We’ve got Aaron Furman here, talking about his life as a pro Duelist.

Aaron’s a New Jersey Duelist who’s been attending major events as far back as 2012. He’s a champion from both the Chicago UDS Invitational in 2016 and YCS Pittsburgh in 2017. He placed 5^th at the World Championship in 2017, too. “I think I’m at 17 tops total,” he said. He has so many top cut appearances, he isn’t actually sure how many there are!

I asked him what made him a pro Duelist. “Has to be playing with people who are better than you, getting the right testing circle. They can see things you don’t see all the time, and you see things they don’t. You don’t want just free wins, you want people who will beat you and teach you, because you can learn from your mistakes and reflect on your losses.” He also mentioned that playing with more active players means those players will be more familiar with a variety of in-game interactions.

He also noted that it takes practice to get used to a long event like a Regional Qualifier or a YCS. If you typically play at, say, a five round local tournament, you’ll find a longer event to be exhausting.

His usual playtesting group includes such notable Duelists as Jesse Kotton, Esala Wathuthantrige, Bogan Temnick, Nishaad Lorengo, and Max Reynolds. And of course, his local New Jersey group.

This weekend he’s playing what he described as Thunder Dragon Danger Combo. “The Deck has a very large amount of Dangers, multiple Bigfoot, Thunderbird, Ogopogo.” It aims to pull off a Guardragon combo with Starliege Seyfert and make Trishula, the Dragon of Icy Imprisonment. That allows him to banish his opponent’s cards as well as Thunder Dragonroar directly from his own Deck. Dragonroar’s effect will then let him further his combo. He’s also using Creeping Darkness, a very cool card we haven’t seen much of in years, as a way to banish his Thunders and search for a card. The end goal is to use Trishula to knock some of his opponent’s cards out, then end with Apollousa, Bow of the Goddess, Thunder Dragon Colossus, or Number 38: Hope Harbinger Dragon Titanic Galaxy to control the Duel.

He opted for the Deck because he felt it has the highest ceiling. It also plays through back row cards very well thanks to its Danger! monsters. In his Side Deck, he’s playing a Shaddoll package with Shaddoll Dragon, Shaddoll Beast, El Shaddoll Construct, and Shaddoll Fusion. That allows him to play through certain Decks like Orcust very well, sending one of the Shaddolls to the Graveyard along with Seyfert to get started.

So what’s kept him playing all this time? “I love the game, I love the people. Every year I feel like I meet new friends.”