Round 9 Feature Match: Christopher Burrows VS Eric Huang
Christopher Burrows finished yesterday with a 6-2 record: 2 more consecutive Match wins would almost guarantee a seat in the top 32, but that was the goal for all of the Duelists remaining in this tournament, and Eric Huang is no exception. Huang is playing an aggressive LIGHT Beatdown / Gemini City Deck, similar to the Deck that won YCS San Jose for Angel Flores. With Scrapstorms and Gemini Sparks in the mix, this could be an interesting tactical Match.
Burrows opened our morning with a hand of Cyber Dragon, Scrap Goblin, Scrap Chimera, Scrap Golem, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Scrapstorm. He Set Bottomless, Scrapstorm, and Goblin.
Huang activated Reinforcement of the Army and searched out Elemental Hero Neos Alius from his Deck. He followed up with Pot of Duality, revealing Bottomless Trap Hole, Honest, and Starlight Road: he chose to add Honest to his hand, shuffling the other 2 back into his Deck. He Summoned Alius, Burrows activated Bottomless, and Huang Chained Gemini Spark, Tributing Alius to destroy Scrap Goblin. Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed Burrows’ Scrapstorm, and Huang Set a back row card.
Burrows drew Caius the Shadow Monarch. He Summoned Scrap Chimera, activated its effect, and Huang Chained Bottomless Trap Hole: Chimera was removed, but Burrows Special Summoned Scrap Goblin in Defense Position.
Huang Summoned Elemental Hero Stratos next turn, getting another Neos Alius from his Deck. Stratos attacked Goblin, and Goblin was destroyed by its own effect at the end of the Battle Phase. Huang Set another Spell or Trap.
Burrows drew Scrap Beast and Special Summoned Cyber Dragon. He Tributed it for Scrap Golem, but the Summon was negated with Solemn Judgment!
Huang Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, and made direct attacks with Stratos, then Thunder King. Burrows was down to 4300 Life Points, while Huang had 4000.
Burrows drew another Scrap Beast, and Set it.
Huang attacked to destroy Scrap Beast with Stratos, and Thunder King made a direct attack. Burrows had 2400 Life Points left.
Burrows drew Scrapstorm. He Summoned Scrap Beast and Set Scrapstorm.
Huang attacked with Thunder King, Burrows responded with Scrapstorm, and targeted his Scrap Beast. He sent Scrap Chimera to the Graveyard from his Deck, drew Solemn Judgment, and destroyed Scrap Beast to get back his Scrap Chimera. But it wasn’t enough: Thunder King and Stratos made direct attacks to finish Burrows off.
Eric Huang just has too much monster removal for Chris Burrows to deal with, and keeps Burrows off the field to make a quick series of game-winning attacks!
Burrows opened Duel 2 with a hand of Scrap Chimera, Scrapstorm, Scrap Goblin, Scrap Beast, Monster Reborn, and Mirror Force. He Set Mirror Force, Set Scrap Goblin, and Set Scrapstorm.
Huang Summoned Thunder King and attacked to reveal Scrap Goblin. Huang Set a card to his back row in the End Phase.
Burrows drew another Scrapstorm and Set it.
Huang attacked Scrap Goblin with Thunder King, and Burrows destroyed it with Mirror Force. Huang Summoned Elemental Hero Neos Alius and Set a second back row card, then a third.
Burrows drew Scrap Golem. He Tributed Goblin for the Golem, but Huang Chained Gemini Spark to Golem’s effect: Golem was destroyed, and Burrows Special Summoned Goblin in Defense Position. Huang drew for Spark. Burrows weighed his options, and eventually decided to activate Monster Reborn, targeting Scrap Golem: he succeeded. He then Tuned Scrap Golem to Scrap Goblin for Scrap Dragon, activating its effect with priority to destroy his own Scrapstorm and his opponent’s Dimensional Prison. Scrap Dragon attacked for 2800 Battle Damage. With that Scrap Golem loaded for Scrap Dragon’s Special Summon effect, Burrows had a strong setup.
Huang took a moment to peruse his opponent’s Graveyard, then Summoned Doomcaliber Knight and Set a second card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.
Burrows drew Dimensional Prison. He Normal Summoned Scrap Beast, activated Scrap Dragon’s effect to trigger Doomcaliber’s ability, and both monsters were destroyed. That triggered Scrap Dragon’s Special Summon: Burrows got Scrap Golem back, and Special Summoned Scrap Goblin. Huang activated Hero Blast, taking back his Elemental Hero Neos Alius and destroying Scrap Goblin. Burrows attacked for 1600 Battle Damage with Scrap Beast, and 2300 more with Scrap Golem. The Duel stood at 1300 Life Points to 8000, and Burrows Set a Spell or Trap: it was Dimensional Prison, and he lost in his End Phase to Huang’s Mystical Space Typhoon.
Huang drew to 4 cards in hand, and activated Dark Hole: Burrows Chained Scrapstorm. He targeted Scrap Beast, sent Scrap Chimera to his Graveyard, drew Caius the Shadow Monarch, and destroyed Scrap Beast to return Chimera to his hand. He now had 3 cards in hand with a clear field. Huang activated Monster Reborn to Special Summon Thunder King Rai-Oh, and Normal Summoned Banisher of the Radiance. Both monsters attacked for a combined total of 3500 Battle Damage.
