Shonen Jump Championship Las Vegas introduced the world to a new tech card. Return from the Different Dimension was sported by none other than Wilson Luc in a D. D. Crew deck. Since the deck focused on not losing monsters through battle (and in doing so, used three copies each of D. D. Assailant and D. D. Warrior Lady in the main deck), Luc played with a copy of Return to pull out some quick wins on unsuspecting opponents.

Return has evolved since then. Paul Levitin broke the metagame wide open when he piloted his Bazoo the Soul-Eater/Return from the Different Dimension deck to an undefeated first place finish at the Shonen Jump Championship in Los Angeles. He took an aggressive deck into a Flip-Flop metagame and absolutely tore through the competition. His deck was so dominant that it refused to lose a single game on Day 2.

Shane Scurry took Return a step further at Baltimore. Return had long since been disbanded as “unstable” and “too easy to prepare for.” Side decks had enough points of Return hate that it wasn’t considered as a powerhouse archetype for quite a while. Shane changed everyone’s mind when he broke through the metagame at Baltimore with the first Chaos/Return deck. He combined the game-ending power of Return from the Different Dimension with the awesome removal power of Chaos Sorcerer. Shane’s deck wasn’t built to tear through the metagame at a blazingly fast speed like Paul’s deck did. Instead, it was aimed at taking advantage before winning, using Return to seal already-won games or to spring back from otherwise-lost games.

I won’t be looking at any of these decks today, because they are, in my opinion, the pre-evolutions of the current metagame-defining deck. Today, I will look at Aggression Incarnate. It is with great pleasure that I present to you Emon Ghaneian’s Chaos/Return deck.

Monsters: 23

2 Magician of Faith

2 Magical Merchant

3 Chaos Sorcerer

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

1 Jinzo

3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Sangan

1 D. D. Assailant

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Night Assailant

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

Spells: 11

1 Snatch Steal

1 Confiscation

1 Graceful Charity

1 Book of Moon

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Heavy Storm

1 Scapegoat

1 Metamorphosis

1 Premature Burial

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 7

3 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

Don’t let the massive amount of flip effects fool you—this deck is designed to be fast. Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive is the starting hitter for the team. After flipping, Dekoichi becomes a 1400 ATK beater that can often slip under the radar of monster removal. Players are going to willingly take the 1400 damage turn after turn in fear of spending a resource on destroying a floater. Dekoichi is only the beginning, though. Cyber Dragon, D. D. Assailant, D. D. Warrior Lady, Jinzo, and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch fill out the rest of the heavy hitters. These monsters will punish opponents for all-monster draws, keeping the aggression on and halting any chance of Emon’s opponents gaining a foothold on tempo.

The remaining monsters are flip effects aimed at keeping the deck consistent. In every tournament, there’s a good chance you’ll need to quit your hyper-aggressive style and play defensively. For example, if an opponent activates Swords of Revealing Light, you can’t just keep summoning monsters. That would over-extend Emon’s field to a point where Snatch Steal or Torrential Tribute would be devastating. A troubling Spirit Reaper could cause the same problems for Emon’s aggressive style. However, Emon is prepared for this, and he packs two copies each of Magician of Faith and Magical Merchant. Night Assailant rounds out the flip-effect monsters. The Assailant also triples-up as a perfect Graceful Charity discard, as well as an optimal threat remover.

It’s safe to say that Emon’s monster lineup allows him to react to his opponent’s game plan. However, it does so much more. The aggressive style of play that Emon uses isn’t reckless. He plays in a fashion that will remove opposing Mirror Forces, Torrential Tributes, and Scapegoats without causing 2-for-1 trades in his opponent’s favor. His aggressive monsters and aggressive style also do one very important thing: they scare his opponent. If you’ve taken a look at Emon’s trap lineup, you’ll notice he doesn’t play the ever-popular Sakuretsu Armor. All Emon has for defense is Bottomless Trap Hole, Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Book of Moon, and Scapegoat. If his opponents attempt to attack back, Emon could very well be in trouble. Spirit Reaper is likely going to attack directly, if Emon’s opponent’s can find a hole.

If.

But by throwing down Cyber Dragons as well as defensive flips, Emon seals the road to his life points as tightly as possible. Having enough monsters on the field eliminates the need to use extra deck slots for defensive traps. Keep in mind, though, that it’s not always about what you have—most of the time it’s about what your opponent thinks you have. Nobody is expecting Emon to have absolutely no defense ready. Instead, players are going to get into a mindset like, “If I attack, a defensive trap would mean an empty field.” Considering that he or she has most likely already taken damage from Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive or Cyber Dragon, Emon’s opponents are probably going to shift into a very defensive mode.

All the while, Emon just sits there with his trademark grin, knowing that an opponent could very well fight fire with fire and be successful. This isn’t to say that Emon is careless. If an opponent takes an aggressive stance, he can stabilize his field very quickly. Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch all bring down the pain on an equally aggressive opponent. The Sorcerer and the Monarch each get to the monsters before any defensive cards have anything to say about it. Since an opponent will usually play Heavy Storm (or something like it) to remove Emon’s spells and traps before committing extra monsters to the field, Emon will hopefully have Treeborn Frog to set up Zaborg the Thunder Monarch to tear up the opponent’s field.

Emon has very little tech in this otherwise straightforward aggressive return strategy. Metamorphosis is likely used to keep a hold on his opponents. Dark Balter the Terrible, Reaper on the Nightmare, Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and Ryu Senshi create tough situations for a conservative opponent, since they can shut down many options and outs for the control player.

There are many different ways to play this deck. Despite its hyper-aggressive appearance, it takes a very good strategist to run it properly. Emon is definitely the candidate for the job, as his credential list has expanded exponentially since the start of the format. Follow his example, and this deck could do great things for you, too!