Hey everyone, I’m back this week and I’m going to be starting a new series on the history of the game. Once a month I will write an article summarizing an entire format. I think the history of the game is not only enjoyable, but valuable to the trends of today as well. If we can understand why certain things happened in the past, we can apply that and figure out what the future may hold. Since this is a history of competitive play, I’m going to start the first one where Shonen Jump Championships began.  Yes, there were formats and tournaments before this, but SJCs are when the game really started to take shape and start developing into what it is today.

I’ll start off by giving you a little bit of background. SJCs began in late 2004 and were originally played under this ban list. The most recently released set was Rise of Destiny. The most popular deck of this format was Warrior Chaos.

SJC So Cal Gen Con

The first Shonen Jump Championship took place in So Cal Gen Con in California on December 4, 2004. Here, 309 competitors gathered to play 9 rounds of swiss before they cut to Top 8. All nine rounds of swiss and three rounds of top cut took place in a single day. Top 8 did not begin until after 10 pm and the tournament did not finish until after midnight.

After nine grueling rounds of swiss, Patrick Holmes was paired with George Mean, Henry Ke with Gerard Ramirez, Hugo Adame with Miguel Flores, and John Umali was paired with Juan Carendas. Six of the eight competitors were playing a variant of Warrior Chaos. Henry Ke was playing a Scientist FTK deck and Miguel Flores was playing an Earth deck.  All 8 competitors would battle it out to fight for a single copy of Cyber Stein, the first prize card. There were two copies of Cyber Stein given out at each event. The first would be awarded to the winner of the SJC and the second would come down to a points play off. When you entered a side event you got points for participating, but you also got points for doing well. At the end of the weekend, the four competitors with the most points would play a single elimination tournament for the second copy of Cyber Stein.

In top 8, Ke managed to get the FTK off both times despite going second both games. George Mean narrowly beat out Patrick Holemes and John Umali made quick work of Juan Cardenas. Flores also managed to edge out Hugo Adame and his Warrior Chaos teched with Spellcasters including the Dark Magician!

The semi-finals paired up Umali with Mean and Flores with Ke. Ke opened up the first game by Special Summoning Gilasaurus, tributing it for Catapult Turtle, and activating Last Will to special summon Magical Scientist from his deck. In the second game Ke once again got Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle face up, but Flores stopped the OTK by activating Book of Moon on Magical Scientist.  Ke was forced to pass and Flores activated Change of Heart on Magical Scientist and Snatch Steal on Catapult Turtle. This allowed Flores to OTK Ke! In the final game, Ke could not find the necessary pieces to get his OTK and Flores managed to beat him down. On the other side of the bracket, Umali and Mean faced off. Umali took game one and in game two made a huge play by having Scientist face up and using its effect to bring out Ryu-Senshi and two Thousand-Eyes Restrict. He used the Thousand-Eyes to suck up both of Mean’s monsters and then tribute both of the Thousand-Eyes for Dark Magician of Chaos. This put the game heavily in Umali’s favor. Time was called a few turns later and when Umali had Tribe Infecting Virus for Mean’s Scapegoat, the game was over.

This left John Umali and Miguel Flores as the finalists of the first Shonen Jump Championship. Umali top-decked his way out of the first game and the second game featured many one for ones. This left both players low on resources and low on life. Umali had just 200 left and Flores had only 1000. Umali attempted to end the game with Reflect Bounder, but Flores attempted to activate Ring of Destruction to force a draw. Umali responded with Raigeki Break to destroy the Reflect Bounder and avoided taking damage. On Umali’s next turn, he was able to draw Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning to end the game and become the first Shonen Jump Champion.

SJC Las Vegas

The next Shonen Jump took place in Las Vegas on February 8, 2005. This SJC featured just 220 competitors. My regionals are bigger than that! After 8 rounds of swiss, we were left with just 8; Wilson Luc, Ian Wingrove, Freddie Garcia, Mario James, Theerasak Poonsombat, Raymond Purnama, Michael Vasquez, and Ray Ruballos. The finals once again featured an Earth deck against Warrior Chaos and once again Warrior Chaos won out as Wilson Luc defeated Ian Wingrove to become the SJC Las Vegas Champion.

Once again, we saw Warrior Chaos continue to be the top deck among competitors. In this SJC, we also began to see teams develop. The best team of the time was without a doubt Comic Odyssey. This team had many powerhouses that you will learn about in later articles such as Eric Wu, Hugo Adame, Ryan Hayakawa, the 2004 US National Champion, Theeresak “T” Poonsombat, and the winner of this SJC, Wilson Luc.

SJC Columbus

The next stop on the Shonen Jump circuit was Columbus Ohio. Here, a record-shattering 723 competitors gathered to have a shot at winning a Cyber Stein. Despite the large increase in numbers, the SJC was once again held completely on one day. It featured 10 rounds of swiss cut to Top 8.

At the end of the ten rounds, Patrick Smith, Ross Nappi, Swayne Anthony Nunez, Bryan St. Clair, Wilson Luc, Vincent Tundo, Gustavo Reyes, and Roy St. Clair were left to fight it out for the Cyber Stein. Odyssey superstar Wilson Luc was surely the favorite as he had just won SJC Las Vegas and had managed to top again. Patrick Smith, however did not lose a single match in the ten rounds of swiss. Quite an impressive feat. In Top 8, Patrick Smith and Wilson Luc managed to take out both of the St. Clair brothers. Gustavo Reyes edged out Ross Nappi and Dwayne Nunez overcame Vincent Tundo to secure a spot in the semifinals.

The top 4 was set and Patrick Smith had to face off with Wilson Luc in a Warrior Chaos mirror match. On the other side of the bracket Dwayne Nunez and his Earth deck would face off against Gustavo Reyes and his teched out Chaos deck featuring the Creator. Gustavo takes a very quick game one with a ton of aggression from cards like Ring of Destruction, Exiled Force, Berserk Gorilla and Tribe-Infecting Virus. Dwayne Nunez battled back in game two with Magical Scientist bringing out Ryu Senshi and Ojama King to attack for game. In the final game Reyes shifted momentum in his favor by having Reflect Bounder attack over Breaker. Nunez was forced to play defensively and Reyes summoned Enraged Battle Ox to punish him for it. Next turn he Creature Swapped the Ox and got a D.D. Warrior Lady which he tribute for Mobius the Frost Monarch and attacked over the Ox for game!

Smith and Luc had a crazy game 1 thanks to Mirage of Nightmare by both players. Luc slowed down the game with Swords of Revealing Light, but Smith top decked Breaker the Magical Warrior to clear the Swords and go for game. Luc stole a win in game two when Smith was in total control when Smith attacked Luc’s set monster with Blade Knight. The set turned out to be Kinetic Soldier and the damaged pushed the match into game 3! In this game Smith gained the upper hand through Mirage of Nightmare and Emergency Provisions to destroy it and gain life before Smith had to discard. Luc had Scapegoats to hold Smith off, but Smith continued the aggression and attacked through another Kinetic Soldier with D.D. Warrior Lady before winning the game and advancing to the finals.

The finals left just Patrick Smith and Gus Reyes. Smith gained the upper hand once again by activating Mirage of Nightmare and destroying it with Emergency Provisions before he had to discard. The extra life proved to be beneficial and just a turn later Smith activated Ring of Destruction for game. The next game ended quickly with aggressive plays from Smith with Tribe Infecting Virus and Breaker the Magical Warrior. This ended both the match and the tournament and as a result Patrick Smith became the first person to go undefeated throughout an entire YCS.

