Arty Stein just polished off Gustavo Reyes, a Top 8 competitor here at the last Shonen Jump Championship in Chicago. Usually there isn’t anything particularly special about securing a 2-0 record, even if it’s against a former Top 8 duelist. It happens all the time at any given event, right? Right.

Arty's deck is exactly what I was hoping to see today. The truth about Return from the Different Dimension is that it’s not a closed or straightforward card. I’ve tested drastically different Return variants over the past six months, and there are actually a lot of different approaches that you can take to Return and use to succeed. While Chaos Return and Bazoo Return are both very good, they don’t offer the unique advantages that other Return strategies can give a duelist. Beast Return gives massive piercing damage, Divine Sword – Phoenix Blade Return allows a duelist to chain their Return at just about any time, and so on. Some of these are well-documented and thoroughly tested, but others, like Arty Stein’s, are still basically uncharted waters.

So, how does it work? Every Return deck is dependant on removal agents, the cards that let you get monsters into your removed from game area. For this deck, the removal agents are Megarock Dragon and Gigantes. This pair of monsters gives the Return theme some interesting capabilities.

Gigantes functions both as a removal agent, and as something to be removed. With 1900 ATK, and the effect of removing an Earth monster from the graveyard when it comes into play, it’s a beatstick when it hits the field. It’s a beatstick when special summoned by Return too, and it keeps the field clear with its spell and trap destruction.

That’s valuable because of what Megarock brings to the field: its primary advantage is that it can be really, really big. This thing can get up to the 3000+ ATK range pretty easily in the mid-game, and a couple shots from something like that lays any deck low. In addition, the fact that Megarock Dragon removes any number of monsters from the game is in and of itself a very powerful asset. Need one more monster to Return for game? Megarock can do that. What if you need to remove five in one shot to guarantee the win? It can do that too, and nothing else can.

That makes this deck capable of spinning out wins with Return on an even more unexpected basis than other Return variants. With so many duelists now expecting the somewhat predictable pace of Chaos Return, that’s a huge factor towards Stein’s success.

The sheer number of Rock monsters is admirable, demonstrating a huge amount of dedication to the theme. No Breaker the Magical Warrior, D. D. Warrior Lady, or Night Assailant in this deck! Gigantes fills the role of Breaker, and Medusa Worm fills in for the missing Night Assailant without skipping a beat. Stein was very eager to mention the impact of Medusa Worm on his games. “It stops Jinzo, and it wrecks flip effect monsters while they’re set. It also makes the opponent play aggressively, so not only do they start running into Sakuretsu Armor and Mirror Force, but they start attacking face down monsters more often. That leads them to attack set Legendary Jujitsu Masters more often than they normally would.” Pretty devious! It’s a strategy that Stein has reinforced with the use of his one, at first seemingly random, copy of Level Limit - Area B. The deck borrows slightly from the philosophies of P.A.C.M.A.N. in doing so, and can generate massive field control if it gets set up right.

And then, of course, it can beat the opponent to death with the big Dragon.

Whether or not this deck Top 8s today is almost irrelevant: by running it, Arty Stein has started what will hopefully be a movement towards creative Return strategies that make full use of the card’s potential. There are tons of different ways to remove monsters from your graveyard to the out of play area, and virtually every one of them can be the basis for an exciting new Return deck. If Arty Stein does well here today, his deck in particular will take off in public popularity, but even if he doesn’t, consider making your next Return deck something different than Chaos. Those removal agents all have their own unique strong points, and unlocking them can give you a strategy with powers that no other duelist in your area will have.

With Macro Cosmos on the horizon, expect to see some new, innovative, successful Return decks at Nationals. As for Arty Stein, keep your eye on him. He’s definitely a duelist on the rise, and the level of skill that’s demonstrated by his decklist is a testament to his considerable skill. With major teams suddenly recognizing the importance of strong deck builders, duelists like Stein are going to be in high demand for the upcoming 2006/2007 season.