Nick Arroyo is from Long Island, playing with the team known as BTA. At just fourteen years of age, he’s a student at Kellenberg High. This is his first Shonen Jump Championship, but a mix of raw skill tempered with a commanding table presence has brought him here, to a 5-0 record.

Christopher Foster is a lone gun. Fifteen years old, he’s here without a team backing him up, but his innovative Machine deck has made him undefeated here today. Similar to builds run by Frank Debrito and Jason Zigander of Team Nexus, his deck is the only undefeated Machine deck of the day.

Wow. And to think he actually had competition in that category.

Foster opened the match by summoning Cyber Phoenix and setting a spell or trap card. Arroyo activated Graceful Charity, discarding Spirit Reaper and Scapegoat. He activated Confiscation, revealing Foster’s hand: Nobleman of Crossout, Heavy Storm, Smashing Ground, and Premature Burial. “What a hand,” he commented, debating over the choice of what to discard. After some brief deliberation he chose Smashing Ground. He then special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Spirit Reaper, and attacked the Phoenix with Dragon. Foster drew a card for Cyber Phoenix’s effect, and when Spirit Reaper attacked it hit nothing but Scapegoat. Arroyo set a spell or trap and passed. Foster set one too and passed back.

Arroyo turned Reaper to defense and hit a Sheep with Cyber Dragon, leaving Foster with two tokens. Foster passed back, Cyber Dragon ate a third Sheep, and Foster set a monster. Arroyo summoned Mystic Tomato, but lost his field to Torrential Tribute! Foster lost his Sheep and his set D. D. Warrior Lady. Arroyo passed.

Foster activated Heavy Storm, wiping away his opponent’s Mirror Force. He summoned Cyber-Stein, and Arroyo muttered a curse. He used its effect to special summon Cyber Twin Dragon, activated Premature Burial to bring up D. D. Warrior Lady, and attacked with Cyber Twin Dragon twice, Cyber Stein once, and D. D. Warrior Lady for game!

Christopher Foster steals the first duel!

Both duelists began examining their decks for side decking opportunities. Arroyo muttered about Cyber-Stein, eliciting a response from his opponent.

“Hey, it’s a Machine deck,” said Foster with a slight grin. “Why can’t I use Cyber-Stein?” Arroyo just kept on side decking, not breaking the silence for a while.

“Did you topdeck the Stein?” he asked.

“No, I had it for a while,” replied Foster. He’d drawn into it just one or two turns after Arroyo had activated Confiscation. Arroyo had been trying to force out the Heavy Storm that he knew Foster had, but it had backfired and now he was down a game. Still, it was just one duel and he was opening the second.

He did so with a spell or trap card and no monster. Foster summoned Sangan and attacked with it, passing with no set spell or trap cards. Arroyo passed back, and Foster activated Graceful Charity. He tossed Nobleman of Crossout (he already had another in his hand) off the top and tossed his second after a moment of thought. He set a card to each zone, Sangan attacked again, and play was to Arroyo.

He special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and broke Royal Decree. Cyber Dragon attacked Foster’s set monster, Magician of Faith, and it got back Graceful Charity. Breaker then attacked Foster’s Sangan, and he used it to pull Cannon Soldier.

“Scapegoat’s in your hand?” 

“Maybe,” replied Foster. Nope. He did have Last Will in his hand and Cyber-Stein in his deck. Arroyo was very visibly trying to make the scary read, and it wasn’t working. He passed.

Foster activated Graceful Charity, discarding Cyber Dragon and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. He special summoned Cyber Dragon, removed a Light and a Dark for Chaos Sorcerer, and removed Arroyo’s Dragon with priority. His Dragon then attacked Breaker the Magical Warrior, and the LP totals were 7400 to 5500 with Foster leading. He set a monster, set two back row cards, and passed. He had the Will and Cannon Soldier left in his hand, ready to go.

Arroyo activated Snatch Steal, taking Chaos Sorcerer. He asked to see Foster’s graveyard, inspected it for a moment, and then removed Foster’s Cyber Dragon from the field with the stolen Sorcerer. He passed.

Foster gained his 1000 LP, flip summoned Dekoichi, and turned it back face down with Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi bounced back to his hand and he ended.

“There we go,” said Arroyo, looking pleased with his draw. He summoned Shining Angel and activated Creature Swap. Foster chained Scapegoat to stymie the combo! Arroyo got a Sheep token for his Shining Angel. Sorcerer attacked Shining Angel, but Foster tributed the Angel for Enemy Controller to take the Chaos Sorcerer for the duration of the turn. It denied Arroyo his pull of a Light monster from his deck, and he ended his turn somewhat disappointed.

Foster gained 1000 LP yet again, leaving the game at 9400 to 5500. Foster flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive again, drew another card, and attacked to destroy Arroyo’s one Sheep token. He then turned Dekoichi down with Tsukuyomi again before passing with one back row card set.

Arroyo shuffled his hand a bit and considered its contents. Not wanting to feed his opponent enough LP to activate Cyber-Stein twice in one duel, he removed the Sorcerer with its own effect. He set one back row card and passed.

Foster attacked with Dekoichi, and was holding Limiter Removal to boot. The train hit for 1400 damage, but when Foster tried the Tsukuyomi loop again he was stopped dead by Torrential. He activated Last Will in main phase 2 to bring out Reaper in defense position, and set one spell or trap. It seemed like a weak decision: it alienated Foster from the Last Will to Cyber-Stein play.

Arroyo special summoned Chaos Sorcerer then destroyed Foster’s Spirit Reaper with Smashing Ground. He summoned a Spirit Reaper of his own, and Foster tried to Torrential Tribute, but was stopped dead by Royal Decree. Arroyo looked quite happy with the turn of events, while Foster started shuffling his hand. Chaos Sorcerer attacked directly, Spirit Reaper discarded Foster’s Cannon Soldier and Arroyo passed with nothing set.

Smashing Ground ripped into his Chaos Sorcerer, and Foster summoned Reflect Bounder to attack Spirit Reaper and force through some damage. Foster set Limiter Removal. If Arroyo made the smart play, and ran Reaper into Reflect Bounder to destroy it, he’d lose.

But Arroyo didn’t. He activated Premature Burial, brought back Chaos Sorcerer, and removed the Reflect Bounder. Reaper then went to defense position. Foster seemed completely cut off from being able to deal damage.

He drew into Enemy Controller, and saw his chance. He summoned Cyber Phoenix, used Enemy Controller to destroy Reaper, and activated Heavy Storm! He chained to it himself, flipping his last card, Limiter Removal, to beef up his Phoenix to 2400 ATK.  The Phoenix attacked directly, and Foster won the match!

Christopher Foster moves on with a 6-0 record, packing an innovative Machine deck!