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Ryan Hayakawa is just one win away from making another Shonen Jump Top 8 showing. Making the cut today will give him an opportunity to break his own record of two Shonen Jump wins and claim a third. Standing in his way is a Shonen Jump Pomona Top 8 player, Keanson Ye, and with both players at 7-1, this was practically an elimination match.

Neither player spoke, other than to point out their side and fusion decks as they shuffled up to begin the match. Ryan won the opening die roll and opted to go first. He started off with a set card to each zone and passed over to Keanson who special summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked. Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive hit the dirt, but not before fetching Ryan a card to replace it. Keanson set a card to each zone, but lost his Sakuretsu Armor in the end phase to Mystical Space Typhoon.

Ryan pondered his next move and opted to summon his own Cyber Dragon followed by Tsukuyomi to flip the opposing Dragon down. His dragon took out Keanson’s, and Tsukuyomi took out his set Magical Merchant fetching Graceful Charity for Keanson. Ryan passed and Keanson took his Cyber Dragon with Snatch Steal. The stolen Dragon attacked, and Keanson set a monster before ending. Ryan took it right back though and flipped it down and up with Tsukuyomi to keep it. Tsukuyomi attacked Keanson’s face down Dekoichi], the Dragon hit directly and Ryan set a spell or trap before passing. Keanson opted to use his Graceful Charity at this point discarding two copies of Return from the Different Dimension. He special summoned his second Cyber Dragon and the two dragons traded blows. In main phase two he set a card to each zone and passed over to Ryan who played his second Cyber Dragon and attacked into Mirror Force! Ryan set a monster and passed back to Keanson, who flipped D. D. Warrior Lady and attacked.

He removed Ryan’s set Spirit Reaper from play and then set a spell or trap, ending with no monsters. Ryan played it conservatively and only set a monster before passing. Keanson checked his graveyard before activating Premature Burial on one of his Cyber Dragons. It attacked Ryan’s facedown Tsukuyomi and was flipped down separating it from Premature Burial. Keanson set a monster and passed back to Ryan. Ryan summoned Breaker, prompting Keanson to hit it with Bottomless Trap Hole. Visibly disappointed for the first time in the game, Ryan set a spell or trap and passed. Keanson flipped his dragon back up and attacked directly. Ryan decided to take the hit and Keanson passed with no backfield.

Ryan drew and then decided to use his Call of the Haunted to bring up a Cyber Dragon. He tributed it for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch destroying Keanson’s set monster and attacking Cyber Dragon! Keanson fired right back, though, by bringing back Treeborn Frog and then summoning Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy Ryan’s set Return. He then activated Metamorphosis to turn the Frog into Thousand-Eyes Restrict and absorbed Ryan’s Zaborg. The Restrict hit directly and Keanson passed back to Ryan who special summoned his final Cyber Dragon along with a Chaos Sorcerer removing Thousand-Eyes and attacking Breaker with the Dragon. Keanson drew and set one card to each zone. Ryan checked his graveyard to try and figure out what could still be in play. He chanced an attack with Cyber Dragon revealing Magician of Faith. Keanson thought long and hard about which spell he would recover, and he eventually decided on Snatch Steal. The Sorcerer hit directly and dropped Keanson to 3000 to Ryan’s 2400.

Keanson drew and pondered his next move. He had a set Call of the Haunted, and he was looking for a way to end the game. Snatch Steal took the Sorcerer and he attacked the facedown monster revealing Magical Merchant. The Merchant flopped a Return for Ryan, who now had two cards in hand. Keanson summoned his own Chaos Sorcerer and removed Ryan’s Cyber Dragon. Ryan drew and set two out of his three remaining cards. One was revealed to be Return from the Different Dimension as he was forced to activate it to stop the potentially game ending attacks from Keanson’s Sorcerers on the next turn. Keanson set a monster and passed back to Ryan who gained another 1000 from Snatch Steal before activating Heavy Storm. He asked for a response, and Keanson had none. Ryan then chained with his third Return from the Different Dimension. His Sorcerer was taken out by the game rules, and he tributed Spirit Reaper for Jinzo.

