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Round 5 Feature Match:
Tariq Patel versus Josh Graham
After featuring a huge Blackwing mirror match in Round 2, we were going to see another confrontation of two Duelists packing Blackwings here in Round 5.
Josh Graham returned to his home country from an extended visit to Mexico just recently. Largely known as a Gladiator Beast player from past events, even Graham had to hang up his trident and gladius given current trends. Though Patel hails from Milton, Ontario he’s is a well-respected Duelist here in Toronto. Certainly less controversial in behavior than Graham, he’s made a name for himself with strong finishes at events like SHONEN JUMP Championship Indianapolis in 2008. From an experience standpoint this was a pretty even pairing.
This matchup was eerily similar to our first one. Not only were both Duelists playing Blackwings, but we were once again faced with a quicker build running “Allure of Darkness,” versus a slower one packing both Allure and “Reckless Greed.” Last time around we saw the faster Blackwing Deck take a commanding victory – would we see that same result again? Graham was running the fast build, while Patel was playing the Trap-heavy version.
Patel opened the match with a hand of “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow,” “Mystical Space Typhoon,” “Allure of Darkness,” “Giant Trunade,” “Reckless Greed,” and “Mirror Force.” It was a solid opening hand that would see that Reckless / Allure combo in action early on. He Set Reckless, Set “Mirror Force,” and ended.
Graham fired back, instantly activating “Heavy Storm”! Patel flipped his “Reckless Greed,” but lost “Mirror Force.” “That’s a pretty good “Heavy Storm”” remarked Graham with a grin, Summoning “Blackwing - Bora the Spear” for a direct attack. He Set two cards to his back row and ended. “Do you have your Heavy too?”
“Yeah” replied Patel, coolly gliding through Graham’s quip and dropping his own “Heavy Storm” to the field! Graham lost “Icarus Attack” and “Book of Moon.” Patel activated “Allure of Darkness,” removed his Kalut for it, but had zero follow-up. He Set two cards to his Spell and Trap Card Zone, ended his turn, and Graham Set another Spell or Trap before attacking with Bora. Patel flipped another “Reckless Greed” plus “Mystical Space Typhoon” in his End Phase, netting two more cards and only costing himself one additional Draw Phase! His Typhoon destroyed Graham’s face-down “Brain Control” too, betraying a total lack of defense on Graham’s side!
Next turn, Patel activated two copies of “Black Whirlwind.” He Normal Summoned Kalut, searched his Deck for two copies of “Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind,” and followed up with another “Allure of Darkness”! Gale was removed for its effect, and Patel continued with “Mind Control” to take Bora, then Special Summoned his other Gale to tune it to the pilfered monster. That got him “Blackwing Armor Master,” and Kalut made a direct attack for 1400 damage. Armor Master attacked next, and Graham dropped to 4100 Life Points. Patel still had 4600. He Set Trunade as a bluff, knowing he was safe from “Heavy Storm.”
Graham drew to three cards in hand, Set two of them to his Spell and Trap Zone, and Patel flipped his Trunade next turn! Unless Graham had “Gorz the Emissary of Darkness” in hand this Duel was over. He activated both copies of Whirlwind, Normal Summoned Bora, and Graham immediately conceded.
Tariq Patel came out ahead after an early loss against “Heavy Storm,” turning the tables on Josh Graham to take a charged Game 1! Both competitors dove for their Side Decks and swiftly proceeded to the second Duel.
Graham opened with “Black Whirlwind,” Summoning “Blackwing – Bora the Spear” to search for “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow.” He Set a Spell or Trap to finish out.
Patel had “Black Whirlwind,” “Mind Control,” “Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame,” “Bottomless Trap Hole,” and two “Solemn Judgment.” He wasn’t particularly happy about it. He activated Whirlwind, Summoned Shura, and walked right into “Bottomless Trap Hole.” He Set a Bottomless of his own, then Set “Solemn Judgment” to end his turn.
Kalut was Graham’s next Normal Summon, letting him search out “Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind.” Kalut and Bora made direct attacks, and Graham Set one card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone to end his turn. Patel drew for his turn, Set two more cards and ended – still no monsters.
He took another 1400 damage from Kalut next turn, and another 1700 from Bora. Patel was down to 1800 Life Points while Graham was still sitting pretty at 8000. Next turn Patel finally drew Gale. He Summoned it to halve the ATK of Kalut, then activated “Mind Control” to try to take Graham’s Bora! There was one problem with that plan: Patel had filled his back row with five cards already. He returned “Mind Control” to his hand and had to send Gale to attack over Kalut. Kalut was destroyed, but Gale was left vulnerable, a huge misplay on Patel’s part.
Graham smelled weakness and pounced, activating “Brain Control.” Patel Chained “Solemn Judgment.” Graham pressed even more with “Dust Tornado,” targeting and destroying Patel’s “Bottomless Trap Hole.” He then Special Summoned Gale, tried to Synchro Summon “Dark Strike Fighter” for game, but lost out to Patel’s second “Solemn Judgment”! Patel now had just 450 Life Points. He had one card in hand, one card Set in his Spell and Trap Zone, and had Gale and “Black Whirlwind” on the field.
