Team:

A – Regalias (myself)

B – Darkness

C – ZTB

Round 1

Regalia vs. Cosmic Heroes 1-0

Darkness vs. Big Belly 1-0

ZTB vs. Ahsha 1-0

Round 1 we were really unlucky and had to face our friends. Unlucky because I helped their player B make his decklist the day before, so it was really bittersweet to face them Round 1. Regardless, we ended up going 3-0 in that round. I had to face Grandgallop, which was kind of unfortunate for me because I had never played against the deck with the new support. I also bricked hard and had to ride Minerva instead of Angelica. He got really greedy with g-guards on my first stride to try and amp up Grandgallop’s power. However, I was able to defend myself pretty well. I had kept my damage low in the early game and was able to tank the first Gallop swing, though he did get a crit. After that, I had a PG ready for the second attack, and I guarded the sides. Next turn, I Minerva’d him to death.

Also, technically our Darkness player lost the game against the Big Belly player. Neither of them knew that Managarmr guard restricts grade 1 and higher, not just grade 1s. Our ZTB player noticed the misplay afterwards. Reading is hard.Record: 1-0

Round 2

Regalia vs. Messiah 1-1

Darkness vs. Domination 2-0

ZTB vs. Victor 1-1

This round, I screwed up royally. Make no mistake, this game was mine to win. The guy was not experienced in playing against Regalia and misplayed a lot. He over-guarded Minerva’s second attack and he screwed up his attack pattern on Harmonics Neo. However, I misplayed more than he did. I bricked hard again this game and initially had to ride Minerva again. Then, I managed to re-ride into Angelica, but I forgot to use my on-ride skill. Then I forgot to use my stride-on skill. Then on his Harmonics Neo turn, I mismanaged my drop zone, and misguarded his attacks. I ended up having to guard Harmonics Neo for a one to pass (I should have just tanked the hit). Luckily, he didn’t hit any triggers, but I didn’t have the proper drop zone set-up to use Eir and I couldn’t guard both of his sides. In the end, I didn’t have to lose, but I deserved to because I played like utter garbage.

The lesson here to always eat a good breakfast before a tournament. None of our team had eaten anything yet, and we were all pretty shaky.

Record: 1-1

After that game, I knew I had to get my head back into it. My friend gave me a good talking to (he scolded me a lot for my misplays), and then I ate some food and vowed to redeem myself in the next rounds.

Round 3

Regalia vs. Deletors 2-1

Darkness vs. ZTB 3-0

ZTB vs. Victor 1-2

This round I had to play against Deletors. I initially thought that it was all over because I had faced Deletors at locals the week before, and I was demolished. However, this guy didn’t seem to have drawn into his rush pieces and had to ride to grade 3 second and stride first. I ended up killing him with raw numbers on my Minerva turn. Our ZTB player lost his game to Victor, and so it was up to our Darkness player to win the round for us. Just as I finished my game against Deletors, I heard our ZTB player yell for a judge. When the judge came, he told him that the Victor player was talking to the ZTB player in another language during her game. This, as you should know, is against the tournament rules. The judge was being passive and didn’t want to reprimand the player even though he admitted that he was talking to her, so our ZTB player appealed to the head judge. During this time, our Darkness player lost to the ZTB player. Our ZTB player went to talk to the head judge about the situation and myself and our friend went to join them. Initially, the head judge couldn’t do much because he couldn’t prove that our opponents were talking during the match. However, when he called them up and asked, the Victor player openly admitted to it again, and they received a round loss. We don’t know exactly what he said to her, but we suspect that he told her to g-guard twice against an 18k swing and then Heritage second stride. She didn’t seem very experienced with ZTB, so it seems like he wanted to help her make the right move. We all felt horrible about the situation (especially the Darkness player), but nonetheless, we continued the tournament.

Record: 2-1

Round 4

Regalia vs. Nociel Gyze 3-1

Darkness vs. Gurguit 3-1

ZTB vs. Domination 2-2

In this round, we had to face friends of ours AGAIN. I had to face a friend of mine who was playing Nociel Gyze, and to whom I had lost to during the shop challenge a few weeks before. I had never played against Nociel Gyze before (he played Ahsha at the shop tourney), so I really didn’t know what to do against them. My friend was really lucky and ended up binding 4 Zeroth Dragons before he rode to Grade 3. After his first stride (Eden) and mine (Muspell), he ended up striding into Gyze. I was at one damage but knew I had to end the game on that turn. However, I only had 1 card in soul at the time. Somehow, I had to get my soul up to 6 to be able to use Minerva. I decided to take the chance, even though I didn’t have enough cards in hand that could bring me up to 6. I re-rode Angelica (2 soul) and used the on-ride skill (3 soul), then the stride-on skill (4 soul). Then I used Kukurihime to draw into a new card (5 soul). That was all the soul I could get with the hand I had, so I had to rely on drawing the right card with Expel Angel to get the 6th soul. The first Expel Angel was a bust, so I only had one more chance to draw the right card. I used my second Expel Angel and drew a Kukurihime. I put that card in soul and drew again (6 soul). I ended up drawing a Bragi and I called it to the rearguard (8 soul). My Bragi couldn’t hit Gyze, but I had powered up Freya to exactly 30k and I swung. Then, I attacked with Minerva, activating her skill to stand all Regalias. My friend guarded for 3 to pass. My first check was a trigger, but I didn’t believe that I could pull triple trigger so I put all power to Bragi. Second check was another trigger, all power to Freya. The third and final check was another trigger, all power to Freya. I attacked with Bragi (who could now hit 30k). Then I attacked with Minerva again. My friend counted the shield in his hand, and then declared me the winner. He was 10k short from guarding Minerva and Freya, and he had run out of heal triggers.

