Top 32 Feature Match: Danny Bassous vs. Russell LaParre
Russell LaParre made it to the Top 32 with his Fairy Deck based around Herald of Perfection. His opponent, Danny Bassous, is playing Gladiator Beasts. This is a tough matchup for LaParre. A single Gladiator Beast War Chariot can completely shut him down, and the Thunder King Rai-Oh in Bassous’s Main Deck makes things even more difficult for LaParre. LaParre calls this his worst matchup – will he be able to overcome it?
Bassous won the dice roll and chose to go first. He summoned Gladiator Beast Laquari, Set a back row, and ended his turn.
LaParre opened up with Herald of Orange Light, Consecrated Light, Herald of Green Light, Herald of Purple Light, and 2 copies of Skelengel. He Set Skelengel and ended his turn.
Bassous Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh next turn. Laquari attacked Skelengel and LaParre drew a card. Then Rai-Oh attacked directly and LaParre dropped down to 6100 Life Points. Bassous ended his turn.
LaParre drew Tethys, Goddess of Light, Set Skelengel, and passed to Bassous, who attacked Skelengel with Gladiator Beast Laquari. LaParre drew another card and then Rai-Oh attacked directly. Bassous Set a card to his back row passed to LaParre, who Set one card to each zone and ended his turn.
Bassous activated Mystical Space Typhoon next turn and destroyed LaParre’s Set Dawn of the Herald. Then he passed to LaParre, who drew Soul of Purity and Light. Bassous Tributed Thunder King Rai-Oh to negate the Summon, and LaParre discarded Herald of Orange Light and Herald of Green Light to try to negate Rai-Oh’s effect. Bassous flipped Gladiator Beast War Chariot to negate the Herald, and Rai-Oh’s negation was successful. LaParre Special Summoned Archlord Kristya next. He tried to bring Soul of Purity and Light back to his hand, but Bassous discarded D.D. Crow to remove it from play. Archlord Kristya attacked Laquari, but Bassous flipped Book of Moon to put Kristya face-down. Bassous Set 2 back rows next turn and ended.
LaParre drew Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands next turn. Then he flipped Archlord Kristya and attacked with it. Bassous flipped Compulsory Evacuation Device to try to return Kristya to his hand, but LaParre discarded Herald of Purple Light from his hand along with Tethys to negate it. Kristya destroyed Laquari and LaParre passed.
Bassous activated Smashing Ground next turn, sending Kristya to the top of LaParre’s Deck. Then he Set a monster and ended his turn.
LaParre had 5 Fairies in his Graveyard, so when he drew Kristya he couldn’t Summon it. He Summoned Manju instead, and searched his Deck for Herald of Perfection with its effect. Manju attacked Bassous’s Set monster. It was a Morphing Jar! LaParre let it resolve, even though he could’ve negated it with Herald of Orange Light if he wanted to. Both players discarded their hands and drew 5 cards. LaParre Set a Solemn Judgment to his back row and ended his turn.
Bassous activated his Set Heavy Storm next turn. Then he Summoned Rai-Oh and attacked Manju, but LaParre dropped Honest from his hand to boost his Manju and destroy Rai-Oh in battle. Bassous Set 3 cards to his back row before ending his turn.
LaParre attacked directly with Manju next turn, dropping Bassous to 4200 Life Points. He Set Royal Decree and ended his turn.
Bassous Set a card to each zone and ended his next turn. During the End Phase, LaParre flipped Royal Decree!
LaParre drew Pot of Avarice next turn! He activated it to send Archlord Kristya, Honest, Herald of Perfection, and 2 copies of Herald of Orange Light from his Graveyard to his Deck and draw Heavy Storm and Nova Summoner. He Summoned Senju of the Thousand Hands next, and activated its effect to grab Herald of Perfection from his Deck. Then he ended his turn.
Bassous passed without making a play, and LaParre Summoned Manju next turn to search his Deck for Dawn of the Herald and add it to his hand. Then he activated Dawn of the Herald to pitch a Herald of Perfection and Special Summon another one from his hand. With exactly 4 Fairies in his Graveyard, LaParre Special Summoned Archlord Kristya and Bassous conceded.
