Mario Cordova is a veteran judge from Southern California, so he’s more used to watching Feature Matches than Dueling in them. But this weekend, he’s taking a break from judging to play in his first YCS. He’d made it to the Top 32 with his Quickdraw Dandywarrior Deck. His opponent this round was Bobby Chambers, a Blackwing Duelist. That could mean trouble for Cordova, because often, the Quickdraw / Blackwing matchup just comes down to the Blackwing Duelist using Blackwing – Bora the Spear to pierce through Defense Position monsters for easy wins. But Cordova wasn’t going to throw in the towel just yet. Read more…

Oscar Renderos is a long-time competitor who has competed in 5 YCS tournaments. He hadn’t topped before, but his persistence paid off today! He traveled here from Arizona and made it to his first Top 32 finish! But his opponent, Sang Bui, is looking to make sure that Renderos won’t make it any further in the tournament by beating him in an X-Saber mirror-match. Read more…

Both of these competitors are 8-1 so far in this tournament, and with 1 Swiss Round left, they’re extremely likely to make the Top 32 cut. Pete Navarro is running Volcanic Quickdraw Dandywarrior, while Bobby Chambers is running Blackwings. Chambers is a former YCS Champion, having won in Boston in 2006. For Navarro, a win here this weekend would be his first. Read more…

Mark Garcia and Juan Antillan both won their Feature Matches yesterday and currently hold 8-1 records. A win here will guarantee one of them a spot in the Top 32, while a loss would still leave them with good odds of making it. Antillian is running X-Sabers, while Garcia is piloting his Blackwing Deck.

X-Sabers and Blackwings are two of the strongest and most popular Decks here this weekend, so this is a good example of the kinds of strategies we’re seeing a lot today. Read more…

Get ready for our first Scrap mirror match!

One of the big stories of Day 1 is the rise of some successful Scrap Decks! Two Scrap Duelists finished with 7-1 records yesterday, and today they were paired off in Round 9! Both competitors are playing Scraps, but their Decks are vastly different. While Jerry Tran runs a Gravekeeper version with Gravekeeper’s Spy and Gravekeeper’s Descendant, Huang plays a mish-mosh of tech and easy-to-Tribute monsters like Battle Fader, The Tricky, Treeborn Frog, and Sasuke Samurai #2. Get ready! Read more…

Both Edgar Lopez and Michael Balan are currently 6-2 in the tournament. Lopez lost a Round 8 Feature Match yesterday against X-Sabers after time was called. Will he be able to reverse his luck from yesterday and triumph in his Round 9 Feature Match over Balan’s Blackwings today? Read more…

Edgar Lopez and Juan Antillan are both California Duelists are that currently 6-1 in the tournament. Antillan is running a standard X-Saber Deck, while Lopez is using a brand new Scrap Deck. Will traditional consistency prevail over rising creativity? Read more…

Austin Kulman was the 2006 U.S. National Champion, and has made the top cut of multiple YCS tournaments in his Dueling career. His opponent is Derek Freeman, who just started playing competitively this year, and is now 6-1 here in San Jose. With this being the last Swiss Round of Day 1, and 2 more Rounds tomorrow, a win here would be a strong push towards a Top 32 qualification. Both Duelists are playing X-Sabers. Read more…

Chris Bowling is 6-1 here this evening with the Deck we profiled earlier today: a Skill Drain Dimensional Fissure Deck featuring Guardian Eatos. His opponent is Timothy Saunders, one of many Blackwing Duelists in the running for Day 2. Read more…

Jakob Sandberg is from Toronto, Canada, but moved to Capistrano Beach in Southern California just a year ago. He’s undefeated here today. But his opponent is California native Pete Navarro! Navarro is running a Volcanic Shell variant of Quickdraw Dandywarrior that’s won every single Match he’s played so far in this tournament. Read more…