Top 8 Feature Match: Bohdan Temnyk vs. Billy Brake
Three-time YCS winner Billy Brake versus Australia’s favorite Duelist Bohdan Temnyk? Instant Feature Match. Brake is competing on behalf of Pasadena, California’s CoreTCG, while Temnyk is representing West Palm Beach, Florida’s Pro-Play Games. CoreTCG and Pro-Play Games are two of many Konami Official Tournament Stores at which fans of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME can Duel. You can find a Konami Official Tournament Store near you by using the locator available here! Brake is running Domain Monarchs, while Temnyk is playing Burning Abyss Phantom Knights. These two great competitors have been friends online for years, but this is the first time they’re squaring off in a tournament.
The tone was incredibly friendly, especially by the standards of a should-be-high-pressure Top 8 Match at a YCS. At some point friendship, mutual respect, and beating the tar out of each other on the internet is really what matters.
Brake won the roll and opened with Thestalos the Mega Monarch; Return of the Monarchs; Foolish Burial; Tenacity of the Monarchs; and Domain of the True Monarchs. He activated Tenacity revealing Thestalos to search his Deck for Pantheism of the Monarchs, then discarded Return to draw One for One and Ehther the Heavenly Monarch. He banished his Pantheism to present three cards from his Deck: three copies of The Prime Monarch. Brake added one to his hand, then activated One for One discarding Thestalos to Special Summon Edea the Heavenly Squire, Special Summoning Eidos the Underworld Squire with it. He activated Domain, revealed Ehther to decrease its Level, then Tributed Edea to Summon it.
He sent Pantheism of the Monarchs and The Prime Monarch to his Graveyard for Ehther’s effect, Special Summoned another Ehther, and resolved Edea’s effect to return a card to his hand. Foolish Burial let him send Erebus the Underworld Monarch from his Deck to his Graveyard, and he pitched The Prime Monarch to get back Thestalos with Erebus. He banished Tenacity to Special Summon The Prime Monarch, then Tributed to Summon Thestalos, revealing Temnyk’s hand.
Brake discarded Temnyk’s Speedroid Terrortop, leaving him with the Speedroid Taketomborg, and bounced his second Ehther back to his hand to finish out.
Temnyk was up. He Set a monster, Set a card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone, and Brake activated Ehther’s effect from his hand when Temnyk tried to end his turn. Brake sent Tenacity and The Monarchs Stormforth from his Deck to his Graveyard with Ehther, Special Summoning Erebus the Underworld Monarch and moving to the End Phase. He got back Erebus and Special Summoned The Prime Monarch.
Brake drew Kuraz the Light Monarch. He banished Pantheism to present Tenacity of the Monarchs and two copies of The Monarchs Stormforth, and Temnyk gave him the latter. He banished Eidos to Special Summon Edea, Special Summoning another Eidos. He revealed Erebus for Domain, Tributed Edea, and activated Erebus’ effect, drawing out Temnyk’s Solemn Strike. He got back Erebus and was attacking for game moments later.
Billy Brake mounts an explosive Turn 1 off of One for One, while Bohdan Temnyk opens with highlights like Speedroid Taketomborg and promptly loses. Rough beat. Temnyk was either one loss away from a ticket back to Australia, or two wins away from a glorious comeback. Both competitors shook hands and wished each other good luck.
Temnyk opened with Speedroid Terrortop for Speedroid Taketomborg, then overlaid both for Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss. He activated Dante’s effect to send Speedroid Terrortop, Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, and Libic, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to the Graveyard. “Ahh, that’s actually just what I needed.” Temnyk activated Libic’s effect to Special Summon Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, then Normal Summoned The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots to Xyz Summon another Dante. He detached Boots from the second Dante to send Terrortop, Pot of Desires, and Allure of Darkness to the Graveyard.
Temnyk banished Boots to search his Deck for Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade, then pitched Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to upgrade the newest Dante into Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal. He Set his last two cards to his backrow, then resolved Scarm’s effect to search for Tour Guide from the Underworld.
