The New Yorkers are battling it out in this Feature Match! First up is Zach Butler, playing a Fiendsmith Kashtira Deck. He’s using this as an answer to the popular Decks of the day, with cards like Kashtira Unicorn to dismantle fragile Extra Decks, and Constellar Ptolemy M7 to reuse powerful anti-meta cards like Artifact Lancea. He’s even teched it out with Neo Space Connector and Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin to hit key answers from the opponent before they become a problem. His opponent is Anthony Figueroa, using one of the most popular Decks this weekend – @Ignister Maliss! The newest Forbidden & Limited List put a restriction on the Maliss strategy, but the new Maliss and @Ignister cards from Alliance Insight have kept it as a powerful option. Will it be strong enough to overcome Butler’s Deck built to beat Decks like Maliss?

Duel 1

Figueroa won the dice roll and chose to play first. Butler had a hand of Neo Space Connector, Lacrima the Crimson Tears, Mulcharmy Purulia, Kashtira Fenrir, and Infinite Impermanence. He activated Purulia in Figueroa’s Draw Phase, and Figueroa Chained Called by the Grave to banish and negate it. He Normal Summoned Maliss <P> March Hare, and Link Summoned Linguriboh. He Special Summoned Backup @Ignister, adding Maliss <P> Dormouse to his hand and discarding it. He Link Summoned Haggard Lizardose, banishing Dormouse for its effect. He paid 300 Life Points to Special Summon Dormouse, and Butler had Infinite Impermanence to negate its effect. Figueroa Link Summoned Maliss <Q> Red Ransom, adding Maliss in Underground to his hand. He played it, banishing Maliss <P> White Rabbit, and he Special Summoned it. Its effect put Maliss <C> GWC-06 on the field. He activated it by banishing Red Ransom, bringing Dormouse back to the field. Then he paid 900 Life Points to Special Summon the banished Red Ransom, which banished Maliss <P> Chessy Cat. He Special Summoned Chessy Cat, and used its effect to banish a March Hare from his hand and draw two new cards. He used March Hare’s effect, putting it back in his hand. He used Chessy Cat and Dormouse to Link Summon Splash Mage, which brought Chessy Cat to the field again. Then he used both monsters to Link Summon Maliss <Q> White Binder. It banished Infinite Impermanence from Butler’s Graveyard, and Chessy Cat from Figueroa’s. He used White Binder’s effect to Set GWC-06 from the Graveyard. Then he used White Binder and White Rabbit to Link Summon Firewall Dragon! He banished White Binder to Special Summon March Hare, and Special Summoned the White Binder to draw a card. He used everything but Firewall for Maliss <Q> Hearts Crypter. Then he Special Summoned Wizard @Ignister, bringing March Hare back to the field. He used Wizard, March Hare, and Hearts Crypter to Link Summon Allied Code Talker @Ignister! It brought White Binder and Hearts Crypter back to the field! Figueroa played Allure of Darkness, banishing a Chessy Cat for two fresh cards.

Butler drew… another Purulia. Rather than reveal his strategy in a futile attempt to get past Figueroa’s incredible field, Butler conceded here. That would give him an advantage in Side Decking for the next Duel.

Duel 2

Butler began with Bystial Druiswurm, Fiendsmith Engraver, Infinite Impermanence, and two copies of Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring. He activated Engraver, adding Fiendsmith’s Tract to his hand. He played that to find and discard Fabled Lurrie. Lurrie hit the field, and he Link Summoned Fiendsmith’s Requiem. He used Requiem’s effect to Special Summon Lacrima the Crimson Tears, which sent another Engraver to the Graveyard. He equipped Requiem to Lacrima, and used both cards to play Necroquip Princess. He activated Engraver, returning Lurrie to the Deck, and Figueroa had Dominus Impulse! Butler Set Infinite Impermanence.

