Blowback Dragon: As predicted, duelists are continuing to find new ways to use the freedom and tribute support created by the release of Treeborn Frog. Blowback Dragon is the latest chapter in the ongoing Frog saga. A Dark attribute monster, it can be tributed for Deck Devastation Virus, which has been a popular combo all day long.

But the main purpose of the Dragon is two-fold. First, his effect can generate card advantage if it’s successful, and it’s versatile to boot, destroying virtually any kind of card that could be causing you trouble regardless of position. Even if the opponent has Trap Hole or Bottomless Trap Hole at the ready, it’s a no-brainer to use Blowback Dragon’s effect without priority, so you can still ping an opponent with lucky flips.

That’s obvious use. The cool thing, though? You can target Spirit Reaper with Blowback’s effect and the Reaper will be destroyed regardless of the outcome of the coin flips. In a format where Reaper has played such a big role, and answers to the little Zombie-type are so prized, Blowback Dragon ranks at the top of the heap. While Smashing Ground, Rush Recklessly, and Sakuretsu Armor allow you to wipe Reaper off the field at the cost of a card, Blowback remains on the field, and can attack or use its effect elsewhere later in the game. There’s a huge fundamental difference in that fact, and it balances out the realistic notion that Blowback Dragon doesn’t have the same early-game utility as more classical answers to Reaper.

A lot of players were running Blowback, including Angel Flores and Wilson Luc, as noted in the round 1 feature match. While its presence seems to have thinned out from the top tables, it seems like an easy pick for continued play in the next few weeks.

Exarion Universe: Exarion Universe has only seen limited play today, but when it’s been used, it’s made a huge impact. The ability to punch 1200 damage through Spirit Reaper at will has won a lot of matches, and that’s exactly what Exarion offers. The card requires skill when attacking a face down monster: a wrong call could easily see your weakened 1400 ATK Exarion crashing into a defense position Don Zaloog, losing you a card from your hand. Still, for competitors with the ability to read their opponents accurately, or just those armed with the patience to hit with Exarion at full power one turn and poke with pierce damage on the next, Exarion is excellent.

Exarion’s huge behind is of note as well. With 1900 DEF, it can block basically anything short of Cyber Dragon, and its ability to act as a wall or double as an opening turn set monster can’t be overstated. It’s a sitting duck for Smashing Ground, but it can easily stand in the way of D. D. Assailant, D. D. Survivor, and other prime beatsticks.

Compulsory Evacuation Device: Evacuation Device has been getting teched over Sakuretsu Armor in several deck lists, with mixed results. In a regular deck, it can provide a source of chainable monster removal that hits face down or face up monsters, allowing you to blow through monsters and score attacks, or chain to Mobius the Frost Monarch in order to get it off the field and open up gaps for aggression.

It can also bounce a plethora of friendly flip effect monsters. Magician of Faith, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Skelengel, and Magical Merchant can all be reused with Compulsory Evacuation, allowing you to effectively exchange Compulsory for a spell card or a new draw depending on the monster bounced. You can even send Breaker the Magical Warrior back to your hand in order to give it another token.

The big innovation today? Using Compulsory in Dark World decks. Compulsory lets you swing with Goldd or Sillva, bounce the big monster back to your hand, and then re-use it on a successive attack with Brron. In that scenario the “memory” of the Dark World monster card is wiped, and it can attack again. The Pina brothers were running the card in just that fashion today, and Jorge Pina is, at the moment, sitting at table 2. Watch for this card to see heavy play in the April 1 environment, in plenty of Dark World decks. It will also be excellent tech against Macro Cosmos decks, allowing D. D. Survivor to be sent off the field instead of destroyed and thus immediately re-summoned.

Creature Swap: The final big piece of tech is Creature Swap, hands down. Seeing play from Robert Pace and countless others, it’s being used to swap away attack position self-replacers, Treeborn Frogs, and Spirit Reapers in order to create openings for attacks. Nothing about this card has really changed over the past months – it’s still used as a combo with the above-mentioned monsters, it still trades little dudes for big dudes, and Dark World still likes trading the opponent a Morphing Jar and then running headlong into it. The only difference is that now, Creature Swap is seeing significant amounts of play.

Again, the shift in player preferences in regards to Creature Swap are probably due to Treeborn Frog. While a defense position Frog is often useless when you have control of the field, Creature Swap affords you another way to play it. Increased utility is never a bad thing, and Creature Swap adds another painful trick to Treeborn Frog’s repertoire.

A handful of other obscure cards saw play today, too. Sacred Crane is currently in a deck at Table 17: the user is running Marauding Captain in order to trigger the Crane’s effect. (Go ahead and click the auto-link to see what it does. It’s pretty cool). Other tech includes more Chain Disappearance at top tables, plus Pole Position in a handful of decks. Whether or not any of those cards will break into the Top 8 is yet to be seen, but the four I looked at in-depth have seen tons of play at all levels of pairings tonight. Many of them will be promising prospects for the next Advanced format, so try them out for yourself!