Shonen Jump Champion Eric Wu is back in action here in San Jose, and he’s one of the duelists who’ve been inspired to take another look at Dimensional Fissure and Macro Cosmos. In fact, he may be running the most dedicated Macro Cosmos build here today. Take a look!
Three Dimensional Fissure and three Macro Cosmos form the basis of this all-or-nothing Monarch variant. Wu is packing two copies of Granmarg the Rock Monarch and three Zaborg, but he’s not running a single recruiter monster or Treeborn Frog. Instead, he’s going all-in and risking everything on three D.D. Survivor and a complement of two D. D. Scout Plane. If the deck works, then Wu can effectively negate opposing recruiters and utterly destroy other Monarch variants, because he’s running what can be seen as five Treeborn Frogs and all of them have a lot more than 100 ATK. If the deck stumbles though, and Wu can’t keep a Fissure or Cosmos out, then his house of cards collapses.
Sounds like fun!
With this initiative in mind, Wu has prioritized protecting his key cards. Three Solemn Judgment keep spell and trap removal off Cosmos and Fissure, while also subbing in as problem solvers for major emergencies. Morphing Jar helps Wu dig for his key cards, but a lack of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive demonstrate how dedicated and focused this former Champion really is.
What about those situations where Wu draws too many copies of Fissure and Cosmos? Well, that’s what the three Snipe Hunter are for. They turn dead cards into dead monsters on the opponent’s side of the field. They also turn dead cards into dead spells and traps, too. The Hunter is a versatile little answer to all of Wu’s poor topdeck problems, and it’s seeing significant play in this tournament. It can even drop Solemn Judgments or Return from the Different Dimension in the early game, Morphing Jar in a Dark World matchup, or a dead Monarch that you can’t get out or don’t need. It also gives a constant source of simplification, allowing Wu to bring the duel down in size once he gets his Monarchs going.
The best part?! Easily my favorite combo of the day is Snipe Hunter and D. D. Scout Plane. If the Hunter’s effect is paid for through the discard of Scout Plane, and either Dimensional Fissure or Macro Cosmos is around to remove it from play when it’s discarded, it’ll come back during the end phase. So Wu can destroy a card of his choice (provided the roll works out in his favor) and not only subvert the discard cost, but special summon a monster in the process. Sooooo good.
Oh look! Another Warrior Toolbox engine! Wu is running two Reinforcement of the Army to search out D. D. Warrior Lady, D.D. Survivor, and Exiled Force. The Lady is one of his few defensive sets, while Exiled Force helps compensate for the deck’s lack of spell-based monster control: Wu is only using one Nobleman of Crossout and one Smashing Ground, adding up to a total of eight spells. No Heavy Storm, no Enemy Controller, no Premature Burial . . . a lot of near-staples have been sacrificed as part of Wu’s dedication to his strategy.
Of course, the most important targets here are the D.D. Survivors. Having access to Survivor on a reliable basis is even more important for this deck than the one run by Kirk Leonhardt in Anaheim, as, while Kirk’s deck could survive without Survivor and D. D. Scout Plane, doing so is virtually impossible for Wu. Once they hit the field they just beg to be used with one off the deck’s five Monarchs, and they can lean on the opponent to force out Sakuretsu Armors without incurring long-term losses. With Survivor around to draw out monster removal, and Snipe Hunter around to deal with big monsters, a single Survivor can mean game very quickly. Two or three are darn near unstoppable.
At a 2-0 record thus far, Wu seems like a strong contender for a top placing here this weekend. He’s gone all the way before, and when he won SJC Los Angeles he did it with a Zombie / Phoenix deck that was a complete surprise considering the Goat Lock metagame of the time. We might just see a repeat performance here in San Jose!