Top 32 Feature Match: Billy Brake vs. Robert DiMartino
Billy Brake is running Caliber Cat! His opponent, Robert DiMartino is using Gladiator Beasts! Only one of these Duelists will advance to the Top 16.
DiMartino won the dice roll and chose to go first. He activated Reinforcement of the Army, searching for Elemental Hero Stratos and Summoning it to the field to add Elemental Hero Prisma to his hand. He Set a back row card and ended his turn.
Billy Brake opened up with Starlight Road, Bottomless Trap Hole, Summoner Monk, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Allure of Darkness, and My Body as a Shield. He started things off by setting Ryko in Defense Position and Setting My Body as a Shield, Starlight Road, and Bottomless Trap Hole face-down. He ended his turn.
DiMartino Set a back row and then attacked Brake’s face-down monster with Stratos. Ryko was flipped, and DiMartino’s newly Set back row card, Chariot, was destroyed. Brake sent 2 Airbellums to the Graveyard with Ryko’s effect. Dimartino Set a card to each zone before ending his turn.
Brake Summoned Summoner Monk next turn and discarded Allure of Darkness to Special Summon Rescue Cat from his Deck! He Tributed it to Special Summon X-Saber Airbellum and Ryko, and DiMarino flipped Torrential Tribute. Brake chained My Body as a Shield to negate it by paying 1500 Life Points. Next, Brake Tuned his X-Saber Airbellum to his Ryko and Summoner Monk to Synchro Summon Mist Wurm to the field and return all of DiMartino’s cards to his hand. Mist Wurm attacked directly and Brake ended his turn.
DiMartino Set a card to each zone before passing back to Brake, who used Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy DiMartino’s back row.
Next, Brake Summoned Doomcaliber Knight! Mist Wurm attacked a face-down Prisma and destroyed it and Doomcaliber Knight attacked directly. DiMartino Summoned Stratos next turn and activated its effect to trade it off with Doomcaliber Knight, since the Knight’s effect automatically activated in response and Tributed itself. He Set a card and ended.
Brake attacked with Mist Wurm directly next turn and DiMartino was up again. He Set a monster and passed back to Brake who attacked the monster with Mist Wurm. DiMartino flipped Waboku, but Brake negated it with Solemn Judgment. The attack went through and DiMartino’s Gladiator Beast Equeste was destroyed.
DiMartino played Swords of Revealing Light next turn! Brake was held off while DiMartino could build a field. He Set a Gladiator Beast Hoplomus and ended.
Brake drew a card and Set it on his next turn.
DiMartino flipped Hoplomus next turn, Special Summoned Test Tiger, and Tributed the Tiger to send back the Hoplomus and Special Summon Gladiator Beast Murmillo from his Deck. Murmillo destroyed Mist Wurm and then scored a direct attack. DiMartino tagged his Murmillo for Gladiator Beast Bestiari and used its effect to destroy Brake’s Set Book of Moon. Then he used another Tiger to destroy Starlight Road by sending Gladiator Beast Bestiari back to the Deck and Special Summoning it again.
Billy Brake Summoned Cyber Dragon next turn, still unable to attack due to the effect of Swords of Revealing Light. DiMartino Set a card to each zone and switched Bestiari to Defense Position after ending his turn.
Brake Summoned Sangan and attacked and destroyed the Defense Position Bestiari with it. Next, he attacked DiMartino’s face-down monster with Cyber Dragon. It was a Morphing Jar! Both players drew 5 new cards.
Brake picked up a Pot of Avarice which he activated to send 5 cards in his Graveyard back to his Deck and draw 2 new cards. His hand now had Heavy Storm, Book of Moon, Dark Armed Dragon, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and 2 copies of X-Saber Airbellum. He Set Book of Moon and ended his turn.
DiMartino Set a card and then Summoned Equeste, losing it to Bottomless Trap Hole. He Set 2 more back rows and ended.
Brake activated Heavy Storm next turn, and DiMartino negated it with Solemn Judgment. Then he Summoned X-Saber Airbellum to the field and Tuned it to Sangan to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. He seached for Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter with the effect of Sangan. Then he Special Summoned Dark Armed Dragon and DiMartino conceded.
DiMartino began the second Duel! He Set a card to each zone and ended his first turn.
Brake opened up with Heavy Storm, Royal Oppression, Bottomless Trap Hole, Pot of Avarice, Beast King Barbaros, and X-Saber Airbellum. He Set his Bottomless Trap Hole and ended his turn.
