Today’s been an interesting day for a lot of reasons. There hasn’t been as much outright feature-worthy stuff going on as I would have hoped, primarily due to the low number of Last Chance Regionals being run — thus far the third one hasn’t been filled yet, though it’s chugging along and almost has enough competitors to get started.
Sadly, the bulk of the interesting bits of information I’ve learned today are things I can’t reveal until tomorrow. I’ll give you some hints and random points of interest to tide you over though!
Yannick Dubeau is here, in contention for tomorrow’s tournament with an updated version of the deck that made him famous at Shonen Jump Montreal — Cyberdarks. With the experience of that huge tournament under his belt Dubeau could be a good bet for tomorrow, as the damage-dealing force of Cyberdark Horn and Cyberdark Edge are a surprisingly good answer to the defense position antics of the Destiny Heroes. What makes his deck for tomorrow different from the one he ran at Montreal? I’m not saying. I will say that his new build is very, very cool, and is on my to-watch list for Nats.
The Six Samurai have had a presence here today, especially in unsanctioned side events, and they’ve been doing some damage. As I write this I’m watching Dale Bellido fend off an out-and-out assault from a well-constructed Samurai build, and the game looks like it could go either way. I just watched The Six Samurai — Yaichi destroy a Crush Card Virus. No one is ready for the Samurai, and I have a hunch that might lead to them seeing some topnotch play tomorrow.
Speaking of Dale Bellido and Crush Card Virus, “The Boss” himself has three in his possession at the moment, courtesy of his own creative efforts and the rest of the Superfriends. Who’ll be playing them tomorrow?! Who knows! Rumor has it that Dale has no idea who he’ll loan them out to, and there’s no shortage of prospective duelists currently playtesting with proxies, hoping for the best.
In other news, Jeff Jones showed up this morning bright and early to . . . Well, I’m still unclear on what he showed up to do, exactly. But he’s here. As an American resident he can’t compete in the Canadian National Championships, but I’d imagine the next 36 hours will be filled with mischief and regrettable, non-monetary wagers. When I asked Jones if he was “here to cause trouble” he immediately responded with a concise and decisive “yes.” I can’t imagine what this might mean for the event. Frankly, I’m sure I’m happier not knowing.
Getting back to trends I’ve noticed, several competitors are attempting to create new variants on the Demise OTK strategy, as most players have written it off as a dead deck. Variants run the gamut from Kuriboh-based builds to Sky Scourges, but no one seems particularly confident in their Nouveau Demise concepts. Still, we might see a big blue surprise tomorrow, and I’ll be on the lookout.
Finally, completely unrelated to the actual dueling going on, you really need to check out Andrew Hayton’s Ontario Health Card. It’s Andrew Hayton at his best, looking like a total derf, and he’s currently eager to show it to anyone who doesn’t run away when he approaches them. How he convinced a registered health official to let him wear a toque on his government-certified ID card, I have no idea. If you’ve seen Andrew Hayton lately, the incredible difference in appearance is remarkable. I’ll see what we can do about getting you guys a comparison shot later in the weekend.
That’s it for now. The third and final Last Chance Regional of the day is about to commence, and one of Toronto’s favorites is running something other than Destiny Heroes! Hurrah!