Leveling Up With Frogs

Ever since US Nationals I had dedicated myself to mastering the deck that is Frog OTK. Although when the deck was young, I had considered it a luck-based “all or nothing” deck that required you to win die rolls and get lucky throughout the day (see my “die roll jokes” in previous articles). After the deck placed second at Canadian Nationals, I gave the deck a second look and discovered that it was a very hard deck to play. You often had to work for your wins and were sometimes forced to win in unconventional ways.

I Day2′d US Nationals with a 7-2 record and lost out to Herald of Perfection (aka “the worst matchup”) in round 10. I honestly wish I had practiced more with the deck before the event. I came very close to topping, and I feel that with more experience and better sidedeck I could’ve got there. After nationals, I started tearing up local tournaments at The Game Academy. I was pretty confident that I would be able to top8 the 2K tournament, but I also recognized that it was Yu-Gi-Oh! and anything could happen.

My sidedeck had evolved a lot since I had started playing the deck. After Sam Tse took Canadian Nationals by storm, the maindeck had become standardized. No two Frog OTK maindecks differ by more than a card or two. I’ve been using Tse’s exact list from the beginning. Here it is for reference…

Monsters: 26
3 Substitoad
2 Ronintoadin
1 Fishborg Blaster
3 Swap Frog
3 Dupe Frog
3 Poison Draw Frog
3 Unifrog
2 Des Frog
2 Beelze Frog
2 Flip Flop Frog
2 Treeborn Frog

Spells: 14
3 Salvage
3 Hand Destruction
3 Moray of Greed
2 Mass Driver
1 Card Destruction
1 Giant Trunade
1 One for One

I’ll explain some of the choices for those who are unfamilar with the deck (which I find is still a lot of people, despite this being one of the top3 decks of the format). Twenty Frogs is the most logical number, as 20 * 400 = 8000.

The 1-of Fishborg Blaster is definitely needed. If you need extra damage with the Mass Driver OTK (say they gained lifepoints with Magical Android), Fishborg Blaster allows every card in your hand to be an additional 400 damage. Sometimes Frogs get removed with Gladiator Beast Retiari, Banisher of Radiance, or D.D. Warrior Lady and you find that you need to do extra damage. Also, being tuner is extremely relevant as it gives you an alternate win condition. If I see a synchro OTK I’ll usually take it over the option of hoping to draw into a Mass Driver. My synchros of choice are usually a powered-up Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier, a Mist Wurm, and 2 Swap Frogs for exactly 8000 (3500 + 2500 + 1000 + 1000). Yet another win condition is to synchro for Colossal Fighter and Armory Arm, attach Armory Arm to your opponent’s big monster, and keep ramming your Colossal Fighter, reviving itself each time, and dealing your opponent 2800 damage for each battle. This OTK allows you dodge Gorz-like effects, but not Hanewata.

Sam Tse’s greatest innovation to the deck was only playing two copies of Mass Driver, the deck’s most common win condition. The key thing you need to realize is that once you resolve a Substitoad loop the game is usually over. You’ll thin the deck of everything minus Mass Drivers and cards that will draw you cards (Moray of Greed, Hand Destruction). After bringing Poison Draw Frogs to the field, you use Swap Frog to send them to the graveyard and draw three cards. In those three cards there has to be a Mass Driver or a draw spell. Getting the Mass Driver early on might seem like a “lucky draw”, but you can usually draw the entire deck if needed.

I really didn’t know what I was doing when it came to the sidedeck. I figured that I should just trust Sam Tse’s judgment on the sidedeck as well, and decided to play this side in the national tournament…

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
1 Caius the Shadow Monarch
2 Deep Sea Diva
1 Spined Gillman
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Brain Control
1 Enemy Controller
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Raigeki Break

Although I liked some of the cards, I found most of them to be useless. Light and Darkness Dragon was amazing, and I liked my Raigeki Break tech pretty well, but most of the time the side just wasn’t good enough. I modified the monsters in the side after I saw the lists that topped our nationals.

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
2 Light and Darkness Dragon
2 Quickdraw Synchron
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Pot of Avarice
1 Brain Control
1 Enemy Controller
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Raigeki Break

Quickdraw Synchron seemed great in theory, but I found that it usually sat in my hand the entire game. Interestingly enough, I found that most of my friends were having the same experience with it. Cyber Dragon was decent, but it wasn’t as stellar as people were making it out to be. Again, the only card that I liked in the side was Light and Darkness Dragon. These less-than-optimal sidedecks were good enough to win local tournaments, but I wanted my sidedeck to be something reliable rather than a pile of fifteen cards that I might throw in the deck just for fun.

I don’t remember where the idea came from, but I figured that an Absolute Zero sidedeck was worth trying. I figured that a Raigeki on legs was pretty good against most of the format. Absolute Zero leads to some pretty sick blowouts and allows you steal games that you shouldn’t have won. Here was my first draft of the new sidedeck:

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
3 Elemental Hero Alius
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
2 Gemini Spark
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 E – Emergency Call
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

I honestly thought this sidedeck would solve a lot of my problem matchups. Absolute Zero wrecks X-Sabers, and 1900 beatsticks are really good against Gladiator Beasts and Anti-Meta (especially after they side out their Bottomless Trap Holes). Treacherous Trap Hole is an amazing card that has saved me on multiple occasions. Destroying two monsters with one cards is amazing against… um… everything? After testing this sidedeck for only a short amount of time I realized that changes needed to be made.

There were a lot of situations where I was sitting on a Moray of Greed with one water monster and a Stratos/Reinforcement/E-Call. Now the play here would be to search the deck for Elemental Hero Ocean and activate Moray of Greed. Only I wasn’t playing Elemental Hero Ocean! I decided to cut Alius for Ocean, just because being a water monster is that good (it also allows me to synchro Ocean with Fishborg). Since I no longer had 3 Alius, I had to cut Gemini Spark down to one, which gave me room to add Mystical Space Typhoon to the sidedeck. Here was the final sidedeck and extra deck…

Extra deck: 15
1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon
3 Elemental Hero Absolute Zero
2 Armory Arm
1 Ally of Justice Catastor
1 Goyo Guardian
1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1 Dewloren, Tiger King of the Ice Barrier
1 Black Rose Dragon
1 Stardust Dragon
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
1 Mist Wurm

Sidedeck: 15
1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
2 Elemental Hero Alius
1 Elemental Hero Ocean
3 Miracle Fusion
1 Future Fusion
1 Heavy Storm
1 Gemini Spark
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 E – Emergency Call
1 Treacherous Trap Hole

Here’s what I usually side out, although it varies depending on the matchup:
- 2 Des Frog
- 2 Beelze frog
- 2 Flip Flop Frog
- 2 Unifrog
- 1 Poison Draw Frog
- 3 Hand Destruction
- 1 Card Destruction
- 2 Mass Driver

Now on to the tournament itself, the most exciting part. At this point, I had made a name for myself as the best Frog OTK player in the Tampa Bay area, and many people were expecting me to top. I had decided to call my deck “Next Level Blue” or simply “Next Level Frogs”. I named my deck Next Level Frogs for two reasons. I felt that my sidedeck took the deck to the next level. I’m still convinced that a sidedeck with Elemental Heroes and Miracle Fusions is the best. Secondly, I feel that I’m a next level player. I don’t think I’m up there with Sam Tse, CJ Lack, or Alex Bunts, but I know how to play the deck far better than the average player. I think hard about each play, and my knowledge of math and probability really shines when I play this deck. Also, I am very patient. Winning turn 10 is just as good as winning turn 1 for me. The deck’s style really reminds of Elf Combo, which was one of favorite Magic decks.

Ironically enough, I actually think Frog OTK was a bad meta call for this tournament. Anti-Meta was very popular. The vendors were sold out of Fossil Dyna Pachycephalos the entire day. Also, Gladiator Beasts were popular as well, which is always an uphill battle. I’d say Gladiator Beasts were probably the second most popular deck overall, with X-Sabers being first of course. My best matchup, Frog Monarch was practicing nonexistent. I decided to play Frog OTK only because I knew how to play the deck better than any other deck.

Round 1: Anti-Meta
For game 1, I had opened an FTK hand, but he won the die roll. He summons King Tiger Wangnu and activates Macro Cosmos in my draw phase. I try to stall on 2000 defenders until I can draw answers, but he tributes for Raiza and we’re on to the next game. Game 2 I open the Substitoad combo, but I end up not drawing what I need and I have to go for game on turn 3. He Hanewatas the last 400 damage when I had exact game, but there are only two cards left in my deck and one of them is a Fishborg Blaster. I draw it, set it, and send it at him for game. Game 3 was way too close. He starts out by summoning Doomcaliber Knight, activating Dimensional Fissure, and setting three backrows. I start out by setting Dupe Frog and Mystical Space Typhoon. It gets hit in the end phase by his own MST. He attacks into my Dupe Frog, sets another spell/trap and passed. I decide to special summon Swap Frog to trigger Doomcaliber Knight, normal summon Stratos, and hit for 1800 after searching out Alius. He special summons Cyber Dragon and I thought it was game over. How does my deck beat that, especially with Dimensional Fissure on the field? He runs over the Dupe Frog and passes. I switch Stratos to defense and pass. He adds King Tiger to his board and attacks. My draw for the turn is my one-outer: Treacherous Trap Hole! I summon Alius, and set the Treacherous Trap Hole along with two bluffs, just in case of the off chance that he has Dust Tornado. He thinks for awhile and attacks, and I blow up his monsters. I start beating with Alius while he’s forced to set D.D. Crows and Hanewatas to defend himself. Eventually I put a second Alius on the field and draw into Gemini Spark, just in case. I win.
1-0 (0-1 in die rolls)

Round 2: X-Sabers
I lose the die roll. Game 1 he synchros up for Magical Android early and starts to gain life and also hits me with X-Saber Airbellum a couple of times. I stall by reviving Treeborn Frogs and Ronintoadins until I draw something helpful. He plays Gold Sarcophagus, whose text reads “I win in two turns” because he searches Rescue Cat. I’m able to combo out with Synchros, attack for 9000, leaving him at 600. I reveal the last card in my hand which is Mass Driver, and we’re off to game 2. Game 1 took 26 minutes, so we know that time will be called at some point. He hits for early damage but I’m able to take control of the game with Absolute Zero. Unfortunately time gets called in game 2, and I can’t push for damage so I lose. We’re not allowed to side for game 3, which sucks because both of my Mass Drivers are now in the side deck. I decide to play first, setting Dupe Frog and passing. He Mind Controls, summons Thunder King Rai-Oh, and attacks for 1900. I drop Gorz. He sets three backrows and passes. This is my last turn to win. I have Gorz and token attack. He reveals that his backrows were bluffs, and I take the match.
2-0 (0-2 in die rolls)

Round 3: Demise OTK
This guy didn’t know what any of my cards did, but his deck was surprisingly good. The fact that a deck like this was 2-0 further supports my theory that “Raigeki on legs” is really good right now. I have a turn 2 kill hand so I set Treeborn Frog and pass. He goes Sonic Bird, Advanced Ritual Art, Demise, Doom Dozer and attacks for 5200. He sets a backrow and ends. Next turn I Trunade, Substitoad loop, and OTK with synchros. Game 2 was similar to game 1, only I OTKed with Mass Driver instead.
3-0 (1-2 in die rolls)

