It’s Wednesday, November 19, 2008, and we are smack-dab in the middle of two big Shonen Jump Championships!

Ryan Spicer Wins Shonen Jump Championship Chicago

Until this weekend! Spicer took an inauspicious tenth place finish in Day 1 of Chicago, sneaking into Day 2 with a 7-2 record. But once he was unleashed upon the Top 16 he plowed through Travis Doan, Victor Nolen, Kyle Bowling, and finally Cesar Gonzalez to clinch his victory. Wielding a TeleDAD variant packed with Destiny Hero – Plasma and Scapegoat, Spicer was one of four Day 2 competitors to take a new variant of TeleDAD to the top tables.

Other decks of note included Erin Diaz’s Twilight build and Travis Jerovetz’s Thunder King Beatdown, plus some awesome rogue decks like Nicholas Alessi’s Empty Jar deck in Day 1. Day 1 feature matches this time around were especially strong, with plenty of rogue deck success on display, so if you didn’t catch the coverage live, be sure to read it now!

You’re going to want to read it quickly, too, because the next Shonen Jump Championship is just two days away! Shonen Jump action returns to Atlanta this weekend, and we’ll see Crossroads of Chaos in premier tournament action for the first time! Plaguespreader Zombie, Tempest Magician, Gladiator Beast Retiari, and more are all fair game this weekend, and the only thing that’s guaranteed is that the North American metagame is about to be rocked to its core.

There’s still time to plan your trip to Atlanta, so get started by checking out the official event listing over on Upper Deck’s Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG site. Then, hit up Premier Tournament Organizer Unity Entertainment’s Atlanta page for more details on the event schedule, prizes, and PTO policies.

Can’t make it? Be sure to join us here all weekend long for coverag,e live from the tournament floor! There’s going to be tons of new decks and new tech debuting at this event, so don’t miss it. See you there!

Just head over to the Round 1 page and sign up for their forums, and you can vote for your favorite game’s champion. The battle lasts all month, and now’s a great chance for you to show your yugi-pride.

We really can’t throw this one to Charizard, people! Get over there and vote!

Preliminary prize payouts are based on just an 80 player attendance, but they already include an iPod Touch and tons of packs for runners-up, plus a brand-new laptop for the winner. The more duelists who show up for this awesome event, the better the prizes will be.

You can pre-register now to guarantee your spot in the tournament. Just click over to YugiohIreland’s event listing to do so. Pre-registration info probably helps Tournament Organizers determine what prizes to offer, so the faster you sign up, the better the potential for topnotch prize support. If you’re in Ireland and have any ability to make it to this tournament, you really should. This is a huge achievement for the country’s player community, and hopefully it’ll be a big success!  We'll have more details as this tournament draws closer.

Yesterday, Jerome McHale brought us another deck that we’ll probably see this weekend in Atlanta: Zombies! We’re likely to witness the success and failure of a number of Zombie variants this weekend. Powered by Plaguespreader Zombie, the archetype has the potential to climb to the top of the competitive heap. Not sure why? Check out Jerome’s article for a long list of reasons, plus a gauntlet-ready decklist for your testing needs.

Curtis Schultz joins us today with the continuation of his event-specific chain series, this time revisiting the damage step to go even deeper into the dark bowels of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG’s most challenging game mechanics. This time he’s detailing flip effects, monsters that have triggered abilities when they’re destroyed in battle and sent to the graveyard, and how you can respond to special summons in this tricky part of the game. If you’re a competitive player (or if you just care how the game works), this is a must read.

Friday we welcome our newest staff writer to the ranks as he pens one more article before moving to his all-new column. Michael Kohanim’s back, and since you guys asked for it, he’s delivering what you wanted: a complete decklist for Gladiator Beasts. For weeks now, Michael has discussed the future of this archetype, and now he’s putting it straight into your hands. Building a tournament-level Gladiator deck has never been easier.

On Saturday Matt Peddle looks back to Shonen Jump Charlotte for one more innovative decklist: Henry Su’s Diamond Dude Synchro deck. Su was a fan favorite after Day 1. His unique build was exceedingly promising, but a good run of bad luck took him down when he faced Andrew Fredella. Matt’s going to show you why his deck was so good and why it deserves attention even though it didn’t make it past the Top 16.

Finally, Ryan Murphy is back with another ready-to-build strategy in Building on a Budget this Sunday. This is the cheapest deck yet for Ryan’s newest column, and it takes competitive play in a totally new direction: specifically, right to Mausoleum of the Emperor!

That’s it for this week, but remember to join us this Saturday and Sunday to see all the details of Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta. We’ll bring you live coverage from the floor of the Cobb Galleria Center all weekend long.