This round began with David and Jerry agreeing to have fun with the match. A good start, if I may say so myself. David didn’t seem particularly confident about his chances to win the match, but with back to back Regional Top 4 finishes under his belt, anything was possible. Jerry Wang, of course, made Top 4 at 2005 Nationals. Jerry won the die roll and decided to start.
Game 1
Jerry opened up with a set card in each zone, and David thought about doing the same, but ended up setting two spell or traps instead. Jerry decided to go aggressive next turn, and summoned Spirit Reaper to the field. He followed it up with Nobleman of Crossout on David’s Spirit Reaper and tried to attack. The attack was good for 300, and Dust Tornado was discarded from David’s hand. Jerry set two more spell or traps and passed. During the end phase, David’s set Dust Tornado destroyed a Sakuretsu Armor. David had to think hard for a moment before deciding to risk an attack with his freshly summoned Don Zaloog. The attack went through, and Jerry lost the last card in his hand—Mobius the Frost Monarch. David set the rest of his hand, and the World Series of topdecking was on. Jerry drew, set a card, and then switched his Reaper to defense mode before ending.
David just passed, though, so Jerry drew and summoned D. D. Warrior Lady—only to have it fall into a Bottomless Trap Hole. Jerry used Call of the Haunted to bring back Mobius, and he also moved Spirit Reaper to attack mode. Mobius was cut down by Sakuretsu Armor, and Spirit Reaper was stuck in attack mode without protection. David attacked the Spirit Reaper, dropped both Heavy Storm and Cyber Dragon off the top of Jerry’s deck, and ended. Jerry had to move Reaper to defense position and pass. David simply passed his turn without playing anything.
Jerry made a curious move by summoning Mystic Swordsman LV2 in attack mode. He then revealed his plan by flipping his facedown Morphing Jar, set since turn 1. With a new hand, Jerry flipped all of his monsters to attack mode and played Creature Swap. David thought long and hard about responding to it, but couldn’t, so Morphing Jar and Don Zaloog traded spaces. Don attacked, but got nailed by a Sakuretsu Armor, saving David’s hand from devastation by both Don and Reaper. At this point the score was 5800 to 7700 in David’s favor. Mystic Swordsman was still around, though, so Morphing Jar was destroyed anyway and Reaper got his shot at David’s life points. Enemy Controller tried to destroy the Swordsman, but Book of Moon saved it from itself. Jerry laid down a Messenger of Peace and passed.
David thought for a second, then decided to play Premature Burial, bringing back his Don Zaloog for another round of discarding. He attacked the Mystic Swordsman and connected once again, discarding Mystic Tomato from Jerry’s hand. At this point, Don Zaloog had discarded two cards from Jerry’s hand and two from his deck. He paid for Messenger of Peace, then flip summoned Spirit Reaper. After David didn’t respond to it, Jerry did with Torrential Tribute. He set a card and ended. During the end phase, Jerry lost both his Messenger of Peace and a face down Bottomless Trap Hole to a Dust Tornado and a Mystical Space Typhoon. David summoned D.D. Survivor and attacked only to reveal Magician of Faith. Jerry retrieved Heavy Storm, and David quite wisely decided not to set anything else. Jerry activated Confiscation, revealing the Smashing Ground and Mystic Tomato. He dropped the Tomato, and set both a monster and a spell or trap card. David attacked into, it revealing yet another Spirit Reaper, so he used the Smashing Ground that Jerry left in his hand to destroy it. Jerry had to use Dark Hole to get rid of the Survivor, and he followed it up by summoning D. D. Assailant and attacking. David had the Scapegoat, though, and maintained a sizeable lead in both field presence and life points.
After two turns of Sheep Tokens being blown up by the Assailant, David took control of it with Snatch Steal and attacked directly. Jerry flipped his facedown Heavy Storm to recover his Assailant and attack a third token. He then finished by setting a monster and a face-down card. David destroyed the face-down Legendary Jujitsu Master with Exiled Force, and then took out D. D. Assailant with Sakuretsu Armor during Jerry’s battle phase. David set the rest of his hand during has next turn and ended. Two turns later, Jerry got a Don Zaloog out and moved to recover control of the game. It was met with Book of Moon, however, and David followed it up with Mystic Swordsman LV2. The Swordsman took a knee from Enemy Controller, but Don wasn’t safe as David flipped Nobleman of Crossout in main phase 2 to eliminate the Don before setting his last card again. David attacked directly for the next two turns, and Jerry was forced to take it, dropping his life to 1600.
Next turn, though, Jerry picked up a Reinforcement of the Army and used it to grab Exiled Force. It was summoned, but Torrential Tribute blew everything up. David summoned D. D. Assailant and tried to attack for game, but was thwarted by Sakuretsu Armor. Fortunately for him, his remaining face down card was Call of the Haunted, and he used it to take game 1.
Both players took time to side deck before moving on to game 2.