YCS Orlando

The last YCS of the format took place in Orlando, Florida where 367 competitors gathered to duel it out for one more Cyber Stein before a shake up by the ban list and the release of Flaming Eternity. After nine rounds of swiss, eight competitors were left; Andrew Fredella, Matt Zaabadick, James Laurent, James Coleman, Steve Shockley, Daniel Savage, Theeresak Poonsombat, and John Jenson. Once again, Warrior Chaos was the dominant deck. The competitors battled it out until only two remained; John Jenson and a good friend of mine, Andrew Fredella. This entire SJC took place on a Sunday and both competitors were extremely tired. This is when they chose to do a prize split and would have split the title as well, had it not been for Jason saying that they needed a match for the coverage. As a result, the chose to still split the prize, but play it out for the title. John Jenson did not draw any monsters either game and Andrew Fredella became the most recent Shonen Jump Champion!

Andrew Fredella: YCS Orlando Champion

Monsters: 16

1 Sinister Serpent

1 Magical Scientist

1 Magician of Faith

3 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 Blade Knight

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning

1 Reflect Bounder

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Jinzo

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

1 Fiber Jar

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 15

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Confiscation

1 Premature Burial

1 Mirage of Nightmare

1 Book of Moon

1 Swords of Revealing Light

2 Scapegoat

1 The Forceful Sentry

1 Heavy Storm

1 Enemy Controller

1 Pot of Greed

1 Snatch Steal

1 Emergency Provisions

1 Nobleman of Crossout

Traps: 6

1 Ring of destruction

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Magic Cylinder

1 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

Side:

1 The Warrior Returning Alive

1 Airknight Parshath

2 Mataza the Zapper

1 Divine Wrath

2 Pikeru’s Circle of Enchantment

1 Kinetic Soldier

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Exiled Force

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Return From the Different Dimension

1 Final Attack Orders

1 Waboku

Fusion:

2 Ryu Senshi

2 Fiend Skull Dragon

3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight

3 Super Roboyarou

2 Dark Flare Knight

3 Sanwitch

3 Mokey Mokey King

1 Giltia The D. Knight

1 Karbonala Warrior

3 Dark Balter the Terrible

2 Thousand-Eyes Restrict

2 Ojama King

1 Reaper on the Nightmare

1 Musician King

This was the final Shonen Jump under that format. It was a format dominated by Warrior Chaos and Comic Odyssey. Of the 8 Cyber Steins given out at the 4 SJCs, Comic Odyssey managed to claim 5 of them. Will the team continue to dominate the circuit or will new teams arise and replace the dominance of CO? Next month I will be bringing you the next format. I hope you all enjoyed the first installment of “A History of Competitive Play.” Leave a comment down below and as always, play hard or go home!

You don’t have enough Laggias, Dolkkas, or Steelswarm Roaches to protect you from all the boss monsters in the Chaos Dragon deck. Using a Solemn Warning on a Tour Guide could be the end of the duel for you just because of everything that may follow her procession. Lightpulsar Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, Darkflare Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia, and the mighty Black Luster Soldier- Envoy of the Beginning are all against you. The second you see at least one light and one dark monster in the graveyard you can expect for things to get ugly. Backrows are not enough to protect you with the Lightsworn engine powering the deck. It almost reminds me of how Destiny Heroes were used to power Tele-dad, creating both a draw engine and powerful graveyard fodder. The deck is fast and it hits hard. On top of all of this, there is the auto-win card, Future Fusion, which doesn’t deserve to exist but that’s an issue for another time. Future Fusion is essentially Painful Choice for Dragons. Painful Choice is widely considered to be the single most powerful card in the game of Yu-Gi-Oh and its power grows as more and more cards are released. It’s so powerful that you would prefer to go second if you open with it because it usually means game that turn.

What really makes Dragons so insanely powerful right now is that it plays the best monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh. All of the monsters have some way to make you gain advantage almost immediately. It also has the ability to make some of your opponent’s cards dead like Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, and any other forms of backrow destruction. It resembles the greatness of Nicky Lacaille’s YCS Toronto Chaos Agent deck. The deck also focused around light and dark monsters with no traps for those MSTs to hit. The only difference now is that Yu-Gi-Oh is a much faster paced game than it was back in September 2011. I mentioned in my other articles how every deck has the ability to win the game in 1 or 2 turns. It’s unfortunate that we have to play in a format like this but I must say that it’s kind of fun at the same time. When I play dragons I feel like I’m playing in Chaos return format all over again. Who doesn’t like dropping Sorcerers to remove your opponent’s best monsters and then using them as fodder for another powerful monster, like Photon Strike Bounzer or Exa-Beetle? It might feel like sacking, but when almost all of the cards in the deck are overpowered, you can’t really complain about what comes off the top of the deck. Usually the deck is one boss monster away from winning the game.

The side deck hate for Chaos Dragons isn’t exactly what I would refer to as reliably either. If you draw your Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissures, Kycoos, Victorias, or whatever else you’ve sided too late in the game it will mean nothing. People are planning to main/side Soul Takers because it makes Lightpulsar Dragon miss its timing which is a neat idea but once again, if it’s too late it will be meaningless. Sure the deck has lost its surprise factor but when something is so overpowered it doesn’t have to be a surprise to win. It’s like when you blatantly go into Giga-Brilliant for no reason other than to make your BLS live and the opponent reads it. OK. Who cares? You now know you’re going to lose to BLS now. Also, something that I wanted to nip in the bud is the idea that Dragons lose to Inzektors which I think is no longer true. If you test that matchup often enough and play it correctly you shouldn’t have that much of a hard time beating Inzektors. You now have effect negating Xyz monsters and you should be playing 3 Veilers. When I play against Inzektors with Dragons I just wait to push for game or hit them so hard that Bounzer will finish them off. It doesn’t happen often but you can also remove Hornet with the effect of Darkflare Dragon. I wouldn’t rely on that too much but it is worth noting. Then, in games 2 and 3, you can put in a couple D.D. Crows to slow the deck down. Beware of Leviair the Sea Dragon because it can cause you to lose the game if even 1 Inzektor is banished thanks to Giga-Mantis and Zektkaliber. Even still, Dragons should come out on top more than half of the time.

The only major weakness of Dragons is playing against rogue decks like Chain Burn, Gravekeepers, Final Countdown, Exodia, and things of that ilk. The deck doesn’t have the powerful negating abilities of Dino-Rabbit so sometimes it could leave you sitting there with a field full of huge monsters but no way to win the game. That seems to be the tradeoff of having so many bosses in your deck. If you are fortunate enough to play against only real decks in your 11 rounds of swiss you should be fine. I would side cards to destroy Messenger of Peace, Safe Zone, and Level Limit Area B. Twister, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Dust Tornado are the first things to come to mind. If you know what you’re doing and you have a little luck on your side you should be able to wreck the tournament with Dragons. I’ll be seeing ya this weekend in my hometown for YCS Philadelphia. Until next time duelists, Play Hard or Go Home!

-Frazier Smith

-YCS Atlanta Champion

Question of the Article: What deck do you think will win YCS Philadelphia?

Don’t forget to answer the question of the article in the comments down below!

WHAT ARE THE MAIN DECKS THAT ALL DUELISTS SHOULD BE SIDE DECKING FOR!!!!!

