Let me take this chance to introduce myself. I am an eighteen-year-old student in Toronto, Ontario, and for all the people who don’t know, this is my first article on Metagame.com. I’ve been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG for about two years now, and I’ve become a pretty competitive player. My credentials include placing first at a Regional tournament as well as making the Top 4 in the 2005 Canadian Nationals.
After three Shonen Jump Championship tournaments with the new Advanced format, we can get an idea of what some successful decks look like. Breaking things down for a moment, we lost powerful advantage cards from the environment when the format changed—cards like Sinister Serpent, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, and Delinquent Duo. We also said goodbye to some powerful monster destruction cards such as Ring of Destruction, Mirror Force and Tribe-Infecting Virus. Last but not least, we lost a card that has been seen in the Top 8 at pretty much every event since its release, Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Not only are those cards forbidden, but the deck that dominated most metagames was also crippled: the Thousand-Eyes Restrict/Tsukuyomi Lock. Scapegoat, Metamorphosis, Book of Moon, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict were all limited to one copy per duelist, and the Lock deck relied on having access to multiples of each.
With these cards forbidden and limited, no one knew quite what to expect at the Atlanta Shonen Jump Championship tournament, which was held only seven days after the new Forbidden list became legal. Out of the Top 8 decks in that tournament, seven ran at least one Cyber Dragon, though most of the decks were Beatdown Control decks (as well as one Soul Control deck). After twenty-one days, the second Shonen Jump Championship tournament took place with the new Advanced format. Players were much more familiar with the format and had a better idea of what to expect. Just like the last Shonen Jump Championship tournament, seven decks in the Top 8 ran at least one Cyber Dragon. However, this time it wasn’t just Beatdown Control dominating the Top 8—there was Tool Box Warrior, Tomato Control, Beatdown Control, and last but not least, Soul Control.
The deck that won Shonen Jump Championship Chicago was a Tomato Control deck by Dale Bellido. The deck proved to be a metagame winner with its perfect Swiss round and Top 8 record.
Dale Bellido’s Tomato Control
42 cards
Monsters: 20
3 D. D. Assailant
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Newdoria
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Magician of Faith
1 D.D. Survivor
1 Don Zaloog
1 Sangan
1 Blade Knight
1 Chaos Sorcerer
Spells: 15
2 Smashing Ground
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Enemy Controller
1 Snatch Steal
1 Brain Control
1 Book of Moon
1 Premature Burial
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Dark Hole
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Traps: 7
3 Dust Tornado
2 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
However, I’m not just here to tell you how this deck won a Shonen Jump Championship. I plan to dissect it and compare it to another deck that you’re likely to see in the current metagame. The deck I will be comparing it to is another that has made the Top 8 in the last three Shonen Jump Championships, and that Evan Vargas pioneered in a Shonen Jump Championship: the Soul Control deck. This deck utilizes Soul Exchange to sacrifice your opponent’s monster while you get your Monarch’s ability.
In comparison, this is the deck that Augustin Herrera used in the Top 8 at Chicago’s Shonen Jump Championship, with a few minor changes. An example of a current Soul Control deck would probably look something like this.
Augustin Herrera’s Soul Control
40 cards
Monsters: 19
2 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Gravekeeper’s Spy
2 Spirit Reaper
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive
1 Sangan
1 Tsukuyomi
1 Magical Merchant
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Gravekeeper’s Guard
Spells: 13
1 Brain Control
2 Soul Exchange
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Book of Moon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Snatch Steal
1 Confiscation
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Dark Hole
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps: 8
1 Widespread Ruin
1 Call of the Haunted
3 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
The Opening Draw
The Tomato Control deck’s opening hand will likely see D. D. Assailant, Mystic Tomato, or Spirit Reaper, since those monsters comprise seven cards out of a forty-card deck. If the first turn is yours, you’ll have a variety of choices of what to set since a lot of the monsters are one-for-one tradeoffs. If the opponent attacks and destroys your D. D. Assailant, then his or her monster is simply removed, while if he or she attacks into Mystic Tomato, you will be able to fetch yourself a monster. You would probably want cards such as Spirit Reaper or Don Zaloog at this point in the duel, especially if you have a Smashing Ground in your hand.
The Soul Control deck will likely draw into a good monster to set if it goes first, or a Soul Exchange along with a tribute if it goes second. In this matchup, the power of the deck lies in being able to tribute your opponent’s Mystic Tomato, Spirit Reaper, or D. D. Assailant for Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch, and thus create an instant two-for-one trade.
In this portion of the matchup, I would say the Soul Control deck has the edge, since it’s able to counter and create card advantage early in the game by using its Soul Exchange combos.