David-1 Jerry-0
Game 2
Game 2 began as game 1 did, with Jerry setting a card to each zone and passing. David took an aggressive stance, summoning Zombyra the Dark and ordering it to attack. It hit into Legendary Jujitsu Master and was bounced to the top of the deck. David set a card, then passed to Jerry, who summoned Don Zaloog and attacked. David flipped Sakuretsu Armor, but Jerry chained with Royal Decree and Don swung for a card. It was Mystic Tomato. Jerry set a card and passed over to David, who used Snatch Steal on Don and tributed it for Mobius the Frost Monarch—questionably not taking the opportunity to swing for a card first. He set a card and ended. Jerry pulled Exiled Force with Reinforcement of the Army and used it to take out Mobius. He set a card and passed to David, who pulled a Don of his own. Don swung, but Call of the Haunted forced it to be a suicide attack as Don Zaloog was faced by itself. They destroyed each other, and Jerry pulled out Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy David’s face down Sakuretsu Armor.
He attacked with Breaker, then played Confiscation to remove David’s last card in hand—Zombyra the Dark. David drew and set a card, and Jerry attacked again. It was stopped by Call of the Haunted on Mobius, but Jerry had a surprise for David. In main phase 2, he tributed Breaker for his own Mobius, destroying the Call. David was running out of steam fast, and a second Reinforcement of the Army for Mystic Swordsman LV2 from Jerry made defense mode a non-option. With only one turn left before Mobius would finish him off, David drew a Dust Tornado to accompany his Mystical Space Typhoon, and the game was over.
Jerry-1 David-1
Game 3
Jerry chose to side deck after this one, but David was content to shuffle up his deck as it was. David exercised his right to go first in this duel and started it off with 2 spell or traps and Zombyra the Dark in attack mode. Jerry began by special summoning Cyber Dragon and normal summoning Exiled Force. Exiled Force destroyed Zombyra and Cyber Dragon tried to attack. Scapegoat was flipped, however, and the Dragon had to be content to eat sheep. Jerry set two cards and ended, losing his Dust Tornado in the end phase to David’s Dust Tornado. David used Snatch Steal to take control of Cyber Dragon, then decided to play it safe by simply attacking. Jerry flipped his own Scapegoat, and the Dragon continued to eat nothing but Sheep.
Jerry drew and gained his 1000 life points, then checked the graveyards before setting a monster and passing, leaving shades of the old format in his wake. The monster was hit by Nobleman of Crossout, removing Morphing Jar from the game. David flipped Spirit Reaper and hit two sheep before passing to Jerry, who took advantage of the opening by summoning Don and relieving David of his Torrential Tribute. Revenge was sweet for David, though, as Cyber Dragon tore through Don Zaloog and the last Sheep Token fell. Jerry summoned D. D. Assailant and swung for some damage before setting a card and passing. David tried to attack, but Enemy Controller stuck Cyber Dragon into defense mode. With the required monster on the field, Jerry was able to tribute summon Mobius the Frost Monarch and retrieve his Dragon at the expense of David’s Sakuretsu Armor. David set a monster and passed to Jerry, who immediately attacked it with Mobius. D. D. Warrior Lady removed both monsters from play, and Jerry set a card to each zone before passing.
Running out of options and facing a huge life deficit, David decided to set a card to each zone and play things safe. Cyber Dragon attacked the monster, destroying Don Zaloog, and finally Jerry drew a Smashing Ground to eliminate that pesky Spirit Reaper.
David was visibly displeased with the cards he was drawing, and thought for a good while about his next move. He ended up using Call of the Haunted on his Zombyra and agonized over Jerry’s face-down card. He attacked anyway, and both Zombyra and Cyber Dragon fell. David set a monster and passed to Jerry, who flipped over his D. D. Assailant and attacked David’s set Mystic Tomato. The Tomato fetched Spirit Reaper and Jerry burned his Snatch Steal to destroy it. Faced with a nasty topdecking situation, David set a monster to each zone and passed. Jerry topdecked Mystic Swordsman LV2 and swung at the monster. David let it through, but D. D. Assailant was destroyed by Sakuretsu Armor. The topdeck war was on and David was winning with Exiled Force and Sangan vs. a facedown card from Jerry. Jerry flipped it to reveal Dark Hole, and David grabbed Mystic Swordsman LV2 with Sangan’s effect. Jerry simply set a card and passed, and David went all in, summoning Mystic Swordsman LV2 and using Premature Burial on Don Zaloog. The facedown was a Call of the Haunted, though and Cyber Dragon returned to thwart the attacks. David couldn’t switch either of his monsters to defense, so he had to end his turn.
Jerry drew and checked both graveyards before choosing to attack Don Zaloog and setting a card. Dave set a card and passed. During the draw phase, he used Dust Tornado to destroy Call of the Haunted, but the Cyber Dragon was saved by Jerry’s face down Book of Moon. It came back up and destroyed the Mystic Swordsman LV2. Faced with the final turn of the game due to end of match procedure, David drew and tossed down his Enemy Controller, conceding the game.
Jerry Wang wins and advances to 3-0!