Play began slowly with Clavelli opening. Both players spent two turns setting cards, and Clavelli was the first to blink, flipping a face down Magician of Faith. Luc made him pay for it though, flipping Torrential Tribute.

 

Clavvelli turned it into a positive, using the destroyed monsters to summon Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. He used Heavy Storm to clear out Luc's one face down, looking to press his advantage, but Luc chained Scapegoat. The Black Luster Soldier ate two of them.

 

Next turn Luc took down the Soldier with Tribe-Infecting Virus and attacked directly. He set one card and then passed. Clavelli set just one card and passed his turn, again being punished by another poke from Tribe-Infecting Virus, which brought the life point totals to 3300 to 3500 in Luc's favor. Luc passed and Clavelli again had no play, so Tribe-Infecting Virus struck once more to drive him down to 1700 life points.

 

Clavelli continued drawing into stuff that couldn't help him, topdecking Nobleman of Crossout. “How many cards? A whole bunch?”

 

“Yeah” confirmed Luc. Clavelli set the Nobleman as a bluff, set Tsukuyomi, and passed.

 

Luc moved quickly, playing Heavy Storm. “Man . . . all my bad topdecks.” Clavelli mourned the loss of his three bluffs. Luc summoned Tsukuyomi, turned his Tribe-Infecting Virus face down with its effect, turned it back up manually, played Nobleman of Crossout on Clavelli's Tsukuyomi, and attacked to win the game. An extremely fast game one goes to Wilson Luc.

 

Game Two

 

Clavelli opened this game with nothing but a face down spell or trap—he either had Scapegoat or he was bluffing. Luc called him on it by dropping D. D. Warrior Lady and attacking straight through for first blood.

 

Next Clavelli set one more face down; was he topdecking badly again? Luc pressed an attack with D. D. Warrior Lady, which was put into defense position with Enemy Controller. Luc set two cards and one was hit with Dust Tornado, revealing Scapegoat. Clavelli used Tornado's second effect to set a card, and on his turn would set another spell or trap and a monster. His play style was intriguingly defensive, but Luc seemed to know how to exploit it.

 

Luc pressed with D. D. and forced Clavelli to Mirror Force it—a sub-optimal move. He set another spell or trap and passed. Whatever that face down monster was, Clavelli sure wanted to protect it.

 

“How many cards in your hand?” Clavelli asked. Luc counted out four, and Clavelli tributed his face down monster, Enraged Battle Ox, for Jinzo. After some brief thought, he opted to use Metamorphosis on it instead of attempting to attack directly for 2400. He brought up Dark Blade the Dragon Knight, attacked, and the Knight was hit with Ring of Destruction. Clavelli attempted to chain Call of the Haunted to bring up Jinzo, but was shot down by a Mystical Space Typhoon!

 

“Oh, man, that sucks. Okay, well, go ahead. Go to town,” Clavelli said as he sat back, no cards on the field. Luc activated Premature Burial on D. D. Warrior Lady, summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and attacked with both to drop Clavelli to 900 life points.

 

“There's his Light and Dark right there,” mused Clavelli. He counted Luc's in-hand cards again. Luc had three to his own four, but Luc had two monsters on the field. He fingered an in-hand Tribe-Infecting Virus and then set it on the table with a shaky hand. He took out Breaker, discarding Airknight Parshath for the Virus's effect, then took out the Lady by discarding Tsukuyomi. Tribe attacked directly and Luc was down to 3400 life points.

 

“You got this?”

 

“You're at 900?” asked Luc.

 

“You got thiiis . . . ” Clavelli grinned.

 

Luc pondered a moment. “No, actually, I don't.” Luc summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Tribe-Infecting Virus face down, and attacked it to clear it off the field. He set a card. Next turn, Clavelli summoned Blade Knight and set a spell or trap. He attacked with Blade Knight, placing Luc at 1400 to his own 900. He passed.

 

Luc drew, flipped his face down Heavy Storm, and Clavelli flipped over his face down Ring of Destruction to activate it. “Oh, man. It's a tie.” Stephen Clavelli survived by the skin of his neck, and play moved to game three!

 

Game Three

 

Because it was a tie, Clavelli again got to choose to go first. He opened with Graceful Charity, losing Jinzo and Lightning Vortex. He set Sakuretsu Armor and then passed. Luc set a monster and a spell or trap and passed.

 

Nobleman of Crossout was Clavelli's first play in his next turn, and he stripped Luc of both of his Night Assailants. He summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke Luc's face down Sakuretsu Armor (a popular opening play this game) and attacked for 1600 damage.

 

Luc played himself out a bit next turn, setting a monster and two spells or traps. Clavelli was playing things carefully, though, and attacked without summoning or using any spell or trap removal. Breaker ran straight into a Magical Cylinder, setting the score at 6400 to 6400. He set a monster and passed.

