I’ve had a bit of a break from tournament play since my last Index post, either opting to just hang with friends and play cards, or skipping tournaments to rest after a day of work. Apart from testing with Index I’ve been pulling out a bunch of my old decks, giving people a chance to play against decks they’d normally never see. For the past week or so I’ve felt like playing Evangelion again, at least partly because of the reaction I get out of people who’ve never seen [Finishing Blow Asuka] before. Read on to find out how I did in the most recent Nakano tournament.

Before the tournament I’d had the chance to meet up and play with a few of the foreign players, a pair of whom were experiencing their first Nakano event. I was unsure on whether I should play Blue Index, to get more practice with it, or just pull out Evangelion for the hell of it.

I decided to play a friendly with Eva vs Cinderella Girls, since my friend had never played against Eva before. Main highlight was [Finishing Blow Asuka] popping his Brainstorm, and the usual reaction of having to check I’m not cheating. Repeatedly sniping his back row helped deplete his resources, and I eventually came out on top. I took this as a sign, and decided I’d have fun with Eva, rather than going too serious with Index.

The tournament ended up having 39 players, with what’s becoming a fairly normal spread of decks nowadays. GFB dominated the numbers with 10 decks, to Index’s 5 in second place. Decks like Nisekoi and To Love-Ru had a few players, and various titles like Dog Days took 2 spots, following by a decent number of unique decks. As expected, no one ran Eva, but I didn’t win the lottery.

Round 1 vs Lucky Star

For the first round I managed to get paired up against another of my friends. He similarly decided to try and make the tournament fun, and opted to use his Otaku deck. Long time readers will be aware that it was my main deck for nearly a year, so I knew it in and out. I also knew that it was a good match-up for Eva. I could match or surpass Kung Fu Konata with little effort, had bombs or big costless cards for Level 1, and then my Level 2 game could wipe out his Back Stage and cripple the deck.

It seemed like throughout the game he’d had a bunch of bad luck with his Climaxes, drawing a large amount, which put a dent in the rest of his plays.

He started things off with a 4k [Kung Fu Konata], which isn’t really an issue for Eva. We traded blows for a couple of turns, with Rei & Asuka taking out Konata, and Konata striking back with the help of Climaxes.

I hit him into Level 1, with 2 [Battlefield Konata] sitting in Clock, and none in the Waiting Room. I figured I’d be pretty safe, but he dropped 2 from his hand and beat over my cards. He only had Patricia and one Konata Back Stage though, so they weren’t quite at optimal power.

I was able to wipe his stage next turn thanks to the combined efforts of my Angel and two copies of the 1/0 Asuka supported by double Shinji and a Climax. He encored one Battlefield Konata, before bonding the second back on the following turn.

I protected took out one of the Konata thanks to the Asuka counter, forcing him to 3 stock Encore, since he was losing cards all over the place. I then beat over everything on the following turn because he had no Stock to use his Kuroi-sensei counter.

During Level 2 he was forced to move cards up in order to attack, and had the others picked off by [Finishing Blow Asuka]. As usual, Hikari helped me with hand fixing, and sorting out Climax floods before deck Refresh.

Going into Level 3 I think he had a completely empty Stage, whilst I was still sitting in the middle of Level 2. I’d expected a double strike from [Stand Up! Konata], but he didn’t have the right Climax. I was levelled to 3 and finished him next turn.

Since it was a quick game, we followed up with a game against my Standard Sweets deck, but round 2 started before we could finish. I was just about to Onodera Refresh into double Diet and see who died first.

Round 2 vs Girlfriend (Beta) B/R

I’d played some games vs GFB with Eva the previous week, and surprisingly found that it wasn’t a terrible match up for the deck, so had hoped things might go my way this time.

I think we started off the game by trading off 4ks, with his one crashing into the big Asuka. On the next turn I was able to move up the Rei who’d rested herself on the previous turn, and she was just too big to deal with. I only had 1 card on Stage going into his Level 1 game, so he could only get one Kokomi off.

My Angel and 1/0s Asukas hit over most of his cards, and things were fairly even during the middle of the game. I lead slightly in damage. He got into Level 2 first and dropped his early play, who was swiftly dispatched by my Asuka counter. She was 3 cost Encored though and would stick around to be a pain until the end of the game.

At least I could snipe his back row during Level 2 and take out his other columns.

Eventually we were both in Level 3 with my opponent’s resources nearly completely drained. He put everything he had down, resulting in double Pumpkin and Kokomi support alongside the early play, with only 1 hand and 0 stock. I was at 3/1 with still 4 Climaxes left in a pretty tiny deck, so figured I was safe.

