Top 8: Kyle Skalicky vs Jeremy Arone
Kyle Skalicky enters the Top 8 with a 5-1 record going up
against his good comrade, Jeremy Arone who enters with a 4-2
record. Both duelist are great friends and are well known in the
LAN World Community. Skalicky had just finished strong with a
Minnesota Regional win a few weeks ago and enters this
tournament to retain his winning streak.
Both duelists roll the dice to determine who would go first. Arone wins the roll
and opts to start first.
Arone draws and smiles with a
confident hand activating Destiny
Draw, dishing out Destiny-Hero
Malicious from his hand, a very
common combo in the T-Hero and
Perfect Circle strategy. He draws two
from the spell’s effect and activates
another Destiny Draw, this time
sending
Destiny-Hero
Disk
Commander from his hand. He sets
three in his back row and ends his
turn. What a way to start off the
beggining of the final rounds. Skalicky draws but Arone activates Trap Dustshoot
to reveal all the cards from Skalicky’s hand, Spirit Reaper, Thestalos the
Firestorm Monarch, Gravekeeper’s Spy, Mystical Space Typhoon and Trap
Dustshoot. Arone flips over another Trap Dustshoot and sends Gravekeeper’s
Spy and Spirit Reaper back to the deck. Skalicky normal summons Card
Trooper, pumps it up three times losing Raiza the Storm Monarch, Brain Control
and another Card Trooper and attacks through. During Arone’s draw phases,
Skalicky responds with vengeance through his set Trap Dustshoot to reveal Card
Trooper, Metamorphosis, Heavy Storm and Card Trooper and sends one of the
troopers back to the deck. Arone looks through his Fusion Deck and mumbles
how Dark Balter the Terrible is a good card but won’t help Arone at this point of
the game. Destiny-Hero Malicious is removed from the graveyard and Arone
dishes out another one from his deck to the field. He activates Metamorphosis
on the creature to special summon Dark Blade the Dragon Knight. He removes
Destiny-Hero Malicious, bringing forth another Destiny-Hero Malicious from his
deck and normal summons Card Trooper. He dumps three off on Card Trooper
and attacks with all of his monsters. The dragon knight removes Raiza the Storm
Monarch and two Card Troopers from Skalicky’s graveyard. Arone ends his turn
with one set in the back row but it is destroyed by Skalicky’s set Mystical Space
Typhoon. Skalicky currently stands at 3500 life points compare to Arone’s 6100
life points.
Skalicky activates Snatch Steal during his main phase one taking control of
Arone’s Dark Blade the Dragon Knight. The fusion monster attacks Card
Trooper and Sangan and Destiny-Hero Disk Commander are removed from play.
Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch is summon by the tribute of the Dragon Knight.
Brain Control is discarded from Arone’s hand and Skalicky ends his turn. Arone
can’t do much on his turn except to turn his Destiny-Hero Malicious into defense
mode. Skalicky sees his chance to control the duel and tributes his monarch for
another Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, discarding another Brain Control from
Arone’s hand. Talk about de-ja-vu. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch attacks
Destiny-Hero Malicious and Skalicky ends his turn. Arone activates Heavy Storm
and set one monster, “Go!”. Skalicky sets one in the back row and attacks with
his monarch into Treeborn Frog. Arone brings back the frog during his standby
phase and ends his turn with not much option. Skalicky sets one monster and
attacks the frog. The frog comes back and Arone thinks for a second on what he
can do with the few cards in his hand. He tributes the frog for Destiny-Hero
Dasher and it attacks into the set Gravekeeper’s Spy. Another Spy comes to the
field and Dasher goes into defense mode due to its effect. Skalicky continues
the aggression and turns his Spy into attack mode and attacks Destiny-Hero
Dasher with it and Thestalos attacks through directly. Skalicky sets one back
row and says, “Go!”. Arone still can’t do much except for bringing back the frog
and sets one back row card. Thestalos and Spy both attack and are countered
by Arone’s set Mirror Force. Arone’s turn is up and he tributes the frog for Raiza
the Storm Monarch but is lost to Torrential Tribute. He ends his turn with nothing
on his side of the field and Skalicky flips over Call of the Haunted, declaring
Thestalos for game. After a long intense game, Skalicky takes game one.
Both smokescreen their side and start game two.
Arone starts game two with one set monster and one back row card. Skalicky
also sets one monster and a back row card and says, “Go!” Arone activates his
set back row, Heavy Storm to get rid of Skalicky’s set Ring of Destruction. He
then normal summons Card Trooper and it attacks into the set Gravekeeper’s
Spy. Another spy comes out from the deck to the field and Arone ends his turn.
Skalicky goes defensive and sets one monster and two in the back row knowing
Heavy Storm is in the graveyard. Arone pumps Card Trooper to 1900, losing
Destiny Draw, Snatch Steal and Jinzo. He then activates Premature Burial and
selects Jinzo from his graveyard. Arone takes a while to think and have Jinzo
attack one of the Gravekeeper’s Spies and Card Trooper attacks the set Dekoichi
the Battlenchanted Locomotive. Skalicky draws from the locomotive and Arone
ends his turn. Skalicky activates Snatch Steal to bring Jinzo to his side. He
turns one spy into attack mode and Jinzo attacks the trooper for 2000 damage
and Gravekeeper’s Spy attacks into a set Sangan. Arone searches through his
deck from Sangan’s effect and dishes out Treeborn Frog. Jinzo is tributed for
Cyber Dragon.
Arone’s turn is up and he special summons Cyber Dragon, normal summon
Snipe Hunter and discards the frog he searched a turn earlier to destroy
Skalicky’s Cyber Dragon. Destiny-Hero Malicious is discarded by the hunter’s
effect to destroy the set back row, Royal Decree. A last discard of another
Destiny-Hero Malicious destroys the set back row Mirror Force and Arone forces
through with a clean back row taking out Skalicky’s spy and getting hit directly.
Skalicky can’t do much except to special summon Cyber Dragon and sets one
monster face downed. Arone continues the control of the field by tributing his
returned frog for Cyber Dragon. Cyber Dragon attacks into the other machine
dragon and his other Cyber Dragon attacks into a set Treeborn Frog. Arone
ends with one back row. Skalicky brings back his frog and tributes it for Raiza
the Storm Monarch and sends the back row to the top of Arone’s deck and
attacks one of the Cyber Dragon. Treeborn Frog comes back to Arone’s field.
He removes Destiny-Hero Malicious to bring out another one, look through
Skalicky’s graveyard carefully and sets a monster and a back row card.
Skalicky brings back his frog and has
Raiza the Storm Monarch attack the
defense
position
Destiny-Hero
Malicious. Arone draws and ends his
turn with nothing. Skalicky attacks the
frog with Raiza and sets one monster.
Arone draws and ends again still with no
option of a comeback holding onto
useless Trap Dustshoot and Mind
Crush.
Skalicky flip summons his
Dekoichi the Battlenchanted Locomotive
and have Raiza attack into the set Card
Trooper and Dekoichi attacks directly. He sets one monster and ends his turn.
Arone with still no option sets two in the back row and ends his turn. Mind Crush
is activated during the draw phase of Skalicky’s turn, naming Heavy Storm but
Skalicky shows his hand to Arone stating no such card and attacks with both
monsters on the field directly for game and the match. He moves onto the
quarterfinals.