We are in Round 2 of the Genesys YCS here in Houston, Texas. Since we are in the middle of October, we have a spooky match to look at this round! 

Jonathan Gochenour, from Virginia, won his first match with his Vampire Pumpking Deck. His opponent is Dino Chavez, from Texas, who is also using a Pumpking Deck this weekend!

Both Duelists are currently 1-0, and they want to keep their undefeated record. While their strategies are slightly different, both Duelists are ready to activate Call of the Haunted and have their opponent staring down a hoard of Zombie Monsters!

Duel 1

Chavez won the dice roll and chose to start the match. 

Chavez started his turn by Normal Summoning Hubrow, Founder of the Ominous Observers and activated its effect. Gochenour activated Rescue-ACE Impulse from his hand! He Tributed Impulse from his hand and Special Summoned Rescue-ACE Fire Attacker from his Deck. Chavez then sent Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts from his Deck to the Graveyard, and then added it back to his hand with Hubrow’s effect. Since a card was added to Chavez’s hand, Gochenour activated the effect of his Fire Attacker and drew Stare of the Snake Hair and his own Hubrow, he discarded Glow-Up Bloom with Fire Attacker’s effect. Gochenour then activated Glow-Up Bloom’s effect and added Vampire Grace from his Deck to his hand.

Chavez continued his turn by activating the effect of his Pumpking in hand, he Set Call of the Haunted from his Deck to the field, and then discarded his Pumpking. Chavez activated his newly Set Call of the Haunted and Special Summoned Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts from his Graveyard. He activated Pumpking’s effect and Chained the effect of his Hubrow on the field. Chavez Xyz Summoned Officiator of Doom Samuel with Hubrow and Pumpking, then Special Summoned Stare of the Snake Hair with Pumpking’s effect. He Set 1 card and ended his turn. 

Gochenour had Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts; Army of the Haunted; Vampire Grace; Hubrow, Founder of the Ominous Observers; and Officiating Reverie in his hand. He drew another Rescue-ACE Impulse at the start of his turn. 

Gochenour started his turn by activating the effect of Officiating Reverie; he discarded Vampire Grace to Special Summon the Reverie. Then, Gochenour activated Vampire Grace and Special Summoned it from the Graveyard. He used the effect of Vampire Grace and forced Chavez to send a Spell Card from his Deck to the Graveyard. Chavez reluctantly sent Curse of the Ancient Turtle to the Graveyard.

“Oh yeah, that’s a good one!” Gochenour said, realizing he should have declared something other than Spell Cards.

Gochenour continued his turn by Xyz Summoning Pumpking the Great Ghost King! He activated its effect, Chavez Chained Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit and destroyed Pumpking, but Gochenour was still able to add Vortex of Time from his Deck to his hand.

Gochenour continued his turn by Normal Summoning Hubrow and activated its effect, Chavez Chained his own Vortex of Time! Gochenour flipped Heads! So Chavez changed the effect and banished his Stare of the Snake Hair from Hubrow’s effect. Gochenour then activated Pumpking’s effect in his hand and pulled Call of the Haunted from his Deck before discarding Pumpking. He activated Call of the Haunted and brought back his Pumpking. Gochenour activated Pumpking’s effect and Special Summoned Great Mammoth of the Netherworld. He activated its effect and destroyed Officiator of Doom Samuel.

Seeing the swarm of Zombie Monsters across from him, Chavez conceded the first Duel!

Duel 2

Chavez started the second Duel by Normal Summoning Uni-Zombie! He activated its effect and sent Changshi the Spiridao to increase Uni-Zombie’s Level. Chavez then activated Curse of the Ancient Turtle and banished his Changshi to send Ghost Belle & Haunted Mansion from his Deck to the Graveyard. He then activated Changshi’s effect and banished the Ghost Belle to Special Summon Changshi from the banishment. Chavez activated Changshi’s effect and sent Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts from his Deck to the Graveyard. 

Chavez used Uni-Zombie and Changshi to Synchro Summon Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon Lord. He Set 2 cards and ended his turn.

Gochenour started with Forbidden Droplet, Curse of the Ancient Turtle, Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts, Army of the Haunted, and Ectoplasmic Fortification. He drew Rescue-ACE Impulse at the start of his turn.

Gochenour activated Ectoplasmic Fortification and added Hubrow, Founder of the Ominous Observers from his Deck to his hand. He Normal Summoned Hubrow and activated its effect and sent Officiating Reverie from his Deck to the Graveyard, before adding it to his hand. Gochenour activated Officiating Reverie’s effect and discarded Army of the Haunted; he Special Summoned Reverie and then Xyz Summoned Wollow, Founder of the Drudge Dragons. 

