Tournament report for October 4, 2014: Toronto Regional Qualifier Warning: Very long post Hi everyone, this is Monarch, your 2014 Toronto Regional Qualifier Champion. Somehow. I don’t understand it myself. The certificate is right next to me and I still don’t believe it. Out of 281 people I took the top spot. Below will be all the matches I played on my way to win the championship. The format for the tournament was 8 rounds of modified Swiss, double elimination, best of 1 with a 20 minute time limit, followed by a cut to top 8. Top 8 format was single elimination, best of 1 with a 20 minute time limit. The deck I used was Immortal Asura Kaiser, or Immoral Sackura Kaiser as it is known at my locals. Round 1 VS Link Joker (Chaos Breaker) W: First round and I am already facing a deck that gives mine problems. When they have 4 damage. I simply played the limit break denial game with him. During the game I saw that he was using stand triggers and pulsar bear, which gains 3k when attacking if you have more rear guards then your opponent. I understand what he was going for, but that strategy is more suited to a Nebula Lord deck, which he could have been running but I did not see it. He pushes me to 4, I break ride Immortal and check the 3 to win. So far so good. Round 2 VS Narukami (Eradicators) L: Somehow I face the one person at the event that was deaf. Not something I was expecting. Thankfully this did not factor into the match at all and the game went smoothly. He played very well on top of me foolishly forgetting that erads can wipe your board. The game was close and I could have won, or at least survived longer if a few things went my way. This game I was unable to break ride, but I am able to get normal Asura for mid game shenanigans. Not that they happened. My ride for grade 3 was normal Asura, no 3 on the twin drive. Next turn I cross ride to Immortal, still no 3 on twin drive. Next turn still no 3 on twin drive. At this point I am at 5 damage. On his next turn he break rides Descendent. I still have a shot. He counterblasts to power up Descendent. I’m still ok. He attacks unboosted, I drop enough for 2 to pass, no triggers. He restands and attacks boosted. I perfect guard it. At this point all I have left is one 5k shield in hand and one intercept. His side columns are both 16k and I am cross ridden. No triggers mean I live. He hits 2 critical triggers. I’m done. Except he puts both to one side, his one mistake. He attacks with the non-critical side first. If I heal I can live and maybe win because the 2 crits are all that are left in his hand. Sadly I don’t heal and he wins. Hopefully I can face him again… Round 3 VS Nova Grappler (Mirror Match) W: Wait, what?! How did this happen?! This was the one thing I never expected to face coming in to this event. A trial deck was more likely to be my opponent than a mirror match. This is where I learned that the mirror is very weird. It even started weird. After mulligan, my hand is 1 Asura, 1 Mond, 2 Immortal and 1 Blaupanzer (thank goodness). When the game starts we both flip up Blaujunger. We both think the other is playing Blaus. He goes first and rides Blaupanzer, getting his Blaukluger. I draw for turn and draw my only Blaukluger -_-. I ride my Blaupanzer and get ready to attack. He asks why I don’t search for Blaukluger. I reveal that I have the only one in my deck is in my hand already. He thinks for a second before saying “No” in an unbelieving tone. I think that he realizes what I am playing because he had heard about it from somewhere. He asks if I am playing Mond and Immortal and I tell him I am. He then reveals that he has a Mond and Immortal in hand as well. I am floored by this. A mirror match. I learn later that our decks vary in a few ways but overall do the same thing. The reason that this matchup is weird is because neither player can afford to put the other to 4 damage first without risking getting destroyed. This eventually leads to the situation where we are both at 3 damage, both of us have Mond as our vanguard, it’s his turn, and I have no front row rear guards to attack. He decides to risk attacking me with his vanguard to try to beat me. I don’t guard it. His first check is a critical trigger. I think it’s over. His second check is not a critical trigger, meaning I am not dead (Spoiler: this happens a lot during the day). I go to 5 damage, guard his other attack and he ends his turn. Because we both did not play many rear guards and kept each other at low damage, we both have around 12 – 15 cards in hand. This is still not enough to stop this deck if things work even remotely right. I break ride Immortal and call my field. I am able to check the 3 and go on to win the game. Still was not easy. If I had not checked the 3, I would have most likely lost. Even with the ridiculous numbers that this deck hits, he was still guarding them to the end, at one point dropping 5 10k shields to stop one attack. I eventually make it though. After the match I learn that he was running 12 critical triggers, which is a completely viable and probably better way to run the deck then how I am running it now. I also learned the he was running even more grade 3’s then I am, which I don’t advise doing. Sadly his defeat resulted in him being knocked out, but he said that at least he lost to his own deck, which I can easily agree with. I’m back on the winning side of things. Round 