Ecuador’s Juan Sebastian Andrade Castro captured the first-ever South American Ultimate Duelist Series Championship in March, triumphing over Peru’s Jose Anthony Bren Osores in a Kozmo mirror match.  Now he’s in the hunt for another title this weekend, as he looks to capture the South American Championship and win his way to the World Championship.  How sweet would that UDS title belt look on stage in Orlando?

His opponent is Andres Felipe Rojas Ramirez, from Cali, Colombia.  While Andrade’s piloting Tzolkin Monarchs, Rojas is running Speedroid Burning Abyss.  The competitors exchanged a friendly handshake before starting in on the first Match of the day.

Rojas won the roll and opened with Speedroid Terrortop, searching his Deck for Speedroid Taketomborg.  He Special Summoned it, overlaid for Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and detached Taketomborg to send one card from the top of his Deck to his Graveyard: Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He sent Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from his Deck to his hand to upgrade Dante into Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal in Defense Position, then Set a card to his backrow.  In his End Phase he searched Tour Guide from the Underworld with Scarm’s effect.

Andrade had a hand of two Ehther the Heavenly Monarch; Brilliant Fusion; Domain of the True Monarchs; Tenacity of the Monarchs; and The Monarchs Stormforth.  He shuffled his hand a moment, then activated Brilliant Fusion: Rojas Chained Vanity’s Emptiness to shut it down.  Andrade activated The Monarchs Stormforth, prompting Rojas to detach Dante from Beatrice and send Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to his Graveyard.  He took back Scarm with Dante’s effect.  Andrade activated Tenacity of the Monarchs, revealing an Ehther, and searched his Deck for Return of the Monarchs.  He activated it, then activated Domain of the True Monarchs to reduce the Level of one Ehther to Tribute away Beatrice.

Ehther hit the field, but Vanity’s Emptiness remained on the field just long enough to negate its effect.  Return of the Monarchs got Andrade Erebus the Underworld Monarch from his Deck, and Vanity’s Emptiness was destroyed since Beatrice hit the yard.  Andrade made a direct attack with Ehther to end his turn.

Rojas Summoned Tour Guide from the Underworld to Special Summon Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from his Deck, and Andrade banished The Monarchs Stormforth from his Graveyard to Tribute his on-field Ehther for another.  That sent his Pantheism of the Monarchs and The Prime Monarch to his Graveyard from his Deck, and he Special Summoned Kuraz the Light Monarch to target Graff and his own Return.  That wasn’t a typical call; by destroying the live Return instead of the dead Brilliant Fusion, Andrade seemed to be suggesting he was going to try and reuse it.

He drew Instant Fusion, and Rojas got a free card as well, then Special Summoned another Cir from his Deck.  It was destroyed, and revived Rojas’ Dante.  Rojas blew away Kuraz and Ehther with Raigeki next, then activated Foolish Burial to send Libic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to his Graveyard.  He Summoned Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss with Libich’s effect, overlaid it with Tour Guide, and Xyz Summoned another Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss to detach Scarm and send Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, Speedroid Terrortop, and another Scarm to his Graveyard.  He banished three Malebranches to burn Andrade for 900 damage, then attacked with the one attack position Dante to drop Andrade to 4600 Life Points.  Rojas was at 5200.  He Set a backrow card and ended; Andrade Special Summoned his Prime Monarch as a monster.

Andrade drew Super Quantum Red Layer, then activated Instant Fusion to Special Summon Panzer Dragon from his Extra Deck.  He stacked it with The Prime Monarch to Summon Constellar Pleiades, then detached The Prime Monarch to bounce his Brilliant Fusion back to his hand!  He activated it and this time it resolved: he sent Gem-Knight Lazuli and Edea the Heavenly Squire to his Graveyard, Special Summoning Gem-Knight Seraphinite and using Edea’s effect to get back his Tenacity of the Monarchs.

Andrade continued, banishing Pantheism of the Monarchs from his Graveyard to present two more Pantheisms and another Prime Monarch from his Deck: Rojas gave him The Prime Monarch, and Andrade considered his Extra Deck momentarily.  He banished Return of the Monarchs to revive The Prime Monarch, overlaid it with Seraphinite, and Xyz Summoned Wind-Up Arsenal Zenmaioh.  He detached The Prime Monarch to destroy Rojas’ Storming Mirror Force!  From there he activated Tenacity, revealing Erebus to search another Return, and he activated.

He reduced the Level of his Erebus with Domain, Tribute Summoned it by Tributing Zenmaioh, and sent Pantheism and The Monarchs Stormforth to his Graveyard for its ability.  Andrade bounced away a Dante with Erebus’ effect, attacked the remaining Dante with Erebus and Rojas got back his Cir.

Rojas cleared the field once again, this time with Dark Hole!  Andrade Chained the effect of Constellar Pleiades to bounce Return of the Monarchs back to his hand, and Rojas Summoned Cir.  Andrade revived his Prime Monarch in response, and Rojas Set his last card to his back row.

Andrade drew his second Gem-Knight Lazuli.  He banished The Monarchs Stormforth to revive his second Prime Monarch, banished Pantheism to get Tenacity of the Monarchs over another Tenacity and Stormforth, and took some time to deliberate before overlaying his two Prime Monarchs for Number 61: Volcasaurus.  He detached to activate its effect, destroyed Cir, and dropped Rojas to 1100 Life Points!  Rojas revived Dante in defense mode, Andrade revealed Ehther to reduce its level, and Rojas tried to activate Mind Crush to eliminate it… but he couldn’t, since his hand was empty and Mind Crush would’ve been an illegal activation.

