Define irony: Fili Luna, playing against Matt Peddle, using Fili Luna’s deck from last weekend. This was going to be interesting.
Peddle won the roll and opened with a set card to each zone. Luna special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Card Trooper, and sent three cards to his graveyard to boost it up. He set two cards to his back row, but ran his monsters into Mirror Force! He activated Confiscation, revealed Peddle’s hand of Snipe Hunter, Future Fusion, Limiter Removal, and Heavy Storm, and sent Future Fusion to the graveyard.
A fourth card put Peddle within Trap Dustshoot range, and Fili flipped it in Peddle’s draw phase: it sent Dekoichi back to Peddle’s deck, his draw for the turn. But Peddle flip summoned his set Dekoichi, drew for its effect, and attacked directly to drop Luna to 5600. He set a card to conclude his turn.
Luna set a monster. Peddle set Heavy Storm (next to his set Torrential Tribute), attacked with Dekoichi, and hit Gravekeeper’s Spy, bringing another out from Luna’s deck. Peddle ended, but Luna blasted him with Mind Crush to discard Snipe Hunter! He drew for his turn and activated Heavy Storm to destroy both of Peddle’s set cards!
He summoned Snipe Hunter and both copies of Gravekeeper’s Spy went to attack position. Snipe Hunter attacked over Dekoichi, both Spys hit directly, and play was to Peddle. He activated Premature Burial, took back Snipe Hunter, attacked over a Spy, and then discarded Limiter Removal to blow away Luna’s Snipe Hunter. Fili set a monster, turned Spy to defense, and Peddle set a monster. He sent Snipe Hunter to attack Luna’s set monster and found it to be Sangan! Luna searched his deck for Card Trooper, knowing there was nothing Peddle could do to defend his Snipe.
He summoned Card Trooper, sent Jinzo, Dekoichi, and Crush Card Virus to the graveyard to boost its ATK, and then ran over Snipe. Peddle flip summoned his own Trooper, sent three cards to the graveyard for its effect, and ran over Luna’s Card Trooper. It was 3900 to 3700, with Luna barely leading. Peddle set a spell or trap: “Your turn.”
Luna set a card to each zone, out-carding Peddle two to one once Peddle took his draw next turn. In main phase 1 Peddle took quite a bit of time searching his graveyard, so Luna flipped Mystical Space Typhoon to target his one set card; he thought it was Pot of Avarice, given the amount of time Peddle spent looking through his graveyard. It wasn’t; it was Call of the Haunted, and it was chained to special summon Cyber Phoenix! Peddle then tributed both his monsters for Dark Magician of Chaos, retrieving Confiscation from his graveyard! He had to equalize card presence quickly. Dark Magician of Chaos attacked Fili’s set monster, another Gravekeeper’s Spy, and she brought out Gravekeeper’s Guard in defense. Peddle activated Confiscation, revealed Luna’s in-hand Dustshoot and Dekoichi, and discarded the latter.
Fili topdecked into Raiza the Storm Monarch! He tributed his Guard for him, bounced Dark Magician of Chaos back to the top of Peddle’s deck, and turned his Gravekeeper’s Spy to attack mode! Both monsters attacked directly and Luna won the first duel!
A big Heavy Storm and some smart plays to capitalize on it lead Fili Luna to a win in the first duel of the match! Both duelists dove into their side decks.
Luna grinned at Peddle: “Hmm, what would I side deck if I was Matt Peddle. Should I just try to out-Machine you?” Both duelists finished siding in under two minutes, and Peddle started off game 2.
He set a card to each zone, and then activated Future Fusion to send two copies of Cyber Dragon to his graveyard. In two turns, he’d claim a Cyber Twin Dragon. Luna drew for his turn and Peddle flipped Trap Dustshoot, revealing Torrential Tribute, Cyber Dragon, Trap Dustshoot, Brain Control, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Raiza the Storm Monarch in Fili’s hand. Cyber Dragon was quickly ejected to Fili’s deck, leaving him with no live monster plays this turn, and giving Peddle a great deal of information. Luna set three cards and activated his own Dustshoot in Peddle’s draw phase, sending Jinzo back to his deck over Snipe Hunter. Peddle flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, drew Confiscation with its effect and attacked for 1400 damage. He dropped Confiscation and forced Luna to discard Raiza the Storm Monarch, leaving him with Brain Control in his hand. “Your turn.”
Luna passed. When Cyber Twin Dragon hit the field he activated Torrential Tribute, his only defense, prompting Peddle to summon Card Trooper. He sent Brain Control, Book of Moon, and Torrential Tribute to his graveyard to boost it to 1900 ATK, then attacked to drop Luna to 4700 life points.
Luna set a card to each zone, leaving himself with two cards in his back row and a set monster, plus a card in hand. He set the latter as well after a few moments’ thought, to his spell and trap zone. If Peddle was going to score a KO-turn, Luna wasn’t going to make it easy.
Snipe Hunter hit Peddle’s side of the field, and he discarded Sangan to miss Luna’s set monster. He discarded another Snipe Hunter, and missed again! With one card left in his hand he boosted Card Trooper, attacked with Snipe Hunter to destroy Luna’s set Dekoichi, and then attacked with Card Trooper to lower Luna to 2800 life points. Peddle shook his head and passed with no back field. It was the type of turn that lost games, and Fili punched numbers into his calculator, figuring out the win.
