My next aim was to win a duel for the first time and it was during my second ever duel that I got my first taste of victory.

After my first ever duel I was buzzing.  I was excited at what I had just achieved and was going over the duel in my head over and over again.  After the first duel Ilya and I had not formally arranged another time to duel so I was left waiting to see if he would come online again.

It took a while, just over a week, before we were to duel again and it was during this time that I again started to get doubts about this game.  Had I offended Ilya? Did he not deem me a worthy opponent and felt I wasn’t worth the investment of his time and effort.  I started to wonder if I had been ditched after my first duel.  I continued to make new decks hoping that this would take my mind off Ilya not being in contact.  Also I think I wanted to create something that would impress him even more.  I figured that if I used interesting and original decks then that would be enough to keep his interest in duelling me.

After playing in such an aggressive way last time I felt like I should try the opposite and play a deck that forced me to play defensively.  The obvious choice was burn.  I spent the next few days researching burn decks on the internet, looking at featured writers and experts and using some of the ideas that they came up with.  I found that there was multiple ways of constructing burn decks and that there were many tools a duellist could use.  I decided to focus upon an Ectoplasmer/Malice Doll of Demise burn deck but added in some other less combo orientated burn options.  I also maxed out on as much stall as possible.

My earlier fears were to be for nothing as Ilya came back online and contacted me immediately.  He asked if I was ready for my next duel and I replied that I was ready to go now.  I think he liked my eagerness and he went away to get his decks.  This time I hadn’t built my deck to match my opponents and purely built it to beat any deck.  Ilya had turned up with a Water deck so the battle of water against burn was about to begin.

The duel didn’t take as long as last time and I had remembered my mistakes from last time.  Ilya’s Hydrogeddon’s swarmed the field early but an early Ojama Trio helped to stop him swarming further.  His Yomi Ships were annoying, preventing me from getting any field advantage.  When I eventually drew into some stall, Ilya’s field was stuck and I continued to flip a Stealth Bird to keep reducing his life points.  He managed to summon a Mobius and broke the stall, however my next draw provided another method of stall.  Things were looking ok however my hand was depleting quickly, I had little field presence and Ilya had a large field and good hand.  This is were 2 cards helped me take the win.  In one turn I activated a Just Desserts, causing Ilya 2500 points of damage.  Then I top decked a card that could seal me the match if played at the right time uninterrupted.  I set my trap and waited for Ilya to draw.  Ilya had a set s/t himself and as he didn’t use it in my end phase I assumed it wasn’t s/t destruction.  Ilya announced his draw and I typed as quickly as I could to announce the activation of last card, my set s/t… Secret Barrel.  With 6 cards in hand and 5 on the field the card inflicted the last 2200 damage that was needed to take the victory.  I didn’t want to sound like a sore winner and start gloating and such so I acted in a way that Ilya couldn’t tell I was ecstatic about winning.  I remained calm on MSN thanked Ilya, and praised him for his game and deck.  Inside though I was having a party.  I was so nervous during that last turn so much so that I had to put my suit jacket back on to stop people eyeing my ever-increasing wet patches under my arms.  It was so tense, relying on just one card to steal victory.  As much as I was hungry to duel after my first, winning my second and in the way I did just added more to my hunger to duel.  I hoped Ilya was ready because he had unleashed a duelling beast who was ready to duel anytime anywhere.

It was after this duel that I had the idea to write for Pojo.  I wrote 2 articles and submitted them to Pojo and asked if they thought it would be a tale worth telling.  You can all guess the response. 

My next article will be an in depth analysis of a duel between Ilya and myself.  It will show moves turn by turn and will discuss how I came to my decisions to make them moves and also discuss, using the benefits of hindsight, how I made a mistake and why.

I would just also like to thank those people who have emailed me regarding these articles, your positive response has been overwhelming.  Since writing these articles I have had emails from the following places:

• Scotland
• Ireland
• Greece
• USA
• Canada
• Argentina
• Peru
• Malaysia
• Australia
• Puerto Rico

And that’s just the people who have told me where they are from.  It is amazing how this game has put me in contact with people from all over the world and to me it proves how this game has a Worldwide Popularity that I doubt anything else can match.  I LOVE THIS GAME!!

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!