Jonathan was playing a somewhat defensive Chaos Control/Beatdown hybrid with Peten the Dark Clown.

Jochen was playing a Chaos Beatdown with an anti-Chaos twist in the form of Vampire Lord and a few other tech cards.

Game 1

Jochen began with a Breaker the Magical Warrior and a face-down card. His Breaker fell quickly to Jonathan’s Change of Heart, the face-down card (a Mystical Space Typhoon) broken with its token, and Jochen took some damage. Jonathan followed up with a Drop Off, leaving his one face-down monster and Jochen’s Breaker on the field. It was then Jochen’s turn to play Change of Heart, and he flipped over Jonathan’s Peten the Dark Clown, seemingly seeing the card for the first time.

Jonathan played Dark Hole, summoning another Peten in place of the one he lost with Peten’s effect. He attacked with a Sangan. Jochen summoned the last card in his hand, Tribe-Infecting Virus, destroying a Sinister Serpent and Peten with its effect, though another Peten takes its place, and attacked the Sangan. Jonathan played Premature Burial on the Sangan and attacked with it after using Exiled Force to destroy the Tribe-Infecting Virus. Jonathan summoned Airknight Parshath and attempted to attack, but an Enemy Controller kept him at bay long enough for Jochen to use Metamorphosis to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict. There was some confusion on Jonathan’s part as to how Thousand-Eyes’ attack-preventing effect worked, but it was quickly worked out and Jochen kept the field locked down.

After a few turns of being locked down, Jonathan used Tribe-Infecting Virus to take out Thousand-Eyes Restrict. He attacked for a bit of damage, but Jochen regained control of the game by summoning Sangan and activating his own Torrential Tribute. Jonathan tried to bluff on a set Drop Off, but failed and lost 1500 life points to a D. D. Warrior Lady. On his turn, he attacked the D. D. Warrior Lady with a Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Jochen removed both monsters from the game, soon attacking with another D. D. Warrior Lady. The situation repeated itself, this time with Jonathan’s Berserk Gorilla attacking against Jonathan’s will. That left him open to one last hit from Jochen, who attacked with Witch of the Black Forest to take game one.

Both competitors spent some time side-decking and there seemed to be some tension on Jonathan’s part.

Game 2

Jonathan opened strongly with Delinquent Duo, discarding a D. D. Warrior Lady and a Scapegoat. He set a monster but was quickly hit with another Delinquent Duo in return, losing Exiled Force and a Don Zaloog. Jochen squeaked through a bit of damage with Magical Scientist and briefly controlled the board, but lost control when Jonathan topdecked Pot of Greed and played Premature Burial on his Don Zaloog, leaving himself with three cards in play and two in hand to Jonathan’s one card in hand.

Jochen used Graceful Charity, and then took Jonathan’s Don Zaloog with Snatch Steal. He played Monster Reborn on D. D. Warrior Lady to set it into defense mode, and attacked Jonathan with Don Zaloog, forcing Jonathan to flip his down Call of the Haunted for Sangan. Jonathan played it smart, taking a Mystic Tomato and crashing it against his own Don Zaloog to summon Peten the Dark Clown. When Jochen attacked, it he summoned another. From there, Jonathan kept up his defense with multiple Petens and wore away at Jochen’s hand and board presence.

The game was down to topdecking, and Jochen hit it big first—after a few turns of weak plays from both players with both maintaining only poor board and hand presence, Jochen topdecked Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. He summoned it immediately, and two turns later, the game was over.

Match Win: Jochen Nagel