In Yugioh today there are three main decks that are dominating the format: Dino-Rabbit, Inzektors, and Chaos Dragons. In my opinion, anyone of these three decks has a very real shot at winning YCS Philadelphia, but at the same time it is hard to say if one of the decks is better than the other . Since they are all contenders it is important to side for each and every one of them. There is other more under-the-radar decks should also keep in mind when constructing your side deck such as HEROs, Dark World, Wind-Up, and the new Hieratics. The odds of running into more than two of any of these decks ( possibly more HEROs) is fairly low so I chose not to include them in my overall analysis, but don’t fall asleep on them!

DINO RABBIT
Possibly the most powerful and boring deck of all time! This deck is jam packed with normal monsters who like to turn into big ugly Evolsaur Dragons who can negate anything you do. This deck has had a spot in one of the top decks in the meta ever since its release towards the end of 2011. Even though priority is gone this deck was still able to take the top 2 spots at YCS Chicago ( Despite my efforts it was the deck that eliminated me from contention in the top 4). The little input and high output plays that this deck has make it quite appealing to very many duelist which is why we must make sure we are prepared!

MESSENGER OF PEACE – This card is easily my favorite side deck for this match-up. Most rabbit decks only main/side deck four answer cards (3 Mystical Space Typhoon and 1 Heavy Storm) for this kind of stall. The only monsters in most Rabbit decks that will be able to attack are there 3 Tour Guide From the Underworld and a Sangan. You can really put a hold on anything Rabbit can throw at you with this continuous spell card. It is also a card that can be used against HEROs and Chaos Dragons! We love cards that can be sided for more than one deck!

SNOWMAN EATER – I like this card a lot in this match up right now. I feel that it is better than Spirit Reaper and Gellenduo since the release of Photon Papilloperative. That rank 4 XYZ instantly kills a Spirit Reaper with its targeting effect and can put any monster into attack mode to make sure Gellenduo would not survive. Since the stall monsters are no longer as awesome as they once were, it is good to rely on good ol’ Snowman who can take down a Laggia without even thinking twice. A downside to this card is if they make a Dolkka and attack it they will be able to negate his effect. This can be a problem, but at least most of the time it is easier to get a Dolkka off the field rather than staring down a Laggia for turns and turns not being able to get around him. This card is also really helpful in the HERO match-up since usually their strongest monsters attack is only 1900 the same as Snowman’s defense.

SMASHING GROUND/SOUL TAKER – It is obvious that any monster removal is great against this deck. I only wanted to touch on the fact that siding Soul Taker over Smashing Ground is not too bad of an idea. With the side deck space being so tight we need to make sure we can side cards that work in multiple match-ups. Soul Taker is a great form of removal and 1000 life points in most duels is not going to make or break the game. I will go into more detail about why I like this card in its discussion for other decks.

INZEKTOR

It is arguable that Inzektors are the most popular deck choice right now. In Galactic Overlord they picked up a new monster that gives this deck access to LV 5 monsters and they can abuse Photon Strike Bounzer about as well as Chaos Dragons. I would not be surprised if a majority of the duelist competing in YCS Philly will be wielding this combo-based deck.

EFFECT VEILER – If for some reason you do not have 3 copies of this card in your main deck please stop reading this article and go make some adjustments! Even though most players do make the choice to include this card in their main deck, if for some reason you don’t you need to at least have these guys in the side. All of the Inzektors rely on their monster effects to equip Hornet to destroy all the cards on your field while special summoning monsters and adding more Inzektor cards to your hand. This card can single handily shut all of it down and win you the game. Effect Veiler gives you your best shot in this match-up.

SHADOW-IMPRISONING MIRROR/ MACRO COSMOS – Shadow Mirror is an awesome side card since all of the Inzektors are dark and have effects that activate on the field. This card is fairly self explanatory and if your deck does not rely on any sort of Dark monsters then you better be sure to include this card in your side deck.
Macro will do virtually the same thing as Shadow, but even more effective if your deck does not need to rely upon the graveyard. Even if your opponent already has a face-up Hornet equipped to an Inzektor if you flip this card up they won’t even be able to activate the Hornet’s effect to pop ( while they would under Shadow-Mirror since the Hornet is considered a Spell Card)

CHAIN DISAPPEARANCE/ TRAP HOLE – Chain disappearance has been a fan favorite for this match-up for quite some time, but you could be just delaying your opponent from really going off. If you Chain Disappearance an Inzektor Dragonfly you have successfully stopped your opponent from going off that turn, but all three copies of his Dragonfly have now been removed and he is just one Leviair the Sea Dragon from going off on you. Another down side to Chain D is the fact that cards like Inzektor Centipede and Inzektor Hopper do exist and will gladly pop this dead back row for free.

Trap Hole on the other hand can be just as effective, hit more cards in the deck, and not have to worried about a Leviair looking for revenge. It is an instant answer to almost any monster in your opponents deck, but Trap Hole cannot stop special summons so you must be careful!

CHAOS DRAGONS
This deck almost came out of nowhere after the release of the Dragons Collide starter deck a few months ago, but ever since it won the YCS in France and came in second at YCS Dallas it has become a major contender and a fan favorite. Chaos Dragons can drop boss monster after boss monster at you until you cannot take anymore. They will try to OTK you every turn they can and if they resolve a Future Fusion then it’s almost certain defeat. The main weakness in this deck is how reliant it is on the graveyard and the enormous amount of monsters the deck uses.

DIMENSIONAL FISSUE/MACRO COSMOS – If there is no graveyard then Chaos Dragons have a hard time summoning any of their monsters. Both of these cards can really put a dent into any dragon duelist strategy and can easily seal a duel for you. Most Chaos Dragon decks do run 3 copies of Lyla and 3 copies of Ryko so when you do draw these cards make sure you use them correctly! Not only do these cards stop their monsters from being summoned, but can help while fighting them off in the late game. I once played a game where my opponent had a Card Trooper and a Light Pulsar Dragon with a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon in the grave. I was holding Dark hole, but activating it would do me know good since he would draw a card from trooper and get Light Pulsar’s effect and special back the Red-Eyes. I top decked a Dimensional Fissure and since all of his monster effects triggered in the graveyard I was able to banish them instead and remove the threat. Overall either of these cards are great to have in this match-up.

SOUL TAKER- Now I can finally tell you why I like this card over Smashing Ground. Soul Take allows a player to destroy an opponent’s face-up monster and then it gives your opponent 100 Life points. This is important because the last thing to happen would be the life gain and not the monster going to the graveyard so optional effects that trigger when the monster hits the grave would miss timing! This umbrella includes the ever annoying Light Pulsar Dragon and even Elemental HERO – The Shinning in the HERO match up. The fact that your opponent gains 1000 life is a great trade off to freely eliminate nast threats!

Electric Virus – The ultimate punishment card in the Dragon match-up. If your opponent is foolish enough to summon a big dragon, such as Light Pulsar Dragon, and not be able to kill you, there will be a high chance to OTK your opponent with this card. Electric Virus allows you take control of virtually anoy boss monster in this deck ( Outside of BLS and Chaos Sorcerer) . I still remember this one game my opponent had summoned a Dark Armed Dragon, but was not able to finish me off and his Dark Dragon was struck with a virus and I made sure DAD took down all of my opponent’s life points the following turn. Electric Virus can be very powerful and help for some quick victories in this match-up!

Conclusion: YCS Philly is this weekend and there are three decks that I feel have a legitimate chance at winning the whole thing. Chaos Dragons, Inzektors, and Dino-Rabbit seem to be in a class of their own right now and making sure you have your side built for them can be critical. I went over my favorite generic cards to side for each match-up and it is my strong suggestion that every duelist keep all of the cards I mentioned in mind when filling out their deck list in this last major event before the World Championship Qualifier 2012.

