The Regional season for 2016 kicked off in style, with 49 players turning up to the Celtic Club in Melbourne to fight it out for the honour of the first Regional Champion title.

Style and MP Breakdown
Black Devious – 15
Red Enraged – 9
Red Ruthless – 2
Orange Adaptive – 6
Blue Protective – 2
Blue Tag – 3
Saiyan Empowered – 5
Namekian Knowledge – 7

Cooler – 9
Yamcha – 8
Master Roshi / Piccolo / Broly – 6
Android 13 – 5
Frieza – 2
Krillin / Ginyu / Android 16 / Android 18 / Nail / Goku / Gohan / Cell – 1

The day kicked off with a bang, and Round 1 saw some ferociously fought out matches, with no one wanting to give up that first game and put themselves on the back foot. Reigning National Champion Fahad notched up a win, with Harry K., and Ben S., other notable contenders for the race of the first World Championship invite winning in the first round.

The day was a tale of decks made on meta predictions not working as they had intended, and a real sense that anything could come out on top over the course of the 6 rounds.

Action on table 1 was electric throughout the day. David S. and Ben S. duking it out in Round 2, with Ben’s Black Krillin pushing Red Roshi all the way. The Life Deck counts were uneven, but it always felt like Roshi could have pulled something in the death to steal the game as he always finds a way to do.

And in the final Swiss round, the two undefeated decks, Karl F. with Red Cooler, and Ben S. with his Black Krillin squared off. The match was always tightly poised, with Cooler seeming to push forward on all three win conditions, and Krillin trying to hold them off and push through some damage. Decisions on plays held massive weight, as Dragon Balls were exchanged, and pressure mounted. In the end, Karl showed that Red Cooler is here to stay finishing off his undefeated record in Swiss.

And then we  cut to the final 8 of the tourney.

Karl F. – Red Cooler
Ben S. – Black Krillin
David S. – Red Roshi
Luke P. – Black Cooler
Bryan M. – Orange Yamcha
Matthew D. – Red Yamcha
Harry K. – Red Roshi
Barry D. – Namekian Piccolo

With a mixture of long term campaigners, and first time players in top cut, things were always going to get interesting.

Karl showed Barry’s Namekian Piccolo who the new triple victory deck is on the block. Ben had to keep Harry’s Red Roshi in check. Luke chalked another regulation win up with his Black Cooler.

In the top 4, things only got more interesting. Ben came up against another Red Roshi against David S. and things just didn’t go Krillin’s way this time. While pushing out some early damage, Roshi does what he always will mid game and built up a board to close out the game with Ben unable to capitalise. Black vs Red was the flavour of the other top 4 match, as Karl and Luke fought it out. Having the ability to complete a triple victory proved too much for Luke to overcome with Black Cooler. Top 4 deck lists are available for review here.

In the end, it was Red vs Red. Both decks capable of winning on all three fronts, and both players needed to keep their wits about them. Game 1 was taken out by David S., with his seemingly endless chain of cards with critical damage effects allowing him to gain all 7 Dragon Balls. Then in Game 2, Karl was able to get his own back, pushing back with some tidy game decisions to win by Dragon Ball Victory as well.

It came down to a tense Game 3. Dragon Balls were traded back and forth, both players pressing hard for the win. Near the end of the game, David seemed close to victory and came within one action, one critical damage effect of gaining all 7 Dragon Balls. But he didn’t count on Karl having not one but two Red Knee Lifts in hand. If there was a true MVP of the day, that card would have to go out as the one that generated the biggest swings.

And so Karl rounded out the day with a great win to Red Cooler. Melbourne has set the tone for this Organised Play season, and the gauntlet has been thrown down to those that want to leave their mark.

The leaderboard has been updated for the third World Championship invite, and can be found here: http://www.tak-games.com.au/organised-play/2016-tak-games-dragon-ball-z-regionals/

Game on!
– Trent (@TAKGames_Trent) and Kyp (@JustKyp).