Eleven rounds across two days boiled down to just one final match for the event’s last two duelists. Having vanquished Team Savage from the main event in the semifinals, Eric Wu represented Team Comic Odyssey against the unaffiliated Keanson Ye. Wu won the opening roll and opted to go first.

Opening with Graceful Charity, Wu drew into Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, which is always nice to clinch on the first turn. He sent Spirit Reaper and D. D. Warrior Lady to the graveyard. If Ye knew what he was up to, Ye was pretty quiet about it. Wu was looking to bait Ye into an attack, so he set a spell or trap and summoned Sangan.

Ye didn’t take the bait. Instead, he set a Pyramid Turtle that was hit with a Nobleman of Crossout immediately after he passed the turn. Sangan attacked Ye directly and Wu set a monster. Ye would go on to summon D. D. Warrior Lady, but in response to Wu’s Bottomless Trap Hole he activated Torrential Tribute to wipe the field. If he didn’t make a strong follow up Wu would have the opening he wanted to swing with the Soldier. In the meantime, Wu used Sangan’s effect to search out a Magician of Faith. Ye set one spell or trap and passed the turn.

Wu promptly Heavy Stormed, hitting the face down bluff and revealing Call of the Haunted. Book of Life brought up Spirit Reaper, Wu set a monster, but didn’t pres his advantage! The Black Luster Soldier remained in his hand unused as the Reaper attacked, and he set one spell or trap before passing the turn.

Ye smelled a trap, so he summoned a Sangan of his own and ran it into the face down monster instead of the Reaper. The face-down monster was Magician of Faith, and Wu took back Graceful Charity. Things looked bleak for Ye as Wu immediately activated Graceful Charity to get a Breaker the Magical Warrior. He summoned it, special summoned the Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and attacked with all three of his monsters to end game one.

Game Win: Eric Wu

Both players took a short amount of time to side deck, as both duelists seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do, and the only time really spent was used to dig for the proper main deck cards to swap out.

Ye opted to go first, and opened with nothing but a face-down monster. Wu had the luck, and activated Pot of Greed before attacking with Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. Well, he had the luck for a brief moment before the Pyramid Turtle he took out special summoned Vampire Lord. Wu set a spell or trap in hopes of making Ye Question an attack next turn, and passed.

It didn’t work, and Ye’s Vampire Lord destroyed Kycoo in battle, taking a Bottomless Trap Hole with it. Without a lot to do, Wu used his turn to set a Spirit Reaper.

Ye summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and used his token to break Wu’s one face down spell or trap. Wu chained it, bringing four cuddly little goats onto the board. Ye crashed his Breaker into the facedown Spirit Reaper and eliminated a goat with Vampire Lord.

Another goat would fall by the wayside, but this time by Wu’s hand. He used Metamorphosis to turn one into a Thousand-Eyes Restrict. It sucked up the Vampire Lord and cleaned Breaker’s clock. He set another spell or trap and passed.

Considering his hand for a moment, Ye used Book of Life to summon back his Pyramid Turtle. He set a second face down monster, and a single spell or trap before passing play.

Wu sent his Thousand-Eyes Restrict after Ye’s first face down monster, finding yet another Pyramid Turtle. After its effect resolved Ye had one face-down monster, one Turtle and one Spirit Reaper. Ye passed his next turn, unable to do much with the field locked down.

Wu aimed to keep the pressure on him, despite the slowed pace of the game. Delinquent Duo robbed Ye of a Vampire Lord and a Magician of Faith, and the Thousand-Eyes Restrict swung into the face down monster, which was Magician of Faith. No wonder the Vampire Lord was Ye’s pick to Duo into the graveyard. Still, he could do nothing about Thousand-Eyes Restrict and he passed his turn yet again.

Drawing into Lightning Vortex and staring at a field of face-up monsters that were nearly indestructible in battle, Wu activated it. He attacked with Thousand-Eyes, but a timely Scapegoat held it off. Ye again drew, and again passed quickly. This continued for several turns, as each turn lost Ye another of his fluffy little shields.

Finally, Wu punched through Ye’s adorable defenses. Thousand-Eyes attacked, but in response Ye used Call of the Haunted, targeting Vampire Lord. He brought it to the field, but Wu announced he was chaining. He flipped over Mystical Space Typhoon, and with the special summon prevented his attack when through for 2000 life points. The life point total was 6800 to 5600 in favor of Wu.

