Deck Doctor Round 2 – Justin Diaz

December 3, 2012

by Justin Diaz

What's up everyone! I hope everyone has had a wonderful thanksgiving and took advantage of the great deals ARG offered during the weekend. In today;s deck doctor I am here to fix up Alex Vansant's X-Saber deck. X-sabers became a powerful deck that dominated the format after XX-Saber Emmersblade and XX-Saber Darksoul were released in The Shinning Darkness. The deck won U.S. Nationals in 2010 and continued to win 2 YCS. XX-Sabers have always used the same strategy to use floaters and recruiters to set up massive combos that OTK your opponent or lock them down.

X-Sabers: 41

Monsters: 18

XX-Saber Darksoul x3
XX-Saber Emmersblade x3
XX-Saber Faultroll x3
XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3
X-Saber Pashuul x2
Tragoedia x2
X-Saber Airbellum
Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 11
Forbidden Lance x2
Enemy Controller x2
Scapegoat
Mind Control
Book of Moon
Heavy Storm
Pot of Avarice
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole

Traps: 12
Gottoms Emergency Call x3
Solemn Warning x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Torrential Tribute x2
Reinforce Truth
Solemn Judgment
Starlight Road

Extra: 15
XX-Saber Gottoms
Scrap Dragon
Stardust Dragon
XX-Saber Soulza
Black Rose Dragon
XX-Saber Hyunlei x2
Naturia Barkion
Ally of Justice Catastor
Naturia Beast
Armory Arm
Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
Inzektor Exa-Beetle
Photon Strike Bounzer
Wind-Up Zenmaines

Monsters

The first issue I see with the deck is X-saber Airbellum. After test playing X-Saber Airbellum doesn't really have much synergy with the deck and a lot of the times he clogs your hand. X-Sabers can be a extremely explosive deck but wasting a normal summon on X-Saber on a can be crucial. Even though it slows your opponent down and can hurt them quite a bit, it succeeds in slowing you down as well your opponent. Like I mentioned before the deck relies on setting up plays waiting patiently before going off. That normal summon can be used for emmersblade or darksoul set which will give you more options later on in the game. Another monster I decided to cut was both copies of Tragoedia. While Tragoedia can be strong because X-Sabers can hold a lot of cards in hand once the deck explodes it uses many of its resources which can greatly weaken Tragoedia. After you have made your push the Trag will be dead, and with this deck (or any deck in general) you want to have as little dead cards as possible. Also you do not take a lot of battle damage in this deck seeing that a lot of your cards are floaters and you run Pashuuls and fullhelmknight which protect you from battle. The only time you really take damage in this deck is if you don’t open of with monsters ,which puts you in a not so great position already I would rather have a different card I will reveal later in the article to help me play out those dead hands.

Spells

For the spells I decided to cut one copy of Enemy Controller. Enemy Controller has amazing synergy with XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, but I felt that it was to situational. While testing I found me using Enemy Controller mostly to protect myself from my opponents attacks instead of abusing its ability to steal opponents cards. This card seemed to work better in theory but when testing it, it was another dead card. I also found myself in situations where I had a Giant Rat or an Emmersblade on the field and Enemy Controller would have been not been the most optimal play seeing I lose my floater which is my field presence. Also in a deck that requires a lot of combo pieces for a massive pushes I want to eliminate the amount dead draws. Pot of Avarice was another card I decided to take out the deck. You might think I’m crazy for taking out such an amazing power card but in this build of X-Sabers filling up the graveyard is important to fully abuse all three copies of Gottoms Emergency Call. Pot of Avarice doesn't help the flow of the deck and create dead cards like Gottoms Emergency Call and XX-Saber Faultroll. If the deck had more speed pot of avarice would have been a viable choice. I find myself drawing Pot of Avarice first turn and I really don’t find any use for it. It only becomes live by the 4^th or 5^th turn but even then I am hesitant to activate it because I want to get of my Faultroll and Gottoms E-Call plays.

Traps

I made no changes to the trap line up because I felt the trap line-up was extremely strong and had great synergy with the monsters. Triple Gottom’s E-Call helped me set up and put pressure on my opponent by pushing with two monsters on the field and set up Faultroll plays. It’s a plus one and could shift the momentum of the game in the blink of an eye. Outside of the triple Gottoms E-Call the trap line up is standard.

