Top 32 Feature Match: Bobby Chambers vs. Mario Cordova
Mario Cordova is a veteran judge from Southern California, so he’s more used to watching Feature Matches than Dueling in them. But this weekend, he’s taking a break from judging to play in his first YCS. He’d made it to the Top 32 with his Quickdraw Dandywarrior Deck. His opponent this round was Bobby Chambers, a Blackwing Duelist. That could mean trouble for Cordova, because often, the Quickdraw / Blackwing matchup just comes down to the Blackwing Duelist using Blackwing – Bora the Spear to pierce through Defense Position monsters for easy wins. But Cordova wasn’t going to throw in the towel just yet.
Cordova opened the Match with Lonefire Blossom, Tributing it to Special Summon Tytannial, Princess of Camellias. He Set a back row card.
Chambers had a hand of 2 Pots of Duality, 2 Blackwing – Kalut the Moonshadow, Monster Reborn, and Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn. He activated Pot, revealing 2 more Siroccos and an Icarus Attack. He took the Icarus into his hand, Summoned Sirocco, and attacked Tytannial. Cordova flipped Book of Moon to stop the attack, and Chambers Set Icarus.
Cordova attacked to destroy Sirocco, then Summoned another Lonefire in Main Phase 2. He Tributed it to Special Summon Dandylion.
Chambers drew Mirror Force. His second Pot of Duality revealed his Bottomless Trap Hole and 2 Solemn Warnings. He took a Warning and Set Mirror Force.
Cordova Summoned Genex Neutron! He activated its effect and attacked into Mirror Force, losing Genex Neutron and Tytannial. “Well, I kinda got rocked.” He Set a card to his back row and ended.
Chambers drew another Sirocco. He tried to Summon it, but Cordova negated the Summon with Solemn Warning. Chambers Special Summoned Tytannial with Monster Reborn, attacked to destroy Dandylion, and Cordova Summoned his 2 Fluff Tokens. Chambers Set a back row card and ended.
Cordova changed a Fluff Token to Attack Position and activated Creature Swap, taking back his Tytannial. “You must have Icarus Attack and Solemn Warning. My guess.” He attacked through the Token for 2800 Battle Damage, then Set a monster. Cordova had an exact read on Chambers’ 2 Set cards.
Chambers activated Black Whirlwind, Normal Summoned Kalut, and searched his Deck for Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind. He Special Summoned it, and then attacked Cordova’s Fluff Token with Kalut. He activated Icarus Attack, Tributed Kalut to try and destroy both of Cordova’s monsters, and Cordova Tributed Tytannial to negate the Icarus. Gale attacked Cordova’s remaining face-down monster, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and Cordova destroyed Solemn Warning. He sent Dandylion, Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, and Torrential Tribute to the Graveyard, Special Summoning 2 Fluff Tokens. Chambers controller Gale, Whirlwind, and 1 card in-hand.

After debuting on Cordova's side of the field, then doing a guest appearance on Chambers' side of the field thanks to Monster Reborn, Tytannial, Princess of Camellias and idol of millions, returned to her roots (so to speak) by going back to Cordova's field thanks to Creature Swap. Here we see Tytannial in her final performance, before Tributing herself to stop Icarus Attack.
Cordova drew to 3 cards in hand. He Tributed 1 of his Fluff Tokens for Caius the Shadow Monarch and ran some numbers before deciding to remove Gale from play with Caius’ effect. Monster Reborn brought back Tytannial, and both monsters attacked for the win!
Mario Cordova takes an assertive victory in the First Duel, pressing through a possible comeback with Creature Swap to take the win. One more like that and Cordova would be headed to the Top 16.
Chambers’ hand for the second Duel was 2 Blackwing – Blizzard the far North, Cards for Black Feathers, Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn, Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, and Bottomless Trap Hole. He activated Feathers, removed Blackwing – Blizzard the far North, and got another Feathers plus another Bottomless. He Set Bottomless.
Cordova Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh and lost it to Bottomless.
Chambers drew Solemn Warning, and activated another Cards for Black Feathers by removing another Blizzard. That got him Allure and Mystical Space Typhoon. Allure then got him Pot of Duality and Banisher of the Radiance, and he removed Gale from his hand. He then activated Duality, revealing Icarus Attack, Dark Hole, and Blackwing – Bora the Spear. He took Dark Hole. His hand was now Dark Hole, Sirocco, Mystical Space Typhoon, Banisher, Warning, and Bottomless. He Summoned Banisher and attacked for 1600 Battle Damage. He Set Warning, Bottomless, and Mystical Space Typhoon.
Cordova Normal Summoned another Thunder King, and it was swallowed up by the next Bottomless. He Set Book of Moon to his back row, losing it in his End Phase to Mystical Space Typhoon.
Chambers drew Trap Dustshoot, attacked with Banisher, and Set Dustshoot.
He flipped it next turn, revealing Cordova’s hand of Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Debris Dragon, Creature Swap, Morphing Jar, and Pot of Avarice: Chambers sent Ryko back to Cordova’s Deck. Cordova Set 2 cards to his back row, and Set a monster.
Chambers drew Kalut and Set Dark Hole. He Summoned Kalut, attacked, and Kalut bounced off Cordova’s Debris Dragon.
Cordova Set another monster.
