Hey people, as I saw some posts by others portraying their advantures in IRL tournies - I'll also share my own from yesterday. Hope it'll come out enjoyable. lol

Well, to start off the day I'm getting a phone call from work at 5 AM - turns out there's some crisis I have to deal with - >< - not exactly how I planned to open my day. Luckily, yours truely is quite talented (if I do say so myself - lol) and I solved that bug in less than an hour. Unfortunately there was no point in going back to sleep - so I just open YGOPRO to get in some last minute practice. I won one match, and got owned in a 2nd match vs. Machina deck, I hoped I wouldn't have to deal with those in the Regionals as it turns out constant re-summoning of Machina Fortress is trolling me too much. xD

So, after a short breakfast I drove to the big city - and got to the tourney venue very early. After some consultation with a friend, we predict there'll be a lot of Samurai players around so I make a last minute change adding two Kinetic Soldiers to my side deck. My deck was all set and I was hanging out there helping the tourney staff with the registration process. Finally after some technical difficulties the first round was up and I found my table and I was facing a guy I know and have faced before.

Round 1: I guessed that my opponent would use his Six-Sams and I was right. My hand wasn't ideal but I decided to open with Zenmaity anyway and another XYZ. I guess I was lucky cause somehow managed to not get rid of Zenmaines and I got an extra summon for his effect next turn which helped me win it. So, we move to the second duel after some siding, he starts with a Shi En summon but doesn't have a back row to back it up. I eventually summon Kinetic Soldier and kill his Shi En. Next turn he dark holes my field - and sets a monster and a face down. I flip decree on his end phase thinking this game is for sure mine - I attack his face down and it turns out to be morphing jar - caught me by surprise and I lose reborn from my hand; at least I draw five new cards including 2 veilers. Unfortunately for him he drew too many traps which don't help him due to my decree; he tries to use Kageki's effect buy my Veiler blocks it - all he can do is special summon two Kizans and go into Shadow - but I use veiler on Shadow which prevents him from taking out two of my monsters. Next turn I go into Adreus to secure the win. First duel is under my belt - and the last minute side deck change proved itself.

Round 2 pairings were up - and I was matched with a more experienced player this time - turns out he uses Heroes this time. In the first duel his only monster is bubbleman - so I just beat him down with Sangan and WU rabbit. At the end he doesn't have enough back row to hold me and he didn't draw into any other monster. Duel 2 - he slowly builds up card advantage while I don't have any good plays to make - at the end he attacks with Alius and Zero - I summon tragoedia - but he flips Super-Poly for game. We move to round 3 - I took a little damage from Alius but I still got a decent move and I get Utopia and a banished WU Rabbit - I have Heavy storm ready too for my next turn - I figure what can go wrong here. lol Well... He goes stratos gets bubbleman - sets his entire hand special Bubbleman - goes into Maestroke flips my Utopia f/d - then reborn stratos - another bubbleman - goes into Blade Armor and ofc flips Miracle for game. Oh well, no biggy it's just one loss.

So, moving on to the 3rd round - I get another Samurai player - the idea to put Kinetics in the side turns out to be better with each passing moment. Well, as we shuffle my opponent says he hopes I don't use wind-up - lol, it took him less than a minute to get disappointed. He was a bit insecure facing WU and I guess it cost him with some missplays. Anyway, I pretty much had answers to anything he tried to do and it ended 2:0 for me. Checking the standing at the end of the round I was placed 9 - not a bad start.

