Deck Doctor X-Sabers Return!

December 6, 2012

by William Morrison

Hello again readers I'm back with another deck doctor article for you! This time it's an X-saber deck by Alex Vansant. Now X-Sabers have, in past formats, been a huge contender for the top tables, but now they will usually only be seen lower down if at all. The deck can still be very explosive in the hands of a player that knows the ins and outs of what the deck can do. From knowing when to set Emmersblade over Darksoul to getting the most use out of your synchro monsters not just anyone can pick up the deck and be good with it. Without further ado we will get into the deck.

The Deck:

X-Sabers are what some people consider a “deck of the past”. Something that once won game after game with the use of Rescue Cat and Summoner Monk to quickly gain field presence and defeat an opponent in only one or two turns. Even when Rescue Cat was removed from the equation by the ban list the deck still stayed strong. It went for a slower start by gathering resources with XX-Saber Darksoul and XX-Saber Emmersblade to finish the game with powerful monsters like XX-Saber Faultroll and XX-Saber Hyunlei. With new cards and the ever changing meta this deck has fallen out of favor for other decks that don't require as much set up, but have the same explosive power. Even so this deck still has potential if you know how to pilot it correctly.

Alex Vansant's X-Saber Deck

Monsters: 18

2 X-Saber Pashuul

3 XX-Saber Darksoul

3 XX-Saber Emmersblade

3 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight

1 X-Saber Airbellum

3 XX-Saber Faultroll

1 Gorz The Emissary of Darkness

2 Tragoedia

Spells:11

2 Forbidden Lance

2 Enemy Controller

1 Scapegoat

1 Mind Control

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Book of Moon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Monster Reborn

Traps: 12

3 Gottoms' Emergency Call

1 Reinforce Truth

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Torrential Tribute

1 Starlight Road

2 Solemn Warning

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15

2 XX-Saber Hyunlei

1 X-Saber Souza

1 XX-Saber Gottoms

1 Naturia Barkion

1 Naturia Beast

1 Armory Arm

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Wind-Up Zenmains

1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

1 Photon Strike Bounzer

1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger

This deck, as I have said before, has a great deal of potential to put huge threats on the board, but if you can't get to the cards that let you go off it means nothing. This brings us to one of the first problems I found when testing out this deck, constancy. I would simply draw some of the most horrendous hands imaginable. Now this didn't happen all of the time, but it was often enough to warrant concern for the flow of the deck overall. Keeping this in mind I decided that no matter what cards I ended up removing Pot of Duality would be making an appearance in this deck. This aside there were no cards that stuck out to me as not meshing with what the deck wants to do. There were, however, some cards that I though could be replaced with better options.

First of all I found that Tragoedia works great in theory, but about half the time I had it in my hand weren't enough cards left in my hand to effectively use it. The other monster that I found didn't work out so well was X-Saber Airbellum. While this monster has a great effect enabling you to discard a card from your opponent's hand when it hits them with a direct attack it wasn't very useful otherwise because it's a tuner. With Darksoul and Emmersblade as the only small monsters that are non-tuners Airbellum had to go in favor of another X-Saber monster.

Moving along to the spells I found that two copies of Enemy Controller was too much. I would draw it and not have a Darksoul or Fulhelmknight to use it effectively with. Next Scapegoats wasn't nearly as useful as it is in other synchro based decks. Especially with the decision to cut an Enemy Controller this was another card that I decided to take out. Lastly for the spells Pot of Avarice wasn't something that I felt fits in a deck like this. The only monsters that you really want to put back into your deck are synchro monsters and Faultroll. You need to keep your Darksouls, Fulhelmknights, and Emmersblades in the graveyard to use Gottoms Emergency Call and Faultroll to their fullest. As for the traps I chose to take out Reinforce Truth because Pashuul is easily searched when you need it. As for Starlight Road its a great card, but you will usually be using it to keep your monsters from being destroyed by cards like Torrential Tribute or Dark Hole and you have Forbidden Lance to do both these jobs and more already.

