Jake McNeely is a great duelist who has managed to stay below the radar of the general public for quite a while, and he happens to be a native of Arlington, Texas. “I live, like, fifteen minutes away,” he said with a hint of local pride. He was up against Kenny So, a duelist who you might not be familiar with, but who has attended more Shonen Jump Championships than virtually any other duelist. He’s the owner of Comic Odyssey.

 

McNeely is one of several duelists here today who’s been influenced by recent metagame trends in Japan. We’ll see how those influences pay off for him, right now.

He opened the first duel with a set card to each zone. So summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke Mystical Space Typhoon, and then attacked into McNeely’s Mystic Tomato: McNeely pulled Spirit Reaper with its effect. So activated Confiscation in his second Main Phase, and revealed his opponent’s hand: Asura Priest, Rush Recklessly, Chaos Sorcerer, and Sangan. Discarding Asura Priest would load McNeeley’s graveyard for Chaos Sorcerer, and was an obvious non-choice. Drifting between Chaos Sorcerer and Sangan for a moment, so wound up discarding the Sorcerer, setting a spell or trap, and ending his turn.

McNeely summoned Sangan and attacked Breaker, intending to use Rush Recklessly and then swing with Reaper directly: he walked into So’s Mirror Force, a risky early game play that paid off. “I’m so stupid,” muttered McNeely. He pulled Magician of Faith with Sangan’s effect, set one spell or trap, and ended. “Your turn.”

Breaker attacked him directly, So set another spell or trap card, and play was back to McNeely. He summoned Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and this time, he was able to take the Breaker down, attacking with it. So passed his turn, and Kycoo hit him again, removing So’s Breaker from the graveyard. McNeely concluded his turn.

So set a monster and passed back. McNeely summoned Asura Priest, but Torrential Tribute stopped him dead, clearing the field of his Asura Priest and Kycoo. So had cost himself his set Magician of Faith in the process, but he shook his head: it was obvious that he had to make that defensive play. McNeely ended his turn, So shook his head some more, passed back, and McNeely dropped another Kycoo.

It attacked directly, dropping So to 3200 life points. McNeely’s turn ended and So did nothing but set a monster.

McNeely summoned Banisher of the Radiance, dropping the tech card that would make or break his performance here today! So took a moment to read its effect, and when it attacked, he lost his second Magician of Faith to the removed from game area. Kycoo then attacked directly, bringing So down to 1400. Either he was drawing nothing, or he was slow rolling himself into a very deadly position.

He activated Confiscation, dropping down to 400 life points. He revealed a hand of Magician of Faith, Cyber Dragon, Heavy Storm, and Torrential Tribute, deciding to force the discard of Cyber Dragon. He then special summoned one of his own and rammed it into McNeely’s Kycoo. McNeeley passed his chance to respond, So passed back, and McNeely flipped Rush Recklessly to boost Kycoo up to 2500 ATK!

“I’ve got nothing,” said So, conceding and dropping his hand to the table to reveal two copies of Chaos Sorcerer! Banisher of the Radiance and Kycoo had done their job, locking So completely out of the game by depriving his graveyard of Light and Dark monsters. If McNeely’s deck runs like that all day long, he’ll be headed to Day 2 in no time.

Both duelists took some time to carefully side deck before the second duel began. No words were exchanged during the process, and as So drew for game 2, he shook his head a bit. He seemed unhappy with his draw, setting a card to each zone. “Go ahead.”

McNeely special summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked and destroyed So’s Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive with it, and then activated Confiscation. So showed him his hand: Nobleman of Crossout, Creature Swap, Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, and Asura Priest. It wasn’t an easy choice for McNeely. “I want to take the Sorcerer, but then there’s this,” he remarked, pointing out the Creature Swap / Asura Priest combo. He wound up discarding the Creature Swap. He set a monster and ended his turn, without setting any cards to his spell and trap zone.

So special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Asura Priest, and activated Nobleman of Crossout. It removed McNeely’s Magician of Faith from the game, and both duelists stripped all copies from their decks! Both Cyber Dragons clashed in battle, destroying each other, and Asura Priest attacked directly before bouncing back to So’s hand.

McNeely summoned Spirit Reaper and attacked, but So blocked with Scapegoat. McNeely opted not to attack a token, leaving So with four. He set a spell or trap card and passed. So summoned the Asura Priest again, attacked Spirit Reaper to press through some damage, and ended.

Reaper went to defense position and McNeely set a card to each zone, presenting a strong defense. So didn’t buy it, and summoned Asura Priest again. The Priest attacked McNeely’s set monster, Mystic Tomato, and its effect special summoned Sangan: So decided not to attack it, and the game was 3900 to 8000 in his favor.

McNeely turned Reaper to attack position and hit two Sheep tokens for his turn. So special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, removing Cyber Dragon and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive from his graveyard to do so. The Sorcerer removed McNeely’s Sangan from the game, and So set a card to each zone before finishing his turn.

