We’re back after our holiday hiatus, and this past weekend we kicked off 2009 with an unexpected new Shonen Jump Champion!

Alejandro Reyes Suarez Wins Shonen Jump Championship San Francisco

It was an awesome weekend, as 620 duelists packed into the South San Francisco Convention Center to throw down for the first Shonen Jump title of the year!  Turnout exceeded expectations by numbers in the hundreds, but at the end of the day it all came down to Cesar "The Princess" Gonzalez versus the Mexican National Champion.

In a Day 2 field of TeleDAD, Lightsworn, Zombies, Monarchs, and Gladiator Beasts, Suarez piloted an edgy TeleDAD variant and smashed his way through four other duelists. Suarez’s deck will give competitive players a few things to think about: he eschewed Solemn Judgment in favor of other options like Return from the Different Dimension, a third Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, and a maxed out lineup of Reinforcement of the Army. While he kept Steven Harris’ single copy of Necro Gardna and Armageddon Knight that won Detroit, he traded Psychic Commander for D.D. Crow. Big changes to the TeleDAD archetype.

With San Francisco now in the books, all eyes look ahead to Shonen Jump Championship Houston this weekend. Hundreds more competitors will travel to the Westin Galleria in Houston, Texas to throw down for another Shonen Jump title, more iPods, game systems, cards, and Championship promos! Thinking of heading out, but haven’t booked your travel yet? Time is running short, but you can still find room in plenty of hotels in the area. Start your search with the official event listing, and you’ll find all the venue info you need, plus contact information for the Premier Tournament Organizer this weekend.

Then today, Jerome McHale surprised all of us by presenting an ambitious premise: a deck built around Crossroads of Chaos’ Neos Wiseman. Wiseman is a challenge to bring to the field, but if you can do it, the number of cards that can break through it is exceptionally low. Drawing on his past experience with Yubel strategies, Jerome creates a preliminary build of what this deck could look like.

Tomorrow Curtis Schultz swings open the doors to his Duel Academy once again, and this time the lesson is on Phantom of Chaos. An incredibly strong card for combo decks, the Phantom just gets better with every big, effect-driven monster that gets released. Knowing how to play it is a must, so check out Curtis’ column for details on timing issues, trigger effects, and when which monsters go where.

On Thursday Matt Peddle joins us in Battlefields, as he addresses one of the things players often find incredibly difficult in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: good plays going bad. There’s a big difference between recognizing the "correct" play and making the right one. Often, the best plan can backfire on you horribly, and that’s the topic of Matt’s discussion this week.

Friday our very own Julia Hedberg returns to article writing for this first time in almost two years! You asked for it and you’ve got it: Julia Hedberg back on Metagame, bringing insight to Specialists, Judges, and duelists alike. This week she’s got a companion pair of articles for you clearing up the two unique processes of DQ’s and player suspensions. One of the most misunderstood facets of Upper Deck’s tournament program gets demystified from two different perspectives. Welcome back, Julia!

Saturday Matt Peddle is back again, with a look at my favorite deck from Shonen Jump Detroit: Calvin Tsang’s TeleDAD variant. Elements of this creative collaboration popped up all over the place at Shonen Jump San Francisco, making this an instantly influential strategy. How different can a TeleDAD deck really be? Matt Peddle answers that question with a resounding answer this weekend.

Finally, if you want a budget deck that you can shock other players with, Ryan Murphy has you covered this weekend. He’s got a new spin on an old FTK that can lay out the opposition a surprising amount of the time, and the most expensive card it runs is Hand Destruction. Yes, Hand Destruction — the normal silver-foil rare. A dash of Vincent Tundo and a pinch of Ryan’s own draw engine mix to make one heck of a strategy.

Whew — That’s it for this week. As always, thanks for reading!