Round 2 Deck Doctor – Mike Schwankert

December 5, 2012

by Mike Schwankert

Today’s article is the second round for the Deck Doctor contest and I am very thankful to be here. It has been a wonderful experience so far and I am very appreciative to have the opportunity to continue. The deck we’re going to examine below is Alex Vansant’s X-Saber deck, a classic deck updated with newer cards. Through testing I think I have found, in my opinion, to be the most consistent version of the deck and I hope the changes I’ve made will help any X-Saber user in the future. I took the same approach in revising this deck as I did the last round so hopefully with my new changes, X-Sabers will live to fight another day. Let’s not delay any longer and get to the deck below!

Alex Vansant's Sabers Strike Deck:

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 x1

Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness x1

Spells: 11

Forbidden Lance x2

Enemy Controller x2

Scapegoat x1

Mind Control x1

Book of Moon x1

Heavy Storm x1

Pot of Avarice x1

Monster Reborn x1

Dark Hole x1

Traps: 12

Gottoms Emergency Call x3

Solemn Warning x2

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Torrential Tribute x2

Reinforce Truth x1

Solemn Judgment x1

Starlight Road x1

Extra: 15

XX-Saber Gottoms x1

Scrap Dragon x1

Stardust Dragon x1

XX-Saber Souza x1

Black Rose Dragon x1

XX-Saber Hyunlei x2

Naturia Barkion x1

Ally of Justice Catastor x1

Naturia Beast x1

Armory Arm x1

Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger x1

Inzektor Exa-Beetle x1

Photon Strike Bounzer x1

Wind-Up Zenmaines x1

THE PROBLEMS (Main Deck):

1) Consistency: When it comes to a deck like X-Sabers, you need to make sure you have access to your combo pieces on a consistent basis. If you don’t have that tuner you need to explode, you aren’t going to be doing much winning. We need to find a way to make sure that we can get the pieces we need quickly and consistenly. On the other hand, we also need to make sure we aren’t drawing all of the pieces at once without being able to interrupt the opponent or defend your own life points. In order to solve this problem, we have to find a good balance of combo pieces, protection, and interruption.

2) Removal (The banishing kind...): Although not always a huge problem, recently there has been an increase in the number of decks maining cards like Macro Cosmos and Dimensional Fissure. The current deck list only has a few ways of dealing with the aforementioned cards, so in order to solve this problem, we need a little help taking care of backrow.

3) Defense: Another problem I found while testing the deck was its inability to defend against big pushes. There are no attack negating traps in the deck, Gorz doesn’t hit the field often enough with so much backrow, and Tragoedia rarely has enough attack/defense to stop a big push, so we need to figure out a way to give the deck time to push back.

THE SOLUTIONS (Main Deck):

1) XX-Saber Boggart Knight: One of the first things I noticed about the deck was the lack of Boggart Knight. Although it isn’t the greatest X-Saber out there because of his Synchro limitations, he does provide a little burst of speed and consistency to the deck. Being able to put two X-Sabers on the field almost instantly is incredibly powerful for the deck because Faultroll is so good. Back in the day of Rescue Cat, the deck succeeded because of how easily it could summon two X-Sabers. Boggart Knight helps fill that position, at least a little bit. Without Boggart, you essentially set Emmersblades and summon Fulhelmknights and hope you have a monster when your next turn comes. Adding one Knight gives the deck just enough so that you can push sooner and stronger. Remember, you can search him with Darksoul!

The Fix: +1

2) Pot of Duality: A deck like X-Sabers has to wait until the most opportune time to strike. You wait until you have all of your combo pieces and then make a massive push. Adding Duality allows you to pick out what you need from the deck, even if it isn’t a combo piece. You can get the piece you need or you can grab your defensive trap to help hold out for longer. Either way, Duality is a great addition that definitely improved the cosistency.

The Fix: +2

3) Trap Stun: Like the already included Forbidden Lance, Trap Stun is there to protect your monsters during a big push. Unlike Forbidden Lance though, Trap Stun defends your whole push. If you have a Boggart Knight and Pashuul in hand and your opponent has three backrow, you might want to Synchro for XX-Saber Hyunlei. What if he has a Starlight Road, Solemn Warning, or even a Macro Cosmos? Forbidden Lance won’t be much help here, but if you have Trap Stun you can lock your opponent out of those amazing trap cards and force your Hyunlei through to destroy all of them. This card gives you the chance to push more consistenty, worrying less about your opponent stopping your play and more about how many traps you want to destroy.

The Fix: +2

4) Maxx C: Although not the most popular cards, Maxx C is very effective against some of the more powerful decks of the format. Wind-Ups, Agents, and even Mermails and Dino-Rabbit are affected by this little guy. The card gives you a little extra draw power and the time you need to get to your power cards. Against a very fast and powerful metagame, Maxx C seems almost necessary in a deck like this.

The Fix: +2

Now that we have added 7 (it always seems like 7 is the magic number) cards to the main deck, we should probably take some out that aren’t working so well.

