With so much hype going into Shonen Jump Championship San Mateo regarding the Light and Darkness Dragon-based Perfect Circle deck, a strange new niche for Macro Cosmos began to emerge. This format is certainly not the only time Macro Cosmos could rampage through a given metagame, as the pre-Light and Darkness Dragon format and the recruiter age were both prime metagames for a Cosmos-based deck. However, a Cosmos deck breaking into Day 2 was still an uncommon event.
San Mateo had three, and an incredible number of players finishing with x-2 or x-3 records playing Macro Cosmos as well. Few players went through the entire tournament without having to face a Macro deck, and many more were defeated at the hands of D.D. Survivor cards. What made the deck so popular now, and how did one superstar from Comic Odyssey, Hugo Adame, seal a third-place victory with this build?
Monsters: 17
3 D.D. Survivor
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Raiza the Storm Monarch
2 Banisher of the Radiance
2 D. D. Scout Plane
1 Exiled Force
1 Morphing Jar
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
Spells: 11
3 Dimensional Fissure
2 Enemy Controller
1 Gold Sarcophagus
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Scapegoat
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Smashing Ground
1 Brain Control
Traps: 13
3 Dark Bribe
3 Solemn Judgment
2 Macro Cosmos
2 Pulling the Rug
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Trap Dustshoot
Side: 15
3 Cyber Phoenix
1 Jinzo
1 Sangan
1 Card Trooper
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Limiter Removal
2 Hammer Shot
1 Call of the Haunted
As you can see, I’ve included the side deck with the main decklist this time around. While I usually don’t do this, I’m inclined to give the full list because Hugo’s deck choices may seem a bit odd without the side deck. Hugo uses a transition side deck to shift into Machines. Many players find this unusual, since going to Machines means taking up all of your side deck, and Machines and Cosmos don’t exactly work well together. However, Hugo is able to fully side into the Machine theme, taking out all of his Cosmos cards in the process. Siding this way also means that Hugo can maintain a good matchup against a Monarch or Light and Darkness deck that’s sided in its anti-Cosmos cards with his Cyber Phoenix cards and aggressive play.
Furthermore, many of the Machine cards are good against other decks. Jinzo, Cyber Phoenix, Limiter Removal, and Card Trooper all aid the Burn matchup, while simply siding in cards like Hammer Shot and Jinzo can give the main deck a hand in taking out other rogue decks. Machines can easily explode on rogue decks, taking away games so quickly that the opponent can’t properly defend him- or herself.
This is why Hugo plays Cyber Dragon. In order to be able to side into Machines, Hugo had to main deck it. While Cyber isn’t exactly a card players would groan to have to play, its uses are limited once D.D. Survivor and D. D. Scout Plane start looping at the end of every turn. However, they can function specifically as 2100 ATK beatsticks that can be dropped after a Survivor or Scout Plane has struck directly. At the start of the game, D.D. Survivor and Cyber Dragon can drop down together with a Dimensional Fissure and create immediate problems for the opponent. There aren’t many cards that are going to stem the bleeding on that turn. Even afterward, the Limitation of Brain Control and the Forbidding of Snatch Steal mean that Monarchs aren’t going to completely cripple your field position.
Banisher of the Radiance also works nicely with Cyber Dragon, putting a real hurt on Zombies and Light and Darkness decks that thought they could block Dimensional Fissure with Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado. Dropping Dimensional Fissure as well layers the attack with an extra security blanket, ensuring that the opponent’s monster is going to be removed unless he or she is sporting Mirror Force.
Exiled Force and D.D. Warrior Lady were added to improve the monster removal aspect of the deck. Many players plan on stalling out of bad situations with Spirit Reaper or Marshmallon, but Exiled and the Warrior Lady can take care of these monsters easily, while always acting as a reliable method of monster removal. D.D. Warrior Lady needs to attack to make it happen, but that’s a trade-off for the defensive capability she offers.
Hugo’s version plays three copies of Dimensional Fissure and only two copies of Macro Cosmos. Many players tend to go with three apiece, knowing that even extra dead copies are balanced out so long as the opponent has the same amount of dead cards, and can become live later if previous copies are dealt with. Luckily for Hugo, he has access to Gold Sarcophagus, which can become a sixth Dimensional Fissure if need be (or any other card in the deck for that matter). Being able to find any card in the deck is an astonishingly good ability, and a big reason why Hugo was so successful at San Mateo.
Enemy Controller brings a lot to the table for this deck. Defending against Raiza the Storm Monarch is key, as a big-time Raiza can allow your opponent to destroy D.D. Survivor while Dimensional Fissure is off the field, and force you to draw that Dimensional Fissure next turn without any cards to support it. Enemy Controller puts a stop to this play, letting you either shift Raiza to defense mode, or take it with Survivor to reset the Survivor/Dimensional Fissure combo next turn. On offense Enemy Controller can allow for free tributes, cause extra damage, or turn a big monster to defense mode, making it easier to deal with.
Dark Bribe, Solemn Judgment, Pulling the Rug, and Trap Dustshoot were four cards that made CO Burn so unstoppable. There aren’t many players who play enough copies of spell and trap removal to draw more of it than the Burn player draws of stall and spell/trap protection. If the combo that makes the deck survive can’t be taken down, the deck is going to win out in the long run. Hugo employed the same thinking here, combining the foursome to protect his D.D. Survivor/Dimensional Fissure combo. There aren’t many cards to stop, actually. Heavy Storm, Raiza the Storm Monarch, and Brain Control are the only cards that can cause big-time damage in game 1, so Hugo should have more than enough protection to keep himself in the game.
The coolest thing about this deck is how good every card is after the transition has been made. Even the protective traps change to support the Machine deck. The opponent is going to have a lot of spell and trap removal, but that won’t be your primary concern anymore. You can instead use those traps to take out his or her monster removal cards, which the opponent has likely minimized due to your D.D. Survivor cards reviving if they’re removed from play. Game 2 can often be taken quickly, as Hugo showed in his matchup with Jerry Wang.
This format is all about preparing for the matchups you will face and making sure you don’t lose to any particular deck. Macro Cosmos has almost no bad matchups, and beats many of the decks in today’s metagame. With an incredibly consistent build and a transition side deck that can steal game 2 or 3 away from an inadequately prepared opponent, Hugo’s build is sure to be duplicated for future events.
—Matt Peddle