Ryan Lewis’ North Kai Tournament Report

So after 16 hours of driving, 7 states, going back in time, and a man who strangely resembled Mr. Popo on a bicycle almost running into our car in the middle of the night, here it is…a report from the highest ranked DBZ CCG loser in the game right now…enjoy!

R1: Matt Gette > Namekian (WGS) Roshi Sensei Piccolo (MBS)

Matt was very cool and playing a Piccolo’s Multiform physical beats deck…although I personally think that an Orange Rapid Attack version or red version would be better, it intrigued me with the thought of double Namekian Shield Destruction or double Namekian Shuto…unfortunately I had enough physical defense and allies redirecting damage for him to only get off 1-2 physical attacks each combat and take almost no damage…I just combo’d well and did enough energies to cut his deck in half…mid game I got a Kami Fades and was able to Hercule’s Amazing Techniques for Namekian Punisher which I had sensei’d out…I just kept entering and energy attacking and was able to pull off the win…good start to the day, but I was actually afraid at this point because of karma from my past…most tournaments I win the first round, get confident, then lose the next 2, win 2 more, end end up 3-3…I didn’t want this to be one of those days…oh well, we’ll see what happens…1-0

R2: Rory Wood > Freestyle (MBS) North Kai Sensei Trunks (Weaponmaster)

I got a first turn Cell’s Instant Transmission for City In Turmoil and there were no noncombats for the whole game…unfortunately this didn’t slow him down a bit…it’s crazy the damage that a sword deck can do even without trunks finds the answer or dev drills just by combo’ing attacks…I also didn’t get lucky with Double Whammy so I think I got maybe only 1 or 2 allies out the whole game…it went back and forth and I couldn’t use Kami Fades so no big Namekian Punishers were coming…I just peppered him and he peppered me and we went back and forth kinda just waiting to see if one of us got a big hand or something…he did a surprising amount of damage on my 90 card deck even with no noncombats and it got dangerously close because we both had less than 10 cards in the final combat…I thought he beat me when he Hercule’s Amazing Technique’d for Goku’s Blinding Strike for focused 7 when I had Time Is A Warrior’s Tool in my hand…I was going to take the damage and then only have 2 cards left and then I was like ‘waitaminute, I don’t remember GBS being focused…’ needless to say, hard to read black and white proxies are not something to fool around with and that was the game because my next action I did an empowered Namekian Shield Destruction for the win…2-0

R3: Trent Fermanich > Orange (CS) West Kai Sensei Android 19

Props to Trent for using Android 19…I’ve had an orange A19 deck for a while and it holds a nice place in my heart because it was the first deck I built in DBZ seeing as I started around the Androids/Cell saga…the problem with orange A19 as I’ve come to realize, is that it has a VERY hard time losing to a physical beats deck, but with the increase in decks running energy attacks these days, it’s a terrible meta choice…maybe back when Majin Buu black and red was running rampant A19 could be a threat, but no more…I knew his level 1 power would be rough though and knew my strategy from the get-go: I had to get Kami Fades early and draw him into using his power on Namekian Punisher, then use Namekian Strike and Android 13’s Prepped Stance to combo with other energy attacks to grind it out…this worked for a few combats and then I got a great hand with Fatherly Advice and 2x Namekian Strike…I used FA to get Namekian Punisher, then proceeded to use both Namekian Strikes and then 2x Namekian Quick Blast and my level 1 energy attack…he had to save his power for Punisher and had no other energy blocks so had to let the other 5 attacks hit…also using his power raised him 3 stages, which prevented him from using his allies when he got them out…I talked to him at the after-party and we both agreed a fatal misplay he had…he never used West Kai Sensei the whole game…I used a lot of noncombats that game including Fatherly Advice, Android 20’s Search Pattern, and Android 20’s Absorbing Drill for a few turns before he used Orange Stare Down on it…I don’t know if that would have changed the game, but it certainly could have given him the upper hand for a turn or 2, oh well…3-0

