. Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Event Coverage » Round 11 Feature Match: Richard Clarke vs. Sascha Foitzik
Home > 2010/01 - Los Angeles, California, SHONEN JUMP Championships > Round 11 Feature Match: Richard Clarke vs. Sascha Foitzik

Round 11 Feature Match: Richard Clarke vs. Sascha Foitzik

January 10th, 2010

Both of these Duelists had 8-2 records heading into this, the final Swiss Round before the cut to Top 16, which meant it was up in the air whether either of them could make the playoffs. Hopes were running high, and both competitors were clearly about to give this Match their all!

Foitzik won the roll and got us started with “Gold Sarcophagus,” removing “Judgment Dragon” from his Deck to retrieve it in 2 turns. He Set a monster. Clarke had a hand of “Future Fusion,” “Bottomless Trap Hole,” “Torrential Tribute,” “Red-Eyes Wyvern,” “Solemn Judgment,” and “Masked Dragon.” He activated “Future Fusion,” declaring “Five-Headed Dragon” and sending “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon,” “Koa’ki Meiru Drago,” 2 “Red-Eyes Wyvern,” and “Prime Material Dragon” to his Graveyard! “Future Fusion” is absolutely the best opening move a Dragon Deck can make, setting up a huge set of plays that are tough to stop. He Set Solemn, Set “Bottomless Trap Hole,” and moved to his End Phase, where he removed a Wyvern from his Graveyard to Special Summon “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon” (REDMD).

Foitzik Flip Summoned “Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter,” destroying REDMD and sending “Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner,” “Monster Reincarnation,” and “Judgment Dragon” to the Graveyard. He Normal Summoned “Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress” and lost her to “Bottomless Trap Hole.” Foitzik attacked with Ryko and ended his turn with 4 cards in hand.

Clarke thought a while, wavering between Setting a monster, Setting “Torrential Tribute,” and Special Summoning REDMD again. He opted to Set “Torrential Tribute” and a monster, ending. Next turn Foitzik got his “Judgment Dragon” and Normal Summoned “Ehren, Lightsworn Monk,” drawing out Clarke’s “Torrential Tribute.” He lost his “Red-Eyes Wyvern.” Foitzik ended, Clarke drew, and he Special Summoned “Five-Headed Dragon” with “Future Fusion”!

He removed Five-Headed for REDMD, Special Summoned “Koa’ki Meiru Drago” from his Graveyard, attacked with Drago for 1900 damage, and struck with REDMD for 2800. He Set a monster, revealed “Masked Dragon” for Drago, and ended. Foitzik activated “Charge of the Light Brigade,” sending “Burial From a Different Dimension,” “Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner,” and “Celestia, Lightsworn Angel” to his Graveyard to get “Jain, Lightsworn Paladin.” He had to get that Drago off the field – with Drago on the table his “Judgment Dragon” couldn’t come out, and Lumina would be shut down as well.

He Summoned Jain in a bid to attack over Drago, but Clarke negated her Summon with “Solemn Judgment.” Foitzik looked at his hand, ran a few numbers in his head, and immediately conceded: “Game for you.” Both competitors began Side Decking.

Richard Clarke hits that first turn “Future Fusion” and rides it to victory, totally shutting down Sascha Foitzik’s Lightsworn Deck with “Koa’ki Meiru Drago”! Clarke had the perfect hand, and knew just how to use it. Play moved to Duel 2.

R11FMatch-Clarke

Foitzik opened up with “Charge of the Light Brigade,” sending 2 “Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter,” and “Blackwing – Elphin the Raven” to the Graveyard to get “Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner.” He activated a second Charge next, this time sending “Judgment Dragon,” “Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress,” and “Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor” to his Graveyard to get “Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior”! His Graveyard was now loaded with Vayu and Elphin, and could remove them from the Graveyard to Special Summon “Blackwing Armor Master.” He Summoned Lumina, discarded and Special Summoned “Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior,” then sent “Jain, Lightsworn Paladin,” “Plaguespreader Zombie,” “Charge of the Light Brigade,” “Heavy Storm,” and “Threatening Roar” to the Graveyard. No draw with Garoth, but he did have that “Plaguespreader Zombie” loaded and ready.

