Did you miss any of the coverage from the Remote Duel YCS? Find it all right here, in our handy Table of Contents!

The North America Remote Duel YCS demonstrated the incredible range of strategies that are possible in the new Advanced Format, just in time for the North America World Championship Qualifier in 2 weeks! Now that it’s over, check out the Top 4 Decks from the YCS Main Event…

A field of hundreds has all come down to just 4 remaining Duelists. Check out the Matches slated for the Top 4!

Sky Strikers got a bit of a boost with the new Forbidden & Limited List moving Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage! to 2-per-Deck, and it bog buffed again with the release of Sky Striker Ace – Azalea in Battles of Legend: Monstrous Revenge. The Deck’s back in competition this weekend, and Dylan Fricker’s managed to take Raye, Roze, and the rest of the squad all the way to the Top 16.

His opponent this Round is Enzo Velasco, piloting a Kashtira Deck that’s adapted for the new era of Limited Arise-Heart. With one Deck powered up for the current Advanced Format and the other notably nerfed, it might be interesting to see which one moves on to the Top 8.

The spread of Decks in the Top 32 is wild this weekend, here at the North America Remote Duel YCS! While 2023 standbys like Kashtira, Branded, Superheavy, and Labrynth are all still represented, Bystial Dragon Link is back in a big way, Fur Hire engines are fueling Spright strategies, and Vanquish Soul is still in action, right here in the Top 32.

Erkam Yilmaz is in fact the last surviving Vanquish Soul Duelist in the tournament, and this round he’ll go up against Joseph Dietrich, a veteran Duelist piloting Melffy Spright. While Vanquish Soul’s done extremely well in recent Regional Qualifiers, we could see the Deck disappear from this tournament entirely just minutes from now, if it falls to the much more familiar Spright build. Which strategy will move on to the Top 16? We’re gonna find out, because Day 2 is kicking off and it’s time to Duel!

Hani Jawhari started his 6 year-long Dueling career with a Top 4 finish at YCS Dallas in 2017, and since then he’s scored countless YCS Top Cut appearances, culminating in a win last year at YCS Pasadena! Not one to rest on his laurels, Jawhari proceeded to top YCS San Jose, YCS Santiago, and YCS Philadelphia, and now he’s back vying for another Day 2 here at the North America Remote Duel YCS. 

His opponent is BC’s Yuhang Li, who veteran Duel fans may remember from his Top Cut finish at YCS Toronto in 2013. Today, Li’s piloting Floowandereeze against Jawhari’s Purrely Deck, looking to leverage responsive plays in the face of Jawhari’s protect-the-castle playstyle. Let’s see which one comes out on top.

Two awesome rogue decks are facing off at Table 7 this Round! Christopher Lin is piloting Plunder Patroll, and his opponent Liam Mac Oscair is running Mathmech @Ignister. Neither of these Decks are unheard of in a tournament of this level, but it’s rare to see them performing with such success, let alone paired off against one another. Which strategy would reign supreme: Plunder Patroll or Cyberse?! We were about to find out!

One of the cool things about Remote Duel events is how they open up competition to competitors from all around the world. Ths Round, we’ll see the UK’s Jake Quinsee take his Vanquish Soul Deck against Germany’s Felix Pfeiffer, piloting Live Twin Runick Spright. The Vanquish Soul theme hit the ground running soon after its release in Wild Survivors, but this is the first time we’re seeing it in YCS action, and now we’ll get to see what a competitor like Quinsee can do with it.

Vladis Baranovskis has been a Top Cut Duelist in YCS main events for nearly a decade, including Top Cut finishes last year at YCS Dortmund, YCS Pasadena, YCS Minneapolis, and the 2022 Europe Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Championship! He’s here at the North America Remote Duel YCS this weekend piloting an innovated Melffy Spright Deck packing Gishki monsters, revolving around the powerful effects of Evigishki Neremanas!

Four competitors remain in this weekend’s YCS Main Event: 2 Duelists playing Floowandereeze, and 2 playing Tearlaments. Both of our Top 4 tables are mirror matches, and in this Match we’ll see YCS Las Vegas winner Dominic Couch take on Cezar Victor Lopez Coscia, whose competitive accolades go all the way back to his Top Cut finish with Spellbooks at YCS Sao Paulo in 2014.

Each competitor in this Match is Main Decking their own tech choices: while Couch has triple Enemy Controller, triple Effect Veiler, and triple Infinite Impermanence, Lopez is on Called by the Grave, Harpie’s Feather Duster, double Book of Moon, double Harpie’s Feather Storm, and 3 copies of Evenly Matched. Would those cards make a difference in these Duels?

We were about to find out.