Ramin Ghodoumipour is running a teched out Gadget Deck that uses 3 copies each of Koa’ki Meiru Guardian and Koa’ki Meiru Sandman to negate the effects of his opponent’s Effect Monsters and Trap Cards. His Deck is filled with other surprises too, including 2 Main Decked copies of Legendary Jujitsu Master and a copy of Gaia Plate the Earth Giant, which may make this a tough Match for his opponent, Sean Coovert, running a traditional X-Saber Deck. Both of these Duelists are currently 4-1, so a win here will put one of these players into great position for a Day 2 finish.

Ghodoumipour opened up with Book of Moon, Fissure, Solemn Judgment, Monster Reborn, Koa’ki Meiru Sandman, and Royal Oppression. He Set Solemn Judgment, Royal Oppression, and Book of Moon before ending his turn.

Coovert Set a monster and 3 Spell or Trap Cards before ending his turn.

Ghodoumipour Summoned Red Gadget and activated its effect to search his Deck for Yellow Gadget and add it to his hand. Then he attacked Coovert’s face-down XX-Saber Emmersblade with his Red Gadget, destroying it in battle and triggering its effect. Coovert Special Summoned XX-Saber Darksoul from his Deck with its effect. In Ghodoumipour’s End Phase, Coovert destroyed his Solemn Judgment with Mystical Space Typhoon.

Coovert Summoned XX-Saber Fulhelmknight next turn and Tuned it with Darksoul to Synchro Summon XX-Saber Hyunlei. But Ghodoumipour flipped Royal Oppression and paid 800 Life Points to negate the Summon! In his End Phase, Coovert searched his Deck for XX-Saber Faultroll and added it to his hand with Darksoul’s effect.

Ghodoumipour Summoned Yellow Gadget next turn and activated its effect to add a Green Gadget from his Deck to his hand. Then he attacked directly with Yellow Gadget and Red Gadget, dropping Coovert down to 4700 Life Points.

Coovert Summoned XX-Saber Boggart Knight next turn and chose not to activate its effect. He attacked Ghodoumipour’s Yellow Gadget and destroyed it in battle, dropping Ghodoumipour down to 6500 Life Points.

Ghodoumipour drew Smashing Ground next turn. He activated Fissure to destroy Coovert’s XX-Saber Boggart Knight, but Coovert activated My Body as a Shield to protect it by giving up 1500 Life Points. Ghodoumipour activated Smashing Ground next to destroy the Boggart Knight. Then he Summoned Koa’ki Meiru Sandman and attacked with it, but Coovert flipped his face-down Book of Moon to put the Sandman face-down. Red Gadget attacked directly next, dropping Coovert down to 1900 Life Points.

Coovert Summoned Fulhelmknight next turn and used it to attack Ghodoumipour’s face-down Sandman, but Ghodoumipour blocked the attack with Book of Moon, putting Fulhelmknight face-down.

Ghodoumipour flipped Sandman next turn and Coovert flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to try to remove it from the game. Ghodoumipour negated the Bottomless Trap Hole by Tributing Sandman, and then activated Monster Reborn to target the Sandman in his Graveyard. Coovert declined to pay 800 Life Points with Royal Oppression and conceded instead. Even if he had negated the Monster Reborn with Royal Oppression, Ghodoumipour could have Summoned a Gadget or Sandman from his hand to finish the Duel.

Ramin Ghodoumipour wins Duel 1 by Summoning his Gadgets and Koa’ki Meiru Sandman!

Coovert chose to go first in Duel 2 and started things off by Summoning XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and Setting 2 cards to his back row.

Ghodoumipour opened up with Koa’ki Meiru Sandman, Green Gadget, Dimensional Fissure, 2 copies of Trap Hole, and Smashing Ground. He activated Dimensional Fissure and then tried to Summon Green Gadget to the field. Coovert activated Solemn Warning and paid 2000 Life Points to negate its Summon! Ghodoumipour used Smashing Ground next, and Coovert flipped Book of Moon to put Fulhelmknight face-down and protect it. Ghodoumipour Set 2 copies of Trap Hole and then ended his turn.

Coovert activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy a copy of Trap Hole next turn, then flipped his Fulhelmknight face-up. Ghodoumipour flipped up his other Trap Hole to destroy it. Coovert ended his turn without any cards on the field.

Ghodoumipour drew a Green Gadget next turn! He Summoned it to the field and searched his Deck for a Red Gadget to add to his hand. He attacked directly for 1400 points of damage and then ended his turn.

