Locals Report 1-7-12; Lightning Comics

I apologize for the lack of posts this past week; there hasn't really been any news to note and all I've really done is practice my siding but decided it wasn't worth specifically posting about, so I figured I'd just include it in the tournament report.
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Well I've been waiting about 3 weeks for this tourney so I was very excited to say the least. Yesterday Alan came over to my place and we tested for a little bit but his wife is like mine and yanked his leash for him to come back after just like 2 hours lol. I lend him my Naturia Beast since he was planning on coming to today's tournament. Last night Danny asked if he could ride out with me so I said sure and also planned on picking up Zach. I texted Alan and asked if he'd be OK with driving himself out, because if I was in a situation where my wife demanded that I come back, I didn't want to force my teammates in a situation where they had to choose between dropping from the tournament and going back with me, or having to find a ride back to the Valley on their own somehow. I always worry about this when I drive people out, because I think it's rather wasteful to pay into a tournament and have to drop if you're doing well. He says that's fine so I'm relieved.

I do the normal getting-ready things and head out around 11:30 and tell Danny that I'd pick him up then Zach. Danny has to get his kids ready to drop off at the babysitter so we decide that I'd ride with him there, come back to Danny's, get in my car, then go pick up Zach. Once we get to Danny's Nate calls and tells us that Big Mike decided to start the tourney earlier, we're like "well that's cool, glad we got the memo." Danny calls Zach and tells him they're starting earlier so we have to go as soon as we can pretty much. We get to his place, but turns out Zach left his stuff at Danny's so we drive back to Danny's, then realize that it was in the van that his wife drove to work. At the same time Alan texts me and asks if I could come pick him up and I'm like ffffff. I tell him they're starting the tourney earlier, we're getting a late start as it was, so I couldn't back-track to go and get him. I thought we had established that he was driving out so I didn't know what was going on. I don't mind driving people but come on, I ain't no god damn taxi service lol. Don't tell me you're good to drive out and then ask me 10 minutes later if I can come pick you up. All this also meant we had no time to stop by and get some food; what a rocky morning lol. So Danny calls Epler to see if he'd order pizza for us, he said yes so we're like hell yea. We also figured Mike wouldn't turn away 4 people's worth of attendance so we weren't too worried about it. Danny and Zach notice Steve's car in the parking lot and joke that we should just go home now lol.

We go in and I tell Mike "well we came as fast as we could" and I pay my entry as Nate and Kim come to greet me. I say a few quick hellos but my priority was to help Zach get his deck ready (mine, since he didn't have his stuff) since we basically had no time. Oh, first I got the last $40 from Donut for the Pokemon stuff I sold him, only took like 4 months to pay it off lol. The only decks I had were my Karakuris minus Maxx Cs and Claudio Dark Worlds minus Tour Guide so Zach picks Karakuri and adds/tweaks some stuff. I do a quick small trade with Nate, I wanted his Wind-Up Hunters but he wanted to make the loop deck. I probably won't play the deck since it's pretty easily stopped by Veiler and Maxx. I talk a little bit with people, and round 1 pairings are up quickly.
Tourney attendance is 16, a very respectable number for our area, and also taking into account that Alan didn't end up making it. I ask him why he didn't come out and he says he had to take care of his wife or something. Damn, she keeps that leash short!

Round 1 vs Donut (Anti-Meta/Hero Beat)
So right off the bat I get paired against one of the better people at the tourney, awesome. Donut used to be on Team O. Some things went down between Danny and him in the past so he quit/got kicked out but I still <3 Donut. He's a good guy.
At this point I don't really remember the games but I win games 1 and 3. Game 2 I start with a pretty bad hand but stall out for a very long time between Reaper, Honest, and Snowman Eaters. His Fossil Dyna also pretty much stops either of us from doing anything. Eventually our boards become cleared out and he kills me with something. I remember Zenmaines putting in a lot of work and my sideboard was good to help handle his deck.
OXO
Record: 1-0

After Zach's match he comes up and complains that I didn't have a full Extra deck for the Karakuris, I don't have the cards to have full Extras for all my spare decks and I usually just keep all my random Synchros together for various decks all together, so that explains why there was a Wonder Magician with that pile of Synchros/Extra deck. I said it wasn't really my responsibility to make sure he had all the stuff since he easily could've looked thru to see what all was in there and what he needed. I honestly had forgotten it wasn't complete, and to boot there was no Naturia Beast since Alan was borrowing it. The pizzas that Epler ordered got there so I paid $10 for it (half) and had some pizza. Danny and I got full after like 3 pieces or so and we were also planning on going to the China Buffet so we just gave the slices to whoever wanted one pretty much.

