Table One: Mario Begay vs. Diethrich Shelton-Evans

Two Burn decks faced off at table one. Mario Begay was playing a straight burn, going up against Diethrich Shelton-Evans’s deck, which he actually took for a Burn/Last Turn deck. In reality, Shelton-Evans had actually just side decked for game two, using a total conversion side to massively alter his main deck. Game one was extremely back and forth, but Shelton-Evans’s plan backfired in game two, where he was promptly locked down due to some poor draws. Since Begay took game one, that was all she wrote for Diethrich Shelton-Evans.

Game Win: Mario Begay

Table Two: John Umali vs. Elliot Ghorbani

SJC Champion John Umali squared off against Elliot Ghorbani, each player using a Chaos Hybrid deck. Umali started off slowly, taking the first game in a relatively even match. He lost game two though, and in game three it was time to turn on the Umali style.

John Umali is quite possibly the best cerebral player in the game today. No one controls an opponent the way John does. He’s an imposing person to duel against, and he uses every mental trick from card counting aloud and purposefully making mistakes in counting to throw off the opponent, to taking strategic advantage of players who are sloppy about announcing priority. Watching Umali in game three was like watching a light switch flick to the on position. Still, it was a very close game, and Ghorbani was pinned down with no cards in hand to Umali’s six on the field.

“He’ll topdeck BLS now, watch,” smirked Umali. Ghorbani didn’t. Instead, he found Graceful Charity. Then he got his Black Luster Soldier. He summoned it and proceeded to take out two of Umali’s monsters, lowering him into kill range. “Now you’ll topdeck Snatch Steal,” joked Ghorbani.

That was the wrong thing to joke about. A Snatch Steal later, and John Umali walked away as the winner of his round six match.

Match Win: John Umali

Table Three: Dwayne Anthony Nunez vs. Jonathan Navarro

Nunez was the only member of Team Comic Odyssey in the Top 8. Coming off an impressive showing at SJC Columbus, he seemed very determined. He was playing a Warrior Chaos deck that was very deeply skewed towards Warriors, while his opponent, Jonathan Navarro, was playing a brutal Mill deck.

Game one opened with Navarro setting a Cyber Jar. He promptly played Book of Taiyou on it. He then managed to repeat the process in one form or another six more times. By the end of the cycle, a Card Destruction was all he needed to finish off Nunez, and he had it.

Game two didn’t go any better for Nunez. He got to play cards this time, as he went first, but again, as soon as he passed his turn he was confronted by Navarro’s combo. The match was over before it began.

Match Win: Jonathan Navarro

Table Four: Elton Cho vs. Matt Guenther

Thirteen-year-old Elton Cho used a heavily teched Beastdown-like deck to take on Matt Guenther. Both games were incredibly close, with Guenther fending off Cho in game one just long enough to eke out a win. Cho would make a comeback in an equally close second game though, using his hordes to overwhelm Guenther’s defenses.

Game three was unfortunately a no contest, as Guenther got a terrible opening hand full of nothing but monsters. While he tried to hold off Cho and made valiant efforts to do so, the young Cho saw his chance and fell on Guenther like a hound on a downed victim. It was over before it began.

Match Win: Elton Cho