Without a big celebrity duelist feature match to cover for round 1, and with no dominant strategy of interest emerging early on in the day, I decided to cover one of the weekend’s more unorthodox decks to start off. Our own Jerome McHale has put his money where his mouth is, and is playing Counter Fairies here in Philadelphia.

His opponent is Marc Glass. Twenty-four years of age, he hails from Severn, Maryland, and is attending the event today with friends. Jerome McHale, no stranger to Metagame.com, is from the other side of Pennsylvania: Pittsburgh.

“I’ll take first,” announced Glass, after winning the opening roll. He set a card to each zone to begin the duel, and play was to McHale. McHale summoned Banisher of the Radiance, attacked into Treeborn Frog, and Glass had to watch as it was removed from play. It was a superb start for McHale, who set two cards to his spell and trap zone to conclude his turn.

Glass activated Heavy Storm, but McHale blocked it with Magic Drain! Glass refused to discard to force Storm through, setting a card to each zone before passing. Banisher of the Radiance attacked again, but this time hit Spirit Reaper. McHale was stymied. He set a second back row card, a monster, and passed. Glass set a second monster. McHale flip summoned Skelengel, attacked Glass’ set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive with Banisher of the Radiance, and passed.

Glass summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and McHale took a few moments to consider his move: after about fifteen seconds of deliberation he activated Forced Back to bump Breaker back to Glass’s hand. Glass passed with nothing to do.

McHale set a second spell or trap to begin his turn, set a monster, and ended. Without any way to get Glass’ Reaper off the field, McHale couldn’t attack, but he was going to continue developing his field. Glass summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior again, and destroyed the card McHale had tried to protect: Mirror Force!  Glass looked satisfied, while McHale’s spirits dropped visibly. Breaker and Banisher then clashed as Glass attacked, and both were destroyed. McHale set a monster on the following turn and ended, a move Glass mimicked on the following turn. McHale flipped his set Nobleman of Crossout, removed Glass’ second Dekoichi from the field, and his third from his deck, and then tributed Sangan for Cyber Dragon. “With its effect . . .” McHale pulled D. D. Warrior Lady from his deck.

“You have four in hand?” asked McHale. Glass fanned out his hand, revealing that he actually had five cards.

“Wow, I guess I’m not doing my job very well,” remarked McHale. He ended his turn and play passed to Glass.

He activated Smashing Ground, destroying McHale’s Cyber Dragon, then summoned Blade Knight to attack Skelengel, which was promptly destroyed. McHale flip summoned Freed the Brave Wanderer, attacked Blade Knight, and destroyed it. He then set a monster and passed back to Glass.

Glass special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, and used it to attack Freed. McHale fired back by summoning another Freed, using its effect to destroy Chaos Sorcerer. Freed then attacked Glass’ set monster, Night Assailant, and McHale lost his set D. D. Warrior Lady to the Assailant’s effect. McHale set a back row card and passed. It was 7400 to 8000, with Glass leading.

Another Smashing Ground from Glass destroyed Freed, and Spirit Reaper turned to attack McHale directly. It hit, discarding McHale’s Cyber Dragon and eliciting a wince of pain. Glass set a monster and passed.

Without any other immediate options left, McHale set two back row cards. He then set Morphing Jar, leaving nothing but Bountiful Artemis in his hand. Glass passed without doing anything, just the play McHale was hoping for! He set a back row card, summoned Bountiful Artemis, and flipped Morphing Jar to turn his empty hand back into a full one! Glass lost Call of the Haunted, Return from the Different Dimension, and Cyber Dragon to Morphing Jar’s effect before drawing his five cards.

Graceful Charity was McHale’s immediate play, discarding Banisher of the Radiance and Forced Back. Artemis attacked Glass’ set Magician of Faith and McHale passed after setting one more back row card. With Artemis in place and a plethora of counter traps set, things were looking up.

Smashing Ground hit the table, and McHale flipped Magic Drain. Glass discarded Nobleman of Crossout, and McHale drew a card for Artemis before losing her to the Smashing. Glass tributed for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, but Forced Back sent it back to his hand and negated Zaborg’s effect. Cyber Dragon was special summoned though, and attacked to destroy Morphing Jar and eek out some damage.

