Featured Match #2
Hello everyone! I'm coming to you today with a Round 5 Featured Match between yuseifudo33's Inzektor deck and LOKOS' Evil Hero Beat deck, which was recently covered in a Featured Deck article. Both duelists are 3-1 going into this match! Will Inzektors swarm their way to victory, or will LOKOS use his deck's inventiveness to chop off their stingers? Let's find out!
To view a video of the match while reading commentary, go here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch8CaLaqcMs&feature=youtu.be
yusei started off duel #1 with a hand of Armageddon Knight, Koa'ki Meiru Urnight, Inzektor Hornet, Tour Guide of the Underworld, Inzektor Dragonfly, and another Armageddon Knight. He summoned Tour Guide, who brought out another Tour Guide, and then both were overlayed for a defense position Zenmaines and yusei ended his turn. On his 1st turn, LOKOS set a card to his back row, then used E - Emergency Call to fetch a Elemental Hero Stratos from his deck. He summoned Stratos to fetch Evil HERO Malicious Edge from his deck. He set another backrow card before ending his turn.
Yusei drew into Iron Core of Koa'ki Meiru, then summoned Dragonfly and used its effect to equip it with the Hornet from his hand. He used Hornet's effect to send itself to the graveyard and targeted 1 of LOKOS' backrow cards, taking out a Bottomless Trap Hole. This also set off Dragonfly's other effect, allowing him to special summon Inzektor Centipede from his deck. He used Centipede's effect next to equip it with the Hornet that just got sent to his graveyard, and then used Hornet's effect to send it back to the grave and targeted LOKOS' other backrow, taking out a Super Polymerization and activating Centipede's effect allowing yusei to add another Dragonfly from his deck to his hand. Yusei then overlayed Dragonfly with Centipede to bring out M-X-Saber Invoker, who detached Dragonfly to special summon Koa'ki Meiru Urnight in defense position. He revealed Iron Core in his hand to activate Urnight's effect and brought out Koa'ki Meiru Guardian from his deck in attack position. Guardian attacked Stratos, destroying it and dealing 100 damage, then Zenmaines and Invoker both attacked for a total 3100 LP. In Main Phase 2, yusei overlayed his 2 Koa'ki Meiru monsters to form Steelswarm Roach before ending his turn.
LOKOS drew for his turn, but all he could do was set a monster before ending. Yusei continued to press the action by activating Invoker's effect again to bring out another Urnight from his deck in defense position. Urnight brought out another Guardian, and the 2 Koa'ki monsters were overlayed for Number 39: Utopia. Next, yusei summoned Dragonfly and equipped it with a Hornet from his graveyard. Hornet sent itself back to the grave to knock out M-X-Saber Invoker, freeing up room for Dragonfly to special summon a Centipede. Centipede equipped itself with the same Hornet, knocking out the face-down Elemental Hero Avian on LOKOS' field and adding a Dragonfly from yusei's deck to his hand. Dragonfly and Centipede were overlayed to bring out Number 20: Giga-Brilliant, who detached Dragonfly to boost all of yusei's monsters by 300 ATK and DEF. Attacks from Utopia, Giga-Brilliant, Zenmaines, and Roach were more than enough to seal the end of the duel.
LOKOS takes a heavy hit in round 1 as yuseifudo33 summons a ton of Inzektors and Koa'ki Meirus resulting in a full-on force of 4 Xyz monsters on the field. Will LOKOS be able to make a comeback in the next duel or will Inzektors bring Evil Heroes back to their hive for dinner?
Siding ensued and LOKOS chose to go 1st for round 2. He opened with a set spell card, and then set a monster and ended. Yusei opened with a hand of Centipede, Call of the Haunted, Guardian, Fiendish Chain, Tour Guide, and Dragonfly. He started off with the same move as in turn 1, by summoning Tour Guide who brought out Sangan. The 2 monsters were overlayed for Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, and yusei detached Sangan to boost Leviathan up to 2500 ATK. Leviathan attacked and destroyed LOKOS' face-down Elemental Hero Wildheart. In Main Phase 2, yusei set Call of the Haunted and Fiendish Chain.
LOKOS drew for his turn, then summoned Elemental Hero Clayman! He activated Super Polymerization, discarding Deep Dark Trap Hole, to fuse his Clayman with Leviathan and bring out Elemental Hero Absolute Zero! Zero attacked, and yusei responded with Call of the Haunted, returning Sangan to the field. LOKOS pressed on and destroyed Sangan, dealing 1500 damage and allowing yusei to search his deck for Inzektor Hornet. LOKOS ended his turn with Absolute Zero looking menacing on the field. Yusei drew Allure of Darkness and activated it, drawing into Urnight and another Centipede and he chose to Banish 1 of his Centipedes for Allure. Next, he summoned Dragonfly and equipped it with the Hornet in his hand. Hornet sent itself to the graveyard to destroy LOKOS' backrow trap - Deep Dark Trap Hole! Meanwhile, Dragonfly activated its effect to summon Hornet from his deck. Hornet equipped itself with the Hornet in the grave, and then was sent to the grave (not by its effect) to allow yusei to overlay his 2 monsters and bring out a Zenmaines in defense position.
