Both of these competitors were 7-1, here in Round 8, the penultimate Swiss Round of Day 1! Each Duelist was playing an Adventure variant: Dudley was running an Adventure P.U.N.K. deck, while Bauer was on Adventure Dragon Link. If we’re lucky we might see some really cool, really long Chains in this Match. It could be a skillful competition of timely responses and insightful risk assessment, or it could be a total blowout. Let’s see what happens!

Bauer started the Match with Fateful Adventure, searching Wandering Gryphon Rider from his Deck. He discarded Water Enchantress of the Temple, banished it, and searched his deck for Rite of Aramesir, activating it for an Adventurer Token. He Chained Gryphon’s effect to Special Summon it. He Normal Summoned Black Metal Dragon and Linked it off for Striker Dragon; he  build the Chain with Striker Dragon at Chain Link 1, Metal Dragon at Chain Link 2, and Fateful Adventure at Chain Link 3. The chain resolved, and Bauer searched his deck for Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon, then Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, and finally Boot Sector Launch. He banished Striker Dragon to Special Summon Darkness Metal’s effect, revived Black Metal Dragon, and Linked them to summon Hieratic Seal of the Heavenly Spheres.

“And I will pass turn to you.” Dudley tried to blast him with Nibiru, the Primal Being, but Bauer shut it down with Hieratic Seal. Dudley moved onto his own turn.

He had a hand of Emergency Teleport, Basal Rose Shoot, Roxrose Dragon, Noh-P.U.N.K. Deer Note, and Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune.  He Special Summoned PSY-Framegear Gamma with Teleport, moved to his Battle Phase, sent Gamma to attack into the Seal, and Bauer responded with the Seal’s effect to bounce Fateful Adventure and search Rokket Tracer from his Deck. Dudledy attacked the Tracer, Bauer used its effect, and Special Summoned Rokket Recharger from his Deck.

Dudley moved to Main Phase 2, activated Basal Rose Shoot to Special Summon the Roxrose Dragonfrom his hand, then used its effect to search his Deck for Red Rose Dragon. He activated Deer Note, discarded Noh-P.U.N.K. Foxy Tune and Special Summoned Deer Note, tuning it to Roxrose to Synchro Summon Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon. He brought back Foxy Tune , then revealed Effect Veiler, Artifact Scythe, Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Water Enchantress of the Temple, and Fateful Adventure off the top of his Deck. 

“What’ve you got, five in hand?”

Bauer confirmed the count, and Dudley chose to add the Veiler to his hand. He banished WaterEnchantress of the Temple to get Rite of Aramesir, Tuned Gamma and Chaos Ruler, and Synchro Summoned Baronne de Fleur; he used its effect to destroy Rokket Recharger, then Normal Summoned Red Rose Dragon. He Linked it to Foxy Tune, riffled his Extra Deck, and settled on Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy. That let him Special Summon Bauer’s Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon! He used its effect to bring back his Red Rose Dragon, Linked it to Dharc, and Link Summoned Crystron Halqifibrax. 

He used it to Special Summon Jet Synchron, banished Gamma and Roxrose Dragon to revive Chaos Ruler, and Tuned it with Jet Synchron to unleash Hot Red Dragon Archfiend Abyss! He followed up with Rite of Aramesir to bring out an Adventurer Token and ended his turn.

Play was back to Bauer. When he entered his Standby Phase, Dudledy activated the Baronne’s effect and targeted his Artifact Scythe. “That’s… Fiiiine.” The Scythe came up, its effect went off, and Bauer heaved a sigh. “Thinking. You’ve one card in hand?” 

“One card,” Dudledy confirmed.

Bauer activated Boot Sector Launch and used it to bring back Rokket Tracer and Rokket Recharger. “That’s fine,” replied Dudley. Bauer activated Fateful Adventure, and upon resolution, Dudley used Crystron Halqifibrax to Summon T.G. Wonder Magician. He targeted Scythe, and Bauer popped his Adventure to Special Summon Rokket Synchron. He activated the effect of Wandering Gryphon Riderfrom hand, Dudley tuned Wonder Magician and Scythe for Baronne, and Bauer brought up Dracoback! He used it to try and bounce Baronne, but Dudledy countered with Hot Red’s effect on Dracoback! Bauer tried to negate Hot Red’s effect with Gryphon Rider, Bauer negated Gryphon Rider’s effect with Baronne, and Bauer had no response! He immediately scooped to go to Game 2.

