The thing about building a new deck that turns most duelists away from innovation is that it takes a lot of time and effort to build and test new decks, and most don’t want to spend that time and effort. Out of the duelists who brave through that step, few are willing to play their creations in a major event. Why is this the case?

The other thing that generally comes with experimentation is failure. It happens. It’s a generally accepted part of the deckbuilding process, as is the follow-up step of, “retool the deck and try again.” Shonen Jump Denver marked the first time that a Macro Cosmos deck made it anywhere near the Top 8. Robert Ledesma-Sandoval snuck into the Top 30 with his Macro Cosmos deck, and I’m sure he won’t be the last to do well with the deck.

The neat thing about deckbuilding is that you’re never alone in your endeavors, even if you’re one of those independent players who doesn’t have a team to playtest with (like me). There’s always someone else out there who has the same goal as you, even if they’re going about it in a different direction. These people invariably find each other at events and share notes on what does and doesn’t work out, and each of these events brings the deck type in question closer to major success.

In the case of Shonen Jump Denver, Macro Cosmos was the big winner in terms of development, as I’m sure that Robert and the other players who brought their Macro Cosmos decks to the event eventually met each other and an exchange of ideas occurred. One thing that I regret about that trip is that I didn’t bring my Macro Cosmos deck along with me to help out. Fortunately, we have this nifty thing called “the Internet” where people exchange ideas and decks all the time, so I still have an opportunity to share ideas with all the Macro Cosmos players out there about how I would run the deck—and I think I will.

“Macro Cosmic Hobo”

Monsters: 20

2 Mobius the Frost Monarch

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

1 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

1 Helios – The Primordial Sun

2 Apprentice Magician

2 Old Vindictive Magician

3 D.D. Survivor

1 D. D. Scout Plane

1 D. D. Assailant

1 Tsukuyomi

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

2 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 11

1 Graceful Charity

1 Snatch Steal

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

2 Dimensional Fissure

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Grand Convergence

2 Reinforcement of the Army

Traps: 9

3 Macro Cosmos

2 Solemn Judgment

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Return from the Different Dimension

For those who don’t know how the Macro Cosmos deck is supposed to work, allow me to explain. The goal is to keep a card in play that causes monsters to skip the graveyard and go straight out of play whenever they would be sent to the graveyard. This then allow you to abuse the effects of D.D. Survivor and D. D. Scout Plane to ensure that you always have a monster on your field at the end of the turn. In addition, these monsters are used as tribute fodder for various Monarchs in order to smash through your opponent’s defenses unopposed. It also has the added bonus of shutting down the Chaos half of Chaos Return, as the Sorcerer can’t be summoned if there aren’t any monsters left in the graveyard to remove. When it works, it’s nearly unstoppable, and this has led many big-name players to stop and give this card a look. Unfortunately, it seems like most of them have given up on Macro Cosmos after a run-in with the “failure” step of the deckbuilding process.

My version of the Cosmos deck makes a point of exploiting all the things that Macro Cosmos doesn’t let most other decks do. For example, since Sangan was removed from the Forbidden list, nearly every deck has included the card as an incredibly versatile search monster. However, with Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure in play, Sangan becomes completely useless. Another commonly played card that’s totally worthless while Cosmos is on the field is Mystic Tomato. In fact, any card that needs to go to the graveyard in order to claim its effect is useless while Macro Cosmos is in play. That means that there is only one self-replacing monster that can function properly in the deck, and that would be Apprentice Magician. Unfortunately, Magician of Faith is not useful, so the only reasonable target for Apprentice is Old Vindictive Magician. That’s just fine, though, as the main strength of Macro Cosmos is its destructive monster effects, rather than its spells.

The first hurdle you’ll always encounter with Macro Cosmos is coming to the realization that it isn’t an early game deck. You aren’t always going to immediately be able to start removing stuff from play, so you have to be able to hang on until you can. This is the primary reason that I’ve included the Apprentice Magicians. They work regardless of whether or not you have Macro Cosmos or Dimensional Fissure and they provide a source of both monster removal and tribute fodder. Another problem that you face is protecting your investments on the board. It’s frequently difficult to keep cards on the field, but if you’re willing to pay the price, Solemn Judgment is the perfect card for the job.

