Wow, what a bubble match! One of these duelists would emerge from the match a shoo-in for the Top 8. The other would likely fall victim to tiebreakers and fall just short of Day 2.

For Evan Vargas, a win here would mean his first Shonen Jump Championship Top 8 in over a year. For Laurents, a Top 8 appearance would give him an incredible amount of momentum heading into the World Championships two weeks from now. Both duelists wanted this victory bad.

Vargas won the die roll and opened with Confiscation, revealing Laurents’s hand of Chaos Sorcerer, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Magician of Faith, Confiscation, and Heavy Storm. Vargas’s hand consisted of nothing but monsters: two Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reaper, and Night Assailant. If he didn’t pick Laurents’s Confiscation, that fact would be revealed, but Magician of Faith could retrieve the Confiscation regardless. Breaker the Magical Warrior was a non-factor at the moment, but Chaos Sorcerer was a threat since Laurents’s hand contained a Light and a Dark, both of which could replace themselves if destroyed – prime Chaos fodder. In the end Vargas went with Confiscation, setting a monster and ending his turn. 

Laurents set a card to each zone, and Vargas flipped Night Assailant, destroying Laurents’s set Magician of Faith. Vargas summoned Spirit Reaper and attacked with it, but Laurents destroyed it with his set Enemy Controller. Vargas sighed, and Night Assailant attacked directly. Vargas still didn’t have a spell or trap card to set, so he passed.

Laurents couldn’t punish him for it, so a set monster was his only move on the following turn. Vargas topdecked Nobleman of Crossout, activated it to remove Laurents’s set monster from play, and revealed it to be Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Each duelist was forced to strip two copies from their respective decks. Vargas was devoid of an offense though, and he set a monster, turning Assailant to defense position. Laurents set a spell or trap and passed.

Vargas flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, drew a card with its effect, and attacked directly with it. He set a monster to conclude his turn. Laurents rolled his head a bit, stretching his neck, and set a second spell or trap. He ate another 1400 damage from Dekoichi next turn.

“Don’t have to worry about Stein now,” remarked Vargas, who was much quieter than he usually is.

Sangan was summoned by Laurents, and he used it to attack Vargas’s Night Assailant. He passed with three cards in hand, two cards set in his spell and trap zone, and Sangan summoned. Vargas drew, and had six cards in hand, Dekoichi summoned, and an unknown monster set. The life point totals stood at 7000 for Vargas and 5000 for Laurents. Vargas had control of the game, but with so many cards in hands and on the field, that could change any moment.

Dekoichi attacked Sangan, and Laurents went down to 4600 life points as he pulled D. D. Warrior Lady with Sangan’s effect. Vargas set his one non-monster card, Torrential Tribute, and ended his turn. If his set monster was anything but Sangan or Treeborn Frog, the Torrential was just a bluff intended to keep D. D. Warrior Lady from attacking Dekoichi.

Sure enough, Laurents ignored it. He summoned D. D. Warrior Lady, attacked Dekoichi, and evan fingered his bluff Torrential as if it was a viable response. Dekoichi hit the graveyard and Laurents ended his turn.

Vargas again had nothing but monsters. He fixed that, flipping Magical Merchant to discard another Merchant before nabbing Sakuretsu Armor, then tributed the Merchant for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroying his opponent’s D. D. Warrior Lady. He then removed Magical Merchant and Dekoichi from his graveyard to special summon Chaos Sorcerer.

“Priority?” asked Laurents with a huge grin. He didn’t control any monsters.

“Uh, no.”

Vargas visibly debated his play. He seemed to want to attack, reaching towards Zaborg, but took it back twice. Finally he gave a hesitant stab of his finger with Zaborg. “Attack.”

Sure enough, Laurents flipped Mirror Force! Vargas wordlessly scooped up his two monsters and placed them in the graveyard. He passed with the Torrential Tribute set from turns ago. Laurents drew for his next turn, summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, and lost it to Torrential.

“Is that game?” asked Vargas.

Laurents checked his set card and his hand for a few moments. He blinked, seeming to snap out of short brain nap. “Yeah. It is.”

Laurents special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, removing a Light and a Dark monster, and then flipped Return from the Different Dimension. It was all over, and a game that Vargas had seemingly controlled pretty strongly at one point had come crashing down around him. Both duelists began side decking, and both shuffled their side decks into their main decks to smokescreen. By the time they were finished, 21 minutes remained in the round.

Vargas drew his hand and immediately rubbed his eyes, shaking his head. He set a monster and a spell or trap card and ended. Laurents did the same and ended. Vargas flip summoned his set Magical Merchant, topdecked into Nobleman of Crossout, and laughed a bit. “I’m sorry about that.”

“It’s Yu-Gi-Oh!” replied Laurents. Vargas summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Merchant face down, activated Nobleman of Crossout to remove Laurents’s set Mystic Tomato from the game, and ended without attacking.

