2009 Dragon Duel Champion Naveen Shankar
KDE: How old are you and where are you from?
NAVEEN: I turned 13 on January 7th, and I am from Silver Spring, Maryland.
KDE: When and how did you first become interested in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME?
NAVEEN: When I was young I collected a different card game. One day my dad showed me Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards and I found the art and the complexity of the cards a lot more enjoyable. I started collecting cards after that.
KDE: What is the name of the local store where you play?
NAVEEN: Dreamwizards.
KDE: What is your favorite card?
NAVEEN: Dark Magician Knight. I love the art.
KDE: What Deck did you use to win the 12-and-Under National Championship? How did you design it?
NAVEEN: I played Blackwings. It was a pretty standard build I made using ideas from SHONEN JUMP Championship builds.
KDE: How did it feel to win the 12-and-Under National Championship and a trip to Japan?
NAVEEN: I was really tired when I actually won the trip to Japan. The full force of it hit me later. I was ecstatic!
KDE: What did you do to prepare for your trip to Japan?
NAVEEN: Blackwing was the deck I was playing at the time anyway, so I guess I prepared by just going to locals and regionals.
KDE: What was the weirdest experience or food you had in Japan?
NAVEEN: The lack of showers and the prevalence of public baths.
KDE: What were you looking forward to seeing at Jump Festa?
NAVEEN: I am a big anime fan, I like Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, Whistle!, Prince of Tennis (I love how they’re making “New Prince of Tennis”), and liked Dragonball Z while it was running, so I was looking forward to seeing anything cool about those mangas, as well as playing any video games that were being promoted.
KDE: What was the most interesting Deck you Dueled against in Japan? Describe the Deck theme and some key cards that the Deck used.
NAVEEN: I played against a cool Empty Jar deck. It’s a deck that uses Book of Eclipse/Moon and Book of Taiyou in conjunction with Morphing Jar, Morphing Jar #2, and Needle Worm to deck the opponent out. It also used Hand Destruction to get the opponent to put monsters in the graveyard as fuel for “The Shallow Grave.”
KDE: What did you enjoy doing most in Japan?
One was going to Jump Festa, the other was eating ramen.
