Oh boy. What a week! Kaila and I participated in our first local store tournament for One Piece TCG. I want to start off by saying we both had a ton of fun and the community was awesome. Everyone was so helpful and I got to play against decks I haven't played against before. You guys can check out last week's blog post to see the Purple/Yellow Charlotte Pudding deck that I used. It wasn't the best deck as I didn't purchase supplemental cards to optimize the deck and used whatever cards we got in the boxes/packs that we've opened. But let's get into the recap of my 4 matches.
The first player I played against was playing Lucci. I introduced myself and said this was my first tournament. When I said my leader was Pudding he said he didn't believe me. I guessed that Pudding is a currently popular leader to play in the Meta. I also knew that Lucci is still top tier so I was definitely worried but he reassured me that it was a deck he put together recently and isn't his primary deck. I was able to ramp up to 10 down on Turn 4 but got quickly defeated because my deck lacked "size" specifically high cost characters to better utilize the ramp, ie. characters like Portgas.D.Ace OP07-119
I just couldn't keep up with how easily he was controlling my board. I believe I got him down to 3 life before I lost. His deck had plenty of cards I've never seen since Kaila and I didn't start playing until 2 months ago. It gave me great ideas for cards that Kaila could use for her Green/Black Perona deck. He was also very helpful in suggesting other cards to add to my deck.
Current Record: 0-1
Opponent's Final Record: 1-2
Opponent's Final Standing: 16/22
The second deck I played against was a Zooro deck. This was an even faster loss than the first match. The guy go out a full board of Choppers out by turn 4 and wrecked me like no other. I didn't have the ability to effectively manage his board so I just got overwhelmed. Since we had plenty of time to chat, he also gave me some ideas for my deck. We also talked about other local game stores nearby that run tournaments and he showed me some of the swag he'd collected before. He also recommended going to the prerelease events at the stores if able, so Kaila and I plan on hitting up one of those for OP09 in the future.
Current Record: 0-2
Opponent's Final Record: 3-1
Opponent's Final Standing: 5/22
The third player I played against used Issho. This was the first time I had even seen this leader. He admittedly only played this because he thought Issho was an interesting leader and like us, he was fairly new to the game. He put together the deck using some cards that his brother wasn't using. I didn't get to see his entire deck but he did have some of the same black cards as the Lucci I played in round 1. I ended up beating him pretty soundly when he couldn't handle my ramp.
Current Record: 1-2
Opponent's Final Record: 0-4
Opponent's Final Standing: 22/22
The last opponent I went up against was King. I was very interested in how he'd play this deck since it was a leader I considered making a deck for. This one was a nail biter. I went second so I couldn't do my normal ramp sequence. At the end of the game, I had him down to 0 life cards to my 2 life cards. He had a full board with 2 Jacks OP08-84 and 3 other small characters to my one character.
I had opted to not play any characters the last turn to conserve my cards to use for counter. Looking at my cards with counter and his board, I was toast if he used his DON! cards efficiently. He ended up resting one of his low cost characters to reduce the cost of my character then KO'd him with one of his Jack's, which meant I no longer had to counter for +4000 just to defend against one of his Jacks. He still had 9 DON! to distribute to kill me but I think he realized his mistake as now he would have to use a considerable amount of down on one or both of the weaker characters to be able to attack me. I was able to survive as he threw most of his down on one of the weaker ones which I let through since I had enough counter cards to counter enough attacks to survive. I was also lucky he did not have any blockers on the board so I ended up attacking his leader for 15000 with my leader to win the game.
Final Record: 2-2
Final Standing: 14/22
Opponent's Final Record: 1-3
Opponent's Final Standing: 17/22
Kaila's Final Record: 1-3
Kaila's Final Standing 19/22
All in all, both Kaila and I had a ton of fun. My goal was to win one game and I exceeded by winning 2. Kaila was hoping to win 1 as well but was expecting to not win any so she's super happy she got 1 win. Although she almost had 2 as her opponent, who was playing Purple Luffy in round one admitted he got the luck of the draw on his last turn to play Monkey.D.Luffy OP05-119 which ended up winning him the game.
A few things I picked up while playing at the tournament:
Most people brought a pair of D6s to determine the starting player - I guess people dislike rock-paper-scissors
Everyone had a playmat (except Kaila and me) - Some were custom made from Etsy and some were simple neoprene gaming mousepads
Most players attacked first then played characters - by playing your cards first unless it has an effect you will use on your attack, it's best to hold off to not reveal to much before your attack.
Most players that Kaila and I played were trying out new decks - If you decide to join a tournament for the first time, don't be afraid that your deck isn't good enough as some of those players may be in the same boat with a new crafted deck.
I have decided to put my Charlotte Pudding deck on hold as it is currently featured in the meta somewhat and I don't want to be a try-hard at locals (yet). I am going to be constructing a Green/Yellow Yamato deck for our next tournament. Until next time!
