After 7 rounds of Swiss and the quarterfinals, we reached the semifinal stage of the tournament.

At 13 years of age and hailing from Cornwall, Ryan Henderson was the youngest semifinalist of the four. 18-year-old Adam Kruszynski is from Essex and is part of Team Trotters, a London-based store that boasts what are arguably the UK’s best players. Both are ranked 26th and 39th in the UK respectively, so one could anticipate a close match between these two players.

With two judges manning the table, with tokens and other materials in tow, there would surely be no problems with the match. After a short briefing on side decks, both players shuffled up and the round began.

Both players were using the exact same deck sleeve and judges and players alike made comments on how this could end up with some humorous results. We got things underway with a coin flip. Ryan called heads and after a moment or two it landed heavily on tails. Adam elected to go first.

Looking at his hand, he gave a sigh and drew a card. It could very well have been substandard, but as soon as “Pot, Delinquent Duo,” was called, we knew it was one of those hands you sigh at because they’re that good.

Delinquent Duo robbed Ryan of an Enemy Controller, and he opted to discard a Book of Life from his remaining four cards.

Setting two spell or trap cards, Adam passed the turn to Ryan, likely confident in his superior card advantage this early in the game. Severely limited in his options, Ryan could only manage a Swords of Revealing Light before setting a monster.

Adam then drew and played his own Swords, revealing a defense position Sinister Serpent on Ryan’s side of the field. He then passed the turn, probably waiting for a more opportune moment to summon additional monsters when he could actually attack.

After drawing, Ryan summoned Reflect Bounder, who suddenly fell into a Bottomless Trap Hole. With his choices limited, Ryan ended the turn and hoped that Swords would provide some temporary protection for the later game.

Adam’s next turn involved him setting a monster. He was clearly frustrated at his lack of spell and trap removal, with Swords protecting Ryan’s Snake for two turns so far. During the end phase, Ryan used a Dust Tornado to hit one of Adam’s face-down spell or traps, destroying Swords of Revealing Light on Ryan’s side. Adam’s Swords was still intact.

Ryan’s next turn proved rather uneventful, he merely drew and ended, with Delinquent Duo making mischief of his available options. The next couple of turns looked to be more exciting, as both players would soon be able to start attacking once Adam’s Swords of Revealing Light was destroyed.

The onslaught began with Adam summoning Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and flip summoning Spirit Reaper. There were two routes that Adam could pursue in this situation. He could either attack with the Spirit Reaper, killing Sinister Serpent and then having Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer attack directly in order to remove the pesky Snake; or, Kycoo could attack first, followed by the Reaper, with its effect taking yet another card from Ryan.

He decided to go for even more advantage and declared an attack with Kycoo on the mighty Sinister figure. Spirit Reaper then attempted a direct attack.

Ryan’s response was to use his face-down trap, Call of the Haunted. Which monster would he bring back from the graveyard? The only monster he could—Sinister Serpent. As strange a play as that may seem, his choices were lacking, and losing yet another card at this point in the game would leave Adam with a near-unbeatable advantage.

Spirit Reaper then attacked into Sinister Serpent with its own effect, protecting it from being destroyed. Sinister Serpent was returned during the standby phase and Snatch Steal was played, targeting Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, but Adam had a response by chaining Book of Moon from his spell and trap area.

A Tribe-Infecting Virus was then called upon on Ryan’s side with priority called for its effect. Sinister Serpent was discarded and Zombies were named. Spirit Reaper bit the dust and the face-down Kycoo was attacked

Ryan managed to get field control seemingly from nowhere, though, and Adam was not looking to take this lying down. He quickly hit back with a Smashing Ground, which destroyed Tribe-Infecting Virus, before he set a spell or trap and passed.

Another uneventful turn followed as Ryan took back Sinister Serpent, set a couple of cards and finished with a face-down monster and two face-down spells or traps.

It was now Adam’s turn to use Call of the Haunted, targeting Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, who went the same way as Reflect Bounder—into a Bottomless Trap Hole.

It looked like that Adam was missing monsters in his hand and all he could do was continue the theme of removing monsters from play, as Nobleman of Crossout was played on Sinister Serpent. His turn ended with another set spell or trap.

It turned out to be a Dust Tornado, which was chained to Ryan’s Premature Burial that tried to revive Tribe-Infecting Virus. With nothing else to play, that was it for Ryan, and Adam appeared to have gotten two free turns in a row. Capitalizing, he summoned the second Kycoo in his deck and attacked. Finally a successful hit directly on life points!

Ryan instantly went into his graveyard ready to take out monsters. It was at this point that Adam sportingly told Ryan that he shouldn’t go straight into his graveyard, because he could easily forget to use the non-mandatory effect, which could have a huge outcome on the game. Nevertheless, Kycoo’s effect was used to remove Tribe-Infecting Virus. Ryan entered top-decking mode and set his freshly drawn Heavy Storm, trying to use it as an attack deterrent. It failed its purpose, as Adam’s next turn involved more attacking with his 1800 ATK Spellcaster.

The set Heavy Storm was played next turn and a Spirit Reaper was set on Ryan’s side. Only time could tell whether it would prove to be as useful a stall tactic as Swords of Revealing Light.

Adam’s Kycoo attacked the face-down monster and ran into a nasty surprise when it turned out to be Spirit Reaper. His momentum was halted somewhat, but Adam now looked to be in excellent shape for the first game.

I met young Ryan the day before, and his associates had mentioned his great skill in lucky topdecking. I witnessed this during a Saturday side event where a topdecked Book of Life won Ryan a match against me, and again for a second time during the seventh round of Swiss, where I was knocked out of Top 8 contention by said young duelist.

