Points Play-Off Top 4: Kory Choy vs. Jack Hoyt
Whenever you play in a tournament during a YCS weekend, you get points. At the end of the event, players who have racked up the most points can have a chance to compete in a 4-player mini-tournament. The winner of this tournament wins a set of all 3 YCS Prize Cards!
In our Top 4 at the end of this weekend, we have Jack Hoyt. He’s 12 years old and won the Dragon Duel championship at the United States World Championship Qualifier in Minneapolis this summer. He made into the points playoffs by using his X-Saber Deck all weekend. His opponent, Kory Choy, is 7 years old and used a cool Deck with 3 copies of Obelisk the Tormentor in it. His Deck is full of monsters that swarm the field with monsters for him to Tribute. Will an Egyptian God be enough to take down star-Duelist Jack Hoyt?
Choy won the dice roll and chose to go first. Both Duelists wished each other luck. Choy Set a card to each zone and ended his turn.
Hoyt opened up with XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, XX-Saber Boggart Knight, Pot of Duality, XX-Saber Faultroll, Monster Reborn, and Gottoms’ Emergency Call. He activated Pot of Duality, revealing X-Saber Airbellum, X-Saber Pashuul, and Mirror Force from the top of his Deck. He chose to add Pashuul to his hand and shuffled the other 2 cards back into his Deck. Hoyt Set Pashuul and ended his turn.
Choy Set a 2nd card to his back row next turn, then Set a second monster to the field.
Hoyt drew Cold Wave next turn! He activated it and then flipped up his Pashuul. He Normal Summoned Boggart Knight next, and used its effect to Special Summon Fulhelmknight from his hand. Then he Special Summoned Faultroll. He Tuned Boggart Knight with Pashuul to Synchro Summon XX-Saber Hyunlei and destroy Choy’s face-down Solemn Judgment and Dimensional Prison with its effect. Hoyt activated Faultroll’s effect next, to Special Summon X-Saber Pashuul back from the Graveyard. He Tuned Pashuul with Hyunlei to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. Then he used Fulhelmknight to attack Choy’s face-down Sangan. Sangan was destroyed and Choy added Dandylion from his Deck to his hand with its effect. Next, Boggart Knight attacked the other face-down monster, Dandylion, and Choy Special Summoned 2 Fluff Tokens. Scrap Dragon and Faultroll attacked both tokens and destroyed them.
Choy Set a monster next turn and passed.
Hoyt drew XX-Saber Emmersblade. He Normal Summoned Emmersblade and then Tuned it with Fulhelmknight to Synchro Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Then he discarded Monster Reborn from his hand to return Choy’s face-down monster to his hand. Hoyt attacked directly with Scrap Dragon, Faultroll, Boggart Knight, and Brionac to finish the Duel!
Kory Choy will be going first in Duel 2! He Set a card to each zone and ended his turn.
Hoyt opened up with Faultroll, Boggart Knight, XX-Saber Emmersblade, Mirror Force, Book of Moon, and Trap Stun. He Set Emmersblade face-down and then Set Book of Moon, Trap Stun, and Mirror Force. He ended his turn.
Choy Set a second card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone on his next turn. Then he flipped his face-down Ryko to destroy Hoyt’s Emmersblade and send Plaguespreader Zombie, Mirror Force, and Gravekeeper’s Spy from the top of his Deck to his Graveyard. Next, Choy Tributed Ryko to Summon Caius the Shadow Monarch and used Caius’s effect to remove Hoyt’s face-down Mirror Force from the game. Caius attacked, but Hoyt flipped Book of Moon to put Caius face-down. Hoyt drew Royal Oppression next turn. He Summoned Boggart Knight and then used it to attack and destroy the face-down Caius. Hoyt Set Royal Oppression and then ended his turn.
Choy activated Call of the Haunted next turn to try to Special Summon Caius from his Graveyard, but Hoyt flipped Royal Oppression and paid 800 Life Points to negate it. Choy Set a monster before ending his turn.
Hoyt drew Black Horn of Heaven next turn. Then he used Boggart Knight to attack Choy’s face-down Debris Dragon and lost 100 Life Points as a result. Hoyt Set Black Horn of Heaven and ended his turn.
Choy Set a monster and then ended his turn.