McHale fired back with a flurry of cards, special summoning Cyber Dragon, normal summoning another Bountiful Artemis, and activating a Smashing Ground of his own to threaten Glass’s Cyber Dragon. Glass had an answer, chaining Enemy Controller to Smashing Ground and tributing his Cyber Dragon, trying to take control of McHale’s Dragon. But the chain continued on!  McHale activated Magic Drain to negate Enemy Controller, and with a clear path to Glass’s life points he attacked with both Cyber Dragon and Artemis. McHale passed.

Glass activated Snatch Steal, targeting Cyber Dragon, but Solemn Judgment negated it and gave McHale a card with Artemis! Glass set a card to each zone and ended. McHale summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and broke Torrential Tribute. “It’s gotta be Reaper or something,” remarked McHale. He attacked, and sure enough he had made the right read: his attack hit Spirit Reaper, and he ended his turn.

Glass summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Breaker the Magical Warrior face down, and attacked it to destroy it. Glass passed again, with nothing but Spirit Reaper on the field.

“What have I already used?” asked McHale to himself, searching his graveyard. He drew for his turn and set a card to each zone before ending.

Glass removed a Light and Dark to special summon another Chaos Sorcerer: McHale again activated Solemn Judgment, negating the special summon and sending Sorcerer to the graveyard. Glass set a monster and passed, with just two cards in hand.

McHale flip summoned Skelengel: he had Snatch Steal in hand, so he could deal with the face up Reaper Glass appeared to be depending on. Still, that one last set monster could cause trouble. He went for it anyways.

He summoned Freed the Brave Wanderer, activated Snatch Steal to destroy Glass’s Spirit Reaper, and attacked Glass’ remaining set monster with Freed: it was Tsukuyomi, and it turned Cyber Dragon face down. Still, McHale kept up the onslaught, attacking with Artemis, then Skelengel, and finally flipping Return from the Different Dimension for the win. Glass looked stunned.

“And in case anyone cares, I finished that duel with 712 life points” noted McHale, seeming to lose the slight shakiness that had plagued him in the first duel. Both duelists began side decking: McHale was building some confidence, but Glass now knew what he was up against.

He opened with a set card to each zone. McHale attacked with Bountiful Artemis, hitting Glass’ set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and set two back row cards. Dekoichi came back in the end phase thanks to Call of the Haunted. Glass was being careful: by bringing Dekoichi back early, he’d dodged any possibility of Forced Back or Solemn Judgment.

We found out why immediately, as he played Creature Swap to trade his Dekoichi for McHale’s Artemis. McHale chained Magic Drain to draw one last card, but Glass paid for it by discarding Snatch Steal and Artemis switched sides. It was a troublesome move, because from this point out, McHale’s own deck would be feeding cards to his opponent. Artemis attacked Dekoichi in a mirror image of the previous turn, Glass set a monster, and play passed to McHale.

He activated Graceful Charity, discarding Skelengel and Sangan. It was followed up by a set monster and another back row card, concluding McHale’s turn. Glass activated Heavy Storm, and McHale chained Ceasefire, flipping his Stealth Bird and Glass’ Magician of Faith while losing Forced Back. Glass took 1500 damage for Ceasefire but had succeeded in clearing the field of McHale’s potential tricks. He tributed his Magician of Faith for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroyed the Stealth Bird with its effect, and attacked with Zaborg and Artemis for 4000 damage. “That’s a pain,” remarked McHale.

He set two spell or trap cards, set a monster, and activated Wave-Motion Cannon. His hopes for the duel would ride on that card, and he ended his turn. Glass’ borrowed Artemis attacked into McHale’s set Skelengel, Zaborg was blocked by Book of Moon, and Glass set another monster. Play passed back to McHale.

He set another back row card and activated a second Wave-Motion Cannon! Now Glass was living on borrowed time, and needed to finish the game quickly. He attacked with Artemis on the following turn, but left Zaborg set: Mirror Force would just ruin him, and Glass had to be aggressive, but calculated. McHale took the hit: Artemis lowered him to 2200. At that point Glass figured it was safe to flip summon Zaborg — it was his second main phase — but he lost it to Forced Back. With two monsters on the field to tribute next turn, things looked bad for McHale.

Amazingly, he drew into Level Limit - Area B, and activated it! Glass had nothing to do on the following turn but set a monster, and a turn later McHale had 5000 damage on the field between his two Cannons.

He took a deep breath: “Well, I win or lose off of this.” He set a monster and passed.

Glass flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but couldn’t find any way to unlock the field. He passed, McHale launched off his two Wave-Motion Cannon, and it was game for the Counter Fairies!

Jerome McHale moves on, with a good start under his belt and nine rounds remaining.