Charlotte Regionals Report! 10 Feature Matches and more!

[MCT]

Alright so I've never really done this before... but here it goes.

I thought it would be a cool idea to do feature matches of regionals kinda like metagame does theres. Added to this later would be a few deck profiles that I thought were unique and pretty cool.

8:30am
Well this is a first for me. I'm at a regional in NC and not playing! I'll be doing feature matches, deck profiles and team profiles!

Players are beginnning to trikle in to che Charlotte Convention Center. Players are buyhing up the Players Choice Sleeves like no tomorrow from our 2 Vendors. VS. players are also begining to come in though not en masse like the yugioh players. In this area Yugioh is still a far more popular game.

While for some reading this many of the players I'll do coverage for today may be relatively unknown. However some names might be recognized either by Pojo lore or from Metagame. Players like David Piercy and Tyrome Cox are already here with other members from team AMP (with players coming in from SC, NC, and VA).

Other notes are I've been asked 15 times in 5 minutes if I could help players find their UDE numbers because I'm also very close to the registration desk. >.<


9:30am
Ah yugioh drama. 2 DQ's already from fighting and they rode up here together. Thats a nice 10 year ban if memory serves from UDE policy... meh thats why you take it outside.

In other news we're probably looking at about a 200+ turnout so 8 rounds of swiss with most likely no x-2's getting top 8 shots. This is typicall of Charlotte and NC regionals in general breaking the 200 player marks.

The only main team here is AMP with a strong showing from a shop in Rolesville NC called E&E card shop. The team basis there is far apart with some from Sadistic Fame and some non affiliated. This is my home shop so I expect good things from them indeed.

For decks seen so far I've seen random stuff, Macro Cosmos, monarchs, and of course Gadgets, Chain Strike, and ChimeraOTK. I refuse to call it "rampage otk" because Japan top 8 nats was this deck in spades and was better built. However I will give insane props to the innovation that was Paul Lyn's "Rusty Bucket of Bolts". Again mad props to NeXus again.


10:30am and we're ready to get things started...

Round 1: Tyrome Cox vs Jordan Fowler




Originally I had decided to only begin the feature matches starting in round 3. I planned to get looks at decks and then team profiles. However with a very few teams in attendance today and only a few decks to hunt for after a few people told me about this match there was no question. There must be coverage for 2 of the best players here going head to head this early.

Tyrome was no stranger to the tournament scene. Easily one of the best players in VA, NC, and SC he's top 4'd at SJC Charlotte and had numerous top 8's in regionals ranging across our areas and in the northeast with good showings at other SJC's as well. Jordan Fowler is more of a local celebrity and part of team AMP (Tyrome was originall on CREW!! and at this point his team affiliation is up in the air). He and Tyrome both recieved their invites for nationals 2007 in Charlotte (T in July and Jordan in October).

These players bantered back and forth with eachother. They were good guys and knew eachother well. Tyrome wished to give a "shoutout to Garon [Williams]" who couldn't be in attendance today back in VA while Jordan said "I hate yugioh..." mostly in reference to he and Tyrome playing round 1.

Both pile shuffled well prior to the match begining. Tyrome won the die roll and opted to go first. Tyrome knowing what Jordan was playing early on looked at his hand and didn't look pleased. He summoned a Green Gadget and fetched red and then concluded his turn. Jordan drew and with his hand of all traps with a single magic... huh wonder what hes running? You got it: Chain Strike. Jordan sets 5 backrow with 1 in hand to conclude his turn.

Tyrome drew and pondered life... well maybe his hand too. He summoned Snipe Hunter! Now while most of Jordan's card will be chainable Snipe Hunter can force Jordan to activate the cards and break the chains that would only do a lot of damage when attacking. Tyrome however decides to go ahead with the attack with green which Jordan takes. However when Snipe Hunter attacks Jordan activated dimension wall, chain jar of greed, chain reckless, chain just desserts, chain chain strike. Life Points were now 6400 to 3500 and jordan drew 3 cards using the Chain Strike deck to its greater potential: use a lot of -1's along with a few 1 for 1's or +1's to draw into cards to burn your opponent into the ground each turn. Jordan then plays Graceful Charity and pitches... (Jordan appologizes for taking long... class act) Jar of Greed and Ojama Trio to sets 4 spell or traps and ends.

Tyrome draws and says "lets roll the dice" discarding Ring of Destruction for the sniper and connects a 3 to destroy the card. Jordan considers using Snipe Hunter's effect as a chain link one and going ahead and playing all his cards out. Instead he just chains the would be destroyed Jar of Greed. Snipe Hunter however proceeds to pick off Dimension Wall, Waboku, and then a Chain Strike. Tyrome then summons ANOTHER green looking to build a field for the next shot he has at Jordan's life. Due to Reckless Greed however Jordan just sets a spell/trap and ends. Tyrome brings out Cyber Phoenix after destroying another Reckless Greed with Snipe Hunter to make the lifepoints 1100 to 2700 with life and card advantage quite heavily in favor of Tyrome.

Jordan has no choice but to just set his hand and end his turn. Reckless Greed is very much a double edged sword when you don't get what you want with it. Two turns later Jordan is scooping up his cards with no help coming and Tyromes larger monster field with Snipe Hunter to help clear Jordan's in advance winning him duel 1.

Both players side deck quickly knowing eachothers' generic decks though Tyrome taking more time than Jordan. He may have won but Jordan's deck is defintely harder to handle: half of a gadget deck becomes useless against a deck that doesn't run monsters.

Jordan will go first this one for sure hoping to come back strong against the loss to Snipe Hunter. Tyrome notices that Mr Dave Piercy is also running Chain Strike sitting at a table near us and wonders out loud if its an AMP trend for the day. As it turns out to a certain extent yes and to another extent no but more on that later.

Jordan draws up for turn and here we go... he too ponders life. Two very good players and both like to consider their moves carefully. Never have I seen either play very aggressively or recklessly and I've been watching them both play this game for years. Jordan's hand is very purple/pink with all traps. He chooses to set a single one however and end his turn. Tyrome drops a Yellow Gadget to fetch Green Gadget and it attacks through with ease. He then sets a single spell/trap of his own and ends his turn.

Jordan draws into Graceful Charity eventually choosing (while we discuss jobs and payrates and whatnot... fun times with these two guys) Waboku and Magic Cylinder. Jordan sets to the hilt with 4 more back row cards and 2 in hand. Tyrome however spells doom with a single card in chaining Royal Decree during Jordan's end phase.

Jordan scoops immediately. Decree that early with a Gadget engine is death for a Chain Strike deck. He lamented he couldn't find any Chirons before the tournament to use in his side board. Tyrome Cox takes a solid 2-0 win for round 1 using Chain Strike and the more obvious Royal Decree to pick apart or just all out stop the quick and deadly Chain Strike deck.


Round 2: Chris Sarvis vs Travis Hardin



Since I had begun features in round 1 I might as well do them for round 2 and onward until the top 2 right? Right. So since there were no showstopper matches with two well known players going against one another here I just had the head judge Joey pick an upper table at random and we wound up with another AMP member (Chris Sarvis) against Travis Hardin who seemed quite happy to get getting a feature match having seen and heard the term on metagame. I quickly told him I dont work for metagame but would be posting this on pojo and he seemed quite happy with that as well.

Good lucks are exchanged following shuffling and a hand shake. Chris recieved his invite the same day I recieved my own back in July. Travis was searching for his first one ever! With a bit of skill and luck he might just get it here today.

Travis won the dice roll and opened up with Graceful Charity into Treeborn Frog... rut roh raggy! He then discards Call of the Haunted as well and played Reinforcement of the Army (ROTA) to get Exiled Force to his hand. Chris doesn't cut either as a sign of trust or figured this wasn't going to end well so why bother. The latter was looking more obvious by the second as Travis then played Confiscation and discards Cyber Dragon from Chris' hand. Ouch... beyond powerful opening hand for Travis who sets a spell or trap and ends his turn at this point.

Chris begins his road to recovery with a set card to each zone. Travis summons Breaker the Magical Warrior to blow away the set MST of Sarvis which hits Travis as well. Chris' treeborn is attacked by breaker and Travis ends with only a Breaker on his entire field. Chris returns his Treeborn and Apprentice Magician is played in attack mode followed by the obvious Creature Swap. This gives Chris the breaker with the spell counter already applied and allows him after the attack to nab Old Vindictive Magician (OVM) is summoned and swap is played! A spell/trap is then set for Chris who after that massive turning of the tides ends his turn.

Travis draws and gets his own Treeborn Frog back to the field. Another ROTA is played to search out DDWL against the 1 in Chris' hand to the 5 in Travis' but a stronger field on Chris' side. Exiled Force takes care of the set OVM and then it gets Prematured to handle the breaker. 4700 for Travis and ends turn at this time.

Chris draws and contemplates his move and sacrifices for Vampire Lord! Unexpected? Well not so much if you consider VLord, Treeborn Frog and a certain turkey's ability to counter Gadget decks. With the exception of Bottomless Trap Hole most gadget decks don't run anything that will permanently get rid of the recurring monsters (although Cyber Dragon can handle Vampire Lord pretty well). Sarvis opts not to attack however and simply ends his turn. Hardin brings frog back then sets a monster to end his turn with backfield. Sarvis still sits at 8000 lifepoints despite the savage opening hand Hardin kicked off with. Chris draws and simply ends his turn. The frog is pointless to attack and the face down is more than likely that DD Warrior Lady which he does not want to hit with his Vampire Lord.

Hardin however sacrifices for Zaborg and targets the Vampire Lord but runs into Sakuretsu Armor! Chris brings back both Treeborn Frog and Vampire Lord showing the strategy his deck is designed for quite well. Chris just sets a spell/trap and ends his turn. Hardin draws and sets a spell or trap and a monster to end his turn. Chris finally gets an answer to the DDWL and plays Nobleman of Crossout and attacks into a Sakuretsu Armor. Hardin either really wants that monster to stay alive or he's playing right into Chris' hand not exactly realizing what he's getting himself into.

Travis flips up Don Zaloog then summons and tributes Exiled Force to blow away the Treeborn Frog?! However a Last Will comes down and fetches yet another Don Zaloog. Both score direct hits in a huge blow to Sarvis discarding Enemy Controller and Ring of Destruction finally taking some lifepoint damage.

Sarvis draws and is not phased by the double Dons as the frog and the vampire come back to the fray. The VLord pops the don and calls out trap... wow its been a long time since we've seen that in a feature match hasn't it? C was non pulsed by the double don shot attempt. Ring of Destruction is sent to the grave by Hardin and after a quick graveyard check Chris ends his turn. Travis special summons one of the few things that can take down a Vampire Lord quick with Cyber Dragon and he ends his turn. Sarvis has frog and draws thinking about his move and looking at lifepoints. He sacrifices frog for another Vampire Lord and plays last will to search out Pyramid Turtle...he wants a big field and he wants it now. Turtle rams for some 900 damage putting Chris at 4200 but the Kokki was well worth it who pops Cyber Dragon for the other zombie to the swing in for 2300 total putting Hardin at 400 and another trap (Sakuretsu) comes to Travis' grave.

