Crystal Beasts have a really cool synergy with Synchros, and that synergy is centered around Stardust Dragon. Previously, Crystal Beast decks never saw much play in Shonen Jump Championships due to their underpowered debut. They saw big play in side events at the 2007 U.S. Nationals, and a handful of duelists came very close at Jumps, but by the time they got a massive push in the form of Crystal Release (a card that is truly awesome), Gladiator Beast decks were running rampant, and it was near-impossible for Crystal Beasts to keep crystallized monsters in their spell and trap zone. If the deck can’t do that, it can’t win because it’s stuck with dead copies of cards like Crystal Beacon and Rare Value. There was no answer for that problem: Gladiators were everywhere at the time and Crystal Beasts just couldn’t fight them off.

The arrival of Stardust Dragon gave Crystal Beasts something to shoot for—a monster with tremendous size, and more importantly an effect that could protect those back-row cards from being destroyed. The deck can actually be quite competitive—the current format is largely driven by accelerative spell cards, and the third effect of Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins can shut them down. Your massive swarm of monsters can then finish the game.

The problem? Omari isn’t playing Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins. He’s actually not getting a whole heck of a lot out of his decision to run Crystal Beasts: Destiny Hero - Malicious is faster and better at providing mass Synchro materials. There’s no big finish to compensate either: no Rainbow Dragon or Crystal Abundance to close the deal. Worst of all, Omari’s spread of level 4 and level 3 Crystal Beast monsters combined with his level 2 and level 3 Tuners make it nearly impossible for him to summon the one Synchro that matters most to this deck: Stardust Dragon. To do so, he’d have to give up two copies of Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle or Crystal Beast Amethyst Cat alongside Krebons—an investment of three cards that would need a substantial combo to pull off. We need to fix these problems, and to do that we’ll have to cut some cards.

The first cut to be made is the three copies of Amethyst Cat, along with the one Rescue Cat. I’ve played Crystal Beasts in a number of formats and the Rescue Cat/Amethyst Cat trick is never consistent, even if you run multiple copies of Rescue Cat. Here, Omari has a 39% chance of being stuck with an opening hand Amethyst Cat, but only a 15% chance of getting Rescue Cat: it’s virtually a given that he’ll always draw at least one Amethyst Cat before drawing Rescue Cat. If he does open with Amethyst Cat but doesn’t open with Rescue Cat, he’s got 2-to-1 odds of drawing a second Amethyst before he ever sees the kitten he actually wants. That leaves Rescue Cat with no way to use its effect—there wouldn’t be enough targets left in Omari’s deck. Even if it works, this combo still leaves you wide open to big swarms of Synchros or Lightsworn in the early game. Running this combo is like sabotaging your own strategy.

From there we’ll cut two copies of Psychic Commander. I don’t really get why it’s here: this deck will never want to summon Black Rose Dragon, which is all Psychic Commander will let you bring out when paired with a level 4 Crystal Beast. Played with Amethyst Cat or Ruby Carbuncle, it lets you get Goyo Guardian. A third Krebons would let you do that anyway if you paired it with a level 4. This was a mind-boggling choice before I dropped Amethyst Cat, but it’s a definite drop now that Amethyst Cat is gone.

We desperately need to make room in the spell lineup, so we’ll be making a lot of drops here. Rare Value is commonly a dead card in the early game, and unlike Crystal Beacon or Crystal Promise it can’t help you defend yourself unless you get lucky with the cards you draw. All three are gone. Lightning Vortex, Mystical Space Typhoon, and one Crystal Blessing will also be cut. Vortex and Crystal Blessing can both be dead draws, while Mystical Space Typhoon will be shunted to the side deck for reasons of space.

Finally I’ll drop all three copies of Royal Decree. Not getting hit by Solemn Judgment is important, but not so important that we want to risk dead draws, or worse, alienate ourselves from playing spell cards when there are four crystallized monsters on the field.

Achieving that threshold of four Crystal Beasts is exactly what I want to do, because I’ll be adding three copies of Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins right off the bat. The incredible draw power this card offers is too good to ignore. Its damage-reducing effect is pure gold in a format that often sees duelists ousted by OTKs, and its negation ability locks down TeleDAD early. The special summon effect is the icing on the cake, providing a strong defense or a game-finishing offense as required.

One copy of Card Destruction will help us get to key cards, while loading the graveyard for Crystal Blessing. Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus is integral to our strategy, so I’m playing Card Destruction over Terraforming to try and get to Pegasus as early as possible. Next, one more Crystal Release is a must. This card is insane, speeding up the rate at which Crystal Beast decks unlock their effects while also making Sapphire Pegasus and Amber Mammoth big enough to take down Stardust Dragon in battle. Strap it to Topaz Tiger and it can eliminate any Synchro short of Colossal Fighter. It even gives you another way to get to Sapphire Pegasus in the early game: let Crystal Release get destroyed, send Sapphire Pegasus to your back row, then bring him to the field with Crystal Promise.

