format.
14. Beating the guy who ended up getting 3rd at Seattle Shonen in Swiss 2-0, but not making top 16 cuz of tie-breakers.
15. When randoms thought that MST negated everything cuz it says destroy.
16. Going to my first local at Gamer's Den in Texas, and within 2 hours everyone talking about how "pro" I was (conversely, this shows how bad the meta was before I came along).
17. When Don Zaloog was played.
18. Whooping up on Elton with Gadgets all day when they came out, even though he talked about how bad and useless they were.
19. All of us leaving Klinger to fend for himself the night of the Seattle Shonen since he went out to dinner with the judges. We couldn't get a hold of him since he didn't have a phone, and he didn't show up where we told him to meet us. He couldn't get his stuff and slept in his judge's uniform that night with the other judges.
20. Standing in line in front of the convention center for an hour in the cold winter with everyone waiting for the Sneak to open.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Prepping for the Sneak
Arguably one of the most anticipated sets in quite a while is coming out this weekend, via the Photon Shockwave Sneak Peek. There are a lot of things riding on this Sneak for me. Most importantly, this will be a very good litmus to see exactly how much interest there still is in this game. Over the past few weeks I've tried to come up with justification for low locals attendance, but most people don't miss a Sneak. I wouldn't even care if only half of the attendees played in the tournament. At least I'd know that they were still in to the game, even on a casual level. The worst case scenario is that hardly anyone shows up. I'd rather that people still be interested in the game and not play, than to have only a few people interested at all.
As for the Sneak itself, I will be coming with $200-300 and as much of my stuff that I can fit in my backpack as possible. Sneaks are the best days in terms of trading, selling, and buying. The casual people don't have any idea on values of the new stuff, and more often than not if you throw out a good sounding number for a particular card they will take it. It's also the ideal time to trade the jank that you pull, since everything has hype value and the casuals don't know if something is playable or not. People also come out of the woodwork in hopes of selling their entire binder/collection off, and I believe that buying collections and re-selling is one of the best ways of making money in card games. I want to bring enough money and trades to pick up on these deals, rather than not bring enough and kick myself for it later. I have had that happen to me in the past - if I had brought my 'jank rares and commons' binder that had Morphotronic Accelerator in it, I woulda picked up a T-King at the TSHD Sneak in Texas, straight across. If I had an extra $20, woulda got a Judgment Dragon for $40 at the LODT one. I'm sure we all have personal "shoulda-woulda-coulda" examples like this. Remember it's better to bring more than you need, than to not bring enough. Do I envision myself spending all of the $200-300 I bring? Most likely not, but we get Sneaks only 4 times a year; be prepared, and utilize them!
As for the tournament, I am sticking with my Agents but changed my trap line-up to incorporate 2 Solemn Warning and a Solemn Judgment. I don't know how this will play out for me, hopefully I don't regret it in our aggro-heavy/balls-to-the-wall locals. I may side into D-Prison/Bottomless against certain players that I know are very aggressive. I am mentally toying around with the idea of running 1 Vanity's Fiend but in the end I don't think I'll have enough space for it. My logic is that since more often than not I'm double-sac'ing to bring out Kristya, why not run a 1-sac version in Vanity's? I guess the problem is if they already have a big guy out there, 2800 runs over a lot more than 2400, and with Kristya you at least have the possibility of special'ing her, rather than have to tribute like you do in Vanity's case. Again I will bring all my relevant sidedeck stuff and make my side based on what I see people running.
This is also an important event for me since it'll probably be the last time I play at Lightning Comics until I hear that attendance has gone back up. It is time for the Idaho Team O players to play at their own turf and represent the team and continue the weekly domination I have achieved the past 5 weeks. I will take downtown Spokane. I hate the thought of contributing to Uncle's, but we also need to get Corey off his high horse. If we want to achieve dominance at every locals possible, well we have to have at least 1 person attending each of them if there are multiple on the same day/time. Using the Google Maps directions thing, from my house it is 33.8 miles to Lightning. There and back, that's basically 67 miles I put on my car. I get roughly 30 mpg, so 2 gallons at $3.69 comes out to about $7.40. To downtown Uncle's, it is only 3.1 miles so gas is negligible. Looking at the parking meter map for Spokane, if I can manage to get a 3-hour spot, it'd only cost me $2 to park for 4 hours, which should be plenty. $2.50 if I wanted 5 hours. Either way I'd have to go out in between a round to fill the meter but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. Clearly it is better for me to go to Uncle's, especially if the prize support ends up being basically the same.