Round 2 vs Eric (Anti-Meta/Stun)
Eric's daughter came today, she had on more makeup than usual and was lookin' pretty dec. She didn't play in the tourney though so she just sat and watched our match.
Game 1 The first 4 turns I don't draw relevant monsters (opened like 2 Maxx C) but have removal for his turn 1 Doomcal, turn 2 TKing, and turn 3 King Tiger. Turn 4 he plays TKing and I take the hit. Next turn I draw Venus and bait out TKing with Gachi. I think he runs it over with something next turn. I stall out a bit with Reaper but he gets rid of it and I draw bad for the rest of the game.
Game 2 I draw decent and so my deck actually does what it's supposed to and I think I get in like 3 hits in with Reaper. Hyperion puts in work, and Jinzo says "you're free to do whatever the f you want" lol. Why do people play Jinzo these days?
Game 3 Pretty much the same as game 2 but fewer hits with Reaper. Again my side was good for this kind of match-up.
XOO
Record: 2-0

I think it was in between these rounds that I watch Epler play his Infernity deck against this guy running GBs. The guy has a Herk out and 1 card in hand. Epler topdecks Archfiend like a boss and searches for Necromancer. Necromancer effect for Beetle, and Mist Wurm for game lol. The guy stands up and slams his cards on the table, gets mad salty and calls Epler a lucky bitch lol.

Round 3 vs Nate (Anti-Meta/TG w Photon Sabre Tigers)
I joke around with Nate that my first 2 matches were against Anti-Meta (albeit different variants) and he was like "well looks you get to play another one" lol. I say "anti-meta's the new poor man's deck" and it pretty much is, with Dyna, TKing, Duality, and Warning reprints.
For some reason I really don't remember our match but I lose the first game and win the next two. After losing game 1 I went to my side and was like "wait, what the hell did I lose to?" and stared at the lifepoint sheet while I was trying to recall exactly what he was playing. I had no clue - I only saw TG Striker, TKing, Tengu, and the Photon Sabre Tigers I think. Striker should've been a big indicator but it wasn't for me for some reason at that time. I guess I figured it was just a tech tuner that can special summon. I went with stuff like Cyber Dragon but took out TKings for some reason, after realizing it was TG after he summoned Rush Rhino and Duality'd for Horn, I was like crap those TKings would've been useful but I win that game anyway. So game 3 I side TKings back in and win a very good match.
XOO
Record: 3-0

Danny and I are the only undefeateds left and we go over who we all played, basically I played against much harder opponents. We looked around to who Danny's opponents were playing and I was like "uhh, ya, lol" so I gave Danny the win since we simply wanted to secure an all Team O top 4. The plan was to do that and have all of us split so we could chill at the China Buffet. We just talk for a bit then we get bored so he gets out his Plant deck so we can test. Plants do what they do best and have outs to like everything lol. He's trying out the Tour Guide Night Assailant thing as well and I think he likes it too.

Round 4 vs Danny (Dino Rabbit)
Scoop to make sure Danny and I both top.
XX
Record: 3-1

