“You’re playing the 2005 National Champion,” I explained.

“Oh.” Boohe blinked, and paused. “That sucks!” Suffridge shook his hand and introduced himself.

He won the roll, and opened with two activations of Toon Table of Contents to dig for his third copy and thin his deck. Then he discarded Thunder Dragon from his hand to search for two more. There were 30 cards remaining in his deck, and Suffridge was well on his way to his lock.

Clock Tower Prison hit the field, and he followed it up by setting Scapegoat and ending his turn. Boohe took the Prison for a moment to look at it, summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and broke the Scapegoat. It was chained, three Sheep came to the field, Breaker nailed one, and Boohe set two cards to his back row before passing.

Suffridge was up again, and he played Magical Mallet: “I’ll put ‘em all back,” he said, shuffling back 5 cards into his deck. “This looks familiar,” he noted, drawing bvack one of the Thunder Dragons. He quickly discarded it to dig the last copy from his deck. “I’ve searched my deck six times already” he mused. He set Gravity Bind and again passed. Prison had two tokens, but Boohe used Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy Gravity Bind: he clearly had no idea how important the Prison was going to become.

He tributed Breaker the Magical Warrior to summon Cyber Dragon, and hit another Sheep token. He again set a second spell or trap and passed. Suffridge activated another Magical Mallet, shuffled back his whole hand again, and drew four new cards: Upstart Goblin, Gravity Bind, Nightmare’s Steelcage, and Card Destruction. He played the Upstart, activated Card Destruction, and played Magic Reflector to add a layer of defense to the Clock Tower! He then set a monster, and played his last card, which was another Reflector on the Prison!

Cyber Dragon hit a Sheep token, Boohe set a card to each zone, and ended. Suffridge passed back, Boohe flipped Magical Merchant to get Torrential Tribute with its effect, and set a fourth back row card. Merchant hit the final Sheep, and Cyber Dragon hit Suffridge’s set Magician of Faith. It retrieved one of the Magic Reflectors.

Suffridge passed, with the Prison now online. Boohe summoned Spirit Reaper, but couldn’t deal any damage. Suffridge played Prohibition and named Magician of Faith, then played the Magic Reflector he took back from his graveyard last turn to protect the Prohibition!

Boohe turned down his Magical Merchant with Book of Moon, using its effect tagain to get Scapegoat. Suffridge played Terraforming to get another Clock Tower Prison and fingered his in-hand Spell Reproduction. He briefly considered playing it, but then passed. Boohe set a monster and passed back.

Suffridge passed, Boohe passed, and Suffridge played Magic Reflector again to add a second layer to Prohibition. He passed, and Boohe played Confiscation to look at Max’s hand: it contained Clock Tower, Swords of Revealing Light, Offerings to the Doomed, and two Spell Reproduction. Boohe discarded the Prison.

“Unless you have two Dust Tornado and a Mobius, you can’t take me down,” said Suffridge. Boohe set a monster and passed.

Suffridge played Upstart Goblin, ended, and Boohe flipped Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive to draw a card. He discarded Treeborn Frog in his end phase. Suffridge activated Spell Reproduction, discarding Offerings to the Doomed and Swords of Revealing Light to take back Magic Reflector. He passed without using it. Boohe passed, discarded Gravekeeper’s Spy, and Suffridge passed back.

“How many Reflectors are on that?” asked Boohe, pointing to the Prison.

“Two,” replied Suffridge politely. Boohe ended, discarding Sangan.

Suffridge drew into Mass Driver, and immediately played Magic Reflector to protect it. He set a monster and tributed it to the Driver, sending Outstanding Dog Marron to the graveyard and then to the deck. He ended.

His opponent quickly passed back, discarding Scapegoat. Suffridge played another Prohibition, this time calling Heavy Storm, and Boohe discarded Magical Merchant for his only move on the turn that followed. Suffridge passed, Boohe passed and discarded Heavy Storm, and Suffridge counted his deck: seven cards remaining. He played Spell Reproduction again, discarding Level Limit - Area B and Offerings to the Doomed to take back Magic Reflector. He activated it, adding a second layer of reflection to his Mass Driver. He set Marron, having drawn it again this turn, and Driver’d the puppy back into his deck. Now understanding the loop, Boohe scooped.

“That is very interesting,” he said, seeming a bit unnerved.

“You’re the first opponent I’ve gotten to play with this deck,” said Max, a little bit of glee working its way into his professional, polite voice. Boohe began side decking while Suffridge counted out fifteen cards from his deck. He was siding into OTK.

Boohe opened the second duel with Reinforcement of the Army, searching his deck for D. D. Warrior Lady. He set a card to each zone and passed. Suffridge activated Toon Table of Contents, grabbed another, activated it, and searched for his third copy. This time he used it! He grabbed Toon Cannon Soldier from his deck with the Table’s effect, and then activated Graceful Charity. He discarded Toon Cannon Soldier quickly, and then discarded the Thunder Dragon Graceful had gotten him. Rough beats.

He activated Swords of Revealing Light, flipping Boohe’s set D. D. Warrior Lady. He set a card to each zone and passed.

Boohe tributed for Mobius the Frost Monarch, destroying Swords of Revealing Light and Gravity Bind! He then activated Nobleman of Crossout, hitting Suffridge’s set Magician of Faith and swinging for 2400 with Mobius. Play passed to Suffridge.

