Deck Doctor Round 2 – Tyler Nolan

December 4, 2012

by Tyler Nolan

Hey ARG readers, this is Tyler Nolan back for Round 2. This time there is only one decklist, and it is one that brings back many memories. Let’s get right into it:

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

X-Saber was a popular deck for quite a while from the time TSHD was released in 2010, until around when Reborn Tengu came out and plants kinda replaced it. What the X-Saber deck tries to do is stall through the early turns of the game with Emmersblades, Fulhelmknights, and Darksouls while assembling the pieces to make a push for game with a big Faultroll or Gottoms’ Emergency Call play, very similarly to how Wind-up stalls through the initial turns, taking time to assemble it’s combo with Factory before making its combo turn.

As far as the monsters go, I’m going to cut the Airbellum, you already have a level 3 tuner in Fulhelmknight, and he won’t be zalooging your opponent enough to warrant the slot. With cards like Gottoms’ Emergency Call in the list, which tend to stick around, Gorz is probably not the most consistent card in the list. With this deck, you’re not likely to be taking much damage unless the game is already over, so I don’t see Tragoedia doing very much, especially with the higher trap count. Most of the early stages of the game involve setting monsters, not really a place where Tragoedia will be live much.

Moving onto the spells, I’m not the biggest fan of the Forbidden Lances, most of the early game you’re just going to be defending, and not really being able to get any value out of them. Later on, there are better options to ensure your push gets through. Decks that make use of lance are usually able to use both the effects of it to their advantage. Avarice conflicts with the Emergency Calls a little too much, and doesn’t get online especially fast in this deck, so I’ll be cutting that as well. Two copies of Enemy Controller feels a bit excessive as well, while it can be an extremely powerful card, drawing multiple copies of it can be pretty miserable.

In the traps, there isn’t much to change. The only cut I’m making from here is the Starlight Road. Usually you’ll be using it to protect your push from a Torrential Tribute, and there are more versatile cards to fill that role.

In the extra, there are a few slots that aren’t being utilized maximally. Armory Arm doesn’t look very easy to make, being that there aren’t many level 2s or 1s you’re going to be Mind Controlling in the metagame. I’m also going to cut the Exa-Beetle, most of the time you’re pushing with the required two Faultrolls to make this card, you’re better off just making Bounzer to play around Gorz.

-1 X-Saber Airbellum

-1 Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

-2 Tragoedia

-2 Forbidden Lance

-1 Pot of Avarice

-1 Enemy Controller

-1 Starlight Road

-1 Inzektor Exa-Beetle

-1 Armory Arm

Eleven cuts total, nine in the maindeck. Now that we’ve covered what you shouldn’t be playing, let’s see what you should.

I’m adding the three copies of XX-Saber Boggart Knight which were missing from the initial build. This card is integral to making your faultrolls live, and enables a lot of pushes, it is a staple of this archetype and I was very surprised to see it missing.

Two copies of Pot of Duality are being added to the spell line-up. While this deck does a lot of special summoning, the first few turns are often very slow, and nothing helps setup your hand for a push better than Duality. I’m also going to add one copy of Gold Sarcophagus for the same reason, with how good the deck is at drawing the game out, you will almost always see the card you store in the Sarcophagus, it’s like playing a second copy of Heavy Storm.

In the traps, I’m replacing the Starlight Road with 2 copies of Trap Stun. While Stun loses the utility of answering Heavy Storm, it more importantly prevents Solemn Warnings, or Bottomless Trap Holes. It also helps setup big Hyunlei plays that tear the opposing backrow apart. The card also has applications against the water deck, at YCS Seattle, they ruled if you use Stun on an Abyss-Sphere, the Sphere doesn’t destroy itself when the end phase comes around, and leaves your opponent unable to play spells until they get rid of Sphere the hard way.

I’m just going to cut the list down to 40 rather than add another card. I feel the consistency outweighs any utility adding an extra card has.

In the Extra deck, Adding in the Boggart Knights means we need some Rank 4s, the two I’m adding are Gagaga Cowboy and Abyss Dweller, both from the new set. Cowboy is interesting in that it does so many different things, with the limited room in the extra I just want the most versatile cards possible. Abyss Dweller is a huge hoser of the water deck, which seems to be constantly gaining more and more popularity, and is a very scary opponent for a deck that can’t side Macro or Dimensional Fissure very well. This leaves the final list looking like:

*Doctored* X-Sabers: 40
Monsters: 17

XX-Saber Darksoul x3
XX-Saber Emmersblade x3
XX-Saber Faultroll x3
XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3
XX-Saber Boggart Knight x3
X-Saber Pashuul x2

Spells: 11

Pot of Duality x2
Gold Sarcophagus x1
Enemy Controller
Scapegoat
Mind Control
Book of Moon
Heavy Storm
Pot of Avarice
Monster Reborn
Dark Hole

Traps: 13
Gottoms Emergency Call x3
Solemn Warning x2
Bottomless Trap Hole x2
Torrential Tribute x2
Trap Stun x2
Reinforce Truth
Solemn Judgment

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

Notable Exclusions:

Grandsoil the Elemental Lord: A lot of people are trying to use this card as an excuse to pick X-Sabers up again, but I really don’t think he contributes much. You already have Faultroll, who fills the same role the Elemental Lord does while being easier to summon, and searchable by Darksoul.

Mystical Space Typhoon: This deck isn’t really doing much in the way of smaller plays to bait backrow, so you’re going to resort to blind msting multiple backrow to get power plays through. Trap Stun was just a better option, especially considering the synergy it has with Hyunlei. Hyunlei answers cards like Messenger and Factory well enough that you don’t need to devote main deck slots for that kind of stuff.

Maxx “C” and Effect Veiler: Neither of these cards is very high impact against the water deck, which seems to constantly be gaining popularity, nor are they very good against a skilled wind-up player, and against Chaos Dragons, they are both almost completely dead cards.

Possible Side Deck Options:

Gozen Match is one of the best options you have versus Wind-Ups and other decks with multiple attributes. Needle Ceiling is another option you have to fight Wind-ups and other decks that put a lot of monsters on the field, with how this deck likes to set things rather than summon them early on. Due to your plan being so similar to Wind-Up, you can borrow some tech from them as well. Messenger of Peace can help support you through those first few turns before you are able to explode.

Mystical Space Typhoons need to be in the side, Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure can be pretty big problems for this deck, and it’s important to have answers somewhere. There are also plenty of matchups, such as Darkworld where they have very high utility. Speaking of Darkworld, Gemini Imps is probably the answer you want for them, replacing itself is huge in a deck like this that can use its entire hand making a push.

Liberty at Last! Was one of my favorite cards in my old Tech Genus lists for Agents, and it fits into this deck as well with all the disposable monsters you play, it is an easy out to the Venus + Gachi fields while denying them a graveyard for Hyperion. Also takes care of Kristyas, and gets rid of Trooper without them drawing cards.

I’m not entirely sure what you’d want to side for the Water deck, I’ll leave that as the question of the article, comment what you think the deck can side for the Water deck and I’ll be sure to respond.

Hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it, and I hope to come back for the next round.

-Tyler Nolan