This is also a horrible matchup for Sven. He is playing a Cyber-Stein deck that sides into burn, using a version that apart from two cards in the side deck replicates Igor Kharin’s solid build from the UK Nationals. Sven is clearly the underdog here, but he is by no means out of contention. This is shaping up to be a fantastic match.

After numerous checks and briefings, the players finally took their seats and prepared to play off for their trip to Tokyo in order to represent Europe for 2006. The players shook hands and did high roll to decide who will play first. Dario won the roll and we got underway in this quarterfinal match!

Dario opened up with Reinforcement of the Army to search D. D. Warrior Lady to his hand, before deciding to set a face-down monster and a spell or trap before passing to Adam. Adam himself copied Dario returning the set to each zone and we were back to the Italian.

He flipped his Warrior Lady and activated Nobleman of Crossout to remove Nimble Momonga from the game. Summoning Asura Priest, he attacked with both to reduce Adam to 4800 life points and then returned the priest to his hand before ending.

Adam activated Level Limit – Area B and set a monster before giving play back to Dario. The Italian set a monster and then flipped Metamorphosis, sending away Magician of Faith in order to grab a Thousand-Eyes Restrict. He absorbed the face down monster and passed. The German set a card to each zone before passing back, and Dario drew for his turn.

He summoned Tsukuyomi and cycled the Restrict, and passed straight back. A turn later Dario had set a monster and Adam had set a back row card. Both players decided to play the “draw-go” game for a number of turns and the field was locked up pretty tight. Dario had six cards in hand, two set back row cards, Warrior Lady in defense position, Thousand-Eyes Restrict with a face down monster attached, and two set monsters. His German foe had three set spell or traps and a Level Limit – Area B, with six cards in hand also.

Both players had a slow, methodical style of play and as such play was moving very slowly. Four turns of draw-go had passed and Adam had started to discard cards for his end phase. In the meantime, many loud shouts were heard from the other side of the hall, where Vincent had just been chastised for leaving his fusion deck in his deck box and not being able to win with Cyber-Stein. Ouch.

Three more turns later both players were still discarding cards in the end phase and passing back and forth. It was visible that both players were starting to get reasonably frustrated and they had now both completely filled up their back row with cards, leaving them unable to play any more. Whether either player was biding their time or simply didn’t have any idea what to do was unknown, but it was another two turns before anyone blinked. Adam flipped Poison of the Old Man to do 800 damage to Longo, before activating Graceful Charity. He took his three cards and proceeded to discard Sangan and Morphing Jar. Nobleman of Crossout hit Dario’s Treeborn Frog and Adam filled his back row once more before passing.

A turn of passing later, Adam flipped yet another Poison to deal 800 more damage to the Italian. This gave him enough room to activate Giant Trunade which prompted Book of Moon from Dario to turn D. D. Warrior Lady face down. He replayed all of his cards face down, setting four and re-activating Level Limit – Area B. In Dario’s draw phase he played two Secret Barrel for 2600 damage each. This left Dario on 1200 life points and he continued to set four cards face-down in the back row before passing again.

The ever-present “draw-go” game restarted, and two turns later, we were in a stalemate once more. Dario blinked first by playing Nobleman of Crossout on the face-down Cyber-Stein and a turn later, he was absorbing the new monster with Restrict. The Tsukuyomi lock began once more and Dario continued to absorb monsters of the German.

Longo’s Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed the face down Gravity Bind, but a turn later, things looked like they may move when Adam played Heavy Storm. He set a card to each zone and ended, and when Longo drew activated Ceasefire for the first game! The Italian machine is taken down in game one by Sven Adam from Germany!

Sven 1 – 0 Dario.

Dario visibly side decked a lot of cards, whereas Sven chose the option to smokescreen. Both players let out a long sigh and eventually game two got underway with Longo deciding to start things off once more. Might I add, sitting on Adam’s side of the table, I could see that via smokescreen he had decided to keep on the same build as before, the Cyber-Stein build.