With four monsters cut from the lineup, we’re going to add a few more to take their place. Crystal Beast Amber Mammoth is a nice 1700 ATK beatstick, and it’s great at messing with your opponent’s attacks. It makes a nice combo with Release as well. A third Ruby Carbuncle is also a must—she’s one of the four Crystal Beasts that are really competitive, and we’re going to max out on all of them.

One more Krebons is a no-brainer, and Jinzo will help tie down the trap cards Royal Decree was suppressing without filling our spell and trap zone. There are times when you’ll have plenty of extra Crystal Beasts and lots of special summon cards you don’t need, and that makes tributing for Jinzo very easy. You can OTK your opponent through swarming alone, so it’s a great way to either clinch a win or force out a Solemn Judgment so you can capitalize later. You can even summon Jinzo, and then trade it up for a level 8 Synchro later via Krebons.

Finally, my favorite part of the deck: Rose, Warrior of Revenge! Rose ties everything together, letting us use any other level 4 monster to bring out Stardust Dragon. The speed Rose adds to this deck is massive, and she single-handedly makes the deck viable by allowing us to get to the level 8 Synchros we need. When Jerome McHale first talked about Rose here on Metagame.com during our Duelist Genesis preview weeks he stated that Rose would do tremendous things for decks that weren’t competitive without her—this is one of those decks, and her results are impressive. Free summons gleaned from the effects of Rainbow Ruins or Ruby Carbuncle, or free card presence from a successfully summoned Sapphire Pegasus, means lots of free Synchro material. Rose leverages that straight into Stardust Dragon, which in turn protects the rest of your strategy. We’ll run two copies of Reinforcement of the Army to search her out.

Here are the changes I made to the main deck:

The final build looks like this:

I tweaked the Extra Deck too, emphasizing the two monsters this deck will normally want to Synchro summon in multiples: Stardust Dragon and Goyo Guardian.

Your number-one opening play is to summon Sapphire Pegasus, throwing another copy from your deck behind it. That leaves you open to activate Crystal Promise for the second Pegasus, placing another Crystal Beast in your back row. If you can Promise on turn 1, by all means do so: you’ll thin your deck for future turns, present a solid defense, and prepare strong attacks for turn 2.

Provided you summon at least one copy of Sapphire Pegasus, your opponent will likely be forced into one of two positions: he or she will either have to give up on attacking, or swing into Pegasus and give you two crystallized monsters. The latter is preferable—it means you get to go off next turn with Crystal Beacon, which is where things really get crazy. With that said, playing Crystal Release on your first turn is ideal as well: either strap it to whichever Crystal Beast you were able to summon or set it face down to see if your opponent will destroy it. If your opponent attacks your equipped Crystal Beast, awesome—if the equipped Beast was Sapphire Pegasus you’ll head into turn 2 with three Beasts crystallized. That’s enough to withstand even a would-be-ruinous turn 1 Breaker the Magical Warrior. If the Beast was anything other than Sapphire Pegasus, then you still move into your next turn with enough crystallized Beasts to play Beacon.

So yeah—your ideal turn 1 sees you end with Pegasus and, if possible, Crystal Release on the field. Don’t play out Ancient City - Rainbow Ruins early. The odds of your opponent having two pieces of spell and trap removal are slim, but there’s no reason to take the chance: don’t play it until you’ve got two Crystal Beasts in your back row.

From there you’ve got two goals: fill your back row with four Crystal Beasts (and abuse Rainbow Ruins’ draw effect), and summon copies of Stardust. If your opponent has answers to your Stardust and brings down a bigger monster, you’ll need to rely on bigger Synchros to eliminate the roadblock, but as long as you keep a couple of Crystal Beasts on the field and use Rainbow Ruins’ third effect intelligently you should be able to preempt most threats and subdue any that remain. The draw power of Ancient City is integral—if things go well, it will let you summon more Synchro monsters than other decks are capable of summoning, and that’s your out when games become a long standoff. If you find that’s not enough in your metagame, go ahead and remove the two copies of Jinzo for two Crystal Abundance cards.

If your opponent commits to the field and digs in before you can stop him or her from doing so, it’ll be an uphill battle. The right Synchro summon (or even just a copy of Crystal Release) can be enough to dig you out of that hole, but often you just won’t draw into the cards you’ll need to overcome a superior opening. It happens, and it’s largely why I wouldn’t take this to a Jump. But if you play fast enough, make the right moves, and choose to negate the right cards, you can definitely win your share of games against the top decks. Just remember that prioritizing the development and protection of your infrastructure is what matters most.

If you’re a Crystal Beast fan, try it out at your local and see what it can do! You won’t be disappointed.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer