User blog:TyrantRex/I'm an Ancient World Player Again - Tournament Report

Every since Buddyfight began Ancient World has always been my absolute favorite World in the game. I've always played Wild Dragons basically because the intial boss monster had the word "Tyrant" in the name, later I played the Blood Dragon version. But the thing is, power creep during Ace wasn't exactly kind to that deck, to say the least.

Linkdragon Order was revealed as the main Ancient World attribute for the season, which is a good deck but it didn't really appeal to me, I like Ancient World because it's based around pummeling the opponent with one giant unstoppable monster, LDO instead revolves around size 1 monsters working together. So instead I picked Astrodragon as my Ace deck of choice, which is a deck I quite enjoy and to my surprise isn't as wallet murdering as I expected or a main character deck.

Then MAX Dragons were revealed, a new deck that is a lot closer to what I remember and like about Ancient World, needless to say I became interested quickly and began saving  for it. Now my MAX Dragon cards finally arrived and today was my first chance to try the deck out at locals, and luckily it was Buddyfight tournament week so even better.

Today it was an 8 player tournament, our Buddyfight community isn't big nor exactly meta, but it was at least enough for 3 rounds.

Round 1 - Astrodragon
Astrodragon is one of the attributes I feel can take down Zerberos since they can get a full field with Double Attack and power gains so they can get over that 25k Defense twice per turn.

Game 1 It seems like my opponent figured going all-out aggro to OTK before Zerberos could reach size 6 and he did set a field big enough to hit 25K, but all I needed was one defense spell to survive his turn, and apparently my opponent wasn't running much defense spells because he had nothing to stop Zerberos from pummeling him into oblivion.

Game 2 My opponent sideboarded a few cards (which turned out to be Notify: Blessed Rain Tactic), but his deck was still all aggro almost no protection so once again he couldn't do much to stop the Zerberos stomping even with Blessed Rain. Lesson of the day: Don't cut your protection spells even if you're going for an OTK.

Win 2 - 0

Round 2 - Godpunk
Godpunks... the matchup I was the most worried about, Brawlzeus can just drop Overcrest for its call cost and immediately kill Zerberos due to oversizing. I was convinced this wasn't gonna go well.

Game 1 my plan was to keep my Gauge low and spend it right away so Zerberos couldn't come, however not only can Godpunk forcibly increase your Gauge but some of own cards also increase my Gauge. Predictably Brawlzeus happened and I was about to lose... if I hadn't casted multiple Hard Win Summons beforehand to keep my Life high enough to survive. The next turn I topdecked another size 3 Zerberos, I had "Goldsteel" equipped, and my opponent had no defense spells so I managed to somehow win that one.

Game 2 my opponent didn't get Brawlzeus and without it those other puny monsters couldn't even scratch Zerberos, it was an easy win surprisingly.

Win 2 - 0

Round 3 - Lost World
Wow, another matchup that can take down Zerberos, Lost Monsters have ridiculous Power and Vanity Destroyer can just drop Zerberos because Unbreakable Domilord isn't a thing ENG yet. The Dimension Dragons also have a lot of protection so those could endure a lot Zerberos attacks.

Game 1 my opening hand wasn't very good, a lot of monsters not many spells, I could start the Zerberos chain as usual but had basically no protective spells and unfortunately my opponent went into Lost World right away. 30k+ monsters, 5k crit monsters, I couldn't do anything. First loss of the day.

Game 2 my hand was bad again for the opposite reason, too many spells and no Size 3 Zerberos! It seemed like a total loss at first, but fortunately several of them were draw spells and a bigger Zerebros for Dragon Lord Bursts Forth and by pure anime topdecking levels of luck, the last card I drew was Lord of the Skies so I didn't brick afterall. Once again my opponent Belosted right away, but this time I had Lordbreak, Flame Gale to rest his whole field including Vanity Destroyer, it can't attack it can't drop Zerberos. On my next turn I had a Seamless Dragon Lord to go into Zerberos Lost mid battle phase and get the win.

Game 3 was quite the odd one, one of the Lost Flags went into my opponent's initial Gauge so he was stuck on Dragon World, those puny monsters couldn't do anything to stop me from reaching Zerberos lost, however Dimension Dragons still have a lot of stalling and defensive power so even though he couldn't Belost I couldn't break through his constant defenses. Eventually he did get the other Lost Flag and Belost, but by that time I had seven defense spells in hand since none of his Dragon World monsters were a threat and three of those were Flame Gale again. With so much defense I was able to handle the Lost Monsters and win.

Win 2 - 1

Conclusion
First time playing Ancient World in months, I get first place at the weekly tournament and all were matches that I feel could be troublesome. Granted it's just a locals tournament and most players weren't prepared for MAX Dragon so it's hardly a meta achievement or anything, but I still feel I did well. More importantly, I asbolutely adore MAX Dragons, and feels good to be playing Ancient World again. I also saw first hand that Brawlzeus isn't an instant loss as I previously had thought iso that's good too.

I have a gut feeling next week everyone's gonna be running more Power buffing cards to deal with that 25k Defense.

Total: 6 Wins 1 Loss