One of the more interesting changes to the new Forbidden and Limited list is the Semi-Limiting of each of the Gadget monsters. Many have touted this and the Limitations on basic removal spells like Smashing Ground and Fissure as the end of Gadget decks as we know them. They may be right, in a way, but in another way, Gadget decks will always remain as they are now. No matter what happens to the individual cards involved, Gadget decks will always have the same purpose: to summon a constant stream of monsters while depleting your opponent of all of his or her own. Another loss to the new list was the Card Trooper/Machine Duplication combo that won so many duels over the past few months. While it’s no longer possible to swarm the field with a trio of 1900 ATK self-replacing Machines, there are still uses for Machine Duplication . . . some more interesting than others.
The Machine Re-Volt Structure Deck was home to a number of new cards aside from the Gadgets, most of which don’t get the attention that they deserve. Ancient Gear Engineer has rightfully seen some play, but many other new cards have managed to fly under the radar thus far. Players looking to find new toys to use with the copies of Machine Duplication they acquired over the past few months should look back to the structure deck where they probably got them. Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo saw a little bit of hype when it first came out due to its interaction with the wildly popular Gadget monsters, but nothing came of it in the end. Worlds showed us that a standard Gadget build can work with only two sets of each Gadget, and you know that some people will follow Dario Longo’s example. I, however, have chosen a different route, and I’m not going to stop until my friends are sick of Machine Duplication all over again!
Monsters: 21
2 Red Gadget
2 Green Gadget
2 Yellow Gadget
3 Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo
3 Giant Rat
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Card Trooper
1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Sangan
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Magician of Faith
Spells: 18
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Smashing Ground
1 Fissure
1 Limiter Removal
1 Hammer Shot
2 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Machine Duplication
2 Enemy Controller
2 Shrink
2 Double Summon
2 Pot of Avarice
Traps: 6
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Ultimate Offering
3 Widespread Ruin
The interesting thing about the Limitation on the Gadgets and their related cards, is that they seem to be pushing us toward playing a 40-card version of the deck. Between the lost set of Gadgets, the lost removal, and the second Pot of Avarice, it’s more than possible to build a 40-card Gadget deck that does essentially the same thing as the old Fifth Gadget builds. That’s not for me though. What I seek to do here is take the original Fifth Gadget concept of a 45-card deck and pull it in a different direction.
One thing that the Gadgets have lost due to the Limitation on the removal spells is speed. Sure, you can replace some of the lost Smashing Ground and Fissure cards with Hammer Shot, but that’s never going to get you back to where Gadgets were when Dexter Dalit won this year’s Canadian Nationals with them. Traditionally, the need for so much removal stemmed from the fact that a Gadget can’t really beat much of anything in battle without the aid of spell and trap cards. Cyber Dragon on the other hand has no problem mauling most monsters with ease. While it would be difficult to justify not playing Card Trooper in a deck that packs Giant Rat, it should be noted that, while its abilities are impressive, they can often foil your own plans if you play its effect excessively in a Gadget deck. In fact, no Gadget deck that I’m aware of was making use of the Trooper/Duplication combo at least in part for this reason.
Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo solves all these problems in one go. While you have a Gadget out, it’s nearly as strong as Cyber Dragon. If you don’t, you can use Machine Duplication on it to special summon two more from the deck, and considering that you’re still playing 45 cards instead of 40, the chances of drawing doubles in your opening hand are much lower than they were in the previous format’s Machine Beatdown decks. You can also search Boot-Up Soldier out with any card that you could use to fetch Card Trooper, including the copies of Giant Rat included in this deck. Just be careful that you wait to summon it until after your opponent’s final attack of the turn, or else things could get ugly.
Unlike Card Trooper, however, searching out Boot-Up Soldier – Dread Dynamo during the battle phase can be a useful offensive maneuver if you need to get rid of something like Breaker or Snipe Hunter and your Gadgets just can’t get the job done on their own. As long as you have any Gadget out, just ram a Rat into the opponent’s bigger guy and bring Boot-Up Soldier to the field to begin wrecking face. Even better, your opponent will likely attack the Gadget next turn to make your Soldier lose its ATK, making it a proper target for Machine Duplication once it’s your turn again! Sure, you can’t just summon Boot-Up Soldier and drop Machine Duplication expecting instant carnage, but thanks to Tactical Evolution you can certainly make a similar move provided you play your cards right. Specifically, you want to drop Boot-Up Soldier and multiply it with Machine Duplication then use Ultimate Offering or Double Summon to drop one of the Gadgets you’re almost certainly holding in your hand at the time to have up to 7400 ATK on the field! Given that you’ve most likely been building a steady card presence over the course of the game and opening up your opponent’s field for direct attacks, it’s not very likely that you can lose if you pull it off, assuming that you don’t win outright.
Even without the Boot-Up Soldier shenanigans, Double Summon is an outlet for getting your Gadgets out of your deck faster than ever. Sure, your deck might run out of Gadgets faster this way, but you also win faster this way, and better than that, it helps you get your multiple copies of Pot of Avarice online much quicker to recycle the Gadgets and hammer your opponent into the ground. Pot of Avarice is the factor that many players are leaving out of their calculations as they doom-say the Gadgets. Where one set of Gadgets is lost, a second Pot of Avarice allows for slimming the deck while giving more recycling and draw power. Combine it with Magician of Faith, and you might never be forced to deck out or not summon a Gadget! Sure, it won’t do you much good if you aren’t drawing any removal to back up your mini Machines, but that was a problem even before the new list came out. Other problems that appear to be at least reduced (if not alleviated) as of September 1st include how much of a pain it was for Gadgets to get by big defenders like Legendary Jujitsu Master. The second Nobleman of Crossout is a huge addition to the arsenal, since having even one monster removed can be enough to set an opposing Monarch deck down the road to defeat, especially if it’s a flip-effect monster. Crystal Seer and Old Vindictive Magician hate Nobleman of Crossout, but Gadgets naturally nullify many commonly played cards, such as Nobleman of Crossout, simply by virtue of the way they’re meant to be played. With very few exceptions, you’ll never set a monster, and that’s a huge advantage.
Provided that the breakdown of decks being played in upcoming Shonen Jump Championships looks anything like the breakdown of Top 8 decks from the first few Regionals of the season, it seems like most players have jumped on the Apprentice Monarch bandwagon. That’s exactly where you want them if you’re a Gadget player. If, however, people have decided to counter with the incredible speed and power of Six Samurai or the powerful control tricks offered to Crystal Beast players by Ancient City – Rainbow Ruins, Gadget decks could be in trouble. The Samurai tend to beat Gadgets pretty handily if they get their hands on a Grandmaster of the Six Samurai, and your matchup with Crystal Beasts is shaky if you inadvertently play into their Crystal Abundance. It’s considerations such as these that you have to make as you play your games and build your decks that make Gadgets so much more than just “remove, summon, attack,” and with a lot less removing happening, it’s going to start showing in a big way. Get ready for this weekend’s Shonen Jump Championship—the first defining tournament of the format—and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu
NEXT WEEK: I drool over the new Hobby League card.