Thanks for reading if you have any questions, comments, or concerns feel free to leave them in the comments below. Also don’t forget to answer the question of the article! ARG will be vending at YCS Philly so feel free to stop by and say hi or if you see me just roaming around the halls it won’t be weird to say Hello!

-Billy Brake
-YCS Toronto and Columbus Champion

Now, on to today’s topic – bombs! In sealed play, the term “bomb” refers to a card that is so overpowered for limited (sealed), that it absolutely must be played in the deck if the proper support cards are present. Cards like Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End and Harpy’s Feather Duster are both examples of bombs. What I would like to do this article is start going over some of the bombs you’ll stumble upon in BPED and why you’ll want to play them. So, here goes! Note: I’m going to try and stick with mostly cards that aren’t blatantly obvious as broken (ie: Raigeki, Pot of Greed, etc).

Metal Reflect Slime

This card is rarely played in constructed events because of the copious amounts of monster and trap removal that construct the current metagame. However, with the ability to drop a 3000 defense monster on your opponent in a format where there are very few forms of removal can give you the enough time to build momentum and win the duel. And let’s face it, your opponent is probably not going to be able to attack over it; the only way that would happen is if they have a big monster plus a battle trick. If this is the case, your Metal Reflect Slime will still be a 1-for-1, so you won’t necessarily minus yourself by playing it. Another use for this card is that it is gives you a special summon in a format where special summoning may be very limited (you’re not going to run into Tour Guide into Leviair, bring back Rescue Rabbit, special summon two Sabersaurus, make Laggia, blahblahblah). Because Monarchs, who succeed best with tribute fodder, will likely be critical to successful beatdown strategies, any card that gives you an easy special summon will hold a ton of value in the format. A card like Metal Reflect Slime is considered a bomb because of the various ways it can shift momentum in your favor.

Liberty at Last!

The second card on this list is another trap. Liberty at Last! saw some success when Agents were a popular deck because it served as an easy way to get rid of Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and a boss monster. I want to mention that the text on Liberty at Last! is not correct. The monsters are returned to the deck, not the hand. I’m sure one reason Konami chose to include this card in BPED was to correct this text once and for all. Now, this card is very clearly good because it can completely remove your opponent’s momentum. When I read this card, I immediately think versatility. While it can only return face up monsters to the deck, Liberty at Last! can bounce back your own monsters if you are close to decking out or if you want to reuse some of your monarchs. This card can also be used on either turn. On your turn, you can crash your smallest monster into your opponents, activate Liberty at Last! and bounce away two of your opponent’s monsters to clear a direct path to their life points and a victory.

2x Tour Guide from the Underworld

Clearly one of the most anticipated cards in BPED is Tour Guide. Unsurprisingly, this card is insane in sealed play too. Tour Guide is one of the only monsters in the game (I’m very tempted to say the ONLY monster in the game) that single-handedly can yield offensive, defensive, and strategic plays by itself. Looking up the word “versatility” in the Yugioh dictionary would yield a picture of Tour Guide from the Underworld. If you are lucky enough to open up two of this card in your sealed packs as well as a rank 3 XYZ, you absolutely must play them. Overturning your opponent’s momentum with a 2500 attack Leviathan Dragon can be just what you need to pull out a win. I’ll be especially envious of anyone that nabs a starfoil version of this powerhouse.

Mask of Darkness

With some powerful trap cards like Torrential Tribute, Solemn Judgment, and Dark Bribe all in BPED, a card that lets you reuse them is too good not to pass up. Having the chance to play Solemn Judgment twice in a limited environment where field clearing cards like Raigeki and Torrential Tribute will be scarce to come by will likely devastate your opponent beyond making a comeback.

Gem-Knight Pearl

This card is not actually a bomb in sealed play, but Gem-Knight Pearl is the most sought after card in the set because BPED will be the card’s debut in the TCG. A rank 4 monster with 2600 attack that cannot be Fiendish Chained (as it is a normal monster) will likely find its way into most players’ extra decks as it gets over both Utopia and Leviathan Dragon (Both problems for DinoRabbit decks whose boss monsters are only 2300 and 2400 attack). Needless to say, the starfoil version of this card will also be THE card to get to impress your friends.

With the debut of BPED now only one week away, my (and hopefully your) anticipation for sealed play is increasing exponentially. I hope this article and the three previous BPED articles I’ve written have helped you all understand sealed play a little bit better. With that being said, the last pieces of advice I can give before sealed play begins are know the set (so you know what to expect from your opponent), table shuffle every round (especially if you aren’t sleeving your deck), and conserve your resources until you absolutely need to use them (effectively doing this will almost permanently shift the momentum in your favor). If I get a chance to play in a BPED side event next week, I will likely do a small tournament report explaining my card choices and whatnot.

I want to close by asking you what card(s) from BPED you are most excited to get your hands on. For me, I am looking forward to Gem-Knight Pearl (starfoil, of course) and Greenkappa (one of my favorite cards).

Until next time,

Play Hard or Go Home!

Tej Trivedi

Obviously Dino-Rabbit proved unharmed enough by the change in priority to take the top spot in Chicago and the ability to continuously adapt and now utilize one of the most powerful cards of the format – Macro Cosmo has made it remain a top pick heading into Philadelphia. What might yet again favor Dino-Rabbit to be the choice in Philadelphia is the newly released Inzektor Ladybug from GAOV. While I acknowledge the power of Inzektor Ladybuy and wholeheartedly respect how devastating the deck can be at times, whenever I have used Dino-Rabbit (which is actually three YCS’s at this point!) my favorite matchup has been against Inzektors. I have defeated seven Inzektors decks at the three events I have used Dino-Rabbit, with not a single loss! Having access to Jurrac Guiba and Rescue Rabbit in the maindeck puts Inzektors in such a terrible position if they do not draw an optimal hand, and being able to adequately utilize Macro Cosmos in the sided games favors you in this matchup too much to ignore. And even if the opponent is prepared to Macro Cosmos that means they must fixate their deck with copies of Dust Tornado, Trap Stun and so on with the assumption they will encounter Macro Cosmos – just because that card has such a warping effect on the game. If players gravitate to Inzektors with hopes of using the newly released Inzektor Ladybug they must certainly acknowledge how scary it would be a to sit down and play a handful of Dino-Rabbit decks.

And if players decide to copy Billy Brake from YCS Chicago (like who does that?) and fill their deck with a few copies of Safe Zone, unlike most decks who may only have the three copies of Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm to combat the powerful trap card, Dino-Rabbit should be playing a full package of Forbidden Lance to stymie any Safe Zone action the turn it is activated. Oh man, I hate convincing myself to keep running this deck because it gets so boring at times…

The next thing that favors Dino-Rabbit this weekend is the release of Cardcar D. Now outside of things such as Hero Beat and those wanting to toss Cardcard D into Inzektors, the only other place I feel as though I am going to encounter this card is in the degenerate strategies we all hate playing. You know exactly what I am getting at. The Final Countdown and Chain Burn and stall this or burn that… all the decks you cringe at the idea of facing. The pseudo-Pot of Greed effect that Cardcar D warrants, in decks that have no business Special Summoning is attracting many players to hop on board of things such as Final Countdown. If One Day of Peace wasn’t enough it seems like Cardcar D may be just the tipping point in introducing these decks into everyone’s mindset.