A Chain full of negations brings Game 1 to a crashing halt, as Levi Dudley takes the win! Both competitors made swift use of their Side Decks, eager to get into the next Duel.

Bauer chose to play first, and started Game 2 with Quick Launch: he searched his Deck for Rokket Tracer, Summoned it, and took a moment to consider his next move. He Linked it off for Striker Dragon, got Boot Sector Launch from his Deck, and targeted Tracer with Striker to get Tracer back to his hand. He activated Boot Sector, Special Summoned the Rokket Tracer again and used its effect to target Boot Sector: “Summon Recharger.” He used both monsters to Synchro Summon Chaos Ruler, the Chaotic Magical Dragon, and its effect revealed Red Rose Dragon, Absorouter Dragon, Foolish Burial, Rite, and Ash. 

He took Red Rose Dragon, triggered Absorouter’s effect, and used it to search another Rokket Tracer. Bauer Normal Summoned Fairy Tail – Snow, used it to Link Summon I:P Masquerena and passed.

“You have five in hand?” asked Dudley. 

Bauer confirmed, and Dudley drew, holding Foolish Burial, Rite of Aramesir, Emergency Teleport, Water Enchantress of the Temple, Called by the Grave and Basal Rose Shoot. He played Rite to Special Summon an Adventurer Token, searched Fateful Adventure, activated it, and Special Summoed Water Enchantress. He activated the effect of Fateful Adventure and Bauer responded with Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit to try and destroy it on the Chain. Bauer fired back with Called by the Grave, in a big to banish and negate Ghost Ogre. But Bauer activated the effect of Snow! He banished the Ghost Ogre along with six other cards to Special Summon Snow, beating Called by the Grave in the process! Snow came up, Called by whiffed, Fateful Adventure was destroyed, and once the Chain resolved Bauer used Snow’s effect to turn Dudley’s Water Enchantress face-down!

But Dudley was nowhere near finished. He moved to his Battle Phase, prompting Bauer to use I:P Masquerena to Link Summon Knightmare Unicorn. Bauer used the Unicorn to discard Red Rose Dragonand bounce away Dudley’s Adventure Token. Dudley had Emergency Teleport, Rose Shoot, and Foolish Burial left in hand. 

He moved to Main Phase 2, used Burial to send Roxrose Dragon to the Graveyard, and Special Summoned it with Rose Shoot. That let him search his Deck for Red Rose Dragon, which he Normal Summoned, and Bauer brought back Snow again, banishing everything from his Graveyard plus Roxrose from his hand. He brought Snow back to the field, and used its effect to turn Dudley’s Roxrose face-down. 

And if Dudley didn’t have one more card left, that would’ve been it. But he played Emergency Teleport and Special Summoned Noh-P.U.N.K. Ze Amin!  He paid for its effect and searched Foxy Tune. He Link Summoned Halqifibrax, Special Summoned Effect Veiler with it, Linked for Selene, Queen of the Master Magicians, used it to bring back the Veiler, and Linked both to make Accesscode Talker! He banished two Links to destroy Knightmare Unicorn and Fairy Tail – Snow, passing turn a moment later.

Bauer drew to three cards in hand and checked his Extra Deck. Another sigh. “Thinking. Can you fan your grave?” 

Dudley obliged him, revealing his six used Spell Cards and three monsters. Bauer quickly came to a conclusion: this Match was over. “I banished the wrong stuff.” He said that he regretted banishing the Absorouter Dragon for the Snow, and both players started to make small talk about plays they could’ve made differently as they swept up their cards.

Levi Dudley powers through Matthew Bauer’s robust defenses to take a 2-0 victory, and moves on to Round 9 with a 7-1 record! One more win would put him in an excellent position to reach the Top Cut tomorrow, and he was well on his way to that goal.