This event has been full of tech cards intended to counter the current metagame. A lot of stuff that’s seen little to no main deck play over the past three months is suddenly seeing a huge amount of it from familiar players and locals alike, and it makes for an exciting spread here today. Check out some of the most popular trends we’ve been seeing.
Widespread Ruin
Widespread has been absolutely everywhere, and as always, it’s still a choice alternate to that fourth or fifth Sakuretsu Armor (that just so happens to be impossible to use in a legal deck). In addition, Widespread can’t be stopped nearly so easily by Book of Moon or Deck Devastation Virus, the latter of which continues to see play in Shonen Jump Championships. The former, Book of Moon, is obviously everywhere.
But on top of that, Widespread makes a nice alternative to Sakuretsu Armor because of the popularity of Machine decks. While Sakuretsu Armor falls to Cyber Phoenix’s effect, Widespread isn’t a targeted effect, so Phoenix can’t negate it. Dead cards lose games, and Widespread is simply a live card more often than Sakuretsu. While precision is certainly valuable, and most duelists will continue to run three Sakuretsu Armor cards before ever considering Widespread, that precision isn’t as important as it was in the last format. With Spirit Reaper down to just one per deck, the primary detractor to Widespread is no longer an issue. Expect its price to climb back up as the months progress.
Exarion Universe
It’s a fact. Players in Shonen Jump Championships tend to be conservative, especially those who have little experience dueling at this level. With enormous prizes for first place, many competitors find it hard to take bigger risks, and that means set monster—even in an aggressive format like this one. Exarion Universe punishes those duelists, softening them up and either pushing them below the 5000 life points they need to use Cyber-Stein, or softening them up for a Steining themselves. Damage is good, and being able to force the opponent to pay 1000 life points or more for the effect of Magician of Faith or Magical Merchant is excellent—dealing more through Treeborn Frog is even better. Exarion is a slow grinding form of both Monarch and Stein tech, and a lot of duelists are using it here in Anaheim.
Heck, it’s even got a big fat butt! 1900 DEF means that Exarion can repel virtually anything short of Cyber Dragon or a tribute monster, and that means it can help a struggling duelist stabilize the field. It also becomes a viable turn 1 set when you’re really desperate, fending off stuff like D. D. Assailant, D.D. Survivor, and Banisher of the Radiance. It’s a great pick for the current North American metagame.
Strike Ninja
And of course, Exarion Universe fuels Strike Ninja! With so many duelists running six or seven pieces of trap-based monster removal (Mirror Force, Ring of Destruction, and four or five copies of Sakuretsu Armor, Widespread Ruin, and Bottomless Trap Hole) the value of the Ninja’s effect has finally returned to what it once was. The fact that it can dodge Zaborg the Thunder Monarch’s effect, and that it can fuel Return from the Different Dimension, are added bonuses that happen to make Ninja even stronger.
Three months ago, Strike Ninja wouldn’t have been a great choice, but now—with trap-based removal at a format high—it’s really quite good. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Ninja made at least one Day 2 appearance.
Trap Dustshoot
People are tired of Stein, and many games in an SJC see players holding onto big hands. Dustshoot is chainable to spell and trap destruction, gives valuable info on the opponent’s hand, and rips away his or her best monster. The cool part? It’s especially good in a format that has so much Dark World, since the Monster disrupted by Dustshoot is actually sent back to its owner’s deck, not discarded. That’s a big boohoo for Sillva and Goldd. Beyond that, in a varied field like this one, it has an advantage over its partner in crime, Mind Crush. Crush requires knowledge of your opponent’s deck to be used effectively, so it’s best in a metagame packed with predictable cookie cutters. This tournament is the opposite of that, so Dustshoot is an attractive alternative. While some duelists continue to side Mind Crush, it hasn’t been seeing main deck play like Dustshoot has.
Megamorph. Wow, here’s one card that’s seen a ton of play. Like I said in some of today’s deck profiles, Megamorph is a great card with basically anything you control with 2000 ATK or more. Beyond that, it’s not a dead card when you’re leading in life points. While Megamorph might not pump your own monsters half the time, you can always use it to cut the opponent’s ATK in half if you’re already winning: allowing, say, Mystic Tomato or Dekoichi to quickly bowl over a Monarch or Jinzo. It’s also a nice way to get rid of Spirit Reaper when you don’t have a Smashing Ground around.
This card has a lot more potential than most (myself included) have given it credit for. I think this will be one of the cards that continues to see increased play as a result of this event.
Dark World in General
Wow! There is so much Dark World here today it’s crazy. Paul Levitin, Mark Garcia, Shane Scurry, former Mexican Champion Jorge Pina Lizzaraga, and many more are all running different variants on Dark World. Builds based around Skill Drain and complementary Earth or Dark monsters, the Overdose/Paul Lynn version built around Cyber-Stein and Dragged Down into the Grave, Team Nemesis’s Thunder Dragon-packing build . . . There are so many different versions of this deck here today that I literally can’t keep track of them all. Thestalos clearly made his mark on the format, and a fistful of Goldds and Sillvas has definitely been the most popular answer to the Firestorm Monarch’s threat here today. The interesting part? I’ve barely seen Thestalos today, either in feature matches or while wandering the top tables. It’ll be interesting to see how many appear in Day 2.
So that’s it! These are the cards that may become full-blown nationwide trends after the weekend wraps up. Which ones will make it, and which will be anomalies? We’ll have to wait and see, but for now, my money’s on Widespread Ruin, Exarion, and Megamorph. All three are splashable, and each is on the cutting edge of an earlier trend, either developing or countering a previous strategy.