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Jerry Wang has made it to the finals of a Shonen Jump Championship time and time again, but has only managed to win it all once. Now, he’s up against Robert Ackerman, one of the most consistent duelists of recent months. |
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Somehow, David Duran had gotten all this way here today with no Gladiator Beast Heraklinos in his Extra deck. |
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We’re back in the dueling dome (myself having the best seat in the house) with Dwayne Delamotta. |
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Once again we’ve seen a plethora of Gladiator decks make Day 2, but like always, only about half of them have advanced. |
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With two Gladiator Beast mirror matches and two non-mirror matches in the quarterfinals, it was pretty clear who was getting the feature matches this round. |
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The first match in the Dueling Dome today will showcase Robert Ackerman, whose record with Gladiator Beasts is rivaled only by a select few. His opponent is Jose Prado, the only player to make Day 2 with Monarchs. |
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Marco Cesario is the owner of Card Masters, the number-one dueling hub in Toronto. Matt Peddle, Lazaro Bellido, Dale, and the rest of the Canadian superstars? They’re at these events largely because of Cesario’s support. |
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After Gladiator Beasts’ domination at SJC Toronto the field appears to be shifting, and while Gladiators are still the most-played deck in Day 2, their grip on the field is no longer the stranglehold it was just weeks ago. |
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Today we saw 448 duelists go head-to-head in nine rounds of intense dueling. |
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For these two duelists, it all came down to this: Texas duelist Ryan Spicer and Metagame.com’s own Ryan Murphy were playing off in a Gladiator Beast mirror match, with the winner guaranteed a slot in Day 2. |
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Earlier today I featured Zaki Said in a deck profile, saying that he had a strong chance of making Day 2. Now he was sitting on a 6-1 record, just two victories away from capturing the Top 16 appearance that had so narrowly escaped him in Philadelphia. |
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I’m not sure how Sean Henahan got here, but every round more people are added to the throng of competitors stating that he should get a feature match. |
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It’s officially 5D’s season! |
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Pat Smith traveled here this weekend from Columbus, Ohio, and is playing Gladiator Beasts. So far, he has a 4-1 record. Smith’s opponent, Brian Winkleblech, has a 4-1 record as well, and his deck has been the talk of the tournament. |
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Readers who joined us for the coverage of Shonen Jump Championship Toronto may remember Audrey Tan’s rampage through the early rounds of that tournament, making devastating bluff plays and handing out crushing defeats to competitors like Jason Tan and two-time National Champion Dexter Dalit. |
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A few weeks ago at Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia, Zaki Said revolutionized Dark Armed Dragon decks. |
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Jacob Medley is another of the undefeated Zombie duelists here this afternoon, packing a more conventional build with Il Blud, Dark Armed Dragon, and multiple copies of Book of Life main decked. |
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Jon Moore has won two back-to-back feature matches here this morning with an innovative Zombie build that presents some really great ideas for the archetype as it moves forward. |
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Richard Clegg has been called a lot of things in his time, and not all of them were flattering. But you’ve got to give the guy credit: he’s not afraid to take risks. |
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I’ve had my eye on two duelists in particular this morning, and as I prepared deck profiles for both of them, it was a bit odd to find them paired against each other in Round 2. |
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These two duelists had just spent the past several days playtesting together, and while Tundo knew what his opponent was running, Moore was in the dark. |
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The time has come, and Shonen Jump action has returned to “the best four days in gaming” right here, at Gen Con Indianapolis! |
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