Round 4: Gladiator Beasts (Elijah Gersten)
I lose the die roll. Game 1 I get a less than optimal hand, and he quickly Herk + Chariot locks me out of the game. Game 2 I open FTK. Game 3 my five card hand is Future Fusion, Dupe Frog, Substitoad, Giant Trunade, Mystical Space Typhoon. Great hand! I’ll simply Future Fusion to put Fishborg into the grave and turn one Substitoad loop. Unfortunately my sixth card is the Fishborg Blaster, which was very disappointing. I set Dupe Frog and pass. He attacks into it, tags into Murmillo, and Chariots. Then he Dustshoots, and sets me back even more. When I can finally do something relevant, I Trunade and he has Solemn. I lose.
3-1 (1-3 in die rolls)

Round 5: Frog OTK
I lose the die roll, which is usually a death sentence in the mirror match. He opens One For One and turn 1 Substitoad loops. He screws up horribly and punts the game. He’s able to do 7600 damage with Mass Driver. He tries to use Swap Frog’s extra normal summon on a non-Frog multiple times that game, and can’t do enough damage as a result. His hand was actually horrible, but he plays Hand Destructions during the course of his turn and fixes my hand, so I was able to FTK. He starts game 2, and we both open “second turn kill” hands, so he wins. I start game 3 and FTK. I’m glad that’s over with.
4-1 (1-4 in die rolls)

Round 6: X-Sabers
Not much to say about this game. I win the die roll and FTK game 1. Game 2 he has the nuts and kills me on his second turn. Then I FTK game 3.
5-1 (2-4 in die rolls)

Round 7: X-Sabers (Travis Washburn)
I win the die roll and FTK game 1. Game 2 I take control with Absolute Zeroes. I make a bad play by leaving Swap Frog in attack mode with only 1100 lifepoints. I had already used the bounce effect, but I simply could’ve special summoned in defense (although I didn’t want to because he searched Fulhelmknight with Darksoul). I also didn’t realize that my opponent’s water monsters powered-up Absolute Zero, which would have allowed me to make a much better play (his Goyo had stolen Treeborn Frog). Two of his Boggart Knights were gone, but I guess he had a third. He synchros up and attacks over Swap Frog for game. Game 3 I sided back into the FTK, but I couldn’t draw it. I Card Destruction my opponent into a perfect hand and lose.
5-2 (3-4 in die rolls)

Post-match thoughts: I was really disappointed. Had I not misplayed, I would’ve taken the match 2-0. For some reason, it seems like people had expected me to lose in the last round. I suppose I would rather lose to my own misplays than pure luck. My tiebreakers were very strong, and two people with a 5-2 record would make top8. Fortunately enough for me, I slid in at 8th place. In addition, my opponent was starting with a game 1 loss due to registering an illegal extra deck. Sometimes, things just go your way. Joshua Martinez recommended that I spin my totem to make sure that I wasn’t in a dream.

The following matches were all featured on The Game Academy’s youtube channel. Be sure to check it out and when the uploads are finished. Jeremy did amazing commentary as usual.

Top8: Chris Rivera with Zombies
He elects to play first for the second game, and Jake reminds us that neither player can side. He starts with a set monster and 3 backrows. I play Hand Destruction and he comments that he probably should’ve set the other card in his hand (misplay #1). I then special summon Swap Frog and he plays Divine Wrath (misplay #2, you always wait for Substitoad). I play Salvage and he Solemns it (misplay #3). I have another Salvage so I decide to just get back Swap Frog and Poison Draw Frog, put the Draw Drog on the field and end. He attacks over it and passes. I play Swap Frog to thin my deck, bounce and pass. He Emergency Teleports for Psychic Commander and synchs for Urbellum for the Time Seal. For the next couple of turns, I’m walling up with Treeborn and Ronintoadin until I can draw into something. The big play comes when he Brain Controls Treeborn, tributes for Caius, removes Ronintoadin, attacks for 4600, which Time Seals me and leaves me at 100. I realize I had to chance it and see if I can get game. I play Giant Trunade. I normal summon Swap Frog, putting a Ronintoadin back in the grave. I set Mass Driver and Card Destruction for 1 card. With 3 Frogs in the grave and 2 on field, any monster will give me enough damage for game. I draw Flip Flop Frog, which allows me to put 2 additional Frogs in the grave. I reveal my face-down Mass Driver and it’s over.
6-2

After the top4 is determined, we decide to split the prize money at $400 and simply play for the trophy and video coverage. I think splitting was the correct decision, as I knew that I had to play Glads in the top4. In addition, the two people that beat me in the swiss rounds were in the top4 as well. The matchups in the top4 were certain winnable, but not necessarily favorable.

Top4: Maurice Brantley with Glads
I lose the die roll. He starts with Cold Wave, sets a Glad, and passes. I set Dupe Frog and pass. Next turn he plays Prisma, makes Gyzarus, and then makes Heraklinos afterwards. I try to draw outs for a few turns, but I don’t get there and I lose. Game 2 I open One For One and Mass Driver and FTK. Game 3 he starts with a Gladiator Beast, Dimensional Fissure and 3 other backrows. I play Heavy Storm and goes through. What a blowout! The next turn I Substitoad loop and make a 5000 attack Absolute Zero (my four monsters plus his Retiari). Next turn he’s able to Gyzarus but I’ve already taken control of the game at this point.
7-2 (3-5 in die rolls)

Top2: Elijah Gersten with Glads
I lose the die roll. I don’t quite remember how he won game 1, but I believe the game ended very quickly. I probably involved the usual contact fusions and War Chariot. Game 2 I open FTK. For game 3 he knows I’m bringing in the Zero side so he sides out Hanewatas like a master. He opens up with a Bestiari and two backrows. I have a few options, but I decide to go the Substitoad loop and see what he has. He chains Mask Restrict to the first activation and I bring out Unifrog. I bring back Ronintoadin, hoping to blow up the Mask and continue the combo. He plays Conpulsory Evacuation Device on Ronintoadin, so I pass. He contacts, attacks, lags for 2 Laquari, sets a couple of backrows and says go. I summon Stratos, search an Alius and activate Miracle Fusion. Rather than simply chaining Compulsory on Stratos, causing Miracle Fusion to fizzle and winning the game, he decided to wait for Absolute Zero to come out and Compulse him, allowing me to get the 3-for-1. He attacks with a Glad next turn and I drop Gorz; he tags for Murmillo. I summon Alius next turn and start beating. He tops Thunder King and attacks the Gorz token. I trade my Alius with his Thunder King, then Emergency Call another Alius, summon it and say go. He sets a monster as a last resort. I peal another Miracle Fusion, which allows me to attack for game.
8-2 (3-6 in die rolls)

The Game Academy 2K Champion is Allen C. Pennington! Winning this event felt great, and it was a nice way to rap up the format. Hopefully I’ll write a couple more articles in the near future.

*Editor’s Note* – The Game Academy hosts Yu-Gi-Oh! locals every Saturday and Sunday. For more information about our locals, CLICK HERE. Allen is always in attendance to play in our locals to offer advice on card choices and rulings questions. Please check out our

Yes, you’re looking at that right. X-Sabers composed of one third of the Top 32, half of the Top 16, and half of the Top 8! This quick diagram should give you a good idea of what kind of decks to expect at nationals. X-Sabers and Infernities will most certainly remain the most popular decks for awhile. XX-Saber Emmersblades are at about $100 each now, and I expect the price to only get higher for nationals. If you’re determined to play XX-Sabers, I suggest you pick up your set now before they get any higher.

The deck that surprised me the most was the Herald of Perfection deck. Of the three Herald decks that topped, they were fundamentally different from each other, which I consider a good thing. It shows that there is a lot room for innovation regarding this deck. I think part of what allowed the deck to do well was the fact that some people still weren’t prepared for it. Given how well the deck performed, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk of sidedecked Lava Golems and Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. In addition, Banisher of Radiance is a great card for shutting down Heralds as well as Infernities and X-Sabers.

I’m going to seize the opportunity to knock Machinas again. Despite winning YCS Virginia, Machinas only took one spot in the top32. Everyone and their mother seems to be sidedecking Cyber Dragons or System Downs (or both) which makes it very hard for Machinas to beat… anything. Both Machinas and Frog FTK were the inexpensive decks of choice, but it seems that X-Sabers and Infernities stole the spotlight.

If it hadn’t been for Omar Beldon placing first, it would seem that Infernities actually didn’t do particularly well. Beldon had a few smart card choices that I believe carried his build to the top, particularly the sidedeck. There had been some debate about how consistent Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter would be in Infernities, but I think we can all see that it works. Ryko remains the best flip-effect in the game, getting problem cards off the field and milling Infernity monsters at the same time. However, Beldon decided to add Fissure to his arsenal of anti-Consecrated Light tech as well. Like I mentioned last week, Hero’s Rule 2 is a very solid tech card right now. It can protect your graveyard from effects like D.D. Crow and stop your opponent’s recursion like Infernity Launcher and XX-Saber Faultroll as well. Beldon decided to take Herald more seriously than some of the other competitors by adding Light-Imprisoning Mirror and Divine Wrath to his sidedeck. I think it’s possible to improve Omar Beldon’s list (I’d start by putting Plaguespreader Zombie in the deck), but for now, his list serves as a good standard to test with.

I was pretty impressed with both Billy Brake as a player and his decklist as well. It seems that one thing many X-Saber players are worried about is the mirror match. When a player asked me how I planned to beat the X-Saber mirror, my answer was simple, “I’ll just play Rescue Cat before they do!” Rescue Cat is one of the best overall cards in the format, often giving you a 3-for-1 and instantly enabling an in-hand XX-Saber Faultroll. My philosophy was just to run a lot of cards that could search out Rescue Cat and ride my Rescue Cat to a win. Billy Brake seemed to have the same idea, only he took it to a greater extreme than I did. He played just about every card possible that could get Rescue Cat: Sangan, Summoner Monk, and 2 Gold Sarcophagus! Clearly his strategy worked, and this tactic may become a new standard for X-Sabers. He also gave his deck an anti-meta flavor by maindecking 1 D.D. Crow and 1 Thunder King Rai-Oh. Thunder King has seen quite a bit of play lately, so it’s no surprise that it’s found its way into X-Sabers as well.

So what did I learn from last weekend’s results? As the format keeps progressing, the meta seems to be gravitating more and more towards X-Sabers and Infernities (mainly X-Sabers). Infernities are finding new ways to overcome their weakness, Consecrated Light. X-Sabers are the “well-rounded” choice for this format, which is what I like about the deck. Frog Monarchs are being pushed out the meta due to Mask of Restrict approaching sidedeck-staple status (18/32 players were siding it at Chicago). Gladiator Beasts are still a really good choice right now. Similar to last format, its main weakness seems to be it can’t draw “nuts hands” the way Infernities and X-Sabers can. However, I would still consider it to be the most underrated deck for sure.

Despite many players insisting that anti-meta won’t work, tech choices like D.D. Crow and Thunder King Rai-Oh are seemingly everywhere. Compulsory Evacuation Device is also moving up on my list of favorite utility cards. It’s great against Infernities as well as any deck that puts Synchro monsters on the field (wait, isn’t that everything?). This Device is being utilized by nearly every Gladiator Beast deck and is starting to see play in Infernities, Machinas, and sometimes X-Sabers. With everyone searching for ways to improve their matchups, I expect these new tech cards to catch on even more in the few weeks remaining before US Nationals.

I wasn’t surprised when Infernities won YCS Chicago, and I expect them to win Canadian Nationals this weekend as well (due to their unique meta). It has the most raw power of any deck, but it seems to have the most weaknesses as well. This unusual balance makes for a very interesting format. I have a pretty big tournament this weekend as well, and hopefully I’ll come home $2000 richer.