Bassous will be going first in Duel 2! He Set 2 cards to his back row and Summoned Equeste, ending his turn.
LaParre opened up with Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Herald of Purple Light, Herald of Perfection, Skelengel, Swallow Flip, and Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands. He Set a card to each zone and ended his turn.
Bassous Summoned Gladiator Beast Darius next turn. Equeste attacked Ryko, and Ryko destroyed it and sent 3 monsters from the top of LaParre’s Deck to his Graveyard. Then Darius attacked directly. At the end of the Battle Phase, Bassous tagged out Darius to Special Summon Gladiator Beast Bestiari, and LaParre negated Bestiari’s effect and destroyed Bestiari with Swallow Flip.
LaParre drew Pot of Avarice next turn. He Summoned Manju and activated its effect to search his Deck for Dawn of the Herald. He activated it, and Bassous flipped Solemn Judgment to negate it by paying half of his Life Points! Then Manju attacked directly and Bassous dropped to 2600 Life Points. LaParre ended his turn.
Bassous Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh next turn! He attacked Manju and LaParre took 500 points of damage. He Set a back row and ended his turn.
LaParre activated Pot of Avarice next turn, sending all of the monsters in his Graveyard back to his Deck to draw Mystical Space Typhoon and Honest. Then he Set Mystical Space Typhoon and Bottomless Trap Hole, along with a Skelengel and ended his turn.
Bassous flipped his Set Heavy Storm, clearing the field. Then he Summoned Gladiator Beast Darius and Set the last 2 cards in his hand to his back row. He passed, without attacking Skelengel. It was obvious he had just Set a Gladiator Beast War Chariot.
LaParre flipped Skelengel next turn and drew a card. Then he Set another Skelengel and passed to Bassous.
Bassous Summoned Gladiator Beast Murmillo next turn. Rai-Oh attacked Skelengel and LaParre piched an Honest from his hand to try to boost the ATK of Skelengel. “Chariot?” LaParre asked. Bassous thought about it and then flipped his Chariot. Skelengel was destroyed and LaParre lose some Life Points. Darius attacked and destroyed LaParre’s Set Skelengel next, letting LaParre draw a card, and Murmillo attacked LaParre directly for 800 damage! LaParre had 4900 Life Points left. Bassous tagged out his Gladiator Beast Murmillo for Gladiator Beast Retiari and used it to remove Honest from LaParre’s Graveyard. Then he tagged out Darius for Gladiator Beast Equeste and tried to bring back Chariot, but LaParre discarded Herald of Orange Light and Herald of Purple Light to negate Equeste’s effect with his Orange Herald.
LaParre drew Cyber Dragon next turn! He tried to Special Summon it, and Bassous allowed it. Then he removed 2 copies of Skelengel from his Graveyard to try to Special Summon Soul of Purity and Light, but Bassous Tributed Rai-Oh to negate its Summon. LaParre ended his turn without attacking Retiari with Cyber Dragon, and play passed to Bassous.
Bassous activated his Set Brain Control next turn! He gave up 800 Life Points and took control of Cyber Dragon. Then he switched Retiari into Attack Position and attacked with both of his monsters. LaParre dropped to 700 Life Points, and Bassous tagged out his Retiari to Special Summon Gladiator Beast Darius from his Graveyard. Darius Special Summoned Gladiator Beast Bestiari from the Graveyard with its effect, and Bassous fused his two Gladiator Beasts together to Summon Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. Gyzarus destroyed Cyber Dragon with its effect and Bassous Set a back row before ending his turn.
LaParre drew a second copy of Herald of Perfection to add to his hand on his next turn, and Bassous was able to finish him off with Gladiator Beast Gyzarus in his next Battle Phase.
The Match pressed on to a third Duel! LaParre will be going first. He opened up with Mystical Space Typhoon, Solemn Judgment, Swallow Flip, Bottomless Trap Hole, and 2 copies of Cyber Dragon. He Set all 4 of his Spell and Trap Cards to his back row and ended his turn.
Bassous Summoned Gladiator Beast Retiari on his turn and used it to attack directly. He decided not to tag it out. Instead, he Set 3 back rows and passed to LaParre.
