Friday, August 6, 2004

   When it comes to modesty, I'm the greatest!
I dueled my friend John today on AIM. I had made my Deck accommodate the new Ban-List that will be coming out soon, so several game-breaking cards were absent from my deck.

But not from his.

Even so, his confidence wavered. He had faced my Beatdown deck several times before, and he hadn't held up well against it. 3-4 turn victories often went to me. =P

legoboy1: Want to duel? Or do you have to get off soon?
enricopalazzo24: no im not getting off but ur insane beatdown/GIANT ORC deck will kill me

(Yes, lovely. Now watch how modestly I handle it)

legoboy1: :p
legoboy1: That's why I want to change it.
legoboy1: To make winning harder. XD

(*cough*)

legoboy1: Since my deck is post-ban, you don't have to worry about Raigeki, Change of Heart, Harpie's, Cyber Jar, or Imperial Order.
enricopalazzo24: what about....
enricopalazzo24: giant orc!
legoboy1: Well, yeah.
legoboy1: He'll still be a pain in your ass.

And so, the duel commenced. Early on, there was some discrepancies in the ruling of my Kaiser Colosseum card. As long as it was on the field, he couldn't have any more monsters than I did. What I discovered partway through the duel was that I, in fact, had to have a monster on the field in order for KC's effect to work. So, the whole thing could have turned out differently. But, we continued on anyways, taking into account the correct ruling.

I got in a lot of damage early on in the game. I brought out a monster than could attack twice, and I powered him up. Teamed with one of my Giant Orcs, he took out a chunk of 4700 LifePoints from the starting 8000, bringing John down to 3300LP in one fell swoop.

Then he played Dark Hole and destroyed both of them. v_v

I got out my second Giant Orc and attacked directly, bringing him to 1100LP, at which he would remain for a good portion of the duel. John tries to frighten me with his Black Luster Soldier, a favorite of his with 3000 Attack Points.

I destroyed it the turn after he brought it out. =P

With his field now clear, I drew my third and final Giant Orc. :D I attacked directly for the win, but he countered with (the often overlooked) Mirror Force, which negated the attack and destroyed my Orc.

On my next turn I summon another monster, but again he stops the damage. This time, by discarding a Kuriboh. Kuriboh's special ability allows it to reduce any battle damage done to 0 when it is discarded. Bah. Delaying the inevitable.



He takes control of my monster, and I discover then the official ruling of Kaiser Coliseum. Since we knew the correct ruling, he summoned another monster and attacked me with both. I was brought down to 4000LP, half of the starting amount.

We trade some minor damage back and forth with little monster skirmishes, and then he plays Swords of Revealing Light to stop me from attacking for three turns. I play my Spirit Reaper in defense mode to bolster my forces, and a good thing too. On his next turn, John destroyed the monster I was using to attack with.

On what was close to the last turn of Swords of Revealing Light, John brings out his powerful Summoned Skull.



Due to an ill-conceived move a turn or two before, I had a monster in Attack Position, and John was able to inflict a good amount of damage. I was down to 2400. He was still at 1100. The tides were shifting, and I didn't like it.

I had been toying with him, bored with the whole thing. Suddenly it wasn't just for fun; my pride was at stake. If I let him defeat my Beatdown Deck, my prized deck design that has only lost twice; well, that would just be intolerable. So I put my head back into the game.

I had three monsters on the field protecting me, but the Summoned Skull still loomed large and imposing. I tried to activate my Dark Hole spell card to clear the field of all monsters, but he was prepared for such an act of desperation. He countered my attempt with a Magic Jammer trap card, which stopped my Dark Hole.

I then tried to bring out my Airknight Parshath by offering my facedown Witch of the Black Forest, but he countered my move again with a Horn of Heaven. My knight wasn't strong enough to beat or match his Skull, but he still didn't want it around, for it's special abilities made it invaluable to me. Not to mention that it is quite possibly my favorite card. John can be spiteful at times.

Fortunately, my deceased Witch reached out from the Graveyard with her special ability and allowed me to pull on monster from my deck and add it to my hand. I pulled out Exiled Force, a monster that I could offer to destroy one monster on the field. I was obviously aiming for his Summoned Skull.

I had already summoned that particular turn, though, so I couldn't bring out the Force just yet. Instead, I switched my defending Slate Warrior to Attack Mode and wiped out John's only other monster besides the skull. Slate Warrior's ATK power was only 100 under the Skull's, so I would not lose much should he attack.

