We’re only halfway into the first day of YCS Richmond – there’s a ton of Dueling left to go! Here in Round 5 we have two New York Duelists squaring off in this Feature Match. First up is Steven Grillo from Albany, playing Sinful Spoils Rescue-ACE. This strategy’s seen as the Deck to beat right now, due to its combo potential, resilience, and heavy interaction.

His opponent is Devan Rodriguez, from Buffalo, playing Adventure Horus Phantom Knights! This Deck uses Horus cards as easy ways to discard Phantom Knights, and The Zombie Vampire offers even more Graveyard filling power.

Rodriguez won the dice roll and chose to play first, opening with The Phantom Knights of Silent Boots, Wandering Gryphon Rider, King’s Sarcophagus, Forbidden Droplet, and Imsety, Glory of Horus. He used Imsety’s effect, discarding it and Silent Boots, drawing out Grillo’s Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring to negate the effect. Rodriguez played the King’s Sarcophagus he already had in hand, sending Droplet to the Graveyard to send Hapi, Guidance of Horus to the Graveyard. He Special Summoned Hapi and Imsety, and used them to Xyz Summon The Zombie Vampire!

The Vampire’s effect let Rodriguez put four cards from each player’s Deck into the Graveyard, and he Special Summoned a Silent Boots from among them. He’d also sent a Water Enchantress of the Temple, which he used to search for Rite of Aramesir. He played it to Special Summon an Adventurer Token and put Fateful Adventure on the field. He Summoned Wandering Gryphon Rider and got back Dracoback, the Rideable Dragon to his hand with Fateful’s effect. Then he used its other effect to add another Water Enchantress to his hand and send Dracoback to the Graveyard. Dracoback’s effect equipped it to the Adventurer Token.

Rodriguez Special Summoned Water Enchantress from his hand, Linking it with Silent Boots for Cherubini, Ebon Angel of the Burning Abyss. That let him send The Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak to the Graveyard. Then he Linked Cherubini and The Zombie Vampire for The Phantom Knights of Rusty Bardiche! It Set Phantom Knights’ Fog Blade and sent The Phantom Knights of Ragged Gloves to the Graveyard. Rodriguez used the effect of Ancient Cloak, banishing it from the Graveyard to get The Phantom Knights of Stained Greaves to his hand.

He Special Summoned The Phantom Knights of Torn Scales from the Graveyard, then Special Summoned Stained Greaves, then banished Silent Boots from his Graveyard to get another Fog Blade. Rodriguez stacked Greaves and Scales for The Phantom Knights of Break Sword, and he destroyed it with Rusty Bardiche’s effect. That let him Special Summon Greaves and Scales again with their Levels increased. He banished Ragged Gloves from the Graveyard to send Phantom Knights’ Wing. He used Greaves and Scales to Link Summon I:P Masquerena to end his turn.

Grillo played WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils in the Draw Phase, adding Diabellstar the Black Witch to his hand. He Normal Summoned Rescue-ACE Air Lifter, adding RESCUE! to his hand. He played it to Special Summon a Rescue-ACE Hydrant that had been put in his Graveyard by The Zombie Vampire. Hydrant’s effect let him get Rescue-ACE Turbulence to his hand. Grillo activated Super Polymerization! He discarded Original Sinful Spoils – Snake-Eye to fuse I:P Masquerena and Rusty Bardiche into Mudragon of the Swamp! He tried using Mudragon’s effect, and Rodriguez negated and destroyed it with Wandering Gryphon Rider, shuffling the Rider back into his Deck.

Grillo banished RESCUE! and a Rescue-ACE Impulse from his Graveyard to Special Summon Turbulence, and Rodriguez hit it with Fog Blade. Grillo then used Hydrant to play Linkuriboh, and used Linkuriboh and Air Lifter to Link Summon S:P Little Knight. Grillo used the effect of WANTED in the Graveyard to draw a new card. He banished Hydrant to Special Summon Rescue-ACE Preventer, then used EMERGENCY!. He Special Summoned a new Turbulence, Tributing the old one. Rodriguez flipped his second Fog Blade, hitting Turbulence once again.

Diabellstar the Black Witch was Grillo’s next Summon, sending Preventer to the Graveyard. Preventer’s effect Special Summoned Impulse. He used Impulse and Little Knight to Link Summon Dharc the Dark Charmer, Gloomy, and used Dharc’s effect to steal The Zombie Vampire from Rodriguez’s Graveyard. He used Turbulence and Diabellstar to Link Summon Security Dragon. Then he used Security and Dharc to Link Summon Accesscode Talker! It gained 2000 ATK, and Grillo destroyed King’s Sarcophagus and the Adventurer Token with its effect. He attacked with The Zombie Vampire, and Rodriguez used Fog Blade’s effect in the Graveyard to Special Summon Break Sword to defend. Accesscode attacked directly.

