For the final round of Day 1 of the European Championships, there are two Italian players facing off for the coveted position of being undefeated going forward to Sunday’s play.
Donato began with a Graceful Charity, a set and a pass. For Mohamed, it was Breaker the Magical Warrior, who attempted to take down the set trap of his countryman, only to have it replaced by a collection of Sheep tokens. He beat one up with his warrior, set a couple of traps and moved on.
Meanwhile, Donato was busy making the most of all the time his Scapegoat had bought him. He built his hand more than his board, and Ali had to have a little think about how to work against the rather quizzical play from the other side of the board.
Mancini finally played a monster, in the form of Cyber Dragon, who beat up Breaker. Ali tried to match with a Cyber Dragon of his own, but Bottomless Trap hole took him out—albeit after a tussle involving Royal Decree and Mystical Space Typhoon.
In order to get more information, Ali played Confiscation, getting rid of one of Mancini’s cards (another Cyber Dragon), and followed up with Mystic Tomato. The arcane fruit spent the following turn beating over a Spirit Reaper for what seemed inconsequential amounts of damage compared to what his Cyber-Stein deck had shown it could do in previous rounds.
Mancini stole Mystic Tomato with Snatch Steal, and then tried to attack, only to face a Scapegoat on the other side of the field. The Sheep didn’t last long, but it seemed that perhaps Mohammed wouldn’t need long, as he had a Royal Decree, followed by Snatch Steal to take his opponent’s Zaborg.
A Chaos Sorcerer from Donato died quickly to Exiled Force, but Breaker the Magical Warrior lasted a little longer, and took the Royal Decree out too. The life totals were 3300 to 4100 in Donato’s favour, but this wasn’t to last long, as Mancini tried for Return from the Different Dimension only to hit yet another Royal Decree from Ali. Donato had to content himself with a Sangan and attacks to take Ali down to just 700 life points while resting on 2050 himself. It was a game that looked that it could well go either way.
The simplest way for things to go was with the man with monsters on the board, and that was Mancini. After Ali drew another virtual blank for the situation, he simply conceded game one and prepared carefully for the second.
Ali started out game two with a Confiscation, which saw a busty hand of Mobius the Frost Monarch, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, Treeborn Frog, Heavy Storm and Return From The Different Dimension revealed, and the storm going in the Graveyard.
The trick seemed so good that after a quick set, Ali did it all over again to take Zaborg the following turn thanks to Magician of Faith. The plays from Donato seemed almost inevitable having looked at his hand. Treeborn Frog became Mobius the Frost Monarch with surprising speed, taking down a Mirror Force from Ali, before attacking to clear Mohamed’s board.
Another Magician of Faith made for a D. D. Warrior Lady in the graveyard, then Smashing Ground let a Spirit Reaper go to the face to remove Return from being a worry. Ali was decimating his opponent’s hand, for little loss himself, but Donato appeared unrattled. He tribute summoned Cyber Dragon, which was promptly hit by a Snatch Steal. Tsukuyomi briefly flipped it face down in order to cut down on the whole ‘cost’ element of the theft, and then Ali got back to the merry business of attacking to the face.
Donato put up some small defence with a Nobleman of Crossout taking down one Spirit Reaper, but there was another one on the way, and in the face of monumental pressure (and a Creature Swap, he scooped up his cards.
For turn one Donato had a set spell or trap, and a set monster to go with. Ali went with Graceful Charity to begin, then tried for D. D. Warrior Lady, who promptly (and somewhat carelessly) fell down a Bottomless Trap Hole. Oops.
A Confiscation reaped Mobius, The Frost Monarch from the hand of Donato before Ali set and passed. He took a small amount of beats from a Dekoichi, but this was merely a passing concern, as he was able to clear the way for a Spirit Reaper attack shortly thereafter. In control matches, having consistent sources of card advantage are often the levers for success, and it seemed that Ali was pushing all the right buttons and pulling all the right levers. He quickly doubled up on Spirit Reapers, and got to deal with Zaborg from Donato, with a Bottomless Trap Hole.
His Reapers did a fine job on defence in the face of a Cyber Dragon from Donato, but suddenly it seemed Mohamed was stumbling slightly with his offence. Donato played a Treeborn Frog and flipped Torrential Tribute to clear the board of monsters, before setting two spells or traps.
He was trumped by Ali, who had Heavy Storm to clear the board entirely, and a Sangan to follow up with a modest attack on Donato. Mancini fought back with a Chaos Sorcerer, to which Ali responded with Asura Priest, who got used with Creature Swap for an easy theft of Chaos Sorcerer.
Mancini shook his head and set a Magical Merchant. It took him a great many flips when it was attacked to find a spell, but that spell was a Scapegoat, which looked likely to buy him some time. He managed to take out the monsters on Ali’s side of the board, but Ali had a troublesome Tsukuyomi who was making nifty tricks happen all over the place, and a Cyber Dragon who could just attack for a bunch.
Donato dug for answers with Graceful Charity. He found a D. D. Warrior Lady, who looked pretty good, but Ali had a Scapegoat of his own, which again gummed up the combat step for a number of turns.
Ali used those turns to find himself a Chaos Sorcerer. The endurance was tight at 3800-3400 in Ali’s favour, and with the powerful chaos monster on the board, Ali looked in a good position to cause Donato some trouble.
Mancini played a Snatch Steal, which Ali responded to with Book of Moon to fizzle the powerful spell. From there it was a fairly straightforward matter for Ali to take it home, and advance to 7-0 on the day.
Mohamed Ali wins 2-1!