“The winners are the tops,” remarked Adrian sagely as he shuffled up Koen’s patriotic orange-sleeved deck. De Vries was wearing orange wristbands and t-shirt to match, and looked quite the picture as he readied himself to play. Orange pen at the ready, he shuffled up and drew his opening five.

He set a monster and a spell or trap and passed.

Adrian played Cyber Dragon, who was immediately tributed to play Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Koen responded with Skill Drain, drawing an “Oooh” from the assembled crowd. Zaborg had to kill Koen’s face down Shining Angel the old fashioned way, by attacking. He then played Confiscation, declaring, “This is way too hard! Why do you play these cards?” as he was forced to get rid of Newdoria.

Koen tried for a Creature Swap on his turn, but was thwarted by Scapegoat from his Polish opponent, which was met with a laugh. Majestic Mech – Ohka came next, and a Shining Angel.

On Adrian’s turn, he played Smashing Ground, then sent Mystic Tomato for Shining Angel, which fetched another, while Tomato found Sangan.

Koen had just Skill Drain in play to start the turn, and played Graceful Charity to find a little gas. He had to discard two cards to it, eventually electing to lose [Heavy Tornado] and Mystic Tomato. Ohka then came back and ate Sangan, who fetched Exiled Force.

A Smashing Ground from Koen took down Zaborg, who then had Cyber Dragon to beat up another goat. Adrian’s Chaos Sorcerer in answer was simply a large monster, without a lot of magic to him, but in the face of a rather unfortunate lack of monsters on Koen’s side of the field, it looked good enough.

The field filled up with Sheep tokens on the first attack, and it took Adrian two full turns to deal with them with his Sorcerer flanked by Shining Angel.

“You have a problem, my friend?” asked Madaj, as he viewed his opponent’s face following the draw. Koen didn’t respond immediately, simply playing Sangan, who quickly died in order to find Newdoria.

When Koen played Cyber Dragon and Newdoria, followed by Creature Swap, all Adrian could say was “That’s not nice,” as he lost a face down Spirit Reaper and some life points.

Using a Creature Swap of his own seemed far from pleasant, either, especially when it was a Shining Angel that got given to De Vries, only to be destroyed and replaced by another.

“Are you dead?” asked Adrian, who was really close to winning the game, but couldn’t quite make it.

“Not yet!” replied a chipper De Vries, as he saw a Zaborg, The Thunder Monarch hit the other side of the field.

On the attacks, he went down to 600. He set a Mirror Force the following turn, but it was all for naught, as a Heavy Storm from Adrian allowed him to attack unimpeded for the win.

For game two, Koen had no play beyond a turn one set spell or trap and pass. Meanwhile, Adrian went for an aggressive plan involving Shining Angel and an attack, which got through successfully. Following this Confiscation took a Magician of Faith from De Vries’ hand, and there was a set from the Pole.

Smashing Ground took down the angel, and then De Vries got to swing in with Spirit Reaper, getting a Chaos Sorcerer from his opponent’s hand, then flipping the Reaper into defence position (just in case) with Book of Moon.

A Mystical Space Typhoon on De Vries’ Enemy Controller came from Adrian, who followed up with Sangan, who attacked a face down Magician of Faith that found Smashing Ground for the fiend. De Vries played Cyber Dragon and attacked into it, causing it to find Exiled Force, which ultimately dealt with the dragon.

De Vries suddenly had a clear shot at his opponent, and took it with an attack from a fresh Sangan of his own. He carefully looked at the board, and used Book of Moon on his opponent’s Mystic Tomato the following turn, right before a Smashing Ground hit his three-eyed monster. It found D. D. Warrior Lady, and then the game stuttered a little as each player tried to rebuild.

Koen had Spirit Reaper, which successfully reaped a Royal Decree, then Koen followed up with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, who took down a speed blocker Mystic Tomato, and smashed to the face.

His back against the wall, Adrian went with Chaos Sorcerer, and removed the troublesome Monarch. From there though, Koen didn’t have much to do to take the game. He simply topdecked Mystic Tomato (like a pro, he would later declare), and used Creature Swap to secure a lethal attack.

The match would go down to the final game, and with such an innovative deck from the Dutchman, quite the crowd had formed waiting to see what would happen next.

Game three began with a Sangan attack from Koen, which was thwarted by a defence position Spirit Reaper from his opponent. Koen had set a single trap, and on Adrian’s turn, in response to Breaker trying to break it, used his Enemy Controller to kill off the reaper.

Koen had a Mystic Tomato, and a Creature Swap in order to kill his own tomato with Breaker, which in turn allowed a Spirit Reaper from his deck to spring forth and pluck a Smashing Ground Adrian’s hand.

A Confiscation, taking Exiled Force and leaving two tribute monsters in Adrian’s hand. Koen’s Spirit Reaper was beaten in by Otohime, accompanied by a cry of “The Reaper must go down!’” from Adrian, who was in fine form.

The momentum appeared to have shifted in the Pole’s favour, as he followed up shortly thereafter with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. In a position such as this, Koen had to draw well. There are many that would suggest that drawing into Graceful Charity is the best draw ever, and Adrian appeared to be among them as he surveyed Koen’s growing hand.

With a big beater on the other side of the board though, it didn’t seem good enough for Koen to have drawn all these extra cards. Heavy Storm cleared the spell row for Madaj, and he then smashed through with Zaborg once more.

Exiled Force seemed a good answer, but it was only a temporary one at best, as Madaj continued to apply the pressure with a Chaos Sorcerer, who seemed too scared to attack into Koen’s single trap. When that trap turned out to be a spell (in the form of Smashing Ground), this seemed a little unfortunate, but in another situation, it might well have been a very good play.

Koen built up a little time, and then drew a good many cards, thanks to Magician of Faith returning his Graceful Charity. Time was drawing tight on the match, and someone needed to break through soon. Koen played a Cyber Dragon and beat Madaj down to 3800, but had to admit, “That’s game,” when the Pole had a Snatch Steal with which to perform a more than lethal attack back.

Adrian Madaj wins, 2-1.