This match pits two interesting Duelists against each other: Jonathaon Gomez is a Southern Californian Duelist who went undefeated during the swiss portion YCS Dallas and is trying to make a run for it again. He is playing Qliphort with techs like Waboku to mitigate all of the damage he is taking from Qliphort Scout. His opponent, Jesse Barber, is one of the Duelists who managed to when a VIP Qualifier Tournament for this event! He earned two byes along with a static table, so even though it is round 4 he has only had to win a single match to get here. He is using a Satellarknight Deck with a ton of sweet tech. He hasTraptrix Myrmeleo along with Time-Space Trap Hole to gain an edge against Pendulums, as well as Fire Hand and Ice Hand to beat up on Qliphort. He even has Main Deck Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to get easy wins against Shaddoll and Burning Abyss! Can this awesome concoction stand up to the mighty Qliphort?

Barber won the roll and elected to go first.

Duel One:

Barber started things off interesting, with a Normal Summon of Traptrix Myrmeleo adding a copy of Time-Space Trap Hole to his hand. He Set 4 to his back row and ended.

Gomez opened with a hand of Solemn Warning, Saqlifice, Qliphort Disk, Qliphort Scout, and Waboku. He drew Skill Drain for turn, then activated Scout as a Pendulum Spell and paid 800 Life Points to add Qliphort Helix to his hand. He Normal Summoned the Helix and equipped it with Saqlifice, then ran over the Myrmeleo. In Main Phase 2, he Set all of his Traps and ended.

Barber drew for turn, considered for a second, then just Set a Monster before ending.

Gomez drew another copy of Qliphort Disk. He tributed away the Qliphort Helix to Summon a Disk, then used the Disk to get a copy of Qliphort Helix along with a Qliphort Carrier. He declared an attack with Carrier running into an Ice Hand, but the Ice Hand got halted by Solemn Warning. He made direct attack with Helix, but when he tried to with Disk he lost out to Compulsory Evacuation Device. Both Helix and Carrier were destroyed during the End Phase.

Barber drew, Normal Summoned another Ice Hand, and then declared an attack before Setting his last card in hand.

Gomez drew a Saqlifice for turn then activated a Qliphort Disk as a Penulum Spell but it lost out to Mystical Space Typhoon before he could Pendulum Summon. He paid 800 with Qliphort Scout next to try to continue the pressure, adding Qliphort Carrier to his hand. He activated the Carrier as a Pendulum Spell, but when he Pendulum Summoned he lost the newly Special Summoned Carrier and Helix to Time-Space Trap Hole! Barber had to pay 2000 Life Points to do so, but both of the Qliphorts wound up in Gomez’s Main Deck.

Barber Normal Summoned Satellarknight Unukalhai but when its effect activated, he lost out to Skill Drain. When he declared an attack Gomez had Waboku!

Gomez drew Vanity’s Emptiness for turn and then activated Qliphort Scout adding Qliphort Carrier to his hand. He then declared a Pendulum Summon, getting two copies of Qliphort Carrier, a Qliphort Helix, a Qliphort Disk from his Extra Deck and a Qliphort Scout from his hand into play. After some triggers, Barber realized that he wouldn’t be able to survive and conceded.

Gomez’s lightning fast Qliphort Deck took game one with ease, but Barber’s crazy techs might give him an edge after Side Decking. His Main Deck Fire Hands and Ice Hands gave him a good edge, but the Shadow-Imprisoning Mirrors are not ideal so being able to take those out might give him a much better chance. After both Decks were presented, Barber announced he was going first.

Duel Two:

Barber Normal Summoned Satellarknight Unukalhai and sent Satellarknight Deneb to his Graveyard. Then he Set three cards to his back row before ending his turn.

Gomez opened with Skill Drain, Vanity’s Emptiness, Summoner’s Art, Qliphort Scout, Saqlifice, and drew Dust Tornado for turn. He activated Qliphort Scout and then paid 800 to search Qliphort Helix to his hand. He equipped it with Saqlifice next, then ran over the Satellarknight Unukalhai. He Set all of his Traps to his back row before trying to end, but during his End Phase Barber had Call of the Haunted to bring back Satellarknight Deneb and add Satellarknight Altair to his hand.

Barber drew for turn and slammed Ice Hand onto the field. He declared n attack into Qliphort Helix to yard his Ice Hand so that he could destroy Gomez’s Qliphort Scout with its effect  and get a Fire Hand. The Fire Hand tried to run into the Qliphort Helix but Gomez responded with Vanity’s Emptiness! Fire Hand was destroyed and its effect destroyed the Helix, which also caused Emptiness and Saqlifice to be sent to thegrave. Gomez netted a Qliphort Scout off the Saqlifice, Barber declared a direct attack with his Satellarknight Deneb putting Gomez down to 5700 Life Points.

Gomez drew another Summoner’s Art to his hand, a little unfortunate seeing as he already had one copy along with another Qliphort Scout. He activated one of the Summoner’s Arts to add another Scout to his hand, then activated it as a Pendulum Spell and paid 800 to search Qliphort Carrier to his hand. He Normal Summoned the Qliphort Carrier and declared an attack over Satellarknight Deneb, putting Barber down to 6200 Life Points. He Set Summoner’s Art and ended his turn.

Barber drew and tried to Normal Summon Satellarknight Altair, but lost out to Skill Drain he Set another back row before ending, but lost that to Dust Tornado.

Gomez drew Qliphort Carrier for turn, and then used Qliphort Scout to search Qliphort Disk, considering Qlimate Change for a moment, at the cost of 800 Life Points. He started calculating Life Points next to see if he could win that turn, and afterwards he opted to activate Qliphort Disk as a Pendulum Spell and Pendulum Summoned two copies of Qliphort Helix and a Qliphort Scout from his Extra Deck, but lost them all out to Black Horn of Heaven! He made a direct attack with ‘carrier before ending.

Barber drew for turn but was limited on options, he Set a Monster before ending.

Gomez drew a Qliphort Carrier for turn and then paid another 800 with Qliphort Scout to put him down to 2300 Life Points. He added Qliphort Disk to his hand off the Scout, then tributed the in play Qliphort Carrier for the new copy, losing the newly Summoned Carrier to Solemn Warning but still bouncing away Barber’s only Set Monster! This gave Gomez the perfect opening to Pendulum Summon and attack with all of his Monsters for game!

And after the dust has settled, Jonathon Gomez defeats Jesse Barber in impressive fashion, making a run to go undefeated in the swiss rounds once again!