28th May Gamers Arena Tourney

One of the qualifiers for World's qualifiers (if that makes sense). The scene was a lot more packed than 2 weeks ago.

According to Soliel's post, I should have more insights on the environment and stuff. So I walked around the packed shop and check out the meta. I see a couple of Samurais and Junk Doppel // Debris Doppel, which is of no surprise.

Quite a few kids there (by kids I mean those under 17), and a few faces a never seen before, well, I'm not that active in Gamers Arena this year, so I guess thats natural.

A lot of people looking for monster exceeds, especially Tyrus (or whatever way you wanna spell his name), and Forbidden Chalice (I wonder why, since Lance is more versatile this format).

Traded my SR Seven Tools for a ME Mirror Force and 10 bucks, which for me isn't that good of a move, cause now I have no seven tools at all, but that Mirror Force is tempting.

A day before yesterday, after work, I made my side deck to take on the META I saw 2 weeks ago, namely, Samurai, Karakuri, BF, Machina variants and Plant Variants. Which I face only Karakuri, just shows how wide open the current metagame is.

So, I played Sabers again, since its doing very very good, but I still haven't get my 3rd Pot from Nick yet, so I played 2 with Giant Trunade.

match 1 vs Ricky (Team Arco) - Gladial Beast

Easily one of my worst match ups. Cause my build actually needs my opponent to attack me to start doing its work, and that just put me in a worse situation. Without Boggard in OCG, I have nothing to top Laquari, aside from that tech Cyber Dragon I main.

duel 1 : Oppression is a bitch, it stalled the game with Pashuul for what can be said, 6 turns. But my opponent played Trap Stun and blew them off with a main phase 2 Gyzarus, I thought I'm suppose to do that with Hyunlei? I have 2 Faultrolls stuck in my hand since mid game, nothing I can do bout that.

duel 2 : I sided in 2 copies of Swallow Flip (which were intended for the Karakuri match ups), they can kill every tagged Gb aside from a Laquari, and I'm not afraid of Laquari. The other side deck cards that went in were the other Cyber Dragon and 2 Gozen Matches. I drew Swallow Flip and Gozen early, but my opponent have 5 back rows but none of them works. Fullhelm just punches his way through all of the 8000 points of life.

duel 3 : I misplayed this game, my opponent starts by searching his deck for Equeste, summoning it along with 2 face downs. I should have predicted Icarus, but I didn't. I special a Cyber Dragon, it got BTH'ed, but I had another Cyber. I summon Airbellum, thinking to sinc for Stardust, but D Prison and the fact that I may score a card off my opponent's hand is too much for me to give up on. I attacked and hit by Icarus. I have 2 Trap Stuns on my hand, and it goes down hill from there. This shows a false read who really cost one his game.

0 - 1

Match 2 vs A guy which I think is a newbie - Angel Ceremony (Perfect Herald in TCG)

duel 1 : I started the duel and apply pressure on the dude. Asking him for chains after my every move, that sorta made him panicked. Airbellum just keeps attacking for card after card.

duel 2 : I set 3 and Emmers, but he had Decree. He didn't have his Herald out and attack my Emmers with Manju, when I wanna search, his reveals Orange Light, but trying to pull myself out of the pinch, I asked him whether the move is legal since it was in damage step (I did not cheat here, I didn't give him false rulings or anything) and asked him if I could asked the judge if the move was possible. He quickly took his cards back and told me to carry on. I summon Airbellum next turn and attack his hand, I declared activation of Airbellum's effect, he didn't chain Orange Light and I discarded it off his hand since he didn't shuffle his hand after he put the card back and I know exactly which one was it (which isn't cheating). Hyunlei blew his Decree and I have Oppression, Judgment and Light Imprisoning Mirror at the back.

The dude should have been more confident bout his move and all. Shows that applying pressure really can win you games. I wouldn't have been able to do shit if he negated my Emmersblade.

