Saturday, October 2, 2004

W0 to the 0t!
Dude. Today was pretty cool.

I woke up at about 9:30, which in and of itself was pretty nice. Sleeping in even to that point was very, very nice. I felt more rested than I normally would than if I got up at 11-something. Now that I'm taking Psychology, I'm starting to understand why, perhaps, that is. I won't bore you with a hypothesis, though.

Now, John has been raving at me about Yu-Gi-Oh tournaments he goes to just about every weekend at B&C Collectibles, a collectibles shop in Waterford. He gets all sorts of good trades there, and has even placed in the tournaments a couple times. Today was the first day I went to one.

My dad drove me over, making quick reference to the Mapquest directions I'd printed out. He dropped me off, and I met up with my friend Mark. Mark used to go to St. Bernard's, but was expelled. So, I don't see him very often anymore. I paid $7 to enter the tournament, and then sat down to play a Match against Mark.

Mark's using a very clever, very strong Chaos deck. He has Black Luster Soldier-Envoy of the Beginning, and great means to get it onto the field. I won the first duel. It's my belief that I only won that first one because Mark wasn't sure what he was up against. My stall cards held him in check, and my Burn deck whittled his LifePoints down to 0. He won the next duel.

Then, the tournament began! :D

Each of the twelve entrants picked a facedown card from the store-owner's hand. They were regular cards (i.e. six of hearts, etc.) and we were matched up based on the cards we drew. I faced off against a dim-witted kid. I really feel sorry for him, as he didn't have a firm grasp of the game. He forgot to draw cards (I reminded him) and he tried activating cards when he wasn't able to, only to have me correct him. I was almost ashamed to beat him. In both duels of the two out of three Match, my LifePoints were untouched. I advanced.

John was squared off against an older guy, probably in his late twenties of early thirties. The guy knew the game, though, and he beat John 2 to 1, I think. John was eliminated.

I don't know who Mark faced in the first round, but apparently he won and he advanced to the next round as well.

When the matches of the first round finished, the six remaining people pulled cards again. Mark and I prayed that we wouldn't get matched up, but such was not our luck. We drew ours cards and found that we were matched to each other. Best two out of three. Ben vs. Mark. GO!

My stall cards pulled through for me again in the first duel with Mark, and I managed to summon Lava Golem on his side of the field to do some steady damage. The second duel was much, much harder. Mark got out his Black Luster Soldier and was removing my monsters from play left and right. I practically nothing I could do. I had one card in my hand, relatively dead weight. Mark had five monsters on the field, including the BLS and a Jinzo. I was down to 2900 LifePoints. Mark could snuff me out like a candle. He had 3500, just under half of the starting amount.

So, I drew a card. Change of Heart. A card that would allow me to take control of one of Mark's monsters for one turn. At first, I didn't think it would help me. John still had a great deal of Lifepoints, and even if I took his strongest monster, the BLS, and attacked his weakest, a D.D. Scout Plane, it would still only do 2200 damage to him.

Then, lightning struck! Black Luster Soldier had a second ability, one that Mark always opted not to use. BLS could attack twice if it destroyed a monster with the first attack!

I played Change of Heart, and took control of Mark's Black Luster Soldier. He shrugged it off. Even if I removed one of his monsters from play or attacked once, there wasn't anything else I could do. That he knew of. >:D

I attacked his D.D. Scout Plane, bringing him down to 1300 LifePoints. Then, I attacked again, destroying his D.D. Warrior Lady and inflicting fatal damage of 1400. I had beaten him! Against all odds I had won!

I had honestly expected to have to duel a third time to decide the outcome.

But I didn't! I had beaten him! :o!

I was one of the three remaining players in the tournament. We each drew a card from the three available. One guy got the ace, and was given a bye into the Finals. I had to face a kid by the name of Jay. Jay had Magic and Trap removal up the gazoo. >_>;; He tore apart my careful defenses and...yeah. I took third place. ^_^

For my second official tournament, and my first one at this store, I thought I made out fairly well. Third place got me a $5 gift certificate and...um...prestige. =p

I bought a 24 pack box of Soul of the Duelist and got all sorts of great cards. :D I've already built a new deck out of them, and from the looks of things, it should work fairly well.

Whee, I'm awesome! ^_^
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