Alexander Juneja from Santa Monica, California is no stranger to competitive play. Having taken part of UDS Invitationals in the past, he’s back again with Mekk-Knight Invoked. Alexander won his way to the Invitational by topping 4 Regional Qualifers in a row along with YCS Toronto. His Round 3 opponent is Adrian Gomez from Arbuckle, California. Adrian got his UDS Points from attending Regional Qualifers, and he’s got a 60-card Mermail Deck with him today. It’s time to Duel!

Duel 1

Gomez won the roll and elected to go first. He started with a Set monster and a Set back row and passed.

Juneja started with a hand of Effect Veiler, 2 copies of Mind Control, Scapegoat, Magical Meltdown, and Invocation. He started by activating Magical Meltdown and used its effect to add Aleister the Invoker from his Deck to his hand. Next, Aleister was Normal Summoned and its effect added Invocation from his Deck to his hand. Juneja used Mind Control to take control of Gomez’s face-down Genex Controller. He used Aleister the Invoker and Genex Controller to Link Summon Proxy Dragon! (Juneja wanted to Link Summon Underclock Taker but Genex Controller isn’t an effect monster.) He then activated Invocation and banished Aleister the Invoker from his Graveyard and the Proxy Dragon from his field to Fusion Summon Invoked Mechaba! He used the Graveyard effect of Invocation to put it back to the Deck and Aleister the Invoker back to the hand. When Mechaba declared an attack, Gomez activated his Set Abyss-Sphere! He Special Summoned Mermail Abyssleed from the Deck! In Main Phase 2, Juneja Set Scapegoat to the back and passed. In the End Phase, Abyss-Sphere and Abyssleed were destroyed.

Gomez Normal Summoned Mermail Abysslinde which attacked into Invoked Mechaba. Gomez activated Abysslinde’s effect but Gomez used Invoked Mechaba, discarding Effect Veiler to negate and banish it. In the End Phase, Juneja activated Scapegoat.

Juneja Normal Summoned Aleister the Invoker, adding Invocation from his Deck to his hand. Next, Aleister the Invoker and Invoked Mechaba were used to Link Summon Underclock Taker! Then, one of the Sheep Tokens were used to Link Summon Linkuriboh! Both Link Monsters were used to Link Summon Decode Talker! Juneja used Linkuriboh’s Graveyard effect to Special Summon it, then Linkuriboh and another Token were used to Link Summon Ib the World Chalice Priestess! Invocation was activated, banishing  Aleister the Invoker and Effect Veiler from Juneja’s Graveyard to Fusion Summon another Invoked Mechaba! Invocation’s effect was used to put it back into the Deck and Aleister the Invoker back into Juneja’s hand. He attacked with all of his monsters and that was enough to end the first Duel.

Duel 2

Gomez elected to go first. He started off by Normal Summoning Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince, using its effect, sending Atlantean Dragoons to the Graveyard to add Atlantean Heavy Infantry to his hand. Then Atlantean Dragoons’s effect added Mermail Abyssmegalo to his hand. Mermail Abyssmegalo’s effect was activated, sending another Dragoons and an Atlantean Marksman to the Graveyard to Special Summon Mermail Abyssmegalo, and the 2 effects added Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord and Abyss-Sphere from his Deck to his hand. He used Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince and Mermail Abyssmegalo to Link Summon Mistar Boy! With 5 WATER monsters in the Graveyard, he Special Summoned Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord! Juneja negated its effect with Effect Veiler! Gomez Set 2 to the back and passed.

Juneja had a hand of Mind Control, Pot of Desires, Mekk-Knight Indigo Eclipse, Scapegoat, and Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall. He Set Scapegoat across from Mistar Boy then Special Summoned Mekk-Knight Indigo Eclipse in that column. He used Indigo’s effect to move it to the center column, then Special Summoned Mekk-Knight Purple Nightfall to the previous column! Purple’s effect activated, banishing itself to add Mekk-Knight Blue Sky from Deck to hand. Next, Juneja Set Mind Control to the column across from Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord then Special Summoned Mekk-Knight Blue Sky to that column! Its effect added Mekk-Knight Red Moon from the Deck to his hand. Then Pot of Desires was activated, banishing 10 cards to draw Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Aleister the Invoker. Aleister was Normal Summoned and Invocation was added from his Deck to his hand. He flipped the Set Mind Control, taking Mistar Boy. He used all 4 monsters to Link Summon Saryuja Skull Dread! He used the effect to draw 4 and put Raigeki, Gem-Knight Garnet, and Effect Veiler to the bottom of the Deck. He then Special Summoned Mekk-Knight Red Moon in the same column as Saryuja Skull Dread. The Link Monster gave Red Moon 300 ATK, then Red Moon’s effect banished Mekk-Knight Blue Sky to destroy Moulinglacia. He then activated Invocation, using Effect Veiler and Aleister the Invoker in the Graveyard to Fusion Summon Invoked Mechaba! Saryuja gave Mechaba another 300 ATK and then Invocation’s effect sent it back to the Deck to put Aleister the Invoker back to the hand. Red Moon attacked and Gomez activated Abyss-sphere, but Juneja Chained Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring to negate it. Gomez Chained the second Abyss-sphere to Special Summon Mermail Abysslinde in Defense Position. Red Moon destroyed Mermail Abysslinde in battle and Gomez used the effect, but Juneja discarded Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring for Invoked Mechaba’s effect to negate and banish Mermail Abysslinde. The rest of the monsters attacked, leaving Gomez at 2400 LP. In the End Phase, Gomez sent both Abyss-spheres to the Graveyard.

Gomez drew to 3 cards in hand. He activated Monster Reborn, Special Summoning Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince! He used the effect, sending Atlantean Heavy Infantry to the Graveyard and adding Atlantean Marksman from his Deck to his hand. Atlantean Heavy Infantry’s effect destroyed Saryuja Skull Dread. He Set a back row card and a monster and passed.

Juneja drew Pot of Desires to add to the other card in his hand, Aleister the Invoker. Gomez activated Imperial Iron Wall in the Standby Phase, effectively stopping Invoked Mechaba. Juneja used Mekk-Knight Blue Sky to destroy Neptabyss, the Atlantean Prince, then Mekk-Knight Red Moon attacked the Set Atlantean Heavy Infantry. Finally, Invoked Mechaba attacked to end the Match!

Afterwards, Gomez showed me a Ceasefire in his Deck. He runs 3 and was able to get his first win thanks to Ceasefire and a Chained Abyss-sphere to put enough monsters on the field for the effect damage to end the first Match. Too bad we couldn’t see that here!