With no big-name versus big-name matchups here in Round 1, I had an opportunity to feature a new deck we’ve never seen before. Luke Patterson is locally renowned as an innovator, and today he’s playing a deck combining Lightsworn, Volcanics, and Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest all in a single strategy. I can’t wait to see if this thing can actually work. Patterson’s deck employs a unique strategy, filling his graveyard with copies of Volcanic Counter, Volcanic Shell, and Necro Gardna to control the game. Today he’s representing Lucky’s Card Shop in Greensborough.
His opponent is David Callen, a nineteen-year-old duelist from Chesterfield, South Carolina. He’s playing a Spellcaster deck here today teched to retain field presence: Injection Fairy Lily, Magical Dimension, and a plethora of defensive cards complement fan favorites like Dark Magician. This feature match was going to be a nice reprieve from the inevitable TeleDAD mirror matches.
Callen opened with Skilled Dark Magician and set a spell or trap to his back row. Patterson opened with Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest, Morphing Jar, Necro Gardna, Volcanic Shell, Burial from a Different Dimension, and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. He went for the early game advantage—setting Morphing Jar, Wind Blast, and Burial—and ended. If he could get that Jar off, all three of his remaining cards would be locked and loaded in his graveyard.
Callen made the right read, setting a second spell or trap before summoning another Skilled Dark. He sent one Skilled Dark to attack Morphing Jar and lost it to Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, then Patterson discarded Volcanic Shell. The second Skilled Dark attacked the Jar, and Callen flipped Divine Wrath to discard Dark Magician and negate Morphing Jar’s effect! It would hold Patterson in check, but for how long? The extra cards from that Shell would threaten to add up.
Play was to Patterson, who paid 500 life points to get another Shell from his deck and set Necro Gardna. Callen summoned a third Skilled Dark, attacked Necro Gardna, and lost his second attack to Necro Gardna’s effect. Patterson was up, and he had Green Baboon, Volcanic Shell, another Burial, and Pot of Avarice in his hand. He paid another 500 life points to fetch his third Shell: he really had no offense going whatsoever, so he set one Shell to try and block Callen’s beatdown.
Next turn Callen summoned Injection Fairy Lily! One Skilled Dark attacked Volcanic Shell, and when the second attacked, Patterson flipped Burial from a Different Dimension, trying to get back his Necro Gardna. He had 7000 life points left, but Callen chained Magic Drain! Patterson discarded Pot of Avarice to force it through, brought Necro Gardna back to his graveyard, and took the 1800 from Skilled Dark. He then used Necro Gardna to block Lily’s attack.
He set a card to each zone next turn and ended. “Go for it.” Callen activated Monster Reborn to target his Dark Magician on the turn that followed and Patterson had nothing to stop it! Skilled Dark Magician took down another Necro Gardna. Patterson took 1800 damage from the second one, activated Burial, chained Necro Gardna, and blocked both Dark Magician and Lily as a result.
Charge of the Light Brigade next turn sent Torrential Tribute, Nimble Momonga, and The Transmigration Prophecy to the graveyard from Patterson’s deck, letting him fetch Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. He set Ryko, still holding Green Baboon. “It’s all you.” He had one Necro Gardna left in his graveyard, and if he could get Baboon to the table he’d have solid control over this match.
Callen summoned Magical Exemplar. The Exemplar attacked Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and its effect sent Royal Oppression, another Momonga, and Blaze Accelerator to the graveyard, destroying Injection Fairy Lily. But Patterson didn’t summon Green Baboon! He totally goofed: with Lily gone, nothing would be able to attack over the monkey. Callen had two Skilled Dark Magician cards and one Dark Magician left to attack with, and since his opponent had only one Necro Gardna in the graveyard Patterson went down!
David Callen scores an upset with Spellcasters, swarming the field and striking for game with Dark Magician! Who would’ve guessed?! Patterson would realize his misplay later, and many face-palms would ensue.
In the meantime he opened Game 2 with Hand Destruction, Necro Gardna, Legendary Jujitsu Master, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Card Trooper, and Bottomless Trap Hole. He set Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, set Bottomless Trap Hole, and ended. “Go for it.” Callen activated Swords of Revealing Light and flipped Ryko, and Ryko sent Necro Gardna, Volcanic Counter, and Torrential Tribute to the graveyard to destroy the Swords!
Giant Trunade let Callen clear the field, and he discarded Dark Magician and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer for Magical Stone Excavation, taking back Swords of Revealing Light. He activated Monster Reborn to bring back Dark Magician, attacked Ryko, and then played the Swords—he was out of in-hand cards on his first turn! What was he thinking? Patterson set a card to each zone on the turn that followed: Dark Magician ran into Legendary Jujitsu Master, and was sent back to the top of the deck to become a terrible draw next turn. Callen set a monster.
