The start of a format is always chock full of confusion and worry about which deck is going to come out on top. For that reason, players tend to use safe strategies with broad side decks. Warrior Toolbox, Monarchs, or Tomato Control are the most popular “safe” main decks. In the side, cards like Des Wombat, Mobius the Frost Monarch, Giant Trunade, and Hallowed Life Barrier often take care of any rogue decks attempting to achieve an alternate win condition.
This all changes when additional decks are injected into the metagame. The Gadget deck, which became a viable option just weeks before Shonen Jump Championship Orlando, was supposed to be the unstoppable deck of the format, and in a sense, it was. Gadget builds completely dominate the Spicer Monarch matchup. Unless the Gadget player draws an extremely poor hand, the Spicer Monarchs should never win a game.
The reasoning behind this is simple. Spicer Monarchs are completely devoted to using card-for-card monster removal effects while attempting to pile up Monarch effects to gain card advantage. The opponent will then run out of either monsters or monster removal. For the latter, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive or Sangan can simply pound away at the opponent’s life points. In the former case, multiple Monarchs will quickly eliminate all monsters that stand in their way. Now look at the Gadget deck. The Gadgets’ effects ensure that the deck won’t run shy on monsters for at least nine turns. Because of this, the Gadget player can maximize the amount of monster removal in his or her deck, and will almost always have more monster destruction than the situation demands.
Therefore, if you assumed that the majority of players would be playing Gadgets, Spicer Monarch decks were completely out of the picture for SJC Orlando. This left a world of decks open. Anti-Gadget decks come in all shapes and sizes, from Vampire Lord and Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys to Elemental Hero Wildheart and Mind Crush. Each one does a good job of answering the advantages created by Gadgets.
However, there are more than just Gadgets to worry about. How did the matchups between anti-Gadget decks turn out? What if someone is playing a Monarch deck despite its obvious weakness to Gadgets? This forced players to adjust their main decks somewhat to cope with the potential playing field. However, in order to beat Gadgets and maintain consistency, the main deck couldn’t change too much. Luckily, the side deck provides another resource to balance out these matches. Most players would side for Zombie, Dark World, and Hydro/Decree matchups, knowing these would be the most common anti-Gadget builds. In addition, many side deck spots still had to be devoted to the blazingly fast Chain Burn deck. For once, side deck spots were completely filled up, and there was no room left for the seemingly unnecessary Waboku and Threatening Roar cards, especially now that Cyber-Stein is gone.
Sounds like the perfect time for a Chimeratech OTK combo to me. That was what Team Rampage and Team Nexus’ Paul Lyn thought too. Rampage’s deck will be featured next week, but for now, let’s take a look at what the SJC Champ decided to run:
Monsters: 17
1 Spell Canceller
2 Blowback Dragon
1 Magician of Faith
1 Barrel Dragon
3 Ancient Gear Cannon
2 Ancient Gear Soldier
1 Jinzo
1 Drillroid
1 Morphing Jar
1 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
3 Cyber Dragon
Spells: 21
3 Ancient Gear Drill
3 Nightmare’s Steelcage
3 Overload Fusion
2 Giant Trunade
3 Dimension Fusion
1 Magical Mallet
1 Card Destruction
1 Graceful Charity
1 Scapegoat
1 Heavy Storm
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Future Fusion
Traps: 3
1 Gravity Bind
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
Fusion: 9
3 Chimeratech Overdragon
2 Gatling Dragon
2 Cyber Twin Dragon
2 Cyber End Dragon
Although Future Fusion is limited to one copy, it’s definitely the focal point of this deck, which plans to win either by unleashing a massive Chimeratech Overdragon or by overpowering the opponent with Dimension Fusion. Thus, three copies each of Overload Fusion and Dimension Fusion were included. Overload Fusion dumps all the monsters that Future Fusion found to the removed-from-play zone and creates a massive Chimeratech Overdragon. Next, Dimension Fusion brings back these monsters to both negate any defenses the opponent could have and to add some extra damage if necessary.
