Traps: 12
2 Dimensional Prison
2 Solemn Warning
2 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
2 Kochi Kochi Dragon
2 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gaia Knight, Force of Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon

Just looking at Billy’s decklist, you can see that it is built very solidly.  Rock stun has always been a deck that is on the cusp of seeing competitive play.  The deck packs plenty of 1900 attack beatsticks, the Koa’ki Meirus, whose effects allow the rock stun player to control the game.  In addition, a common from Return of the Duelist, Block Golem, allows for even more power by essentially normal summoning 2 powerful rock beatsticks.  I like the innovation of running Card Trooper here.  Trooper allows Block Golem to be live earlier in the game.  In addition it combos well with Call of the Haunted, gaining a free +1 off of an opponent’s MST.

The problem I have with conventional rock stun decks, like Billy’s, is that the deck has a near inability to win after losing control of the game.  To illustrate this, I’ll give an example.  Let’s say that a rock stun duelist is playing against wind-ups.  So far the duel is going very well for the rock stun player.  He has been able to build up a very good field: Koa’ki Meiru Wall and Koa’ki Meiru Sandman along with Solemn Warning and Dimensional Prison set.  However, the wind-up player first activates a spell to bait Wall’s effect and then he proceeds to activate Heavy Storm.  Then, the wind-up player continues to set up a huge field with a plethora of combos.  Now at this point, there is essentially nothing a Rock stun player can do. Rock stun is a very proactive deck; it takes great measures to maintain a firm grasp on the game, and this will almost always be your route to victory when playing this deck.  However, the deck is horrible at reacting to threats.  If a player devastates your field and thus your control set-up, it is almost always an instant loss.  That is what my fix will attempt to rectify.

So lets start with cuts.  First I’m going to cut one copy of Koa’ki Meiru Sandman. Koa’ki Meiru Sandman is widely viewed as the weakest of the Koa’ki Meiru trio; its effect will often be nullified, as tributing Sandman to negate a trap like Bottomless Trap Hole will still achieve the goal of the trap card: to get Sandman off of the field.  Next up is both copies of Maxx “C”.  It is no secret that Maxx “C” is currently only effective against wind-ups.  A great choice for this deck’s side, but I can’t justify running 2 cards that only work against one deck.

Moving on to spells, I’m just going to cut one Mystical Space Typhoon. While Billy’s old deck was prone to one for one removal, my version will be a little more resilient so Mystical Space Typhoon can go to 2.  For Traps, both copies of Dimensional Prison, as well as Starlight Road and 1 Torrential Tribute will get the axe.  I don’t think D-prison will be that good in this new meta, filled with atlanteans and agents and I want to fit in more effective traps.  I’ve never been a big fan of Starlight Road and it conflicts with block golem, so I’m gonna cut that too.  And while Torrential Tribute is probably the best trap in the game right now, it conflicts with the strategy of the deck too much.  As I have already stressed, the deck fails if it loses its established field presence.  That means that Torrential will all too often sit dead in your backrow, because you really don’t want to destroy your own monsters.

Finally, for the extra, I’m gonna cut one Kochi Kochi Dragon and one Stardust Dragon.  I think Billy has adhered too much to the earth strategy here.  Dropping potentially game-winning exceed monsters from the extra deck just because it conflicts with The Seal of Orichalcos and Block Golem doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.  And Stardust will never hit the field now that I have taken out Starlight Road.

Now for what I’m going to add.  I’ll start with 2 Grandsoil the Elemental Lord!  Grandsoil is the boss monster that rock stun decks so desperately need.  It allows for huge momentum shifts, countering an opposing field by dropping a 2800 beatstick and special summoning the biggest monster in either graveyard will often win games.   Grandsoil will allow you to re-establish your board presence, something that Billy’s deck struggled with in testing.  And with Call of the Haunted and Block Golem, the deck exhibits excellent graveyard manipulation, so Grandsoil will rarely be dead.  I’m also gonna add 2 copies of Giant Rat.  Giant Rat serves as yet another solid first turn play for the deck and can search out copies of Card Trooper, Fossil Dyna and Block Golem as well as the deck’s lone Neo-Spacian Grand Mole.  Finally, one Morphing Jar makes the cut due to its status as both an earth and a rock, as well as it’s powerful effect.  Just be wary of the dark world matchup.

