A lot of decks saw a ton of hype prior to the release of Light of Destruction, but only one has failed to appear in major competitions thus far — Twilight. A mix of Lightsworn and Dark Armed Dragon, it relies on the graveyard-filling power of Destiny Draw and Solar Recharge in conjunction with Lightsworn end phase tricks. Then, the payoff is Dark Armed Dragon and potentially Judgment Dragon, in the same deck. It’s a concept renowned for its inconsistency, but so far Lawhorn was 4-0 in today’s tournament.

His opponent is Skylar Hunter, a Gladiator Beast duelist teching main decked copies of Mind Control. It’s brilliant in the mirror match, but it’s also good just for getting rid of defending monsters. It’s a sleeper pick here today after being played by Joseph Rechis in Saint Louis.

Lawhorn won the roll and opened with Elemental Hero Stratos. He searched his deck for Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, set Bottomless Trap Hole, and ended with Monster Reincarnation, Solar Recharge, Disk Commander, Premature Burial, and Dark Armed Dragon in hand. “Go ahead.” Play was to Hunter.

He summoned Gladiator Beast Murmillo, special summoned Test Tiger, and then tributed it to tag out Murmillo. He summoned Gladiator Beast Murmillo with the Tiger’s effect, blew away Stratos, and then attacked for 800 damage. It was a good play, and he followed it up with an excellent read. Seeing the risk of Bottomless, he summoned Gladiator Beast Hoplomus in defense mode and set a card to his spell and trap zone to finish out.

Lawhorn discarded Disk Commander to take back Stratos with Monster Reincarnation! He then activated Premature Burial to bring back Disk Commander and draw two cards. He tried to summon Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, and Hunter had to negate it with Solemn Judgment.

But Monster Reborn brought Ehren back again! She kicked Hoplomus back to Hunter’s deck, and Disk Commander gave a little poke for 300 damage. “Go ahead.” At the end of his turn, Ehren sent Reinforcement of the Army, Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress, and Crush Card Virus from the top of his deck to the graveyard.

Next turn Hunter played Heavy Storm, wiping everything off his opponent’s field save Ehren. He followed it up with Monster Reborn, special summoning Lawhorn’s Disk Commander for a quick couple of draws. He summoned Elemental Hero Prisma, activated its effect to send Gladiator Beast Bestiari to the graveyard, and activated Premature Burial to bring back Bestiari.

Prisma and Bestiari were Fused, and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus hit the field! The fact that Ehren was destroyed by Gyzarus’ effect was just a bonus — Hunter clearly wanted to trade his Prisma and Bestiari in for better Gladiators, and that was the key motive for his decision to contact Fuse. Gyzarus swung directly, and then tagged out to Gladiator Beast Laquari and a defense position Gladiator Beast Hoplomus. He gestured that he was finished this turn.

Lawhorn summoned Stratos again, fetching a copy of Destiny Hero – Fear Monger. Stratos attacked Disk Commander to knock him back into Lawhorn’s graveyard, and he set one card to his back row.

Play was back to Hunter, who set a monster and then contact Fused for Gyzarus — the set monster was another Bestiari, but Lawhorn stopped it with Solemn Judgment. He was down to 2000 life points, and Hunter played Mind Control to take Stratos and get it out of Laquari’s way! Laquari made a direct attack and that was it for game 1!

Skylar Hunter takes the first duel with authority, as Dakota Lawhorn doesn’t get to see a single Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon hit the table.

“I’ll start,” announced Lawhorn, as he retrieved his deck from his opponent. He began the game with Allure of Darkness, Elemental Hero Stratos, Sangan, Heavy Storm, Deck Lockdown, and Legendary Jujitsu Master. He used Stratos to search out Destiny Hero – Dasher, then played Allure of Darkness to remove it from his hand. That got him Reinforcement of the Army and another Jujitsu. He activated Deck Lockdown, set a spell or trap card, and ended.

Hunter set a card to each zone and passed, cut off from his special summoning tricks for this turn and his next. Lawhorn sent Stratos to attack Hunter’s set monster, but when he flipped it over it was revealed to be Legendary Jujitsu Master. Stratos was returned to the top of Lawhorn’s deck and he set a Jujitsu Master to end. Next turn it was bumped back to his hand by Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.

Lawhorn drew his Stratos again, and lost Deck Lockdown. He summoned Stratos, searched his deck for Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, and set Heavy Storm — a bluff to try and draw out a pro Storm play. His hand largely consisted of small monsters, so he wasn’t going to gain any ground through those. Hunter searched out Elemental Hero Prisma with Reinforcement of the Army, summoned it, and activated its effect with priority to send Bestiari to the graveyard. He then special summoned Test Tiger, sent Prisma back to his deck for the Tiger’s effect, and brought out Darius to special summon Bestiari. He contact Fused both to bring out Gyzarus, and Lawhorn lost both of his bluffs — Reinforcement of the Army and Heavy Storm.

Jujitsu Master turned to attack position and Gyzarus ran over Stratos. Jujitsu Master attacked next, and Lawhorn was down to 6100 life points. Gyzarus tagged out to bring Laquari and Hoplomus to the field, in attack and defense mode respectively. Hunter had four cards in hand, three monsters on the field, and one set spell or trap card. Lawhorn had a hand of five monsters, and Hunter ended his turn.

Lawhorn drew into Torrential Tribute, and he took a moment to consider his hand: Sangan, Necro Gardna, Disk Commander, and two Jujitsu Masters. He set Torrential, set a Jujitsu, and ended. “Go ahead.” He clearly didn’t like his chances in this matchup, but if he could bait out Grand Mole he’d actually be okay.

Sure enough, Hunter went for it! He summoned Grand Mole, Lawhorn flipped Torrential Tribute, and Hunter had to pass. Still, Lawhorn had no follow-up. He set a monster, another Jujitsu, and ended. Hunter played right into it, attacking with Laquari and losing his Gladiator Beast in the process. He set another spell or trap and ended with two cards in his back row.

Lawhorn set Trap Dustshoot and flipped it in his opponent’s standby phase; Hunter had Book of Moon, D.D. Crow, Laquari, and Hoplomus. He opted to return D.D. Crow to his opponent’s deck, seeing no threat in the other two monsters. Hunter set a monster, assumedly Hoplomus, and passed.

. . . And Lawhorn drew a useless card again: this time it was Destiny Hero – Malicious. “Go.” He was holding Dark Armed Dragon, but had no way to use it. Setting the Necro Gardna just would have given Hunter an easy way to get rid of the Jujitsu Master through Murmillo. Lawhorn was paralyzed.

Luckily so was Hunter, who did nothing but summon Gladiator Beast Laquari next turn. Lawhorn drew into, and set, Solemn Judgment. “Go.”

Hunter tried to take control of the Jujitsu Master with Mind Control, but Lawhorn flipped the Solemn to keep Jujitsu Master on his side of the field. Hunter announced that he was finished, and Lawhorn drew into Destiny Draw!

He activated it, discarding Destiny Hero – Disk Commander. He drew into another Necro Gardna and a copy of Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, no help yet again. Hunter summoned Elemental Hero Prisma, sent Bestiari to the graveyard, and contact Fused Prisma and his face-down Hoplomus for Gyzarus. It was all over — Lawhorn’s deck just never went off.

Twilight falls short of its fifth consecutive win, and Skylar Hunter moves on undefeated with his Mind Control-teched Gladiator Beast build!