The Early Game
I would say that this is where the Tomato Control deck starts its hand control, since Mystic Tomato is able to fetch Don Zaloog or Spirit Reaper after the opponent destroys it in battle. On the next turn, simply use Smashing Ground on the opponent’s monster and go in for a hit. With the opposing deck running four monster destruction traps that can stop Spirit Reaper or Don Zaloog from attacking successfully, Dust Tornado comes into the picture. In the ideal situation, you would activate Dust Tornado at the end phase, then use Smashing Ground and attack directly. The reason that this deck runs three copies of Dust Tornado is to counter Sakuretsu Armor, as well as any other form of monster destruction trap.
This is where you should draw your Soul Exchange to take control of your opponent’s Mystic Tomato, Spirit Reaper and any other possible one-for-one monsters. With that, you can tribute for Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch or Mobius the Frost Monarch to create card advantage. If you can’t draw into your Soul Exchange, then you can stall with your monster or your draw engine with your Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Tsukuyomi while protecting your Dekoichi with one of your six monster destruction traps.
The Mid-Game
This is where Tomato Control was either successfully able to disrupt its opponent’s hand with Spirit Reapers and Don Zaloogs, or Soul Control took advantage of Soul Exchange and was able to create card advantage. The game should be coming to an end at this point, since one of the two players should be topdecking, depending on who was successful in starting up the disruption in the early game. Tomato Control still has many monsters in the deck to act as stall cards, since its monster lineup contains many one-for-one monsters. The Soul Control deck will likely hit one of the Soul Exchanges, and be able to create a field presence with its Spirit Reapers, Gravekeeper’s Spy, and its Dekoichi combo.
With both decks able to hold their own on the field, the game really comes down to the player who’s hitting the monster destruction cards, such as Smashing Ground, Nobleman of Crossout, and Dark Hole. Whoever can destroy their opponent’s field at this point will likely carry that momentum to a win.
The Late Game
The game will probably not get this far, since one of the two decks probably will have obtained its card advantage or disruption cards in order to take the lead. If not, the Soul Control strategy will most likely be behind in card advantage and the Tomato Control will begin to shine with its wide range of one-for-one monsters.
Topdecking
There is a much greater chance to topdeck in this format than in the previous one, since there are significantly fewer cards that create instant card advantage and many more that create mutual card disadvantage through one-for-one trades. When it comes down to a topdecking battle between the two strategies, the Tomato Control deck will usually come out on top, since Soul Control consists of more cards that perform poorly in a topdecking situation. I’m not saying that the Soul Control doesn’t have good cards to topdeck—it does have three copies each of Gravekeeper’s Spy and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but it’s packing four tribute monsters and several spells that are useless on their own. Meanwhile, the Tomato Control strategy has a wide variety of monsters, which includes Chaos Sorcerer and others!
Cards to Tech
To counter a Soul Control deck, you’d probably need to side in to counter the Soul Exchange and Mobius or Thestalos combo. By using the Soul Exchange combo, your opponent’s field will be clear, allowing you to attack directly. Another useful piece of tech to use would be the recently legalized Broww, Huntsman of Dark World. Since the Soul Control deck runs multiple copies of Spirit Reaper and Thestalos, it’s bound to hit the Huntsman sooner or later, creating an automatic advantage. Not only is it good in the Soul Control matchup, Broww is also an amazing card to side in against Burn decks since it’s level 3 and has 1400 ATK. It’s able to get under Gravity Bind and Messenger of Peace, making it versatile enough for you to include in a side deck.
The Soul Control player should side in Smashing Grounds if they aren’t already in the main deck in double or triplicates. It’s really good after you hit the opponent’s Mystic Tomato and he or she fetches out Spirit Reaper or Don Zaloog, since you can predict that the opponent’s own Smashing Ground would be coming on the next turn, creating a open field for the disrupt monster to hit the opponent directly. Just as I suggested for the Tomato Control deck, Broww, Huntsman of Dark World is great for this matchup. Besides Broww there are other deadly Dark World monsters such as Sillva, Warlord of Dark World and Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World. Though both are tribute monsters but their effects if activated are tremendously lethal, causing an instantaneous plus two. With seven Warriors in the main deck, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to side in one or two copies of Kinetic Soldier, as the damage it delivers will allow you to quickly end the game. Besides that, the deck should run the same way. Its ability to tribute your opponent’s monster and create card advantage out of it is amazing.
Final Thoughts
I would have to say that Soul Control has the upper hand in this matchup. It’s able to take Tomato Control’s Mystic Tomato, Spirit Reaper, and any other one-for-one monster and sacrifice them for one of the Monarchs. However, if the Soul Control player is unable to create these combos, he or she will most likely fall to Tomato Control’s swarm and hand disruption, which will lead to topdecking. This is why there’s so much monster stall in the deck, allowing it to sit around and hit the combos the deck is meant to hit.
Nonetheless, Tomato Control will put up a great fight even if it doesn’t win. It wouldn’t go through a Shonen Jump Championship perfectly if it were a bad deck, would it?
—Calvin Tsang
I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you have any questions or comments regarding this topic, I would love to hear them. You can contact me at calvin.metagame(at)gmail(dot)com.