Round 4 Feature Match: Marcello Barberi vs. Avery Foster
Italy’s Marcello Barberi was the 2017 European Champion and took third place at this year’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME World Championship in Tokyo, Japan. Now, he’s here in the United States to compete in YCS Dallas! Barberi is piloting a SPYRAL Deck, hoping to win his second YCS tournament, this time in the United States. He is currently undefeated in the tournament, and is facing off against Avery Foster from San Antonio, Texas in this Round 4 Feature Match! Foster is using a Pendulum Magician Deck similar to the one Jeff Jones used to win the Ultimate Duelist Series Invitational – Summer 2017 in Orlando, Florida last month. Can Pendulum Magicians still compete on the competitive tournament scene, or has the release of Circuit Break rendered them obsolete? It’s time to Duel!
Duel One
Foster started off Duel 1 activating Pendulum Call by discarding another Pendulum Call from his hand.
He added Purple Poison Magician and Harmonizing Magician to his hand. Next, he placed Wisdom-Eye Magician and Purple Poison Magician in his Pendulum Zones and Pendulum Summoned Harmonizing Magician from his hand. He used Harmonizing Magician’s effect to Special Summon Double Iris Magician from his Deck and then combined his 2 monsters to Xyz Summon Timestar Magician. He detached an Xyz Material from it to activate its effect and add Performapal Skullcrobat Joker to his hand. He Normal Summoned it and activated its effect to add Wisdom-Eye Magician to his hand and then passed his turn.
Barberi opened up with SPYRAL Super Agent, SPYRAL Resort, Dragon Ravine, Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow, SPYRAL Quik-Fix, and SPYRAL GEAR – Last Resort. He Special Summoned Gofu to the field, Special Summoning two Vague Shadow Tokens to the field with it. Next, he activated SPYRAL Resort and used its effect to add SPYRAL GEAR – Drone to his hand, prompting Foster to discard Droll & Lock Bird and activate its effect. Barberi Normal Summoned his Drone next, rearranging the top 3 cards of Foster’s Deck. Then, He Link Summoned Link Spider by using a Token as a material, and Special Summoned Super Agent from his hand by declaring “monster” and revealing Droll & Lock Bird from the top of Foster’s Deck. He combined Super Agent with Drone to Link Summon SPYRAL Double Helix next, using its effect to try to Special Summon a SPYRAL monster from his Deck; but Foster discarded Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring from his hand to negate Double Helix’s effect. Barberi used his Token and Gofu as Link Materials to Link Summon Proxy Dragon next to SPYRAL Double Helix and then combined Link Spider with Proxy Dragon to Link Summon Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior. Ningirsu attacked and destroyed Timestar Magician, and then Double Helix attacked and destroyed Skullcrobat Joker, sending it to Foster’s Extra Deck. Next, he used Ningirsu’s effect to send his own SPYRAL Resort to the Graveyard and send Wisdom-Eye Magician to the Extra Deck. Then, he activated Dragon Ravine and discarded Quik-Fix to send Destrudo the Lost Dragon’s Frisson from his Deck to his Graveyard with its effect. Next, he discarded Last Resort from his hand to Special Summon Quik-Fix from the Graveyard, and combined Quik-Fix with Ningirsu to Link Summon Firewall Dragon co-Linked to Double Helix.
Foster activated Wisdom-Eye Magician in his Pendulum Zone and then Pendulum Summoned Skullcrobat Joker from his Extra Deck. He activated his Wisdom-Eye’s effect to replace it with a Double Iris Magician in the Pendulum Zone and then used Double Iris Magician’s effect to allow Skullcrobat Joker to deal double damage and to destroy the Double Iris. Foster added Star Pendulumgraph from his Deck to his hand with Double Iris’s effect. He attacked Double Helix with Skullcrobat Joker and Barberi used Firewall Dragon’s effect to return the Joker to Foster’s hand. Foster Normal Summoned it again in Main Phase 2 and used its effect to add Black Fang Magician to his hand and placed it in his Pendulum Zone. He used its effect to halve the ATK of Firewall Dragon and destroy the Black Fang, and then used Black Fang’s effect to Special Summon Harmonizing Magician from his Deck. He added a Double Iris Magician to his hand with the effect of Star Pendulumgraph. Finally, Foster conceded, realizing he can’t Tune Harmonizing Magician with Performapal Skullcrobat Joker since Harmonizing Magician can only be Tuned with a Magician.