R4: Josh Merkle > Saiyan (CS) North Kai Sensei Goten

So this game lasted all of 3 turns and about ten minutes but I was literally on the edge of my seat almost shaking the entire game…I knew Josh had the fasted deck in the tournament and was almost pure energy attacks besides Saiyan Gut Kick…I told Josh that my goal was to survive the first turn and I got lucky and rolled for first and knew I would do that…what I didn’t expect was my top 3 – Kami Fades, Namekian Punisher, and whatever…I dropped Kami Fades and saved Punisher and passed…he went and entered and I drew Namekian Strike, Vegeta’s Physical Stance, and some energy attack…he did Saiyan Gut Kick to try and get a dragon ball out before I used Fades but I used Vegeta’s Physical Stance and then used Namekian Strike to get Nappa’s Energy Aura…I survived the first turn and now had successfully used 2 stop-alls to survive the 2^nd…I used Kami Fades and then used Namekian Punisher knowing he only used Saiyan Stop and Saiyan Brace and couldn’t stop a focused energy attack…also him only playing 50 cards was sweet because he played more balls than I thought (3 or 4) which meant that after drawing 3, drawing and discarding with mastery, and taking a Punisher for 25+ he was down to only 8 life cards left…damn…although he did use his level 1 power and Advanced Basics and some attacks to gain anger, so he was still on level 3 with 3 anger…after Punisher, my power, and some random energy attack he was down to only 8 life cards…my turn next and I figured I had to go for it because I didn’t want him entering and using something to gain the anger for the win…I had sensei’d out Victorious Drill so I couldn’t lower his anger right away…I entered and he drew, used mastery and drew 2 more, and had only 2 cards left in his deck…he had 6 cards in his hand and I had no blocks so this was it…I used Namekian Shield Destruction empowered for 5 life and tried to kill him but he used Saiyan Stop…he did an attack and gained an anger…I used Namekian Shield Destruction empowered for 4 life cards but…another Saiyan Stop…boo…he then used another attack and gained the last anger to get the 1-4 anger win (because I’m a terrible player, the night before I decided to not run a level 5 and instead main-decked Cells Threatening Position because I thought it would be more beneficial against Baba or Frieza)…I figured he had more anger with the 2 other cards in his hand but he told me that he didn’t, he had a Trunks Energy Sphere and another block and had I used Namekian Shield Destruction and lowered his anger instead of empowering it, he couldn’t have won and would’ve drawn out on his next turn…oh well sucks to be me…even with the perfect draws I couldn’t beat Goten…I don’t consider it a misplay though because I know how much anger Saiyan has and with a 6 card hand, I figured it was more likely that he would have more cards that gain anger than blocks…apparently I was wrong…3-1

R5: Kevin Bock > Orange( MBS) Piccolo Sensei Bardock

Yay! We’re the first game in the tournament to go to time! (I think)…So Kevin spends a good couple of minutes figuring out what to sensei out and eventually we start…that proved to be the game in the end…he went first and gets Caught Off Guard Drill naming City In Turmoil…fair…I draw my top 3 and get City In Turmoil…also fair…it went back and forth a bit but I got an early Kami Fades and took out his dragon balls and my own (although he had 2 in his hand at the time lol)…god I wanted to Namekian Punisher him for 32 but never got to as he had like 2-3 Android 20’s Absorbing Drills out along with Orange Haulting Drill for the whole game so I was doing little to no damage…he used his 2^nd Caught Off Guard Drill on my Aura Clash when I had it in my hand and I really couldn’t do anything to his noncombats for the rest of the game really…at some point I noticed 3x Orange Vegeta’s Assault in his discard pile but he used Pan’s Victory to put em back in…I drew Android 17 Smirks at some point and held onto it for the whole game…I didn’t need to have an omni physical block when he eventually used OVA if I could just remove all of his drills immediately after he discarded Orange Focusing Drill…like me, he didn’t run Trunks Energy Sphere I eventually figured out and that was it…the called time and everyone came over and watched our final turns and he used Carpet Attack Technique for 15-20 and I took it, then used A17 Smirks to get rid of his drills…he had only 1 card left and drew out on my final turn…he told me later that he had decided to sensei out his Confrontation against me and once he had used both his COGDrills he had no way to get rid of my A17 Smirks…very good game Kevin…4-1

