It’s Sunday morning, and a field of almost 550 duelists has been reduced to a final 16. Today we’ll see one Bazoo Return, one Machine burn, Comic Odyssey burn, one Apprentice Monarch, five Zombie, and a whopping seven Perfect Circle decks go head-to-head. All sixteen duelists fought hard to earn their way to the playoff tables this morning, but in four rounds only one will remain; that person will be a Shonen Jump Champion.

First up, Austin Blair will take on Mark “Waffle” Vazquez, in a Perfect Circle mirror match. This one’s a tough call, but the advantage certainly has to go to Vazquez’s superior level of premier event experience. Last year in Orlando he captured second place and one of the first-ever copies of Crush Card Virus. Can he go all the way this time?

Nathan Balcombe will bring the only Top 16 Bazoo Return deck we’ve seen thus far in this format, against Philip Anthony, another Zombie player. Both decks can explode early on, but Balcombe’s speed may give him an edge.

Next, Jermol Jupiter is packing certainly the most interesting and innovative Zombie deck of the Top 16. Armed with tricks like Asura Priest to combo with Creature Swap, and Decayed Commander, he’ll go up against Jason Holloway’s more conventional Zombie Raiza build.

Jose Siu will play his Perfect Circle build against Nicholas Palermo, running one of just two burn decks in the Top 16. Palermo is playing Machine burn, a deck that also saw Day 2 in Chicago, and the matchup should be in his favor. Siu is only siding five cards for the burn matchup, and Palermo is well-teched for Perfect Circle.

Mark Johnson Jr. will compete against Levi Yoder in another Zombie mirror match. While Johnson is playing a Raiza variant, Yoder is playing a more conventional build, and this match should be an interesting one for Zombie fans. As duelists look to innovate the Zombie theme to remain competitive, matches like these will continue to be influential to the archetype’s development.

Bryan Rockenbach, second at this year’s American National Champions, will pit his Perfect Circle deck against Vinny Lister’s Apprentice Monarch. Lister’s deck runs only one Apprentice Magician, and is the only deck of its type in Day 2. Will Apprentice Monarch win out, or is it truly an endangered species?

The two most experienced duelists of the Day 2 roster will face off in the Top 16 playoffs, and one of them won’t make it to the quarterfinals. Shonen Jump Champion Brian Long will face off against two-and-a-half-time champ John Jensen, in a Perfect Circle mirror match that is sure to deliver some spectacular plays. This is a hands-down obvious choice for the first feature match of the day.

Finally, Shonen Jump Chicago’s champion Louie Raimondo is back in Day 2 action just two weeks after his big win. The only competitor to make it to the Top 16 with Comic Odyssey burn, he’s up against hungry up-and-comer Hector Heras, packing Perfect Circle. If Raimondo can perform like he did in Chicago, this match is sure to go his way. But can lightning really strike twice?

With ten of the top sixteen players running Mei-Kou, Master of Barriers and more than 100 pieces of anti-burn tech across sixteen side decks, today won’t be a very friendly environment for the burn duelists. It’s anybody’s game at this point, but the experience gap is extreme here this morning, and victories may be academic for some of the returning Top 16 competitors. With that said, if a lesser-known duelist can overcome players like John Jensen and Jason Holloway his legend will be made, and we could very well see some new stars rise here today.