DiMartino Flip Summoned Darius, and Brake used Bottomless Trap Hole to remove it from play. DiMartino Set another card and ended.
Brake played Heavy Storm next turn to destroy Waboku and Dimensional Prison! DiMartino chained Waboku. Then Brake Summoned Beast King Barbaros and Set Royal Oppression, ending his turn.
DiMartino Set a back row and passed right back to Brake, who attacked directly with Barbaros and Set Ryko in Defense Position with 2 back row cards.
DiMartino Set a back row card next turn and used Nobleman of Crossout targeting the Ryko, removing it and all copies in Brake’s Deck from play.
Then he passed back to Brake, who drew Brain Control and attacked directly again with Beast King Barbaros. In his End Phase, DiMartino used Dust Tornado to destroy Brake’s Set Book of Moon.
DiMartino Summoned Elemental Hero Prisma next turn and changed its name to Gladiator Beast Bestiari. Then he Special Summoned Test Tiger, and when Brake flipped Oppression, DiMartino flipped Solemn Judgment to negate it! He Tributed the Tiger to send Prisma back to the Deck and take Darius in its place. Darius revived Bestiari, and DiMartino fused both monsters together to Summon Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. Gyzarus attacked Brake directly after destroying some cards and tagged out to Special Summon 2 copies of Gladiator Beast Laquari from his Deck. He Set 1 more card to his back row and ended his turn.
Brake Summoned X-Saber Airbellum next turn and activated Brain Control to take control of DiMartino’s Laquari. He Tuned his monsters together to Synchro Summon Black Rose Dragon and clear the field before ending his turn.
DiMartino Set a back row and Normal Summoned Test Tiger next turn. He attacked directly for 600 damage! Brake Summoned Barbaros next turn and attacked the Test Tiger, but lost his monster to Dimensional Prison.
DiMartino attacked directly with Tiger and Set Book of Moon, but Brake destroyed the Book with Dust Tornado in the End Phase.
Brake Summoned his third Barbaros next turn! He used it to attack over Test Tiger.
DiMartino drew Book of Moon and Set it next turn. When Barbaros attacked next turn, DiMartino flipped his Book of Moon to turn Barbaros face-down and stay in the Duel for another turn.
But when DiMartino drew Heavy Storm moments later, he immediately conceded, knowing Barabaros would finish him off on Brake’s next turn.
Brake’s Caliber Cat Deck defeats DiMartino’s Gladiators 2-0! Brake is moving on to the Top 16 of the largest SHONEN JUMP Championship ever!
See what our panel of experts had to say after the Duel.
Jason Grabher-Meyer (The Old Man of Dueling)
When the second Duel got heated and both Duelists were getting lower on cards, DiMartino decided to press on for 600 damage with Test Tiger. The Tiger is a powerful combo card that can make game-winning plays, especially when a Duel’s been going for a while and your opponent would have trouble dealing with Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. If Brake had been low on Life Points, then trying to steal a win with Test Tiger might have made sense, but that wasn’t the situation. DiMartino would have been better off waiting to play Test Tiger until he had a Gladiator Beast to use it with.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
In Duel 1, Brake used My Body as a Shield instead of Starlight Road to protect his monsters when they were threatened by Torrential Tribute. Starlight Road would have been a better card to activate there, because it negates the Torrential Tribute just like My Body as a Shield, plus it Special Summons Stardust Dragon. Stardust Dragon can be especially difficult for Gladiator Beast Duelists to destroy. Starlight Road is usually harder to activate than My Body as a Shield, so given the chance, Brake should have used it. Instead, his Starlight Road was destroyed by Gladiator Beast Bestiari later in the Duel.
P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
At the start of the first Duel, DiMartino Set a Spell or Trap in Main Phase 1 before attacking with Elemental Hero Stratos. He attacked into Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, which destroyed the Gladiator Beast War Chariot he just Set. It’s always a better idea to do all of your attacking first, and then Set your Spells and Traps in Main Phase 2, in case you attack into something like Ryko. The only exception would be when you think your opponent has a Morphing Jar face-down, which would discard your cards before you can Set then. Maybe that’s what was going through DiMartino’s mind, since Brake Set 3 cards before his face-down monster. But in that case, DiMartino should have Set his other Spell or Trap Cards as well.
