Beating the metagame is not an easy task. In order to create something completely new, one must possess an above-average intellect. If you want to make that inventive deck worthy of Top 8’ing a Shonen Jump Championship, you’ve got to be extraordinary. Then if you want to pilot it to such a finish yourself, you’ve got to be a top-notch competitor. These duelists are a rare breed indeed. A few have been featured in The Champions, such as Shane Scurry. Others are people whose decks I haven’t had a chance to cover yet, such as Jae Kim and Eric Wu. Finally, you’ve got the unknown stars. Chris Simoes, Chris Sorelle and Stephen Lusko are just a few of the many expert innovators you haven’t even heard of yet.

Until two Shonen Jumps ago, at Arlington, Jake McNeely was among those rogue 

Jake McNeely

Monsters: 22

3 Chaos Sorcerer

3 Cyber Dragon

3 Spirit Reaper

2 Banisher of the Radiance

2 Mystic Tomato

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Cyber-Stein

2 Magician of Faith

1 Asura Priest

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

Spells: 14

1 Enemy Controller

2 Rush Recklessly

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Creature Swap

1 Confiscation

1 Premature Burial

1 Book of Moon

1 Scapegoat

1 Snatch Steal

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Graceful Charity

Traps: 5

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Royal Decree

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Mirror Force

Right now you’re thinking to yourself: "That’s not really new. I mean, I’ve played most of those cards before." Ah, yes, but have you tried them all at once? Jake’s taken all the anti-meta tech and crammed it into one deck. This is usually risky business. Remember, tech doesn’t necessarily flow with your deck, but gives you an edge over the popular decks. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer, Banisher of the Radiance, and Rush Recklessly are three good examples of tech cards that can help improve your deck vs. the standard Chaos/Return deck. Why doesn’t everyone play these cards? Because they lack consistency. Most players would rather take a safe route and play Smashing Ground over Rush Recklessly, or Zaborg the Thunder Monarch instead of Banisher of the Radiance.

However, as we’ve all seen since Shane Scurry brought Chaos/Return into the metagame, playing the consistent pieces and 40 standard cards gives your deck no edge whatsoever. It gives you a mirror match almost every round, which means you’ll be relying on luck of the draw quite often. The average player is smarter than before, and they know what the right moves are and when to make them. Thus, games deteriorate into drawing the proper cards at the proper time.

In your average game, this means opening with Cyber Dragon, Mystic Tomato, or maybe some flips, then a Zaborg the Thunder Monarch or Snatch Steal in the mid-game, closing with Chaos Sorcerer and Return from the Different Dimension. This sort of "save the best cards for last" trend can be seen in almost all the top tables in today’s tournaments. However, what happens when you interrupt your opponent at every stage of the game? If your opponent saves his or her Chaos Sorcerer cards until the last minute, he or she will be rowing upstream without a paddle as soon as you summon that Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer.

Is your opponent planning on grabbing an early lead with Cyber Dragon or Spirit Reaper? Crush their hopes with the Rush Recklessly/Mystic Tomato combination. What if your opponent wants to set up a field with Mystic Tomato or Shining Angel? D. D. Warrior Lady and Banisher of the Radiance are going to make that task more difficult than he or she planned.

The deck also has the same tricks that you see in most other tier one decks. It packs a few copies each of Mystic Tomato, Spirit Reaper, Cyber Dragon, and Chaos Sorcerer for its own early and late game shenanigans. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Banisher of the Radiance rarely hinder the deck’s ability to work properly, but create some messy situations for your opponent to clean up.

Asura Priest is quite the troublesome trickster in today’s metagame. His 1700 ATK and Light attribute are appealing, but it’s his Spirit effect that makes him adorable. Returning to the owner’s hand after every turn means your opponent’s power cards are going to be much less effective. Cyber Dragon and Snatch Steal are outright useless if your opponent doesn’t have a monster on the field, and the effects of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and Chaos Sorcerer are nullified, and can even be counterproductive! Asura Priest chimes in with its own disruption mechanic simply by not being there, which makes it fit into this deck quite nicely.

One point I hope you don’t miss is that this deck has no tribute monsters. While Cyber Dragon and Chaos Sorcerer are technically above 4 stars, they are rarely ever brought out by a tribute summon. There is no denying that the Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and Mobius the Frost Monarch are game-breaking monsters, so why does a deck like McNeely’s neglect to take advantage of them?

The first reason is consistency. While Zaborg is consistent enough to be played en masse, there is no denying that you risk being unable to play it at times. Its rewards greatly outweigh the risk though, and thus it’s worthwhile to play it. However, McNeely already has a handful of risky cards, and piling even more in there is not a wise idea. The second reason is flexibility. Zaborg only really operates in one motion. When you keep a monster on the field and tribute it for Zaborg when your opponent has a valuable monster on his or her side of the field, it’s like running at your opponent with an axe screaming, "I’m going to hit you on the head!"  He or she is well aware of what’s going to happen, and will only fall victim to it if getting out of the way is impossible. Rush Recklessly is more of a hidden dagger, and will almost always ruin plans that your opponent thought were quite unbreakable.

Finally, take a look at the deck’s trap line-up. A pair of Royal Decree cards and no defensive traps outside of Mirror Force mean that the deck can have problems keeping monsters on the field to tribute. Also, the Royal Decree cards mean the deck would like to keep an aggressive punch. Summoning a monster every turn—especially when it’s a monster like Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer or Banisher of the Radiance—can overrun an unprepared opponent in a heartbeat. McNeely simply doesn’t have the time to waste tributing his disruption monsters.

The standard set of spells is here, and alongside them is the super cool Rush Recklessly. This card has quite a few tricks up its sleeve, and can create situations your opponent didn’t think of. The Rush can boost your Tomato into Cyber Dragon, and Kycoo over Zaborg and Sorcerer. Banisher can now take out Kycoo on its own, while squaring off evenly against opposing Sorcerers. Rush Recklessly can also take out opposing Spirit Reaper cards and provide quite a pounding when applied to a monster that can attack more than once per battle phase, like Asura Priest or Cyber Twin Dragon.

I don’t agree with Premature Burial in this deck. While the deck would definitely like to play aggressively, I believe Premature Burial lacks flexibility if it doesn’t have any tributes. Also, there’s the slight possibility of Banisher of the Radiance or a Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer taken by Snatch Steal backfiring and preventing Premature Burial from being useful.

Last Will seems to be missing from the deck. This makes Cyber-Stein a random draw that can end games in a pinch, but can’t be brought out from the deck to do so. Removing Last Will has an up side, though, since a lack of tribute monsters or Exiled Force makes sending monsters to the grave on your turn a difficult task.

The deck packs the necessary punch that’s required to make the Top 8. What it lacks in muscle, it makes up for in tricks and disruption. While you won’t be able to bully your opponent around the battle field with McNeely’s build, you can certainly frustrate him or her into oblivion. In a game where play often involves the same movements over and over again, your opponent will be hard pressed to handle what you’re about to dish out.