Round 2 Feature Match: Karryon Dietrich vs. Vincent Hampton
This Round 2 Feature Match will pit Karryon Dietrich’s Spellcaster Deck against Vincent Hampton’s Monster Possession Deck. Dietrich is using a unique strategy that pins down his opponent’s hand by preventing them from activating Spell Cards. Hampton is running a Deck focused around Remove Brainwashing and Owner’s Seal to take control of monsters he Special Summons to his opponent’s side of the field.
Hampton won the die roll and let Dietrich go first. Dietrich opened up with Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Mirror Force, Terraforming, Crusader of Endymion, and Secret Village of the Spellcasters. He Normal Summoned Breaker and then activated Secret Village of the Spellcasters. He Set Mirror Force and ended his turn.
Hampton Summoned Herald of Creation, a Spellcaster, and activated Bait Doll to destroy Dietrich’s Set Mirror Force. Next, Hampton activated Creature Swap, traded Herald of Creation for Breaker, and attacked over the herald. He inflicted 100 points of damage to Dietrich and ended his turn.
Dietrich drew and Summoned another Breaker next turn. He attacked into Hampton’s Breaker and they were both destroyed. He Set Terraforming to his back row and ended his turn.
Hampton Summoned Herald of Creation next turn and attacked directly with it.
Play passed to Dietrich, who drew Dimensional Prison, Summoned Crusader of Endymion, and attacked over the Herald of Creation. He Set Dimensional Prison in Main Phase 2 and then activated his face-down Terraforming to grab another Secret Village from his Deck.
Hampton Summoned Grinder Golem to Dietrich’s field next turn. He Special Summoned 2 Grinder Tokens in Attack Position and then activated Owner’s Seal to gain control of his Grinder Golem. (Neither player mentioned he was unable to activate Owner’s Seal, due to the effect of Secret Village of the Spellcasters.) Grinder Golem attacked, but Dietrich flipped Dimensional Prison to remove it from play.
Dietrich Summoned Kycoo next turn and attacked over both Grinder Tokens with his Kycoo and Crusader of Endymion.
Hampton passed his next turn without making a play.
On his next turn, Dietrich attacked directly with Crusader of Endymion and Hampton Special Summoned Gorz the Emissary of Darkness along with a 1900 ATK Token to his side of the field. Kycoo was left unable to score an attack.
On his next turn, Hampton Tributed his Token for Prime Material Dragon, and Dietrich flipped Solemn Judgment to negate it. Gorz attacked and destroyed Kycoo.
Dietrich drew and Set Dimensional Prison next turn, so when Hampton attacked with Gorz on the following turn, it was removed from play.
On the following turn, Dietrich activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy a Set Give and Take, and scored a direct attack with Crusader of Endymion.
Next turn, Hampton Special Summoned Grinder Golem to his opponent’s side of the field, and Special Summoned 2 Grinder Tokens to his own field. Dietrich flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to remove Grinder Golem from the game.
On the next turn, Crusader of Endymion declared an attack on a Grinder Token, threatening to end the Duel. Hampton Special Summoned Darkness Neosphere from his hand by pitching another copy and Tributing one of his two Grinder Tokens, but it didn’t matter. The 1900 damage inflicted from the attack of Crusader of Endymion over the other Grinder Token ended the Duel.
Hampton chose to begin Duel 2. He Summoned Herald of Creation, Set a back row, and ended his turn.
Dietrich opened up with Starlight Road, Bottomless Trap Hole, Breaker, Dark Elf, Dark Bribe, and Dust Tornado. He Summoned Breaker, Set 4 back rows, and ended his turn.
Hampton Tributed Dietrich’s Breaker for Volcanic Queen next turn and activated Creature Swap to try to steal it back, but Dietrich flipped Dark Bribe to negate Creature Swap. He Set another back row, switched Herald of Creation to Defense Position, and ended his turn.
Dietrich Summoned Kycoo next turn and then attacked Herald of Creation with Kycoo. Next, he attacked directly with Volcanic Queen. Dietrich dropped to 7000 Life Points on the End Phase due to Volcanic Queen’s effect.
Hampton Tributed Kycoo and Volcanic Queen for Lava Golem next turn, and Dietrich flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to remove it from the game.
Next turn, Dietrich Normal Summoned Dark Elf and activated Secret Village of the Spellcasters. Then he paid 1000 Life Points to attack directly with his Elf.
Hampton Set a monster and passed to Dietrich, who drew and Set Dimensional Prison, ending his turn without attacking with Dark Elf.
Hampton flipped Herald of Creation next turn and then Special Summoned Grinder Golem to Dietrich’s field. He Special Summoned 2 Tokens. Next, he activated Owner’s Seal to gain control of Volcanic Queen and Grinder Golem. Volcanic Queen and Herald of Creation attacked directly, and Dietrich used Dimensional Prison to remove Grinder Golem from play when it attacked. In his End Phase, Hampton Tributed a Grinder Token with Volcanic Queen.
