Atlanta
Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta was the beginning of the new Advanced format, and while many expected a varied Top 8 packed with Machine, Spellcaster, and Zombie decks, they were left disappointed. The Toolbox, Chaos, and Soul Control decks that made the cut to Day 2 were just a few cards off from previous Shonen Jump Championship entries. Doubt was cast upon the impact of the format as a whole, and some were thinking that the current Advanced format was perhaps even less complicated than the last.
Or, at least, that’s how it seemed.
In retrospect, Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta laid the groundwork for the Advanced format as we now understand it. A handful of cards gained power, and those who ran them found success in the weekend. While many players believed that the reduced presence of Nobleman of Crossout would lead to a surge in popularity for flip effect monsters, some thought that wouldn’t be the case, and instead, they gambled on the popularity of Spirit Reaper. The gamble paid off, and players like Marcial Bode, who went undefeated in the Swiss rounds, hit the jackpot with Drillroid. Bode played one copy of the hot new tech card, and it was a sizable factor in his undefeated record for Day 1.
At the same time, D. D. Assailant was an obvious MVP of the format, and D. D. Survivor was suddenly popular as a result. Most realized that this format might be more about monster control than hand advantage, and the addition of another beatstick to any deck’s lineup was more than reasonable. The Survivor instantly became a staple for many duelists.
Most importantly, though, was the rise of 1-for-1 monster trades. Since so many duelists recognized monster control as the key to the format, Smashing Ground, Sakuretsu Armor, Trap Hole, and Bottomless Trap Hole all saw play. Since none were proven superior, many duelists ran one or two of each on a seemingly random basis. Two distinctions were not yet cemented—first, the individual strengths of each of these cards, and second, the overall impact of this group of cards as a whole on a higher level of core theory.
These 1-for-1 trades were being played for the sake of resource advantage, and the duelists who ran more of them often did better than others as a direct result. What few players immediately understood was the effect that repeated 1-for-1 trades had on the tempo of a duel. Games in which multiple 1-for-1 trades hit the field reached a late-game state of topdecking more quickly than was considered average. The players who recognized this capitalized on it by running more and bigger monsters to outperform the opponent in the topdecking situations they created.
Team Scoop realized this and quickly maxed out on copies of Sakuretsu Armor for later events. Compare Paul Levitin’s decklists from Atlanta and Chicago, and you can see that not only did he jump from two copies of Sakuretsu Armor to three, but he also maxed out on copies of Widespread Ruin. The interesting thing is that if we regard Atlanta as the testing ground for this possibility, we can see that it wasn’t the haven for stale play styles that many first thought it was. The event merely sowed the seeds that would bloom later on. Though Atlanta seemed unimpressive at first, it provided the groundwork for the guiding force in the Advanced format: tempo control.
Chicago
In Chicago it was tempo control that won the day. Dale Bellido’s Tomato Control deck was able to deny opposing duelists the topdecking situation they looked to create through combat. Mystic Tomato maintained field presence with its self-replacing effect, and Newdoria and D. D. Assailant slowed the series of monster exchanges that most players relied on to remove cards from the field and accelerate the game. Beatdown users quickly learned that 1-for-1 trades can’t empty the opposition’s hand alone. Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper’s discard effects acted to suppress the factors that would lead to the average Beatdown deck dictating the tempo of a game, and Reaper could also just hurl itself in the way of an aggressive player and shut down his or her intended speed.
Bellido’s ability to control tempo better than his opponents was soon countered with a brute force solution. Because his ability to manipulate the pace of the game relied on field presence, more 1-for-1 trades routed his strategy. Duelists everywhere started running Widespread Ruin for its ability to act as a fourth (or even fifth) Sakuretsu Armor. While Team Scoop had already done this, it wasn’t until after this event that most local-level duelists started picking up on the idea.
In an environment that now saw most skilled duelists forcing 1-for-1 trades all the time, games were proceeding to topdecking situations faster than ever. More than that, virtually all duelists had figured out that they needed big monsters in order to topdeck well. The environment trend of accelerated games that came down to topdecking relatively quickly couldn’t be reversed. Duelists everywhere were running such decks, so even if you weren’t, your opponent’s aggression would often put you at risk anyway. In the weeks leading up to Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles, duelists truly in the know recognized this problem and started to look for new ways to beat the opponent when things came down to topdecking.
And boy, were there theories. Strike Ninja was popular with major players like Wilson Luc and Jason Tan, who sought to use its effect to garner card advantage and maintain field presence in the late game. It was a good idea, but it often fell flat when the Ninja was drawn in the early game. At the same time, if a game proceeded to topdecking too quickly, the Ninja player wouldn’t have access to the multiple deceased Dark monsters that Strike Ninja needs to be useful. Again, the seed had been planted, but the environment was not yet favorable.
