For some strange reason I find myself hanging out on Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG forums and reading the opinions of users on whether or not certain cards have an unacceptable level of power. Yeah, I know it isn’t good for me. Neither is that trashy reality television my sister watches, but it certainly doesn’t stop her. In any case, one of the most hotly debated cards (other than all the cards that one might consider a "win condition") is Machine Duplication. There seem to be two distinct camps when it comes to this card amid a sea of people who blatantly have no idea what they’re talking about.
One of them says that Machine Duplication shouldn’t exist, period. The other says that we shouldn’t be allowed to have cards like Cyber Valley because of Machine Duplication. Rather than participate in the meaningless spectacle, I prefer to just do crazy things with the cards I’m allowed and let R&D sort out the rest. Machine Duplication is the kind of card that you can do those ridiculous sorts of things with specifically because there are good cards that exist as Machines with 500 ATK or less. The card has fallen out of favor now that there aren’t any combo strategies that use it to draw the entire deck with Cyber Valley and Dimension Fusion, but that doesn’t mean the card is useless. In fact, I can think of three good targets right now which unsurprisingly mesh together nicely.
Before I get to the actual decklist this week, I’d like to take a moment to talk about what decks are going to have to be able to do if they want to survive this format. First and foremost, they need to be able to play around Gladiator Beast tricks. Specifically, they need to be able to draw out Solemn Judgment and Gladiator Beast War Chariot or otherwise make them impossible to activate. My personal favorite method of doing one or the other is Lightning Vortex, as it automatically prompts the Solemn or clears the field of Gladiators allowing for direct attacks and unimpeded monster effects. In fact, the ability to play around negation is just all-around important right now. If your deck is built right and you’re drawing and playing well, an opponent who uses Solemn Judgment should be an opponent who loses later that turn.
The next requirement for decks is that they need to be able to effectively keep pace with Teleport Dark Armed Dragon. Let me tell you, that deck is fast. Its top speed won’t be known for a few Jumps, but any deck that can put multiple Synchro monsters on the field in a single turn (especially the first) is dangerous. Keeping up with that kind of speed can happen either by granting your deck the same capabilities, using cards like D.D. Crow to shut off their combos, or some combination of both. Finally, players who want to win in this format should build their decks and tune their play styles so that they can maintain control of the game while minimizing their losses to field wipe. By field wipe, I mean cards like Heavy Storm, Lightning Vortex, Judgment Dragon, Dark Armed Dragon, and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. If you can protect yourself while minimizing the effects of the opponent’s most powerful cards, you’re in business.
Extra: 152 Stardust Dragon
2 Thought Ruler Archfiend
1 Colossal Fighter
1 Red Dragon Archfiend
3 Goyo Guardian
3 Nitro Warrior
3 Magical Android
Here’s a fun little deck that tries to do the things I described above with some bonus Machine Duplication madness for style points. First, how does it promote bad usage of Solemn Judgment and/or remove the negation threat? There are a few ways to go about it. The first is the full complement of Lightning Vortex cards that I’m so fond of. Removing monsters has always been good, but with Gladiator Beasts only having access to their new toy wagon if they have one face-up card on the field, Vortex is the perfect answer. How many cards will either burn your opponent for half his or her life points or get past a pair of pumped Laquari cards? There aren’t very many, but most if not all of them are in this deck. Other things that tend to draw out a Solemn Judgment include the summon of a Jinzo, a theft card while you have Cyber Valley face up on the field, Limiter Removal, Heavy Storm or Monster Reborn, and Nobleman of Extermination on an important face-down trap card. The aforementioned Nobleman is also a great follow up to Jinzo to take out whatever card the opponent wanted to be able to use after he or she got rid of your monster. It’s especially nasty if you hit Gladiator Beast War Chariot since many of the current builds rely almost entirely on recycling that card endlessly to stop Thought Ruler Archfiend from, well, ruling them.
The fact that this isn’t a Teleport Dark Armed Dragon deck is sure to help you force through a number of plays that you wouldn’t otherwise be able to get away with since your opponent likely has no idea what you’re playing. Unfortunately, since you aren’t playing a deck that can use Emergency Teleport or Destiny Hero - Malicious, you’ll also find yourself lacking the ridiculous turn 1 capabilities of that other deck. What you can do, however, is pull nasty tricks with Machine Duplication to get all your Cyber Valley or Nitro Synchron cards to the field. Nitro Synchron is the only Tuner you can use to summon Nitro Warrior, so I’ve got a full complement of Nitro Warrior cards in the extra deck to go with them. Don’t underestimate the power of Nitro Warrior. Gladiator Beast Hoplomus is back in style, and being able to stuff 3800 damage down a Gladiator Beast player’s throat because he or she opted to go for 
Laquari and Hoplomus is huge. That’s probably more than the opponent has left if you’ve pecked at him or her with anything and then forced a Solemn Judgment. The same thing happens if you did it the other way around. Nitro Warrior is capable of unleashing Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning-level beatings if your opponent has left anything face up in defense position, and you should never be without a spell to trigger the Warrior’s power boost. The trick is getting the right number of stars to summon out the Warrior.
Cyber Dragon and Nitro Synchron conveniently add up to seven levels total, as do an opponent’s level-4 monster along with your Nitro Synchron and Cyber Valley. Nitro Synchron, Proto-Cyber Dragon, and Quillbolt Hedgehog make seven as well, with the Hedgehog being an important source of free fodder. Junk Synchron can bring back a spent Nitro Synchron or resurrect Quillbolt Hedgehog depending on your needs. The latter is a one-card method of putting the 2400 ATK Magical Android on the field while still keeping your Quillbolt Hedgehog available for later use. The Android deserves some special attention as well, since its life point gain properties can be instrumental in games that go long. If you get it out with Thought Ruler Archfiend, you’re gaining a minimum of 1200 life points a turn with two monsters that you can protect from targeting spell and trap cards. Not a bad investment in my book.
Finally, Nitro Synchron and a pair of Quillbolt Hedgehog cards, or Proto-Cyber Dragon and Cyber Valley can make the fantastic Goyo Guardian. Goyo Guardian is basically the Synchro-killer. Stealing a Thought Ruler Archfiend is simply brutal, and it more or less forces your opponent to pull out something bigger or have a lot of removal on hand. Strangely enough, removal seems to be scarce these days, probably because of Stardust Dragon despite the fact that there are perfectly good answers like Dimensional Prison just waiting to see play.
Overall, you should look for decks to get faster and faster as the format progresses. While Gladiator Beasts will likely see some success at first while people are still finding their feet, it seems very unlikely that they will continue their stranglehold on the competitive circuit, even with the War Chariot. The gap between people who know what they’re doing and the people who don’t is bigger than ever and hopefully we’ll be able to see that manifest itself in the near future. For now though, just try to grab up all the Mind Control and Emergency Teleport cards you can. I have no doubt that they’re going to be in short supply very soon. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
—Jerome McHale