It’s Monday, June 25th, and the U.S. dueling community has a brand new National Champion!
U.S. National Championship
After ten rounds of grueling Swiss competition, a surprisingly varied Top 16 field competed this past Sunday for the title of U.S. National Champ. Almost 700 duelists came to the Columbus Grand Convention Center on Saturday to take their shot at one of sixteen Day 2 seats, and the result was one of the most intense, exciting Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG tournaments of all time.
The event was marked by some astounding successes and some cringe-worthy failures. Highlights from the “successful” list included Justin Womack’s highly original Aggro Beatdown deck, Bryan Rockenbach’s Monarch deck with fourteen tributes, Augustin Herrera’s Magical Explosion build, and an indescribable melange of cards wielded by Javier Gutierrez (which took him all the way to the Top 8).
The weekend was filled with big stories, too. Max Suffridge returned to Day 2 contention to try and recapture his title. Adam Donohue went undefeated for six rounds with Crystal Beasts, and our own Vincent Tundo broke Gravekeeper’s Servant. Variants of Matt Peddle’s Machine Beatdown deck scored three, arguably four slots in the Top 16, and we saw more copies of Crush Card Virus in a single day than have been played in Shonen Jump Championships, ever.
It was truly a must-see weekend, so if you missed the live coverage, you can still find all the on-site articles right here on Metagame.com. Matt Peddle and I brought you round after round of dueling action. Go here to check it out!
European Championship Coverage
Speaking of coverage, I’ll be coming to you live from the floor of the European Championships in Turin, Italy this weekend! EC 2007 is going to be one of the biggest, most competitive tournaments of the year, and all of Europe’s top duelists will be coming out to throw down.
If you’re the kind of reader who sifts through internet message boards looking for the top decklists from foreign National Championships, well, we’ll have you covered. I’ll be bringing you the best decks, tech, feature matches, and interviews of the weekend, as I highlight the greatest players and the deadliest strategies Europe has to offer. Let’s be honest: the past two World Champions have called European countries home. Dario Longo, Markou Miltiadis, Joe Whittaker, Adrian Madaj, and many more European players have practically become household names in the vocabulary of seriously competitive duelists.
It all starts this Friday night (Saturday morning in Italy), so get ready for some of the most unique event coverage we’ve ever hosted. This one is going to be a tournament to remember!
This Week on Metagame
This time around, we kick things off as we usually do, with a brand new installment of The Binder from Mike Rosenberg. Today, Mike heats things up with an explosive article on the cards that make Axel Brodie’s Volcanic strategies viable. What started off as a single card profile blossoms into something completely different, and Volcanic fans will definitely want to click on over.
After being driven thoroughly crazy by his experience head judging the U.S. National Championships this past weekend, Jerome McHale is taking it easy in his Almost There column. With many weeks of highly competitive decks behind him, he’s taking some time to look at an old, obscure theme that hasn’t exactly been at the peak of popular discussion: Valkyrion the Magna Warrior. Jerome manages to create a Valkyrion build that can hold its own in local or perhaps even Regional tournaments, thanks to the inclusion of two surprising cards.
On Wednesday, I’ll pick up where Mike Rosenberg left off when I take a run at fixing up a Volcanic deck. I have my own opinions about the game mechanics that make Volcanics entertaining and effective for competitive play, and I’ll apply my philosophies to a reader-created deck to create a fierce strategic combination.
A day later, Curtis Schultz swings open the doors to his Duel Academy for one final lesson on Crystal Beast monsters! Adam Donohue made a big splash with his successful Crystal Beast build at Nationals, and this week, Curtis is going to tie up a lot of loose ends. Ever wanted to know how Generation Shift works with the Crystal Beasts? How about Anteatereatingant, or After the Struggle? Curtis will cover those cards and many more on Thursday, so don’t miss it!
Bryan Camareno has spent the past several weeks teaching you intense, efficient methods of improving your dueling skills. But this is a game, and it should be fun—not stressful. This week, Bryan’s going to show you some simple measures you can take to keep your dueling low-stress without compromising your competitive goals. If you consider yourself a competitive player, but don’t want to view dueling as a job, then this article is a must read.
Matthew Lai had one of the most talked-about decks at last weekend’s Canadian Nationals. His unconventional Six Samurai build didn’t run Card Trooper, which most Six Samurai users now view as a staple, but it didn’t stop him from sweeping the Swiss rounds completely. How did Lai accomplish such a feat with a minimalist deck design? Matt Peddle will show you how in this week’s edition of The Champions. If you looked at Lai’s deck and wondered how on earth it made it to the Top 8, you need to check out this article.
With Crystal Beasts being such a big deal at the U.S. National Championships, it’s a great time to look at alternative builds of this groundbreaking monster group. Breaking new ground is what Matt Murphy is all about, and in this Sunday’s edition of Combination Attack, he’ll show you not one, but two high-impact Crystal Beast builds.
That’s it for this week! Head on back in another seven days for more of the best articles in dueling today!
Till then, I’m . . .
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com