Dwayne Nunez is from California. He’s a student studying chemistry. Vincent Tundo is from Silver Creek. He works in construction.

Game One

Tundo won the coin flip and opted to go first. He opened with a single face-down monster.

Nunez began aggressively in the early game, swinging on turn one with a Berserk Gorilla against Tundo’s Sinister Serpent. He took his own Sinister Serpent from Painful Choice and set a card in the spell and trap zone. Tundo made a quick jab by Change of Hearting the Gorilla, and before he sent it back, he activated Messenger of Peace and set a card each in the monster and spell and trap zones. Seeing the lock in place, Nunez attempted to set off a Fiber Jar, but Tundo eliminated that option with Raigeki Break. Tundo refused to pay for his Messenger, flipped his face-down Magician of Faith to take back Change of Heart, summoned Airknight Parshath, cleared the field with Heavy Storm, and attacked directly. A Swords of Revealing Light covered his behind.

Nunez attempted to survive through the mid-game by summoning Exiled Force to take out Airknight Parshath, but a Ring of Destruction and a final attack from Sinister Serpent ended the game.

Game Win: Vincent Tundo

Game Two

Nunez opened strong, with a face down spell or trap, Mirage of Nightmare, and a face down Don Zaloog.

Unfortunately, a Breaker the Magical Warrior and a Change of Heart from Tundo had him eating his own tricks on turn 1. Luckily, a D. D. Assailant hit the field on Nunez’s side and attacked, allowing Tundo to taste Zaloog’s blade as well. Tundo responded by slamming a Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer into Don, and passed: Tundo had to be careful with how he was spending his cards. If Nunez made mistakes he’d put himself in a soft lock, but if he played well he could have outpaced Tundo in card advantage.

That was the game Nunez was trying to play, as he brought up Don Zaloog again with Premature Burial. The Mirage was whacked, Nunez dropped Smashing Ground to clear Tundo’s field and he attacked directly for 3900. Tundo drew into Pot of Greed though, and activated it.

“What are you at?” asked Tundo. He seemed to smell a win, but after looking at Nunez’s graveyard he made the defensive play of a face-down card in each zone. Nunez pressed his advantage, summoning Exiled Forces to clear Tundo’s board again. He saved himself from a crushing direct attack from the Assailant and Don Zaloog with Scapegoat. When his turn rolled around, the first thing he did was play Painful Choice.

After a long moment of consideration, Nunez decided that he would give Tundo Tribe-Infecting Virus. The Virus is certainly a great card, but it wouldn’t help him for long with his low card count. Still, he summoned it and called priority to blow away both of Nunez’s warriors.

Nunez drew, set every card in his hand except for one, and then summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior. Attacking with it left Tundo with only one card. Next turn, Tundo set Ring of Destruction, which held Breaker off for one turn. Tundo played a Mad Dog of Darkness but it quickly fell to Torrential Tribute.

The game progressed until both men each had a single monster face down. Nunez Change of Hearted Tundo’s, found it was Fiber Jar, and flipped it.

“Did you topdeck that?” asked Tundo. “Yeah, but I had a Fiber, too.” Nunez now had a shot at a direct attack. Instead, he first used The Forceful Sentry. He set one spell or trap—he didn’t draw any monsters. He kept himself alive for a turn with Bottomless Trap Hole, and then used Reinforcement of the Army. He took a D. D. Assailant, summoned it, and announced his attack.

Tundo took a moment, looked at his field, and saw he had no recourse.

Game Win: Dwayne Nunez

Game Three

Dwayne Nunez began this third game by side decking at a furious place. As he shuffled, Tundo announced that he would go first. He opened with Painful Choice and got Sinister Serpent before setting two spells or traps and one monster, an ambitious opening.

Nunez summoned Tribe-Infecting Virus but Tundo flipped Torrential Tribute, killing his set Sinister Serpent. At the end of the turn, he flipped Call of the Haunted to special summon Jinzo. On his turn he played Card Destruction, special summoned Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, and attempted to attack directly with it. The attack was stopped by Book of Moon, but Nunez still got walloped by Jinzo.