4 VS Bermuda Triangle (Duos) W: For this round I have to face 212, the regular Duo player on the channel. Neither of us wants to face the other. Historically he has beaten me in tournaments while he hates facing my deck. The game does not go my way early with his first twin drive getting him double heals, putting him back down to zero damage. After that we both start trying to deny the other their break ride. Thankfully I am able to break ride first, but only with normal Asura. I did this because he was at 5 damage and I was able to put 2 samurais in each side column. Sadly he had 3 perfect guards to stop my assault. He proceeds to break ride on his next turn. While the break ride turn for Duos is scary, mainly because it is similar to Immortal/Mond, I have never lost to 212 when he has used the break ride. Today proved to be no exception, though there was some help from my damage triggers. I take his first attack and get a draw trigger which in turn gets me a perfect guard. This allowed me to survive his turn with minimal difficulty, though I am now at 5 damage and he healed back down to 4. At this point I resort to risky plays with Asura, were I attack with an 11k attacker unboosted, hope to hit a 3 on the drive check, and restand the attacker with a samurai behind it to attack again for 21k. I don’t hit the 3, but instead hit 2 critical triggers. He is still able to guard this though and remain at 4 damage. I think that I am safe from his attacks next turn because he has no counterblast to restand his vanguard until he calls his damage unflipper. If he can restand he wins. Thankfully he is unable to get what he needs and I live. Next turn I try the risk play again, because a restand will win me the game at this point. He no guards my vanguard because he believes that I have run low on critical triggers, of which he is correct. Unfortunately for him there are still have some left and flip one on my next drive check, followed by a grade 3, ensuring me the game. This is one of the match ups that I would call even with my deck because Duos have the ability to rush and plus at the same time, followed by a high offence break ride turn. I sadly had to eliminate 212 from the tournament, but I am sure next time I face him I will get grade stuck like I usually do against him. At this point in the tournament I was getting a little tired so I might not remember all the details of the matches from this point out. Round 5 VS Angel Feather (Celestials/ non-Reverse) W: So again I have to face off against a friend. This matchup is usually in my favour, but he made it very close. It doesn’t help that his first drive check is a Zerachiel while his second damage is another one. The good news for me is that he is unable to break ride. The bad news for me is that every other thing that his deck can do goes off. Near the end of the match I am at 3 damage while he is at 4. His field is 14k side, 19k vanguard and 25k side after limit break boosts, with him deciding to not play a booster behind the 14k attacker. I guard the 14k while no guarding the vanguard. He hits a crit (NO) followed by a non crit (YES). I don’t die to his vanguard attack, but I am still in a bad spot because I only have one 10k shield in hand with a few 3s and the rest 5k shields which are all samurais, and he still has a 30k column ready to attack. If I want to win I need to keep my samurais for next turn when I break ride, but I would need to guard with them to live. I also could not count on a heal trigger because I had gone though a few already. My damage triggers come through for me again with both of them being critical triggers, allowing me to guard his last attack with only the 10k shield. On my next turn I break ride Immortal and check the 3 to take the game. If he had played a booster behind his other rear guard he might have won. A good game that could have easily gone his way. Round 6 VS Murakumo (Hyakki Vogue Reverse) W: I don’t like facing this deck because of how easily it can kill you, which is a bit hypocritical on reflection. I win this game basically because I am able to heal a lot. For this game we are both unable to break ride, but I am able to cross ride, which becomes very important. Near the end of the game I am at 4 damage while he is at 5. I am cross ridden already while he is able to get his unlocker, though he is only able to get one Reverse for his rear guard. He then locks his vanguard booster and another booster that had nothing in front of it, calls his unlocker in the open front row spot, and then locks that whole column. This leaves him with his vanguard at 31k while his other column is at 39k. He attacks with his vanguard first. I have to 2 pass it even though I have a perfect guard in hand. This leaves me with 2 cards in hand. His first drive check is a critical trigger (why does this keep happening). He determines that the most I can have in hand is 20k shield, so he puts everything to the side. His next check is a non-trigger. I proceed to perfect guard his last attack, were he admits that he didn’t think I had one in hand. On my next turn I am able to limit break with Immortal and win off my restand. This game was very close which could have been his if I didn’t heal twice during the game. Nerves are on edge at this point. Round 7 VS Gold Paladins (Holy Shine Dragon) W: This match did not last too long. I couldn’t afford to drag it out at