Gochenour then activated Pumpking’s effect! He Set Call of the Haunted, discarded Pumpking, and activated Call of the Haunted to bring back his Pumpking. Chavez Chained Cosmic Cyclone and targeted the Call of the Haunted. Gochenour activated Curse of the Ancient Turtle and banished his Army of the Haunted to send Glow-Up Bloom from the Deck to the Graveyard. He then banished Glow-Up Bloom and added Stare of the Snake Hair from his Deck to his hand. 

Gochenour went into his Battle Phase and sent Wollow into Red-Eyes Zombie Dragon Lord. In the Damage Step, he activated Forbidden Droplet to halve the Zombie Dragon Lord’s Attack Points and destroy it in battle. Chavez activated the effect of his Curse of the Ancient Turtle in the Graveyard and Special Summoned Stare of the Snake Hair in Defense Position, then activated its effect to negate Wollow. Moving to his Main Phase 2, Gochenour activated Wollow’s effect, even though it was negated, just to get the Xyz Material into his Graveyard. He then Xyz Summoned The Undying Legion, using his Wollow as the Xyz Material. 

Gochenour activated Stare of the Snake Hair in his hand and added Vortex of Time from his Deck to his hand before ending his turn. 

Chavez started his turn and activated D.D. Crow and banished Gochenour’s Officiating Reverie from the Graveyard. He then Normal Summoned Hubrow and activated its effect. Chavez sent Eldlich the Golden Lord from his Deck to the Graveyard and added back his Pumpking! Chavez Xyz Summoned Pumpking the Great Ghost King with his Snake Hair and Hubrow. He used its effect and added Vortex of Time to his hand. Chavez then used Pumpking’s effect and bounced The Undying Legion to Gochenour’s Extra Deck!

Knowing that Chavez was just starting his combo, Gochenour conceded! We are going to a third Duel!
 

Duel 3

Gochenour chose to start the third Duel; he started with Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, D.D. Crow, Vampire Domination, Call of the Haunted, and Ectoplasmic Fortification. He activated Ectoplasmic Fortification and added Hubrow, Founder of the Ominous Observers, from his Deck to his hand. Gochenour then Normal Summoned and activated Hubrow’s effect to send and add Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts to his hand. He then activated Pumpking’s effect and pulled Call of the Haunted onto the field and discarded Pumpking. Gochenour activated Call of the Haunted and Special Summoned Pumpking! He used Pumpking’s effect and Special Summoned Changshi the Spiridao from his Deck. Gochenour activated Changshi’s effect and sent Vampire Grace from the Deck to the Graveyard.
 

Gochenour then Xyz Summoned Officiator of Doom Samuel and activated its effect to Special Summon his Pumpking from the Graveyard. He then activated and Special Summoned Vampire Grace from his Graveyard. Gochenour Xyz Summoned Pumpking the Great Ghost King and activated its effect to add Stare of the Snake Hair, which he then activated to add Vortex of Time from his Deck to his hand. He activated Pumpking’s effect, detached Hubrow, and returned his face-up Call of the Haunted to his hand. Gochenour then Xyz Summoned The Undying Legion with his Pumpking. Then, he Set 4 cards and ended his turn.

Chavez drew to start his turn. In the Draw Phase Gochenour activated Call of the Haunted and targeted Hubrow, Chavez Chained Cosmic Cyclone to banish Call of the Haunted! Still in the Draw Phase, Gochenour activated his other Call of the Haunted! He successfully Special Summoned the Hubrow this time and used its effect to send Pumpking the King of Grave Ghosts from his Deck to the Graveyard before adding it to his hand. 

Moving into the Main Phase, Chavez activated Ectoplasmic Fortification! He added Pumpking from his Deck to his hand. Chavez then Normal Summoned Hubrow and activated its effect, Gochenour Chained Doom Samuel’s effect! Gochenour Special Summoned Changshi and negated Chavez’s Hubrow. Then, he used his own Hubrow’s effect to Xyz Summon Wollow, Founder of the Drudge Dragons. 

Chavez tried to push through and Special Summoned Vulcarrion the Rotting Phoenix; activated its effect, and returned it to the hand to Special Summon Pumpking. Then, Chavez tried to activate its effect and Gochenour Chained Vortex of Time! The coin flip was Tails! With all of his monsters banished, Chavez had no choice but to concede!

Gochenour moves on with a 2-0 record with his Vampire Pumpking Deck! Both Duelists immediately started comparing their decks and looking at the differences in their strategies.