It then went something along the lines of 3, 2, cancel, pumpkin for 5 and cancel. By the end he had no hand or Stock, but a pretty hefty field. This left me on 3/6 with 5 cards left in deck, 2 of which were Climaxes. I think I’d already spent my healers, and without Hikari or the counter I couldn’t fix that.

By the time of my final swing he was at 3/4, and out of Climaxes. 50/50 chance of hitting a gate or my 2 Soul. I hit the former and lose. Losing here was a pain, but at least I’d put him on the verge of defeat.

Round 3 vs Index (B/R)

I’d wondered at what point I was going to end up fighting the deck I opted not to play, and this round I was facing a B/R build playing a few of the Level 0s I opt not to. I knew that generally, as long as I kept my non-reversers out of the centre during Level 0 I’d be okay, because he’d be unable to beat my cards in battle. This worked out pretty much as expected.

The Level 1 game was pretty much just both of us trading blows for a while, because neither of us had Level 1 combos. He continuously looped the 1/0 Index and I beat over his cards again with my own costless cards. The Angel was fairly useful, as long as I dodged the Usual Haruhi clone.

Once I was in Level 2 I started sniping his back row, which crippled his game plan to the point where he actually skipped a turn. I thought I was set and was going to have an easy ride to victory. At which point I triggered 3 Climaxes in a row and thought I was completely screwed.

Misakuro, 2 throwaway cards and a Climax threatened to finish me off, but a hit for 5 from Misakuro was cancelled on the last hit, keeping me in there. I then just finished him off.

Round 4 vs Love Live

The game started off badly for my opponent, forgetting to use their runner from back Stage, and winding up taking a bunch of damage. Various Reversers were his only way to deal with my Level 0 game, because they were simply too big otherwise.

Things got a little tight for me in Level 1, because I was forced to Level up with only an Experience of 2, or else be locked out of playing any cards. I also had a hand filled with counters and Hikari, so not actually something I could make a decent play of. I stupidly decided to go with Hikari first, realising too late that her Experience effect wasn’t live yet, meaning I couldn’t get my 1/0 back.

Can’t recall exactly what I did after this, but things stabilised going into Level 2, with [Finishing Blow Asuka] and the 2/1 Asuka making light work of all his cards. He put me under pressure with some of his Level 3 cards, but wasn’t quite able to finish me in time.

I tried digging for my airforce Asuka Climax combo, but instead ended up with the [Experimental Plugsuit Asuka] one. After healing a couple I times I went for the combo. This allowed me to top deck his Level support, then get over his Kotori thanks to the sudden drop in power.

He was left on 3/6 with 3 cards left in deck, meaning only 1 possible attack. I prayed he didn’t have a healer, and he went all in on trying to kill me with one last attack. The top card of my deck was a Climax, so whatever he did I’d won.

Round 5 vs Index (Blue?)

I don’t think he was playing any colours other than Blue, but don’t really recall. Despite what should be the most recent tournament game in my memory, I’m drawing a blank on lots of this game.

I started with double Rei, neither of who failed, and then a third one on turn 2 who also stayed standing. As you might expect, Level 0 wasn’t an issue for me. It also meant that I had at least 1 spot going into Level 1 that [Hyouka & Index] would have to side over.

Level 1 mostly went like the previous game vs Index, except he got Usual Index (or whatever her name is), making sure my Angels were of limited value.

I don’t really recall much of the middle of the game, except him playing Vento, and me top decking her with the Gate combo to get her out of the way. I then keep on Encoring Asuka to keep a 2 Soul beater on Stage.

I get hit to 3/0 with a Level 3 Asuka and her CX in hand, planning to clock what I draw, and get the combo off once against his tiny stage. I draw another Asuka, and debate whether it’s worth clocking so as not to waste the heals, or go for the double combo.

I opt for the combo, but can’t recall exactly what happened after this. I either beat him right there with the combo, or put him close to defeat before ending it next turn.

Final result for Eva was 4-1, which is only the 3rd time this has happened during one of their Sunday events at the shop. The other 2 times being Eva and GFB Yellow, the former of which was me being stupid during the last tournament of Kantai format. I got one pack for my efforts, but had to choose from a bunch of series I didn’t care for. I went for Cinderalla girls and got the Blue RR Brainstorm, which is sort of mocking given the lack of one in Eva.

I finished up the card games for the day with a quick game with my Sweets deck against GFB (B/R) against our visitor from Germany. It was very rushed, but the clock kick won me the game. Unfortunately Diet failed to deal any damage to either player twice in this game.

For those interested, my list is included below. It’s slightly outdated now since one of the 2/2s is an SR, but that makes no playability difference.