For a competitive card game player, there’s one question that’s always on your mind: What is the best deck? Given that my audience is the competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! player, this is often the question that my articles will try to answer. Everyone has their own experiences and playstyles, so it’s not surprising that different players will arrive at different conclusions regarding the best deck. Right now, if you asked someone to name the best two decks, the most common answer you would get is “Infernities and X-Sabers.”

I was dedicated to Infernities until very recently, and I still think it’s an amazing deck. Several pro players have come out and said that Infernities are the best deck, and I can understand their reasons for believing such. Infernities “good hands” are much better than every others deck’s “good hands”. Imagine you’re going second and you get an amazing hand like this…

You win on your first turn right? Oh sorry, your opponent summoned Consecrated Light first turn. Better luck next time! It’s experiences like this that have caused me lose faith in Infernities. Your opponent might open up with a card like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Consecrated Light, Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, or Banisher of Radiance, and deep down you know you have quite a few outs in your deck to that card, but you fail to draw them and end up losing anyways.

Right now, I feel that people are really scared of Infernities and therefore are teching heavily against it. Infernities were the most hyped deck after the release of The Shining Darkness, so the field is very prepared for the deck. I see Thunder King Rai-Ohs and D.D. Crows being maindecked quite a bit, and pretty much everyone is sidedecking Consecrated Light or D.D. Crow. Infernities are a very fun deck to play (but not fun to play against!). I think it may become a better choice in the future, just not correct pick for now.

This is also one of the reasons that I didn’t take Lightsworn to any major events during last format. It was a very powerful deck, but there were too many cards that could ruin your day. It’s always been part of my playstyle to use a deck that I know for a fact cannot be easily countered by a single card. That’s also a large reason that I played Gadgets for so many years. I never had to worry about a tech card that would completely shut down the deck.

So what’s the deck that has solid matchups across the board, but doesn’t have some random sidedeck card that completely screws it over? I really wish my answer was something interesting like Fairies, Gadgets, or the 37-monster deck, but it’s probably a deck that you’ve already heard a lot about. Here’s an easy way to sum up my thought process:

Looking at the Y3K statistics from my last article, the deck that I feel put up the best numbers was, unsurprisingly, X-Sabers (overall matchup = 58.3%). X-Sabers definitely had the most impressive numbers overall. While Monarchs had the highest overall matchup percentage, X-Sabers had a higher sample size which makes its numbers much more significant. Infernities and X-Sabers were the only decks to place multiple players into the top8, which says something in itself.

This is one of those fun cases where numbers and theory seem to match up (it actually happens more often than you might think). X-Sabers don’t seem to have any troublesome matchups; you can sidedeck virtually any card and not have to worry a lot about what opponent brings in from their sidedeck against you.

I can say with strong confidence that X-Sabers are the best deck choice right now, but that doesn’t mean you can expect to auto-win all of your matches if you’re using X-Sabers. I’d like to go over some tech cards that I believe will make the average X-Saber deck even better and more prepared for the current meta.

According to the Y3K statistics, X-Sabers had a harder time against Monarchs than any other deck. For this reason, I believe that 3 Mask of Restrict is a sidedeck staple right now. I think Monarchs are extremely underrated right now, so make sure you’re prepared to beat them. I wouldn’t expect to see Monarchs get less play anytime soon.

I really can’t find a reason to not maindeck D.D. Crow in X-Sabers, even though it doesn’t directly benefit the deck. It’s very useful against Infernities, which is arguably your hardest game 1 matchup. It’s also good in the mirror match, as stopping a Gottom’s Emergency Call can often prevent your opponent from winning the game. Just keep in mind that opponent can try to play around D.D. Crow by targeting two monsters in your graveyard. It’s also good against Frog Monarchs for obvious reasons; it removes Treeborn Frog. I find it to be decent against Gladiator Beasts by cutting off Gladiator Beast Equeste + War Chariot loops, as well as stopping Darius combos. Even against Blackwings, stopping Blackwind – Blizzard the Far North’s effect is helpful as well.

Hero’s Rule 2 is definitely the best card you can side in for the mirror match. It’s basically an improved version of D.D. Crow. It negates the effects of both XX-Saber Faultroll and Ragigura and also destroys them. In addition, being able to negate Gottom’s Emergency Call is very important, especially when they chain it to yours. Hero’s Rule 2 is also good at negating Infernity plays. The only downside that it has compared to D.D. Crow is that it’s vulnerable to spell/trap removal.

I hate to state the obvious here, but 3 Consecrated Lights are also a sidedeck staple. Don’t forget that One For One can also bring out Consecrated Light, which means you have about a 49% chance of being able to summon Consecrated Light first turn. Together, Infernities and Blackwings are a sizable percentage of the meta, so you really don’t have an excuse to not sidedeck this card.

The Fairy deck seems to be seeing increased play, which I believe is partially due to its fun factor. I think for the past three weeks in a row I’ve played against a Fairy deck at The Game Academy’s tournaments. Sometimes I’ll have to play against two! After Lightsworn became a non-threat to the meta, many people took the Light-Imprisoning Mirrors out of their sidedecks, but I think it’s time to reconsider that. Combined, Fairies and Lightsworn were 10% of the Y3K meta, which enough to justify sidedecking Light-Imprisoning Mirror. If it sticks, it’s going to win you the game in either of those matchups.

There are other decks that I believe are good choices right now, so I’m not trying to say, “play X-Sabers or lose.” However, the raw power on the deck, combined with the fact that it has very few weaknesses and a lot of flexible sidedeck choices makes it the best overall deck right now. Until Earth-Imprisoning Mirror is released, or a card an effect along the lines of “As long as this card remains face-up on the field, X-Saber decks cannot win the game.” X-Sabers will be very good pick for this format. The meta finally seems to be solidifying, so I think now’s the time to identify a deck that you want to play and stick to it.

I figure there are some people out there who might want it, but I’m not going to list my maindeck or sidedeck for X-Sabers (although I already listed 10 cards in my sidedeck: 3 Consecrated Light, 3 Mask of Restrict, 2 Hero’s Rule 2, and 2 Light-Imprisoning Mirror). The decklist is not set in stone yet, and I like to leave some of the work for you, the reader, to come up with your build that suits your playstyle and your meta. Plus, I’m probably going to take X-Sabers to a regional in Ft. Lauderdale this weekend, so I don’t want to give my list away. If I top8 this weekend, you’ll be sure to hear about it next week! I always set the bar high, so I’m hoping for another 1st place. Florida seems to be having a lot of cash tournaments as of late (I like to refer to Florida as the Yu-Gi-Oh! Cash Tournament capital of the world), which has given me a lot of motivation to study the meta, work on decks, and try to get as much practice as possible.

Warning: If you do not like math (particularly statistics) don’t read this article. If you don’t want to find out what the top decks in the Florida metagame are, don’t read this article either.

After the YCS (that stands for Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series) in Virginia had concluded, most competitive players in Florida were thinking the same thing: How can we use the YCS results to prepare for the next major event, The Game Academy’s Y3K? With first place taking home more than $1,000 in cash, this is event is what I would call a big deal.

Although Machinas won the YCS, Infernities and X-Sabers greatly outnumbered the other decks in the top32. As a result, I expected X-Sabers and Infernities to be the most popular decks in the Y3K despite their high price tags. I decided to play Infernities for a few reasons. I believed that it had favorable matchups against both X-Sabers and Machinas. I also thought that shear speed of the deck would be able to beat most of the rogue decks as well.

Weeks before the big event I spent my free time writing a JAVA program that would analyze tournament data in order to get statistics on which decks performed better than others. I thought it would be interesting to see which of my predictions turned out to be right. First, let’s look at the breakdown of what decks were played at The Game Academy’s Y3K, shall we?

Metagame Breakdown
X-Sabers: 14%
Infernities: 11%
Machinas: 11%
Monarchs: 8%
Blackwings: 7%
Gladiator Beasts: 7%
Synchro Cat: 5%
Fairies: 5%
Quickdraw: 5%
Lightsworn: 5%
Zombies: 2%
Absolute Zero: 2%
Frog FTK: 2%
Final Countdown: 2%
Deckout: 2%
Anti-Meta: 2%
Spellcasters: 1%
SalvoDAD: 1%
Burn: 1%
Fish: 1%
Dragons: 1%
Library FTK: 1%
Stardust Assault Mode: 1%
Flamvells: 1%
Gravekeeper’s: 1%
Plants: 1%

It seems that X-Sabers were the most played deck, followed by Infernities and Machinas. No surprise there. What surprised me was the fact that monarchs were the fourth most popular deck. I don’t think anyone saw this coming. It’s little details like this that help distinguish Florida’s metagame from the others. There were 26 decks played in total, which is a lot for an event with about 125 people; on average each deck only had five users.

Although we see the usual suspects at the top of the charts, this is what I would call a very diverse meta. But just how diverse? Approximately 92% diverse. I’m being serious. Although 32% of all statistics are made up, this isn’t one of them. To determine how diverse the meta was, I used a formula similar to one that economic analysts use to determine use diverse an economic market is.

1. Convert each deck’s percentage into a decimal. (14% = .14)
2. Square this decimal. (.14 ^ 2 = .0196)
3. Add all of these squared numbers together (sum = .08)
4. Subtract the result in step #3 from 1. (1 – .08 = .92)
5. Convert the number back into a percentage (.92 = 92%)

Since there are only a few decks with sizable percentages and many decks composing only 1-3% of the meta, it’s no surprise that our formula indicated that we had a very diverse field. A word of advise to those attending competitive events in the near future: Be prepared to face many different kinds of decks, especially in the early rounds.

X-Sabers were almost certainly the deck to beat for this event. They were not only very popular, but they lived up to their hype and preformed well throughout the event. I was interested to see how the new flavor of the month was doing, so I decided to look at the full statistics of the decktype.

X-Saber Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins: ++
5 wins: +++
4 wins: ++++
3 wins: ++++
2 wins: +++
1 wins:
0 wins: +

Mean wins: 3.588235294117647
Standard deviation: 1.583462327046801

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 82.35294117647058%
Round 2: 67.64705882352942%
Round 3: 62.745098039215684%
Round 4: 64.70588235294117%
Round 5: 59.523809523809526%
Round 6: 57.73195876288659%
Round 7: 57.009345794392516%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 57.14285714285714%
vs. Infernities: 63.63636363636363%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 54.54545454545454%
vs. Synchro Cat: 100.0%
vs. Monarch: 25.0%
vs. Fairies: 50.0%
vs. Machinas: 58.333333333333336%
vs. Lightsworn: 50.0%
vs. Frog FTK: 66.66666666666666%
vs. Quickdraw: 100.0%
vs. Zombies: 33.33333333333333%
Overall matchup: 58.30122063728622%

The “histogram of wins” shows how many people had a certain number of wins (i.e. two people went 6-1 with X-Sabers, three people went 5-2, etc). Interestingly enough, our histogram shows an approximately normal distribution (which is math language for “bell curve”). Of the seventeen users, five of them had records of 5-2 or better, and most people who played X-Sabers had a mediocre record of only four or three wins.

Those who have taken a college-level statistics class (and remembered most of it) might know what the term “standard deviation” means. It’s a measure of variance, or how much the data deviated from the mean. For the average Yu-Gi-Oh! Player, think of the standard deviation as this: It measures a deck’s consistency. The smaller the standard deviation, the more consistent the deck was (and vice-versa).

