Walking the top tables during Round 5, the most common deck wasn’t Fire Fists or Mermails.  By far, the most popular deck at the Top 25 tables appeared to be Bujins, followed by Fire Fists and Geargia.  Table 1 was Spellbooks versus Bujins; Table 2 was Inzektors versus Bujins; and below them were Madolches, Mermails, Dark Worlds, and a spread of familiar strategies.

 

But Stephen Ross’ strategy was a standout even amongst all that variety.  Ross is playing an Elemental HERO deck in a post-Stratos world, and he’s currently X-1 past the halfway point in today’s competition.  We’re curious about his strategy, so what better time than now to give him a Feature Match?  Ross’s opponent for this round is Jordan Winters, a hugely successful Duelist the past year, and he’s piloting the popular Fire Fist build with Upstart Goblins and a laser-like focus on Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear and Coach Soldier Wolfbark.

 

Ross opened the Match with a hand of Seven Tools of the Bandit; Bottomless Trap Hole; Dark Hole; Book of Moon; Rivalry of Warlords; and Torrential Tribute.  No HERO cards in sight.  He Set everything but Dark Hole.

 

Winters Summoned Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear, and Ross flipped Bottomless Trap Hole.  Winters Chained Forbidden Lance!  “You gonna Chain Torrential?”  Ross did!  Winters seemed moderately disappointed, and Set his remaining four cards.  It was momentarily good news for Ross, but simplifying a Duel when you don’t have any monsters is always a risky business.

 

Ross drew Thunder King Rai-Oh and Summoned it, running it into Mirror Force: Ross Chained Seven Tools of the Bandit to keep his attack going, connecting for 1900 Battle Damage!

 

Winters drew and passed.

 

Ross drew Mystical Space Typhoon and blindly targeted Winter’s Set Dust Tornado, costing him his Book of Moon.  Thunder King swung into another Mirror Force, and Winters destroyed Ross’ set Rivalry of Warlords with Dust Tornado in the End Phase.

 

Winters Summoned another Bear and made a direct attack to get Fire Formation – Tenki, searching Coach Soldier Wolfbark in Main Phase 2!

 

Ross drew Mystical Space Typhoon and Set it.

 

Winters attacked with Bear for another hit, dropping Ross to 3700 Life Points and searching Fire Formation – Gyokkou.  He activated it in shortly thereafter, locking down Ross’ Mystical Space Typhoon.  He Summoned Coach Soldier Wolfbark, brought back Bear, and overlaid both Bears for Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King.  That got him another Tenki, and that got him another Wolfbark.  Winters had three cards in hand, three Fire Formations face-up, a Wolfbark and Tiger King.

 

Ross drew Miracle Fusion with Dark Hole in hand and his Typhoon locked on the field.  He cleared the table with Dark Hole and ended.

 

Winters drew to four cards in hand and played Coach Soldier Wolfbark, bringing back Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear to make another Tiger King.  That got him his third Tenki, getting his third Wolfbark from his Deck.  Tiger King attacked to drop Ross to 1100 Life Points.  Ross topdecked another dead Miracle Fusion and conceded Game 1!

 

 

The first duel ends in under seven minutes, as Stephen Ross sees none of his HERO monsters and spends the entirety of Game 1 on the back foot!  Jordan Winters claims a quick win with three consecutive Coach Soldier Wolfbarks, and we are headed to Game 2.  Could Ross pull this one out?  Not if he opened with another hand like that one!

 

“I’ll open again,” announced Ross.  He had E – Emergency Call; Book of Moon; Mystical Space Typhoon; Compulsory Evacuation Device; Tasuke Knight; and Elemental HERO Neos Alius.  He Summoned Alius and Set Book, Typhoon, and Compulsory.

 

“Whoa!”  Winters reeled a moment; he’d thought that Ross was playing Hunders, and had Side Decked accordingly.  Winters activated Fire Formation – Tenki, but lost it to Mystical Space Typhoon.   He Set one card to his back row.

 

Ross drew Mistake and attacked with Neos Alius: when Winters flipped Dimensional Prison, Ross Chained Book of Moon to save his monster.

 

Winters Normal Summoned Wolfbark to attack Neos Alius and Ross flipped Compulsory Evacuation Device to bounce it away, leaving Winters to Set one card to his backrow.

 

Ross drew Scrap-Iron Scarecrow and attacked again with Neos Alius, this time losing it to Mirror Force.  He Set Scarecrow.

 

Winters activated Pot of Duality, and Ross Chained Mistake!  Winters sent Upstart Goblin to his Graveyard, left with four cards in hand.  He Set one to his backrow.

