Pegasus League Finale Feature Match: Esteban Flores vs. Ryan Spicer
In today’s Pegasus League Deck Challenge, Esteban Flores is undefeated with his Gemini Deck, while his opponent Ryan Spicer is playing Blackwings with “Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter” and “The Dark Creator.” Both Decks bring unique strengths to the table and played clean through the elimination rounds to get to this point. Now all that remained was to crown a final winner for this Pegasus League!
Spicer opened with “Fissure,” “Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame,” “Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North,” “Trap Hole,” and 2 “Book of Moon.” He Summoned Shura, Set Book, and ended. Flores activated “Hand Destruction,” sending “Dark Valkyria” and “Featherizer” to his Graveyard to draw 2 cards. Spicer ditched “Fissure” and “Book of Moon,” getting “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow” and “Blackwing – Mistral the Silver Shield.” Flores Normal Summoned “Gemini Scorpion,” Special Summoned “Dark Valkyria” with Scorpion’s effect, and attacked with Valkyria – Spicer activated Kalut’s effect to boost Shura’s ATK and Valkyria was destroyed.
Shura’s effect let Spicer Summon another Kalut, and Flores ended by Setting two cards to his back row. Spicer drew another Shura, attacked Scorpion with his first Shura, and Flores activated “Magic Cylinder.” He Normal Summoned Mistral, Tuned it to the Kalut he got with Shura, and Synchro Summoned “Ally of Justice Catastor”! He Set another Spell or Trap and ended. In the End Phase, Flores activated “Soul Resurrection” to bring back “Dark Valkyria.”
He turned her to Attack Position, Normal Summoned her, and Spicer activated “Trap Hole”! Flores Set another card to his Spell & Trap Card Zone, turned “Gemini Scorpion” to Defense Position, and lost it to Shura next turn. Catastor made a direct attack and Spicer Set another Spell or Trap.
Flores Special Summoned “Woodland Archer,” Tributed it for its effect, and searched his Deck for “Evocator Chevalier.” He Normal Summoned Evocator, Spicer flipped it face-down with Book, and Flores ended. Flores had 4400 Life Points left.
Spicer Normal Summoned Blizzard, used its effect to Special Summon Kalut, and Tuned all three of his Blackwings together for “Mist Wurm”! The Wurm blew away all of Flores’ on-field cards and then Spicer attacked with both of his Synchro Monsters for game!
A huge “Mist Wurm” play brings a slow, grinding Duel to an unexpected finish, as Ryan Spicer captures the first Duel! Spicer dove into his Side Deck before Duel 2 began.
Flores Normal Summoned “Dark Valkyria,” Set 2 cards to his Spell & Trap Card Zone and ended. Spicer had “The Dark Creator,” “Trap Hole,” “Mirror Force,” “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow,” “Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame,” and “Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North.” He Summoned Shura, attacked Valkyria, and ran into “Magic Cylinder.” He Set “Mirror Force,” Set “Trap Hole,” and ended.
Flores Normal Summoned his Valkyria again, Spicer responded with “Trap Hole,” and Flores Chained “Gemini Spark” to destroy Shura and draw a card! Another Set Spell or Trap ended his turn. But Spicer fired back, Summoning “Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North” to Special Summon Shura and Synchro Summon “Blackwing Armed Wing”! He attacked for 2300 damage, and in the End Phase Flores activated “Soul Resurrection” to bring back “Dark Valkyria.”
He Normal Summoned it again next turn, and this time Spicer activated “Book of Moon” in response to keep his Armed Wing safe. Flores Set another Spell or Trap, and when Armed Wing attacked Valkyria, Flores protected her by turning Armed Wing face-down with a Book of his own. He Flip Summoned “Dark Valkyria” next turn, attached “Supervise” to her, and placed a Spell Counter on Valkyria. He removed it to destroy Armed Wing, then attacked for 1800 damage. He Set another Spell or Trap.
Spicer had a hand of “Card Trooper,” Kalut, Dark Creator, and “Mind Control.” He Summoned Trooper, sending another Dark Creator, “Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter,” and “Charge of the Light Brigade” to his Graveyard to boost Trooper up to 1900 ATK. Trooper attacked, Flores flipped “Sakuretsu Armor,” and when Trooper was destroyed Spicer drew a card with its effect – “Allure of Darkness.” That got him “Fissure” and another Blizzard, and he removed Kalut for Allure’s effect.
He activated “Fissure,” destroying Valkyria – she came back due to “Supervise’s” effect. Flores attacked with her for 1800 damage and Set another Spell or Trap. Spicer drew “Widespread Ruin” and counted his DARKs in his Graveyard – he only had 4, not quite enough for “The Dark Creator.”
He Normal Summoned Blizzard though, which would become his fifth DARK, Special Summoning Shura with Blizzard’s effect. He took Valkyria with “Mind Control,” Tuned Blizzard to her, and Synchro Summoned another Armed Wing. Armed Wing attacked, Flores activated “Sakuretsu Armor,” and Armed Wing went down. Spicer Set a card to his back row.
Flores Summoned “Tuned Magician” to attack and destroy Shura. Spicer Special Summoned “The Dark Creator” next turn, removed Blizzard from his Graveyard for its effect, and Special Summoned “Blackwing Armed Wing”! Armed Wing attacked, Flores activated “Kunai with Chain,” and turned Armed Wing to defense while boosting “Tuned Magician” to 2300 ATK! Spicer couldn’t attack, and Set a monster.
Flores activated “Mystical Space Typhoon” next turn, destroying Spicer’s “Widespread Ruin.” “Tuned Magician” attacked and Spicer destroyed it with “Mirror Force.” In Main Phase 2 Flores Special Summoned “Dark Simorgh.”
Spicer Flip Summoned “Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter,” destroying “Dark Simorgh”! Spicer then Special Summoned a second Armed Wing with Dark Creator and attacked with everything for game!
Ryan Spicer wins the Match and the tournament, winning the Pegasus League Deck Challenge with a heavily modified Blackwing build!
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Post-Event Analysis!
See what our expert had to say about this Duel after the event was over.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
At the start of Duel 1, Flores had a “Gemini Scorpion” and “Dark Valkyria” on the field against Spicer’s Shura. After Flores attacked Shura with “Dark Valkyria” and Spicer dropped Kalut from his hand to boost Shura’s ATK and Special Summon Kalut from his Deck, Flores should have attacked Kalut with “Gemini Scorpion.” Even if Spicer could stop the attack or boost his Kalut to destroy the Scorpion, at least Flores would be able to force Spicer to use one of his cards to deal with a 1600 ATK monster that barely posed a threat. The opportunity to destroy Kalut should not have been passed up in that situation, since it left Spicer able to Synchro Summon “Ally of Justice Catastor” on his next turn.