Brake had Mithra the Thunder Vassal; Twin Twisters; The Prime Monarch; two copies of Ehther the Heavenly Monarch; and Erebus the Underworld Monarch. He Special Summoned Mithra to give Temnyk a Vassal Token, then Set Twin Twisters. In the End Phase Temnyk detached Dante from Beatrice to send Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss to the Graveyard, getting back his Scarm with Dante. He used Farfa to remove the Vassal Token that would’ve clogged up his field otherwise, then discarded Scarm for Twin Twisters.
The moment Brake saw Temnyk’s field was no longer clogged he conceded. Onto Game 3! One more Duel would decide which of these great competitors would make it to the Top 4. Whoever survives this Match could emerge as the odds-on favorite for the Championship this weekend.
Brake opened with Kuraz the Light Monarch; two Edea the Heavenly Squire; One for One; and Solemn Scolding. He pitched Edea for One for One, Special Summoning his third Edea from his Deck to Special Summon Eidos the Underworld Squire. He Normal Summoned his last Edea next, then Tribute Summoned Kuraz to destroy his on-field Edea and Eidos, drawing… Kuraz and Thestalos the Mega Monarch. Unhelpful. Brake really needed to see some Monarch spells there to get some momentum going and he’d drawn virtually dead instead. He Set Scolding to finish out. “Goooooo aheeeeead.”
Temnyk Special Summoned Farfa, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss, then overlaid it with Scarm, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss for Dante, Traveler of the Burning Abyss. Brake shut down the Xyz Summon with Solemn Scolding, leaving Temnyk to retrieve his Farfa with Dante’s effect. Temnyk Set two cards to his back row and then searched for Tour Guide from the Underworld with Scarm.
Brake drew Ehther the Heavenly Monarch, and Temnyk flipped his Set cards: Anti-Spell Fragrance and Mask of Restrict! That went from bad to worse for Brake. Brake banished Eidos to Special Summon Edea, Summoning Mithra the Thunder Vassal from his Deck in a desperate bid to protect himself. He was smiling and laughing, knowing this just wasn’t going to work.
Temnyk drew to five cards and Normal Summoned Tour Guide to Special Summon Graff, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.
“I need an asteroid to come through the ceiling right now,” laughed Brake.
“I’m pretty sure you have no outs,” agreed Temnyk, both Duelists laughing. He detached from Dante to send three more cards to the Graveyard, sending Libic and Graff to the Graveyard in the process. He Special Summoned Farfa and Cir. He attacked over Mithra with Cir, sent Dante over Kuraz, and made another Dante in Main Phase 2. He pitched Scarm to upgrade for Beatrice, Lady of the Eternal, Set another card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone, and searched for Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss.
Brake drew another Ehther the Heavenly Monarch. “Oh man, another Monarch! Yes! Your turn.”
Temnyk detached Dante from Beatrice to send The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves to the Graveyard, getting back Libic with Dante’s effect. That ended Brake’s turn.
Temnyk banished Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade to Special Summon Gloves, Special Summoned The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots and overlaid both to make The Phantom Knights of Break Sword. He detached Gloves to destroy Brake’s Edea and his own Solemn Warning.
“Send three for Dante” prompted Brake, laughing as he played Temnyk’s turn for him, effectively eager to help him build the biggest field possible.
“Hey, hey!” Temnyk grinned. “Just give me a moment to figure out the best field for this photo. I think we’re getting close to max damage…”
Temnyk fielded another Dante, made another Beatrice, and Summoned Barbar, Malebranche of the Burning Abyss for… Brake counted it up for him, and settled on 12,200 damage on Brake’s 4900 Life Points? They agreed it was something like that.
“Congratulations, Bodahn,” said Brake, “I wish you luck on your way to your first ‘W’. And thank you for ruining my dream of winning in the same city where I first won five years ago.” The assembled audience erupted in laughter as the two competitors deteriorated into goodnatured banter.
Bohdan Temnyk is heading to the Top 4. Is YCS Toronto 2016 finally his moment?
