#CFV - 16/04/12 Results & Battle Log

Just came back from my local store's Vanguard tournament and I am happy to say that I reached my goal for this week. Placed higher than 6th place this time.. Yup, I actually got 2nd place which is way better in general and also for myself (did not leave the tournament super salty)!


Battle Log & Thoughts
First Round: vs. Royal Paladin (SSD/Lohengrin)
First round was against the guy who places 1st almost every time. First match of the set was pretty convincing for him mainly because of the heal triggers he pulled. Every time, I managed to somewhat take a lead in damage, he pulled a heal trigger and heal himself while I never drive check'd critical triggers to even it out. He eventually took a lead and finished me off. As for the second match, it was very close. At the end, he misplayed by riding Lohengrin over his SSD for no reason which allowed me to block and live for another turn. Unfortunately, he had all the necessary resources to block that extra lucky turn I had and finished me off with a clutch Blaster Blade (who retired the Galatin I needed to be able to resist one more turn) for the win. 0-2


Second Round: vs Royal Paladin (SSD/Gigantic Charger)
Another mirror match but this time, way easier for me since she played Gigantic Charger as a backup Grade 3 and who, in my opinion, is a pretty bad card. Anyway, first match was pretty one sided as she had a horrible hand and missed a ride. Was able to pull off the Barcgal+Llew+SSD combo before her, took an early lead and rush her down. Pulled out a critical trigger for the win. 2nd match was pretty on her part because she played so many of her cards wrong. Close to the end of the match, almost none of her attacks were a threat: she had a Gigantic Charger (R) in front with Barcgal boosting him which makes a  horrible number for an attack (13k), SSD as Vanguard with only Flogal boosting her and finally, another SSD in Rearguard with no one behind her. Pretty bad field and unit placement gave me an easy win. 2-0


Final Round: vs Oracle Think Tank (CEO) 
This guy pretty much gave the wins away to me by not attacking the first turn to avoid the infamous SSD combo. It would be a legit strategy if Royal Paladin's strategy wasn't about rushing and if they had no other Grade 3 to work with. By not attacking first turn, I always had an early lead and this is what you want to avoid when playing Paladins. First match, he didn't even get CEO and was obliged to use Apolon as his Vanguard and even if he didn't give me the counters to soul charge early with Barcgal/Llew/Flogal, I still managed to pull SSD's roar with Margal and Pongal soul charging Alfred during the game. First round was pretty convincing. Second round was a little closer, though. He got CEO as his Vanguard, but the fact that he still didn't attack me first turn gave me an slight advantage. Not only that, his field was far from being the best with two Apolon (with no boosters) as his Rearguards. He managed to stall enough to use CEO's Megablast, but it was not really a game changer as my field and hand were just better. 2-0


So yeah, pretty happy with my placement. Next time, I will try to aim for 1st place. Even though I placed high, I still want to try a Lohengrin/SSD build because I still feel Alfred does not support SSD well. Hopefully, I'll get the cards before next week!