Coovert Special Summoned Cyber Dragon next turn. Then he Normal Summoned XX-Saber Emmersblade. He attacked over Green Gadget with Cyber Dragon and then attacked directly with Emmersblade.

Ghodoumipour drew another copy of Dimensional Fissure next turn.  He Summoned Red Gadget to the field and searched his Deck for a Yellow Gadget to add to his hand. Then he rammed his Red Gadget into Coovert’s Emmersblade, removing them both from the game.

Coovert attacked directly with Cyber Dragon next turn, dropping Ghodoumipour down to 3900 Life Points.

Ghodoumipour drew Bottomless Trap Hole and Set it. Then he Set his Yellow Gadget and ended his turn, unable to destroy Coovert’s Cyber Dragon.

Coovert Summoned another copy of Emmersblade next turn. He attacked and destroyed Ghodoumipour’s face-down Yellow Gadget with Cyber Dragon and attacked directly with Emmersblade. Ghodoumipour needed a huge topdeck here to take down Emmersblade and Cyber Dragon if he wanted to get back into the Duel.

Ghodoumipour drew Big Piece Golem next turn! It was exactly what he needed! He Normal Summoned it and attacked over Emmersblade, removing it from the game!

Coovert rammed his Cyber Dragon into Big Piece Golem next turn, unable to destroy the Golem in any other way. Both monsters were removed from the game.

Ghodoumipour drew his third Dimensional Fissure next turn and passed.

Coovert Summoned XX-Saber Emmersblade and attacked, dropping Ghodoumipour down to 1300 Life Points.

Ghodoumipour drew Dark Hole next turn and activated it to destroy Emmersblade. Dimensional Fissure removed Emmersblade from the game. Ghodoumipour Set Koa’ki Meiru Sandman before ending his turn.

Coovert Special Summoned Cyber Dragon and Ghodoumipour flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to remove it from the game. He Set a Spell or Trap and ended his turn.

Ghodoumipour drew Legendary Jujitsu Master next turn. He Flip Summoned Sandman and Coovert flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to remove it from the game. Ghodoumipour Set his Legendary Jujitsu Master and ended his turn.

Coovert Set a Spell or Trap and passed.

Ghodoumipour drew Monster Reborn and then flipped his Legendary Jujitsu Master face-up. He attacked with it, dropping Coovert down to 2500 Life Points.

Coovert Set a third card to his back row and ended his turn.

Ghodoumipour drew and Set Solemn Judgment. Then he attacked for 1300 points of damage, dropping Coovert down to 1200 Life Points.

Coovert Set a 4th card to his back row and ended his turn.

Ghodoumipour drew Red Gadget next turn. He attacked directly with Legendary Jujitsu Master and when Coovert tried to destroy it with Mirror Force, Ghodoumipour flipped Solemn Judgment to negate it! Coovert offered the handshake, revealing his face-down Bottomless Trap Hole and his 2 face-down copies of Saber Hole that were unable to stop the attack.

A huge topdeck of Big Piece Golem turns the Duel around for Ramin Ghodoumipour and allows him to take a 2-0 victory over Sean Coovert’s X-Sabers!

Post-Event Analysis!
See what our panel of experts had to say about this Duel after the event was over. 

Michael Kohanim (2009 World Championship Competitor)
Big Piece Golem has great synergy with Ghodoumipour’s Deck. While Ghodoumipour has a Koa’ki Meiru monster on the field, he can reveal the Golem from his hand in his End Phase to prevent his Koa’ki Meiru monsters from being destroyed. When Ghodoumipour doesn’t have any monsters on the field, he can Normal Summon Big Piece Golem instead, thanks to its effect! That means Big Piece Golem is almost always a good card for Ghodoumipour to draw.

P.J. Tierney (Duelist from across The Pond)
Ghodoumipour’s first moves in Duel 2 could have been done in a different order which could have made things easier later on. He started by activating Dimensional Fissure before Summoning Koa’ki Meiru Sandman, which was destroyed by Coovert’s Solemn Warning. Ghodoumipour was still using Monster Reborn (he hadn’t sided it out after Duel 1) so if he Summoned his monster first, it would have ended up in the Graveyard instead of being removed from play, and he could Summon it with the Monster Reborn he drew several turns later. When he eventually drew Reborn, he had no monsters in either Graveyard to use it with, and if he had that Sandman from his very first turn he would have ended the Duel a turn earlier, preventing Coovert from mounting a possible comeback with the Mirror Force he drew after that (had Ghodoumipour not already drawn Solemn Judgment by the time Coovert had Mirror Force, Coovert could have swung the Duel around, all because of the mistake Ghodoumipour made on the very first turn).

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