After the Sneak, I anticipate basically emptying out my binder by selling off everything that I can besides my primary and secondary deck and a few key cards I think may rise in value over time. Then I will re-build until the next Sneak 3 months later. This way nothing remains too stagnant and I'm not trying to get rid of the same crap Sneak after Sneak, when I know that no one's ever gonna want it. I go through a pretty good amount of product and I have limited space to keep my stuff, so I need to be dumping off proportionally to how much I accumulate.
I hope everyone has an enjoyable and profitable experience at the Sneak!
As for the Sneak itself, I will be coming with $200-300 and as much of my stuff that I can fit in my backpack as possible. Sneaks are the best days in terms of trading, selling, and buying. The casual people don't have any idea on values of the new stuff, and more often than not if you throw out a good sounding number for a particular card they will take it. It's also the ideal time to trade the jank that you pull, since everything has hype value and the casuals don't know if something is playable or not. People also come out of the woodwork in hopes of selling their entire binder/collection off, and I believe that buying collections and re-selling is one of the best ways of making money in card games. I want to bring enough money and trades to pick up on these deals, rather than not bring enough and kick myself for it later. I have had that happen to me in the past - if I had brought my 'jank rares and commons' binder that had Morphotronic Accelerator in it, I woulda picked up a T-King at the TSHD Sneak in Texas, straight across. If I had an extra $20, woulda got a Judgment Dragon for $40 at the LODT one. I'm sure we all have personal "shoulda-woulda-coulda" examples like this. Remember it's better to bring more than you need, than to not bring enough. Do I envision myself spending all of the $200-300 I bring? Most likely not, but we get Sneaks only 4 times a year; be prepared, and utilize them!
As for the tournament, I am sticking with my Agents but changed my trap line-up to incorporate 2 Solemn Warning and a Solemn Judgment. I don't know how this will play out for me, hopefully I don't regret it in our aggro-heavy/balls-to-the-wall locals. I may side into D-Prison/Bottomless against certain players that I know are very aggressive. I am mentally toying around with the idea of running 1 Vanity's Fiend but in the end I don't think I'll have enough space for it. My logic is that since more often than not I'm double-sac'ing to bring out Kristya, why not run a 1-sac version in Vanity's? I guess the problem is if they already have a big guy out there, 2800 runs over a lot more than 2400, and with Kristya you at least have the possibility of special'ing her, rather than have to tribute like you do in Vanity's case. Again I will bring all my relevant sidedeck stuff and make my side based on what I see people running.
This is also an important event for me since it'll probably be the last time I play at Lightning Comics until I hear that attendance has gone back up. It is time for the Idaho Team O players to play at their own turf and represent the team and continue the weekly domination I have achieved the past 5 weeks. I will take downtown Spokane. I hate the thought of contributing to Uncle's, but we also need to get Corey off his high horse. If we want to achieve dominance at every locals possible, well we have to have at least 1 person attending each of them if there are multiple on the same day/time. Using the Google Maps directions thing, from my house it is 33.8 miles to Lightning. There and back, that's basically 67 miles I put on my car. I get roughly 30 mpg, so 2 gallons at $3.69 comes out to about $7.40. To downtown Uncle's, it is only 3.1 miles so gas is negligible. Looking at the parking meter map for Spokane, if I can manage to get a 3-hour spot, it'd only cost me $2 to park for 4 hours, which should be plenty. $2.50 if I wanted 5 hours. Either way I'd have to go out in between a round to fill the meter but that shouldn't be too big of a deal. Clearly it is better for me to go to Uncle's, especially if the prize support ends up being basically the same.
After the Sneak, I anticipate basically emptying out my binder by selling off everything that I can besides my primary and secondary deck and a few key cards I think may rise in value over time. Then I will re-build until the next Sneak 3 months later. This way nothing remains too stagnant and I'm not trying to get rid of the same crap Sneak after Sneak, when I know that no one's ever gonna want it. I go through a pretty good amount of product and I have limited space to keep my stuff, so I need to be dumping off proportionally to how much I accumulate.
