Welcome to Day 2 of the 2017 UDS Summer Invitational!  Are you curious about which Duelists made it to Day 2 and which Decks they’re piloting? If so, read on!

Table 1: Jeffrey Michael Alexander Jones (Pendulum Magician) vs. Cristian Rafael Urena (True Draco)

Table 2: Elvis Vu (ABC) vs. Nestor Anthony Tambassopoulos (ABC)

Table 3: Taylor Mauck (Pendulum Magician) vs. Kesavan Raja Kushalnagar (Trickstar)

Table 4: Manav Dawar (True Draco) vs. Esala Sammidha de Alwis Wathuthantrige (Pendulum Magician)

Table 5: Travis Allen Smith (Pendulum Magician) vs. Ruben Andres Penaranda (Pendulum Magician)

Table 6: Johnathan Wayne Gochenour (True Draco) vs. Justin Singh Delhon (True Draco)

Table 7: Jack Ryan Belter (ABC) vs. Ramiro Garcia (True Draco)

Table 8: Christopher Geovany Ramos (Dinosaur) vs. Jeremy Taeron Mitchell (Pendulum Magician)

Table 9: Gabriel Matthias Marini (True Draco) vs. Marcus Shaheed Fontice (Pendulum Magician)

Table 10: Charles David Henderson (True Draco) vs. Richard Charles Wattle (Pendulum Magician)

Table 11: Eden Joseph Allen Salins (True Draco) vs. Jacob Alec Silverman (True Draco)

Table 12: Mohammed Faisal Khan (Pendulum Magician) vs. Noah Reid Greene (Pendulum Magician)

Table 13: Maximillian John Edwards Reynolds (Pendulum Magician) vs. Kamal Derrick El Crooks-Valdez (Pendulum Magician)

Table 14: Michael John State (Trickstar) vs. Aaron Christopher Valliere (True Draco)

Table 15: Barrett Arthur Keys (True Draco) vs. Patrick Owen James (Pendulum Magician)

Table 1001: Aaron Chase Furman (Kozmo) vs. Calvin Habib Tahan (ABC)

Here’s the breakdown:

13 Pendulum Magician
11 True Draco
4 ABC
2 Trickstar
1 Kozmo
1 Dinosaur

In the wake of the new Forbidden & Limited List, nobody knew what to expect. Pendulum Magicians seemed to be a strong choice, since they lost no cards to the F&L List and regained access to Wavering Eyes. They’re currently the most represented Deck of the Day 2 Duelists.

A bit more surprising is the number of True Draco Decks. The strategy just saw Dinomight Knight, the True Dracofighter Forbidden, and Ignis Heat, the True Dracowarrior and True King’s Return Limited. Yet here we are, with eleven of the remaining thirty-two Duelists rocking True Draco! Master Peace, the True Dracoslaying King is still a huge threat, and the True Draco Duelists have adapted in a variety of ways, filling in their Decks with mini Spellbook engines (Spellbook Magician of Prophecy, Spellbook of Secrets, and Spellbook of Knowledge), Aleister the Invoker and Invocation, or suites of Trap Cards. Most are using very low monster counts (as low as seven, even), to make the most of Card of Demise.

The ABC Decks are rather different from each other, with two using a few True Draco cards, another using Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and one using Pseudo Space and no traps except a single Skill Drain.

The two Trickstar Decks are also quite unique, with one playing a much larger Trap Card lineup with Disturbance Strategy and more defensive Traps, along with Scapegoat for defense and Link Summons. The other uses no traps except Trickstar Reincarnation, doesn’t use Trickstar Holly Angel, and plays a full Instant Fusion lineup!

Then there’s the one True King Dinosaur Deck, still hanging on after the massive hits it took on the F&L List. It isn’t doing anything super crazy – Ramos has simply adapted to the F&L List as best he could, showing that the Deck is still fully capable of competing. It seems like it was a safe choice in an uncertain metagame, and perhaps caught some opponents off guard.

Finally, our remaining UDS Champion Aaron Furman is packing Kozmos! The Deck is able to take advantage of its mini True Draco engine since Dragonic Diagram destroys Furman’s spaceships, triggering their effects.

Round 9 is about to start, the first of four Swiss Rounds today. Check back as we continue to update the rankings and as we move toward finding the Ultimate Duelist!