Record: 3-1

Round 5

Regalia vs. Domination 4-1

Darkness vs. Thavas 3-2

ZTB vs. Luard 3-2

Domination was the match-up I had been waiting for all day. My opponent declared that he had been the one carrying his team and that he hadn’t lost a single game all day. When I flipped up my forerunner, he didn’t recognize it at all. He originally thought I was playing Amaruda, and stated that if I was, he would laugh at me. I said it wasn’t, so he assumed I was playing Fenrir. It was the Thavas player next to him who recognized that I was playing Regalias. I first stride into Muspell and he Gehourakan’s my Expel Angel. Then he strides into Rinne, forces me to call a card (I call a Bennu) and dominates my grade 2 for 11k. I intercept with my other grade 2. Then he uses Rinne’s skill to force me to call two cards from hand. I call Kukurihime behind my vanguard (where my Expel Angel used to be) and Lot Angel to the front row rearguard (where my grade 2 used to be). He then gives Lot Angel +6k and attacks me for 24k. I guard with 15k. Then, he attacks me for 19k with Kukurihime. I guard with a 10k. I was at low damage, so I tanked most of his attacks and then stride into Minerva. He didn’t have enough hand to guard all of my attacks.

Then, the round was all up to our ZTB player as our Darkness player had gotten sacked by Thavas on first stride. Their game goes into time, and his Heritage turn becomes turn 0. On turn 1, the Luard player ultimate strides into Ultima, stacking 2 crits on the top of his deck. His swings with his first side, but our ZTB player uses Heteroround to guard the attack and spin the Morfessa on the other side back to the deck. The Luard player then attacks with his vanguard getting only 2 crit, but our ZTB player has two PGs in hand. On turn 2, Our ZTB player strides into Gear Next and ends the game.

Record: 4-1

Round 6

Regalia vs. Luard 4-2

Darkness vs. ZTB 4-2

ZTB vs. Darkness 3-3

This is when we ended up at table 3. We had to face a team that ended up getting top 8 in the tournament. This is the only opponent I play all day who actually knows what Regalias can do. He ends up grade stalling me for a turn while preventing me from using Sebreeze. He takes a lot of damage in the early game, while keeping his hand size big. Then he strides into Dragabyss. Normally my deck has a great match-up against Luard. However, this is only assuming that I can g-guard my way to Minerva first stride. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have a heal trigger in hand during his first stride. I had hit all my triggers in the early game, and they were all in my drop zone, meaning I couldn’t use Expel Angel to draw much. Once I had to first stride into Muspell, the game was already lost. After my first stride, he contemplates going into Ultima, but ultimately decides against it because he calculated that there was a chance that I could guard all of his attacks on that turn. Instead, he goes into Dragabyss again, but he has no soul to use the ACT skill. I guard everything, and head into my Minerva turn. He was ready for this as he had saved up his g-guards and perfect guards for this turn and he ends up guarding everything. Then, he goes into Dragabyss again. I couldn’t guard his attacks, so I conceded the game. Though I lost, it was nice to play against someone who didn’t underestimate what my deck could do.

Record: 4-2

Round 7

Regalia vs. Victor 5-2

Darkness vs. Blasters 5-2

ZTB vs. Overlord 4-3

In our final round, we got paired down and played against a team that was 4-3. They openly stated that they were just playing for fun and that they would give us the win regardless of the outcome of the round. They also stated that they had gone with a theme for their decks, so I openly guessed that my opponent was playing Victor, B was playing Blasters, and C was playing Overlord. I had never played against Victor, and I was surprised at the number of attacks Victor could get on first stride. Luckily, I had 2 heal triggers in hand so I was able to guard the small attacks, tank the big attacks, and then stride into Minerva. I was then able to attack for the following pattern: 22/31/58/22/58/37 (Bragi boosted by Flap Angel, Minerva boosted by Bennu, and Freya boosted by Expel Angel). The Victor player didn’t have a perfect guard in hand and lost the game.

Record: 5-2

Final placement: 18th

Overall, it was our loss in Round 2 that screwed us over. That round was ours to win, but I screwed up. I was disappointed in myself, but I was still happy to place 18th. I learned a lot about my mistakes and I know that I’ll have a lot more experience next time. On top of that, my friends’ team (whom we didn’t end up facing) managed to get top 8, so we went out to celebrate. Overall, it was a good day.

Click here for my decklist.

Lessons learned: