The day we’ve all been waiting for has finally arrived: today we’ll witness the Shonen Jump Championship debut of Crossroads of Chaos! Spellcasters, Plants, Zombies, and Gladiator Beasts each get big boosts from the new set, and nothing — not even TeleDAD — will ever be the same.

Today we’ll see some of North America’s greatest teams go head-to-head, as some of the world’s best deckbuilders pull out all the stops. Top competitors here today include Hector Heras, Shane Scurry, Miguel Flores, Jerry Wang, Cesar Gonzalez, Jon Moore, and many more. Hundreds more duelists have braved the cold to travel here today to the Cumberland Galleria Center, each to make his or her bid for Shonen Jump glory. Today we can expect to see three big decks take center stage. Anybody playing a rogue strategy better be ready for them.

The first is TeleDAD, bolstered by the release of Plaguespreader Zombie. Thanks to Plaguespreader and its synergy with Dark Grepher the deck is now even faster, and many of the TeleDAD duelists who saw previous success with that deck will opt to run this new version simply because it’s extremely familiar; it’s not hard to slip two copies of Plaguespreader into an existing build.

Next up is Lightsworn, likely to appear in one of two flavors. The first will be a basic build similar to what we’ve seen in the past, again featuring Plaguespreader Zombies. The most successful builds will likely run Card of Safe Return as well, similar to the version played by Arthur Rogers back in Charlotte. With Charge of the Light Brigade, Solar Recharge, and end phase Lightsworn effects loading the graveyard, Plaguespreader is a snap to summon. The second iteration of the deck is just an extension of the first, packing Imperial Iron Wall to further abuse Plaguespreader — Iron Wall will keep Plaguespreader’s effect from removing itself. It’s unclear whether or not we’ll see that one today, but it could pop up.

Finally, a quick look around the tournament floor this morning reveals that Zombies are indeed back! Dedicated Zombie builds will definitely be a factor here this weekend, though their future in this tournament may come down to the experience of their wielders; most Zombie duelists that I’ve seen so far are up-and-comers, not experienced competitors. If we don’t see Zombies with a strong Day 2 showing this weekend, I think that’ll be why.

Meanwhile several other big-name competitors are playing to beat this metagame. At least one repeated Day 2 competitor is packing an innovative Macro Cosmos build that I can’t wait to see in action. Others are running Gravekeepers, Thunder King Beatdown, Little City, and Spellcasters. No Plants yet, but the morning is still young.