LaParre drew Herald of Orange Light next turn. He Special Summoned Cyber Dragon, lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole, then flipped Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy a Smashing Ground Bassous had Set. Next, he Special Summoned another copy of Cyber Dragon and used it to attack over Retiari.
On his next turn, Bassous Set a monster and ended.
LaParre drew Heavy Storm next turn. He attacked with Cyber Dragon, but Bassous flipped Compulsory Evacuation Device to return it to LaParre’s hand. He Special Summoned it again before passing to Bassous, who Set a card to each zone and ended.
LaParre drew for turn and Summoned Senju of the Thousand Hands next turn. He activated its effect to grab Herald of Perfection from his Deck. Cyber Dragon attacked one of Bassous’s monsters and Bassous flipped Dimensional Prison to try to remove Cyber Dragon from the game. LaParre chained Solemn Judgment to negate it! Gladiator Beast Darius was destroyed in battle! Senju didn’t attack, and LaParre ended his turn.
Bassous looked unhappy with his draws. He was having a lot of trouble dealing with Cyber Dragon, and was only left with 1 card in his hand, 1 back row, and 1 Set monster. He Set the monster in his hand and ended.
LaParre drew Book of Moon next turn. Then he destroyed Bassous’s Set Gladiator Beast Bestiari by attacking with Cyber Dragon and ended his turn.
Bassous drew a card and Set a back row before passing to LaParre.
LaParre attacked a Set Morphing Jar next turn with Cyber Dragon, and discarded Herald of Orange Light and Herald of Perfection from his hand to negate its effect. Then Senju attacked Bassous directly.
Bassous was barely hanging on. He Set a 3rd card to his back row and ended his turn.
LaParre drew Honest next turn! Then he attacked with Cyber Dragon and Bassous flipped Waboku to prevent the damage. LaParre passed and Bassous drew a card and Set it to his back row.
LaParre attacked directly with Cyber Dragon and Senju next turn, dropping Bassous to 2400 Life Points.
Bassous drew another card and Set it to his back row. In the End Phase, LaParre flipped Royal Decree! LaParre Summoned Honest next turn and tried to attack with it. Bassous flipped Book of Moon to put it face-down, but when Senju attacked, Bassous dropped down to 1000 Life Points. LaParre followed up with a direct attack from Cyber Dragon, and Bassous revealed his face-down Royal Oppression and 2 copies of Gladiator Beast War Chariot. The attack from Cyber Dragon ended the Match!
Russel LaParre advances to the Top 16 of the tournament with his Herald Deck!
Post-Event Analysis!
See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over.
Jason Grabher-Meyer (The Old Man of Dueling)
Game 1 ended on a great play from LaParre. He activated Dawn of the Herald to Tribute his in-hand Herald of Perfection, Ritual Summoning another copy. He then skipped Dawn of the Herald’s effect that would let him return a Fairy from his Graveyard to his hand, leaving his fourth Fairy there so he could still Special Summon Archlord Kristya. LaParre demonstrated just one of the tricks you can use to manipulate the Graveyard and make spectacular plays. The result was a Match win in what’s undoubtedly LaParre’s toughest matchup, against Gladiator Beasts.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
Russell LaParre ran a really cool Deck that a lot of Duelists didn’t expect. Not only were many Duelists unprepared to take down Herald of Perfection, most of them probably didn’t think their cards would be negated by Herald of Orange Light, Herald of Green Light, and Herald of Purple Light either. Since so many of the popular Decks depend on key cards like Infernity Launcher, Gottoms’ Emergency Call and XX-Saber Faultroll, LaParre’s ability to shut down these effects on his opponent’s turn, using only the cards in his hand, allowed him to advance very far in the tournament.
P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
The cool thing about LaParre’s Deck was that he could negate cards without having to Set any Spells or Traps. Instead, he used the effects of all his “Herald” monsters to negate cards by discarding them. It’s very difficult to stop the effects of Monster Cards that activate in the hand; only cards like Infernity Barrier and Gladiator Beast War Chariot can take care of them. Fortunately for Bassous, he had a War Chariot Set when LaParre used his first Herald, but it worked out better for LaParre though, since he then had enough Fairy-Types in his Graveyard to Summon Archlord Krystia. His Heralds also filled up the graveyard enough for him to activate Pot of Avarice later on in the Duel.