Travis gets back frog, plays Smashing Ground to off the Ryu Kokki and sets some traps to end. Chris pulls the frog back hits Hardin's frog with Vampire Lord, sets a monster, and ends. The Vampire Lord had done its job and left Travis with very little options and killing it off with a trap was only going to give Chris even more advantage than he already had.

Travis tops into Dekoichi and plays Crossout on the face down Old Vindictive Magician on Chris' field. Setting the Deko he hopes Sarvis doesn't have an answer and can survive for another turn. Sarvis however draws and summons HAND OF NEPHTIS! TURKEY TIME! With Vampire Lord and Phoenix swinging its very much game. Chris comes back from a sick opening hand from Travis to take control and gain massive advantage with the built in recurrance theme of Vampire Lord, Treeborn Frog, and Sacred Phoenix.

Travis after siding 2 cars to Chris' none decides to again open up duel 2. Godly hand this time? Lets find out... frog with TT seems nice but he doesnt use it for his opening move. He instead sets one of each and ends but neither are treeborn or Torrential Tribute. Whats he playing at I wonder? Chris does the same and ends. Travis sets another monster and ends. Chris just draws and ends. Travis plays confiscation to see Sarvis' hand of Cyber Dragon, Call of the Haunted, Heavy Storm, Smashing Ground, and Creature Swap... ew... Hardin drops the smashing. OVM flips up on Travis' side to knock out Chris' Spirit Reaper and hits for 450. Another trap comes down on Hardin's side... odd move given he saw the heavy in Chris' hand.

Chris sure enough drops the Heavy Storm and Travis loses Mirror Force and Scapegoats. Cyber Dragon comes down to run over the OVM with 5350-7550 and a moderate lifepoint lead for Sarvis. Travis then plays smashing and has 2 set monsters to Chris' set trap and ends with no backfield.

Chris draws up and ends. Travis draws and is not happy he can't gain some ground. Chris does the same thing just waiting. Travis does as well keeping with the tempo and conservative playstyle of Sarvis.

This continues for a few more turns while each player restocks their hands. Chris decides with 6 cards in hand to make something happen with a swap and an attack mode Apprentice Magician for Travis' face down Treeborn Frog... gusty but the Call of the Haunted on the Cyber Dragon hits his own apprentice putting Travis at 3650 and Chris gets an OVM to his side... big momentum shift and will force Travis to act or potentially lose very quickly. Chris' palystyle is almost selective aggression. His deck dictates the games tempo which can rattle an opponent if its not the tempo they want to see right then. T draws and smashes the Cyber Dragon so it and Call hit the grave. He summons Mystic Tomato and plays last will... then hits his frog in a critical misplay not knowing the "side of the field" text which Chris quickly lets him know as he reaches for his deck before he tries to search. So instead Travis swaps his Mystic Tomato for Chris' set Old Vindictive, sets a trap and ends his turn.

Chris draws and contemplates what he forcasted as a "stupid move" (his words not mine) but summons Breaker to remove a spell counter and destroy Hardin's Call of the Haunted then plays Book of Life to remove Treeborn, Nobleman's his own OVM (on Travis' side) and now has Hardin's Tomato, his own Reaper, and Breaker on his side of the field to Travis' open field! T drops to 350 and loses TT from his hand. That would have been a great comeback card from this situation... ouch. Travis draws and sets 1 of each and ends.

Chris draws and plays Premature Burial putting him at 6750 to get Apprentice Magician! Putting the spell counter on his Breaker he uses the effect once again to break the trap then tributes for Phoenix! He attacks an OVM to kill breaker and reaper hits for... 50 lifepoints left. Chris frustrated he couldn't end it right there makes a slight miscalculation. Ending his turn it gives Travis a shot at a topdeck miracle to turn this game around.

Travis draws, sets and ends his turn. Chris atks the facedown DDWL removing his turkey but reaper finishes the job!

Chris wins commandingly showing solid skill in the face of adversity. A few misplays during duel 2 cost Hardin greatly who moves on with a 1-1 record while Chris maintains an early undefeated 2-0.


Round 3: Russell Lindberg vs Tai Wu



Whats a regional without a bit of rivalry? These two from Underdog and Sadistic Fame respectively have a nice little rivalry going. Its friendly of course but several members of Team Underdog have been trying to upset the #1 player in NC, Tai Wu.


Tai wins the dice roll with a 6 after pile shuffling and we wait for the round to start. Good lucks are exchanged between the two and a handshake as it should be.

Russell gives a shoutout to Azn_boy who wishes he was here right now... if anyone wanted to take down Tai more than Russell it was Azn_Boy. Tai doesn't have a particular shoutout to give but settles on his brother Jimmy Wu who won Greensboro less than a month ago.

As the round starts Tai draws and summons out Green Gadget; go go gadget red! Playing methodicly as is his usual style he thinks about his options and decides to end with just Green for a field. Russell sets one to each and ends. While some can't read people as well I can see in his eyes he is not pleased with his opening hand.

Tai summons out Breaker the Magical Warrior and with no response from Russell he breaks the set Sakuretsu Armor and attacks with Breaker into Russell's set Spirit Reaper. Smashing Ground comes down from Tai in main phase two to smack reaper and he ends again with no backrow.

Russell draws hoping to get something going here and summons out exiled to destory breaker then sets 1 to backrow. With that kind of move Tai is experienced enough to know that Russell has a horrible hand and will take advantage of it. With Exiled out of the way Tai safely brings down Jinzo. The attack goes through making it 8000-5600 and the turn is over. Russell sets 1 to each zone and ends.

Tai brings out Snipe Hunter calling priority to discard Red Gadget and is successful in sniping the facedown DD Survivor. Snipe and Jinzo hit direct knocking Russell down to 1700. Tai sets a spell or trap and ends his turn.

Russell draws hoping for a miracle to eleminate some of Tai's strong field. Smashing Ground at least knocks Jinzo to the grave and hopes his traps will keep him alive. Tai draws and summons out another Red Gadget to get yellow and consider if he wants to challenge Russell's 2 traps without that Jinzo...his other option is of course to "roll the dice". But he plays Giant Trunade instead and Russell scoops saying he had a horrible hand.

Lindberg with a sigh sides as does Wu neither opting to smokescreen. Familiarity with eachothers playstyle makes the match more relaxed but Tai is all business regardless looking for yet another top 8. They side deck quietly making critical choices given the different deckstyles and the difficulty in siding out for a deck that at glance would appear to be Macrocosmos vs Gadgets (DDS was kind of a give away for that).

After they side the decks are shuffled (piled) and cut with Russell up first for duel 2.

Question is will Lindberg have just as bad a hand as he did this past time. They banter like poker players would always fun. I think Tai would be like an Asian Matuso (check spelling). Confident, ****y, fun to play against and his own moves is the only thing that will mess him up.

Russell sets one to each zone and ends with the typical startup against a gadget build. Tai summons out Yellow to get some Green starting up the engines. Tai then sets a trap and ends without attacking. Russell contemplates exactly what that trap is while he decides what to do as well. The facedown DD Warrior Lady is sacrificed off for Mobius to blow away Tai's sakuretsu. Mobius hits yellow for 1200 damage and Russell ends.

Tai draws and drops Snipe Hunter again to target Russell's backrow. He misses with a 1 discarding Dekoichi! Russell is relieved but pleased of course... and Tai wants to know if he should risk another card. Green is dropped for sniper to destroy the Ring of Destruction which is chained to ring the Snipe Hunter. Tai asks if Russell has a Kuriboh... rut roh raggy! Future and then Overload against the Mobius on the field. Russell with another heavy sigh of disappointment scoops up his cards to the obvious ChimeraOTK.

So in a rather one sided feature with one bad hand and one good hand both not in Russell's favor Tai wins this one with a Gadget/Chimera build. The Dimensional Fissure (Macro wasn't in the deck at all, unless it was sided, I was told) deck would have been a great counter to the Chimera/Gadget build but Russell never got the cards into play. Tai appologized for the way it played out and they struck a pose together. Rivals but friends. Good thing is they both have their invites so thats all good. Russell commented "At least I didnt go 6-0 and lose the last 2 to get 8th-10th like I have the last 5 regionals". Yeah... its true he has done that A LOT.


Round 4: Chase Simpson vs Andrew Sewell

These two used to be on Team Legacy together... now they're both on Sadistic Fame however Andrew is looking to break away and says hes still on Legacy. Hes wearing a Legacy shirt actually.


Andrew won the roll 4 over 3 and opted to go first. He sets one of each and ends. Chase plays Heavy Storm and summons Drillroid to blow away DDWL. He wanted to make sure he got Drillroid's effect off without a trap to stop him. Could prove useful later as he sets a spell/trap and ends.

Andrew plays Premature Burial to get back his DDWL (8000-7200). He attacks into Drillroid to remove it from play broadcasting he fears face down hate. He sets 2 cards to the backrow and ends.

Chase summons Cyber Phoenix and attacks clean (8000-6000). Now when the Phoenix was summoned Andrew proceeded to scream out PHOENIX like a child that hasn't had his ritalin in about 5 years. He did this at random throughout the entire match. Here's a tip kids: this is not cool. It distracts other players from the game and makes you look like a complete fool. He was warned by Joey (head judge) after the match that he would be given a match loss if he did it again for the rest of the day. Good on you Joey. That screaming was right in my ear and was distracting to me and I wasn't even playing in a match. Has to be 100 times worse for some player right next to him.

Anyway back to the action. Sewell summons out Hydrogeddon and attacks the phoenix to bring out another but goats stops the damage. A mutton is picked off. Chase sets 1 to each zone and ends. Andrew attacks with Hydro into Magician of Faith so Chase gets back his heavy storm. 2 more goats are picked off and Andrew ends.

Chase draws and Storms his own 2 traps and Andrew's own 2 traps. Chase however chained Jar of Greed and Andrew played Book of Moon on one of his hydros. After playing Enemy Controller on the goat Chase forced the 2 atk mode hydros to ram eachother.

Andrew followed up with the other Hydro attacking for 1600. 6000-6000 and Sewell sets a trap to end. Chase played reckless greed then his fresh Cyber Dragon is removed by Andrew's Bottomless Trap Hole. Chase set a monster and ended which is quickly "Crossed Out" by Sewell (UFO Turtle) to let Hydrogeddon get another 1600 in. He sets a monster to end.

Chase just ends without a draw still riding out the Reckless Greed. Andrew gets Premature Burial back from a flipped up Magician of Faith which is then sac'd for Cyber Dragon, then the premature comes down... Chase scoops it up knowing he's done.


Simpson pile shuffles hoping to not get hit with the hydro rush and no way to stop it this time. Unknown to me they knew eachothers deck prior to this match which was always an advantage to both.

Chase opts to go first and sets 2 to the back and 1 to the front. Andrew brings out Cyber Dragon which attacks into Chase's Dekoichi. Confiscation then comes down to see Chase's hand of Trunade, Confiscation, Overload Fusion and Drillroid. For those playing the home game the Confiscation was drawn from the Dekoichi and it was discarded by Andrews Confiscation.

Chase drew then activated a Jar of Greed. Cyber Phoenix came out in atk mode and he ended. Sewell drew and summond Asura Priest to hit Cyber Phoenix which got Chase a draw and then Cyber Dragon hit direct. Chase seems to either not be playing them or has an inability to draw some defense!

