Ever since someone first uttered the word “advantage,” players of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG have been trying to find ways to get free stuff. Whether that means getting something for nothing, or taking away an opponent’s something for nothing, this notion of increasing the total cards you have over your opponent has obsessed Yu-Gi-Oh! players for some time.

The arrival of the Monarchs broke open the opportunity for duelists to take this philosophy to its limits. At first, the Monarchs seemed like a total bust. Players were used to re-using their copies of Magician of Faith and Thousand-Eyes Restrict with Tsukuyomi, and weren’t exactly thrilled at the thought of tributing away the lock for a monster with 1000 DEF*. The game remained fairly unchanged for a while.

Then Shonen Jump Los Angeles brought us a new deck: Soul Control. This masterpiece did what everyone had always wanted to do in the game. It got free stuff and it took away the opponent's stuff, quite often at the same time.

Monsters: 17

3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

1 Hand of Nephthys

2 Apprentice Magician

2 Magician of Faith

2 D. D. Assailant

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

1 Sinister Serpent

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Sangan

Spells: 18

1 Pot of Greed

1 Delinquent Duo

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Metamorphosis

1 Swords of Revealing Light

2 Enemy Controller

3 Scapegoat

1 Lightning Vortex

2 Soul Exchange

Traps: 5

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Royal Decree

Remember this deck? It caused quite a stir when it debuted at Los Angeles. Vargas posted a 9-1 record on day 1 and followed up with a Top 4 showing on day 2. How it did so is quite simple. The deck merely continued to increase its array of options and took away the opponent’s , until the opponent was backed into a corner and couldn't mount a comeback.

The monster line-up is the best thing to look at first here. You'll notice that there are a whopping five tribute monsters, four of which want to be normal summoned. Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys is actually a two-tribute monster, though it will usually hit the field through the effect of Hand of Nephthys or another means of special summoning. These monsters make the deck what it is. Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch and Mobius the Frost Monarch destroy opposing cards either in the hand or spell and trap zone for free. The cost is supposed to be tributing a monster. However, if Vargas tributes a used flip-effect monster, like Sangan or Sinister Serpent, the benefits usually balance out the drawbacks in the long-term. Even better than that, though? Tributing his opponent's monsters.

Two copies each of Soul Exchange and Enemy Controller work to take opposing monsters to act as tribute fodder. Soul Exchange's only requirement is that your opponent needs to have a monster, which isn't exactly a rare situation. Unfortunately, Vargas needed to skip his battle phase. This little drawback isn't too much of a problem, though, when your opponent doesn't have enough cards to mount a comeback. In that case, skipping out on one battle phase is relatively insignificant. Enemy Controller lets Vargas's monsters go nuts during the battle phase, as well as getting the free tribute off. However, it requires that the opponent have a face-up monster and Vargas have anything he doesn't mind tributing. Scapegoat tokens are usually the optimal tribute fodder here. This is one of the reasons Vargas played three copies of Scapegoat. There are other reasons as well: stalling out for a couple turns to buy enough time to draw into some dead tributes can be invaluable. In addition, one of the best ways to get out of a troublesome situation is to just take out your opponent in one massive sweep. Scapegoat puts a wall of fuzzy Sheep tokens in the way of your life points, which can often save you.

Metamorphosis joins the "let’s tribute Sheep tokens" club as well. Unfortunately, the ruling change that we now barely remember** hadn't been put into effect yet, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict wasn't as powerful. Nonetheless, Metamorphosis could effectively act as a tribute outlet (in the same way that Enemy Controller did), but without the defensive abilities. On the flip side, Metamorphosis also had some nifty tricks with Magician of Faith or a Monarch to bring out a powerful fusion monster. Using Soul Exchange and Metamorphosis to turn an opposing Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning into one of your fusions is quite the combo as well.

Swords of Revealing Light is another way for Vargas to keep monsters around to tribute for his Monarchs. Negating your opponent's ability to attack is a solid way to keep your flip effect monster on the field for a next turn tribute. Swords also helped stall for a few turns and gave Vargas the chance to rebuild should he somehow fall behind.

The remainder of the spells in the deck were the staples of the day. Seeing "the trinity" of Pot of Greed, Delinquent Duo, and Graceful Charity sure does bring back memories (albeit some painful ones). Lightning Vortex was a solid pick back in the day as well. Having Sinister Serpent to discard as often as not, and an opposing field of Scapegoat tokens and monsters made Lightning Vortex playable at almost any point in the duel.

Returning to the monster lineup, we see a pair of D. D. Assailant cards and one copy of D. D. Warrior Lady. These were widely popular cards for their ability to take out Phoenix and Black Luster Soldier. Tribe-Infecting Virus and Breaker the Magical Warrior belong to the "uniquely powerful" group.

The quartet of Hand of Nephthys, Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys, Apprentice Magician, and Magician of Faith was being abused by many a player at the time, but it makes a lot of sense in this build. Apprentice Magician keeps out a monster to be tributed for the next turn, as well as setting up Magician of Faith to grab a powerful spell before taking a tribute for the team. Hand of Nephthys works nicely with Soul Exchange, bringing out the Phoenix easier than ever.

This era had four powerful traps, which you can see in Vargas's decklist as the first four picks. However, he also packs one copy of Royal Decree. This was significantly less popular, considering that Royal Decree was only available as a tournament pack foil card, and thus either very hard or very expensive to find. However, the effort Vargas went through to get it is certainly warranted. Royal Decree caught every single player by surprise, since there were only a handful of copies seen in entire tournaments. For Vargas, the card usually meant being able to keep his big tributes out to attack again and again. When opponents get backed into a corner, as they often did when facing Vargas’s deck, Royal Decree will be the final blow to seal the win. It’s also a nice free negation that sticks around for some prevention.

Unfortunately, this deck is outdated, in a sense. Monarchs are still powerful, and Soul Exchange still hits usual monsters almost all the time. However, the limitations on Scapegoat and Metamorphosis hurt so many of the synergies the deck had. Now, instead of flowing smoothly every game with every single draw, the deck becomes too dependent on hitting its combos and too prone to being destroyed in one turn to a Return from the Different Dimension.

Soul Control will probably go down as the best deck that nobody ever played. After the ruling changed, the deck’s power increased tenfold. Being able to play three copies of Metamorphosis helped the deck tremendously. Three copies of Book of Moon would be enough to handle opposing Thousand-Eyes Restricts and opposing Tsukuyomi locks. With these worries out of the way, there was almost no way for this deck to lose. It's too bad that nobody other than Vargas saw its incredible power until it was too late.

* Tsukuyomi could destroy any monster with 1000 DEF or less by using its effect to flip it down and then attack. As such, monsters that could be destroyed by Tsukuyomi were often thought to be “too easy to destroy.”

** Remember when a monster being flipped face down into defense position by the effect of Book of Moon or Tsukuyomi eliminated the possibility to flip summon it in the same turn?