As much as I’m not trying to feature Chain Strike Burn over and over, it just so happens that three of the four top tables are Chain Strike Burn matchups. A fourth, on table twelve, features the 4-0 Lance Leonhardt (with Chain Strike Burn!) against his long-time friend Eric Wu, who was packing Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos. How could I not feature that?
“You’re gonna let me go first, right?” asked Eric.
“What?! No!” Lance laughed.
“Oh come on, you’re my homey!”
“You’re my homey too,” retorted Lance. “Let me go first!”
Wu smirked in a friendly way. “You’re more like my little sister.” Lance laughed again.
They rolled, and Wu won the right to go first.
He set a monster to begin, and then added two cards to his back row. Lance drew for his turn and began setting cards to his spell and trap zone: five in total. He then passed. “It’s your turn.”
Wu flip summoned his set Exiled Force and attacked for 1000 damage, setting a third card to his back row to end. Lance drew for his turn, activated Ojama Trio in his main phase and chained Reckless Greed. He added Chain Strike to the chain next, and Wu borrowed it to read it.
“It says ‘you lose the game,’” joked Lance, grinning.
“That’s mean.” Wu smiled back. “So right now it would be 1200?”
“Yup,” confirmed his opponent. Wu spent over a minute and a half wondering how to react. “This could be game, Eric,” joked Lance. “Come on, you have to Solemn it now!”
“I’m thinking about it!” It was Wu’s turn to laugh. “No response.” Lance then added Accumulated Fortune to the chain, and another Reckless Greed! He drew two cards for Reckless, two for Accumulated Fortune, Chain Strike dished out 1200 damage, and Lance took another two cards with Reckless! Ojama Trio clogged Wu’s field and the chain was over. Lance was left with a whopping eight cards in his hand.
Wu was at 6800 life points, and Tremendous Fire burned him to 5800. Lance set another five cards to his back row and ended. Wu drew, inspected Lance’s graveyard, and tributed Exiled Force to summon Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Zaborg’s effect targeted one of the Ojama tokens, Lance chained Gravity Bind, and Wu had had enough! He chained Solemn Judgment to negate the Bind!
“He actually played Solemn Judgment!” Lance was loving it, and leaned back in his chair with a big smile. His Gravity Bind blew off the field, an Ojama Token was destroyed, and Wu was down to 2600 life points. Zaborg attacked, but Lance flipped Dimension Wall! Wu was down to just 200 life points remaining. The duel was nothing short of academic at this point. A single burn card, any one, would seal the deal for Lance barring another Solemn Judgment. Wu passed, and in his end phase Lance activated Chain Detonation.
“I’ll let you have this one,” said Wu in mock-generosity.
“Okay. Thanks!” Lance grinned, and both duelists began side decking.
Wu opened the second duel with Reinforcement of the Army, searching for D.D. Survivor and summoning it. Lance set four back row cards and passed to Wu, who activated Graceful Charity! Lance didn’t use the opportunity to chain, and Wu discarded two copies of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. He summoned Snipe Hunter, discarded D. D. Scout Plane and targeted one of Lance’s set cards: Lance chained three of them, including the targeted card, building a chain of Jar of Greed, Just Desserts, and Accumulated Fortune to draw two cards! Just Desserts dealt 1000 damage, Jar of Greed drew one more, and play was back to Wu. He discarded Solemn Judgment, trying to blow away Lance’s last set card, but rolled a 1! He discarded another card, another Snipe Hunter, but rolled 1 again!
“I feel bad for you, Eric,” said Lance. This time the sentiment was genuine. Wu was down to his last two cards, two copies of Mobius the Frost Monarch, and he was heavily invested in this attack. Mirror Force would be ruinous, but he couldn’t afford not to press after already committing three cards to the Snipe Hunter cause. He discarded another, Mobius the Frost Monarch, and finally hit his mark: Dimension Wall. Snipe and D.D. Survivor attacked, Lance dropped to 4700, and Wu ended.
Lance drew and searched his opponent’s graveyard briefly, planning out his turn (which was more like planning out Wu’s turn, since all Lance was doing was setting cards). He set five of the six cards in his hand to his back row and ended. “It’s your turn.”
Wu clearly didn’t like his chances. He drew Cyber Dragon, a totally unhelpful card in this situation, and had very few options. He discarded it to target another of Lance’s set cards, but Lance chained it — Ojama Trio. He then chained Gravity Bind, and filled out the fourth link with Accumulated Fortune! He drew two cards, Gravity Bind came online to lock Wu down, and three Ojama tokens hopped into his empty monster slots. Wu’s last card was Mobius the Frost Monarch.
He tributed Survivor to summon it, blowing away Lance’s set Giant Trunade and the Gravity Bind. Snipe Hunter attacked unopposed, but Dimension Wall bounced Mobius’ attack back at Wu. He dropped to 4600 life points and passed with Lance at 3200.
Lance set three of his remaining cards to his back row, then set one monster. Wu discarded his draw, Morphing Jar, to target Lance’s set monster, but lost his discard to a 6. Wu literally couldn’t roll a 2, 3, 4, or 5 to save his life. Snipe Hunter attacked, destroying Lance’s set Cyber-Stein, and Mobius hit directly. Lance was down to 800 life points.
He drew, and flipped Jar of Greed to get himself another card. He set both his remaining cards to his back row, giving himself four total. Wu discarded Zaborg the Thunder Monarch on his turn to target another of Lance’s back row cards with Snipe Hunter, but rolled a 1 again! The level of failure Wu was seeing with his Hunter was nothing short of remarkable. Heartbreaking luck was about to bust Wu out of this tournament.
Snipe Hunter attacked and the card it had failed to destroy flipped: Magic Cylinder. Lance chained Poison of the Old Man and Just Desserts, and it was all over!
“I got lucky on that one,” said Lance. “Good game.” The two friends shook hands and began de-siding.
Lance Leonhardt defeats former Shonen Jump Champion Eric Wu, to move on undefeated!