June 22, 2019 - Philadelphia, PA -
The 100 Yard-S
1st - Wombat
Odin Heavy Blow'
Dragoon F Polish Xtend+
Neptune Yell Xtend+
Valkyrie Armed Orbit (Deck Format Finals Only)
2nd - Ardmore Bladers
Dragoon F Polish Xtend+
Deathscyther Polish Xtend+
Acid Anubis Gravity Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Deathscyther Heavy Revolve (Deck Format Finals Only)
Storm Spriggan Yell Destroy' (Deck Format Finals Only)
3rd - BeybladePhilly
Doomscizor D2 Infinity Yard-S
Orpheus O2 Spread Eternal-S (Deck Format Finals Only)
Orpheus O2 Heavy Eternal-S (Deck Format Finals Only)
Valkyrie Down Trick (Deck Format Finals Only)
Valkyrie Heavy Hunter' (Deck Format Finals Only)
Gigant Gaia Down Xtend+ (Deck Format Finals Only)
Not going to write a whole tournament report for this since I'm kinda Beybladed out right now and don't really have any good pictures, so I'll just put a (relatively) brief recap here:
I allowed Blow', Zeta', and Xtend+ to be unbanned experimentally for this tournament, and afterwards it's definitely safe to say that Blow' and Xtend+ should stay banned. Xtend+ was used by a bunch of the top players, on Dragoon F, Neptune, Deathscyther, and Gigant Gaia, and a few other people tried using it on other things like Wolborg. In right spin, using it's pretty straightforward, not too different from a normal Revolve; but on Dragoon F you need a bit more
nuancé and knowledge of how to play it in each matchup to really make it effective. Launch too hard and you self burst, launch too soft and you get outspun, but once you figure out the right strength and angle DGF.P.Xt+ is a really threatening combo. While I never faced one in the tournament, in testing I was unable to find a right spin KO or Burst Attacker that could consistently
not self-burst against it, let alone KO or burst Dragoon consistently. This includes super-tight Hasbro combos and ones using Dash Drivers like X' and Qc'. Before Xt+, Et, Ab, and Ds(') were the best Drivers for Dragoon, and while they did their job well enough, they weren't arguably the best LAD setup in the game, meaning that something like Neptune/G2 on Eternal could counter them relatively consistently (Absorb and Destroy especially also have some pretty abysmal KO Defense). On Xt+ however, right spin Y.Et no longer becomes a safe counter (I was getting it to win only about 40% of the time against DGF.P.Xt+ in testing), which necessitates the use of Xt+ to counter opposing Xt+ since right spin Bearing in Classic is bad except on maybe like Neptune and chokes out a bunch of other Driver options that would otherwise be viable.
As for Blow', I was the only one in the top 3 who used it, but I don't think many other people had it, and I'm pretty sure I was the only person there who owned both
Odin and Blow'. Aside from dumb mindgames and having to play around Dragoon, this combo mowed down absolutely everything in its way - most notably Orpheus, Acid Anubis, Roktavor, and Gaianon G2, among others. I don't believe I lost a single round with O.H.B', and definitely could have used it to win the matches where I used something else.
The only loss I suffered the whole event was against Ardmore Bladers' D.P.Xt+ using N.Y.Xt+ - I had seen him use this combo previously, and knew he had had success with DGF.P.Xt+ as well, and
knowing how badly Disks like Polish/Proof cripple Xt+'s Stamina mode, I figured this was the best option even with Yell. His grey Xt+ must be like unnaturally tight, since somehow
I bursted in the first round. I was able to OS him once, but ended up losing 1-3 after bouncing into the pocket accidentally twice.
In the final match, I used
Evipero Gravity Unite, Valkyrie Armed Orbit, and Neptune Yell Xtend+ against Ardmore Bladers' Dragoon F Polish Xtend+, Deathscyther Heavy Revolve, and Storm Spriggan Yell Destroy'. After discouraging him from using S2 with a convincing KO snipe with Neptune, I was able to trap him in the feedback loop by losing to Deathscyther with Neptune, and then coming back to burst it with Valkyrie twice to win 5-2.
June 22, 2019 - Philadelphia, PA -
Lightning Strikes Tomorrow
1st - bladekid
Beat Eagle 105R2F
Earth Gemios SR200TB
Meteo L-Drago II LW105WD
Bakushin Cancer 90WD (Deck Format Finals Only)
2nd - Wombat
MF-L Earth Sagittario II TR145EWD
MF-H Gravity Perseus (Stamina) 85RB
MSF-H Bandid Wyvang (Crystal Up) H145RSF
MF-H Lightning L-Drago (Upper Mode) CH120RF
MF-L Virgo TH170EDS
MF Escolpio LW105EWD (Deck Format Finals Only)
MF-L Gravity Perseus (Stamina) TH170HF/S (Deck Format Finals Only)
3rd - Common Pickle
Meteo L-Drago II D125EWD
MF-L Burn Cygnus TH170MB
MF Lightning L-Drago S130RSF
MF Lightning L-Drago T125R2F (Deck Format Finals Only)
Not really much to see here, this was a pretty small event, just with barely enough people to be ranked (unfortunately?). There was a lot of Meteo going around which at least made it so you couldn't just spam Flame 230 or some other HTSC and win. The main reason I lost the final battle 4-5 was because bladekid didn't use the Meteo combo in his deck and instead went for Bakushin 90WD, which made both Lightning and
MLMPPCRTTH provide less coverage than I had originally hoped. In the end I had to bet it all on LLD, but ended up losing to his Earth combo.
Going back to MFB Limited after not touching it for almost a year put a weird perspective on things - It's a pretty unanimous opinion among competitive players that Attack is terrible in Burst Standard (though Judgement has changed this) and while it's definitely powerful in Burst Classic, it's at its best state in MFB Limited. However, in the days leading up to the tournament and during the tournament itself, I found myself surprised by how
weak Attack actually is in Limited. No matter what Burst format, I feel like I can launch full power with Xtreme', just because it has such good grip and a tight flower pattern, and still not self KO - but this isn't the case with any rubber Attack tip in Limited just because compared to the Burst Stadium, even the Takara Tomy BB-10's Tornado Ridge is god awful. During practice, I probably self-KOed about 10 times in a row with Lightning, and even my MF combos would regularly fly out even after settling into a level Tornado Stall. This definitely showed during the tournament in the final match and when I barely beat Common Pickle's Burn combo 3-2 with Bandid Wyvang - both times I probably didn't launch as hard as I should have, just because unlike in Burst the self-KO risk is very high.