As I start writing this, it is 1AM. By the time I finish, knowing me it will likely be 2AM (or 3... Or 4. . .)
As a Cardfighter I desire strong opponents and would much prefer a close game that is lost over a whitewash win.
Sure when you lose it sucks but you learn more from defeat than victory. And with that in mind I think it would be fair to say that the day now past has left me very wise.
Entering a tournament today I used a deck build designed to counter Break Rides focusing on attacking with my Vanguard avatar, Super Dimensional Robo, Daiyusha for 2 Critical on the Vanguard each turn, forcing the opponent to guard at 3 Damage or risk me pulling one of 12 Critical Triggers. Now in theory this gambit is sound, but you have to keep the opponent at 3 damage while simulator sly trying to keep a lead on the game. Keeping constant pressure on during the whole game.
The deck I used was purely a Daiyusha deck on this occasion with the intention of Riding on to Ultimate Dimensional Robo, Great Daiyusha the moment I was pressed to 4 Damage.
As is standard of the Locals I play tournaments at, 4 round of Swiss draw pairing then with a cut to top 2 or 4 depending on the number of initial entrants.
On tests occasion we started with 8 contenders so the cut was to a top 2 to decide this months shop champion. (Yes we only have one tournament a month)
So before going any further, as this deck isn't among my Deck lists due to being a separate entity made specifically for use at Local Tournaments.
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Round 1: Vs. Murray (See Buddies List 2) - Angel Feather, Cleanup Celestial, Ramiel "Reverse"
Result: Lost
Screwed up my and knocked Murray onto 4 Damage, allowing him to break ride. The down side of how I'm playing my deck is I also try to keep my damage from building more rapidly than I can use it but this means I guard earlier and more often than I would running Daikaiser.
Furthermore the units I call as Rearguards do not make good columns against X-Rides when aiming for the final push, not that they're ideal for hitting 11k foes anyway with my typical Rearguard Lane power being 14-15k which is shy of the 2 Stage boundary.
Round 2: Vs. Fox (new addition to buddy list, to be added) - Pale Moon, Silver Thorn
Result: Lost I can't quite work out what went wrong here so I'm just going to have to say it was a combination trigger luck (or lack of) and Fox archiving X-Ride early via Soul Charge negating the effectiveness of my deck core gambit.
In this fight I ascended to my Ultimate form but in the end even that failed to hit.
Round 3: Vs. ??? - Spike Brothers, Bad End Dragger
Result: Victory
Opponent Grade Stuck at Grade 1 which provided me with an early advantage. Stalled for 2 turns by the time they got a Grade a 3 to ride, being BED, they were already on 4 Damage and at this point I had to options. Justice X-Ride or Dark X-Ride, knowing that being BED, if I didn't finish the fight in that turn I could easily be wiped out, I sided with Darkness. Unleashing "Reverse" onto the field. And upon my opponent. They were already bummed from having 0 wins so far but I hadn't had any wins either, it just happens that in this confrontation I fared better than my foe.
Round 4: Vs. swindle - Nubatama, Shura Stealth Dragon, Kabukicongo
Result: Victory
In order to be a threat his deck really need to be in Limit Break, which means my deck completely countered him. Forced to let me hit at 3 damage and pray my Twin Drive fails to yield any Criticals. I pull 2. Hitting him for 4 damage, completely wiping him out and also providing my first victory over Swindle's Nubatama. After 5-7 or so previous attempts.
Final Tournament Score: 2-2 (50%)
Now I want to bring this up simply because I feel I should, during the tournament we had a player electively new to Vanaguard, they weren't a problem, the problem was their parent/guardian/sister/whatever. Telling this rookie "If you don't win, what's the point?" Well excuse me if that attitude makes me need to vent some steam but it's also that kind of attitude that destroys the mentality of younger players or new players that are thrown to the Lions and just expected to come out unscathed.
Yes I toss new players into the lion den but I expect them to lose, however I also expect them to learn from failure and improve over time, the long hard way. Above all I press the importance of having fun over having success.
This leads me to the days Casual games, but I should probably get some sleep and add that later... That's I can remember any details having been to sleep. I tend to forget things over night. -_-
Instead I'll add this in brief.
Casual Score 3-3 (50 %)
Lost to Murakumo ZANBAKU twice, it countered my Daiyusha due to not being a LB deck. And it also defeated my Neo Nectar, although that second one may have been my fault, but if I made a misplay I didn't a notice it.
I lost to House of Amon while I was using my Incomplete SoL Guardian deck.
Defeated Fox who was using Oracle Think Tank Sun and Moon, twice. Once with Daiyusha, and once with my Pale Moon. The Daiyusha match was very close and came down to trying to survive his final assault and then attacking, even though knowing he would heal every attack. He still only had 3 cards in deck and only 2 cards in hand. Truly one of those games which made me wish I had a camera.
After all this Swindle decides he's had enough and that it's home time. So we catch a train home, on the train he asks for a game and uses his Aqua Force, he proxies the FC14 Break Ride Unit. I pull out my Zeal deck for the first time in awhile and get off the full Ride Chain, if you've ever fought deal you can understand how devastating that can be. In my case it allowed me to use Bugreed for pressure which added to my hand advantage if I hit his Vanguard.