Simpson drew and lamtented "I hate this game" then set a monster. Poor soul just can't catch a break as Dust Tornado on Reckless Greed during the end phase cut that trap short. Andrew summoned Asura again for a UFO turtle shot then Asura hit the fresh phoenix. Cyber Dragon smacked Chase for another 2100. However Chase at this point has 8 in his hand. You'd think with that kind of hand he'd have some options.

Chase however sets 4 backrow and 1 monster hoping for... Andrew dropped Heavy Storm and blew away all magics. Chase hoped Andrew wouldn't have something to blow away all his bluffs. On the plus side Morphing Jar is hit by Cyber Dragon while the Don Zaloog Sewell summoned prior to battle waits for the followup. It hits reckless greed from Chase's hand. Andrew then sets 1 trap to end. Chase drops Graceful Charity and discards Mirror Force and Card Destruction. He played Mystical Space Typhoon on Torrential Tribute with Cyber Dragon, UFO Turtle, and the clutch (or Crutch as most of the decks and players here have shown) Overload Fusion dropping to the field. Andrew wanted to see the ChimeraOTK and once the Clutch/Crutch comes down he scoops up.

Chase comes back to make a 1-1 matchup. We go to a 3rd game for the first time today in the feature area.

Both players pile shuffled up to hope for more well rounded hands with the earlier duels getting either nearly all monsters or no monsters. Chase laments he hasnt gotten a game loss today... he has a bunch with usually a deckcheck violation each regional (side deck or some such). Sad but hes proud...again these two are nuts and I dont mean that as a compliment.

Andrew starts off with Confiscation to see the Jar of Greed, Dimension Fusion, Cyber Phoenix, Dekoichi, and Drillroid. He chooses to discard Drillroid with a diceroll discard (nice and random...couldnt decide as there really was no obvious choice). Then Graceful comes down for Andrew dicarding Mobius and Call of the Haunted. He sets 1 backrow and ends with a savage opening series of plays.

Chase summons cyber phoenix and attacks clean hoping to regain some ground. He then sets 2 backrow cards and ends. Andrew plays Dust Tornado in Chase's end phase to hit the bluff Dimension Fusion. Cyber Dragon and Hydrogeddon come down to bring out another Hydro and do alot of damage over the phoenix and directly. Life sits at 3900-5800 with a nice lead for Sewell.

Simpson plays Jar of Greed and sets a monster to end. Not looking good for C at this point. Andrews field gets even more potent when he summons a Don Zaloog and attacks with Hydro to bring a third against the UFO turtles that are keeping Chase alive for now. I look away from the table for one second to tell spectators to stand back (they were crowding me and the players at this point) and I see a limiter on C's field with a deko in atk mode to try and hope for the miracle. Breaker is removed with a Bottomless from Andrew at that point and picks up the win with a scoop from Chase.

The loudness is repremanded by Joey with a warning for a Match Loss next time it happens (the "phoenix" thing) after the match is over. Again props to Joey for being a great head judge and calling stuff like that. Its unsportsmanlike and not called for during tournament play or anywhere for that matter.

[NephthysPhoenix]

Well since I knew what its about. Save the images to Photobucket and then post the links here . Plus Pojo has a character limit. So you have to put it in more then one post. O_o

Plus what did Pojo say?

[MCT]

Round 5: Sean Burris vs Justin Parris



I've been looking forward to this. Sean I had looked to do a feature match on at some point today because of the odd few cards he was running in his main deck. The tech is awesome in innovation and his 4-0 record for today should prove that it works beating out Tai Wu in round 3. We'll see if he can continue with his "hot tech" (I coined the phrase "Thats hot tech" coming up on a year or so ago...my claim to fame for this game) against Justin Parris who has been doing well here today as well. Some of his friends had been here today and are doing well too with x-0 and x-1 records.

They shuffle up both taking care to pile shuffle themselves up and eachothers decks as well. The fear of the OTK still fresh on everyones minds and everyone wants to shuffle up the decks as best as possible.

Sean wins the die roll and starts off with a set to each zone and ends. Justin draws it up and summons out Exiled to destroy Sean's facedown Gravekeeper's Spy. He then sets a backrow and ends. Sean simply sets a monster and ends. Justin looking at a very non-monster hand summons out Snipe Hunter and calls priority on the trap to nuke Royal Decree. He attacks into ANOTHER GK Spy taking 500 damage. Rough hitting 2 spys in the opener for Sean. Justin sets another trap and ends. Sean draws and sets a monster to end. Justin draws and contemplates the sniper... to roll or not to roll, that is the question. He plays Smashing Ground to hit the spy off and atks into ANOTHER GK Spy. Wow all 3 spys in the opening hand for Sean; thats beyond rough beats, its just downright ugly. On the plus side they are good walls and 8000-7000 works. Justin ends.

Sean sets another monster and ends his turn. Well we know its not another GK Spy so more defense or rather targets for the Sniper? Justin is again presented with the sniper question. Yellow hits the field to get green and attacks the set Magical Merchant and Sean gets another Decree after losing more monsters (including Magician of Faith that I could see) to the grave.

Sean goes with the spy still there and Avarice finally comes down, a huge help to Sean to try and come back in this opening duel. With only the decree and avarice in his grave his hand is back up strong again. Spy goes into attack mode and attacks the Snipe Hunter waiting for response from Justin. With none Enemy Controller pops snipe to def after no reply to kill it. Justin still could have chained a Sakuretsu since it was still in response to the original attack but either didn't have it or chose not to. Swords of Revealing Light comes down and RECYCLE hits the field! Thats Hot Tech! Burris sets another trap and ends with 3 in his back row.

Justin draws and summons out green to get red continuing to rev up the engine. He reads Recycle since its seldom seen and doesnt attack due to Swords and ends his turn. Sean pays 300 to get Avarice back into his deck... MPT is back just in a different form boys and girls. This is the deck at work... he sets another monster and ends. Justin draws up with Sean's Spy now in defense he summons out red to fetch yellow. Sean gets Econ back for another 300 to the bottom of his deck. Dekoichi flips and gets another resource for Sean. Dekoichi attacks yellow but its Sakuretsu'd then another monster hits the field face down.

Justin drops Nobleman of Crossout to knock another Dekoichi from the field and 1 in Sean's deck. Justin loses none so no Dekoichi in this Gadget build. After he ends Swords drops. Sean pays 300 again to get back Swords. Sean sets another monster with lifepoints at 7100-7000

Justin sacrifices yellow for Cyber Dragon looking to make a move now that Swords is down. It attack's the lone Spy and green attacks into a Des Koala! More hot tech and a 2400 damage pricetag in all from that making it 7100-4600 and giving Sean a nice lead in lifepoints.

Sean pays another 300 to get back the Royal Decree. The deck is working well for him thus far. Another monster is set and he ends. Justin draws looking for Heavy Storm so bad it could hurt. Cyber Dragon kills off the Koala only for ANOTHER one to be hit by the same green gadget. 1800-6800 now... Koala is pro. It deals out so much damage against the heavy handed gadget decks.

Sean faces down a field of Stoplight (red, yellow, green) and Cyber Dragon against also 4 spell or trap cards. With no more spells or traps in his grave he doesnt pay 300 of course to put one back. Now he has to figure out how to finish the job his deck has been doing. Des Koala is sacrificed for Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World to get it Bottomless Trap Holed but Royal Decree is chained to save it! Goldd atks yellow for 1100 and Sean Econ's the Goldd to get Cyber Dragon to attack into red for game.

Sean's deck works solidly despite a bad opener with all 3 GK Spys. Ladies and gents this is tech at its finest work in a deck that counters gadgets so well. Sean Burris has effectively made MPT (Merchant Pot Turbo) in this format when most gave it up for dead as soon as Pot of Avarice was restricted to one. This would be the beyond conservative play build that wears the opponent down while keeping a strong field until they're ready to go for game.

Both players begin to side deck Sean to presumably change the deck up or put in even more anti gadget tech. Justin too as he hopes to find a counter to a deck hes probably never seen before... few probably have seen this deck as to my knowledge it is a well kept secret.

Justin will of course go first after shuffling up and kicks things off with Green and the red to his hand. A single trap set and he ends. Sean draws and summons out Cyber Dragon and attacks to get it sent to the grave by Sakuretsu Armor. Sean sets 3 spell/traps and ends.

Justin summons Cyber Phoenix and attacks into... Mind Crush? Sean calls Skull Servant and of course a Dark World Goldd is hit from the effect when he's wrong but still gets the bonus of seeing Justin's hand. Justin drops fissure in main phase 2 and he ends.

Burris sets another trap and ends. Justin summons out red and hunts down yellow keeping the engine and field presense going. With phoenix out his gadgets are safe and Sean takes a lot of damage. 8000-4100 as Justin ends. Sean sets 1 monser and ends. Justin draws and plays Nobleman of Crossout but Solemn Judgement saves it. With lifepoints now at 8000-2050 that must be an important monster or hes desperate. Breaker the Magical Warrior hits the field and breaks the facedown Avarice on Sean's side making that Solemn looking even more like a desperation move. GK Spy is hit by breaker and another comes out in defense. The wall Sean needed to survive stays up and he lives another turn. Justin however drops Lightning Vortex but another Judgement stops it yet again. Brilliant side decking by Justin after he saw the defensive wall strategy of Sean from duel 1 even if Sean's side decked in Judgement stopped it.

Sean sets another monster and ends. Justin draws and Breaker attacks Sangan with Sean getting Morphing Jar being near handless and backfieldless. Burris draws and sets 1 of each keeping 1 in hand. Justin draws and sets 2 backrow then sacrifices for Cyber Dragon. Breaker hits the obvious jar and Goldd drops to Sean's field as 5 new cards for each are drawn. Justin sets another spell/trap and plays 2 Smashings to kill the spys (from his backrow that he set before hitting the Jar earlier).

Burris draws and checks out the card counts for each. Goldd swings and hits Cyber Dragon for 200. Sean sets another monster and another spell or trap. Justin draws and summons out Snipe Hunter, a seeming mainstay of the feature match area, calling priority on Goldd dropping a Cyber Dragon rolling a 4 to pop Goldd in the head. Book of Moon is chained when the Sniper goes to bat again after a discarded Sakuretsu to flip Snipe Hunter face down. Des Koala is attacked to stall off the offense.

Sean with life low at 1025 to Justin's 6800 contemplates how to take this on. He switchess Des Koala into atk mode and atks the downed Snipe Hunter then sets a monster to end. Justin attacks the Koala with Breaker and it connects dropping another 500 off Burris' life. He hits Des Koala however which is then Fissured but it did its job and Sean hangs on for another turn. Sean goes hoping for a miracle (or did he already have a plan?) and sets 1 of each. Justin draws holding green and yellow in hand. He attacks into ANOTHER Koala and is stunned not being able to finish Burris off. Sean sets another monster and ends. Justin plays Pot of Avarice hoping for some way of taking Sean down to press into a 3rd duel. Handcount after Avarice is 4 for Justin and 3 for Sean but sadly the 2 cards from avarice: 2 more gadgets. With still enough lifepoints he attacks into the 3rd GK Spy taking more minor battle damage but its Sean's last spy so no more walls.