Spirit Reaper was tributed for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, and McNeely targeted So’s set monster with its effect. So flipped it, revelaing it to be Sangan, and McNeeley gave a sharp intake of breath followed by a sigh as so searched his deck for Night Assailant. Zaborg attacked the Sorcerer and So flipped Mirror Force, but McNeely answered back with Royal Decree! So wasn’t finished though, and chained Book of Moon to turn Zaborg face down and stop the attack. McNeely wasn’t finished either though, and flipped Enemy Controller! He tributed his Zaborg to take control of So’s Chaos Sorcerer, and used its effect to remove itself from play. He set a spell or trap card and passed.

So activated Confiscation, costing McNeely his last in-hand card, which was Premature Burial. He passed, McNeely passed back, and So poked him with Asura Priest. McNeely drew, set a third spell or trap and ended. Asura Priest swung again, and hit directly once more. It was 7000 to McNeely’s 500.

He removed Zaborg and Mystic Tomato from his graveyard to special summon Chaos Sorcerer. He attacked with it, but So had set Night Assailant and both monsters were destroyed. He passed, So attacked with Asura Priest again, and McNeely was forced to flip it face down with Book of Moon, the card he had set two turns before. Play passed to him, and he summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, attacking the Asura Priest and wiping it off the field.

So summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Breaker face down, and attacked to destroy the Breaker. He set two back row cards, took back his Tsukuyomi, and ended. McNeely set a monster, Asura Priest came down again, and McNeely lost his set Mystic Swordsman LV2. He summoned Kycoo on the following turn and succeeded in hitting a Sheep token, but So still had one left.

He also had Graceful Charity on the next turn. He activated it, discarded Dekoichi and Torrential Tribute, and summoned Tsukuyomi again. Tsukuyomi’s effect turned Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer face down, and an attack wiped it off the board, just as Tsukuyomi had done to Breaker before it.

Play passed to McNeely yet again, and once more he had nothing to do but set a monster. Asura Priest attacked and flipped it, revealing it to be Spirit Reaper, but Snatch Steal blew it away in main phase 2. McNeely set another monster, Exiled Force, and lost it to D. D. Warrior Lady. Things looked grim.

Next turn, though, fate offered him an opportunity. He played Graceful Charity, removed monsters to special summon Chaos Sorcerer, removed So’s D. D. Warrior Lady from the game, and set a monster. He was left without a hand.

So blew away his opponent’s lone set spell or trap card with Mystical Space Typhoon. He then used Premature Burial to fetch tribute fodder for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroyed McNeely’s set monster, and attacked. There was nothing McNeely could do, and he scooped after seeing his next draw.

Kenny So redeems his terrible game 1 showing with a dominating game 2, and the match moves to a third and final duel!

Side decking was quick this time around, with just 11 minutes remaining in the match. A lot of pride is on the line, and neither duelist wanted to lose the first feature match of the day.

McNeely opened with the “no surprise” play of a card to each zone. So set a monster, took a moment to consider, and then did the same. No first turn Confiscation for anyone this time!

Mcneeley flipped his set Heavy Storm, but So chained his one set card: Scapegoat. Nobleman of Crossout was activated, removing So’s Sangan, and McNeely flip summoned Mystic Tomato. So thought he was in good shape until McNeely normal summoned Asura Priest! The Sheep went down, Tomato hit directly, and McNeely set a spell or trap card.

So special summoned Cyber Dragon and smashed it into the Tomato. McNeely seemed pleased, and he immediately went for Cyber-Stein, special summoning it to the field from his deck with Tomato’s effect. So set a monster, then a spell or trap, and passed. In the end phase of the turn, McNeely flipped Royal Decree, setting himself up for the big Stein next turn. With time ticking down to six minutes, Cyber-Stein was going to be make or break.

He gave over the set monster and got the attack position Cyber-Stein, a total liability, in return. It was McNeely’s turn to run numbers next, and time was down to just over a minute. He went for it: he special summoned Chaos Sorcerer and attacked Cyber-Stein with Cyber Twin Dragon. No Mirror Force for So: Cyber-Stein went down, he took a whack of damage, and Cyber Twin Dragon cleared out his Cyber Dragon next. Sangan attacked directly, Chaos Sorcerer attacked, and So was down to 500 life points as the buzzer rang. It was time in the round, and McNeely ended.

So summoned Asura Priest, and ran over McNeely’s Sangan to dish out 700 damage. McNeeley pulled D. D. Warrior Lady from his deck with Sangan’s effect. He played Heavy Storm in main phase two, set a back row card, and his Asura bounced back to his hand. All he had left was that one set spell or trap card, and nothing but Mirror Force, or something out of left field like Ceasefire or Just Desserts, could save him.

McNeeley flipped the Dekoichi he’d taken from So with Creature Swap, and played Last Will! That was enough for So to scoop. He had Mirror Force set, but the Last Will sealed the duel for McNeely: even if Mirror Force destroyed all of his monsters, he could still special summon one more from his deck. With So’s remaining life points so low, McNeely would have no trouble finding a monster that could attack for game.

Jake McNeely wins an incredibly close match, thanks to some borrowed Japanese tech and the incredible power of Cyber-Stein!