Robert Smith has done it all. A former employee of Upper Deck Entertainment, you might recognize Rob’s knowledgeable voice from any phone call you placed to UDE game support over the past several years, where he spent his time answering the questions of new and veteran duelists alike. A Level 3 judge that actively pushes the boundaries of the game and pioneers high-level strategy, he opted to represent his current key piece of game theory by building his deck around it. An advocate of the importance of tempo in a duel, Rob’s deck explores the often-misunderstood themes of control beyond just the opponent’s hand.

Here’s the deck Rob was running.

Robert Smith’s Zombie Removal: 40 cards

Monsters: 21
2 Strike Ninja
2 D. D. Scout Plane
3 D.D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
2 Don Zaloog
2 Ryu Kokki
2 Vampire Lord
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Cyber Jar
1 Sangan
1 Sinister Serpent

Spells: 13
1 Back to Square One
2 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Scapegoat
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Monster Recovery
1 Dimension Fusion
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm

Traps: 6
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Return from the Different Dimension

The deck is certainly original. While Zombie and Strike Ninja themes have been used in the past, no one has successfully combined them. Though this deck has all the strengths of Zombies and Remove From Play strategies, it’s a lot more than just the sum of two impressive parts.

The deck is based around the concept of dictating tempo: essentially, controlling your opponent’s options on a refined level so that whatever their most immediate and best choices are in the short term, they’re bad in the long run. The result is that the opponent is forced to play in a reactive fashion, foregoing their ideal goals in order to survive. This deck exercises every kind of control imaginable to create that effect. Don Zaloog and Delinquent Duo give the deck a bit of token hand control. Pyramid Turtle, Strike Ninja, and Vampire Lord maintain board presence, along with some of the deck’s large, or just plain annoying-to-attack monsters. D. D. Warrior Lady provides offensive board control and removal, and deck control is given by Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Back to Square One. The two aforementioned cards are integral to the deck, manipulating not only the opponent’s board but also their deck. The result is a monster removal engine that also screws the opponent, especially for playing with weak or conditional monsters. Don’t have any cards to discard for that Tribe-Infecting Virus? Guess what you’re drawing next turn! Relying on pulling something key with that Sangan? Back to the safety of the deck he goes! Watch for both of these cards to see a lot of play in the near future.

Rob’s creation opens strongly, though with its plethora of tribute monsters and a few conditional picks (like D. D. Scout Plane) it needs to do so in order to cut the risk of poor opening hands. Pryamid Turtle is an extremely strong opening, but Sinister Serpent, Sangan, D. D. Warrior Lady, and in many metagames even Cyber Jar, can be good as well. D. D. Scout Plane can work if an opponent is packing Nobleman of Crossout, and even if it gets attacked, it can be nice to have it in the graveyard early on.

Synergy rules in this deck. D. D. Scout Plane in the graveyard is a good thing, and between the pair of them Smith was packing and Sinister Serpent he had plenty of discard fodder for Graceful Charity, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Tribe-Infecting Virus. D. D. Scout Plane is for use with Strike Ninja, and the deck can remove any of the other Darkness monsters in its graveyard and bring them back out with Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension. This trick won Smith game one, sucking a pair of Ryu Kokki back onto the field.

Monster Recovery serves to cover poor hands: “I basically look at it as my third Strike Ninja in many cases,” said Smith of what some might see as a questionable bit of tech.

Overall, the deck is consistent to amazing in the opening and early game, depending on how fast it gets to a Pyramid Turtle. Once it does, it goes off, plucking either Ryu Kokki from the deck or Vampire Lord—whichever is best to harass the opponent with. It does just what it sets out to do, flooding an opponent with things that need reactions and overwhelming them while cutting off their best choices.

With one win under his belt and round two looming on the horizon, Robert Smith is looking to make a strong showing. In addition though, he’s also looking to bring the issue of tempo to the forefront of duelists’ minds. With an awesome deck like this one, he may accomplish both lofty goals.