Welcome to Day 2 of YCS San Diego! Adam Belohradsky is a talented Duelist from Fullerton, CA, who has multiple YCS top cut placings. He’s been on a break from Dueling, but is back this weekend with SPYRAL! His opponent is Kesavan Kushalnagar, from Rochester, NY. We saw last saw Kushalnagar when he made the Top 8 at the UDS Invitational in Orlando, becoming the first person to make the top cut of a premier event with Trickstars.

Duel 1

Kushalnagar won the dice roll and chose to play first. He had Pot of Desires, Droll & Lock Bird, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Trickstar Candina, and Trickstar Light Stage. He played Light Stage, getting Trickstar Lycoris to his hand. He Normal Summoned Candina, getting Trickstar Reincarnation to his hand. Pot of Desires gave him Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit and another Light Stage. He played the new Light Stage, getting another Lycoris. He activated both Lycoris’s effects, targeting Candina, Belohradsky used Maxx “C”, and Kushalnagar used Ash Blossom! Candina went back to the hand, and Kushalnagar Special Summoned both Lycoris. He Set Reincarnation.

Belohradsky drew a card and took 800 total damage from the Lycoris and Light Stage effects. He Set two cards in his back row, then played One for One, discarding SPYRAL Master Plan. He Special Summoned SPYRAL Quik-Fix, which added SPYRAL GEAR – Big Red to his hand. He took another 800 damage, and Kushalnagar responded with Trickstar Reincarnation and Droll & Lock Bird! Belohradsky used the D.D. Crow in his hand, banishing Ash Blossom, and banished Big Red from his hand. He couldn’t draw a new card due to Droll. Belohradsky flipped up Foolish Burial Goods, sending SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue to the Graveyard, and used it to revive Master Plan! He Link Sumoned SPYRAL Double Helix, and used its effect calling monsters. Kushalnagar destroyed Double Helix with Ghost Ogre! Double Helix’s effect resolved, but since it wasn’t pointing to a zone now, and Droll was locking down his Deck, he had no option but to add Quik-Fix to his hand from his Graveyard. He knew he wasn’t going to be winning after Kushalnagar’s crushing turn, and conceded the first Duel!

Duel 2

Belohradsky used SPYRAL Super Agent in his hand, calling trap, and revealed Evenly Matched from Kushalnagar’s Deck. He Special Summoned the Agent, but now had to make a decision since he knew what card was coming up. He Set a back row card, then used Foolish Burial Goods to put SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue in the Graveyard.

Kushalnagar had a hand of 2 Light Stage, PSY-Framegear Gamma, Ghost Ogre, and Ash Blossom, and drew his Evenly Matched. He played Light Stage, getting Candina, and used Light Stage to lock down Belohradsky’s face-down card. He played his second Light Stage to get Lycoris, then played Candina to get Trickstar Lilybell, which he Special Summoned with its effect. He used Lilybell and Candina for Trickstar Holly Angel. He had Light Stage lock down Belohradsky’s card, and Holly Angel took down the Super Agent. In the End Phase, Belohradsky flipped up SPYRAL MISSION – Rescue and got his Agent back to his hand. (After the Match, Kushalnagar remarked that he should have had Lycoris bounce Candina back to his hand, using Lycoris as a Link Material instead. Then he could use Candina’s effect again next turn.)

Belohradsky Special Summoned Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow and two Vague Shadow Tokens. He used Super Agent’s effect, calling monster, and revealed Ash Blossom from the top of Kushalnagar’s Deck. He Normal Summoned his own Ash Blossom and tuned it to Super Agent for Ancient Fairy Dragon in Attack Position! He activated its Field Spell effect, but Kushalnagar negated it with Ash Blossom from his hand. Belohradsky played Big Red to get Super Agent to the field again, and it destroyed Light Stage. Belohradsky used Ancient Fairy Dragon and his two tokens to play Gaia Saber, the Lightning Shadow, and used it to destroy Holly Angel in battle. Super Agent attacked directly, leaving Kushalnagar with 5500 Life Points. At the end of the Battle Phase, Kushalnagar used Evenly Matched from his hand! Belohradsky banished everything but his Super Agent.

Kushalnagar drew Ash Blossom. He passed, with a hand of Lycoris and a bunch of Effect Monsters he wanted to keep in his hand.

Belohradsky played Set Rotation, getting SPYRAL Resort on his field and Dragon Ravine on Kushalnagar’s. He tried used Resort’s effect and lost it to Ghost Ogre. He had nothing but the Super Agent, and attacked directly.

Kushalnagar drew another PSY-Framegear Gamma. He Set Lycoris.

Belohradsky attacked and destroyed Lycoris.

Kushalnagar drew Evenly Matched. He passed.

Belohradsky Normal Summoned Ash Blossom. He Synchro Summoned Black Rose Dragon, and chose not to use the effect. He banished Rescue from the Graveyard to Special Summon Super Agent, trying to use its effect to destroy the Set Dragon Ravine – Kushalnagar used PSY-Framegear Gamma to negate and destroy Super Agent, and Special Summoned Gamma and PSY-Frame Driver. They were banished in the End Phase.

Kushalnagar drew Maxx “C”. He just couldn’t seem to get any of his actual Trickstar cards, only his support cards! He Set the Maxx “C”.

Black Rose Dragon destroyed Maxx “C”, and Belohradsky Set one to his back row.

Kushalnagar drew Jizukiru, the Star Destroying Kaiju. He Set Ash Blossom and Evenly Matched.

Belohradsky Normal Summoned Quik-Fix and added Big Red to his hand. He played it to revive Super Agent, and used its effect to destroy Dragon Ravine. Now that he was no longer locked down by his own Set Rotation card, he could activate SPYRAL Resort! He searched out SPYRAL Sleeper, and moved to the Battle Phase. Quik-Fix and Black Rose Dragon attacked directly, leaving Kushalnagar with 700 Life Points. At the end of the Battle Phase, Kushalnagar used Evenly Matched to banish everything but the Black Rose Dragon!

Kushalnagar drew Blackwing – Gofu the Vague Shadow! He Tributed Black Rose Dragon to hand over Jizukiru. Then, he Special Summoned Gofu and two Vague Shadow Tokens. He used the tokens for two copies of Link Spider, then used those for Akashic Magician, to put Jizukiru back in his hand! He used Akashic and Gofu to play Decode Talker, and attacked directly to put Belohradsky down to 5600 Life Points.

Belohradsky Set one to his back row.

Kushalnagar drew Droll & Lock Bird. He Set it, linked to Decode Talker, and attacked directly. When Belohradsky drew his next card, he conceded the Match!

Kesavan Kushalnagar is victorious, with Trickstar!