. Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Event Coverage » Round 8 Feature Match: Michael Glowacki vs. Blake Hurdle
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Round 8 Feature Match: Michael Glowacki vs. Blake Hurdle

July 10th, 2010

Blake Hurdle is a rising 12-year-old Duelist from California, with a 6-1 record heading into Round 8 with X-Sabers. His opponent, Michael Glowacki from Chicago, is also running X-Sabers and has the same 6-1 record. X-Sabers were a popular Deck throughout the day, and it’s no surprise that these 2 Duelists at Table 7 are running them.

Glowacki won the dice roll and chose to go first. He Summoned XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and Set 2 back rows before ending his turn.

Hurdle opened up with XX-Saber Ragigura, Torrential Tribute, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, and 3 copies of Saber Hole in his hand – a poor opening hand. He Set Ragigura and Torrential Tribute before ending his turn.

Glowacki attacked with Fulhelmknight and destroyed Ragigura. Then he Set a card to his back row and ended his turn.

Hurdle drew and Set Book of Moon before ending his turn.

Glowacki attacked directly for 1300 damage with Fulhelmknight and passed.

Hurdle drew and Set Darksoul next turn before passing.

Glowacki Set a 4th card to his back row and attacked Darksoul next turn. In the End Phase, Hurdle searched his Deck for XX-Saber Emmersblade and added it to his hand with Darksoul’s effect.

Hurdle drew XX-Saber Faultroll next turn, but Glowacki flipped Mind Crush in his Draw Phase to discard Emmersblade from his hand. Hurdle Set a card to his back row and ended his turn, still low on options.

Glowacki attacked with Fulhelmknight next turn and Hurdle flipped Gottoms’ Emergency Call to Special Summon XX-Saber Emmersblade and XX-Saber Darksoul in Defense Position. Glowacki chose not to attack either one of them with Fulhelmknight. Instead, he Set a card to his back row and ended his turn.

Hurdle drew Heavy Storm next turn and activated it, but Glowacki chained Starlight Road to negate it and Special Summon Stardust Dragon in Attack Position! Then Hurdle Special Summoned XX-Saber Faultroll from his hand and switched his Emmersblade to Attack Position. Faultroll attacked, but Glowacki flipped Mirror Force and Hurdle lost both of his monsters. Hurdle passed.

Glowacki activated Cold Wave next turn and then Summoned XX-Saber Boggart Knight to the field! Next, he Special Summoned 2 copies of Faultroll from his hand. Fulhelmknight attacked Darksoul and then Boggart Knight, Stardust Dragon, and both copies of Faultroll attacked directly to finish Hurdle off!

A rough opening hand for Blake Hurdle gives him a quick loss in Game 1. But Hurdle will be going first in Duel 2 and will be looking to turn things around!

Michael Glowacki

Hurdle opened up Duel 2 with Crevice into the Different Dimension, XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, XX-Saber Boggart Knight, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Mirror Force in his opening hand. He Normal Summoned Boggart Knight and activated its effect to Special Summon Fulhelmknight in Defense Position. Then he Set Bottomless Trap Hole and ended his turn.

Glowacki Summoned XX-Saber Darksoul next turn and activated Brain Control to take control of Fulhelmknight. He Tuned Fulhelmknight with Darksoul together in order to Synchro Summon XX-Saber Hyunlei, but lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole. He Set a card to his back row before searching his Deck for Boggart Knight to add to his hand in the End Phase with the effect of Darksoul.

Hurdle drew Saber Hole next turn and attacked directly with Boggart Knight. Glowacki dropped to 5300 Life Points. Hurdle Set Saber Hole and Gottoms’ Emergency Call before ending.

Glowacki Summoned XX-Saber Boggart Knight next turn, but Hurdle flipped Saber Hole to negate the Summon.

Hurdle activated Gottoms’ Emergency Call next turn, but it was negated when Glowacki flipped Royal Oppression and gave up 800 of his Life Points. He scored a direct attack with Boggart Knight next, and Set 2 cards to his back row: Mirror Force and Crevice into the Different Dimension.

Glowacki Set a monster next turn and passed.

Hurdle attacked Glowacki’s Set Emmersblade next turn and Glowacki Special Summoned Darksoul from his Deck with its effect. Hurdle Set Mind Crush and ended his turn.

Glowacki Summoned Boggart Knight and attacked next turn, but lost his monster to Mirror Force. He Set a card to his back row before passing.

Hurdle Set a back row and attacked Darksoul with Boggart Knight next turn. Glowacki searched his Deck for Boggart Knight in the End Phase and added it to his hand with Darksoul’s effect.

In Glowacki’s Draw Phase, Hurdle activated Mind Crush, naming Boggart Knight, and forced Glowacki to discard the Boggart Knight from his hand. He Summoned Fulhelmknight and passed to Hurdle.

Hurdle attacked with Boggart Knight but had his attack negated by Fulhelmknight. He ended his turn.

Glowacki Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh next turn, and Hurdle flipped Solemn Judgment to negate the Summon! Glowacki passed without making another play.

Hurdle drew Heavy Storm next turn! He activated it to Special Summon Fulhelmknight from Hurdle’s Graveyard and Darksoul from his own, both in Defense Position. Then Royal Oppression was destroyed by Heavy Storm. Hurdle Summoned Rescue Cat next, and Tributed it to Special Summon X-Saber Airbellum and XX-Saber Darksoul from his Deck. He Tuned them together to Synchro Summon Goyo Guardian. Then Boggart Knight attacked the Defense Position Fulhelmknight, and Fulhelmknight negated the attack. Goyo attacked Fulhelmknight next, allowing Hurdle to destroy and take control of it.

Glowacki Normal Summoned X-Saber Airbellum next turn and then Special Summoned XX-Saber Faultroll from his hand. He Tuned Fulhelmknight with Darksoul and Synchro Summoned Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Then he discarded Mirror Force to bounce the Fulhelmknight Hurdle stole with Goyo Guardian back to his hand. Next, he discarded Fulhelmknight and Darksoul to bounce Hurdle’s remaining 2 monsters. Finally, he attacked directly with his swarm of monsters to finish the Duel!

Some rough draws for Blake Hurdle allow Michael Glowacki to take a quick 2-0 victory in this X-Saber mirror-match and advance with a 7-1 record! But Blake Hurdle isn’t out of the tournament just yet – he still boasts an impressive 6-2 record and has a great shot at making it to the top!

Blake Hurdle

 

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)
Hurdle’s hand was pretty rough in Duel 1, but with XX-Saber Ragigura as his only in-hand X-Saber, he really should’ve saved it instead of letting it be destroyed. Glowacki’s only on-field monster was XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, a low-ATK monster. Hurdle could’ve protected himself with Torrential Tribute if he needed to, and if he still had Ragigura when he drew Book of Moon, 1 of those Saber Holes could’ve taken out Fulhelmknight. When you draw something like Saber Hole, you need to play carefully to make sure you can use that card.

Michael McTavish (Top 8 Finalist – 2009 Canadian National Championship)
In game 2, Hurdle Summoned both XX-Saber Boggart Knight and XX-Saber Fulhelmknight in his opening move. This might not have been the best move for multiple reasons. For example, if both monsters were somehow removed from the field, Hurdle would have to either draw more, or rely on his single copy of Gottoms’ Emergency Call in order to restock his monster supply. Not only that, but there was little he could do with both monsters on his field. While Fulhelmknight is able to protect Hurdle from one attack, Boggart Knight is a force to be reckoned with on its own and since Hurdle knew what Deck Glowacki was using, he didn’t need to be afraid of anything attacking over Boggart Knight. Combine that with the Bottomless Trap Hole he had set and you can immediately see why Fulhelmknight may have been better used on a later turn.

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