Well if there is one thing I know about Evolzar Laggia and Dolkka. They love seeing these types of strategies. Chain Burn and Final Countdown rely on having absolutely every card at their disposal and  if the Dino-Rabbit can sit there and flood the field with multiple copies of Laggia and Dolkka since there is no fear of removal spells then suddenly those players have less cards than the opponent has negations. From there I think you guessed how bleak it looks for these strategies. Dino-Rabbit is going to feast on decks like this – especially if you have copies of Forbidden Lance in the maindeck to punish silly burn cards like Magic Cylinder. And do not forget! If you are playing one of the decks which use Accumulated Fortune, try your best to activate multiple Lances or Space Typhoons to disrupt their chain links!

Oh and can I highlight this card for you:

Photon Papilloperative

2 Level 4 monsters

Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 Defense Position monster on the field; change it to face-up Attack Position, and if you do, it loses 600 ATK.

2100 ATK / 1800 DEF

How frustrating has it been to sit and look at Gellenduo or Spirit Reaper with a copy of Laggia on board and another Rescue Rabbit in hand? But wait, now we can target Spirit Reaper? Or shift Gellenduo to attack mode? You have got to be kidding me! I do not know why more people are not talking about this card. This is an absolute staple in the extra deck of Dino-Rabbit players. Hello? We have a counter to the what was thought to be the best counter to the deck. And it is an exceed our Rescue Rabbit can make!

But of course the roses are not always red and everything is not favoring Rescue Rabbit and his dinosaur pals. It seems as though the popularity in my neck of the woods of Chaos Dragons has exploded in the last few weeks. There was the obvious spike after YCS Dallas, but I almost feel as though there was a second surge after a repeat strong performance in YCS Chicago. Now I do not need to sit here and tell you how much trouble Kabazaulz and Jurrac Guiba have with attacking over Lightpulsar Dragon or Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon. What I am going to tell you is that the new releases from GAOV are only going to continue to pump affection toward Chaos Dragons. Queen Dragun Djinn, Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, Photon Strike Bounzer and Gaia, the Swift Thunder Knight suddenly take what was once an extra deck with a bunch of room and jam packs if with a series of incredible powerhouses. Lingering Eclipse Wyverns and Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceresses suddenly become Queen Dragun Djinn who are reviving Lightpulsar Dragons – ready to bring back fallen Darkflare and Red-Eyes. That sounds brutal!

One of the major factors favoring Chaos Dragons is the release of Photon Strike Bounzer. Bounzer effect is similar to Dolkka in the sense that it enables this already incredibly aggressive deck to play around Gorz the Emissary of Darkness when performing game shots. Of course Bounzer only negates Gorz and would not destroy Gorz, but in a deck which can seemingly put a million damage on the board as it is negating and dealing 1000 points of damage is often more than enough to seal the game in favor of Chaos Dragons. The release of all of these weapons, in conjunction with YCS success before GAOV is only going to generate more players running this deck at Philadelphia. Fair warning to those Dino-Rabbit players. Not everything is going to be ladybugs and roses.

Now it seems as though I have gone through most of this article bashing Inzektors and I think that is something I am going to need to clear up. Obviously when talking about the Dino-Rabbit matchup it is difficult to ignore that it is going to be difficult but once again if you were to copy Billy Brake you could strengthen that matchup. Messenger of Peace has been flying out of trade binders and into the hands of the masses over the course of the last few weeks. It seems like everyone is trying to get their hands on a playset of these in order to combat the rise of Chaos Dragons with the continued presence of Dino-Rabbit. I am not going to go into much detail because I know the interactions with this card have been well-documented but more Messenger of Peaces is going to be mean a more difficult time for Dino-Rabbit and Chaos Dragons. Since more players are aware of Messenger heading into Philadelphia it may be just the key card that puts Inzektors over the top in the field and have the ability to knock out more Dino-Rabbit and Chaos Dragons throughout swiss – leaving the later rounds to be a feeding frenzy of Inzektor mirror matches. I may be overestimating how much of an impact Messenger of Peace is going to have but I roomed with Billy in Chicago and boy was he talking highly about this card. I don’t think I could have seen someone more confident to face Dino-Rabbit with Inzektors in my life. If he could have played 16 Dino-Rabbits into the finals I honestly think he would have. He started imitating the picture on Messenger as he prepared for the Top 4 at one point. Now that is dedication.

One thing about Philadelphia that I think is important to take into consideration is how popular of a location this event is going to be. Being from New England I understand how difficult it is for a lot of players to venture out to events unless we are talking Nationals or a YCS like Long Beach. But I can say a dedicated base of players from Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine and so on will travel down to attend this event. Unlike some of the events like Dallas which can be difficult to attend unless you have the resources to fly, I see Philadelphia sitting close enough to New York, Boston but even Chicago to warrant a massive crowd. And if there is one thing I know about massive crowds is that the more players there are the more random things seem to become. Part of the struggle for many of my friends in Long Beach was just finding a consistent stream of playing normal decks. It can become difficult to sit down with your teched out Inzektor deck ready to pound on those Dino-Rabbit matchups and see your opponent unroll a starter deck playmat and open the most optimal Machina hand of all time. It isn’t like you have Cyber Dragon/Chimeratech or System Down waiting in the side deck. So just be prepared for what can be a mentally draining first few rounds when your endurance to play random decks is put to the test.

In conclusion I would have to say that this weekend the best three decks are going to be Dino-Rabbit, Inzektor and Chaos Dragons. As of this moment they are the only three decks I am considering. I have had some flirtations again with Heroes but I am not sure how far that is going to take me. I do not think Hieratics are in position to do very well and even though I always loss to the deck – I do not think Wind-Ups have ever been very good. Degenerate strategies are going to be on the rise because of Cardcar D so be prepared but other than those decks I think the card is overrated and will not have much of an impact on the already established tier one decks… we have this thing called Tour Guide from the Underworld and she rocks enough. The final question that only Philadelphia can answer is how the three top decks can joist for position. Dare I say we have a rock-paper-scissors format growing? Dino-Rabbit does pretty darn well against Inzektors but not so hot against Chaos Dragons. Chaos Dragons does pretty darn well against Dino-Rabbit but can struggle against Inzektors. Inzektors does pretty darn well against Chaos Dragons but not so hot against Dino-Rabbit.

Before we kick this article off with the light, let’s review what the Lightsworn monsters do it since it’s been so long since anybody has played the deck. We already know the basic scheme and strategy of Lightsworns; They are all LIGHT attribute monsters, and their main goal is sending cards from the top of your deck to your graveyard (Often referred to as “milling”), to unlock their full potential and rain judgment down on your opponent by summoning their boss monster, Judgment Dragon.

Now, Lightrays are a new archetype of LIGHT monsters that were released in Galactic Overlord. Now, if you can remember Phantom Darkness, where cards like Warrior Dai Grepher and Armed Dragon LV7 were consumed by darkness and got new forms such as Dark Grepher and Dark Armed Dragon. The Lightrays were monsters that were purified by the light. For example, Dark Grepher is now Lightray Grepher, whereas Chaos Sorcerer is now Lightray Sorcerer. These new creatures of light are very important in decks such as Lightsworn and their true powers are revealed when you have LIGHT monsters in the graveyard. Now, in the Lightraysworn deck that I constructed before the regional, I was only using three of the five Lightray monsters.

Lightray Gearfried

Level 8

Warrior/Effect

2800ATK/2200DEF

Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned (From your hand) by having 5 or more LIGHt monsters with different names in your graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Once per turn, during either player’s turn, when a Spell/Trap Card is activated. You can banish 1 Warrior-Type monster from your Graveyard; negate the activation, and if you do, destroy it. All face-up monsters you control must be Warrior-Type to activate and to resolve this effect.

