Feroze Ramcharan is a member of the popular Team Nexus, which consists of astounding players such as Miguel Garcia. His opponent is Patrick Holmes. Both players had 1-1 records, meaning whoever lost this match would be out of Top 8 contention. And they were given a feature match, too! No pressure at all, right?
Patrick won the die roll and opened the match with a set card in each zone. Feroze opted to mirror that play, and Patrick took the opportunity to play Nobleman of Crossout on Feroze's face down Spirit Reaper. He flip summoned Sangan and attacked directly. Patrick set a face down card behind Sangan and passed to Feroze. Feroze set another monster and ended his turn.
Patrick simply chose to pass his turn after switching his Sangan to defense mode. Feroze opted to play Giant Trunade. This prompted Patrick to chain with Scapegoat, and Feroze responded by tributing his face down Sangan to his flipped Enemy Controller, taking control of Patrick's Sangan. It was bad news for Patrick once Feroze searched for Cyber-Stein. Cyber-Stein came down, Feroze threw 5000 life points at the Frankenstein-reject, Cyber End Dragon came down, and Megamorph was equipped to Cyber End Dragon. Game over.
Patrick: 0 Feroze: 1
Patrick had some tough decisions with his side deck. He chose to remove Bottomless Trap Hole and Sakuretsu Armor from his main deck for a pair of Solemn Judgments. These were good choices, since the only time Feroze is going to make a move for his one-turn-KO is when he can play Heavy Storm or Giant Trunade.
Patrick opted to go first, and he set a card in each zone. Feroze immediately played Giant Trunade, which seemed bad for Patrick. However, it was just to see if he'd catch any activations from Patrick. Feroze's set Magician of Faith was immediately blown away when Patrick tributed his Deckoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive (after flip summoning) for Zaborg the Frost Monarch. Feroze's next defensive play of Spirit Reaper was countered by Patrick's D. D. Warrior Lady, and Feroze was quickly dropped to 3200 life points. This entire game was moving at a speed faster than a Battlechanted Locomotive. (Special thanks to one of the judges for that pun.)
Feroze was able to recover a turn later with Morphing Jar, which gave him a fresh hand. Patrick followed up Morphing Jar's activation with an attack from his newly summoned Spirit Reaper. Despite a Prohibition calling Heavy Storm and a Gravity Bind that he flipped up to stop Zaborg from attacking, Feroze was quickly losing every monster he set. His Nimble Momonga was destroyed by a second Zaborg the Thunder Monarch from Patrick. However, with Gravity Bind on his field, both players passed into a few quick turns of "draw, go."
Patrick eventually committed himself to winning a few turns later. He flip summoned Night Assailant to destroy Feroze's only monster, destroyed Gravity Bind, and then promptly negated Feroze's second Gravity Bind with Solemn Judgment. Patrick's two Zaborgs came crashing into Feroze, and both players quickly went into their side-decks for game three.
Patrick: 1 Feroze: 1
Both players began to make more changes to their decks before game three. Patrick chose to side in Mobius the Frost Monarch, Mystic Swordsman LV2, and Creature Swap this time.
Game three went quickly underway, with Feroze opting to go first. "How many Cyber-Steins do you play?" asked Patrick.
"A lot," grinned Feroze.
Patrick flip summoned Dust Tornado targeting Feroze's face down card, but Feroze flipped it face up and activated it to reveal Threatening Roar. Patrick was forced to end his turn. Feroze's Wave-Motion Cannon passed its second standby phase, and he opted only to set a face down spell or trap before ending his turn. The game quickly settled into a slow and methodical pace.
Feroze summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, which resolved. He immediately used the spell counter to target Patrick's face down Book of Moon, which was activated to flip Feroze's Breaker face down. Feroze set a spell or trap and ended his turn with no cards in hand.
Feroze played Pot of Avarice and shuffled back the five monsters in his graveyard to his deck in order to draw two new cards. He went back to making calculations on his calculator, and only set a monster face-down. He sighed, as he had no way to deal with Mystic Swordsman LV2 due to his own Gravity Bind. The two cards that he drew with Pot of Avarice were Tsukuyomi and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive.
Patrick flip summoned Dekoichi to draw a card, and then attacked the face down Tsukuyomi with his Mystic Swordsman LV2. Spirit Reaper attacked and robbed Feroze of his Dekoichi. Feroze simply set another spell or trap and passed.
Patrick set a monster (the fifth monster on his field) and switched all of his monsters to defense. It was an odd play since he needed to get in as much damage as possible. Feroze let the Wave-Motion Cannon go up to seven charges, and grudgingly decided not to launch it at Patrick. He calculated that the only way he could win at that point was if he could get through another turn with the Wave-Motion Cannon not getting touched. "If you can get rid of it, you got it," said Feroze with frustration.
Patrick initiated an alpha strike with all four of his remaining monsters and brought Feroze down to 3300 life points. He set a spell or trap and ended his turn. Feroze set a monster before ending his turn, and was left to one monster and one card in hand to Patrick's Magician of Faith, Dekoichi, Cyber Dragon, and Spirit Reaper.
However, that one monster of Feroze's was Spirit Reaper, buying him an extra turn. Patrick summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and attacked into it, flipping the reaper face-up. Patrick laughed and set a spell or trap before ending, and the Breaker immediately blew it up. It was a Messenger of Peace, card that doesn't look very useful when your opponent has a Breaker the Magical Warrior on the field with a spell counter. However, Patrick didn't have any way of dealing with Spirit Reaper, so he ended his turn.
Feroze set a face down monster and ended his turn. Patrick attacked into it, revealing it to be a . . . Whirlwind Weasel? The Team Nexus-teched Weasel died a very unfulfilled death, and Feroze couldn't draw anything useful during his next turn. Patrick, however, found a topdecked Smashing Ground to be more than useful. The Reaper was quickly disposed of, and Feroze scooped up his cards as Patrick made the last attacks that were needed to win him the match.
Patrick: 2 Feroze: 1