I think it was at this point that I buy some of Kim's stuff since he's hurtin for cash due to car/insurance issues. I pick up a BLS, a bunch of holo staples, and like a set of PWWBs for $32. All in all I'm satisfied with the purchase so I'm sure I'll be able to profit a bit. I'll have to price it out later. So this round gets done and I guess Mike decides that we're doing a Top 8. We're like awesommmmme gotta play even more now lol. Top 8 (not in order) was Danny (Rabbit), Ty (TG), me (TGU Agent), Donut (Anti/Hero), Nate (Anti/TG), Zach (I think he made it- Karakuri), Eric (Anti/Stun), and Jeff (DW). Mike also does some BS pairings like 1st vs 3rd, 2v4, 5v7, and 6v8. I've never seen this kind of pairing before, we all thought it was supposed to be like 1v8, 2v7, etc. We figured he just wanted Team O to eliminate each other and try to put the lower-placed players into top 4. I dunno maybe it's just conspiracy thinking but I don't think he likes Team O as a whole that much. He's usually cool with me but then again I'm fairly mellow and easy to get along with. I don't think there's anyone that doesn't get along with me actually, even though there are people that annoy the hell out of me so I try not to hang around them too much.

Top 8/Round 5 vs Donut
So we get paired against each other again. Don't remember specifics but at one point I have Zenmaines, Venus, and Gachi on the field and he uses a bunch of cards to get rid of the Zenmaines. Game 2 I go with 2nd Reaper, Smashings, and Snowmans and stuff which are again good.
OO
Record: 4-1

Danny wins his match as well and get paired against each other but we just watch Jeff play against Nate in their top 4 match, and say that if Jeff wins I'll just play him but if Nate wins then we can do the Team O top 3 split. Danny asks if I'm sure I could win the match and I was like I think so, and explained that if DW Card Destructions for the nuts I couldn't really do much and I didn't know his build. I know it's not Claudio's and he runs "the crap" like Goldd, Sillva, and Celery. I figured the deck would probably just lose to itself but as the next 10 minutes went by I'm starting to second-guess my match against Dark World more and Danny has a lot more in his side for the match-up. I think all I got's a Crow, 2nd Bottomless, and some S/T removal. He talks about Shadow-Mirror being really good, and I was confused because I was sure that Mirror didn't stop one of the aspects of Grapha. Just looked it up, and it stops discard effects but Grapha can still special from the grave. I guess it still stops the majority of the deck so it's pretty good :) Jeff wins the first game and we're both like "ah crap" lol. Neither of us wanted to sit through another 45 minutes so we were pulling for Nate to win. I didn't watch their match too much but it seemed pretty back and forth. Nate ends up winning the match though so we get to split and GTFO. I think Nate spends his credit on something, don't remember, and Danny buys Metal Gear Solid 4 and gives me the rest of his credit (like a dollar and some change). I decide to save it since the Sneak is next week.

When we were in the videogame section, the manager comes up to us and is like "I know your moms aren't here, but I know my mom would tell me to not leave garbage lying around" and tells us the pizza boxes were still there as well as some sleeves and random cards and stuff. We're like well the garbage is beyond full so we didn't know where to put it. I walk over and pick up the cards and sleeves, Zach gets the pizza boxes, and he's like "so, put them aside...where to?" and the manager just tells him to leave them by the overflowing garbage can. Zach points out a McDonald's bag that's under one of the tables and some other garbage lying around, trying to emphasize that it wasn't just our garbage lying around. We tend to get blamed for shit like this even though we're never really messy per se; even if the pizza boxes were legitimately not ours, he still probably would've come to us first. :/ Whatevs.

So we finally leave and go to Top of China. We get the same waiter from last time, oh boy, lol. The football game is on but I don't pay attention to it and ask Nate about the meta at Northtown. When I was done eating, the waiter comes up to me and is like "su o fo", I'm just like god damnit, I have no idea what he's saying. I reply "Superbowl??" cuz that's what I thought he was saying, but I took like a split second to try and rationalize why he'd be saying "Superbowl" to me. My only guess was that I had to have a plate of food in order to watch the Superbowl or something, but today's... not the Superbowl?, lol, I dunno. Turns out he was asking if I wanted to keep my spoon and fork, but I was like "nah, I'm done done".

My wife was expecting me to be home by 7:30 and the tracking for the box of PHSW I ordered said it was supposed to arrive today (had it sent to Danny's) so I wanted to open that up before I went home so we left, said goodbyes to everyone, and dropped Zach off. We go to Danny's and don't see the box, so I'm like hm it'll probably show up on Monday. Take a quick bathroom break and leave, and that's a day. After getting back home, I check the tracking and it says it arrived there at 1:30pm so I was hoping it wasn't a case of someone stealing the box off his front porch. Danny just texted and said they left a slip that said it was at the post office for pick-up. Whew!

