Gerardo Jesus Delgado Portilla is a two-time Peruvian National Champion and the winner of last year’s WCQ, capturing the title of South American Champion and competing in the World Championship.  His opponent this Round is Juan Carlos Norabuena Mendoza.  Both Duelists are from Lima, Peru, and both of them are playing the Burning Abyss and Phantom Knight hybrid we’re calling Burning Knights.

The mirror match is a tricky beast.  Let’s see how it goes.

Norabuena won the roll and opted to go first, opening with Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss in defense mode, and Normal Summoning Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He overlaid them for Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and detached Scarm to send Twin Twisters and two copies of Solemn Strike to his Graveyard, powering up Dante.  He Set one card to his back row and searched Tour Guide from the Underworld with Scarm in the End Phase

Delgado had two Scarms himself as well as Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade; Effect Veiler; Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss; and Maxx “C”.  He Normal Summoned his Scarm, Special Summoned Cir, and when he activated the Summoning effect, Norabuena activated the effect of Maxx “C”.  He drew a card when Delgado made Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, and Delgado sent another Scarm, Foolish Burial, and Reinforcement of the Army to the Graveyard.  He Set Fog Blade and searched Tour Guide.

Norabuena detached his Farfa from Dante, sending Barbar, The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves, and The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots to his Graveyard.  He banished his opponent’s Dante with Farfa, then flipped Solemn Strike to negate Delgado’s Scarm effect, hitting the graveyard with Dante.  Norabuena continued, activating Allure of Darkness to draw two cards and banishing Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He Special Summoned Speedroid Terrortop and Delgado blasted it with Effect Veiler.

Norabuena banished Fog Blade from his Graveyard to Special Summon his Boots, Delgado responded with Maxx “C”, and Norabuena overlaid it with Terrortop for Dante, sending Terrortop, Reinforcement of the Army, and another Scarm to his Graveyard to boost Dante.  He attacked with both Dantes to drop Delgado to 2700 Life Points.  He was leading, but he’d just fed Delgado several draws off his Maxx “C”.   Norabuena Set two cards to his back row and searched Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss with Scarm.

Delgado drew Speedroid Terrortop, going to five cards in hand.  Norabuena saw it coming and activated Maxx “C” preemptively, before Delgado made a move; Norabuena wanted to finish this quick, and keeping Delgado locked down was the best way to do it since he had Delgado cornered by those two Dantes.  Delgado Set Scarm.

Norabuena drew to three cards in hand, with two cards Set and two Dantes on the field.  He detached his last Dante material to send Calcab, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and Allure of Darkness to his Graveyard, got Farfa, and Delgado negated the Dante’s effect with Fog Blade.  He Normal Summoned Graff, and Delgado set to perusing his opponent’s Graveyard; his next few decisions would make or break this first Duel, and he wasn’t going to make those choices without a full understanding of the situation.

At this point the players noticed that Delgado’s Dante, banished by Farfa on Turn 2, hadn’t been returned to play from the removed zone.  (When Farfa banishes a monster, it comes back in the End Phase of that turn.)  After some deliberation by the judge staff it was determined that both players would receive a Warning and Dante would not return to play.

The Duel resumed and Norabuena Xyz Summoned The Phantom Knights of Break Sword with Farfa and Graff, then detached Farfa to destroy two copies of Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade: one on his side of the field, and one on Delgado’s.  That was largely irrelevant on the surface, but it let him safely banish Delgado’s face-down Scarm, which was the last card that might stop Norabuena from winning.  He upgraded one of the Dantes into a Beatrice and attacked with everything for game!

A critical error sees former Champion Gerardo Jesus Delgado Portilla down one Dante, while victory becomes academic for Juan Carlos Norabuena Mendoza. Delgado would have to win two games back-to-back now, which might actually be doable – skill and cunning can make all the difference in a mirror match, and if Delgado has a better plan for the mirror he could still win out.

Delgado opened Game 2 with Rubic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss; Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade; Twin Twisters; Vanity’s Fiend; and Speedroid Terrortop.  He Special Summoned Terrortop to search Speedroid Taketomborg, Special Summoned that, and went into Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss.  He detached to kick Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade to his Graveyard, then Special Summoned Rubric to Tribute Summon Vanity’s Fiend!   He Set Fog Blade and Twisters, and grabbed Tour Guide from the Underworld with Scarm.  Norabuena might still have his work cut out for him.

Norabuena drew two cards with Allure of Darkness and banished The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak from his hand to complete Allure’s effect, then Set one monster with a shrug.

Delgado drew another Scarm.  He detached for Dante again, this time sending Speedroid Terrortop, Maxx “C”, and Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to his Graveyard.  He attacked with Vanity’s Fiend, destroying Norabuena’s The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots, and made a direct attack with Dante.  Norabuena was down to 5500 Life Points.

Norabuena drew to six cards with a bare field, and banished The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots to search his Deck for Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade.  He needed to thin his Deck and stall for time to find an answer for that Vanity’s Fiend, so searching Fog Blade killed two birds with one stone.  He Set a backrow, likely the Fog Blade, and Set a monster.