Then I got to the 4th round - and I was facing a new Kid I never saw before; well I thought to myself, let's see what he can do. And what do you know, another Samurai player! The first duel went back and forth, I didn't manage to get good control and at the end he managed to take the win. Well, that was not going well - we went into side decking. Duel 2 - I start with Maxx "C" in my opening hand - looking good. I summon some stuff - on his turn he plays Dojo and summons - then I use Maxx "C" and he stops without getting the big guns out. I use my MSTs to clear his back row and take this one easily. Moving to duel 3 - I start with a horrible first hand - after a few turns of draw & go - he suddenly says - "now we can start playing" - I start fearing the worst - and indeed he plays Gatway!! Oh no!! He summons Kageki - but I stop it with Veiler which was my last line of defence. That held him back for a turn. I draw hoping to get something good - but no such luck - I go for a summon - and he flips Rivalry of Warlords!!! OH NO!!! And I have no decree or MST in site... All I can do is kill his Kageki. On his next turn he goes Kagmeush, Kizan, Flips a face down tuner goes Shi-En + Great Shogun + more stuff - gateway is so broken.. lol Reminded me of my good old days when I was using sams 1.5 years ago. Well, obviously my last chance was to draw Kinetic on my next play - which I didn't draw so I lost. lol

That was not so good - at the end of the round I was in position 23. Not the start I was dreaming of - and at this point it was win or go home. Time to get in gear!! Exactly at that point one of my friends arrived and told me he has faith I can still make the top; I said I do hope so.

So, it was time for round 5 and I was facing someone I already know that uses Agents. He goes first and he starts with TKR, luckily I have a way around it with WU Rabbit attacking and using Lance on the damage step. For his next play he goes to the Venus + Shine balls play - I escape with Rabbit and I then figure he has Herald of Orange in his hand but he didn't use it. So, I had to bait that thing down the road. I manage to do that by summoning Leviathan and he uses it on Leviathan's effect - that allowed me to bring the really heavy guns later and take control with Temtempo taking apart his Gachi and eventually after he stalls a bit with Zenmaines I got Pappiloperative to flip Zenmaines to attack and take the game. 2nd duel - he starts with King Tiger - that can be a bit of a pain. I just set Magician and Prison - then on his next turn he makes a big mistake and summons Tour Guide - I tell him - you know that now she's destroyed via Tiger's effect - and he says "Oh right" lol. At any rate he gets Sangan with TGU's effect and he's also destroyed fetching him Herald of Orange. So again, something I have to bait. He attacks with the tiger, I flip prison and he responds with Lance - so he takes the 900 damage. On my turn I summon Shark and go into Maestroke to kill the Tiger. After that I had field precense for the rest of the duel - don't remember the specifics by now but I got the win 2:0 and I move up to rank 16 in the standings. Still a long way to go.

Moving on to round 6 - and my worst fear from the morning has just become real - Machina Gadget opponent!! Oh my... Well - the first duel he starts with a major back row and Machina Gearframe - I stall around with magician in defence, prisoning one of his fortresses and also getting Tragoedia on board. I manage to slowly deplete his back row with 2 call of the haunted on rats - I even got control back with Leviathan and then he suddenly summons Grand Soil - that was a surprise tech and eventually it got him the win. So, back against the wall - done some siding and moved to duel 2 - now I had a pretty good hand got a bit of WU Hunter action and summoned a bunch of monsters in one turn - he conceded pretty fast and we went to round 3. He opened with King Tiger! Again this tiger, wtf? lol Well, luckily I had a magician to set. So next turn I think he summoned a gadget and attacked but got blocked by magician - so he ended. My turn - and I summon WU Rabbit, this little bastard is mean and I chain it to King Tiger's effect - and try to activate magician - but he had veiler on the magician so I have to end my turn. On his next play he went XYZ to kill my magician and I got some damage. Play goes back to me - my Rabbit returns and I use dark hole - he compulses his tiger back to hand and I escape with rabbit. I summon Tour Guide but again he has veiler - so all I can do is attack for a 1000 damage. And then the end of match was announced - going into crunch time here people!!! His turn, and here comes king tiger again killing my guide. Luckily he doesn't have back row - time to make my move!! I play the Soul Taker I added from the side deck finally getting rid of his tiger - then I go Magician and kick off the show - ending the main phase with Utopia, Zenmaity and Tiras for some major damage; getting close to a win now. On his turn he of course has dark hole - but luckily Tiras isn't destroyed so he can't do much anything more than just summoning a red gadget and setting one back. At this point I'm up by 3600 LP and it's my turn - I draw WU Rabbit, great!! I summon it - and attack his gadget for 100 damage; he's LP is really low and he plays some mind games - I misread his mind game and attack with Tiras into prison!! Oh oh - not good. And it goes to his turn - he has to take more than 3700 LP to win as its his last play. He has in hand is a gadget, duality and fortress - so all he could do is summon a Gadget and then fortress - but I just let my rabbit take the damage and its game for me. Tough win through end of match - but a win is a win - I move on to rank 15 in the standings. More challenges await!!!

