Welcome to Top 32! It’s single elimination from here on out. Jesse Kotton and Max Reynolds are no strangers to the YCS Top Cut, but only one of them gets to advance to the Top 16. Jesse Kotton has Danger! Thunder Dragon while Max Reynolds has Orcust Phantom Knight but also includes Trickstar and Sky Striker support cards for starting the Orcust combo. Which of these Duelists will advance to Top 16?  It’s time to Duel!

Duel 1

Reynolds won the roll and elected to go first. Reynolds started off with a Set monster and Set Spell/Trap and passed.

Kotton started with Black Dragon Collapserpent, Thunder Dragondark, White Dragon Wyverbuster, Eclipse Wyvern, Danger! Nessie! and another White Dragon Wyverbuster. He activated Danger! Nessie! with Reynolds hitting White Dragon Wyverbuster. Kotton Summoned Danger! Nessie! in Attack Position and drew Danger!? Tsuchinoko? which he activated. The snake was Special Summoned and Kotton discarded the other White Dragon Wyverbuster. He used both Danger monsters to Link Summon LANphorhynchus. He then Normal Summoned Eclipse Wyvern. He sent it to the Graveyard to Link Summon Guardragon Elpy. Reynolds took a moment before activating Called by the Grave banishing the Eclipse Wyvern. Kotton then banished Danger! Nessie! form the Graveyard to Summon the third White Dragon Wyverbuster. He then White Dragon Wyverbuster to the Graveyard to Link Summon Guardragon Pisty who used its effect to Special Summon the banished Eclipse Wyvern. The Wyvern and LANphorhynchus went to the Graveyard to Link Summon Triple Burst Dragon. Kotton then activated Guardragon Elpy’s effect but Reynolds chained Effect Veiler to negate it. Kotton then Special Summoned Black Dragon Collapserpent, banishing LANphorhynchus from his Graveyard. Triple Burst Dragon attacked and destroyed Reynolds’s Set Orcust Harp Horror. Kotton attacked with the rest of the monsters to reduce Reynolds to 3200 LP. In Main Phase 2, he sent all of his monsters to the Graveyard to Link Summon Saryuja Skull Dread. He used the effect to draw 4 cards and put 3 cards in his hand on the bottom of the Deck. He then used Saryuja Skull Dread’s effect to Special Summon Batteryman Solar from his hand. Kotton used its effect to send Thunder Dragonroar to the Graveyard. He then used the effect of Thunder Dragonhawk to Special Summon a Thunder Dragon monster from his Graveyard then Special Summoned Thunder Dragon Colossus from his Extra Deck Tributing that monster. Batteryman Solar gave Kotton a Batteryman Token and some amount of plays later involving Thunder Dragons and Link Summons ended with a second Saryuja Skull Dread using the first one and 3 other monsters as Materials, a Chaos Dragon Levianeer and a Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair Summoned from Saryuja Skull Dread’s effect which prompted a concession from Reynolds.

Duel 2

Reynolds elected to go first. He started with Terraforming to add Trickstar Light Stage which added Trickstar Candina which was Normal Summoned to add another Trickstar Light Stage which was activated adding Trickstar Corobane. He Special Summoned Corobane and passed with just the two monsters on the field.

Kotton drew and passed.

Reynolds attacked with both Trickstars, leaving Kotton at 3800 LP. In Main Phase 2, he Normal Summoned Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring and used all 3 monsters to Link Summon Knightmare Unicorn. He then used its effect, discarding Orcust Knightmare to spin his own Trickstar Light Stage back to the Deck. He then banished Orcust Knightmare from the Graveyard sending Orcust Harp Horror from the Deck to the Graveyard. He banished Orcust Harp Horror from the Graveyard but Kotton chained PSY-Framegear Gamma to negate the effect and Special Summon it and PSY-Frame Driver from the Deck. In the End Phase both PSY-Frame monsters were banished.

Kotton activated Thunder Dragondark from his hand, discarding it to add another copy of Thunder Dragondark from his Deck to his hand. He banished the one in his Graveyard to Special Summon White Dragon Wyverbuster from his hand. It went to the Graveyard to Link Summon Guardragon Pisty. Reynolds activated Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, Special Summoning it, drawing 2 cards and putting one back into the Deck. He then Special Summoned Black Dragon Collapserpent banishing White Dragon Wyverbuster. Both monsters were used to Link Summon Hieiratic Link Monster. He then Tributed the Link Monster to Tribute Summon Thunder Dragondark. He used the Link Monster’s efeft in the Graveyard to Special Summon Omni Dragon Brotaur from the Deck in Defense Position. He used Brotaur’s effect, targeting Thunder Dragondark, discarding White Dragon Wyverbuster from his hand, adding Thunder Dragonduo from his Deck to his hand. Next he sent Thunder Dragondark to the Graveyard to Special Summon Thunder Dragon Colossus then he banished Guardragon Pisty and another monster to Special Summon Thunder Dragonduo from his hand. Duo attacked over Reynolds’s Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and Kotton added Thunder Dragonhawk from his Deck to his hand. In Main Phase 2, He sent Duo and Thunder Dragon Colossus to the Graveyard to Link Summon LANphorhynchus. He then sent Brotaur to the Graveyard to Link Summon Guardragon Elpy then banished 3 monsters from his Graveyard to Special Summon Chaos Dragon Levianeer from his hand. Chaos Dragon Levianeer and LANphorhynchus were sent to the Graveyard to Link Summon Triple Burst Dragon.  Guardragon Elpy’s effect let Kotton Special Summon Darkest Diabolos, Lord of the Lair from the Deck. Those monsters were used to Special Summon Saryuja Skull Dread and after a flurry of Summons, his field ended with this.

Reynolds now had to deal with a Saryuja Skull Dread and a Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy with 2 cards in hand. He Set a monster and passed.

Kotton activated Thunder Dragon, discarding it to add two more from his Deck to his hand. He then Special Summoned Black Dragon Collapserpent banishing Thunder Dragonhawk from his Graveyard. He then Special Summoned Crusadia Draco to the zone behind Saryuja Skull Dread. He used it, Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy and Black Dragon Collapserpent to Link Summon Knightmare Unicorn. Its effect tried to spin Reynolds’s Set monster but Reynolds negated Unicorn’s effect with Effect Veiler. Kotton’s Thunder Dragondark let him add Thunder Dragonroar from his Deck to his hand which he used to add Thunder Dragonduo to his hand from banished which was immediately Special Summoned. Duo attacked the face-down Orcust Cymbal Skeleton and Reynolds extended the handshake!

Jesse Kotton moves on to the Top 16!