The Legends of the Shadows Deck
Matthew "The Shadow" Sita
Wizards of the Coast
Springfield, VA
August 31st, 2002
31 participants

     Finally, the Shadow has come back to Pojo.com.  Now the Shadow's fans know that I've gotten 4th place in both parts 1 and 2, but this time, the Shadow knew that he did better than he did before.  Unlike the last couple of times, I knew that there IS something known as the "Heart of the Cards."  I'm serious it's real.  It helped me out in this tournament.  Well, anyways, here is the Shadow Deck.

Shadow Deck 3.0

Monsters (23):
2 Witch of the Black Forest (my only searchers that don't get me wrong)
3 7 Colored Fish (one of my big hitters)
2 Summoned Skull (Feel it's wrath)
2 Mask of Darkness (get back traps)
2 Wall of Illusion (it's my wall (that's why it has the word "wall in it's name"))
3 La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp (my other heavy hitter)
1 Barrel Dragon (2 words: JUST BROKEN)
3 Magician of Faith (get back my Swords)
2 Masked Sorcerer (drawing good)
3 Man-Eater Bug (my favorite effect monster besides Barrel)

Magic (14):
2 Tribute to the Doomed (Fissure's big brother)
3 Fissure (mini-killer)
2 Heavy Storm (beware Mirror Force)
1 Pot of Greed (drawing very good)
2 Swords of Revealing Light (when you face me, they keep going and going and going).
1 Change of Heart (Oh what's that?  A Magician of Faith? Thanks I'll get back my Swords.)
1 Raigeki (It's pure 0wnage.)
1 Dark Hole (evry1 dies)
1 Monster Reborn (ok you Trap Holed my Barrel?  OK I'll just reborn it.)

Traps (9):
2 Waboku (I love all of the different things I can do with this)
2 7 Tools of the Bandit (This card saved my life a couple of times)
3 Trap Hole (Must have in evry deck)
1 Magic Jammer (Yeah, we're jammin' mon)
1 Mirror Force (Or as I like to call it: the Holy Barrier)

Side Deck (15):
1 Soul Exchange
3 White Magical Hat
2 Giant Soldier of Stone
2 Dark Elf
2 Jirai Gumo
1 Summoned Skull
2 Neo the Magic Swordsman
2 Robbin' Goblin

Monsters to Magic/Trap Ratio: 1:1.  That's a pretty good ratio.  Well, the main thing in this deck is to use up the SoRL as early as I can so I can prepare myself.  There were 31 participants in this one, so no wonder the prizes were the very rare LoBEWD boosters 1st Edition.  1st Place gets 5, 2nd Place gets 3, 3rd Place get 1, while 4th Place gets a Metal Raiders Pack.  As usual, it was Single Elimination the only difference was that the Top Players in the last tournament (NOT from LoS Part 2) get byes.  The first placemen was Kyle, so he got the 1st bye.  Well, Let me tell you what happened.

# of People in tourney: 31
Match 1
Shadow vs. some kid with some deck (yes it was THAT bad)
Rounds 1 & 2: This kid was I think older than me, but I could tell that he is dumber than me.  I didn't even have to use my SS or BD on him.  I knew the 1st round is always the easy round.
2-0

# of People in tourney: 15 (I dunno how)
Match 2
Shadow vs. Haniel...
     When Paul announced who was playing who, I noticed that Haniel was the second placemen so I asked Paul why I was facing him if we had an odd amount of people and Haniel was 2nd place last tournament.  Paul then said that whoever gets this bye then face you instead.  After all of the names were called out, the last name left was JEFFERY!!!  My arch rival had to face me instead, but I knew that if there was a "Heart of the Cards," it would help me win against a 3 time champ.

Shadow vs. Jeffery (Skulled Sorcerer Deck)
     In a way, Jeffery, Saul, and I are like a Rock, Paper, Scissors match.  Usually, Jeffery beats Saul, Saul beats me, and I beat Jeffery, sometimes.  I hope it ends out the same here.
Round 1: This match was all me.  He wasn't quick enough to withstand my onslaught of La Jinn and SS (Just telling you, in a regular duel once before, I shut him out (He didn't get a single life point off of me.))
Round 2: This match was a rotten match for me.  He was able to reborn my BD, bring out a SS, and crush me.
Round 3: Now THIS was where I started to believe in the "Heart of the Cards."  When he had only 1750  Life Points left to my 3500, I knew he had a Trap Hole in one of his Magic/Trap zone, I just had that psychic like feeling he had one, so I needed mostly was a Monster Reborn when I had about 25 cards left in my deck, so the odds were against me, but I focus as much as I can, closed my eyes, and drew my card...MONSTER REBORN!  I played it, reborned my Barrel and attacked, which eliminated the 3 time champ.  Now the champ is a chump.
4-1
# of People in tourney: 9 (I STILL dunno how)
Match 3
Shadow vs. bye
     During the break, Paul was trying to figure out how to get an even amount of people left so there could be an even amount of people for the Semifinals, so what Paul did was that he picked 3 people to have a bye.  He drew the first card...it wasn't me, but some person that went to summer school with me.  He drew the second one...IT WAS ME!! YES!  I GET A FREE BYE!  Well anyways, he drew the third card and it was some Japanese kid named John or Paul or something like that.  So no matter what happened, I was going to the Quarterfinals, so I dueled my old summer school friend to a couple of fun duels, but I lost (I wasn't at full focus).  The Japanese kid was REALLY annoying me telling me to show me his deck.  I told him these words: "If you want to see my deck, you'll have to see it in action."  Before he had the chance to duel me though, the Quarterfinals had to begin.

