Regionals Report 4-14-2012; Guardian Games (Portland OR)

Friday
I got to Danny's around 10:30 on Friday, waited for him to finish packing and let Link and Zach know that I'd be over once Danny was ready. I think we left around 11, then waited some more in their parking lot for Zach to get ready and Link to come back from wherever he went. We're on our way around 11:30 after Link grabbed his Carter IV CD since I don't bother listening to anything besides the radio. We're all hungry but I wanted to get moving and not eat around where we were cuz my wife works in the area. We decide to eat at the Ritzville Zip's so Zach can put salt on his knuckle again (joke from last regs I went to). We meet the rest of the team there and we're all just like "holy shit, thought you guys weren't leaving til later." Takes us forever to get food, and everyone does some miscellaneous shopping at the nearby gas station. Link switches with Epler from my car to Donut's, and we're on our way once again.

We drive past John Day dam and it's Danny's first time seeing a dam so he was excited but unimpressed with the size. The dam at the Dalles is bigger so that's better lol. He's also excited about seeing a waterfall and asks if we can stop by one, and we're not in a hurry for anything so I'm perfectly fine with it. We stop at a waterfall before the bigger Multnomah Falls park, but I'm kinda glad we went to this one instead because it lets you pretty much go into the water if you wanted to, whereas it's all separated at the other one. It was cool getting all the mist from the waterfall right in your face lol. We take a few pictures and we're off once again. I think we roll into Portland around 6:30 and I miss an exit for our motel because my GPS is never clear about which way to turn and crap. We get there though and there's a lot of traffic due to the Portland basketball game. The lady directs us to a parking spot but I'm like "we're not here for the game" and she tells me to move to a different spot after checking in to the motel. I check in for the 2 rooms that I reserved for us, Donut and everyone else get there right after, and I tell everyone to just go into their rooms for now because the manager people are really "Jewish" about the number of people in the rooms. Their room was only a max occupancy of 2 (last available last-minute room) but there were gonna be 4 people in it, and they had just kicked out people that tried to sneak in their dogs, so the last thing I wanted was for all of us to get kicked out. Likewise the room I got for us was a max occupancy of 4 but I listed there going to be 2 people in it to avoid getting charged an additional $20 a night. Didn't really matter though because these people were so Jewish that they pretty much just stare at their security cameras all day and we get noticed the next day. Turns out that Idaho team was only going to stay one day even though I reserved the room for 2, so the next morning I went in to cancel and the manager was like "that's ok, but I know you have more than 2 people in the other room because I watched the security camera so I have to charge you extra for it." Fuck these people and this motel. Cheapass Indians.

Jewish Apu ^ Hotel manager

I printed out enough decklists and registration sheets for everyone and did a last-minute pre-register for Zach. This event listed max capacity for players at 140, and turned out that pre-registering was a very good decision. We order Chinese online and get no freaking plates so we have to make 2 out of the tops of 2 of the food containers. Pretty tasty though. We do a little testing, trades, changes to decks, Epler picks up Zach's Inzektor stuff, fill out decklists, and we get to bed at like 1:30 or so.

Saturday
Alarms are set for like 7 but we really don't get moving til like 8-something. Luckily the store is only about 10 minutes away. We drive past the store around 8:30 and there is a huge line, we decide to find something to eat since we still have half an hour and we're starving. We eventually find a Burger King, get it to go, drive back and find a parking spot. We meet up with Michael Anderson and a few other people and just wait for the store to open their doors. The line is pretty crazy so I was curious to see what was going to happen with the whole max capacity thing and pre-registration. Epler was the only one that I couldn't pre-register since he didn't have a Cossy card. Luckily he was toward the front of the line. So one of the judges has all of the people that pre-registered to form a separate line from everyone else and move toward the front. We meet Joe Lancaster inside and I ask him about the pre-registration stuff, asking if they'd have the info for people who pre-registered the night before (Zach). I was a little worried that they wouldn't have our info and also worried about Nate's entry since I forgot to put his info down when I paid, but followed up with an email to them right afterward to include his info. Luckily they did have his and all our info so we all got in without a hitch. We find a table in the back and just chill for the most part. A lot of random stuff happens between now and the tourney, which I won't go into the specifics. The funniest parts include "Anybody got any Lady Ninja Yae?", seeing Shiggs' brother AKA Cyclops, Master P, and Chris calling out "attention YuGiOh players, *silence and stares* anybody have a Forbidden Chalice?" lol. Epler comes in like an hour later and barely made it into the tournament. Apparently 115 people pre-registered, and their cutoff was going to be around the mid-150 range. They turned away a lot of people which is pretty unfortunate for anyone that traveled a long distance for the event. I do a few trades and stuff, nothing too major, and tourney gets started at like 12:30 or so?

