But in order to do so, he’ll have to go through Joshua Daigle. From Lafayette, Louisiana, he’s part of Team Monger, a dueling group from Kentucky. “I learned to play Yu-Gi-Oh! in Kentucky, but I moved to Louisiana and we’d formed a really good team” he explained. The people with me in Louisiana are doing really well too.” Both duelists were quite polite, introducing themselves to one another and rolling off to see who’d go first.

Daigle won the roll and opened with a set to each zone. Jensen had an all-monster hand. He special summoned Cyber Dragon, tributed it for Granmarg the Rock Monarch, destroyed Daigle’s set Spirit Reaper, and swung for 2400 damage. He ended his turn with no set back row cards.

Smashing Ground wrecked Granmarg, and Spirit Reaper attacked Jensen directly, discarding Magician of Faith. No loss there, since he had no spells! Daigle ended his turn.

Another Cyber Dragon came down from Jensen’s hand, attacking the attack position Spirit Reaper to pound home some damage. He set a monster, and next turn Daigle removed it from play with Nobleman of Crossout to reveal Old Vindictive Magician. Snatch Steal took the Cyber Dragon, Daigle set a spell or trap card, and attacked with both the Reaper and  Cyber Dragon. Reaper forced the discard of Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, and play passed to Jensen.

He just kept drawing monsters. He set Spirit Reaper, which was flipped next turn by an attack from the Dragon. Daigle’s Reaper went to defense, he set a monster, an dpassed. Jensen set a monster, Daigle flip summoned Night Assailant to destroy Spirit Reaper, and Daigle tributed the Assailant for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Zaborg destroyed the face down monster, Treeborn Frog, with its effect, and Cyber Dragon, Zaborg, and Reaper all nailed the Atlanta champion directly. He discarded his last card, Sangan, after being his with Reaper.

Ouch.

He drew, and again topdecked a monster. He brought back his Treeborn in defense, set his freshly drawn monster, and ended. Daigle used Metamorphosis to turn his Zaborg into Dark Balter the Terrible, summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Balter attacked the face down monster: Spirit Reaper!

“Gimme Heavy Storm, gimme Heavy Storm . . .” Jensen had resorted to chanting for the cards he needed. He drew, claimed his 1000 life points for Snatch Steal, and it was 4500 to 3800 with Jensen leading.

No Heavy. He topdecked ANOTHER monster, but tributed Treeborn for it: Zaborg. Zaborg destroyed Balter and attacked Breaker the Magical Warrior. Jensen ended.

Daigle used Smashing Ground to destroy Zaborg. He then set a monster, and concluded his turn unable to destroy Jensen’s Spirit Reaper. Jensen drew, again drawing a monster, and set it: he had Reaper and Treeborn in defense position, and had still not drawn a single spell or trap.

Magician of Faith flipped on Daigle’s side of the field, getting him Smashing Ground. Smashing took out Jensen’s Spirit Reaper, Magician of Faith attacked Jensen’s Treeborn Frog, and Cyber Dragon attacked into Jensen’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. He drew Royal Decree, his first non-monster, but Reaper discarded the totally unhelpful topdeck moments later anyways.

Still fighting, Jensen brought back his Treeborn Frog. “Come on, Mobius, I know you’re in the deck somewhere . . . just chillin’.” He passed, unable to do anything.

Daigle tributed Magician of Faith for Jinzo. Cyber Dragon hit the Frog, Jinzo struck for 2400, and Spirit Reaper discarded Jensen’s one card in hand: Soul Exchange. He took back his Frog, set a card to his back row (finally!), and passed. Daigle announced his attacks the following turn and it was enough for Jensen to scoop. His set spell or trap card? Nobleman of Crossout.

After a bit of side decking and jesting that he should just side out all of his monsters, Jensen began the second duel. He set a spell or trap card and passed, with no monsters.

Daigle summoned Spirit Reaper, and Jensen flipped Torrential Tribute. Daigle set a spell or trap card, but that didn’t stop Jensen from attacking with a Reaper of his own! It hit directly, and Daigle was forced to discard Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Jensen set a back row card and ended. Daigle summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke Deck Devastation Virus, and hit Jensen’s Spirit Reaper.

Jensen had an all-monster hand, but drew into Graceful Charity! He continued to draw nothing but monsters, but one of those was Sillva, Warlord of Dark World! He had Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World to match it, and both came to play.

But Daigle had Bottomless Trap Hole to shut both monsters down, removing both from the game! Jensen was forced to set a monster and turn his Reaper to defense.

Smashing Ground and Nobleman of Crossout wiped Jensen off the table, and Breaker swung directly. Daigle set a back row card, replacing the Nobleman of Crossout he had flipped, and passed.

Jensen special summoned Cyber Dragon, but Daigle flipped Solemn Judgment. He dropped to 3850, and Jensen looked briefly stunned. Still, he went on to remove a Light and a Dark monster for Chaos Sorcerer. He then summoned Twin-Headed Behemoth and attacked, Chaos Sorcerer taking down Breaker and attacking directly with Behemoth. That Solemn was clearly a mistake.

