After suffering a savage stomping from Chris Bowling last round, Paul Blair gets a chance to redeem himself in the public eye. Shawn Brown, however, gets a chance to show the dueling world what he’s made of. He’s 7-1 here today with a Dark Armed Dragon variant that would make Peter Navarro proud. Packed with Necro Gardnas and multiple copies of Burial From a Different Dimension, he’s put forth impressive showing after impressive showing, and this match was going to pit two drastically different control decks against each other.
He opened the first duel with Reinforcement of the Army, searching out Armageddon Knight and using its effect to drop Necro Gardna to the graveyard from his deck. He set one card to his back row and ended. “Your turn.” Blair discarded Destiny Hero – Malicious for Destiny Draw and summoned Card Trooper, but lost his second Malicious to Card Trooper’s effect. Trooper swung over Armageddon Knight and a set spell or trap ended Blair’s turn.
Brown was up again, and this time he played Reinforcement of the Army to search out Dark Grepher. He normal summoned it, passed priority, and then discarded Necro Gardna for Grepher’s effect. That let him send his third Gardna to the graveyard, and Grepher swung over Card Trooper. “Draw one,” announced Blair. “Sure,” replied Brown. “Your turn.”
Blair activated Allure of Darkness, then removed D.D. Crow for its effect. He summoned Elemental Hero Stratos, opted to use his search effect, and Brown chained Bottomless Trap Hole. Blair used Stratos’ effect to search out Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, then set a second card to his back row. “Go ahead.”
Allure of Darkness hit Brown’s side of the field next, and he removed Dark Magician of Chaos for its effect. Grepher attacked for 1700 damage, set a spell or trap, and ended. He lost that card to Phoenix Wing Wind Blast in the end phase, and Blair discarded Destiny Draw.
He activated another Destiny Draw next turn, discarding Disk Commander and then bringing him back with Monster Reborn. He tributed for Raiza the Storm Monarch, spun away Dark Grepher, and attacked — Raiza’s attack was negated by Necro Gardna. Blair set a spell or trap, Brown set a monster, and next turn he lost it to Caius the Shadow Monarch — Blair tributed Raiza to remove Brown’s Mystic Tomato from play, dishing out 1000 damage. Caius attacked and Brown removed another Gardna to negate it. The duel stood at 6500 to 5000.
Brown summoned Dark Grepher again, then pitched Prometheus, King of the Shadows to send Dark Armed Dragon from his deck to his graveyard. In the end phase, Blair flipped Fires of Doomsday, then cleared Brown’s back row again with another Wind Blast. Next turn he tributed a Doomsday Token for another Caius the Shadow Monarch, removing Dark Grepher for another 1000 damage. Two successive attacks dropped Brown to 700 life points. Blair placed a card in his back row and ended.
Brown summoned Phantom of Chaos next turn, removed Dark Armed Dragon to copy it, but lost Phantom to Raigeki Break! On the turn that followed, Blair turned one Caius to defense mode and tried to attack for game. Brown removed his last Necro Gardna to block the attack, but Blair tributed for his third Caius and removed his second for 1000 burn damage. That was game!
Brown laughed in a good-natured way. “That was nice!” Both duelists sided and shuffled.
Paul Blair takes game 1 with a flurry of control effects, burning his way through Shawn Brown’s defenses to win the first duel. Play proceeded to game 2.
“I’ll go first,” announced Brown. He opened with Allure of Darkness, removing Snipe Hunter from his hand instead of Necro Gardna. He set a card to each zone and ended. “Your turn.” Blair set a card to each zone, and Brown passed. Blair flipped Scapegoat in the end phase, and he summoned Destiny Hero – Plasma. He chose to activate Plasma’s effect with priority, targeting Brown’s face-down Necro Gardna, but Brown chained Bottomless to remove Plasma from play! He still lost Necro Gardna though, a ruling that surprised many bystanders despite being correct.