Round 1 vs Xelan (Ninja side into Hero)
I win the die roll.
Game 1 - I think I start with a Centipede+Hopper search for Dragonfly since I already have the Hornet. He summons Hanzo, I Veiler it, attacks over for 200 and sets 1. I summon Dragonfly, he Warnings so I pass. I take 2 hits from Hanzos and I endphase Call on Dragonfly then proceed to OTK with the Zektacaliber I have. He didn't know what Inzektors did since he had to read my cards each time. Kinda surprising for a fellow Asian.
Game 2 - Kinda throws me off by summoning Alius and later Rota'ing for Stratos. Didn't matter too much though since the stuff I sided in was going to be applicable against Hero anyway. I take this pretty decisively via swarming and having advantage.
OO
Record: 1-0

Round 2 vs Colin (DW)
I win the die roll.
Game 1 - He doesn't really get much going considering he's playing DW, eventually I win with Centipede equipped with 2 Swords.
Game 2 - He Solemns my D-Fissure for 4000, which I'm kinda happy about. He DDV's me as well, but it doesn't matter too much since my Hornet was set up and I had a Call to bring back Dragonfly, with Decree for backup to go for the win.
OO
Record: 2-0

Round 3 vs Taylor (Jurrac)
I win the die roll (3 in a row holy shit).
So I notice the guy's last name is like Quan or something but looks like a white guy. Then I look at him and can tell he's half-Asian like me cuz we just have "those" eyes. He says he's half-Chinese, I'm half-Japanese, and he gets jealous lol. We also get the random deckcheck and I'm kinda nervous because I'd hate to have messed something up and get a game loss. I'm pretty good about checking my shit multiple times though and all that kinda stuff. After like 8 minutes we are both good to go and they give us a 3 minute time extension (what happened to the extra 5 mins? lol)
Game 1 - I go with the turn 1 Hopper into Zenmaines play and search Fly since I have the Hornet already and set Solemn. He does some shit that's not too relevant and sets a backrow, I summon Fly, he goes to Warning, so I Judgment so I can go for the OTK, which I do.
Game 2 - I open pretty poop and he gets a Laggia and Dolkka out so I scoop to just start game 3 cuz we're running out of time and this guy is slow as molasses.
In between the game Zach comes up to me and asks me what I want from Subway since they're going to get food for everyone. I ask for a turkey and ham sandwich. 
Game 3 - He runs his Guaiba into my Snowman early on and it goes kinda down hill for him from there. There was some ruling confusion and I make a misplay by summoning Hornet thinking I had one in grave already. I fall back by equipping Giga-Mantis to it and beat down with it for a few turns. I eventually take game cuz he runs out of monsters to protect his LP.
OXO
Record: 3-0

At this point I think everyone on the team was 3-0 besides Danny and Link who were pretty much on the verge of dropping. Link had to play good people the first 4 rounds and Danny played against random shit and was drawing shitty 'niller hands. So far I haven't really played against anyone hard yet but I'll take the undefeated record so far. We get a 30 minute lunch break here.

