Just would like to share my recollection of my first local tournament at my local shop today. Please excuse my poor ability as a writer don't be surprised if you find this a little long. The day began with me picking up my beloved yet incomplete Gate HERO deck and getting a ride to my local card shop. 3 minutes later, I am walking in to the store, and taking a look around. Sign-ups werebeggining as I entered. I hand my money to sign up, and the store owner replies, "Do you have your card?" I said, "What card?"

He explains to me what the Konami Tournament Support card was, and gives me one tracked in his computer with my name and Card ID.I personally found this to be impressive, keeping track of every player and whatnot in their rankings from every official tournament. Then my ID is entered into the tournament list, and I hang around the other players until it starts. There were a few noticable things that happened, like a kid spending $100 on a booster box of Abyss Rising packs, and this girl opening about 7 of same, and talking about the deck he was running (Inzektor) and how he made it still very playable after the banlist hit (He was not kidding)

So, match number 1, I was facing the same girl who moments ago was just opening packs and packs. She was running chaos dragons, but I think it was probably a bad day for her.Even though she was able to summon plenty of high attack monsters, she had trouble keeping them. Then I drew either E-call or Stratos with Fusion Gate fairly easily in each game. I quickly won 2-0.

1-0-0

Match 2, I was playing against a chaos deck. Game 1, we kept going 1-for-1 at card advantage until I gained more advantage with Ocean and Stratos constantly destoying his backrow and searching. Once I played fusion gate it was over. Game 2, I had no idea what to side really and still ending up ending the game quickly with Cyber Twin Dragon and Elemental Hero the Shining.

2-0-0

Match 3: This is where things got odd. What was odd was the deck the dude was playing, being that everyone to took the slightest glimpse knew exactly what it was, and I had to find out just as he played the card " Final Countdown." Game 1 ends with me having Utopia, Cyber Twin DRagon, Shining, Absolute Zero, and neos alius when I have to end my turn, and the count hits 20. Enough said. Game 2, I had made the mistake of when removing my extra deck monsters of putting main deck cards into my extra deck. Instant Game Loss once I found that out 8 turns later. DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE IF YOU ARE PLAYING WITH A LARGE EXTRA!

2-0-1

Match 4: Gladiator beasts. My opponent was playing GB's, talking to the player next to him about how they are able to be competive now. And he showed me exactly how. Game 1, he MST's my Fusion Gate, killing my only viable play for the turn. So I had to rush the use of my super poly to summon absolute zero of his retiari on the field. Next turn, he quickly recovers with a quick Heraklinos summon and war chariot on my Zero's effect. I couldn't recover from that. Game 2, I am unable to get past his many backrow, and when I try to use Masked hero Acid to clear it, he starlight roads me, and rides on his new beater to victory.

2-0-2

So thats where my record was left. After the tourney I opened quite a few packs, and made a couple trades. Then I had a few more duels.

GraveKeeper: curb-stomped them, all 3 necrovalley ended up in the grave thanks to stratos and MST. Game 2 was no different.
Chaos: Unusally ugly draws, and I also forget rai-oh's summon negation effect, nearly costing me the game when he summons black luster Soldier Envoy. But one dimensional prison later and I take back the game. Game 2, much less happened, OTK'd him after turn 3.
Lightray: The Chaos player was actually hyping this one, and I could see why. It was foreign to me in a way that he built it himself, using lightsworns and lightrays to clear back row, and spam giant instant monsters with damaging effects. Game 1, Diablos, Diablos, Diablos...Game 2, I surprise OTK. Game 3, he takes a couple turns to setup with a few mills, and then he summons Lightray Gearfried, Diablos, Grepher, along with Lumina and Lumina overlayed for Leviathan dragon. All out of nowhere.

Anyways, I really did expect to do much much worse. Here is the Gate HERO deck I used at the tournament:

1 Elemental HERO Stratos
3 Elemental HERO Neos Alius
1 Elemental HERO Ocean
1 Elemental HERO Bubbleman
1 Elemental HERO Wildheart
2 Thunder King Rai-oh
2 Cyber Dragon
1 Penguin Soldier
1 Summoner Monk
1 Spirit Reaper

3 Fusion Gate
2 E - Emergency Call
1 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Gemini Spark
1 Mask Change
1 Super Polymerization
1 Instant Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Book Of Moon

2 Dimensional Prison
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Return from the Different Dimension
1 Starlight Road

1 Elemental HERO The Shining (Don't freak out, I'll explain)
2 Elemental HERO Absolute Zero
1 Elemental HERO Escuridao
1 Elemental HERO Great Tornado
1 Elemental HERO Gaia
1 Vision HERO Trinity
1 Elemental HERO Steam Healer

Side:
1 Vanity's Emptiness
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Royal Prison
1 Consecrated Light
1 Light-Imprisoning Mirror
1 Needle Ceiling
1 System Down
1 Electric Virus
2 Prohibition
1 Smashing Ground
1 G.B. Hunter

So as many of you will probably figure, I am quite often BROKE. Not a single bill floating in my pocket until this morning. So I had to slowly gather these cards over a few months, and even then I am missing Voltic's, Miracle Fusion, and Super Polys. But still, I had just enough be able to win a duel. I was able to get my first copy of Miracle Fusion in a trade after the tourney, but I never drew it in my following duels. So things to note:
-I have had 1 dead opening hand today
-Not everyone understands the entire concept of chain and resolution. Never affected a game thankfully.
-Very diverse meta. Seen Inzektor, Hieartic, GB's, GK's, MachinaGears, Karukuri, HERO's(3 other HERO players. Gotta Love em), Chaos, Lightrays, and Monarchs.
-Fun experience that I will attend next time.

Nice read, nobody ran dark world? I thought they were the most OP meta atm or Wind-ups are still pretty powerful

hah (:

this was a very interesting read.

I am actually intending on going to my Locals for the first time sometime soon!

wish me luck~

I'll be sure to post my experience aswell.