Sixteen year-old Jeff Baumgartner is from Chicago, and he’s sitting at table 1 undefeated here today with an innovative Ratbox variant. He’s up against Brandon Shelton, from Pontiac, Michigan, who’s running another updated version of a popular deck: Chimeratech OTK. Shelton’s version runs Strike Ninja, and doesn’t use any traps in the main deck.

He won the roll and began meticulously announcing his moves. He activated Future Fusion, declared his target as Chimeratech Overdragon and removed a whopping nineteen Machine monsters! He set a monster and ended!

Baumgartner summoned Card Trooper, sending Bazoo the Soul-Eater, Injection Fairy Lily, and Cyber Dragon to his graveyard from the top of his deck. Card Trooper attacked into Magical Merchant, which immediately got Shelton Overload Fusion! Baumgartner set three back row cards and ended.

Shelton unleashed Heavy Storm, and that was all she wrote. Overload Fusion unleashed a Chimeratech Overdragon with 15200 attack points! The Overdragon obliterated Card Trooper, and the first duel drew to a quick close.

Brandon Shelton devastates Jeff Baumgartner, taking the first duel with authority!

Both duelists side decked, and Baumgartner was careful to give Shelton’s deck an incredibly thorough pile shuffle. Play began for the second duel.

He opened with Graceful Charity, discarding both copies of Machine Duplication in his deck. Shelton borrowed them for a moment to read them, and Baumgartner set a card to each zone.

Shelton dropped Future Fusion yet again, this time sending only ten Machines to his graveyard. He special summoned Cyber Dragon, and summoned Strike Ninja! He had three Dark monsters in his graveyard. Cyber Dragon attacked into Baumgartner’s set D. D. Warrior Lady, and both were removed. Strike Ninja then hit directly, and play was to Baumgartner.

Strike Ninja immediately dodged in Baumgartner’s standby phase, a move that seemed peculiar from Shelton. Most players would leave Strike Ninja on the field to draw out Smashing Ground or a similar targeting effect. However, it paid off. Jinzo and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive were removed from his graveyard, and Baumgartner had two Cyber Dragons in his hand. Without Strike Ninja on the field, they were useless! Baumgartner set a monster and ended. I’ve never seen that before.

Shelton summoned Card Trooper and used its effect to boost it to 1900 ATK. Card Trooper attacked and destroyed Baumgartner’s set Bazoo, and Strike Ninja hit directly yet again. Baumgartner special summoned Cyber Dragon in defense position, set another spell or trap and ended.

Chimeratech Overdragon came out as a result of Future Fusion, and destroyed everything on Shelton’s side of the field. Heavy Storm wiped Baumgartner clean of his Return and Smashing Ground, and Shelton activated Overload Fusion to remove ten Machines. He brought out Chimeratech Overdragon, attacked the Cyber Dragon, set a monster and ended.

Baumgartner special summoned another Cyber Dragon in attack, activated Smashing Ground to destroy Chimeratech and then used Nobleman of Crossout to remove Shelton’s set Morphing Jar from play! In one turn he’d wiped Shelton off the field, and Cyber Dragon struck for 2100 damage. Shelton had one card left in his hand, and Baumgartner ended his turn.

Shelton set one back row card, but Baumgartner destroyed it with Heavy Storm. He summoned Spirit Reaper and attacked with both to force his opponent to discard his last card: Blowback Dragon. Things looked grim for Shelton. He leaned back in his chair, not having touched his deck at all since his Last Turn. He took a deep breath, rolled up his sleeves, and flipped the top card of his deck.  

It was Dimension Fusion.

Dimension Fusion activated, and special summoned Cyber Dragon, Cyber Phoenix, Jinzo, and two copies of Drillroid! All five monsters piled into Spirit Reaper one after the other, and the match was over!

The heart of the cards turns defeat into victory for Brandon Shelton!