Spells: 12

What you’ll notice is that Jerry’s deck doesn’t play Light and Darkness Dragon or Destiny Hero - Plasma. Unlike many other players who made Day 2 in Nashville, Jerry wasn’t concerned with forcing his opponents to deal with powerful monsters. Rather Jerry wanted his opponents to be unable to deal with any of his monsters. Dark Armed Dragon is an amazing card, but its drawback is that playing it on a turn where you don’t win usually results in a loss. Managing the graveyard to produce exactly three Dark monsters usually means wasting cards, and a Dark Armed Dragon being taken with Brain Control or Enemy Controller can usually give your opponent the freedom to summon enough monsters for game.

However there do exist times when Dark Armed Dragon could stand alone on the field and laugh at anything your opponent tries to set in front of it. In today’s metagame—with so many cards being focused toward monster combos—it’s easy to get stuck with no answer to a 2800 ATK behemoth that can destroy anything left on the field when you pass. Jerry’s deck attempts to generate this scenario. Ideally the deck will control the opponent’s hand and draws with its trap cards and the opponent’s monsters with its own. Assuming you’ve done the job correctly, you should end up with something your opponent can’t deal with. From there, you simply lean on the opponent and take out his or her life points or remaining cards until the duel is over.

Solemn Judgment and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast have made their return to competitive play in top decks. Since the likelihood of being punished with a swarm of once-removed-from-play monsters is much less likely these days, Jerry has opted to play two very risky but very versatile trap cards. Neither is restricted to dealing with only spells, traps, or monsters, and both are very hard to answer. Judgment is spell speed 3, meaning even a face-up Light and Darkness Dragon can’t prevent it from shutting down any specific option.

The Wing Blast is this deck’s go-to answer card. When something needs to be dealt with, the best way to do it is to put the card on the top of the opponent’s deck and prepare to defeat it next turn. For example, Jerry may answer Light and Darkness Dragon by playing Mind Crush and chaining the Wind Blast. Then next turn he plays Sangan, so when it’s destroyed Cyber Valley can be searched out. Now Jerry has an answer.

This is how the entire match is supposed to be played. Answer every card your opponent uses with as little force as possible until you can win the game or put the opponent in a position where he or she can’t come back. Sound familiar? This is how Monarchs and Gladiator Beasts played out: the core strategy behind all control decks. It’s also why players like Jerry Wang, Lazaro Bellido, and Fili Luna were able to advance so far in the tournament. These are the players who’ve found the most success with aggressive control decks.

Solemn Judgment is the answer to your opponent’s attempt to game you. Usually stopping Dark Armed Dragon is how you’re going to do it, but Crush Card Virus, Light and Darkness Dragon, and Destiny Hero - Plasma are three other perfect examples of cards you’d be more than happy to spend half your life points to negate. Judgment can answer anything and do it at the counter-trap level. That’s what makes it so consistent. What makes it powerful is how these players used it.

When used correctly, Solemn Judgment can stop your opponent’s entire hand. We saw Gladiator Beasts do this a lot with the Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror/Solemn Judgment combo, negating spell and trap cards and keeping the Mirror to negate monster effects. With Solemn in this deck, it’s a bit different. You have to negate the correct card to cripple your opponent in other plays. For example if my opponent is holding D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation, two copies of Dark Armed Dragon, and a card to discard with exactly three Darks in the graveyard, playing Solemn Judgment on the first Dragon will prevent the opponent from using his or her entire hand. Similarly using Solemn to block Trap Dustshoot or Crush Card Virus can prevent the opponent from using Mind Crush or accurately defending against your moves.

Phantom of Chaos was the hottest tech card of the weekend by far. Thrown aside because of its vulnerability during faster times, the Phantom can fuel your Return from the Different Dimension and D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation. With no turbo Return in mind, Strike Ninja and Prometheus, King of the Shadows have been dropped from the deck. Phantom fills the spot quite nicely, and late in the game can act as your fourth Dark Armed Dragon.

The final card I’ll discuss looks really awkward at first. You’re probably still sitting there thinking, "What’s that Cyber Valley doing there?" Perhaps I answered your question earlier when I pointed out that Cyber Valley can single-handedly take down Light and Darkness Dragon by attempting to trigger its third effect four times. From there, the Dragon can no longer negate anything and you’re free to destroy it. But that’s just one of the Valley’s many purposes. Cyber Valley can also give you a means to fuel your removed-from-play pile. Combined with Brain Control, it doubles up as monster removal, or it can otherwise just get in the way for a turn.

The versatility and strength of this deck cannot be denied. Jerry Wang has accurately transformed the game-ending power cards from a turbo Return deck to a control deck. All the consistency, draw-power, and strength of the deck remains. Only the method by which it achieves victory has changed.

—Matt Peddle