It’s Round 7, and right now it seems as if Cedric Sequerra just can’t lose. Coming off his seventh win here today, he’s overcome a slew of bad hands and poor draws to go undefeated thus far, armed with an astoundingly powerful Dark Armed Dragon Return build created by Karim Ahamjik. Both Ahamjik and James Neumann are playing the same deck, minus the Gold Sarcophagus and Crush Card in Ahamjik’s case, and between the three of them they only have one loss. Total. Here’s what this bad boy looks like:
The team’s build is packed with new tech that is seeing play in a lot of decks today, but usually not all at once, and it seems to be what’s setting them apart from the crowd. Okay, sure, the Gold Sarcophagus and Crush Card Virus help, but even if you trade those two cards for something else, you’re left with a deck that could easily become a defining presence in any competitive metagame. Evidence? Ahamjik’s version of the deck doesn’t play either prize card, and he’s undefeated while Neumann took the team’s only loss in Round 2. Duelists have created a lot of different accoutrements to complement Dark Armed Dragon, and this deck is running them all.
Destiny Hero – Dasher is played over Destiny Hero – Malicious, an incredibly good pick that has resulted in a ton of game wins. The card is so good that the team can’t even agree on why they like it. “I love it because it lets me special summon so often for free,” noted Sequerra. “I just like it because it’s big,” added Neumann as I spoke to two of the three Face2Face members. “It’s really great with Return and Dimension Fusion.”
Sequerra broke in again: “I don’t even care about that! Free monsters!” Some minor scuffling over why the card was being used ensued, but both points are completely legitimate. Dasher made for several kill turns today that wouldn’t have been fatal if another monster had been in the graveyard in Dasher’s place. And Sequerra’s free monster fetish? It’s totally justified, since the deck packs prime hits like Jinzo, Dark Magician of Chaos, and even Darklord Zerato. The sheer speed Dasher can add is amazing, and when there’s size and a great effect added to that too, the combination is game-winning.
Speaking of Darklord Zerato, that’s another hot tech card that Face2Face is playing to the hilt. Removing it for Allure of Darkness is incredibly easy, or it can be discarded for Snipe Hunter, Raigeki Break . . . even sent to the graveyard by Card Trooper. Once it’s in the graveyard the team has several ways to remove it from play, and when that’s achieved it can be brought out for free via Return from the Different Dimension or Dimension Fusion. At that point it becomes Raigeki on legs, clearing away monsters to let Sequerra make the most of his newly-summoned swarm.
Two Fear Monger make Destiny Hero – Disk Commander easy to bring back and draw cards with, but the Fear Mongers also combo nicely with Dasher. Dasher is an enabling card for Fear Monger that makes it far more useful than it would be in other decks, giving the team three hits for Fear Monger instead of just one. Again, the ultimate ramification of that point is speed: Fear Monger doesn’t need to be held as long, and it can contribute to both card draw and more aggressive initiatives.
Dark Armed Dragon is of course the centerpiece of the deck, removing monsters to special summon while being a massive powerhouse on its own. But what really makes Dark Armed in this deck, is Soul Release. Like Prometheus, King of the Shadows and Strike Ninja, Soul Release lets Sequerra remove extraneous Dark monsters from his graveyard so that he can get down to three and bring out the Dragon. But at the same time it also accomplishes two more powerful goals.
The first is attacking the opponent’s graveyard. Since Sequerra will rarely have to strip five monsters from his graveyard, he can often remove one or more monsters from his opponent’s. That gives him an edge in the early and mid game of the mirror match, since he can keep his opponents from accumulating Dark monsters and bringing out their own Dark Armed Dragons. At the same time he can remove stuff like Treeborn Frog and Disk Commander in Monarch decks, Zombie Master and Goblin Zombie in a Zombie matchup, or Volcanic Shell up against Volcanic Monarchs. The card can be used both to establish and disrupt infrastructure at the same time, with the same activation.
It can also be used as mass graveyard removal to launch a game-winning Dimension Fusion or Return, too, giving the deck two more removal agents than comparable Dark Armed Dragon builds. Relying on just three mass-remove-from-play effects alongside three Allure of Darkness isn’t nearly as reliable as five mass-removes, and the difference in speed is once again massive. Team Face2Face’s builds can go off on turn 2 with relative ease, and that’s not something that can be said for the average Dark Armed build here today.
The final great piece of tech is Raigeki Break, a card that’s often far more effective in this new environment than Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Would you rather spin an opposing Dark Armed Dragon so it can be used again a turn later, or destroy it? The same goes for Spirit Reaper, Marshmallon, Gellenduo, Cyber Dragon, and many more cards seeing heavy use here today. Beyond that, would you rather disrupt your opponent’s next draw, or mess with his or her graveyards’ contents? Team Face2Face chose Raigeki Break as a metagame call for this tournament, and it may continue to be a strong choice as we proceed into the March 1st format.
Right now one member of Face2Face is sitting at each of the top 3 tables. Next round two of them will probably have to play off, but it’s very possible that all three will make it to Day 2. In Orlando the team was a two-man show that got both members into the Top 16. If they can do the same thing here this weekend, with an additional member to boot, they’ll trump their previous performance and earn even more regard as one of the game’s best new teams.
Either way, it’s safe to say that this deck will probably be popping up in a metagame near you in the coming weeks.