Since Matt Peddle made his spectacular finish at Canadian Nationals with Machine beatdown, his strategy has been innovated and imitated by hundreds of duelists across the globe. Even greats like Max Suffridge carried versions of the deck into the fray at the US National Championships, and duelists in the know have been paying careful attention to the variants that have arisen over the past weeks.
Today, Nick Synodis and Chad Justice have created the most bizarre version of the deck yet, and it might just be the best. By combining Machine beatdown’s solid fundamentals with some surprising burn tech and a couple, err, creative additions, both headed into round 4 undefeated. Now in round 5, Nick has claimed his first duel of the match and seems well-poised to continue on with a 5-0 record. Here’s what his deck looks like . . .
I know, I know. It looks like a jumbled mish-mash of cards. There’s really a lot going on here and it’s all very well calculated and arranged.
The three Card Troopers and the pair of Cyber Phoenix, combined with Jinzo and Cyber Dragon, still constitute the backbone of the deck Matt Peddle created. One Cyber Phoenix has been removed on account of the deck’s shift of priority and Synodis’ personal tastes: “I find they can clog my hand if I draw multiple copies. Two is enough.” He also added a single Drillroid, a dash of Dexter Dalit that helps against defensive cards like Gravekeeper’s Spy and Spirit Reaper. “I try to win really fast, so the Drillroid gets rid of anything that would slow me down. I also just love running it — I play Machines in almost every format, and I always run one Drillroid.” The Drillroid fills a role similar to that of Snipe Hunter in Peddle’s original. It’s important to note that while Chad Justice’s version of the deck main decked one Snipe and side decked another, all of Synodis’ copies are in his side deck.
The big change from Peddle’s version is that Synodis’ build forgoes the original’s three copies of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, in favor of three Des Koala. This creates big, pressuring amounts of damage in the early game, while also punishing the variety of decks like Monarchs and T-Hero that regularly keep big, full hands of cards. “My deck works well against all the big decks,” explained Synodis. “Everything that’s stable and dependent on big plays tends to gather a lot of cards, and Des Koala takes advantage of that.” The high DEF each Koala packs makes it an excellent wall too, making T-Hero, other Machine variants, and Monarchs waste big plays on a monster that, for all purposes, has already accomplished what it set out to do by the time it’s flipped. The tactical waste that creates is incredibly damaging, as cards normally reserved for victory-turns need to be allocated for field clearing instead.
The one copy of Mataza the Zapper may look like a blind holdover from Justice’s classic Ben-Kei OTK, but it’s a lot more than that. “It combos really well with the three Brain Controls,” noted Synodis. “When it’s attacking directly it deals a ton of damage, and the Brain Controls create that situation.” When the opponent is playing carefully and working out the math turn by turn, he or she just doesn’t figure in a normal summon for 2600 damage. With United We Stand Mataza can be even more brutal, and the United isn’t a poor card on its own either. With the protection Cyber Phoenix offers it can often represent thousands of unstoppable points of damage.
Ceasefire and Magic Cylinder round out the deck’s pantheon of off-kilter picks, giving Synodis more unexpected sources of damage and some tricky effects to hurl at his opponent. Ceasefire is slowly gaining a following in this format, where knowing the identity of your opponent’s set monster can be so valuable. We’ve seen it a thousand times by now: a groan-worthy Exiled Force being tributed to destroy Treeborn Frog, or an unwitting attack made into a face down Destiny Hero – Fear Monger. Ceasefire provides intelligence, synergetic burn damage, and it’ll even negate that Gravekeeper’s Spy we’re all tired of seeing flipped at our expense.
Magic Cylinder is a risky pick, and I kind of wish Synodis was playing Widespread Ruin over his one Sakuretsu Armor. This deck has certain vulnerabilities against other Machine beatdowns, and the lack of Widespread seems unnecessary. Still, as much of a risk as Magic Cylinder presents, it’s well worth it. Players here today are prioritizing Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and monster-spinning Raiza the Storm Monarchs over Mobius the Frost Monarch or back row Raizas, so the reliability with which Cylinder can dish out 2400 damage is downright frightening. Despite Justin Womack’s immense showing with Dimension Wall and Magic Cylinder at US Nationals, people still aren’t expecting Cylinder.
With genius deckbuilders like Chad Justice and Chris Moosman making contributions to this deck’s creation, and Nick refocusing the deck towards heated aggression, he’s got an exceptionally good chance at making Top 16 this weekend. As I finish this article Synodis has just completed his fifth victory, another 2-0, and now needs to win just three of his next four matches to make Day 2.
Personally, I think he’ll do it.