I hope everyone has an enjoyable and profitable experience at the Sneak!
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Wave 2 Tin Release
So I just got back from Wal-Mart with 4 Galaxy-Eyes tins, also stopped by the post office to mail Zach's and my Troll sale and pick up some Magic cards from my PO box. It was kinda funny when I got to the card section, the cards guy was there stocking the shelves with new/re-fill product. This happened last time with the Wave 1 tins as well. If I had gone in any earlier I woulda been too early and gone somewhere else. He put up 4 Galaxy tins, and I took them right down and into my little hand-cart, so he put up some more lol.
Here were my...less than stellar pulls (holos only), but I gotta say it's better than anything I've gotten out of Wave 1:
1 The Golden Apples
1 Piercing Moray (Ulti)
1 Karakuri Haipa (Ulti)
1 E-Hero Ice Edge
1 Dodger Dragon
1 TG Halberd Cannon
1 Junk Berserker
So 7 holos out of 4 tins seems pretty decent. Too bad they're all pretty much un-movable. Maybe the Haipa cuz Karakuris are gaining popularity. Speaking of which, I sleeved and proxied up the deck, tested some hands, and seems fun. It will take me a little while to get used to which ones switch positions and whatnot and all the little combos but it's been a while since I've played something foreign to me so that should provide some entertainment for me.
Today's also exactly 1 month from when I started the blog, and I'm still happy to be writing on here, hopefully you have enjoyed it as well. The past week or two has been a little slow but I guess that's just what happens after a big event and waiting for the next set to come out. I must admit that one of my biggest inspirations in starting the blog was Mike Bonacini, and the day after I sent him a message on DGZ asking if he would link my blog on his, he announced his retirement from blogging. I was like :((( I imagined he would've come back by now but it's been almost a month and he still hasn't returned. I imagine some day in the future though he will come back, even if it's just for a short time. I've quit YuGiOh like 6 times and I'm still playing regularly.
I checked on eBay earlier today and seems that Maxx C is in the $45-50 range, so I was correct in my prediction that it would be about $45 by the time the Wave 2 tins came out, except it's not just cuz people want to copy Plants, more like cuz it's played in everything now. Pat Hoban posted an article about Maxx C yesterday on Alter Reality Games' article site, I recommend checking that out. It's nothing ground-breaking or anything but I think it's a good little tutorial/guideline about how to utilize Maxx C in the best ways and circumstances. Pretty decent read.
Oh, that reminds me, eBay has a handy little fee calculator site so that you can see exactly how much of a sale will be taken out from fees. This doesn't take into account PayPal fees though, so keep that in mind. You can also see that if you use the "low cost, high shipping" method of selling, you still have pretty much the exact same cost on you. I was curious to see what one would get from selling a Tour Guide for $180 with $2.50 shipping, and the fees came out to $16.43. No idea what the PayPal fee would be, probably around $8 so that'd be about $26 in fees, so almost $15%. Which isn't bad, but you can see that selling in person is better. Heaven forbid that the buyer try to pull a fast one on you by claiming Item Not Received or Item Not as Described.
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/feecalculator.html
Good luck to everyone that's picking up tins today and in the near future. Hope you pull better than I did!
Here were my...less than stellar pulls (holos only), but I gotta say it's better than anything I've gotten out of Wave 1:
1 The Golden Apples
1 Piercing Moray (Ulti)
1 Karakuri Haipa (Ulti)
1 E-Hero Ice Edge
1 Dodger Dragon
1 TG Halberd Cannon
1 Junk Berserker
So 7 holos out of 4 tins seems pretty decent. Too bad they're all pretty much un-movable. Maybe the Haipa cuz Karakuris are gaining popularity. Speaking of which, I sleeved and proxied up the deck, tested some hands, and seems fun. It will take me a little while to get used to which ones switch positions and whatnot and all the little combos but it's been a while since I've played something foreign to me so that should provide some entertainment for me.