Figueroa Set a card in his back row, and Butler responded with Lacrima’s Graveyard effect to Special Summon Requiem, returning Lacrima to the Deck. Requiem then brought Lacrima back to the field, and Lacrima sent Fiendsmith in Paradise to the Graveyard. Figueroa played Allure of Darkness, and Butler used one of his Ash Blossoms. Necroquip Princess activated, letting Butler draw an Infinite Impermanence. Figueroa played Maliss in Underground, banishing White Rabbit from the Deck. He paid 300 Life Points to Special Summon it. He used its effect, and Butler flipped up Infinite Impermanence to negate it. Figueroa used White Rabbit to Link Summon Linguriboh. Then he Special Summoned Backup @Ignister, adding Dormouse to his hand and discarding an Infinite Impermanence. He Normal Summoned Dormouse, using its effect to banish March Hare from the Deck. He used March Hare’s effect to put it in his hand. He used Backup and Dormouse to Link Summon Splash Mage, and Butler activated Fiendsmith in Paradise. He sent Fiendsmith’s Desirae to the Graveyard, which let him put Engraver back in the Deck and send Splash Mage to the Graveyard. Figueroa used March Hare to banish Dormouse from the Graveyard, Special Summoning both monsters. He used Linguriboh, March Hare, and Dormouse to Link Summon Hearts Crypter. Then he flipped GWC-06 by banishing Hearts Crypter. He Special Summoned Dormouse, then paid 900 Life Points to Special Summon Hearts Crypter with double the ATK!

At this point, however, he realized he’d done a part of his combo out of order – he conceded! While he had Hearts Crypter in play, he didn’t have any banished Maliss cards to use with it. Even if he attacked Butler’s monsters this turn, Butler could easily rebuild with his Fiendsmiths and remove the Maliss monsters on the followup turn.

Duel 3

Butler began the final Duel with with Lacrima, Kashtira Unicorn, Fiendsmith Engraver, Neo Space Connector, and Infinite Impermanence. A great hand when going first, but with no Mulcharmy or Artifact Lancea in sight when he needed it. Figueroa played Terraforming to find Maliss in Underground. He played Gold Sarcophagus next, banishing Chessy Cat from the Deck. He paid 300 Life Points to Special Summon it, and used its effect to banish March Hare and draw two cards. Then he used March Hare’s effect, returning it to his hand. He Normal Summoned Dormouse, banishing White Rabbit from the Deck, and Special Summoned that as well. White Rabbit’s effect put GWC-06 on the field. He used White Rabbit and Dormouse to Link Summon Cyberse Wicckid. He then used Chessy Cat to Link Summon Linguriboh. Wicckid put Backup @Ignister in his hand, banishing Chessy Cat from the Graveyard. He Special Summoned Backup, adding Wizard @Ignister to his hand and discarding Maliss in Underground. He used Backup and Linguriboh to Link Summon Splash Mage, and Butler finally used his Infinite Impermanence to negate it.

Figueroa had another Maliss in Underground, and used it to banish Dormouse from the Deck. He Special Summoned Dormouse, and he used it with Splash Mage to Link Summon Red Ransom. Red Ransom put Maliss in the Mirror in his hand. He Special Summoned Wizard, bringing Dormouse back to the field. He used Wizard and Wicckid to Link Summon White Binder, which banished Infinite Impermanence from Butler’s Graveyard, plus White Rabbit and Underground from his own. He flipped up GWC-06 by banishing Red Ransom, bringing a second Dormouse back to the field, and then Special Summoned the banished Red Ransom. White Binder put GWC-06 back on the field. He used White Binder and the two Dormouse to Link Summon Hearts Crypter. He banished White Binder from the Graveyard to Special Summon March Hare. That let him Special Summon White Binder and draw a card. He used Red Ransom, White Binder, and March Hare for Allied Code Talker @Ignister! It brought White Binder and Red Ransom back to the field. He Set two more back row cards to finish.

Butler drew… Nibiru, the Primal Being. Right on time. He Special Summoned Kashtira Unicorn, and Figueroa used Hearts Crypter to banish the Unicorn. Butler discarded Engraver for its effect, and Figueroa flipped up Called by the Grave! Butler Normal Summoned Lacrima and did not activate its effect. He Xyz Summoned Super Starslayer TY-PHON – Sky Crisis! He activated its effect, and Figueroa flipped Maliss in the Mirror, banishing Red Ransom to negate TY-PHON. Then he Special Summoned Red Ransom, which banished White Rabbit. He Special Summoned White Rabbit, which Set Maliss <C> MTP-07 on the field. Butler sent TY-PHON to attack White Binder, and Figueroa flipped MTP-07 by banishing White Binder. He added March Hare to his hand, then banished TY-PHON. He Special Summoned White Binder and drew another card.

Figueroa took no risks on his turn and moved straight to the Battle Phase, ending the Match!

Anthony Figueroa wins the Match with @Ignister Maliss!