Ilya and I had a few more duels and it was during our 6^th and 7^th duels that I decided to start logging our duels.  The duel listed below is my 7^th ever duel and I will describe the duel as it happened turn-by-turn, analysing successes and mistakes.  Warning this is a long one!

We decided to commence our next duel straight after our last one.

Paul says:

rematch! rematch!

Ilya says:

ok , rematch it is, u go 1st this time

Paul says:

ok shuffled, 8000-8000 and I drw 6

Paul says:

set 1 mon fd and set 1 s/t end turn

A common first turn play.  My hand lacked an Ojama Trio and by setting a Mystic Tomato, I could search out a Cat of Ill Omen and then use that to search for an Ojama Trio card.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

activate last will

Last Will appears more during the duel.  It is an interesting card with a very useful effect.  Plus it is a common card from the starter decks, so is easy to get hold of.  It does however operate in a unique way, so I will try to explain my interpretation of what the card does for you newbies.  When using a spell card.  There are 2 separate stages.  One is activation the other is resolution.  Once a card is activated then unless a card that negates activation is chained then it is considered activated and is then considered destroyed (unless it is a continuous spell card or it states in the card text that it must remain on the field, such as Swords of Revealing Light).  Last Will is slightly different.  Once activated and then destroyed it leaves behind a field state or a field condition.  This condition is that if a monster is destroyed during the remainder of that turn then you can search from your deck a monster with an ATK of 1500 or less and summon it to the field.  Now the card no longer exists on the field but the condition does remain on the field till the remainder of the turn.  Therefore unless you can negate its activation it doesn’t matter if you try and destroy the card in the chain (using Dust Tornado or Mystical Space Typhoon) the field state has already been created and will resolve.  Last Will IS NOT a continuous spell card.

Ilya says:

normal summon Yomi Ship

Ilya says:

Response?

Paul says:

    no

Ilya says:

Yomi Ship attacks your fd mon

Ilya says:

what is it or what was it?

Paul says:

mystic tomato

Ilya says:

ships atk is only 800 so I take 200 damage I think

Paul says:

def 1100

Ilya says:

300 damage to me then

Paul says:

8000-7700

Ilya says:

now I activate Dark Hole

Not a bad move after activating Last Will.  As the field state created by Last Will allows Ilya to search for another monster after Dark Hole’s resolution.  Also as Mystic Tomato wasn’t destroyed as a result of battle then I don’t get to search with him.

Ilya says:

both our mons are in GY

Ilya says:

last will lets me special summon in DEF mode my Nightmare Penguin

Ilya says:

that ends my turn

Paul says:

is penguin fd def then

Ilya says:

no

Ilya says:

face up def

Paul says:

ok

Ilya says:

last will lets me special in either mode

Paul says:

nightmare penguin’s atk is?

Ilya says:

1100

Paul says:

and def?

Ilya says:

1800

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

I set 1 mon fd and end turn

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

offer nightmare penguin as tribute for . .

Ilya says:

Giga gogaggio

Ilya says:

(2450 atk)

One thing I learned from this move was that although the Nightmare Penguin was little threat to me at the time and in the position it was in (FU Def) especially as it is a FLIP effect monster.  It still showed that leaving your opponent options on the field is a bad thing as shown with Ilya’s tribute summon.

Paul says:

wow

Ilya says:

attack your fd mon

Paul says:

thank you

Ilya says:

what'd I kill?

Paul says:

giant rat

Paul says:

I get GGP and then shuffle

Ilya says:

end turn

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

is your field just giga

Ilya says:

yes

Paul says:

ok wanna see something cool

Ilya says:

uhm

Ilya says:

ok

Paul says:

I summon dd crazy beast in atk

Ilya says:

(bead of cold sweat runs down back in fear)

Ilya says:

lol

Ilya says:

ok

Paul says:

and activate wild nature's release making dd crazy beasts atk 2800

Ilya says:

holy moly

Sorry Ilya but when I was typing this up it made me laugh.  Who says Holy Moly?  It sounds like a comment that Shaggy might make in a Scooby Doo episode.