Hoyt drew Pot of Duality next turn. He activated it to reveal X-Saber Pashuul, Trap Stun, and XX-Saber Fulhelmknight from the top of his Deck. He chose to add Fulhelmknight to his hand and shuffle the other 2 cards back into his Deck. Hoyt attacked Choy’s Set Ryko with Boggart Knight, and Ryko destroyed Boggart Knight and sent Trap Stun, Obelisk the Tormentor, and Solemn Judgment from the top of Choy’s Deck to his Graveyard. Hoyt ended his turn.
Choy Summoned Gravekeeper’s Spy to the field next turn. Then he attacked directly with Debris Dragon and Gravekeeper’s Spy, dropping Hoyt down to 4900 Life Points.
Hoyt drew another copy of Trap Stun next turn. He Summoned Fulhelmknight and attacked Gravekeeper’s Spy, but Choy flipped his face-down Book of Moon to put the Spy face-down and Special Summon another copy of Gravekeeper’s Spy from his hand in Defense Position when it flipped face-up from Fulhelmknight’s attack. At last, Choy had 3 monsters on the field!
Choy Tributed all 3 of his monsters to Summon Obelisk the Tormentor on his next turn! He ended his turn without attacking.
Hoyt drew Bottomless Trap Hole next turn and then Set it face-down. He ended his turn.
Choy Set a back row and then activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Hoyt’s face-down Trap Stun.
Hoyt Summoned Darksoul next turn and then Special Summoned Faultroll from his hand. He Tuned Darksoul with Fulhelmknight to Synchro Summon Hyuneli and destroy Choy’s face-down Dimensional Prison. Then he activated Faultroll’s effect to Special Summon XX-Saber Emmersblade in Defense Position. Choy wasn’t taking advantage of Hoyt’s Oppression. Hoyt searched his Deck for Pashuul in the End Phase and added it to his hand thanks to Darksoul’s effect.
Choy Set a card to his back row and then attacked over Hyunlei with Obelisk on his next turn. Hoyt dropped down to 2500 Life Points.
Hoyt activated the effect of Faultroll to Special Summon Darksoul next turn, then Tuned Darksoul with Pashuul to Syncrho Summon Ally of Justice Catastor. Catastor attacked Obelisk and destroyed it with its effect. Then Faultroll attacked Choy directly. Hoyt searched for Fulhelmknight in his End Phase using the effect of his Darksoul.
Choy activated Pot of Avarice next turn to send Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Debris Dragon, Caius the Shadow Monarch, and 2 copies of Gravekeeper’s Spy from his Graveyard to his Deck and draw 2 cards. He Set a card to each zone and then ended his turn.
Hoyt activated the effect of his Faultroll next turn to Special Summon Pashuul from his Graveyard, then Normal Summoned Darksoul. He Tuned Pashuul with Faultroll to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon. Then he used its effect to destroy XX-Saber Darksoul and Choy’s Super-Nimble Mega Hamster. XX-Saber Emmersblade and Ally of Justice Catastor attacked directly, dropping Choy down to 2500 Life Points. Then Scrap Dragon attacked directly. Choy flipped Dimensional Prison to try to remove the Scrap Dragon from the game, but Hoyt flipped Trap Stun and the Duel was over!
Jack Hoyt is just 1 Match away from a Set of Darklord Prize Cards!
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)
Hoyt’s use of Scrap Dragon in the first Duel was really smart. While he could have dealt a little more Battle Damage with Colossal Fighter, he chose Scrap Dragon instead, knowing that if Choy Set a defensive card or Summoned a tough monster next turn, the Dragon could destroy it. We’ve seen Hoyt win with these 2-turn plans before: when it’s you at the table, always try to plan ahead and make the best choices for the turns to come.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
Choy had Hoyt pinned down in Duel 2, with Obelisk the Tormentor on his side of the field and Royal Oppression on Hoyt’s. Unfortunately for Choy, he didn’t know he could use Hoyt’s own Royal Oppression to negate his Special Summons, including the Synchro Summon of Ally of Justice Catastor. Nevertheless, Choy put up an impressive showing for such a young Duelist, and if he learns from his mistakes, he’ll be an expert in no time.
P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
Black Horn of Heaven is something you don’t see often in a Duelist’s Deck, but Hoyt was using it all weekend. It’s a Counter Trap Card that can negate the Special Summon of one of your opponent’s monsters and destroy it. While Solemn Warning does the same (and more), Black Horn of Heaven doesn’t have a Life Point cost attached to it. As Hoyt was also running Royal Oppression in his Deck, he couldn’t afford to keep paying Life Points every time his opponent tried to Summon a monster, which is why he opted for Black Horn of Heaven over extra copies of Solemn Warning.