Blair continued his turn, activating Allure of Darkness and removing Destiny Hero – Fear Monger for its effect. “Storm,” declared Brown on the following turn, activating Heavy Storm to destroy Blair’s set Raigeki Break. That left him free to search out Armageddon Knight with Reinforcement of the Army, and he played it to send Dark Magician of Chaos to his graveyard. He activated Burial From a Different Dimension to return Snipe Hunter to his graveyard, giving him three Dark Monsters. Seeing what was coming, Blair activated D.D. Crow to remove Dark Magician of Chaos, but that just let Brown bring it back with D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation! The Magician attacked into Blair’s Treeborn Frog, removing it from play, and Armageddon Knight destroyed a Sheep Token.
Heavy Storm wiped away D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation and with it Dark Magician of Chaos next turn, but Blair had no follow-up and could only set a monster. Burial From a Different Dimension sent Dark Magician of Chaos back to the graveyard, and now Blair could bring out Dark Armed Dragon! Dark Armed came down, Dark Magician of Chaos came up courtesy of Premature Burial, and Brown took back Burial From a Different Dimension. He didn’t need it. He tributed Armageddon Knight for Caius the Shadow Monarch, removed Blair’s set monster, and swung with all three monsters for game!
Shawn Brown claims victory in the second duel, pressing this match to a third and final game! Blair was on the draw.
He opened with Elemental Hero Stratos and searched his deck for Destiny Hero – Malicious. He set two cards to his back row and ended. Brown summoned Armageddon Knight on the following turn, sent Jinzo to the graveyard with its effect (a surprising decision), and then tried to bring it back with Premature Burial — Blair chained Raigeki Break, discarding Malicious to destroy Premature on the chain. Brown set a spell or trap, and in the end phase Blair flipped Fires of Doomsday.
Brown flipped Trap Dustshoot in Blair’s draw phase, revealing his hand of Card Trooper, Cyber Valley, and two copies of Destiny Hero – Plasma. Blair summoned Cyber Valley, removed it and a Doomsday Token to draw two cards, then pressed Stratos over Armageddon Knight. He set one card to finish out: “Your move.”
Brown was holding D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation, Burial, D.D. Crow, and Phantom of Chaos. He removed Jinzo for the Phantom’s effect, a nice move with D.D.R. loaded. Sure enough, he activated Reincarnation by discarding D.D. Crow, and attacked. Phantom took down the Doomsday Token, Jinzo attacked Stratos, and Brown set his Burial to the back row. Next turn, Blair attacked the Phantom with Card Trooper. Jinzo attacked back to finish off Trooper, and Blair set a monster. He had several more cards than Brown, but he needed to keep a monster on the field to use his Monarchs. Brown wasn’t going to allow that, and attacked with Jinzo to destroy Blair’s face-down Volcanic Shell.
Blair got another Shell by paying 500 life points for the effect of the first, and then activated Allure of Darkness. He removed Malicious for its effect, then played another Allure, this time removing Vanity’s Fiend. He activated Reinforcement of the Army, searched his deck for Destiny Hero – Fear Monger and set a card to each zone. “Go ahead.”
Brown activated his own Allure, removing Mystic Tomato. He summoned Card Trooper, tossed Dust Tornado, Armageddon Knight, and another Allure to his graveyard, and shook his head: no Necro Gardnas. Card Trooper attacked into Blair’s set Fear Monger, and Jinzo dropped him to 2500 life points with a direct attack. Brown set another spell or trap.
Fear Monger’s effect let Blair bring back Malicious, and he tributed him for Caius the Shadow Monarch. Caius’ effect removed Jinzo, and he attacked Card Trooper to lower Brown to 1900 life points. Blair set another spell or trap and ended. Brown drew for his turn shortly after drawing for Trooper, and set a card to each zone to try and weather the storm. He lost his set monster to Phoenix Wing Wind Blast in the end phase, and Blair paid for it with Volcanic Shell. Next turn Caius attacked for game.
Paul Blair redeems himself from his previous feature match loss, battling back in a tough, unique matchup to move on with an 8-1 record! One more win, and he’ll have a place in Day 2.