If Keanson had a face down Reaper, the game was still on and Keanson would have a huge lead—if not, the game was over and Ryan would only need one more win to make the Top 8. Keanson flipped Magician of Faith, and the game was over.

The players side decked in silence, and soon it was time to begin game 2. Keanson opted to go first, and he did so opening with a face up Sangan and a face down spell or trap. Ryan responded with Mystical Space Typhoon on the facedown Royal Decree and a D.D. Warrior Lady to take Sangan out of play. He set a spell or trap and passed back to Keanson who destroyed the set Torrential Tribute with his own Typhoon and then summoned Spirit Reaper. He attacked discarding Chaos Sorcerer from Ryan’s hand before setting a spell or trap and ending. Ryan set two cards in his spell and trap zone and a monster before ending. Keanson removed the monster with Nobleman of Crossout revealing it to be Morphing Jar! Reaper hit again but Ryan didn’t have a hand, so Keanson simply set another spell or trap before passing. Ryan set a monster, and Keanson tributed his Reaper for a Cyber Dragon. Cyber Dragon mauled Ryan’s facedown Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and he passed with Cyber Dragon and two spells or traps to Ryan’s two spells or traps.

Ryan special summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked, but met with failure thanks to Mirror Force. Still in combat he activated Call of the Haunted on the dragon to try again, this time succeeding in sending both monsters to the graveyard. He set a monster in main phase two and passed to Keanson who activated Graceful Charity discarding Confiscation and Book of Moon. He set another spell or trap and passed Ryan who flipped Heavy Storm! Keanson lost Call of the Haunted and Last Will. Ryan flipped his Reaper and attacked directly to take Keanson’s Heavy Storm away! He set a spell or trap and passed to Keanson who drew and set a monster. It was then Ryan’s turn to have some Graceful Charity and he discarded Metamorphosis and Night Assailant to bring back Dekoichi. Spirit Reaper was tributed in favor of Zaborg which destroyed Keanson’s set Mystic Tomato. Ryan attacked directly and Keanson set a monster before passing. Ryan attacked it, revealing a Spirit Reaper. In main phase 2, he set a monster and passed back to Keanson, who set another monster.

Ryan flipped his set Magician of Faith to get back Graceful Charity, which he immediately activated. “I’ve still got two Noblemans . . .” He discarded Confiscation and Magical Merchant finally getting the Crossout necessary to remove Keanson’s set Cyber-Stein from the game! He couldn’t press thanks to Spirit Reaper, so he set a monster and passed to Keanson who did likewise. Ryan flipped his Dekoichi to draw a card then set a card to each zone. Zaborg swung into Keanson’s new face down monster, which was also Spirit Reaper.

Keanson drew, and then checked Ryan’s graveyard for Torrential Tribute before removing a Light monster and a Dark monster for Chaos Sorcerer. Sorcerer removed Zaborg and Keanson passed with no backfield. Ryan set a monster and shifted Dekoichi to defense mode before passing back to Keanson who then checked Ryan’s graveyard for Mirror Force. Sorcerer removed Dekoichi and Keanson passed. Ryan flipped another Magician of Faith to fetch back Graceful Charity once again, and he activated it. He discarded Scapegoat and Tsukuyomi and flipped Dekoichi to draw another card. He then tributed Magician of Faith to Enemy Controller to take control of Chaos Sorcerer. Sorcerer removed a Spirit Reaper from play and then Ryan flipped Return from the Different Dimension bringing back his Warrior Lady and Dekoichi. D. D. Warrior Lady came back to remove the remaining Reaper and then both Dekoichis attacked directly. In the damage step of the first attack, Ryan activated Limiter Removal to win the game.