Esala Wathuthantrige is no stranger to competitive Dueling. He competed in the 2017 World Championship in Tokyo, Japan by accumulating the most World Championship Points in North America, and now he’s competing in this weekend’s UDS Invitational with his Pendulum Magician Deck. His opponent, Nestor Tambassopoulos from Long Island, New York Duels in a lot of local tournaments and Regional Qualifiers, and recently achieved a Top 8 finish with Trickstars in a Regional Qualifier. Now, he’s Dueling with an ABC Deck that uses 3 copies of Honest and 2 copies of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning thanks to the new F&L List. It’s time to Duel!

Duel One

Wathuthantrige activated Performapal Guitartle in his Pendulum Zone and then Wisdom-Eye Magician in his other Pendulum Zone. He traded in the Wisdom-Eye for Purple Poison Magician, prompting Tambassopoulos to discard Maxx “C” from his hand. Wathuthantrige Set a card to his back row and passed.

Tambassopoulos drew a card and then had A-Assault Core, Union Hangar, Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow, Raigeki, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning in his hand. He activated Union Hangar and used its effect to add C-Crush Wyvern to his hand. He Special Summoned Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow to his hand, and used its effect to Special Summon 2 Tokens. Next, he tried to Normal Summon C-Crush Wyvern, but lost out to Solemn Warning. Wathuthantrige dropped down to 6000 Life Points. Tambassopoulos combined his 2 Tokens to Link Summon Proxy Dragon and then combined Proxy Dragon with Gofu to Summon Decode Talker. Next, he banished Proxy Dragon and Gofu from his Graveyard to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning from his hand, Linked to Decode Talker. He attacked with his Soldier and Decode Talker to inflict 5800 points of damage, dropping Wathuthantrige down to 200 Life Points.

Wathuthantrige Summoned Performapal Skullcrobat Joker and used its effect to add Harmonizing Magician to his hand. Next, he Pendulum Summoned Harmonizing Magician and Black Fang Magician from his hand, and Wisdom-Eye Magician from his Extra Deck, Linked to Tambassopoulos’s Decode Talker. Next, he used Harmonizing Magician’s effect to Special Summon Double Iris Magician from his Deck. He combined Double Iris Magician and Wisdom-Eye Magician to Xyz Summon Performage Trapeze Magician, Linked to Decode Talker. Next, he Tuned Harmonizing Magician and Black Fang Magician to Synchro Summon Supreme King Dragon Clear Wing, and used its effect to destroy all of Tambassopoulos’s monsters! Next, he used his Trapeze Magician to allow Supreme King Dragon Clear Wing to attack twice, and then Wathuthantrige’s direct attacks ended the Duel!

Nestor Tambassopoulos drops Wathuthantrige down to 200 Life Points on his first turn, but Wathuthantrige turns it around on his next turn by dropping Tambassopoulos from 8000 Life Points to 0 with his Magicians!

Duel Two

Tambassopoulos opened up Duel 2 with Dimensional Barrier, Silver Gadget, Honest, Unending Nightmare, and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning.

He Set Unending Nightmare and Dimensional Barrier and then ended his turn.

Wathuthantrige activated Performapal Lizardraw in his Pendulum Zone and Tambassopoulos flipped Unending Nightmare and paid 1000 Life Points to destroy it, sending it to Wathuthantrige’s Extra Deck.

Tambassopoulos drew Solemn Strike and Set it. He Summoned Silver Gadget and attacked directly, dropping Wathuthantrige down to 6500 Life Points.

Wathuthantrige passed his turn again.

Tambassopoulos drew another Dimensional Barrier. He Summoned Honest and then attacked directly with Honest and Silver Gadget, dropping Wathuthantrige down to 3900 Life Points. Tambassopoulos returned Honest to his hand in Main Phase 2 and Set Dimensional Barrier.

Wathuthantrige Summoned Purple Poison Magician in Attack Position and activated Dark Hole to clear the field! He used the effect of Purple Poison Magician, but Tambassopoulos flipped Solemn Strike and gave up 1500 Life Points to negate its effect. Tambassopoulos Special Summoned Gold Gadget from his Deck with the effect of his fallen Silver Gadget. Next, Wathuthantrige activated System Down, banishing Gold Gadget from the field and Silver Gadget from the Graveyard.

Tambassopoulos drew his second Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Summoned Honest. He attacked directly with it, dropping Wathuthantrige down to 1800 Life Points, and then returned Honest to his hand in Main Phase 2.

Wathuthantrige activated Purple Poison Magician in his Pendulum Zone and then used Duelist Alliance to add Pendulum Call to his hand. He activated it by discarding Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju from his hand, and then activated Double Iris Magician in his second Pendulum Zone, prompting Tambassopoulos to activate Dimensional Barrier, choosing Pendulums. Wathuthantrige passed his turn with a clear field.

Tambassopoulos drew Gofu and Special Summoned it, prompting Wathuthantrige to concede!