all. At first I assumed he was playing Zenith because I saw him search Gancelot. It wasn’t until his last drive check that I saw Holy Shine Dragon. Near the end he had crit me up to 5 damage while he was at 2. On my next turn I saw that he only had 6 cards in hand so I decided to go for game. I break ride Immortal, call my field and then check a critical trigger and a grade 3 on the twin drive, giving me the game right there. The amazing thing about Immortal/Mond is that it has the ability to win regardless of the damage gap. The pressure mounts even more on me. Round 8 VS Link Joker (Glendios/ Worlds End) W: Before starting this round, I had heard that there was a Worlds End player that had made it to the last round as well and that he had beaten a few of my friends to do it. As luck would have it, I get paired against him in the final round. Long story short, Glendios (specifically Rubidium) destroys my deck. I had to play very carefully to beat him. My deck had a different idea on how to beat him, which was to be reckless, at least to start with. By this I mean that I mulligan away my entire hand to start the game. Not that I have much choice with 3 triggers and 2 Asuras in hand. This decision works out with my first 3 cards back being a grade 2, 1 and 3. After that the game proceeds very slowly with neither of us playing any rear guards. This ends up being his undoing. During his last turn we are booth sitting on our break rides with him at 3 damage while I am at 1. He attacks my vanguard and I don’t guard it. He flips 2 critical triggers, which I feel should have happened to me earlier in the tournament. Since he has no rear guards, he has to put the crits to his vanguard, causing me to go to 4 damage. As is standard at this point, on my next turn I break ride Immortal, check the grade 3 and proceed to win that turn. I’m not sure, but this might be the first time in vanguard were checking 2 critical triggers on you twin drive brings about your own defeat. With this win I am guaranteed a spot in top 8… except not really. Due to the amount of people at the top table, there would be 2 people who would be eliminated even though they went 7-1. Thankfully I got 7th place after the 8 rounds, allowing me to keep going. The tournament structure meant I would be facing the person who placed 2nd at the end of the 8 rounds. Who could this person be…? Round 1 of Top 8 VS Narukami (Eradicators) W: Of course it’s the same guy who beat me in the second round -_-. So I have to face the same person who has beaten me already, in top 8, with everyone watching and the match being recorded (match video to be posted soon!). No pressure. At this point I was running on auto pilot a bit, so my memory of most of the match is a bit fuzzy except for the end. Tell me if you have heard this before: I am at 3 damage with Mond as my vanguard. He is at 4 damage and attacks me with his vanguard. I don’t guard. Internet high five for everyone who guesses the next set of events. His first check is a critical trigger (its finally going to happen…) followed by a non-trigger (I don’t question it at this point). I guard his following attacks, break ride Immortal on my next turn, check the 3 and win the game. I made it to Top 4 and got my invite. What would be waiting for me in the semifinals? Semi-final VS Shadow Paladins (Revengers/ Raging Form Dragon) W: My next opponent is a young girl. At this point I just feel like the bad guy. I know that she is playing Raging Form, and that she knows how to play it. It doesn’t help that this deck I also put on par with mine. Two things contributed to my win here: she was grade stuck on 2 for a turn and that she could not limit break with Raging Form. Either of these things not happening probably meant my defeat. As the game goes on I am able to break ride first with Immortal and not check the grade 3 for once. This allows her to survive and break ride Raging Form. This could have been the end for me but she did not have the second Raging Form in hand. On my next turn I am able to take the game. I did it. I’m in the finals. I feel the pressure just leave me at this point. Only one game left. Came all this way, might as well win. Finals VS Gold Paladins (Liberators/ Monarch Alfred) W: Facing a good friend from locals here. Historically, again, I don’t have the best record facing him in tournaments. Given the nature of our decks, this finals match did not last very long. Thanks to me going first and getting my ride chain, he is unable to rush me, probably the biggest weakness of my deck. He lets me push him to 5 damage so he can set up his limit break. He is able to set it up so that he can call 2 Blaster Blade Liberators. This leaves his vanguard with 3 criticals while I am at 3 damage. Thankfully I have a perfect guard ready for it. He doesn’t get a critical trigger on his twin drive but he does heal back to 4 damage. On my next turn I break ride Immortal and fill up my side columns with all samurais. He guards the first two attacks while no guarding my vanguard. My first check is a critical trigger which seals the game and wins me the championship. So there it is. The story of how I, in some way, managed to become the Toronto Regional Qualifier Champion. I hope everyone enjoyed this. Later Days, -Monarch
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 19:04:48 +0000
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