Evan Vargas needs no introduction. A former star player for Team Savage, he created Soul Control, the predecessor to today’s Monarch Control, and made it to the Top 4 of Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles fourteen months ago.
His opponent is a relative newcomer to the Shonen Jump spotlight. Lawrence Sylvan is from Louisiana, and plays as a member of Team Inevitable. A rising star, he was undefeated thus far today. But this would be his toughest match today by far.
“Do you play Confiscation?” asked Vargas with a grin.
“I’m not answering that,” replied Sylvan.
“Well I’m gonna find out in a second,” said Vargas, lampooning his own terrible luck. He actually managed to win the coin flip, the first time today, and chose to open the first duel.
He drew his opening hand, perused his cards, and gave a little “Whoooo,” before setting a spell or trap. He passed, and immediately lost his set card to Mystical Space Typhoon, revealing it to be Torrential Tribute. Sylvan followed up with Spirit Reaper, attacking directly to force the discard of Graceful Charity. “Oh my God,” muttered Evan. Sylvan set a spell or trap card and passed.
Vargas special summoned Cyber Dragon, but lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole. He then set a card to each zone and passed with two cards remaining in his hand. Sylvan summoned Exiled Force, tributed it off to destroy Vargas’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and attacked with the Reaper. Vargas set his two cards on the table. “Please pick the Mystical Space Typhoon.”
Sylvan didn’t. He picked Chaos Sorcerer and discarded it. He set a spell or trap, play passed to Evan who did nothing but set a monster, and Sylvan was again the turn player. He summoned Asura Priest, attacked with it into Vargas’s second set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and attacked with Spirit Reaper: still no Mystical Space Typhoon, as Reaper discarded Vargas’s Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. “One single Mystical Space Typhoon,” muttered Vargas.
He set a card to each zone, emptying his hand for one set monster and two set spell or trap cards total. He ended, and Sylvan summoned Asura Priest again. The priest attacked, hit Spirit Reaper, and Sylvan flipped his set Enemy Controller to destroy it. His own Reaper did not attack, and he turned it to defense position in main phase 2.
Evan drew and set another monster. Sylvan drew Heavy Storm, activated it, and blew away Vargas’s set Creature Swap and Metamorphosis. He summoned Asura Priest again, hit D. D. Warrior Lady, and both monsters were removed with the Lady’s effect. Spirit Reaper then attacked directly for a bit of damage, Sylvan set a spell or trap, and play passed to Vargas.
He drew and set his topdeck, a spell or trap card. “This is gonna be a funny move but I’m gonna do it anyways” announced Sylvan, as he summoned Treeborn Frog and attacked with both of his monsters. Vargas had no response and ate 400 damage. He drew for his turn, set another spell or trap, and announced that he was finished.
Sylvan summoned Don Zaloog and attacked with it: Vargas took the damage, and Sylvan announced that he was not using either of Don’s effects. Vargas had 4600 life points remaining, while Sylvan had a pristine 8000.
Vargas drew and set a third spell or trap card to his back row. Don Zaloog swung again on the following turn and Evan grabbed his hair. “ARRRRGH, what am I gonna do?” He seemed to be on the verge of flipping a card, but then decided not to do anything. He took the 1800 damage from Don, Reaper, and the Frog, and Sylvan ended.
Again, Vargas could do nothing but set his topdecked card, another spell or trap card, into his back row. At this rate he was going to run out of spell and trap zones before he’d run out of life points. He took another 1800 a turn later, but in Sylvan’s end phase he flipped Dust Tornado to target Sylvan’s one set spell or trap. It was Book of Moon, and it was chained to turn Sylvan’s Spirit Reaper to defense position.
Vargas finally drew a monster, Cyber Dragon, and special summoned it. Vargas had to debate whether he wanted to go for the damage or not, contemplating an attack on Treeborn Frog, but deciding to attack Don Zaloog. He ended his turn.
“This should be game” said Sylvan. He activated Creature Swap, offering his Treeborn Frog to Vargas for his Cyber Dragon. Vargas had no way of stopping the Swap, but when his Cyber Dragon attacked he flipped Mirror Force to keep himself in the duel. Sylvan set a monster, inspected Vargas’s graveyard, and set a spell or trap card before passing.
Vargas flipped his set Creature Swap, sending Sylvan’s Treeborn right back to him and getting Spirit Reaper in return. He passed to Sylvan, who flip summoned his other set monster, Dekoichi, to draw another card. He tributed his Treeborn Frog for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroyed the pilfered Spirit Reaper with its effect, and attacked.
Return from the Different Dimension flipped from Vargas’s side of the field, shutting down Sylvan’s attacks for the turn. He passed, and Vargas summoned Asura Priest, attacking Dekoichi with it. Zaborg attacked again, but this time Vargas destroyed it with Sakuretsu Armor. Sylvan set a monster and ended. Vargas set a monster and passed right back, with one card remaining in his hand and no set spell or trap cards.
Sylvan special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, flip summoned Sangan, and Vargas scooped. “You got it,” he said, quickly shuffling his side deck into his main deck to smokescreen his side decking actions.
He went first again after giving his deck an exceptionally thorough shuffle. He set a card to each zone and passed play to Sylvan.
