The final round of the day had finally arrived, and now two of North America’s best current duelists were going head to head. Tiebreakers were totally up in the air — it’s possible that just one, or both duelists could make Day 2. With the uncertainty surrounding this match, and each duelist fighting for the pride of their teams (Face2Face for Neumann and Overdose for Corn), this was going to be a hard-fought match.
The reigning American National Champion opened with Trap Dustshoot and a set monster, using Dustshoot on Corn’s first turn to send Mystic Tomato back to Corn’s deck. Corn set a card to each zone and passed back, placed on the defensive with the loss of his recruiter. Play was back to Neumann, who flip summoned Sangan and rammed it into Corn’s set Spirit Reaper. Snipe Hunter came down in main phase 2 to discard Darklord Zerato and destroy the Reaper. Neumann ended.
Corn summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and ran over Snipe Hunter. Neumann turned Sangan to defense mode, passed, and Corn set a second spell or trap, unwilling to attack Sangan. Both duelists were slow-rolling, and Corn didn’t want to give Neumann a third Dark monster. “I really don’t want to give you that third Dark.” Neumann did not in fact have Dark Armed Dragon, but bluffed as if he did.
On the following turn he activated Reinforcement of the Army, searched out Armageddon Knight and sent Jinzo to his graveyard. Premature Burial brought Jinzo back, and he attacked over Breaker the Magical Warrior. Armageddon Knight and Sangan then attacked directly and Neumann set a spell or trap to end his turn. In the end phase Corn flipped Fires of Doomsday to summon two tokens.
He tributed them next turn for Dark Magician of Chaos, returning Fires back to his hand. Dark Magician of Chaos then attacked Sangan, removing it from play, and Corn set another card to his spell and trap zone.
Next turn Neumann topped into Destiny Draw, and he activated it to send Fear Monger to his graveyard for two draws. He then special summoned Dark Armed Dragon! Corn shrugged his shoulders: “What the hell.” He shook his head, a bit frustrated.
Neumann thought a bit, since he had to take the Fires of Doomsday into consideration if he wanted to finish Corn this turn. He contemplated the situation a moment, then targeted the set card he knew to be Fires with Dark Armed Dragon. The Dragon then destroyed Dark Magician of Chaos and one of the Tokens, and that was all Neumann needed to do to lock the win! Corn scooped in record time!
James Neumann is one duel away from making back-to-back Day 2 qualifications! Both duelists began side decking.
“That Dustshoot gave me so much information,” noted Neumann. Corn nodded. In a game that’s as closely matched as this one, information becomes the most precious of all resources, and Neumann had it when Corn simply didn’t. Play swiftly moved to game 2.
A set card to each zone was Corn’s opening. Neumann summoned and activated Card Trooper, losing D.D. Crow, Dark Armed Dragon, and Dark Magician of Chaos to his graveyard. He joked for a moment, making a gesture as if to drop Dark Armed Dragon to the field, but then grinned and announced he didn’t have it. He set two cards to his back row in case of Morphing Jar, attacked into Marshmallon and passed. Corn set a second spell or trap himself and passed back.
Trooper fed Mystical Space Typhoon, Allure of Darkness, and Destiny Hero – Fear Monger into Neumann’s graveyard next turn. He activated Premature Burial, targeted Dark Magician of Chaos, and was stopped short by Corn’s Mystical Space Typhoon. He flipped Call of the Haunted next instead, drawing another “whatever” shrug from Corn, who gave a good-natured smile. “Well, this is gonna be a fast feature match! I have good tiebreakers though.” Dark Magician of Chaos returned Allure of Darkness to Neumann’s hand, which he promptly activated, removing Jinzo after drawing two.
He had no offensive follow-up. He turned Trooper to defense mode, set a monster, and ended with a sigh. Would Corn be able to take advantage of the lull in Neumann’s offense?
He activated Brain Control and took Dark Magician of Chaos. The Magician attacked, destroyed, and removed Card Trooper, and then Corn tributed Neumann’s Magician and Marshmallon for his own Dark Magician of Chaos! He tried to bring back his Mystical Space Typhoon, but it was stolen away by D.D. Crow. Corn set a second spell or trap and ended.
Neumann summoned Elemental Hero Stratos and fetched Destiny Hero – Dasher from his deck before ending his turn. Corn activated Allure of Darkness, sent Dark Armed Dragon out of play for Allure’s effect and ran Dark Magician of Chaos over Stratos. Neumann dropped to 5200 life points, and Corn summoned Armageddon Knight in main phase 2 to send Darklord Zerato to his graveyard. “Go.”
Neumann tributed Sangan for Dasher, using Sangan’s effect to search for Snipe Hunter. Dasher attacked Armageddon Knight and Neumann ended his turn with another spell or trap card face down. “So much for the short feature match.”
Corn was suspicious of that card Neumann set last turn, but eventually attacked anyway — Dark Magician of Chaos struck, and knocked Dasher out of play. Corn set a monster, continuing to develop his field. That pressured Neumann into action. He summoned Snipe Hunter, discarded Disk Commander, and Dark Armed Dragon to destroy Corn’s two monsters, Magician and a face-down Prometheus, and one more discard cleared away one of Corn’s two remaining face downs: he pitched another Dark Armed Dragon to destroy Corn’s set Escape from the Dark Dimension. Snipe Hunter attacked into Corn’s one remaining face-down spell or trap card, Corn had no response, and Neumann flipped Return from the Different Dimension! Corn scooped up his cards and immediately offered the handshake.
James Neumann moves on to Day 2, his second Top 16 qualification in a row!