Rodriguez drew… Nibiru, the Primal Being! Just a moment too late! He used Water Enchantress’s effect in the Graveyard, adding Rite of Aramesir to his hand. He played it to get a new Adventurer Token. Then he used Fateful Adventure to add Wandering Gryphon Rider to his hand, discarding Nibiru. He Special Summoned Wandering Gryphon Rider, then used Fog Blade from the Graveyard to Special Summon Rusty Bardiche. That let him Special Summon Torn Scales as well.

Wing’s effect in the Graveyard let Rodriguez Special Summon Stained Greaves. He used Scales and Greaves to play Break Sword, which he destroyed with Rusty Bardiche. Break Sword brought back Scales and Greaves to the field as Level 4’s. He used both to play Raider’s Knight, then used its effect to Rank-Up into Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon! He used its effect, shooting it up to an insane 12,400 ATK! He attacked Accesscode Talker with Arc Rebellion, cleaving through its puny 4300 ATK, and wiped out Grillo’s Life Points in one shot!

Grillo started the second Duel with WANTED: Seeker of Sinful Spoils to get Diabellstar the Black Witch. He Special Summoned Diabellstar by sending CONTAIN! to the graveyard, and Diabellstar put Original Sinful Spoils – Snake-Eye on the field. Grillo flipped it, sending Diabellstar to the Graveyard to Special Summon Rescue-ACE Hydrant. That got him Rescue-ACE Air Lifter, and he Normal Summoned it get EMERGENCY! to his hand.

He used EMERGENCY! to Special Summon Rescue-ACE Turbulence, Tributing Air Lifter. With Turbulence’s effect, he Set EXTINGUISH!, RESCUE!, ALERT!, and EMERGENCY! in his back row. He used Hydrant to Link Summon Linkuriboh, then banished Hydrant to Special Summon Rescue-ACE Preventer. He used Linkuriboh and Preventer to Link Summon Security Dragon, and Preventer Special Summoned Hydrant. He tributed Hydrant to return Linkuriboh to play, then used both Link Monsters to Link Summon Decode Talker Heatsoul. It let Grillo draw a card at the cost of 1000 Life Points.

Finally, Rodriguez decided to activate the Nibiru, the Primal Being he’d been holding! Grillo lost his monsters and got a 5300/3000 Primal Being Token in Attack Position. Grillo used the effect of WANTED in his Graveyard to recycle Snake-Eye and draw a card. He used the effect of EMERGENCY! in his Graveyard to Set CONTAIN!.

Rodriguez had a hand of Dracoback, Torn Scales, Ancient Cloak, and Imsety. He drew Forbidden Droplet. He started with Imsety, discarding Ancient Cloak. Grillo Chained RESCUE! to Special Summon Hydrant, getting the bonus effects of his Rescue-ACE spells and traps online. Imsety resolved, searching for King’s Sarcophagus and drawing Stained Greaves. He played King’s Sarcophagus, using it to discard Torn Scales and send Hapi, Guidance of Horus to the Graveyard. He used King’s Sarcophagus again, discarding Dracoback to send a second Imsety. He Special Summoned Hapi and Imsety, using them to Xyz Summon The Zombie Vampire. Rodriguez activated its effect, and Grillo responded with Rescue-ACE Impulse, then EXTINGUISH! to destroy The Zombie Vampire. Impulse Special Summoned Rescue-ACE Fire Engine, and The Zombie Vampire’s effect filled the Graveyard, allowing Rodriguez to Special Summon Torn Scales from among the sent cards.

Rodriguez activated Stained Greaves’s effect from his hand to Special Summon it, and Fire Engine’s effect put Air Lifter on the field. Air Lifter added Rescue-ACE HQ to Grillo’s hand. Rodriguez continued, using Scales and Greaves to play Break Sword. He tried to destroy it with its own effect and Grillo’s Set CONTAIN!, but Grillo chained CONTAIN! to negate Break Sword and keep it from getting its Graveyard effect. Then he Chained to that with EMERGENCY! to Special Summon Preventer, Tributing Air Lifter.

Ancient Cloak let Rodriguez search Silent Boots. He tried to then Special Summon Torn Scales, but Grillo had Bystial Druiswurm to banish it! Rodriguez simply used the Fog Blade he’d sent to the Graveyard with The Zombie Vampire, to Special Summon another Torn Scales. He used both Phantom Knights to Xyz Summon another Break Sword. Grillo tried flipping it face-down with Preventer, and Rodriguez countered with Forbidden Droplet, sending King’s Sarcophagus to the Graveyard to negate Preventer! Break Sword destroyed itself alongside ALERT!, and Grillo Chained his card to get Turbulence in hand.

The destroyed Break Sword’s effect brought Torn Scales and Stained Greaves back again as Level 4 monsters. He used them to Xyz Summon Raider’s Knight, and ranked it up into Arc Rebellion Xyz Dragon! Its effect put it up to an insane 15,800 ATK! Grillo had Special Summoned all his monsters in Defense Position, but Rodriguez had given Grillo the Primal Being Token in Attack Position for this exact reason. He attacked the token with Arc Rebellion and obliterated Grillo’s Life Points!

Devan Rodriguez is victorious with his Adventure Horus Phantom Knight Deck!