As usual, the problem with Solemn Judgment is deciding when to use it. A good candidate for negation is Return from the Different Dimension. One of the major weaknesses of Macro Cosmos is that it greatly boosts the other namesake of the Chaos Return deck. A timely Solemn Judgment turns the opponent’s “Pay half your life to win” card into a “Pay half your life for no good reason” card. It can also stop all the basic threats, Chaos Sorcerer, Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute and the like. Like I always say, Solemn Judgment is one of the most challenging cards in the game to play properly, but if you can manage it, it’s an incredible boon.

What you’re looking for in the early game is an Apprentice Magician, D. D. Scout Plane or Spirit Reaper to open with. It’s also good if you get one of your “remove from play” cards as well. Activating Dimensional Fissure or Macro Cosmos as early as possible allows you to maximize the number of cards that your opponent can’t recycle with Magician of Faith or Call of the Haunted. It also makes first turn Graceful Charity, discarding Treeborn Frog and Jinzo, a lot less threatening than it would be otherwise. Treeborn Frog has no way of getting out of that removed from game pile unless your opponent is willing to sacrifice a huge amount of cards and life to Return it onto the field, remove Macro Cosmos, and then tribute it for something. I don’t think most people are up to spending all those resources just to get their Frog back into play, so once it’s gone, it’s basically gone for good.

Another thing to watch out for in the early game is Helios – The Primordial Sun. Specifically, you don’t want to see it in your opening hand. Part of the bonus to playing Macro Cosmos is that you can fetch Helios from your deck when you activate it. That’s why you should always chain Macro Cosmos if your opponent tries to destroy it while it’s face down. Even if you lose the Cosmos, you’ll still be able to fetch Helios from your deck. It adds another layer of defense that your opponent has to get through to clear your field, and if he or she can’t, you still get Helios as a nice monster to tribute. Normally though, you’ll activate Macro Cosmos on your turn, fetch Helios, and immediately tribute it for a Monarch.

From there, you’ll play this deck just as you would a normal Monarch control deck, except that you won’t have to worry about Chaos Sorcerer as a potential threat from your opponent. Instead of Treeborn Frog, you’ll have three copies of D.D. Survivor that will be coming back at the end of every single turn in order to block attacks and smash opponents. You might also have access to your D. D. Scout Plane. Many builds I’ve seen include two or even three D. D. Scout Planes, but I honestly think that one is enough. The fact that it comes back in attack position is a total pain, because it gives your opponent a nearly direct path to your life points every single turn. I prefer the single copy as a good first or second turn set that can absorb a Nobleman of Crossout without causing you to incur a huge loss. It might still open you up to the dreaded Cyber/Reaper/Crossout hand, but at least you’ll be able to immediately summon a Monarch next turn to push the momentum of the duel closer to neutral, or even in your favor.

The final thing I’d like to address about the Macro Cosmos deck is the use of Grand Convergence. I’m in the camp that says, “If you don’t play it, you’re crazy,” but I understand that it can often be a terrible topdeck. I’ve tried to reduce the chance of that happening by only playing one copy. It’s not the most consistent card in existence, but then again, neither is a single teched copy of Cyber-Stein. Despite this, both of them can end the game when they’re used properly. Remember, Convergence is quick-play, so if you use it on the end phase of your opponent’s turn, it still gives your D.D. Survivors a chance to come back and destroy the opponent on your turn.

Overall, Macro Cosmos is an excellent card to base your strategy around, and it’s a shame that more people aren’t working on perfecting it. Hopefully, someone will take it a little farther at the next Shonen Jump Championship. An X-2 finish is the next logical step, and after that we could even start seeing Macro Cosmos in the Top 8.

Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu

NEXT WEEK: If you’re going to play Chaos, you might as well do it the cool way, with Machines.