Paul says:

atk giga and remove from play with dd beast’s effect

Ilya says:

I take 350 damage

Paul says:

8000-7350

Paul says:

that was fun

Ilya says:

and what else have you planned for your turn

Paul says:

set 1 s/t and end turn, dd crazy beast is sent to the gy because of wild nature's effect.

When deciding what to do about Ilya’s big monster I had to consider the fact that my deck was built with no tribute monsters.  Meaning that my deck had no raw attack power to defeat Giga Goggagio without a boost.  I figured the sooner I got rid of his big monster the better.  Plus by removing it from play it would prevent him using Call of the Haunted of Premature Burial to bring it back.  However I didn’t remember to attack with my GGP in the same turn for a direct hit.  Meaning I lost out on doing an extra 800LP of damage.  I should have been keeping a sharper eye on the field.

Ilya says:

drw

Paul says:

activate Ojama trio

Ilya says:

set s/t

Ilya says:

and summon Hydrogeddon

Ilya says:

Hydrogeddon (1600) attacks your points

Paul says:

I still have GGP on the field from rats search and I activate dust tornado in response to your summon

Ilya says:

Hydrogeddon doesn’t attack then and my sakuretsu armor is destroyed

Ilya says:

end turn

My hand was providing me with good options now and I wanted to make it count on the field.  I needed to keep Ilya’s spells and traps to a minimum as this deck had the potential to swarm at a furious rate at anytime.  Plus I was clogging up Ilya’s monster spaces with my Ojama Tokens.  GGP was boosted to a huge ATK value and I wanted to make sure I kept control of the field.

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

how many in your hand?

Ilya says:

2

Paul says:

GGP atk your hyrdo

Ilya says:

2800-1600 = 1200 damage to my points

Paul says:

8000-6150

Paul says:

set 1 mon fd and end turn

Things were looking good.  Ilya was sitting on a field of just 3 useless Ojama Tokens and only had 2 cards in hand.  Plus I was leading on life points.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

set one monster and 1 s/t

Ilya says:

and end turn

Ilya was on defense.

Paul says:

ok I drw

Ilya says:

no response

Paul says:

set another mon fd and end turn

I decided to start setting up for the victory.  My hand had some options but was lacking something to get rid of that FD monster.  I set a Cat of Ill Omen hoping to use it to pull a Level Limit Area A, to put them Ojama tokens in ATK mode ready to be smashed.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

set 1 monster and end turn

Things were a bit cagey, Ilya was quite rightly defending and I was trying to set up for the win.  His FD cards were bothering me.  If one was a Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar or one of his FLIP effect bounce monsters I could lose the field presence I was building.

Paul says:

drw

Paul says:

flip my mystic tom and atk your 1st fd closest to gy

Paul says:

what's your mon?

Ilya says:

DDWL

Ilya says:

you take 200 damage

Ilya says:

I don't remove them from play.

Paul says:

7800-6150

Paul says:

I’ll flip summon my cat of ill omen and put LLAA on top of my deck

Paul says:

and end turn

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

any s/t's on your field

Paul says:

nope

Ilya says:

your monsters are GGP, Tomato and Cat of Ill Omen all in atk modes right?

Paul says:

yeah

Ilya says:

switch DDWL into attack mode

Ilya says:

switch all 3 Ojama tokens into atk mode

Ilya says:

 and flip summon Yomi Ship

Ilya says:

(this is gonna hurt)

Ilya says:

all 3 tokens attack the cat (2400 damage)

Ilya says:

Yomi ship attack the cat (300 damage to you)

Ilya says:

DD Warrior Lady attack GGP (200 damage to you)

Ilya says:

so its

Ilya says:

7300 - 3750

Ilya says:

set 1 mon and 1 s/t and

Ilya says:

end turn

Ilya needed to do something to turn around the field advantage I was gaining, after seeing me put LLAA on top of my deck he knew the Ojama Tokens would be a liability next turn.  Better to suicide them into a weak monster like Cat of Ill Omen rather than letting a boosted GGP or a Berserk Gorilla or something else run into them.