 

Ross was now stuck holding E – Emergency Call, and he drew a dead Reinforcement of the Army.  He Summoned Tasuke Knight and attacked for 1700 Battle Damage.

 

 

Winters Set two more cards to his backrow.

 

Ross drew Overworked, and attacked with Tasuke Knight; Winters blocked with Fiendish Chain, and Ross Set another Spell or Trap Card.

 

Winters passed.

 

Ross drew Mirror Force and Set it.

 

Winters passed again.

 

Ross drew Seven Tools of the Bandit and passed.

 

Winters activated Upstart Goblin to draw a card.

 

Ross drew Skill Drain.

 

Winters passed.

 

Ross drew Photon Thrasher

 

Winters Set a monster.

 

Ross drew Miracle Fusion and passed.

 

Winters drew to seven cards in hand and started comparing his card presence to Ross’, seemingly considering an Evilswarm Exciton Knight.  He Summoned Coach Soldier Wolfbark, then Flip Summoned another!  “How’s that?”  Ross had no response, and Winters overlaid for Exciton Knight, activating its effect to clear the field!  Winters activated Fire Formation – Tenki to get Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Bear and Summoned it thanks to Fire Formation – Tensu.  He Set three cards to his back row.

 

 

Ross drew Full House, now holding seven cards.  Winters had two face-up Spell or Trap Cards and three Set cards!  Ross Special Summoned Photon Thrasher, searched another Elemental HERO Neos Alius with Emergency Call, and Normal Summoned it to try and Xyz Summon his own Evilswarm Exciton Knight: Winters had Black Horn of Heaven to negate the Summon!  Ross pressed on, banishing two Neos Alius to Summon Elemental HERO The Shining: Ross flipped Bottomless Trap Hole to banish it!  That left Ross with Reinforcement of the Army, Skill Drain, Full House, and Seven Tools of the Bandit.  He Set all four.

 

Winters attacked with Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear, scoring a hit for 1600 damage: Ross flipped Skill Drain.  A shot from Evilswarm Exciton Knight dropped him to 5300 Life Points.  Winters activated Pot of Duality to reveal Cardcar D, Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear, and Call of the Haunted from his Deck: he added Call to his hand and shuffled the rest back.  He Set one more backrow card.

 

Ross topdecked E – Emergency Call and flipped Full House, targeting Winters’ four backrows and one of his own face-downs.  Winters responded by Chaining his targeted Dust Tornado, deliberating for a moment before targeting Skill Drain.  When Dust Tornado resolved, Winters Set his last in-hand card to his backrow.  Ross had destroyed his own Seven Tools of the Bandit.  He pressed on, searching Elemental HERO Neos Alius with Emergency Call and Elemental HERO Bubbleman with Reinforcement of the Army.  He Summoned both, and Xyz Summoned Blade Armor Ninja!  He detached for its effect and attacked to destroy both of Winters’ monsters.

 

 

Winters had one card Set to Ross’ Blade Armor Ninja, and drew so he had one card in hand.  Winters flipped Call of the Haunted, bringing back Coach Soldier Wolfbark to revive Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear!  He overlaid to Xyz Summon Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Tiger King, searching Fire Formation – Tenki to get Brotherhood of the Fire Fist - Bear.  He Normal Summoned it, popped Tenki to destroy Blade Armor Ninja, then attacked: Ross Special Summoned Tasuke Knight to end the Battle Phase!

 

Ross drew Mind Crush, then attacked over Bear with Tasuke Knight!

 

Winters attacked with Tiger King to destroy the Knight next turn.

 

Ross drew and activate Dark Hole!

 

Winters drew Mystical Space Typhoon, flipping it to destroy Mind Crush, and had two cards left: he Summoned Cardcar D to draw two more!

 

But Ross topdecked and Summoned Elemental HERO Bubbleman!  It drew him Gemini Spark and Honest.  He Normal Summoned Honest to Xyz Summon Gem-Knight Pearl, then ran it at Winters to drop him to 2700 Life Points.  He Set Spark.

 

Winters destroyed it next turn with Mystical Space Typhoon, then played Coach Soldier Wolfbark for Number 101: Silent Honor ARK to take Pearl!  Ark attacked.  Ross drew Bottomless Trap Hole and it was all over.  Winters Summoned Cardcar D and attacked with both of his monsters to end the Match!

 

 

Winters revealed his hand: Brotherhood of the Fire Fist – Gorilla and Thunder King Rai-Oh!  He’d read the Bottomless Trap Hole and had played around it to ensure the win; very nice.

 

Jordan Winters moves on with a 6-0 record, undefeated with Fire Fists!