We drove up Friday so I had plenty of rest for the event. I didn't end up playing DBS Saturday so I got some more practice in for Vanguard.
There were 44 players (Best of 3) for standard (no premium), and the entry was $25. I had written my deck list the night before, but my friend, James, talked me into making a change right before the event. I took two King of Knights, Alfred out for two Monarch Sanctuary Alfred.
This was the list I ended up using for tournament. I originally had King in the deck because it grabbed Blaster Blade for the next turn with Gancelot, but Monarch helps me get them back from drop and soul if I ended up riding them.
I only had one of the promo, Cloud Lancer, Gmoris, so that's why there isn't more. I would have cut Pluck Enchanter for 2 more of him if I had them, but they just came out that week and weren't even on TCGPlayer or eBay at the time. I got lucky at locals and pulled one off the tournament promo packs for my only one.
Everything else in here is pretty typical; there's lots of different ways to grab Blaster Blade so you'll always get Exculpate or Gancelot off. There's a lot of funny plays you can do with the Pluck Enchanter early game which is why I decided to go with that instead of Allen or using 4x of the other grade 1's. Also note that I used Force 2 for the entire tournament.
Round 1: Bermuda W 2-1
I expected to see Bermudas because the deck restriction doesn't hit until mid September for us. The deck is scary with Force 2. I don't remember how I won these first two rounds exactly, but I remember Exculpating in the round.
Round 2: Bermuda W 2-1
Another Bermuda deck. The lists between these don't change, only the rarities lol. I Exculpated round 1 which I won, then lost round 2, then won round 3 off Gancelot and BB.
Round 3: OTT W 2-0
I Exculpated Game 1 and just was able to win through that. It is hard to recover when you have to guard 4 attacks (2 Vanguard ones) and lose your board in the process. Game 2 was bullshit because she missed her grade 1 and the G Assist. She ended up riding a trigger which meant my triggers in hand could hit, so I called them down. Despite this god awful luck, she topped so that's something positive.
Round 4: Granblue L 1-2
This was my favorite round of the day. Game 1 he kept his hand and was able to kill me relatively easily. Game 2 I only threw one back during mulligan and got the win. Game 3 I had the luck of my previous opponent opening with 5 triggers and a Bedivere after my draw for turn. I G assist into a Kay, and draw a Kay /)_-. My opponent was able to one to pass or no guard me because he saw how many triggers I burned through but I tried to put up as much of a fight as possible even with that. We almost went into time, but he got it with a couple minutes before time expired.
Round 5: Narukami W 2-0
I had plenty of practice against Narukami (thank you Frankie), so I knew some of the things I could do to tip the match in my favor.
For any Royal Paladin players struggling, here are the things to note:
1) Do not over extend, Gauntlet Buster will nuke your board anyways.
2) Guard early so you can take the Gauntlet Buster if you don't draw a PG
3) PG the Gauntlet Buster.
4) Try to keep a Conjurer or Tristan in hand so when your Blaster Blade gets nuked you have another.
Force 2 played a big part in this game since you can pretty much make them risk taking either the Gancelot Vanguard or the Blaster Blade Vanguard.
Round 6: Bermuda L 0-2
At this point, I was 4-1 so no matter what happened this game both of us were topping.
We had an amazing Game 1 with both of us healing at 6 on back to back turns. It was the most entertaining game of the day for sure. Game 2 I couldn't keep up with Bermuda's pressure and lost pretty easily.
Top 8: Split
We talked about it and everyone who topped was cool enough to split the prizing. I finished 6th overall which was the highest seeded 4-2 and Royals player. I won $100, an invite, and a top 8 mat that I sold for $15.
I love proving to people that Royals are good and this tournament gave me an excuse to write again.
Shoutouts to
PPG for hosting the smoothly ran event, definitely going to more
Derek Guijt our GREAT head judge
Francisco Garate (he makes my beautiful custom markers - hit him up!!)
Golden Phoenix Games for sponsoring me
James Munoz and his group from Cool Stuff Hollywood for being great people
and of course my team, Team All Effects, because without them I wouldn't be playing this game.
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