Diverse Metagame At Shonen Jump Atlanta Turning Point For Advanced Format?

Shawn Long went through three-time Shonen Jump Top 8 competitor Robert Morgan, Team Villains star James Laurent, and Team Nexus’s Shonen Jump Orlando Champion Andrew Fredella to capture the win this weekend! Armed with a Chaos Return deck, he battled his way through two days of surprisingly varied competition before successfully making a grab for the title. A turning point for the Advanced format? Maybe so.

Semifinal duelist Jonathan Zachary took a near carbon copy of the Cyber-Stein OTK deck Igor Kharin ran at UK Nationals to a stellar Top 4 finish. James Laurent used Team Villains’ signature deck, focused on the coin flip effects of Sasuke Samurai #4 and Fairy Box to capture third place, and in the finals it was Andrew Fredella with a versatile Anti-Return deck that did battle with Shawn Long. Only one of the decks that made the cut to the semis was a conventional Chaos Return build, while two of the decks didn’t use Return in the main deck whatsoever.

With other big decks debuting at the event that ranged from Reversal Quiz to Clockwork Control, the current North American metagame seems wide open. A Shrink deck? The return of Michael Lux? You can relive all the action by checking out our live coverage from on site at Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta! (please link to Atlanta SJC coverage)

Shonen Jump Championship Denver Just Five Days Away

With many East Coast players dueled out as a result of Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta, this coming weekend’s Shonen Jump Denver should host a plethora of regional dueling talent. Is Chaos Return’s era of dominance truly over? Will decks like Max Suffridge’s Clockwork Control be adopted by other duelists, and if so, will they win? And isn’t somebody playing Macro Cosmos?

Metagame.com’s Jerome McHale will be live on site this Saturday to dig for all the answers to those very questions, plus many more. With a low team presence confirmed at the moment, we’re bound to see plenty of local celebrities that may quickly become international-level duelists in their own rights. Plus, if Shonen Jump Atlanta was an indicator, we may bear witness to even more strategic innovation.

Want to come compete? Need information on start times, entry fees, prizes, and directions to the venue? Check out the Premier Tournament Organizer website for Rocky Mountain Premier Events right here for all of your dueling info needs.

If you won’t be attending, tune in this Saturday for live coverage, and get ready for the latest in the long and prestigious line of Shonen Jump Championship tournaments. All the triumph, all the intensity, and all the dueling action is about to explode in the mile-high city of Denver, Colorado!

Canadian National Championship To Be Determined This Weekend!

Talk about “by popular demand!” You asked for it, and Metagame.com delivers: Julia Hedberg and I will be coming to you live from the Ramada Plaza in Hamilton, Ontario to bring you all the thrills, victories, and defeats from one of the planet’s most electrifying Yu-Gi-Oh! events: the Canadian National Championship!

While US Nationals awarded Worlds invites to four duelists, Canadian Nationals only sends a single competitor to throw down in Tokyo. That means this tournament is always one of the most raw, no-holds-barred competitions of the year, and Metagame.com will be there to provide extended live coverage. Deck profiles, interviews, feature matches, an ongoing blog, and a Scrub Brush Challenge of national proportions will all be available for your reading pleasure. Flat out, this is the first time we’ve ever been able to cover this awesome event, and we’re going to do it right.

Dale “The Boss” Bellido, Metagame.com’s own Matt Peddle, Chris Pittao, Andrew Hayton and many more will be in competition this weekend for one long day of dueling. The entire tournament takes place this Sunday, making it not just a test of wits and dueling skill, but also a test of endurance. Can Dale Bellido finally claim the National title so many feel he deserves? Will “Jason Tan, Second at Nationals” perhaps become “Jason Tan, National Champion”? Will Chris Pittao’s stellar dueling year come to a close with victory and a trip to Tokyo? You’ll find out when we do, live on Sunday, June 25!

This Week on Metagame.com

In a format where aggressive over-extension makes champions, Cyber Dragon and Spirit Reaper get the lion’s share of the aggro duelist’s attention. But today, Mike Rosenberg will discuss one of the card’s more subtle powerhouses, a card that can smash face and swing momentum just as much as any clockwork draconian or babushka-wearing skeleton: Gravekeeper’s Spy. Yes that’s right, Gravekeeper’s Spy – it’s not just for hiding behind any more! Don’t believe me? Check out the latest installment of The Binder, and Mike will have you convinced.

Do you love Majestic Mech – Ohka and Majestic Mech – Goryu, but hate their self-destructive habits when they aren’t tribute summoned properly? Want to solve that problem by shunting it onto your unwilling victims and making it their problem? Of course you do! Tomorrow’s article from Jerome McHale will show you exactly how you can accomplish that, using big pain pixies to smite an opponent and then sticking them with the bill. It’s no secret that Creature Swap is huge in the current Advanced format. This Swap Control variant uses a legion of very different monsters to dominate duels, and if a fast, aggressive offense with plenty of control is your thing, you’ll want to check it out.

Field presence is becoming a huge issue on the minds of top-level duelists, and many are relinquishing their love of card advantage above all else in favor of the pursuit of monster advantage. With this trend in mind, I take on a field control deck that abuses Legendary Jujitsu Master this Wednesday, giving the deck list some tricky nips and tucks in The Apotheosis. The result? A brick wall of a deck that is exceedingly hard to play against with more conventional strategies.

On Thursday, Curtis Schultz answers one of the dueling world’s biggest questions as of late: “Last Will is broken? When did that happen?” The recent rulings revisions to Last Will have removed a lot of the restrictions that the card’s effect was originally subjected to, and that ominous little manila envelope has become a deadly combination of utility, search power, and versatility. Curtis will show you all the important rulings on how to play Last Will (and how not to play it), so that you can take advantage of them in your local tournaments and Regionals.

On Friday you get a double dose of Julia Hedberg. First, in Agents of Judgment, she takes a look back on the experience of head judging the US National Championships. Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta followed the protocols established at Nationals to a tee, and Julia will give you an inside look on how they came to pass, as well as a ton of info on the challenges that arise during such a huge event. Then, Solid Ground answers one of the questions that veteran players often ask: “How do I start judging?” If you know your stuff and want to start supporting play in your local area, this is a must read.

Finally, Jae Kim rounds out the week with another competitive deck for you to try out. Disciple of the Forbidden Spell was one of the most-wanted cards from Shadow of Infinity, but went almost entirely ignored once the set hit the streets. Jae’s going to change that, showing you a unique deck that exploits the Disciple’s synergy with key support cards in order to net you the biggest monster massacre your dueling dollar can buy. Cyber Dragon? Chaos Sorcerer? Jinzo? Lay them all out with this vicious little 1700 ATK Warrior.

Of course, don’t forget to be here on Saturday and Sunday to check out Shonen Jump Championship Denver and Canadian Nationals! It’s a double-header championship weekend to kick off the summer and get the 2007 season of competition into high gear, so you won’t want to miss it.

As always, thanks for reading, and keep on dueling!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com