Hi guys! So it’s no secret that I’ve been dormant for a while. Publicly, I decided to take a break because Standard was boring and I got tired of winning so easily with OTT. My boyfriend wanted to quit because he was tired of losing with Kagero. Truth is our friend, Lucas died by suicide in July and after that, card games lost all meaning. We considered skipping BCS Toronto altogether.

However, I’m a sucker for free swag so I decided to drag myself (and my boyfriend) to downtown Toronto, register, play a few rounds, and hopefully trade for some Shadow Paladin cards from the new set.

Free swag? Check!

Register? Check!

Play a few rounds? Check!

Get some Shadow Paladin? Check-ish.

The Deck:

No surprise, I brought my Oracle Think Tank deck. I hadn’t played at all since July so this was my first time playing against a match-up that wasn’t Royal Paladin, Oracle Think Tank, Kagero, or Nova Grapper. Clearly, this is called being prepared.

The decklist itself is really standard.

My boyfriend brought Kagero, his main clan, mainly because I brought OTT and we only have 1 OTT deck. He also made some last minute changes to his deck the night before without playtesting.

Deck Name: Ammy’s Revenge

In retrospect, revenge is probably the wrong word here.

Imaginary Gift: Protect

I brought 4 protect markers. I never needed more, but I still should have brought more. There is no harm in bringing more than you need.

Grade 3: 10

Imperial Daughter x4

Ideal second ride. 10/10 sassy.

CEO Amaterasu x4

Ideal first ride and ideal ride against Murakumo. 10/10 legs.

Victorious Deer x2

Because winning is nice. 10/10 sacky.

Grade 2: 10

Goddess of Insight, Sotoorihime x3

I use this skill after the Vanguard attacks to improve my chances of getting a defensive trigger.

Promise Daughter x4

Makes Shadow Paladin and Kagero cry. 10/10 leave my rearguards alone.

Yellow Witch, MeMe x2

Good for stacking and powering up CEO. Then it’s vanilla.

Silent Tom x1

Tom was only there because on the day-of I only had 3 copies of Sotoorihime on me. This is not a spicy tech. 0/10 spice.

Tom is not pictured because I took him out as soon as I got home.

Grade 1: 13

Circle Magus x4

Best first ride, and that’s about it.

Farfalle Magus x3

Same as MeMe.

Oracle Guardian, Gemini x2

Usually, I don’t need to countercharge. But if I ever do, Gemini is there.

Goddess of Tide of Times, Mizunohame x2

Changes 27k + 2 crit to 41k + 2 crit. Which basically makes it PG bait.

Luck Bird x2

Early game draw power is nice when you need to unbrick find your grade 3s.

Grade 0: 17

Oracle Guardian, Nike x4

Psychic Bird x4

Sphere Magus x4

Weather Forecaster, Miss Mist x4

Lozenge Magus x1

This is all just standard stuff. No need to explain. 0/10 variety.

This entire deck is just standard stuff, but you know what I mean.

Round 1

In the first round, I got paired up against Shadow Paladin. My friend (who plays Shadow Paladin) had told me earlier that morning that in this match-up, I should call a Promise Daughter to the back row as soon as possible and just leave it there. So I did. Because of that, when my opponent used PBD’s skill the first time, he killed 3 of his and only 1 of mine (I had two Promise Daughters on board). The second time he used it, he killed 3 of his and none of mine (still had 2 Daughters on board). So all in all, it was a pretty easy game because he couldn’t do much. This was my first time playing against Standard Shadow Paladin.

I ended up winning the game. However, the whole time I felt really uncomfortable being there and I just wanted to drop and go back home. I didn’t, but my boyfriend and I decided to leave as soon as we both went x-3.

He won his first game as well.

Round 2

In a total repeat of my first ever regionals, I ended up at one of the top tables for round 2, and I had to face Aqua Force. And just like last time, I lost. This was my first time playing against Standard Aqua Force. My strategy was to hit his Vanguard as hard and fast as I could to try to beat him before he got too many Accel circles. Unfortunately for me, he ended up healing two damage. Once he had two Accel circles, it was over. So I was 1-1 and totally ready to leave. Unfortunately for me, my boyfriend won Round 2, so I wasn’t going home any time soon.

Round 3

This next round I had to face-off against Dimension Police. Which, as you should be able to guess, was my first time ever playing against Standard Dimension Police. My opponent grumbled something about OTT being a bad match-up for him. The game we played was pretty even. There were a lot of back and forth moments as I struggled to figure out how to play this match-up. I lost in the end and was 1-2 after Round 3.

And my boyfriend won again, so he was 3-0.

Round 4

In Round 4, there was a rare occurrence at Cardfight! Vanguard tournaments. I, a girl, had the chance to face-off against another girl. This has only happened to me one other time at Autumn Fest last year. She was also playing Oracle Think Tank. I groaned on the inside because I knew this would be a long game.