My favorite feature of the program is the “round by round progress”, which shows how deck performed as more rounds went by. After round 1 the deck was doing very well (82% wins is very good!) but by the end of the tournament it was performing on more average levels with only 57% wins.

What I expect most people to be interested in, however, is the deck’s matchups. To the surprise of many, X-Sabers beat Infernities about 64% of the time, a statistic which I attribute to superior sidedecks. I was also shocked to notice that X-Sabers beat Monarchs only 25% of the time, which has something to say for the viability of Monarchs in the current meta.

Overall, X-Sabers had a very good performance and solid matchups at the Y3K. I’m definitely going to give X-Sabers high consideration as a deck to play at upcoming regional qualifiers and cash tournaments. Let’s compare X-Sabers to their current rival: Infernities.

Infernity Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins: ++
5 wins: +++
4 wins: +
3 wins: +
2 wins: ++++
1 wins: +++
0 wins:

Mean wins: 3.2142857142857144
Standard deviation: 1.8883680959850138

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 64.28571428571429%
Round 2: 60.71428571428571%
Round 3: 50.0%
Round 4: 54.54545454545454%
Round 5: 53.03030303030303%
Round 6: 52.63157894736842%
Round 7: 53.57142857142857%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 57.14285714285714%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 25.0%
vs. X-Sabers: 36.36363636363637%
vs. Synchro Cat: 100.0%
vs. Monarch: 60.0%
vs. Fairies: 50.0%
vs. Machinas: 70.0%
vs. Lightsworn: 40.0%
vs. Frog FTK: 20.0%
vs. Zombies: 50.0%
vs. Quickdraw: 50.0%
Overall matchup: 54.797743240366195%

Like X-Sabers, Infernities took two players to a 6-1 finish and three players to a 5-2 finish. However, Infernities had a lower mean number of wins and higher standard deviation, indicating that perhaps X-Sabers overall did better than Infernities did. Like X-Sabers, the deck’s performance steadily decreased as more rounds were completed.

I was not surprised to see that Infernities lost to Gladiator Beasts; this was what I considered to be Infernities’ worst matchup. I was surprised to see that Infernities only managed to beat Frog FTK a measly 20% of the time. I’m guessing that the Infernities players were under-prepared for the Frog FTK deck and focused too much on the most popular decks. I strangely noticed that most of the X-Saber players were armed with sidedeck tech like Hanewata. Apparently, this was not the case for the Infernity players, which explains why X-Sabers did better against the annoying FTK deck than Infernities did.

I was correct that Infernities had a very favorable matchup against Machinas. To Machina players out there, I recommend moving some anti-Infernity tech to the maindeck to strengthen your matchup (personal favorites here include Thunder King Rai-Oh and D.D. Crow).

Otherwise, Infernities didn’t have amazing matchups against most of the big decks, which was a big letdown to me. This is either a sign that a lot of the Infernity players at the 3K didn’t know how to play that well, or Infernities might be a bit over-hyped.

Many people know me as a Gadget player (even though I play many different kinds of decks), and people are always asking me for my opinion on Gadget’s latest incarnation, Machinas. I always give them the same answer: I think the deck is overplayed due to its low price tag and I think it’s doesn’t have any strong matchups. It’s pretty harsh of me to say that, so let’s get an unbiased opinion, shall we?

Machina Stats
Histogram of wins:
7 wins:
6 wins:
5 wins: ++
4 wins: +++
3 wins: ++
2 wins: +
1 wins: +++++
0 wins:

Mean wins: 2.6923076923076925
Standard deviation: 1.6012815380508714

Round-by-round progress:
Round 1: 69.23076923076923%
Round 2: 50.0%
Round 3: 38.46153846153847%
Round 4: 36.53846153846153%
Round 5: 40.32258064516129%
Round 6: 43.05555555555556%
Round 7: 44.303797468354425%

Matchups:
vs. Blackwings: 50.0%
vs. Infernities: 30.0%
vs. Gladiator Beasts: 66.66666666666666%
vs. X-Sabers: 41.66666666666667%
vs. Synchro Cat: 0.0%
vs. Monarch: 50.0%
vs. Fairies: 33.33333333333333%
vs. Lightsworn: 66.66666666666666%
vs. Frog FTK: 50.0%
vs. Zombies: 33.33333333333333%
Overall matchup: 44.08469945355192%

Machinas didn’t take any players to a 7-1 record, and overall performed very badly. The deck appears to only have a couple of favorable matchups; everything else is 50% or less! The overall matchup is less than 50%, which to me indicates that Machinas aren’t a very good choice in the current meta. Machina players may have to rethink a few things if they want to take their deck to the top again.

I don’t want to make this article too ridiculously long, so I’m going to end the statistics here. If you want to see the statistics of other decks (and I wouldn’t be surprised if you do!) click the “3K stats” link at the end of this article.

For my closing remarks, I’d like to say that I’m officially back, and I’ll be writing articles every week from now on. Be sure to check thegameacademyonline.com every Wednesday for my latest article. Expect to see deck analysis, tournament reports, and statistics after every Game Academy cash tournament!

I’d also like to say that I’ve been talking with “the Mattern” a little bit lately, and I believe that Gladiator Beasts are currently one of the best decks in the current meta. It’s nearly an auto-win vs. Infernities, coin-flips with X-Sabers and Blackwings, and its worst matchup, Machinas, is very easy to side against. In addition, most people aren’t siding against Gladiator Beasts at all and are instead focusing on how to take down X-Sabers and Infernities.

For 3K Stats Link CLICK HERE

Christopher Rivera – 1^st place after swiss

Monsters: 19

[1] Dark Armed Dragon

[1] Mezuki

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Spirit Reaper

[2] Goblin Zombie

[2] Krebons

[1] Psychic Commander

[3] Pyramid Turtle

[1] Plaguespreader Zombie

[3] Caius the Shadow Monarch

[1] Sangan

[1] Shutendoji

[1] Zombie Master

Spells: 6

[2] Gold Sarcophagus

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Brain Control

[1] Emergency Teleport

Traps: 16

[1] Trap Dustshoot

[1] Torrential Tribute

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Return from the Different Dimension

[2] Dimensional Prison

[3] Dust Tornado

[3] Divine Wrath

[1] Mirror Force

[1] Starlight Road

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Psychic Lifetrancer

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Revived King Ha Des

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Though Ruler Archfiend

[1] Magical Android

[1] Doomkaiser Dragon

Sidedeck: 15

[3] Crevice of the Different Dimension

[3] D.D. Crow

[3] Breaker the Magical Warrior

[2] Nobleman of Crossout

[1] Starlight Road

[3] Pulling the Rug

Michael Sanders – 2^nd place after swiss

Monsters: 13

[2] Infernity Archfiend

[2] Infernity Mirage

[2] Dark Grepher

[3] Infernity Beetle

[3] Infernity Necromancer

[1] Infernity Avenger

Spells: 13

[1] Zero Max

[1] One for One

[1] Heavy Storm

[2] Book of Moon

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] Brain Control

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[3] Infernity Launcher

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 14

[3] Infernity Inferno

[3] Dust Tornado

[1] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Infernity Barrier

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Torrential Tribute

[1] Call of the Haunted

[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device

Extra Deck: 15

[2] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Goyo Guardian

[2] Mist Wurm

[1] Infernity Doom Dragon

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Flamvell Uruquizas

[2] Stardust Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Magical Android

[1] Chimeratech Fortress

Sidedeck: 15

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] System Down

[2] Cyber Dragon

[2] Fissure

[1] Nobleman of Crossout

[1] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[2] Light-Imprisoning Mirror

[2] Trap Hole

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

[1] Blackwing – Sirocco the Dawn

Peter Cattani – 3^rd place after swiss

Monsters: 30

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[3] Nova Summoner

[3] Herald the Perfect

[3] Herald of Orange Light

[1] Consecrated Light

[2] Dimensional Alchemist

[1] Arcana Force O – The Fool

[3] Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands

[2] Herald of Purple Light

[2] Honest

[1] Sky Scourge Invicil

[2] Tethys, Goddess of Light

[1] Hecatrice

[2] Soul of Purity and Light

[1] Archlord Kristya

Spells: 7

[1] Brain Control

[3] Dawn of the Herald

[1] Vahalla

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Upstart Goblin

Traps: 3

[2] Royal Decree

[1] Solemn Judgment

Extra Deck: 15

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[2] Magical Android

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[2] Colossal Fighter

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Mist Wurm

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Side Deck: 15

[1] Archlord Kristya

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] Reign-Beaux, Overlord of Dark World

[1] Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[2] Thunder King Rai-Oh

[1] Morphing Jar

[1] Consecrated Light

[2] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

[2] Cyber Dragon

Rob Tanney – 4^th place after swiss

Monsters: 29

[3] Battle Fader

[3] Substitoad

[3] Swap Frog

[3] Raiza the Storm Monarch

[3] Caius the Shadow Monarch

[3] Light and Darkness Dragon

[2] Jinzo

[2] Treeborn Frog

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Tragoedia

[1] Dupe Frog

[1] Dark Dust Spirit

[1] Vanity’s Fiend

Spells: 11

[3] Enemy Controller

[3] Soul Exchange

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Nobleman of Extirmination

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Creature Swap

[1] Brain Control

Traps: 0

Extra Deck: 12

[1] Gladiator Beast Heraklinos

[2] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ancient Fairy Dragon

[1] Red Dragon Archfiend

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Magical Android

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Side Deck: 15

[2] Cyber Dragon

[2] Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

[2] Vanity’s Fiend

[1] Burial from a Different Dimension

[3] Threatening Roar

[3] Dust Tornado

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

Chalana Bel-Air – 5^th place after swiss

Monsters: 15

[3] Infernity Archfiend

[3] Infernity Necromancer

[3] Infernity Beetle

[2] Infernity Mirage

[1] Infernity Avenger

[2] Dark Grepher

[1] Snipe Hunter

Spells: 10

[3] Infernity Launcher

[1] Card Destruction

[1] Brain Control

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Foolish Burial

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] One for One

Traps: 15

[1] Torrential Tribute

[3] Dust Tornado

[1] Call of the Haunted

[1] Mirror Force

[2] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[3] Infernity Inferno

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Infernity Break

[2] Infernity Barrier

Extra Deck: 15

[2] Magical Android

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Flamvell Uruquizas

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] Hundred Eyes Dragon

[1] Infernity Doom Dragon

[2] Mist Wurm

Side Deck: 15

[3] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

[2] D.D. Crow

[1] System Down

[1] Twister

[2] Threatening Roar

[2] Crevice into the Different Dimension

[3] Mirror of Oaths

[1] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

Christopher Krause – 6^th place after swiss

Monsters: 22

[3] XX-Saber Darksoul

[3] XX-Saber Faultroll

[2] XX-Saber Emmersblade

[2] X-Saber Airbellum

[2] XX-Saber Fulhelknight

[2] XX-Saber Boggart Knight

[1] X-Saber Pashuul

[1] X-Saber Palomol

[1] XX-Saber Ragigura

[1] Rescue Cat

[1] Super-Nimble Mega Hamster

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

[1] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

Spells: 9

[2] Book of Moon

[1] One for One

[1] Saber Slash

[1] Reinforcement of the Army

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Brain Control

[1] My Body as a Shield

Traps: 9

[2] Dust Tornado

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Saber Hole

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Torrential Tribute

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Mist Wurm

[2] X-Sabers Gottoms

[1] Stardust Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Thought Ruler Archfiend

