Emon Ghaneian’s “E-Mon Heroes” brought him a perfect record yesterday. A Trooper Monarch build with Crush Card Virus, it sides into a light Destiny Hero build that really changes the deck. His opponent, Alfonso Yamakawa, is also playing a Trooper Monarch build. He’s packing three copies of Trap Dustshoot, and they could be integral to this matchup.
“This place reminds me of Austin Kulman,” noted a somber, uncharacteristically serious Ghaneian as he entered the Duel Dome, the site of his greatest defeat. The match began with no other comment being spoken.
Ghaneian set a monster, Gravekeeper’s Spy, then a spell or trap card. Yamakawa special summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked into Sakuretsu Armor, and then set a monster.
Ghaneian was free to flip summon his set Gravekeeper’s Spy. He brought out Gravekeeper’s Guard in attack position with Spy’s effect, then tributed him for Raiza the Storm Monarch. Yamakawa’s set monster spun to the top of his deck courtesy of Raiza and the two attacks that followed dropped him to 4400 life points.
“I’ll just end,” announced Ghaneian.
Yamakawa took control of Ghaneian’s Raiza with Brain Control, attacked over Gravekeeper’s Spy with him, then tributed Raiza for Cyber Dragon in main phase 2! He ended with nothing reinforcing his position in the spell and trap zone though, a poor omen that Ghaneian would look to exploit if possible.
He couldn’t, at least not immediately. Ghaneian set a card to each zone and ended. Yamakawa attacked with Cyber Dragon, but lost it to Sakuretsu Armor. He set a monster and ended his turn. Ghaneian flip summoned another Gravekeeper’s Spy, this time bringing out another copy in attack position, summoned Mystic Tomato, and attacked with Spy. Spy collided with Yamakawa’s set Treeborn Frog, knocking it to the graveyard. The second Spy then attacked directly, followed by the Tomato. Yamakawa was down to just 1000 life points and Ghaneian set Ring of Destruction.
It was over: Ghaneian flipped the Ring and blew away his own Mystic Tomato in Yamakawa’s draw phase and dished out 1400 damage to himself and his opponent. Yamakawa dropped to 0 life points.
The first duel ends in mere moments, with Emon Ghaneian blowing through newcomer Alfonso Yamakawa!
Yamakawa would have to make some major adaptations to his play style if he was to survive in this tournament. Ghaneian had exploited Yamakawa’s lack of commitment to the field by continuously developing his own, and Yamakawa’s conservative play style brought him nothing but ruin. This is the kind of situation where Ghaneian has been so good this past year; when the pressure is on he responds with more aggression, not a lack thereof, and it utterly shreds most of his opponents. Ironically it was that very play style that let Austin Kulman defeat Ghaneian last year, where Kulman was the fearless one and Ghaneian held back.
This time, he clearly wasn’t going to make that mistake again.
Both duelists shuffled their side decks into their main decks and removed fifteen cards, counting them out meticulously. The second duel began three minutes later.
Yamakawa opened with a set monster, and again failed to commit anything to his spell and trap zone. One had to wonder if these were Yamakawa’s decisions, or merely a series of terrible draws. Ghaneian continued playing aggressively, special summoning Cyber Dragon, normal summoning Card Trooper, and then activating Card Trooper’s effect to send two Destiny Hero – Malicious and another Card Trooper to the graveyard. He winced slightly — revealing that he’d sided into Destiny Heroes was one minor issue, but losing the second Malicious was a big one that could hurt him in the long term. Maintaining the fast tempo he was working to establish became even more important to the three-time Shonen Jump Champion.
He removed one Malicious from his graveyard to special summon his last from his deck, activated Metamorphosis to tribute him away, and then spent some time considering his pick: after more than a minute he brought out Ryu Senshi. “You play a lot of traps,” Ghaneian explained, wavering slightly and seeming to have to talk himself into the play. He set two back row cards, attacked with Card Trooper into Yamakawa’s set Treeborn Frog, then attacked with Cyber Dragon and Ryu Senshi for 4100 damage.
Yamakawa activated Heavy Storm on the following turn, but Ghaneian chained Call of the Haunted to target his in-graveyard Card Trooper! He then chained Ring of Destruction, destroying his on-field Trooper to minimize the damage Yamakawa could hammer home and deal out a bit more himself. He drew two cards as a result of the two Troopers being destroyed, and Yamakawa special summoned Cyber Dragon to attack Ryu Senshi. A set monster ended Yamakawa’s turn.
Yamakawa was down to 3500 life points.
Ghaneian summoned another Trooper, activated its effect to bring it to 1900 ATK, and then used Brain Control to take control of Yamakawa’s Cyber Dragon. He set a card to his spell and trap zone, the last card in his hand, and attacked with the pilfered Dragon. It destroyed Yamakawa’s set monster and it was all over! Cyber Dragon and Card Trooper swung directly for game!
Emon Ghaneian slices through Alfonso Yamakawa like a hot knife through butter, moving on to the Top 8!