Marshaun Young is running his Shutendoji Control Deck in this Duel. We’re about to see how well it will stand up against Tim Fratt’s Plant Deck.

Fratt won the dice roll and chose to go first. He Set 2 cards face-down and then Summoned “Lonefire Blossom.” He Tributed it to take “Gigaplant” from his Deck and Special Summon it. He ended his turn.

Young opened up with “Pyramid Turtle,” “Gold Sarcophagus,” “Heavy Storm,” “Spirit Reaper,” “Burial from a Different Dimension” and “Plaguespreader Zombie.” Then he activated “Heavy Storm”! Fratt lost “Wall of Thorns” and chained “Waboku.” Young activated his “Gold Sarcophagus” next and searched his Deck for “Brain Control.” He’d get it in two more turns. Next, he Set “Pyramid Turtle” and ended his turn.

Fratt drew for his turn and then Gemini Summoned the “Gigaplant” he had on the field. Then he activated the effect of “Gigaplant” to Special Summon “Lonefire Blossom” from the Graveyard and Tributed it to Special Summon “Tytannial, Princess of Camellias” from his Deck. “Gigaplant” attacked Young’s face-down “Pyramid Turtle” and Young Special Summoned another one in Defense Position. Fratt ended his turn without attacking with Tytannial.

Young drew a “Goblin Zombie” next turn and Set it before ending his turn.

Fratt drew for turn and then activated the effect of “Gigaplant” to Special Summon “Lonefire Blossom” again. He Tributed it to Special Summon “Nettles” from his Deck.  Next, he Tuned “Nettles” to “Gigaplant” and Synchro Summoned “Red Dragon Archfiend”! “Red Dragon Archfiend” attacked “Pyramid Turtle” and Young’s face-down “Goblin Zombie” was destroyed with it. Young searched his Deck for “Zombie Master” with the effect of “Goblin Zombie.” Tytannial attacked directly and Young dropped to 5200 Life Points. In Main Phase 2, Fratt Normal Summoned “Lonefire Blossom” and ended his turn, but Lonefire was destroyed in the End Phase by the effect of “Red Dragon Archfiend.”

Young drew “Sangan” next turn and added “Brain Control” to his hand from the “Gold Sarcophagus” he used 2 turns earlier. He Summoned “Zombie Master” and then discarded “Plaguespreader Zombie” from his hand to Special Summon “Goblin Zombie” from the Graveyard. Then he put “Sangan” on top of his Deck to Special Summon “Plaguespreader Zombie” from his Graveyard and tuned “Plaguespreader Zombie” to “Goblin Zombie” to Synchro Summon “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier” while “Plaguespreader Zombie” was removed from play. He searched for “Mezuki” with the effect of “Goblin Zombie” and added it to his hand. Next, Young discarded “Mezuki” with Brionac and targeted Tytannial with its effect. Fratt Tributed her to negate the effect and destroy Brionac. Next, Young activated “Brain Control” on “Red Dragon Archfiend.” Then he removed a “Mezuki” from his Graveyard to Special Summon “Goblin Zombie” and activated Burial to return “Plaguespreader Zombie” and “Mezuki” to the Graveyard. He removed “Mezuki” again to Special Summon “Plaguespreader Zombie” before he Tuned “Plaguespreader Zombie” to “Goblin Zombie” and Synchro Summoned another “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier”! Then he removed a second “Mezuki” from his Graveyard to Special Summon “Plaguespreader Zombie” and Tuned it to his “Zombie Master” to Synchro Summon “Goyo Guardian.” All 3 monsters, Brionac, “Goyo Guardian” and “Red Dragon Archfiend,” attacked directly for over 8000 damage, ending the Duel!

Both players Side Decked and Fratt chose to begin the second Duel. He started it off by activating “The World Tree.” Then he Set 1 card to his back row and Summoned “Lonefire Blossom.” He Tributed “Lonefire Blossom” to Special Summon “Gigaplant” from his Deck and ended his turn.

Young opened up with “Mind Control,” “Spirit Reaper,” “Gorz the Emissary of Darkness,” “Burial from a Different Dimension,” “Tragoedia,” and “Mezuki.”

Young Set Reaper and ended his turn. Play passed back to Fratt.

First, Fratt Set 1 card to his Spell and Trap Zone. Then he Normal Summoned his on-field “Gigaplant” Special Summoned “Lonefire Blossom” with its effect. He Tributed “Lonefire Blossom” for “Evil Thorn” and then Tributed the “Evil Thorn” immediately. Young dropped to 7700 Life Points and Fratt Special Summoned 2 more copies of “Evil Thorn” from his Deck. Gigaplant attacked Young’s face-down “Spirit Reaper,” unable to destroy it. Fratt ended his turn.

Young drew a second “Tragoedia” next turn and ended without making a play.

Fratt drew a card and then Normal Summoned “Copy Plant” to the field. He copied the Level of “Gigaplant” and then Tuned it to “Evil Thorn” to Synchro Summon “Black Rose Dragon.” “Black Rose Dragon” removed an “Evil Thorn” from the Graveyard and targeted Reaper with its effect to destroy it. Then he switched “Evil Thorn” to Defense Position and attacked with “Black Rose Dragon.” Young dropped “Gorz” from his hand and got a 2400 DEF token in Defense Position. Fratt ended his turn.

Young drew “Royal Decree” next turn. He attacked “Gigaplant” with Gorz but Fratt flipped “Wall of Thorns.” Young lost his Gorz, and Set 1 Spell or Trap Card before ending his turn.