Delgado drew Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He flipped Twin Twisters pitching Alich to destroy his opponent’s Set Fog Blade, and then resolved Alich’s effect to negate the ability of his own Vanity’s Fiend.  That let him pitch Scarm to upgrade Dante into Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal, and Normal Summoned Tour Guide from the Underworld to Special Summon Cir, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He overlaid Cir and Tour Guide for Number 20: Giga-Brilliant, overlaid that with Digital Bug Corebage, cleared the field with its effect, and attacked for game!

Delgado’s mirror match tech comes in handy, swiftly delivering the win in Game 2 off the back of a showstopping Vanity’s Fiend!  With the Match score now even, both Duelists ducked into their Side Decks to make some tweaks.  It’s always important to Side Deck appropriately for whether you’re going first or second, so both competitors had adjustments to make.

Game 3 started with a firm good-natured handshake.  Norabuena drew two with Allure of Darkness, banishing Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.  He Special Summoned Alich, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, then Normal Summoned another Scarm.  He overlaid for Dante, detached Scarm, and sent Foolish Burial, The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak, and Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to the Graveyard with Dante’s effect.  He Special Summoned Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss with Graff’s ability, Set one card to his back row, and searched Tour Guide from the Underworld in his End Phase.  That Set card could be crucial.

Delgado had Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss; The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves; The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots; Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade; Foolish Burial; and Maxx “C”.  He Summoned Gloves, and Norabuena activated the effect of Maxx “C”.  That left Delgado to Set Fog Blade, and he activated Foolish Burial to send Farfa to his Graveyard, temporarily banishing Dante to rob it of its second Xyz Material.

Norabuena hadn’t made a huge opening, but it looked like it was good enough given Delgado’s weak showing.  He pressed, banishing The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak to search The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves, then Normal Summoned it, sending his Farfa to the Graveyard by doing so.  He used its effect to banish Delgado’s Gloves, and Delgado responded with Maxx “C”.  Norabuena attacked with Dante and Gloves to drop Delgado to 6000 Life Points.  He pitched Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to upgrade Dante into Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal, and Delgado drew Alich with Maxx “C”.  Time was called as Norabuena burned Delgado for 900 damage with Barbar’s effect.  Delgado brought back his Gloves.

Turn 1 in time; four more turns would determine the winner.  Delgado drew a Barbar of his own.  Norabuena detached for Beatrice’s effect, Delgado tied her down with Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, and Norabuena searched his Deck for another Farfa.  This was all about damage at this point, both pushing it through and preventing it.  Delgado Summoned The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots, Xyz Summoned Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss, then detached Boots to send Twin Twisters, Cir, and Ancient Cloak to his Graveyard.  He revived Farfa with Cir, then tried to Normal Summon Scarm.  After lots of deliberation, Norabuena negated the attempt with Solemn Warning.  The Duel now stood at 6000 Life Points to 5100, with Norabuena’s lead now much smaller.

Delgado flew into action, seeing a possible opportunity.  He attacked Norabuena’s The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves with Dante, banished his Phantom Knights of Silent Boots to get another Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, and banished The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak to search another Boots.  He Set Fog Blade, holding Boots, Alich, and Barbar, then pitched the Barbar to upgrade Beatrice, destroying Farfa.  He banished two Malebranches for 600 damage, ended his turn, and searched Tour Guide with Scarm.  The Duel stood at 3900 Life Points to 5100, with Delgado now leading!

Turn 2 in time.  Norabuena activated Gloves’ effect to send Boots to the Graveyard, then banished Boots to get Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade.  He Normal Summoned Farfa to destroy it, targeting Delgado’s Beatrice to banish it.  Delgado Chained her effect, detaching Dante to yard Graff.  Beatrice was banished, Delgado Special Summoned Cir with Graff, and Dante got him the Graff back.  Norabuena Set two cards to his Spell and Trap Card Zone.  Beatrice was returned to play, destroying Cir and Special Summoning Dante.

Turn 3 in time.  Delgado drew another Farfa, and all he had to do now was keep his lead through Norabuena’s next turn.  If he could do that, he’d win the Match.  He banished The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves to yard The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak, then banished that to get The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots.  He discarded Farfa to turn his Dante into a second Beatrice, banishing Norabuena’s Beatrice.  He Normal Summoned Boots, Special Summoned another, and overlaid them both for The Phantom Knights of Break Sword.  He detached to target his Break Sword and Norabuena’s Set Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, but Norabuena Chained the Fog Blade to negate that effect.  Delgado attacked with Beatrice, and Norabuena chained it down with a second Fog Blade! Delgado moved to Main Phase 2, banished his Boots, and searched another Fog Blade himself.  He now had two copies Set with three monsters on the field – seemingly insurmountable.

Turn 4 in time; Norabuena’s last turn.  Checking his Graveyard, he found no way to make a comeback and immediately offered the handshake.

Gerardo Jesus Delgado Portilla manages to smooth over his rocky start, to take two Duels back-to-back and win the Match!  The 2015 South American Champion moves on with a 2-0 record.