Welcome to Round 7! We have Ryan May from Los Angeles, CA, using a Subterror Deck teched out to beat the current meta. He’s playing cards like Artifact Scythe and There Can Be Only One in the Main Deck to give himself an edge against strategies like Salamangreats. His opponent is Marco David Morales Gomez, from Garden Grove, CA. He’s using a Trickstar Mekk-Knight Deck – a strategy May is likely not prepared for, but his anti-meta cards could still prove useful in this matchup.

Duel 1

Morales Gomez won the dice roll and chose to play first. He played Pot of Extravagance, banishing six random cards from the Extra Deck, and May used Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring to negate it. Morales Gomez played Trickstar Candina next, adding Trickstar Light Stage to his hand. He played that and searched for Trickstar Lycoris. He bounced Candina to his hand to play Lycoris in Defense Position.

May began with The Hidden City, Scapegoat, Subterror Guru, and There Can Be Only One. He drew Called by the Grave and took 400 damage from the Trickstar effects. He started with The Hidden City, finding Subterror Fiendess, and took another 400 damage. Morales Gomez then played Droll & Lock Bird to prevent further searching this turn. May Normal Summoned Guru and destroyed Lycoris in battle. May Set all his Spell & Trap Cards to finish his turn.

May considered using a card in the Standby Phase but opted not to. Morales Gomez used Light Stage on There Can Be Only One, and May flipped it in response. Morales Gomez tried using Mind Control to take Guru, and May negated that with Fiendess, turning Guru face-down in the process. Morales Gomez Normal Summoned Candina and added another Light Stage to his hand. He activated it and added a new Candina to his hand. The new Light Stage targeted May’s Set Scapegoat, and May Chained it. He was only able to keep one Sheep Token due to There Can Be Only One. Candina hit May with some burn damage. Morales Gomez Set one card in his back row.

May drew Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit. He Flip Summoned Guru and added Subterror Nemesis Archer to his hand. Morales Gomez flipped Trickstar Reincarnation, and May drew a new hand of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and Subterror Final Battle! He used Guru’s effect to turn itself and Candina face-down. Then, he used The Hidden City to turn Guru face-up again and attacked to destroy Candina. In Main Phase 2, he Set Final Battle. He used his Sheep Token to Link Summon Linkuriboh.

Morales Gomez used Light Stage’s effect on Final Battle, and May Chained it to double the ATK and DEF of Guru. Morales Gomez played a third Light Stage, and May used Ash Blossom to negate it. Morales Gomez used Light Stage’s effect on the Set Called by the Grave, and May Chained it targeting Candina in the Graveyard. Morales Gomez Chained Trickstar Reincarnation from the Graveyard, and Special Summoned the Candina. That might have been May’s plan, because There Can Be Only One meant Morales Gomez wouldn’t be able to Summon his other Candina and use its effect. Candina attacked, and Linkuriboh’s effect weakened Candina and caused a replay, where Candina then gave up its attack.. Morales Gomez Set one back row card.

May drew another Guru. He had his on-field Guru flip itself and Candina face-down. Then, he Flip Summoned it and added Fiendess to his hand. He Normal Summoned Fiendess and moved to the Battle Phase. Guru destroyed Candina in battle, and Fiendess attacked directly. At the end of the Battle Phase, Morales Gomez used Evenly Matched, and May used Fiendess to negate it and turn Guru face-down.

In the Draw Phase, May used Final Battle to flip up Guru and add another Fiendess to his hand. Light Stage targeted the Set Final Battle. Morales Gomez played Candina, and it was negated by May’s Fiendess. Morales Gomez Set one back row card. In the End Phase, Final Battle was sent to the Graveyard due to Light Stage.

May drew Artifact Sanctum. He Flip Summoned Guru to add Subterror Behemoth Umastryx to his hand. Then, he used Guru to flip itself and Candina face-down. That let him Special Summon Umastryx as well, and he had it turn itself face-down. He used The Hidden City to flip up Umastryx, banishing Candina. Umastryx attacked directly, leaving Morales Gomez with 5200 Life Points while May had 6800. At the end of the Battle Phase, Morales Gomez flipped another Evenly Matched! Since Morales Gomez only had two cards (Light Stage and Evenly Matched) May banished everything but Umastryx and The Hidden City. He Set Sanctum.

