It has been a long day here in Kuala Lumpur, for Day 2 of YOT Malaysia 2019. Our players have battled through 8 rounds of Swiss for the Asia Premier event and are now harvesting the fruits of their labour.

Huang He Nan 黄鹤楠 (in white) has travelled from Mainland China and is looking to collect his first YOT victory with his Trickstar deck. Sitting across him is Luk Chi Hang from Hong Kong, who has also travelled from far to be here at the event. His deck choice is Destiny HEROes, and his Extra Deck spots a suiting sleeve to compliment the HERO-theme deck.

Game 1

He Nan lead the game with Pot of Extravagance. Six Random Extra Deck cards were exchanged for a two-card draw. He searches Trickstar Candina through Lightstage and summons the iconic yellow Fairy Monster, and searches Trickstar Reincarnation. Setting three, he ended his turn.

Chi Hang’s turn came and he set two cards and a monster. He Nan activates Trickstar Lycoris‘ effect during his End Phase, reacting offensively to Chi Hang’s passive opening. Trickstar Candina was returned to He Nan’s hand.

He Nan draws for his turn and uses Lightstage’s effect to seal off one of the set cards. Chi Hang had no response. He Nan went on to summon Candina, which fetched another copy of Lightstage. The field spell card was used to seal off the other card and search Trickstar Corobane, which special summoned itself successfully.

It is now time to battle! Corobane took out the face-down monster, which was revealed to be D.D. Crow, surprising the audience, while giving an indication to how Chi Hang’s hand was.

Candina and Lycoris direct attacks, dealing 2000 and 1800 damage, due to Lightstage.

A second copy of Lycoris was special summoned, returning Candina back to hand. It, too, went for a direct attack, lowering the lifepoints count by another 1800.

(He Nan 8000- Ching Han 2400)

Trickstar Reincarnation was activated after the attacks. This causes Chi Hang to receive 600 damage from each Lycoris, since he drew three cards. Lightstage adds onto the chip damage, dealing an additional of 200LP damage for each increment.

All together, Chi Hang lost 1600LP, leaving him at a precarious 800LP. Furthermore he lost a card to Lightstage’s effect. (Solemn Strike)

When his Draw Phase came, so did the effect of the two Lycoris, causing him to lose the remainder of his Lifepoints.

Chi Hang complained about his opening hand after his loss, which consisted of three copies of Called by the Grave.

“I never had such a bad hand before”

“I didn’t train myself to be ready for this”

He Nan laughed along empathetically.

Game 2

Fusion Destiny was played by Chi Hang to fusion summon D-HERO Dangerous using Vision HERO Vyon and D-HERO Celestial. Using Dangerous’ effect, D-HERO Malicious was discarded as cost, milling D-HERO Drilldark.

Malicious’ effect was activated, special summoning another copy to the field.

Elemental HERO – Shadow Mist was normal summoned, assembling a total of three HEROes onto the field.

Shadow Mist and Dangerous were used to Link Summon Xtra Hero Cross Guy.

Just when it seems Chi Hang would finally perform his plays with his D-HEROes, He Nan threw a large wrench into his plans with the activation of both Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay and Infinite Impermanence, negating the effect of Cross Guy. Shadow Mist’s effect still resolves, fetching Chi Hang Honesty NEOs. Setting one card he ended his turn.

He Nan uses Pot of Extravagance and followed up with Trickstar Light Stage, which searches Lycoris. Lightstage seals off the face-down card again. Dinowrestler Pankratops special summons itself, and Candina is normal summoned to search another copy of Lycoris.

Things do not look good for Chi Hang. Pranketrops tributes itself to destroy Cross Guy while Candino destroys Malicious. Phantazmal attacks directly while Candina tags out for two copies of Lyrcoris to replace it.

(He Nan 8000- Ching Han 2000)

These series of attacks left Chi Hang at 2000 lifepoints, but he was about to suffer another 800LP of damage during his Draw Phase.

(He Nan 8000- Ching Han 1200)

Nearby spectators were commenting about the situation and it indeed looks dire for Chi Hang. Some of his friends even joked and suggested that it was time for him to offer a handshake.

“A hero never backs down! I am going down fighting”, Chi Hang declared bravely in his native language – Cantonese.

Malicious’ effect was used to summon the third copy, in Attack Mode!

Chi Hang declares an attack on Phantazmal, destroying it with the help of Honesty Neos.

“At least I dealt some damage!!!”

“… now is time to concede”

Chi Hang said jokingly, providing an anti-climatic end to the duel. The unlucky D-HERO player seems to be having fun with his self-deprecating jokes, despite not being able to make his plays. As Chi Hang commented, it would seem ironic that fate has forsaken his D-HEROes.

Ultimately, Chi Hang ended his turn and allowed He Nan to deal the final blow with Candina. Chi Hang laughed upon his defeat, seemingly having fun laughing along at his situations despite losing.

He Nan dropped his hand onto his playmat in excitement, happily punching in the air in excitement, understandably. It was his moment and he has been crowned the YOTMY Asia Premier Champion, with this victory, earning his representation rights.

Emotionally, he celebrated his victory in tears of joy and Chi Hang displayed great sportsmanship by congratulating his opponent. He Nan received plenty of congratulations from his friends, many of which were enthusiastically chanting “He Nan Overpowered!)

Drying his tears, He Nan mentioned that he barely prepared and had stopped playing for almost a year prior to this, explaining the emotional significance this victory had on him. Chi Hang takes his defeat in stride, commenting once more: “I wanna cry too”

He Nan happily signs the results slip, while the surrounding audiences are reminded of how much laughter and joy the game can bring, even in the face of defeat and mathematically-improbable hands.

This article was originally published on Yu-Gi-Oh! Events and has been republished with permission.

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