Los Angeles
The most efficient answer came at Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles, when Team Scoop used their heavy 1-for-1 engine to play games at whatever pace they liked, with the end goal of reducing card presence for both players to create a predictable tempo. Then, instead of hoping to topdeck big monsters, the deck would break the grinding pace it created by flooding the field thanks to Return from the Different Dimension. With Carlos Santiago and Paul Levitin both making Day 2, and with Levitin winning the whole thing, the duelist community was rocked to its core.
The rise of Return decks was a natural progression. In Atlanta, where 1-for-1 trades were primarily played for the core theory reason of resource control, players started to recognize their ability to manipulate tempo. Looking back, the groundwork had been laid for the trap engines that are now so familiar, and some of the format’s finer points had also emerged, like the debate between Drillroid and Mystic Swordsman LV2. In Chicago, duelists sought to take advantage of their tempo-manipulating ability, and the one deck that could roll with that method of control won the event. Once Los Angeles arrived, the concept of forcing topdecking situations was solidified as a fact of the format. Scoop played to outwit that trend, and in doing so, took home a Des Volstgalph.
San Francisco
This brings us to San Francisco, an event that can be viewed as both another step in the format’s natural progression as well as a complete and total departure from it. The next logical link in the chain of development was the dedicated Pot of Avarice deck, now known as Flip Flop Control. Team Overdose had what was probably the best build there, but dozens upon dozens of others were running similar variants on the theme. Return from the Different Dimension strategies can’t work without their ability to dictate tempo and bring both players into situations of low card presence. If the opponent controls more than a single monster, perhaps two, the deck’s win condition just doesn’t summon enough attackers to finish the game in a single turn. The concept behind the Avarice deck, backed by Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Mystic Tomato, Sangan, and Magical Merchant, was simply to have so many cards that you’d never be forced into topdecking.
At the same time, some duelists saw this coming, so they teched Blade Knight to counter the Pot strategy’s nasty flip effects. Team Scoop was one group that did so. Again, some duelists saw the natural progression of the format and acted accordingly. It all made perfect sense . . .
. . . The problem was that many other factors at the tournament did not.
While Pot of Avarice and Return from the Different Dimension duked it out in a war for tempo control, other decks abandoned tempo as their theoretical win condition. Instead of worrying about controlling the game by manipulating monster presence, they went back to the idea of hand control. This was reflected in decklists like those run by Top 8 finisher Manuel De Oliveira and the champ, Fili Luna, who each ran two copies of Don Zaloog. Oliveira even went so far as to run three copies of Spirit Reaper as well, while Luna ran a pair. This wasn’t a link in the same chain that led to Paul Levitin’s win at Los Angeles—instead, it was a different, competing thread of thought.
Similar observations can be made about Brendan Chock’s Top 8 Lockdown Burn deck. People stopped taking the deck seriously months ago, because the proper side deck options tended to completely destroy a Burn player. Des Wombat and a few extra copies of Dust Tornado usually laid the deck out. Because it was so easy to tech against, people stopped playing it. Weeks progressed, and as Lockdown Burn became less and less of a presence in the new Advanced format, duelists started dropping their Lockdown tech. Brendan Chock played well and his deck was finely tweaked, but one has to concede the fact that he was basically threshing helpless grain all day long on Saturday. When he finally did hit Michael Bueno, an opponent who was ready for the matchup, Chock was flattened. He managed to take advantage of a very subtle trend in the format and should be commended for it, but I doubt that Lockdown Burn will continue to be the force it was in his hands.
In short, a lot of surprise decks entered a field that was in no way ready for them. Avarice and Return players were ready for each other, but not for much else beyond the standard strategies one would have expected. As a result, neither deck made the Top 8, and we were left with a ton of questions about the state of the format that are still unanswered. At this point, I can look back and analyze the last few months of 2005, but the future is just too hazy to make predictions. It’s possible that Flip Flop Control and Return from the Different Dimension will adjust and dominate. In fact, I’ve been tinkering with a Warrior-heavy Return deck that uses Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade as its removal condition instead of Bazoo, and it’s been performing really well. But nothing’s for sure, and as we draw near to the opening of the 2006 Shonen Jump Championship season, one can only wonder what the next year will hold.
Thus far, a different deck has won every single Shonen Jump Championship in the current Advanced format. Even now, with a solid assortment of top decks to choose from, it’s very difficult to predict what the Top 8 of Shonen Jump Championship Durham will look like. That fact is the hallmark of a spectacularly healthy environment, and I can safely say that the current state of the game is a golden one. I personally hope that Yu-Gi-Oh! stays this varied and exciting for a long, long time.
I can’t wait to see what happens in Durham.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer