Tournament report:

Hey ! So most of our blog posts have been theory or discussion based, because of that there isn't much variety in the blog is there? Well I recently entered a tournament at the local store (in Australia 'local' means one hour away) and participated in a casual ladder based tournament. Though it is a local and small tournament it is still official and my results were stored in the Konami data base and ranks me on a worldwide scale. Anyways only 8 people participated so there were 3 matches. Top 4 people receive the new pack 'Order of Chaos' and a turbo pack 7 each. The higher you rank, the more packs you get obviously. The bottom 4 get a duelist league hobby card each. Not bad considering all you had to do was pay $6 yeah?

Play by Play:
Match 1: Agents vs Six samurai
I got off to a shaky start with a bad opening hand but thankfully my opponent also had a bad hand ( I knew this because I did a 'dust crush' play on him). Eventually the duel started to progress as we drew into our monsters. I managed to swing for game before he could establish a field though.
Result: 1-0
My opponent had a much better opening this time and I had a not so bad opening myself. He threw out a lot of Six samurais such as Legendary six samurai- Shi En and a lot of Kizans and Grandmaster of the Six samurai. A well played smashing ground and dark hole combo helped me to clear his field and drop my boss monsters to dish out some major damage. My opponent managed to bring out Naturia beast and Naturia darkion and a Shi En so I was in a tough spot. Luckily Master Hyperion worked his magic for me and I managed to tear his field apart.
Result: 2-0 , My win
Match 2: Agents vs Dragons
TERRIBLE OPENING! One thing an Agent deck never wants to see is a hand loaded up with boss monsters in the early game. That's exactly the hand I opened with. So needless to say my opponent piled on the pressure and took me down quite quickly in round 1.
Result: 0-1
By this point I was rather nervous, I had lost to this guy before and it was also because I opened poorly and I wanted to prove to him that I could win. My opening hand was a little better this time as it contained some Agents but it was all monsters so I was left very vulnerable. My opponent activated Trap dust shoot for the second time this match and sent my Agent-Venus straight back to my deck and I summoned Earth only for it to get Solemn Judgment-ed. He started to apply pressure by summoning dragons that limit my summoning potential. With bad draws and overwhelming disadvantage, the round went to my opponent.
Result: 0-2 My loss
Match 3: Agents vs Six Samurai 
I knew exactly what to expect and exactly how to fight back. Six samurai was all about fast and furious assaults in the early game, once you pick apart their monsters and disrupt their traps you were on the road to victory. A lucky turn 1 dustshoot for me allowed me to see my opponents' hand which only had one six samurai monster so I dusted it into his deck. My opponent then did a common misplay of using Reinforcements of the Army. A spell card that allows you to add a level 4 or lower warrior into your hand. Why was it a misplay? Because I had Thunder King Rai-Oh on the field who has the passive ability to stop searches.
By mid game I was in the preferred position for a match up against Six Samurais. I had taken some hits while stocking up cards for a come back. But my plays kept getting disrupted by my opponent's trap cards and I actually lost round 1.
Result: 0-1
By now I was losing confidence in my ability but I continued to play anyway. As always a flurry of synchro summons and special summons cost me over half my life points but I was in control this time. A well timed Agent of creation- Venus and Gachi Gachi play allowed me to stall for more time while destroying the opponent's field. Then in one turn I dropped Master Hyperion and Archlord kristya to swing for game.
Result: 1-1
This was it, the final round to decide where I placed in this tournament. I was satisfied with my opening hand which contained Effect Veiler (refer to 'Where'd my effect go?!) and two Thunder King Rai-Oh's which I knew would come in handy if I wanted to give my opponent hell. And indeed I was right, a turn 1 Rai-Oh shut down my opponent's search cards and pressured him into synchro summoning to force the ability of Rai-oh. It was looking great for me, my opponent had wasted materials to take down Thunder King Rai-Oh and here I was with another one chilling in my hand. The look on my opponent's face when I dropped my second Rai-Oh was priceless and with the assistance of my Master Hyperion, I  went on to swing for game.
Result: 2-1 My win

At the end of the day:
In the end I ranked third place out of 8 people and to be honest I was quite satisfied but couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that I did not win against the Dragons player, it was an easy tournament that I should've come first for. My prize was one 'Order of Chaos' pack and a Turbo pack 7. Interesting thing about turbo packs. You can only win these from tournaments, it is forbidden by Konami to sell these over the counter. As I went back to my table with two packs ready to be opened I had a feeling I'd pull some fine cards and boy was I right.

The prize packs I got

The notable cards I got

So as you can see both my packs contained something worth collecting or useful to me. Number 96: Dark Mist is worth approximately $7 and Horn of the Phantom beast is Super rare and since it is from Turbo pack 7( making it extremely hard to get) is valued at $21. I checked these prices myself on E-bay which means total value I got was $28.

Let's recap, I spent $6 to join a tournament and won $28 worth of cards just from participating and having fun. So 28-6 = $22 , therefore I made almost four times the money i paid to play. Quite a good profit don't you think?

On Sunday I shall be attending a sneak peek for the new set 'Order of Chaos' I shall also be giving a report on that and may film a video of what we (my friends and I) got, if not, just a photo of the notable cards.