Braedon Hooker is one of the many Duelists who have combined Sky Strikers and Trickstars this weekend. It’s easily the most popular Deck here, and for good reason. He’s up against something completely different – Steven Trifunoski’s 60-card Pendulum Deck! Trifunoski is using a combination of Magicians, D/D, Majespecters, Mythical Beasts, and Supreme Kings! He isn’t using Pendulumucho, but it’s definitely mucho Pendulums!

Duel 1

Trifunoski began with Pendulum Call, D/D Savant Kepler, Oafdragon Magician, Dragon Shrine, and Majespecter Cat – Nekomata. He played Dragon Shrine, sending Supreme King Dragon Darkwurm to the Graveyard.

He Special Summoned it and added Supreme King Gate Zero to his hand. He Normal Summoned Kepler next, adding Dark Contract with the Gate to his hand. He Link Summoned Heavymetalfoes Electrumite and put Chronograph Sorcerer in his Extra Deck. Dark Contract came next, adding D/D Savant Thomas to his hand. He played it in his Pendulum Zone and returned Kepler to his hand, then used Electrumite to destroy Thomas and draw Purple Poison Magician. Electrumite added Chronograph to his hand, and he Special Summoned it, which Special Summoned Kepler. He combined them to play another Electrumite, and put another Chronograph in the Extra Deck. The new Electrumite destroyed Dark Contract to add Chronograph to the hand. He Special Summoned it, and it Special Summoned Nekomata. He turned them into a third Electrumite, putting a Purple Poison in his Extra Deck. He played Gate Zero in his Pendulum Zone and Electrumite destroyed it, adding Chronograph to his hand, then played Pendulum Call discarding Purple Poison. He added Harmonizing Magician and Black Fang Magician to his hand. Two of his Electrumite were used to play Firewall Dragon, then he played Oafdragon and Black Fang in his Pendulum Zone. He Pendulum Summoned Harmonizing Magician and Gate Zero from his hand, and Purple Poison from his Extra Deck. Harmonizing Special Summoned Xiangke Magician, and he used all Pendulum Monsters to play Timestar Magician and Odd-Eyes Absolute Dragon. Timestar added Mythical Beast Jackal King to his hand. He used the last Electrumite, Absolute, and Timestar to play Knightmare Gryphon, and Absolute Special Summoned Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon. With Firewall’s effect, he Special Summoned Jackal King from his hand. Finally, in the End Phase, he added Majespecter Raccoon – Bunbuku to his hand thanks to Nekomata. His final board was Gryphon linked to Vortex Dragon, Jackal King, and Firewall – an insane opening turn!

Hooker played Trickstar Light Stage, getting Trickstar Candina to his hand. He played Sky Striker Maneuver – Afterburners! on Vortex Dragon, which Trifunoski was forced to negate with Vortex. Hooker played Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones next. He played Candina, Trifunoski used Jackal King’s effect, and Hooker used Trickstar Lycoris to bounce Candina to the hand. Candina’s effect was still negated, but the card was saved. He used Lycoris and the Sky Striker Ace Token to play Space Insulator, then played another Hornet Drones. He used the Token to play Sky Striker Ace – Kagari, getting Afterburners back to his hand. He used Kagari and Insulator to play Ningirsu the World Chalice Warrior, then activated Afterburners to destroy Gryphon. Trifunoski used Firewall in response to bounce Ningirsu, then its other effect to Special Summon Bunbuku from his hand. He searched for another Bunbuku. In the End Phase, Light Stage destroyed Pendulum Call.

Trifunoski drew another Pendulum Call. He played Bunbuku to search out the third copy of Bunbuku. He used his two Bunbuku to play Totem Bird and attacked with everything, taking the first Duel!

Both Duelists moved to their Side Decks. Trifunoski declined to use his Side Deck to change any of the cards in his Main Deck, stating that Trickstars weren’t good enough for him to need to use his Side Deck. He wanted the world to know. Nevertheless, he was, in fact, using his Side Deck to switch up his Extra Deck a bit. Hooker didn’t seem phased – he hadn’t gotten this far for nothing!

