Santiago won the roll and set one to each zone. “I’ll set one to each zone and pass.” He grinned, mimicking the language we use here on Metagame.com.

Perovic played Nobleman of Crossout, removing Santiago’s Spirit Reaper from the field. He set a monster, passed, Santiago special summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked Perovic’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and ended.

Santiago picked up his deck box, put a die in it, and started shaking it in front of Perovic’s face. “Does that distract you?” He grinned. Perovic grabbed the Dragon with Snatch Steal, and Santiago was forced to hit it with Sakuretsu Armor. “Snatch Steal goes two for one.” Santiago remarked of his own misfortune. Perovic set a monster, but lost it to Santiago’s Nobleman of Crossout on the following turn - Magician of Faith was removed from the field, and both duelists stripped the remaining Magicians from their decks. Santiago set one spell or trap card, left his field without a monster, and passed.

Another set monster hit Perovic’s side of the field, and Santiago used Call of the Haunted to bring up Cyber Dragon. Tsukuyomi turned it face down, he flip summoned it, and attacked Perovic’s set monster with the Dragon. It was Night Assailant! Perovic took a moment to think and then destroyed the Tsukuyomi. Santiago passed, Perovic set a card to each zone, and Santiago was up.

He summoned Mirage Dragon, and attacked Perovic’s face down with Mirage. Perovic’s Sangan was flipped, destroyed, and sent to the graveyard. Perovic pulled Tsukuyomi with Sangan’s effect, and ate the direct attack from Cyber Dragon. It was first blood, setting the life point totals to 5900 to 8000 in Santiago’s favor.

Perovic played Graceful Charity and took some time debating his discards: Tsukuyomi and D. D. Warrior Lady. “Somebody has a Sorcerer, eh?” remarked Santiago.

Perovic summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke Santiago’s face down card, but found it to be Enemy Controller. Controller was chained and Breaker went to defense position. But then, Perovic removed D. D. Warrior Lady and Dekoichi from the graveyard to special summon Chaos Sorcerer. He removed Mirage Dragon from play.

Cyber Dragon attacked Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Smashing Ground destroyed Chaos Sorcerer. Santiago passed and Perovic set a monster. Cyber Dragon attacked, and Perovic flipped Sakuretsu Armor. Santiago set a back row card, and Perovic summoned and attacked with Spirit Reaper, discarding a card! But next turn Santiago brought out a Sorcerer of his own, removed the Reapoer from play, and passed. Book of Moon and Nobleman of Crossout removed the Sorcerer, and Perovic attacked again with Spirit Reaper. Santiago set a monster, Perovic tributed his Reaper for Jinzo, attacked into Skelengel, and Confiscation stole Santiago’s last card.

A turn later, Perovic was summoning Cyber Dragon, but lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole. Santiago flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, drew a card, attacked with it, and then set a monster. Perovic played Smashing Ground, set another back row card, and ended his turn, but Santiago had a second Dekoichi to flip! He did so, drew a card and then played Graceful Charity. He discarded Spirit Reaper and Nobleman of Crossout for its effect, attacked with Dekoichi, and Perovic dropped to 2100. Santiago was still at 6500, and had two in-hand cards, one spell or trap, and one Dekoichi to Perovic’s one in-hand and two set spell or trap cards.

Perovic drew, set another spell or trap card, and passed. Santiago summoned Sangan, attacked, and lost all his monsters to Mirror Force: he took Night Assailant from his deck with Sangan’s effect. Perovic drew a monster set it, and was confronted with Breaker the Magical Warrior a turn later. Santiago used Breaker’s token to destroy one of Perovic’s set cards, but hit Mystical Space Typhoon! Perovic chained it, destroying Torrential Tribute! Breaker attacked, hit Skelengel, and Perovic drew a card. Santiago set a spell or trap and ended.

Another Chaos Sorcerer came down on Perovic’s side, and he removed Breaker from play with priority. He set his last two cards to his back row, leaving himself with three total.

Santiago used Snatch Steal to take the Sorcerer, and attacked with it. Perovic flipped Sakuretsu Armor, and Santiago chained with Return from the Different Dimension! But Perovic chained his own Return, bringing out Jinzo and negating Santiago’s Return! It stopped Santiago’s offensive cold.

Perovic drew, gained for Snatch Steal, and set a monster. Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed his back row card though, and when it was revealed that that card was Torrential Tribute Santiago knew he had game. He flipped Night Assailant, used it to destroy Perovic’s last set monster, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and then attacked for game with Chaos Sorcerer!

Santiago wins the first duel after a long series of back-and-forth shifts in control. He joked about his pink card sleeves while side decking, and both duelists discussed the match.

Perovic opened with a summoned Sangan, and a set spell or trap card. Santiago wrecked it with Cyber Dragon on the following turn, and Perovic nabbed Tsukuyomi with its effect. Santiago set a card to each zone and ended his turn.

Another Cyber Dragon came down on Perovic’s side of the field, and Perovic played Torrential Tribute! He then played Heavy Storm, destroying Book of Moon, and summoned Spirit Reaper! Reaper attacked, discarded Santiago’s Call of the Haunted, and Perovic set a spell or trap.