Round 7!!! And I'm facing agents again. 1st duel I get a really good starting hand - grabbing control early with Shock Master - he can't do anything and the duel is mine. 2nd duel - I get early control - and then he goes into the usual Venus play - I chain Maxx "C" - and he says he has no choice and continues to special summon the swarm including Daigusto Phoenix and Master Hyperion - I draw until I have 10 cards in hand - someohow none of them are Tragoedia and I end up the turn on 200 LP. lol - no biggy I think to myself and summon tour guide - and as it turns out - his last card in hand is a veiler!! lol. I set 4 back row and I make a mistake and attack his shine ball - that made room for him to summon more next turn.. lol So, he uses Hyperion on one of my face downs - I use Veiler to stop it and he goes TGU (Oh no!) into leviair summons back earth and get Catastor - I'm facing 4 monsters vs my attack position tour guide and I'm on 200 LP - lmao. But I'm playing it cool and he's getting afraid of mirror force and move Hyperion and his Daigusto Phoenix to defence. (I don't even run mirror - lol) So, my two prisons are enough to save me. Next turn - I flip Factory and go magician + shark - needless to say the win was mine. Escaped by the skin of my teeth from this duel - 2:0 match win and I move up to position 11 in the ranking. Just one last round remaining in the swiss.

Round 8 - last one - and I'm facing another guy I didn't know till then - turns out he's using Gravekeepers. I start the duel, only monsters are Shark and Tragoedia - not so promising, at least I have MST and Decree which I set. His move - he blind MSTs my decree - dam - then he plays Necrovalley and summons Commandant, I chain MST fearing he has royal tribute. He attacks and I summon Trago. He sets a back row and ends. My move - I try to attack with trago and he uses compulsory on it. Then his turn he attacks and I again get Trago then he says something like "Oh no, I made a mistake" - he sets a monster and ends. My move - I use Trago effect - send Shark to the grave taking his Commandant; I had a hunch I need to attack the facedown rather than go XYZ - and it payed off - his facedown was Fossyl Dyna! My Trago was destroyed. That's what he meant when he talked about the mistake. On his next couple of turns he could only set some back row - I managed get a few pokes at his LP. Finally he drew a monster and set it - I went into Papilloperative this time and it flipped his spy face up - he special summoned recruiter - I destroyed the spy and he was on really low LP. Next turn he didn't have a good play and all I needed was to use Papilloperative next turn on his recruiter to attack for game. Moving on to duel 2 - he starts with a set monster, necrovalley and a back row - but I start with heavy storm and the I summon WU Rabbit and set two back row ending my turn. His move - he flips spy as I expected and summons recruiter - then he normal summons descendant but I had a bottomless waiting for him. he can't go over my rabbit now so he just ends. My turn - I go for a big play with Shock Master declaring monster effects, I destroy his monsters and he can't search with recruiter. From there it was a short road to ensure the win.

I made it - end of the swiss rounds and I'm on position 7 in the standings - I managed to accomplish what I set out to do - win the invite to the European championship in the summer - and got a very cool looking top-8 Regional playmat as well.

From here it was on to the bonus top 8 playoff rounds where some booster prizes were up for grabs.