Fratt Set 1 Spell or Trap Card face-down and then activated the effect of “Gigaplant” to Special Summon “Lonefire Blossom” from his Graveyard. Then he Tributed it to Special Summon Tytannial from his Deck in Defense Position. Fratt activated the effect of “Black Rose Dragon” next by removing “Evil Thorn” from his Graveyard to switch the Young’s Token to Attack Position and make its attack zero. “Black Rose Dragon” attacked the Token and Young dropped to 3200 Life Points. Gigaplant attacked next and Young dropped to 800 Life Points. He Special Summoned “Tragoedia” to the field in Defense Position after taking the hit. Fratt Set 1 more card to his Spell and Trap Zone before entering his End Phase. In Fratt’s End Phase, Young flipped “Royal Decree.” Fratt chained “Waboku,” even though it wouldn’t do anything for him.

Young switched “Tragoedia” to Attack Position next turn and then attacked “Black Rose Dragon.” He had 5 cards in his hand, so Fratt took 600 damage. Young ended his turn with no other play.

Fratt activated “Mark of the Rose” next turn to steal “Tragoedia” and then attacked Young directly with “Gigaplant” to eliminate his remaining Life Points.

Young would be going first in the third Duel! Young opened up with “Mezuki,” “Allure of Darkness,” “Reckless Greed,” “Mystical Space Typhoon,” “Card Trooper” and “Tragoedia.” He Set “Reckless Greed” and a monster before ending his turn.

Fratt opened up with “Mystical Space Typhoon” and targeted “Reckless Greed.” Young chained it to draw “Royal Decree” and “Pyramid Turtle.” Fratt Set a card to each zone before ending his turn.

Young skipped his Draw Phase and then Set Decree and another monster before passing back to Fratt.

Fratt began his next turn by Summoning “Evil Thorn” to the field. He activated its effect to Special Summon two more copies of “Evil Thorn” from his Deck and do 300 damage to Young before ending his turn.

Young skipped his Draw Phase again and then activated “Allure of Darkness.” He drew “Foolish Burial” and “Deep Sea Diva” before removing a “Tragoedia” from his hand. He Summoned “Deep Sea Diva” and activated its effect to Special Summon a second Diva from the Deck. Then Flip Summon “Card Trooper” and activated its effect to send “Zombie Master,” Gorz, and “Tragoedia” from his Deck to his Graveyard. Next, he Flip Summoned “Pyramid Turtle.” He Tuned “Pyramid Turtle” to “Deep Sea Diva” and Special Summoned “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier”! Then he activated “Foolish Burial” and sent “Goblin Zombie” to the Graveyard. Young pitched “Mezuki” from his hand to bounce Fratt’s face-down monster next. He removed Mezuki from his Graveyard to Special Summon “Goblin Zombie,” then tuned it to “Deep Sea Diva” to Special Summon “Goyo Guardian” and searched for Mezuki. He discarded Mezuki to bounce the other “Evil Thorn” and then Special Summoned “Goblin Zombie” from his Graveyard by removing it.

“Goblin Zombie” attacked directly, sending “Compulsory Evacuation Device” from the top of Fratt’s Deck to his Graveyard. “Card Trooper” followed up with an attack. Then Brionac attacked Fratt, but he flipped “Shrink”! “Goyo Guardian” attacked next and Fratt dropped to 1050. Shrink had saved him!

But it couldn’t help him enough. Fratt drew a card next turn and conceded, unable to do anything else.

Marshaun Young defeats Fratt’s Plant Deck and earns a narrow 2-1 victory!

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Post-Event Analysis!
See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over.

Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)

It’s important to plan out an entire turn before making any plays. When Fratt waited until his Main Phase 2 to Summon “Lonefire Blossom,” he gave up the chance to attack Young for additional damage. He even lost his monster to the effect of “Red Dragon Archfiend,” since it couldn’t attack after he Summoned it. If Fratt had thought out his entire turn from the beginning, the benefits of Summoning “Lonefire Blossom” in Main Phase 1 instead of Main Phase 2 would have been clear to him.

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Matt Peddle (2009 Canadian National Championship Runner-Up; Five-Time Top 8 National Finalist)

Fratt had a great opening hand to counter Young’s Zombie Deck in Duel 1, but must have forgotten about the “Brain Control” Young would receive from “Gold Sarcophagus.”  Tuning for “Red Dragon Archfiend” was a good way to destroy “Pyramid Turtle” without allowing Young to search for another Zombie to add to his field.  However it ended up costing Fratt the game because without any other Plant monsters, he was forced to Tribute “Tytannial, Princess of Camellias” to her own effect. If he had instead continued to use “Gigaplant” to Special Summon “Lonefire Blossum” and create a wall of Plant monsters, he would have been able to negate both “Brain Control” and “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier” while still keeping his Tytannial on the field.

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

Fratt’s first mistake came when he started the Duel off by setting two defensive traps in his first turn. With “Waboku” set, there was very little need for “Wall of Thorns,” as “Waboku” can easily be chained to any destruction Young could throw his way. The fear of “Heavy Storm” should always be in the back of every Duelist’s mind as losing two cards for the price of one is almost never a fair trade when your opponent has something to say about it.

Since Zombies almost always start out slowly, setting their “Pyramid Turtles” and “Goblin Zombies” in order to search out key cards, the “Waboku” may have been better saved for a later point in the duel. If “Waboku” was still around when Young made his final flurry of Synchro Summons in game 1, the end result may have been different. In fact, the Set Trap may have been enough to bluff Fratt out long enough to win the game before the Summons even happened!

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