Garcia won the roll and started with Graceful Charity, discarding a Chaos Sorcerer and a Nobleman of Crossout. He set a monster with authority, then set a spell or trap card before ending his turn.

Then Ortiz did the same! He activated Graceful Charity, discarded Chaos Sorcerer, then dropped a second, setting the pace of the duel! He played Mystical Space Typhoon, but hit Scapegoat, which Garcia chained! Ortiz summoned D. D. Assailant, used Nobleman of Crossout to remove Garcia’s set Magician of Faith from the game, and both duelists lost all copies: two each. D. D. Assailant hit a Sheep token, Osmon set a spell or trap, and play passed to Garcia.

Garcia summoned Mystic Tomato, played Smashing Ground to destroy D. D. Assailant, and the Tomato attacked: Call of the Haunted brought back D. D. Assailant! Garcia still attacked, ramming the Assailant and bringing Spirit Reaper to the field, a rather odd play. He then tried to special summon Chaos Sorcerer, but had no Light monster to remove. He set a spell or trap and passed, a rather poor turn.

D. D. Assailant attacked the Reaper and Garcia had no response: he lost 1400 life points. Ortiz set a monster, Garcia turned his Reaper to defense on his turn, summoned D. D. Warrior Lady, and attacked Ortiz’s Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Ortiz got a card and Garcia passed.

Ortiz summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, but Torrential Tribute cleared the field. Ortiz had the answer though, activating Last Will to pull Spirit Reaper from his deck to the field! He attacked it directly, and Garcia was forced to discard Chaos Sorcerer! Ortiz passed with an open field. Garcia special summoned Cyber Dragon, retrieved D. D. Warrior Lady with Premature Burial, and attacked the Reaper to remove it from play. Cyber Dragon attacked directly and Garcia passed. Ortiz set a card to each zone and passed.

Breaker the Magical Warrior destroyed his set Nobleman of Crossout, and Cyber Dragon attacked his set monster: Mystic Swordsman LV2. Breaker then attacked directly, and play passed to Ortiz.

He drew, set one monster, and passed. Garcia tributed Breaker the Magical Warrior for Airknight Parshath, and attacked Ortiz’s set monster, D. D. Warrior Lady, with Airknight Parshath: the Lady removed herself and Airknight from the game. Garcia drew for Airknight’s effect and Cyber Dragon attacked directly.

Ortiz set a card to each zone and ended his turn. Cyber Dragon attacked him, destroying Asura Priest, and Garcia set a monster. Ortiz set a back row card, Cyber Dragon attacked him again, and this time he activated Sakuretsu Armor. Garcia passed, Ortiz special summoned Cyber Dragon, but attacked into Newdoria! Both monsters were destroyed. Ortiz passed.

Garcia activated Reinforcement of the Army to seek out Don Zaloog – Ortiz had only 600 life points remaining to Garcia’s 5200. Garcia attacked with the Zaloog and Ortiz’s one remaining set spell or trap was of no help: Zaloog hit the finishing blow and Garcia captured the first duel!

With 28 minutes remaining in the round, teammates of the two competing duelists came to offer moral support: Robert Pace and other members of Team Unseen for Garcia, and Ryan Hayakawa and Roberto Martinez for Ortiz.

Ortiz began the duel with a fast set of one card to each zone. Garcia summoned Spirit Reaper, played Nobleman of Crossout to remove Treeborn Frog from play, and attacked directly, stripping Osmon of Brain Control. These were two big hits to Ortiz’s infrastructure. He set a back row card and passed.

Exiled Force came down for Ortiz, allowing him to get rid of the Reaper. He set a back row card, but ate an attack next turn from Newdoria. Garcia set a second back row card, but lost it to Mystical Space Typhoon: It was another Typhoon! Ortiz summoned Asura Priest, attacked Newdoria, and both were destroyed. Each duelist had one set card on the field.

Garcia activated his, flipping Premature Burial to bring back Newdoria: it attacked directly. He set a monster and it was 6700 to 5300 with Garcia leading.

Ortiz special summoned Cyber Dragon, removed Mystic Swordsman LV2 with Nobleman of Crossout, and attacked Newdoria: again, both monsters were destroyed. Ortiz set a monster and ended. He had one set card in each zone and no hand.

Garcia summoned Cyber-Stein, and paid 5000 life points, lowering himself to 800 life points! He brought out Cyber End Dragon, but Ortiz had Bottomless Trap Hole! Garcia ended.

Ortiz set his last in hand card to his back row, and flipped Morphing Jar! Each player drew a new hand of five cards, and Ortiz summoned D. D. Warrior Lady. With Garcia’s life points so low and no on-field cards save the Stein, the duel was over in a flash!

“You better win unless you want to walk home,” said Robert Pace to Garcia. He didn’t seem to be joking. Garcia had advantage of every sort in that last duel, and threw it all away on a risky Gamble. If he lost this third and final duel, he’d no doubt regret it for the rest of his dueling career.

…Or at least for one very long walk.

He opened the third duel with nothing but a set monster, and Ortiz tore into him with Mirage Dragon: it hit Mystic Tomato, and Garcia pulled Sangan. Ortiz set Mirror Force, his only spell or trap card in his hand, and ended his turn.

Garcia played Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy the Mirror Force.

“Cyber-Stein?” asked Ortiz. Garcia shook his head. He summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, ran over the Dragon, and then attacked with Sangan.

Ortiz set a monster, Spirit Reaper, but he lost it to Nobleman of Crossout the next turn. Garcia summoned Spirit Reaper, attacked with all three of his monsters, and forced Ortiz to discard Mobius the Frost Monarch. He ended his turn, and Ortiz drew and shuffled his hand: Heavy Storm, Chaos Sorcerer, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Not much help there.

He summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and rammed it into Breaker. He removed Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Mirage Dragon for Chaos Sorcerer, removed Breaker from play, and set the Storm as a bluff.

Garcia played Smashing Ground to destroy Sorcerer, turned Reaper to defense, and attacked with Sangan. It was 8000 to 1700.

Ortiz set another back row card, and Garcia attacked with Sangan again: Ortiz had to activate Sakuretsu Armor, so Sangan went to the graveyard, fetching D. D. Warrior Lady along the way. Ortiz set a card to each zone and passed play to Ortiz.

He set another monster and ended, with one card in his hand. Garcia flip summoned the set D. D. Warrior Lady, and attacked into Ortiz’s set Magician of Faith: he had no spells in his graveyard to return, as his one spell, Heavy Storm, was still acting as a bluff. Garcia finished his turn.

Ortiz passed back: he had only 1700 life points remaining and his Heavy Storm on field. The D. D. Warrior Lady and Reaper would finish him this turn if Garcia attacked with them. He didn’t, but instead summoned a SECOND Reaper to attack with! The Reaper hit, then D. D. Warrior Lady, and it was all over!

Mark Garcia beats out Osmon Ortiz, locking himself into the Top 8 tomorrow and offing one of Comic Odyssey’s two shots at Day 2!