Round 1 Feature Match: Andres Torres versus Walker Kapitanchuk
Andres Torres from Colombia is fresh off of a win from the 200th Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Mexico City last month. Torres used his Burning Abyss Deck to come out ahead of over 2500 Duelists, winning the largest Yu-Gi-Oh! TRADING CARD GAME tournament ever held in Latin America. Now, Torres is back on the YCS circuit, and he’s looking for a back-to-back YCS victory by winning the tournament right here in Niagara Falls, Canada! Despite his success last month with his Burning Abyss Deck, the release of Soul Fusion prompted him to change his Deck completely and embrace the new Thunder Dragon theme! Soul Fusion was officially released yesterday and the cards from Soul Fusionjust became legal for tournament use. As a result, although many Duelists recognize that the Thunder Dragon monsters in Soul Fusion have incredible effects, many strategies involving them are largely unexplored. Torres is hoping to capitalize on Duelists’ unfamiliarity with the cards and strategy this weekend. Local Duelist Walker Kapitanchuk from Niagara Falls, Canada is using a Mekk-Knight Invoked Deck that relies on searching his Deck for the cards he needs in his hand. Kapitanchuk’s cards line up poorly against Thunder Dragon Colossus, which can prevent him from adding any cards from the Deck to the hand, except by drawing them. That may make this a tough matchup for Kapitanchuk. One of these Duelists will advance with a 1-0 record, while the other will face defeat in Round 1. It’s time to Duel!
Duel One
Torres opened up Duel 1 with Monster Reborn, Thunder Dragon, Thunder Dragon Fusion, Gold Sarcophagus, and Thunder Dragonroar. He discarded Thunder Dragon to add 2 more copies of it from his Deck to his hand and then activated Gold Sarcophagus to banish Thunder Dragonroar from his Deck. He used its effect to Special Summon Thunder Dragondark from his Deck and then activated Monster Reborn to Special Summon Thunder Dragon from his Graveyard. He combined both monsters to Link Summon Some Summer Summoner and then added Thunder Dragonmatrix to his hand with the effect of Thunder Dragondark. Kapitanchuk discarded Effect Veiler from his hand to negate the effect of Some Summer Summoner. Next, Torres Summoned Thunder Dragonmatrix and Tributed it to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus from his Extra Deck, linked to his Some Summer Summoner. He used the Dragonmatrix’s effect to add another copy to his hand and then activated Thunder Dragon Fusion to Summon another Thunder Dragon Colossus by returning Thunder Dragon and Thunder Dragonmatrix from his Graveyard to his Deck. He then Tributed Some Summer Summoner to Summon a third Thunder Dragon Colossus to the field.
Kapitanchuk Set a card to his back row across from a Colossus and then Special Summoned Mekk-Knight Blue Sky in Defense Position in front of it.
He passed his turn with no other available play.
Torres banished a Colossus from his field and a Thunder Dragonhawk from his hand to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Titan from his Extra Deck and then used the effect of his banished Dragonhawk to shuffle 2 cards from his hand back into his Deck and draw 2 cards. He activated the effect of the Thunder Dragon in his hand to search his Deck for another copy to add to his hand, and then used Titan’s effect to destroy a Terraforming in Kapitanchuk’s back row. Next, he discarded another Thunder Dragon from his hand to search his Deck for the last Thunder Dragon in his Deck and add it to his hand, using Titan’s effect to destroy the Blue Sky. Direct attacks from Titan and both copies of Thunder Dragon Colossus promptly wiped out all 8000 of Kapitanchuk’s Life Points!
Andres Torres takes a quick victory in Duel 1 after swarming his field with Fusion Monsters on the very first turn!
Duel Two
Kapitanchuk chose for Torres to go first in Duel 2, and Torres opened up with White Dragon Wyverburster,Thunder Dragon, Thunder Dragonmatrix, Thunder Dragonroar, and Thunder Dragondark.