Andrades activated Return, Tributed Volcasaurus for Ehther, and sent Tenacity and The Prime Monarch to his Graveyard to Special Summon another Kuraz.  He had nothing left to search with Return, but he destroyed his Kuraz to draw and popped his opponent’s Dante.  Rojas got back his Cir with Dante and Andrade swung direct with Ehther the Heavenly Monarch for game!

Andres Felipe Rojas Ramirez has Vanity’s Emptiness, Raigeki, and Dark Hole to keep UDS Champion Juan Sebastian Andrade Castro off the field, but it’s just not enough!  A clever choice to reuse that negated Brilliant Fusion with Constellar Pleiades gets Andrade back into the game, and sets him on the path to win the first Duel.  After some brief Side Decking we were on to Game 2.

Rojas chose to open again, once again Special Summoning Speedroid Terrortop to search Speedroid Taketomborg.  Andrade activated the effect of Maxx “C” and Rojas screwed up his face, trying to figure out what to do.  He Set two cards to his Spell and Trap Card Zone, then Normal Summoned Fiendish Rhino Warrior.  He shook his head, clearly unhappy, then passed.

This time Andrade had Flying “C”; Pantheism of the Monarchs; Erebus the Underworld Monarch; Edea the Heavenly Squire; and The Prime Monarch.  He discarded Prime Monarch for Pantheism, drawing Brilliant Fusion and Tenacity of the Monarchs.    He banished Pantheism for its effect, but Rojas chained Mistake to stop him from searching his deck!

Andrade pressed on: he activated Brilliant Fusion to send Gem-Knight Lazuli and Edea the Heavenly Squire to his Graveyard, Special Summoned Gem-Knight Seraphinite, and got back his Pantheism of the Monarchs with Edea’s ability.  He discarded Tenacity to draw The Monarchs Stormforth and another Pantheism, then banished Tenacity to Special Summon his Prime Monarch.  He overlaid to Xyz Summon Tiras, Keeper of Genesis, and attacked straight into Storming Mirror Force.  Tiras was bounced back to the Extra Deck.

Andrade Normal Summoned an Edea to Special Summon Eidos the Underworld Squire from his Deck, then Tributed them off for Erebus the Underworld Monarch; he sent Return of the Monarchs and another Prime Monarch from his Deck to his Graveyard, then discarded Stormforth for Pantheism of the Monarchs: he got Ehther the Heavenly Monarch and Dark Witch.  (Brilliant Monarch Duelists have begun to play Dark Witch over Jack’s Knight to dodge the threat of Rivalry of Warlords.)

Rojas Special Summoned his Speedroid Taketomborg, and Andrade Special Summoned Flying “C” to Rojas’ field!  Rojas Summoned Tour Guide from the Underworld, Special Summoned Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss from his Deck, and when Andres tried to enter the Battle Phase, Andrade Tributed Erebus for Ehther the Heavenly Monarch, Special Summoning Kuraz the Light Monarch.  That let him destroy both of his monsters to draw two cards, netting him Brilliant Fusion and another Stormforth.

Rojas moved to the Battle Phase and declared an attack with Farfa as time was called.  The Duel stood at 8000 to 8000, and Andrade Special Summoned The Prime Monarch to defend his Life Points.  Rojas Set a card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.

Turn 1 in time.  Andrade drew Erebus the Underworld Monarch, but Rojas flipped Mask of Restrict!  Andrade activated Brilliant Fusion to send Gem-Knight Lazuli and Majesty’s Fiend to his Graveyard, Special Summoning Gem-Knight Seraphinite.  He overlaid them both for Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon, and detached The Prime Monarch to destroy Mask of Restrict with Adreus’ ability.  He pitched Eidos to Summon Edea, Special Summoned another Eidos, and Tributed them both for Erebus.  He sent Pantheism and Tenacity to his Graveyard to shuffle away Rojas’ Farfa, then got back The Monarchs Stormforth with Edea.

Andrade attacked Speedroid Terrortop with Erebus, then ran over Tour Guide from the Underworld with Adreus.  He Set Stormforth.

Turn 2 in time.  Rojas activated Raigeki, destroying Erebus, The Prime Monarch, and Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon!  But he had no followup.  Andrade revived his Prime Monarch and moved to his turn.

Turn 3 in time.  Andrade drew Kuraz the Light Monarch, revived a second Prime Monarch, and overlaid them both for Number 61: Volcasaurus.  He detached to destroy Speedroid Taketomborg, leaving Rojas with nothing but Mistake and Flying “C”!  The Duel stood at 4200 Life Points to 8000, with Andrade well in control – and in the lead.  He overlaid Volcasaurus with Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger, banished Eidos to revive his Edea, then Tributed it for Dark Witch.  Gaia Dragon swung through Flying “C” and Andrade made a direct attack with Dark Witch, dropping Rojas to 500 Life Points.  There was nothing Rojas could do, and he conceded when he saw his final draw.

Juan Sebastian Andrade Castro takes a decisive victory in time, overcoming a ton of removal in both Duels to clinch the Match with Number 61: Volcasaurus and Dark Witch!  Ecuador’s Ultimate Duelist moves on with a 1-0 record.