There wasn’t much Nunez could do. He attacked with a Berserk Gorilla into the face down Soldier, ;played Snatch Steal on it, turned it to defense position, and then set the rest of his hand before activating Mirage of Nightmare in desperation. Tundo had the answer though, Snatching the Luster Soldier back and performing a double attack. The first shot took out the Gorilla while the second smacked directly.

Nunez had it all, though. Emergency Provisions smashed Mirage, leaving him with huge card advantage and a Breaker the Magical Warrior in hand. Breaker came down, broke the Snatch on Luster Soldier, and Nunez did some attacking. The game looked over for Tundo . . .

 . . . until he topdecked Metamorphosis. It brought out Thousand-Eyes Restrict and sucked up the Black Luster Soldier, attacking and then locking the field. Play came to a standstill with Thousand-Eyes taking a few small shots at assorted monsters set by Nunez. As a last ditch effort, Nunez set a Fiber Jar after two turns of struggling, and passed. Tundo ran right into it on the following turn.

“Oh, man, that was so stupid. I had Swords, I should’ve just played it.” It was a mistake that had Tundo visibly worried. However, he topdecked Pot of Greed and Confiscation, which quickly had him feeling a bit better. He summoned D. D. Warrior Lady and activated Wave-Motion Cannon. The D. D. went down fast to a Breaker that it then removed, but the Cannon kept on ticking. Nunez set his hand, summoned D. D. Assailant, and attacked directly. Tundo launched the Cannon for two, but Nunez responded with a chain of Emergency Provisions for a gain of 2000 life points. Cards started to fly, as each player didn’t do a lot. Tundo locked down the field with a Messenger of Peace, folded his hands, and hoped.

Nunez activated Painful Choice, and showed Pot of Greed, two Scapegoat and two Book of Moon. Tundo gave him a Scapegoat, which he set before passing his turn. Tundo set a card, passed, and flipped it in Nunez’s draw. It was Ring of Destruction. Game three was a draw, so play passed to game four.

Game Draw: No Winner

Game Four

Tundo opened by setting Torrential Tribute, which he promptly used to blow away Nunez’s D. D. Assailant on turn one. Nunez set a D. D. Assailant of his own, but a Heavy Storm from Tundo destroyed it. Tundo set Scapegoats and activated Wave-Motion Cannon, but Nunez Heavy Stormed as well on his next turn. Tundo flipped Scapegoats but Nunez’s Tribe-Infecting Virus took them all out and swung.

Tundo summoned Shining Angel and attacked into the Virus. He pulled a D. D. Warrior Lady and attacked into the Virus as well, since he really wanted to clear it away. The players’ cards in hand were two to three in Tundo’s favor. He activated Messenger of Peace and passed. Nunez set a monster and passed. It was Sinister Serpent, and everyone knew that it was, because it was immediately destroyed with Nobleman of Crossout. Tundo played Premature Burial to bring back the Angel and attacked directly. Nunez had nothing, but Tundo continued paying for the Messenger and switched his Angel to defense. Both players set cards for several turns. Tundo eventually ditched the Messenger, flipped a Tribe, and pressed an offensive against Nunez. His lone facedown monster turned out to be a D. D. Assailant. Its DEF was too big to be hit by the Tribe or the Angel!

Nunez changed the Assailant to attack, and sent it after the Tribe. Tundo had a Magic Cylinder to cover himself, and Nunez gave an audible groan. On the next turn, Tribe-Infecting Virus blew away the Assailant with its effect, Shining Angel attacked, and Nunez saved his bacon by flipping Scapegoat. Tundo attacked two sheep.

The Assailant was brought back with Premature Burial and took out the Tribe. Tundo had better hand presence, but Nunez had a field packed with cards in the spell and trap zone, giving Tundo a reason to think before committing himself to a move. Eventually, he decided on flipping Magician of Faith to take back Heavy Storm. Magician of Faith hit a sheep, Shining Angel ran into the Assailant to pull . . . well, he was hoping for another Lady, but instead he pulled another Angel and smacked the last sheep. He played Heavy Storm, but a turn later his newfound board advantage didn’t matter: Fiber Jar again restarted the game.

Nunez opened with Painful Choice, but the pick was irrelevant. He played Premature Burial for one attacker, summoned another from his hand, and attacked directly to win the game and the match.

Match Win: Dwayne Nunez