It’s the last day of May, and just four days remain between now and the final showdown of the US 2005/2006 dueling season: the National Championship tournament is upon us!
US National Championships This Weekend
A year of Regionals and Shonen Jump Championships have all boiled down to one final tournament. Hundreds of duelists will flock to the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco this weekend to throw down for eight Day 2 qualifications, four trips to the World Championships in Tokyo, and one National Champion title.
Competition has heated up in the past weeks as thousands of competitors have struggled to snap up the last few remaining invites to the tournament. They’ll have three more chances to qualify on site this Friday in the year’s final Regional tournaments, but after that, the field is set and locked. If you’re not yet qualified, good luck in the final push.
The rivalry between Team Overdose and Team Rampage went up a notch eight days ago, as Rampage’s new acquisition, Brent Yetter, claimed his first Shonen Jump Championship victory. This came hot on the heels of Emon Ghaneian’s win at SJC Columbus two weeks before, an event that saw three members of Overdose reach Day 2. In the end, none of the original members made it to the finals, but Emon Ghaneian joined Overdose just days after. Sparks will fly this Saturday as both teams finally collide!
At the same time, Team Comic Odyssey has the perfect chance to set right a disappointing year. After dominating the 2004/2005 season, they lost several key players, only to regain many of them in the past five months. Now, with players like Eric Wu back in their ranks, new stars like Matt Laurents bolstering their forces, and Wilson Luc seemingly on top of his game, Nationals has been dropped right into their backyard. Two years ago Theeresak Poonsombat brought the championship home to Team Comic Odyssey and put them on the map: now, after a year of struggle, they might do it again.
Teams and independent players from the Bay Area may have a huge impact as well, flying beneath the radar of celebrity competitors. J-Spot, Sindicate, and alumni of Sac-Town’s Finest may be ready to surprise the world! Last year, it was a relatively unknown Max Suffridge who destroyed all comers, claiming the National Championship. Despite all the heated team rivalries, I wouldn’t be surprised if another unexpected champion emerges this year.
The metagame itself is remarkably unpredictable. With top duelists like Emon Ghaneian and Jonathan Labounty banking on Macro Cosmos, and at least one major name pledging to run Exodia, no one knows what to expect. Enemy of Justice becomes legal for premier play just two days before the event, so anything could happen. Diamond Dude? Batteryman? Unlikely victors, but this is Yu-Gi-Oh! and anything can happen!
Metagame.com will be out in force this weekend too, as Julia Hedberg serves as head judge. Jerome McHale will be on the floor as part of an elite judging team, and many of our writers will be in contention for the title. Curtis Schultz and myself will both provide live extended coverage of the event starting at 10 AM, and we’ll be joined by a surprise cast of featured writers to help cover all the action.
If you’re going, be sure to check out all of the cool side events being held on Sunday! Junior Regional competition is back, offering an exclusive chance to qualify for the 2007 National Championships to duelists under the age of 14. For older duelists, there will be a Hurricane Katrina Benefit Regional being run in parallel to the Junior Regional, and a portion of all proceeds will be donated to the Hurricane Katrina relief fund. There’ll even be a Duel the Master challenge, where you’ll be able to compete for free in a unique play format. If you can take down these duelists you can go come with some cool swag.
It’s all going down this weekend in San Francisco, so if you can make it, we’ll see you there. If not, be sure to check out all the action through our live coverage, starting at 10 AM on Saturday!
This Week at Metagame.com
We started off our countdown to Nationals with a bang, as Mike Rosenberg took on one of the biggest, most important cards in the game. Return from the Different Dimension has defined the current Advanced format since its victory in the hands of renowned deck builder Shane Scurry at SJC Baltimore. Mike examined what makes this card better than its predecessors, what role it plays in the North American metagame, and how you can utilize combos to get an edge on your opponents!
On Tuesday, Jerome McHale showed off a deck that he’s been running a lot recently: Strike Ninja Return. I’ve played against it myself, and the deck is capable of some very, very mean things. The article deals with all the basics of Strike Ninja, as well as a few very surprising innovations, so whether you’re a ninjitsu newbie or a veteran practitioner of the Yugi-Ninpo arts, you’re definitely going to want to hit this up. It’s truly a seminal piece of deck building, and a great addition to anyone’s testing gauntlet.
Wednesday we move from Jerome’s sublime offering to my ridiculous one, as I fix one of the many Batteryman decks that have been submitted to me over the past weeks! Super-Electromagnetic Voltech Dragon has breathed new life into this niche deck theme, solving the late-game problems it once suffered and adding a huge jolt of power to its performance. If you want to play a deck that can OTK an opponent on turn one but still hold its own on turn fifteen, don’t miss the latest Apotheosis.
Curtis Schultz keeps the Enemy of Justice love comin’ just in time for Nationals, covering all the tricky rulings for the set’s most complicated card: Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude! The Dude is one of the few Yu-Gi-Oh! cards out there that actually plays distinctly better than a cursory reading might suggest, unleashing amazing effects for practically no cost. How can you get the most out of the iced-out Destiny Hero? How can you shut down his effect once it’s already in motion (or, “snatch his chizzain”, as I prefer to see it)? Curtis answers those questions in depth this Thursday!
Jae Kim follows up with a Diamond Dude deck of his own devising, a deck he calls “the best deck reviewed on New Grounds.” Utilizing a surprising spell lineup focused on maintaining utility and ignoring tempting power cards unique to the theme, it solves the Diamond Dude problem of dead draws by simply not having any. If you’re interested in running a highly competitive Diamond Dude strategy, but are afraid of the deck’s reputation for random losses to bad hands, this might be just what you’ve been looking for.
Finally, Matt Peddle rounds out the week with a look at the concept of anti-metagame decks in his new column, The Champions. His focus? Igor Kharin’s unique Cyber-Stein deck from the UK National Championships. Matt will dissect the deck piece by piece, showing you how Kharin used careful life point management and an innovative trap lineup to make it all the way to the finals. He’ll also delve into the choices Kharin opted not to make, analyzing why some cards that may seem to be no-brainers didn’t make the cut. This one’s a must-read.
Preparing for the US National Championships this weekend? You won’t want to miss Julia Hedberg’s Solid Ground this week, because she’s got plenty of tips for those attending. Wondering what to do to prepare beforehand? Want to know what will be expected of you on site? Let the head judge herself tell you, as Julia covers everything from shuffling protocol to match slips. No matter how experienced you are, if you’re going to Nationals, read this first!
That’s it for this week, so be sure to catch all the epic action and surprises from Nationals! Seven Days from now we’ll have a new US National Champion, and you’ll be the first to know just when we do, right here on Metagame!
Thanks for reading,
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com