Semifinals: Jae Kim vs. Robert Lim

As the players prepared for their match, they congratulated each other for their victories in the previous rounds. After a quick clarification of the prize structure, the match began with both players verifying each other’s decks. With the formalities out of the way, they rolled a die and began the match.

​Game OneJae won the roll and chose to go first. He started off with Sangan in attack position and passed. Robert had a strong start with Pot of Greed and an attack position Breaker the Magical Warrior. Breaker slew Sangan, and Jae fetched Sinister Serpent from his deck. Robert followed up with Delinquent Duo, discarding Jae’s Nobleman of Crossout, but since he had previously grabbed Sinister Serpent, that was discarded as well. Robert set a card and passed, and Jae set a monster and passed.Robert attacked it, and D. D. Warrior Lady removed both monsters from the game. Jae summoned his own Breaker and tried to shatter Robert’s Ring of Destruction, Robert chained it and Jae set a card, then passed. Robert summoned Sangan and attacked, then set a card and passed. Jae set a monster face down and passed. It was revealed to be Magician of Faith when Robert hit it with a Nobleman of Crossout next turn, removing all of them from the game. Sangan continued its relentless fuzzy assault and Robert passed.Jae played Reinforcement of the Army, grabbing Don Zaloog, but when he summoned it, Robert wiped the field with Torrential Tribute. Robert used his Sangan’s effect to grab Sinister Serpent and Jae ended his turn. Robert set a card to each zone, and Jae responded with a face down monster of his own. Robert flipped Ceasefire for 1000 damage, then set a card and passed. Jae set a card before summoning D. D. Assailant and attacking Sinister Serpent.Robert lamented that he had made a mistake, but tried to recover from it. Heavy Storm took out his own Mirror Force, which he had forgotten to activate last turn. He then summoned Sinister Serpent and used Metamorphosis to turn it into Thousand-Eyes Restrict. The Restrict sucked up D. D. Assailant and attacked Magician of Faith. Jae summoned D.D. Survivor and Book of Moon turned Thousand-Eyes Restrict face down. Jae tried to attack, but his attack was foiled by Book of Moon. He set a card and ended, then Robert flipped back Thousand-Eyes Restrict, absorbed the Survivor, and tributed it for Jinzo. He attacked, bringing Jae to 100 life points, and passed.Jae drew into Pot of Greed, then flipped his face down Lightning Vortex to clear the field of Jinzo. He set a card to each zone and passed, as did Robert. Jae set one more monster face down and sent it back to Jae again. Mystical Space Typhoon destroyed Jae’s set My Body as a Shield, then summoned Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and attacked into Jae’s set Big Shield Gardna. Jae used Smashing Ground to destroy Kycoo, then switched his Big Shield Gardna back and passed. Robert only needed the tiniest of hits to win, but he couldn’t do it that turn, so he set a card and passed.Jae brought out Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and used his priority to remove his own Big Shield Gardna from play, eliminating the liability. It was all for naught, however, as Robert had Snatch Steal and used it to steal Jae’s Soldier and win game 1.Robert 1, Jae 0Game TwoBoth players opted to side deck, and they did so in complete silence. They wished each other luck after shuffling, and Jae opted to begin again. He did so with Reinforcement of the Army fetching out Big Shield Gardna. He set a monster, presumably the Gardna, and a spell or trap before ending. Robert had Delinquent Duo once again, and he discarded Jae’s Airknight Parshath. Jae chose to drop Book of Moon, and with a card to each zone, Robert ended.Jae summoned Sangan then used Nobleman of Crossout on Robert’s Magician of Faith. Sangan attacked, dropping Robert to 6000 life points. At the end of the turn, Robert used Dust Tornado to take out Jae’s own Dust Tornado. Robert considered his cards carefully before making a move. He had four cards in hand to Jae’s one, but Jae had two monsters down, one of which was probably Big Shield Gardna. He summoned Blade Knight anyway and attacked Sangan, allowing Jae to search out Sinister Serpent. Robert ended his turn, and Jae set another monster, which Robert attacked. He set another monster and passed back to Jae who set a card to each zone and passed.Robert tributed his face down Sangan to summon Jinzo, and he used its effect to get his own Sinister Serpent. Robert used Nobleman of Crossout and picked the right monster, eliminating Morphing Jar from the field. He then attacked the face down Big Shield Gardna with Blade Knight, taking 1000, and then attacked through it with Jinzo for 2300. Jae summoned Tsukuyomi to flip down Robert’s Blade Knight and he attacked it.Robert summoned D. D. Assailant and attacked for 4100. Jae used Mystical Space Typhoon in the end phase, but didn’t hit anything of note. Jae set a card to each zone, but one more Nobleman of Crossout from Robert sealed the deal.Robert Lim wins the match 2-0 and advances to the finals!

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.