It all comes down to this! Dirk Wagner from Illinois is Dueling against Gabriel Vargas from Toronto in the Finals of YCS Niagara Falls! There are no Sky Strikers or Thunder Dragons in sight, as this Final Match is between Wagner’s Danger! Dark World Deck and Vargas’s Gouki Deck. Who will prevail? We’re about to find out. It’s time to Duel!
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.
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.
Michael Wisniewski from Buffalo, New York is Dueling against Andres Torres Reyes from Columbia in this Top 8 Feature Match! Wisniewski is using the 1 Paleozoic Frog Deck left in the tournament, teched out with 3 copies of Trap Trick. Torres, on the other hand, is using Thunder Dragons. Both of these Duelists’ Decks were improved by the recent release of Soul Fusion, but only one of them can advance to the Top 4.
It’s time to Duel!
England’s Jake Quinsee and Michigan’s Chuong Nguyen both made it into the Top 32 with completely different strategies. Quinsee is one of Europe’s strongest Duelists, and now he’s taking his talents to Canada to show off his Thunder Dragon Deck in the Top 32 of YCS Niagara Falls! Quinsee’s opponent, Chuong Nguyen, is using a Danger! SPYRAL Deck! Only one of these Duelists can advance to the Top 16 of YCS Niagara Falls. We’re about to find out who it’ll be.
It’s time to Duel!
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.
Alejandro Garcia Moreno from Mexico City is a back-to-back World Championship competitor having earned his way there on Worlds Qualifying Points in 2017 and 2018. He’s also a 2-time UDS Invitational winner and a YCS Champion. It’s no overstatement to say that he is one of the greatest Duelists in Mexico. Now he’s here in Niagara Falls, looking for his second YCS win. Garcia is using a Sky Striker Deck updated with Dinowrestler Pankratops, while his opponent, Luciano Greco from Toronto, Canada, is Dueling with a Trickstar Sky Striker Deck. Greco isn’t quite as accomplished as Garcia in the Dueling world, but he has been on a winning streak and is fresh off of a Top 16 finish from the 200th YCS in Columbus, Ohio last month. Will Greco’s recent Dueling momentum build into another Top Cut finish this weekend, or will Garcia defeat him in this Round 10 Feature Match to put an end to it. Both Duelists currently have a 6-2-1 record, so they’ll need a win here to have a shot at making the Top 32 cut. It’s time to Duel!
Aaron Furman is no stranger to the competitive tournament scene. He competed in the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship in 2017 and won one Ultimate Duelist Series Invitational and one Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series event. Now he’s back at YCS Niagara Falls, and this time he’s using his Thunder Dragon Deck made possible by Soul Fusion! Furman is looking for another YCS win, but now Texas’s Mark Myatt is Dueling against him in this Round 9 Feature Match! Myatt is using a Sky Striker Deck this weekend. Sky Strikers generally have a tough time against Thunder Dragons due to the effect of Thunder Dragon Colossus. Will Myatt be able to overcome this difficult matchup? We’re about to find out. It’s time to Duel!
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.
Yang Wu from Youngstown, Ohio is Dueling against Christopher Ho from Toronto, Canada in our Round 8 Feature Match! Both Duelists are currently 5-2 in the tournament, which means that a victory here will allow one of these Duelists to make it to Day 2, while a loss will eliminate the other one. Wu is using a Paleozoic Frog Deck, while Ho is using a Thunder Dragon Deck made possible by Soul Fusion. It’s time to Duel in this final Swiss Round of Day 1!
