We are four rounds into today’s tournament, and already plenty of cool tech cards have emerged as popular, and strategically significant, choices. The first is one of my favorite cards from Cyberdark Impact!
Snipe Hunter: I won’t lie — I’m a personal fan of this little fella.’ He’s re-ignited interest in Fiend strategies, but that’s just the beginning. This card fits so many decks for so many reasons that it’s really worth discussing.
Searchable via Sangan and Mystic Tomato, Snipe Hunter has synergy with a lot of the cards duelists already use. For many decks, the support infrastructure to seek out Snipe at just the right time is already present, and that means it’s both an accessible main-deck pick and a powerful option for the side. It’s seen use in both forms from many competitors here today, and it fulfills two main functions: blow stuff up regardless of card type, and turn dead cards into raw destructive power.
Snipe Hunter doesn’t care whether you sic it on a troublesome Royal Decree or an aggressive Zaborg. Its versatility is its first primary strength, as it provides a 66% chance of an answer to anything that could be causing you trouble. When you’re on defense, it gives you some quick access to monster destruction if you’re willing to make a trade that simplifies the field. When you’re on offense it’s usually advantageous for you to simplify the game anyway, and Snipe Hunter’s effect lets you take down big blockers or set trap cards that might put an end to your onslaught. If the problem you’re having happens to be a Spirit Reaper, all the better: Snipe Hunter targets, so it can blow away Reaper regardless of how the die roll works out. At the same time, Snipe Hunter lets you turn useless, conditional cards into a two-in-three shot at blowing something away. With the number of Nobleman of Crossout, Creature Swap, and Scapegoat that see play, that’s an incredibly valuable ability. Snipe Hunter lets Monarch duelists toss extra tribute monsters and Swap players ditch conditional spells. Combo players can even turn extra copies of cards they only need one of into field control or spell and trap disruption.
Of course, Snipe Hunter isn’t perfectly rosy: a wrong read can land you discarding a card and watching as a target like Scapegoat, Mystical Space Typhoon, or Dust Tornado is chained. It takes skill and intuition to use this card effectively. So far, that hasn’t stopped it from being a star in today’s field, and duelists like Eric Wu and Chris Moosman have had no problem using it.
Des Wombat: With all the hype in certain circles these past few weeks regarding Chain Strike Burn, Des Wombat is seeing increased play in side decks. Though less effective than more specialized answers like Vanity’s Call or Barrel Behind the Door, it’s easy to see why Wombat was favored by most duelists: it’s a familiar card that is useful in regular Burn matchups, while Vanity’s Call is narrow and focused on a single strategy.
The Wombat is a nightmare for the inexperienced Chain Strike Burn duelist, but while it’s tough on more experienced wielders of the deck, it can be played around with specific tech. Offerings to the Doomed can be used in or out of a chain depending on strategic intent, in order to give up a draw phase and free up Burn cards. I’ve seen it rotated into Chain Strike Burn both with and without Reckless Greed as backup. In addition, Brain Control is also a fringe pick, allowing the Chain Strike Burn duelist a method of stealing the Wombat, earning a turn of freedom, and then ramming it into something else to destroy it.
Since Wombat is being used almost exclusively as a side deck card, it’s difficult to get a read on how popular of a pick it’s been. I’ve seen it at a handful of the top tables, and if Chain Strike Burn makes it to Day 2 it’s going to be an important piece of tech.
Wave-Motion Cannon: The Wombat / Vanity’s Call / Barrel Behind the Door issue is made all the more relevant by a sudden upswing in the use of this old school burn favorite. While Wave-Motion Cannon always sees play to some degree, it’s definitely seeing more use today than it did just a scant few weeks ago in Anaheim. It’s being main decked as a splash in several different strategies: duelists take advantage of the slow tempo often established by Swap and Monarch decks, as well as the relative lack of popularity of Mobius the Frost Monarch, and it can be a punishing card against Dark World too. On one hand, if a Dark World opponent goes off quickly and establishes field presence through Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World in the first few turns, then the Cannon slows down its controller: it does nothing to immediately impact the field. If the Dark World player needs to wait a while in order to draw his or her lynchpin combo pieces, then Wave-Motion Cannon becomes a huge threat. When a Card Destruction or Morphing Jar leads to the opponent drawing into a second Cannon, a Dark World duelist’s life can flash before his or her eyes.
This one may be region-centric tech: I’m told it’s seen some experimentation as of late in this particular area, culminating in Emon Ghaneian winning a Regional Championship earlier this month. He did it with a Monarch build that ran three sided Thestalos and three main decked Cannons. Local preferences aside though, the tempo of some of the top decks in this format, and the continued decline in popularity of Mobius and Mystical Space Typhoon, make this a great pick for the weekend’s metagame.
Trap Dustshoot: The final piece of tech that’s making waves here today is another classic. Trap Dustshoot is a great answer to Cyber-Stein, shuffling Stein back into the opponent’s deck in response to the tell-tale Giant Trunade, but it’s also the perfect way to slow down Dark World. While Mind Crush and Confiscation can’t touch Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World and Sillva, Warlord of Dark World because each would unleash their effects and special summon them, Dustshoot shuffles them back into the deck instead. In addition, though Dustshoot can only effect monsters and requires that the opponent have at least four cards in his or her hand, it doesn’t have a life point cost like Confiscation. It also doesn’t require specific knowledge of the opponent’s hand like its frequent partner in crime, Mind Crush, or D. D. Designator (generally the only other safe piece of hand disruption available in the Dark World matchup). Dark World’s success in Anaheim has really brought this card to the forefront of many duelists’ minds.
It’s not just tech, either. It’s a nice way to simplify a complicated game, creating a card-for-card trade that takes one of the opponent’s cards out of the equation. In addition, it gives you important information which can then be used to determine whether or not simplifying the duel further, say through Smashing Ground or Mystical Space Typhoon, would be beneficial or not. Heck, it’s even chainable, so it’s a brutal card to set on your first turn if the opponent tries to play aggressively early. Suckering out a Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon is truly sweet, but even just chaining to Breaker can kill the opponent’s early game momentum.
So, those are the four big picks here today! Of the four, Snipe Hunter seems like an enduring choice, while Des Wombat could flop, or could become a near-staple depending on how Chain Strike Burn fares. Wave-Motion Cannon could go either way in my opinion, and while Trap Dustshoot will never see play en-masse due to its activation restriction, it really deserves to be more popular in this format than it has been. It could sink or float too, but I’m sure for the duelists that have the courage to try it, it will become a constant favorite up through March of next year.