Locals Report: 02/23/2012

This was my last locals tournament before the March 2012 banlist kicks in next Thursday lol. I had considered playing Plant Synchro for the last time, but ultimately, to coincide with the release of the Ra Yellow Mega Pack, I opted to throw together a more heroic deck, to take advantage of the newly-foiled E-Emergency Call...

Round 1: LFN (E-HeEROes) vs Nick D. (Duplication Ninja)
I win the dice roll
G1: I opened with 3 Little Girls in a row and some spells/traps, so I summoned 1, pulled Sangan, made Zenmaines and hoped to camp on it and stall for a bit. He clearly had other ideas, as he immediately dropped a main-decked Cyber Dragon, which I was forced to Solemn Warning. He eventually gets rid of it with Karakuri Ninja Sazank though, and my only play was to Monster Reborn my Sangan in hopes of surviving and thinning out my deck. It was not meant to be, as he then tributed off a monster for his main-decked Caius to banish my Sangan for 1000 damage and swing for game. I was somewhat frustrated by the hand I opened with, but it was at least of some consolation that he remained oblivious as to what I was playing.
G2: I reveal my strategy as I bash in his LP with Neos Alius. The game ends when he derps me with his BLS, only for me to drop my own BLS and derp him in return
G3: I get hit by his Dustshoot a few turns in, but I'm playing HEROes so it's not as devastating as it would be against other decks. I'm able to grind through his traps and win
Result: XOO
This was actually quite the interesting deck. Tributing Hanzo / Upstart Golden Ninja for Ninjitsu Art of Duplication enabled him to bring out Sazank and Crimson Ninja, which would be used to get rid of problem monsters and snipe backrow, respectively, before being tributed off for a Caius. Given the minimalist nature of most trap lineups nowadays due to the presence of Inzektors, it's actually a pretty cool concept, as the odds are high that Crimson Ninja will be targeting something important.

Round 2: LFN (E-HEROes) vs Craig (Wind Ups)
I lose the dice roll
G1: I open with Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment, but not much else, so I only prolonged my eventual defeat at the hands of his Rabbits (paws I guess?), Boats(do boats have hands? hmm... ) and such.
G2: After he vomits a bunch of monsters onto the field, he opted to push for damage instead of looping my hand. Relieved, I began my counterattack, dropping BLS, and banishing an Alius and Zenmaines for Nova Master. BLS banishes his Tiras, I believe, while Nova Master kills another one of his XYZ. I then Super Poly with his remaining XYZ for Absolute Zero to connect for 2500 damage, and he concedes after seeing his next draw.
G3: I open with double Gozen Match and a Fiendish Chain lol. I set all 3, knowing that while it would be incredibly game-breaking if he had Heavy Storm, the odds of him having Heavy weren't nearly as high as the odds of having 1 of 3 copies of MST. My gamble paid off, and he did in fact have a MST. It was only able to snipe off 1 of the Gozens, enabling the other to lock him down. This sets him back considerably, and his LP gets whittled down considerably as he waits to draw into more spell/trap removal. He eventually does draw into the Heavy, but his LP was pretty low by that time, and after I dropped Gorz on his lone Adreus, he conceded.
Result: XOO

Round 3: LFN (E-HEROes) vs James Z (Skill Drain Dark World)
I win the dice roll
G1: This was a bit of a grind, as neither of us could get anything going. Eventually though, he does, and he takes a narrow victory with only 800 LP left
G2: He whacks me with EEV, declaring spell cards for a massive plus, but I draw well enough to push with my monsters. He fails to draw into an out for The Shining and that was game
G3: Another long, drawn-out game, We went into time, where I was down to 1350 LP to his 7800 LP, after I had already burned a Solemn Warning and Solemn Judgment. Things were not looking good, and despite having BLS banish one of his Graphas, it was in actuality irrelevant, for he made a nifty play to equip Safe Zone on my BLS the next turn, and then play Heavy Storm to destroy the Safe Zone and subsequently my BLS.
Result: XOX

Final Round: LFN (E-HEROes) vs NEXUS-Jack (Dino Rabbit)
I lose the dice roll
G1: I cannot contend with his Walking Solemns and was soundly defeated. It would have been nice to have drawn into Super Poly, or at least something with which to bait out the negation, but it was not meant to be
At this point, he reveals that among the four x-1's remaining, his tie-breaks were by far the worst lol. Knowing that his role in the tournament had been reduced to crushing other people's dreams, despite being up a game, he offers a split lol, in the hopes that I would be able to top.
It didn't work out and I placed 3rd, while the prize payout, due to a lower attendance this week, was awarded only to the Top 2.
NEXUS-CQiao eventually obliterated James and his trap-heavy Dark World deck with the power of the Six Samurai and Naturia Barkion, and was awarded 5 Turbo Packs for finishing in 1st place.
Out of his 1st pack, he cracked a super rare Horn of the Phantom Beast. He then cracked an ultra rare Book of Moon. Everyone watching was like Whoahhh buddy. NEXUS- Jack then reached over and cracked open one of the last remaining prize packs, silently inspected the contents, and passed it back to NEXUS-CQiao. It was another Book of Moon! At this point everyone was like LOLLLLWHOAHHHHH. It was quite a hilarious spectacle; pack-sacking at it's finest, I must say.

Overall though, despite some rough patches, I had no regrets with my choice of deck for the tournament. My side-deck was actually pretty bad, and contributed to a couple of my losses, but seeing as everything was hastily built before the tournament, I suppose it couldn't be helped. The Gozen Matches, Cyber Dragons, Snowman Eaters, the 2nd Super Polymerization, and the single Dimensional Prison were good, but everything else was mediocre or simply useless.
Later that night, after board games at CQiao's place with Bidier and the NEXUS, I arrived home to find that my SJ magazine had arrived earlier in the day, bearing Number 30: Acid Golem. It was bent though, which wasn't so pleasant, but Acid Golem is Acid Golem, and it will fit quite nicely into my extra deck, replacing Trishula upon it's imminent banhammering.