Listen, at this point in the day I was already 1-2. I had already considered dropping after every round, and the only reason I hadn’t was that my boyfriend was still x-0. So when my opponent left a Victorious Deer on board, I seriously didn’t think it was a threat. I didn’t think that she would be able to pull off the effect more than once. And after I saw her pull it off the second time, I fully thought that she would not be able to pull it off again. So I was actually shocked to see her pull off Victorious Deer’s effect three times in the same game. Yes, that’s what killed me. But honestly, I’m impressed with how well her deck flowed. Mine bricked that game. But the fact that my deck bricked AND she still had to pull off Victorious Deer’s effect THREE times to kill me says a lot about this match-up. I’m not a fan of long games, so Protect vs. Protect isn’t a match-up I want to repeat any time soon.

So I was 1-3. After this, they announced that Free Fight and Clan Leader Fight would be starting soon. I was really excited for the Clan Leader Fight as I had won the OTT Clan Leader card the year before. So I decided to abandon the tournament and hang out with my friend who had decided to drop (and was also interested in getting another Clan Leader card).

My boyfriend was now 4-0.

Round 5

I didn’t show up for Round 5. I spent the rest of the day playing for the Clan Leader card. The side event was for premium and I only had my Standard deck on me. Oh well, I played anyway. My opponent’s were playing a mix of Standard and Premium builds. I had a chance to play against Dimension Police (S), Kagero (S), Nova Grappler (P), Pale Moon (P), and others, and I slowly started to get back in tune with my deck and my match-ups. It was nice to be able to play for fun with my friends without the pressure of the tournament. I had come in to leave super early, but I was glad I stayed because it brought me back to the game and got me excited to play again.

After Round 5, my boyfriend was 5-0. Crazy, really, since he hadn’t played for months and was playing a lot of match-ups for the first time. It just goes to show that in a Best-of-One format, you can either win hard or lose hard. And he was winning hard.

Round 6

After this round, my boyfriend was 6-0. He was really getting close to hitting top 8, and I was rooting for him because it would be his first top 8 in Vanguard if he made it.

Round 7

After this round, my boyfriend was 7-0 and all-but-guaranteed to be in the top 8. He breathed a sigh of relief and we all cheered for him.

Round 8

My boyfriend took this round super chill. He was sitting at table 1 and knew that he didn’t need to win to make top 8. He ended up losing this game, but it really didn’t matter. He was 7-1.

After that, we waited a while for the results to be posted. We also played a few quick games for the Clan Leader fight as it was ending soon.

Results!!!

With a record of 7-1, my boyfriend came 3rd. All he had to do to make it to top 8 was to pass the deck check. We’ve had friends get eliminated for messing up their decklists, so he knew it was no joke. When he arrived that morning, neither of us thought our decklists would matter.

Three players in the top 8 had messed up some part of their decklist. They all got warnings, but no one was eliminated for it. My boyfriend passed his deck check with no issues.

After that, the top 8 matches began. My boyfriend ended up playing a Kagero mirror match. It was a tight game, but his opponent got luckier, and since the top 8 was Best-of-One as well, the luckier player got to win. We were a little disappointed with how the game turned out (top deck Waterfall for the win), but we were happy that he got to the top 8. He had gotten his best result with the least amount of preparation.

Clan Leader Results

As for me, I ended up taking home the Clan Leader card for Oracle Think Tank. So my boyfriend got Top 8 and I got to be “Top Scrub” two years in a row. Woot.

I also got to see the reveal of Battle Maiden, Shitateruhime. This was a nice experience and got me excited to play Standard Genesis when it comes out. Fingers crossed that the deck is still good enough to play at Spring Fest.

Oh and then the raffle happened and I sucked at Rock, Paper, Scissors for some reason.

The Next Day

We decided to skip the Premium Tournament. We were both tired from the day before and uninterested in the Premium Format. We showed up at the venue at around 5 PM to meet up with our friends and go out to celebrate my boyfriend’s result. This gave us enough time to make it for the raffle again. Which was nice, since I left empty-handed on Day 1. This time my Rock, Paper, Scissor skills were ON POINT. I won the first round and then was forced to sit out until the Grand Prize at the end. The Grand Prize winner would get to take home Battle Maiden, Shitateruhime. As I said, my Rock, Paper, Scissor skills were ON POINT somehow. So now Battle Maiden, Shitateruhime has a new home in my apartment. Clearly, I should have played Premium, since my luck was way better on Day 2 than it had been on Day 1.

All in all, I had a lot of fun. We came home with two registration packets, 2 free fight promos, 1 Top 8 mat, 1 Chrono deck box, 1 pack of Drago Borne sleeves (my boyfriend was obsessed with getting these for some reason), and 1 giant Battle Maiden, Shitateruhime.

So now instead of quitting the game, my boyfriend and I might start attending locals again. Maybe.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my boyfriend’s deck was named “In Memory of Lucas”. Take from that what you will.