Ye used Premature Burial to bring up Vampire Lord yet again. While he was only trailing Wu by a couple of cards—both players had nearly ten cards between each of their hands and fields)—he was clearly not in control of the game. Wu attacked the Vampire Lord with his Thousand-Eyes Restrict, leaving himself somewhat defenseless but depriving Ye of monsters. With three face-down spell or traps, it seemed a safe bet that Wu had a way of protecting it. Sure enough, Ye had nothing and yet again passed after setting one spell or trap.

He’d left Wu with nothing to absorb with Thousand-Eyes Restrict, so Wu turned his ranks to defense and waited. It was a waiting game now, and it continued to be a waiting game for several turns as monster and spell and trap zones were loaded on both sides of the field. Like gunslingers in the Wild West, they were loading their weapons and getting ready for the final shootout.

Both players got to the point where they were discarding rather than setting, summoning, or activating more cards. Ye was the first to break the lull.

He used Book of Life to special summon yet another Vampire Lord, removing Wu’s Sinister Serpent that he’d discarded during the last turn’s end phase, due to the size of his hand. He still couldn’t attack though. He loaded up his spell and trap zone, filling it completely, and then ended his turn.

The Thousand-Eyes Restrict inhaled Vampire Lord, and Wu again attempted to attack with it. Up came more goats, and the cycle that occurred a few turns ago seemed destined to repeat itself: Thousand-Eyes Restrict took out a Goat and Wu discarded a Blade Knight.

Ye finally summoned another monster a turn later, bringing Sangan to the field. The way the game was going, it seemed very possible that victory would come down to an issue of decking. Wu didn’t attack the Sangan, but left Thousand-Eyes in attack mode before discarding Book of Life.

Ye summoned Tribe-Infecting Virus and opted not to use priority for its effect, nor any other effect. Both players were goat locked at this point—unable to play any more monsters due to having too many Scapegoat tokens taking up space—but Ye had a way out in the form of Tribe-Infecting Virus. Still, the eerie calm continued as Wu did not attack the Tribe, fearing Ye’s five set spell or traps.

Finally Ye made his move. He discarded Creature Swap to pay for Tribe’s effect, taking out Thousand-Eyes Restrict. He then tributed Sangan for Enemy Controller’s effect, taking control of Wu’s D. D. Warrior Lady and taking Hand of Nephthys with Sangan’s effect. He turned Tribe to defense position, D. D. to attack position, and attacked Spirit Reaper with the D. D. The attack was cut short by an Enemy Controller from Wu, and Spirit Reaper was saved. Ye then used Tribe to clear out the D. D. he had just taken.

“My turn?” asked Wu, seeming to pick up in speed a bit. After some sudden long periods of thought, he seemed to opt to delay his press for a win, and only set a monster.

Ye looked to punish him for his indecision. Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed Wu’s Torrential Tribute, and another Book of Life brought Vampire Lord back yet again. He didn’t have much support though, and all his attack resulted in was two dead goats. It was now a goat and a Spirit Reaper on Wu’s side versus three goats, a Vampire Lord and Tribe-Infecting Virus on Ye’s.

Wu used Creature Swap to give Ye an attack-position goat token. Heavy Storm then wiped five cards off the field, two on Wu’s and three on Ye’s, and finally, it was on! Wu normal summoned Pyramid Turtle, special summoned the Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning he’d been holding for the whole game, and attacked. First the Turtle smashed itself into the Tribe, summoning out a Vampire Lord in its place. The Soldier attacked twice, first scoring a clean shot of 3000 life points straight through the attack position goat and then destroying Ye’s Vampire Lord. Wu’s Vampire Lord then took out the Tribe that had permitted its own summoning in the first place. By the end of the turn, Wu had a Spirit Reaper and a goat in defense position, Soldier and Vampire Lord in attack position, and two set spell or traps. With five cards in hand to Ye’s four, and with Ye only having two sheep on his field, Wu appeared to be feeling pretty good about the situation.

But Ye had other plans—namely, plans that didn’t involve losing on the next turn. He activated Snatch Steal to take the Soldier and used its effect to remove Vampire Lord from Wu’s side of the field. He then summoned Hand of Nephthys, sacked both monsters to summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, and attacked Wu’s final goat.

Wu drew his last card, but he didn’t need them. He’d been holding a Premature Burial for more than five turns, and used it to bring up Black Luster Soldier. All he needed was the small amount of damage he could push through on the Phoenix, and that was it! Eric Wu wins SJC LA, and Comic Odyssey adds a sixth Cyber-Stein to their collection!

Tournament Win: Eric Wu