Round 1 Feature Match: Dan Kitsko vs. Sorosh Saberian
Dan Kitsko is a local Duelist from right here, in Edison, New Jersey. He’s playing a Fairy Deck here today, packed with cards like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Shining Angel, Honest, and Dimensional Alchemist.
His opponent is Sorosh Saberian, one of several Canadian Duelists playing Quickdraw Dandywarrior Decks this weekend. With Quickdraw aiming to become one of the top Decks of this tournament, it’s a great chance to kick off our coverage here today with a look at a Deck never before seen at a SHONEN JUMP Championship.
Saberian opened the Match with a hand of Caius the Shadow Monarch, 2 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunters, Dimensional Prison, Foolish Burial, and Pot of Avarice. It wasn’t a great hand. Saberian had access to Dandylion thanks to Foolish Burial, but the only use he had for it would be the lone Caius, since he had no Quickdraw Synchron or Debris Dragon in sight. He Set Ryko, Set Prison, and ended.
Kitsko Set a monster himself, set a card to his Spell & Trap Card Zone, and ended. Saberian drew Quickdraw Synchron, Flip Summoned Ryko, destroyed Prison, and then sent Solemn Judment, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon to his graveyard. He Tributed Ryko for Caius, and targeted Kitsko’s face-down monster for removal, but Kitso discarded Herald of Orange Light and Honest to negate Caius’s effect and destroy it! Saberian pressed on. He activated Foolish Burial, sending Dandylion to the Graveyard to Special Summon 2 Fluff Tokens.
Kitsko flipped his own Ryko next turn, to send Soul of Purity and Light, D. D. Warrior Lady, and Bottomless Trap Hole to his Graveyard, destroying Saberian’s Dimensional Prison. Shining Angel and Ryko attacked the Fluff Tokens, and Kitsko Set a card to his back row.
Saberian drew Cyber Valley, Set Ryko, and Kitsko was up. He turned his Ryko to Defense Position, attacked with Shining Angel, and Ryko destroyed it. Another Set Spell or Trap ended Kitsko’s turn.
Saberian activated Pot of Avarice next turn, sending back Debris Dragon, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, 2 Rykos, and Caius the Shadow Monarch to his Deck to draw 2 cards. He was left with a hand of Ryko, Mirror Force, Cyber Valley, Book of Moon, and Quickdraw Synchron. He Set Ryko, Set Mirror Force, Set Book, and ended.
Kitsko Summoned Dimensional Alchemist, activating its effect to remove Book of Moon from the top of his Deck and boost Alchemist’s ATK. The Alchemist attacked Ryko, Ryko sent Lonefire Blossom, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Torrential Tribute to the Graveyard, and Kitso lost his face-down Smashing Ground. Saberian Summoned Cyber Valley next turn, trying to defend himself.
Kitsko activated Dimensional Alchemist’s effect, removing Herald of Orange Light. Alchemist attacked, Saberian activated Cyber Valley’s effect, and the Valley was removed to keep Saberian alive another turn. Kitsko Set a Spell or Trap.
Saberian Set another Ryko, freshly drawn, but had nothing else. Kitsko flipped Book of Moon in the End Phase, flipped his own Ryko face-down, and next turn he removed Dust Tornado to boost Alchemist’s ATK. Kitsko Flip Summoned Ryko, destroyed Saberian’s copy of Ryko, and attacked with Ryko and Alchemist. He Set another card to his back row to finish his turn, seemingly in total control.
Saberian passed, holding Pot of Avarice, Caius, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Quickdraw. Kitsko removed his Heavy Storm from his Deck with Alchemist’s effect, turned Ryko to Defense Position, and attacked with Alchemist for another 1800 damage. He Set a monster and Saberian was down to 4200 Life Points. Saberian Set another Spell or Trap next turn.
Kitsko boosted Alchemist again, this time removing Solemn Judgment and scoring another 1800 damage. Saberian passed, Kitsko removed Bottomless Trap Hole to power up Alchemist, and when the Alchemist attacked again, Saberian Special Summoned Battle Fader to block the attack! Kitsko Set a monster to end his turn, now controlling 4 monsters total with 2 cards in his back row.
Saberian drew, and activated Dust Tornado to destroy his opponent’s face-down Dimensional Prison. He Tributed Battle Fader for Caius the Shadow Monarch, removed Alchemist, and attacked Ryko. He lost his face-down Mirror Force to Kitsko’s Mystical Space Typhoon in the End Phase.
Kitsko Flip Summoned Ryko, sending Thunder King Rai-Oh, Dimensional Prison, and Book of Moon to his Graveyard to destroy Saberian’s Book of Moon with Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. He followed up by Summoning Freed the Brave Warrior, removed 2 LIGHT monsters from his Deck, and destroyed Caius! He Flip Summoned Shining Angel, attacked with Ryko, and attacked with the Angel, but Saberian Special Summoned Gorz, with 800 Life Points left! Freed couldn’t attack, but Kitsko destroyed Gorz with Smashing Ground in Main Phase 2. He had 1 card left in hand.