1) Tragoedia: Yes, one of the problems of the deck was defense and Tragoedia certainly helps alleviate this problem, but not in this particular deck. You have too many cards that you’ll be setting that you rarely have enough cards in hand to make him effective. The best Synchros in the deck require Earth or X-Saber monsters so he won’t be a Synchro material very often. Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense. Being able to push faster makes it so Tragoedia is unecessary.

The Fix: -2

2) Forbidden Lance: Lance serves multiple purposes in many decks, but in X-Sabers I found that most of the time I was using it to protect my Faultrolls during a push. Trap Stun not only protects the Faultroll, but it makes sure everything goes through. Trap Stun essentially becomes a Lance for my entire field. With the addition of Trap Stun, Lance doesn’t have a place in the deck.

The Fix: -2

3) Gottoms’ Emergency Call: A very powerful card, Gottoms’ Emergency Call can single-handedly turn the tide of a game. With three in the deck, it becomes very inconsistent. By taking one copy out of the deck, I found my draws to be more consistent and less cloggy with unusable backrow. An early-game hand containing multiple copies of this card were very problematic.

The Fix: -1

4) Reinforce Truth: One of the more difficult decisions, Reinforce Truth is a tricky card. It can grab a Pashuul from the deck to make sure you can push the turn after, but I found that I rarely needed it. At times, I already had enough pieces in my hand that it felt like a “win-more” card, where I was already in a great position and Truth was just the cherry on top. In order to add room for another card that might be more versatile, I took out the lone copy.

The Fix: -1

5) X-Saber Airbellum: I would say the easiest decision for me was Airbellum. The 6^th tuner didn’t seem needed. He has a pretty decent effect, but unfortunately I never got to use it. Fulhelmknight is just better for the deck. Discarding isn’t at all consistent enough, so the deck turns toward mass special summoning and Airbellum is just subpar as an effect monster to warrant its spot in the deck. Fulhelmknight can protect itself and special summon another monster. Airbellum just doesn’t make the cut.

The Fix: -1

THE TOTAL CHANGES (Main Deck):

+1 XX-Saber Boggart Knight

+2 Pot of Duality

+2 Trap Stun

+2 Maxx C

-2 Tragoedia

-2 Forbidden Lance

-1 Gottoms’ Emergency Call

-1 Reinforce Truth

-1 X-Saber Airbellum

THE EXTRA DECK:

In my opinion, the extra deck was pretty solid. I generally had access to everything I wanted when I needed it. The goal of the deck is to Synchro so only a few Xyz monsters are needed. There is only one level 4 in the deck, so Rank 4’s aren’t needed, I have access to every Synchro I need, and the Xyz’s currently there fit the deck perfectly. The only change I would make is as follows:

+1 Gachi Gachi Gantestsu

-1 Armory Arm

The reasoning behind this simple change is that although it will rarely happen, sometimes it might be necessary to summon a Maxx C. If Pashuul or another Maxx C happens to be on the field, Gachi Gachi is a very good stall card, much better than Armory Arm. I chose to swap the cards just in case I need to stall. Other than that, I feel the extra deck works pretty well.

THE POSSIBILTIES:

For fun, here are the remaining cards that I was considering for the deck, but ultimately decided not to go with:

-Grandsoil the Elemental Lord

-Horn of the Phantom Beast

-Rescue Rabbit (X-Saber Anu Pirhana is very fun, but isn’t that good. Try it out!)

-Giant Rat

-Mirror Force

THE FINAL DECK:

Monsters: 18

XX-Saber Darksoul x3

XX-Saber Emmersblade x3

XX-Saber Faultroll x3

XX-Saber Fulhelmknight x3

X-Saber Pashuul x2

XX-Saber Boggart Knight x1

Maxx C x2

Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness x1

Spells: 11

Pot of Duality x2

Enemy Controller x2

Scapegoat x1

Mind Control x1

Book of Moon x1

Heavy Storm x1

Pot of Avarice x1

Monster Reborn x1

Dark Hole x1

Traps: 12

Gottoms Emergency Call x2

Solemn Warning x2

Bottomless Trap Hole x2

Torrential Tribute x2

Trap Stun x2

Solemn Judgment x1

Starlight Road x1

Extra: 15

XX-Saber Gottoms x1

Scrap Dragon x1

Stardust Dragon x1

XX-Saber Souza x1

Black Rose Dragon x1

XX-Saber Hyunlei x2

Naturia Barkion x1

Ally of Justice Catastor x1

Naturia Beast x1

Gachi Gachi Gantestu x1

Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger x1

Inzektor Exa-Beetle x1

Photon Strike Bounzer x1

Wind-Up Zenmaines x1

Once again I would like to thank ARG for the opportunity. Even if I don’t end up winning, I still wanted to bring you guys a quality, fun, and easy-to-read Deck Doctor article. Hopefully I have done my job and you enjoyed what I’ve written. Thank you Billy, Joe, and Alex for your effort in creating these decks and taking the time to read all of our articles. Good luck to everyone here writing and to those participating at any event in the future. Until next time, play hard or go home!