Both of these duelists have made multiple Shonen Jump Championship Day 2’s, and both call Texas home. Jonathan Moore is playing Six Samurai, his signature deck, and the Plano duelist lives a scant thirty minutes from Chris Bowling in Arlington. Bowling was playing a Diamond Dude Turbo build, and while both duelists had respectable X-1 records here today Moore had a recent Regional win over Bowling at Waco a few weeks ago. It was a fact Moore was happy to remind Bowling of.

He won the roll and opened with a set card to each zone. “Your move.” Bowling activated Swords of Revealing Light, flipping up Moore’s face-down The Six Samurai – Yaichi. “It destroys face-downs, right?”

“Yup, face-downs,” confirmed Moore, describing Yaichi’s effect. Bowling ended, and next turn Moore summoned The Six Samurai – Kamon to destroy Swords of Revealing Light! Reasoning got him another Yaichi, he special summoned Great Shogun Shien, and the Yaichis and Shien attacked for 5100 damage total! Moore was in control.

But Bowling had an answer: he discarded Jinzo for Lightning Vortex and wiped the field clean. Premature Burial brought back the Jinzo he’d discarded, and the android attacked for a clean 2400 damage. “I’ll end.”

“I got you,” announced Moore. He flipped his set Heavy Storm, special summoned Enishi, Shien’s Chancellor and normal summoned Spirit of the Six Samurai! Thanks to Premature Burial that was just enough damage to end the duel and Moore took the win.

Both competitors dove for their side decks, and Moore hummed cheerily as he shuffled up. He finished siding long before Bowling did. After some deliberation Bowling got the second duel started.

He searched for Stratos with Reinforcement of the Army, then summoned him to get Diamond Dude. He set Trap Dustshoot, Moore activated Reasoning and Bowling chained the Dustshoot to get a peek at his opponent’s hand before making Reasoning’s call!  It revealed Moore’s hand of Shien, Call of the Haunted, two Yaichi and Torrential Tribute. Bowling called Level 4, confident that the skew on Yaichi would make it a good guess. Sure enough, Moore flipped over The Six Samurai – Irou immediately. It was sent to the graveyard and Moore could do nothing but set what was assumedly Torrential Tribute.

Bowling activated Destiny Draw next turn, discarding Destiny Hero – Malicious. “Wow, you’re winning,” noted a slightly beleaguered Moore. Bowling considered his plays. He could summon Diamond Dude and activate his effect with priority, drawing out the Torrential Tribute and maybe getting a free spell out of the deal, but the question was whether to attack with Stratos first or not. The decision hinged on whether or not Bowling thought Moore had set Call over Torrential, and if he believed Moore had set Torrential, whether or not he thought Moore would activate it. He went for the big damage, summoning Diamond Dude, and sent Reinforcement of the Army to the graveyard! Moore didn’t respond, and Bowling attached Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade to Diamond Dude. Diamond Dude and Stratos both made direct attacks and Bowling passed.

Moore topped into Reasoning and Bowling called five, guessing right again! Grandmaster of the Six Samurai was sent to the graveyard. Moore set a card to each zone and Bowling punished him by activating Heavy Storm. He summoned another Diamond Dude, flipped up a free Lightning Vortex for next turn and ended. Moore’s only hope would be to top into Enishi, and moment’s later he was scooping up.

The match moved to game 3! “That chain of Dustshoot to Reasoning was a nice move,” noted Moore, congratulating his opponent. Both duelists clearly wanted this win, but civility didn’t take a backseat and it was clear both competitors respected each other.

Moore drew and opened with a set card to each zone. “Your move.” Bowling searched out Stratos with Reinforcement of the Army, summoned Diamond Dude instead and flipped Malicious with Diamond Dude’s effect. It attacked and destroyed Moore’s face-down Kamon. Moore set two more cards to his back row, summoned The Six Samurai – Zanji and attacked Diamond Dude to finish.

Bowling summoned Stratos, searched out the Malicious he’d placed on the bottom of his deck, and then discarded Malicious for Lightning Vortex. Zanji was destroyed. Stratos attacked for 1800 damage and Bowling passed with nothing set.

“Here we go!” Moore perked up. He activated Six Samurai United, and then flipped Call of the Haunted to bring back Zanji. He summoned Yaichi, sent away United to draw two cards, and then sent Zanji to attack Stratos. It was an even match, and Yaichi took the fall in Zanji’s place thanks to the Six Samurai effect. Moore finished out by setting two more cards to his back row.

Next turn Bowling removed his in-graveyard Malicious to special summon the other copy from his deck in defense mode. He activated Reasoning and Moore responded with Solemn Judgment! He dropped to 3100 life points, while Bowling had 7600 remaining. Bowling activated Monster Gate, but another Solemn negated it! Moore was down to 1550.

Bowling normal summoned Destiny Hero – Diamond Dude, activated him, and flipped Dark Magician of Chaos! He had nothing left in his hand but Lightning Vortex and D.D.M. - Different Dimension Master. He discarded D.D.M. for Vortex, and a third Solemn negated it too! Bowling had nothing left but his on-field Diamond Dude. “Ummm . . .” he paused and thought a moment. “Go.”

Moore drew and set another spell or trap. Zanji attacked Diamond Dude and play was back to Bowling. He had 7400 life points remaining and passed with an open field. Moore summoned Yaichi, attacked with both him and Zanji, and ended. Bowling had 4100 life points left to his opponent’s 775.

Bowling drew, set one card to his back row, and activated his last card, Allure of Darkness — he drew Gold Sarcophagus and Dimension Fusion, and had to discard both! It was like Bowling had just discovered the sadistic answer to some sort of sick riddle along the lines of, “When is it bad to draw Gold Sarcophagus?” Next turn Moore activated Yaichi, Bowling chained Threatening Roar, and Moore brought down Grandmaster of the Six Samurai! A turn later it was all over, and Moore was the victor.

Triple Solemn Judgment locks the match for Jonathan Moore, all thanks to Six Samurai United!