Esala Wathuthantrige tries to navigate around Unending Nightmare, but is ultimately unable to do so successfully, allowing Nestor Tambassopoulos to win the second Duel with attacks from a couple of Gadgets and Honests! The Match is pushing on to a third and final Duel!

Duel Three

Wathuthantrige started off Duel 3 by Summoning Performapal Skullcrobat Joker and activating its effect to add Wisdom-Eye Magician to his hand.

He activated Oafdragon Magician and Wisdom-Eye Magician in his Pendulum Zones, and then traded in his Wisdom-Eye to replace it with Double Iris Magician in his Pendulum Zone. Next, he Pendulum Summoned Wisdom-Eye Magician to his Extra Monster Zone from his Extra Deck, and Purple Poison Magician and Harmonizing Magician from his hand, and used the effect of Harmonizing Magician to Special Summon Double Iris Magician from his Deck. Next, he Tuned Harmonizing Magician with Wisdom-Eye Magician to Synchro Summon PSY-Framelord Omega, and used Omega’s effect to banish it along with an A-Assault Core from Tambassopoulos’s hand. Next, Wathuthantrige used Oafdragon’s effect to add Harmonizing Magician to his hand and combined Performapal Skullcrobat Joker and Double Iris Magician to Xyz Summon Tornado Dragon. He used Tornado Dragon’s effect to destroy the Double Iris Magician in his Pendulum Zone and add Time Pendulumgraph from his Deck to his hand. He Set a card to his back row before passing.

Tambassopoulos drew a card and then had Unending Nightmare, Solemn Warning, Union Hangar, Pot of Desires, and Terraforming in his hand. He activated Desires to banish the top 10 cards of his Deck and draw Gofu and C-Crush Wyvern. Next, he activated Union Hangar, and Wathuthantrige Chained the effect of his Tornado Dragon to destroy it. Tambassopoulos Special Summoned Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow from his hand along with 2 Vague Shadow Tokens. He combined his 2 Tokens to Link Summon Proxy Dragon and then combined Proxy Dragon with Gofu to Link Summon Decode Talker. Wathuthantrige flipped Time Pendulumgraph, and then Tambassopoulos Normal Summoned C-Crush Wyvern Linked to Decode Talker. He attacked Tornado Dragon with Decode Talker and then Wathuthantrige activated the effect of Time Pendulumgraph to destroy his own Purple Poison Magician and Tambassopoulos’s Decode Talker; but with Decode Talker now linked to C-Crush Wyvern, Tambassopoulos used his Decode Talker’s effect to negate the activation of the Time Pendulumgraph’s effect by Tributing C-Crush Wyvern. Tornado Dragon was destroyed in battle, and Tambassopoulos Set 2 cards to his back row and a Union Hangar to his Field Spell Card Zone before passing.

Wathuthantrige returned PSY-Framelord Omega to his field and Tambassopoulos returned A-Assault Core to his hand. Next, Wathuthantrige Normal Summoned Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer and Tuned it with Purple Poison Magician to try to Synchro Summon Ignister Prominence, the Blasting Dracoslayer, but lost out to Solemn Warning. Wathuthantrige activated Harmonizing Magician in his Pendulum Zone next, and Tambassopoulos flipped Unending Nightmare and gave up 1000 Life Points to destroy it. Wathuthantrige banished Omega from the field to banish A-Assault Core from Tambassopoulos’s hand and then passed.

Tambassopoulos drew Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and then flipped Union Hangar and added B-Buster Drake from his Deck to his hand. He Summoned it and used Union Hangar to equip it with A-Assault Core.  He banished A-Assault Core and B-Buster Drake from his field, along with C-Crush Wyvern from his Graveyard, to Fusion Summon ABC-Dragon Buster. He attacked directly with it, and then paid 1000 Life Points with Unending Nightmare to destroy Oafdragon Magician.

Wathuthantrige returned Omega to his field and then switched his Omega into Defense Position. He Set a monster and then passed. In the End Phase, Tambassopoulos activated the effect of his Dragon Buster and discarded A-Assault Core to banish Tambassopoulos’s face-down Performapal Pendulum Sorcerer. He also swapped out his Dragon Buster for A-Assault Core, B-Buster Drake, and C-Crush Wyvern, using Union Hangar’s effect to attach B-Buster Drake to one of them.

On his next turn, Tambassopoulos sent his 3 monsters to the Graveyard to Summon Decode Talker, and banished all 3 from the Graveyard to Summon ABC-Dragon Buster. Next, he discarded C-Crush Wyvern from his hand to destroy Omega, and Omega’s effect was Chained to banish Ash Blossom from Tambassopoulos’s hand. Nevertheless, direct attacks from ABC-Dragon Buster and Decode Talker finished Wathuthantrige off!

Nestor Tambassopoulos takes a 2-1 victory over one of this year’s North American World Championship representatives using his ABC Deck with 2 copies of Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and 3 copies of Honest!