Jinzo, Spell Canceller, Drillroid, Blowback Dragon, and Barrel Dragon exist primarily for this purpose. Through the Future/Overload/Dimension Fusion cycle, these monsters are brought out to aid Chimeratech Overdragon’s wrath. Jinzo locks the opponents out of trap cards while Spell Canceller does the same for spells. Barrel Dragon, along with Blowback Dragon, can be brought out to help take care of monsters. Their effects require accurate coin flipping though, so Drillroid was also included as a means to shut down defense-position Spirit Reaper and Apprentice Magician cards.
Each of these monsters can work toward getting Lyn into a favorable position on their own, however. Jinzo can single-handily win games against unlucky opponents. Spell Canceller can shut down opposing rogue decks, potentially leaving them no outs for victory. Blowback Dragon and Barrel Dragon can handle almost anything on the field and will force turtling opponents out of their shells. Doing so can leave them vulnerable to a Chimeratech stomping on the following turns.
Ancient Gear Drill is the card that really makes this deck possible. Since Future Fusion is limited to one copy per deck, drawing it won’t happen all the time. Thus, Lyn uses the Gear Drill to search it out. From there, he can simply use Giant Trunade to bring it back to his hand and begin the combo under the protection of the Trunade. Since all three combo pieces in this deck are spells, each one can be fetched by Ancient Gear Drill. The consistency of the combo is exponentially greater when all pieces are searchable by one completely unlimited card.
The Drill does require you to have a face-up "Ancient Gear" monster card on the field however. Ancient Gear Cannon is the perfect choice for this deck. Its stats aren’t much to brag about, but its effect can win games. Popping the Gear Cannon prevents your opponents from interrupting your combo with pesky cards like Magic Drain, Solemn Judgment, or Dust Tornado. Since the combo ultimately ends up rendering the opponent’s back row completely useless, Gear Cannon acts as another Giant Trunade, allowing the combo to go off smoothly.
Ancient Gear Soldier is in the deck to allow the activation of the Drill. When the Drill is nowhere in sight or Lyn needs his monsters out on the field, the Gear Soldier can also act as tribute material. Under the protection of the army of stall cards in Lyn’s deck (as well as its own effect), it can be quite hard to destroy. As such, it can set up bigger tributes to weaken an opponent before Chimeratech Overdragon drops in, allowing the big mechanical Dragon to defeat the opposition when it would’ve otherwise fallen just short.
Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Morphing Jar, and Magician of Faith make perfect tribute material as well, but are in the deck primarily to increase the likelihood of drawing the combo. Dekoichi and Morphing Jar draw more cards, while Magician of Faith can recycle draw effects, stall material, or search power, of which the deck has way too many to list. In addition, sometimes the game will come down to controlling the opponent with your monsters. This means multiple Dimension Fusion cards may be necessary. Magician of Faith can bring back the necessary Overload Fusion or Dimension Fusion to make sure this happens.
The remainder of the deck is devoted to stalling and drawing. You’ll notice there’s a lack of monster removal. With the exception of Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute, Lyn has no spell or trap cards that can destroy monsters. This isn’t exactly a problem though. Blowback Dragon and Barrel Dragon do that job quite nicely, while Drillroid lends a hand on the defense-position monsters. Even Gatling Dragon can be brought out with extra Overload Fusion cards to clear up a particularly clogged field. However, most of the time Lyn won’t really care about his opponent’s monsters. If they’re in defense mode, they can simply be attacked by the other monsters on Lyn’s field. If they’re in attack mode, he can crush them with Chimeratech Overdragon.
Taking advantage of a metagame with unprepared side decks has proven effective yet again. Although four Chimeratech OTK decks made the Top 8, Lyn’s build was simply too consistent and too fast for the rest of the Day 2 competitors to handle. Expect to see this deck over the next couple of tournaments, but if you want to play it, beware of the reinforcing of the side deck that’s certain to occur. Congratulations to Paul Lyn for riding this incredible deck to Shonen Jump glory!