In Round 2, we saw a mix of dark horse strategies go head-to-head with stuff like Inzektors, Dark World, and Wind-Ups! Here’s how all four matches at the Top 4 tables went down!

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At Table 1, Amado Gonzalez triumphed with his Wind-Up Deck, Over Jacob Ruvalcaba‘s Dark World Deck

Ruvalcaba opened the first Duel, feeling strong with a hand that included Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World; Sillva, Wu-Lord of Dark World; Trance Archfiend and The Gates of Dark World. He quickly established a field of Grapha, Archfiend, and Stardust Dragon, leaving Gonzalez under tremendous pressure. Gonzalez fought back with Wind-Up Kitten: he used its effect to bounce away Stardust Dragon, then wiped the field clean with Dark Hole! That left him free to peck away at Ruvalcaba’s Life Points with Wind-Up Rabbit, ending the first Duel a handful of turns later.

Ruvalcaba tried to play the second Duel aggressively, pressing early with Cheerful Coffin to try to discard and Special Summon Sillva, but Gonzalez shut him down by Chaining D.D. Crow’s effect, banishing Sillva from the Graveyard and costing Ruvalcaba two cards to his one Crow. Ruvalcaba took another hit as he tried to power through. He Special Summoned Sillva back with a well-timed Escape from the Dark Dimension, then tried to Tune it with a Normal Summoned Fabled Raven. Gonzalez negated the Summon with Solemn Warning, again burning two of Ruvalcaba’s cards with just one of his own. A turn later, Gonzalez was attacking with Wind-Up Rabbit. Ruvalcaba tried to take it down with Chaos Sorcerer, but the Rabbit hopped to safety. Gonzalez wound up Tribute Summoning for Cyber Dragon moments later, and took down Chaos Sorcerer by sending Cyber Dragon after it, boosting it over the Sorcerer’s 2300 ATK with Blast With Chain (a nice bit of tech when everyone’s playing triple Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm). When Ruvalcaba tried to shield his Life Points by setting Genex Ally Birdman next turn, Gonzalez followed up with Mind Control to take the Birdman, and attacked with Cyber Dragon and Rabbit to seal the Match.

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At Table 2, Charles Laygo claimed victory with Hopper / Sword Inzektors, Winning Over Joseph Gsell’s Skill Drain Dark World Build

These two Duelists both hail from Fresno, California, and each knew what the other was playing. In Duel 1, Laygo had a hand of Inzektor Dragonfly, Inzektor Centipede, Inzektor Hornet, Inzektor Giga-Mantis, Heavy Storm, and Bottomless Trap Hole. He Set both Bottomless and Heavy, but lost out to Gsell’s own Heavy Storm on the following turn! Laygo admitted after the Match that Setting Heavy and Bottomless together had been a bit greedy, especially because it let Gsell Set a bunch of cards with impunity for the rest of the Duel: “I Heavy’d, and had two Skill Drain and Deck Devastation Virus, with a Grapha and a Broww. Since I Heavy’d his Heavy Storm, I set everything.” Gsell couldn’t press to follow up though, leaving Laygo to Summon Centipede next turn; Gsell flipped Skill Drain when Laygo tried to use Centipede’s effect; Laygo chained Mystical Space Typhoon to try and destroy Drain on the Chain; and Gsell had the second Skill Drain! Gsell really pulled off an amazing play Chaining that second Skill Drain, but he still couldn’t get any aggression going. Laygo ended up beating him down with Inzektor Dragonfly, equipped with two Inzektor Sword – Zektkalibers. The Dragonfly went down, but the Swords let Laygo get back his monsters, so he was able to keep attacking and capture Duel 1.

Gsell started the second Duel by Setting Torrential Tribute. Laygo lost a Centipede to it, and Gsell Set another Torrential, this time with Mystical Space Typhoon as well, costing Laygo his second Centipede next turn. Gsell fired back, setting off a string of plays to unleash Grapha! A couple turns later, Grapha was banished by Bottomless Trap Hole, but Gsell dug for a second copy. He wound up activating three copies of Gates in one turn to dig for outs, but he didn’t find any answers for a possible Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, so he played it conservatively and didn’t attack. Laygo topdecked Heavy Storm next turn, and was able to swing for the win moments later!

