Sometimes even small variations in card choices can lead to big differences in the flow of a deck. Lazaro Bellido’s Monarch build from Shonen Jump Championship Boston was modified to become Ryan Spicer’s build for Austin weeks later, and the result was one of the most dominant decks the game has ever seen. The transformation Machines took from the earliest builds at Shonen Jump Phoenix and Canadian Nationals 2007 to the perfected builds in Detroit are another example of how small changes can keep a deck dominating as the Shonen Jump circuit progresses.

Burn has been a successful deck to play in major tournaments since Kenny So trumped the competition at Indy. Despite many changes in the Forbidden and Limited list (both good and bad for burn), the archetype survived to take second place at Shonen Jump Washington and then won the title in Chicago. Also in the Top 8 of Chicago was a burn deck with a surprising twist. The duelist playing it was Augustin Herrera, and this was his decklist:

Monsters: 10

1 Card Trooper

1 Sangan

1 Morphing Jar

3 Cyber Phoenix

3 UFO Turtle

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 12

3 Wave-Motion Cannon

2 Hammer Shot

1 Smashing Ground

1 Level Limit - Area B

1 Messenger of Peace

1 Scapegoat

1 Different Dimension Capsule

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 18

1 Magic Cylinder

3 Dimension Wall

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Ceasefire

2 Dark Bribe

1 Wall of Revealing Light

1 Mirror Force

1 Gravity Bind

3 Solemn Judgment

3 Skill Drain

Augustin has swapped out the Mystic Tomato and Dark Mimic LV3 recruiter engine for one based around Cyber Phoenix and UFO Turtle. The two engines effectively do the same thing. The recruiters maintain field presence and have the potential to swing in for damage, while the Mimic and Phoenix each draw a card when they’re destroyed by battle. The idea is to get monsters on the field to protect against direct attacks to your life points, and to have those blockers turn into cards from the top of your deck once they’re destroyed.

What the deck couldn’t do before was prevent some of the abuse it saw from some of the most played cards. Phoenix Wing Wind Blast slows a burn deck down dramatically by putting a monster on top of the deck. Doing so means that the burn player will likely take a fair amount of damage and have to wait an extra turn to play that monster again. Cyber Phoenix puts a stop to this problem, and offers protection from Monarchs by blocking Soul Exchange and Brain Control as well. Plus the Phoenix prevents all your Machines from being targeted, which means UFO Turtle and Card Trooper are safe as well.

In fact, Cyber Phoenix does even more than that in the Monarch matchup. Every burn player should take advantage of being able to attack your opponent directly. Poor draws or patient players wanting to get Cyber Dragon out can result in free fields to attack into. Against Monarchs, there will often be a Sakuretsu Armor or Phoenix Wing Wind Blast face down, depending on which style of Monarchs you’re up against. Cyber Phoenix busts right through those, and forces through 1200 damage, a critical amount when you’re playing a burn deck.

Finally, 1600 DEF means that, combined with Gravity Bind, Messenger of Peace, and Skill Drain, no commonly seen monster can take it out in defense mode. This means Augustin has to worry less about Banisher of the Radiance and Des Wombat stomping through his monsters in games 2 and 3.

What this deck loses when making the transition from Dark monsters to Machines is Crush Card Virus, and its ability to interact with Mystic Tomato and its targets. While this is a significant blow to the strength of the deck, most players don’t have access to Crush Card Virus anyway. So for those players, they’ve simply changed recruiters and card-drawing engines in favor of more productive ones.

The spells and traps are almost exactly the same as the Tomato/Mimic counterpart. They are the tried, tested, and true burn builds that pack enough negation to defend forever. If the proper setup is achieved, next to nothing can stop it. However, that was all the original burn deck could really say. Quickly defeating opponents came only when they had a very bad draw. This is simply how burn plays, but Augustin’s build can afford to play more aggressively because of Cyber Phoenix. Since he doesn’t need to worry about losing assets to cards like Brain Control and Sakuretsu Armor that are supposed to be dead in the matchup, Augustin can summon and attack quite often.

This in-your-face approach allows Augustin to learn what kind of draw his opponent had and fight back accordingly. If he sees his opponent struggle, he’s likely to play more aggressively and take the game without any lockdown necessary. On the other hand, if his opponent comes back strong and puts lots of cards into what’s supposed to be a big turn, Augustin can shut it down and switch to lockdown mode, which his opponent will have to break without the cards he or she used last turn.

The Machine twist to the deck also meant that Augustin could fool his opponents into thinking he wasn’t playing burn, at least for a while. This could lead them into reckless moves with cards that would otherwise be very crucial in the burn matchup, like Mystical Space Typhoon and Snipe Hunter. Other combo decks won’t like how Cyber Phoenix can bust through their copies of Dimension Wall or Soul Exchange, and being able to side deck into Machine OTK gave Augustin a further edge in these matchups.

Innovation is what keeps strong players on top, and it’s how the Kamakazi Krew fared so well in Chicago. You can expect to see decks being tweaked for the competition more and more as the format continues.