Hey readers, it’s that time of the year again, though it seems this time of the year is going to be coming twice as often as it used to. Starting off, I’m going to update Christian Gonzalez’s Spellbook list to the next format:

[ccDeck="Main Deck"]2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer:2 High Priestess of Prophecy:1 World of Prophecy:3 Spellbook Magician of Prophecy:3 Temperance of Prophecy:2 Mystical Space Typhoon:1 Book of Moon:3 Spellbook Library of the Crescent:3 Spellbook of Secrets:2 Spellbook of the Master:2 Spellbook of Eternity:2 The Grand Spellbook Tower:2 Spellbook of Fate:1 Spellbook of Life:1 Spellbook of Power:1 Spellbook of Wisdom:2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast:2 Mirror Force:1 Raigeki Break:1 Bottomless Trap Hole:1 Solemn Warning:1 Compulsory Evacuation Device:1 Torrential Tribute[/ccDeck]

I’m sure everyone is familiar with Spellbooks by this point, they’ve been a relevant deck for almost a year now, and released for even longer, so I’m not going to waste any time explaining what the deck does. My main goal with this is to optimize this list for a (relatively) unknown metagame.

Naturally, the first cut is already made for us, as S[ccProd]pellbook of Fate[/ccProd] is now limited. Aside from that, there isn’t much to change. I’m going to cut the Kycoos, as outside of the mirror match I don’t see them having much utility with Dragon now effectively being out of the metagame.

This early on in the format, Typhoon isn’t really the card I want to have mained in a deck like this, which is pretty strong versus backrow as-is. The slots on Typhoon can easily be spent on higher impact cards to help keep you alive and generating advantage off of Tower.

The cuts in summary:
-1 Spellbook of Fate
-2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
-2 Mystical Space Typhoon

To replace the Kycoos, I’m going to add 2 [ccProd]Justice of Prophecy[/ccProd], who fills the role of a monster for Master, as well as in general adding consistency to the deck, making having a Secrets by turn 2 much more common. With the metagame hopefully slowing down, waiting a turn for some extra consistency and later game plays should be worthwhile.

One card that I think is very well positioned going into the next format is [ccProd]Mind Crush[/ccProd], the card has applications against almost every deck that people are hyping up, and in some cases, especially versus the Mirror, the card can be a total game breaker. With generic traps as bad as they are right now, I feel [ccProd]Mind Crush[/ccProd] is a great option for decks that want a couple extra traps. I’m going to add one to the main.

Lastly, I want to add 2 [ccProd]Fiendish Chain[/ccProd]s to round off the list, as I just said, traps aren’t especially good right now, and Fiendish Chain is the next best option after the traps you already have in the deck.

Additions in summary:
+2 Justice of Prophecy
+1 Mind Crush
+2 Fiendish Chain

Now, when submitting your list you asked for help with making a sideboard. It’s tough to make a sideboard for what is largely an undefined format, but we can start by identifying what we think the threats are. If I had to guess, I’d say this deck would have a pretty tough time versus Water, Harpie, Infernity, and of course, the mirror. Extra copies of Mind Crush can be invaluable versus Water and the mirror, while Infernity is a deck you might need more dedicated cards like [ccProd]D.D. Crow[/ccProd] for. Naturally, with the Typhoons cut from the main, we’re going to want them in the board to help answer boarded in [ccProd]Mistake[/ccProd]s, or Fragrances, incidentally, Typhoon is also incredible versus Harpie, allowing you to stop [ccProd]Harpies' Hunting Ground[/ccProd] from tearing up your backrow, or block a [ccProd]Hysteric Party[/ccProd] from killing you outright. You can also Typhoon a [ccProd]Hysteric Sign[/ccProd] on the chain and they get neither effect, since the first effect tried to activate.

Really though, for a truly optimized sideboard we’re going to need to wait and see what people are going to be playing going into the new format. Who knows what kinds of crazy decks that were held back by Dragons might emerge?

