At a glance
- Three undefeated out of 1,417: after nine Swiss rounds, Rafael Reich, the Brazilian with Elfnote and Power Patron seen in the round 6 feature match, Luka Kovac and Patrick Hoban are all 9-0.
- It is the day of the Ars Magna: the cards that arrived with Beyond the Brave are in almost every deck. At the top tables of the last round they are 21 out of 40, in builds with Elfnote, with Artmage and with Ritual.
- Angelechy remains public enemy number one: 11 decks out of 40 at the top tables of the last round, with Blitzclique builds, and the whole format is gearing up against it with Mystical Space Typhoon, Ghost Ogre and Shiina.
- Houston's champion is out: Trevor Parker wins the round 1 feature match but finishes 5-4. World champion Mario De Micco advances at 6-3.
The format and who advances
Orlando's Advanced is the first YCS with the October 19 Forbidden & Limited List: 34 forbidden cards, including Called by the Grave, Triple Tactics Talent, Crossout Designator, Magicians' Souls, Elfnote Tinia, Azamina Ilia Silvia and Albion the Branded Dragon, plus Droll & Lock Bird, Griffoh, Branded Opening and Branded In High Spirits limited to one copy. With 1,417 entrants there are 14 Swiss rounds, 9 on Saturday and 5 on Sunday, then the Top 8. The top 256 advance, or everyone with at least 21 points if there are more: at 7-2 or better 110 finish, so 146 of the 188 players at 6-3 get in as well. The standings are provisional: anyone qualified in both Genesys and Advanced has to pick one of the two Day 2s.
The meta: Ars Magna versus Angelechy
Konami counted the decks at the top tables, about 40 players, from round 5 to 9. Ars Magna never drops below 16 decks. At the start the Power Patron and Elfnote build leads (11 in round 5, 12 in the sixth), in the eighth the Artmage build reaches 15, in the last round the Elfnote one is back in front with 13. Angelechy climbs from 7 to 11 and in round 7 is for a moment the most played single deck. The rest is a wide-open field: Sky Striker and Dark Time Wizard with Radiant Typhoon, Light and Darkness Ritual with Dark Magician, Horus or Red Dragon Archfiend, Sacred Beasts, R.B., Ashtra, Dracotail, Clown Crew, Lunalight and Invoked.
The cards of the day, according to Konami's coverage and the analyst desk: Mystical Space Typhoon and Ghost Ogre & Snow Rabbit, which hit Angelechy cards in the Spell & Trap Zone, Nibiru and above all The Great Gallant Bandit to break through full boards, and Shiina, Twin Tempests of Celestial Thunder, which exploits the monster handed over by Angelechy Seneschal. For the analyst desk the pecking order of non-engine cards is Mulcharmy Fuwalos, Ash Blossom, Ghost Ogre and Dominus Impulse.
The feature matches
- Round 1, Trevor Parker beats Christopher Tasso 2-1: Light and Darkness Ritual with Ars Magna against True Draco with Clown Crew.
- Round 2, Alex Mondlak beats Nicholas Botti 2-1: the Machine R.B. deck comes back against Tenpai Dragon.
- Round 3, Mario Ernesto Moncada Serazio beats Christopher Bialaszewski 2-0: Dark Time Wizard with Radiant Typhoon against Branded, with a 40-minute first game.
- Round 4, Raymond Dai beats Joseph Barone III 2-1: Sky Striker with Radiant Typhoon against pure Angelechy, thanks to Linkage.
- Round 5, Cameron Afshar beats Jorge Pagan Diaz 2-1: Sacred Beasts with Ars Magna against Light and Darkness Ritual. Pagan Diaz concedes with a minute to go to avoid a double loss.
- Round 6, Rafael Reich beats Francisco Santiago Rivera 2-0: Elfnote with Power Patron against pure Ashtra.
- Round 7, Luis Rivera beats Grant Potter 2-1: Light and Darkness Ritual with Horus against Artmage with Ars Magna. In game 2 the judges perform a long rewind, in game 3 Black Luster Soldier arrives in the last minute.
- Round 8, Lucas Sacco beats Sean Washington 2-1: pure Angelechy against Dracotail with Branded.
- Round 9, Billy Locklear beats Ronald Llopis Jr. 2-0: Artmage with Ars Magna against Red Dragon Archfiend.
The standings after Day 2
- 1-3, at 9-0: Rafael Reich, Luka Kovac and Patrick Hoban.
- 4-24, at 8-1: 21 players, including Christopher Martir Jr. (6th), first after round 8, Billy Locklear (15th) and Lucas Sacco (23rd).
- 25-110, at 7-2: 86 players, including Ryan Yu (25th), Nicholas Simon (51st), Luis Rivera (61st), Aditya Dharap (75th), Cameron Afshar (87th) and Ronald Llopis Jr. (91st).
- 111-256, at 6-3: the 146 with the best tiebreakers advance, including Grant Potter (112th), Mario De Micco (113th), Moncada Serazio (125th), Bialaszewski (133rd), Washington (142nd), Pagan Diaz (159th) and Raymond Dai (169th).
Familiar faces and double duty
- Rafael Reich already finished Genesys Day 1 at 6-2 (43rd): first in Advanced, he has to choose where to play on Sunday.
- Nicholas Simon, 8-0 in Friday's Genesys, finishes 7-2 here too. Aditya Dharap, a guest at the analyst desk in the pre-show, is also in both events (6-2 in Genesys, 7-2 in Advanced).
- Jesse Kotton and Matthew Vanden Heuvel, first and third in Genesys, play only the first rounds of Advanced (2-1 and 3-0) and then stop.
- Out of Day 2: Trevor Parker (5-4), Blake Funderburke, a finalist in Houston (3-4), and Jamie Hunter (2-4).
What comes next
On Sunday both tournaments wrap up: Genesys restarts at 9 a.m. local (3 p.m. in Italy) with rounds 9 to 12 and the Top 8, led by Jesse Kotton and Nicholas Simon at 8-0; Advanced plays rounds 10 to 14 and its Top 8. Then the YCS in Santiago, Chile, November 27 to 29.
Sources. Summary and data processing from the official live broadcast of Saturday; standings after Day 1 of Advanced and Genesys, pairings for rounds 1-9, top-table counts for rounds 5-9 and the update on tech cards from yugiohblog.konami.com (YCS Orlando, November 6-8, 2026); October 19, 2026 Forbidden & Limited List from yugioh-card.com and ygorganization.com. Provisional standings: individual players' decks are those seen in the feature matches, the others are not published.