Round Seven: Feroze Ramcharan vs. Wilson Luc

​Feroze Ramcharan was representing Team Nexus, while Wilson Luc, SJC Las Vegas Champion, was represting Team Comic Odyssey. Luc was playing Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lock, but Ramcharan was running an innovative Machine deck. “So this is an . . . original deck?” Luc rubbed his hands together like a bear eying a honey pot, or a wolf stalking a tasty lamb.“Yeah, you could say that,” replied Ramcharan with his usual ever-present smile.

​Game OneLuc opened game one, and did so with Pot of Greed. He set a card to his spell and trap zone, and that was all he did. Ramcharan looked to call him on a bluff, and pressed an attack with Mechanicalchaser, but Luc flipped Scapegoat, and Ramcharan opted to leave all four on the field. He set a spell or trap and passed. Luc used Metamorphosis, ate the Mechanicalchaser with Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and went to attack with it. When he did, though, he ran straight into Mirror Force.Both players spent a few turns jockeying for control, and after a double-use of Night Assailant (thanks to Tsukuyomi) Luc had established a 6–3 card advantage. He looked to press his advantage, and with three cards in hand to Ramcharan’s three cards on the field, he ran a Slate Warrior right into Morphing Jar—that evened things out considerably! Still, he kept Ramcharan pinned down and used Delinquent Duo, costing Ramcharan Breaker the Magical Warrior and one of his Night Assailants before passing.Ramcharan played defensively, setting two cards to his spell and trap zone and also setting a monster. Luc had a response, though, and next turn he activated Nobleman of Crossout to remove Ramcharan’s Magician of Faith from play. It created a problem as Luc lost all three of his Magicians from his deck.“You did it, not me!” grinned Ramcharan. Slate Warrior attacked directly and Luc set cards to fill his spell and trap zone before activating Card Destruction. He lost a Night Assailant and used it to bring back the earlier one. The early-game power struggle had taken out both player’s copy of Heavy Storm, so Luc knew he was fine to set as many spells and traps as he wanted. After activating and resolving Graceful Charity (again making use of Night Assailant to pay for its resolution) he had a full spell and trap zone.Ramcharan was in a bind, but had used Night Assailant to take back Morphing Jar. He set it, as well as several spells and traps, and passed. Luc attempted to use Metamorphosis to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict and succeeded. He then attempted to suck up the face down Morphing Jar, but for that, Ramcharan had an answer. Flipping Ring of Destruction in response to the priority-enabled use of Thousand-Eyes Restrict’s effect, Ramcharan kept his Morphing Jar safe. The destruction of Thousand-Eyes Restrict before the resolution of its effect stops it from sucking up its target, which is useful knowledge. A Mystical Space Typhoon took out Gravity Bind and Ramcharan seemed a tad nervous.Swords of Revealing Light flipped the Jar, and Wilson followed it up by summoning Sangan. Sangan poked Morphing Jar into the graveyard, Slate Warrior attacked directly, and Luc passed.Ramcharan continued playing defensively—his deck was looking larger than Luc’s, and likely was, given the fact hat Luc had gone first. He put up a valiant defensive effort, but Luc summoned Tsukuyomi, turned the Slate Warrior face down, flip summoned it to claim its effect, gave it 500 more ATK, and then used Ring of Destruction. Ramcharan only had 2300 life points remaining, so the Ring ended the game and gave Luc his first victory!Game Two“I want to give him a good fight. Man. I held up for a while, at least. You got that lock on me too quick though.” Ramcharan was definitely hoping Luc would not have a turn two Thousand-Eyes Restrict-lock this time.He opened game two and started by setting a card in each zone. Luc drew, shuffled his cards and organized them meticulously, and then made the same play. It was Ramcharan’s turn to start the aggression.Swords of Revealing Light flipped Luc’s Sinister Serpent, and Ramcharan tributed one of his own for Mobius the Frost Monarch. Luc chained Torrential Tribute, though, and each player lost a card and a Serpent in the process. Next turn, Luc did nothing but set a monster. Ramcharan would find it to be Serpent again, as he’d attack and destroy it with X-Head Cannon.Luc then used Heavy Storm to destroy Ramcharan’s Swords of Revealing Light as well as his face down Torrential Tribute. He used Snatch Steal to take the X-Head Cannon, tributed it for Airknight Parshath, then attacked directly with it. A turn later he slammed the Airknight into Ramcharan’s Cyber Jar, taking down the Airknight and an accompanying Tsukuyomi. Cyber Jar then brought up a Mechanicalchaser for Ramcharan, and three face down monsters for Luc.Nobleman of Crossout dropped from Ramcharan’s hand, and removed Sangan from play. Luc had shuffled his monsters in an effort to stop that exact thing from happening, so he wasn’t pleased. Ramcharan then summoned Breaker the Magical Warrior and broke Luc’s one face down spell or trap, revealing Scapegoat. He couldn’t chain