He discarded Thunder Dragon to activate its effect, but Kapitanchuk activated the effect of PSY-Framegear Gamma in his hand! He Special Summoned Gamma along with a PSY-Frame Driver from his Deck and negated the activation of Thunder Dragon’s effect. Next, he Normal Summoned Thunder Dragonmatrix and Tributed it to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus in Defense Position.
(Unfortunately, neither player realized that this was colossally illegal play. Since the activation of Thunder Dragon was negated by Gamma, the requirement on Thunder Dragon Colossus that a Thunder monster’s effect be activated in the hand before it can be Special Summoned in this way was not met. Since it went unnoticed during the Duel, play rapidly continued.)
He used the Dragonmatrix’s effect to add another copy of Dragonmatrix from his Deck to his hand and then banished Colossus from his field and Thunder Dragonroar from his hand to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Titan. He used Dragonroar’s effect to Special Summon Thunder Dragondark from his Deck in Defense Position and then combined his 2 monsters to Link Summon Reprodocus. He Special Summoned White Dragon Wyverburster Linked to it next, by banishing Thunder Dragondark from his Graveyard. He then used Thunder Dragondark’s effect to add Thunder Dragon Fusion from his Deck to his hand. He activated Reprodocus’s effect on Wyverburster to make it a Thunder monster, but Kapitanchuk discarded Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit from his hand to destroy the Reprodocus. Next, Torres activated Thunder Dragon Fusion to return the Thunder Dragon in his Graveyard to his Main Deck and the Colossus in his Graveyard to the Extra Deck and Fusion Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus. In the End Phase, PSY-Frame Driver and PSY-Framegear Gamma were banished.
Kapitanchuk Tributed Colossus to Summon Gameciel, the Sea Turtle Kaiju to Torres’s field and then Normal Summoned Aleister the Invoker. He used its effect to add Invocation to his hand and then activated Invocation to banish Aleister from the field and Ghost Ogre from his Graveyard to Special Summon Invoked Mechaba. He returned Invocation from his Graveyard to his Deck to return Aleister to his hand and then attacked Gameciel with Mechaba to destroy it. Torres discarded Thunder Dragondark from his hand in the End Phase to try to add another copy of it from his Deck to his hand, but lost out when Kapitanchuk negated the activation of its effect by sending Aleister from his hand to his Graveyard with Mechaba.
Torres activated Gold Sarcophagus, but lost out when Torres sent Twin Twisters from his hand to his Graveyard with Mechaba. Next, Torres banished Thunder Dragon Fusion from his Graveyard to add Thunder Dragonhawk from his Deck to his hand. He then discarded the Thunder Dragonhawk to Special Summon Thunder Dragonroar, and then Link Summoned LANphorhynchus. He Special Summoned Thunder Dragondark with the effect of Thunder Dragonroar and then Normal Summoned Thunder Dragonmatrix. He used the Dragonmatrix to Link Summon Linkuriboh and then added another Dragonmatrix to his hand. He Link Summoned Summon Sorceress next by combining his 2 Link Monsters, and used its effect to target the Thunder Dragondark Linked to it and Special Summon Batteryman Solar from his Deck in Defense Position. He Tributed his Thunder Dragondark to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus from his Extra Deck, and then used Thunder Dragondark’s effect to add Thunder Dragonduo from his Deck to his hand. He then Tributed Batteryman Solar to Summon another Colossus, and Special Summoned Thunder Dragonduo from his hand by banishing a LIGHT and a DARK monster from his Graveyard. He Special Summoned Black Dragon Collapserpent next, and then attacked Mechaba with Dragonduo to destroy it. Dragonduo’s effect activated to banish a monster from Torres’s Graveyard and add Thunder Dragonroar from his Deck to his hand, and then direct attacks from the rest of Torres’s monsters wiped out all of Kapitanchuk’s Life Points!
Andres Torres takes a decisive victory in Round 1 with his Thunder Dragon Deck!