Locals Report 3-4-2012; Gamer's Haven

Yesterday I went to Danny's after I did some grocery shopping and picked up 2 more Acid Golems. On one hand I'm glad Shonen Jump is going digital since I don't have to bother throwing away the damn magazine anymore, but on the other hand it's going to be interesting to see how this affects the availability of future "magazine" promos with there being no physical magazine. Gone are the days when you can just go to the store and pick up whatever good promo finally came out. Theoretically this could make every good magazine promo that comes out to be anywhere from Shooting Quasar value all the way to Hyper Librarian peak value. I wonder if there'll be a way to purchase a single digital issue and get the promo. Probably not. Shock Master, while it is good in something like Offering Gadgets, isn't good enough overall for me to re-subscribe. Eventually some promo will come out to warrant a re-subscription though.

Anyways Alan and Shiggs are there and Danny got a huge (I forget what inch) TV from his in-laws so Alan and Shiggs bring it in from Alan's van for him; it's very nice. Makes me want to get a bigger TV, but at the same time I never have time to play games anymore between homework and seemingly-constant Yugz research. What ever TV shows I watch I just download and watch at my convenience/leisure, and I absolutely hate commercials. I never liked the concept of spending an hour to watch a 40-minute show + 20 minutes of commercials. So I guess I don't really "need" a bigger TV per se. Truthfully what ever money I'd be spending on a bigger TV, I'd probably rather just put into "eBay ban list investing" to potentially help me make that much more. I guess that's just the way I am lol.

I leave for the Haven around noon and get there at 12:15-ish and pretty much everyone is there already in the upstairs playing area. I pay my entry and don't pay the extra $2 for the Turbo Pack 4 or whatever they're handing out. I get upstairs and it seriously felt like summer in the room and I told Danny that I was kinda concerned about this for the box tourney, cuz it was pretty damn hot with just ~20 in there, imagine if we had another 15 people. Last time I spoke to Bob he said he had bought some kind of cooling system but dunno what's going on with that. Trevor tries to get things going since the shop closes at 6. We get first round pairings fairly quick, and I think attendance was 18, which is pretty damn good for our area. I'm feeling pretty good about the turnout for next weekend's box tourney as long as people don't forget about it.

Round 1 vs Colton (Inzektor)
I think this was the first time I've met Colton even though I hear about him all the time from Link.
Game 1 - I just get out Inzektor'd at first until I can set up my own Hornet plays, but he takes it pretty decisively.
Game 2 - Basically I get to do what he did the previous game and came out ahead.
Game 3 - I'm stuck on Hornet and Gigamantis in my hand all game while he has Sangan and Trooper, then Dark Holes when I have a set mon for the plusses and subsequent Inzektor plays. Link and Nate are like "so you playin the jap build?" to Colton and they were like "Mike made the asian build" then I just say "I am the asian build" lol. I was like "I don't think it's the asian build I didn't see any Raigeki Breaks or Call of the Haunteds".
XOX
Record: 0-1

Pretty shitty start but I shrug it off and just hope to win out for the rest of the day. I also want to go downstairs because it is beyond hot in the room at this point but everyone wants to look through my binder and stuff so I can't leave. This one guy wants my Caius and all I can find are his Black Horn of Heavens, which him and his buddies value at $18 since "that's what they're going for on eBay." I'm just like "whaaat, there's no way they can be going for that much, they aren't even getting played." But they're adamant about it and I don't have good internet on my phone to check. I ask if they looked at Completeds or what, I don't think they had any idea what I was talking about, they were like "well the stores where you can just buy the cards were selling them for $18." I'm like "well just cuz I list some card (and I point to a random Black Illusion Ritual in the kid's binder) for like $30 doesn't mean that that's what the value is. You look at Completeds to see what people are actually paying for them." Upon checking, there are plenty that are being sold at ~$8, and pretty sure the Completeds will show them being sold for less. Learn2ebay better, it's really not that hard.

Round 2 vs Jeff (I think) (Zombies)
This is the guy I mentioned above.
Game 1 - He has no idea what Inzektors do and he opens with a set Pyramid Turtle and a Dust Tornado. Free pops all game. He tries to Book of Life away my Hornet but I Warning it and it's pretty much game after that.
Game 2 - Pretty much a repeat of the first game but I also swarm via Gigamantis.
OO
Record: 1-1

I pack up my things rather quickly just so I can get out of the freaking hot room and go downstairs. I peek into the playing area downstairs and there's just a few Warhammer players, I'm just like why the hell aren't we playing in here? I ask the worker chic if we can play in there and she says that's fine. I go back upstairs since I got bored, I finish up the trade with the $18 Black Horn of Heaven kid and just chill after that waiting for the next round. Danny is starving and gets Trevor to grant a 20 minute lunch break in between the round and gives some money to Corey so he can get Subway for him. Having a Subway and a 7-11 basically next door is pretty awesome. Sandwiches and Slurpees hell ya :) Trevor also announces that half of us can play downstairs where it's cooler but pretty much 90% of everyone goes down there.

I grab a spot to sit and this Warhammer guy nearby is taking up a whole table for painting or some crap. Nobody touches his stuff but Alan sits by it and the guy freaks out about the whole ordeal and talks to the worker chic. She comes in and is like "please be respectful of other peoples' stuff and don't touch it" but seriously no one touched his stuff; I was sitting right there watching the whole time. It's like seriously dude, you want to make 20 people suffer in the hot room just so you can have a 4-spot table all to yourself to "paint", when you're off screwing around on the other end of the room to play with the little toys? (sorry I'm biased and ignorant against this game, but it just looks retarded - if I wanted to sit and paint shit, I'd you know, paint. Like on a canvas. Mind-blowing concept I know.). The Warhammer room or whatever is more than twice as big as the gaming room upstairs, and there were like a third of the people for that game as Yugz. Gimme a break.