Next up, we’re going a bit more on the casual side of things with Jarrod Bennett’s “Vanilla Synchro” list:
[ccDeck="Main Deck"]2Ally Mind:2 Labradorite Dragon:2 Level Eater:3 Armageddon Knight:3 Dark Grepher:2 Mystic Tomato:1 Cheepcheepcheep:1 Reinforcement of the Army:1 Foolish Burial:1 Allure of Darkness:2 Mystical Space Typhoon:2 Forbidden Lance:3 Silent Doom:3 Silver's Cry:3 Swing of Memories:3 Soul Resurrection:3 Birthright:3 Call of the Haunted[/ccDeck] [ccDeck="Extra Deck"]1 T.G. Hyper Librarian:1 Ally of Justice Catastor:1Armades, Keeper of Boundaries:3 Underground Arachnid:2 Vulcan the Divine:1 HTS Psyhemuth:1 Celestial Wolf Lord, Blue Sirius:1 Star Eater:1 Lavalval Chain:1 Daigusto Emeral:1 Adreus, Keeper of Armageddon:1 Constellar Ptolemy M7[/ccDeck]

Well, this is certainly different. A staggering 18 effects that special summon normal monsters from the grave makes for a deck that certainly misses[ccProd]Card of Safe Return[/ccProd]. I’ll be the first to admit it took me a couple minutes to see what exactly this deck is trying to do, with Ally Mind, then I saw the Level Eaters, which allow for easy level 5 synchro access, which of course, means Hyper Librarian access, and Labradorite Dragon gives access to level 6 synchros like Arachnid, and Vulcan. Definitely one of the more interesting concepts I’ve seen while writing this column.

First off, 18 special summon effects is certainly a bit too much, even for this deck, and due to Librarian, the Spells have much, much, higher value than the traps do. I’m going to cut the 3 copies of Soul Resurrection to make room for some more versatile cards.

The single Cheepcheepcheep is cute (both in a deckbuilding sense, and a card art sense) but I question how useful it actually is, it’s a slow effect that only loads half the combo. Similarly, Mystic Tomato also feels a tad too slow for what we’re trying to do here, so I’m going to cut them as well.

Forbidden Lance doesn’t seem to have much of a role in here, and is probably better off as other, more direct spell/trap removal like [ccProd]Night Beam[/ccProd], which can block[ccProd]Solemn Warning[/ccProd], or Torrential much more effectively. As a rule of thumb, Lance is best in decks that make use of it as both a battle phase trap, and a way to disrupt backrow. It isn’t the best at either function, but the versatility makes it good. In here, it’s just backrow disruption, so we should just play better backrow disruption.

The cuts in summary:
-3 Soul Resurrection
-1 Cheepcheepcheep
-2 Mystic Tomato
-2 Forbidden Lance

Going down to 12 monsters doesn’t seem too bad for this kind of deck, aiming to really only use its normal summon on an Armageddon Knight or Dark Grepher. For the additions, I want to start with adding 2 [ccProd]Pot of Duality[/ccProd]. Turn 1 we need to be pretty lucky to be going off, so with the goal being a turn 2 combo, having a turn 1 Duality to help setup our Grepher or Knight adds quite a bit of consistency.

When cutting Lances I mentioned better backrow disruption. We can’t really play [ccProd]Trap Stun[/ccProd] in here due to the 6 continuous traps that we are relying on, but the 3rd Typhoon and a Night Beam should be solid enough at dealing with a couple backrow. Versus more trap heavy decks where one for ones are less effective, in games 2 and 3 you can always side out the traps for [ccProd]Royal Decree[/ccProd]s and Trap Stun, since you don’t need to be as explosive against those kinds of decks.

Surviving the first couple of turns might be a bit difficult for this deck, and to help remedy this I want to add a single [ccProd]Torrential Tribute[/ccProd], and 3 [ccProd]Fiendish Chain[/ccProd]s. Here, the Chains have extra value due to their reusability with Vulcan, and since we don’t care too much about our Grephers or Armageddon Knights, Torrential doesn’t have too much downside to it, when we have a big field our opponent should be pretty dead anyway. Arachnid gives us a very easy way of clearing monsters out of the way for gameshots as well, so the monster sticking around with Chain isn’t a big problem at all.

The additions in summary:
+1 Mystical Space Typhoon
+1 Night Beam
+2 Pot of Duality
+3 Fiendish Chain
+1 Torrential Tribute

The Circuit Series makes its next stop in Indianapolis on January 11th! It's a 1K in 1 Day! Then, a week later, it makes another stop in Nashville, TN for a regular Circuit Series event!

Well, that’s all for this week. If you have a list you’d like doctored send a message to
https://www.facebook.com/ArgDeckDoctor

Until next time, remember to Play Hard or Go Home!

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