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At Table 3, Alan Cook’s Skill Drain / Beatdown dealt defeat To Saman Govahi’s Junk Synchron Deck

In the first Duel, Cook opened with a strong hand of Beast King Barbaros along with four cards to Set to his back row, including Skill Drain! Skill Drain shut down Gohavi’s effect-reliant strategy and powered up Barbaros, stopping Govahi’s Junk Synchrons – he was stuck with two copies in hand, and no way to battle back. All in all, Duel 1 was pretty quick.

The second Duel took a bit longer: Gohavi struggled to get a stable footing in the early game, because he wasn’t able to draw enough monsters. But he played a defiant early game with Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, and defended himself with Magic Cylinder and Scrap Iron Scarecrow. It wasn’t enough to fend off Cook, who reacted by playing an even more aggressive game. After weathering the early assault from Brionac, Cook quickly established a field of Barbaros and two Thunder King Rai-Ohs on turn five to take a quick, aggressive win.

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At Table 4, Austin Baesler took a stealthy win With Ninja Dino Dragons over Fernando Britto Ramirez’s X-Sabers

Baesler didn’t open the first Duel with any copies of Ninja Grandmaster Hanzo. He couldn’t search it out, either: he had Summoner Monk, but no Spells to pitch for it. He had a Hydrogeddon though, and used it to attack and destroy Ramirez’s XX-Saber Emmersblade. That left Baesler to Special Summon another Hydrogeddon from his Deck, while Ramirez Special Summoned another Emmersblade. Baesler attacked the next Emmersblade to get a third Hydrogeddon, and Ramirez got XX-Saber Darksoul. After the Match, Ramirez noted that he probably would have been better off Special Summoning XX-Saber Boggart Knight instead of his second Emmersblade; doing so would have deprived Baesler of his third Hydrogeddon, and kept Ramirez with a monster on the field. “I went for Darksoul for the search, but I don’t think it was the right move.” Two Hydrogeddons became an Evolzar Laggia, and Baesler Set Ninjitsu Art of Super-Transformation plus Mirror Force. Ramirez tried to take out Laggia with XX-Saber Faultroll next turn, but Laggia negated the Summon. He lost out briefly, but set Gottoms’ Emergency Call. Baesler kept playing aggressively, while Ramirez defended himself with the strong defensive powers of cards like X-Saber Pashuul. Baesler couldn’t get to a Ninja, but he drew Forbidden Lance and tried to pitch it for Summoner Monk’s effect: he lost out to Effect Veiler, a pretty big loss that could set him up to lose even more cards in battle! But Ramirez couldn’t capitalize: his one last hope was Heavy Storm, which Baesler shut down with Starlight Road to win!

Duel 2 started with Ramirez holding double Mystical Space Typhoon, Emmersblade, and Boggart Knight, and Set Typhoon plus Emmersblade. Baesler had a better hand this time, holding Upstart Golden Ninja and drawing into Rivalry of Warlords. He pitched it to Special Summon Hanzo, getting another Upstart to his hand from his Deck. Baesler used his two Ninjas to Xyz Summon Blade Armor Ninja, then attacked into Emmersblade; Ramirez Special Summoned another, and Baesler didn’t make another attack with Blade Armor. Two Mystical Space Typhoons let Ramirez clear Baesler’s back row, and he crashed Emmersblade to get out XX-Saber Fulhelmknight. He ran over Blade Armor Ninja by turning it face-down with Book of Moon, attacking with Fulhelmknight, and that got Ramirez another Emmersblade with Fulhelmknight’s Special Summon ability. Baesler drew Dark Hole next turn, but passed. Ramirez attacked with both monsters next turn, and Baesler blasted him with Heavy Storm, Dark Hole, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Ramirez kept Setting monsters to try and defend himself, but he just couldn’t stop the Envoy’s effect – Baesler just kept banishing Ramirez’s monsters. Once Baesler got to a Hydrogeddon and Summoned it, Ramirez finally gave up!

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Jacob Ruvalcaba, Charles Laygo, Alan Cook, and Austin Baesler Move On With 2-0 Records!