It’s Tuesday, July 31st 2007, and duelists across the globe have a brand new World Champion!
Andres Toro Claims World Title For Chile
23 competitors took center stage this past weekend at San Diego’s Comic-Con International, where representatives of fourteen different countries competed in the 2007 World Championships of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Duelists from Italy, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, and the USA all fought their way to the Top 8, but in the end, it was the South American Champion—Chile’s Andres Toro—who claimed top honors.
Toro’s path to victory was fraught with ups and downs. Despite Day 1 victories over America’s Bryan Rockenbach and 2007 European Champion Davide Bellochio, his record was marred by a pair of defeats, falling in duels against American Champion Adam Corn and Japan’s Toshiki Muramatsu. But tiebreakers prevailed, and Toro just barely made it to the eighth slot of the Top 8.
There he faced former World Champion Dario Longo, Canadian National Champion Dexter Dalit, and finally, Italy’s Mattia Sarpa. After losing Game 1 in the Finals, Toro rallied back to defeat Sarpa in two straight duels to capture the World Championship Title!
This year the events at the World Championships were fully covered over on yugioh-card.com, the official Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG website. To check out all the round-by-round feature matches and results, just hit up this link.
Congratulations go out to Andres Toro, our new World Champion!
Tactical Evolution Sneak Previews This Weekend!
It’s almost time! The latest round of Sneak Preview events is this weekend, and in a matter of days, we’ll all be getting our first taste of the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG booster set, Tactical Evolution. The biggest set in years has support for Zombies, Cyberdarks, Normal monsters, Neo-Spacians, and a plethora of other decks, as well as the new Gemini monsters. Jesse Anderson’s Rainbow Dragon is within the grasp of Crystal Beast fans at last, and it’s bringing with it a brand new card rarity and foil treatment! GX fans will also find a lot to like in Professor Viper’s Venom monsters, including stellar Reptile support and a brand new alternate win condition. Cool stuff.
You can be among the first to crack open boosters of Tactical Evolution by attending your local Sneak Preview—just check the official event listing and find the closest Sneak Preview in your area. You’ll get the all-new World Premiere card “Gemini Summoner” just for registering, and if you’ve been following our Preview Weeks here at Metagame.com, you know how good that card will be! You can win t-shirts and extra packs if you’re lucky, too, so don’t miss out on your Tactical Evolution Sneak Preview Weekend.
Preview Weeks Continue on Metagame.com
With the Sneak Preview Weekend so close, we’re still counting down the days by showing you some of the best cards in Tactical Evolution! Yesterday, Mike Rosenberg looked at three new pieces of Normal monster support, which are sure to make an impact on Normal decks. Summoner’s Art, Symbols of Duty, and Common Charity all add a potent new trick to the Normal duelist’s arsenal, and Mike evaluated their impact individually, and as a whole. Click on over to check it out!
Today, Matt Peddle previews one of the hottest cards from the set. Crystal Seer is going to be the card that brings back the Apprentice Magician engine, and for many duelists it’s going to be replacing Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. But it’s even better than you may first think, and Matt’s going to show you the full range of possibilities for this awesome new support card.
Last week, Bryan Camareno looked at Frost and Flame Dragon, but this time around he’ll take a peek at its antipode: Desert Twister. An amalgamation of Wind and Earth attributes, the Twister makes for some really cool deckbuilding possibilities thanks to a number of factors. What are they? Bryan will show all and tell all tomorrow!
On Thursday, Matt Murphy will pick up where he left off last week, showing you the successor to Vennominon the King of Poisonous Snakes. Matt’s going to preview Rise of the Snake Deity, a combo card that lets you summon Professor Viper’s ultimate monster: Vennominaga the Deity of Poisonous Snakes! Vennominaga is nigh indestructible, and Matt will demonstrate how to use her to her full potential.
Finally, I’ll finish up our Preview Weeks schedule with a look at one of my personal favorites: Il Blud. An all-new world premiere card never released before, Il Blud is going to take Zombie decks all the way to the forefront of competitive dueling. On Friday, I’ll show you how.
That’ll be it for our scheduled week, but don’t forget: when our Previews stop, your Sneak Preview Weekend begins! Tactical Evolution Sneaks start on Saturday, so don’t miss your chance to get boosters of the new set, make some awesome trades, and pick up a copy of Gemini Summoner!
See you next week!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com