Round 4 vs Andrew (Malefic GK)
No die roll.
The round starts, I sit and shuffle, but my opponent doesn't show up. The judge lets me know what the procedure is, if he doesn't show in 3 minutes he gets a game loss and if not in 10, a match loss. So I just shuffle up and wait and look at the games next to me. Guy doesn't show up after 3 mins so I take game 1. He ends up showing up a minute and a half before the 10 minutes are up and I let him know that he got the game loss because of showing up late, with the judge verifying it for him.
Game 1 - Win to late show-up
Game 2 - I think I Solemn a Torrential and Warning a Malefic since I'm at 2000 early on, but I just press on, don't get too greedy with attacks until I can set up my Hornet plays, which become slowed down due to Necrovalley. I eventually win as I pop everything he tries to set up and he can't get over my 2400 Centipede.
OO
Record: 4-0

I think we had like four 4-0s and one 3-1, maybe we were all undefeated, don't remember, but Link and Danny dropped at this point. Danny borrows Michael Andreson's Inzektors and enters the win-a-mat.

Round 5 vs Epler (Inzektor)
I win the die roll (guess this makes up for losing them all at the box tourney?).
So this was the first teammate vs teammate instance with us both being on table 1, and Zach played against a Dino Rabbit player on table 2.
Game 1 - He attacks over for 100 (I think Tking over Sword'd Dragonfly) then I'm able to OTK a turn or two later.
Game 2 - This one's more back and forth and I thought he had game after he made a DAD play but I Veiler'd his Dragonfly I believe. Next turn I'm able to Dragonfly back and have control of the game.
OO
Record: 5-0

Zach lost his match but held on like a champ as I watched him try to play out of the Rabbit player's advantage. I think Nate lost his match as well so everyone was 4-1 with me at 5-0. I felt confident about finishing well at this point.

Round 6 vs Rob (Solidarity Six Samurai)
I win the die roll.
I traded with this guy earlier and he seriously seemed like a character you'd see off the original Yugioh show. His voice was like a flamboyant Weevil but he wore a black trenchcoat, guy was just kinda odd in general. I knew he was running Sams so I was a little worried after losing to Shiggs the past 3 matches in a row but I figured I'd be able to beat this guy.
Game 1 - I don't have a solid turn 1 play and draw kinda poop in general so I just set something and pass. He goes absolutely nutty and hits me for 7000, this guy runs the one Samurai that can attack twice, I think his gameplan is to just attack through for fast damage before the opponent can set up. I don't have a way to clear his whole field so I lose as he has Solidarity to pump his guys huge.
Game 2 - Make turn 1 Zenmaines and he doesn't get anything going, summoning all the bad Samurai like Kamon, and I'm able to attack for over 7000 the turn after for game. I write OTK in my life sheet but he gives me some smartass remark about me not "technically" OTK'ing. I just ignore him.
Game 3 - This is pretty back and forth with me at 3100 and him at 2200, me never getting Hornet set up in grave, and we're both low in card count and he has 3 cards in hand to my 1 with Centipede on field. He goes Solidarity Kageki Kagemush for Shi En and attacks over my Centipede. I have Dragonfly in hand, draw into Foolish, and I knew it was over. I just set the Fly but he tops into a Grandmaster or something and I scoop it up. Had I gotten a Hornet set up I know that would've been mine :(
OXX
Record: 5-1

Afterwards the guy gives me "advice" by saying I should consider running Dark Creator and I simply have no words I can say since he was actually being serious. He walks off and everyone gives me the "how'd that bad player win?" eyes, one guy's like "so how does it feel to lose to a janky ass player like that?" and I was like "I'm pretty salty actually" but I just try to shrug it off and forget about it since we had 2 more rounds to go and I can still finish well.

