With three Shonen Jump Championship Top 8 appearances under his belt, the fourth time was the charm for Levitin. He waded through a sea of 428 other duelists, duking it out with Kirk Leonhardt, Jonathan Navarro, and finally Angel Flores to win the prized Des Volstgalph, a brand-spanking-new laptop, and the distinction of being a Shonen Jump Champion. Piloting Team Scoop’s Return from the Different Dimension deck, he blazed through competition with an innovative win condition and the skill to back it up.

The event itself played host to many cool new decks, many of which are detailed in the event coverage. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out here.

Congratulations to all the competitors at Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles, especially our new Champion Paul Levitin! Shonen Jump Championship San Francisco is just three weeks away, and the West Coast is already getting revved up. Several Top 8 competitors from this weekend (like Kirk Leonhardt and Paul Levitin himself) will be in attendance, so it’s bound to be a star-studded competition!

League Kit Prizes Even More Impressive Than Anticipated!

The new Yu-Gi-Oh! Hobby League kits debuted at Gen Con So Cal this weekend, and in addition to the much-desired Parallel Rare Cyber Jar prize cards the kits contain cool Yu-Gi-Oh! deck boxes and a copy of the past year’s Judge-only play mat!

That’s right: if you’ve seen those cool Vampire Genesis play mats at tournaments that a select few have been sporting, but you haven’t been able to judge a major premier event to get one yourself, you’ll have a shot at getting one in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Hobby League. Check out the Hobby Store Locator over on the official TCG site to find a participating store near you, and get ready for some heated weekly competition!

As a side note, rumors of a new judge-exclusive playmat abound and have been tentatively confirmed. Details about the mat, as well as a release date, have not yet been given.

Elemental Energy Special Edition Just One Week Away

Special Edition boxes of Elemental Energy will ship to retail stores and suppliers on November 28, just one week from today! Packed with three Elemental Energy packs and an exclusive secret rare reprint promo card, they’re the best Elemental Energy deal for your dueling dollar.

Four promo cards have been remade as secret rare foils for the special edition sets: Silent Swordsman LV5, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8, The Creator, and a particularly stunning Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys! Check local retailers in your area next week to pick up yours.

This Week On Metagame.com

This week we’ve got some in-depth looks at new cards, old cards, and a bad case of Ojama fever!

Mike Rosenberg heads up the week with a massive profile of the Dark World cards. Elemental Energy isn’t just about Pot of Avarice and new Elemental Heroes—the Dark World cards are the latest thing to make an impact on Yu-Gi-Oh! and they’ll be legal for play at the next Shonen Jump Championship. Join Mike as he blows the lid off of this complicated pool of cards, and shows you just what you can do with each of them.

Jerome McHale provides your first taste of Ojama deliciousness this week, creating an Elemental Hero deck that exploits the synergy between Ojama Trio and Level Limit – Area A. Elemental Hero Wildedge teams up with Gyaku-Gire Panda to lay some serious smackdown on opponents with virtually-direct attacks, and the omissions from the deck are just as interesting as the cards Jerome opts to include. Check it out on Tuesday, and then come back on Wednesday for . . .

 . . . more Ojama madness! I’ll be fixing a deck called Cyber Swarm, which aims to flip Ojama Trio, special summon Cyber Dragon for free, bring out Fiend Megacyber without tributing, and then summon a third monster all in a single turn. My Ojama fever is rivaled only by my case of Panda Pox*, and I'll trick out the reader’s deck with an ample supply of Panda power. Fast fact: “GG” stands for “good game” and “Gyaku-Gire.” Coincidence? I think not.

Julia Hedberg follows up with an especially useful volume of Solid Ground this Thursday, when she explores some of the game’s powerful promo cards. The catch? Julia not only examines powerful monsters, spells, and traps, but also reveals where these cards were released. Locating them can often be a challenge, and Julia takes all the guesswork out of the process—so you can have a leg up in your hunt for D. D. Assailant, Widespread Ruin, and many more.

Jae Kim rounds up the week with another installment in his ongoing series on attribute-themed decks. This week, Jae looks at Dark decks and explores the realm of Mystic Tomato and its shadowy little pals. It’s classic deckbuilding from one of the best players in the game, and it’s only here on Metagame.com.

Check back each day for more exciting articles. Just like last week, we’ve got a few surprises in the works. Remember that the weekend of December 10 is the next Shonen Jump Championship, so mark the date on your calendar. You won’t want to miss any of the hard-hitting action as 2005 comes to its dueling conclusion!

Until next week, stay safe and play hard.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Contributing Editor, Metagame.com

*Did you ever notice how “fever” easily communicates some sort of positive craziness, but no other disease does? I mean . . . honestly, would you want a disease called “Panda Pox”?