It’s the final round of Swiss! We’ve got Toronto Duelist Matthew Vanden Heuvel, packing a combination SPYRAL + Pendulum Magician strategy. He’s looking to get the best of both worlds by mixing the two top strategies from the last few months. His opponent is Elroi Felicitas, from right here in San Diego. He’s packing a World Chalice Deck, looking to combo off with a ton of Link Summons!

Duel 1

Vanden Heuvel began with Pendulum Call, Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm, SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red, Foolish Burial, and Wisdom-Eye Magician. He used Pendulum Call, discarding Darkwurm to add Black Fang Magician and Harmonizing Magician to his hand. He Special Summoned Darkwurm and added Supreme King Gate Zero to his hand. Foolish Burial put SPYRAL Quik-Fix in the Graveyard, and Big Red revived it, letting him add SPYRAL GEAR – Drone to his hand. He played Gate Zero and Black Fang in his Pendulum Zones, and Pendulum Summoned Drone and Harmonizing Magician. He used the effects of the Special Summoned monsters. First, Drone let him reveal Felicitas’s top cards, and he put them in order of Gem-Knight Lazuli, Mystical Shine Ball, and Archlord Kristya last.

Vanden Heuvel was a bit bewildered by the cards he was seeing in his opponent’s Deck, but continued. Harmonizing Magician’s effect Special Summoned Purple Poison Magician. He used Quik-Fix and Drone for SPYRAL Double Helix, using its effect to Special Summon SPYRAL Master Plan, which in turn got him SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue. He used Master Plan and Double Helix to play Decode Talker, and Master Plan’s effect put SPYRAL Sleeper and SPYRAL Resort in his hand. He played Resort, getting SPYRAL GEAR – Last Resort. Next, he tuned Harmonizing Magician to Purple Poison for PSY-Framelord Omega, using its effect to banish itself along with Brilliant Fusion from Felicitas’s hand. Vanden Heuvel Normal Summoned Wisdom-Eye Magician and stacked it with Darkwurm for Tornado Dragon. He Special Summoned Sleeper and equipped it with Last Resort. He Set Rescue and passed his turn with a final field of: Decode Talker pointing to Tornado Dragon, Sleeper with Last Resort, SPYRAL Resort, Rescue face-down, and Gate Zero and Black Fang in the Pendulum Zones. What an insane turn!

Felicitas played Raigeki! It wiped out Decode Talker and Tornado Dragon, but Sleeper was protected by Last Resort. Felicitas Normal Summoned The Agent of Creation – Venus, and Vanden Heuvel had Sleeper target itself and Venus, and survived the destruction thanks to Last Resort. Felicitas thought a moment, and decided to go to game two. The combination of SPYRAL Resort, Sleeper, and Last Resort was just too strong!

Duel 2

Felicitas began with Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow and two Vague Shadow Tokens. He used a token for Link Spider, and used its effect to Special Summon Gem-Knight Garnet in the zone below it. He used Garnet with the other token for Ib the World Chalice Priestess, then Normal Summoned The Agent of Creation – Venus. He paid 500 Life Points to Special Summon a Mystical Shine Ball. He used Link Spider and Gofu for Proxy Dragon next to Ib, then Shine Ball for Imduk the World Chalice Dragon. He used Ib and Imduk for Auram the World Chalice Blademaster! He used Venus again for another Mystical Shine Ball, and Link Summoned Imduk to the back left of Auram. He Special Summoned his third Shine Ball, and Link Summoned another Imduk. He used Imduk and Proxy to play Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior! It pointed to Imduk and Auram, so Felicitas used its effect to draw two cards. Next, he played Kyoutou Waterfront and Brilliant Fusion! He sent Gem-Knight Lazuli and Lee the World Chalice Fairy to the Graveyard for Gem-Knight Seraphinite, and Lazuli put Mystical Shine Ball back in his hand, which he immediately used to put Lee back in his hand. He combined Seraphinite and Imduk to play Ib, and Imduk’s effect Special Summoned Lee. Lee’s effect added World Chalice Guardragon to his hand. He used Venus and Ningirsu for Firewall Dragon, and Ningirsu’s effect Special Summoned Guardragon. He used Auram’s effect, Tributing Lee to bring Ningirsu to the field, then used Auram and Guardragon to play Tri-Gate Wizard. He used Firewall Dragon’s effect, and Special Summoned Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju in Defense Position!