Round 7 vs Minh (TG Agent)
I lose the die roll.
As we were shuffling I told him I was impressed that he was doing so well and repping Agents as it was my favorite deck last format. I was still pretty high in the tables at table 2.
Game 1 - I think my only relevant plays are Hopper with a Sword equipped to it, he destroys it so I grab Hopper back, and he has to ask the judge if that's how it actually works, so the judge explains how the cards hit the grave and stuff. Another no-Hornet game for me so I lose.
Game 2 - This one's fairly back and forth but I keep more advantage than he does and win out.
Game 3 - Pretty much a repeat of game 1 except he uses Prohibition on Hornet and I never draw into S/T removal. I hold out with Sword plays but the MST never comes so I lose. Pretty shitty since I've had no trouble drawing MSTs all day.
XOX
Record: 5-2

Everyone was watching the crazy Samurai guy playing against Dino Rabbit, and the final gamestate is like his Solidarity with no cards in hand to his Utopia and 1 card in hand. He rips Mind Control off the top, goes into Utopia Ray, attacks for game, and the crowd goes crazy with hype. Nowhere near as much as the Daigo vs Justin parry video, but probably as much as I've personally seen in Yugioh. One kid gets so hype shouting like "YUGIOHHH" and Danny say to him like "holy shit calm down dude, you gonna suck him off after the tourney or something?" and he just shuts up lol.

I think we're all 5-2 at this point except Epler who was 4-3 I believe. Danny tells me about how someone thought he was me from seeing his mat, so he finds the guy to bring over to introduce him to me, and it's none other than Code from Codename: YGO! He finds another guy who beat him with Monarchs, don't remember your name, sorry, but it was nice meeting and talking to both of you. Shout-outs :)

I'm pretty disappointed at being 5-2 as I wanted to finish X-1 at a big event, which I have yet to do. It seems like I always play against some random ass shit and lose, which keeps me from topping. Technically two X-2's will make top 8, but I knew from moving down all the way to table 17 that it probably wasn't going to happen even if I won. I guess those early-round easy match-ups finally caught up with me.

Round 8 vs Zachary (Dino Rabbit)
I win the die roll.
Game 1 - He Solemns something for 4000 and pokes me for 1000 a few times with a Veiler'd Tour Guide. He has a pretty good field set up which I can't attack over, so I bait a Warning with my Dragonfly but I have Reborn to take the game, use Hopper so it can attack directly, and equip Giga-Mantis to directly go for the last damage.
Game 2 - I think he runs into a Snowman Eater and gradually loses out from there.
OO
Record: 6-2

Zach and Donut finish 6-2 as well, so it's really up to tie-breaks to see if any of us make it in. Nate and Epler finish 5-3. Zach gets 11th, Donut 15th, me 19th, and Nate 24th, with the top 24 getting invites. I remember Nate was the top of the 5-3's while I was on the low end of the 6-2's. We fill out Nats Invite forms, then wait around for Joe Lancaster to be done so we can finally grab some dinner at Red Robin. 4 out of the 7 of us getting our invites in one event is pretty sweet in my opinion. The top 8 was something like 1 DW, 1 TG Agent, 2 Samurai, 2 Dino Rabbit, 1 Wind-Up, and not sure about the last one. Pretty much everyone is hating on the trench coat Samurai guy, pretty much in disbelief that he's made it all the way to top 4. At the end he was like "I faced the likes of Rabbit, Inzektor, Heroes, and emerged victorious over them all!" or some corny shit like that.

The store has this cooler which has Choco Tacos, so Danny opens the top and goes in to grab one, and one of the workers comes over and is like "you have to keep that closed!" Danny's just like "holy shit I was just trying to grab a freakin ice cream" and just walks off but the worker is all trying to get him to come back to buy it. Danny doesn't want to "give them the satisfaction" so he asks me if I'd grab him one so I grab it and one for myself lol. Delicious!

