Cookie Jar Deck Destruction’s recent performances in several Shonen Jump Championships were capped off by a first-place finish at the Mexico National Championships. While the deck has received a lot of attention recently on message boards, we haven’t looked at it in a while, and players like Branden Ryan have been taking the deck in interesting directions.

For those that have missed it, the deck’s win condition is decking out the opponent, running him or her out of cards and then forcing the opponent to attempt to draw, thus making him or her lose the game. It does so through the repeated use of Cyber Jar and Morphing Jar, exploiting a variety of combos that can repeatedly flip either Jar and run the opponent down.

Once cards start piling up, the deck takes on a control aspect, as it strips the opponent of key cards while grinding down their deck piece by piece. A single use of Card Destruction is essentially enough to seal the deal as long as it catches four or five cards. Whether it happens on turn one or turn seven, those extra five cards create a disparity in remaining deck totals between the two competitors, and it’s enough to make that final Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar take out the opponent while not taking out the Cookie Jar player. It’s a very sound strategy that rips apart opponents who aren’t armed with the proper answers.

Here’s the version of the deck that Ryan played in LCQ 1.

Cookie Jar

40 Cards

Monsters: 9

3 Mystic Tomato

2 Giant Rat

1 Sangan

1 Cyber Jar

1 Tsukuyomi

1 Morphing Jar

Spell: 28

3 Book of Taiyou

3 Book of Moon

3 Dragged Down into the Grave

3 Reload

3 Spell Reproduction

3 The Shallow Grave

2 Level Limit – Area B

2 Serial Spell

2 Upstart Goblin

1 Premature Burial

1 Graceful Charity

1 Card Destruction

1 Pot of Greed

Traps: 3

3 Desert Sunlight

Side Deck:

3 Minar

3 Elephant Statue of Destruction

3 Needle Worm

3 Giant Trunade

3 Solemn Judgment

Ryan steps out of the general progression this deck is making in most areas by addressing deck thinning through an innovative way. While other duelists are running cards like Thunder Dragon, Jar of Greed, and even Gather Your Mind to thin the deck and draw into the combo, Ryan opted for a different approach instead.

“I saw decks from Mexican Nationals and other tournaments where people were running straight draw cards. While I agree deck thinning is great in [this strategy], I figured I could do it better by running different cards. I decided to go with self-replacing monsters, like Giant Rat and Mystic Tomato.”

“It prevents battle damage and lets me search out the key cards like Cyber Jar or Morphing Jar. If an opponent kills it off, that’s fine—I’ve usually got Shallow Grave and can bring it back next turn when I need it.”

He was also happy about the combo potential in response to attacks. “If I have Book of Moon set, I can bring up a Jar during the opponent’s battle phase. If they go to attack it, I can respond with the Book, turn it face down, and their attacker will crash into it provided nothing is chained to destroy it. Then it flips, the effect occurs, and I get five steps closer to a win.” It’s a very sound strategy, and it gives the deck some strong bluffing options.

The rest of the deck is pretty textbook. Book of Moon and Book of Taiyou flip the Jars up and down, while Dragged Down into the Grave, Upstart Goblin, and Reload help Ryan get to his combo pieces. Dragged Down also helps deal with key problem cards an opponent may have, such as Nobleman of Crossout. Shallow Grave also helps him reuse the Jars, and Serial Spell and Spell Reproduction help Ryan reuse cards like it. Level Limit – Area B holds off an opponent from attacking, and the rest of the deck’s spells are some standard powerhouses that aid in the deck’s consistency.

The three copies of Desert Sunlight, the only traps present, also provide a Book of Taiyou-type effect that allows the abuse of the two Jars to keep on coming!

Cookie Jar, as a strategic whole, is highly promising. With some top Shonen Jump Championship finishes and a Nationals win under the archetype’s belt, it seems to cry out for continued playtesting and development. Branden Ryan’s build seems particularly strong—it’s able to provide defensive walls and far more search than other builds, while also being capable of aggressively pressing an opponent when it needs to do so. This is essentially a slightly more proactive and reactive version of what could be a highly formulaic and stale deck.

Luckily, players like Branden Ryan have taken this deck under their wing. The future is bright for Cookie Jar!