It’s all come down to this: Scoopforce versus Superfriends in the finals. Yesterday, Dale made a wise decision when he chose to go with Tomato Control instead of the Warrior-Toolbox the rest of his team was running. He’ll be facing off against Carlos Santiago, who is playing the Heavy Removal Beatdown deck with three copies each of Smashing Ground, Sakuretsu Armor, and Widespread Ruin. If Dale wins, he’ll earn the first prize card for his team, and for Canadian players in general. Carlos is looking to keep the Volstgalph in America, as well as put a second win on the board for Scoopforce.

Game 1

The players arrived for their match and briefly considered taking a nap for half the allotted time, but the look on Head Judge John Lacey’s angry face was enough to dissuade them from that course of action. Dale won the toss and started the duel off with a face-down card to each zone. Carlos went aggressive with Cyber Dragon and Don Zaloog. The Dragon was removed by D. D. Warrior Lady, but the Don hit directly, discarding a Chaos Sorcerer. Carlos set two cards and passed. Dale blew them away by flipping his Heavy Storm, special summoned Cyber Dragon, and normal summoning a Don of his own. Monsters destroyed each other repeatedly for the next two turns, but when the dust settled, Dale had two face-down cards versus Carlos’s nothing. Carlos drew and summoned Sangan, and then attacked. Dale nailed him next turn by using Premature Burial on Don Zaloog and normal summoning Newdoria. Sangan searched out a Spirit Reaper, which Carlos had to put directly into his graveyard due to Don’s effect. Carlos looked to be out of the game, until he drew Twin-Headed Behemoth. The Behemoth was destroyed by Newdoria’s effect, but it returned in the end phase. This was a huge swing, as Dale wasn’t drawing any monsters. The comeback ended, though, after Carlos set a monster and Dale removed it with Nobleman of Crossout. He then summoned Blade Knight and finished off the Behemoth. Playing off the top of his deck once again, Carlos drew Reinforcement of the Army and played it to seek out D. D. Assailant. He set it and passed back to Dale, who topdecked a D. D. Assailant of his own to seal the deal.

Dale-1 Carlos-0

Game 2

“Ask Paul Levitin what I did to him with the Heavy Storm!” quipped Dale between games, as he revealed that he had used the exact same move (the face-down Heavy Storm bluff) in his semifinal match to put Paul at a serious disadvantage. Carlos had the option to start game 2, and he chose to do so.

He began with the classic set to each zone, as did Dale. Things picked up next turn with D. D. Assailant and a flip-summoned Spirit Reaper from Carlos. D. D. Assailant hit into the face-down monster to reveal Gravekeeper’s Spy, which fetched out another Spy in addition to hitting Carlos for 300. Dale switched them both to attack next turn and swung at the Reaper twice, but one Spy fell to a Sakuretsu Armor. Dale set another card and passed to Carlos, who tried to attack the remaining Spy only to be met with a Sakuretsu Armor from Dale. Spirit Reaper turned to defense, and Carlos set a card and ended.

Dale was looking for Mobius but couldn’t find it, so instead he used Enemy Controller to remove the Reaper and attack directly with his Spy. The techy Twin-Headed Behemoth was summoned next turn by Carlos, and he attacked Dale’s Spy with it. He finished his turn with two more set cards, and Dale decided to risk summoning a D. D. Assailant. Upon summoning, the field was cleared by Torrential Tribute, and it was back to Carlos. He flipped two Dust Tornadoes to destroy Dale’s Scapegoat and Torrential Tribute, and then re-summoned his Twin-Headed Behemoth. It was joined by Bazoo the Soul-Eater, and both attacked. Bazoo was at 1900 ATK, and Dale had to consider his move carefully. He special summoned Cyber Dragon and attacked the Behemoth before using Smashing Ground on the Soul-Eater. Carlos destroyed the Dragon next turn, but that’s exactly what Dale needed to summon his Chaos Sorcerer. Carlos was topdecking again, and managed to get rid of the Sorcerer, but Dale still held a three to zero card advantage over him. In his last turn, Carlos drew, revealed the Confiscation he had drawn, and conceded the match.

Dale Bellido defeats Carlos Santiago 2-0 to become the Shonen Jump Chicago champion!