West Coast Champs-Serf vs Keif Revival of Beatdown: ShowTime. Serf. A World of Books. San Leandro, CA. Monsters: 20 1 Jinzo 1 Jirai Gumo 2 Dark Elf 2 La Jinn 2 7 Colored Fish 1 Harpie’s Brother 2 Sangan 1 Witch of the Black Forest 3 wall of illusion 2 Cannon Soldier 3 Nimble Momongas Magic: 12 1 Change of Heart 1 Pot of Greed 1 Raigeki 1 Dark Hole 1 Monster Reborn 1 Snatch Steal 1 Heavy Storm 1 Mystical Space Typhoon 2 Nobleman of Crossout 2 Fissure Trap: 8 1 Michi-zurf 1 Mirror Force 1 Imperial Order 1 Call of the Haunted 1 Trap Hole 1 Dust Tornado 2 Light of Intervention (Lights...Camera...ShowTime!) Total 40 Tournament on March 2, 2003 (Official UpperDeck Tournament) On to the Championship against my evil rival, Bandit Keif! Championship Opponent: Bandit Keif (Redline) Let’s see, Keif vs Serf again. Hmmm, same lineup. Yeah, except we haven’t faced each other in over three weeks. The last time we faced off, FlashFire overheated and burned out Keif’s Redline engine and blew it up. But now, times were different. FlashFire was no more. Keif had taken his Redline to the Cow Palace, went to school there (Class: Beatdown 101. Lesson: San Jose style. No, really, congratulations on making it to the 8th round out of 12) and gained some valuable experience. Why, World of Books competition had become cake for Keif! Would Keif have his cake and eat me too? Speaking of eating, Keif and I made a bet. Loser would have to make the winner a meal of chicken nuggets with rice (yum-yum!) and also, the loser had to eat a meal called Grampa Rodel’s Special. What was Grampa’s special? Peanut Butter and rice. It sounded sick to us youngsters, but Grampa swore that it’s good. Whatever. ShowTime! First duel, Keif and I are cautious. We exchange 1000 LP hits, me with Sangan and him with his Giant Germs. He brings me down to 5000 LP. I draw a Monster Reborn and summon, then used that monster to tribute to summon Jinzo. Jinzo does his thing and brings Keif down to 4600. He gets rid of Jinzo with Dark Hole but has no monsters. I draw and get a 7 colored fish and attack for 1800, he’s at 2800. Later on, I get a Cannon Soldier out. I then activate Call of the Haunted to bring Jinzo back, since he had a card face down in his M/T zone. Jinzo and Cannon Soldier ends the game. His face down card was a Limiter Removal, no Redline yet. I take the first one with 5000 LP remaining, making it theoretically harder for Keif, since he now has to win two in a row. The pressure was on and building in Keif. Would he Redline, or clunk out? Second duel started out in Keif’s favor. Thanks to his Momongas and Germs, he not only went up to 11000 LP, he also thinned out his deck by 4 cards to increase his odds of drawing game-breaking magic cards. I knew that Keif had the ability to heal himself, but he forgot that I have the ability to heal myself as well. My Momongas brought me up to 9500. I play Dark Hole but he Jammers and discards Barrel Dragon. This could mean only one thing, Keif was getting ready to bring his Barrel back from the graveyard. Keif sets a monster down in DEF mode. I summon a Dark Elf and Crossout his Magician of Faith, removing another copy from his deck. Nobody believes me that I have no Magician of Faith so they go through my deck. I don’t care, I’m always legal like Bugsy Segal. His turn he Reborns his Barrel but I activate Imperial. I paid the upkeep for Imperial for 3 turns, 2100 LP, but it was worth it. With the beatdown monsters, his LP was brought down to zero eventually. After the game, he shows me the cards in his hand and he had Raigeki and Change of Heart. Keif was successful in increasing his chances to draw the Restricted cards, but just like Rock-Paper-Scissors, Magic cards are weak to Imperial Order. They’re no use when they’re just sitting in your hand. After the match, Keif’s Redline was left smashed and in pieces by the brute force of the beatdown called ShowTime. The last tournament before Labyrinth of Nightmare becomes legal at World of Books showed that Beatdown is a good tourney deck in the hands of a skilled duelist. Oh yeah, less than 20 days until the UpperDeck YuGiOh mall tour makes a stop in San Francisco. March 22 and 23. The top duelists at World of Books will be there to represent. Here’s your chance, Bay Area Duelists (and duelists from Sac and far away if you are crazy enough to drive this far) to come duel with us. What’s up! to the hardcore Yu-Gi-Oh! gamers at a World of Books. Get lost! to the thieves that steal cards. Serf buffserf@yahoo.com