Tournament Report from your newest Blog Contributor :)

Hi everyone!

My name is Alvin Lim a.k.a BlueMinotaur. Like Karlo, I am also a member of Team Top Deck and starting today, I will be making contributions to this blogsite. For the benefit of those who do not know me, I will try requesting Karlo to make a brief introduction about me because I am not really comfortable making it myself. I hope he is able to accomodate J

Today I’d like to talk about the recently concluded March Philippine Monthly Tournament. This is an unsanctioned tournament and therefore we are allowed to use TCG exclusives and promo cards. I was contemplating on using Miracle Gemini in this tournament, being one of my favorite decks, but then I was able to borrow a playset of Tour Guides and an Evolzar Dollka. Even if I am not a big fan of Dino Rabbit, I decided to play it just to experience playing both TCG exclusives. Hell, it’s not every day that you get to use a playset of Tour Guides and a Dollka here in the Philippines. It’s too damn expensive and no one here wants to buy something that can’t be used in Sanctioned tourneys. Without further ado, here’s what happened:

Deck Used: Dino Rabbit (TCG version)

Format: 6 Rounds Swiss + top 8

Round 1: vs Kent (Inzecter)  X-O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Was already leading with Raggia on the field, but made a crucial mistake of playing Heavy Storm and going for game, as he set 2 more backrow cards on his preceding turn and I thought that knowing him to be a good player, he won’t set that many backrows if he has Gorz, but it turned out I was wrong. It cost me the game.

2: Chain Disappearance his Damsel.

3: I drew a subpar hand that is unable to defend against Inzecters and I thought I was really gonna lose. He was able to use Warning on my Rabbit. When I got hold of Veiler via Sangan, I knew that my only chance is to deal quick 6000 LP damage and finish the duel before he is able to pull off his inzecter stunts, so I made Acid Golem with Tour Guie and attacked, praying he does not have the answer in his set traps. Luckily, I connected and he was not able to draw an answer on the next turn wherein he just set Damsel, knowing I have Veiler. On my turn I summoned Sabersaurus to run over Damsel and attacked directly again with the Golem, to win the game. Tour Guide doesn’t disappoint. True story.

Round 2: vs  Sorry forgot your name (Hieroglyph)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: Open with Rabbit into Raggia. On his turn, he just set a backrow. On my turn, I made Leviar with Tour Guide, revive Rabbit to Summon 2 Sabersaurus, and attacked for game. Raggia + Leviar + 2 Sabersaurus = 8000 LP Damage.

2: He was not able to get rid of my Thunder King Raioh and when I made Raggia on the following turn, he conceded.

Round 3: vs  Paolo Calma (Laval)  X-O-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: He had triple Rekindling (Used Gold Sarcophagus on the two and drew the third one). I was able to negate the first two but when he activated a third one, I conceded, knowing he would be able to make Quasar.

2: Opened by normal summoning a Sabersaurus and setting a few backrows. On his turn he used 2x Gold Sarcophagus to search for Heavy Storm and 1 Rekindling. I was then able to make Raggia on my second turn through normal summoning a second vanilla. When he set a monster (Laval Tender), I called his bluff and summoned Guaiba to attack. It was a risky play, knowing it could possibly be Snowman Eater, but it paid off. My 2x Raggia plus backrows was then enough to deal with his Heavy Storm and Rekindling.

3: Early Macro Cosmos vs. Laval is quite devastating. I was able to chain it to his Sweltering Heat Transmission field.

Round 4: vs  Tony Shu (Inzecter)  O-O  (Won the Dice Roll)

1: First turn Rabbit into Raggia. My following turn, Tour Guide into Leviar.

2: Macro Cosmos kills Inzecters.

Round 5: vs Meison (Gravekeepers)  O-X-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: He opened with Necrovalley and 2 Set backrows. My turn he activated Skill Drain so I thought this is really a tough match for me. We went back and forth in negating summons and when I was able to bait out his Warnings, I set up my Gorz play by activating MST to destroy his Skill Drain when he declared an attack with Commandant. From there, I was able to turn the tables.

2: An early Macro Cosmos renders his GK Stele useless. I was able to kill GK Recruiter with Guaiba after I use MST on his Necrovalley. Controlled the game from there.

Round 6: vs Willam Sy a.k.a Wslasher (Six Samurai)  O-X-O  (Lost the Dice Roll)

1: This is a no bearing game as we will both go to the top 8, win or lose. I had Veiler to foil his turn 1 Shien via Kageki, but I was not able to capitalize on my turn as my only monster was Kabazauls. Was hoping it was someone bigger who can run over Kageki and Kizan. His turn he tried making Shien again via Asceticism on Kagemusha, but I was able to negate with Warning. He attacked me with Kizan for a couple of turns, but when I finally drew Rabbit, I took control.

2: First turn Shien, Grandmaster and Kizan with set Solemn Warnings = GG.

3: Unable to capitalize going first due to subpar opening hand of 1 Veiler and 1 Kabazauls, plus Spells/Traps. He was able to destroy my back row and summon Naturia Barkion and Grandmaster on his turn. I set Kabazauls and Torrential, trying to bait him to summon another Monster so he can attack for game and he totally fell for it. He probably was comfortable with Barkion on the field, but I had Veiler to negate its effect. That play plus a timely Gorz in the later turns enabled me to steal the win.

So I finished swiss with a perfect record of 6-0, but I have to say it does not bode well for me because basing from past experience, people who had no loses usually lose immediately on the quarterfinals match, save for Wslasher. I remember the time when he won both Asian Qualifiers and Nationals 2011 wherein he had a perfect record during the swiss rounds. When we faced each other during the finals of the 2011 Asian Qualifiers, he totally thrashed me with Gateway openings. Talk about consistent lucky draws. This is part of the reason why I wanted to win against him in Round 6 despite it being a no bearing game. Anyways, enough ranting.

Needless to say, I lost the quarterfinals match against Orlando Rivera a.k.a OrlandoBoy who was piloting Wind-up Inzecter. I lost the dice roll and he was able to drop 4 cards from my hand in game 1 as I did not draw any Veiler. I won game 2, but he was again able to drop my hand in game 3. I had 1 Veiler for his Zenmaighty but it wasn’t enough to stop him as he was able to special summon 2 more level 3 monsters. Didn’t draw my 2 sided Maxx “C”. Too bad I lost my 3^rd Maxx “C” (Can’t find it at home). If only I had it, there’s a chance I would have gotten it in my opening hand instead of Veiler as I was supposed to side it in place of one Veiler. Wslasher also lost in the Semi Finals against Paolo Calma (Laval). Looks like my theory was viable after all ;)

My overall comment on the deck is that Tour Guide and Dollka greatly increases its power level. If you open Raggia and good backrow cards, it doesn’t require much skill to play, but if you open some subpar hands with Vanilla monsters, that’s when you need to put on your thinking cap. Also, I did not put in Pot of Duality in my build as I felt that there are 6 cards which are good special summon openings (3 Rabbit and 3 Tour Guide) and there is a big chance of drawing them in your first turn. Indeed, I did not miss Pot of Duality on any of my games. It’s a different story for OCG as we don’t currently have Tour Guide.

That’s all for my first post. Hope you enjoyed the read and feel free to leave any comments. Thanks!