Graham Summoned “Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn” – but Patel had a third Solemn! He went down to 225 Life Points, and next turn he drew another useless copy of Whirlwind. Patel turned his Gale to defense, Graham Set a monster, and play was back to Patel. He tried to Normal Summon Bora, Graham Chained “Book of Moon” to deprive Patel of his Whirlwind effects, and Patel activated “Mind Control”! That got him Graham’s face-down “Gravekeeper's Spy,” and Graham was left with nothing but a face-down Spell or Trap Card plus one more card in his hand.
Patel Flip Summoned Graham’s “Gravekeeper's Spy,” Special Summoned his own “Gravekeeper's Guard,” and then Synchro Summoned “Arcanite Magician”! Arcanite’s effect destroyed Graham’s face-down “My Body as a Shield” and his “Black Whirlwind,” and Patel passed with his three monsters in defense. Was Patel really going to win with just 225 Life Points?
Graham drew and instantly Set his two cards to his back row. If he top-decked “Blackwing - Shura the Blue Flame” Patel would lose. Graham would Special Summon another Gale and Synchro Summon his second “Dark Strike Fighter” to finish the Duel. But Graham didn’t have the Shura just yet: Patel had won a reprieve and Flip Summoned his Bora, looking to beat Graham down from his 6600 Life Points.
Graham flipped “Torrential Tribute” in response! Patel needed to get to a monster right now, and he desperately activated “Allure of Darkness.” He drew nothing, still not catching a single monster, and next turn Graham Summoned Kalut to swing for game!
A big misplay on Tariq Patel’s part locked his Spell and Trap Card Zone, and Josh Graham took advantage with his own Deck’s aggressive nature to press for an easy win! A strong opening for Graham combined with some awkward luck for Patel evened the score with one Duel left to play.
Patel opened with a Set monster and two Set cards in his Spell and Trap Card Zone. Graham fired back two Set cards as well, and Patel drew for his turn. He had “Reckless Greed,” “Dark Armed Dragon,” Gale, and “Monster Reborn” in hand, with another Reckless, “Solemn Judgment,” and “Mask of Darkness” Set! This proved to be an insurmountable demonstration of exactly how Patel’s Deck is supposed to work. He activated “Reckless Greed” and drew Gale, then “Allure of Darkness”! He activated Allure, drew another Allure and “Gravekeeper's Guard,” and removed Gale for Allure’s effect. He flipped “Mask of Darkness” next, took back his “Reckless Greed,” and attacked for 900 damage. Graham reeled in his seat.
Patel Set “Gravekeeper's Guard” and two more copies of Reckless! Graham activated “Black Whirlwind” next turn, threw down a second copy, and then Normal Summoned “Blackwing – Kalut the Moon Shadow”! Patel knew he had way more cards waiting in the wings than his opponent, and opted not to activate his “Solemn Judgment.” Graham searched out two copies of Gale from his Deck. Kalut attacked Patel’s “Mask of Darkness,” destroyed it, and Graham Set another card to his Spell and Trap Card Zone. He ended his turn and Patel flipped his second and third copies of “Reckless Greed”! He drew four and wound up with eight cards total in hand.
Next turn he activated “Allure of Darkness,” drawing two more cards and removing Bora for Allure’s effect. At this point Patel had “Dark Armed Dragon,” “Monster Reborn,” Gale, Bora, Sirocco, “Giant Trunade,” and two copies of Kalut. He activated “Giant Trunade” and Graham reluctantly cleared his field. Patel Flip Summoned “Gravekeeper's Guard,” sent Graham’s Kalut back to his hand, and revealed his entire hand. “I want to play it out” stated Graham. Patel and the assembled crowd of spectators were left with one question: did Graham have “Gorz the Emissary of Darkness”?
…More importantly, would it even matter if Graham did have it? Patel Normal Summoned Bora, Special Summoned Gale, then tuned them to each other to Synchro Summon “Dark Strike Fighter.” That gave him the three DARK Monsters he needed to Special Summon “Dark Armed Dragon.” Graham had 7100 Life Points – Patel wanted to be extremely careful here. If Graham had Gorz, Patel would need all the burn damage he could get to take the win this turn.
“Monster Reborn” brought Patel’s Gale back to the field. He sent “Gravekeeper's Guard” to attack first for 1000 damage, then swung with “Dark Strike Fighter” – Graham took the damage, but Summoned Gorz and Special Summoned a 2600 DEF Token Monster. Patel sent Gale to attack Gorz – he discarded Kalut to destroy it, but that was all posturing at this point. “Dark Armed Dragon” took out the Gorz Token, and in Main Phase 2 Patel had more than enough monsters to tribute with “Dark Strike Fighter” for game.
reported by
Jason Grabher-Meyer