It was time for a turn-around. Saberian Summoned Debris Dragon, brought back Dandylion, and Synchro Summoned Black Rose Dragon to destroy everything on the field! Suddenly he had 3 cards and 2 Tokens on the field to his opponent’s single in-hand card! He activated Pot of Avarice and drew Call of the Haunted and Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, adding them to his hand of Dandylion and Quickdraw. He discarded Dandylion to Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron, Special Summoned 2 more Fluff Tokens, and Tuned one to Quickdraw to Synchro Summon Drill Warrior!
He attacked for 2400 damage with Drill Warrior, discarded Tytannial to remove Drill Warrior from play, and Set his last card to his back row. Next turn Kitsko Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, normal Summoned Shining Angel, and attacked 2 of the 3 Fluff Tokens. Saberian was up.
He Special Summoned his Drill Warrior and used its effect to bring Dandylion back to his hand. Saberian eyed the field and took some time to try and figure out what Kitsko could get with Shining Angel if he attacked it. His main concern had to be Honest. If Kitsko could put together Honest and any LIGHT monster with 800 ATK or more, he could attack over 1 of Saberian’s monsters for the win. But Saberian could play around that threat by refusing to leave anything in Attack Position. As long as Defense Position Fluff Tokens were the only monsters he controlled, Honest wasn’t an issue. He attacked over Cyber Dragon with Drill Warrior, discarded Dandylion to remove Drill Warrior from play, and Special Summoned 2 more Fluff Tokens.
Kitsko Special Summoned Soul of Purity and Light, attacked into Dimensional Prison with Shining Angel, and then attacked a Token with Soul of Purity and Light. Next turn Saberian Special Summoned his Drill Warrior, brought back his Quickdraw Synchron, and Summoned Debris Dragon. The Dragon Summoned Dandylion, he Tuned it to Debris with another Token, and Synchro Summoned Stardust Dragon! He wound up with 3 Fluff Tokens on the field, plus his Drill Warrior and Stardust Dragon. Stardust attacked over Soul of Purity and Light, Drill Warrior made a direct attack, and Saberian discarded Quickdraw Synchron to remove Drill Warrior. Moments later when Kitsko saw his next draw, he conceded the first Duel.
Sorosh Saberian gets off to a terribly rocky start, but recovers to fight back from 800 Life Points, thanks to the deadly combination of Drill Warrior and Dandylion! The Match quickly moved to a second Duel.
Kitsko opened the Duel with a Set monster and a Set card to his Spell & Trap Card Zone. Saberian had Mirror Force, Bottomless Trap Hole, Heavy Storm, Dandylion, Caius the Shadow Monarch, and Debris Dragon. He Set Dandylion, preparing for Debris Dragon, and ended with nothing in his back row.
Kitsko Flip Summoned Shining Angel, then Normal Summoned D. D. Warrior Lady, then attacked with her and removed Dandylion from play! Shining Angel made a direct attack. Without that Dandylion, Saberian was in trouble. He Set Debris Dragon and Mirror Force, but lost the Mirror Force to Dust Tornado in the End Phase. Kitsko tried to take advantage next turn, attempting to attack with Shining Angel, but the Angel slammed into Debris Dragon. Kitsko took some Battle Damage and Set Book of Moon.
He lost it next turn to Heavy Storm, and Saberian followed up with Caius, removing his opponent’s Shining Angel and attacking for 2400 damage. Next turn Kitsko mirrored Saberian’s play, destroying Kitsko’s Bottomless Trap Hole with his Heavy Storm. He Summoned Freed the Brave Wanderer, attacked Caius, and destroyed it thanks to an ATK boost from Honest. Saberian passed his next turn, Kitsko attacked for 1700 damage with Freed, and he Set another Dust Tornado. He used it to destroy Saberian’s Torrential Tribute when Saberian ended his next turn. Kitsko made direct attacks with both Freed and a Shining Angel, hammering his way towards victory.
Saberian had Mobius the Frost Monarch, Cyber Valley, Caius, and Quickdraw Synchron. He discarded Mobius for Quickdraw, tributed Quickdraw for Caius, and removed Shining Angel from the game. Caius attacked over Freed, but it wasn’t enough! Kitsko Special Summoned Soul of Purity and Light next turn, activated Smashing Ground to destroy Caius, and made a direct attack to win the Duel!
After a long and hard-fought loss in the First Duel, Dan Kitsko takes the second Duel in a fraction of the time, by exploiting his opponent’s dependence on a single card! Both competitors dove straight into the third Duel.
Saberian had Foolish Burial, 2 copies of Pot of Avarice, Caius the Shadow Monarch, Lonefire Blossom, and Dimensional Prison. He activated Burial to send Dandylion to his Graveyard, Special Summoned his 2 Fluff Tokens, and Normal Summoned Lonefire. He Tributed it to Special Summon another from his Deck, Tributed that one for Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, and Set Dimensional Prison. It was a big opening that left Saberian with 2 Plant-Type monsters to feed Tytannial’s effect.
