Two top Floridians were set to play off for the title of champion. Rumor was running as to who was going to take this event: would it be a nationally recognized team or a locally grown elite? Everyone had an opinion, but now it as obvious that Florida was going to take it one way or the other. Which of these two players would walk away with the title?

Dan won the high roll, and after a good-natured handshake and exchange of “Good luck,” the game was on.

Dan set one monster and one spell or trap. “Is it a good hand?” John inquired.

“It’s a pretty good hand,” Dan admitted. “Not great, but good.” He ended, and John drew. He looked over the contents of his hand carefully, then selected Mystic Swordsman LV2, waved it about as he debated summoning it, finally returning it to his hand to set Spirit Reaper instead.

Daniel set another monster, then flip summoned Morphing Jar. “Whoa,” exclaimed John, dropping his hand into his graveyard. “I was thinking of summoning Swordsman,” he continued, indicating the monster in his graveyard. “You probably don’t have any Sakuretsus, do you?”

“Nope.”

“Aah, I should have done it.”

John drew, and looked over his new hand. “Well, this should chew you up,” he declared, and summoned Don Zaloog. He attacked Morphing Jar, and discarded Brain Control from Daniel’s hand. He then activated Confiscation, and debated the relative merits of Mystic Tomato, Smashing Ground, and Bottomless Trap Hole. Tomato lost out, and hit the graveyard. “Aw, I wanted that hand,” Daniel protested. John then used Nobleman of Crossout to remove Magical Merchant from play, removed his own, then set a spell or trap and ended.

Daniel activated Scapegoat, then checked his set cards and hand. He pulled a face, thinking it over. “I got a lot of stuff I could do,” he mused aloud. John added some helpful suggestions. Finally, Daniel decided to use Premature Burial to bring Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys to the field, and attacked John’s facedown card, revealing Spirit Reaper: nothing doing there! He set another spell or trap and ended.

John drew, and looked at his hand. He flipped through the cards in rapid succession, thinking over his options. He checked his set cards, turned Don Zaloog to defense, and ended. Daniel drew, checked his set, attacked Don with Phoenix, then used Smashing Ground to eliminate Spirit Reaper.

John needed reinforcements, but fortunately, there’s a card for that. He activated Reinforcement of the Army, and picked out D. D. Warrior Lady. He set a monster, set one spell or trap, and ended. Daniel drew, and played Confiscation. Looking over Swords of Revealing Light, D. D. Assailant, and Enemy Controller, he selected Enemy Controller.

The next few turns can best be described as a standoff. Daniel knew that set card was a D. D. Warrior Lady, and he didn’t want to lose his Phoenix. Both players let the game go for a few turns without doing anything beyond setting a card or two, as Daniel hoped to draw into something to get that D. D. Warrior Lady off the field. He activated Mystical Space Typhoon on one of John’s set cards, setting off Scapegoat. John put out his tokens, completely closing off his monster zone.

John drew, looked at his hand, then activated Heavy Storm to clear out Daniel’s spell and trap zone. He flip summoned D. D. Warrior Lady and attacked one of Daniel’s Sheep tokens. Daniel drew, summoned D. D. Assailant, and ended. John drew, and attacked another Sheep token.

Daniel drew, and attacked John’s D. D. Warrior Lady with his D. D. Assailant.

John set a monster, then looked through both graveyards before activating Swords of Revealing Light, flipping Daniel’s set Spirit Reaper face-up. Daniel drew and ended his turn.

John flip summoned D. D. Assailant and attacked the final Sheep token. Daniel drew and studied the field. Using Dust Tornado to get rid of Swords of Revealing Light, he summoned another D. D. Assailant and attacked to remove both from play. John special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, removing Spirit Reaper and Cyber Dragon from his graveyard, and ended.

Daniel set one monster and ended, and John attacked it to reveal Hand of Nephthys. Daniel set one spell or trap, only to have it targeted in his end phase with John’s Dust Tornado. Daniel chained Royal Command, and in response, after a brief pause, John chained Call of the Haunted to bring back his Mystic Swordsman LV2. On his turn, he attacked Daniel’s face down Tsukuyomi with Swordsman, then directly with Chaos Socerer. Daniel drew, and played Heavy Storm. Since Call of the Haunted was being negated by Royal Decree, Mystic Swordsman LV2 remained on the field. Daniel summoned D. D. Warrior Lady and ended his turn.

John drew, looked at his hand and the field, and showed Snatch Steal to Daniel, who admitted defeat. John took the first game, and it was on to game 2.