Morales Gomez used Light Stage, and May Chained the targeted Sanctum to Special Summon Artifact Scythe. Morales Gomez had only one card in his hand and passed without playing it.

May drew Infinite Impermanence. He Normal Summoned Guru and attacked with everything, taking the first Duel!

Duel 2

Morales Gomez chose to play second this time. May began with a hand of Called by the Grave, Pot of Extravagance, Infinite Impermanence, Dinowrestler Pankratops, and Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. He started with Pot of Extravagance, drawing Subterror Guru and another Ash Blossom. He Set Guru and Impermanence.

Morales Gomez played his own Pot of Extravagance, and it was negated by May’s Ash Blossom. Morales Gomez played Light Stage to add Candina to his hand, then had Light Stage lock down the Set Impermanence. He played Terraforming next, getting another Light Stage, which he used to find Trickstar Lycoris. The new Light Stage also locked down Impermanence. Morales Gomez Special Summoned Dinowrestler Pankratops, then Normal Summoned Candina to get a second Lycoris. Pankratops attacked and destroyed Guru, and Guru’s effect let May search for Subterror Fiendess. Candina attacked directly. Then, Morales Gomez used both copies of Lycoris from his hand, each targeting Candina. He bounced Candina and Special Summoned both Lycoris, with both attacking directly. May was down to 2400 Life Points. Morales Gomez Set one back row card, and lost Impermanence in the End Phase.

May drew There Can Be Only One and took 800 damage, and Morales Gomez played Trickstar Reincarnation! May had to negate it with Ash Blossom or lose to burn damage. He Special Summoned Pankratops, then considered his options. He went to the Battle Phase, sending Pankratops to destroy a Lycoris. He then used Pankratops’s effect to destroy Morales Gomez’s Pankratops. He Normal Summoned Fiendess and Set the rest of his hand. He activated Fiendess’s effect, flipping itself face-down and bringing Guru back to the field face-down as well.

Morales Gomez used Light Stage, targeting Called by the Grave. May flipped it, targeting Lycoris in the Graveyard. Morales Gomez responded with Trickstar Reincarnation from the Graveyard to Special Summon Lycoris, but May flipped There Can Be Only One to prevent it from being Summoned. Called by the Grave banished the Lycoris and negated the one on the field until next turn. Morales Gomez sent Lycoris to destroy Fiendess in battle. He Set one back row card.

May drew another There Can Be Only One. He Flip Summoned Guru and added Subterror Final Battle to his hand. He used Guru’s other effect, flipping itself and Lycoris face-down. He Set both of his Trap Cards.

Morales Gomez used Light Stage on Final Battle, and May Chained it to flip up Guru, getting Fiendess to his hand. Morales Gomez flipped up Lycoris and attacked Guru, but he forgot Guru had 1800 DEF! Luckily for him, Guru had already been used that turn. Morales Gomez used Evenly Matched, and May banished his extra Set copy of There Can Be Only One.

May drew Pot of Duality. He had Guru flip itself and Lycoris face-down, then Flip Summoned it to search for Subterror Nemesis Archer. He played Pot of Duality next, revealing Umastryx and two The Hidden City – he took the City. He activated it to get Fiendess to his hand, then Normal Summoned Archer. It attacked and shuffled Lycoris back to the Deck. Guru attacked directly, and was doubled by Final Battle. Morales Gomez was down to 3400 Life Points, while May had just 1200.

Morales Gomez used Light Stage on Final Battle, and May Chained it to make his Subterrors immune to negation this turn. Morales Gomez played Candina, and May used Fiendess to negate Candina and turn Archer face-down, and he Chained Guru to turn itself and Candina face-down. Morales Gomez Set one back row card.

May drew Evenly Matched. He flipped up Guru and Archer, going straight to the Battle Phase. His Archer attacked the Set Candina, shuffling it into the Deck. Morales Gomez flipped Trickstar Reincarnation, but it wouldn’t matter – he needed a Trickstar in the Graveyard for Reincarnation to let him block with, but he had nothing!

Ryan May takes the Match with Subterrors!