Richard Treadwell is an accomplished Yu-Gi-Oh! veteran who placed in the Top 4 of Shonen Jump Durham earlier this year. David Simon is better known as the online personality "F00B". He was part of the original Team Savage and frequently traveled and competed with Evan Vargas, among others.
David won the die roll and chose to play first. Both players remained relatively simple in their words with each other, only noting where their side decks and fusion decks were. Both seemed serious about performing at their best today.
David started the game with a set card in each zone. Richard opened with Graceful Charity, to which David had no responses. He discarded Magician of Faith and Night Assailant, and the assailant returned the Spellcaster to his hand. Richard then played Mystical Space Typhoon, blowing up Sakuretsu Armor. He special summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked into Spirit Reaper. He set a monster in main phase 2 and ended with one face down card in his spell and trap zone, a set monster, and Cyber Dragon.
David set two cards in his spell and trap zone and passed. Richard flip summoned his Magician of Faith to return Graceful Charity, looking to do more digging into his deck. He attacked Magician of Faith into Spirit Reaper and then played Enemy Controller targeting the Reaper, but David chained with Book of Moon to save his Zombie. Richard let out a sigh and passed his turn.
David set another monster during his turn and ended. Richard opened the following turn with Graceful Charity, pitching Return from the Different Dimension and Cyber Dragon. He tributed Magician of Faith for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, blowing up the face down Reaper. He played Nobleman of Crossout on David's face down Spirit Reaper, and Zaborg swung in for damage. Cyber Dragon was switched to defense position in a hope of avoiding a possible Mirror Force.
David opened his next turn with Mystical Space Typhoon to wipe away Richard's Bottomless Trap Hole. David special summoned Cyber Dragon and took out Richard's Cyber Dragon. David set a card behind Cyber Dragon and ended his turn.
Richard swung his Zaborg into David's Cyber Dragon, set one monster and one card behind it, and ended his turn. David removed a Reaper and Cyber Dragon to special summon a Chaos Sorcerer, which immediately removed the Zaborg Richard had from play. David set another back row card and ended with one card in hand. Richard followed this example, matching two face down spells or traps and an ended turn with one card in hand, but he had two face-down monsters. David set a monster and ended his turn. During the next turn he flip summoned Magical Merchant and milled (italic)seven(italic) monsters before drawing a Nobleman of Crossout, much to Richard's delight. David was sitting at 5300 to Richard's 8000 life points. David could only end his turn after his self-destructive Magical Merchant.
Ricahard summoned Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive to destroy the Magical Merchant. He followed up with Magical Merchant in main phase 2, keeping his complete advantage over David. David set another spell or trap and ended with no monsters.
"I need a Mobius," said Richard as he entered his battle phase, attacking directly with Dekoichi. David was still holding on to his Nobleman of Crossout, reluctant to play it until he could go on the offensive. David played Premature Burial, bringing him down to 1900, to special summon his old Chaos Sorcerer. He chose to remove Dekoichi with Chaos Sorcerer, and then played his Crossout on a face-down Tomato of Richards. David ended with Chaos Sorcerer and three back row cards.
Richard spent some time pondering David's options, hoping to make the best possible play. He looked through David's graveyard, and then decided that Snatch Steal was the right play over his Smashing Ground that he was holding on to. Snatch Steal ripped Chaos Sorcerer from David's field. David decided to put it into defense mode with Enemy Controller so he could see another turn. Richard simply set another monster and ended his turn. He was still sitting at a full 8000 life points.
David gained the needed 1000 life points from Richard's Snatch Steal and decided to Snatch it right back. He removed his own Chaos Sorcerer when it came back to his field, set one card in his spell or trap zone, and ended his turn at 2900 life points.
Richard flip summoned Magician of Faith to cycle through three more cards with Graceful Charity. He discarded Treeborn Frog and Sakuretsu Armor. He dug into a Heavy Storm, and opted to play it, which would have him break even with 3 cards for David's three face down cards. David, concerned about losing that turn, played Return from the Different Dimension (going to 1450) in response to get some defenders in the form of Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reapers, and an attack mode Chaos Sorcerer. David lost Mirror Force and another card while Richard lost Torrential Tribute. Richard set another monster and a card behind it, ending his turn and allowing David's board to be removed from play again. David drew and set a monster, ending his turn. Richard set another spell or trap, ending his turn. No life point changes were made. David tribute summoned his face down Tsukuyomi (poor Tsukuyomi) to summon Cyber Dragon, which attacked into a Mirror Force when he attempted to smack Richard's Magician of Faith. David could only end his turn with a face down spell or trap, ending his turn and possibly contemplating a Call of the Haunted.