Lightray Diabolos

Level 7

Dragon/Effect

2800ATK/1000DEF

Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must first be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having 5 or more LIGHT monsters with different names in your Graveyard. Once per turn. You can banish 1 LIGHT monster from your Graveyard to target 1 Set card your opponent controls; reveal that target, then return that target to either the top or bottom of the Deck.

Lightray Daedalus

Level 7

Sea Serpent/Effect

2600ATK/1500DEF

Cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. Must be Special Summoned (from your hand) by having 4 or more LIGHT monsters in your Graveyard, and cannot be Special Summoned by other ways. Once per turn: You can target 1 Field Spell Card and 2 other cards on the field; destroy them.

Alright, now let’s analyze why I run these Lightrays in pairs. The first one is Lightray Gearfried and he is the master swordsman of the group. We already know his effect to negate a spell or trap card during either player turn. This is perfect in the Lightsworn engine because you have three Lightsworns that are Warrior-type. Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, Jain, Lightsworn Paladin, and Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior. Now if I’m trying for an OTK in the deck, I would just ignore Gearfried’s effect and continue by having other types of monsters on my field, but if he is the only monster I have on the field, I try to keep only him and other Warrior-types on the field. But I will set a Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter or a Card Trooper if needed for defense when he is on the field.

The second one is Lightray Diabolos. He is the powerhouse dragon of the archetype. Note that I said “dragon”, so you have to be careful if your opponent runs Electric Virus when you drop this behemoth on the field. But this special ability is why I selected him for my deck. I get to banish one of my LIGHT monsters, like Effect Veiler, from the game, forcing my opponent to reveal to me what they were hiding and then decide whether to place it on the top or bottom of the deck. For example, in one of my games my opponent had a set Sangan and I used Diabolos’s effect to place that Sangan on the bottom of their deck so they couldn’t search for Rescue Rabbit.

The final Lightray is Lightray Daedalus. My friends and everybody at the regional was calling him a snake or the normal Lightray monster. They all wanted me to take this Lightray out of my deck, because they didn’t like his effect. They seemed to think I would never get to use his effect, but even if I don’t face a deck that plays field spells like Necrovalley or Gateway to Dark World, he is still a 2600 beatstick that my opponent can’t get over, especially in Rabbit match-ups. Daedalus’s summoning condition is perfect in a Lightsworn deck because he doesn’t need the names of the LIGHT monsters in the graveyard to be different in order to be summoned; they can all be the same name.

Now that I gave you an idea on how I use the Lightray monsters in Lightsworn, let me show you the deck list I used at the regional and tell you the match-ups I faced in the regional.

29 Monsters

3x Judgment Dragon

2x Lightray Gearfriend

2x Lightray Diabolos

2x Lightray Daedalus

1x Celestia, Lightsworn Angel

2x Jain, Lightsworn Paladin

1x Garoth Lightsworn Warrior

2x Lyla, Lightsworn Sorcerer

1x Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

2x Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

2x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

2x Card Trooper

1x Honest

1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

3x Effect Veiler

2x Necro Gardna

12 Spells

3x Solar Recharge

1x Charge Of The Light Bridage

1x Heavy Storm

1x Reinforcement of the Army

1x Dark Hole

1x Pot of Avarice

2x Monster Reincarnation

1x Monster Reborn

1x Book of Moon

Extra Deck

1x Ally of Justice Catastor

1x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1x Black Rose Dragon

1x Stardust Dragon

1x Red Dragon Archfiend

1x Avenging Knight Parshath

2x Number 39: Utopia

1x Number C39: Utopia Ray

1x Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction

1x Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

1x Muzurhythm the String Djinn

2x Photon Papilloperative

1x Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

Side Deck

2x Cyber Dragon

3x Mystical Space Typhoon

3x Electric Virus

2x Torrential Tribute

3x D.D. Crow

2x Smashing Ground

Let me guess what you’re thinking: “How come he isn’t playing Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning?” Well, the reason I decided not to play BLS is because I felt confident I didn’t need him, since I already had over 9 boss monsters in the build, with only 3 DARK monsters in the deck. You probably also noticed that there are no Trap Cards in the list, either. Honestly, the deck runs like Chaos Dragons, without the need for Trap Cards.

As promised earlier, let me do a quick summary of the decks I played against in the tournament. I played two Inzketor decks, I lost to one of them in the last round. I played against 3 Dino-Rabbit decks, and only lost to one of them because I finally opened with a hand full of Lightrays. I played against a HERO deck and beat that deck 2-0. It’s really not hard to stop HEROs even if they get an Elemental Hero The Shining out; just drop Judgment Dragon. I played against the new Hieratic Ninja deck and I must say that the deck can beat you in a single turn if you are not careful. Finally, I played against Frog Monarch, and all I can tell you is that you need to hurry up and finish them off quickly before they can summon Obliesk or stall and set up their walls. I lost on the bubble match and dropped down to 26th place with a record of 5-2-1. Overall, the deck is really powerful and quick to drop big boss monsters with over 2600 ATK points. Now, you understand the potential of the Lightray monsters, and how powerful they can be when combined with the Lightsworn engine.

I hope to see all you guys at YCS Philadelphia, I will be playing this time and not judging this event so feel free to come and say hi and play a game or two. Also, for anybody that won’t be at the event, I promise to give you all the coverage on how all the ARG players are doing on the ARG Fan page like always.

Don’t forget: ARG has hooked me up with an email for my articles, if you have a question on a ruling and would like me to cover this in one of my next articles be sure to send your question to askjudgecordero@alterrealitygames.com

This is Cordero Spencer A.K.A. Vexacus4666, “The H.B.I.C. of Entertainment”, signing off The Judge Chamber until next time. Play hard or go home!

To some decks, priority was crucial, and the main deck I can think about that had that stipulation is Synchrocentric Plants. Without that deck in the format, the most affected deck is Wind-Ups. However, I will go over that as well in a moment. Many people thought that priority would make certain cards ridiculously good, and in many ways it has. Bottomless Trap Hole had unbelievable hype when priority was gone, but it was already seeing play with the rise of Chaos Dragons. Another card that became Main Deck worthy is Chain Disappearance. I played it while I tested without priority in a T.G. build I ran and it was amazing. It hits every deck where it counts, besides Dark World of course. The ability to remove all copies of Bubbleman, Rescue Rabbit, Tour Guide or Sangan, Wind-Up Rat, Inzektor Dragonfly, or Inzektor Hornet. Any card that can negate an effect became amazing as well, including Effect Veiler, Forbidden Chalice, and Fiendish Chain. Safe Zone also got much better because you can equip it before certain monsters (particularly Chaos Sorcerer) has a chance to target it. So let me brake down some of the best decks and how they are affected by priority.

Elemental Heroes: They haven’t been affected by priority much at all. They have an advantage in this upcoming format, but unfortunately have the same problems they always have had. Heroes have the problem where they beat themselves, much like Dark World. Their cards rely on each other in order to combo out and become good, though when they do, they can generate tremendous advantage. On their own, heroes have the problem of drawing the wrong cards at the wrong time. I’m not saying that they don’t have good top-decks, they do: Bubbleman, E-Call/RoTA for Bubbleman, and Miracle Fusion just to name a few. However, Gemini Spark and Hero Blast are both irrelevant if you don’t have a live Alius. That is just an example of what I mean, the biggest issue comes from one of its best cards: Super Polymerization. One of the best cards in the deck can also be one of the worst if your opponent is playing dark monsters. So against Inzektors and Dark World, you are playing 3 dead cards. Super Polymerization also requires you to play use 3 cards to bring out your Hero. That is fine, but if you are low on cards, you are completely reliant on it working out. Even though it can’t be responded too, that doesn’t stop them from responding to the Summon of the monster with Bottomless Trap Hole or Torrential Tribute. It has a good matchup against Wind-Ups and Dino Rabbit, but against Inzektors they are totally reliant on Skill Drain. Against Chaos Dragons and Dark World the opponent’s monsters are simply too big and Samurais will negate your critical spells such as Gemini Spark. In the future, Heroes have great potential, but as long as Inzektor is as popular as it is, I can’t see it winning an event.

