Jordan Hodges is from South Carolina, and was representing a team called “Wolfpac!” Yes, the exclamation mark appeared to be built into their name, a surprisingly popular trend here today.

Zachary Austin is from Ohio. While he doesn’t play with a team, he did travel to the event with a group of friends he plays with, and they regularly play with Ohio’s Team Evolution.

The interesting thing about the matchup? Austin was playing a burn deck that worked off the same principals demonstrated in Cindie Uddstrom’s deck, which you can see in the interview we posted here at Metagame.com yesterday. With so many duelists playing more conservatively, running plenty of copies of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Magical Merchant, it was a strong pick. But there was a twist. Austin had created a very precise, very methodical side deck, which he would rotate into his main deck for game 2 of most, if not all, of his matches. It was a conversion side deck, and would turn his main deck into a Cyber-Stein One-Turn Kill deck.

I had to see this.

Hodges won the opening flip and begun with just a set card in his spell and trap zone. Austin set a card to each zone, and then ended his turn. Hodges summoned D. D. Survivor, attacked, but ran straight into Magic Cylinder! Austin activated Level Limit – Area B, flip summoned Sangan, and attacked the D. D. Survivor, which was now in a vulnerable defense position (it has only 200 DEF, after all). D. D. Survivor went down, Austin set a monster, and his turn was over.

A set spell or trap was Hodges’s only move, and when he passed, Austin flip summoned Stealth Bird to dish out some burn. Sangan attacked directly, but was blocked by Scapegoat. He opted to leave all four of the tokens there. He used the Stealth Bird’s effect to turn itself face down, activated Wave-Motion Cannon, and ended his turn.

Hodges had had enough of that, and activated Dark Hole. Sangan got Austin a Cyber Jar, and when Hodges passed Austin just set a monster. Hodges summoned Mystic Swordsman LV2, attacked the face down, and took out Stealth Bird.

On his turn, Austin played Heavy Storm. Tsukuyomi came down, turned the Swordsman face down, attacked it, and Austin played another Level Limit – Area B and a Wave-Motion Cannon. He set another monster.

It was Hodges’s turn to play Heavy Storm, though, and he then used Nobleman of Crossout to remove Austin’s set Cyber Jar from play. He set a pair of spell or trap cards. Austin set a monster, and on the following Turn Hodges used Exiled Force to destroy it. Tsukuyomi was sent to the graveyard.

Austin set two spell or trap cards and ended his turn. In his end phase, Hodges flipped Call of the Haunted to bring back Mystic Swordsman LV2. He drew, and then tributed the Swordsman for Mobius, destroying two copies of Secret Barrel. Austin chained them both for 2000 damage total, but ate a direct attack from Mobius. When it came to his turn he set one card and passed.

Hodges summoned Sangan and tried to attack, but Austin flipped his single face down card, and Hodges hit nothing but Scapegoat. He took down two of the Sheep, but on the following turn Austin summoned Cannon Soldier. After a bit of suspense Hodges revealed that he had no responses. With two Sheep Tokens remaining Austin tributed each for a total of 1000 damage. The Cannon Soldier itself dealt the last 500 damage, winning the first duel!

Both players chose to side deck, with Austin speedily shuffling in almost his entire side deck right before the three-minute limit.

Hodges opened again, setting one spell or trap and one monster. Austin set three cards to his back row and ended his turn. Hodges tributed Sangan for Mobius the Frost Monarch, targeting two of Austin’s cards for destruction, and he chained them. Scapegoat and Ceasefire were flipped. Mobius hit a Sheep token, and a turn later Hodges summoned D. D. Survivor. Austin flipped Torrential Tribute, destroying both the monsters and all three remaining Sheep.

Austin set a monster and a spell or trap, and ended. In his end phase, Hodges used Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the set back row card, which was Limiter Removal. He then drew, special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Exiled Force, Exiled the face down and revealed it to be Nimble Momonga. It was a strong read on Hodges’s behalf. Cyber Dragon then swung against an empty field for 2100, leaving the life point totals at 5900 to his own 7500. Austin only had three cards left in his hand, and things looked grim.

Austin had four cards after his draw. After a bit of thought, he summoned Cyber-Stein. He paid the 5000 life points for its effect, brought out Cyber Twin Dragon, attached Megamorph to it, and attacked Hodges’s Cyber Dragon. A successive attack from the Twin Dragon sealed the deal, and Austin won the match!

Incredible. Austin would just need to rook his way through two more matches in order to guarantee himself a seat at the Top 8 tables tomorrow. Brilliance!