[1] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[2] XX-Saber Hyunlei

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Armory Arm

Sidedeck: 15

[2] Cyber Dragon

[3] Consecrated Light

[1] D.D. Crow

[1] My Body as a Shield

[1] Saber Slash

[2] Pulling the Rug

[2] Swallow Flip

[2] Hero’s Rule 2

[1] Mirror of Oaths

Jovani Hernandez – 7^th place after swiss

Monsters: 18

[3] X-Saber Airbellum

[2] XX-Saber Fulhemknight

[1] D.D. Crow

[2] XX-Saber Emmersblade

[2] XX-Saber Boggart Knight

[1] Rescue Cat

[3] XX-Saber Faultroll

[3] XX-Saber Darksoul

[1] XX-Saber Ragigura

Spells: 10

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] Giant Trunade

[1] Brain Control

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mind Control

[1] My Body as a Shield

[3] Book of Moon

Traps: 12

[2] Saber Hole

[1] Call of the Haunted

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[1] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Torrential Tribute

[1] Mirror Force

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Dust Tornado

Extra Deck: 15

[2] XX-Saber Gottoms

[1] Magical Android

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[2] XX-Saber Hyunlei

[1] Stardust Dragon

[2] X-Saber Urbellum

[1] Armory Arm

[1] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[1] Colossal Fighter

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Mist Wurm

[1] Goyo Guardian

Sidedeck: 15

[1] Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

[2] Mask of Restrict

[1] System Down

[2] Cyber Dragon

[1] XX-Saber Pashuul

[2] D.D. Crow

[3] Consecrated Light

[1] My Body as a Shield

[1] One for One

[1] Gottoms’ Emergency Call

Elijah Marnell – 8^th place after swiss

Monsters: 18

[3] Thunder King Rai-Oh

[3] Test Tiger

[2] Gladiator Beast Equeste

[2] Gladiator Beast Samnite

[1] Gladiator Beast Secutor

[1] Gladiator Beast Murmillo

[1] Gladiator Beast Retiari

[1] Rescue Cat

[1] Gladiator Beast Bestiari

[2] Gladiator Beast Laquari

[1] Gladiator Beast Darius

Spells: 5

[3] Book of Moon

[1] Cold Wave

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 17

[3] Dimensional Prison

[3] Compulsory Evacuation Device

[2] Gladiator Beast War Chariot

[2] Starlight Road

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[1] Solemn Judgment

[1] Trap Dustshoot

[3] Dust Tornado

Extra Deck: 15

[1] Rainbow Neos

[2] Gladiator Beast Heraklinos

[3] Gladiator Beast Gyzarus

[2] Chimeratech Fortress Dragon

[2] Stardust Dragon

[1] Ally of Justice Catastor

[1] Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

[1] Goyo Guardian

[1] Black Rose Dragon

[1] Ancient Fairy Dragon

Sidedeck:

[3] Consecrated Light

[3] Pulling the Rug

[2] Pole Position

[2] Gottom’s Emergency Call

[2] Cyber Dragon

[1] Brain Control

[1] Legendary Jujitsu Master

[1] Jowls of Dark Demise

Everything In One

I’m going to start off this article with two interesting facts about me. The first is that I’ve actually tried to play many different games competitively. However, being competitive at a lot of different things is extremely difficult, and I’ve found that I’ve only been able to be competitive at Yu-Gi-Oh! The only viedo game that I tried to become competitive at was Super Smash Brothers. I still enjoy watching some competitive Smash matches, but I never got good myself.

The other fact is that I love writing controversial articles. I don’t like writing about the things that most semi-competitive players know already. I find that to be boring. I like writing articles that make even the best players think about what I said. One of the reasons that I liked my CrowSworn article from last format was that it generated a good amount of discussion on whether the deck that I described was actually good or not. That’s what I like to see.

So what do these two facts have to do each other? Is Allen going to write a controversial Super Smash Brothers article this week? Actually, that’s not far from the truth…

Nearly every competitive game that exists has tiers, including Yu-Gi-Oh! The phrase “top tier deck” gets thrown around a lot. Every competitive Yu-Gi-Oh! player has a mental list of what decks are “top tier” and what decks aren’t. However, there always a lot of debate (in every competitive game) if tiers are brick walls that can’t be overcome, or can really anything win regardless of its tier status.

One of the things that I thought was great about the Super Smash Brothers community was that, at least once a year, all of the best players would get together and decide on an official tier list. They would take more than 20 video game characters and order them all from best to worst (in the current metagame). With lots of differing opinions, it’s truly amazing that they are all able to reach a consensus on what the best characters are.

In order to decide on the placement of characters into tiers, the Smash Back Room thoroughly examines each character. They look at raw power and stats, as well as each matchup. They would also examine tournament data to see what characters have proven themselves. They do lots of testing to determine each matchup, and they take everything very seriously.

One thing I want to stress here is that you can’t base a tier list off of pure tournament data. There’s going to be a huge sample bias. Every deck isn’t equally represented which is going to affect which decks top major events. The key to coming up with a good tier list is getting many good players to test every possible matchup and drawing conclusions. It might be the case that an underrepresented deck is actually a very good choice in the current meta and has a higher place on the tier list than the tournament data would indicate.

I think it would be amazing if the Yu-Gi-Oh! community were able to do something similar to the Smash Back Room. It would involve a lot of organization and effort; it would be no easy task. I don’t think a “Yugioh Back Room” is going to happen in the near future, so I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. Today, I’m going to present my own unofficial tier list. This is not set in stone by any means, and I expect many of my choices to be debated and discussed. Here I go…

God Tier: “Good matchups against nearly all of the competitive field”

1. Flamvell Cat – Flamvell engine, Rescue Cat engine

2. Non-Flamvell Cat – Often plays Hamsters or is more dark-heavy with Dark Armed Dragon.

3. Blackwings – Self-explanatory

Good Tier: “A good choices in most fields, but has one or more very poor matchups”

4. Gladiator Beasts – Self-explanatory

5. Quickdraw – Quickdraw Synchron + Dandylion engine, Lonefire engine, and other techs

6. Frog Monarch – Very tribute heavy, based around Treeborn Frog

Almost-There Tier: “Has many coin-flip matchups, some bad matchups, and a few favorable ones”

7. Machinas – Gadgets + Machina support

8. SalvoDAD – Battle Faders, Deko+Salvo engine, Cyber Valley, Caius, other sources of card advantage

Mediocre Tier: “Has a hard time against all of the decks in the upper tiers”

9. Lightsworn – Self-explanatory

10. Flamvell Monarch – Spies, Flamvell Engine, 3 Caius, and other techs

Uncompetitive Tier: “AKA the ‘everything else’ tier. Any deck that wasn’t listed above has topped little or no major events.”

The above list is my interpretation of all of the information that I have about this format so far. This is based off of personal experience, testing, tournament data, and trends in the regional and national metagame. I’m going to take some time to justify of all my choices.

Synchro Cat, what’s to say here? This has been the consensus #1 deck for quite some time now based on tournament data as well as popular opinion. The reason I choose to disguish between Flamvell/Non-Flamvell is that both decks have slightly different matchups and play a little differently. Both variants have been very successful. Synchro Cat’s only extremely difficult matchups are Frog Monarch and Quickdraw, both which make up a very small piece of the meta. Non-Flamvell variants of the Cat deck also have trouble against Gladiator Beasts, but even that matchup is only slightly unfavorable. The Blackwing matchup is also a near coin-flip, but all of your matchups against decks on the lower tiers are very favorable. A good build of Synchro Cat is definitely the best choice in a diverse, undefined field. If you play well, nearly every match should be a win.

Blackwings are firmly in control of the #2 spot in the current meta. Despite the deck’s primary card advantage engine, Black Whirlwind, being limited to 2, the deck continues to preform well. Even with the release of Starlight Road, Icarus Attack remains the best removal card in the game. The advantages over Synchro Cat are obvious: It has a good matchup against Gladiator Beasts, while also having an easier matchup against the anti-Cat decks, Quickdraw and Monarch. On the other hand, Lightsworn is still a tough matchup. The deck also has a tendency to crumble to tech like Dust Tornado and Starlight Road. Blackwings are a very good choice in the current meta, having only a few difficult matchups, and no “auto-lose” matchups at all. Just be sure that you’re prepared to face the deck to beat, Synchro Cat.

Gladiator Beasts are unsurprisingly still a good deck. The popularity of the Flamvell engine and easier Stardust Dragon access has made it harder for Gladiator Beasts to win. The Blackwing deck is still a difficult matchup, and it’s popularity makes it difficult for a Gladiator Beast player to survive an 8+ round event. Fortunately enough, both the Quickdraw and Monarch matchups are virtual byes. Gladiator Beasts still know how to punish players who like to set monsters and be conservative. A skilled pilot can easily take Gladiator Beasts to the top if he has the tools to beat Blackwings and Flamvell variants.

Quickdraw variants are relatively new to the scene. It’s a deck that has generated some hype due to several pro players such as Dale Bellido and Jeff Jones having success with it. It loops Drill Warrior with Dandylion to use tokens to block an assault with decks like Synchro Cat, Lightsworn, and Machinas. However, it has a hard time with decks that can take advantage of tokens, Blackwings and Gladiator Beasts. It’s also weak to Royal Oppression which is either maindecked or sidedecked in virtually every deck. The deck can also utilize Caius the Shadow Monarch has a source of card advantage or Light and Darkness Dragon to create a soft lock. The deck is definitely a good choice if you expect a field of mainly Cat decks, but it requires a good meta call in order for you to be successful.

I’m going to be honest here, Frog Monarch is one of my personal favorites at the moment. It’s a deck that is commonly championed by many players, including myself, as “the deck that beats everything except Glad Beasts.” All the deck does is dump Treeborn Frog, and then play a Monarch every turn for an assault of card advantage that most decks just can’t keep up with. Due to Battle Fader, Threatening Roar, and Dark Dust Spirit, you’re going to stomp on every Lightsworn deck that you see. The Synchro Cat matchup is also extremely favorable. You can use monarchs of the Caius and Raiza variety to remove virtually any threat, and you can use Light and Darkness Dragon to lock the game at any point in time. Battle Fader is useful at stopping any Rescue Cat shenanigans. Sadly, the Gladiator Beast matchup is an absolute nightmare. Retiari removing both of your Treeborn Frogs means game over. War Chariots are also effective at destroying any card advantage you might have planned on getting with your monarchs. Don’t play this deck in a field full of Glad Beasts. Once again, if you’re expecting lots of Cats running around, this is an amazing choice.

Machinas are by far the most cost efficient deck in the current meta. All of you need is 3 structure decks and a bunch of staples and you’re ready to go. However, this deck is also very overrepresented due to its price tag. Think of this deck like Walmart: A lot of people use it, and it’s very cheap, but that doesn’t mean that Walmart has the best products. I love to joke that this deck’s worst matchup is Cyber Dragon, which is sadly a very popular card at the moment. An unanswered Cyber Dragon clears the field of all of your monsters via Chimeratech Fortress Dragon. You have to make very careful plays with this deck. It doesn’t have any stellar matchups in the current metagame, but none of the matchups are completely unwinnable either. A very good player could take this deck to a win, but there are definitely safer options.