Clarke had “Masked Dragon,” “Exploder Dragon,” “Stamping Destruction,” “Light-Imprisoning Mirror,” “Lightning Vortex,” and REDMD. He Summoned “Masked Dragon,” attacked Lumina and destroyed her. He Set “Light-Imprisoning Mirror” and ended. Foitzik Tributed Garoth for “Celestia, Lightsworn Angel”!

He sent Lyla, “Necro Gardna,” “Solar Recharge,” and “Threatening Roar” to the Graveyard for the cost of Celestia’s effect, and Clarke Chained “Light-Imprisoning Mirror” to stop Celestia from destroying his cards. Foitzik pressed on, removing Vayu and Elphin to Special Summon Armor Master. That “Lightning Vortex” in Clarke’s hand was looking pretty good – it didn’t seem as if Foitzik would be able to get rid of that “Masked Dragon,” which meant there was no way he was going to be able to end the game this turn.

He discarded “Necro Gardna” for “Monster Reincarnation,” Special Summoned “Judgment Dragon,” attacked “Masked Dragon,” and dealt 1600 damage. Clarke Special Summoned another copy from his Deck in Defense Position. Celestia attacked it, Clarke got his third copy in Defense, and Foitzik didn’t attack with Armor Master. He had just 2 cards left in hand.

Clarke activated the Vortex, discarding “Red-Eyes Wyvern.” Celestia, Armor Master, and “Judgment Dragon” were all destroyed! “Masked Dragon” attacked for 1400 damage and Clarke ended with 3 cards in hand, the Dragon on the field, and “Light-Imprisoning Mirror” still face-up.

Foitzik drew to 3 cards with “Plaguespreader Zombie” and 2 “Necro Gardna” in the Graveyard. He Normal Summoned “Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn,” placed a card on top of his Deck to Special Summon Plaguespreader, and Tuned his two monsters together to Synchro Summon “Black Rose Dragon.” He activated its effect and destroyed “Masked Dragon” and “Light-Imprisoning Mirror,” but only had 1 card left in his hand! He ended with a blank field.

Clarke Summoned “Red-Eyes Wyvern,” removed it from the game, and Special Summoned “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon”! He activated its effect to Special Summon “Masked Dragon,” attacked for 1400 damage, and attacked with REDMD – Foitzik blocked that attack with “Necro Gardna.” He had 4800 Life Points left to Clarke’s 6400.

Foitzik drew, and discarded “Celestia, Lightsworn Angel” for “Monster Reincarnation”! He took back “Judgment Dragon,” Special Summoned it, and paid 1000 Life Points to destroy REDMD and “Masked Dragon”! Foitzik attacked for 3000 damage, then sent Vayu, Burial, “Solar Recharge,” and Lumina to the Graveyard! He was suddenly back in the Match!

Clarke Summoned “Exploder Dragon,” but it just wasn’t enough. He attacked with it, Foitzik removed “Necro Gardna,” and it was all over a turn later. Foitzik activated “Judgment Dragon’s” effect, destroyed “Exploder Dragon,” then removed Vayu and Armor Master to Special Summon “Blackwing – Silverwind the Ascendant.” “Burial From a Different Dimension” got him another Armor Master, and he attacked with everything for the win!

Sascha Foitzik presses early, Richard Clarke fights back with a wall of “Masked Dragons” and “Lightning Vortex,” and Foitzik regains control to take the Duel with authority! Both of these Duelists were fighting their hardest, still clinging to the slim chance of making the Top 16!

R11FMatch-Foit

Clarke had “Totem Dragon,” “Yamata Dragon,” “Gold Sarcophagus,” “Burial From a Different Dimension,” “Book of Moon,” and “Enemy Controller” to start the last Duel. He activated Sarcophagus and removed “Future Fusion” from his Deck. He Set “Totem Dragon,” Set “Book of Moon,” and ended. Could he pull off an early “Yamata Dragon” play?