Extra Deck

The first card I wanted to cut was either Photon Strike Bounzer or Inzektor Exa-Beetle. There is not much room on the extra deck to fit both and I felt Photon Strike Bounzer was better than Inzektor Exa-Beetle. Bounzer is more of a control card and that can really suit sabers play style. Setting up a Barkion and Beast field can be very powerful but with decks with powerful effects in the meta such Mermail- Atlantean and Wind-Ups can destroy your set up. Having a card like Bounzer to put your opponent in an uncomfortable position is really important to the stun aspect of this deck. Like Enemy Controller, Exa-Beetle is way to situational and not as good as Photon Strike Bounzer. XX-saber Hyunlei provides a way to eliminate back row and X-Sabers usually don't have problems getting rid of big monsters so Exa-Beetle is not as viable in this deck.The other card I cut from the extra deck was Armory Arm. There is no way to make Armory Arm in the deck outside of Enemy Controller Mind Control, and Monster Reborn. Since you don’t want to waste a power card like monster reborn to make a armory arm ( which is very situational) you shouldn’t play it. Since Armory Arm is not really a viable option to make I would rather put a card that can be more useful.

Here's a list of the cards I removed:

- Tragodiea 2x
- XX-Saber Airbellum
- Enemy Controller
- Pot of Avarice
- Inzektor Exa-Beetle
- Armory Arm

Monsters

The card I added to replace Tragoedia is 2 copies of Giant Rat to replace both Tragoedia's. Like I mentioned before X-Sabers use a lot of floaters to set up and Giant Rat is just another floater. He also gives the deck more consistency something Tragoedia did not. Giant Rat is also earth so he can be used to make Naturia Landoise and Naturia Barkion. I am also adding 1 XX-Saber Boggart Knight. Boggart Knight provides a way to special summon XX-sabers which can help the deck go off faster something X-Saber Airbellum could not.

Spells

I added 2 copies of Pot of Duality to replace the Enemy Controller and Pot of Avarice. Pot of Duality provides a lot of consistency to the deck and goes with the themes of setting up combo pieces much quicker. Pot of Duality also helps the deck fight threw clump hands with multiple copies XX-Saber Falutroll and Gottoms Emergency Call. Sometimes all you need to make a bad hand a good one is Pot of Duality into an Emmersblade and get your flow going.

Extra Deck

I added in a Naturia Landoise to replace the Armory Arm. Landoise is easy to make in the deck unlike Armory Arm it allows a way to stop the opposing player from making any big plays. To replace the Inzektor Exa-Beetle I added in Soul of Silver Mountain. Soul of Silver Mountain is really easy to make considering everything is a earth type in the deck. Not only does Soul of Silver Mountain stop opponents back row but it can also revive floaters when it destroys an opponent’s monster. Soul will also force opponents backrow and make way for your bigger monsters. With soul you have one less face-down card to worry about.

The new added in cards:

+ Gaint Rat 2x
+ XX-Saber Boggart Knight
+ Pot of Duality 2x
+ Naturia Landoise
+ Soul of Silver Mountain

Here's the new improved deck list

Alex Vansant's New Sabers Strike Deck

X-Sabers: 41

Monsters: 18

XX-Saber Darksoul x3
XX-Saber Emmersblade x3
XX-Saber Faultroll x3
XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3
X-Saber Pashuul x2
Giant Rat x2
XX-Saber Boggart Knight
Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 11
Pot of Duality x2
Forbidden Lance x2
Enemy Controller
Scapegoat
Mind Control
Book of Moon
Heavy Storm
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole

Traps: 12
Gottoms Emergency Call x3
Solemn Warning x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Torrential Tribute x2
Reinforce Truth
Solemn Judgment
Starlight Road

Extra: 15
XX-Saber Gottoms
Scrap Dragon
Stardust Dragon
XX-Saber Soulza
Black Rose Dragon
XX-Saber Hyunlei x2
Naturia Barkion
Ally of Justice Catastor
Naturia Beast
Naturia Landoise
Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger
Soul of Silver Mountian
Photon Strike Bounzer
Wind-Up Zenmaines

Hope everyone enjoyed my article. Hopefully I can advance to the next round. Till next time see you duelist!