Richard flip summoned Sangan, Spirit Reaper, and went on the offensive with Magician of Faith as well. This forced a second Return from the Different Dimension from David, stopping Richard's attacks. He ended his turn and the monsters from David's field vanished again. David drew his next card and conceded with no other outs.
Richard: 1 David: 0
Both players went through the side-decking process. The table judge, Jeff Yuschak, announced that 22 minutes had passed in the round, causing a groan of concern to come from David Simon. After a few minutes of side decking, both players were ready after counting their side-decks. Both players shuffled up and got ready for the second game.
"That Merchant was amazing," said Simon, commenting on his earlier game. "I really needed monsters at that point, so losing seven of them was painful." This was truly a huge blow to David, as he lost threats he could have summoned such as Zaborg the Thunder Monarch among others. Richard noted that outside of the advantageous Graceful Charity in his opening hand, he had very few good cards to use. This would be one of the reasons why that round lasted for a little over twenty minutes.
The second game went underway with both players having two face-down cards in the spell or trap zone and Richard with a set monster. David special summoned Cyber Dragon during his second turn and attacked into Sakuretsu Armor. He set a monster in main phase 2 and ended. Richard flip summoned Dekoichi the BattleChanted Locomotive to draw a card, and then followed up with Nobleman of Crossout on Magician of Faith, eliminating all copies from both players' decks.
Richard attacked directly with Dekoichi, scoring 1400 damage out of David's life points. He followed up with a set card in the spell or trap zone and ended. David used a face down Dust Tornado on Richard's new card, a Mystical Space Typhoon of his, during the end phase. David went with Premature Burial on Cyber Dragon, but was hit with a Dust Tornado. He set a monster and spell or trap, and ended. "Not getting any love over there?" questioned Richard.
"Oh, yeah . . . " said a very unconcerned David.
He had no reason for being concerned, as a smacked Morphing Jar that David had set on the field netted both players new hands. David followed up Richard's painful turn with a Graceful Charity, discarding Night Assailant and a Dekoichi that was returned to his hand through the Assailant's effect. After all of the explosive card drawing, David set a monster and ended with six fresh cards in his hand. Richard sat at five cards in hand after his next turn's draw, and summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior. The summon resolved, and Richard removed the spell counter from Breaker and targeted David Simon's Book of Moon, which flipped the Breaker face-down. Richard played his second Nobleman of Crossout, nailing David's Dekoichi and causing all copies from both player's decks to be removed. Richard got to attack directly with his shockingly still alive Dekoichi, bringing David down to 4400 compared to Richard's 8000 life points.
David opened up the following turn with a special summoned Cyber Dragon, which attacked into Richard's Dekoichi. This was the first bit of damage David got to score this match. David set a card behind Cyber Dragon and ended his turn. Richard tributed his face down Breaker and summoned Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, blowing up Cyber Dragon. The Zaborg attacked, and David Simon flipped up Sakuretsu Armor. Richard simply flipped up Royal Decree, negating David's trap card and bringing David down to 2000 life points. Richard set another card face down and ended with one card in hand.
David opened his next turn with Chaos Sorcerer, removing Cyber Dragon and Night Assailant, and removed the Zaborg from the game. "Geez . . ." said Richard, as he stared down David's five cards in his hand. Richard set a monster and ended. David played Nobleman of Crossout and nailed Spirit Reaper from Richard, and an attacking Chaos Sorcerer triggered Richard's Scapegoat. The next few turns were spent on blowing up goats until David tribute summoned Zaborg to destroy Richard's newly set Night Assailant.
Richard went for the win with a Snatch Steal on David's Zaborg, and attacked into a Scapegoat. This was bad for Richard since it gave David another thousand life points and allowed him to maintain tempo in the game. David attempted to re-Snatch his own Zaborg, but Richard's Book of Moon kept Zaborg on his side of the field.
Play sped up as time for the round wound down, with Richard attempting to push for a win and David maintaining control of the game's tempo. Breaker was summoned on David's side of the field, and it destroyed Richard's Royal Decree. Breaker then attacked into Richard's face down D. D. Warrior Lady, and Richard opted not to remove. With Decree off of the field, he set three cards in his spell or trap zone and ended his turn. "There are two minutes left in the round!' shouted table judge Jeff to the players in the featured match area.
Richard attacked David's Breaker with his Zaborg and scored 800 points of damage. He set a card behind the D. D. Warrior Lady and ended his turn, and David flipped up an end phase Call of the Haunted in order to get back his Chaos Sorcerer. Richard had no responses. David looked for his options to win, and entered his battle phase with a Return from the Different Dimension, special summoning his Cyber Dragon and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Richard simply flipped up Ceasefire and claimed the game from David as soon as the monsters hit the field.
Richard: 2 David: 0