Sean draws looking to keep his field with another set monster. Justin draws hoping to get something going but breaker just attacks the recently set Dekoichi. Red comes down to beef up field presense with all 3 koalas down he can rebuild his hand without fear of a slow burn... unless recycle and avarice come into play again. Justin ends his turn. Sean sets ANOTHER monster and then checks Justin's grave... fear of Storm or MST possibly a concern. He ends without a spell or trap and sticks with his 2 for now.

Justin draws and sets then Sean draws and Justin tries to Ring Spy for game but Sean activates Enemy Controller to take the Breaker so the damage fizzles! Close for Justin but no cigar. Sean then plays Graceful Charity and discards a Goldd to get it removed via that ever present Bottomless Trap Hole and also discards Ring... kinda useless at 550 in life. Sean sends Dekoichi out to run over Red Gadget while Justins own Breaker attacks Green not wanting to kill that Cyber Phoenix thats been on the field since around...forever. Breaker is tributed in main phase 2 for Cyber Dragon while another 2 traps are set and Wave Motion Cannon comes into play!

Justin draws and then Sean activates Trap Dustshoot and Mind Crush. He knocks green back to the deck and Mind Crushes the Heavy Storm... with his large backfield that was critical! Still Justin's turn he switches his Phoenix to def and sets a backrow and a monster and ends.

Sean draws with a counter on WMC, 2 backrow, Cyber Dragon, Dekoichi, and a defense position Koala. Sean wants to verify the Phoenix's effect and does so but drops out another WMC and switches everything to defense. Sean is looking to take the match via burnout and Wave Motion Cannons! Given his 550 lifepoints he doesn't have much choice in the matter.

Justin draws and Sean again plays Mind Crush on Yellow and Justin loses one. Chiron comes down but with no spells in hand he cant hit the Wave Motion Cannons. After a few series of moves including some desperation via Ultimate Offering on Justin's part he eventually scoops knowing he can't stop the Wave Motion Cannons.

By a LONG shot this was the best match of the day. Even though it was a 2-0 win for Sean it took some luck to win the second duel. A 3rd would have been interesting but Justin couldn't finish him off. Justin however is not to be discounted. He played a fantastic match and it was only the bad draws in game 2 that kept him from pulling something out to finish off Sean to push to game 3. Best match of the day hands down.


Round 6: Wes Bryant vs Corey North



This match I had one of the other judges pick from the upper tables at random. There were a couple of other matches could have covered but I made a rule not to give a person more than one feature during swiss. Wes has hung around the top tables all day. Corey although 5-0 asked me what a feature match was... so I'm going to go with he either doesnt follow metagame and the like or he hasnt been to a whole lot of regional events. Regardless they're both 5-0 thus pretty impressive so far.

The two players decided to let Wes go first as I saw it... Corey saying he doesn't like to go first. Wes summoned Red and set a trap to end his turn... that machine just keeps on rolling. Corey commented that his deck was probably 45 cards... reading the 5th gadget so this isnt his first rodeo. He drew and dropped Smashing Ground to blow the red away then set 1 to each zone.

Wes drew and eyed his otpoins. Nobleman of Crossout removed Corey's Spirit Reaper and Yellow came to grab some green. Ultimate offering was played and green dropped out to fetch red and he swarmed the field to have 2 yellows, 2 greens and a red on the field hoping for that backrow not being a Mirror Force... hoping? Risky indeed. Sure enough he ran right into the Mirror Force however while Corey played that well not giving away any readings. Though as I could see the Limiter Removal in Wes' hand I knew he was going for broke. That ultimate offering provided it isn't destroyed next turn can bring out enough gadgets next turn for game with the Limiter Removal.

Corey drew and summoned Cyber Phoenix and set a backrow. Wes brought Red down to get a yellow. Fissure blew away the Phoenix. 500 lp later yellow hit the field. Then green as well but that stopped the swarm with no more reds to pull out. 8000-3800 Wes is ready to risk that backrow once more with mirror force gone and no TT activated. Giant Rat is brought down for another 500. When the attack comes Green is turned down by Book of Moon but Limiter still hits yellow and red. After its all totaled up the life stands with 1600-3300 (Wes leading).

Corey goes with Premature Burial to put him at 800 on his Cyber Phoenix tributing for Zaborg to hit the Giant Rat and then attack the facedown Green. Wes brings out Cyber Dragon and Exiled Force came down quickly and that was game.

Ultimate offering was risky but wound up working in the very end. Mirror force was the only thing that saved Corey from the limiter and OTK from Wes' swarm deck.

Corey again lets Wes go first. Could be good tho given the OTK potential of Wes but still...risky.

Wes drops Yellow then gets Green then ends after setting one to the backrow. Corey draws and special summons Cyber Dragon to get it bottomless'd into the void. DD Warrior Lady comes out instead and attacks the yellow for 300. He then sets a pair to the backfield and ends his turn. Wes quickly drops Heavy Storm after ripping it off the top. Ouch. Fissure kills off DD Warrior Lady and Green comes down to get Red. 1400 damage for Corey later and he ends with only green for a field.

Corey plays Premature Burial on DDWL. He then plays Brain Control on the Green and summons Exiled Force. Exiled is tributed off after the damage so it wouldn't go back to Wes. He ends with no hand and a field of Premature on DDWL. Wes plays Exiled Force then Last Will to bring out Ancient Gear Engineer who puts in 1500 damage. A turn later Wes had game with Corey topdecking and the Limiter coming down to finish it all off.

Wes moves on at 6-0 with Corey at 5-1. This is the 3rd regionals for both and are happy to be doing this well. Some questionable moves in duel 2 by Corey sealed his fate while Wes never stopped with the attacks to win the match.


Round 7: Chris Fur vs Robert (Robbie) Beard



Both 5-1 so both are on the bubble. Robbie taking a loss to Sean in round 6 despite the OTK nuts draw in game 1 and close to it in game 2 and 3. Game 3 he decked out... proving more that an innovative deck can rule the day today. Plus he was running the RampageOTK so original wasn't exactly his strong point for the day either. He told me before his match with Sean he knew how to defeat that deck... guess not.

Chris has been around the top tables before and I personally played him at Charlotte SJC. Nice guy. Great player. Robbie wins the roll and opens up with Graceful Charity pitching UFO Turtle and Dekoichi. He then sets a spell or trap and plays future fusion dumping a TON of machines to the graveyard. Looking for the OTK early he ends with no monsters.

Chris follows up with a breaker and hits the Jar of Greed. 1600 goes through against the future fusion field and with life at 8000-6400 Chris sets a backrow and ends. Robbie plays Mystical Space Typhoon and hits the Torrential Tribute in Chris' backrow. Robbie had the nuts opening hand as he shows Chris. He said Graceful got him the Future Fusion and that was game.

Chris goes for the sideboard while Robbie smokescreens. Though if I had to bet I'd say hes just bluffing and isn't siding anything since he didn't see much of Chris' deck... but we'll just have to see. Chris takes his time side decking no doubt having played against machines some today with all the gadgets and OTk's running around. We didnt get to see what Chris was really playing with the nuts draw so it would have been even harder for Robbie to sideboard.

Chris pile shuffles his deck as well as Robbie's then we get started after Robbie shuffles up Chris' as well. Chris kicks off with Confiscation. A better opener methinks than last time to Robbie's Jar of Greed, Blowback Dragon, Dimension Fusion, Limiter Removal, and Cyber Phoenix. Chris (with a hand of Jinzo, Spirit Reaper, Banisher of the Radiance, Dimensional Fissure, and Scapegoats) drops the Phoenix and sets the goats, reaper, and plays the Dimensional Fissure. His side deck choices obviously coming into play and isn't risking Robbie getting some way to get the OTK off a topped Charity by setting Scapegoats.

Robbie just sets 1 back row and ends his turn. Chris flips the Reaper and debates Jinzo or not. With odds he'd have set another trap if he had gotten something other than Jar of Greed he summons Banisher and then hits the hand for 1900 total discarding the Giant Trunade to the void. Robbie draws for the turn and the set Jar of Greed as well. He sets 3 spells or traps and ends. Chris draws and gets Breaker the Magical Warrior debating Jinzo vs Breaker. He tributes the Banisher for Jinzo and Reaper hits a Premature Burial to the grave for another 2700 shot wanting to keep the hand control up and not wanting to risk those potential traps. 3400-7000 Robbie needs help.

Robbie draws and sets 1 monster with 3 in the back and 1 in hand. Chris draws and summons Mystic Swordsman LV2. Robbie quickly scoops to conceed and we're on to game 3.

Wow so the roles were completely reversed. Robbie got smacked down by solid control from the get go from Chris plus didn't have the greatest opening hand in the world either.

Both reach for side decking again... minor tweaks. Robbie saw the sided hate for the OTK this time and given that bad opening hand for his deck we'll see if he sides or not. We begin what will decide who has a shot at top 8 and who will be left to pick up the pieces.

Pile shuffling done Robbie goes first of course wanting the nuts. He sets a backrow, summons cyber phoenix and ends. Chris drops heavy quickly hitting the Enemy Controller in Robbie's backrow. Cyber Dragon, Exiled Force on the Phoenix and hits for 2100 early. He ends with no backrow.

Robbie draws up and his new Cyber Dragon and Chris' bump heads. He then sets a monster and plays Swords of Revealing Light. Chris exileds the facedown and sets a trap to end. Breaker from Robbie gets Torrential'd. Chris draws... 2nd turn on swords. Reinforcement of the Army comes down for Chris and he searches out DD Warrior Lady. He sets a monster and ends again with no backfield.

Robbie draws and sets another monster with a turn left on Swords. Chris draws and sets a second monster to end his turn. Robbie with swords down just ends with both playing conservatively it would seem. Chris tops into Graceful Charity which might spell out Robbie's doom since hes already playing defensive.. toolbox builds of all builds have that knack for clearing out defense and fast. Chris discards Jinzo and DD Survivor then flips up another DD Survivor and DD Warrior Lady; what he wouldn't give for that Dimensional Fissure. DD Warrior Lady hits Cyber Phoenix and removes it from play with DD Survivor swinging directly. Chris sets another monster and a trap and ends.

Robbie plays Giant Trunade then just lays the Future Fusion and Overload Fusion out on the table but Chris wants to see him play it out fully. Robbie had Heavy Storm, Future Fusion, and Overload Fusion however he waited in fear of no atk mode monsters and that known DDWL being down from the ROTA earlier.

Robbie moves on with 6-1 and Chris hopes for a x-2 get in. One might get in but we wont know until round 8 is done and over. Chris put up a great effort but the OTK is just that... an OTK. If your opponent gets it you're pretty much toast.


Round 8: Michael Hughes, Jr vs David Piercy



David Piercy is no stranger to the top 8 tables holding 10+ top 8 finishes in his Yugioh career. Michael has been hanging around the top 8 all day long as well. With Michael at 11 and Dave at 12 winner goes on and loser well they don't most likely.

Dave pile shuffles up both decks being safe. Michael states hes running Gadgets when asked which is pretty nice of him... that or hes trying to play mind games. We've known since round one that Dave was running Chain Strike.... a handshake is made and good lucks exchanged.

Michael won the die roll to start things off setting one to each zone and ends. Dave draws and drops Graceful Charity quickly discarding Magic Cylinder and Tremendous Fire; yep thats Chain Strike alright. He then loads his backrow up to the hilt (5 down) and ends his turn.

