Top 16: Richard S. VS Joseph T.
Dark World and Dino Rabbit proved to be two of the marquee strategies here this weekend, and we were about to see them square off in the Top 16! Joseph T. is playing a turbo version of Dark World with Reckless Greeds and Upstart Goblins, while his opponent Richard S. is running Dino Rabbit. Both Duelists exchanged friendly greetings and got right into the first Duel, eager to see who would get to the Top 8.
Richard Set two cards to his back row to start things off.
Joseph had a hand of MonsterReborn; RecklessGreed; Dragged Down into the Grave; DarkHole; TourGuidefromtheUnderworld; and Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World. He Summoned Tour Guide, and Richard blasted her with EffectVeiler, leaving Joseph to Set three cards to his back row. He activated Dragged Down, trying to discard his Grapha, but Richard beat him to the punch by Chaining CompulsoryEvacuationDevice! He returned Tour Guide to Joseph’s hand, making him discard it instead of Grapha! Richard’s hand was Compulsory Evacuation Device, MonsterReborn, BlackLusterSoldier- Envoy of the Beginning. Richard was forced to discard Reborn. Joseph drew and activated UpstartGoblin, drawing TorrentialTribute and Setting it.
Richard Set a monster, and Set two more cards to his back row.
Joseph drew Biege, Vanguard of Dark World and passed.
Richard Summoned Sabersaurus, and Joseph flipped Torrential Tribute, destroying the Dinosaur and Richard’s Set NightAssailant. He banished Assailant and Veiler from his Graveyard to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and made a direct attack for 3000 Battle Damage.
Joseph drew another UpstartGoblin, drawing Dark Smog with it. He flipped DarkHole to destroy Black Luster Soldier, then Set DarkSmog.
Richard Summoned Thunder King Rai-Oh, and Joseph flipped Dark Smog. He discarded Grapha to banish Sabersaurus, then used Grapha’s effect to destroy Richard’s Set Solemn Warning. Thunder King made a direct attack, dropping Joseph to 3100 Life Points.
Joseph drew Broww, Huntsman of Dark World, and flipped RecklessGreed to draw The Gates of Dark World and Snoww, Unlight of Dark World! He activated DarkSmog, banishing Black Luster Soldier to discard Snoww… forgetting that Thunder King Rai-Oh prevented him from searching his Deck! Richard politely reminded him when he tried to search his Deck. Joseph Summoned Broww, trying to get to Grapha, but Richard kept him pinned down by flipping BookofMoon. Joseph flipped MonsterReborn to bring back Snoww, then activated Gates to banish Tour Guide and discard Beiige to draw HeavyStorm. He Special Summoned Beiige with its effect, then returned Snow to his hand to try and Special Summon Grapha – Richard negated the Summon with Thunder King Rai-Oh, but Joseph returned Beeige to his hand to Special Summon Grapha successfully.
Richard drew and Set a monster.
Joseph skipped his Draw Phase for RecklessGreed’s effect, then activated DarkSmog to banish Thunder King and discard Snoww: this time he got the search, pulling another Grapha from his Deck. He banished Snoww to discard Grapha, drawing into a third Grapha and targeting Richard’s CompulsoryEvacuationDevice with the second Grapha’s ability. Richard Chained it, bouncing away Joseph’s Set Broww, and Joseph Normal Summoned it back to bring back another Grapha. One Grapha attacked into SnowmanEater; Richard destroyed the other; and Joseph ended.
Richard passed.
Joseph Normal Summoned Beiige and bounced it to bring back his second Grapha to the field. He attacked with the first Grapha, but Richard’s last in-hand card was Gorz the Emissary of Darkness! He Special Summoned Gorz and a huge Emissary of Darkness Token! Still, Joseph stacked his two Graphas, and Xyz Summoned Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis! He activated its effect and detached a Grapha, Tributing Broww to destroy the Emissary of Darkness Token! Joseph banished Broww with Gates to discard the third Grapha, and blew away Gorz with Grapha’s ability. He drew TranceArchfiend. He discarded Beiige to banish Gorz with DarkSmog, then Special Summoned Beiige, then bounced it to Special Summon Grapha. Richard looked at his next draw and conceded.
A trio of Graphas let Joseph T. take the win in an impressive back-and-forth competition! Richard S. puts forth an impressive effort, briefly asserting dominance over the Duel with a clever Compulsory Evacuation Device play and Thunder King Rai-Oh, but he’ll now have to win two straight Duels to make the Top 8.
Richard started by Summoning Thunder King Rai-Oh, then Set two cards to his back row.
Joseph had a hand of Deck Devastation Virus; Twister; TourGuidefromtheUnderworld; Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World; MonsterReborn; and DarkSmog. He Summoned Tour Guide to Special Summon Broww, Huntsman of Dark World and stacked them to Xyz Summon Number 17: Leviathan Dragon: Richard banished it with BottomlessTrapHole. Joseph Set Dark Smog and DeckDevastationVirus.
Richard attacked with Thunder King, then Set another spell or trap, then another.
Joseph drew another Grapha and passed.
Richard made another attack with Thunder King, and Set a fourth spell or trap.
Joseph drew Snoww, Unlight of Dark World and passed.