 

Luc set another spell, summoned Slate Warrior, and then flipped his face down Morphing Jar, netting some serious card advantage and punishing Clavelli's reserved play. Luc counted his hand, then Clavelli's, and then activated Card Destruction. It was possible he was looking to take the game this turn, attempting to draw into and feed Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. If that was what he was looking for, he didn't find it.

 

Slate Warrior took out Breaker and Call of the Haunted brought up Airknight Parshath for Luc, but when he went to attack with it, that Sakuretsu Armor in Clavelli's row, the one sitting there from turn one, finally went off and took it down. Luc set a card after some deliberation and ended his turn.

 

Clavelli used Mystical Space Typhoon on the freshly set card, revealing a Scapegoat that Luc couldn't chain since he had two monsters on the field. Clavelli set three spell or traps, flip summoned D. D. Warrior Lady and normal summoned Blade Knight. Blade Knight took down Slate Warrior. Clavelli sent D. D. Warrior Lady after the Morphing Jar, and he chained Book of Moon to his attack—a fabulous move that netted him serious card advantage!

 

He flipped Swords of Revealing Light and passed his turn. Luc quickly activated Delinquent Duo, and the score was 6100 to 5300 with Clavelli in the lead. Luc set two spells or traps, a monster, and one of the new spells or traps got hit with Dust Tornado in the end phase, revealing Mirror Force!

 

Progressing to his turn, Clavelli took out Luc's face down Magician of Faith with Nobleman of Crossout, tributed his Slated Blade Knight for Airknight Parshath, attacked with it directly, and then attempted to attack with D. D. Warrior Lady. Luc flipped Scapegoat and she hit nothing but fluffy meat shield. Still, Luc was in a very tough spot.

 

Clavelli used Metamorphosis on the Airknight to bring out Dark Balter the Terrible, and that was it for his turn.

 

Luc set two more face down spell or traps and passed. Clavelli controlled double the number of cards Luc did, and things were looking bad for Comic Odyssey's champion. Dark Balter attacked but slammed into Ring of Destruction. The score was 1400 to 4100, Clavelli with the lead. D. D. took down a second sheep, Clavelli set a monster, and Luc was up.

 

Nobleman of Crossout removed the face down Enraged Battle Ox from Clavelli's side of the field, and Luc looked to press his momentum with a Metamorphosis. He tributed one of his sheep to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict, but was quickly hit with Torrential Tribute. He played Swords of Revealing Light and that was it.

 

Clavelli, who had now lost his Swords of Revealing Light, employed a similar defensive tactic. He set a few cards and passed. Luc passed back after setting a monster. Clavelli needed to find a way to tie up the match quickly before time ran out. He topdecked into Pot of Greed, activated it, and then searched his graveyard. He flipped his one set monster, Magician of Faith, took back Heavy Storm, and activated it, losing both him and his opponent two cards. Clavelli then attacked with Magician of Faith, smacking into Breaker. Snatch Steal grabbed Breaker and time was called as Luc passed his turn. The life totals were 3400 for Clavelli to Luc's 2400. Head Judge Dave Brent decreed that the game would continue, one extra turn for each player, due to slow play in the previous turns from each player.

 

“Let's go all out.”

 

Breaker took down Luc's Sinister Serpent, and Magician of Faith and Sinister attacked directly. It was Luc's last turn, and he used Heavy Storm before setting Sinister Serpent in defense and turning Breaker to defense position.

 

The match continued at the behest of head Judge Dave Brent.

 

Clavelli summoned D. D. Assailant, announced his intent to attack, and Luc scooped. The match would move to a sudden death game four.

 

Game Four

 

Both players spent some time side decking, but unlike many players neither had optimized their side decks for sudden death. Luc had nothing that would deliver a guaranteed win upon resolution, while Clavelli had only a Ceasefire to rotate in. “He's gonna pull Wave-Motion on me!” joked Clavelli.

 

After both competitors took the full three minutes permitted for side decking, play began: Luc decided the play order, and opted to go second.

 

Clavelli opened with Graceful Charity, discarding Lightning Vortex and Sinister Serpent.

 

“Do you have the game?” asked Luc. Clavelli didn't reply, opting instead just to set a monster and a spell or trap.

 

Luc drew his six cards and looked at them one by one, keeping them tight to the table. He played Pot of Greed. “Jar Robber!” cried Clavelli.

 

“I wish,” Luc shrugged, grinning. Luc summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and broke Clavelli's face down spell or trap, revealing it to be Mystical Space Typhoon—Clavelli was bluffing! The crowd behind Luc erupted as he played Nobleman of Crossout from his hand, and with a single attack from Breaker, Wilson Luc claimed the match!