It’s the final Swiss Round before the cutoff! After this point only the top Duelists will move on for two more Rounds of Swiss followed by the Top 32. We’ve got Jean Magueur, from Tallahassee, FL, here using an innovative Frog strategy with the now Unlimited Rescue Rabbit! He’s packing three each of Slime Toad (formerly known as Frog the Jam) and Psychic Kappa to make easy Toadally Awesome and Link Summon plays. Unlike most recent Frog strategies, he’s using a fast-paced build with no Paleozoics – in fact, his only Traps are a playset of Evenly Matched. His opponent is Luis Rivera, from Tampa, FL, packing Trickstars. They’ve proven to be one of the biggest threats at this event, keeping their position as a top strategy from the last few months.

Duel 1

Rivera won the dice roll and chose to play first. He played Trickstar Light Stage for Trickstar Candina, and Candina for Trickstar Reincarnation. He Special Summoned Trickstar Lycoris and Set two to his back row.

Magueur had a hand of Swap Frog, 2 Dupe Frog, Pot of Desires, Slime Toad, and Psychic Kappa. In the Standby Phase, Rivera used Trickstar Reincarnation to banish it all! “What… am I playing,” Maguer said. Magueur drew a new hand of Moray of Greed, Monster Reborn, Pot of Desires, Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju, Ronintoadin, and Evenly Matched. Moray shuffled back Ronintoadin and Gameciel, letting him draw Slime Toad, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, and Rescue Rabbit. He was already down to 5400 Life Points due to Lycoris and Light Stage. When Moray resolved, Rivera flipped up another Reincarnation! Magueur drew 2 Psychic Kappa, Evenly Matched, Rescue Rabbit, and Raigeki, dropping to 4200. He Set Psychic Kappa and passed.

Rivera used Light Stage to lock down Magueur’s Set Evenly Matched. He Normal Summoned Candina again, putting another Lycoris in his hand. Then, he banished five cards from his Extra Deck to Special Summon Eater of Millions! It attacked and banished Psychic Kappa. Lycoris and Candina attacked directly, and Rivera Special Summoned his other Lycoris to finish the Match!

Duel 2

Magueur began with Unexpected Dai, 2 Swap Frog, Rescue Rabbit, and Effect Veiler. He played Unexpected Dai to get Slime Toad, then ditched a Swap Frog to Special Summon the other Swap. Its effect sent Ronintoadin to the Graveyard. He Special Summoned Ronintoadin, using it and Swap to play Mistar Boy. He brought Ronintoadin back again, stacking it with Slime Toad for Toadally Awesome! Then he Normal Summoned Rescue Rabbit, using it to bring two more Slime Toads to the field and Xyz Summon another Toadally Awesome!

In the Standby Phase he used both Toadally Awesome effects. Rivera used Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit on one of them, and Magueur negated it with Toadally Awesome’s other effect, sending Mistar Boy to the Graveyard. The Toads resolved, bringing two copies of Dupe Frog onto the field. Rivera played Light Stage to get Candina and Normal Summoned it. He used the effect, Magueur used Effect Veiler, Rivera used Lycoris to bounce Candina in response, and Migueur used Toadally Awesome to send itself to the Graveyard and steal Lycoris! Rivera got none of his effects, but continued by playing Pot of Desires. He played Instant Fusion for Thousand-Eyes Restrict! Thousand-Eyes stole Toadally Awesome, then was used to play Linkuriboh. Toad’s effect put itself in the Extra Deck. Rivera Set two cards in his back row to finish.

Magueur drew Effect Veiler, and Rivera flipped Scapegoat in the Standby Phase. Magueur Flip Summoned Lycoris, using it with a Dupe Frog to play Underclock Taker. Rivera flipped Trickstar Reincarnation, so Magueur drew Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. He Special Summoned Ronintoadin and used it with Dupe Frog for another Toadally Awesome. He used Underclock Taker’s effect to put Candina to 0 ATK, and went to the Battle Phase. Underclock attacked Linkuriboh, and Rivera used its effect in response. Toadally Awesome attacked and destroyed Candina.