Wind-Ups: The great victim of priority… However, most people are not playing Maxx “C” anymore, so there is no reason not to go crazy when you can. The deck can also do a pretty good job of playing around Effect Veiler with Wind-Up Rabbit. The bad news is that decks are playing so much effect hate that it may be impossible for the deck to go off. They are very reliant on the dice roll and they have to open their combo to really go crazy if they do. With Dino Rabbit still so popular, Evolsaur Dolkka can single handedly pick this deck apart. If there is a Meta change, Wind-Ups have a good chance again, but for now the most hyped deck out of ORCS will have to take a back seat.

Dark World: The deck is very similar to Heroes where they defeat themselves. If you open poorly, you are in trouble. There is no way to do anything if you can’t discard your monsters. Also, they are very reliant on Gates of Dark World. Bottomless Trap Hole on Grapha is also pretty bad for the deck. However, Skill Drain is still amazing and Grapha is still very big. The deck is something to worry about, but I don’t see it winning another event any time soon.

Six Samurais: Yes, this is actually a deck. A lot of people had sob stories about losing to it at YCS Chicago, forgetting what the deck can do. It can still swarm like crazy and can still negate Spells and Traps all day. Unfortunately, this is a format where Monster Effects rule, so the deck just isn’t as spicy as it could be. The starter deck coming out for it may make Samurais good enough to really bring the heat before WCQs but until then, they are just another deck that tends to be annoying to play against.

Chaos Dragons: Another big victim of the Priority ruling. I think that had the priority ruling not changed before Chicago, this deck would have been the number one contender to win. Why you ask? Because it beats Dino Rabbit. Consider a rock paper scissors game where Dragons have an advantage over Rabbit, Rabbit has an advantage over Inzektors, and Inzektors have an advantage over Dragons. Whatever is played the most, the counter deck will have the best shot at winning. Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon not having priority to revive a dragon can be obnoxious, but at the end of the day, all of your monsters are gigantic. The deck can make OTKs out of nothing. They can simply decide to lose card advantage to lob 8000 on board, and even if you can stop that, you have to deal with the REDMD/Light Pulsar combo. All the while, they have their Lightsworn cards speeding the deck up and blowing up back row. The deck is still very good, but its best match up is Dino Rabbit. When that deck becomes the most popular one again, you can see this deck take over. However, we will see if this deck ends up taking a back seat to Heiratics.

Inzektors: This is where I feel that I will get the most people disagreeing with me. Many people think that this is the best deck right now, and I have to disagree. Even with the addition of Ladybug, they are still stuck with the same problem they had to begin with. It is a combo based deck that can get stuck, and when that happens there is really no way to win. If you are stranded without a hornet, your plays are incredibly limited. With Ladybug, you will have a chance to search it faster and create a rank 5 XYZ, but still, you are completely reliant on drawing them. On top of that, you need to have a Dragonfly or Centipede for it to go off and your opponent can be negating them left and right with Effect Veilers, Fiendish Chains, Solemn Warnings, Bottomless/Chain Disappearance, Forbidden Lance, Torrential Tribute, etc. Then there is Dolkka. Evolsaur Dolkka, if protected, can shut down the entire deck just like he can do to Wind-Ups and Skill Drain can do the same thing. Then there is the other issue, Side Decking. Cards out of the side deck can paralyze this deck, so you are left side decking to counter those specific cards. If Macro Cosmos (which is now main decked in some Dino Rabbit builds) is played, it can render an Inzektor player without any plays unless they have a way to get rid of it. My basic synopsis is that the deck is incredibly powerful, but it is a combo based deck. If you keep negating the combo, they are left with dead cards. It reminds me a lot of Infernities. Getting to Hornet is like not having a way to Infernity Archfiend (though Infernities still have a few wins under their belt). I think this deck is a very good deck, and may even win an event. However, I do not think it is the best deck, at least not right now.

Dino Rabbit: I hate to admit this, but I concede that this is the best deck. I dislike it for many reasons, mostly because it is so much like Six Samurais of the past and can require very little competency to win with (though every deck takes a certain amount of skill to win with). The reason I believe this deck is so good lies in the fact that it isn’t reliant on a combo at all. It doesn’t need to draw Rabbit to win, and if it does, it is only one stand-alone card. Yes, Kabazauls isn’t the world’s greatest card, but would you rather be stranded on a Kabazauls or a Gemini Spark, Wind-Up Hunter, or a dead Inzektor? The self sufficiency of the deck makes it strong in the late game because the cards you are drawing aren’t usually irrelevant. If the game simplifies, the deck will continue to draw cards that allow it to play like a stun variant. Also, once the deck goes off (uses Rabbit/makes an Evolsaur), it isn’t anywhere near done like Wind-Ups. You can still draw Pot of Avarice, Rescue Rabbit, and Tour Guide from the Underworld. The rest of the cards in the deck can fight off most opponents, which is the reason that, despite the meta, I still like Jurrac Guiba in the deck. It gives you another good card in your deck that your opponent has to worry about and makes Forbidden Lance very live. The deck also allows for a lot of tech cards to be played that normally cannot be. I don’t necessarily agree with a main-decked Macro Cosmos (due to the abundance of mirror matches), it sides it in with the greatest of ease. The deck isn’t reliant on a combo like most other decks (Inzektors needing Hornet, Wind-Ups usinging the loop, Darkworld needing Gates/Grapha, Dragons needing REDMD, Heroes constantly needing combos) and Samurais lose a card when they make Shi-En.

At the end of the day, this is just my opinion but I want you to understand the take away point from this entire article. I didn’t write this with the idea of ranking popular decks, but rather to understand why the meta is the way it is. It is also to understand that simplification wins. I will be writing another article describing and fully illustrating simplification soon and I will probably give a decklist for a deck that has no other intent but to do just that. Simplification is an older concept that used to work a lot better for decks like stun and gadgets, but it is still alive and well today. Isolate the key cards from combo based decks and they will fall apart. If all of your cards are independently solid, your deck can operate most consistently. I’ll try to answer questions that you post, I am sure that people will be happy to disagree with me on this article and that is okay. There is no absolute correct answer for what is the best deck and why, but this is my opinion and that is my reasoning. I would be happy to debate this in comments.

PS, if anybody wants to play me or watch any of my games, my Duelnetwork username is Thunderpants123

Cardcar D

Cannot be Special Summoned. During your Main Phase 1, if this card was Normal Summoned this turn: You can Tribute this card; draw 2 cards, then it becomes the End Phase of this turn. You cannot Special Summon during the turn you activate this effect.