He attacked, and I was down to 2300 while he remained at 1100. I wasn't trying hard enough. I had to win! Fortunately, Slate Warrior helped out again and used its ability to drain 500 Attack and Defense points from the Summoned Skull, weakening it.

He ended his turn after setting a facedown Trap card. I didn't know it was a Trap, though, until I tried to destroy his Skull with my Exiled Force.

enricopalazzo24: counter
enricopalazzo24: with
enricopalazzo24: face down
enricopalazzo24: trap hole
enricopalazzo24: BYE EXILED FORCE

(His Trap Hole trap card destroyed my Exiled Force the moment it came to the field. So much for my plan, eh?)

I ended my turn, having nothing else to do. John activated his Spell card, Raigeki, which destroyed my only remaining monster, Spirit Reaper. He then attacked me directly with his weakened Summoned Skull, bringing me down to a measly 300 LifePoints.

On my next turn, I did all that I could. I set my Sangan monster card in defense mode and hoped that I could use its effect to save myself. Sangan is similar to Witch of the Black Forest, in that it allows me to bring one monster from my deck to my hand.

He played Heavy Storm, a Spell card that destroyed my Kaiser Colosseum and my facedown Horn of Heaven. With my Colosseum gone, John could now outnumber my puny Sangan. And he did, by bringing back my Airknight Parshath with his Monster Reborn card. When he played the card, I tempted him. Airknight could have won him the match, had he attacked with it first.

I played off of his arrogance, suggesting he take his Black Luster Soldier back and totally annihilate me. When that didn't work, I suggested he attack with the Summoned Skull first, and then finish me off with my own monster.

While he ignored my suggestions, he could not ignore the underlying suggestion of arrogance. He sacrificed both of his monsters to bring out his Magician of Black Chaos. I twitched nervously. MoBC special ability would let him bring back a magic card from the Graveyard. If he chose Monster Reborn, he could revive Airknight again and win the duel. He told me to guess what card he would choose, and so I guessed something else.

enricopalazzo24: ill take back....
enricopalazzo24: ill let u figure it out
enricopalazzo24: what magic card im goning to take
legoboy1: Raigeki? v_v

He fell for it, and went along with me. He took back Raigeki and used it to destroy my Sangan. My superb AIM-acting abilities paid off.

legoboy1: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
enricopalazzo24: what
legoboy1: Sangan!
enricopalazzo24: so
legoboy1: I pull out KURIBOH!

And so, I was able to prevent the damage to my lifepoints that his Magician would have done, and I was spared for the turn. I drew Swords of Revealing Light! I activated it, and bought myself three turns free of monster attacks. I felt just like I was in some life or death game, weighing so much in the next few turns. I had to make every card count.

The turns passed, and I drew cards. On the final turn of my Swords, he offered another monster he had brought out to set one in defense mode. I've faced John many times before, and the only card he ever sacrificed for to set facedown was Catapault Turtle. If he weren't so arrogant as to try and set me up, he would have summoned the Turtle and finished my off using its special ability.

On my next turn, I played a Magic Card to stop his Magician from attacking; The Mask of the Accursed. Besides halting his attack, it inflicted 500 points of damage to his LifePoints at the beginning of my turns. I flipped up one of my defending monsters, a creature with enough attack points to destroy the Turtle, if indeed that's what it was. I attacked, and destroyed hi Catapault Turtle.

He lost 500 Lifepoints on my next turn, bringing him to 600LP. I switched my monster back into Defense mode. I had no room to take chances.

Because I didn't attack, John had a monster on his side of the field. He sacrificed it to bring out his Curse of Dragon, a Dragon-Type monster boasting a decent attack of 2000. He attacked and destroyed one of my defense position monsters. Faced again with a strong monster and a shortage of cards on the field, I put my trust in the next card I drew.

Monster Reborn.

I activated it, and revived the strongest monster that had yet been played in the game, John's Black Luster Soldier. I attacked his Curse of Dragon, inflicting 1000 points of damage and ending the duel. Against the odds, I had won.

John had a card in his hand that could have stopped my attack and wiped out my own LifePoints, but he had been afraid to play it; thinking that I would somehow destroy it before its activation. Lucky me. ^.^'

So, yeah. This was another fun post to write. I'm off to Groton City Day....for the evening. :p See you all later!
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