What a rematch! After going head to head in the quarterfinals of Shonen Jump Championship Denver months ago, two of the world’s three two-time SJC champs were now facing off. After being bumped out of the Top 8 in Denver, Hayakawa was ready for a little payback, but making short work of Ghaneian would be no simple matter. With only eight rounds in today’s tournament, this match would surely be a deciding factor for the weekend.
“Good luck,” said Ghaneian, offering the handshake. Hayakawa accepted it, won the die roll, and opened the first duel with Confiscation.
It revealed Emon’s hand: Premature Burial, Torrential Tribute, Mystic Tomato, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Cyber Dragon. Hayakawa had Scapegoat, Megamorph, Limiter Removal, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Giant Trunade in hand, so he quickly narrowed down the choice of what to discard to Breaker or Tomato. He tossed the Breaker, set a card to his back row and ended his turn.
Ghaneian summoned Mystic Tomato, brought back Breaker with Premature, and tried to attack for 3000 — “I’m only doing that because of Stein.” Hayakawa flipped Scapegoat to block the attack, and Ghaneian reeled for a moment as he considered his options. Sweeping out two Sheep would leave Hayakawa vulnerable next turn if Ghaneian had the guts to drop a third monster, but leaving all four Sheep on the field would lock Hayakawa out of his Stein victory. “Let’s just not attack,” said Ghaneian. The Sheep remained, a face down spell or trap hit Gahneian’s back row and he ended his turn. Hakayawa set another spell or trap, Emon turned Tomato to defense and set a monster. “Go.”
“Two?” asked Hayakawa, indicating Emon’s hand.
“Yup.” Ghaneian confirmed.
“Go,” announced Hayakawa. Emon passed back, Hayakawa set a spell or trap, and Emon passed again. Hayakawa drew and looked at his hand: Sangan, Nimble Momonga, Megamorph, Spirit Reaper, Trunade, and Limiter Removal. He set the Sangan and wordlessly indicated that he was ending his turn. With no Stein and no free monster slots he was stuck for the time being.
Emon flip summoned his set card, Exiled Force, and announced the activation of its effect. Hayakawa chained Torrential Tribute! “Wow, Torrential with the Sangan,” muttered Emon as he noted Hayakawa’s face down monster. “He’ll search out Cyber-Stein with it . . .” Sure enough, Hayakawa did. However, in main phase 2, Emon activated Confiscation! “Wow, you had the game won!” he remarked, observing Hayakawa’s hand. “All you needed was the Stein.” It was a great setup by Hayakawa, but the Confiscation was going to set him back a long way. Emon discarded Hayakawa’s Cyber-Stein and ended with one card in his back row. “Go ahead.” Hayakawa drew and Emon asked the burning question: “Did you topdeck another Stein?”
Hayakawa shook his head: He’d drawn into Cyber Dragon. He set Nimble Momonga and ended. “It’s so cold in Seattle,” noted the hoodie-clad champion of Comic Odyssey, wrapping his arms around himself. The venue was chilly, especially by the standards of two Californians.
Emon activated Heavy Storm, destroying his own Sakuretsu Armor and Hayakawa’s set Mystical Space Typhoon. Cyber Dragon and Exiled Force came down for Ghaneian, Exiled cleared the Momonga with its effect, and Cyber Dragon attacked directly. It knocked Hayakawa to 4900 life points, cutting him off from Stein, at least for the moment. Emon set another spell or trap card and passed.
Hayakawa drew into another Megamorph, and started running the math — he had two at his disposal, plus Limiter Removal and Cyber Dragon. “Dude, I suck at math,” he remarked with a laugh, double checking himself with a calculator. He nodded and went for it.
Giant Trunade bounced Emon’s set Torrential Tribute. Cyber Dragon came down, both Megamorphs and Limiter Removal pumped it, and Emon beamed. Hayakawa was unaware that the two Megamorphs wouldn’t stack, and Emon thought that the mistake would cost his opponent the game. Still, it didn’t matter! Cyber Dragon’s first Megamorph bumped it to 4200 ATK, and Limiter doubled it to 8400. 6300 damage made it through Emon’s Cyber Dragon, and Emon only had 6200 life points remaining: Hayakawa had just enough damage to knock Emon into defeat.
