The June 30th NeoGoat tournament brought 10 players together for a very unusual night: half tournament, half football watch party. While the duels were going on, everyone was also keeping an eye on the Mexico vs Ecuador World Cup match ⚽, so the room had that strange but fun mix of tense card-game silence, sudden soccer reactions, and the usual NeoGoat arguments over timing windows.
The featured matches gave us a good spread of the current local field: Water Plant, Hydro Banisher, Burn, Warrior, and Earth Zombie all showed up on camera. By the end of the night, Warrior took first place, Burn finished second, and Water Plant landed in third.
Featured Duel 1 - Water Plant vs Hydro Banisher
The first recorded match was Water Plant against Hydro Banisher, and it quickly became the rules-discussion match of the night. A long pause happened when Hydro Banisher argued that Botanical Girl would miss timing after being destroyed by battle while connected to Miracle Fertilizer.
After the judge reviewed the situation, the ruling was that Botanical Girl did not miss timing in that case, so the duel continued. From there, Water Plant managed to survive the disruption and keep grinding through the long game. In the last duel of the match, Pole Position ended up being the tech that won Water Plant the match. By chaining it to Book of Moon at the key moment, Plant kept its field from falling apart and took over the duel.
It was not the fastest duel of the night, but it was definitely the one that made everyone stop watching the football game for a moment.
Featured Duel 2 - Water Plant vs Burn
The second featured match was one of the most interesting ones: Water Plant against Burn. This was a full back-and-forth match where both decks showed what they were trying to do.
In the first duel, Water Plant opened with Lonefire Blossom into Sylvan Hermitree, but Burn slowed things down with Nightmare Wheel. The key turn came when Plant used Miracle Fertilizer to revive Lonefire, then followed with Giant Trunade, returning Fertilizer, Nightmare Wheel, and the set backrow. After that, Lonefire brought out Fairy King Truesdale, Abyss Soldier bounced the set monster, Fertilizer came down again, and a second Truesdale joined the field. Plant pushed through with a huge board and took the first duel.
The second duel was Burn at its nastiest, and also had one messy rules moment. Burn opened with Pot of Greed, Des Koala, Reflect Bounder, and later Lava Golem, forcing Water Plant to spend resources just to stay alive. When Lava Golem tributed Plant’s Botanical Girl and Abyss Soldier, Plant activated Botanical Girl and searched Lord Poison. That search was actually invalid, since Botanical Girl should miss timing when tributed this way, but no judge was nearby and Burn allowed the play to continue.
Even with that extra card, Burn kept applying pressure. Plant used Tribe-Infecting Virus to discard Lord Poison and destroy Lava Golem, then later tried to rebuild with Miracle Fertilizer, Sylvan Hermitree, and Frost and Flame Dragon. One of the best plays of the match came when Plant activated Nobleman of Crossout on Burn’s set monster, but Burn chained Ceasefire, flipping the target face-up as Giant Germ. That made Nobleman fail to banish it, while Ceasefire also dealt 1500 damage.
From there, Burn finished the duel perfectly. Plant kept trying to stabilize, but in the End Phase Burn activated three copies of Nightmare Wheel on Hermitree. The Wheels dropped Plant to 500, and then the saved Giant Germ attacked into Hermitree, was destroyed, and inflicted the final 500 damage. It was a brutal Burn finish: even after allowing an invalid Botanical Girl search, Burn still found the exact line to close the game.
The third duel was much cleaner for Water Plant. Lonefire brought out Hermitree again, but D.D. Warrior Lady removed it early. Plant rebuilt with Mother Grizzly, Lord Poison, and Abyss Soldier. Burn seemed to draw too many monsters and not enough real defensive pieces, and after Abyss Soldier bounced the last set monster, Plant attacked for the win.
Water Plant won the match. Burn deck can suddenly turn the duel into a math problem.
Featured Duel 3 - Warrior vs Earth Zombie
The third featured match was Warrior against Earth Zombie. This one was more direct than the Plant matches: less looping, more pressure, more removal, and more battle-phase punishment.
Earth Zombie tried to play through the grind, but Warrior kept the pace high and did not let the Zombie side comfortably establish its engine. The Warrior deck used its usual mix of efficient attackers, spot removal, and tempo swings to keep forcing bad trades. Once Warrior got ahead, Earth Zombie never fully recovered.
Warrior took the match and kept building momentum toward the final result of the night.
Featured Duel 4 - Water Plant vs Warrior
The last featured duel put Water Plant against Warrior, with both decks already having strong tournament runs. Water Plant had shown that it could grind through removal, abuse Miracle Fertilizer, and suddenly build a threatening board out of the Graveyard. Warrior, on the other hand, had the cleaner tempo plan.
This time, Warrior came out on top. The deck had enough pressure and interaction to keep Water Plant from freely setting up its recursion engine, and the match ended with Warrior securing the win.
That result gave Warrior first place for the June 30th event.
Final Standings
- 1st Place: Warrior
- 2nd Place: Burn
- 3rd Place: Water Plant
Overall, this was a fun 10-player night with a very different atmosphere from the usual local tournament. The World Cup match in the background made the room louder, stranger, and more relaxed, but the duels still delivered: a rules pause, a triple Nightmare Wheel finish, a Plant comeback, and a Warrior deck closing the tournament in first place.
Not a bad night for NeoGoat. Not a bad night for football either.
