Hello boys and girls, it’s T-Time. As you all should know, Yu-gi-oh! Championship Series Charlotte, NC took place this weekend. Many new decks emerged and many old decks took to the top tables once again to show their dominance. With the initial thought going into this first tournament being “what is the best deck?” people will begin to ask themselves “how can I beat the best decks?” The best way to answer this question is by looking at cards that can completely disrupt a deck’s strategy without putting any strain on your strategy. That is right, I am talking about side deck choices, but also about potential main deck tech picks. Without further delay, here are some cards that I think will be very useful in the near future:
Zombie World: Zombie World is a one card fix for dealing with multiple decks at once. Zombie World can cripple a Frog Monarch/Fish OTK deck. The inability to tribute for Coelacanth, Light and Darkness Dragon, Caius and others leaves them with a bunch of frogs and Formula Synchrons that can’t do anything. It keeps Karakuri decks from exploding, since they can’t activate Machine Duplication, summon Black Salvo, or synchro for any of their Shoguns in general. It also puts the hurt on Dragunity decks. It not only takes Dragon Ravine off of the field, but while it is out, it shuts down many of their effects. It takes out Dragunity Arma Leyvatin’s equipping effect, Dragunity Dux’s effect that equips it with a graveyard dragon, and it does the same thing to Dragunity Legionnaire and Dragunity Knight-Vajrayana. It also cuts off Icarus Attack as well as their opportunities to bring out Trident Dragion. Zombie world can also be a big thorn in the side of Plant decks, taking away Lonefire Blossom’s effect and the ability to summon Caius the Shadow Monarch. Finally, if you are playing a machine based deck, it can keep your opponent from summoning Cyber Dragon or activating System Down.
Ancient Fairy Dragon: This card can be a really good tech card in the extra deck of somebody playing Dragunitys, Gravekeepers, or any deck side decking field spell cards. In Gravekeepers, it may be worth it to side deck a Blackwing-Gale the Whirlwind in order to make this dragon in the mirror match or against Dragunities. It speeds your Necrovalley, Dragon Ravine, Closed Forest, Zombie World, or whatever other field spell card you want onto the field and it gets rid of your opponents. This kind of speed in a Dragunity mirror match can be the difference maker. Ancient Fairy Dragon also has a whopping 3000 Defense and the ability to Special Summon lv 4s at the cost of your battle phase is nothing to sneeze at. It comes in handy when you need to push out that synchro monster in order to gain control over the pace of the game.
Banisher of the Radiance: This is hands-down one of my favorite tech cards. It steps all over all main decks in the format if you can protect it. Frog Monarchs/Fish OTK lose every play they have to this card. Their only out is an Enemy Controller into a tribute or a Soul Exchange. Get around their 2000 Defense walls and damage step monster summons and you have all but sealed the game up. The same goes against Empty Jar. Removing their A/D Changers keeps you from losing. It also keeps them from activating certain draw cards, such as Hand Destruction. Banisher can put the beat down on almost any other deck as long as he is well protected. He walks over X-Sabers, Plants, and Dragunities. He isn’t a horrible pick against other decks such as Samurais, Gravekeepers, and Miracle Heroes either. It handles all of their power cards such as Royal Tribute, Gravekeeper’s Recruiter, Double-Edge Sword Technique, and Miracle Fusion. If protected properly, Banisher of the Radiance can ruin almost any deck’s day. In monster heavy decks, Dimensional Fissure can be just as good (aka Gladiator Beasts).
Victoria: This card is really good against one specific deck: Draguitys. However, that isn’t to say it isn’t good against others. It fits into a lot of decks like Lightsworn, Chaos Plants, and Miracle Heroes. Stealing a dragon out of peoples' graves is good against decks like Plants if you want to steal one of their Black Rose Dragons or anything else. If you can force someone to use a Stardust Dragon, you can pull it out of the grave with Victoria. Another big boost is that it is an 1800 Attack beat stick when it isn’t being used to its full potential. The most important deck to use it against is clearly Dragunitys though. Summoning a lv 4 monster plus Victoria against them will generally give you a Brionac. Since the deck gives up card advantage to lob big synchros on the field, you can bounce them back to the extra deck in one fell swoop. Don’t underestimate the power of this card.
Kinetic Soldier: Okay, so maybe this was a little more obvious. With Six Samurais winning yet again, this card is definitely an all-star. Outside of beating up some Shi Ens, this card is also an amazing pick against Miracle Heroes. Other than their Crusaders and Thunder Kings, this card dominates their 1900s. It also puts the beat down on The Shining when he comes out in almost any instance. Regardless of its uselessness against certain decks, this card should still be in your side deck.
There are many more obvious mentions such as Thunder King Rai-Oh, Effect Veiler, and Dust Tornado that I don’t really feel like beating to death. Don’t forget to think for yourself when you are constructing your side deck. Don’t go overboard with innovation, sometimes there are better options right in front of your face that people overlook because they just overthink things. Also consider how cards operate with your own deck. Puppet plant will probably work very well with Plants, as where there are better options for other decks. Don’t throw contradiction out the window either. It isn’t impossible to run Royal Oppression in Lightsworns or Gladiator Beasts. You just have to know when and how to activate it, and who to bring it in against. I personally used to side Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror in Blackwings and it worked very well. Hopefully these tech choices will help you or at least give you something to think about. It may also be a good idea to buy these cards early before people decide how good they are. Look at what happened to Chain Disappearance. As soon as people realized it was a main stream side deck card, it went from $2 to $10. Just be careful for reprints and price dips. Regardless, deuces gooses!
Thunderpants
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