Simon Sangpukdee usually experiences tournaments from the judge’s side. It’s the common plight of the Level 3—he rarely gets the chance to play. For this event, however, he traveled up from southern Florida with fellow judge and friend Feroze Ramcharan to enjoy some games from the duelist’s chair.
Simon is 30 years old (he’ll be 31 next month, so be sure to wish him a happy birthday if you see him) and teaches elementary school. He shares the judging and tournament-running duties at his home store with Feroze, and has been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! for two years. “I got into it when some of my students started bringing in the cards. They all really liked the game and it looked cool, so I gave it a try.”
Simon settled on a deck he describes as a “Mataza Equip Beatdown.” It was his design, and it seemed very out of the common way. “It’s all the equip cards that really set it apart from what other people are playing here today. No one else was running something like it, so that’s the main thing that prompted me to play it. As a judge, I enjoy the novelty of running new ideas.” Simon’s win/loss record was more or less even, but he had no intention of dropping. “I hardly ever get to play! Of course I’m not going to drop.”
Simon’s side deck was mostly tech against other decks he expected to face, and since Burn and Lockdown decks were the archetypes he was particularly leery of, he included lots of cards like Mobius the Frost Monarch to hold them off.
Simon kept a more detailed than usual account of what decks he faced during the day. He came across quite a range of archetypes, including several varieties of Chaos, a life gain deck with Solemn Wishes, a Machine deck, and a Fiend deck with Lava Golem. He saw a Metamorphosis deck that impressed him. “And the duelist was a really nice guy!” The highlight of the tournament for Simon was the round he played against Sang Bui, who placed second at Nationals this year. Sang played a meta-typical Warrior deck, and he killed off Simon with Cannon Soldier. Simon was surprised at some of the card choices he saw—he wasn’t expecting so much Book of Moon, since Enemy Controller is the favored card in his area. He was also expecting to see more Warrior decks.
Simon hasn’t had the chance to compete in any other premiere level events this year, as judging, TO duties, and writing for Metagame.com tie up his card time. He thoroughly enjoyed the chance to sit back and play, for a change. “It’s great, because when they pick up the microphone and announce ‘All judges please report to the judge’s station,’ I can ignore it! And I don’t have to cut up all those little match slips, either. It’s been great!” He did note that many of the players, recognizing him as a high level judge, did try to ask him rulings questions that he had to refuse to answer. “But I did keep sort of thinking, ‘Yes?’ when other players would yell for a judge.”
Simon thinks the new Shonen Jump Tournaments are a fantastic way to promote the game and ensure longevity. “The promotion will really appeal to the target audience. Everyone wants to win a one of a kind rare card—it’s the honey that brings the bees.” The next tournament in the series will be happening a lot closer to home. Does he plan to attend? “If I don’t get asked to judge, I’ll definitely go as a competitor!”
Should fortune ever favor him with the Cyber Stein, Simon will remain unaffected by the siren song of online auctions. “I’d definitely keep it in my binder as a memento.” He’ll probably want to avoid traveling to tournaments alone when word of that gets out . . . .