Roy St. Clair was the first Duelist to make it to the top of a YCS with X-Sabers, and today he’s back with his signature X-Saber Deck. He’s running 2 copies of X-Saber Pashuul along with Reinforce Truth to Special Summon it. These cards allow him to create a wall that Decks like Samurais can’t pass through. He’s also running Saber Hole, which lets him negate the Summon of Samurais without letting his opponents put counters on Gateway of the Six or Six Samurai United. With Reinforce Truth in his Main Deck, St. Clair is able to easily get an X-Saber on the field so that he can activate Saber Hole.

But Danny Flores isn’t playing Samurais. Flores entered the tournament with Blackwings, and St. Clair’s tech choices may not be so strong in this matchup.

St. Clair opened up with XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, Gottoms’ Emergency Call, Mystical Space Typhoon, Solemn Warning, Saber Hole, and XX-Saber Faultroll. He Set 4 cards to his back row and Summoned Fulhelmknight, ending his turn.

Flores activated 2 copies of Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Saber Hole and Solemn Warning. Then he activated Cards for Black Feathers by removing Blackwing – Vayu the Emblem of Honor, and drew 2 cards from his Deck. He Summoned Bora and attacked Fulhelmknight, but St. Clair negated the attack with Fulhelmknight’s effect. Flores Set a card to his back row and passed.

St. Clair drew and Set Mirror Force.

Flores drew a card, and then St. Clair flipped Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Flores’s face-down Allure of Darkness. Next, Flores Summoned Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind and attacked Fulhelmknight, but St. Clair flipped Mirror Force to destroy Gale and Bora. Flores Set a Book of Moon before ending his turn.

St. Clair attacked with Fulhelmknight, and Flores put it face-down by activating Book of Moon.

Flores activated Monster Reborn next turn to Special Summon Bora from his Graveyard, and then attacked over Fulhelmknight to destroy it and inflict 700 points of damage to St. Clair’s Life Points. Flores activated Black Whirlwind in Main Phase 2 and ended his turn.

St. Clair drew and Set XX-Saber Darksoul next turn.

Flores attacked Darksoul with Bora, destroying it and dropping St. Clair down to 5700 Life Points while triggering Darksoul’s effect. Flores Set a card and St. Clair searched for Boggart Knight in his End Phase with Darksoul’s effect, adding it to his hand.

St. Clair Normal Summoned Boggart Knight next turn and activated its effect to Special Summon XX-Saber Fulhelmknight from his hand. Then he Special Summoned XX-Saber Faultroll and activated its effect to Special Summon XX-Saber Darksoul from his Graveyard. St. Clair Tuned Darksoul with Fulhelmknight to Summon Hyunlei and destroy Flores’s face-down Dimensional Prison and face-up Black Whirlwind. Next, he activated Gottoms’ Emergency Call to Special Summon XX-Saber Darksoul and Fulhelmknight from his Graveyard. He Tuned them together to Summon Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, then pitched a Trap Stun from his hand to bounce Bora back to Flores’s hand. With a clear field, St. Clair was able to attack directly with Faultroll, Boggart Knight, Hyunlei, and Brionac, wiping out all 8000 of Flores’s Life Points in a single turn!

Danny Flores will be going first in Duel 2!

Flores started off the Duel by activating Cards for Black Feathers, removing Sirocco from his hand to draw 2 cards. Then he Set 2 back rows and a Spirit Reaper, ending his turn.

St. Clair opened up with Gottoms’ Emergency Call, Solemn Warning, 2 copies of XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, XX-Saber Faultroll, and Trap Stun. He Summoned Fulhelmknight and attacked the face-down Spirit Reaper, flipping it up. St. Clair Set his Traps and passed, losing Solemn Warning to Flores’s Mystical Space Typhoon in the End Phase.

Flores activated Trap Stun next turn. Then he Summoned Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow and attacked Fulhelmknight, but St. Clair negated the attack with Fulhelmknight’s effect. Flores Set a card to his back row and ended his turn.

St. Clair drew and activated Giant Trunade next turn. Then he Summoned Fulhelmknight and Special Summoned XX-Saber Faultroll. He Tuned Faultroll with Fulhelmknight to Synchro Summon XX-Saber Gottoms, and activated its effect by Tributing his other Fulhelmknight to discard Vayu from Flores’s hand. Gottoms attacked over Kalut, St. Clair Set 2 back rows, and play passed to Flores.

Flores activated Dark Hole to clear the field! He Set a monster and then ended his turn.

St. Clair Summoned Consecrated Light next turn before passing to Flores.