Machine/Effect

Level 2 Earth

ATK/800 DEF/400

Cardcar D is probably the most hyped card of the new set. This fact can be proven by its secondary market price. Its effect is very unique and has a lot of utility when combined with certain deck strategies but I think that it has some vices that we simply cannot ignore. It takes away your normal summon and your special summon for the turn and then it sends you straight into the end phase. This means that you can’t really do anything except activate spells and traps or set backrows. In the OCG, Cardcar D is being used by the Inzektor and the Hieratic decks. They don’t have Tour Guide from the Underworld which leads me to believe that they probably wouldn’t rely so much on Cardcar D if they did have Guide. In the TCG, ending your field without a monster on the board is almost certain death. It doesn’t have to be that turn but you will be put in a situation that is so terrible that you’ll lose eventually. Drawing 2 cards and then passing with no further plays will only get you so far in the TCG. This isn’t Japan where the game is a lot slower right now. The top decks in the TCG, which are Dino-Rabbit, Chaos Dragons, and Inzektors, are all able to deal lethal damage in one turn if given the opportunity. Dragons and Inzektors can do so through cards like Solemn Warning and Torrential Tribute with the help of Call of the Haunted and mass special summoning. This leads me to believe that Cardcar D is not all that insane in our country. I know it’s a good card but I don’t think that people should be tributing their first born to get a playset. It will have its shine in certain strategies—such as Chain Burn for instance–but I think that the decks that do a lot of special summoning would much rather have Tour Guide instead. Including both is possible but the hands become cluttered.

Photon Strike Bounzer

2 Level 6 monsters

Once per turn, during either player’s turn, when a monster effect is activated on your opponent’s side of the field: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; negate the effect, and if you do, inflict 1000 damage to your opponent.

Warrior/Xyz/Effect

Rank 6 Light

ATK/2700 DEF/2000

This card is—in my opinion—one of the best cards, if not the best card, in the set. Most people have already realized that it has great utility in dragon decks where it can be easily summoned with the use of Chaos Sorcerers and Lightpulsar Dragons. Its effect resembles that of Evolzar Dolkka, except that it doesn’t destroy the card, but it deals 1000 damage instead and it can only be used once per turn. It does have a massive body though, weighing in at 2700 attack power which means that there aren’t many monsters that could beat it in battle. It can only negate the effects of monsters that activate on your opponent’s side of the field so be aware of that because cards like Sangan and Tragoedia can’t be negated. It cannot negate the summoning of Gorz but it can negate Gorz’s effect to create a token. This will help you to push for game in certain scenarios. Photon Strike Bounzer is one of the best cards to end your turn with since it gives you some added protection to your field of huge dragons. If there is an opportunity to summon this guy before ending your turn I would strongly recommend that you do.

Hieratic Dragon King of Atum

2 Level 6 Dragon-Type monsters

Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card; Special Summon 1 Dragon-Type monster from your Deck, and make its ATK and DEF 0. This card cannot attack during the turn you activate this effect.

Dragon/Xyz/Effect

Rank 6 Light

ATK/ 2600 DEF/2100

This card is simply amazing! It does require type specific monsters to make but once it resolves it can create massive problems. It summons a dragon type monster of any level from the deck which will usually end up being a Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon since he also has a special summoning ability. The only way to make this guy in Chaos Dragons is with 2 Lightpulsar Dragons. If you have the ability to summon 2 Lightpulsars you might not want to get rid of them unless you’re going for game. If you have a REDMD in your hand when you summon Atum then you can detach Lightpulsar, bring out a REDMD from the deck, revive the Lightpulsar, and then remove the REDMD on the field to summon the one from your hand and revive another dragon monster. Once all of that is said and done you can summon Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger by using Hieratic Dragon King of Atum as an Xyz material. Since Atum cannot attack the turn it activates its effect you will usually want to make the Thunder Charger to sneak in an extra 2600 damage that turn. However, if you feel like you can keep Atum alive then you will want to leave it on the field to abuse its ability on the following turn.

Queen Dragun Djinn

2 Level 4 monsters

Dragon-Type monsters you control cannot be destroyed by battle, except “Queen Dragun Djinn”. Once per turn: You can detach 1 Xyz Material from this card to target 1 Level 5 or higher Dragon-Type monster in your Graveyard; Special Summon that target. It cannot attack this turn, and its effects are negated.

Dragon/Xyz/Effect

Rank 4 Dark

ATK/2200 DEF/1200

Since we’re on the subject of dragons we might as well get them all out of the way. This lovely lady has a nasty ability to bring Dragons back from the graveyard. Since they can’t attack that turn and they will have no effects it would be wise to use them for Xyz material or to create swings in card advantage. You could also use her or the revived dragon as fodder for the summoning of REDMD. Queen Dragun also prevents your dragon monsters from being destroyed by battle, except herself, which means that you can crash your dragons into the opponent’s monsters during the mirror match and only theirs will die. The next time you have an Eclipse Wyvern and a Lyla just laying around remember to bring out Queen Dragun instead of Utopia.

Night Beam

Target 1 Set Spell/Trap Card your opponent controls; destroy that target. Your opponent cannot activate the targeted card in response to this card’s activation.

Normal Spell

Night Beam is one of the many incarnations of Mystical Space Typhoon. It is only a normal spell which means that it won’t do anything when set and it can only be activated on your own turn. It also only destroys set spells and traps so don’t expect to use it on a face-up Safe Zone anytime soon. What it does provide that MST does not is preventing the targeted card from being chained in response to Night Beam’s effect. However, if the opponent has 2 backrows and you target 1 with Night Beam, the opponent can chain the other backrow to Night Beam and then chain the card you targeted to the backrow. For example:

Player A activates Night Beam and targets Player B’s facedown Call of the Haunted.

Player B chains Mystical Space Typhoon to Night Beam and targets one of Player A’s backrows.

Player A has no response.

Player B then chains the set Call of the Haunted to Mystical Space Typhoon in order to dodge the prevention abilities of Night Beam.

Remember this trick because it could win you a game one day. Other than that there really isn’t much to say about Night Beam. MST is already on 3 so if you play even 1 copy of Night Beam you must be using a strategy that really hates backrows, like Hieratics.

Inzektor Ladybug

Once per turn: You can equip 1 “Inzektor” monster from your hand or Graveyard to this card. While this card is equipped to a monster, that monster’s Level is increased by 2, also it gains ATK and DEF equal to this card’s ATK and DEF. While this card is equipped to a monster: You can send this Equip Card to the Graveyard to target 1 face-up monster you control; increase that target’s Level by up to 2.

Insect/Effect

Level 2 Dark

ATK/500 DEF/100

Ladybug has been talked about a lot in the Yu-Gi-Oh community because of its ability to send itself to the graveyard like that of Inzektor Hopper but also because it turns your Inzektors into level 4 or 5 monsters. This means that you have more Xyz options when going through your typical Inzektor play of Dragonfly + Centipede. Hopper doesn’t allow you to attack in the same turn that you activated its effect twice which could be a real hindrance at times. Ladybug, on the other hand, will allow you to attack with all of your monsters and you have the option of making a Tiras, Keeper of Genesis to end your turn with. Tiras is one of the best Xyz monsters in the current metagame because of its destruction-proof effect. Also, having the option to go into Utopia is never a bad thing since any Inzektor that lives through the opponent’s turn is most likely game. What I don’t like about Ladybug is that it doesn’t do as well as Hopper as a standalone monster. It lacks attack power, weighing in at a measily 500, which means that you won’t be destroying anything in battle with the little runt. Actually, I could imagine someone bragging about how they killed a Veilered Rescue Rabbit with Ladybug but that situation won’t happen often. With Zektkaliber, Hopper was a real monster to fear because it had 2500 attack power which is more than both the Evolzars.

There are more cards in Galactic Overlord that I’m sure will make an impact at YCS Philly but I’ll leave some of the work to you. In the comments section below, please let me know which cards you like from the new set and why. Thanks.

Remember, Play Hard or Go Home!

~Frazier Smith

~YCS Atlanta Champion