The 2006 European Championships have certainly been a big success for Italy, but unfortunately, it is up to one countryman to knock the other out of the competition at this point. Mohamed Ali finished at the top of the Swiss rounds with his very aggressive Cyber-Stein deck, while his opponent Donato Mancini snuck in as the eighth seed, leaving him with a pretty rough matchup at the start of the Top 8.

Mohamed won the roll and elected to play first. He started with a set monster and trap, and Donato had Cyber Dragon. The Dragon ran in, but could not get past what turned out to be a Spirit Reaper. Wary of how frustrating the Reaper could become, Donato used Snatch Steal on it at the earliest opportunity to kill it, then set two spells or traps.

Donato responded to the quiet turn from Ali by playing Zaborg the Thunder Monarch to kill the set Mystic Tomato Ali had, then attacked. Ali tried to strike back with Asura Priest, but unfortunately for him, it fell into Bottomless Trap Hole.

Donato attempted to get ahead using Breaker the Magical Warrior, but unfortunately for him, the trap he tried to break was a Mystical Space Typhoon, which in turn took out one of Ali’s own traps.

An Asura Priest and a Spirit Reaper later, and suddenly Ali appeared to be fighting back in rare style. Donato used a Graceful Charity, then a Confiscation to pluck an Exiled Force from Ali’s hand.

Ali still had his Spirit Reaper in play, and supplemented it with a Sangan – the perfect monster to attack into Donato’s face down monster (hopefully to clear the way. That it did, getting a Magician of Faith flipped, for what good it did, as the reaper immediately grabbed the Graceful Charity that the wizard had fetched back.

For a couple of turns, Spirit Reaper and Asura Priest appeared to be a great combo, until Donato played Chaos Sorcerer, to kill the Reaper and then go for each subsequent monster Ali could play. The Sorcerer beat up a Magician of Faith the old-fashioned way, allowing a Smashing Ground to come back for Ali. Donato then had another Magician of his own, getting back Graceful Charity, which drew another Chaos Sorcerer for Mancini.

With a Sorcerer on the board, little to fight it with, and on low life points, Mohamed Ali scooped them up, and frustratedly began going through his side deck for game 2.

For game two, each player began with one set monster, and one set spell/trap. For turn two, Ali had a Graceful Charity, which in turn supplied him with a monster to set.

For Donato, the card drawing came in the form of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, who also attacked, but only straight into Magician of Faith, who got back Graceful Charity for yet more card drawing.

When drawing so many cards, it is not too hard to find Heavy Storm, and Ali used it to brutal effect, along with Asura Priest to be able to attack both of Mancini’s face down monsters with little difficulty. A Spirit Reaper had to get hit by Enemy Controller to get through with the Mohamed Ali Spirit Reaper, but that was not a problem for the man that finished at the top of the Swiss rounds.

More of a problem was Jinzo from Mancini, but this too was swiftly dealt with by a Chaos Sorcerer. Mancini fought back with Breaker and Cyber Dragon, but could not quite work his way through all the defences that Ali had. Chaos Sorcerer remained active, and eventually Mancini appeared out of gas, with just three set traps, to Ali’s Sorcerer and Mystic Tomato.

Soon these three became four. Was Mancini slow-rolling answers, waiting for Ali to commit more to the board? If he was then he would have a long wait, as Ali seemed more than happy to trot in with just a Tomato each turn.

Eventually, Mancini had to act, using Return From The Different Dimension to bring Jinzo and Breaker back into play for a turn, effectively as a Negate Attack.

When Mancini played a face down monster, Ali responded with a Metamorphosis of Chaos Sorcerer for Ryu Senshi, and an Asura Priest. A creature swap sent his Mystic Tomato in the place of Donato’s set monster, and allowed for plenty big enough attacks to secure the win.

For game three, neither player led with monsters, instead going with just a single set from Mancini, and a double set from Ali. This looked to allow a favorable trade to Donato, but Mohamed had set Scapegoat, so in fact Ali’s board swelled from the Storm, albeit just with Sheep tokens.

Faced with a wall of wool, Donato decided to start work on knitting a jumper. He flipped Dekoichi to draw a card, and attack one Sheep, and Magician of Faith to get back Heavy Storm and allow more Sheep to succumb.

Ali fought back with Mystic Tomato, who attacked Dekoichi, then fetched Sangan to kill the Magician. This left Donato with just a single set monster, who turned out to be Magical Merchant.

Chaos Sorcerer joined it, and they both proceeded to do a number on team Ali, at least until Mohamed put his foot down and used Snatch Steal to take the troublesome wizard. The sorcerer attacked, revealing a Magical Merchant, which found Return from the Different Dimension, before being flipped face down by Tsukuyomi.

Breaker the Magical Warrior tried to do his little break-dance, but was thwarted when his target turned out to be Enemy Controller, which moved the Cyber Dragon that had preceded into defense position.

As if his turn hadn’t been good enough, Mancini also had a Chaos Sorcerer, who removed his traitorous compatriot before Donato passed. Without monsters or traps on the board, Ali looked to be in a very tight spot. He used Mystical Space Typhoon to take down Mancini’s only trap, then Smashing Ground, Tsukuyomi and Creature Swap to dramatically change things, ending up with the only monster on the board, in the form of Cyber Dragon.

At the next opportunity, Cyber Dragon attacked, hitting one of Mancini’s own monsters, and leaving him looking in trouble. To this, Mancini summoned Cyber Dragon, followed by Zaborg, then Chaos Sorcerer. A Nobleman of Crossout cleared the way, but Donato did not have enough attack on the board to finish things then and there. Instead he had to get another attack in. To add even more drama to the moment, time was just called, so each player knew the game had to end quickly.

Ali put up a defence like iron, but had no way to win back on life totals in time. On the third extra turn, he had to simply extend his hand to his countryman. They had been good games.

Donato Mancini wins, 2-1!