So, his ending field was Gameciel, Firewall, Ib, Tri-Gate, and Ningrisu (from left to right), with Kyoutu Waterfront with five Kaiju Counters, and an unattached Brilliant Fusion. He had one card in hand as well.

Vanden Heuvel had Evenly Matched, Pendulum Call, Last Resort, SPYRAL Super Agent, and Purple Poison Magician. He drew a second Super Agent. He used its effect, declaring Spell Card, and had it negated by Gameciel. He played Pendulum Call, discarding Last Resort, and Felicitas had Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring! Vanden Heuvel Normal Summoned Purple Poison and attacked Ib, using it to destroy Gameciel – Gameciel negated it. At the end of the Battle Phase, Vanden Heuvel used Evenly Matched! Felicitas responded with Firewall Dragon, getting Lee back to his hand, and banished everything except Firewall. Vanden Heuvel is still in this Duel!

Felicitas used Guardragon to Special Summon Garnet. He Normal Summoned Lee and added Beckoned by the World Chalice to his hand. Garnet was used to play Link Spider, co-linked to Firewall Dragon. He attacked with everything to drop Vanden Heuvel to 3800 Life Points.

Vanden Heuvel drew Purple Poison Magician. He activated his Super Agent, calling Spell Card, but revealed Heavy Storm Duster. He Set Purple Poison.

Felicitas Normal Summoned Beckoned by the World Chalice and attacked, failing to destroy Purple Poison. Firewall attacked, and was destroyed by the Magician’s effect. Lee and Link Spider attacked directly. In Main Phase 2, Felicitas used his three monsters for Gaia Saber, the Lightning Shadow and Set one to his back row.

Vanden Heuvel drew Harmonizing Magician. He Set it.

Felicitas Special Summoned Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord! With its effect to recycle all of Felicitas’s cards, and under seven minutes remaining on the clock, Vanden Heuvel knew he wouldn’t be winning this Duel. He conceded, eager to move on the to final Duel.

Duel 3

Vanden Heuvel began with a hand of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Darkwurm, One for One, Pendulum Call, and SPYRAL GEAR – Drone. He used Pendulum Call, discarding Darkwurm to get Harmonizing Magician and Black Fang Magician. He Special Summoned Darkwurm, and put Supreme King Gate Zero in his hand. He played One for One, discarding Drone to get Quik-Fix, which added Big Red to his hand. He played Big Red to get Drone, putting Felicitas’s next draws in the order of Maxx “C”, Brilliant Fusion, and Raigeki. He used his SPYRALs to Link Summon Double Helix, using its effect and losing it to Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. He still was able to add Master Plan to his hand with its effect. He played Gate Zero and Black Fang in his back row, and Pendulum Summoned Harmonizing Magician and Master Plan. Their effects put Purple Poison on the field and SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue in his hand. He tuned Harmonizing Magician to Purple Poison for PSY-Framelord Omega, banishing it and Felicitas’s Transmodify. Vanden Heuvel used Master Plan and Darkwurm for Proxy Dragon, and Master Plan put SPYRAL Resort and SPYRAL Sleeper in his hand. He played Resort to get SPYRAL GEAR – Last Resort. He Special Summoned Sleeper and equipped it with Last Resort, then Set Rescue. He shuffled back Drone in the End Phase with Resort.

Felicitas Normal Summoned Mystical Shine Ball. Sleeper destroyed it, and Felicitas offered the handshake!

Matthew Vanden Heuvel is victorious after a crazy Match, using his SPYRAL Magician Deck!