Richard took another direct shot with Thunder King, dropping Joseph to 2300 Life Points. He Set a monster.
Joseph drew DarkWorldDealings and activated it, drawing DraggedDownintotheGrave and discarding Grapha. Richard discarded PotofAvarice, and Joseph used Grapha’s effect to destroy Thunder King. He tried to Summon Snoww, but Richard negated the Summon with SolemnWarning. Joseph set MonsterReborn, then activated Dragged Down to discard his Grapha, and reveal Richard’s hand of Reborn and SmashingGround: he discarded Reborn. “Second time you’ve Dragged Down my Reborn” remarked Richard. Grapha destroyed his CompulsoryEvacuationDevice. Joseph had drawn SolemnJudgment off Dragged Down, and he flipped his Reborn to bring back his Snoww. He returned Snoww to his hand to Special Summon Grapha, then Set Solemn Judgment before ending.
Richard activated DimensionalFissure, and Joseph Chained Twister, dropping to 1800 Life Points to play it. Richard Flip Summoned Sabersaurus, then flipped MysticalSpaceTyphoon, targeting Joseph’s Deck DevastationVirus. He let it go. Richard activated SmashingGround, trying to destroy Grapha, but Joseph negated it with SolemnJudgment. Richard Summoned Kabazauls and Xyz Summoned EvolzarLaggia, then attacked Grapha and activated ForbiddenLance to take Grapha down in battle! Joseph was down to just 400 Life Points!
Joseph drew The Gates of Dark World. He flipped DarkSmog, almost daring Richard to negate it with Laggia: he didn’t. Joseph tried to activate Gates next, succeeding, and banished Broww from his Graveyard to discard Snoww. He drew MysticalSpaceTyphoon with Gates, then searched out another Grapha with Snoww’s ability. He discarded it for DarkSmog, banishing Thunder King from Richard’s Graveyard and destroying Laggia with Grapha! He Set his MysticalSpaceTyphoon, but next turn Richard topdecked Kabazauls and attacked for game!
Both Duelists let out the breaths they’d been holding for several minutes, and took a moment to congratulate each other on a good Duel. Both were clearly eager to get to the last leg of the Match, and Side Decking was performed quickly.
Joseph started the third and final Duel with a hand of BookofMoon; Snoww, Unlight of Dark World; MysticalSpaceTyphoon; DraggedDownintotheGrave; and two Reckless Greed! That’s going to be tough to beat. He Set everything but Snoww and activated Dragged Down: Richard had SolemnWarning; Prohibition; SnowmanEater; SmashingGround; and Kabazauls. Joseph made him pitch Prohibition, then drew Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World and used Snoww to get another Snoww! Everything was coming up Joseph.
Richard Summoned Sabersaurus and attacked for 1900 Battle Damage. He Set four cards to his back row.
Joseph drew Broww, Huntsman of Dark World and flipped one, then two RecklessGreeds. He drew The Gates of Dark World; DarkHole; MysticalSpaceTyphoon; and DarkWorldDealings. He had seven cards in hand with two more Set. DarkWorldDealings got him MonsterReborn, and let him discard Grapha to destroy a Set SmashingGround. Richard discarded his SnowmanEater. Joseph activated Gates, banished Snoww, and discarded his second Snoww to draw another Broww and search out a second Gates. He Summoned Broww, and flipped MysticalSpaceTyphoon to destroy Richard’s ForbiddenLance. Joseph then returned Broww to his hand to Special Summon Grapha, and when Richard responded to the Summon with BottomlessTrapHole, Joseph kept Grapha on the field with BookofMoon. Richard had one set card; one in-hand card; and Sabersaurus on the field, to Joseph’s face-down Grapha and six in-hand cards.
Richard drew to two cards in hand and set both to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.
Joseph skipped his Draw Phase and banished Snoww to activate the effect of Gates, discarding Broww to draw FoolishBurial and DarkSmog. He Flip Summoned Grapha, then attacked Sabersaurus: Richard activated DimensionalPrison to banish Grapha! In Main Phase 2, Joseph destroyed Richard’s SolemnWarning with MysticalSpaceTyphoon and Summoned Broww. He activated Foolish Burial to send another Grapha to the Graveyard, and returned Broww to his hand to Special Summon Grapha. He Set Dark Smog.
Richard drew and Set a second spell or trap.
Joseph skipped his second Draw Phase under RecklessGreed and attacked to destroy Sabersaurus, lowering Richard to 6900 Life Points. Joseph had 6100 remaining. Joseph used Gates with Broww again in Main Phase 2, drawing MysticalSpaceTyphoon and DarkWorldDealings. He Set Typhoon.
Richard drew and Set a third spell or trap. He moved to his End Phase; time was called for the Round; and Joseph destroyed Richard’s MonsterReborn with MysticalSpaceTyphoon. Three more turns would decide the Match, since this was single elimination play.
Joseph attacked with Grapha, scoring a direct attack to lower Richard to 3900 Life Points. Richard flipped HeavyStorm next turn, clearing the field of everything but Grapha, but had no followup: his last card was MysticalSpaceTyphoon, and it couldn’t win him the game this turn, so he offered a handshake to Joseph.
Joseph T. moves on to the Top 8 with Dark World!