It’s been a while since we last saw Tomas Mijares, when he made Top 8 at Shonen Jump Championship San Jose. Almost two years later he’s now a member of Washington’s Team Fusion, and he’s here today packing the big new deck of this event: Elemental Heroes with King Tiger Wanghu and Burden of the Mighty. It’s a deck built to take down Teleport Dark Armed Dragon.
And this match would put the new strategy, and Mijares, to the test! He was up against two-time Shonen Jump Champion Ryan Hayakawa, packing the matchup Mijares wanted to see: TeleDAD. Could this silver bullet strategy really deliver? And if it could, could it really take down one of the greatest duelists in America?
Mijares was ready to find out, but first he had to give a shout-out to Bianca, his fiancee! He opened the match with Elemental Hero Wildheart, then set five cards to his spell and trap zone! Hayakawa activated Allure of Darkness, drew his two cards, and removed Strike Ninja for its cost — that’s a little different! He followed up with a second Allure!
“Hey, I might deck him out!” joked Mijares, as Hayakawa decided to remove Krebons from his hand. He set two cards to his back row, set a monster, and ended.
“Draw,” announced Mijares. He sent Elemental Hero Wildheart to attack, and he smashed into Spirit Reaper. “Go ahead.” Hayakawa activated Heavy Storm, and Mijares chained Dark Bribe to negate it! Elemental Hero Stratos was summoned, and Mijares flipped Torrential Tribute! Hayakawa heaved a sigh: “Minus . . .” He chained Solemn Judgment, but Mijares chained one of his own! Stratos and Reaper were destroyed, while Wildheart remained on the field! Hayakawa set a second spell or trap, Mijares summoned Elemental Hero Neos Alius, and Hayakawa started running numbers. “Sure.” He dropped to 600 life points, and Mijares set his last card to his back row.
Hayakawa drew to three cards in hand and summoned Snipe Hunter; he discarded Destiny Draw with priority to target Elemental Hero Wildheart, and missed! Book of Moon then turned the Hunter face down, keeping Hayakawa from taking another shot. If he couldn’t defend himself from at least one attack next turn, this duel was going to be over quickly! “Go ahead.”
Mijares topdecked another Solemn Judgment. He sent Alius to attack Snipe Hunter, and Hayakawa discarded another Destiny Draw to spin away Alius with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Wildheart took out Snipe Hunter, and Mijares set his new Solemn. Hayakawa did nothing next turn but set a card to his back row. When Wildheart attacked again next turn and Hayakawa flipped Emergency Teleport to try and block the shot, Mijares flipped Royal Oppression, and it was all over!
Tomas Mijares devastates Ryan Hayakawa, smashing TeleDAD with Elemental Heroes! Hayakawa hadn’t even seen the deck’s core engine of King Tiger Wanghu and Burden of the Mighty yet. He still didn’t really know what Mijares was playing, so siding was going to be difficult. Mijares finished very quickly, but Hayakawa took a substantial amount of time.
Game 2 eventually started with Hayakawa setting one card to his back row. Mijares activated Reinforcement of the Army, searched Elemental Hero Stratos from his deck, and summoned him to get Wildheart. Stratos attacked for 1800 damage, and Mijares set three cards to his back row! “Go ahead.”
Hayakawa activated Heavy Storm from his hand; Mijares activated Solemn Judgment to shut it down. Hayakawa set a second spell or trap; Mijares set a third and summoned Elemental Hero Wildheart! Stratos and Wildheart both attacked for 3300 damage, and play was back to Hayakawa. Mijares was holding Alius and Burden of the Mighty, with three cards face down.
Hayakawa needed to make a move. He flipped Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, discarded Caius the Shadow Monarch, and sent one of Mijares’ spell or trap cards from his back row to his deck. He activated Monster Reborn, and Mijares chained Royal Oppression! He paid 800 life points, but Hayakawa chained Solemn Judgment! After some brief confusion on life point payments it was verified that Mijares did indeed have to pay the 800 life points and play moved on. Caius exploded out of the graveyard to attack Wildheart, but Mijares flipped Mirror Force! Holding dead cards like another Caius and Crush Card, there was nothing Hayakawa could do — he conceded the 2-0 victory to Mijares.
Tomas Mijares gets a little bit of revenge against Comic Odyssey for his defeat in San Jose many moons ago, moving on undefeated with the deck he calls: wait for it . . .
. . . “Middle City!”