# of People in tourney: 6
These are the people left in the tourney:
Shadow (hey that's me)
Haniel (2nd placemen last time)
kid from summer school (he's pretty kool)
Scott (my killer deck report rival)
annoying Japanese kid (why won't you leave me alone, freak)
Eric (my friend from my old school (I'm so TIRED of facing him the second round all the time))

Quarterfinals
Shadow vs. kid from summer school (almost the same deck as mine...I think)
     I couldn't believe that the person I had to face was the person that I just free dueled with 'bout 5 minutes ago. Anyways, he was one of my harder matches and I knew one day, he will get first place.

Round 1: I basically made sure he had no monsters out and used my trusty Barrel to beat him (As James Bond would say: "It's too easy...")
Round 2: He did my main weakness: Card Destructioned my Barrel and Reborned it...OUCH! (Now would be the time when Alec would say "Half of everything is luck")
Round 3: Heart of the Cards didn't fail me here either and I got out a SS 2nd turn with a Magician of Faith face-down and I just beat him. I have 2 admit it was close. ("...And the other half?  Fate.")
6-2

     Since there had to be 4 people left in the tourney, Paul recorded all of the damage done that the "losers" did to the winners.  The one person that did the most damage was Scott so the following people are left to battle it out:

Shadow vs. Scott (sweet)
Eric vs. Haniel (thank goodness it isn't the Japanese kid)

     Well, talk about your matter of luck.  I went against the more easier people.  Well, let me tell you what happened:

Semifinals
Shadow vs. Scott (Jirai Gumo deck)
Rounds 1 and 2: It was too easy.  Whenever he would get out a Jirai or Dark Elf, I just Trap Holed it and when he tried to Mirror Force my Barrel, I 7 Tools to just crush him and annoy him at the same time.  After the last match, all he could say was his catch phrase "What the heck?!?!"
8-2

     I was surprised at Eric because he promised me to duel me in the finals when he would beat Haniel, but instead, Haniel was sitting down waiting for me.  I was quite disappointed at Eric, but surprised and impressed at Haniel, since we would've met one way or another.  Anyways, It's time to duel!

Finals
Shadow vs. Haniel (Big Eye deck)
Rounds 1 and 2: These were embarrassing.  In both rounds, when I thought I was in the lead, he used the weakness of mine: Card Destruction; reborn Summoned Skull.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

2nd Place...wow I'm good, but the one thing I couldn't believe was that Eric lost to Scott!  Well anyways, I got 3 1st Edition LoBEWD boosters and got Darkfire Dragon, Pot of Greed, and Right Leg of the Forbidden One (ENOUGH WITH THE EXODIA PIECES).  Kyle said that he would give me 2 more boosters and $15 for it so I said yes.  Out of those packs, I got Goblin's Secret Remedy and Aqua Madoor, but he didn't have enough cash on him.  Besides that, Props & Slops time...

Props:
-To me for getting to the silver medal.
-To me for breaking my 2nd round elimination curse. (WOO-HOO!)
-To Marie and her shop for getting most of the stuff I need. (Thanks)
-To Jeffery for not getting angry when I beat him.
-To Electro-dice for being the future of dice rolling.
-To me for trading my Tri-Horn and believing in the Heart of the Cards (It's real).
-And of course, Luv that chicken from Popeye's!

Slops:
-To the rotten boosters.
-To the Japanese kid for being annoying.
-To Stephen for being a more annoying freak than that Japanese kid.
-To my brother, Nino, for bossing me around all the time.
-To me for not getting the cards I really wanted (REBD, Polymerization; no I'm not making B. Skull Dragon.)

     Well, that's about it.  Until I have the strength to make a Part 4 (I think I pulled a muscle), I'm out.  You can E-mail me at SpedyMatt@aol.com.  Until then, I'm out like a flash.  Adios.