Today's also exactly 1 month from when I started the blog, and I'm still happy to be writing on here, hopefully you have enjoyed it as well. The past week or two has been a little slow but I guess that's just what happens after a big event and waiting for the next set to come out. I must admit that one of my biggest inspirations in starting the blog was Mike Bonacini, and the day after I sent him a message on DGZ asking if he would link my blog on his, he announced his retirement from blogging. I was like :((( I imagined he would've come back by now but it's been almost a month and he still hasn't returned. I imagine some day in the future though he will come back, even if it's just for a short time. I've quit YuGiOh like 6 times and I'm still playing regularly.
I checked on eBay earlier today and seems that Maxx C is in the $45-50 range, so I was correct in my prediction that it would be about $45 by the time the Wave 2 tins came out, except it's not just cuz people want to copy Plants, more like cuz it's played in everything now. Pat Hoban posted an article about Maxx C yesterday on Alter Reality Games' article site, I recommend checking that out. It's nothing ground-breaking or anything but I think it's a good little tutorial/guideline about how to utilize Maxx C in the best ways and circumstances. Pretty decent read.
Oh, that reminds me, eBay has a handy little fee calculator site so that you can see exactly how much of a sale will be taken out from fees. This doesn't take into account PayPal fees though, so keep that in mind. You can also see that if you use the "low cost, high shipping" method of selling, you still have pretty much the exact same cost on you. I was curious to see what one would get from selling a Tour Guide for $180 with $2.50 shipping, and the fees came out to $16.43. No idea what the PayPal fee would be, probably around $8 so that'd be about $26 in fees, so almost $15%. Which isn't bad, but you can see that selling in person is better. Heaven forbid that the buyer try to pull a fast one on you by claiming Item Not Received or Item Not as Described.
http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/feecalculator.html
Good luck to everyone that's picking up tins today and in the near future. Hope you pull better than I did!
Monday, October 31, 2011
The Week Ahead
So this should be a fun week for the YuGiOh TCG!
First and foremost is the release of the Wave 2 tins tomorrow, where we can finally get our Solemn Warning, Darksoul, Fossil Dyna, Ehren, and Eatos reprints. In the end I may end up getting 6 Galaxy Eyes altogether, but I'll start out with 4 like I said I would get originally. The fact that the Wave 2 tins have an extra EXVC pack intrigues me very much, even though realistically I ain't gettin' another Tour Guide. We can dream though, right? Surely people are gonna pull it though, those lucky sonsofbitches! With these tins I look at it for the promos as the primary buy, and the packs as a bonus. Wanna know what the best card (in terms of value) I pulled out of a booster was out of 11 Wave 1 tins? 1 freakin' Birdman, and the rest was jank. I should be rewarded with a Tour Guide to help balance it out lol. Can't wait to pick Wave 2 up tomorrow :) What will this mean for me in terms of our local meta? Well I imagine my Hyperions getting Warning'd and ruining my day.
At the end of the week we have the Sneak Peek for Photon Shockwave. I always thought of Sneak Peeks like 'Christmas that comes 4 times a year'. It's the best time of the year to get your hustle on! I'm really curious to see what the turnout for the tournament is in comparison to how many people show up just to get the new stuff. I always thought it was odd how people buy and collect cards but never play in tournaments. Why pay for something that you aren't going to use? I guess I just have a too black-and-white perspective on things like this.
I've already sold off most of Zach's good stuff to ARG and Troll, and I added a few of my cards (like $90-worth) to go with it since I had some stuff I wanted to sell as well. Now I just gotta get rid of his jank holos, beat up Monster Binder, and 2 mats. Does anybody need/want 357 bulk holos w/ a M.Binder and 2 mats? I'm including some spare packs I have lying around from tournament-winnings as well. Looking to get $120-200 for it but willing to negotiate on prices/throw-ins. If you'd like to do a trade/buy via Pojo feel free to leave me a comment with your username and I will send you a PM from my account, and we can discuss there.