R6: Korey Hicks > Namekian (WGS) North Kai Sensei Future Gohan

So I really had the completely wrong idea of what to expect going into this game and am a bit surprised how it turned out…I only get to playtest against Dider and his deck choices are, shall we say, specific…he doesn’t like to netdeck so we can play against popular decks and get experience playing against them like I do…and so, I’ve never really gotten to play against popular decks like Bojack, Future Gohan, or Baba (not to mention that he refuses to ever build or play a speedball deck for me to test against but that’s a whole other story)…needless to say, I saw a couple of games that Geoff played with his Future Gohan Namekian deck sometime last year and was expecting something similar…Geoff had an insane amount of tech whereas Korey had less tech and waaaay more straight physical beats to get buffs off his level 2 and 3 powers as well as I dunno, like a third of his deck that raised him to full? Whatever…I played Korey later in the day and remember more of that game so this one is a little bit of a blur, but I remember first turn taking a butt-load of damage but hitting a Double Whammy and getting out 4 Cell Jr’s right away…a turn later he used Namekian Shuto to get rid of em all but luckily I drew into Unexpected Allies and got them right back out to annoy him…I managed to Piccolo And Heroes Gather to get Android 16 Smiles and Super Saiyan Effect and slow him down for 2 combats by using A16 Smiles into Android 18’s Stare Down then entering with SSE…a highlight came when I used Vegeta’s Jolting Slash to stop all his physical attacks and get him down to 4 cards in a combat, then he proceeds to use 3x Namekian Dash and 1 or 2 other cards to rejuvenate and is back to 20+ cards in his deck (which is more than I have by that time)…luckily I kept the pressure on and kept the game slow and was able to pull out the win……5-1

Top 8: Darryl Fisher > Freestyle (MBS) West Kai Sensei Tien

I had heard about this combo earlier in the day and was glad to see not just someone running Tien (because Tien is one of my favorite ‘humans’ in the show besides the dog president) but also because this was the most original deck/combo I had seen in a long time in the game…props Darryl, I dunno if you ‘invented’ this combo or not, but it was a genius deck idea…besides the Straining Tien’s Mafuba Blast/Double Whammy/Yajirobe/Z Warrior’s Gather combo, it still had the threat of just Tien with Tien’s Flight and Tien’s Focused Beam (which isn’t focused but hello…it should be)…luckily, liking Tien myself, I’ve had an orange Tien deck for a while that I won Didier’s East Kai Are You Drunk Enuff Tournament with last year (that’s right Dider, main-decking Stunned for the win against Krillin)…anywho, I knew a lot of the cards and what synergized well with each other…he did his wombo-combo but luckily I got an early Aura Clash to level 2 and was able to keep Tien at full so he couldn’t use Yajirobe right away…next turn I entered and used my power to get Namekian Shuto to nuke him away…it was a very slow game mostly due to me, I didn’t want to get caught with him getting a huge combat which Tien can easily do so I played very defensively, using multiple Android 20’s Search Patterns to remove all but 1 of his Tien’s Focused Beams and trying to keep physical blocks to stop his Tien’s Flights…I kept looking through his discard pile to keep counting how many Tien’s Focused Beam, Tien’s Flight, and Hercule’s Amazing Techniques he had left in his deck so I could decide whether I wanted to keep a physical or energy block…I didn’t want to take the chance and Punisher him to fuel his own attacks…he did manage to Flight me for about 20 life cards at one point and that was enough…I had looked through his deck with Android 20’s Search Pattern and noticed he didn’t run any of the Tien named energy blocks (or so I thought) so I entered and grabbed Kid Buu’s Prepped Crash with his power and proceeded to remove ¾’s of his deck from the game…at that point, there wasn’t a lot of damage he could do to me although he did stall a couple turns by using the Tien energy that ended combat but in the end he couldn’t do any big attacks and I had a 90 card deck…6-1