Kitsko Set 3 cards to his back row, and flipped Trap Dustshoot next turn! That revealed Saberian’s 2 Pot of Avarice and 2 Caius the Shadow Monarch, one of which Kitsko sent back to his deck. Tytannial attacked, Kitsko flipped Dimensional Prison, and Tytannial negated it by Tributing a Token. Next turn Kitsko tried to attack with Freed the Brave Warrior, attempting to destroy the last Fluff Token, but Dimensional Prison kept it safe. Kitsko took another 2800 damage from Tytannial next turn, dropping to 2400 Life Points. He Summoned Honest next turn, attacked the Fluff Token, and ended with one card left in his back row.
Brain Control let Saberian take the Honest next turn. He attacked with Tytannial, but Kitsko responded with Book of Moon. Honest attacked, then Saberian Tributed it for a face-down Caius, and ended. Kitsko removed Gorz the Emissary of Darkness next turn from the top of his Deck with Dimensional Alchemist, then attacked the face-down Caius to detroy it. Tytannial attacked the Alechmist next turn, Kitsko discarded Honest, and Saberian Set Legendary Jujitsu Master plus a card to his back row. Kitsko boosted the Alchemist’s ATK next turn by removing Soul of Purity, then attacked into Legendary Jujitsu Master. The Alchemist was spun back to Kitsko’s Deck.
Saberian Normal Summoned Debris Dragon, tried to Special Summon Dandylion with Debris’ effect, and Kitsko Chained D.D. Crow’s effect to remove the targeted Dandylion! Kitsko had 1 face-down monster and a single in-hand card.
Saberian had Debris Dragon as well as Legendary Jujitsu Master on the field, with a card Set in his back row. He had Heavy Storm and Pot of Avarice in-hand. Debris Dragon attacked into Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Kitsko destroyed Legendary Jujitsu Master with Ryko’s effect, and that gave Saberian a fifth monster to shuffle back into his deck for Pot of Avarice in Main Phase 2. He shuffled all his monsters away, drew 2 cards, and ended. He’d drawn another Debris Dragon and another Dandylion.
Kitsko Set a Monster, then Set his last card to his Spell & Trap Card Zone. Saberian Summoned Dandylion, Tuned it to Debris Dragon, and Synchro Summoned Ancient Fairy Dragon, running it into Dimensional Prison. Kitsko Set Book of Moon next turn. He lost it to Mystical Space Typhoon, and another Debris Dragon got Saberian his Dandylion back. That let him Synchro Summon Stardust Dragon! It was all over a turn later, as Kitsko’s Bottomless Trap Hole couldn’t save him!
“Good match!” said Kitsko, offering a friendly handshake. Saberian accepted it, and both Duelists scooped up their cards, eager for Round 2!
Sorosh Saberian gives a perfect demonstration of the ups and downs of Quickdraw Dandywarrior, emerging triumphant in a 2-1 match against Dan Kitsko’s Fairy Deck!
See what our panel of experts had to say after the Duel.
Jason Grabher-Meyer (The Old Man of Dueling)
Sorosh Saberian won the match, but an early mistake in the first Duel nearly cost him. When Kitsko destroyed Caius the Shadow Monarch with Herald of Orange Light’s effect, Saberian activated Foolish Burial for Dandylion, Special Summoning 2 Fluff Tokens and ending his turn. He still had Ryko, Quickdraw Synchron, and Pot of Avarice in-hand, so he could have discarded Ryko to Special Summon Quickdraw, then Synchro Summoned Drill Warrior and discarded his Pot of Avarice for Drill Warrior’s effect. So why didn’t he do it? He remarked post-Match that he didn’t want to give up Pot of Avarice, and when he first activated Foolish, he’d miscounted the number of cards he had to bring out Drill Warrior and use its effect. Saberian thought he had 1 more card than he really did.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
In Duel 1, Saberian was off to a weak start and held onto his cards until he was able to turn the Duel around. It paid off, because as soon as he destroyed everything on the field with Black Rose Dragon, he was able to gain the upper hand and keep it for the rest of the Duel. With the right draws, even the worst hand can be saved as long as you can buy the time to draw those cards, just like Saberian did.
Michael McTavish (Top 8 Finalist – 2009 Canadian National Championship)
This Match is a great example of the kind of turn-arounds the Quickdraw Dandywarrior Deck is capable of. An important thing to keep in mind when facing one is to never commit too much to the field. That’s because the Quickdraw Deck is built around being able to eliminate everything on the field in one move with a quick activation of a Black Rose Dragon. Followed up with the usual Pot of Avarice, the Quickdraw Dandywarrior player is suddenly in total control of a Match he seemed to be losing. This kind of play style led Sorosh to his top 4 finish, so you can see why it’s important to learn.
