Trickstars versus Timelords?!  It was happening, right here in the Finals of this weekend’s Dragon Duel Championship.

Levi Baloch traveled here this weekend from Mississauga, just outside of Toronto, and at 12 years of age this is his last shot at a Dragon Duel Championship before ageing out of the division.  His opponent is Seaforth’s Spencer TenHag, an 11 year-old Duelist piloting a dedicated Timelord Deck!  Both Duelists won tournaments this weekend to qualify and both are Canadian, but only one can claim the title of YCS Niagara Dragon Duel Champion!

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Congratulations to Christopher An-Bon Ho and Matthew Vanden Heuvel our Public Event Prize Card winners!

Four different Decks are currently left in the tournament: Goukis, Paleozoic Frogs, Dark World Danger! FTK, and Thunder Dragons. In a moment, Thunder Dragons or Dark World Danger! will no longer be in the running.  Illinois’ Dirk Wagner is facing off against Britain’s Jake Quinsee, and only one of these stellar Duelists will make it to the Finals.

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Coming into the weekend there were two strong theories about Thunder Dragons: first, that they beat Sky Strikers and Trickstars. Second, that they lose to Altergeists.  The ratio of Thunder Dragons to Sky Strikers left in the tournament at this point sort of tells the tale of that match-up.  But we’ve yet to see Thunder Dragons take on Altergeists in a Feature Match this weekend.

We now have that opportunity here in the Top 16 where Shawn Rai is playing Thunder Dragons against Chandler Scott’s Altergeists. This should be informative.

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The last time we saw Jesse Kotton he was getting destroyed in our Round 1 Feature Match.  But once again, Kotton’s demonstrated that hard work pays off; after that early stumble he successfully grinded his way straight to the Top 32.  He’s running what we now know to be the strongest new mainstream Deck of the weekend, Thunder Dragons, but he’s up against Dirk Wagner with Dark World Danger! Which if you’re just joining us now, has transformed into a strategy that’s a looping Firewall Dragon FTK first, and everything else second.

It’s unpredictable and arguably fragile, but with the right cards it’s impossible to stop unless you have Droll & Lock Bird.  While we featured Warrior-heavy builds earlier in the day, piloted by Jeff Jones and Maximillian Reynolds, it’s important to note that Wagner’s build is different: it’s much heavier on actual Danger! monsters, making it a very different beast.

As a two-time World Championship competitor, Kotton’s one of the smart money bets in this tournament.  But Wagner already has a win over Kotton in this tournament: he beat Kotton in Round 6, dealing Kotton his second defeat in the Swiss Rounds. If history repeats itself this one might be academic.  Both Duelists desperately wanted to win this die roll.

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It’s finally happened.  Here in Round 10, the balance of power has shifted, and the newcomer Thunder Dragon strategy is decisively dominant, at least in terms of raw table share. Here’s what the Top 10 tables look like heading into the last round of Swiss Competition, here in Day 2 of YCS Niagara.

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Charley Futch is the 2018 Dragon Duel World Champion, and he’s here this weekend in the hunt for his first YCS win, competing with Goukis!  So far he’s 6-2, and with two Rounds of Swiss competition left in the tournament every win is critical from this point forward.

His opponent is Maximillian Reynolds, piloting the same Dark World Danger! FTK deck that we saw Jeff Jones play in our Round 3 Feature Match back on Day 1.  Reynolds has the same 6-2 record, so a loss in this Round or the next could threaten his survival in the tournament.  Now that the field has narrowed everybody left at the top tables knows what Reynolds is playing, so Charley knew exactly what he was in for.

One of Dueling’s greatest rising stars and newest Champions is about to go head-to-head with one of the most unpredictable and dangerous strategies in the tournament!  Can Charley Futch find a solution to the Cannon Soldier Firewall Dragon combo?  Or is Maximillian Reynolds on his way to the Top 32?  We were about to find out.

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The final Round of competition in Day 1 is upon us! Here’s what the lay of the land looks like at the Top 10 tables in Round 8.

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The action continues here in the final two rounds of Day 1 at YCS Niagara!  And after a convergence of Decks last round that appeared to reflect a surge in performance for Sky Strikers, the split at the Top 10 tables is once again a wide open field amongst 6-0 and 5-1 Duelists.

Here’s a look at which decks – and which Duelists – were sitting in the most coveted seats in Round 7.

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As Sky Strikers appear to gain table share in the undefeated and X-1 brackets here at YCS Niagara, John Wilkin and Christopher Barwicki are both playing against the grain: Wilkin traveled a few hours this weekend from Toronto to pilot Sky Striker Goukis, and Barwicki is running Altergeists. Both Duelists are undefeated, but for one of these competitors the streak is almost over.

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