Chambers drew and Set Mirror Force. He attacked with Kalut, hitting Cordova’s Morphing Jar! Both Duelists got new hands, and Chambers drew 2 Shura, Bora, and 2 Warning. He lost Mirror Force in the End Phase to Mystical Space Typhoon.
Cordova Set another monster, then Set 3 more cards to his back row (for a total of 5).
Chambers drew Torrential Tribute. He attacked Cordova’s face-down monster with Banisher, but lost Banisher and Kalut to Mirror Force. In Main Phase 2 he activated Dark Hole, destroying Cordova’s face-down Ryko and his Debris Dragon. Chambers Summoned Shura, lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole, and Set another Spell or Trap. The Duel stood at 7400 Life Points to 4800.
Cordova passed.
Chambers Summoned another Shura, and this time Cordova countered with Solemn Warning.
Cordova Set a monster.
Chambers drew another Pot of Duality. He activated it, revealed Royal Oppression, Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn, and Kalut, and took the Kalut. He Summoned Bora, attacked, and pierced through Cordova’s Dandylion with a 1400 ATK boost from Kalut to finish the Duel!
Bobby Chambers evens the score, controlling the second Duel from the get-go thanks to a flurry of draw spells! Cordova finds no traction, and is forced onto the defensive the entire Duel. The winner of this next one would be headed to the Top 16, and the loser would be out of the tournament.
Cordova started the final Duel by Setting a monster, then Set 2 cards to his back row.
Chambers had 2 Icarus Attacks, Dark Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole, Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame, and Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn. He Summoned Shura and Cordova removed it with Bottomless. Chambers ended with a clear field.
Cordova Set another monster.
Chambers drew Blackwing – Bora the Spear, activated Dark Hole, and Cordova blasted him with Starlight Road! Stardust Dragon hit the field, and Chambers shook his head. He pressed on, Normal Summoning Sirocco and Special Summoning Bora. He boosted Sirocco’s ATK to 3700 and attacked over Stardust Dragon, then Set both copies of Icarus Attack.
Cordova Flip Summoned Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and targeted Sirocco for destruction. Chambers Chained Icarus Attack, Tributed Sirocco, and destroyed Morphing Jar and Cold Wave on Cordova’s side of the field. Mystical Space Typhoon let Cordova destroy the second Icarus, and he Summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior to attack over Bora. Ryko made a direct attack.
Chambers Sumoned Bora, attacked Ryko, and Chambers still had Bottomless in his hand. If he Set it, and Cordova attacked with Breaker before using Breaker’s Spell Counter, Chambers could lose both of his cards in 1 turn. He ended without Setting Bottomless.
Cordova attacked to destroy Bora, and with 2 cards in hand he Set a monster.
Chambers drew Allure of Darkness and passed.
Cordova attacked for 1900 Battle Damage, and Chambers was down to 5700 Life Points. Cordova Set a Spell or Trap.
Chambers drew Blizzard. He activated Allure, drew Solemn Judgment and Shura, and removed Shura. He Summoned Blizzard, activated its effect targeting the Bora in his Graveyard, and Cordova responded by turning Blizzard face-down with Book of Moon. Chambers Set his 2 cards to his back row.
Cordova destroyed Bottomless with Breaker, Flip Summoned Dandylion, and attacked Blizzard with it to destroy it. Breaker destroyed Bora, and Cordova ended his turn with 2 cards in hand.
Chambers drew Monster Reborn! He activated it and Special Summoned Thunder King, then attacked over Breaker.
Cordova tried to Summon his own Thunder King, and succeeded in crashing it into Chambers’. Both were destroyed. Dandylion was turned to Defense Position.
Chambers activated Pot of Duality next turn, and revealed Dark Armed Dragon, Sirocco, and Bora. With 4 DARKs in his Graveyard (too many for Dark Armed) he chose Bora, attacking through Dandylion. Cordova Special Summoned 2 Fluff Tokens. With his Solemn Judgment still Set, it seemed like Chambers might have been in control again.
But Cordova Tributed his 2 Fluff Tokens for Light and Darkness Dragon. Chambers had to negate the Summon with Solemn Judgment, but the Dragon’s effect let Cordova Special Summon Thunder King Rai-Oh. It attacked over Bora, and Chambers had no cards left!
Chambers drew and Set a Spell or Trap Card.
Cordova bounced it away with Giant Trunade, attacked for 1900 Battle Damage, and Tribute Summoned Caius the Shadow Monarch! He then removed it with its own effect, and ended the Match with Caius’ effect damage!
Mario Cordova is headed to the Top 16!
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)
With the power to search out Quickdraw Synchron from its controller’s Deck, Genex Neutron can be a strong card. But remember, you only get to search with Neutron if it survives until the End Phase. When Cordova Summoned Neutron and attacked with it and Tytannial into Mirror Force, he could’ve just ended his turn instead and got a free card from his Deck. Instead, he lost 2 strong monsters and Neutron’s search.
Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
In Duel 1, Cordova would have been better off Summoning Genex Neutron in Main Phase 2, after attacking Chambers with his Tytannial. Cordova was already in a dominating position, and strengthening that position by grabbing an extra monster from his Deck in the End Phase would be worth way more than the 1800 points of damage that Cordova was hoping for his Genex Neutron to score.