One month after his loss in the finals of SJC St. Louis, Marc Glass has returned to the final table for another shot at a championship. This is Lazaro’s first trip to the finals, and he started things off right by winning the roll. Still, Diamond Dude Turbo is an extremely volatile deck, and if Lazaro doesn’t have the right stuff in his first few cards he could lose outright before his deck has a chance to set up. Actually, given the incredible strength of the combo, he might lose even if he does get his deck set up. With the way Marc Glass has been playing this weekend, there’s no telling what will happen.

Lazaro started without a Spy in hand, and opted to set Dekoichi and Ring of Destruction in her stead. Glass started with Destiny Draw pitching Destiny Hero — Malicious, and he immediately searched out his second. Reinforcement of the Army came down next to bring Stratos to his hand, and he summoned him using his effect to try and destroy Lazaro’s set trap. The Ring was chained, blowing Stratos away, and Glass activated Reasoning. Lazaro correctly guessed level 4, sending Diamond Dude to the graveyard. Glass set a spell or trap and passed back to Lazaro, who flipped Dekoichi, attacked Malicious, and then tributed for Thestalos to pitch Card Trooper from Glass’ hand. He set a spell or trap and passed to Glass, who brought his third Malicious into play and tributed it for Jinzo. Jinzo traded with the Monarch and Glass passed. Lazaro flipped Premature Burial to bring back Thestalos and attacked, but, before he could get to that point, Threatening Roar shut him down. He set a bluff Brain Control, but Glass had Heavy Storm to completely clear Lazaro’s field! He then brought out Card Trooper, knocked three cards off the deck to pump the Trooper, and attacked before setting a spell or trap and passing. Lazaro summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked the Trooper before setting a monster and passing. Glass activated Magical Stone Excavation for Reasoning, and Glass activated it. Lazaro correctly called 8, eliminating Dark Magician of Chaos (the top card of Glass’ deck), and Lazaro tributed for Mobius next turn and attacked for game! Marc Glass loses game 1 with comparable speed to how he was winning it just the day before!

Between games, we learned that Kris had helped Glass to build his deck for this event, the main difference between the two being that Glass was playing Dasher. It was Glass’ turn to start, and he opened up with Reinforcement of the Army to fetch Elemental Hero Stratos. Stratos was summoned and fetched Malicious, and then Glass activated Card Destruction, dropping two Magical Stone Excavation, Lightning Vortex, Card Trooper, and Malicious. The second Malicious came out in defense position, and Glass set a spell or trap before ending. Lazaro now had Confiscation, and he activated it to reveal Card Trooper, Divine Sword — Phoenix Blade, Jinzo, and Royal Decree. Lazaro pitched the Trooper and set a pair of spells or traps along with a monster to finish out his turn. Glass chained Royal Decree in his end phase, and then tributed Malicious for Jinzo. Trap cards definitely weren’t going to be activated this turn.

Glass then activated his Phoenix Blade and attacked, only to reveal Spirit Reaper. Glass tried to clear it with Lightning Vortex, but Book of Moon saved the day.  The Reaper was tributed for Mobius to blow away Blade and Decree, and Mobius hit Stratos. Lazaro set another card and ended his turn. Glass drew into Reasoning and activated it. Lazaro called 8, but Dasher came down instead! Glass tributed Malicious to pump the Dasher and attacked over Mobius, leaving Jinzo free to swing directly. Lazaro needed a monster or anything else that wasn’t a trap and could hold off monsters, but he didn’t get anything. In the next turn, Glass summoned Diamond Dude and finished the job, pushing this final match to a third game!

This match was blazing by with two very short games already completed. The players now side decked, likely for the last time of the event. Lazaro had the option to go first for this game, and he started with a set to each zone. Stratos came down for the third time of the match, this time searching out Diamond Dude. It was quickly blasted by Ring of Destruction, and Glass set a spell or trap before passing. Lazaro summoned Spirit Reaper, but Threatening Roar stopped it from being an issue this turn. Diamond Dude came down for Glass next turn, but he missed on his effect and fell to Sakuretsu Armor. In main phase two, Glass used Vortex to clear the Reaper from the field and pitched a Malicious. A new Malicious hit the field, and Glass set a spell or trap before passing. Lazaro activated Brain Control on Malicious and tributed it for Mobius, but Torrential Tribute cleared the field! Lazaro set a spell or trap and passed to Glass, who started by bringing out his final Malicious in attack position. He swung for 800, and Lazaro took the damage. He picked up Zaborg next turn, but couldn’t summon him. He instead set Winged Kuriboh and passed to Marc, who used Heavy Storm to clear Lazaro’s Sakuretsu Armor. Reinforcement of the Army brought Diamond Dude to the field, but he missed again. He did manage to hit the Winged Kuriboh, wasting its game-breaking effect and denying Lazaro the ability to tribute next turn. Lazaro drew another non-monster and he set it to his spell and trap zone. Diamond Dude activated again next turn, but this time he hit Destiny Draw! Dude attacked directly, and Lazaro simply passed his turn. Glass got to draw three cards next turn, and things looked really bad for Lazaro.