Smashing Ground destroyed the Sorcerer, and Daigle set a spell or trap, but Jensen still nailed him with the Behemoth again next turn. Jensen proceeded to set a monster, and ended.

Daigle summoned Magician of Faith, and activated Metamorphosis to special summon Thousand-Eyes Restrict. It took the Behemoth and attacked the face down monster, but Jensen’s set had been Spirit Reaper! The attack bounced off harmlessly, and next turn Jensen tributed his Reaper for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Zaborg’s effect destroyed Thousand-Eyes and it was all over with one final attack.

Both duelists again took the opportunity to side deck. Daigle kissed his deck off the cut for luck, and began the final duel.

The for-luck kiss appeared to have worked. Daigle opened with Graceful Charity, discarding Solemn Judgment and Spirit Reaper. He set a card to each zone and passed. Jensen removed his set monster, also Spirit Reaper, with Nobleman of Crossout, and then set a card to each zone himself.

Daigle brought down Cyber Dragon, attacked, and hit Magician of Faith: Jensen took back Nobleman of Crossout. Daigle summoned a third Spirit Reaper to get around the Nobleman, and ended.

Premature Burial brought back Jensen’s Magician of Faith, and he tributed it for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Zaborg’s effect destroyed Spirit Reaper, and a successive attack destroyed Daigle’s Cyber Dragon! Jensen ended.

Breaker the Magical Warrior broke Jensen’s set Call of the Haunted, and Smashing Ground destroyed his Zaborg. Breaker attacked, dropping Jensen to 5600, and Daigle passed play to his opponent.

Jensen played Brain Control, taking control of Breaker so he could tribute it for Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World. Goldd attacked directly, Jensen set a spell or trap, and ended. Daigle set a card to each zone, and in Jensen’s draw phase he flipped Threatening Roar. It didn’t phase Jensen, who played Nobleman of Crossout to keep Daigle off the field entirely. It cleared out Magician of Faith, and both removed copies from their decks. He set a monster, Daigle drew and set a spell or trap, and next turn he took a direct attack from Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World. It was 4800 to 3100, with Jensen leading!

Daigle removed Cyber Dragon and Spirit Reaper from play to special summon Chaos Sorcerer, removing Jensen’s Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World from play. Daigle then tributed it for Zaborg, targeting Jensen’s set Reaper, but Jensen flipped Torrential Tribute to shut down offense for the turn! Daigle passed, Jensen set a spell or trap before passing back, and Daigle passed again.

Jensen’s hand was Cyber Dragon, Goldd, and Deck Devastation Virus: three wholly useless cards. He ended his turn, Daigle also passed, and Jensen passed back, now armed with Heavy Storm. Daigle set a second spell or trap card, ended, and Jenssen flipped his set Confiscation!

Daigle revealed Mirror Force, Cyber Dragon, Jinzo, and Snatch Steal, a hand that was just as mismatched to the open-field situation as Jensen’s. Jensen checked his opponent’s graveyard before choosing to discard Snatch Steal. He then activated Heavy Storm, but Daigle flipped Solemn Judgment to keep his one back row card on the table! He went down to 1550 life points. Jensen set a card to his spell and trap zone and passed.

Daigle summoned Exiled Force and attacked for 1000. He set a second spell or trap and ended. Jensen special summoned Cyber Dragon, and Daigle was forced to Torrential Tribute, leaving himself with just one spell or trap and Jensen without having used his normal summon. Jensen didn’t though: he just set a spell or trap card. Daigle did the same, passed, and Jensen passed back.

Call of the Haunted brought up Chaos Sorcerer for Daigle, and he tributed it for Jinzo. Jinzo attacked directly, and Jensen was down to just 400 life points! Daigle passed.

Jensen was now on the defensive, and set a monster. Daigle brought out another Chaos Sorcerer, and he normal summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Jinzo attacked Jensen’s set monster: he was looking for game, but Spirit Reaper shut him down, at least for this turn. Sorcerer removed the Reaper in main phase 2, and Daigle ended.

Jensen drew and topdecked Graceful Charity! He drew a sharp intake of breath in disbelief, and then special summoned Cyber Dragon. He activated Graceful Charity, discarding Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva to special summon both! All he needed to do was get rid of the Jinzo, but that would free up the possibility of Daigle’s last set spell or trap being Mirror Force.

Jensen normal summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior to break the set spell or trap: it was indeed Mirror Force! With his last monster zone he special summoned Chaos Sorcerer to remove Jinzo from the field. That freed up the remaining four monsters to attack, and that was enough to end the duel and bring Daigle down!

“You’d better make it to the Top 8 so I have a chance to,” said Daigle, offering him the handshake with a smile. Jensen was practically hyperventilating. He couldn’t believe that he had topdecked the Graceful Charity.

“You know everyone on the Internet’s gonna call you a lucksack, right?”

Jensen laughed. “Yeah, they’re gonna be like, ‘Topdecking noob!’” He grinned.

The reigning Shonen Jump Champion of Atlanta moves on with a 4-0 record, just five wins away from a repeat Day 2 showing!