Ricky Lee traveled here this weekend from Grand Rapids playing his True Draco Zoodiac deck.  He’s up against Richard Yam this round, one of the Canadian representatives at the World Championship this year!  Hailing from Guelph, Yam is running a pretty different build of Pure Zoodiacs; he doesn’t play Zoodiac Ratpier or Zoodiac Combo, but runs Zoodiac Bunnyblast instead for some extra combos that can make the most of weaker hands.

So far both of these competitors are 7-2, so a win here would put them into the Top Cut, while a loss would see them hoping against hope for a miracle of tie breakers.

Yam opened the Match with a hand of two Zoodiac Thoroughblades; Fire Formation – Tenki; Zoodiac Whiptail; and Pot of Desires.  He searched his Deck for Zoodiac Ramram with Tenki, then Normal Summoned Thoroughblade to pitch Ramram and draw Enemy Controller.  He overlaid Thoroughblade with Zoodiac Broadbull to detach and search another Whiptail, then overlaid Chakanine over Broadbull to revive Ramram.  Pot of Desires let him banish ten cards from his Deck, drawing Solemn Strike and another Tenki.

He continued: Yam overlaid Broadbull with Zoodiac Drident, Set Tenki, Strike, and Controller, and ended.

Lee activated a Fire Formation – Tenki of his own, searching Zoodiac Thoroughblade.  He searched Dragonic Diagram next with Terraforming, and Normal Summoned the Thoroughblade to try and use its effect, but Yam negated it and destroyed Thoroughblade with Solemn Strike.  Lee played Dragonic Diagram, activated its effect, and Yam destroyed it on the Chain with Drident.  Lee activated Pot of Desires to banish ten cards and draw two, then played another Diagram.  He Set one card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone, then activated Diagram’s effect to destroy his Set Disciples of the True Dracophoenix, searching his Deck for Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter.

That triggered Disciples, destroying Yam’s Set Fire Formation – Tenki.  Lee activated True Draco Heritage, drew one card with its effect, and followed up with Zoodiac Barrage!  He activated its effect to cash in his Tenki, Special Summoning Zoodiac Ramram.  He overlaid it with Zoodiac Boarbow, then Zoodiac Chakanine, and Yam Tributed his Drident for Enemy Controller, taking the Zoodiac Chakanine until the end of the turn.  Lee activated the effect of True Draco Heritage to Tribute it, Summoming Dinomight Knight, and destroying Yam’s active Tenki.  Lee spent a moment checking Yam’s Graveyard, debated attacking, and then activated Raigeki!

Yam activated Ramram’s effect to revive Zoodiac Drident, and Lee activated True King’s Return from his Deck with Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter’s effect.  He attacked Drident with it, but Yam attached Zoodiac Whiptail to his Drident and used Drident’s effect to pop the Dinomight Knight.  Lee ended.

Yam drew Zoodiac Barrage for his turn and equipped another Whiptail to Drident, detaching it to destroy Lee’s Dragonic Diagram.  He overlaid Drident with Zoodiac Broadbull and searched Zoodiac Bunnyblast!  There’s something you don’t see every Match.  He overlaid Broadbull with Zoodiac Chakanine, detached to revive Ramram, and Barraged the Ramram away to Special Summon Zoodiac Thoroughblade and revive Zoodiac Whiptail.  He pitched Bunnyblast for Thoroughblade to draw Cosmic Cyclone, and Summoned Tigermortar, attaching Thoroughblade to it.  He overlaid Tigermortar with Zoodiac Hammerkong, then Drident, and attacked with Whiptail.

“I need to think,” remarked Lee.  “I’m PROBABLY not gonna die this turn… Yeah!”  He took 1200 damage from Whiptail’s attack, then ran some numbers to see the odds of losing this turn.  Eventually he took the 1600 from Zoodiac Thoroughblade, then 2800 total from Drident as Yam attached it with the Whiptail from the field.  The Duel stood at 2400 LP to 6500 LP, with Yam leading.

In Main Phase 2 Yam detached Hammerkong from Drident to destroy Lee’s Dragonic Diagram.  An attempt to use True King’s Return in the End Phase was shut down by Yam’s Cosmic Cyclone, and it was all over a turn later, as Lee was just out of cards and Yam pressed another round of attacks!

Lee opened Duel 2 moments later with Zoodiac Thoroughblade, not activating its effect.  He overlaid it into Zoodiac Boarbow, then Zoodiac Broadbull, and detached to search Zoodiac Whiptail.  He overlaid for Zoodiac Hammerkong, then overlaid Zoodiac Chakanine on top of that, detaching Broadbull to revive… Broadbull?  Lee realized his mistake in an instant, but couldn’t take it back.  He activated True Draco Heritage to Tribute Summon Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior, giving up Heritage as Tribute, Set a card to his back row, and ended his turn.

Yam had a hand of Fire Formation – Tenki; Pot of Desires; Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju; Zoodiac Whiptail; Zoodiac Barrage; and Zoodiac Ramram.  Yam activated Fire Formation – Tenki, and Lee searched his Deck to activate True Draco Heritage with Ignis Heat.  Yam searched out Zoodiac Thoroughblade, Summoned it, and used its effect to pitch Ramram and draw another Thoroughblade.  Lee responded with True Draco Apocalypse, Tributing away Apocalypse and Broadbull to Summon Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King.  He used Apocalypse’s effect to blow away the Thoroughblade.

Yam Tributed away Lee’s Master Peace with Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju, then played Zoodiac Barrage to destroy his Tenki and Special Summon Zoodiac Thoroughblade.  He discarded his second Thoroughblade to draw Pianissimo, then overlaid Thoroughblade with Hammerkong, then Broadbull, detaching Hammerkong to search his Deck for Zoodiac Whiptail.  He overlaid for Zoodiac Chakanine, detaching Broadbull to bring back Ramram, then overlaid for Tigermortar.  He used it to attach a second Thoroughblade to Tigermortar, then banished ten cards and drew two with Pot of Desires: Raigeki and another Pianissimo.

He used the Raigeki to clear Lee’s field of monsters, overlaid Tigermortar with Boarbow, then Zoodiac Drident, and attacked with Ramram.  He destroyed his Ramram with Drident’s effect, reviving Zoodiac Thoroughblade, and used Thoroughblade’s effect to toss his Whiptail for Book of Moon.  An attack from Thoroughblade dropped Lee to 6000, and Drident dropped him to 2800 LP.  Yam Set three cards to his Spell and Trap Card Zone .

Lee Normal Summoned Zoodiac Whiptail  and Yam blew it away with Drident.  Lee searched his Deck for Dragonic Diagram with Terraforming, used it to destroy True Draco Heritage, and got Disciples of the True Dracophoenix.  He used Heritage’s effect to destroy Yam’s Pianissimo, Yam Chained it on Drident, and Lee used Disciples of the True Dracophoenix to send two Heritage and Ignis Heat back to his Deck for a draw.  He Set his topdeck – his last card aside from that Disciples – and passed.

Yam drew Cosmic Cyclone and attacked with Drident; Lee flipped Dimensional Barrier!  He attacked with Zoodiac Thoroughblade and Set the Cyclone.

Lee drew with 1200 Life Points left.  He looked through his Graveyard, searching for some sort of out, and activated Dragonic Diagram to draw out Drident’s effect.  He  looked one last time, revealed his last card to be Maxx “C”, and conceded the Match.

Richard Yam is headed to the Top 32, with no Zoodiac Ratpier and no Zoodiac Combo!