Longo started off things in game two with a set monster and four set spell or traps. This was an unusual play and was met with Sven next turn by a set card before Swords of Revealing Light. This revealed Longo’s D. D. Warrior Lady and Sven set a monster before passing. Dario played his Graceful Charity and discarded a light and dark monster before flipping Ceasefire for 1000 damage and revealing a Morphing Jar from Sven. A set to each zone from the German made things back to Dario who passed straight back once more.

Another set monster was the German’s only move and after Dario passed again the Swords was destroyed. Adam set a third spell or trap and passed back to Dario who summoned Tsukuyomi, cycling D. D. Warrior Lady. The attack met a Mirror Force but Royal Decree stopped that. Adam accidentally chained Gravity Bind so it had to stay on the field, uselessly. Tsukuyomi dealt with Morphing Jar and D. D. Warrior Lady refused to remove the face down Sangan from play.

Adam drew and carefully checked his graveyard before setting a monster and passing, and the Italian had Nobleman of Crossout off the top to remove a Nimble Momonga. The flip-flop occurred and Warrior Lady removed another face-down Momonga while Tsukuyomi connected with Sven directly for 1100. Adam set a monster and passed back while Dario did the same. The next turn and another set monster later, Longo summoned Sangan and attacked in to a Mystic Tomato. Sven simply passed back while Longo thought long and hard before offering Sangan as a tribute for Mobius the Frost Monarch. It took out the bind and a face-down Poison which was chained to deal Dario 800. Mobius attacked into a Spirit Reaper and Longo passed.

Adam set another two back row cards while Longo used Reinforcement of the army to get Mystic Swordsman LV2. He flipped Tsukuyomi to flip down the Reaper and Swordsman took it out. Longo passed back to Sven who proceeded to consider his options and so a quick card count. Longo had six in his hand and Sven had four. With Royal Decree active things looked bad for Sven but he summoned Exiled Force and attacked the swordsman before offering to destroy Mobius.

Longo’s own Exiled Force dealt with the Tomato that had been annoying him, and Sven put his head in his hand while he thought about his move. He did some math and let out a sigh, before setting two more cards and then activating Card Destruction. It was 5500 for Longo to Sven’s 8000.

Dario came back with a Chaos Sorcerer and Mystic Tomato connecting with both. Sven set a monster and passed back, and it was on the Italian once more. He activated two Poison of the Old Man to inflict 1600 damage before chaining Emergency Provisions to gain 2000. Nobleman of Crossout sealed the deal for Longo, and with exactly two minutes left on the clock, both players began frantically side-decking for game three.

Sven 1 – 1 Dario.

For game three both players smokescreen side-decked and the German decided he would get the third game going as time was called. Each player would get two turns to win on life-points. If not then it would be first change in life-points. This would be very close, but with a burn deck you had to stack the odds against the Italian!

He began with a very good burn hand so things were looking good. Activating Graceful Charity he discarded Spirit Reaper and a Gravity Bind, before choosing to set three spell and traps and a monster, then activating Wave-Motion Cannon. Longo matched the Graceful Charity and for his he chose to discard Chaos Sorcerer and Mystic Tomato. He set three back row cards himself and then a monster.

Sven set off the Cannon for a quick 1000 and activated Secret Barrel. Longo let it resolve for 1200. Des Koala got him for another 800, and Sven set the rest of his hand to his back row. This was Dario’s last turn to do anything about the 2000 damage gap between them.

He chose to tribute Sangan for Mobius the Frost Monarch and the targeted cards were chained, Scapegoat and Poison of the Old Man which gave Sven 1200. The gap was now 3200 and Longo searched out Exiled Force with his Sangan. Mobius attacked a sheep token, and Enemy Controller turned it to attack mode. Dario then activated Poison in response, and chained Emergency Provisions! This was an excellent move that would put him ahead to win the game. Both players did a lot of math and Sven played Poison to give himself another 1200 points. It wasn’t enough, though, and Dario’s attack on the sheep token was enough to end the game!

Dario Longo comes from behind to beat Sven Adam, 2-1!