Today we’ll be looking at an incredibly affordable deck, and one of the most irritating decks the game has ever created: PACMAN. If you can afford three copies of Solemn Judgment, you almost own this entire deck! PACMAN has proven itself to be competitive through multiple formats, and is a great investment for a player looking for a deck that won’t go out of style soon. While it hasn’t won a Shonen Jump to date, it’s held some respectable showings.
Many Regional tournaments have heavily aggressive metagames. While Shonen Jump Championships usually have many competitors with TeleDAD decks, you might attend a 200-person Regional tournament and only see twenty Tele-DAD decks or less. This is the sort of field in which PACMAN can thrive.
We’ll be playing some special tech that will allow our version to compete in this format and match the power of TeleDAD and Gladiator Beasts with ease. Our greatest weakness is going to be players with three copies of Royal Decree in their side decks, but by dropping a few traps in favor of Mystical Space Typhoon and three copies of Twister, we can mitigate this disadvantage.
The Monsters
The monster lineup consists of three basic cards: monsters that flip to control field presence, monsters that flip to draw cards, and monsters that flip to deal damage.
If you can start the game with a protected Des Lacooda, you’ll be drawing two cards a turn for the rest of the game. That allows you twice as many answers as your opponent has threats, which is definitely a recipe for victory.
Stealth Bird is one of our two win conditions. It’s a painstaking process, but you’ll be winning the game 1000 damage at a time. The Dream Clown and Blade Rabbit don’t require a turn to destroy a monster if you have Stumbling in your hand, and are your best monster removal agents in such a situation. You don’t have to wait a turn, which means your opponent has less time to respond to the situation you present.
Golem Sentry and Swarm of Scarabs are monster removal agents that require flip summoning. These are best if you have a card that stops your opponent from attacking and isn’t Stumbling. Since you’re waiting a turn regardless, you have the element of surprise on your side.
The Spells
The spell lineup consists of two groups of cards: Wave-Motion Cannon and cards that stop your opponent from attacking.
It’s imperative that you stop your opponent from attacking. The goal of this deck is to slow the game to a halt, then slowly take advantage of the situation and win. Wave-Motion Cannon is our second win condition, while the other five cards are simply conduits for you to use it.
The Traps
The trap lineup is the most interesting part of the deck, as it contains a variety of cards.
If you’re looking to up the price of the deck, you can change the three copies of Spell Shield Type-8 into three copies of Dark Bribe. They’re very similar cards, but with a vastly different price tag. For the budget player, playing Spell Shield Type-8 here is an easy choice. If you’re a budget player, you can take this version to your local and use the winnings to improve your deck!
Royal Oppression cuts a lot of outs from your opponent’s deck. Your opponent can’t destroy your field with Dark Armed Dragon or Gladiator Beast Gyzarus if they can’t be summoned! Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror fights against the same cards, along with Breaker the Magical Warrior and the occasional Snipe Hunter. Just be careful prioritizing its activation: Stealth Bird and Swarm of Scarabs are both Dark monsters.
Anti-Spell Fragrance gives you ample time to respond to your opponent’s cards. It slows a TeleDAD deck down a turn, forcing the deck’s control to set Destiny Draw or Allure of Darkness before rifling through the deck searching for a copy of Heavy Storm. Anti-Spell Fragrance is such a thorn in so many players’ sides, it’s difficult to pass up.
When playing this deck, you’re looking for three basic cards: a card to stop your opponent from attacking you, a card to make sure your opponent can’t destroy your back row, and a monster. Since your deck is a fairly balanced grouping of those three types of cards, drawing at least one of each in your opening hand shouldn’t be difficult. After you set up that combo, you’ll be flipping your monsters up and down to draw cards, destroy monsters, and (lastly) deal damage. Remember that dealing damage comes second to maintaining control over the field. If you have control over the field, it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to win. So when playing, make sure to protect your control over the game long before you attempt to take life points.
Try to save your three copies of Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror to chain when your opponent attempts to summon either Gyzarus or Dark Armed Dragon. Both of those monsters are Dark, so the element of surprise will go a long way in making your opponent waste his or her few remaining outs. Your only real threats are those monsters, Breaker the Magical Warrior, the occasional Snipe Hunter, Heavy Storm, and Mystical Space Typhoon. A Gladiator Beast opponent also has the option to use Test Tiger’s ability to bring out Gladiator Beast Bestiari, so whenever possible, try to make sure that the destruction of one card on the field won’t spell your defeat. As stated before, you have multiple copies of the three basic card groups, so this shouldn’t be a problem. When playing this deck, remember that the point is to keep the game slow! There’s no need to rush your win. Take your time setting up your control, creating a backup plan, and even a backup to the backup plan . . . then start chipping away at your opponent’s life points.
Your side deck should be entirely composed of answers to problem cards. Be ready to respond to three copies of
Royal Decree, a
Jinzo-based Machine deck, or even three side-decked copies of
Mobius the Frost Monarch.
Des Wombat is a very popular side-deck card at Regional-level tournaments. Another great side-deck card to consider is
Chiron the Mage, because it can handle
Des Wombat and
Royal Decree in a single turn. Chiron is one of the most underrated side-deck cards in the game. Along with three copies of it, you can add a more obvious copy of
Breaker the Magical Warrior, who serves the same purpose.
3 [Solemn Judgment] - $25 each, $75
This is a great deck for a player who has very little experience playing control strategies. It’s straightforward to play and involves little decision making, as long as one remembers to save dealing damage for the late game. For a deck that hardly exceeds the price of the three copies of Solemn Judgment it runs, PACMAN can make a very strong impact on your local metagame. Good luck at the tables, and remember to experiment with different types of decks. If you aren’t familiar with the style of playing a control deck, a beatdown deck, and a combo deck, you can’t be the best player! Remember to remain well rounded and constantly learning.
—Ryan Murphy