We’re back again, and after a title victory just weeks ago in Atlanta, Jerry Wang has captured his third Shonen Jump Championship!
Jerry Wang Wins Shonen Jump Championship Houston!
Some unfortunate travel booking issues kept me from attending and bringing you live coverage, but that doesn’t mean Houston wasn’t an event to remember! Duelists like Jerry Wang, Jae Kim, Chris Bowling, and his younger brother Kyle Bowling brought innovative new TeleDAD variants to Day 2, with some versions packing as few as zero copies of Emergency Teleport, and some running as many as two Royal Oppression. One Zombie Deck and one Lightsworn deck also made the Top 16, amongst a field of TeleDAD competitors.
Jerry’s win comes hot on the heels of his victory in Atlanta, kicking off what may be a tremendous year for this long-time fan favorite. Over 300 competitors showed up to compete, and you can find the top decklists right here on Metagame. Click on over to check them out!
Upper Deck Day "Duelist Challenge" Tournaments Announced
If you missed it last week, Upper Deck has announced "Upper Deck Day" events at over sixty locations in North America. Each event will play host to free World of Warcraft TCG Beginner’s Tournaments, a free Huntik TCG Sneak Preview event, World of Warcraft Minis demos, and a "Duelist Challenge" tournament for Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG players.
The latter features massive prizes, including 24 boxes of cards to be split amongst the Top 16 finishers at each location. Each Duelist Challenge tournament will also award SJC editions of Des Volstgalph, Shrink, and Gold Sarcophagus to third, second, and first place. Pretty tremendous stuff! If you’re interested in finding the Upper Deck Day event closest to you, just check out the official Upper Deck website linked here. Note that venues are being confirmed on an ongoing basis, so keep checking back if the venues closest to you are still to be decided.
This Week On Metagame.com
Yesterday, I finally cut loose discussing what’s bound to become one of my favorite cards of the year — Dandylion! A flexible combo powerhouse, it’s seen some debate lately from some players who maybe aren’t quite grasping everything it means in the current format. While Dandylion was a star in Japanese decks years ago, the fall of Monarchs has done nothing to tarnish the little dude’s reputation
Today Jerome McHale follows up on my article last week covering Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, building a new version of the Japanese "Hopeless Dragon" archetype. I really like what Jerome’s done with it, incorporating some new ideas that I’ve never seen anywhere else. If you’re a Dragon fan, this one’s a must-read.
Tomorrow, Curtis Schultz will bring you part two of his series on Phantom of Chaos, dissecting the sludgy wonder to help you understand the more complicated ins and outs of its effect. This time he tackles issues like Skill Drain, and how the Phantom works when it copies effects that trigger in the end phase. Phantom of Chaos is most definitely a tournament-level card, and understanding how it works is a must for serious players.
Thursday I’m back, fixing up a Dark Warrior deck in The Apotheosis. This one’s a classic case of a theme-dedicated build lacking in real payoff, so I’m going to throw in some new cards to give this deck a more worthwhile purpose. The result is a teched out, accelerated strategy that breathes new life into a classic old-school monster.
On Friday Julia Hedberg writes on one of the most misunderstood topics in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG tournament scene — bribery and collusion. What’s the difference, and when can you concede, or negotiate a legal split at a sanctioned event? Julia’s going to answer those questions and more, as she continues on her mission to demystify some of Yu-Gi-Oh’s most important tournament issues.
Also on Friday, Michael Kohanim is back, Taking Sides yet again! This time he’ll look at side decking philosophy and in-and-out options for Lightsworn. Lightsworn duelists face some special challenges when they move into Game 2 and 3, and understanding them is key to taking on your biggest matchups beyond Game 1. More Championship-level advice from Mike that’s easy to learn, and even easier to apply!
Then, Matt Peddle dissects Jae Kim’s TeleDAD variant that he played to a Day 2 finish at Shonen Jump Championship San Francisco, discussing the changes he made and how they’ll affect the archetype in the future. One need only look so far as the decklists from Houston one week later to see the impact of this new build, so be sure to study up with Matt in The Champions!
We’ll have all that, plus another on-budget deck from Ryan Murphy on Sunday. See you next week, and thanks for reading Metagame!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
Contributing Editor, Metagame.com
MetagameJason(at)gmail(dot)com