Top 4: Korey Hicks > Rematch

I’ll make this short as many have watched the video already…I go first and draw Piccolo And Heroes Gather, Vegeta’s Jolting Slash, and Cell Jr…decide to just try and control right away and setup my discard pile so I enter, pitch VJS and Cell Jr for Super Saiyan Effect and Black Scout Maneuver…he attacks and I Black Scout the Black Scouts he put in (so he doesn’t use em and name Double Whammy or Namekian Punisher) and save the SSE…his turn he enters and we do this a bit for a few turns…I manage to save the SSE for a while til I feel it’s the most opportune time (seeing as how I played him earlier and I don’t want to get caught with him hitting his mastery and having a 7 card hand)…I manage to Aura Clash to level 2 and slow the game down by getting Punisher to do some damage, Vegeta’s Physical Stance, etc and eventually I get Kami Fades off and am able to Punisher him for focused 17…but thanks to 2x Namekian Shield Destruction he manages to endurance half of it…he got no love from his mastery the whole game, I think he hit 1 namekian card in like 8 combats…never got the extra draw from level 2 once…I manage to get another Punisher a bit later for the game and maybe even overkill him…sorry Korey…but you definitely have the hardest hitting future gohan physical beats deck that I’ve ever played against…A LOT different than the build I saw last year from Geoff…6-1

Finals: Joel Glasser > Saiyan (CS) North Kai Sensei Goten

So…yeah…I was afraid of Goten and afraid of Joel and this point tired from driving for a day, sleeping 3 hours, and then playing DBZ for like 12 hours…I didn’t know any details about Joel’s deck other than it was 82 cards (as Joel said, he just couldn’t find 3 other cards that he liked lol) so it was slower than Josh’s and also I heard that it wasn’t straight energy beats…I’ll be honest at this point I’m just grateful to be playing here with all these great players so I kinda blacked the finals out of my memory…besides, when the videos are posted up here they’re going to be a much better play-by-play than I could write up so to the best of my recollection the first game goes like this…he doesn’t get Spooked and I get Punisher…win, 7-1…before the 2^nd game I take a break to pee as I do in ritual between every round and little do I know Joel hides behind the creepy Batman mannequin next to the bathroom and when I come out he Spooks me and I literally crap my pants…we decide that’s the game right there and we don’t even need to play…another loss to Spooked…lose, 7-2…the 3^rd game I misplay and forget to use my level 2 in a combat…I don’t know if it would have mattered, but it’s nice to think it may have played out differently…there’s an important combat in the final game when I had a Cell Jr searcher in play and have Straining Destruction Move in my hand but hesitate to use it and I think that may have decided the game…I had 2 Cell Jrs discarded but also about 50 other cards and didn’t want to remove everything so I held onto it…he had Spooked out 3x Gotenks Kamikaze Ghosts and I kept looking through my discard pile to see how many Cell Jrs were in there because I didn’t want to remove em all and not be able to search for them…I take all the milling and then decide to use Destruction but that’s after he milled maybe 3 more Cell Jrs…I can only get out I think 2 more now from my deck and that’s not enough…had I used it earlier and then the other Cell Jrs would have only been discarded maybe I could have done more damage that turn and the next, who knows…the next turn though as you’ll see in the videos is a great moment as he Spheres my Destruction Move again as I drew it back with my mastery…in the end I couldn’t get a Punisher off in this game…lose, 7-3

So in the end the deck did a lot better than I had expected…I mean I knew it was solid but I guess I just didn’t realize how really consistent it was…the only things it had trouble with are anything Goten and/or Joel (probably why I lost)…still a good day…in retrospect I definitely should have kept the level 5 and probably dropped Cell’s Threatening Position…other than that I really wouldn’t change anything from it

Props:

-Chris Smith for a great tournament and a very magical comic dungeon

-Darryl for coming up with a broke Mafuba Blast combo

-Didier for not running Vegeta because it hates on Namekian

-No Black decks in the tournament, black is always overplayed

-Someone from Pennsylvania for actually doing something great and coming in 2nd…no one from Pennsylvania ever did anything great before