Dietrich drew Kycoo next turn, attacked over a Token, and removed 2 cards from Hampton’s Graveyard.
On his next turn, Hampton Tributed Herald of Creation for Prime Material Dragon and Dietrich conceded.
The Match pressed on to a third Duel!
Dietrich opened up with Trap Dustshoot, Mirror Force, 2 copies of Kycoo, and 2 copies of Crusader of Endymion. He Set Trap Dustshoot and Mirror Force, Summoned Kycoo, and ended his turn.
On Hampton’s turn, Dietrich flipped Trap Dustshoot and revealed 2 copies of Lava Golem, Volcanic Queen, Scrubbed Raid, Mystic Box, and Remove Brainwashing. He sent Volcanic Queen back to Hampton’s Deck. Hampton Set 2 back rows and ended his turn.
Dietrich activated Secret Village next turn, attacked with Kycoo, and passed to Hampton.
Hampton Set Scrubbed Raid and passed back to Dietrich, who activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it.
Next, Dietrich attacked with Kycoo, and Hampton flipped a second Scrubbed Raid. He sent his face-down Mystic Box to the Graveyard to end the Battle Phase. Dietrich Summoned Crusader of Endymion before ending his turn.
Hampton Set a back row and then Special Summoned Lava Golem next turn by Tributing Kycoo and Crusader of Endymion from Dietrich’s field.
When Kycoo attacked on Dietrich’s next turn, Hampton flipped Remove Brainwashing to get Lava Golem back.
On his next turn, Hampton attacked Kycoo with Lava Golem, and Dietrich blocked the attack and destroyed Lava Golem with Mirror Force.
Dietrich attacked with Kycoo next turn, but Hampton let go of his face-down Trade-In to end the Battle Phase once again with Scrubbed Raid.
Hampton Special Summoned Grinder Golem to Dietrich’s field next turn, with Remove Brainwashing face-up to take it back. Grinder Golem attacked and destroyed Kycoo.
Dietrich drew and Set Gravekeeper’s Spy next turn. He passed, and used Dust Tornado on Remove Brainwashing in Hampton’s Draw Phase.
Hampton attacked the Spy with Grinder Golem. Then Dietrich Special Summoned another copy from his Deck with its effect, and it was destroyed in battle by Prime Material Dragon. Hampton Set a back row and ended his turn.
Dietrich drew Breaker next turn and ended after Setting it.
Prime Material Dragon attacked Breaker, and Grinder Golem attacked directly.
Dietrich drew Skill Drain next turn. He Set it, Summoned Breaker, and attacked Hampton’s Attack Position Grinder Token. Hampton lost 1900 Life Points, but it would make no difference. On his next turn, Prime Material Dragon attacked over Breaker, and Grinder Golem scored a direct attack, ending the Duel.
Vincent Hampton takes a close 2-1 victory over Karryon Dietrich with his Monster Possession 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)
Whenever you play a Deck with Field Spells and Terraforming, you never want to draw more copies of your Field Spell than you need; you want to draw as many non-Field cards as possible once you have your first one. That means that if you open with a copy of your Field plus a Terraforming, you should activate Terraforming immediately, just so you don’t draw that Field Spell later. Dietrich took a big risk by not activating Terraforming until Turn 3. He could have activated it on turn 1, but apparently felt using it as a bluff was the better move.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
Both Dietrich and Hampton built their Decks using some of their favorite cards, and competed in the YCS using those Decks. Players don’t have to run the most popular Decks to have fun playing in tournaments or against friends. Vincent Hampton scored a surprising victory over Karryon Dietrich’s Deck using several cards I’ve never seen put to use. If he’s not already playing it in his Deck, he may consider using Nightmare Archfiends, like Steven Kraml did in his Remove Brainwashing Deck. Special Summoning 3 Tokens with 2000 ATK to your opponent’s field and then stealing them all back with Owner’s Seal or Remove Brainwashing is a powerful play that can catch an opponent off guard and snag a victory.
P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
Towards the end of Duel 1, Hampton Special Summoned Grinder Golem to Dietrich’s field, and Dietrich removed it from play with Bottomless Trap Hole. Most Duelists will only ever get to use Bottomless when a monster is on the opposing side of the field, and may sometimes forget that it can be used when your opponent ‘gives’ you a monster as well. Usually, when your opponent does this, they have a bigger plan in mind, so it’s good to get the monster out of the way as soon as possible, especially if it’s something like Volcanic Queen or Lava Golem.
In Duel 3, Dietrich saw Hampton’s hand with Trap Dustshoot, and sent Volcanic Queen back to the Deck. He also saw that Hampton had Lava Golem. Knowing this, he should have avoided controlling 2 or more monsters at the same time, as Dietrich could Tribute them for Lava Golem whenever he wanted. A few turns later, he Summoned his second monster, allowing Hampton to bring out Lava Golem soon after.