Quarter Final - I'm facing an Infernity player - this duel was actually filmed and is on my iPhone - I'll probably upload it to youtube in the next couple of days when I have some time - so stay tuned. lol
1st Duel - I have a so-so hand but I do have Factory and WU rabbit, I managed to bait his solemn judgment on a WU Rabbit summon - and then I use call of the haunted to summon it back - and take control along with Tragoedia. 2nd duel, he got a nice play with one for one - I chained my decree to that - but it was too late - the cost for one for one gave him fodder to chain Infernity break on my decree. He then had call of the haunted to get Archfiend and from there he got a nice field setup ending with a PSZ summon to put archfiend on top of the deck and with Void Ogre on board. Luckily I baited the Ogre on WU factory and then I had Dark hole + WU rat - he respneded with TT - but I chain lance and eventually go for Shock master to ensure the win. I won the match and move to the semi finals.

Semi Final - facing an Inzektor player here. Unfortunately for him - I got the most lucky starts in the entire tourney vs him. Twice opening with MST, Factory, Magician + Shark. Quick Shock Master on both duels and I'm in the finals whicle just a few hours ago I was ready to pack my stuff and go back home.

Finals!!! I'm facing my friend who's using a nice Prophecy deck. It's already 9:30 PM and I'm dead tired. 1st duel - I start with everything again - quick 1:0 to me. 2nd Duels - he starts with more or less everything and wins pretty fast. It's up to the final deciding duel and I get a nice starting hand - I decide to go all out with Factory, Magician + shark - I drop two cards with Hunter - the High Priestess and Wonder Wand and then I go Shock Master and Giga Brilliant - Shock Master declares spell cards and I set Prison and Lance - I figure I shuould be good here. His turn he has four in hand - and to my bad luck - it's another High Priestess and exactly 3 Spellbooks!!!! What are the odds - if I just dropped a spellbook instead of the wand with Hunter he'd have no play to make here - instead he gets high priestess - banishes a book from hand to destroy shock master and attacks into the prison. After that it turned into a very long control duel - according to spectators I missed a chance to win along the way - probably because I was dead tired at that point. >< At any rate eventually he managed to exahust my resources and take the final duel.

I end up as runner-up in the top 8 - pretty good run for the day which started very rough.


I go back home with some nice prizes - next time I'll skip this pressure and just be the head judge again. lol


Wow, that came out longer than I expected - Hope you've enjoyed reading!

This is the reason why i play this game...
Guys like you keeps me goin...
Great report Lord!!!!
Enjoyed every part of it!!!

Great read, although it might be easier to just divide the paragraphs into Duel 1, 2 and 3. Some of those walls were hurting my eyes lol.

Anyway, congratz on getting runner-up! I remember dubina was talking in the Dreamstate chat and I was rooting for you all the way from Holland!


P.S. Can't wait to see that duel on your YouTube You could also post it on CEA. Hmm... maybe we should add a Video section or something, like DC had.

Congratulations lord, nice read. Hope u do well in the Europeans too.

Valkyra wrote:

Great read, although it might be easier to just divide the paragraphs into Duel 1, 2 and 3. Some of those walls were hurting my eyes lol.

Anyway, congratz on getting runner-up! I remember dubina was talking in the Dreamstate chat and I was rooting for you all the way from Holland!


P.S. Can't wait to see that duel on your YouTube You could also post it on CEA. Hmm... maybe we should add a Video section or something, like DC had.

Awesome idea!!!

yeah CEA youtube channel ^^

and cong lord , cant wait for the vedio and GL in the europeans too ^^

Good read (:

congrats on your win! runner-up is quite the accomplishment!~

Hey Lord congrats on the invite and placing 2nd!! With a bit of luck we will meet in the Europeans (my regionals are on Januray) =)

Good stuff lord.

Curious to see your build though. Sounds pretty far from what is considered standard. COTHs, full traps, and main decree....trags...lol...must...see...list...

Thanks for the comments everyone - appreciate it. ^^

I've finally uploaded my duel vid - you can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNPbO-UAMbE (I'm the one with the Sheldon Cooper "Bazinga" t-shirt. )

Sorry about the strange angles around the middle of the clip - they've switched the guy on the camera and he was a bit off. lol
Also, sometimes I think too much there - probably because we were all dead tired already. xD

Enjoyed the read, and the video. Nice job and congrats on Runner-up