Both of these players were feeling pretty good coming off of their quarterfinal victories, discussing previous matches as they readied themselves. They got an early brush-up on their math skills by high-rolling with a handful of assorted dice. David won the roll, and opted to go first.

Game 1

He drew, and looked briefly through his hand before activating Graceful Charity. He immediately pitched Treeborn Frog, then after a few moments’ consideration discarded Limiter Removal. He set one spell or trap and a monster, and ended his turn.

Eric drew, thought a moment about his opening turn, then began by special summoning Cyber Dragon, followed with a normal summon of Spirit Reaper. He attacked David’s set monster — Night Assailant — then set a spell or trap and ended. David set another spell or trap and set a monster, and ended his turn.

Eric moved forward aggressively, tributing his Cyber Dragon for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, only to run right into David’s Torrential Tribute. David’s set Sangan hit the graveyard and he brought out Cyber-Stein. Eric wasn’t letting go of Zaborg that easily — he paid 800 life points for Premature Burial to fetch it back again and attacked. Scapegoat! After a brief pause to think it over, he decided to leave all four of David’s Sheep tokens alone and ended his turn.

David summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and took out Eric’s Premature, then attacked directly with it. He hadn’t seen the last of Zaborg, though, because Eric had Call of the Haunted ready to bring it back once again. David thought better of his attack, recalled it, and ended his turn.

Eric opened his next turn by activating Graceful Charity, discarding Creature Swap and Cyber Dragon. He attacked David’s Breaker with Zaborg and ended his turn. David drew, and considered his next move carefully. After looking through his graveyard and bringing back his Treeborn Frog, he activated Heavy Storm. Eric chained Book of Moon to flip Zaborg face down and keep him on the field, and David tributed his Frog to bring out his own Zaborg. He removed Eric’s Zaborg and attacked directly.

Eric really didn’t want to give up Zaborg — he activated Snatch Steal to swipe David’s. He then summoned Shining Angel and attacked 2 Sheep tokens. David resuscitated his Frog, and studied his hand. Life points were now at David — 8200 and Eric — 4800, and David decided to go with Confiscation to pare down Eric’s options. He then summoned Cyber-Stein and paid 5000 more of his life points to activate its effect and bring out Cyber Twin Dragon. He attacked Eric’s Shining Angel, waited for him to bring out another, and attacked his Zaborg. He then attacked Eric’s new Shining Angel with Cyber-Stein, destroying it and taking 700 damage. What?! Aha! He needed that dark in the graveyard, in order to bring out Chaos Sorcerer in defense! Eric scooped in response, giving David the victory for game 1.

1-0 for David Everett.

Game 2

While the players reviewed their side deck options and shuffled, I took the chance to get pictures for the match coverage, accidentally nailing David with the flash. I apologized, and Eric announced, “I think he needs to go to the hospital. I’m just concerned about his eyes.” David laughed, and they settled down to the second game, with Eric deciding to go first.

He drew, looked through his hand, and opened with Confiscation. He took away David’s Nobleman of Crossout, summoned Shining Angel, set one spell or trap card and ended. David drew, set a monster and a spell or trap and ended his turn. Both players made their choices quickly and confidently, spending very little time looking at set cards or cycling through their hands.

Eric nailed the set monster with Nobleman of Crossout, taking out Tsukuyomi, then attacked directly with Shining Angel. David drew, considered his options, then ended his turn. Eric attacked directly again, dealing out another 1400 damage, then summoned Mystic Tomato and ended his turn.

David drew, set one monster and one spell or trap and ended. Eric pressed forward, tributing his Tomato to bring out Zaborg and targeting David’s set monster. David responded with Enemy Controller, giving up the set monster to take Zaborg over to his side for the turn. David drew, set another monster and ended his turn.

Eric drew, tributed his Angel for another Zaborg and attacked the set monster — Night Assailant. He then attacked directly with the first Zaborg, prompting David to respond with Book of Moon.

David activated Premature Burial to take back his Tomato, then attacked the face down Zaborg, used Snatch Steal to take the remaining Zaborg and set another monster. Life points were now at Eric — 8000 and David — 2000.  

Eric drew, and looked through his hand as he set up his moves for the turn. He summoned Spirit Reaper, then used Creature Swap to hand it off to David in exchange for his set Cyber-Stein — then special summoned Chaos Sorcerer and attacked Spirit Reaper for game. This match would be moving on to game 3!

1-1

Game 3

David made his side deck decisions as they admired Kyle’s new regionals mat at the next table. “Are we getting those?” Eric asked. His friends passed him several bottles of Mountain Dew, which were eagerly intercepted by John Williams. “Hey, if I give you two bottles, will you give him a match loss?” Eric called out, pointing to David. David replied “No, cause I’ll give him a one of a kind Trickster eyepatch,” pointing at one of his luck tokens. “Not if you don’t have it!” Eric riposted, pulling it behind his deck.

David went first, considering each card carefully as he drew it. He set one monster and one set spell or trap card, and ended his turn. Eric summoned Shining Angel and attacked David’s set Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. David took his card, and Eric set a spell or trap and ended.