(it could arguably have been better to simply use Hornet to destroy Absolute Zero and lose his 2 monsters on the field. Yusei still would have had a face-down Fiendish Chain and 3 card in-hand against the 2 in-hand cards of LOKOS, and he wouldn't have to deal with the Absolute Zero still on the field.)
LOKOS drew for his turn, then summoned Elemental Hero Ocean (boosting Absolute Zero to 3000 ATK) before ending.
Yusei drew Forbidden Lance, then turned Zenmaines to attack position and summoned Guardian. In the Battle Phase, yusei flipped Fiendish Chain and used it on Absolute Zero to bring him back down to 2500 ATK. He then activated Forbidden Lance and targeted Absolute Zero, before attacking it with Guardian.
(A note: yuseifudo33 made a blunder here, as Forbidden Lance would reduce Absolute Zero by 800 ATK, but it would also make him unaffected by spell and trap cards, namely Fiendish Chain, so his ATK would also increase by 500 for a total 2200 ATK. Neither duelist recognized this, and both wrongly assumed that Absolute Zero was now at 1700 ATK.)
Guardian "destroyed" Absolute Zero and dealt 200 damage. Then, when Absolute Zero's effect activated to destroy all of yusei's monsters, yusei tributed Guardian to negate the effect. Next, Zenmaines attacked Ocean to destroy him, and yusei detached Dragonfly to save Zenmaines. In the End Phase, Zenmaines' effect activated and it had to target itself. Yusei detached Hornet to save it from itself.
On his next turn, LOKOS activated Dark Calling and removed Elemental Heroes Burstinatrix and Clayman to summon Evil HERO Infernal Sniper! Sniper destroyed Zenmaines and hit yusei for 500 LP damage before LOKOS ended his turn. Yusei drew Koa'ki Meiru Sandman on his turn, then summoned Centipede and equipped it with a Hornet from his graveyard. Hornet sent itself back to the grave to destroy Infernal Sniper, and Centipede allowed yusei to add Dragonfly to his hand from his deck. Dragonfly attacked directly for 1600 damage before yusei ended his turn.
LOKOS drew for his turn and passed, unable to make a play. Yusei drew Magic Planter, then summoned Dragonfly and equipped it with Hornet. Next, he set Magic Planter and Hornet sent itself to the graveyard to destroy Magic Planter, allowing Dragonfly to summon ... nothing! Yusei was out of summonable Inzektors in his deck! He overlayed his 2 monsters for Leviair the Sea Dragon and used its effect to special summon Centipede from the banished zone. Centipede equipped itself with Hornet. Leviair attacked for 1800 damage and Centipede attacked for 2100 damage (its ATK was boosted by 500 thanks to Hornet). yuseifudo ended with Leviair and Centipede (equipped with Hornet) on the field, and Urnight and Sandman in-hand.
On his turn, LOKOS activated Reinforcement of the Army, which grabbed him a Stratos from his deck. Stratos was summoned and LOKOS added Evil HERO Malicious Edge to his hand! Everything was set for LOKOS to make a big play! He activated Dark Fusion and turned his 2 in-hand Malicious Edges into Evil HERO Malicious Fiend! LOKOS entered his Battle Phase and ... whiffed it! He attacked with Stratos into Centipede, forgetting that Centipede was still at 2100 ATK thanks to Hornet. Malicious Fiend attacked and destroyed Centipede and Hornet was off the field. LOKOS ended his turn.
(If only LOKOS had used Stratos to destroy Leviair this duel could have turned out so much differently!)
Yusei drew for his turn and ended up with another Urknight. He detached Centipede from Leviair to bring back LOKOS' banished Clayman, then summoned Urnight and overlayed it with Clayman to bring out Utopia before ending his turn. LOKOS attacked Utopia with Malicious Fiend and yusei detached Clayman to negate the attack.
Yusei drew into Pot of Duality, which showed Iron Core, Call of the Haunted, and Guardian. He added Call of the Haunted to his hand and sent the other 2 cards back into his deck. He turned Leviair to defense position and set Call of the Haunted before ending his turn. On his turn, LOKOS took another shot at Utopia and Urnight was detached to save it before LOKOS ended once again.
Yusei drew Mystical Space Typhoon, then summoned Number C39: Utopia Ray on top of his Utopia. He activated Call of the Haunted to bring back Centipede, and Centipede equipped itself with Hornet. Hornet sent itself back to the grave to destroy Malicious Fiend and Centipede allowed yusei to add a Dragonfly to his hand from his deck. Dragonfly came out and yusei overlayed it with Centipede to bring out Giga-Brilliant. Dragonfly was detached from Giga-Brilliant to boost all of yusei's monsters by 300 ATK, then an attack by Utopia Ray finished up the duel!
A hard fought game 2 shows lots of back and forth action, with even Malicious Fiend showing up to the party. Alas, between an error by both duelists with Forbidden Lance, and a mistaken attack by LOKOS the duel shifted in favor of the winner, yuseifudo33! Both duelists fought well, and hopefully we'll see both of them fight their way into the Top 16!