I get paired against Corey but he's still at Subway so I just wait for him. He gets back and he squeezes in to the table space that we managed to have.

Round 3 vs Corey (Dino Rabbit)
At first he's like "oh get ready to win", I just laugh and am like "Rabbit's not an easy matchup, at all!"
Game 1 - I think I stop all of his big plays between Warning, Fiendish Chain, and Torrential. He stops my Inzektor stuff with Veiler (saw this all day - so annoying) but eventually I'm able to get things rolling and out advantage ftw.
Game 2 - We get into a weird situation when he Shadow Mirrors my Dragonfly, he summons Tour Guide so I Maxx C, but Alan's just like "Shadow Mirror is out." We're both like wow why are we so bad at this game lol. I don't remember how this ends but he wins a long back-and-forth game.
Game 3 - Similar to game 1 and I think I finish off with the Gigamantis combo.
OXO
Record: 2-1

Afterwards I was like "you know, I remember when like the only people in the area to have Guides was me and Danny, now it seems like everyone has a freakin set." We were both like well they're pretty much a necessity now, even though realistically they've been pretty important far longer than the start of this format. 

Round 4 vs Alan (Karakuri)
It's kinda funny since Alan and I have been playing each other on DN the past 3 nights and he hasn't been able to beat me. So obviously he beats me in person lol.
Game 1 - He out-advantages me with Merchant and Neutrons while I'm waiting for Hornet. By the time I get the Hornet he's hit me way too much and has control of the game.
Game 2 - This ends up being a "War of the Cyber Dragons" and a lot of one-for-one removal. I take it by having answers to his plays.
Game 3 - I never get much going and he has removal for the T-Kings I get on the field. I try to survive but I think this was another case of not having the Hornet - kinda the theme of the day for me. Nat Beast also puts in work since I wasn't drawing into trap-based removal.
XOX
Record: 2-2

Turns out our game didn't even matter since Alan got 5th. Cutoff was to top 4, which was Link (Dino Rabbit), Nate (Inzektor), Danny (Dino Rabbit) and Colton (Inzektor). Pretty good representation of the format lol, no one around here runs Wind-Up cuz the people that got Tour Guides to play the deck would rather play Dino. I don't blame them. Top 2 was Link and Nate and Nate wins with his Inzektor build which can be found here. It's actually fairly similar to mine except he runs Veiler instead of TKing. I like TKing for its body and I think it's better in the Rabbit matchup than Veiler.

Kind of a bad day for me but hey that's Yugioh. I actually kinda felt "off" today, always second-guessing the initial play I was going to make and doing something else instead. Probably a combination of the heat and stress from my homework load as of late. I haven't really had an opportunity to just relax and watch a movie or anything like that.

Afterwards I play another match against Corey and beat him, then Roy and I play a game of Magic and he beats me. I'm in a weird place with Magic and dunno what the hell I'm doing with it. I think I'll be able to pursue it harder next quarter with an easier school load since this "trying to do 3 tourneys a week" thing is too much to pull off. Tomorrow there's a spur-of-the-moment box tourney at the Valley Uncle's; I like these kinds of unprepared and hardly-known tourneys since there'll undoubtedly be hardly anyone there, while the prize layout will be the same. I think they have a 10-man minimum, and I envision them having right around that. At least I'll be able to spread the news for our box tourney a bit as I haven't talked to the Uncle's crowd.

We want Dwight to step his game back up to what it used to be, his problem is that he never has "the cards" or holds on to them, so we have like a mini-meeting and talk about what he can play for the box tourney (both tomorrow's and ours). Basically the best options are Inzektors after I get my 5 ORCS SE boxes, Guide-less Wind-Ups, or some kind of stun deck like TG but Link doesn't believe in the deck with Tengu going to 2. Tengu to 2 does hurt it pretty bad as it was probably the best card for the deck besides Horn of the Phantom Beast, but I still think we'll see some form of it top a YCS sometime between now and September.

Decklist: 41
Monsters: 22
10 Bugs
1 Gorz (still believe this should be played)
1 DAD
2 TKing
3 Maxx C
1 Sangan
2 Reaper
1 Tomato
1 Arma Knight (hating this card the more and more I play it)

Spells: 12
3 Duality
3 MST
1 Hole
1 Reborn
1 Heavy
1 Book
1 Allure
1 Foolish

Traps: 7
2 Torr
2 Warning
1 Judgment
2 Fiendish

Extra:
2 Zenmaines
1 Leviair
1 Leviathan
1 Giga-Brilliant
1 Acid Golem
1 Utopia
1 Utopia Ray
1 Armory
1 Catastor
1 Brio
1 Black Rose
1 Scrap
1 Stardust
1 Chimera

I kinda want to try out the Hopper-Zektcalibur build that top 4'd YCS Germany, theoretically Hopper is a more-useful version of Arma Knight since you can either equip it to Dragonfly and special out the Hornet to get it right there and go into Zenmaines or something, or equip it to Centipede and search the Hornet out. Zektcalibur is a nice attack boost and turn 1 Centipede+Calibur is a decent play. If the Centipede dies you can add it right back to your hand via Calibur's effect. Potential options to run Deck Dev as well. Some things to think about and mess around with at least!