Feel free to check the listing at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/YuGiOh-Foil-Collection-357-Holos-Monster-Binder-Play-Mats-Turbo-Packs-/150687879349?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2315b290b5
I was planning on building that Karakuri deck when I got home today but now that I think about it, I don't think I have the little Stratos guy lol. I'll have to see. I'm sure Jeff has a bunch of extras though so I'll ask him for 3 on Saturday if I don't have any. I'm not sure what to do with my Darkworld stuff..Fabled Ravens are still $40 and a Dragged Down is like $6. Do I really want to throw in another $50 to play the deck? Not really. If I can somehow trade for a Raven that'd be fine, but I don't think I want to straight-up buy one. I wouldn't even mind paying $6 for a Dragged Down, but $40 for a Raven, meh, just doesn't seem worth it for a deck that had no tops. Speaking of Darkworld, I saw Dale Bellido's duel video of him playing a DW Plants deck, I just kinda thought to myself that DW can be inconsistent on their own, and then throwing the Plant engine into it? Seems like it could be even more inconsistent, but I can't argue with the philosophies of a player like Dale Bellido. He hasn't posted his full list, I'm guessing there are more cards to it which can help make it more consistent.
Guess that's about it for the moment. Have a Happy Halloween, whether you go for the candy, parties, or just stay home (like in my case). Save some money for the tins for tomorrow though! :)
First and foremost is the release of the Wave 2 tins tomorrow, where we can finally get our Solemn Warning, Darksoul, Fossil Dyna, Ehren, and Eatos reprints. In the end I may end up getting 6 Galaxy Eyes altogether, but I'll start out with 4 like I said I would get originally. The fact that the Wave 2 tins have an extra EXVC pack intrigues me very much, even though realistically I ain't gettin' another Tour Guide. We can dream though, right? Surely people are gonna pull it though, those lucky sonsofbitches! With these tins I look at it for the promos as the primary buy, and the packs as a bonus. Wanna know what the best card (in terms of value) I pulled out of a booster was out of 11 Wave 1 tins? 1 freakin' Birdman, and the rest was jank. I should be rewarded with a Tour Guide to help balance it out lol. Can't wait to pick Wave 2 up tomorrow :) What will this mean for me in terms of our local meta? Well I imagine my Hyperions getting Warning'd and ruining my day.
At the end of the week we have the Sneak Peek for Photon Shockwave. I always thought of Sneak Peeks like 'Christmas that comes 4 times a year'. It's the best time of the year to get your hustle on! I'm really curious to see what the turnout for the tournament is in comparison to how many people show up just to get the new stuff. I always thought it was odd how people buy and collect cards but never play in tournaments. Why pay for something that you aren't going to use? I guess I just have a too black-and-white perspective on things like this.
I've already sold off most of Zach's good stuff to ARG and Troll, and I added a few of my cards (like $90-worth) to go with it since I had some stuff I wanted to sell as well. Now I just gotta get rid of his jank holos, beat up Monster Binder, and 2 mats. Does anybody need/want 357 bulk holos w/ a M.Binder and 2 mats? I'm including some spare packs I have lying around from tournament-winnings as well. Looking to get $120-200 for it but willing to negotiate on prices/throw-ins. If you'd like to do a trade/buy via Pojo feel free to leave me a comment with your username and I will send you a PM from my account, and we can discuss there.
Feel free to check the listing at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/YuGiOh-Foil-Collection-357-Holos-Monster-Binder-Play-Mats-Turbo-Packs-/150687879349?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2315b290b5
I was planning on building that Karakuri deck when I got home today but now that I think about it, I don't think I have the little Stratos guy lol. I'll have to see. I'm sure Jeff has a bunch of extras though so I'll ask him for 3 on Saturday if I don't have any. I'm not sure what to do with my Darkworld stuff..Fabled Ravens are still $40 and a Dragged Down is like $6. Do I really want to throw in another $50 to play the deck? Not really. If I can somehow trade for a Raven that'd be fine, but I don't think I want to straight-up buy one. I wouldn't even mind paying $6 for a Dragged Down, but $40 for a Raven, meh, just doesn't seem worth it for a deck that had no tops. Speaking of Darkworld, I saw Dale Bellido's duel video of him playing a DW Plants deck, I just kinda thought to myself that DW can be inconsistent on their own, and then throwing the Plant engine into it? Seems like it could be even more inconsistent, but I can't argue with the philosophies of a player like Dale Bellido. He hasn't posted his full list, I'm guessing there are more cards to it which can help make it more consistent.
Guess that's about it for the moment. Have a Happy Halloween, whether you go for the candy, parties, or just stay home (like in my case). Save some money for the tins for tomorrow though! :)
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