SalvoDAD is a deck that requires a lot of skill and testing to master. The deck was popularized by Chris Gehring, two-time worlds attendee. Since it’s creation, it has taken a few tops spots at major events, but it hasn’t seen as much success as the decks on the higher tiers. The deck uses Black Salvo, Dekoichi, Cyber Valley, and Caius as sources of card advantage, and is by far the most passive deck in the format. Many players have picked up the deck to match their conservative playstyle. None of the matchups against the higher tier decks are easy by any means, but if you are a more skilled player than your opponent you can expect to win a hard fought battle. This deck has the potential to win a major event if it’s piloted by a very knowledge player with a good sidedeck.

Lightsworn is still the sack deck of choice. Judgment Dragon is one of the best cards ever printed no matter how you look at it. However, the deck is not as explosive as last format, and other decks will be able to set up and gain control of the game before Lightsworn can. The Blackwing matchup is still favorable, but none of the other matchups are much better than 50%. The existence of Starlight Road makes your win condition somewhat less reliable. Lightsworn has gained quite a few tops, but I feel that the deck is overrepresented due to its success last format. However, the deck can be a good choice against an unprepared meta where no one is sidedecking Light-Imprisoning Mirrors. With the right build and a little luck, Lightsworn is bound to remain a good deck.

Last on the tier list is Flamvell Monarch, which also happens to be my least favorite deck of the ten on my list. I’ve commented to many people that “the deck is like Flamvell Cat, only worse.” There’s probably some bias affecting this deck’s placement on the list, but allow me to explain. I see a lot of people playing this deck, yet very few of these decks do well at large-scale events. Triple Caius is good against a lot of decks, but I really don’t feel the other card choices are effective in the current meta. The Flamvell engine is not particularly good against the ubiquitous Gravekeeper Spies, and this deck usually plays 3 Firedogs, 2-3 Magicians, and 2-3 Rekindling. This leads to some very awkward hands against some of the other decks in the format. I just feel this the power of this deck is not on par with all of the other decks in the format. This deck doesn’t have a lot of explosiveness or card advantage. Only use this deck if you’ve tested it a lot, found a build that you like, and are confident in your matchups against the field. You’re going to be fighting an uphill battle, but this deck certainly has the potential to win.

I almost forgot the last tier. The deck you’re playing might fall under the “everything else” tier. If you’ve found an amazing deck that no one else is playing, more power to you. No one expects you to play a deck based on what the public thinks the best decks are. Anyone who’s playing to win should always play the same deck at the every event: whatever deck he feels he has the best chance of doing well with. This deck could be anywhere on the tier list.

Lastly, as you may or may not have guessed, the reason the this article is titled “Everything In One” is because it essentially sums up my opinions on every deck in the current format. It lists every deck’s strengths, weaknesses, and place in the current meta. Anyone who plans on doing well at any big event, such as Shonen Jump Championship New Jersey, needs to have a solid understand of the meta. Until next time (I have no idea when next time will be), test lots, play well, and duel hard.

Everyone going to an event, whether locals, regionals, or a Shonen Jump Championship, has to decide what deck to play. Some people might have very limited options, making their choice easy. Others may already have a deck in mind that’s been doing very well for them. I am in neither of these groups of people.

I have the mentality that there’s always a “correct” deck to play for every tournament; some deck that will naturally have a much better chance of winning than any other deck. This is the attitude that a lot of Magic: The Gathering players have when preparing for a big event such as a Pro Tour. My perspective of Yu-Gi-Oh! haas been affected by playing Magic and vice-versa. The challenge set before me was to solve the puzzle. What was the deck to play for SJC Nashville?

When my friends heard that I was going to Nashville (also known as “SJC Gaylord”), their first question was, “Are you playing Gadgets or Lightsworn?” Of course I told them that I hadn’t decided what I was playing yet, and was still considering all of my available options. I found the question that they asked was amusing though. It’s as if they viewed Gadgets and Lightsworn as the only possible decks that I could do well with.

Why would people assume that I would play Lightsworn? I think this was partly due to the article that I wrote a few weeks ago on CrowSworn.The other reason was that Lightsworn is the most popular deck and considered by most people to be the “best” deck. Lightsworn is clearly the deck to beat in this meta. If your deck consistently loses to Lightsworn, you should disregard it as a viable deck for any high-level event.

Why isn’t everyone running Lightsworn? It has no bad matchups for game 1, and if you have a good sidedeck, you should win games 2 and 3. There’s one small factor that’s turning away players from using Lightsworn…

“I would be running Lightsworn for sure if the mirror match didn’t exist.”

This was a quote from a brief conversation that I had with a player who top16ed SJC Orlando with a non-Lightsworn deck. (Note: I don’t use any names in my articles because I feel it’s rude to use people’s names without getting their permission first. That’s also why the phrase “one of my friends” will come up a lot in my articles.) From the conversations that I’ve had with good players,  the mirror match seems to be the most common reason for not running Lightsworn.

Obviously, every deck has the possibility of a mirror match. Many of the pro players that I’ve talked to have no problem playing Zombie mirrors or Blackwing mirrors. What makes Lightsworn so special? While there is always some skill involved in any matchup, the Lightsworn mirror match is almost entirely luck. No matter how you build your Lightsworn deck, you’re not going to get anything much better than a 50% winning percentage (even with a solid sidedeck). At a 10-round Shonen Jump Championship, it’s not uncommon for four of your matches to be against Lightsworn. If you can only win 50% of those matches, this has you losing two matches and most likely placing outside the top16.

On the other hand, other mirror matches are more skill based. For example, I have been playing Zombies for the past two weeks and have been winning about 75% of my mirror matches. Zombies, if built properly, have a good chance at beating Lightsworn while being able to beat the Zombie mirror at the same time. Unfortunately, the downside to Zombies is that the match against Gladiator Beasts is nearly unwinnable, and they can have a difficult time beating Blackwings as well.

What I was looking for is the deck that “beats everything”. That deck would be Lightsworn, but Lightsworn doesn’t beat Lightsworn. If you want to win the Lightsworn match, you need to either get lucky and summon a lot of Judgment Dragons or just hope that the person sitting on the other side of the table is a horrible player. You can’t rely on either of those happening at a Shonen Jump Championship.

That leaves the other deck that everyone was assuming that I would play: Gadgets. Gadgets are the deck I’m known for playing, and the deck that’s given me the best placings in premier events for my entire Yu-Gi-Oh! career. Of the eight regionals that I’ve top8ed, five of these were with Gadgets. However, don’t let the statistics lie to you. The first five regionals that I top8ed were all with Gadgets, while the last three were all with a non-Gadget deck. I was playing Gadgets non-stop ever since their release, but at some point I veered away from the archetype.

It seemed appropriate that SJC Orlando would mark my return with Gadgets. It was the start of a new format, and everyone was expecting the top tier decks to be Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts. I didn’t have any of the cards for Lightsworn and I didn’t like Gladiator Beasts in this format. My plan for this event was simple:

1. Play Gadgets

2. Maindeck three Banisher of Radiance

3. Beat Lightsworn

4. Maindeck three Royal Oppression

5. Beat Gladiator Beasts

6. ???

7. PROFIT!

My plan worked pretty well. Before the event, I played against Lightsworn players for cards four times, and won 3/4 times. At the event, I beat Lightsworn four times. I lost one match to Lightsworn, partially due to getting a game 1 loss for a decklist error. My other loss was to Skill Drain Zombies, a deck that I was somewhat unprepared for. I beat Gladiator Beasts twice, including one in a feature match. I came in 18^th place, nearly top16ing with a deck that many players had thought was not on par with Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts.

It was expected that I would play the deck for SJC Columbus, the next SJC that I was attending. After suffering a humiliating 0-2 drop, I got frustrated and decided that I was going to play other decks. I won a small win-a-mat event with Blackwings, and played those for awhile locally. While Absolute Zero had a lot of hype, I tested the deck rigorously. After I determined that the deck wasn’t as good as I had thought, I traded it for a Lightsworn deck. I did well at several locals with Blackwings, Lightsworn, and Zombies.

I’m not going to lie; I was doing everything in my power to not play Gadgets at SJC Nashville. Ever since SJC Columbus, I’d been testing everything except Gadgets. I’d decided that Gadgets would last on my list of options. I would only play the deck if none of the top tier decks tested well for me. Well, none of the top tier decks did test well for me, or at least not as well as I would’ve liked. I had a bad day at SJC Columbus with Gadgets, but they’ve done well at every other event I’ve taken them to. They even won one of The Game Academy’s $500 Cash Tournaments.

I think sometimes you just have to play whatever you feel is the best deck and accept that anything can happen. I might misplay horribly at SJC Nashville and miss out on a top16 as a result. I might draw gross hands and not top as a result. I might play against a deck that flat out beats mine. I might lose matches in time, or to a topdecked Brain Control. Things might not go my way, or the opposite might happen. However, I feel that my Gadget deck will give me the best chance at winning SJC Nashville, regardless of how well I actually do.

I could go on to explain the decklist that I’m playing and why I’ve made certain card choices. The important thing is what deck I decided to play, not what 70 cards (40 maindeck + 15 extra deck + 15 sidedeck) are included. I feel that Gadgets are the best deck for me to play at SJC Nashville, but not necessarily everyone else. I almost never misplay with Gadgets when I’m focused. Gadgets have no unwinnable matchups in this format, so I think I have a realistic chance at top16ing SJC Nashville.

Fear The Oppression 

I always felt like I never got to fully enjoy the September 2008 format, often called the TeleDAD format (named after the deck to beat, TeleDAD, that played multiple copies Emergency Teleport and Dark Armed Dragon). Many of the best players in the game often refer to the TeleDAD format as “one of the most skillful formats of all time.” I’m not sure whether I agree with that title, but I think it’s one of the most important formats that we can learn from.

 What’s so special about that format? It happened to be the first format that synchro monsters were legal. At first, some doubted the viability of synchros, but they took over the game very quickly. Some synchros, such as Stardust Dragon, had the ability to lockdown games by themselves. Due to the speed of Emergency Teleport comboed with the quick and easy synchro material Destiny Hero – Malicious, the deck had the ability to power out multiple synchro monsters extremely early on. However, we have an even more important lesson to learn than the power of synchros.

 The reason I say that I was never fully able to enjoy this format is the fact that I was never to obtain the top deck myself. While all the best players in the game were trying to figure out how to perfect what was clearly the strongest deck of the format, I was trying to throw together something that wouldn’t get smashed to pieces by it. This made my best option anti-meta. TeleDAD’s gameplan was all about special summoning, so I figured that a deck based around stopping special summons would be a good choice.

 My main anti-meta card of choice was Royal Oppression. As long as it remained on the field, it insured that a TeleDAD deck could not win. Anti-meta decks like mine that played Royal Oppression didn’t special summon at all, so the card had no downsides. The idea here was that an early game Royal Oppression would stop the TeleDAD player from doing anything. Once they were locked down, I could start beating their face in while they were trying to figure out how to recover. This use of Royal Oppression wasn’t new; this was a concept that had been employed by anti-meta decks for awhile.

The TeleDAD format started off somewhat diverse, with Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworn, and a few other decks being solid contendors. However, the format quickly became more streamlined. Other decks were pushed aside in favor of the deck with the most raw power and consistentcy: TeleDAD. The top players in the game eventually realized that they were in a format defined by beating the mirror match. Everyone was searching for the best way to beat the mirror. After weeks of searching, some players had found the answer: Royal Oppression.

