Round 3 has ended and it seems like a great time to get a feel for the metagame at the top tables. Here’s how the top ten tables played out this past round.
At table 10, Team Rampage’s Jonathan Labounty went up against Lewis Quan, pitting his Trooper Monarch deck against Lewis’s less conventional deck: Perfect Circle with no Destiny Hero - Malicious! It was a bizarre deck choice on Lewis’s behalf, but it worked, burying Labounty in a drawn-out 2-0 match.
Joseph Munoz went head to head against Korey Stoner at table 9. It was one of the more interesting matchups at the top ten tables, as neither duelist was running Destiny Heroes. Munoz took a 2-1 victory with a basic Monarch build packing three copies of Banisher of the Radiance, three Trap Dustshoots, and one Mind Crush in his main deck. Korey’s was very different; he was playing a Warrior toolbox build filled with Earth monsters and Gigantes! Both duelists are from Las Vegas. “This kid just beat me in the Top 2 of the last tournament we played at,” remarked Munoz, smiling and shaking his opponent’s hand.
At table 8, Emon Ghaneian threw down against Alfonzo Yamakawa in a very close 2-1 match. Emon’s deck? He didn’t hesitate to describe it. “It’s not Destiny Heroes, It’s E-Heroes! The ‘E’ is for Emon!” Emon’s deck is teched with Crush Card Virus and Gravekeeper’s Guard, and in exchange for those, he dropped potential dead draws like Destiny Hero - Dasher. Yamakawa played hard with a basic Monarch deck packing Card Trooper, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the three-time Shonen Jump Champion.
At table 7, Adam Blair swept Claudio Esteves 2-0, taking a Peddle-esque Machine beatdown against Esteves’s Trooper-free Monarch deck. A seat down at table 6, Alex Priebe suffered a 2-0 loss to Ian Slobodianock. Priebe was packing an aggressive Monarch build with Machine Duplication and three Brain Controls, but it wasn’t enough to stop Slobodianock’s T-Hero deck.
At table 5, familiar face Ross Nappi took Richard Haynes 2-0 in something close to a mirror match. Both duelists were running Monarch decks with Card Troopers, no Destiny Heroes, and Trap Dustshoots, but in the end, Nappi pulled out the victory in overtime.
Jacob Medly took on Francisco Rome at table 4. Rome took the 2-1 match with a decisive third game, scoring victory for T-Hero by defeating Medley’s no-Trooper Monarch. If there was a lesson to be learned at the top tables here today, it’s that Monarchs need Card Trooper to stay competitive in today’s field.
James Naughton and Daniel Wood fought a brutal 2-1 mirror match that pitted two Machine beatdown decks against each other. Naughton secured an early win in the first duel thanks to Trap Dustshoot, but lost the second duel. He came back to win the third in a back-and-forth battle, moving on undefeated. “It’s a good deck,” noted Wood with a laugh, reflecting on the fact that both duelists were running the same strategy.
Philip Henderson dueled Jason Rosenberg at table 2. Henderson was playing a defensive Monarch build with lots of removal cards, including Bottomless Trap Hole. Rosenberg was running Perfect Circle, but his real secret? When the match went to time, he sided in three Aegis of Gaias, along with the usual time-situation burn, giving him the edge he needed to take game 3. It’s smart tech when you think about it; many people side their spell and trap removal out in favor of burn when a match goes to time, so they can’t destroy the Aegis. At the same time, the amount of life point gain the Aegis grants is insurmountable; no single source of burn damage can compare.
Finally, at table 1, Jonathan Ray Barber competed with Joseph Miller, pitting a somewhat original deck Barber described as “DDT beatdown” against Miller’s basic Monarch build. It was a blowout for Barber; this was one of the first matches to finish, and Barber reigned victorious.
Other notable happenings at the top tables? Halfway through the round, Jake McNeely came to me, eyes alight and smile gleaming with what appeared to be the thrill of victory. “Hey! Hey, Jason!” McNeely grabbed the seat in front of mine and sat down. “I’m doing so awesome with this deck that mains three Trap Dustshoots and Mind Crush! I’m just wrecking people with Mind Crush today!” He paused a moment. “Oh wait, no—that’s what everyone’s been doing to me!” He proceeded to wig out in a fashion comparable to Kermit the Frog, and then ran off to wallow in his own defeat.
The day is well underway, and while it looks like Destiny Heroes are going to dominate yet again, Machine beatdown and Trooper Monarchs are still going strong. In addition, one Crystal Beast deck is still left undefeated. We’ll have feature match coverage of that deck coming up in round 5!