He special summoned Cyber Dragon, used Brain Control to take Card Trooper, then normal summoned Snipe Hunter. Premature Burial brought back Raiza the Storm Monarch, who attacked over Snipe Hunter. The other three monsters attacked directly, and Peddle was down to 600 life points! Fili handed back Peddle’s Card Trooper.
He boosted it to 1900 damage and attacked over Snipe Hunter. Luna let the attack through, and Peddle dropped Limiter Removal for game!
Matt Peddle just barely pulls out of a horrible situation, pushing the match to a third game!
“Well, that makes up for the Snipe Hunter misses,” remarked Peddle. “And you did topdeck Raiza for the win!” Both duels had come down to a game-winning topdeck. Luna sided quickly, while Peddle took a bit of time, recovering from his ordeal and making his decisions carefully. With 35 minutes remaining in the match there was plenty of time left.
“I’ve gotta win!” moaned Luna. “I’m on a T-streak.”
Peddle laughed. “Oh man . . . he’s gonna read that.”
“Ha! I’m just kidding T, I love you. Oh, and thanks to Chris Bowling and Jake McNeely, for the Crush Card.” Luna leaned back in his seat, threw his hat on low over his eyes and relaxed as Peddle continued siding. “I’ll go first.”
“Good luck.”
Luna set a card to each zone, and then set a second card to his back row: no Trap Dustshoot. Peddle set a monster, then a spell or trap, and ended. Fili set another monster, another card to his back row, and Peddle drew into Overload Fusion; he was holding Future Fusion from his opening hand.
He set Sangan and Fili was up. He flipped Morphing Jar! Peddle lost four cards to Fili’s three, including his Overload Fusion and Mobius the Frost Monarch! He had set Future Fusion. Luna lost a fistful of monsters. He summoned Card Trooper, Peddle had no response, and he sent Card Trooper, Sangan, and Premature Burial from the top of his deck to the graveyard to boost Trooper to 1900 ATK. Trooper attacked Peddle’s Sangan, and it scurried off to Peddle’s deck to get him Morphing Jar. Fili refused to attack with his Jar when invited, and instead moved to main phase 2 to activate Confiscation.
Peddle’s hand was Gravekeeper’s Spy, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Morphing Jar, Cyber Phoenix, Mystical Space Typhoon, and Torrential Tribute. Fili pitched Mystical Space Typhoon. Peddle summoned Cyber Phoenix, attacked Luna’s Card Trooper, and ended. Fili set a monster, turned Morphing Jar to defense, and then ended. Peddle attacked with Cyber Phoenix, this time hitting Fili’s face down Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Despite his efforts, Peddle just wasn’t able to simplify the field yet. He set a spell or trap, set a monster, and flipped Future Fusion: Luna chained Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it. Peddle ended and Luna was up.
He tributed Morphing Jar for Cyber Dragon, set cards to completely fill his back row, then attacked into one of Peddle’s set monsters: Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Peddle drew and Luna flipped Mind Crush, calling Heavy Storm but not finding it in Peddle’s hand! He was forced to discard, and lost Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Peddle tributed his set Gravekeeper’s Spy for Cyber Dragon, activated Pot of Avarice to draw two, and ripped Sangan and Premature Burial; with no monsters in his graveyard Premature was a dead card, but only for the moment.
Cyber Phoenix attacked Luna’s set monster, Spirit Reaper! It bounced off harmlessly and Peddle crashed his Cyber Dragon into Luna’s. Luna summoned Cyber Phoenix and Peddle debated activating his set card, Torrential Tribute. Doing so would protect him from Luna’s Spirit Reaper, but it would also leave him open to direct attacks if Luna had any form of special summon available. He didn’t activate it, but Fili didn’t turn Spirit Reaper to attack either, instead opting just to trade Cyber Phoenixes.
A set monster was Peddle’s only move, and he had to discard Jinzo to his graveyard in the end phase since he had seven cards in hand. Luna set a spell or trap, and then activated it in Peddle’s draw phase: Trap Dustshoot. He sent Gravekeeper’s Spy back to Peddle’s deck over two Dekoichi and Morphing Jar. Peddle set Sangan, building his field with another monster that would jive well with Torrential Tribute, but Luna just passed back. Peddle flip summoned Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, drew for its effect, then activated Brain Control to destroy his opponent’s Spirit Reaper. Dekoichi attacked directly and Fili took the damage.
Another set monster finished Peddle’s turn, and things were looking good. Fili was lagging behind in field presence big time, and would need to do something major to mount a comeback. He activated Call of the Haunted and special summoned Card Trooper. He activated Machine Duplication, took another Card Trooper from his deck to special summon it, and then sent a total of six cards to his graveyard to boost them both. He tributed them for Dark Magician of Chaos next, targeted Mystical Space Typhoon with its effect, and Peddle still didn’t pull the trigger. He lost his set Torrential Tribute to Mystical Space Typhoon immediately.
Fili activated Overload Fusion! He counted out twelve Machine monsters in his graveyard, sent them all away for Chimeratech Overdragon, and brought it to the field with 9600 ATK! The Chimeratech crashed through Peddle’s attack position Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and that was it!
Fili Luna wins the match with a massive Chimeratech Overdragon, moving on to the Top 4.