It’s Tuesday, June 17 2008, and we are just four days away from the American National Championships!

American National Championships This Weekend

Hundreds of duelists will make the trek to Columbus, Ohio this week, as the dueling world prepares for one of the year’s biggest showdowns. Competitors in attendance will participate in three days of dueling, including iPod tournaments, the first of the 2008/2009 season’s Regional qualifiers, team dueling, and the main event—the National Championships!

Surprising deck choices continue to arrive in my inbox, but we aren’t giving any hints until the day of the tournament. The most I can say is that some of the game’s biggest teams are bringing new, never-before-seen decks, while some of the year’s biggest duelists will be packing updated versions of their signature strategies. New tech will be running wild, and I’ll be live onsite Saturday and Sunday with Jerome McHale to bring you all the news as it emerges.  Gladiator Beasts are the deck to beat, with Dark Armed Dragon a close second.  Monarchs made a big resurgence at recent Shonen Jumps, so they'll be a big factor too.  The wild card in everyone's metagame read is Lightsworn - after a huge showing at UK Nationals, but a relatively disappointing finish in Saint Louis, no one knows how much of an impact Judgment Dragon and Co. will have at the American Championships.  With so many rogue decks in the mix it's anybody's game, and the field is a tricky one to predict..

Saturday, June 28 aspiring competitors will have their final chance to qualify for Sunday’s National Championship. You can find a complete list of events, including qualifying opportunities, over on Professional Event Service’s website. If you believe you already qualified, be sure to double check that you did over at the Invited Players List. Hey, apparently I qualified on rankings again: you learn something new every day.

I’ll be live onsite for both days of competition, bringing you feature matches, deck profiles, and more, straight from the tournament floor. With all of Canada’s best duelists qualified, this is going to be yet another classic Championship tournament.

Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia In July

With two National Championships and the European Championships still pending, the metagame at Philadelphia is up in the air. One factor is already being anticipated though: the emergence of the new Light of Destruction: Special Edition promo card, Kuraz the Light Monarch. Kuraz won’t be legal for local or premier tournament play until July 1, meaning that the newest Monarch will make its debut in Philly. Will it live up to expectations? We’ll find out, as Metagame brings you live coverage all weekend long. For more info and to start planning your trip, just hit up the official event listing.

Each package of Light of Destruction: Special Edition comes with three Light of Destruction boosters, as well as one of two exclusive promos: Soul Rope and Kuraz the Light Monarch. I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to both, and can’t wait to pick mine up!

This Week On Metagame.com

Today, Jerome McHale tries his hand at one of the more entertaining decks from Light of Destruction: Ancient Gears. Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem is one of three fusion monsters from the latest set, and while it hasn’t garnered as much competitive attention as Gladiator Beast Gyzarus or Destiny End Dragoon, it can still dish out a game-winning thrashing all on its own. Jerome’s going to show you how in Almost There.

Tualatin is our current Card of the Day, and Curtis Schultz is going to discuss the finer points of this somewhat-confusing Fairy on Wednesday. When can you summon it, when does its effect activate, and what exactly needs to happen for it to be played? Curtis is going to answer those questions and more, and since this might see tournament play sometime in the future, it’s a definite must-read.

I’ll follow up on my Eradicator Epidemic Virus article with a look at a really cool deck in The Apotheosis—a Destiny End Dragoon build that packs a Virus control engine. Are these two tastes that taste great together, or a hideous mÈlange of conflicting card choices? Find out when I try my hand at fixing up this ambitious strategy on Thursday.

Not heading to Nationals? Is Philly too far? If you’re not a wayfaring duelist on the go, you might find that this span of the year is always a bit slower than usual. The gap between the 2008 and 2009 dueling seasons can be a rough few weeks for hardcore duel fans, but it’s Bryan Camareno to the rescue this Friday! Finding himself in your boat, he’s going to discuss what he does to get through the "off season," including a wide range of options to keep you amused until your next Regional.

Saturday, Matt Peddle looks at the deck played at Saint Louis by his teammates. Lightsworn were massively under-represented at that event, but three Overdose duelists carried Lazaro Bellido’s Lightsworn build into the fray, and Dale Bellido emerged victorious at the end of Day 1. Matt’s going to show you what makes this high-impact deck so good, and his insight is going to be valuable to any Lightsworn duelist moving forward.

Finally, Ryan Murphy joins us Sunday with another deck for the Forgotten Format—an awesome One-Turn KO based around Makyura the Destructor. This deck is firmly rooted in the Traditional format, but Ryan’s mathematical approach to the construction process is going to be a very cool exercise for any Advanced format player. Frankly, this is the first deck Ryan’s built in a while that I’m going to just straight net-deck. It looks like an absolute blast to play!

That’s it for this week, but don’t forget to join us on Saturday for extended coverage from the American National Championships! It’s the one we’ve been waiting for, so don’t miss it!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com