It was hard for many players (including myself) to realize how amazing this card was in the TeleDAD mirror match. How could a deck effectively play this card when your deck and your opponent’s deck have an equal amount of special summons? Why run a card that completely conflicts with your deck’s strategy? The theory was simple:

 1. Special summon a lot of monsters

2. Set Royal Oppression

3. Your opponent will attempt to special summon

4. Activate Royal Oppression

5. ???

6. PROFIT!

 Royal Oppression was essentially a “prevent your opponent from making a comeback” card. All you had to do was get a favorable field position and set Royal Oppression. This use of Royal Oppression was completely new and innovative. It forever affected the way people viewed the card. Royal Oppression no longer had the label “for anti-meta decks only”.

 Let’s flash forward to this format, specifically to The Game Academy’s second $500 Cash Tournament. The Game Academy always has coverage of their big tournament, which is cool. One thing that interested me was how they asked players “What’s the best deck/card this format?” and made a video out of it.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntkql2811JM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl7FZNW3oHw

 The responses to these questions were very typical. For best deck, the answers were Lightsworn, Lightsworn, and Lightsworn. For best card, the answers were Judgment Dragon, Judgment Dragon, and Judgment Dragon. If you pay close attention, you might notice some redhead kid say “Royal Oppression” in the second video.

I don’t blame these people for saying that Judgment Dragon was the best card of the format. Judgment Dragon can single-handedly win games; it’s obviously one of the most powerful cards available. However, Royal Oppression can also win games, but in a different way that Judgment Dragon does.

 The top decks of the format are undisputedly Lightsworn, Blackwings, Zombies, and Absolute Zero. Each one of these decks can play Royal Oppression. The fact that Royal Oppression can be played in virtually any deck this format is what makes it a better card overall than Judgment Dragon. In fact, the winner of the last Shonen Jump Championship played a Lightsworn deck with one copy of Royal Oppression maindecked. Since this tournament, Royal Oppression has seen a rise in popularity as a 1-of. It can severly disrupt an opponent who’s not expecting it.

 I’ve been a big fan of Royal Oppression throughout his format. I started off playing Royal Oppression in the form of Gadgets (the deck that I’m “known” for playing).  After a bad week at SJC Columbus with Gadgets, I switched over to Blackwings, also playing Royal Oppression. Royal Oppression has been a staple in Blackwings this format, often played in twos. Shura the Blue Flame and Vayu the Emblem of Honor can dodge Royal Oppression due to various rulings. Even Blizzard the Far North can work around a Royal Oppression if you chain to its effect with the effect of Black Whirlwind.

 Zombies have recently added Royal Oppression to their arsenal as a tech card for the mirror, similar to the way that TeleDAD did a year ago. Most builds of Zombies seem to be playing only a single copy, but I’ve seen several builds playing doubles (including my build of Zombies, which you may get to see later). Many players have taken advantage of the synergy between Tragoedia and Royal Oppression, focusing more on stopping the opponent from OTKing rather than going for the OTK themselves.

 To be completely honest, I can’t find a single deck this format that has an excuse to not play Royal Oppression, whether it’s in the maindeck or sidedeck. If you haven’t thought about playing Royal Oppression, I suggest you start doing so. If you’re not thinking about how to include Royal Oppression in your pile of cards, you should at least be thinking about how to beat it. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to run into it eventually.

Revising Lightsworn – January 30^th was the first regional to be held in Florida in nearly five months. Many players were there just to get their national invitation. Others entered the event to test for the upcoming Shonen Jump Championship in Nashville, Tennessee, while others were motivated purely by the promise of an X-Saber mat to the players good enough to finish in the top8.

A lot of people asked me what deck I played at the regional or what my record was. The answer is that I choose to judge at this regional. It was one of those things that I’d never done before, and I wanted to see what it was like. As I wrote on the comments form, “It was tiring and stressful, but rewarding.” However, I can tell you what deck I would have played at the regional if I had entered the event. I built a deck before the regional in the unlikely event that they didn’t want me to judge the event anymore.

After I arrived at the venue and confirmed that I was still judging, I had to lend out all of my available decks to my friends (Yes, this was a requirement). These consisted of Gadgets, Blackwings, and Lightsworn. I’d given up on Blackwings as a viable decktype; I had a build that I saw online about three weeks ago that maindecked two Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. I hadn’t changed my gadget deck at all since it got 1^st place at The Game Academy’s $500 Cash Tournament.

I lent one of my friends my latest build of Lightsworn, the deck that I had been messing around with since Charge of the Light Brigade and Honest were reprinted. I decided that Chaos Sorcerer was way too good not to play in Lightsworn, but I didn’t like any of the “Twilight” versions that I’d seen lately. I decided to build one of my own that would better suit my playstyle.

Too good not to play.

When I showed my deck to the friend that I was lending it to, he quickly looked at the deck and determined that he didn’t like it. I had various judging duties to take care of, so I didn’t really have time to explain my card choices. He decided to change it to a more standard build of Lightsworn and took out my favorite tech card, saying he would side it instead. I replied with, “Yeah, I was siding them at first too, but then I realized I was bringing them in every game and said ‘wait a minute!’ It beats Zombies and the [Lightsworn] mirror.”

At the end of the day, he’d finished 6-2 and landed in 17^th place, which is a pretty respectable record. However, he essentially admitted that I was right about my tech choice when he admitted that he had sided it in every game.

Before I reveal my tech, I want to explain some of issues that I have with the most popular version of Twilight, often called French Twilight, that Vincent Ralambomiadana used to win SJC Columbus. One of the first things I look at when viewing a decklist is the monster/spell/trap ratio. I don’t like the fact that 70% of his decklist consists of monsters. I just don’t like getting stuck with all-monster hands in any deck. I think his deck was a good choice for the event that he won, but I think the deck needs to be modified for future events.

I understand why most Twilight decks are playing so many monsters. Once you add your usual suspects for Lightsworn monsters, Dark Armed and Chaos Sorcerer for the twilight component, and dark monsters you already have at least 26 monsters. I had a great idea to solve this issue. How about if we cut the dark monsters like Tragoedia for a dark monster that’s actually a trap? Wait… what?

New ruling: D.D. Crow is now a trap (because Admiral Ackbar said so).

As you may be aware, D.D. Crow almost never touches the field. It functions more like a trap you can activate straight from your hand instead of setting it (which in reality makes it better than a trap). However, for the purposes of a card like Chaos Sorcerer, it’s a dark monster. A card like D.D. Crow is just what I needed for this deck. It keeps my monster count low, and has the anti-meta flavor that I always love.

As an anti-meta card, I like D.D. Crow a lot more than Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer in Lightsworn for several reasons. The main one is that it wastes your normal summon, which you normally want to use to summon a Lightsworn monster such as Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner or Celestia, Lightsworn Angel. Also, inflicting battle damage with a monster like Kycoo is not as easy as it sounds. It can be stopped dead in its tracks with a trap like Bottomless Trap Hole or Mirror Force. You also cannot inflict damage if your opponent has a wall of defense position monsters. On the other hand, D.D. Crow is unstoppable by anything besides Divine Wrath or something similar. It’s a great way to surprise the Lightsworn player who tries to get back Judgment Dragon with a card like Monster Reincarnation or the Zombie player who tries to set up combos with Mezuki.

There are a few other unusual elements of my deck as well. Take a look for yourself. I’ve titled the deck CrowSworn because it’s the most notable card, and it’s also a catchy name.

Monsters: 25 (really 23)

[2] Judgment Dragon

[2] Celestia, Lightsworn Angel

[3] Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner

[1] Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior

[1] Ehren, Lightsworn Monk

[2] Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress

[1] Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

[2] Wulf, Lightsworn Beast

[3] Necro Gardna

[3] Honest

[2] Chaos Sorcerer

[1] Gorz, Emissary of Darkness

[2] D.D. Crow

Spells: 11

[3] Charge of the Light Brigade

[3] Solar Recharge

[2] Gold Sarcophagus

[1] Heavy Storm

[1] Mystical Space Typhoon

[1] My Body as a Shield

Traps: 4 (really 6)

[2] Bottomless Trap Hole

[2] Beckoning Light

Sidedeck: 15

[2] Waboku

[2] Royal Decree

[2] Dust Tornado

[1] Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid

[1] Phantom of Chaos

[2] Lightning Vortex

[1] Breaker the Magical Warrior

[1] My Body as a Shield

[1] Shiny Black “C”

[1] Nobleman of Crossout

[1] Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

As you may notice, there is no Plaguespreader Zombie found in the deck. The reason for this is that I have a lot of respect for Zombies, more so than the average Lightsworn player. Milling a Plaguespreader Zombie in the end phase against Zombies can spell doom (see what I did there?). The Zombie player can take it with his/her Zombie Master and Doomkaiser Dragon and synchro a lot. When a Zombie player makes a lot of synchros in one turn, it means you lose.

If you mill me against Zombies, you lose.

As you can see, no extra deck is listed. It’s impossible for this deck to synchro (bar your opponent Creature Swapping you a tuner). Personally, I do have an extra deck for this in real life just in case I run into some weird situation where I do happen to obtain a tuner. However, you can choose not to run an extra deck for mind games. Sitting down to play your opponent and telling them you don’t have an extra deck can have some interesting effects. Whether you do that or not is your choice.

I’m also not maindecking Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid because I find it to be useless in the Zombie and Absolute Zero matchups. These decks have very few cards that target, only the staple spell Brain Control and monster effects like Caius the Shadow Monarch and Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. I feel there are not enough targeting cards in the format to warrant a maindeck inclusion. However, I do I have it sidedecked for the Lightsworn mirror, Blackwings, and Gladiator Beasts.

On the other hand, I am maindecking Ehren, Lightsworn Monk, a card that often doesn’t see play in Twilight builds. This card is crucial in the Zombie matchup (although its effect is practically useless in the Lightsworn mirror). Anything that the Zombie player sets is going to get wrecked by Ehren: Mystic Tomato, Pyrmamid Turtle, and Goblin Zombie. I find the early advantage that Ehren gives to be very helpful in this matchup. It’s also useful in the Absolute Zero matchup, often sending back Mystic Tomato or Sangan. Even against Blackwings it has its occasional use of sending back a set Vayu, Blackwing the Emblem of Honor into the deck.

The spells are fairly standard; the only card I would like to talk about is My Body as a Shield. This card is amazing and should be considered a staple in Lightsworn. The card has been discussed recently because it can negate the effect of the deadly Elemental Hero Absolute Zero. However, more importantly it negates Judgment Dragon and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, two of the strongest cards in a Lightsworn deck. It also negates Icarus Attack, which is considered by many to be the best card in a Blackwing deck (next to Black Whirlwind). And of course we all know that it negates Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute (which have been seeing play since… forever). You see where I’m going with this? It essentially negates the best cards in every deck. However, it’s not quite as good against Zombies, so I usually side it out against them.

I’d also like to explain how My Body as a Shield works against Royal Oppression for those who don’t know. If Royal Oppression is negating a card that special summons itself (such as Judgment Dragon, Chaos Sorcerer, or any synchro) you cannot use My Body as a Shield in response since the monster is not on the field yet. One of the people I know calls it the “limbo” zone; it’s technically not on the field or in the hand. However, if you’re activating the effect of a card like Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner or Zombie Master, since the card is on the field, you may use My Body as a Shield if your opponent choose to activate Royal Oppression.

It’s important to know this for strategical purposes. What I often do is use Lumina to “bait” Royal Oppression while holding a My Body as a Shield. That way it’s safe to drop a Judgment Dragon later. Being able to read Royal Oppression is very important, as you have a number of ways to destroy it if you need to.