With only two more rounds in the whole day left, I would witness Ryan’s topdecking skills a third time. His next card was Graceful Charity. It was quickly played with Magician of Faith and Pyramid Turtle chosen as the discards. The card he kept?

Vampire Lord.

Spirit Reaper was sacrificed just as quickly and Vampire Lord looked eager to score the first life point loss to Adam since Delinquent Duo at the beginning of the game.

Kycoo fell, and trap was declared for the Zombie’s effect. Adam lost Sakuretsu Armor from his deck. After asking for the life point totals, Adam played Premature Burial and used Snatch Steal on the single card Ryan had left in either hand or field.

With 3800 combined ATK power from Vampire Lord and Kycoo, Adam asked, “Game?”

Ryan simply replied, “Game.”

One of the most courteous players I had seen all weekend, Adam asked if Ryan would like to use his side deck. He obliged and chose to exchange 1 card. I asked Adam if he would be side decking and he simply “lacked effort”.

You may recall at the start of this report there was a short mention of both players’ deck sleeves being the same color. This did end up causing some confusion as we were briefly unsure whom each deck belonged to and a Vampire Lord may have been misplaced in the wrong deck. Even when the next game started we were not 100% certain, Adam stated, “I think this is mine” after he looked at his hand.

He wasn’t looking at the same cards for long, as Ryan was now in the driver’s seat, going first and showing how hurtful a turn 1 Delinquent Duo is when scoring a Kycoo and a Waboku.

Ryan wanted to play defensively and set a monster and a spell or trap. He decided to keep his advantage rather than press for an even better position. Adam had the perfect response with just four cards in hand after drawing. Nobleman of Crossout removed Spirit Reaper from the game and Blade Knight attacked Ryan directly, before Adam set a spell or trap.

Ryan summoned Tribe-Infecting Virus for the second game in a row, called priority, and discarded Vampire Lord for its cost. All Warriors were now infected and in the graveyard, or more specifically, just Adam’s Blade Knight.

A spell or trap was then set on Ryan’s side before Tribe-Infecting Virus declared a direct attack, but Adam used Call of the Haunted on Blade Knight.

Pondering about whether or not it was worthwhile, Ryan refrained from going toe to toe with the equal ATK stats of the Light Warrior. The second main phase came and went as Ryan also decided against discarding again to get rid of Blade Knight.

Adam’s field consisted of a Call of the Haunted attached to Blade Knight with one card in his hand. Ryan was not that much better off with Tribe-Infecting Virus, two face-down spell or traps and just one card in hand.

In my opinion, this was a poor play by Ryan. If Adam had been holding back a Heavy Storm or topdecked one, the game would instantly swing in his favor both in terms of resource and card advantage. With Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity still to be played by Adam, this wasn’t all too unlikely.

Heavy Storm did not make its appearance, but Adam still tried to wrestle the game back. Blade Knight attacked Tribe-Infecting Virus, and was met with Book of Moon. It was soon followed by another face-down companion monster.

It felt like déjà vu as Nobleman of Crossout hit another Spirit Reaper—Adam’s other monster. Tribe then took care of the face-down Blade Knight.

A top-decking battle then ensued. Traps and monsters were set in quick succession, culminating in Adam’s Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning making its first impression in the match by Adam not calling priority when asked, and then was wiped out along with the rest of the field by Torrential Tribute

Ryan summoned Pyramid Turtle to an empty field, and its proposed attack was wiped out in flames by Adam’s Ring of Destruction.

A couple of uneventful turns followed with more monster and spell and trap setting. Both players had a face-down monster when Ryan flipped up his Magician of Faith. Its effect allowed him to retrieve Nobleman of Crossout from the graveyard and remove another Spirit Reaper from the game.

With the pace lightning-quick and becoming harder to follow, Ryan still had enough composure to attack for 300 with the Magician. It managed to get some more licks in the turn after as more spells and traps were set and no monsters were on Adam’s side of the field.

At this point in the game Adam had three face-down spell or traps to Ryan’s two. He’d finally gotten another monster in his own Magician of Faith and quickly set the Saint.

Ryan then played Swords of Revealing Light in his turn, flipping Adam’s Magician and getting back Delinquent Duo. Ryan then turned his Magician of Faith sideways to defense position.

Adam drew into a Blade Knight, which would then be a flip-negating 2000 ATK monster . . . if only Swords of Revealing Light didn’t prevent it from attacking. Being more cautious, Adam set the Blade Knight. Surely there would be no more Noblemans in this game.

After consecutive passes with little change in the game state, we had some action, which came in the form of Lightning Vortex. Ryan played the “Water-down Raigeki, discarding another Magician of Faith, then promptly removed it and a Dark monster for another Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Priority was used this time, and Blade Knight was removed from the game, as was the Soldier when Bottomless Trap Hole stopped any further chaos. Still in his first main phase, Ryan summoned a D. D. Warrior Lady, much to the anguish of Adam, who cried out, “Nooooo!”  As soon as it attacked, Sakuretsu Armour was flipped up, destroying the attacking monster.

Adam pressed the attack with a nicely timed Pot of Greed that netted him a Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer as well as a Mystical Space Typhoon. The Typhoon was used, Kycoo had a failed attack, and another spell or trap was set.

A Premature Burial by Ryan on the following turn brought back Vampire Lord, who tried to attack Kycoo. Mirror Force took it down, at least until Ryan’s next standby phase, but would he have enough life points to survive until then?

Adam’s next card could never be as good as Pot of Greed, but it wasn’t half bad! Graceful Charity led to the concession by Ryan. There was a massive advantage towards Adam at the end of the game. Enraged Battle Ox was in his hand, and when he showed it to his opponent, the handshake was delivered and concession accepted.

Adam Kruszynski wins the match and advances to the finals.