Ryan Hayakawa steals one off Emon Ghaneian, capturing the first duel of the match with a surprising series of moves!
Emon shook his head while he smokescreened between games. “Man, I got beaten even though I got you under . . .” he was clearly disappointed, but not discouraged. Resiliency is a trait of champions, and both these competitors have it in spades.
Ghaneian opened with a set card to each zone and Hayakawa looked at his hand: Cyber-Stein, Poison of the Old Man, United We Stand, Level Limit — Area B, Heavy Storm, and Last Will. He set a spell or trap, dropped Level Limit to the field and passed.
Emon immediately activated Giant Trunade! He summoned Cyber-Stein, special summoned Cyber Twin Dragon with its effect, flip summoned Spirit Reaper and flopped Megamorph on Cyber Twin for the win. Just like that it was over, and the match moved to a third and final duel!
Both competitors smokescreened once again, shuffling their side decks into their main decks before selecting fifteen cards to strip out. “Good luck,” said Emon, offering his deck to Hayakawa. Again, the sentiment was returned. Neither of these duelists wanted to play each other this early in the tournament and, despite the rivalry, there was a great amount of respect going both ways across the table.
Hayakawa opened with Confiscation yet again, revealing Emon’s hand of Mystic Tomato, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Royal Decree, Limiter Removal, and Megamorph. Clearly, Ghaneian had stuck with the side-decked Stein strategy that had won him game 2. Decree was discarded, Hayakawa set a card to his back row and play was to Ghaneian.
He summoned Mystic Tomato and attacked, scoring a quick shot of 1400 damage! “Go ahead. You side decked into Burn, huh?” Hayakawa had Secret Barrel in his hand, but didn’t flinch or wince to betray that fact. Hayakawa special summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked the Tomato, regaining a bit of the lost ground but allowing Ghaneian to special summon Cyber-Stein from his deck! Hayakawa then set three cards to his back row for a total of four, a scary move coming from a two-time champ.
Ghaneian looked troubled and Hayakawa just leaned back in his chair. It was 7300 to 5600 in Emon’s favor, but he knew that if Hayakawa had two burn cards set then activating Stein would be like handing over the match on a silver platter. At the same time, his hand demanded action. If the duel turned into a war of attrition he was likely to lose anyways.
He shuffled his hand repeatedly, taking more than a minute to make his decisions. “Stupid burn,” he muttered, shaking his head. He set a monster, turned Stein to defense position and ended. He’d made the read and was committing to it.
Hayakawa drew Just Desserts and sent Cyber Dragon into the Stein. He set a fifth spell or trap card and ended. Emon set a second face down monster and passed, Hayakawa passed back, and Emon flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. He then tributed it for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, and Hayakawa responded with Torrential Tribute to clear the field. Emon wasn’t finished though, and activated Last Will to summon Sangan from his deck. Sangan poked for 1000 damage, Hayakawa took it, and Ghaneian ended with nothing in his back row.
Hayakawa’s hand now consisted of Nobleman of Crossout, Lava Golem, and Just Desserts. He set the Desserts, passed, Emon set a monster, swung for 1000 with Sangan, and play was back to Hayakawa.
He brought down the Lava Golem, tributing away Emon’s set Nimble Momonga and the face up Sangan. Emon used Sangan’s effect to search his deck for Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Hayakawa announced that he was finished. Emon drew, the Golem burned him, and it then attacked Hayakawa. He flipped Scapegoat, and the Golem hit nothing but mutton! Emon set a monster, Hayakawa drew and activated Graceful Charity, discarding an Ojama Trio and Mystical Space Typhoon. He then activated Poison of the Old Man. He set a spell or trap and passed.
In the draw phase, he activated another Trio, giving Emon three Ojama tokens. Lava Golem burned Emon again, and he flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive to draw a card and two Sheep were taken down in battle. Emon set a spell or trap and ended. In his end phase he got blasted for 2500 by Just Desserts! Hayakawa chained Secret Barrel and it was all over: Emon briefly considered figuring out a way to play out of it, but Hayakawa revealed his other two set cards with a grin: another Barrel and another Poison! It was game no matter what Ghaneian did.
Ryan Hayakawa gets a little payback for being knocked out of SJC Denver, winning out over Emon Ghaneian and heading on undefeated!