Technically today was a day outside of my normal schedule. I'm actually on vacation from work - I haven't traveled, but I made plans for things to do with an extra week off from work.
That said, I journeyed out to my favorite card shop to play in tonight's locals. We're ever-closer to the next Local Qualifier, and I still want more practice with my Dragoons, so that was the only deck I played today.
One other individual showed up early, the only other player who had shown for locals one week ago, and so we had a quick friendly game against one another.
Friendly Game vs Sky Pirates
I played heavily aggro in this game, due to the resources I wound up drawing - or, in the case of Alus, not drawing. I quickly took several points of damage against the Sky Pirates, but when they managed to fill their board in the way that Sky Pirates do, and then dropped their copy of Yuna to keep my backups frozen and my Forwards mostly tapped down, there wasn't much I could do.
I did play LB Cloud to take the Yuna out, but on an EX Burst they hit Tyro, allowing them to search out a Lulu Forward that brought Yuna back from the break zone. Unable to remove Yuna a second time, I was locked down, and they took the victory.
After this game, the other players showed up, for a total of six players, counting myself, and our proper "tournament" started.
Game 1 vs Refia
The same Refia player as this past Wednesday at the other card shop, this played out fairly similarly to most of our games that night.
We both had somewhat mediocre turn 1s, with them overpaying to play Tyro, and myself playing LB Lunafreya to dig for Alus. I did hit the Alus though, and slammed him to the board immediately, which fueled another aggressive game for me. I forgot that the magic number for the Warriors of Light is 3 - that is, at 3 damage they gain access to so many different, additional effects, many of them searches - and knocked them to 4 damage pretty early on.
This, dear reader, was a mistake.
Turning on their search effects, such as Faris, was like opening a flood gate, and they used this opportunity to take the game over fairly handily. I did manage to get them to 6 damage, but a Shinryu hitting the field knocked out a chunk of my board, and Refia gave them piece-by-piece removal for the rest of it. I was unable to find and stick any removal, which did me no favors overall.
Game 2 vs Ice/Lightning
This game was an absolute nail-biter for me. I went first and a decent opening, including turn 1 Alus, but they had an incredibly potent opening with Skyserpent General Rughadjeen and the Legend-rarity Sephiroth from Tears of the Planet. Swinging with the General gave Sephiroth both Haste and Brave, and thanks to Sephiroth, their attacks each stripped cards from my hand. I eventually managed to remove their General and Sephiroth by trading with LB Kain, buffed by the Theatrhythm Aranea as I was quickly brought past her 3-damage threshold.
Eventually, I got a Freya in play, and I willingly sacrificed my Alus by using it to dull their Seifer, who would have otherwise broken Freya when swinging. This bought the time I needed to get the resources to wipe their board with Cherry Blossom for the first time. Several more Cherry Blossoms later, I was able to eventually turn the game back into my favor, with LB Cloud clearing out their last blocker on what wound up the final turn of the game. I was put quickly at 6 damage, so I was sweating bullets hoping I could work around their board.
Game 3 vs Mono-Fire Luso
The same Luso list as from last Wednesday, they were able to turn 1 play Meeth to grab Luso, and then Luso flipped Ifrit (XVI) in that first combat step. This spelled a quick end to the game, frankly, and any hope I had that I could play around the massive Eikon was dashed when they flipped over WoL4 on turn 2.
And much like Wednesday, I couldn't even be angry. That deck is so much fun to see in action.
That said, on what ended up my final turn, I found myself in the same position I did several times during Wednesday's locals, where I was one card-in-hand away from being able to wipe their board. I was able to get Cherry Blossom Freya in play, but with a total of 3 Dragoons in play, counting Freya, I needed to be able to use Cherry Blossom twice to clear their board. I had two additional Freyas in-hand, I was just short one CP - or one card-in-hand - to be able to actually use the Cherry Blossom.
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