A new deck, built to be specifically strong against Gladiator Beasts, has emerged. It has the potential to set a new trend of anti-metagame deck construction in the United States. The idea of the deck is to pick at every weakness found in Gladiator Beast builds until they fall apart. While the strategy itself might seem hodgepodge, there are some striking synergies: it combines separate themes to make almost every opponent frustrated with his or her practically unplayable pile of cards.
I’m talking about the deck piloted by Jung-Ho Ahn at the 2008 World Championship, and a similarly themed deck used by several Americans at Shonen Jump Championship Indianapolis, including Marco Cesario, who brought it to a Day 2 finish. While Cesario’s deck might have been vastly different from Ahn’s in card choices, it was remarkably similar in play. The differences may be attributed to the two competitor’s metagames: one was playing at the Worlds Championship—where Japanese players in the know were probably able to predict the large use of Lightsworn decks to compliment the seemingly omnipotent Gladiator Beasts—while the other was mostly concerned with stopping Gladiator Beast and Monarch decks.
Most Gladiator Beast builds are completely unprepared to handle at least half the threats this deck delivers. Unless a player predicts overuse of spell and trap-based tech cards and main decks at least two copies of Dust Tornado to compliment the more common Heavy Storm, Mystical Space Typhoon, or even Cold Wave, there are very few answers to cards like Skill Drain and Royal Oppression. While such players do exist at major tournaments, you can expect the number of them to be thinning due to the use of new Gladiator Beast cards like Gladiator Beast War Chariot. That means you’ll see very few players with answers to your threats, which is going to make your matchups more favorable. Who would have thought that improving the best deck in the format would make it weaker against a strategy built to beat it?
First, let’s take a look at Jung-Ho Ahn’s build from the World Championships.
Jung-Ho Ahn
Ahn was able to show the dueling community just what innovation can achieve. While he didn’t win the tournament, he’ll be remembered as one of the best duelists in attendance because of his daring deck choices. What defines the deck is the trap lineup, so let’s discuss that first.
The Traps
It’s been said numerous times, but any deck that can abuse Skill Drain is more than playable in an average competitive metagame right now. It has the ability to shut down almost every deck in the game. Most strategies right now revolve around monster effects to operate. Gladiator Beasts can’t tag out to abuse their toolbox of answers, Dark Armed Dragon decks are going to have a very hard time playing, well . . . Dark Armed Dragon, and Lightsworn are simply overpriced vanilla monsters with three copies of Honest to help them out. Your opponent’s best cards become nothing more than slightly smaller versions of Blue-Eyes White Dragon, which you can then simply destroy using Dimensional Prison.
The three copies of both Dark Bribe and Solemn Judgment help you maintain your anti-meta lockdown. If that falls apart, you’ll most likely be losing the game. It’s absolutely imperative that you can stop what are likely to be your opponent’s only two answers: Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm.
Apart from those cards, the rest of the trap lineup is monster removal, which will help you deal with whatever last efforts your opponents can muster. Normally, once set upon by all the anti-meta cards, your opponent has two options: save his or her cards and hope to draw into a playable Heavy Storm, or use everything to summon one large monster. In the first example, you’ve pretty much won the game. In the second situation though, you’ll have to destroy that one last monster to win.
The Spells
The spell lineup both solidifies the lockdown and helps to make your hands more consistent. The two copies of Reinforcement of the Army will either offer you monster removal (Exiled Force) or one of two large ATK monsters dependant on the rest of your hand (Elemental Hero Neos Alius or D.D. Survivor). He chose to run one copy of Mystical Space Typhoon and Dust Tornado, possibly to have an answer to Solemn Judgment and clear away copies of Mirror Force. The spell lineup ends with three copies of Burden of the Mighty, which reduces all his opponent’s monsters to an almost trivial ATK.
The Monsters
It’s a credit to Ahn that he was comfortable running only fourteen monsters, of which only eleven were for attacking. Remember though, that he ran two copies of Reinforcement of the Army, which (in terms of starting hands), jumps his monster count to sixteen. That means he’ll most likely be looking at an average of two monsters in each of his opening hands, which is all he’s going to want. The math here is perfect: he’ll be expecting an average of two monsters, one copy of either Solemn Judgment or Dark Bribe, one or two anti-meta lockdown spells or traps, and one or two pieces of monster removal.
His trademark monster for the tournament was Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast, which can be normal summoned as a 2800 ATK beatstick while Skill Drain is on the field. With Burden of the Mighty active, there’s almost no monster that can run it over!
