At a glance
- Genesys, 452 duelists start on Friday for 8 Swiss rounds: on Sunday 64 come back for the last four rounds and the Top 8. That is 179 more than Houston's 273.
- Two undefeated at 8-0: Jesse Kotton and Nicholas Simon. Kotton, from Toronto, plays Magistus Fairy Tail as in Houston, where he made the Top 8, and in the last round beats Matthew Vanden Heuvel in a clash between two 7-0 players.
- Angelechy everywhere: at the round 6 top tables, Angelechy decks are 26 out of 40, in nine different builds.
- Houston's champion is in: Enzo Fiallos finishes 6-2 in 49th place and can defend his title on Sunday.
The schedule
YCS Orlando, the last North American one of 2026, runs over three days at the Orange County Convention Center: Friday is Day 1 of Genesys, starting at 10 a.m. local (4 p.m. in Italy), Saturday is Day 1 of Advanced, Sunday is Day 2 of both. With 452 entrants, Genesys has 12 Swiss rounds, 8 on Friday and 4 on Sunday, then the Top 8. The top 64 advance, or everyone with at least 18 points if there are more: 6-2 or better finishes with 56, so the last eight spots go to the 5-3s with the best tiebreakers. Anyone who makes it in both Genesys and Advanced has to pick a single Day 2 on Saturday evening: that is why Konami warns that the standings may still change slightly.
Genesys, the points format
In Genesys every card has a point cost and a deck cannot exceed 100. It is the second YCS after the big points update for the format's first anniversary, which arrived shortly before Houston, where Fiallos won with Blitzclique. Magnificent Maestros comes out on November 11: Orlando is the last snapshot of the format before the new set.
The top-table meta
Konami counts the decks at the top tables, about forty players, in the last three rounds of the day. In round 6 Angelechy, adding up all builds, accounts for 26 decks out of 40. The most played is the one with Ancient Fairy Dragon, which searches for Angelechy Problem and kicks off the game plan; next come the builds with Ashtra, with Blitzclique, with Centur-Ion, with Adamancipator and with Darklord. Behind it there is variety: Magistus Fairy Tail with 5, Blitzclique in the builds with Ashtra, Invoked and White Forest, Dark Time Wizard, Chimera with Hecahands and one Zoodiac Lunalight.
In round 7 Magistus Fairy Tail becomes the most played single deck, with 6 copies, while Angelechy drops to 23. In the eighth and last round Angelechy is at 21 out of 39 and off-the-wall decks pop up: two Exosister, Dogmatika Labrynth, Snake-Eye with Assault Mode and Elfnote, Vanquish Soul, Invoked and DoomZ.
The feature matches
- Round 1, Kotton beats Scott Vukelic 2-0. Vukelic, from Orlando and at his first YCS, brings a Pumpking deck with Call of the Haunted and Vortex of Time, which in game 1 banishes Kotton's Evilswarm Exciton Knight thanks to the coin toss. It is not enough: in both games Kotton finishes with the direct attacks allowed by Fairy Tail Ball, in the second after changing the name of the opposing Pumpking the Great Ghost King with Fairy Tail – Matchgiru.
- Round 4, Daniel Shogan beats Nicolas Ramlal 2-0. Ramlal, from Lake Nona, usually works as a judge at Konami tournaments, but with the YCS in his backyard he played, with Ashtra Tombkeeper. Shogan, from Virginia, wins with Centur-Ion Angelechy: in the second game Primera Primus leaves Ramlal without monsters and the attack ends the match. Neither makes it to Day 2.
The standings after Day 1
- 1-2. Jesse Kotton and Nicholas Simon, 8-0 (24 points). In the last round Simon beats Nathanael Patton at table 2; his deck was not published.
- 3-13, at 7-1: Matthew Vanden Heuvel, Paulo Roberto Goncalves da Silva, Jeremy Glassman, Wilfredo Flores, Victor Suarez, Esteban Barragan Monroy, Khari Goosby, Timothy Dahl, Justin Russell, Zixuan Yu and Danny Street.
- 14-56, at 6-2: 43 players, including Brian Dong (28th), Aditya Dharap (40th) and Enzo Fiallos (49th).
- 57-64, at 5-3: eight spots awarded by tiebreakers, the last to Dillon Norris. The other 68 players at 5-3 stay out.
Familiar faces from Houston
- Jesse Kotton: YCS champion, world champion and "Ultimate Duelist," as Konami introduces him. In Houston he was in the Top 8 with the same Magistus Fairy Tail; here he is one of the two who never lose.
- Matthew Vanden Heuvel: Houston semifinalist with Blitzclique, arrives at the last round 7-0 and loses only to Kotton.
- Brian Dong: Houston semifinalist with Angelechy, in round 8 he loses at table 3 to Justin Russell and finishes 6-2.
- Enzo Fiallos: Houston's Genesys champion advances at 6-2.
What comes next
Saturday is Advanced's turn, with 670 tables in round 1, about 1,340 duelists: it is the first YCS with the October 19 Forbidden & Limited List, announced by Konami during Houston itself. On Sunday Genesys restarts at 9 a.m. local (3 p.m. in Italy) with rounds 9 to 12 and the Top 8, together with Advanced's Day 2. Then the YCS in Santiago, Chile, November 27 to 29.
Sources. Standings after Day 1, pairings, top-table counts and feature matches from the official coverage on yugiohblog.konami.com (YCS Orlando, November 6-7, 2026); schedule, rounds and Day 2 rules from yugiohblog.konami.com (YCS Orlando, FL 2026 – Main Event Information) and yugioh-card.com; Magnificent Maestros date and October 19 Forbidden & Limited List from yugioh-card.com. Provisional standings; individual players' decks are not published, except those of the feature matches.