Flores activated Monster Reborn, reviving XX-Saber Gottoms from St. Clair’s Graveyard! He attacked over Consecrated Light with Gottoms, and St. Clair took the hit.

St. Clair drew another Gottoms’ Emergency Call next turn and passed.

Flores attacked directly with XX-Saber Gottoms, dropping St. Clair to 1800 Life Points.

St. Clair drew another copy of Fulhelmknight next turn. He Summoned it and attacked over a face-down Vayu, Special Summoning another Fulhelmknight from his Graveyard with Fulhelmknight’s effect.

Flores Summoned Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North next turn and Special Summoned Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow from his Graveyard with its effect. Then, with exactly 3 DARK monsters in his Graveyard, he Special Summoned Dark Armed Dragon. Next, he Tuned Blizzard with Kalut to Synchro Summon Vortex the Whirlwind. After removing 5 DARK monsters from his Graveyard to destroy every card on St. Clair’s field, Dark Armed Dragon attacked St. Clair directly and the Duel was over!

A huge play with Dark Armed Dragon finally ends the Duel 2, finishing off St. Clair!

St. Clair started off Duel 3 with Book of Moon, XX-Saber Boggart Knight, Trap Stun, XX-Saber Faultroll, Monster Reborn, and Solemn Warning in his hand. He Set Solemn Warning, Trap Stun, and Book of Moon, ending his first turn.

Flores Set 2 cards in his back row and Summoned Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame. St. Clair negated Shura’s Summon by activating Solemn Warning and paying 2000 Life Points.

St. Clair drew another copy of Solemn Warning next turn. He Normal Summoned XX-Saber Boggart Knight and attacked with it, but Flores blocked the attack by activating Book of Moon and putting Boggart Knight face-down.

Flores activated Trap Stun next turn and then Normal Summoned Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North. He activated its effect to Special Summon Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame from his Graveyard, and St. Clair Chained Book of Moon to put Blizzard face-down before Flores could perform a Synchro Summon. Flores Set a card to his back row before passing to St. Clair.

St. Clair drew Starlight Road next turn. He flipped and attacked with his Boggart Knight, but was blocked by another copy of Book of Moon.

Flores flipped Blizzard next turn and switched Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame to Attack Position. Then he Normal Summoned Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow. Shura attacked over Boggart Knight and activated its effect. St. Clair activated Solemn Warning to negate Shura’s effect and destroy it, by paying 2000 Life Points. Then Blizzard and Kalut attacked St. Clair directly, dropping St. Clair to 1300 Life Points. Flores Set a card to his back row before ending his turn.

St. Clair drew XX-Saber Darksoul next turn. He activated his face-down Trap Stun and then activated Monster Reborn to Special Summon Boggart Knight from his Graveyard. Next, he Normal Summoned XX-Saber Darksoul and Special Summoned XX-Saber Faultroll from his hand. Boggart Knight attacked and destroyed Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow, and then Darksoul ran into Blizzard, dropping St. Clair down to 100 Life Points! St. Clair wanted to get his Darksoul off of the field so that Flores wouldn’t be able to attack over it and win the Duel with a monster that has at least 1400 ATK. Faultroll attacked and destroyed Blackwing – Blizzard the Far North next, dropping Flores down to 6400 Life Points. St. Clair declined to activate his Faultroll’s effect to Special Summon Darksoul in Main Phase 2, unwilling to have a liability sitting on the field for Bora to run over. In his End Phase, he searched his Deck for X-Saber Pashuul and added it to his hand with Darksoul’s effect.

Flores Normal Summoned Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn next turn. He was one attack away from winning the Duel. All he needed to do was attack over Boggart Knight to deal that last 100 points of damage. But instead, he activated Icarus Attack, Tributing Sirocco! St. Clair Chained Starlight Road, negating the Icarus Attack and Special Summoning Stardust Dragon from his Extra Deck!

St. Clair drew XX-Saber Faultroll next turn and Special Summoned it. Then he Normal Summoned X-Saber Pashuul. He Tuned Pashuul with Boggart Knight to Synchro Summon XX-Saber Hyunlei, and then activated Faultroll’s effect to Special Summon Pashuul back from his Graveyard. He Tuned Pashuul with Faultroll to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon, then activated his other Faultroll’s effect to Special Summon Pashuul again. This time, he Tuned Pashuul with Faultroll to Synchro Summon Colossal Fighter. Finally, Hyunlei, Stardust Dragon, and Colossal Fighter attacked, ending the Duel!

Roy St. Clair struggles out of some tough situations to take a narrow 2-1 victory with his X-Saber Deck and snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat! St. Clair is moving on 3-0 with X-Sabers!