Paul says:

right then

Paul says:

I see a mistake in your earlier move

Ilya says:

which is

Paul says:

Yomi atked cat but wasn't destroyed meaning DDWL and Yomi where on the field when DDWL atked, meaning GGP had 1800 atk

Ilya says:

so you don’t take the 200 and I take an extra 300 and I remove DDWL and GGP from play.

Ilya says:

so then

Ilya says:

7500-3450

Ilya says:

I have Yomi ship in atk mode, set monster and 2 set s/t’s

Ilya says:

It’s your turn

By noticing Ilya’s mistake it showed how my dueling experience was increasing.  I was becoming more aware of the field and spending more time analyzing my opponent’s moves.

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

activate heavy storm

I’d had Heavy Storm for a while but I was waiting for Ilya to set some spells and traps.  The fact that he set 2 was a bonus as it made the Heavy Storm a 2 for 1. 

Ilya says:

destroying my heavy storm and torrential tribute

Ilya had obviously set his heavy storm as a bluff.  He was trying to put me off from attacking by putting an additional spell or trap.  I would therefore consider summoning another monster before attacking in case he had set a Sakuretsu Armour.  Once I had summoned my monster he could activate Torrential and wipe my field clean.  However I had been saving my Heavy Storm.

Paul says:

normal summon gigantes

Ilya says:

you can't

Ilya says:

read gigantes' special summoning requirement in his effect

Ilya says:

you must remove from play an Earth type

Paul says:

I thought that it was an option to special summon as it doesn't say you can only summon this card by special summon

Paul says:

sorry read it again

Yet again I caught out by a mistake I had made before.  Not reading my card properly!!!

Paul says:

its alright I have earth's in the graveyard

Ilya says:

ok so there is no problem with summoning Gigantes

Paul says:

remove giant rat

Paul says:

then mystic tom atk your fd

Ilya says:

destroying morphing jar (his effect activates though)

Ilya says:

I didn’t have cards in hand prior the attack on morphing jar

Ilya says:

did you?

Paul says:

LLAA and rescue cat

I lost my LLAA to the Graveyard but my refreshed hand provided me with other options I could use to take the victory.  It also gave me a backup to my new plan on how to win.

Ilya says:

they are in GY and you have a new set of 5

Ilya says:

what is the next order of business?

Paul says:

gigantes atk your Yomi

Ilya says:

ouch

Ilya says:

I take 1100

Ilya says:

both monsters die

Ilya says:

7500-2350

Paul says:

I use my normal summon this turn and summon Berserk Gorilla in fu atk mode and set one s/t and end

Ilya says:

drw

Paul says:

activate Ojama trio

Ilya’s Morphing Jar had given me another Ojama Trio.  Things were ready for the taking, however Ilya had drawn a card to keep me at bay.

Ilya says:

activate sorl

Swords of Revealing Light, damn you!!

Ilya says:

set 1 monster and end turn

Paul says:

good move

Ilya says:

ty

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

and end turn

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

flip summon

Ilya says:

cyber jar

As mentioned in my previous article, Ilya got his Cyber Jar effect on his own turn giving him the initiative from the draw.

Ilya says:

Sangan, nightmare penguin (atk mode) on field / / / scapegoat, sakuretsu armor,                                                                                                 magical mallet to hand

Ilya says:

your 5?

Ilya says:

I take 900 damage for the Ojama tokens

One of the reasons I love Ojama Trio, its like Ilya had to pay 900 life points for Cyber Jar’s effect.  The same would’ve happened if he wanted to use Dark Hole.  That’s almost 1/8 of your life points to activate a card that is usually free.