Decklist:
Total: 40
Monsters: 27
3 Hyperion
3 Venus
3 Earth
3 Ball
3 Guide
1 Sangan
1 Night Assailant
1 BLS
1 Sorcerer
1 Gorz
2 Thunder King
1 Honest
3 Maxx C
1 Reaper

Spells: 6
1 Hole
1 Reborn
1 Mind
1 Heavy
2 MST

Traps: 7
1 Dustshoot
1 Torrential
2 Warning
2 D-Prison
1 Bottomless

Extra
2 Gachi
1 Leviair
1 Leviathan
1 Giga-Brilliant
1 Zenmaines
1 Armory
1 Librarian
1 Catastor
1 Brionac
1 Orient
1 Black Rose
1 Stardust
1 Scrap
1 Trish

Side
1 Chimera
2 Cydra
1 TKing
2 Snowman
2 Smashing
1 Reaper
1 MST
1 Dust
1 DD Crow
1 Bottomless
1 Mirror Force
1 Black Horn of Heaven

I really liked the Night Assailant all day, and I think I drew into it only once but never ended up setting it. All my first Tour Guide plays besides the one were for Night Assailant and people were like "wtf??" lol. I explained my rationale that I had posted before, basically Guide->Guide = bad, and Guide->Sangan = sad (for me, cuz I <3 Sangan). In hindsight Sangan searches helped me a lot throughout the day, so I'm glad I had the option of going into Night Assailant and wasn't always using up Sangan for XYZ purposes. I didn't miss Trag at all, and Reaper is awesome. I wish I could fit in the 2nd one in the main but I'm honestly very comfortable with my build now. I know Agents isn't the best deck this format but I'm a firm believer in playing with what you're comfortable with and I am with this deck. I also like running a deck where if I do misplay, I know I can at least fall back on one of my many boss monsters to re-establish control. This is why I don't play something like Claudio's DW, seems like with that deck if you mess up once you're pretty much done, much like decks like GBs are. I ended up siding out all of the Maxx Cs for every match today, as all I played against were Anti-Meta type decks. Perhaps I need to cut down on the maindeck count of them for at least Lightning. I'll probably stick with them for the Northtown tournament on Monday though, and just tweak accordingly.

For the past week I've been practicing siding, and Evan Vargas' Youtube videos have helped me a lot. Realistically they aren't anything ground-breaking but they simply attempt to force you to sit there with your deck, pen & paper/something to write out exactly what you're siding in and out for the top match-ups you'd expect to play, and sit there and make your side. I thought it was silly at first but I was like screw it and did everything that he recommended, and I'm glad I did. After thinking about it, in my 8 or so years of playing this game, I have never really taken actual time to sit and exactly figure out my siding strategies for my match-ups. Like most people, I've only just thought about the match-ups I could face, throw some cards in that deal with them, and say "ah I'll figure it out while I'm playing." It's always been a struggle though, since I was always like "hmm, what should I take out??" during a match. I made up an Excel spreadsheet and listed all the match-ups that I would most likely face, and wrote out exactly what I was siding in and out for each. I theorized, tweaked, put stuff in, took stuff out, tweaked some more, and put in about an hour and a half or two of just practicing siding in and out and trying to memorize my siding strategies. I'm very glad I did these things because I felt much more comfortable knowing what my game plan was going to be for game 2 (and possibly 3) while I was playing game 1, rather than try to make one up on the fly during siding. I basically went into this tournament anticipating playing against Anti-Meta, Karakuri, and Dino Rabbit (ie Danny). I sided in every card in my side except Chimera, Crow, and Black Horn. Had I played any Machine variant, DW/Plant, or Danny, I would've utilized those cards though. If you think you have any problems with siding in general, I'd highly recommend watching his 2 videos and practicing your siding. Put in just a little bit of time now and then for it; it helps a lot!