For the Traps, I’m gonna put in 1 Call of the Haunted and 2 Compulsory Evacuation Device.  Call of the Haunted has an immense amount of synergy with the deck, whether its plucking that 6th earth out of the grave for Grandsoil, or chaining it and special summoning Fossil Dyna to prevent Tour Guide from special summoning anything, I want Call in hand.  Compulsory Evacuation Device is a great card that is amazing against wind-ups and geargias as well as the new Mermail-Atlantean deck from Abyss Rising.  I love the card’s versatility and expect it to shine in the new format.

And for the Extra, I’m gonna add 1 Photon Papilloperative and 1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn.  These are both very powerful rank 4 xyzs that I don’t really want to go without.  It’s not like I didn’t have the room, you just have to be careful to summon them only when you have to.

So to sum it up

-1 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
-2 Maxx “C”
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Dimensional Prison
-1 Starlight Road
-1 Torrential Tribute
-1 Kochi Kochi Dragon
-1 Stardust Dragon

+2 Grandsoil the Elemental Lord
+2 Giant Rat
+1 Morphing Jar
+2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
+1 Call of the Haunted
+1 Photon Papilloperative
+1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

Monsters: 21
2 Grandsoil the Elemental Lord
2 Giant Rat
3 Koa’ki Meiru Guardian
2 Koa’ki Meiru Sandman
3 Koa’ki Meiru Wall
3 Block Golem
2 Card Trooper
2 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo
1 Neo-Spacian Grandmole
1 Morphing Jar

Spells:19
2 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Soul Taker
2 Pot of Duality
1 Seal of Orichalcos
1 Monster Reborn
1 Dark Hole

Traps: 12
2 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Solemn Warning
3 Call of the Haunted
2 Bottomless Traphole
2 Torrential Tribute
1 Solemn Judgment
1 Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15
2 Gem-Knight Pearl
1 Kochi Kochi Dragon
2 Soul of Silver Mountain
1 Temtempo the Percussion Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaister
1 Gachi Gachi
1 Fairy King Albverdich
1 Gaia Knight, Force of Earth
1 Naturia Beast
1 Naturia Barkion
1 Scrap Dragon
1 Photon Papilloperative
1 Maestroke the Symphony Djinn

An ideal opening for this deck would be to summon a Koa’ki Meiru monster and pack it up with a few s/t.  However summoning card trooper or setting giant rat are both good ways to start off the game.  When using this deck, you should attempt to control the game as much as possible, while navigating towards those magic 5 earths in grave.  Then it is possible to explode onto the field, taking a huge chunk out of your opponents life points, and limiting their ability to come back with your control effects.  I definitely think this could, with a skilled pilot, top a regional or even a YCS.  You just have to keep working at it, make a few tweaks to fit your play style and you’ll be there!

Next up is Joe Giorlando’s Gishiki Hero Turbo deck, let’s take a look

Monsters: 20

3 Gishki Soul Ogre
3 Gishki Vision
3 Destiny Hero Plasma
2 Destiny Hero Diamond Dude
2 Trageodia
2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
1 Sangan
1 Gishki Shadow
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Dark Armed Dragon
1 Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness

Spells: 20

3 Destiny Draw
3 Trade-In
3 Miracle Fusion
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Salvage
1 Gishki Aquamirror
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Allure of Darkness
1 Dark Hole
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn

Extra: 15

1 Grenosaurus
1 Melomelody the Brass Djinn
1 Wind-Up Zenmaines
1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
1 Temtempo Percussion Djinn
1 Maestroke Symphony Djinn
1 Blade Armor Ninja
1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
1 Number 39: Utopia
1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
1 Number 11: Big Eye
1 Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger
1 Black Rose Dragon

Joe’s idea is actually very interesting.  The general idea seems to be to speed through your deck using both Trade-ins and Destiny Draws.  Then Miracle Fusion allows for the fusion summon of Absolute Zero(Though Joe seems to have forgotten to include them, but we’ll get to that later).  However, I see some immediate problems.

The first is that the deck does not have a very stable win condition.  If you look at turbo decks of the past, most notably Diamond Dude Turbo, those decks won by speeding through the deck towards spell/trap destruction and setting up an otk field quickly.  This deck basically draws a bunch of cards and the activates miracle fusion and hopes that the opponent doesn’t have a response.  I want to change that.  Next up, there are some cards that just plain don’t belong here, so we’ll be cutting them immediately.

