Yuuuuuuuup, I went to a regionals, my second ever and first in a year or so. I just got back from an insane day of trying to find my way home, so I'm a little hazy, but here's what I've got, just for the sake of putting something on the site!
Friday: I take a train up to Kissimmee, then walk 2 miles to the hotel because I couldn't bring my bike. Ugh.
I stay up until 11:30 trying to figure out one situation: Effect Veiler. I had been on the fence about maining her for a while, and going into the regionals I didn't like any of the matchups I was likely to face if I had her in main, besides the waning Prophecy and possibly Dragunity Ruler being a decent matchup. After much deliberating, I stuck her into the side, and replaced her with the last two cards you see here:
- Spoiler:
I liked the idea of using legit traps in the deck, for two reasons:
1. The opponent's not going to blind MST you very often at all, because they'll be saving them for the Abyss-Spheres.
2. Whereas Veiler just stops a threat for a turn, Warning and Break (the two I inserted in Veiler's place) plus the TT legitimately get rid of the threat. Like, if I was staring down a Crimson Blader, I'd much rather have the Break to get rid of it than a Veiler to stop it temporarily and pray I draw into an out.
Otherwise, it's almost the exact same as the build I posted earlier.
Saturday, game day:
I arrive early after a bus to get down to the site, and end up third in line for registration after some power walking once the doors opened. I quickly fill out my decklist and open one of my five entry packs... and staring me in the face is an Armades. SCORE!
From there I tear open the rest a bit later (pulled the Bujin Xyz. Not bad), and turn around to see a guy with a DuelistGroundz shirt. YAY. I go up and introduce myself, and recognize his user (as well as another couple guys'), so I get +10 legitimacy points.
Side note before I begin: DGz guy told me he'd heard a lot of people were playing burn today, and I myself had heard two people asking about trading for Final Countdowns and one guy wanting Rainbow Life, so I promptly took the 2nd Raigeki Break I had sided and inserted a Trap Stun instead.
R1: Little kid.
There was nothing notable about this match except for one thing.
HE DROPPED TIME WIZARD ON ME.
R2: Evilswarms
I had spent about 15 minutes trading with this guy before the tourney, so I knew what he was playing. Nice guy, definitely.
G1: He draws a lot of S/Ts and just a couple monsters (welcome to Evilswarms!). I Warning his attempt at an Ophion, and later when he Catastors I get around it with an Abyssgaios.
G2: Even more S/Ts and even less monsters! We get to a point where he has a Fiendish on my Pike, a Kerykion, and 4 backrow to my Pike and about 4-5 cards in hand. I SS Aqua Spirit, which gets him to Torrential and Pandemic his Kery. I chain my own Torrential, and he yet again Pandemics his Kery. I let it go, with 4 of his 5 S/Ts now gone, and from there I go Megalo and Gunde on his SS to bring out my Teus, and later go Gaios. He tries Compulsing it, and Trap Stun saves the day!
2-0
R3: Mirror
G1: I open with the Bahamut-Trite-Ocea combo, but he hammers past it and slowly manages to whittle me down to game (He had 400 left to my 1500, but he had just enough).
G2: We go into time on my first turn, and thusly I end up dumping my hand a bit to go Dracossack. I swing over his Pike for 1000, and after a turn of back and forth I set a Gunde, plus have Dracossack and a token. Hooooowever, I forgot to bring out two more tokens, and thusly he barely runs me over for game. So, instead of 2-0-1, I'm 2-1.
R4: BEWDragon Rulers
He pushed my shit in. That's all there is to it. I drew horrendously, and he had quick outs to my side-ins G2. Nothing I could do but prolong the inevitable.
2-2
R5: Blackwing
I'm a good bit tilted by this point, for sure, and I was quite slouchy in my posture.
G1: I battle through backrow and him opening with stuff like Allure, Icarus, Shura and Whirlwind.
G2: Again, he has a full backrow and I can't get anything going. He sharked me a tiny bit here, and that threw me off my game even further.
G3: I drew like shit and he beats me down behind ANOTHER FULL BACKROW JESUS H CHRIST.
2-3
R6: Constellars
G1: Pleiades keeps bouncing my only defenses late-game.
G2: I keep his resources low with Atlanteans and a well-timed Dark Hole.
G3: I open with two MSTs, and use them both in pretty decent situations: one to blast a Tenki he was trying to bounce to hand with Pleiades, and the other to stop a Vanity's from bitchslapping my Megalo. Marksman does work from there and I finally get back on the rails.
3-3
R7: Battlin' Boxers
Probably my favorite match of the day, just cuz the guy was really upbeat and chill. Both of us were joking the entire game.
G1: It starts slow, with me having no plays and him having 3 backrow and me trying to figure out what he's playing (I was actually thinking he was using burn). I get aggressive the minute I draw Megalo, though, and he quickly scoops after I do a bunch of fancy Pike-Turge recycling. Also, I manage to catch a glimpse of a Battlin' Boxer Counterblow before he does so, so I know what I'm up against.
G2: He opens with Lead Yoke and two backrow, while I have, luckily, Trap Stun, Infantry and Dark Hole. However, my only other live monster is a Pike, and once I get the Lead Yoke out of materials he makes ANOTHER LEAD YOKE. However, I Sphere into Linde into Turge to recycle Infantry, and soon get both of them off the field (also, he was reading Mirror Force on me, which I don't even run). A couple turns later I do some fancy Pike/Gunde plays and end up with Pike and two Lindes on the field. I draw another water (making it two plus a Megalo in hand), activate Trap Stun, SS Megalo and push for game... and he reveals a D-Prison AND a Mirror Force face-down, negated by my Trap Stun! Not bad for a card that I threw in last-second for BURN DECKS!
4-3
R8: Frognarchs
Okay, actually, my guy dropped and the guy next to me using Frognarchs had a no-show, so we played each other and had a nice conversation. We ended up splitting, 1-1, with the difference being my ability to go Abyss Dweller G2 to halt the Treeborn for a turn. He E-Conned the next turn to grab my Gaios and slam Dweller, but he had nothing left but a Fader or two.
5-3
R9: Prophecy
G1: He opens up nutty as hell, and quickly dismantles Trite/Bahamut/Angineer. I stall for a good bit with Pike/Turge/Gunde, but I don't have anything for a power play and my resources are quickly nil.
G2: His hand isn't the best, and I sense this and overpower him the best I can to force G3.
G3: Again he opens godly and even uses World's nuke this time, and I draw like garb and can only stall for a couple turns before he runs me over with World.
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Oh yeah, and in case I didn't mention, I just got this deck IRL on Monday. I hadn't done a lot of legitimate playtesting (just facing a guy's BEWD-ish deck a couple nights before), so I was actually pretty fine with how I did (especially cuz I was a bit out of practice. Locals here suckkkkkkkk I need a car so I can go to Tampa). Definitely happy I chose this over the Fists, though, and next time a tourney comes around here I'm definitely expecting to at least come close to nabbing my invite.
...I have no conclusion otherwise. Guts made me post this (I wasn't gonna post a mediocre x-4 otherwise XD) and I'm tired as hell.
...thanks for reading?