Chris Evans took third place last month in Orlando, and, with one win under his belt, he may be on his way to another Day 2 qualification. The 17 year-old from Maryland has come a long way from his early days as a member of Team Hunger Force, and today he’s running one of the most feared decks here — Diamond Dude Turbo.

This round he’s facing Chris Bowlds from, Owensboro, Kentucky. The 20 year-old college student is playing Gadgets, and he’s going to need to pull out some serious disruption if he hopes to beat Evans’ Destiny Heroes.

Evans won the roll and opened the first duel with Graceful Charity, discarding Destiny Hero — Malicious and Destiny Draw. He removed Malicious from play to special summon another, and activated a second Reasoning form his hand. Evans flipped Malicious off the top of his deck and special summoned it immediately, without discarding any spell or trap cards. A third Reasoning got him Destiny Hero — Dasher, again right off the top of his deck. It was a trade off. While special summoned Dasher was excellent, hitting that third Malicious was less than ideal, and Evans had surely hoped to discard a Divine Sword — Phoenix Blade in the process.

He summoned Destiny Hero — Diamond Dude, flipped Reinforcement of the Army with his effect, set one back row card, and ended. Evan had two cards in hand, and two Malicious, a Dasher, a Diamond Dude, and one set card on the field.

Bowlds blasted him with Confiscation, and saw Destiny Draw and Dark Magician of Chaos in Evans’ hand. He forced Evans to discard the Dark Magician of Chaos and then activated Graceful Charity. He discarded Limiter Removal and Cyber Phoenix from his hand for Graceful, and then spent a few moments evaluating the field. After some brief thought, he activated Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Evans’ set Mirror Force. He then attacked Diamond Dude with Banisher of the Radiance, and two back row cards ended his turn.

Evans drew, and Reinforcement of the Army’s effect activated from the graveyard to let him search out Elemental Hero Stratos. He attached Divine Sword — Phoenix Blade to Destiny Hero — Dasher, summoned Stratos, and targeted both of Bowlds’ set spell or trap cards with Stratos’ destruction effect. Stratos managed to destroy Bowlds’ set Sakuretsu Armor, but was lost in turn to Bottomless Trap Hole. Dasher ran over Banisher, shifted to defense position with its own effect, and Evans announced that he was finished: “Your turn.” Bowlds was down to two cards and 6200 life points.

He special summoned Cyber Dragon and ran over Dasher, ending his turn immediately. Evans fired back with Dark Magician of Chaos, tributing his two copies of Destiny Hero — Malicious and returning Reinforcement of the Army to his hand with Magician’s effect. “Use it,” he said, placing Reinforcement on the field and searching for another Stratos. He removed the two copies of Malicious from his graveyard to return Divine Sword to his hand, attacked over Cyber Dragon with Dark Magician of Chaos and ended.

Bowlds activated Fissure to destroy and remove Dark Magician of Chaos from play, but had no way to capitalize on the breathing room he’d bought himself. Evans kept the onslaught coming by summoning Stratos, searched out his third from his deck, and then discarded Phoenix Blade and Stratos for Magical Stone Excavation targeting Destiny Draw. The hot new spell card shot back to Evans’ hand and he activated it immediately, discarding Dasher to get two more cards. He then removed Dasher and Stratos to take back Phoenix Blade, attached it to Stratos and attacked for 2100.

Another Fissure kept Bowlds alive in the duel, taking out Stratos. He set a spell or trap. He was clearly fighting for survival.

Evans summoned Diamond Dude, used his effect to hit Lightning Vortex, and then activated Monster Gate to turn Diamond Dude into Jinzo. He removed two more Warriors to bring back Phoenix Blade and attacked with Jinzo for 2400 damage. Bowlds set another monster. Evans discarded two cards for Magical Stone, brought back Graceful Charity, used it to get Dimension Fusion, and Bowlds scooped, looking like he was wondering what the heck just happened.

Chris Evans takes a blazingly fast win to dominate the first duel!

Both duelists smokescreened, shuffling their side decks into their main decks and then removing fifteen cards. Evans put on quite a good show, but had changed nothing — all fifteen cards he removed were from his registered side deck. Both duelists gave each other’s decks a quick, but thorough, shuffle before the second duel began.

Bowlds set three cards to his back row, then set two more. “I’ve got some stuff in your standby,” he announced. Evans drew, and Bowlds activated Trap Dustshoot to send Stratos back to Evans’ deck, then activated another to send back Dasher, revealing Monster Gate, Lightning Vortex, Dimension Fusion, and Destiny Draw. Evans was in trouble. He had nothing to do immediately, and set all four of his cards to his back row. It was a desperate play that left him vulnerable to Heavy Storm, but would at least keep his cards safe from the Mind Crushes that seemed imminent.

A fourth set card hit Bowlds’ spell and trap zone and he passed back. Evans activated Reasoning, Bowlds called level 4, and Evans discarded four cards on his way to losing Elemental Hero Stratos. Ouch.

Snipe Hunter came down for Bowlds, who attacked directly for 1500 damage. “Go ahead.” Evans drew and passed back. Bowlds summoned Red Gadget, searched his deck for Yellow Gadget, and flipped Ultimate Offering. Evans scooped — there was nothing he could do with his field full of set spell cards.

Both duelists did some side decking before game 3, and this time Evans actually changed cards. He sided into Royal Decree, a good idea, but one that would cost him if it turned out that Bowlds sided out of Mind Crush / Dustshoot.

Evans opened with Reasoning, special summoning Destiny Hero — Dasher. He summoned Diamond Dude, flipped Reasoning off the top of his deck with Diamond Dude’s effect, and set two back row cards. Bowlds special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and broke Evans’ set Reinforcement of the Army with Breaker’s token. Breaker ran over Diamond Dude, Cyber Dragon traded off with Dasher to send both monsters to the graveyard, and Bowlds set two back row cards.

Elemental Hero Stratos came down for Evans, searching another from his deck. He briefly seemed to consider searching for Malicious with Stratos’ effect, but went with another Stratos after rethinking. He flipped his set Lightning Vortex, discarding Divine Sword — Phoenix Blade to do so, but his opponent chained Enemy Controller and tributed Breaker the Magical Warrior, taking Diamond Dude and placing him right in front of the Vortex! Diamond Dude was destroyed. Stymied, Evans removed Diamond Dude and Stratos to bounce the Blade back to his hand, and then brought them both back from the removed from play area with Dimension Fusion. Diamond Dude activated, whiffed, and flipped Phoenix Blade, and Evans put it back on the bottom of his deck. Bowlds flipped Ring of Destruction to destroy Diamond Dude. Stratos took the Phoenix Blade in hand and swung at Bowlds for 2100 damage.

Bowlds special summoned Cyber Dragon, activated Smashing Ground to take down Stratos and hit directly for more damage. Another set card hit his back row, and when Evans went to begin his next turn that set card flipped: Mind Crush. It robbed Evans of his Stratos, and there was just nothing he could do. Chris Evans scooped.

Mind Crush and Trap Dustshoot pay off for Chris Bowlds, beating out the formidable Chris Evans and winning over the most dreaded strategy of this event!