First up on the block is one Destiny Hero Plasma  Soul Ogre is your main Trade-in Target, so I think I can safely move Plasma to two.  And I need to make room for a different destiny hero anyway.  Next up are both copies of Tour Guide from the Underworld and Sangan.  The tour guide engine is not as powerful as it once was and I want to make room for a different engine that synergizes more with the deck.  With all of these dark monsters being cut, it is natural that Dark Armed Dragon is the next to go.  As much as I love old DAD, I want my destiny heroes removed for miracle fusion, and the dark count is just too low.  Finally the one Gishki Shadow will be dropped.  Shadow is being cut because I really don’t want to waste precious card advantage on actually summoning Gishki Soul Ogre.  Instead I want the Gishkis as a complement to the draw engine that also allows you to summon Elemental Hero Absolute Zero.

For spells, I’ll start with Gishki Aqua Mirror which for aforementioned reasons, no longer has a place in the deck.  Next up is both copies of Salvage, which don’t really mesh with the deck now that I’ve cut off all potential of ritual summoning.  And finally one copy of Mystical Space Typhoon will go.  The deck draws an insane amount of cards, so it really has no trouble getting to MST.  I think 2 will work fine, especially with all of these chaos dragon decks running around.

Lastly for the Extra Deck, I’m gonna cut some of Joe’s more nonsensical choices as well as some cards that just no longer work with the deck, Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis, Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger, Number 11: Big Eye, Melomelody the Brass Djinn, Grenosaurus, Temtempo Percussion Djinn, Leviair the Sea Dragon, Blade Armor Ninja, Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction, Number 17: Leviathan Dragon, Heroic Champion Excalibur and Wind-up Zenmaines will all be cut.

First up for addition is Destiny Hero Malicious.  Malicious is probably the best legal destiny hero.  He also happens to work very well with my next additions, 2 Deep Sea Diva.  Deep Sea Diva is the key to making this deck more than just a one trick pony.  Opening up the duel by summoning Diva, special summoning Gishki Vision and xyzing into gachi gachi gantetsu is a solid play.  Diva also is a tuner, allowing for easy sycnhros with Destiny Hero Malicious.  The deck runs 2 Divas for the same reason dark worlds ran 2 Tour Guides last format.  With 3 targets in the deck, there is no point in running extra copies of diva, as all that will do is clog hands. Finally I’m going to add 2 copies of Effect Veiler.  Veiler is good at channeling the deck’s massive draw power into defense.  I’m selecting Veiler over Maxx “C” because Veiler is better against more decks and can also be used as a tuner.

Next, for spells, I’ll start by adding a copy of Scapegoat.  Any deck packing Destiny Hero Plasma, but no scapegoat is frankly built wrong.  It’s also chainable so it being the only card you really want to set in the deck is not too bad.  Next is Mind Control, which obviously is here due to the inclusion of divas. I’m also gonna add 2 Pot of Duality.  Though this deck does special summon a decent amount of the time, there will still be times when you don’t need to.  Duality is invaluable in the consistency it affords the deck.  Being able to unite draw cards and their fodder is what turns a mediocre hand into a great one.  Because of this, Duality makes it into the deck.

As for the Extra deck, we’re gonna add a lot of things, I’ll start with some rank 2’s for diva, Gachi Gachi Gantetsu and Daigusto Phoenix.  Then some synchros- Ally of Justice Catastor, Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth, Stardust Dragon, Scrap Dragon, Thought Ruler Archfiend and Colossal Fighter.  Finally, some E-hero fusions- 3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero and one Elemental Hero the Shining.

So to sum it up:

-1 Destiny Hero Plasma
-2 Tour Guide from the Underworld
-1 Sangan
-1 Dark Armed Dragon
-1 Gishki Shadow
-1 Gishki Aqua Miirror
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Salvage
-1 Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis
-1 Gaia Dragon, Thunder Charger
-1 Melomelody the Brass Djinn
-1 Grenosaurus
-1 Temtempo Percussion Djinn
-1 Leviair the Sea Dragon
-1 Blade Armor Ninja
-1 Number 30: Acid Golem of Destruction
-1 Heroic Champion Excalibur
-1 Wind-up Zenmaines
-1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon
-1 Number 11: Big Eye

+2 Destiny Hero Malicious
+2 Deep Sea Diva
+2 Effect Veiler
+1 Mind Control
+1 Scapegoat
+2 Pot of Duality
+1 Gachi Gachi Gantetsu
+1 Daigusto Phoenix
+1 Ally of Justice Catastor
+1 Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth
+1 Stardust Dragon
+1 Scrap Dragon
+1 Thought Ruler Archfiend
+1 Colossal Fighter
+3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
+1 Elemental Hero the Shining