One of my favorite things about this event so far is all the good ideas that people have come up with today. If there’s one thing that Demise OTK is definitely good for, it’s inspiring people to come up with new and inventive ways to take out the solitaire decks that have been running rampant since Columbus. The first good idea that people have had today is to avoid playing combo decks or slow control decks that are slower than Demise. That means abandoning decks like Diamond Dude Turbo and full-on stall burn. Even the Overdose burn deck has some speed to it in addition to sets of Pulling the Rug and Solemn Judgment. Diamond Dude Turbo just can’t deal with Demise at all without a fair amount of luck, and with the impending addition of Magical Stone Excavation to the Limited list many players have been moving away from the deck in the first place. I don’t really think that a Limit on Stone Excavation is a reason to move away from the deck, but the inability to deal with Demise on a consistent basis, especially game 1, is.

The second good idea that’s propelled a lot of players to success today is the main deck inclusion of three copies of Trap Dustshoot. Dustshoot took a huge hit in play when Mind Crush was Limited, and even then it was only seen as part of a side deck that also included three copies of Mind Crush. Now though, Trap Dustshoot has become a multi-purpose tool for dealing with all kinds of monster based combos, not just combo decks in general. Not only can you chain a Dustshoot to Advanced Ritual Art to shuffle away the Demise your opponent wanted to summon, but you can also chain it to a plethora of other effects to stop your opponent’s big turn cold. A good example would be chaining Trap Dustshoot to Soul Exchange to try and rid the opponent of whatever he or she wants to tribute your monster for. If the opponent has multiple tribute monsters in hand, you still might lose your monster, but at least you can force them to play your game instead of his or her own by taking out whichever tribute monster would hurt you the most. Either way, your opponent still has to skip his or her battle phase. Trap Dustshoot is also great in the opening turns of the game to try and rob your opponent of what could potentially be his or her only playable monster. We saw it in Hayton’s first game against David Keener, but Hayton was unable to capitalize on David’s lack of playable monsters. Even if everything goes wrong with Dustshoot, you still get to see the opponent’s hand, and that’s at least worth something.

The final good idea of the day, which I really feel I shouldn’t have to mention but for some reason I’m compelled to talk about anyway, is tight play. Not necessarily a total lack of mistakes, though that’s incredibly helpful as you might expect, but making sure that you recognize and comprehend each component of the game. Things like announcing when you want to move to various phases, declaring your intent to retain priority after a summon or asking if your opponent wishes to do the same, declaring each effect you want to activate rather than simply taking it for granted, and verifying the scores after each change in life points can help you to avoid situations that a judge would have to sort out or a loss that shouldn’t have actually been a loss. For all you Demise players out there that means announcing that you wish to use the effects of your Ritual searchers. They’re optional effects, and if you don’t activate them, you don’t get to search. This is especially important now that Pulling the Rug exists. Finally, making sure that all responses and objections are cleared before you execute any effect that requires drawing or otherwise manipulating your deck is a great way to make sure that your “can’t lose” games don’t turn into game losses. We’re winding down for the night here in Philly with only two rounds left, but with so many people on the bubble these rounds are likely to be the best yet! Stay tuned for two more feature matches and the Top 16 later tonight!