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Shonen Jump Arlington was full of surprises. Team GG brought a plethora of creative, incredibly viable decks that did really well, playing everything from a Skill Drain deck built by Ryan “Kill Switch” Goff to a Lady Assailant of the Flames strategy. Two innovative decks from other groups made it to the Top 8, including a Dark World Burn deck and Jake McNeely’s Banisher of the Radiance Anti-Chaos deck. The latter is perhaps the event’s legacy – competitors in the adjacent Regional tournament were copying McNeely before the Shonen Jump’s Top 8 was even finished.

But in the end, the winner of the event was James Naughton. One of two members of Team Hpnotiq that made the final four of Day 2, he went through Bobby Williams’s Dark World Burn deck, Ryan Spicer, and finally Jake McNeely to win the title. Our congratulations go out to Naughton and the entire team for their impressive showing at Arlington, as well as Matt Lane, the winner of the side event Shrink promo. We’ll see what the longstanding impacts of this event are next weekend at Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia!

Austin Kulman and New Promo at San Diego Comic-Con

The official Yu-Gi-Oh! 4Kids website posted an interview with American National Champion Austin Kulman this past weekend. In the short piece, Kulman discusses his age, his dueling experiences, and what he feels contributed to his success. The article goes on to announce that Kulman will be in attendance at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, dueling and putting in a public appearance before the World Championships in two weeks.

In addition, duelists who show up to throw down can earn a new Sheep token promo card! So far this is a Comic-Con exclusive, but we'll have to see as time goes on if it gets released at any other events.

To see the interview and a picture of the Sheep token promo card, check out the article at the official Yu-Gi-Oh! 4Kids site right here!

Mike Rosenberg gets our week started today continuing his series on cards central to the Counter Fairy deck. This time around Mike is looking at Layard the Liberator, and discusses the role it plays. When to use it, why to use it, how many to run and more are the topics that Mike addresses, going in-depth to analyze the precise functions that Layard can perform and why that information can benefit you in the long run.

Jerome McHale switches gears, as he decides to revamp an old deck from last year's Shonen Jump Championship Houston. Michael Powers ran a top-notch OTK strategy that invoked the synergy between Cannon Soldier, Dark Magician of Chaos, Dimension Fusion, and Spell Economics, shocking his opponents. Now, Jerome has revamped the deck for the current format and made it competitive. Stop by Tuesday to check it out.

On Wednesday, I take a step back from my recent competitive focus to fix up a more casual strategy. Despite working with the Sacred Beast cards quite a bit in the past, we've never had a dedicated Uria, Lord of Searing Flames deck on the site before. I'll set that right, taking on a build that combines Uria's massive late game potential with the solid fundamentals of the Burn archetype.

Waboku was finally reprinted in the Invincible Fortress Structure Deck, and over the years no single card but Skill Drain has ever generated so much rules confusion. Curtis revisits this classic judge-stumper this Thursday: valuable information, considering the amount of play it's seeing as an answer to Cyber-Stein.

Julia Hedberg's got a pair of related articles for you this Friday, and both of them deal with the tricky business of rulings appeals. Solid Ground details how you, as a player, can go about making an effective use of this right granted to you by the tournament policy. Then, in Agents of Judgment, she'll show you judges out there how to handle appeals, and how to take advantage of them as an integral part of any event you staff. Definite must-read material regardless of what side of the fence you might be on.

Then, Jae Kim shows you a new deck he's created that can give Chaos Return and Chaos Creature Swap a run for their money. Resuscitating the old Fairy Beatdown deck powered by Mudora, it takes advantage of the recent influx of playable Fairy monsters in order to fuel a new generation of Fairy Aggro action. Check it out this Saturday.

Also on Saturday, we kick off our two-week countdown to the release of Power of the Duelist! We start things off with a bang, as Jerome McHale looks at two of the hottest cards in the set: Chimeratech Overdragon and Overload Fusion. Overdragon gives Cyber Dragon fusion decks like the one played by Shawn Kelly this past weekend at Shonen Jump Arlington a whole new bag of tricks, and Overload Fusion gives you a new, powerful way to summon fusion monsters. Together they're one of the most brutal combos from the set. You definitely won't want to miss our first Power of the Duelist preview.

On Sunday, we round out the week with another preview when I take a look at Neo-Spacian Dark Panther. The Neo-Spacians are Jaden's newest group of monsters, and Dark Panther is one of the best. With an effect that makes Chaos Sorcerer sad and Rescue Cat happy, it's one of the most open-ended cards ever printed.

That’s it for Metagame.com this week, but make sure you’re with us this weekend for live, extended coverage of Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia. We’ll have all the best feature matches, decks, tech, and teams, plus the Metagame Blog, Scrub Brush Challenge, photo gallery, and more!