David drew, also set a spell or trap card, and ended his turn. Eric attacked directly with Shining Angel, only to be stymied by Scapegoat. He took out one Sheep token and ended. David drew and passed, and Eric brought out Sangan, taking out two more Sheep tokens.

David drew and activated Heavy Storm, giving up his own Torrential Tribute to destroy Eric’s set Creature Swap and Mirror Force. He activated Premature Burial to bring back Dekoichi, tributed it for Zaborg the Thunder Monarch to remove Eric’s Shining Angel and attacked the Sangan. Eric selected Mystic Tomato from his deck, and David was done.

Eric drew, summoned the Tomato, Snatch stole David’s Zaborg, and attacked the last Sheep token with Tomato — David responded with Waboku, holding Eric off for the turn. He drew, with life points at David 8200 and Eric 6600. He activated Mystical Space Typhoon against the Snatch Steal to get his Zaborg back, then attacked Eric’s Tomato with it. Eric selected another Tomato, David set a monster, and ended his turn.

Eric drew and again attacked the Sheep token with his Tomato, then used Nobleman of Crossout on David’s set Night Assailant. “That was the worst shuffle I ever took in my life!” David said. “Write that down! The worst shuffle ever!”

David retaliated with his own Nobleman of Crossout on Eric’s face down Spirit Reaper, and attacked Mystic Tomato with Zaborg, bringing Eric down to 4600. He paid 1000 to use Confiscation to take away Eric’s D. D. Warrior Lady, bringing himself down to 7200, and ended his turn.

Eric turned his Tomato to defense and ended. David drew, looked through Eric’s graveyard, and attacked the Tomato with Zaborg. Eric brought out a Spirit Reaper.  He turned that to defense on his next turn, set another monster, and ended. David drew, attacked the set monster — Breaker the Magical Warrior — with Zaborg, set a spell or trap card and ended.

Eric drew and ended. David tributed his Zaborg for Cyber Dragon, attacked Eric’s set Spirit Reaper, then special summoned Chaos Sorcerer to remove Eric’s other Spirit Reaper, and ended.

Eric activated Graceful Charity, and thought carefully before discarding two Cyber Dragons. He looked through David’s graveyard again before using Heavy Storm, to which Eric chained Book of Moon to flip his Sorcerer face down. He then tributed his Reaper to bring out Zaborg, removed David’s Sorcerer and attacked his Cyber Dragon.

David set a monster and ended. Eric attacked it — Dekoichi — and ended his turn. David pulled in more cards by activating Graceful Charity, discarding a Cyber Dragon and a Dekoichi, retaining his Cyber-Stein. “That was going to be my next card, with that shuffle!” he exclaimed. He summoned Mystic Tomato, and attacked Eric’s set Shining Angel. Eric brought out another one. Life points were now at David — 4800 and Eric — 4600.

Eric used Mystic Space Typhoon, hitting David’s Sakuretsu Armor. He attacked David’s Tomato with Shining Angel, and David brought out Sangan. Eric attacked it with Zaborg, bringing David down to 3400, who selected Magician of Faith with Sangan’s effect. Applause erupted from the spectators as Kyle Duncan won his match at the next table, and both Eric and David paused to look over at the table. Eric then ended his turn. David drew, and used Snatch Steal to take Eric’s Zaborg and attacked directly — or not! Eric was ready with Scapegoat, and after David took out one Sheep token, he ended his turn.

Eric drew, and ended his turn after looking through David’s graveyard. David drew, flip summoned Magician of Faith to take back Graceful Charity, and activated it. After thinking it through, he pitched D. D. Warrior Lady and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. He then attacked 2 Sheep tokens with Magician of Faith and Zaborg, set a monster, and ended his turn.

Eric drew and ended. David drew, flip summoned Spirit Reaper — smack into Eric’s Torrential Tribute. He still had his normal summon for the turn, so he used it to bring out Breaker the Magical Warrior and attack directly for 1900. Life points were now David — 3400 and Eric — 5000.

Eric summoned Cyber Dragon, attacked David’s Breaker and ended his turn. David drew, summoned his own Cyber Dragon, activated Limiter Removal to double its attack and attacked Eric’s Cyber Dragon, tying the life points at 2900.

The next few turns passed as each player drew, set a spell or trap card, and ended. Eric finally hit a monster and set it. David hit it with Nobleman on his next turn — it was Tsukuyomi. He special summoned Chaos Sorcerer and attacked — Eric responded with Book of Moon to flip it face down. Eric drew, shaking his head. He set a spell or trap card and ended his turn.

David flip summoned Chaos Sorcerer and attacked directly, leaving Eric with a mere 600 life points. Eric drew — would it save him? He looked at his set cards, looked through his hand, and looked through David’s graveyard. He summoned Treeborn Frog — and David chained Enemy Controller, giving up his Sorcerer to take control of the Frog,  Eric passed the turn, and David returned the Frog.  

Eric had only 600 life points remaining, and an attack position Treeborn Frog on the field. David drew, special summoned Cyber Dragon, and attacked for the win to cheers from his teammates watching from the sidelines. David would be moving on to the finals!