Sylvan played Mystical Space Typhoon, destroying Vargas’s set copy of the same. He set a card to each zone and passed. Vargas flip summoned Magician of Faith, took back Mystical Space Typhoon, used it to destroy Sylvan’s set Bottomless Trap Hole, and then tribute his Magician of Faith for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, destroying Sylvan’s set Magician of Faith. Zaborg swung for 2400 damage, Vargas set a spell or trap card, and Sylvan was up.
He summoned Tsukuyomi, turned Zaborg face down, and then rammed it with Tsuku. He was forced to pass: he had an all-monster hand. Vargas then activated Fengsheng Mirror, revealing Sylvan’s hand: two Chaos Sorcerer, Spirit Reaper, and Tsukuyomi. Tsukuyomi was discarded, and Vargas set a card to each zone.
Sylvan special summoned Chaos Sorcerer, normal summoned Asura Priest, and attacked Sylvan’s set monster with the Priest. It destroyed Vargas’s Sangan, and Sorcerer attacked directly.
“Sorcerer, Asura, Reaper” repeated Vargas, keeping the cards in Sylvan’s hand in his memory. He special summoned Cyber Dragon, normal summoned Mystic Tomato, and then traded his Tomato for Sylvan’s Chaos Sorcerer with Creature Swap. He attacked the Tomato with Sorcerer, pulled Reaper with the Tomato’s effect, and attacked directly with both the Dragon and Reaper. Spirit Reaper’s attack discarded Sylvan’s other in-hand Chaos Sorcerer.
Sylvan fired back, special summoning Cyber Dragon and normal summoning Asura Priest, running both into Spirit Reaper. It wasn’t enough though, and Sylvan still had nothing but monsters on the field. “That’s game on the board” noted Vargas, referring to the total ATK of his potential attackers. Sylvan scooped.
Evan Vargas comes back from a crushing game 1 to win the second duel!
Both duelists discussed the game in a very hesitant fashion as they side decked. “How many Fengsheng Mirror do you think I ran?” asked Vargas.
“I think you ran one,” replied Sylvan.
“Just one?”
“Just one.”
Fengsheng Mirror in a Shonen Jump feature match. That was a first.
Sylvan opened the third duel with a set card to each zone. Vargas special summoned Cyber Dragon, tributed for Zaborg, destroyed Sylvan’s set Spirit Reaper, and attacked for 2400 damage! He set a spell or trap card and passed.
Sylvan special summoned Cyber Dragon, but lost it to Bottomless Trap Hole immediately. He activated Reinforcement of the Army, and searched his deck for Exiled Force. “Are you gonna pop it?” asked Vargas.
“Yeah, I’m gonna pop it. I’m gonna play Last Will too, can I just not shuffle my deck?” Vargas literally kicked back in his chair, sliding across the floor a goof four or five feet as if someone had punched him in the chest. Sylvan flipped Last Will, brought out Elemental Hero Wildheart and attacked directly.
Vargas set a card to each zone and passed. Sylvan summoned another Elemental Hero Wildheart next turn and attacked, hitting into Magical Merchant. It fetched Vargas Metamorphosis before the second one attacked directly. Sylvan set a spell or trap card and ended.
Vargas set a monster again, and reeled once more when Sylvan started the following turn with Graceful Charity, discarding D. D. Warrior Lady and Spirit Reaper. One Wildheart attacked, but Spirit Reaper cut Sylvan off from his offensive intents. Sylvan set two spell or trap cards, set a monster, and ended. He had no hand left, making a huge overextension committing three more cards to the field!
It left Vargas in a hard position, and he had to spend almost a minute figuring out his next move. He set a monster, activated Creature Swap, and both duelists traded set monsters: Vargas got Magician of Faith, while Sylvan got Mystic Tomato, a huge trade for Vargas.
Vargas then activated Metamorphosis, tributing the set Magician of Faith for Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Sylvan had Torrential Tribute set, but didn’t activate it, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict sucked up a Wildheart. Vargas passed, not attacking.
Sylvan flipped Call of the Haunted, taking Exiled Force from his graveyard. He tributed it to destroy Thousand-Eyes, flipped Vargas’s Tomato, and then responded with Torrential Tribute. Wildheart attacked directly for 1500 damage, Sylvan set a monster, and play passed to Vargas. It was a poor series of events – Sylvan should have saved himself the Call of the Haunted and his Wildheart, and flipped Torrential Tribute when Thousand-Eyes Restrict came to play.
Vargas summoned Magical Merchant, then used Creature Swap to trade it to Sylvan for Sylvan’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. On the turn that followed Sylvan blasted the Dekoichi with Nobleman of Crossout, removing all three of Vargas’s from his deck and clearing the path for attacks! It was 3500 to 5600 with Sylvan in the lead, and Sylvan attacked with both Wildheart and Magical Merchant directly.
But Vargas finally found some luck! He topdecked Graceful Charity and activated it as time was called. After Vargas’s turn ended, only three turns would remain in the game, so Vargas chose his discards with Graceful Charity very carefully, settling on Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and Tsukuyomi. He then removed Zaborg and Mystic Tomato from play to special summon Chaos Sorcerer, set his last in-hand card to his back row, and passed. All Sylvan needed to do was survive two more turns.
He set his topdeck to his back row, turned Merchant to defense position and ended. Vargas drew, and his topdeck couldn’t help him even the life point totals at all. Left with no way to win or tie the game this turn he scooped, losing on time.
Evan Vargas’s Top 8 aspirations slip from his grasp just a little, and Lawrence Sylvan moves on with a 7-0 record, practically a shoo-in for the Top 8!