Just weeks remain between today and the U.S. National Championships, but duelists the world over are still reeling in the wake of this past weekend’s SJC!
Jessy Samek Wins Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia!
More than 600 duelists gathered to throw down at the Pennsylvania Convention Center this weekend, and once again, the latest Shonen Jump Championship was full of surprises!
Demise OTK has been a dominating force in recent SJCs, but this time, competitors were prepared! Tech like Trap Dustshoot and Pulling the Rug was main-decked in threes. Many duelists opted to play the Destiny Hero-based “Perfect Circle” Monarch strategy, renowned for its incredible speed, and the combined result was a Day 2 with just one single Demise OTK. Other Top 16 decks of interest included Chain Strike Burn, a Ratbox variant, Overdose Burn, and a new twist on the Big City Elemental Hero deck.
But the Top 8 was a refined field. Three mainstream Monarch decks, three Destiny Hero Beatdowns, and two Perfect Circle Monarchs comprised the last three rounds at Philly, and at the end of the day, it came down to Jessy Samek piloting Perfect Circle against Lazaro Bellido’s more traditional Card Trooper Monarch build. Samek’s victory may represent a changing of the guard in Monarch strategies, as he narrowly eked out one of the most respected Monarch specialists in the world to score the underdog win. If you missed all the action, you can relive it right here on Metagame.com.
The SJC action just keeps on coming, and in less than two weeks, everything changes. Force of the Breaker will be legal for play at Shonen Jump Minneapolis, so if you’re interested in heading out to compete, be sure to hit up the official event listing right here.
Our congratulations go out to all competitors at Shonen Jump Philly, especially your newest Shonen Jump Champion, Jessy Samek!
Champion Pack 3 Now At Tournament Stores!
The latest prize support set has arrived at a tournament near you: Champion Pack: Game 3 is in stores! The only way to get your share of the loot is to play in your local tournaments, so find a sanctioned tournament store in your area, grab your best deck, and get ready to duel for some of the most coveted boosters in the game!
Champion Pack: Game 3 brings a new ultra rare to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG: the previously-unreleased Spellcaster support spell Magicians Unite. Veteran players will want to scoop up as many super rares as possible: Gravekeeper’s Spy, Spirit Reaper, Dark World Lightning, and Snipe Hunter appear in foil form for the very first time in this set, and collectors are already driving secondary market prices nuts. Widespread Ruin, Kaibaman, and D. D. Assailant all get reprints too, continuing the trend of reprinting scarce video game promos.
Have we piqued your interest yet? Champion Pack: Game 3 may be the best Champion Pack yet, and you can find it at your local tournaments starting this month. Call your home store—they might have it already!
This Week on Metagame.com
The Crystal Beasts are front and center in the minds of many duelists this week, including some of our staff members! Mike Rosenberg starts things off today looking at Crystal Abundance, the Crystal Beasts’ most powerful win condition. What sets it apart from other popular “I win” cards like Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension? Mike will show you what makes it different, and how you can unleash its power on your unsuspecting opponents.
Then, Jerome McHale follows up on Tuesday with a Crystal Beast Beatdown deck! If you’ve had a difficult time deciding how to run the Crystal Beasts yourself, check this article out—the decklist Jerome gives would have a place in any competitive duelist’s testing gauntlet. Heck, it could easily win your local tournaments or nab you a Regional Top 4! It’s ready-to-play deckbuilding this week, as Jerome helps you bust out the Crystal Beast beatings.
Demise, King of Armageddon has garnered a huge amount of attention as of late, but in the face of a more prepared metagame, Demise OTK will have to take on a new form if it’s to survive. Crellian Vowler heeds the call on Wednesday, as he fixes up a Demise variant that features an oddball twist—Exodia!
Thursday, Curtis Schultz continues his rulings investigations into the new Volcanic monsters. This time around, he looks at Axel Brodie’s Blaze Accelerator ammo. Volcanic Shell, Volcanic Scattershot, and Wild Fire all get in-depth reviews, and some extra attention is paid to Tri-Blaze Accelerator too. If you’re interested in playing these “hot” new cards, be sure to check out Curtis’s Duel Academy this week.
There are a lot of Shonen Jump Championships on the horizon, and National Championships are in progress across the globe. That can leave you with a lot of preparation to do, but where does the practical duelist start? If you want to prep for an upcoming tournament, big or small, Bryan Camareno’s got you covered with an easy six-step system to help you play your best! Don’t miss it this Friday.
Andrew Novoa took an aggressive, unique strategy to the Top 8 tables of Shonen Jump Championship Anaheim just weeks ago. Running no duplicate copies of any spell or trap cards, his deck looks strange but succeeded in getting him to Day 2. The secret? Enhanced flexibility and a spread of diversified options that posed a perfect match to Novoa’s pace of play. Matt Peddle breaks it all down this Saturday in The Champions.
Matt Murphy’s back this Saturday with another inventive combo deck, and this time he’s putting his own spin on a much-discussed theme. Everybody and their grandmother is interested in Sky Scourge Norleras right now, and the holy grail is the ability to stack the top of your deck with cards like Dimension Fusion. Doing so creates an instant-win scenario, but it’s easier said than done. Matt’s got a creative trick up his sleeve this weekend, and you won’t guess the crazy tech card that ties it all together!
Finally, Ryan Murphy (no relation to Matt) is our newest staff writer, and will be bringing us a bi-weekly column on a topic we’ve never discussed here on Metagame.com—the Traditional format! But first, Ryan has something a bit different in store. He’s going to give you a history lesson on recruiters, and then he’ll show you how to use them to dominate the current Advanced format. Welcome aboard, Ryan!
That’s it for this week! Head on back in another seven days, because we’ll be getting ready for Shonen Jump Championship Minneapolis!