Duel 2

Trifunoski played first, with a hand of Kepler, Abyss Actor – Curtain Raiser, Allure of Darkness, and 2 Mythical Beast Master Cerberus. He played Master Cerberus, adding Jackal King to his hand. He played Curtain Raiser, then Jackal King Special Summoned Master Cerberus. He played Kepler next, and it was negated by Hooker’s Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. Trifunoski used Kepler and Master Cerberus to play Heavymetalfoes Electrumite, putting Chronograph Sorcerer in his Extra Deck. He activated another Master Cerberus in his Pendulum Zone, and had Electrumite destroy it. He added Chronograph to his hand and drew Darkwurm. Allure came next, drawing another Allure and Pendulum Call – he banished Darkwurm. He activated the next Allure, drawing Oafdragon and Magical Abductor, banishing Chronograph. Pendulum Call discarded Oafdragon to search out Harmonizing Magician and Black Fang Magician. (He immediately noted that he should have played Abductor first to get a Spell Counter.) He activated Abductor and Black Fang in his Pendulum Zones, and Pendulum Summoned Jackal King and Harmonizing Magician, which in turn Special Summoned Purple Poison Magician. Harmonizing and Purple Poison were used to play Tornado Dragon.

Hooker went to the Battle Phase and activated Evenly Matched!

Trifunoski banished everything but his Jackal King! Hooker played Pot of Desires next, then Sky Striker Maneuver – Afterburners! to destroy Jackal King! He used Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones, and the Token was used to play Sky Striker Ace – Kagari. He took back Hornet Drones, then played Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! to get Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor. He played Hornet Drones, then Trickstar Light Stage to get Candina. He played Candina to get Lycoris. “Hope is not lost, bro. I will draw Rescue Hamster right now,” Trifunoski quipped. Hooker laughed and continued to his Battle Phase. He attacked with his Token, Candina, and Kagari, then bounced Candina for Lycoris and attacked again. He used Lycoris and Kagari for Space Insulator, and the Token for Linkuriboh. Those Link Monsters were used to play Ningirsu, and he Set two back row cards.

Trifunoski draws… not Rescue Hamster. Trifunoski drew Dragon Shrine. He sent Darkwurm to the Graveyard, and Special Summoned it in Defense Position to add Supreme King Gate Zero to his hand.

Hooker flipped Widow Anchor to steal Darkwurm, then Normal Summoned Candina to search out another Lycoris – with Trifunoski wide open, it was all over a moment later!

The Duelists moved to their Side Decks once again. This time, Trifunoski seemed a lot more interested in his Side Deck, despite his earlier comment.

Duel 3

Trifunoski began with Abductor, Kepler, Curtain Raiser, Dragon Shrine, and Wisdom-Eye Magician. He played Abductor in his Pendulum Zone, then used Dragon Shrine for Darkwurm, which he Special Summoned to get Gate Zero. Hooker used Droll & Lock Bird! Trifunoski Normal Summoned Wisdom-Eye Magician and Link Summoned Heavymetalfoes Electrumite, which placed Jackal King in his Extra Deck. He played Curtain Raiser in his Pendulum Zone, then used Abductor to add Wisdom-Eye Magician to his hand. He played Gate Zero, and Pendulum Summoned Darkwurm, Jackal King, and Wisdom-Eye Magician. He stacked Darkwurm and Wisdom-Eye for Tornado Dragon.

Hooker once again had Evenly Matched! Trifunoski banished everything but Jackal King. In Main Phase 2, Hooker played Light Stage to get Candina, then used two copies of Hornet Drones in the same Chain for two Tokens. He used one Token to play Kagari, and Trifunoski negated and destroyed Kagari with Jackal King. Hooker continued, with Candina adding Trickstar Lilybell to his hand, and he Special Summoned it. The Trickstars were used to play Trickstar Holly Angel, then the remaining Token became Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku. Holly Angel and Shizuku became Ningirsu, which sent Jackal King and Light Stage to the Graveyard.

Trifunoski drew Luster Pendulum, the Dracoslayer. He Special Summoned Darkwurm to get Gate Zero, then played Kepler to get Dark Contract with the Gate. He played that to get Thomas. Darkwurm and Kepler became Electrumite, which put Chronograph in the Pendulum Zone. He played Thomas and got Kepler back, and Hooker flipped Trickstar Reincarnation! Trifunoski had his play interrupted, drawing a new hand of Pendulum Call, Bunbuku, Master Cerberus, and Curtain Raiser. He played Pendulum Call, discarding Cerberus to get Xiangke and Purple Poison. He activated Poison, and Pendulum Summoned Curtain Raiser, Abductor, Darkwurm, and Bunbuku. He Link Summoned another Electrumite, placing a Chronograph in the Extra Deck. Electrumite destroyed Thomas to get Chronograph to his hand, and he Special Summoned it along with Xiangke. Curtain Raiser and Abductor became Underclock Taker, which weakened Ningirsu. With just ten seconds remaining on the clock, Trifunoski went into his Battle Phase! Xiangke attacked Ningirsu, and he attacked with everything else to wipe out all of Hooker’s Life Points!

Steven Trifunoski is victorious with Pendulums!