Ilya says:

7500-1450

Paul says:

Spiritual Earth Art

SORL

DD Crazy Beast

Dark Hole

Paul says:

and GGP

Paul says:

summon both GGP and DD Crazy beast to field

Ilya says:

so DDCB and GGP in atk modes and the rest to your hand right>

Paul says:

Yeah

Ilya now had the advantage due to his Cyber Jar flip.  That’s why this card is now banned!  It can turn a duel around in one turn, as you will see.

Ilya says:

activate Magical Mallet

Ilya says:

I take 2 cards to shuffle

Ilya says:

1) are there any s/t's on your field?

Paul says:

no

Ilya says:

2) snatch steal your GGP

Ilya says:

3) summon Hydrogeddon

Ilya says:

activate ALO

Ilya says:

Hydrogeddon (1800) attacks and destroys your DD crazy beast (400 damage)

Ilya says:

Hydrogeddon is actually 2000

Ilya says:

ALO + nightmare penguin

Ilya says:

(600) damage)

Paul says:

6900-1450

Ilya says:

GGP attacks directly (800)

Ilya says:

Nightmare penguin (1300)

Ilya says:

Sangan (1000)

Paul says:

3800-1450

Ilya says:

3800-1450

Paul says:

nice move

Ilya says:

    Thanks

 Paul says:

any more?

Ilya says:

end turn

I was now looking at an empty field and Ilya had a full field of monsters staring down at me.  However Cyber Jar had provided me with an answer to this predicament.  That just so happened to be another recently banned card.

Paul says:

ok I drw

Ilya says:

4800-1450 (snatch steal)

Paul says:

so your field is now 5 mon (sangan, hydro x 2, penguin and GGP)

Paul says:

+ ALO

Ilya says:

+ ALO, Snatch Steal, SORL (2 turns left)

Paul says:

and number of cards in hand?

Ilya says:

4

Paul says:

well I guess I should activate my dark hole then hey

Now you can see the reason why this card is also now banned.

Ilya says:

honestly or are you joking?

Paul says:

honest I pulled it from cyber jar

Ilya says:

I felt it coming

Ilya says:

5 monster to GY

Ilya says:

and snatch

Ilya says:

your ggp is in your gy

Paul says:

thank you

Ilya says:

no probs

Paul says:

come to daddy precious panda

Ilya says:

lmao

Paul says:

right I summon Berserk Gorilla in atk mode

Ilya says:

I have sorl active (thank you god)

Paul says:

and set 2 s/t and end turn

I was again setting up for my victory, berserk gorilla was just a 2000 ATK wall for the moment, stopping Ilya from getting to my life points.

Ilya says:

drw

Ilya says:

1 turn left on sorl

Paul says:

ooh can't wait

Ilya says:

set 2 s/t and a monster and end turn

Paul says:

ok

Paul says:

I drw

Paul says:

activate smashing ground

Ilya says:

can't

Ilya says:

I have no eligible target on my field

Ilya says:

my only mon is fd

Lesson learned here is that Smashing Ground can’t be activated against a FD monster.

Ilya says:

I forgot to tell you that I got Star Boy with Sangan's effect after Cyber jar

Paul says:

ok I guess I end turn

Ilya says:

I drw

Ilya says:

swords are done

Paul says:

oh yes

Ilya says:

set 1 monster

Ilya says:

flip penguin soldier

Paul says:

gorilla to hand

Ilya says:

return your gorilla and my soldier to our respective hands

Ilya says:

and that's the end of my turn

Now was the time to go in for the kill.  I had all the necessary pieces to take victory.  My only worry was Ilya’s set monster.  I had a way of finding out what it was.

Paul says:

ok I drw

Paul says:

how many s/t's do you have

Ilya says:

2 set and ALO

Paul says:

I summon berserk gorilla

Paul says:

response?