Michael draws for his turn and flips up Mystic Tomato then summons Dekoichi knowing he needs to damage Dave and fast. He attacks with Mystic Tomato into Dimension Wall. Book of Moon however is chained my Michael to take less damage but Dave chains Secret Barrel, Jar of Greed, Reckless Greed, and Accumulated Fortune. Dave draws 5 cards and then Michael ends.

Dave sets another hilted backfield looking to end it soon. Michael draws for his turn and flips the tomato back up to which Dave chains with Poison of the Old Man, then Ojama Trio (dave said he messed up here however...), then Secret Barrel, then Chain Detonation, then Accumulated Fortune. 6600-3900. The error was Ojama vs Secret Barrel as had he done Secret Barrel first the 3 tokens would have been 600 more damage after they resolved before Secret did. Dave draws 2. Michael atks for 2800 with life now at 3800-3900 with Michael having a small lead. He sets 1 spell or trap and ends.

Dave sets 1 trap and ends. Michael sacrifices for Mobius and threatening roar is activated. He ends after a set spell or trap and methinks he was lying about that whole Gadget thing...

Dave draws and sets 4 to the backrow. Michael draws and then Dave chains 2 Just Desserts during the drawphase and that would be game.

Chain Strike takes down the potential heavy monarch control build. Both players side board quickly after 7 rounds of swiss knowing what will work and what will not. Michael is looking quite serious though calm while Dave is hopeful saying "just 1 more game... just 1 more". Yes to make it what 11 or 12 top 8s in your career Dave and adding to the 40+ owned by Team AMP?

Michael will go first hoping to get something early to stop the Strike. We saw earlier how effective Royal Decree and Snipe Hunter were to defeating this deck...did Michael side them in or have them as options?

Michael has a pretty nasty opening hand to kill a Chain Strike deck except that most Chain Strikes don't run monsters: 2 Mobius, Avarice, 2 Cyber Dragons and Tomato. He sets 1 of each and ends.

Dave draws and contemplates his move but sets only 2 traps. Michael draws and tributes for Mobius with Dave playing Torrential Tribute and losing his Mirror Wall. Dave draws and summons out Chiron discarding to destroy the bluff Avarice and 1800 damage. Tremendous Fire is played and 2 spell and traps are set for Dave. Little does Dave know what is about to happen...

Michael draws into and plays Graceful Charity. Dave side decked based on the usual Royal Decree suspects and that Michael set a lot in duel 1 which was a good read. The Chiron however is about to haunt him. Michael drops Mobius after Cyber Dragon that wasn't possible without Chiron and Dave chains the Secret Barrel and Poison of the Old Man he had set. Michael eleminates the now facedown Chiron (he chained Book of Moon trying to back off 200 of the damage).

Dave is drawing but topdecking as well and sets 1 magic or trap. Michael draws and contemplates. Summoning Dekoichi, it and the Mobius go through. 3700-3800... Michael has a narrow lead again. Dave draws and setting another magic or trap. Michael attacks for game hitting Just Desserts and Secret Barrel. 2000 damage scores in but its not enough and Michael wins game 2. Dave needed a Dimension Wall or Magic Cylinder badly.

I have watched Dave play for years. I have seen serious looks on the mans face. This is one of the most serious he didn't expect that to happen and hes got his game face on. Michael looks just the same he knows what he needs to do and looks calm. More confident now as well with 1-1 instead of 0-1 like he was before. Game 3... who goes on and who doesn't?

Dave takes first for this one setting a lone magic or trap and passing though. Michael summons a Hydrogeddon and atks clean for 1600 then sets a magic or trap and ends. Dave summons Breaker the Magical Warrior and he gets turned face down by Book of Moon and Dave sets down a hilted backfield... all 5 loaded.

Michael draws and waits for the enevitable but its not coming yet. He normal summons Des Wombat... but it gets Torrential'd. A close call for Dave as that could have been very bad news. Michael ends with an open field. Dave draws and sets another spell or trap. Michael draws and considers his hand while Dave considers activating his field and does: Waboku, Ojama Trio, Reckless Greed, Acumulated Fortune, and Chain Strike. 2000 delt to Michael and Dave draws 4 fresh cards while Michael summons a Hydrogeddon to attack but forgot about Waboku and has to end his turn.

Dave doesn't draw but sets 4 magic/traps to conclude his turn. Michael draws and checks his life at 6400-6000. GK Spy is summoned by Michael and attempts to atk for 2800 total which goes through. 3600-6000. Dave draws and plays Ookazi for 800 then ends. Michael draws and plays Heavy Storm tripping the chain early much to Dave's dismay: Waboku, Fire Darts, Chain Detonation, and Accumulated Fortune go off. 800 for darts and 500 from Detonation. Detonation goes back to Dave's hand and 2 cards are drawn with Waboku keeping him alive. Michael simply ends his turn.

Dave draws and sets down 3 spells or traps to end. Michael draws and dave asks to do some math after seeing the 4 cards in Michael's hand. Secret Barrel, Ceasefire, and Chain Detonation... 3500 goes into Michael. 400-3600. After a sacrifice for Thestalos however its game. The only question would be would have Michael summoned another monster or tributed for Thestalos... had he summoned Dave would have won with another 500 from the Ceasefire. Had he not the result from Thestalos would have been the same.

Dave is taken down on the bubble in the last round and in a feature match... memories of Seattle come flooding back to him as he looks disgusted with himself falling short of top 8ing. Better luck next time Dave. Michael meanwhile will be going on to his first top 8 finish and potentially his national invite as well.

[Superman Confined]

nice!!!
RECYCLE!

[krazac4.1]

dimension wall, chain jar of greed,

play error right there.

you can't chain to dimension wall.

[Dakota123]

when is deck profiles coming up and don't tell my age

[MCT]

TOP 8: Wes Bryant (1) vs Robert (Robbie) Beard (8)


The number 1 vs the number 8 seed. The majority of the top 8 had recieved feature matches before with only 3 of them not. These two however basically had OTK's... they were just a bit different in the approach. One was running the rampage ChimeraOTK with only 3 cards different (main deck wise... side was very differnt). The other running a variant on the Ultimate Offering Gadget build... an OTK in and of itself with a nice limiter shot.

After the deck checks both players shuffled up very well because of the separation procedure neither wanting a horrid hand. With one running an OTK that banked on Future Fusion and the other a deck that never wants to see a hand full of gadgets.


Robbie won the dice roll and elected to take first setting 2 backs and 1 front. Wes drops Cyber Dragon with no reply and attacks UFO Turtle to fetch a Cyber Phoenix for Robbie. Smashing Ground comes down to get rid of it and with 2 to his backrow as well Robbie then activates Jar of Greed during Wes' end phase.

Robbie draws and plays Graceful Charity pitching UFO Turtle and Limiter Removal. Robbie sets 1 to each zone (2 back 1 front now). Wes draws and attacks but gets switched to defense position via Enemy Controller. He ends (2 back, 1 Cyber Dragon in defense). Robbie flips up Dekoichi, sacrifices for Cyber Dragon who gets Sakuretsu'd. Swords of Revealing Light comes down for Robbie to end his turn. Wes switches the dragon back to attack mode sets a trap and summons Giant Rat.

Robbie draws and sends one to each zone padding his field. Wes draws and plays Graceful Charity to pitch Cyber Dragon and Limiter Removal so both Limiters are gone. Breaker comes down to break the swords then Waboku is flipped and Morphing Jar is flipped up when attacked. Wes sets another magic or trap bringing him to 3 in each zone. Robbie draws and drops Jinzo down offing Jar which is Solemn'd by Wes; smart move given his deck. Robbie ends with only 2 backrows as a field.

Wes plays Mystical Space Typhoon on Waboku which is chained of course. Red comes down with Wes finally getting some gadgets going to fetch yellow. Without that waboku unless that was Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force Robbie would have probably died. Wes ends. Robbie brings up Cyber Dragon which is bottomless'd. He brings out ANOTHER Cyber Dragon and attacks red to be Ring'd for 2100 each. Main phase 2 however Robbie activates a set Future Fusion! Battle phase over Wes can rest easy for now however he has to be wary of the Overload that with 4 monsters on the field is a lot of targets. Robbie sets 1 trap and ends his turn.

Wes does some calculations (which regreatbly I havnt been keeping track myself as my calc died out). Econ saves Robbie from death with Cyber Dragon to defense but the rest go through 1600-1900 is the current tally after that attack round. 1 backrow from Wes and he ends his turn. Robbie draws and brings out Jinzo with Premature Burial. 800-1900. Jinzo attacks red to deal 1100 making it 800 each. 1 set monster ends Robbie's turn. Wes plays Fissure and exileds the set monster to attack for game.

In a very close match with back and forth Wes wins out without a lot of help from his gadgets. Robbie's defensive traps with Waboku and the Morphing Jar reload helped him gain ground back but the massive field of Wes without a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute did him in in the end.


Both players side board some though Wes actually said 1 for 1 side which Robbie informed him he didn't have to tell. After some shuffling Robbie looks a bit un-nerved and Wes looks as confident as can be. Duel 2 begins...


Robbie draws for his turn to start off and sets 2 backrows and summons Cyber Phoenix. Wes drops Cyber Dragon and Fissures the Phoenix off. Green is normal summoned to begin the engine. A strong opening play though the traps could be troublesome. Ring hits Cyber Dragon for 2100 each and green hits for an additoinal 1400 to Robbie. 1 set trap and a Jar of Greed in the end phase from Robbie we switch gears. Robbie brings down a dragon of his own and then uses Premature Burial on Cyber Phoenix. Another strong play... back and forth action here for duel 2. Dragon over green and phoeinx direct makes it 4000-3700. 1 set trap for Robbie ends his turn.

Wes looking to rebuild his once stronger field draws and summons Giant Rat. Rat attacks Cyber Phoenix but is switched to defense by Econ. Wes sets another trap and ends his turn. Robbie draws and plays Giant Trunade, bad day for Wes if Robbie has the OTK, as he contemplates chaining 1 of the 2 traps but doesn't for whatever reason. Robbie attacks the Rat with the Dragon so no OTK... yet. Ancient Gear Engineer comes out for Wes as Robbie sets a trap and ends.

Wes looking to regain control again with his traps being halted by the Phoenix keeping itself and Dragon safe. Engineer attacks the Phoenix after declaring he was entering the battle phase and nukes Torrential Tribute with his techy effect. Exiled removes Cyber Dragon and a trap is set to end. Robbie brings another Cyber Dragon and plays Premature Burial to bring that Cyber Phoenix out again (Trunade people remember that). Cyber kills the Engineer and Phoenix swings for 2200-2600 as this close game heats up.

Wes draws for his turn and does more life calculations. With no backrow Wes drops Cyber Dragon and Red. Limiter Removal ends the match in a machine overdrive... Wes gets his invite without a passdown although 4 of the top 8 have invites already so everyone in top 8 was guarunteed an invite. In only his 3rd regional ever he won without much help from gadgets at all. Machines though are proving to be easily the strongest decktype in many different forms.

TOP 4: Michael Hughes vs Tai Wu

Both players pile shuffle and then shuffle up eachothers decks. Tai is running the Gadget/Chimera build. Michael took down Sean's innovative deck as the only one that could probably do that with monarchs and main decked mobius.

