At the end of yesterday, Guy Israel was sitting pretty at 6-0 before losing his last match. He’s currently 1-0 for the day. The Belgian National Champion from 2005 was confident after his extremely strong showing yesterday, and was well prepared for his upcoming match.
His opponent is seventeen year old Simon Ho from Manchester in the UK. He’s a member of Fanboy3, who took home the national championships a few weeks ago. Sporting a ‘Simon Monarch’ deck he was also 1-0 for the day and looking for his place at the World Championships, after finishing last year higher than any of the other UK competitors.
Guy won the roll and, after much deliberation, began with two set spell or traps and a set monster before passing. Trap Dustshoot flipped in Simon’s draw phase, stripping him of his Snipe Hunter.
Simon special summoned Cyber Dragon and activated Reinforcement of the Army to search out Elemental Hero Stratos from his deck, summoning him and fetching Destiny Hero – Disk Commander. Stratos attacked in to the face down Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and Cyber Dragon met Sakuretsu Armor.
Simon ended with no back up play in the form of a spell or trap; “Game? Wow I hate Machine Duplication . . .”
Guy took hold of his calculator and started doing some math. “Great, great, now he does the numbers,” said Simon, clearly displeased that he had no protection to set. Guy set a card to each zone, and Stratos attacked into the face down Cyber Phoenix. Simon set a card to each zone and passed.
Guy flipped his face down Heavy Storm, but Simon chained Trap Dustshoot! “It’s so worth waiting for Dustshoot,” said Ho, as he returned Guy’s Spirit Reaper over the Cyber Phoenix. He also got to take a peek at the rest of Guy’s hand: two copies of Brain Control and a Trap Dustshoot. The Phoenix was summoned and ran through a face down Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, and Guy used Dustshoot in Simon’s standby phase, seeing two Destiny Hero – Malicious and a Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch as his options for re-shuffling, taking the seemingly obvious choice of Thestalos.
Stratos went through the Phoenix and Guy drew a card for its effect before Simon ended. The two cards Guy had picked up from the Phoenix draw and for his turn were Cyber Dragon and Card Trooper, and both of them hit the field on the next turn. Ripping through Simon’s life points for 2200, he was left at 5700, and next turn Simon could only set a spell or trap before having another 4000 life points ripped from him.
Simon top decked Destiny Draw though, and discarded his Destiny Hero – Malicious, setting a monster before passing. Guy had the Nobleman of Crossout however and Simon scooped his cards upon seeing it. He also revealed that he’d drawn into the third Malicious!
Guy Israel takes a face-paced game 1 thanks to a mix of Trap Dustshoot and some bad luck with Destiny Hero – Malicious!
Simon decided to start off game 2 by activating Destiny Draw, discarding Destiny Hero – Malicious. He then played another Destiny Draw, discarding Disk Commander. He set a card to each zone and passed. Guy played Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Torrential Tribute, before special summoning Cyber Dragon and normal summoning Mystic Tomato. Tomato attacked the face down card, and Simon asked “Are you sure?” Guy nodded and Card Trooper was destroyed, allowing Simon to draw a card before taking 2100 damage from Cyber Dragon.
Simon drew and activated the effect of Malicious, removing him for another. Metamorphosis came down and Ryu Senshi hit the field. He used Snatch Steal on Cyber Dragon, but Guy flipped Ring of Destruction. Senshi negated it at the cost of 1000 life points, and Snatch resolved. Simon turned the Dragon into a Dark Balter the Terrible with Metamorphosis again and hit home through the Tomato and Guy’s life points, leaving the score at 5600 to 4900 with Guy still in the lead. Israel set a monster and passed, before taking another 2000 from Senshi, with his Sangan’s effect negated by Dark Balter the Terrible.
On the next turn Guy set another monster and, on the roll of a die, it was over. Snipe Hunter came down for Simon and the effect hit, Guy scooping his cards immediately and shaking his head.
Simon Ho forces this round 9 matchup to a third game!
Both players dived into their side decks and smoke-screened, stripping fifteen cards from their decks.
“Don’t let it go to time man; I hate time,” said Simon.
“How can it go to time? We both have OTK decks . . .”
“Well, I dunno,” Simon replied.
“I’m going to give you two Malicious in your opening hand, you know that right?” noted Israel, as he shuffled Ho’s deck.
A set card to each zone was Guy’s opening play, and it was met by Destiny Draw with Malicious once again from Simon. He matched Guy’s set to each zone before ending, and Guy flipped Card Trooper.
Three cards were lost from the top of Guy’s deck — all spell and trap cards, including Limiter Removal and Sakuretsu Armor, to which Simon displayed his gratitude toward the Yu-Gi-Oh! heavens. He attacked into Sangan, giving Simon Treeborn Frog from his deck. Guy motioned for Simon to go and he played Brain Control on Card Trooper. “Duplication?” asked Guy, and then confirmed the hand count for Simon, five. “That’s five too many,” he commented, clearly annoyed.
“I played a really bad move,” said Simon, as he summoned Snipe Hunter and discarded Treeborn Frog to target the only card on Guy’s side of the field, rolling a 2 and destroying Heavy Storm. He then activated Machine Duplication! Two more Card Troopers hit the field, and Simon removed his Malicious for another. After pumping the Troopers, he had exactly 8000 damage on the field and Guy scooped!
“You know what? You did give me two Malicious in the opening hand too!” said Simon with a grin on his face as he flashed another copy of Destiny Hero – Malicious from the hand.
Simon Ho moves on into round 10 with only one loss, hopes for the Top 8 still high.