In Rivera’s Standby Phase, Toadally Awesome brought a Dupe Frog to the field. Rivera used two Sheep Tokens to play Missus Radiant, then used the other two each for a copy of Link Spider. He used all three Link Monsters to play Borreload Dragon. Finally, he Tributed Toadally Awesome to hand over a copy of Kumongous, the Sticky String Kaiju! Toad’s effect put Dupe Frog back in Magueur’s hand. Rivera sent Borreload Dragon to attack Kumongous – but he couldn’t thanks to Dupe Frog! He attacked Dupe instead, using Borreload to steal it. Still in the Battle Phase, he banished Trickstar Reincarnation to Special Summon Candina. He had Borreload weaken Underclock, and Candina destroyed it.

Magueur drew Monster Reborn! He played it to steal Thousand-Eyes Restrict from Rivera’s Graveyard! He had it take Dupe Frog, then used Thousand-Eyes and Kumongous to Link Summon Proxy Dragon. Dupe’s effect put Swap Frog in his hand, and he Special Summoned it by discarding his other Dupe. Swap put Ronintoadin in the Graveyard, and he Special Summoned it. He used Ronintoadin, Swap, and Proxy Dragon for his own Borreload Dragon! He attacked and stole Rivera’s Borreload, and had that one attack and destroy Candina! In Main Phase 2, Magueur Special Summoned two copies of Ronintoadin, and Xyz Summoned Toadally Awesome for the fourth time this Duel! When Rivera saw his next draw, he knew it was all over!

(Note: It was noticed after the Duel that in the previous play, Dupe Frog should not have been able to add Swap Frog to Magueur’s hand. Dupe Frog has a “When… you can” effect, meaning it is possible to miss the timing of its activation if the trigger isn’t the last thing that happened in the game. In this case, it went to the Graveyard when Thousand-Eyes Restrict was used as a Link Material, meaning a Link Summon was the last thing to happen. Both Duelists agreed, however, that Magueur still would have been able to make a different play by Normal Summoning the Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit in his hand and still would have won this Duel.)

Duel 3

Rivera chose to play first for the final Duel. He began with Light Stage as he had in the previous Duels, getting Candina, but this time Magueur had Droll & Lock Bird. Rivera Set two cards to his back row.

Magueur had Evenly Matched, Soul Charge, Effect Veiler, Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, and Dupe Frog. He Set Dupe Frog.

Rivera played Candina, Magueur used Effect Veiler, and Rivera used Lycoris to bounce Candina out of the way! Candina’s effect put Trickstar Reincarnation in his hand, just as the round timer ended. Rivera Set a back row card and passed his turn.

Magueur drew Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. He Flip Summoned Dupe Frog and moved to the Battle Phase, sending it to attack Lycoris, and he put Swap Frog in his hand with Dupe’s effect. Magueur went to end the Battle Phase, signaling to Rivera that he might have Evenly Matched. Rivera flipped Trickstar Reincarnation, and Magueur used Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring to negate it! He then played Evenly Matched in the same Chain! Rivera flipped Solemn Judgment! That’s a huge risk when you’re at the end of the round and Life Points matter more. In Main Phase 2 Magueur Normal Summoned Swap Frog, and Rivera used Ash Blossom to negate it. He used Swap’s effect to bounce it back to his hand and passed his turn – Rivera flipped Scapegoat!

Rivera used two Sheep Tokens to play Missus Radiant, then also Link Summoned two copies of Link Spider. He Normal Summoned Candina, and Magueur used Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit to destroy it. Candina’s effect still resolved, adding Trickstar Lilybell to his hand – he Special Summoned it. He moved to the Battle Phase, sending Lilybell to attack first and get Candina back to his hand. The Link Spiders and Missus Radiant, each boosted by the effect of Missus, all attacked to end the Match!

Luis Rivera is the victor, with Trickstars!