Michael goes first and after wishing eachother "good luck" they begin. Michael starts off with a set card to each zone and ends. Tai sets a Red Gadget, Jar of Greed, Sakuretsu Armor, and 1 Reckless Greed and ends. He kept Future Fusion in his hand and some other magic. Michael draws and flips up GK spy to fetch another in defense position. Michael tributes the attack mode one for Mobius the Frost Monarch and hits Sakuretsu and Jar of Greed (which is of course chained). The red gadget is killed off by Mobius and the Spy stays in defense. After setting a trap he ends. Tai draws and gets another red and begins the engine this time. Wanting the OTK draw and not getting it (got Sakuretsu from Jar) he resolves to playing gadgets like gadgets... not like ChimeraOTK. Setting another Sakuretsu he ends with Econ and Future Fusion in hand.

Michael goes and Heavy Storm drops to kill the fresh Sakuretus and a then chained Reckless Greed and his own Ring of Destruction nukes Tai's red gadget. After the attacks from Spy and frosty 6700-3100 is the lifepoints and a set trap later he ends. Tai draws and sets a monster and a spell (econ... he drew Overload Fusion off Reckless Greed along with Dekoichi). Michael draws and attacks again to take another 1200 off after Mobius handled the Dekoichi (which got the Trunade for Tai... dun dun dunnnnnnnnnnn). He sets another back row and ends. Tai draws and drops the Trunade... here cometh the OTK. Future Fusion goes down (book flipped spy down to defense for Michael) and the Overload...sits in his hand as he summons yellow first then plays Overload. 16 machines make a sick Chimeratech to finish the job. 12800 attack over Michael's Mobius makes it game.

Tai wins with the OTK. Though he didnt get it quite as early on like he wanted he did get it eventually drawing into the OTK off Reckless Greed a couple turns later. The critical piece since its restricted to one, Future Fusion, was in the opening hand.

Michael makes some side deck choices. Having played a few Chimera's today he probably knows what to do for this... the question is will he get it. Michael will take up first with a set monster and ends. Tai stars off with a hand of Graceful Charity, Future Fusion, Red Gadget, Dekoichi, Smashing Ground, and Sakuretsu: ouch for Michael. Tai contemplates how to proceed though. Graceful comes down netting Jinzo, Ultimate Offering and Jar of Greed. He pitches Dekoichi and Sakuretsu then summons red to fetch a yellow. He sets 2 traps and opts not to risk the atk. Michael goes and drops Heavy Storm where Tai tries to chain Ultimate Offering to use its effect but is told he cannot by the judge. He does get the Jar of Greed effect though as Michael flips up Spy to pull one out in attack mode this time. Hydrogeddon hits his side of the field for his normal and attacks red to get another one. 300, 1200, 1200, 1600 later its 8000-3700 and Michael ends with 1 backrow.

Tai draws and his hand is now Fissure, Yellow, Jinzo, Morphing Jar, Smashing, Future and Overload Fusion. The backrow is probably the only thing keeping the OTK from dropping.. thus Tai plays cautiously (or not) and plays the Future Fusion for now strip mining his deck of all machines not in the grave or hand. He then drops the Overload Fusion and Chimera comes out with 11200 atk and runs right into a Mirror Force. Tai scoops up and then we move to duel 3.

In a solid performance from Michael, Tai is stopped by the single trap to keep it from being the true OTK despite a savage opening hand from Tai. Had he gotten one of his Trunades or Heavy Storm (or even MST or Breaker for that matter) it would have been all over in a matter of turns for the entire match. Instead though he got a bit reckless attacking into the trap with the Chimera and it cost him the duel.

No side decking is done this time and decks are just shuffled up and they setup for duel 3. Tai opts to go first for this one with Cyber Dragon, Overload Fusion, Future Fusion, Yellow, Jar of Greed and Econ in his opening hand. He sets 1 trap and ends... odd that he wouldn't start up the engine to thin the deck as fast as possible. Although hes made top 4 today with only 1 loss to the Recycle deck so he knows what hes doing I'd think. Michael draws and drops Graceful Charity immediately then discarding frog and brain control. A pretty savage opener for him but can he stop the potential OTK from Tai? Michael sets 1 monster and ends... he wants that frog back next turn methinks.

Tai draws into Jinzo and summons the Cyber Dragon. He then normal summons the yellow to get green. Cyber attacks into an Apprentice Magician and Michael gets another Apprentice which is hit by yellow. Michael then gets Magician of Faith with that Graceful in the graveyard. Tai simply ends. Michael draws and flips Faith. Forgetting that Frog might cost him dearly but we'll just see. He plays Graceful and pitches Zaborg and Spirit Reaper. Michael plays Heavy Storm and the Jar of Greed is chained from Tai for a +1. He then brain controls Cyber Dragon (8000-7200) to tribute for Thestalos. He hits the OVERLOAD FUSION! Major change in the duel though Michael doesn't even know the half of it! A swing or two later and its 6800-7200. He sets 1 trap and ends. Tai then brings out another Cyber Dragon after his draw with no response. It atks into the Magician only to be stopped by Mirror Force. Tai plays Econ in a chain however to take Thestalos to do 2100 to Michael over the Magician. Thestalos is tributed for Jinzo and he sets a trap to end his turn.

Michael draws to get back treeborn and sets 1 to each row. Tai draws back in control again and summons green gadget to fetch red. With card destruction, future fusion, and red gadget in hand with a jinzo on the field hes in solid control. Michael has 2 in hand plus the set to each and the Frog on the field. However the match ended here after a series of events resulting in Tai being DQ'd from the tournament. Michael wins and moves on to the top 2 by default.

TOP 2: Michael Hughes vs Wes Bryant


The top 2 with the number 1 seed undef thus far (having defeated Tyrome in top 4) and Michael getting the checkmark over Tai Wu we move to the final round of the tournament. These guys wanted to play it out despite the same prizes... pride. Its all about the pride at this point. Had been since they hit top 4.

Wes wins the die roll after shuffleups. He starts off with a Red to fetch Yellow then sets 2 spells/traps to end. Michael draws up and sets 2 back and 1 monster. Wes draws and tributes for the Engineer, a card that has played a role in all 3 of his features today. Upon summon however Michael Typhoons a Bottomless Trap Hole from Wes' side and activates goats during the Main phase after reading the Eningeers effect. It attacks a Tomato which gets Sangan for Michael. Wes sets another spell or trap then ends his turn.

Michael sacrifices Sangan for Thestalos. The firestorm is Judgement'd for 4000 to Wes' life and Treeborn Frog is fetches to the hand by Sangan. Michael sets a trap in main phase two. Wes summons yellow to get green then declares entering his battle phase and in response Michael plays Book of Moon on the Engineer. Yellow pops a mutton man and he ends his turn. Michael draws and just sets a monster to end.

Wes flips up the Engineer and uses Exiled Force on the face down Treeborn Frog. Wes however follows up with Last Will to bring out ANOTHER engineer. Nifty ain't they? All 3 goats are slaughtered and Wes ends. Michael pulls back the frog. Brain control comes down to take one engineer from Wes (7200-4000). Engineer attacks the yellow gadget for 300 then pops the Bottomless Trap Hole thats in Wes' backrow. Mobius is brought out then for the Engineer in main phase two. Michael ends.

Wes draws and drops Smashing quickly to kill the Mobius. Green Gadget comes down to fetch a Red (my fav... just for the pose). Green hits the Grog and Engineer hits the life. 5700-3700. Michael plays Graceful Charity then laments he forgot his frog...costly? Maybe. He discards Sakuretsu and Old Vindictive Magician however then playing Pot of Avarice. Cyber Dragon (so maybe not so bad that Frog stayed back but he didn't know that at the time) comes down and hits the Engineer for 600 (5700/3100). Michael sets a monster and ends.

Wes Fissures and drops red to get yellow. Green hits a facedown Spy and another comes out into defense position (5700/2500). Wes sets 1 trap and ends. Michael gets back the Frog this time and considers his options. He opts to set 1 monster and end...keeping his backrow clear so frog can keep hopping. Wes sets a trap and summons yellow... STOPLIGHT! Green goes to Wes' hand (with a Heavy Storm in hand) and Green and Red goes to defense. Yellow attacks an Appretice Magician however creating an opportunity for Michael... he opts for another Apprentice though.. an interesting play as if he has a Breaker could prove VERY useful.

Michael switches a spy to attack mode and hits the yellow gadget as a ram then sets another monster and ends. Wes draws, sets a trap and summons another Green to get another Red. Green two goes into attack mode as does red and Apprentice is smacked. Faith comes facedown this time and after a quick grave inventory Wes attacks the new facedown monster with one of the greens to hit an OVM which gets the other green. Michael is up again and flips up the good fatih to get back Pot of Avarice. Perhaps one of the only ways to keep up with the advantage giving gadgets is the avarice. He plays it putting some heavy hitters and much of his apprentice engine back in. Faith is sacrificed for Cyber Dragon with no reply from Wes. However when Cyber attacks green a Mirror Force takes it down. Michael ends with no backrow still and 4 in hand.

Wes goes and summons out anohter red to get yellow... 2 reds and a green on the field with 3 cards in hand and 2 backrow. Wes sets another trap (3 total) and activates ultimate offering. Paying 500 he drops yellow then drops green for another 500. 1500/5700. Ring flips up to hit the spy but the rest of the gadgets finish off Michael for game.

Wes wins duel 1... long long LONG duel 1 mind you. He asked me to mention he sits 1 duel away from his first top 8, first top 4, first top 2, 3rd regional that he was 2-6 at Gboro less than a month ago... damn talk about a turnaround. He must really love those gadgets. Michael is also only in his first top 8, top 4, top 2 and first nats invite as well. Props to both of them.

After some shuffles and cuts and sides Michael decides to take up first though setting 1 monster and ends. Wes brings down yellow to rev up the engine. Yellow hits the Tomato which fetches Sangan. 2 set traps and he ends. Michael draws and sacrifices for Mobius but its Solemn'd. Sangan gets a Frog however then a trap is set. Wes summons Breaker and hits Dust Tornado which hits a second Solemn Judgement then it and yellow hit direct.

Michael drops Hydrogeddon down to clear the yellow and get another one. The new Hydro hits breaker for a ram. He sets a trap and ends. Wes draws and sets 1 to each. Michael draws and attacks with Hydrogeddon into Sakuretsu Armor. Pot of Avarice comes down next to put the Hydros and such back in. A set monster later and Michael ends. Wes draws into green and summons to get red. Then he plays Heavy Storm for Green to get Ring'd. 3800-2200. Michael flips up a GK Spy after Wes ends for another one in atk mode. Thestalos comes down and discards the new red for 400. Michael debates what to atk with as a direct shot from the firestorm is game... Spy atks into a Spirit Reaper. Well goes that theory. Michael is held up and for now sets a trap. Wes draws up but has lost his engine; Premature Burial and 2 Giant Rats in hand. Rat is summoned and attack's Spy... Michael books the spy so Wes takes 600 and the Spy lives. 1200/3800.

Michael gets a Hydro out and it hits the Rat for 200 more with another one to join it and a Gear Engineer to Wes. Michael sets a trap and ends forgetting to attack the Engineer. Wes draws and the Engineer goes to def and he ends. Michael draws and uses hydro to kill the engineer then ends. While it takes several turns Michael finally hits an Enemy Controler to destroy the Reaper and hit for game.