it due to the two monsters he already had on the field. Ramcharan seemed to be going all-in, using Premature Burial to bring up Mobius the Frost Monarch. Breaker took down Luc’s Breaker, Mechanicalchaser took down Legendary Jujitsu Master, and Mobius swung directly. The score was 4300 for Ramcharan to 5600 for Luc. Ramcharan set two cards to his spell and trap zone and passed.Luc used Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, and then summoned Tribe-Infecting Virus. He passed priority, opting not to use Tribe’s effect, and instead used Lightning Vortex with a Night Assailant to take down Ramcharan’s Breaker and Mobius. He set three cards to his spell and trap zone and then passed play to Ramcharan.After some thought Ramcharan set a single monster and then passed. He had a Limiter Removal in hand, as well as a Mechanicalchaser, but Luc wasn’t giving him an opening.Things would get worse as Luc went on to flip Swords of Revealing Light, again delaying Ramcharan’s offense. At the same time, it flipped Ramcharan’s set monster, Magician of Faith, exposing it to the effect of Tribe-Infecting Virus. Tribe blew it away, attacked directly, and the score was now 1100 to 5600. Luc set a monster of his own before ending his turn.Ramcharan would make a shockingly similar play, dropping Swords of Revealing Light and flipping a Magician of Faith. Ramcharan winced. But he made a move.He summoned Mechanicalchaser. It was a boggling move. He then played Limiter Removal and Luc passed priority and it resolved. He then played Ring of Destruction on his own Mechanicalchaser. At only 1100 life points to Luc’s 5600, it appeared as if Ramcharan had miscalculated, attempting to force a draw.“Response?” Ramcharan inquired, passing priority.“No,” replied Luc.“Then I’ll flip Barrel Behind the Door.”Luc blinked—and then he took 7400 damage. Game two goes to Feroze Ramcharan, in a spectacular and shocking finish!Game ThreeLuc opened game three with a set Bottomless Trap Hole. It quickly ate up Ramcharan’s Tribe-Infecting Virus, and a turn later both players had nothing on the field but set spells and traps. Ramcharan set a monster and Luc flipped his face down Nobleman of Crossout, removing X-Head Cannon from the field. Unfettered, Ramcharan set another monster. Again, Luc used Nobleman of Crossout, and it smacked Ramcharan’s Cyber Jar off the field. Ramcharan played Swords of Revealing Light and Luc chained Scapegoat. On his turn, Luc played Graceful Charity, discarded Sinister Serpent on reflex, and then discarded D. D. Warrior Lady. He used Metamorphosis to turn a goat into a Thousand-Eyes Restrict, sucked up Ramcharan’s face down monster, and then set a spell or trap.Ramcharan set a fourth card to his spell and trap zone and passed. Stuck staring at Swords of Revealing Light, Luc didn’t have much to do—he passed, doing nothing. Ramcharan did the same, dejectedly pushing the die on top of Swords of Revealing Light to its third set of pips.Luc topdecked Heavy Storm, used it, and Ramcharan had nothing to do but chain Book of Moon to Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Luc flipped it up, summoned Tsukuyomi, flipped it back down, and attacked with Tsukuyomi for first blood. He set a spell or trap and then ended his turn. Ramcharan summoned Mechanicalchaser, attacked a goat, and passed. Why he didn’t attack the Thousand-Eyes Restrict was a mystery. That mystery was solved a turn later, as Thousand-Eyes Restrict sucked up Mechanicalchaser, attacked Ramcharan, and was immediately slapped down by Magic Cylinder. Next turn Tsukuyomi came back out, turned Thousand-Eyes Restrict face down, and attacked again before Thousand-Eyes Restrict flipped up once more.Ramcharan messed up next turn as he used Snatch Steal on a goat, intending to tribute it for Jinzo. “I can’t believe I just made that mistake,” he mourned, as he realized that the goat couldn’t be tributed for a summon.Luc sucked it up next turn. “I can’t believe I just did that,” repeated Ramcharan as Tsukuyomi again attacked. Ramcharan again had no play but to set a spell or trap and pass. Tsukuyomi again attacked, turned the Thousand-Eyes Restrict face down to keep it safe from Mirror Force and accosting Ramcharan for another 1100 life points before Thousand-Eyes Restrict turned back face up to lock down the field. The cycle continued for another turn, placing the life point totals at 2500 to Luc’s 7150.“I don’t want to do this, but I have to,” said Ramcharan as he set a monster. At that point play passed to Luc, and time was called for the match. Luc had the lead, time was called, and that was the match!Ramcharan still had his ever-present smile on his face though. “Oh, man! I can’t believe I did that. I’d intended to take the goat, tribute for Jinzo, and attack your attack position monster directly. But it was Thousand-Eyes anyway!” Ramcharan and Luc shook hands, and Luc escaped with his perfect record for the day!

Metagame.com (2005)

This article was originally written by Metagame.com, what was formerly the official website for large Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament coverage.  It has been preserved by GoatFormat.com so that players can learn from this historical tournament coverage.