Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship 2002

Yu-Gi-Oh! Asia Championship 2002 was held on 18 August 2002 in Tokyo, Japan.

This tournament used a single-elimination format, but gave Japan the advantage of being seeded directly into the final.

On one side of the bracket are the champions from East Japan and West Japan playing against each other. The player representing East Japan is from Fukushima Prefecture, while his opponent representing West Japan is from Gifu Prefecture.

On the other side of the bracket are the OCG Asia regions. Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore joined Hong Kong and Taiwan for the first time in the Asia Championship. The semi-final had Singapore playing against Hong Kong.

Semi-final between Japan representatives: Fukushima vs Gifu
Photo from: 遊戯王　アルティマニア (Wayback Machine)

In the semi-final, Suzuki Yohei from Fukushima defeated his opponent from Gifu and went on to represent Japan in the final. In the other semi-final, Lim Choon Kiat from Singapore defeated his opponent from Hong Kong and went on to represent Asia in the final. The Japan representative from Gifu played against the Hong Kong representative in the 3rd/4th playoffs.

The final match between Suzuki Yohei (Japan) and Lim Choon Kiat (Singapore) was an exciting showdown.
Duel 1 went to Choon Kiat as he managed to establish control with Guardian Sphinx continuously bouncing his opponent’s monsters.
Duel 2 had Yohei tying up the series with hand destruction.
Duel 3 saw Choon Kiat taking the lead but he forgot about his Vampire Lord Trigger Effect to revive itself. This was a fatal mistake that allowed Yohei to seal the game with the Yata-Garasu lock.

Source: Asia Championship 2002

This is a classic Hand Destruction deck in the OCG. It uses the trinity of Confiscation, Delinquent Duo and The Forceful Sentry to control the opponent by limiting their options before finishing off with Yata-Garasu. The notorious Yata-Lock is established by attacking with Yata-Garasu to skip the opponent’s Draw Phase, and by repeating this every turn, the opponent would slowly starve out of cards.

Vampire Lord is an unique tech choice that both 2002 Asia Champion and Finalist ran in their decks. Being able to revive itself against board wipes like Raigeki, Dark Hole, Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute made it a very pesky card to deal with.

Mystic Tomato is a very popular toolbox for being able to Special Summon Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest, which in turn could fetch any monsters in the deck. To counter Mystic Tomato, Yohei ran Giant Rat with D.D. Crazy Beast and additional D.D. Warrior in the Side Deck. This allows his Giant Rat to trade with Mystic Tomato, and whatever monster that is Special Summoned by Mystic Tomato would be banished by D.D. Crazy Beast or D.D. Warrior.

• Duel Monsters Central (Wayback Machine)
• 遊戯王　アルティマニア (Wayback Machine)
• オシリスの天空部屋 (Wayback Machine)
• St.白隱 (sgpo12347)