The Idaho team leaves and we wait a bit more for Joe, eventually we're done with trades and drive to Red Robin, which has an unbelievably small parking lot - like 8 whole spots but we Hanzo the last one after driving around the block again. I would've just parked in the Denny's lot but was afraid of getting towed, even though it probably wouldn't happen since it was so late anyways. Can't take chances though! We wait forever and a half just for the 12 in our party to get split into 3 tables. We pick Michael Anderson's brain a little bit and I ask him "so what happened between Long Beach and now, to where Inzektor is getting more popularity among the pro players?" He explained it was because they finally got around to testing it and stopped doing the lazy default thing of just playing Dino Rabbit simply because of Laggia and Dolkka. I buy Danny's dinner for him as a late birthday gift, and Anderson enlightens all of us as to how good Red Robin's Honey Mustard really is - holy shit, that might just replace my love of Ranch dressing lol.

Afterwards we stop by a Shell to grab some beer and Mike's, go back to the motel and organize our binders and whatnot. Link was like "wow we're gay, we Yugioh all day and Yugioh some more when we get back" lol.

Sunday
Nothing too special, we try to grab donuts from Voodoo Donuts for breakfast/brunch but the line is beyond long. We eventually find a Panda Express which really jipped us on food. As we're sitting there Danny is like "it sounds like Street Fighter in here." I listen to the music and am like "yea it sounds like the Chun-Li stage" and we crack up to Zach's Street Fighter back-and-forth movement. Danny's convinced that it's the actual stage music but I was pretty sure it wasn't since I was able to hum the stage music which didn't sound like what was being played.

Drive back was pretty chill and we get back around 6:30, Danny and I playtest a game of his DW vs my Inzektor which he dominates, then we watch the deck profile of the guy who got 2nd at Dallas and our minds are blown when he explains the usefulness of Electric Virus in the deck.

Props:
Michael Anderson - cool as hell
Red Robin Honey Mustard dressing
The majority of the team getting our invite
Zach and Link's impersonations of everyone
Zach's emo-punk singing
Choco Tacos
The Carter IV
Me for pre-registering everyone

Slops:
Annoying as hell Solidarity Samurai guy
Small player cap- event would've been twice as big I think
Portland's Panda Express' lack of Paw Plate, selection, and amount of food given
Waiting forever at Red Robin thinking we'd all be together but be split up anyway
Red Robin's little ass parking lot
The massive number of bums in Portland, a special "lol" to that one passed out in front of a restaurant in China Town
Econo Lodge's Jew-ass manager

Most used phrases of the weekend:
"Vampire fuck up your evening."
"Anybody got a Lady Ninja Yae?"
"2-card combo!"

A special picture:

Decklist: 40
Monsters: 15
10 Staple Bugs
2 Hopper
2 Veiler
1 Sangan

Spells: 15
3 Duality
3 MST
3 Sword
1 Hole
1 Reborn
1 Heavy
1 Book
1 Foolish
1 Allure

Traps: 10
2 Torr
2 Warning
1 Judgment
2 Call
2 Fiendish
1 Mirror

I tried to go with a build that would minimize the number of dead cards in my hand, and I opted not to run Gorz in main due to having 4 continuous traps. The lack of boss monsters (ie BLS/DAD) may have helped in overcoming my match against trench coat Samurai and Agents, likewise having Spirit Reapers to help stall, but I didn't want to have those dead in my hand or give Inzektors Reapers to pop and stuff like that. I tried to keep it simple and keep it at 40 to have Hornet access as mathematically high as possible without relying on "random mill" via Trooper/Ryko.

Not sure where I'll take the deck from here on, it'll probably remain relatively the same until GAOV comes out. I may go back to the triple Veiler + BLS version and cut Fiendish Chain. May go up to 41, not really sure, may also look more into Dragons but I know I want to start up Magic again as soon as I can. I may order what I need tonight or pick it up from Gamer's Haven.

All in all I had a fantastic weekend, just wish I would've had a Hornet in game 3 vs trench coat Sams cuz I would've won that shit ages ago had I had it and probably topped. I may try again at May 19th's Seattle regional, but not sure yet. As for Nats, I'd really like to go but I have no idea what kind of story I could come up with to explain to the wife lol.