Tournament Report: March 15 2014

Deck Used: Link Joker

Round 1: Vs. Royal Paladin
Game 1: He was stuck on Grade 1. Nothing much to say otherwise.
Game 2: Repeat of Game 1. He just couldn't get Grade 2's. Wasn't a very good match.
Result: 2-0
Record: 1-0 (3-0)

Round 2: Vs. Pale Moon
Game 1: It was pretty even until he ripped a double crit on the turn he rode Grade 3. It put me at 5, but the after my turn, I had 3 Grade 3's in hand. He used Luquier's Limit Break to call 3 cards from the soul and pump her up by 9,000, and with 3 Grade 3's in a 6-card hand and 5 damage, I couldn't cope.
Game 2: I got the double crit this game. I can't remember if I killed him at 3, or put him to 5 from 2 and he couldn't cope, but I took it either way.
Game 3: He rode Luquier Reverse and didn't soul charge the base form, so he didn't get the Crossride defense. Each time he soul charged with the Silver Thorn soul chargers, he saw a Silver Thorn and a trigger, and ended up putting something like 5 triggers on the bottom of his deck. I think I broke rode twice, IZD -> IZD -> Nebula, and the 30,000+ powerlines Nebula generates was just too much.
Result: 2-1
Record: 2-0 (5-1)

Round 3: Vs. Kagero
Game 1: He double critted me at 3 and I didn't heal.
Game 2: Nothing special happened, just Nebula with 30,000+ powerlines. His Kagero didn't retire much, so I wasn't losing much advantage, and Triangle Lock too stronk.
Game 3: Pretty much a repeat of Game 2.
Result: 2-1
Record: 3-0 (7-2)

Round 4: Vs. Link Joker
Game 1: This matchup is just dumb. Lock everywhere. We both broke rode twice (IZD -> IZD -> Nebula), but he did it first. Neither of us got to use Dust Tail Unicorn for 4-5 turns due to all the locking. Him break riding first meant I was the first to get a full field after all the locking stopped, so I had a turn of full-powered Nebula columns, so I took Game 1.
Game 2: This was the funnest game all day. I open 4 Grade 1's and a trigger. I was ballsy and kept all the Grade 1's and drew another trigger. He went first, rode, and then I went. I drew into another Grade 1 and I had all but 1 RG slot full of Grade 1's, with 2 of my 10,000 attackers. I ended the turn with him at 3 damage, and I think I hit a trigger. He rode Mobius breath dragon the next turn and I 1-passed it, since I needed to keep the pressure up with my field. He broke it with a crit, lock my Vanguard booster, then killed one of my 10,000 attackers. I attacked with an unboosted 7,000 Grade 1, he no guarded, and I got a crit, putting him to 5. He was missing Grade 3, so it was a misriding battle, and he had a 19,000 Rear Guard column. I 1-passed his Mobius Breath again, but he checked a Grade 3 and didn't break it. I ended up winning from having more attacks, but the stupidity of the game was fun.
Result: 2-0
Record: 4-0 (9-2)

Round 5: Vs. Shadow Paladins
Game 1: I double crit him at 5 damage, and even though he ends up healing once or twice, the fact that he had to guard everything for a couple turns just created too big of an advantage gap. I think he Raging Formed, but I had a large enough hand that I could tank it, and having a booster and an attacker locked made Raging Forming an awkward play in general.
Game 2: He damage checked 3 copies of Raging Form. That plus lock and Nebula's 30,000+ powerlines spelled doom.
Result: 2-0
Record: 5-0 (11-2)

First place netted me a snazzy Garmore mat and 6 packs of Set 12. Pulled Etain and an Iron Fan Eradcator, Nirrti.

Decklist:

Starting Vanguard: Star-Vader, Dust Tail Unicorn

Grade 0:
4x Star-Vader, Meteor Liger (Critical)
4x Star-Vader, Weiss Soldat (Critical)
4x Star-Vader, Nebula Captor (Draw)
4x Star-Vader, Stellar Garage (Heal)

Grade 1:
4x Demon Claw Star-Vader, Lanthanum
4x Mana Shot Star-Vader, Neon
4x Hollow Twin Blades, Binary Star
3x Barrier Star-Vader, Promethium

Grade 2:
4x Furious Claw Star-Vader, Niobium
4x Unrivaled Star-Vader, Radon
2x Strike Star-Vader, Krypton

Grade 3:
4x Star-Vader, Infinite Zero Dragon
4x Star-Vader, Nebula Lord Dragon