So yesterday was ATF's release event for "Broken Promise" and the format was draft as opposed to the usual sealed that we normally do for an event. So I get to the place and greet everyone and pay my entry fee. While I'm waiting for our tournament to start, I decided to spectate Yugioh.

I'm just watching as Jude is playing Gadget Oppression against some guy with BlackWings. Jude has 1 trap set, Royal Oppression, 2 monsters in play, and 1 of them is Gale. He has like 4000 life. The guy has 1 trap set and Black Whirlwind. He plays Sirroco, tutors Bora, and special summons it. The guy has like 700 life. Obviously Jude negates it and the guy face palms. So he pumps Sirroco with his effect and attacks Gale. Jude dimensional prisons. I see him flip up his traps to see if he has anything and he has an Icarus Attack set and Jude has like 1 card in hand. The guy looks at the Icarus Attack, looks at Jude, and then says "Nah I got nothing." Passes his turn and proceeds to lose. Afterward, this kid is like "Lettme see your deck. Maybe I can fix it." At this point I piped in from the sidelines with "The deck doesn't need fixing." Everyone looks at me. "He had Icarus Attack set the whole time." The guy stops making deck suggestions and everyone just looks at him like he's an idiot.

I walked away at this point ready to go draft.

5 Packs. That's what we were given to draft. I'll just give you some of my picks that I remember.

Pack 1: I was really surprised opening the pack to see that almost every single card in the pack was a Ninja. I knew I was in for a good tournament if all the packs were as such. Pack 1 didn't have a super rare much to my disappointment and I saw a Rampageous Pig which I almost took until I saw the last card. I remember listening to Shino's Dad about his release event and he said the guy who won, he won single-handedly because of one card: Jiraiya (Childhood) Having a 5/2 4/0 in limited is good. Having a guy who gets bigger every time I chump is even better. I knew as long as I could get some decent Fire support I'd be set. Low and behold, someone passes me Teacher Kakashi on the second pass which was great. And the last card I get stuck with for the round was Trump Card.

Pack 2: So I opened my second pack to see another Jiraiya (Childhood) staring at me. Obviously I'm going to take it. Dave apparently gets upset next to me and I can't see why. He's taking a long time for his picks. Surely he must be passing me something good cause he looks pained. And sure enough I'm right. I get passed Sharingan Kunai... Looks like I'm all on board for Fire now. Get last picked that Anko & Orochimaru Platoon but not before I give my last pick to Rob, the guy who gave me my last card in the last round: Trump Card.

Pack 3: Determination of Men. Yeah. Let's keep that Fire bandwagon going. My only regret from taking Determination of Men was I passed Jin Kisaragi to take it (Turn 4, 5/4, 0/0 for Water). I figured that Jin Kisaragi was a better card to take in limited cause 4 support and a wall would clinch a lot of matches in this format but taking the money was better. Why not take a $10 card? That's half the cost of the draft. I get passed some of the Lightning commons in the set as well as a White Fang's Blade which will prove useful later on. At this point I start going for Chakra Scalpels as everyone keeps passing them. Chakra Scalpel turned out to be a bomb in this set for drafting... see everyone dismissed it as a bad card cause it would never see play in constructed but a 2 generic jutsu for an injure is amazing in this type of format. Last card was some counter mission with Sakura on it smiling. "It's a cute picture" I thought. "... but the card is terrible. I just hope I don't get stuck with more of these."

Pack 4: Taking that Foil Natsuhi for the lightning late game cause at this point I have a lightning ninja for every drop, including 2 Hotorubi and 2 Jiraiya Childhood. I continue to get Chakra Scalpel and even a foil Iron Tager (3 Drop Water, 5/2, 1/1). Last card? Surprise! Another Cute Sakura Mission.

Pack 5: Absolute crap in this pack. Just picked strategic drops that I needed like Kiba to help out my lower curve. I was expecting to get this one card passed around to me at the end based purely on the Oro & Anko situation... and it pays off! Kakashi Hatake & Pakkun! Let's roll!

Match 1 was against Dave (Heldigunner1)
He has a lot of early game but he has no late game to speak of it seems. I beat him quickly with Jiraiya Game 1. Determination of Men game 2 give me growth coins on my Naruto Intensity, Jiraiya, and Turn 2 Anbu guy to give me a win in the following turn or two. Afterwards Dave tells me that he only has 16 Ninja in a 30 card deck. I tell him it kinda sucks but then he shows me a Black and Gold Obito, a Kakashi (Boyhood), and a Release of Fury from his sideboard. Dave's gonna get last and still walk away with more money than all of us. Bastard!

Match 2 against Rob
Rob is probably the best player at the store next to myself. His plays aren't amazingly tight all the time but sometimes they're incredibly tight, like this match where I was struggling to find any openings to press at all in this limited format. In the end of the match though, something didn't add up. I went first on our last game and even though I hit my 0 drop, I missed my 1....but the rest of my hand from there on out is a perfect curve. He curves perfectly, including hitting the free drop Anbu. Then he drops a turn 5 after my turn 4 ends. I ask him "Why'd you drop a turn 5?" He says "It's my turn 5. You missed two drops." I explain I missed only 1. We go back and replay the game by numbers and his math matches up...but so does mine. I have 4 ninja in play at the end of my turn 4. He has 7 if you include the 5 drop he just played. We both sit there looking at the board for a while neither one of us can figure out what happened...now I know Rob doesn't cheat and I was willing to just give him the benefit of the doubt and I accepted that perhaps I was the one who forgot to play a Ninja in my haste. It's better to just take a friendly loss then to start accusing my good boy of being a cheater. There's always next time.

Match 3 was against Eddie (Hatake Kakashi)
His deck seems really slow off the bat. I start crushing him in the early game and just pressing for BRs in game 1 and he just has no chance to recoup. Game 2, things start looking up for him as he hits this "Fellow" mission which gives all his guys growth coins. He has a huge 14 or 15 power team at this point with Sasuke as his head ninja (who is like 8 combat thanks in part to his other Student cards and other effects). But that's when I saw an out. White Fang's Blade. And I was only 2 BRs away from winning and I had like 7 ninja in play and he only had 5. I started to swing out with 3 teams of 1 ninja each knowing full well that I was going to take out his two side guys and let one get OV'd causing a split. I wouldn't have a team strong enough to beat Sasuke backed by Sakura but I could keep pushing through until I won out. Well my plan didn't go exactly as planned as he starts to rebound. Then I hit Jiraiya Childhood and start to gain back my momentum. And then a lucky Hotarubi gives me growth coins on my Naruto and Jiraiya and such. I get back a lightning chakra on the deploy of that turn to net me 6 Chakra and things are starting to look grim until I decide to give 2 Brs to put me up to full count I believe. Then I top deck Sharingan Kunai. And I look at my Kakashi & Pakkun platoon and I say "Let's DO THIS!!!!"

Attack out. He blocks. I Sharingan Kunai. He sees my 3 other chakra to play it again. He scoops.

Prize packs were awful. For everyone. No good supers I needed. No Tobi. Not even a foil Sakura!!! I expressed how much I wanted a Tobi and a foil Sakura for my collection just as I go to open my last pack. Got a Tobi staring back at me which was great! And behind him was a foil Sakura Haruno (Student). YESSSSS! Getting all pumped up over worthless cards that I love!

So that's the release, hopefully all of you guys had fun at yours. And if anyone out there has extra Tobi they want to hook me up with let me know!!! I need them. Serious face is on. :|

-Tsu

Labels: AllThingsFun, broken promises, Draft, tsu