Foitzik actiated “Charge of the Light Brigade,” sending “Monster Reincarnation,” “Wave-Motion Cannon,” and “Blackwing – Elphin the Raven” to the Graveyard to get “Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner.” He Normal Summoned “Ehren, Lightsworn Monk,” attacked “Totem Dragon,” and Clarke flipped her face-down with “Book of Moon.” Foitzik ended.

Clarke drew “Koa’ki Meiru Drago.” He Summoned it, attacked Ehren, and destroyed her. He Set “Enemy Controller,” then revealed “Yamata Dragon” to keep “Koa’ki Meiru Drago” around. Foitzik was stuck between a rock and a hard place and probably didn’t quite know it yet.

He Normal Summoned “Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn,” attacked, and lost out as “Enemy Controller” turned Sirocco to Defense. He ended with nothing else on the table. Clarke took his “Future Fusion,” Flip Summoned “Totem Dragon,” and Tribute Summoned “Yamata Dragon” using “Totem Dragon” as both Tributes! He Set “Future Fusion,” attacked Sirocco with Drago, and scored a direct hit with “Yamata Dragon” to draw 4 cards! Unbelievable! In his End Phase he returned “Yamata Dragon” to his hand and revealed it to keep Drago on the table.

Foitzik blasted him with “Heavy Storm” next turn, destroying “Burial From a Different Dimension” and “Future Fusion.” He had 5 cards in hand, and discarded “Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor” for “Monster Reincarnation” to take back Sirocco. He Summoned it again, attacked Drago, and ended his turn. Clarke drew.

He Special Summoned “Totem Dragon” in his Standby Phase, then removed it from the game to Special Summon REDMD. He activated its effect to bring back Drago, Normal Summoned “Masked Dragon,” and ran it into Sirocco to Special Summon “Exploder Dragon” from his Deck. He slammed “Exploder Dragon” into Sirocco to destroy it, then made direct attacks with “Koa’ki Meiru Drago” and REDMD for a combined total of 4700 damage. He Set a Spell or Trap and revealed “Yamata Dragon” again. Foitzik had just 700 Life Points remaining and his Special Summons were locked down by Drago.

He Set a monster and ended. Clarke activated REDMD’s effect next turn, Special Summoned “Red-Eyes Wyvern” from his hand, Normal Summoned another, and Foitzik gave up!

“Yamata Dragon” hits the table, scores Richard Clarke 4 draws in a single turn, and secures the Match! Whether he makes the Top 16 or not you can’t deny that Richard Clarke just put on one heck of a show!

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See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over.

Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)

Clarke was able to make a lot of moves that surprised his opponents throughout the tournament. This gave him a big advantage over the Duelists who were using Decks that are more common to see, since he knew all of their cards but they didn’t know most of his. It can be hard to predict the plays Clarke can make with his Deck after seeing him Tribute “Totem Dragon” for “Yamata Dragon,” since that kind of play is something very few Duelists have actually encountered.

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Michael McTavish (Top 8 Finalist – 2009 Canadian National Championship)

In this match, Foitzik made the same misplay a couple times, where he decided to use his monsters, such as his “Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor” at inappropriate times, leaving himself open to Clarke’s own attacks the following turn. Also worth mentioning, during game 2, Clarke set his “Future Fusion” in order to get one more draw from “Yamata Dragon”. Since that is one of the most important cards in a Dragon deck; a card that can win games by itself, he probably should have sacrificed the draw. The fact that it was destroyed didn’t end up mattering however, as Clarke won the match shortly after.

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P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)

In the first Duel, Clarke had “Five-Headed Dragon” on the field, but he removed it from play to Summon “Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon” (REDMD), and brought out “Koa’ki Meiru Drago” with its effect. While “Five-Headed Dragon” is one of the strongest monsters around with a whopping 5000 ATK, it can be defeated by many cards that Foitzik uses in his Deck. Instead, Clarke aimed to control the game, stopping his opponent from Special Summoning “Judgment Dragon”, and opening up a play to bring back “Koa’ki Meiru Drago” with REDMD if Foitzik managed to destroy it.

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