Our competitors this round are both sitting at 6-1, placing them squarely on the bubble. Neither player has made Day 2 of an SJC yet, but both of them are quite close to their first. Before we started, Mike Powers wanted to give a shout-out to his team (Team Wonderbox) and Kaylin, who helped him build this deck. After initial confusion over whether or not this match would be deck-checked (it wasn’t) we were ready to begin. Mike Powers was totally convinced his opponent was playing Demise OTK. In reality, Zmirich was running Trooper Return against Powers’ new Magical Explosion deck. Powers won the roll and set a spell or trap before passing. Stefano set one card to each zone and passed over to Powers who activated Reasoning. Zmirich picked six, but Card Trooper flopped to the field. It was joined by a second Trooper and 6 cards were sent to the graveyard. Powers attacked into a set Giant Rat with the first Trooper which prompted Stefano to search for another. The second one was dispatched by Smashing Ground, and Powers set a trap before passing.

Zmirich summoned Cyber Dragon next turn, but it was blown away by Ring of Destruction. A Smashing Ground took down a Card Trooper in main phase two, and Stefano then set a card to each zone. Powers used his Trooper’s effect and attacked into a set Morphing Jar, drawing into and summoning his third Card Trooper. He checked his graveyard, looking for something before declining to activate its effect. He then set the rest of his hand and activated two copies of Magical Explosion in Stefano’s standby phase, dealing 6200 damage and ending the game! Brutal and Demise free!

Powers was confident before the match that should he lose game 1 he would certainly win games 2 and 3. Now was the time to see if he was correct or if his unique deck would fail after his opponent had the chance to side deck. Stefano got to go first in this game, and he opened up with a set card to each zone. His Legendary Jujitsu Master was revealed by Swords of Revealing Light and stolen by Snatch Steal. The poor Master was then tributed to Monster Gate, which found Dark Magician of Chaos, allowing Powers to get back his Snatch Steal. The Magician fell to Mirror Force and Powers passed. Stefano set a card to each zone and passed to Powers, who set a pair of spell or traps and passed. Stefano flipped Magical Merchant, revealing Mystical Space Typhoon, and then summoned Card Trooper, taking off his top 3 to pump the Trooper up. Typhoon destroyed the Swords, Call of the Haunted resurrected Mobius the Frost Monarch (dumped by Merchant), and Mike Powers took a lot of damage. In the next turn, however, Powers reused his Snatch Steal to take Card Trooper and activated Machine Duplication. He then flipped two Reckless Greeds, activated Brain Control on Mobius and flipped 9 cards into the graveyard to pump the Troopers. To finish things up, he activated Limiter Removal to bump all the Troopers up to 3800 and attacked with everything for game. Mike Powers’ takes the match in grand style, defeating Stefano Zmirich 2-0 to keep his drive alive!