Now, let’s take a look at Cesario’s deck, which he took to a Day 2 finish at Shonen Jump Championship Indianapolis 2008
Marco Cesario
The Traps
First, let’s consider the difference between the two trap lineups:
- 1 Trap Dustshoot
- 3 Dimensional Prison
- 3 Macro Cosmos
- 1 Dust Tornado
- 1 Torrential Tribute
+2 Mask of Restrict
Foregoing the Torrential Tribute was possibly one of the most subtle, but strong choices he made. With only fourteen monsters, it’s imperative that the deck can keep something on the field. The ability to clear your opponent’s field isn’t enough of a benefit to justify destroying your own as well.
Not playing the three copies of Dimensional Prison may have been unadvisable, as they alone can stop Gladiator Beast decks in their tracks. This card screams consistency, but it doesn’t necessarily add to the lockdown principle.
The one copy of Trap Dustshoot is an argument thrown around by many players. Some offer that the card is too powerful not to play, and that opening with it offers so much information, it normally turns the tide of a game. The counter argument is that, in order to effectively use it, you have to win the die roll, go first, and draw it in your opening hand, and then your opponent has to have a monster. Both arguments are sound, but these two players stand on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Dropping the copies of Macro Cosmos seems insane, but consider the fact that he replaced them with two copies of Mask of Restrict. In fact, this choice changed the entire deck! Instead of planning to see Lightsworn, Cesario planned on playing against a lot of Monarch decks. This also forced him to drop the three copies of D.D. Survivor. This is where the decks rift and their creators went onto completely different paths of thought.
The Spells
Cesario played a vastly different set of spells, and a much larger number of them. He opted to play both copies of Reinforcement of the Army and three copies of E - Emergency Call. This gives him a whopping 20 monsters in terms of drawing opening hands, which gives him an average of three monsters each time. That makes his deck more aggressive, and plausibly more resilient during the late stages of a game. However, this build has a more difficult time maintaining an anti-meta lockdown situation.
The one copy of Skyscraper is probably the most intriguing change he made. This acts as a searchable-from-deck Burden of the Mighty. The downside to the card is that it only works with Elemental Heroes, and only when they attack. It also allows his opponents to attack with their copies of Elemental Hero Prisma when he’s playing against Gladiator Beasts (something Paul Levitin and Team Overdose sorrowfully noted at U.S. Nationals). However, the tradeoff isn’t without its benefits. Now, he’s almost always going to open the game with a way to play a spell that mitigates his opponent’s ATK power (the three E - Emergency Call cards, two Reinforcement of the Army cards, three copies of Elemental Hero Captain Gold, or Skyscraper).
The two main-decked copies of Prohibition helped replace some of the anti-meta lockdown cards. With this, he can stop the mainstay of any deck, locking his opponents (especially those wielding Gladiator Beasts) into submission. Remember, any card named can’t be used, so if he declares Gladiator Beast Bestiari, it’s impossible for his opponent to play Gladiator Beast Gyzarus. This was one of the strongest changes he made to the deck, though it relies on the deck’s pilot to have a little know-how.
He still packs some monster removal agents, and finishes the spell lineup with two copies of My Body as a Shield. While playing it next to Solemn Judgment seems scary, it stops so many cards that a detail like that can be excused. Gyzarus trembles in the wake of the spell, as does a misplayed Dark Armed Dragon, or even Judgment Dragon. It’s just another way to get around the few cards your opponents can still play.
The Monsters
The monster focus has completely shifted. Instead of relying on enough luck to draw Fusiliers in the same hand as Skill Drain (which isn’t the most likely thing to happen), he shifted to using Honest to do his beating for him. Honest will let him hold his answers while still attacking with disposable threats. For example, if your opponent has Mirror Force and a large monster to play the following turn, and you have just one Fusilier, you’re out of luck. If you lose Fusilier, your attacking force is diminished heavily. However, you can hold Honest for when you need it, and every monster you play has the ability to do Fusilier’s job.
After that, Cesario implements an Elemental Hero and Lightsworn backbone. Really though, every monster just represents its ATK value added with a Light attribute, other than Ehren, who can be used for strong turn-1 plays, and Elemental Hero Stratos, who can be used similarly.
Both of these decks are played in a similar fashion: they lock the opponent down while beating his or her face in. It’s extraordinarily entertaining, assuming you aren’t the person playing against it! With the introduction of the new format this week, you may be looking for something a little different. Both of these decks have what it takes to set you apart from the other duelists. The only question left is . . . do you have the nerve to play them?
—Ryan Murphy