There are only a few traps in this deck. The two Beckoning Lights are considered staples in a Lightsworn deck. I don’t think a third Beckoning Light or a 1-of Monster Reincarnation is necessary. Two Bottomless Trap Holes are being played because I like the fact that they’re live in every matchup. I like them against Blackwings, an overplayed deck in my meta, because it stops them from searching with Black Whirlwind (assuming the monster that was summoned had at least 1500 attack, which it usually does). It’s also great against the Lightsworn monster, stopping a Lumina into Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior play. Bottomless is also good against Judgment Dragon, since you know your opponent won’t be able to get it back to his/her hand later.

I’m not playing Mirror Force or Torrential Tribute, which might surprise some people. These “staple traps” are not necessary in a Lightsworn deck. Mirror Force is easily destroyed in the current metagame, and Torrential Tribute doesn’t help when your field is bigger than your opponent’s. Lightsworn like to swarm the field, and neither of these cards when you’re doing that.

I would like to talk about the sidedeck, although it’s not set in stone by any means. In Lightsworn, the sidedeck actually has two functions. The first is countering your opponent’s sidedeck.

[2] Dust Tornado

[2] Royal Decree

[1] Breaker the Magical Warrior

[1] Phantom of Chaos

Whether you side in Dust Tornado, Royal Decree, or both depends on your opponent’s deck. If your opponent is running something very trap heavy, such as Blackwings, I usually bring in Royal Decree. If it’s something with less traps, like Zombies or Absolute Zero, I usually find myself putting in Dust Tornado instead. If I’m playing against something anti-meta I bring in both because you want as much spell/trap removal as possible. Breaker the Magical Warrior and Phantom of Chaos are almost always brought in. They’re the best ways to get around a Light-Imprisoning Mirror.

Next, you have the cards that are specifically sided for the Lightsworn mirror match: Wabokus and Lightning Vortexes. Not only do these cards have synergy together, but they are also good by themselves against Lightsworn. A well-timed Waboku can stop you from getting OTKed and possibly even make your opponent deckout. Lightning Vortex is good at clearly the swarms that Lightsworn and known for getting. Lightning Vortex is a great answer to a first turn Lumina into a Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior (often milling a Wulf, Lightsworn Beast). Pitching a Necro Gardna with the Vortex makes it even better.

Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer is a random 1-of that’s sided in for both the Lightsworn mirror and Zombies. If you can get its effect off it’s great, but not quite good enough for me to want to bring in multiples. In fact I may end up cutting it if I can find something that serves a better purpose.

Shiny Black “C” is mainly against Zombies, but it can also be brought in against any deck that heavily relies on synchros. Once you get Shiny Black “C” into the grave, it becomes very hard for the Zombie player to OTK you, as that typically involves playing multiple synchros. Nobleman of Crossout is directed at Zombies as well. Eliminating set monsters is very important in that matchup.

My Body as a Shield is mainly in the side for the Lightsworn mirror. I find that whoever wins the mirror is often determined by who uses Judgment Dragon’s effect more, so negating its effect is obviously very helpful. I also bring it in against Blackwings because I feel that negating Icarus Attack is just that important.

That covers the side (Aurkus was previously discussed). Feel free to change the side and make it your own depending on your meta. Things that I would consider adding include Malevolent Catastrophe, Brain Control, and Thunder King Rai-Oh.

In testing so far the deck appears to have no bad matchups. In particular, I feel that people are overrating the Absolute Zero vs. Lightsworn matchup. I’ve been hearing some people saying that Absolute Zero should win every game. Absolute Zero itself is a Raigeki, which can obviously hurt Lightsworn. However, you can play around that. Just don’t overcommit to the field. If Lightsworn gets a fast hand, it’s hard for Absolute Zero to keep up with the pace. The earliest the deck can bring out Absolute Zero is turn 2 or 3, and by then the lightsworn player can have done a lot.

Another advantage that Absolute Zero has is the fact that the deck can bring out Ally of Justice Catastor as early in turn 1. This is just another reason why Chaos Sorcerer is good. Other outs include the obvious ones like Judgment Dragon and Celestia. You also have Bottomless Trap Hole and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. If you can manage to drop Gorz, Emissary of Darkness it gives you yet another answer.

I don’t want to go as far to say that the deck I’m featuring today is the best deck of the format. I certainly think there are other good options for a deck to take to a big event. I am attending SJC Nashville, and there are a lot of decks on my list to test. However, I would recommend that other competitive players put this deck, or one conceptually similar to it, on their list of decks to test. It may look unusual, but you might be surprised on how well it tests. Based on my testing so far, it has a strong mix of power and consistency.

Wednesday, January 27th – Allen Pennington takes us through his advanced Yu-Gi-Oh! strategy and shares tips on improving your Yu-Gi-Oh! game.

This was a classic matchup between Zombie and Lightsworn, a matchup I would consider to be even. Sometimes one player draws better that the other, but more often than not someone gets outplayed.

This was one of those cases.

The Zombie player had a great setup with his more control-oriented build. He had a Stardust Dragon, a Colossal Fighter, and a set Torrential Tribute. He was winning with 6300 lifepoints to his opponent’s 4400 and appeared to have established a good control of the game (the lightsworn player didn’t even have any Necro Gardnas in the grave). But this didn’t last for long. It was now the lightsworn player’s turn, and he did the only thing he could. He summoned normal Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner, discarded Wulf, Lightsworn Beast to bring it back, and put a card on the top of his deck to bring back Plaguespreader Zombie. The zombie player had no response, and he synchro’d for a Mist Wurm. He targeted all three of the Zombie player’s cards with Mist Wurm’s effect, prompting the Zombie player to activate Torrential Tribute, wiping the field.

It was topdeck mode for both players. The zombie player topdecked a Caius the Shadow Monarch (to go with his dead creature swap already in hand) and passed. The lightsworn player drew a Garoth, Lightsworn Warrior (his only card in hand), summoned it, attacked for 1850, and passed the turn. The zombie player ripped yet another Caius. Frustrated, he showed his hand to a spectator and said, “I only run two of those.” The lightsworn player drew a Necro Gardna, set it, hit for 1850 and passed. Finally, the Zombie player got a Spirit Reaper, something useful. He set it passed.

Next turn it was all over. The lightsworn player drew a Celestia, Lightsworn Angel, tributing Garoth to destroy Spirit Reaper, flipped Necro Gardna, and attacked for game. The zombie player complained about his opponent’s lucky draws. Had you watched this game, you might have thought that the Zombie player did all he could. But you would be wrong. Like the poor zombie player, you made the mistake of functional fixedness, a phenomenon that often prevents players from recognizing their in-game mistakes.

Specifically, go back to this play “prompting the Zombie player to activate Torrential Tribute, wiping the field.” What else could he have done? He could’ve let the Mist Wurm bounce the Torrential Tribute to his hand, and not wiped the field. However, this also would not have been a good play because if the lighsworn player did not summon another monster, he still would have lost. So what else could have done been done? Still can’t figure it out? I’ll give you a clue: it involves Stardust Dragon.

So maybe you figured it out. The Zombie player could have activated Torrential Tribute and then tributed Stardust Dragon to negate the Torrential Tribute, allowing Stardust Dragon to come back in the end phase (effectively saving his Stardust Dragon from its death). This would make any monster a viable topdeck (you could just Creature Swap it for the Mist Wurm), and in this case would’ve made those dead Monarchs live. He could tribute Stardust for Caius, remove Mist Wurm, attack for 2400, then next turn tribute for Caius again and attack for game.

Obviously, the zombie player could not have been psychic and predict that he was going to draw two Caius the Shadow Monarchs in a row, but that’s irrelevant. The fact is that tributing Stardust to negate Torrential Tribute would’ve given him much better odds to win the game. Any removal card, any monster, and Brain Control would’ve either won the game outright or turned it around in his favor. If it was that simple, why did both players and a group of spectators all not notice this costly misplay?

Remember when Stardust Dragon first came out it you realized why it was so good? It could negate many of your opponent’s important removal cards. Did you think it was good because you could use its effect in conjunction with Torrential Tribute to dodge a Mist Wurm bounce? Probably not. This is a perfect example of a psychological occurrence called functional fixedness: a cognitive bias that limits a person to using an object only in the way it is traditionally used. Clearly, the best way to use Stardust Dragon in this game was not “traditional” by any means.

Overcoming functional fixedness is one of the many ways that good players become great players. They make the best play instead of the most obvious play.

Probably the most classic example of how the first pro players overcame functional fixedness was the play that’s now known as the “pro storm”. For many years, everyone played Heavy Storm the same way Harpie’s Feather Duster was played; whenever you wanted to clear your opponent’s on-field spells/traps, you plop down a Heavy Storm and clear them. A smart player would never set more than one spell/trap compared to his opponent (so if I had one set spell/trap it would be ok for you to set two, but not three). Eventually, clever players were able to figure out that by setting Heavy Storm, you could trick your opponent into letting you get a 2-for-1. Word of the pro storm soon spread, and some players no longer had an issue of functional fixedness regarding Heavy Storm (a smart player would now avoid setting more spells/traps than his opponent unless one of them was chainable).

Usually functional fixedness is an issue with newer players picking up a new deck. At first, they only learn the most common plays and can’t see the less obvious ones. However, this can become a problem with more experienced players as well. They go into an auto-pilot mode after they are confident that they know all of the ins and outs of a deck. When you’re in auto-pilot mode you’re less likely to consider all of your plays; you just do the first thing that comes to mind.

I’ve played against a lot of pro players throughout the years, and have tried to see what they all have in common. One of the major things is that they all play much slower than the average player. This might seem a bit shady, and I would argue that a handful are doing it to stall for time. However, I think the majority are doing it because they are trying to think of every possible play, consider them all, and then do whatever they feel is optimal.

There’s two parts to making a good play and not letting functional fixedness get the best of you. The first part is thinking about your plays, but the second is actually reading your cards, something that might seem obvious. There’s no way that you could’ve made the Stardust Dragon play if you hadn’t known that it could negate the effects of your own cards. The more card interactions you understand, the more likely you are to make the correct play in a given situation.

Another example of functional fixedness involves synchros once again. Black Rose Dragon is considered to be an extra deck staple. If your opponent heavily commits to the field, you can summon it to blow up everything. It’s very useful. However, many players have never actually read the card’s text. If they had, they would realize that it actually has another effect. By removing a plant monster in your grave, you can force one of your opponent’s monsters to attack position and bash it for 2400. This might sound like a situation that would rarely come up, but if you’re playing Mystic Tomato, it might happen more often than you might think. I know I’ve caught plenty of opponents off guard by activating Black Rose Dragon’s second effect. It often invokes surprised comments from my opponents, “Wait, it has another effect?”

There are nearly infinite examples of situations where making unorthodox plays can win games. Having your Lightsworn monsters suicide into your opponent’s bigger monsters can prevent you from decking out with your Lightsworn monsters’ effects. The concept of having your monsters kill themselves is a play that’s obvious to some but often escapes the less experienced players who have a naive mindset of “Why would I ever want my monsters to kill themselves?” Another situation where killing your own monsters can be beneficial is to accelerate into a Dark Armed Dragon. By having Mystic Tomato suicide into your opponent’s monster and searching another copy of itself (and keep repeating the process) you can go to having zero darks in your graveyard to having three.

The best thing you can do if you want to learn new plays and become better in general is to watch others play. Different people make different plays. You might watch someone else play and reach an epiphany. You’ll see a really good play and be able to add it to your bag of tricks for future games.