Game 2

Both players side decked, switching in a few cards they hoped would give them the edge. After another handshake, they began. Dan chose first, drew, activated Wave-Motion Cannon then set a monster and ended. John drew, set a monster and two spells or traps, and ended as well.

Daniel drew, and continued to build his field presence by setting another monster and another spell or trap. John followed suit, adding another face down monster to his side of the field.

Daniel was ready for action. He summoned D. D. Warrior Lady, and John activated Ceasefire—that hurt! Daniel took a fast 2500 in direct damage, but then attacked John’s facedown D. D. Assailant. John drew and passed, then activated Dust Tornado on Daniel’s Wave-Motion Cannon during Daniel’s standby phase. Daniel used Brain Control to take over John’s remaining D. D. Assailant, tributing it for Jinzo and attacking directly . . . until John chained Scapegoat. Daniel attacked two Sheep tokens and ended.

John drew, and used his own Brain Control to take Jinzo, attacking D. D. Assailant to eliminate both. He then set one spell or trap and ended. Daniel drew, looked at his set cards, and played Reinforcement of the Army, seeking out another D. D. Assailant which he summoned, turned Apprentice Magician to attack, and took out the last two Sheep tokens.

John drew, set one spell or trap, and ended with his monster zone completely empty. Daniel drew, attacked directly with D. D. Assailant and ran smack into Sakuretsu Armor. Daniel didn’t want to lose it, though, so he chained Book of Moon to flip it face down and invulnerable. On his next turn, Daniel switched Apprentice Magician to defense, and ended.

John set a monster and ended. Daniel attacked it, and discovered it was a Spirit Reaper. Since he had nothing to get rid of it, the next several turns passed like this: “Draw. End.” Occasionally one player would set a monster or a spell or trap, but for the most part it was draw, end.

“Spirit Reaper power!” chanted John. “Can’t you kill him?”

“I can’t yet,” Daniel admitted. A few more turns passed…Draw. End.

Daniel drew, and made an interested face. “Oh, he likes that one,” John announced. Daniel set a card, and ended. John drew, and looked at the field and graveyard, trying to decide what that set card could be. “Are you a Sangan?” he asked as he sorted through Daniel’s graveyard. The life point totals were John 7200, Daniel 3900. Time to run the odds down – John activated Call of the Haunted to bring back Exiled Force, tributing it to get rid of Apprentice Magician. He then tributed Spirit Reaper for the Airknight he’s been holding for several turns, and attacked the face down to reveal Sangan. Daniel searched out Exiled Force, now at 2600 life points. John set one more spell or trap and ended.

Daniel summoned Exiled Force and tributed it to kill off Airknight Parshath, then attacked directly with D. D. Assailant. He set two spells or traps and ended. John drew, and with one set spell or trap and no monster, he summoned Tsukuyomi, flipping Daniel’s D. D. Assailant face down. He then removed it from the game with Nobleman of Crossout, and attacked directly with Tsukuyomi, finishing his turn by setting one more spell or trap. Daniel drew, set another spell or trap, and activated Swords of Revealing Light to keep in the game.

John drew, set another monster and another spell trap and ended. Daniel drew, set another spell or trap, and ended. John drew and ended, waiting for Swords to run down.

Daniel drew, checked his set cards, and used Mystical Space Typhoon to get rid of John’s Torrential Tribute. He activated Premature Burial to bring out Exiled Force and tributed it to get rid of the face down Tsukuyomi, then summoned Don Zaloog and attacked directly, taking Dark Hole from John’s hand. The life point totals now showcased Daniel’s 700 against John’s 4100. Now was the time for a comeback.

John drew, set a monster, and ended. Daniel drew, turned Don to defense, set another monster and ended his turn. John drew and studied his hand. He had a lot of options there, and Daniel had only 700 life points remaining. John made up his mind, and special summoned Chaos Sorcerer. Alas, Daniel was ready with a Bottomless Trap Hole. John still had plenty of card options, and activated Premature Burial to bring back Exiled Force, and tributed it to remove a face down monster. He then flip summoned D. D. Warrior Lady and attacked directly, only to run into Scapegoat! Daniel wasn’t finished yet! John resorted to Confiscation, and took away Daniel’s Dark Hole.

Daniel drew, set one monster, and ended.

John drew, looked over his hand, tributed his D. D. Warrior Lady for Airknight, and attacked a Sheep token for the win. After going 2-0, John took his place as the Atlanta Shonen Jump Champion!