This past weekend we witnessed the final Shonen Jump Championship of the year. Light and Darkness Dragon reigned supreme, new cards were everywhere, and in a shocking turn of events we saw Fili Luna defend the title he won in San Mateo two years ago!
Fili Luna Wins Third Shonen Jump Title
What a weekend for Fili Luna. After a rough loss to Jerry Wang in his Round 1 feature match, Fili won out in Day 1 to take his place in the Top 16. Armed with a 45-card Light and Darkness Dragon deck, he overcame massive odds to earn a shot at defending his title—long-time readers might remember that Fili won his first taste of Shonen Jump Gold two years ago in the exact same convention center hall.
Once Fili got to Day 2, it was no cakewalk. His first opponent was American National Champion Adam Corn, whom he faced in one of the longest, most difficult matches of the tournament. From there, he dueled Charley La and his Volcanic Monarchs before competing against Chris Pittao. Finally, for the first time in Shonen Jump history, the Finals came down to the exact same match as Round 1 of Saturday: Fili had to take on Jerry Wang yet again. This time the outcome was different and Luna became dueling’s second three-time Shonen Jump Champion.
The Top 16 saw a whopping nine different strategies played, from predicted powerhouses like Light and Darkness Dragon and Macro Cosmos to more unique decks like Baboon Burn. Swing of Memories Demise OTK, Volcanic Monarchs, Zombies, and more darkhorse picks made it to Day 2, making for a lot of interesting matchups and an unpredictable field. The doors seem wide open for deckbuilders in the current format.
Missed the action? Be sure to check out our coverage from Day 1 and Day 2 to see how it all went down. With so many new decks and tech cards out there, the San Mateo coverage is practically a cheat sheet for the in-the-know duelist.
Big Shonen Jump Championship News!
One piece of news that we didn’t report from San Mateo came during the player meeting. Upper Deck Entertainment’s Jeff Piroozshad released some important information about upcoming Shonen Jumps in the new year, including one big surprise.
The next Shonen Jump will be held in Orlando on January 26th and 27th. It’s the 48th tournament in the Shonen Jump Championship series. After that, another Shonen will take place in Houston on February 23rd and 24th. You can already find that tournament listed online, though Orlando hasn’t been posted yet. Houston will be the 49th Shonen Jump Championship.
That means the third Shonen Jump of the year will be the 50th, a huge milestone for the tournament series. Piroozshad stated that while details were being finalized, the event is currently planned for March 8th and 9th in Orange County. The exciting part? There will be a variety of special factors that will make this event different from a regular Shonen Jump. Details will apparently be forthcoming, and Piroozshad quoted that the goal is to have this “be the largest SJC ever, and maybe even crack 1000 entries.” Sounds like UDE’s really going to be pulling out all the stops on this one!
This Week On Metagame.com
I got the week started yesterday, as I shared my recent revelations about just how great Spirit of the Six Samurai truly is. Sure, we all knew it was “good”, but a couple of key combos that took a while to dawn on me have raised my opinion of the card to stratospheric heights. What were those combos, and why am I so obsessed with this card lately? Click on over to find out.
Today, Jerome McHale builds a deck around one of the simple facts of this format: if you can drop two copies of Light and Darkness Dragon in a single duel, you probably win. Jerome’s assembled a strategy that makes repeated Dragons frighteningly easy thanks to a bunch of recently-released cards, and I really think this deck could have what it takes to win a Regional. With Light and Darkness Dragon doing so well at San Mateo, this article is a must-read.
On Wednesday, Curtis will work to bring you up to speed on the Gladiator Beasts and their equip spells. While the Gladiators’ effects may seem self-explanatory, there are some surprising intricacies when cards like Destiny Hero - Plasma or Skill Drain get involved. How does Divine Wrath affect the Gladiators, and how do Gladiator Beast equips interact with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast? Curtis will answer those questions and more tomorrow.
One day later, Matt Murphy will fix up a Fairy deck in The Apotheosis. Fairies have a lot going for them in the current format: a draw engine, access to big beatsticks, special summoning, and even some refined answers to Light and Darkness Dragon. The power they’ve gained from a handful of recent metagame trends makes them worthy of another look, and that’s exactly what Matt’s going to give them in this week’s deck fix. Can he make a combo-heavy Fairy build competitive?! We’ll find out on Thursday.
Friday, Bryan Camareno will grace us with an article that I guarantee half of you will stop reading midway through. With all the new cards that are now legal for big events, and all the different deck strategies floating around, tech is a big issue on the minds of competitive duelists. But Bryan’s going to take a rare stance on the subject, and I’d suggest reading his point of view quite carefully—he raises some interesting topics that could have a big impact on how you build decks.
Nathan Balcombe put forth an admirable showing at Shonen Jump Durham, playing a classic Return from the Different Dimension deck complete with three Bazoo cards, three D. D. Assailant cards, and all the rest of the usual trimmings, Balcombe’s deck lays the groundwork for successful, speedy strategies to come. Several decks made it to Day 2 in San Mateo due to their sheer speed, and that makes Balcombe’s deck worthy of investigation in Matt Peddle’s column, The Champions.
Finally, for all you Traditional players who thought that Light and Darkness Dragon antics were only for the Advanced format, Ryan Murphy’s got an awesome deck for you to tinker with this Sunday. In a format where single effects are frequently so much better, the ability to negate those effects rises in value as well, making Light and Darkness Dragon a top player in the format that started it all. For serious Traditional players this one seems like a must-have for your testing gauntlet.
That’s it for this week! But head on back in another seven days: everybody here is still mulling over the results from San Mateo, and it’s going to make for some really cool reading over the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime, thanks for joining us here on Metagame.com!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com