Lastly the extra deck was fairly solid, but needed a few changes. The only card that I though needed immediate removal was Armory Arm as you have no way to make it save for taking your opponent's Effect Veiler. The other two cards I decided to take out were Inzektor Exa-Beetle and Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger. While Exa-Beetle works great with Darksoul and overlaying into Thunder Charger after you use its effect is a good way to push for damage I couldn't find room to keep both of these cards in the extra deck so they both had to go.

Main Deck:

-1 XX-Saber Airbellum

-2 Trageodia

-1 Enemy Controller

-1 Scapegoats

-1 Pot of Avarice

-1 Reinforce Truth

-1 Starlight Road

Extra Deck:

-1 Armory Arm

-1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

-1 Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger

Now with these cards removed lets move on to what replaced them!

Alex Vansant's X-Saber Deck: Revised

Monsters: 19

2 X-Saber Pashuul

3 XX-Saber Darksoul

3 XX-Saber Emmersblade

3 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight

2 XX-Saber Boggart Knight

3 XX-Saber Faultroll

1 Gorz The Emissary of Darkness

2 Effect Veiler

Spells: 10

2 Forbidden Lance

1 Enemy Controller

1 Book of Moon

1 Mind Control

2 Pot of Duality

1 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Monster Reborn

Traps: 11

3 Gottoms Emergency Call

1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Torrential Tribute

2 Solemn warning

1 Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15

2 XX-Saber Hyunlei

1 X-Saber Souza

1 XX-Saber Gottoms

1 Naturia Beast

1 Naturia Barkion

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Black Rose Dragon

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Mist Wurm

1 Soul of Sivermountain

1 Wind-Up Zenmaines

1 Photon Strike Bounzer

1 Sword Breaker

Here's what was added to the deck:

Main Deck:

+2 XX-Saber Boggart Knight

+2 Effect Veiler

+2 Pot of Duality

+1 Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck:

+1 Soul of Silvermountain

+1 Sword Breaker

+1 Mist Wurm

XX-Saber Boggart Knight was, to me, was an obvious choice to add into the deck. With the plays that you can make with it, any other X-Saber monster, and Faultroll I couldn't pass up adding two copies to the deck. Sure it will get stopped by Veiler or your opponent will chain Maxx “C” to it, but if it works it can lead you to a quick victory. Next I added in two Effect Veiler to stop plays made by your opponent, something the deck couldn't do before unless you used your trap cards.

For the spells I added the two copies of Pot of Duality that I spoke of earlier. They work wonders in helping the consistency of the deck. Most of your first turn plays will involve setting a monster and maybe a backrow or two so it lets you get to your combo pieces much faster. Some of you may have noticed that I chose not to add any copies of Mystical Space Typhoon to the deck. I leave them to the side deck because you have Hyunlei to deal with multiple backrow at a time and the only thing that can stop her is Solemn Warning or Solemn Judgment if you have Forbidden Lance. Lance gets more done for you in this deck because it's of such an aggressive nature. The traps were mostly what I wanted to see in this deck, but I though it needed the addition of one Compulse to deal with problematic monsters such as Ally of Justice Catastor.

Lastly for the extra deck I added another level nine synchro monster, Mist Wurm. This card is also an easy way to deal with a field full of pesky xyz, fusion, or synchro monsters. I also added two xyz monsters, Soul of Silvermountain and Sword Breaker. Silvermountain is an extremely useful card in any earth themed deck that can make it. With its ability to bring back any earth monster from your graveyard, yes even Gottoms, and being able to simultaneously lock down backrow its something that you just can't pass up. As for Sword Breaker it's, simply put, a rank six version of Catastor. You may not make it much, but if when you do it may just win the game for you.

With the extra deck taken care of and all of my choices for this deck explained hopefully some of you will go and try out this “deck of the past” and see if you can make it something for people to talk about again. Also if you have any questions about my choices or my reasoning behind them feel free to ask. Thanks for reading!