The “Best Four Days in Gaming” are here, and we are live from one of the biggest, best Shonen Jump Championships of the year. Hundreds of duelists have flooded the TCG Hall here at North America’s greatest gaming convention, Gen Con Indy!

The final Shonen Jump Championship of the format will prove that this environment is still packed with plenty of surprises. The one card that keeps being mentioned this morning is Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest, and a surprising number of big-name competitors are running Beast builds in an effort to outplay Machines and Monarchs. Tech picks like Des Koala and even Neo-Spacian Dark Panther (an awesome counter to Card Trooper) unite under the monkey’s big green banner, and the result is an impressive strategy that could make waves here today.

Other strategies like Winged Rhynos, Gravekeeper’s, and a number of burn variants have appeared as well, mingling with Monarchs, Machines, and Destiny Heroes to create what should be a very diverse metagame. The dominant decks will likely remain so, but I’m looking forward to seeing which rogue strategies make it to Day 2. There will definitely be a couple.

The star competitor list? Far too long to actually write here. About a dozen Shonen Jump Champions like John Jensen and Anthony Alvarado have shown up to compete. National Champions Austin Kulman, Max Suffridge, and Belgium’s Guy Israel are all making surprise appearances. Beyond that, at least thirty notable Top 8’ers have traveled here to make a bid for Shonen Jump gold. It’s going to be an awesome, highly competitive day.

And what better day for it? As of this weekend, Crush Card Virus has been retired, and the latest, greatest prize card for Shonen Jump Champions will be introduced! Gold Sarcophagus is making its North American debut here today, and anyone who manages to capture a copy here today will walk off with one of the most valuable, powerful cards in the history of the game. More on that later.