Remember the Third Planet Dark World deck from SJC Boston? It was built by Ryan Goff, and piloted by three duelists at that event. Sadly, it didn’t live up to its potential, but now two more duelists are banking on Goff’s deckbuilding skills to take them to Day 2. This time around things are a bit more promising — the duelists running the deck are teammates of Goff’s, who know the deck inside out and have tested it thoroughly.

Compared to Third Planet Dark World this deck is far more practical and straightforward. A ton of monster removal simplifies the duel and keeps the opponent’s field open for Don Zaloog, who ties into the Warrior toolbox engine and is fully searchable through two Reinforcement of the Army and Sangan.

Cyber Dragon is an enabling card in this format: when a deck needs more aggression to keep up, just add in Cyber Dragon or Hydrogeddon. I’m basically Destiny Hero — Creative Deck Dude, but the reality is that Cyber Dragon and Hydro make a ton of decks viable in this environment. Here, the Dragon is just brute force muscle, helping the deck lean on the opponent as well as recover from bad situations that can be created due to its low average ATK scores.

Banisher of the Radiance is a gem, just wrecking decks dependant on recruiters. This deck is running virtually every anti-recruiter card I can think of short of Hydrogeddon, and it’s an exceptionally smart pick for this metagame as a result. Not only are the Banishers nice against Mystic Tomato and Nimble Momonga, they also stop Hydrogeddons that would otherwise pick on your smaller monsters. It even terrorizes Treeborn Frog. The Frog doesn’t seem to be as popular here as it was in Boston, but it’s still a major factor. Even if Monarchs only represent 20% of the field, this is a nine round tournament and you’re bound to come up against Treeborn Frog at least once today. “This deck has no bad matchup,” commented Bui. “It’s especially good against Monarchs. We just destroy the tribute fodder.”  Main decking Banishers instead of siding them is nothing short of brilliant, teching multiple format-defining cards.

This deck doesn’t run Cyber-Stein. Instead it uses what is fast becoming the default Stein-stopper, Injection Fairy Lily. In a fast-paced environment like the current Advanced format, Lily can easily attack for damage, and, even if she’s just punching 2000 damage through a Mystic Tomato, she’s often enough to drop the opponent to 5000 life points or lower. That alienates them from Stein, turning it into a dead draw. The deck’s field-clearing ability makes Lily even more deadly than she normally would be, because eleven pieces of specialized monster removal keep her path wide open.

The deck’s card-for-card monster removal engine really warrants some discussion. Smashing Ground, Bottomless Trap Hole, and Sakuretsu Armor are all run in triplicate, while a pair of Widespread Ruin are also used. This deck sends a clear message: this format is about field presence, and no one playing against Hammer and Nail is going to get a chance to build any. In addition to just depleting the opponent’s on-field monsters, the removal suite establishes a series of card exchanges that simplify the duel. That makes every hit from Don Zaloog hurt even more, as you can strip the few remaining options out of your opponent’s hand to keep him or her on the ropes.

Hammer and Nail takes all the utility and options of a Warrior Toolbox deck and then crams it into a smaller suite of cards. It then adds an amount of field control that’s almost ridiculous to behold, and blends it with a ton of recruiter hate and Monarch tech. Currently, both Nick Walker and Duy Bui are undefeated, and, if this deck succeeds here today, expect it to start popping up in local card stores everywhere. This is by far the least avant garde deck we’ve seen from Ryan Goff in recent Shonen Jump Championships, but it may very well be the best. It’s fast, accessible, high in utility, and plays into local and format-wide trends. You can’t get better than that as a deckbuilder, and now it’s up to Bui and Walker to hold up their end. So far they’ve been doing just that.