Patterson summoned Card Trooper, sending Card Destruction, Burial, and another Ryko to the graveyard to boost it to 1900 ATK. He set another card to his back row and ended, and next turn when Callen flip-summoned Magician’s Valkyrie she was swallowed up by Bottomless Trap Hole. Patterson sent Magical Cylinder, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and Volcanic Shell to the graveyard to power up Card Trooper, then paid 500 life points to get another Shell from his deck. He set Sangan, and passed with a hand of Morphing Jar, Necro Gardna, Hand Destruction, and the Shell.
Callen passed his next turn, and Patterson flip summoned Sangan. He sent Legendary Jujitsu Master, Mirror Force, and Blaze Accelerator to the graveyard to power up Trooper, then attacked for 2900 damage. This game was all Patterson’s: conservative play would give him an easy win with the number of control effects at his deck’s disposal.
Lily came down for Callen next turn and he opted not to attack with her. Patterson drew another Necro Gardna, then flipped Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to discard a Gardna and spin away Lily. Torrential Tribute, Volcanic Rocket, and another Hand Destruction boosted Trooper, and Callen suffered another 2900 damage. “Go ahead.”
Callen summoned Lily again, attacked Card Trooper, and bumped heads—both monsters went down and Patterson got a draw. This was a slaughter: Callen just kept giving away card advantage. Patterson activated Pot of Avarice next turn, shuffling back Card Trooper, Volcanic Rocket, two copies of Legendary Jujitsu Master, and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter to draw two more cards—Nimble Momonga and Rocket. He summoned Rocket and swung for game, not needing to search out Blaze Accelerator in order to win.
Luke Patterson recovers from a rocky start, pressing this match to a third game! Callen would need to play far better than that if he was going to take this match: I don’t often preach conservative play styles, but Game 2 was a textbook example of an over-committed early game resulting in utter ruin. Both competitors did a bit more siding and wished each other luck as Game 3 began.
Callen opened with two set cards to his back row, gave a slight shake of his head, and ended. “Draw,” announced Patterson confidently. “Charge of the Light Brigade.” He sent Volcanic Counter, Nimble Momonga, and Volcanic Shell to his graveyard, then searched out Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. It was a huge hit for his graveyard presence! He set one card to each zone and ended, not paying for the Shell’s effect. He’d later explain that after the beatdown rush in Game 1, he didn’t want to pay the 500 life points. He had no way to immediately make use of another Shell and had another in hand, plus he had plenty of ways to send it from his deck to his graveyard anyways.
Callen set a third spell or trap, and Patterson destroyed it next turn with Ryko—it was Magic Drain. Patterson summoned Nimble Momonga, but rushed right into Mirror Force! He set a spell or trap and ended, and then Callen passed.
Patterson set another Ryko, then paid 500 life points to search out his third Shell. Callen set another spell or trap card, seeming to suffer from terrible draws, and Patterson flipped Ryko, targeting Callen’s face-down Divine Wrath. Callen chained it, discarding Dark Magician and destroying Ryko: he really didn’t have anything else to do with Dark Magician, but abandoning the prospect of Magical Dimension seemed risky anyways. That left Patterson to flip Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, discarding Necro Gardna to clear the field.
Callen’s discard came back to bite him almost immediately: Patterson activated Monster Reborn and took Dark Magician! Holding two Burials and two Volcanic Shell cards he attacked with Dark Magician, then set Burial to end. Callen needed to get some action going, but could only set another spell or trap next turn. He took another 2500 damage from Dark Magician. “That’s all I got for you,” remarked Patterson.
Callen flipped Phoenix Wing Wind Blast discarding Magical Dimension, and spun away Patterson’s face-down spell or trap. He summoned Injection Fairy Lily, tributed her for another Dimension, and destroyed Dark Magician to special summon Dark Magician Girl!
Dark Magician Girl attacked for 2300 damage, but Patterson removed Volcanic Counter to deal the same amount of damage to Callen! Callen had just 700 life points remaining, and since he didn’t realize that Patterson was packing Burial, he didn’t realize the deep trouble he was now mired in. If Patterson made the right plays this was academic.
Sure enough, Patterson delivered: he activated Burial from a Different Dimension, returning Counter to his graveyard! He summoned Volcanic Shell, attacked into Dark Magician Girl, and removed Volcanic Counter to end the duel and the match!
Luke Patterson scores up his first win here today with a flashy finish, recovering from a Game 1 stumble to come back and clinch victory with Volcanic Counter! Very cool.