Duel Two
Foster started off Duel 2 by Summoning Skullcrobat Joker and activating its effect; but he lost out on its effect to Barberi’s Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring! Next, he placed Purple Poison Magician and Black Fang Magician in his Pendulum Scales and Pendulum Summoned Double Iris Magician. He combined Double Iris with Skullcrobat Joker to Xyz Summon Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir in Defense Position and ended his turn.
Barberi drew a card and then had Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, SPYRAL Super Agent, SPYRAL Sleeper, Twin Twisters, and Dark Hole in his hand. He Set the Twin Twisters and passed.
Foster drew a card, detached an Xyz Material from Number 41, and passed.
Barberi drew Machine Duplication and passed.
Foster detached the last Xyz Material from Number 41 and passed.
Barberi drew Dragon Ravine and passed.
Foster destroyed Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir in his Standby Phase because it had no Xyz Materials left, and then Pendulum Summoned a Double Iris Magician and two Harmonizing Magicians from his hand. Barberi discarded Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring from his hand to negate the effect of Harmonizing Magician and then Foster combined Double Iris with a Harmonizing Magician to Xyz Summon another Number 41: Bagoosky the Terribly Tired Tapir in Defense Position.
Barberi drew PSY-Framegear Gamma and then flipped Twin Twisters, discarding Sleeper from his hand to destroy the Black Fang Magician and Purple Poison Magician in the Pendulum Zones. Foster Special Summoned Double Iris from his Graveyard with Black Fang’s effect, and Barberi cleared the field with Dark Hole! Foster used the effect of his Double Iris Magicians, and Barberi Chained the effect of the Gamma in his hand to negate a Double Iris Magician’s effect and Special Summon PSY-Frame Driver from his Deck. Foster added Star Pendulumgraph to his hand with the effect of the other Double Iris. Next, Barberi activated the effect of the Super Agent in his hand to try to Special Summon it, guessing that the top card of his opponent’s Deck was a monster, but revealing it to be a Spell: Pot of Desires. Barberi activated Dragon Ravine next, and discarded his Super Agent to send Destrudo from his Deck to his Graveyard. He paid half of his Life Points to Special Summon it to the field and then Tuned it with the Driver to Synchro Summon Ancient Fairy Dragon in Defense Position! He used his Dragon’s effect to destroy Ravine, gaining 1000 Life Points and adding SPYRAL Resort to his hand. That prompted Foster to discard Droll & Lock Bird to activate its effect. Barberi attacked directly with Gamma, ending his turn and banishing Gamma from the field.
Foster drew Pot of Desires and activated it to banish the top 10 cards of his Deck and draw 2 cards. He activated Oafdragon Magician in his Pendulum Zone and then used Duelist Alliance to add Double-Iris Magician to his hand. He activated Star Pendulumgraph, prompting Barberi to concede in order to save time and move on to the third Duel with about four minutes left in the round!
Avery Foster ties it up at 1-1!
Duel Three
Barberi opened up Duel 3 with Imperial Order, Soul Charge, SPYRAL GEAR – Drone, One for One, and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring.
He activated One for One by discarding Drone, Special Summoning Quik-Fix to his field. He used its effect to add Drone to his hand, but Foster discarded Droll & Lock Bird! Next, Barberi Summoned the Drone and used its effect to rearrange the top 3 cards of Foster’sDeck. He combined it with Quik-Fix to Link Summon SPYRAL Double Helix and then used its effect – revealing Droll & Lock from the top of Foster’s Deck, to Special Summon SPYRAL Master Plan from his Deck behind Double Helix. Barberi combined Master Plan with Double Helix to Link Summon Decode Talker and then used Soul Charge! He gave up 5000 Life Point to Special Summon Quik-Fix, Double Helix, Master Plan, and 2 copies of Drone from his Graveyard just as time in the round was called! Barberi combined Decode Talker with Quik-Fix to Link Summon Firewall Dragon next to Double Helix and then combined Double Helix and 2 Drones to Link Summon Firewall Dragon next to his other Firewall Dragon. He Set Imperial Order and then passed his turn.
Foster Summoned Skullcrobat Joker and used its effect, but lost out to Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. Next, he activated two Wisdom-Eye Magicians in his Pendulum Zones, and Barberi flipped Imperial Order! Foster conceded, completely outmatched by Barberi’s field and realizing that Barberi would defeat him on the next turn.
Italy’s Marcello Barberi takes the victory and advances with a 4-0 record using SPYRALs!
