Velvet Jones always has something cool going on in his deck. This weekend it was two top tech cards being played by multiple players in Teleport Dark Armed: Greenkappa and Necroface. Both were actually seeing a fair amount of play today, but we hadn’t seen either in a feature match yet. Fingers crossed!

Jerry opened the match with a single set monster. Velvet summoned Elemental Hero Stratos, searched his deck for Destiny Hero – Malicious, and was left with a hand of Sangan, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Krebons, Dark Grepher, and Mirror Force alongside the Malicious. He set Wind Blast, attacked with Stratos, and destroyed Jerry’s face-down Necro Gardna. “Go ahead.”

“Draw.” Jerry summoned Krebons and spent a moment mulling over his potential plays before passing. Velvet drew Dark Armed Dragon, fingered his face-down Wind Blast and started running numbers and thinking through play sequences; Wind Blast and Grepher offered him two ways to get Malicious to the graveyard, but he quickly opted for Grepher in hopes of summoning Dark Armed. He discarded Malicious to special summon Grepher, discarded Sangan to send D.D. Crow to his graveyard, and Jerry discarded his own Crow to remove Malicious! But Velvet summoned Krebons, Synchro summoned with Stratos for Goyo Guardian, and special summoned Dark Armed Dragon anyway.

He removed his D.D. Crow from his graveyard to destroy Jerry’s Krebons, and then attacked with Goyo Guardian — Jerry removed Necro Gardna to block the damage, but took 4500 damage from Dark Armed Dragon and Dark Grepher. Velvet ended his turn with one last card in hand, ready to be discarded for the Wind Blast if needed: Mirror Force.

Jerry summoned Krebons, attacked into Dark Grepher, and was telegraphing a desperate Dark Armed Dragon. Velvet knew exactly what Jerry was up to, and flipped Wind Blast to send Krebons back to the top of Jerry’s deck: Jerry scooped immediately.

“I opened up three Krebons,” remarked Jerry. It really seemed like there was nothing he could do.

“I think it’s interesting that this deck is so explosive, but it’s still so immature,” remarked Velvet. “You think back to Houston, and the debut of Dark Armed there . . .  this deck still has a long way to go.” Both duelists sided up, and Jerry looked a tad perturbed. The pressure was on: nobody wanted to head into the next round with a 6-2 record.

“I’ll go first,” announced Jerry. He set a monster, set a spell or trap, and ended: “Go ahead.” Velvet discarded Malicious for Destiny Draw, and had a hand of Malicious, Wind Blast, two Vanity’s Fiend, Snipe Hunter, and Breaker the Magical Warrior. He summoned Breaker, used his effect to destroy Mystical Space Typhoon, set a spell or trap, then attacked with Breaker. Jerry’s face-down monster was Mystic Tomato, so when Breaker destroyed it he special summoned Necro Gardna with the Tomato’s effect.

Jerry tributed Necro Gardna for Caius the Shadow Monarch next turn, removing Breaker from Velvet’s field, but walked right into Phoenix Wing Wind Blast when Caius attacked. Wind Blast let Velvet discard Malicious, and Jerry ended his turn by searching out Destiny Hero – Doom Lord with Reinforcement of the Army. “End my turn.” He had four cards left in hand and would be forced to draw that potentially dead Caius next turn.

Velvet removed one Malicious from his graveyard to special summon another, then tributed him away for Vanity’s Fiend! The Fiend attacked for 2400 damage, and Velvet set a spell or trap. Next turn Jerry activated Allure of Darkness: “I guess I don’t need this!” He removed his own Vanity’s Fiend for Allure’s effect and played on.

He summoned Doom Lord, activated its effect to remove Vanity’s Fiend from the field, then set a back row card. “End my turn.” Velvet drew Solemn Judgment; he had Mirror Force set with Snipe Hunter and another Fiend in his hand. He summoned Snipe Hunter, discarded Vanity’s Fiend for Snipe’s effect and rolled to try and destroy Jerry’s back row card; it hit, eliminating Jerry’s Royal Oppression! Snipe Hunter then ran over Doom Lord, and Velvet finished out by setting Solemn Judgment. Jerry drew to four cards for his next turn, but one of them was that dead Caius.

Another one, however, was Stratos, and he summoned him to search for Malicious. Stratos attacked into Mirror Force, Jerry passed, and he took 1500 damage from Snipe Hunter next turn. Velvet passed with an in-hand Heavy Storm, and in Jerry’s standby phase he got to bring back his Vanity’s Fiend. That left Jerry to set a card to each zone, stymied for the moment.

Velvet drew into Brain Control; he had that, Heavy Storm in hand, Solemn Judgment set, and Snipe Hunter on the field next to Vanity’s Fiend. He attacked with Vanity’s Fiend, destroying Sangan and sending Jerry to search out his own Snipe Hunter from his deck. Snipe swung for 1500 damage, and Jerry was down to 1700 life points. Velvet still had 7000 left.

Jerry activated his own Brain Control! He dropped to 900 life points and chose to target Snipe Hunter: Velvet activated Solemn Judgment to stop it, paying himself down to 3500 life points. Jerry summoned his own Snipe Hunter, discarded Malicious to destroy Vanity’s Fiend, and labored over his next decision. This was make or break; that Heavy Storm and Brain Control Velvet had held for so long would likely win the match for him next turn.

Jerry discarded Spirit Reaper, targeting Snipe Hunter but losing out on the roll! He bonked his Snipe Hunter into Velvet’s, unaware of the fact that he was potentially saving his own life doing so, then removed one Malicious to special summon another in defense mode. He had one Necro Gardna in his graveyard.

Velvet topped Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer! He activated Heavy Storm to destroy Jerry’s Solemn, Jerry chained Necro Gardna, and Velvet summoned Kycoo! All he had to do was attack with Malicious, then attack with Kycoo — Necro Gardna would go after the first attacker, and Kycoo would finish the game. But Velvet didn’t seem to know that! He attacked with Kycoo first, Necro Gardna negated it, and then attacked for 800 damage with Malicious. Jerry got his Malicious back, set two more cards to his back row, and lost Malicious to Kycoo next turn. Jerry drew, passed, and Velvet set one card to his spell and trap zone before attacking for game!