1 - 1

Match 3 - Teng Sam - Karakuri

Finally a match up that I want to face. GB and Angel variants are my decks worst match up, but this, is one of my better ones.

duel 1 : I drew my 2 tech Compulsory Evacuation Devices and Trap Stun, together with RoTA and Emmers. What makes it better is that I start the duel. I set 3 of traps and Emmers. He summons Strategist, plays Machine Dupe to get out 2 more, pay 1000 for Instant Fusion, which got him his Machine Dinosaur thing, but obviously I compulse it. He sets 3, I do a Trap Stun, Hyunlei and proceed to win this one effortlessly.

duel 2 : I sided in MVP Swallow Flip and Chain Disappearance. He starts but no Bureido out but a face down monster and 2 S/T. I set Emmers, set Judgment, Call of Haunted, Swallow Flip and Book of Moon. Holding Airbellum. He flipped his face down Strategies, pays 1000 for Instant, and sync for Bureido. I play Swallow Flip which flips a Judgment to try to negate (after reading the card text), but flipping Judgment means no Seven Tools, so I flip my own Judgment and negated it. He passes after a Dark Hole. I summoned Airbellum, he checked his life and plays Warning(after asking for my hand count, which was 1), his life is now 1500. I flipped Call.

2 - 1

I didn't play match 4 cause I was supposed to play a friend and he already have 2 loses, so he let me win since I'm the one who has a chance to play in top 4.

But I saw myself in table 8 this round, which is weird since I won at table 7 last match. I asked Cookie and Heero about it, turns out Paul typed in the wrong result and the just correct it after this.

3 - 1

match 5 vs Agent Angel

My worst match up of them all, literally. This is the one deck that I have NEVER won.

1st duel : He starts with Valhala and gets a turn 1 Krystia out. Luckily I had Warrior Lady. But it cost me 2 Ladies just to take out Krystia since he summoned it back again. I was at the winning side for most of the game when I got his life to 400, his Agent in attack mode, me having Fullhelm and Pashuul on the field and MST set. Played MST to get rid of his last facedown. I played RoTA, but found no non-tuner Warrior (when I remembered I took out my 3rd Warrior Lady for Giant Rat, which didn't helped at all). Lost after he Exceeds for Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and boosted all his monsters.

2nd duel : I set Emmers with no backrow, monster hand. He did another turn 1 Krystia. I get rid of the Krystia with my Warrior Lady. But he stalled a long time bouncing monsters with Penguin Soldier (claiming it could bounce itself even if I attacked into it, which for unknown reasons I didn't asked for a judge). And won with the exact scenario as above.

I blame myself for not having an iPhone or iPad, cause I could just logged onto wikia and showed him the rulings. But I should have asked for a judge, which is my own fault.

Worst part, I wished my opponent the best of luck for top 4, he told me he already had 2 losses, and wont be able to get into top 4 anyway. I really should had ask him bout his results and offer him to let me win instead, since I only had 1 lost before this.

I test play Andrew's BF deck against Fishtank's Six Sam. Which further assures to myself that BF is the best deck in the game and will be for a while. Really wanna make a BF deck now since not many are playing it, but lack of cash for 2 Sirroco and a Vayu hurts. I'm starting to understand how Mr Bushido from Gundam 00 felt, I lost to the deck so many times that I eventually fell in LOVE with the deck.

I really do feel that BF is the ultimate form of Control deck at the moment and any one that plays control decks would love using it.

Things I learn yesterday :

1. Swallow Flip is good. It takes care of Karakuri, GB and Plant variants (Trishula, Black Rose and Junk Destroyer). Best of all, it has no cost and it is a rare that no one uses, thus, very very cheap.

2. I should have trusted myself and played 3 Warrior Ladies instead of taking one out. It was never a dead draw and always helped. The only situation when its not is when I'm winning, which wouldn't matter.

3. SHOULD had test play more against angels. They are my worst match ups, yet I almost didn't have a test play against them, my own fault for lack of practice against them. Lack of side deck cards aside from Mirror does makes it worst.

4. SR Seven Tools can be expensive. I traded/sold it yesterday for 40 bucks, yet people are fighting for it. Suggesting its worth more than that.

5. Soliel likes telling people to scoop. "Okay, draw xxx or ... OK! Scoop!!" and "Let me see ... Scoop!".