Santiago set a card to each zone, passed, and Perovic played Tsukuyomi. Spirit Reaper turned down, flipped back up, and Tsukuyomi attacked to reveal Night Assailant. The Assailant destroyed Spirit Reaper, and play passed to Santiago. Santiago summoned Spirit Reaper, attacked, but hit Sakuretsu Armor, and next turn Perovic let him have it with D. D. Warrior Lady. Santiago struggled back with Chaos Sorcerer, removed D. D. Warrior Lady from play, and set a monster. The tables appeared to have turned very quickly.

Perovic played Graceful Charity, discarded Skelengel and Night Assailant, and used Assailant to bounce Skelengel back to his hand! Perovic then summoned his own Chaos Sorcerer, used its effect with priority to remove Santago’s Sorcerer from play, and set a monster.

Magician of Faith was flipped on Santiago’s side of the field, and he took back Book of Moon. Book turned Sorcerer down, Nobleman of Crossout removed it from play, and Santiago attacked with Tsukuyomi. It hit Magician of Faith, and Perovic got back his Graceful Charity!

He used it on the following turn, and discarded Morphing Jar and Sakuretsu Armor. Nobleman of Crossout removed Santiago’s set Magician of Faith from the field, and Santiago had nothing left but one in-hand card. Perovic set a card to each zone and passed.

Cyber Dragon came off the top of Santiago’s deck and he special summoned it, attacking into Perovic’s Skelengel! It got Perovic a card, but he wasn’t happy with the situation. Santiago played Tsukuyomi, turned his Cyber Dragon face down, and passed.

Perovic drew, set another card to his back row and ended his turn. Santiago flip summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked with it, and hit directly for another 2100! Perovic was at 4800! Santiago turned the Dragon face down again with Tsukuyomi before ending his turn.

Perovic set another monster, Cyber Dragon came up again on the other side of the field, and attacked: Book of Moon blocked it. Santiago set another monster, Perovic flipped Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and drew.

“How many cards in your hand?” asked Santiago. “Sixteen?” It was five, and Carlos had two, while each duelist controlled two cards on the field.

Dekoichi attacked the defense position Cyber Dragon, and Smashing Ground destroyed it. Tsukuyomi turned Dekoichi face down again, and Perovic ended his turn. Santiago special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, flip summoned Tsukuyomi, turned his Chaos Sorcerer face down, and passed. Perovic used Dust Tornado in tuhe end phase to destroy Santiago’s one set, Return from the Different Dimension, and he then played Confiscation to discard Tsukuyomi! Perovic attacked the set Sorcerer with Breaker the Magical Warrior, used Smashing Ground to destroy the Sorcerer, and passed, but Santiago topdecked a Breaker two, and attacked his into Perovic’s to destroy them both!

Perovic summoned Spirit Reaper, and it stole Santiago’s last card! Mirage Dragon came down on Santiago’s side, attacked the Reaper, and it was 2200 to 5900 in Santiago’s favor. Premature Burial brought back Magician of Faith for Perovic, Tsukuyomi turned it face down, Smashing Ground hit the Mirage Dragon, and Tsukuyomi attacked directly. Santiago drew, set his one card to his back row, and passed.

Magician of Faith flipped on Perovic’s side, took back Heavy Storm, and Storm destroyed Santiago’s Enemy Controller – he chained it to destroy Spirit Reaper. Tsukuyomi turned Magician of Faith face down for Perovic, then attacked directly. Santiago special summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked Magician of Faith, and Perovic tried to figure out what to take with Magician’s effect. He settled on Graceful Charity, drew for his turn, and topdecked Snatch Steal! Graceful nabbed him Chaos Sorcerer, Snatch Steal stole the Cyber Dragon, and the match was one to one!

Both duelists side decked and counted out their fifteen cards. Santiago finished first and gave an exaggerated yawn. “You take too looooong,” he said to Perovic in jest.

“Shut up” Perovic returned with a grin. He was honestly struggling with the side decking.

“Relax, man, it’s just a game.” Santiago grinned. Again, despite the trading of jesting barbs, the mutual respect these competitors had for one another was clear.

The table judge enforced the three-minute limit on side decking time, and Perovic was cut off. A minute and 45 seconds remained in the match as they both finished shuffling.

Santiago opened with one spell or trap card, and Perovic took the opening! He summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, destroyed Mirror Force, and attacked directly for 1600! He set one spell or trap and passed.

Sangan came down for Santiago, and he too set a spell or trap card. Perovic didn’t bite the bluff, and attacked Sangan to pound through some more damage. Time was called: Perovic would finish his turn, and then three turns would proceed. Kris set a card to each zone and ended.

Santiago summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Breaker face down, and attacked it. Breaker was destroyed. Call of the Haunted brought Sangan back to Santiago, and it attacked into Magician of Faith. Perovic had nothing to take back. Carlos was at 5800 life points, and had one turn in which to even it out.

Perovic played Smashing Ground to destroy Sangan, and Santiago took D. D. Warrior Lady from his deck with its effect. Perovic set the last of his cards to the field and there was nothing Santiago could do! Perovic took the game on time, in a match where both duelists played hard and juiced every moment of thought time for everything it was worth!