This one looks to be our most... interesting feature match of the first round. Certainly funny how relevant this first round feature ended up being to the DGZ YGO community. We have Mike Steinman (TS Fearless) facing off against Brandon Wigley (ATL Insanity). If you are unfamiliar with their recent history, I'd suggest doing a search in the War Section, pretty dramatic stuff!
Anyway, time to get into the match, but not before noting that Mike wishes to credit Josh Fulger (Gnation07) for the Gravekeeper deck he chose to run for this GPC.
Game 1
Both players load up and Mike starts off with a Pot of Duality revealing Gravekeeper's Commandant, Gravekeeper's Recruiter, and Mystical Space Typhoon. He adds the Recruiter to his hand, sets a Monster and a Spell/Trap card and passes his turn. Brandon starts his first turn of the match with a Pot of Duality of his own. His reveals XX-Saber Darksoul, Gottoms' Emergency Call, and Mystical Space Typhoon. He takes MST, and activates it, destroying Mike's set Bottomless Trap Hole. Brandon follows up by setting a Monster and 3 Spell/Trap cards before ending his turn. An interesting and somewhat odd move. What could those face-downs be?
Mike normal summons Gravekeeper's Recruiter on his turn, and then flips Gravekeeper's Spy, but Brandon thwarts it with his Royal Oppression! Steinman discards Gravekeeper's Commandant to get Necrovalley from his deck, but Necrovalley is immediately destroyed as Brandon activates his set Mystical Space Typhoon as soon as Mike activates it. Luckily Steinman is holding another Necrovalley, and activated it before attacking Wigley's face-down XX-Saber Darksoul with Gravekeeper's Recruiter. Mike sets a Spell/Trap and Brandon searches another XX-Saber Darksoul in the end phase before drawing for his turn and passing after setting a Monster. Mike decides to attack the Monster, revealing XX-Saber Emmersblade, which recruits a XX-Saber Boggart Knight to Brandon's field. Steinman then activates his set Spell/Trap - Royal Tribute! Brandon discards XX-Saber Darksoul from his hand, revealing a Giant Trunade.
Brandon attacks the Recruiter on his turn with Boggart Knight, netting Steinman a Gravekeeper's Descendant, then sets a Spell/Trap card and passes, but his Torrential Tribute gets taken out in the end phase by Mike's Typhoon. Mike activates Pot of Duality, and takes Book of Moon over Royal Tribute and Royal Oppression. Then, he summons Gravekeeper's Descendant, and attacks over XX-Saber Boggart Knight, bringing Wigley down to 7100, and passes after setting the Book of Moon he picked off of Duality. Brandon sets a Monster and passes. Steinman flip summons Gravekeeper's Commandant successfully, then tributes it with Gravekeeper's Descendent to destroy Brandon's face-down Emmersblade, attacks for 2000 more, sets his freshly drawn card to his backrow, and passes. Brandon once again sets a monster and passes, and Steinman skillfully draws a Gravekeeper's Stele to get Recruiter and Commandant back from his graveyard! He summons the Recruiter, and tributes it away for Descendent, destroying Brandon's set X-Saber Pashuul, and searching his deck for another Recruiter. He attacks for 2000 more damage, and Brandon concedes the duel after drawing nothing of use off of his topdecked Pot of Duality! Mike Steinman wins Game 1 with a steady influx of Gravekeepers and a very fortunate Gravekeeper's Stele drawn at a key time.
Game 2
Brandon begins game 2, hoping to come back from a fairly dominating performance by Mike Steinman and his Gravekeeper deck.
He begins with a face-down Monster and 2 Spell/Traps. Mike mirrors Brandon's field with his own Monster and 2 Spell/Traps. Wigley removes Mike's face-down Gravekeeper's Assailant from the game with Nobleman of Crossout. Not what he wanted to hit. He continues his turn by flip summoning XX-Saber Emmersblade, and attacking directly, dropping Steinman to 6700. Wigley sets another Monster, and ends his turn. Steinman takes his turn and plays Dark Hole, destroying Brandon's Emmersblade and face-down X-Saber Pashuul, a potentially devastating play! Mike follows up by summoning Gravekeeper's Commandant and attacking directly, setting another Spell/Trap, and passing.
Brandon ends after setting a Monster. Mike attacks the Monster, Darksoul, with his Commandant. Darksoul gets Brandon another Emmersblade in the end phase. Brandon simply sets another Monster and ends his turn. Mike summons Gravekeeper's Recruiter on his turn, but that summon gets negated by a Solemn Warning. Mike just attacks the face-down Monster with Commandant, and negates the Emmersblade with his own Solemn Warning before ending. Wigley draws, and activates Dark Hole, destroying Gravekeeper's Commandant. Then, he summons XX-Saber Fulhelmknight and attacks directly to drop Mike down to 3400. He sets a Saber Hole, only to get it destroyed in the end phase by MST. Steinman draws, and MST's Brandon's other backrow, Royal Oppression, then activates Gravekeeper's Stele to retrieve Commandant and Recruiter from his graveyard. He discards Commandant to bring out Necrovalley, summons the Recruiter, and attacks Fulhelmknight, which negates the attack. Mike sets a Spell/Trap card and ends his turn.
Brandon draws to 2 cards in hand, and sets both cards, one to each zone. Steinman summons another Recruiter, and attacks Fulhelmknight with 1, and Brandon's face-down Monster, X-Saber Pashuul, with the other. Brandon draws, and sets his drawn card to his backrow. Steinman draws, and Brandon takes 1000 damage in the Standby Phase due to Pashuul, leaving him with 3400 LP. Mike changes both Recruiters to defense position, sets his drawn card to his backrow, and ends his turn. Brandon draws a card, and once again sets it to his backrow. Mike sets a monster and Brandon takes another 1000 damage from Pashuul.
Brandon passes, and activates Dust Tornado in Mike's draw phase, destroying Royal Oppression. Pashuul inflicts another 1000 damage to Brandon, bringing him to just 1400. Mike flip summons Gravekeeper's Spy, but Brandon activates his face-down Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, only to be negated by Mike's Solemn Judgment! Mike summons Descendent with the Spy, and uses his turn player priority to tribute his Recruiter and try to destroy one of Brandon's backrows. Brandon chains the targetted card - Dust Tornado - to destroy Necrovalley. But Mike tributes his second Recruiter to target Brandon's last Spell/Trap card, Trap Stun. Then, he searches a 3rd Recruiter, summons it, tributes it off once again, this time to destroy Brandon's X-Saber Pashuul, leaving him with a clear field for Descendent and Spy to attack, giving Mike Steinman the victory!
Mike Steinman wins Round 1 2-0, beating Brandon Wigley's X-Sabers due to an impressive showing by Josh Fulger's Gravekeeper deck!
No comments:
Post a Comment