Alex and I went to Good Games in the city to participate in a tournament, with a $15 buy in. He was running Inzektors, and I was running a Chaos Dragons build incorporating Lightsworns and Judgment Dragon that we built on the train. Both of us ended up 2-2, pretty disappointing results overall for the both of us. Even for my first live event, I feel like I underperformed considering I did make a few misplays which I was able to pick out.
The tournament was in Swiss format, with the best 4 out of 10 participants moving onto the finals.
Match 1 - vs Nathan (Dino Rabbit)
Game 1: I don't remember if I won the diceroll or not, but he opened with Rabbit and Lance and I had no real mill outlets in my hand so his Laggia controlled the board pretty hard. I managed to mount a small comeback with a well timed Red Eyes, sweeping his monsters by baiting Laggia's negation with a Monster Reborn I didn't care about anyway, but he topdecked a Tour Guide into Leviair into Rabbit, and then the game was over.
Game 2: Once again I opened poorly (despite siding in three Mystical Space Typhoons, two Spirit Reapers and two Soul Takers), but going first allowed me to stall a little with Ryko. At one point I was ready to push for game with Red Eyes and Lightpulsar after baiting Laggia negations and reading his backrows correctly. However, when I went for game, I started out with Heavy Storm on his two backrows, straight into a Starlight Road. I lost Red Eyes on the next turn and the game was over quickly. I never saw any of my side decked cards.
Match 2 - vs Connor (Chaos Dragons)
Game 1: I lost the diceroll and he opened with Tour Guide into Zenmaines. I played Ehren, but he Veilered it and I lost Ehren on the next turn. I managed to push through Zenmaines by making it use its effect on itself, and had established presence with Lightpulsar, but he took it out while I had no Red Eyes in the yard and rolled me with his Red Eyes.
Game 2: I went first, and we went blow for blow. He had sided in three Electric Viruses and two Victorias, two of the Viruses were milled by he still hit me pretty hard with the Victorias. Eventually, a timely Chaos Sorcerer drop finally banished his Lightpulsar and I pushed for game.
Game 3: At one point I had an Eclipse Wyvern on the field with Honest in hand and Lance set. He had Lightpulsar, Zenmaines and Red Eyes on the field, and attacked my Wyvern. I made a misplay here - I should have used Honest, but instead I let it fall and every time I tried to come back, his Electric Viruses and Victorias shut me down.
Match 3 - vs Lucas (Blackwings)
Game 1: This guy was a kid and probably not very good at the game, but I decided I wouldn't take him easy. He had a pumped up Sirocco on the field at one point, and even managed to Dark Hole my field of Lightpulsar and Wyvern with no Darkflare or Red Eyes in the yard. I was dangerously low on Life Points at one point, but I dropped BLS and swung for game.
Game 2: He had stalled me for at least 5 turns with a Marshmallon. Instead of waiting for a good topdeck, however, he Tributed the Marshmallon for Sirocco to end the game by swinging at my field. However, I had Honest in hand and won.
Match 4 - vs Roman (Citadel Spellcasters)
Game 1: I won the diceroll and opened strongly, milling Wyvern on the first turn (and Gorz too...). He managed to use Arcane Barrier (or whatever the card is) to draw 4 cards, and nearly gamed me with a souped-up Arcanite Magician, but I just banished it with Chaos Sorcerer and he couldn't come back.
Game 2: I dispatched of his Citadel and Defender pretty early, and I constantly applied pressure with Lightpulsar. I had about 3000 points left from going blow for blow with him. A few turns in, he said "time to try something new..." and he ended up stacking about 4 Spell Counters in one turn on his Arcanite Magician and swinging for 3400 at my points. I was dumbstruck as I reached for my Side Deck.
Game 3: He had little outs to an early Jain, which managed to get some good enough mills that I was able to play beatstick after beatstick whenever he got rid of them and I eventually pushed for game and ended the day 2-2.
I was aware of my misplays in the four matches and I'm working towards rectifying them. I think live practice is very important - there's stuff you can't pick up on in Dueling Network (the wince on the other player's face when he gets poor mills, or the subtle encouragement of attacking into a Mirror Force - 'do you still want to attack?') that you can pick up on in real life. Overall it was a pretty good day and I did manage to get some more experience with Chaos Dragons, though I won't be using the Lightsworn build again probably.
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