It was round 8, and with three rounds still remaining in the tournament, and the clock striking 9:30, both of these duelists would be winners! The reason? The loser would get to drop from the tournament and go to sleep! Yay!

Both of these duelists are familiar faces. Nareg Torossian has Top 8’d twice at Shonen Jump Championships, and won Shonen Jump Championship Indianapolis last year. Frank Debrito, arguably the leader of Team Nexus, rarely competes, but has head judged three SJCs thus far in his illustrious level 3 career.

Nareg set a monster to open the game, and lost it to Nobleman of Crossout on the following turn: it was Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and each duelist stripped the remaining copies from their decks. Both ran three. Debrito summoned Cyber Phoenix and attacked for 1200. He set a spell or trap card to back it up and passed.

Play was again to Nareg, and he activated Heavy Storm. It took out Debrito’s Mirror Force. Nareg special summoned Cyber Dragon, activated Smashing Ground, swung for 2100, and set a card to each zone.

Debrito shuffled his hand a bit, considering his potential plays. He activated Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying Solemn Judgment. He set a spell or trap and passed. Nareg attacked again with Cyber Dragon, Debrito went down to 3800, and Nareg passed.

A set monster was Debrito’s only play. Nareg flip summoned Mask of Darkness, took back his Solemn Judgment, and attacked with Cyber Dragon. It hit Spirit Reaper, and Nareg fingered his in-hand Snatch Steal. He set a monster, used the Snatch Steal to blow away Reaper, and passed. He was developing a dangerous field presence while Debrito had nothing.

Debrito summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior. “Any response? That Judgment’s looking pretty tempting right now.”

“Is it?” Nareg grinned.

“I dunno, you tell me,” replied Debrito with a smile. Nareg didn’t activate it, and Breaker attacked Mask of Darkness before breaking Nareg’s set Judgment.

He flip summoned Magical Merchant, netting himself Sakuretsu Armor on the following turn. Cyber Dragon cleared out Debrito’s Breaker, and Merchant attacked directly. Nareg set a spell or trap and passed, in clear control of the duel. It was 3100 to 5800 in Nareg’s favor.

Debrito looked at his three in-hand cards and then set them down, looking over the field. “I’m in a pretty bad position,” he said, examining Nareg’s graveyard. He activated Return from the Different Dimension to bring back his three removed Dekoichis. “Hellooooo Dekoichiiiis,” said Nareg. If Debrito had another Machine and Limiter Removal, Nareg could be in trouble.

He tributed one Dekoichi for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroying the Cyber Dragon. One Dekoichi attacked Merchant, the second attacked directly, and Debrito ended his turn without attacking with Zaborg. “That’s interesting,” remarked Nareg. Debrito had made the obvious read of Sakuretsu Armor.

Nareg activated Confiscation, and selected Blowback Dragon to discard over Chaos Sorcerer. He set a monster and passed. It was 1550 to 2200, with Nareg still maintaining his narrowing lead.

Debrito set a spell or trap and passed. He was not going to attack into that Sakuretsu Armor. Nareg flipped Magician of Faith though, used its effect to take back Snatch Steal, and activated it to assume control of Zaborg. It was over, and Debrito scooped before Nareg announced his imminent attack.

Debrito smoke-screened, shuffling his side deck into his main, while Torossian just sided in a few cards normally. Despite Debrito’s rally in the later turns of the last duel, Nareg had really controlled the entire thing. Debrito would need to do a lot better than that to pull out a win here.

He opened the second duel with a set monster and passed. “Come on, Crossout,” said Nareg. He didn’t have it. He special summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked into D. D. Warrior Lady, and watched as both monsters were removed from the game. He set a card to each zone and passed. Debrito special summoned Cyber Dragon, swung into Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and set a card to each zone as well, mirroring Nareg’s play from the previous turn.

Nareg activated Graceful Charity, discarding Premature Burial and Smashing Ground. He activated Snatch Steal, took Cyber Dragon, and activated Nobleman of Crossout to remove Debrito’s set Magician of Faith from the game. Both players verified the contents of each other’s decks, strictly for informational purposes via privilege of technicality, and Cyber Dragon attacked directly to knock Debrito for 2100. Nareg set a monster, then a spell or trap, and passed.

Debrito unleashed Heavy Storm! Nareg chained Book of Moon to keep the Cyber Dragon, but was still losing three cards. He only had one remaining in his hand, and Debrito had four. He summoned Sangan, and attacked Torossian’s set Morphing Jar!

“Come on, I don’t set three for nothing!” Nareg grinned. Debrito set a single card to his back row and passed, watching his one moment of major control over the duel sinking away.

Nareg flip summoned Cyber Dragon and normal summoned D. D. Warrior Lady. He attacked with it and removed Sangan from the game. Cyber Dragon attacked directly. “And the riskiness paid off!” He set a spell or trap card and passed.

Debrito summoned Cyber Phoenix and ended. He was either low on options, or had Limiter Removal set. Nareg went for it.

“Damage step?” asked Debrito. Nareg gulped for a moment, but Debrito was only teasing and had nothing. He actually drew Limiter Removel off of Cyber Phoenix’s destruction though, a fact revealed by Nareg’s Confiscation in main phase 2. He found two Chaos Sorcerer (both dead), Limiter Removal, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Premature Burial. He discarded the Burial, set a spell or trap, and ended.

Debrito summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior, broke Nareg’s freshest set card, Sakuretsu Armor, and Debrito ran it into Cyber Dragon. He removed a Light and a Dark for Chaos Sorcerer, used it to remove Nareg’s Cyber Dragon from play (actually his own), set a second spell or trap and passed.

Nareg fingered his set Return from the Different Dimension: “I hate Royal Decree,” he muttered to himself, musing. He flipped it anyways, bringing out two Magician of Faith, D. D. Warrior Lady, and Cyber Dragon. He tributed one Magician of Faith for Cyber Dragon, ran D. D. Warrior Lady into Chaos Sorcerer, and both monsters were removed from play. Cyber Dragon attacked, but Debrito flipped Call of the Haunted! Cyber Dragon attacked again off the replay, but bounced off of Cyber Phoenix — Limiter Removal, flipped from Debrito’s spell and trap zone as his last set card, had boosted it to 2400 ATK in the damage step! Cyber Dragon exploded, Nareg set a spell or trap, and everything cleared off the field.

Debrito summoned another Phoenix and attacked for 1200. He passed with nothing, and next turn Nareg dropped two Chaos Sorcerers to rush the field and claim the match!   

Nareg Torossian takes an authoritative 2-0 victory over Franklin Debrito, moving on with a 7-1 record that keeps his Top 8 hopes alive!