We are six weeks into the September 1st Advanced format and, despite the level of variety we’ve seen over the past six weeks, the dominant decks seem to be Zombies, Perfect Circle Monarchs, and the dreaded Comic Odyssey burn. With two Shonen Jump Championships in the books duelists are becoming increasingly sure of the expected shape of the North American metagame, and that means one thing: innovation, and disruption of the predicted norm.
The tournament is still a ways off, but, walking the floor of the Durham Civic Center this morning, metagamed strategies seem to be the order of the day. Inspired by David Duran’s success with Dimensional Fissure at Shonen Jump Chicago two weeks ago, more duelists are playing remove-from-play strategies, not the least of whom is Shane Scurry. Shane’s been playing Macro Cosmos since long before Chicago, and today may be a breakout appearance for that deck.
Big City continues to gain popularity despite the lack of a Day 2 showing thus far. Today, a number of unsung Shonen Jump regulars are playing variants of the deck, hoping to succeed where Elemental Hero enthusiasts have thus far failed. Innovations like Destiny Hero – Dasher and Dark Bribe may bring this competitive strategy into the Day 2 fold, but remove-from-play archetypes will make it a tough day for Jaden fans.
Speaking of Dark Bribe, it’s the hottest card here this morning behind Il Blud. The few dealers who arrived with the potent counter trap promo in stock sold out instantly, and even as I write this I can see one duelist wandering from table to table, searching for any players who might part with their copies. Several star duelists are siding multiple copies in a variety of strategies, and the consensus seems to be that the surprise factor alone makes Dark Bribe worth running in darn near anything. Watch for it in a number of feature matches.
Competition is high, with Durham being accessible to a number of well-recognized, proven names in dueling. Players like John Jensen and Andrew Fredella of Team Nexus, Chris Flores and Jon Labounty of Team Yu-Gi-Oh! ETC, Kris Perovic and Jerry Wang of Overdose, Hugo Adame and Kenny So from Comic Odyssey . . . the list of repeated Day 2ers is simply too long to list.
The more this format becomes cemented, the more duelists will have to work to beat the expected trends, and never before have I seen so many players attempting to do just that. Today may not be a day of surprises, as counters have been logically and purposely selected, but it will be a day of innovation. Welcome to Shonen Jump Championship Durham!