No siding is done... the people left here all tired and I've told them a tie is not an option. This is why SJC's do day 2 coverage...

Wes opts to go first with a set to each row. Michael draws up and plays Graceful Charity nice opening and he looks calm. Hes been whislting the whole match too. He pitches OVM and Econ then sets 1 to each zone and ends. Wes draws and plays Breaker who is rung for 1900 each. Rat flips up to atk the facedown GK Spy to fetch another in defense mode for 600 damage to Wes. With 1 set and the rat facing 2 spys he ends.

Michael plays Brain Control on the Rat. Wes takes the 1400 then the Rat is sacrificed for Mobius to destroy the Ultimate Offering. Michael ends with a heavy monster zone. Wes draws and a Cyber Dragon and Yellow Gadget come out to play. Cyber attacks a Spy then fissure and smashing take out the mobius and other spy. Michael then draws facing a field of Cyber and Yellow Gadget only to his open field; the tables turned a bit. Hydrogeddon comes out to hit yellow (3700/5300) with another Hydro coming out to stare down the Cyber Dragon. He ends the turn with 2 hydros and nothing else.

Wes then summons green while Smashing Ground wipes out one Hydro then Cyber hits the other. Green the hits direct and Wes ends. Michael draws and plays Avarice then sets 1 monster and ends. It would seem his hand is nothing but monsters. Wes draws Exiled Force then Limiters to atk for game, match, and the tournament!

Wes wins undefeated for the Charlotte regionals!


Deck Profiles!

Sean Burris

Sean had mentioned his deck to me early before the tournament. All I needed to see were 3 copies of Recycle and I knew he was getting a profile. The fact the deck landed him a spot in top 8 made it that much more innovative. MPT is back...just in a different form. October 2005 format saw a deck called Merchant Pot Turbo using Magical Merchants and other speed cards and multiple copies of Pot of Avarice to gain advantage quickly. When Pot went down to a single copy per deck most thought the deck lost. Sean has found a way to bring the deck back again using Recycle. Simply put you can pay 300 lifepoints to put Pot of Avarice or any other spell/trap card back to the bottom of your deck. Given all the searching this deck can do a shuffle or so later and its back working again. Using big wall monsters to speed and thin the deck helps make it work. The Des Koala's main decked are a stroke of genius given the large number of Gadget decks around. As you saw in his feature match the amount of damage those could generate was just sick. The Goldd's offer a selective aggression playstyle that allow for floater swarm and a few heavy hitters as well all the while keeping a strong hand and field. Duel 2 the side board counters just about anything they have or could side in to stop the main deck. It truely is a stroke of brilliance and played greatly for him today (Sean being an excellent player doesnt hurt either). He was undefeated until round 8 losing to Wes and lost in top 8 to Michael... 1 and 2 at the end of the day. Michael was running the only main deck that really hurts this deck in the top 8 as well... a deck that main decks 3 Mobius. Still the innovation is unmatched for this format and Sean should be greatly applauded and praised for this incredible build.


Monsters [26]
3 Des Koala
3 Dekoichi
3 Goldd
3 Merchant
3 Cyber Dragon
3 GK Spy
3 Thunder Dragon
1 Sangan
1 Faith
1 Breaker
1 Morphing Jar
1 Night Assailant

Spells [12]
3 Recycle
2 Controller
1 Brain Control
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Card Destruction
1 Avarice
1 Graceful Charity
1 Book of Moon
1 Scapegoat

Traps [3]
3 Royal Decree

Total [41]

Sidedeck [15]
3 Mind Crush
3 Trap Dustshoot
3 Solemn Judgment
3 WMC
1 Confi
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction




Dakota is the next NC yugioh prodigy. Hes already a force to be reckoned with at his local tournament (E&E Card Shop) and has done well in several regional events though hasn't top 8'd... yet.

His deck today is a dedicated Macrocosmos/Dimensional Fissure build. The lack of magics and heavier level of traps work well in a deck that gains its advantage through field presense and plenty of it. The playing field today is full of Chimeratech OTK and Gadget decks. If he can get his Macrocosmos/Dimensional Fissure/Banishers up quickly they wont stand a chance against the removal heavy deck. While many side board Mobius to deal with such a deck the triple Solemn Judgements handle them, Jinzo, and Royal Decree well enough too. The build is solid and thus far he holds a 2-0 record today. Hopefully we'll see him again in the top 8 today among the truckload of machines we're also likely to see.

2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Banisher of the Radiance
3 DD Surviors
2 DD Scout Plane
2 GK Spy
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
2 Wildheart

3 Dimensional Fissure
3 Smashing Ground
1 Graceful Charity
2 Reinforcement of the Army

3 Macrocosmos
3 Sakuretsu
3 Solemn Judgements
1 Return from the Different Dimension
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute


Other Pics...






Final Thoughts:

Another Charlotte Regionals come and gone. I could do a props and slops much like I do for my own regional reports but I think I'll do it a little differently this time. Props first and foremost to my Angel as always. Secondly I have to give a lot of credit to Star City Games and the fantastic work they do for Yugioh throughout the year. The regionals they put on in Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, and of course North Carolina are phenominal. The judging crew and staff are always helpful. They handle themselves and field questions from parents and players alike. The Event Organizers like Matt V. and Chad D. (judge coordinator) do a great job year round making sure everything is done and runs smoothly. Having judged for them before I can say they are great people to work with as are the various head judges and other floor judges. They were the ones that allowed and set up a place for me to do this and they didn't have to do all that. Other props are more like shoutouts really... to my friends at E&E Card Shop in Rolesville, NC with Donald Eddins as the man. Kevin, Larry, Ryan, Dakota, and Hunter... my Yugioh traveling crew. To the various teams in NC and VA including AMP and Sadistic Fame and Underdog. Also to my best friend Jon who put me up for the night in Concord.

If you guys liked this and thought I did a good job then leave feedback and maybe I'll do this again. If you didnt like it or thought of areas where I could improve leave those too... but no flaming. I daresay I'll have a couple mods combing over this thread a few dozen times as it gets read so dont get stupid k? Other than that thanks for reading!

~MCT~

[Superman Confined]

Originally Posted by MachineChaosTitan

TOP 8: Wes Bryant (1) vs Robert (Robbie) Beard (8)


The number 1 vs the number 8 seed. The majority of the top 8 had recieved feature matches before with only 3 of them not. These two however basically had OTK's... they were just a bit different in the approach. One was running the rampage ChimeraOTK with only 3 cards different (main deck wise... side was very differnt). The other running a variant on the Ultimate Offering Gadget build... an OTK in and of itself with a nice limiter shot.

After the deck checks both players shuffled up very well because of the separation procedure neither wanting a horrid hand. With one running an OTK that banked on Future Fusion and the other a deck that never wants to see a hand full of gadgets.


Robbie won the dice roll and elected to take first setting 2 backs and 1 front. Wes drops Cyber Dragon with no reply and attacks UFO Turtle to fetch a Cyber Phoenix for Robbie. Smashing Ground comes down to get rid of it and with 2 to his backrow as well Robbie then activates Jar of Greed during Wes' end phase.

Robbie draws and plays Graceful Charity pitching UFO Turtle and Limiter Removal. Robbie sets 1 to each zone (2 back 1 front now). Wes draws and attacks but gets switched to defense position via Enemy Controller. He ends (2 back, 1 Cyber Dragon in defense). Robbie flips up Dekoichi, sacrifices for Cyber Dragon who gets Sakuretsu'd. Swords of Revealing Light comes down for Robbie to end his turn. Wes switches the dragon back to attack mode sets a trap and summons Giant Rat.

Robbie draws and sends one to each zone padding his field. Wes draws and plays Graceful Charity to pitch Cyber Dragon and Limiter Removal so both Limiters are gone. Breaker comes down to break the swords then Waboku is flipped and Morphing Jar is flipped up when attacked. Wes sets another magic or trap bringing him to 3 in each zone. Robbie draws and drops Jinzo down offing Jar which is Solemn'd by Wes; smart move given his deck. Robbie ends with only 2 backrows as a field.

Wes plays Mystical Space Typhoon on Waboku which is chained of course. Red comes down with Wes finally getting some gadgets going to fetch yellow. Without that waboku unless that was Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force Robbie would have probably died. Wes ends. Robbie brings up Cyber Dragon which is bottomless'd. He brings out ANOTHER Cyber Dragon and attacks red to be Ring'd for 2100 each. Main phase 2 however Robbie activates a set Future Fusion! Battle phase over Wes can rest easy for now however he has to be wary of the Overload that with 4 monsters on the field is a lot of targets. Robbie sets 1 trap and ends his turn.

Wes does some calculations (which regreatbly I havnt been keeping track myself as my calc died out). Econ saves Robbie from death with Cyber Dragon to defense but the rest go through 1600-1900 is the current tally after that attack round. 1 backrow from Wes and he ends his turn. Robbie draws and brings out Jinzo with Premature Burial. 800-1900. Jinzo attacks red to deal 1100 making it 800 each. 1 set monster ends Robbie's turn. Wes plays Fissure and exileds the set monster to attack for game.

In a very close match with back and forth Wes wins out without a lot of help from his gadgets. Robbie's defensive traps with Waboku and the Morphing Jar reload helped him gain ground back but the massive field of Wes without a Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute did him in in the end.


Both players side board some though Wes actually said 1 for 1 side which Robbie informed him he didn't have to tell. After some shuffling Robbie looks a bit un-nerved and Wes looks as confident as can be. Duel 2 begins...


Robbie draws for his turn to start off and sets 2 backrows and summons Cyber Phoenix. Wes drops Cyber Dragon and Fissures the Phoenix off. Green is normal summoned to begin the engine. A strong opening play though the traps could be troublesome. Ring hits Cyber Dragon for 2100 each and green hits for an additoinal 1400 to Robbie. 1 set trap and a Jar of Greed in the end phase from Robbie we switch gears. Robbie brings down a dragon of his own and then uses Premature Burial on Cyber Phoenix. Another strong play... back and forth action here for duel 2. Dragon over green and phoeinx direct makes it 4000-3700. 1 set trap for Robbie ends his turn.

Wes looking to rebuild his once stronger field draws and summons Giant Rat. Rat attacks Cyber Phoenix but is switched to defense by Econ. Wes sets another trap and ends his turn. Robbie draws and plays Giant Trunade, bad day for Wes if Robbie has the OTK, as he contemplates chaining 1 of the 2 traps but doesn't for whatever reason. Robbie attacks the Rat with the Dragon so no OTK... yet. Ancient Gear Engineer comes out for Wes as Robbie sets a trap and ends.

Wes looking to regain control again with his traps being halted by the Phoenix keeping itself and Dragon safe. Engineer attacks the Phoenix after declaring he was entering the battle phase and nukes Torrential Tribute with his techy effect. Exiled removes Cyber Dragon and a trap is set to end. Robbie brings another Cyber Dragon and plays Premature Burial to bring that Cyber Phoenix out again (Trunade people remember that). Cyber kills the Engineer and Phoenix swings for 2200-2600 as this close game heats up.