He activated Level Limit – Area B to turn Mobius to defense, and set a spell or trap card. Boohe summoned Spirit Reaper and attacked, but Scapegoat stopped him: Reaper hit a Sheep, instead of Suffridge’s hand. He played Nightmare’s Steelcage, passed, and Boohe set a second spell or trap before turning the favor.

Suffridge passed, Boohe passed, and Suffridge drew into another Thunder Dragon. He activated it, sending it to the graveyard to fetch his last copy. He was holding Gravity Bind, Giant Trunade, and Megamorph in addition to the third Dragon: all he needed now was Cyber-Stein. He passed.

His opponent played Graceful Charity, discarding Exiled Force and Smashing Ground. He then played Confiscation, but opted to discard Gravity Bind! He summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, blew away Level Limit with its token, turned Mobius to attack, and hit two Sheep.

Suffridge activated Heavy Storm, then set two cards to his back row. He was baiting Boohe, hoping that he would use the Mobius to clear out the last Sheep and then hit with the Reaper. If Boohe did, Suffridge would lose nothing but 300 life points and his last in-hand card: a useless Thunder Dragon.

Sure enough, Mobius hit the last Sheep token, and Spirit Reaper swung directly. Suffridge had successfully punished Boohe for his blind grab at card advantage. It was a great play, but the next two turns brought Suffridge nothing in the way of outs: he scooped less than a minute after making the beautiful bait and switch.

“What did you have in hand?” asked Suffridge. Boohe flopped his hand to show him. Why do people give Max Suffridge free information?

He started the third duel with a pair of Upstart Goblin. He was now back to his main strategy of Clock Tower Prison. He played Nightmare’s Steelcage, set a spell or trap, and passed.

Boohe played Confiscation, and out of a hand of Magical Mallet, Offerings, Gravity Bind and Clock Tower Prison he knew to discard the Prison. He played Graceful Charity, set a card to each zone and passed.

Suffridge drew, considered his hand, and gave a sigh of thought. He played Mallet to shuffle back his entire hand, and pulled Toon Table of Contents, Spell Reproduction, and Mass Driver. He played the Table to get another, activated the second, and pulled his third. It was a good thing, too: his next four draws would have all been monsters. In addition, he noticed that when de-siding, he had forgotten to rotate out one of his Megamorphs. He ended his turn.

Boohe flipped Magician of Faith, took back Confiscation, and used it again: Mass Driver Toon Table, and Spell Reproduction. He then played Tsukuyomi and turned Magician of Faith face down: the one thing that Suffridge’s deck feared the most. “Oh god” muttered the former US champ.

He drew into Clocktower Prison and activated it, passing. Boohe’s Magician of Faith got back Confiscation, and Breaker the Magical Warrior destroyed the Prison. Confiscation then robbed Suffridge of Spell Reproduction. Breeaker attacked, but Suffridge flipped Gravity Bind, and Boohe passed.

Suffridge drew and set another back row card, leaving himself with one in hand. Boohe summoned Spirit Reaper, discarding Suffridge’s Toon Table of Contents, and then hit directly with Magician of Faith. Life Points were becoming a factor, and that was bad news for Max.

He drew Magical Mallet, a dead draw, and set it before passing. Boohe tributed Breaker for Granmarg the Rock Monarch, destroyed the set Mallet, and attacked with Reaper and Magician of Faith once more. The life point totals were 6500 to 7000 in Boohe’s favor.

Suffridge topdecked Swords of Revealing Light, but Boohe played Tsukuyomi to turn down Magician of Faith. He flipped it, taking back Graceful Charity, but Offerings to the Doomed wiped out the Tsukuyomi: one problem taken care of. Boohe activated Graceful, tossed Cyber Dragon and Torrential Tribute, and play passed to Suffridge.

He drew into Clock Tower Prison, and played it to the field! Boohe set a monster, Suffridge set his drawn spell or trap card, and Boohe passed back: Swords of Revealing Light was destroyed. Suffridge topdecked Magic Reflector and used it on the Prison! He ended his turn.

Boohe flip summoned his second Reaper, and hit directly with both Reapers and Magician of Faith. Suffridge drew another spell or trap card and set it. Boohe played Reinforcement of the Army to get D. D. Warrior Lady and ended. Suffridge passed, Boohe passed, and Suffridge drew: the Prison was up and running!

A turn later Suffridge used Spell Reproduction to copy Magic Reflector, placing another reflection on the Tower. After a hideous beginning to the game he was back in business! Boohe passed, Suffridge passed, Boohe set D. D. Warrior Lady, and activated Ceasefire. Suffridge went down to 2600 and watched his Magician of Faith flip without an effect, and Boohe loaded his back row. A flurry of passes later Boohe tributed for Mobius the Frost Monarch, knocking one reflection off the Tower and hitting a Scapegoat, which was quickly chained.

Two turns later, though, time was called, and Suffridge had no way of coming back. It was a shame. He’d worked hard to wrestle Boohe into the lock, and had succeeded, but the time he had to spend making key decisions had come back to get him in the end.

“I should’ve stuck with the Stein, I guess.” That’s the mark of a champion: no complaints of “I got lucksacked,” or, “losing to time is crap.” Though Suffridge was perhaps being a bit tough on himself, he was examining his own decisions for the reason he lost, and he won’t make that mistake again. “Any tournament since I’ve won Nationals, I’ve lost to time at least once. Any Regional, any Shonen Jump, any local. I’ve never won on time.” He shook Boohe’s hand, who was breathing many sighs of relief.

The unknown underdog Ryan Boohe scores a huge win over Max Suffridge, whose job here today becomes far more difficult.