Laurents activated a Nobleman of Crossout of his own at the first opportunity, removing Vargas’s Merchant from the field and stripping another from his deck. He set another monster and passed. Vargas special summoned Cyber Dragon and fingered two cards in his hand: creature Swap and Mystic Tomato. He decided to go for it, summoning the Tomato and using Creature Swap to trade it for Laurents’s set monster, Dekoichi. Cyber Dragon attacked the Tomato, its effect brought Spirit Reaper to Vargas’s side of the field, and Reaper attacked directly to strip Laurents’s hand of Metamorphosis. Vargas ended.

D. D. Warrior Lady came down on Laurents’s side of the table and attacked his own set Dekoichi. Vargas tried to activate Sakuretsu Armor, but it was negated by Laurents’s chained Royal Decree. The attack went through, Dekoichi was destroyed, and Vargas drew a card for its effect. Laurents passed with Decree, D. D. Warrior Lady, and a set spell or trap card, plus one card in hand.

Vargas activated Mystical Space Typhoon, hitting Laurents’s set Book of Moon. He chained it, turning Vargas’s Spirit Reaper face down with a grin. Vargas flip summoned it, Cyber Dragon hit D. D. Warrior Lady and both were removed, and then Spirit Reaper forced Laurents to discard his last card: Tsukuyomi. Vargas set a monster, passed, Laurents set his topdecked monster, passed, and Vargas flip summoned Night Assailant, destroying Laurents’s set monster: Sangan! Laurents gave a bit of a laught as he pulled Skelengel with its effect.

“You’re good at topdecking” said Vargas, with a hint of envy. Spirit Reaper hit directly, discarded the Skelengel, and Vargas set a monster. Laurents set a spell or trap, Vargas turned Reaper to defense, and summoned Tsukuyomi to turn his Assailant face down. Laurents passed, Vargas set a monster, and play was to Laurents. He special summoned Cyber Dragon.

The Dragon rammed into Vargas’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but Vargas destroyed it next turn with Night Assailant. He summoned Tsukuyomi again to turn it face down, Laurents set a spell or trap, and play was back to Evan.

He summoned Mystic Tomato and attacked directly. Laurents summoned Exiled Force next turn, tributed it to destroy the Tomato, but ate an attack from Cyber Dragon next turn—Vargas tributed away his Spirit Reaper for it. Cyber Dragon’s attacked lowered Laurents down to just 100 life points, and his two set spell or trap cards weren’t helping him. Vargas passed, and Laurents needed to topdeck something big to get out of the hole he was trapped in.

He didn’t. He drew, and set his card to the field as a monster. “No, wait . . .” he grinned and took it back. Vargas laughed. “Okay, that’s it,” announced Laurents, scooping and moving the match to a third duel.

A single, final game stood between one of these duelists and a spot in the Top 8 tomorrow. Would Evan Vargas return to the spotlight after more than fourteen months of relative inactivity and no Top 8 appearances? Or would Laurents head to Tokyo, not just a Worlds competitor, but as a two-time Top 8 competitor and perhaps a Shonen Jump Champion? We were one duel away from finding out.

“You’re going to Worlds, you don’t need this!” said Vargas, joking. Both duelists shuffled up.

“Good luck,” said Laurents.

“Yeah. More good luck for me than for you, hopefully.” Oh Evan Vargas. You are truly a paragon of consistency. “I have the feeling you’re going to see my hand.”

Yup! Laurents opened with Confiscation, revealing Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reaper, Mirror Force, Magician of Faith, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. He discarded the Dragon, set a card to each zone, and ended his turn.

Vargas set a card to each zone and ended as well. Laurents drew, activated Graceful Charity, and discarded Cyber Dragon and Dekoichi. He then flip summoned Magician of Faith, took back his Graceful, and used it again!

“Well, at least I’m getting skilled out of Top 8,” said Vargas sarcastically, as Laurents decided what to discard. He chose Dekoichi and Enemy Controller. He then tributed his Magician of Faith for Zaborg, blew away Vargas’s set Dekoichi, and attacked into Mirror Force.

“Decree?”

“No.” Zaborg was sent to the graveyard and Laurents passed with one set spell or trap card.

It was Vargas’s turn to activate Graceful Charity a turn later. Less than four minutes remained in the match, and he discarded Mystic Tomato and Cyber Dragon. He set a card to each zone and passed. With the duel so close to time, neither duelist wanted to be the first to over-extend.

But Vargas did it by mistake. He flipped Dust Tornado, destroying Laurents’s set card, Mirror Force. It left both duelists with nothing in their back row, and it was just what Laurents was looking for! He played Nobleman of Crossout to remove Vargas’s set monster, Spirit Reaper from the game. Then, with an open field he special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, normal summoned Cyber-Stein, and used its effect to bring out Cyber Twin Dragon! All three monsters attacked into Vargas’s open field, and it was game over. Matt Laurents was headed to the Top 8 tomorrow!