Wes draws for his turn and does more life calculations. With no backrow Wes drops Cyber Dragon and Red. Limiter Removal ends the match in a machine overdrive... Wes gets his invite without a passdown although 4 of the top 8 have invites already so everyone in top 8 was guarunteed an invite. In only his 3rd regional ever he won without much help from gadgets at all. Machines though are proving to be easily the strongest decktype in many different forms.

TOP 4: (not posted upon request by Ally)

TOP 2: Michael Hughes vs Wes Bryant


The top 2 with the number 1 seed undef thus far (having defeated Tyrome in top 4) and Michael getting the checkmark over Tai Wu we move to the final round of the tournament. These guys wanted to play it out despite the same prizes... pride. Its all about the pride at this point. Had been since they hit top 4.

Wes wins the die roll after shuffleups. He starts off with a Red to fetch Yellow then sets 2 spells/traps to end. Michael draws up and sets 2 back and 1 monster. Wes draws and tributes for the Engineer, a card that has played a role in all 3 of his features today. Upon summon however Michael Typhoons a Bottomless Trap Hole from Wes' side and activates goats during the Main phase after reading the Eningeers effect. It attacks a Tomato which gets Sangan for Michael. Wes sets another spell or trap then ends his turn.

Michael sacrifices Sangan for Thestalos. The firestorm is Judgement'd for 4000 to Wes' life and Treeborn Frog is fetches to the hand by Sangan. Michael sets a trap in main phase two. Wes summons yellow to get green then declares entering his battle phase and in response Michael plays Book of Moon on the Engineer. Yellow pops a mutton man and he ends his turn. Michael draws and just sets a monster to end.

Wes flips up the Engineer and uses Exiled Force on the face down Treeborn Frog. Wes however follows up with Last Will to bring out ANOTHER engineer. Nifty ain't they? All 3 goats are slaughtered and Wes ends. Michael pulls back the frog. Brain control comes down to take one engineer from Wes (7200-4000). Engineer attacks the yellow gadget for 300 then pops the Bottomless Trap Hole thats in Wes' backrow. Mobius is brought out then for the Engineer in main phase two. Michael ends.

Wes draws and drops Smashing quickly to kill the Mobius. Green Gadget comes down to fetch a Red (my fav... just for the pose). Green hits the Grog and Engineer hits the life. 5700-3700. Michael plays Graceful Charity then laments he forgot his frog...costly? Maybe. He discards Sakuretsu and Old Vindictive Magician however then playing Pot of Avarice. Cyber Dragon (so maybe not so bad that Frog stayed back but he didn't know that at the time) comes down and hits the Engineer for 600 (5700/3100). Michael sets a monster and ends.

Wes Fissures and drops red to get yellow. Green hits a facedown Spy and another comes out into defense position (5700/2500). Wes sets 1 trap and ends. Michael gets back the Frog this time and considers his options. He opts to set 1 monster and end...keeping his backrow clear so frog can keep hopping. Wes sets a trap and summons yellow... STOPLIGHT! Green goes to Wes' hand (with a Heavy Storm in hand) and Green and Red goes to defense. Yellow attacks an Appretice Magician however creating an opportunity for Michael... he opts for another Apprentice though.. an interesting play as if he has a Breaker could prove VERY useful.

Michael switches a spy to attack mode and hits the yellow gadget as a ram then sets another monster and ends. Wes draws, sets a trap and summons another Green to get another Red. Green two goes into attack mode as does red and Apprentice is smacked. Faith comes facedown this time and after a quick grave inventory Wes attacks the new facedown monster with one of the greens to hit an OVM which gets the other green. Michael is up again and flips up the good fatih to get back Pot of Avarice. Perhaps one of the only ways to keep up with the advantage giving gadgets is the avarice. He plays it putting some heavy hitters and much of his apprentice engine back in. Faith is sacrificed for Cyber Dragon with no reply from Wes. However when Cyber attacks green a Mirror Force takes it down. Michael ends with no backrow still and 4 in hand.

Wes goes and summons out anohter red to get yellow... 2 reds and a green on the field with 3 cards in hand and 2 backrow. Wes sets another trap (3 total) and activates ultimate offering. Paying 500 he drops yellow then drops green for another 500. 1500/5700. Ring flips up to hit the spy but the rest of the gadgets finish off Michael for game.

Wes wins duel 1... long long LONG duel 1 mind you. He asked me to mention he sits 1 duel away from his first top 8, first top 4, first top 2, 3rd regional that he was 2-6 at Gboro less than a month ago... damn talk about a turnaround. He must really love those gadgets. Michael is also only in his first top 8, top 4, top 2 and first nats invite as well. Props to both of them.

After some shuffles and cuts and sides Michael decides to take up first though setting 1 monster and ends. Wes brings down yellow to rev up the engine. Yellow hits the Tomato which fetches Sangan. 2 set traps and he ends. Michael draws and sacrifices for Mobius but its Solemn'd. Sangan gets a Frog however then a trap is set. Wes summons Breaker and hits Dust Tornado which hits a second Solemn Judgement then it and yellow hit direct.

Michael drops Hydrogeddon down to clear the yellow and get another one. The new Hydro hits breaker for a ram. He sets a trap and ends. Wes draws and sets 1 to each. Michael draws and attacks with Hydrogeddon into Sakuretsu Armor. Pot of Avarice comes down next to put the Hydros and such back in. A set monster later and Michael ends. Wes draws into green and summons to get red. Then he plays Heavy Storm for Green to get Ring'd. 3800-2200. Michael flips up a GK Spy after Wes ends for another one in atk mode. Thestalos comes down and discards the new red for 400. Michael debates what to atk with as a direct shot from the firestorm is game... Spy atks into a Spirit Reaper. Well goes that theory. Michael is held up and for now sets a trap. Wes draws up but has lost his engine; Premature Burial and 2 Giant Rats in hand. Rat is summoned and attack's Spy... Michael books the spy so Wes takes 600 and the Spy lives. 1200/3800.

Michael gets a Hydro out and it hits the Rat for 200 more with another one to join it and a Gear Engineer to Wes. Michael sets a trap and ends forgetting to attack the Engineer. Wes draws and the Engineer goes to def and he ends. Michael draws and uses hydro to kill the engineer then ends. While it takes several turns Michael finally hits an Enemy Controler to destroy the Reaper and hit for game.

No siding is done... the people left here all tired and I've told them a tie is not an option. This is why SJC's do day 2 coverage...

Wes opts to go first with a set to each row. Michael draws up and plays Graceful Charity nice opening and he looks calm. Hes been whislting the whole match too. He pitches OVM and Econ then sets 1 to each zone and ends. Wes draws and plays Breaker who is rung for 1900 each. Rat flips up to atk the facedown GK Spy to fetch another in defense mode for 600 damage to Wes. With 1 set and the rat facing 2 spys he ends.

Michael plays Brain Control on the Rat. Wes takes the 1400 then the Rat is sacrificed for Mobius to destroy the Ultimate Offering. Michael ends with a heavy monster zone. Wes draws and a Cyber Dragon and Yellow Gadget come out to play. Cyber attacks a Spy then fissure and smashing take out the mobius and other spy. Michael then draws facing a field of Cyber and Yellow Gadget only to his open field; the tables turned a bit. Hydrogeddon comes out to hit yellow (3700/5300) with another Hydro coming out to stare down the Cyber Dragon. He ends the turn with 2 hydros and nothing else.

Wes then summons green while Smashing Ground wipes out one Hydro then Cyber hits the other. Green the hits direct and Wes ends. Michael draws and plays Avarice then sets 1 monster and ends. It would seem his hand is nothing but monsters. Wes draws Exiled Force then Limiters to atk for game, match, and the tournament!

Wes wins undefeated for the Charlotte regionals!


EDIT: deck profiles and final thoughts to be posted here soon....

post the T4 match!!!!

[NephthysPhoenix]

Originally Posted by krazac4.1

dimension wall, chain jar of greed,

play error right there.

you can't chain to dimension wall.

You chain chain to the activation of Dimension Wall and that play was legal.

Your chaining to the activation of the card not to the card effect itself.

[Superman Confined]

Originally Posted by krazac4.1

dimension wall, chain jar of greed,

play error right there.

you can't chain to dimension wall.

play error!

[MCT]

Originally Posted by Superman Confined

post the T4 match!!!!

Jordan just for the sake of the thread please dont bring up the top 4 match...

Ally requested it not be posted and said she'd delete anything concerning it. I'd really like to not have this thread locked within 24 hours of it being up finally because of that one thing.

If you guys want to discuss it make another thread or do it later...just lets please let me have this open for awhile first k? Took me forever to write/edit all this stuff. I'd like to breathe for a bit. lol

[NephthysPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Superman Confined

play error!

That wasnt a play error. Will you people please listen to me.

[Superman Confined]

i thought u meant the other t4 match 0.o

Edit: Ally, im the one that made that play, i know its legal, ******* ;D.

[Woschula]

Sadly, I read most of that.

Nice report, next time you should just do feature matches for later rounds to avoid typing so much.

Once again, let's give a big thanks to chris for taking the time to do such a detailed report.

[NephthysPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Superman Confined

i thought u meant the other t4 match 0.o

Edit: Ally, im the one that made that play, i know its legal, ******* ;D.

oh ~_~; I just saw that post and was correcting him.

Additional Comment:

Originally Posted by MachineChaosTitan

Jordan just for the sake of the thread please dont bring up the top 4 match...

Ally requested it not be posted and said she'd delete anything concerning it. I'd really like to not have this thread locked within 24 hours of it being up finally because of that one thing.

If you guys want to discuss it make another thread or do it later...just lets please let me have this open for awhile first k? Took me forever to write/edit all this stuff. I'd like to breathe for a bit. lol

You can post the top 2 though . Sorry about that Chris I dont think Pojo/Star City wants on here well you know....

[MCT]

Originally Posted by Rinoa Ally Gohan

oh ~_~; I just saw that post and was correcting him.

Additional Comment:


You can post the top 2 though . Sorry about that Chris I dont think Pojo/Star City wants on here well you know....

Top 2 is on there... lol.

[NephthysPhoenix]

I just noticed it. Sorry I was editing my posts and stuff and didn't see it.

[Dakota123]

lalalalalalalalalala uhh free bump or sumthin....

[NephthysPhoenix]

You NEVER contacted Pojo that you were doing this? O_o;

[ryan123]

Originally Posted by Dakota123

lalalalalalalalalala uhh free bump or sumthin....

buluhh luhh luh ilhuhh luhhh buuhhhhhhh

[Superman Confined]

sean sacked in his feature match!

[Dakota123]

hy ryan how you doing well ally has anyone started a champion pack 2 pull thread please let me know

[MCT]

Originally Posted by Rinoa Ally Gohan

You NEVER contacted Pojo that you were doing this? O_o;

Errr... not yet? I'll PM him when its 100% done. I told you I'd do that like 50 times already.

I dont see any problem posting it in here. Its just like a massive tournament report. If he would like it to be put on the main site later on then thats as easy as ctrl+c and ctrl+v.

I'm working on finishing up the deck profiles then I'll load the pics into photobucket or something to put them up.

But only AFTER I finish my dinner! Jeez... you guys can be impatient... lol

[ryan123]

im doin fine how are you?

[Dakota123]

i'm great just holdin on to my HOLO magi and nimble