I still remember testing against the infamous Diamond Dude Turbo deck (DDT) the night before Shonen Jump Championship St. Louis last February. Its speed made the deck almost unbeatable. I was completely convinced that it would win the tournament. With the recent Semi-Limitation of Destiny Hero - Malicious, many players decided it was time to put DDT to rest, but a few, like Kris “Superman” Perovic, decided the strategy still had some mileage left before retirement.

Forming the deck for the Traditional format doesn’t require many fundamental changes to the design, but it gives so many more powerful targets for Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude that it’s worth bringing to a tournament. It easily holds its own against Chaos decks and the other one-turn KO builds, but requires a bit more savvy to play. In fact, I’d recommend reading my article from Nov. 3 for a stronger grasp on playing this deck: the formula brought me much success when I played DDT in the past.

The point of the deck is to special summon as many monsters as possible in one turn (most of which replace themselves with another card upon being summoned), and attempt to defeat your opponent as quickly as possible. Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade removes Warriors from your graveyard and Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension brings them back. You’ll quickly be causing over 8000 damage: should your opponent survive, you’ve probably drawn enough cards to repeat the process on the following turn anyway.

The Monsters

As with most DDT builds, the monster lineup is very slim. You want to dump at least one copy of Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade or Dimension Fusion when you activate either Reasoning or Monster Gate, and the fewer monsters you play, the more often that will happen.

Monsters: 7

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

2 Destiny Hero - Malicious

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude

It’s fairly typical for a DDT deck to run Dark Magician of Chaos, but in Traditional format, the concept is simply brutal. You have more monster recursion, you can put him in the graveyard faster, and you have better targets for his effect. Playing the Magician will almost always end with a victory.

While many players have shied away from playing three copies of Diamond Dude, I embrace it in Traditional. Over half the deck can be played with his effect (24/40), and many of them will almost automatically reward you with a game win. To complement the Destiny Draw cards, you have Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, and Painful Choice that make for ridiculously powerful moves with Diamond Dude: running three is definitely a justifiable choice.

More questionable than what I included were the cards I left out. I didn’t choose to run Exiled Force because the Traditional format allows for new agents of monster removal. I also excluded Destiny Hero - Dasher, which most DDT builds run. I don’t think seven monsters warrants running the card, considering that each draw will probably only yield about a fifteen percent chance of using the effect. Over time, it’ll prove useless.

The Spells

The spells are fairly basic for a DDT build. I’ve blended the backbone of any Traditional deck with the skeleton of DDT, leaving the bare minimum of each to ensure enough space for the trap lineup.

Spells: 29

1 Pot of Greed

1 Graceful Charity

1 Card Destruction

1 Dimension Fusion

1 Painful Choice

1 Premature Burial

1 Monster Reborn

1 Magical Stone Excavation

1 Heavy Storm

1 Dark Hole

1 Raigeki

1 Harpie’s Feather Duster

1 Change of Heart

1 Snatch Steal

2 Lightning Vortex

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Reasoning

3 Monster Gate

3 Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade

3 Destiny Draw

One of the most powerful cards the deck gains from the conversion is Painful Choice. You’ll be able to search for all remaining copies of Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade and Dimension Fusion, and use the final one or two choices for monsters. The most difficult part of running DDT in the Advanced format is finding ways to fill the graveyard, a problem instantly solved by Painful Choice in Traditional.

While the inclusion of Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity will help any deck, it’s particularly effective in DDT. They provide a perfect Diamond Dude hit, giving you instant card sifting. While DDT is a powerful deck, it is also one of the most inconsistent. Pot of Greed and Graceful Charity have a tendency to transform an absolutely terrible hand into a game-winning one within a turn.

The Traps

Like the monsters, the Traps are kept very slim. While I still think Waboku would be a powerful addition to the deck, I was completely unable to find room for it. It allows for an additional use of Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude (often paying for itself in that way) and keeps you from taking damage. Both effects can lead to winning the game.

Traps: 4

1 Call of the Haunted

3 Return from the Different Dimension

Instead, I chose to include three copies of Return from the Different Dimension. Choosing this over Waboku makes the deck more aggressive than defensive, a choice that should define the way it’s played. It needs to hit hard and fast or it won’t stand a chance. However, it also gives you more options than just an overwhelming attack. You’ll be able to reuse multiple Diamond Dudes from the removed-from-play pile, giving you cards that might win an otherwise impossible duel.

Call of the Haunted was chosen over Mirror Force for the same reason. The deck is committed to aggression and it allows for the reuse of monsters that could create victory.

Playing the Deck

I can’t stress how much easier it is to play this deck if you understand the mathematical process I explained in the article a couple of weeks ago. DDT is probably the most statistics-based deck the game has ever seen, and understanding that will increase your win percentage.

One of the most common mistakes players make when playing DDT (other than small misplays based on unsound statistics) is forgetting to use a card that Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude has revealed. Without his effect, the deck will often fizzle. This strategy needs the extra cards he gives you in order to win. Not only is forgetting to claim them embarrassing, it’ll cost you a lot of games. If you’re absent minded, try to figure out a way to remember. You can turn your hand upside down, cross your fingers, whatever it takes. Just don’t forget.

The strange thing about DDT is that its intricacies are almost infinite. While the deck has a fairly simple purpose (special summon a lot of monsters and attack your opponent) it can achieve a one-turn KO in many ways. The key to the deck is to consider all your options carefully, puzzling out which one is more likely to benefit you, and then making that move. You’ll need to recognize when you have a game-winning option, even when it’s an obscure and strange one.