Dominic Estrella is a local duelist from Las Vegas, while Ralph Camareno traveled to the Shonen Jump TCG Championship from Utah. Both duelists have played Yu-Gi-Oh! for some time now. Dominic Estrella ran a Warrior/Chaos deck, while Ralph ran a Lava Burn deck.

Ralph started the match by setting one card, activating Messenger of Peace, and summoning Exiled Force. Dominic played The Forceful Sentry and returned one of Ralph’s cards back to his deck. Afterwards, Ralph activated Curse of Darkness. Dominic activated Pot of Greed to draw two cards, but took 1000 points of damage. Dominic set one card and one monster before ending his turn. Ralph paid the upkeep for his Messenger and offered his Exiled Force to destroy Dominic’s Peten the Dark Clown. Dominic removed the Peten to special summon another one from his deck in defense mode. The duel went slow until Ralph summoned Lava Golem onto Dominic’s field. Dominic was able to Creature Swap Ralph’s golem back under his control after using Breaker the Magical Warrior to destroy Ralph’s Curse of Darkness.

Since Ralph quit paying for his Messenger of Peace, Dominic was able to stop Golem’s assault at him thanks to Tribe-Infecting Virus. Ralph was forced to only set a monster. Dominic tried to summon and use Magical Scientist, but Ralph used Solemn Judgment to negate the summon. After Dominic set a new monster, Ralph activated Ceasefire to inflict some damage. Ralph had 3900 life points and Dominic had 4100. Ralph managed to hold off Dominic’s attacks and use both Princess of Tsurugi and Secret Barrel, brining Dominic down to 1400 life points. Once Dominic claimed an advantage with Dark Magician of Chaos, he just about had the game won. He played Premature Burial to revive his Blade Knight, which was at 2000 ATK. He chose to have Blade Knight attack Ralph’s face-down monster, which was a Big Shield Guardna. The 600 damage he suffered was enough to give Ralph the win.

Ralph 1, Dominic 0

Dominic ended up going against any possible counter Ralph had during the duel. Both times when he used Nobleman of Crossout during the duel, it either resolved with no effect due to the response of Ceasefire, or was negated by Big Shield Guardna’s effect. Once Ralph began flip summoning Stealth Bird, there was no chance of Dominic recovering from the situation.

Ralph 2, Dominic 0