At Shonen Jump Championships, the circuit’s regulars always seem to have an impact on the format. Almost every tournament brings either new decks or more consistent builds of older archetypes. Generally, well-known players make the biggest impacts, and even when unknown players create waves, they quickly become recognized players themselves. Most of the time these players stand out at Shonen Jump tournaments or National Championships. However, some players can change the metagame simply by testing a new deck at Regionals.

It seems that Lazaro Bellido can’t enter a tournament without creating rifts in the metagame, and his success at the Toronto Regional tournament prior to SJC Washington, DC was no exception. There, he tested the brain child of Chris Simoes and his deck: a Zombie build based around achieving an advantage through Creature Swap or Card of Safe Return in combination with spell and trap removal and Pyramid Turtle.

He didn’t lose a match. Players worldwide took note of his deck after it was posted online just prior to Washington. While only a few were able to actually prepare a strong Zombie deck for the Washington Shonen Jump, those who did generally fared very well. The two strongest results came from Dale Bellido and myself. Posting a combined record of 19-1 (with the single loss occurring after we were paired against each other in round 9), the Swiss portion of the tournament clearly belonged to the Superfriends. Here’s what we ran:

Monsters: 19

2 Il Blud

2 Ryu Kokki

2 Giant Rat

3 Zombie Master

3 Pyramid Turtle

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Snipe Hunter

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Card Trooper

1 Sangan

Spells: 15

3 Card of Safe Return

2 Nobleman of Crossout

3 Book of Life

2 Creature Swap

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Premature Burial

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Brain Control

Traps: 6

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Dust Tornado

1 Widespread Ruin

The deck focuses on one thing and one thing only: speed. With every turn, the Zombie deck should be furthering its position. Through attacks, tricks, or simply summoning more monsters, the Zombie player can confidently set up his or her field knowing that very few cards can cause extreme damage. By not setting any monsters, Nobleman of Crossout becomes a dead card in the opponent’s hand. Since Smashing Ground and Fissure are Limited and few players run Hammer Shot because of the backfire potential, your opponents likely won’t be able to clear your monsters off the field.

One of the key elements in the deck is the spell and trap removal. Pyramid Turtle and Creature Swap are two extremely devastating cards. With little monster removal itself, this deck needs Pyramid Turtle to turn into bigger Zombies by ramming itself into opposing monsters in order to achieve monster removal through battle. With the ability to search out any Zombie monster in the deck, Pyramid Turtle is its most valuable player by far.

Creature Swap, on the other hand, is another kind of monster removal. While it’s a bit harder to time and requires a monster to go with it, it not only rids the opposing field of a monster, but gives that monster to you. Shifting a Pyramid Turtle, Sangan, or Giant Rat to the opponent practically eliminates all downsides Swap could present. In fact, Creature Swap can actually serve as an outlet for having your recruiters destroyed in battle. Often the opponent will simply pass to your face-up attack-position Pyramid Turtle with a defense-position monster, leaving your Turtle stranded on the field. Throw Swap in the mix and tribute the monster you took (especially if it’s a Mystic Tomato or Pyramid Turtle of the opponent’s) for Il Blud or Ryu Kokki, and you’re in business.

Of course, your opponents aren’t just going to sit there and watch you do this. Chances are they’ll try to stop your recruiters with defensive cards or your Creature Swap with Scapegoat or Call of the Haunted. To remove this possibility, the deck plays six forms of spell and trap destruction. Between two copies of Dust Tornado and the single copy each of Mystical Space Typhoon, Heavy Storm, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Snipe Hunter, the Zombie player can make sure the opponent can’t respond on key turns.

The monsters are designed to work around Pyramid Turtle and Ryu Kokki. Ryu Kokki backed up by Dust Tornado will be your primary form of monster removal in most matches, and Pyramid Turtle and Il Blud serve as a means to special summon him. Book of Life can also be used to special summon the Kokki monster at any given time.

Pyramid Turtle has lots of other tricks though. Special summoning Spirit Reaper by sending the Turtle into a bigger monster can combo excellently with Cyber Dragon or Book of Life to take out that very monster afterward, paving a path for Reaper to attack directly. Il Blud and Zombie Master can also be special summoned with the Turtle. Both allow for even more special summons, including summoning the same Turtle (and in the case of Il Blud, effectively creating monsters for no cost).

Of course, Zombie Master’s effect is pretty much cost-free if you have Card of Safe Return on the field. With it, every discard replaces itself with a card drawn after the special summon is complete. Book of Life, Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted let the Zombie player draw even more free cards off of Card of Safe Return, and each can special summon Il Blud, who can then special summon another monster in turn. Imagine if Zombie Master is also in the graveyard, allowing for even more special summoning potential. Chances are the cards you’ve drawn off the Safe Return are special summon abilities as well, which means you’ll be drawing even more cards. The same way Machines snowballed damage via Trap Dustshoot and Raiza the Storm Monarch, Zombies are snowballing card draw and field presence.

Giant Rat makes the cut to ensure that Pyramid Turtle is hit as quickly as possible. Rat can search for Turtle by attacking into a bigger monster the same way you’d use Pyramid Turtle. This means that, for a few more life points, you’re actually playing five copies of Pyramid Turtle, and by extension, two more ways to search any Zombie out of your deck. Rat also doubles up as a Creature Swap target, allowing the Zombie player to steal a monster and turn his or her swapped Rat into a Pyramid Turtle.

Zombies will only continue to grow in popularity. The snowball effect is even more dangerous than that of Machines, and the speed with which the deck can achieve victory is astonishing for a format without Ring of Destruction or Snatch Steal. Zombies could very well be the defining deck of the format.