Burrows drew Treeborn Frog. He Normal Summoned Scrap Chimera, Special Summoned Scrap Beast, and Synchro Summoned another Scrap Dragon: Huang tried to negate the Summon with Thunder King Rai-Oh’s effect, but couldn’t, due to his own Banisher. Burrows ran over the Banisher with Scrap Dragon, and Huang was down to 100 Life Points! Red Dragon Archfiend would’ve ended it. Burrows ended, a Caius away from victory.
Huang turned Thunder King to Defense Position, Set a monster, and Set a Spell or Trap.
Burrows drew Dark Hole, Set a monster, and destroyed his freshly-Set Treeborn Frog and his opponent’s Super Polymerization. He attacked to destroy Huang’s Set Neos Alius.
Huang turned Thunder King to Attack Position.
Burrows drew Trap Stun: he Special Summoned Treeborn Frog, destroyed it and Thunder King, and made a direct attack to win!
Christopher Burrows struggles back to win Duel 2, pressing us to 1 more Duel to decide the Match!
Huang got the last Duel started by Summoning Doomcaliber Knight, then Set 2 cards to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.
Burrows had Dimensional Prison, Giant Trunade, Trap Stun, 2 Scrap Goblin, and Book of Moon. He Set everything but Trunade and his second Goblin.
Huang Set a third Spell or Trap.
Burrows drew Scrap Beast and Set his second Scrap Goblin.
Huang Set a fourth card to his back row.
Burrows drew Summoner Monk and passed.
Huang Set a fifth Spell or Trap.
Burrows drew another Scrap Beast and passed.
Huang attacked with Doomcaliber Knight, and Burrows removed it with Dimensional Prison. Huang Summoned Elemental Hero Stratos in Main Phase 2, getting Elemental Hero Neos Alius from his Deck.
Burrows drew his THIRD Scrap Goblin and Set it.
Huang attacked 1 of the Goblins with Stratos.
Burrows drew Book of Moon, now having a second Spell to discard for Summoner Monk. He activated Giant Trunade: Huang had no response. Burrows Summoned the Monk, discarded Book of Moon, and Special Summoned Scrap Beast from his Deck with the Monk’s ability. He Tuned it to the Monk to Summon Scrap Dragon, activated its effect to destroy his Scrap Goblin and Stratos, and took back his Beast with the Goblin’s effect. He attacked for 2800 Battle Damage with Scrap Dragon, then Set Trap Stun and Book of Moon. That Trap Stun could be a powerful combo with Scrap Dragon next turn.
Huang drew to a whopping 11 cards in hand! He needed to get rid of that Scrap Dragon: Super Polymerization would be huge here if he had it. He activated Dark Hole instead though, almost as good: Burrows lost his 2 Goblins and Scrap Dragon, and used the latter to Special Summon Scrap Goblin back to the field. Huang Summoned Neos Alius, attacked Scrap Goblin, and Burrows responded with Book of Moon. Huang Chained Gemini Spark, Tributed Alius, destroyed Scrap Goblin, and drew, preventing Burrows from taking anything back with his Scrap Goblin. Huang then Set 5 cards to his back row, ending his turn with 4 more cards in his hand.
Burrows drew Mirror Force, holding 3 Scrap Beasts. He activated Trap Stun in his Standby Phase, making Huang Chain Seven Tools of the Bandit to negate it. Burrows Normal Summoned Scrap Beast and Huang Hero Blasted it when the Beast attacked: he took back Neos Alius and destroyed Scrap Beast. Burrows Set Mirror Force.
Huang attacked with Neos Alius next turn: Burrows flipped Mirror Force, and Huang Chained Gemini Spark to destroy Mirror Force and draw a card. Monster Reborn brought Alius back in Main Phase 2, and Huang Set 2 more cards to his back row.
Burrows drew Caius the Shadow Monarch and Set Scrap Beast.
Huang Summoned a second Neos Alius next turn, attacked with 1 of them, and flipped Skill Drain: he was down to 3200 Life Points. Alius destroyed Scrap Beast, and the second Alius attacked to drop Burrows to 6100 Life Points.
Burrows drew Trap Hole, and Set it and Scrap Beast. He lost Trap Hole to Gemini Spark in his End Phase.
Huang Summoned Banisher of the Radiance, attacked Scrap Beast to destroy it, and made another direct attack with Neos Alius. He Set a fifth Spell or Trap again.
Burrows drew Pot of Avarice and shuffled 3 Scrap Goblin, Scrap Beast, and Summoner Monk back into his Deck: he drew Cyber Dragon and Scrapstorm. He tried to Special Summon Cyber Dragon, lost out to Royal Oppression, and Set Scrapstorm: Huang blew it away with Mystical Space Typhoon in the End Phase. It was all over a turn later, as Huang got another Neos Alius with Pot of Duality, Summoned it, and attacked for game with his 3 monsters!
Christopher Burrows gives Eric Huang a handshake, and Huang is off to Round 10, his Top 32 dreams still alive!
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)
When you’re facing a LIGHT Gemini Beatdown Deck, it’s important to play around Gemini Spark. If your opponent Chains Gemini Spark and Tributes a monster that’s about to be hit by your Bottomless Trap Hole, the swing generated by the Gemini Spark will usually push your opponent into the lead. When Huang activated Reinforcement of the Army on his first turn in Duel 1 to search his Deck for Elemental Hero Neos Alius instead of Elemental Hero Stratos, Burrows should have suspected that Huang had Gemini Spark. Instead of activating Bottomless Trap Hole when Neos Alius was Summoned, Burrows would have been better off holding on to it and activating it when his opponent Summoned a non-Gemini monster that can’t be Tributed with Gemini Spark.