I summoned Berserk Gorilla in order to bait out his FD s/t hence why I was asking for responses.

Ilya says:

no

Paul says:

I activate SORL

Paul says:

Chain?

Again I was seeing if I could get him to use his FD s/t.  He wasn’t biting, so I had to just go for it.  I did have a back up set on the field though in case this move didn’t work.

Ilya says:

revealing my magician of faith and bringing magical mallet to hand

Ilya says:

no chain

Paul says:

I activate last will

And so commenced the combo that would seal my victory.

Ilya says:

oh boy

Paul says:

chain?

Ilya says:

no

Paul says:

I activate prem burial

Paul says:

and bring back rescue cat

Ilya says:

4000-1450

Ilya says:

this smells like the end for me

Paul says:

it might be but I have a cool back up if it doesn't work

Paul says:

I use rescue cats effect

Ilya says:

to bring . . .

Paul says:

rescue and prem to gy

Ilya says:

(very anxious and excited)

Paul says:

GGP and cat of ill omen

Paul says:

and I use last wills effect to bring...

Paul says:

giant rat

Paul says:

how many mon on your field?

Ilya says:

1 magician of faith in DEF

Paul says:

GGP atk is 1300 and atks your MoF, respond?

Ilya says:

no

Paul says:

4000-550

Ilya says:

MoF was in DEF mode

Ilya says:

    4000-1450

Paul says:

GGP has trample

Ilya says:

oh

Ilya says:

that’s right

Ilya says:

so I got 900 damage

Ilya says:

4000-550

Paul says:

   giant rat atks direct

Paul says:

response to giant rat?

Ilya says:

yes

Ilya says:

Scapegoat

Finally Ilya revealed one of his FD s/t.  However I was prepared with an answer to his summoning of 4 little sheep tokens.

Paul says:

fine I chain Spiritual E art and sacrifice my giant rat to summon GGP from the gy

Ilya says:

s**t . . . . .. . . . . . . .. n o o o o o ooo . . . ahhhhhh

Ilya says:

darn

Ilya says:

good game

Ilya knew that GGP had trample and with an ATK of 2800 against one of his sheep tokens then it was all over as soon as GGP attacked.

Paul says:

wanna know what my back up was?

Ilya says:

what?

Paul says:

scapegoat and big march of animals!!

Ilya says:

oh jeez

Ilya says:

that is really mean

Paul says:

but fun

So there we have it a break down of another of my duels against Ilya.  Now before I get a load of emails claiming how I made this stupid mistake and that stupid mistake.  Please take into context where I am coming from.  This was my 7^th ever duel, and at the present I only have 30+ duels worth of experience to be able to analyse this duel.  I will no doubt have made some mistakes which is fine, and I do want to know what they are so that I can improve my only request is no bashing and no flaming.  I want your help but I won’t tolerate abuse.

So hopefully now, you newbies can see more of my thought processes and hopefully they will help you in your own duelling decisions.  I won the duel this time.  I was using the same deck against Ilya’s same deck from the last article.  This shows I learned from the mistakes I made in the last duel.  I conserved my hand well and kept control of the field when I could.  This article also highlights the benefits of cards like Cyber Jar and Dark Hole and shows some of the reasons why they were banned in the recent list.

I hope that this duel also highlighted the benefits of unused cards and combos.  I love using the Ojama Trio/Gyaku-Gire Panda combo.  It works on so many levels as well as just the raw atk power boost of GGP.  Also Spiritual Earth Art is a great card if used right.  I’m currently working on a really good deck that abuses another Spiritual Art and the deck is coming together nicely and is looking really mean and competitive.

My email address is mofox9@hotmail.co.uk email me for any help or advice or even your opinions on my articles.  I would love to hear your opinions and if you have any suggestions to improve them then let me know.  I will reply to all emails that are sent to me.  Remember newbies no question is a stupid question.

Until next time fellow duellists!