SJC History: The Dark End Dragon Age (2009-2010)
After a 3 month hiatus the SHONEN JUMP Championship series was back and stronger than ever, returning to where it all began: Anaheim, California! Dark End Dragon debuted as the new Championship Prize Card. Here’s a look at some of the events from the past year, but you can read all the details for yourself by going through our past event coverage!
SHONEN JUMP Championship #68
Location: Anaheim, California
Date: April 25th, 2009
Competitors: 858
Winner: Jeff Jones
1st Place Deck: DARK Skill Drain
Runner-Up: Jarel Winston
2nd Place Deck: Lightsworn
Prize Card: Dark End Dragon
An unforgettable morning saw the registration line lengthen instead of shorten as the hours went on and hundreds of Duelists kept flooding into the Anaheim Convention Center. It was the second-biggest SHONEN JUMP Championship of all time, shattering every previous attendance record except the 50th Championship in Costa Mesa. The bar had clearly been raised.
Counter Fairies, Gladiator Beasts, and Blackwings all saw play in Day 2, but with half of the Top 16 field comprised of Lightsworn, the advantage went to Jeff Jones. Jones played a DARK Skill Drain Deck that was a perfect match for the Lightsworn-heavy field. Newcomer Jarel Winston took the first Duel of the Finals, but Jones fought back and brought it home in the third Duel with Skill Drain! Winston would go on to make repeated Day 2 appearances in 2009, but Jones claimed the Championship, just over 2 years after his first Day 2 in St. Louis.
SHONEN JUMP Championship #70
Location: Orlando, Florida
Date: September 26th, 2009
Competitors: 673
Winner: Rodrigo Togores
1st Place Deck: Blackwings
Runner-Up: Herman Herrera
2nd Place Deck: Turbo Blackwings
Prize Card: Dark End Dragon
SHONEN JUMP Championship action returned to the Sunshine State for the first time in over a year and a half! Twilight, Synchro Cat, Destiny Hero Zombies, and even a Sky Scourge Norleras Deck were in contention, but when it came down to the Finals we saw the power of the newly-released Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor in action, as Spanish Duelist Rodrigo Togores took on Herman Herrera in a match that pitted two very different Blackwing Decks head-to-head.
Though Herrera’s Deck was more explosive, packing more copies of Dark Grepher and Armageddon Knight with Burial from a Different Dimension, the heart of the cards was on Togores’ side, who opened 2 games straight with Black Whirlwind to claim the Championship.
SHONEN JUMP Championship #72
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Date: November 14th, 2009
Competitors: 803
Winner: Vincent Ralambomiadana
1st Place Deck: French Twilight
Runner-Up: Kevin Slapnik
2nd Place Deck: Destiny Hero Zombies
Prize Card: Dark End Dragon
With Chris Bowling’s Twilight win at SHONEN JUMP Championship Austin just 4 weeks before, Twilight and Zombies were the top Decks heading into Columbus. French Duelist Vincent Ralambomiadana turned Dueling on its ear on Day 1, as he erupted from the pack to go undefeated. His secret weapon? A defense-heavy Twilight Deck packing 3 copies of Tragoedia: the perfect answer to the aggressive Zombie, Lightsworn, and Twilight strategies that rose to power in the wake of Bowling’s win.
With his opponents completely caught off guard, Ralambomiadana’s victory in the Finals seemed almost academic, but Slapnik took the French Duelist all the way to a third Duel before Ralambomiana sent Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner to his Graveyard with his opponent’s Goblin Zombie effect. Ralambomiadana Special Summoned that Lumina with another copy by discarding Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, used the second Lumina to Special Summon the Wulf, and attacked with all 3 monsters to become the first-ever French SHONEN JUMP Champion! Tragoedia would immediately become a format-defining card, and Ralambomiadana’s win would come to shape the rest of the format.
SHONEN JUMP Championship #73
Location: Los Angeles, California
Date: January 9th, 2010
Competitors: 1632
Winner: Stephen Silverman
1st Place Deck: Lightsworn
Runner-Up: Michael Anderson
2nd Place Deck: Lightsworn
Prize Card: Dark End Dragon
The biggest SHONEN JUMP Championship of all time was also the biggest single Trading Card Game tournament in history, destroying attendance records for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME and beyond. This weekend saw the debut of Turbo Pack: Booster Two, a new Pegasus League format and more, but the story of the weekend was the earthshaking main event!
With different versions of Twilight winning the previous two SHONEN JUMP Championships, and Zombies widely regarded as the next most successful Deck in contention, the Finals were a bit of an upset: Stephen Silverman and Michael Anderson both played “pure” Lightsworn Decks – no Dark Armed Dragons or Chaos Sorcerers in sight. After a memorable victory in the Semi-Finals against Adam Corn, Silverman would take two straight Duels in the Finals, winning both games and the Championship with the surprise pick of the weekend: Royal Oppression.
