Many decks pride themselves on the wide variety of things they can do. Perfect Circle Monarchs can play slowly, whittling away at the opponent’s cards until he or she is defenseless. Alternatively they can play blazingly fast, crippling an opponent with a poor hand and taking away any chance of recovery. Burn decks can take a lockdown route—slowly and methodically negating every card the opponent could draw to break up the lock, and then setting up a win condition based on Wave-Motion Cannon—or they can put everything on the table and hope to win the game in two or three turns with an array of direct damage cards.

Then there are the decks that take pride in the fact that the opponent can’t do anything. Burn does this as well when it plays slowly, locking the opponent down and taking the most secure path to victory. Goat control was one of the best decks for this, as three copies of Scapegoat and Thousand-Eyes Restrict meant players rarely had a productive battle phase, and sooner or later would lose to a combination of powerful cards like Heavy Storm, Lightning Vortex, Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning, and Jinzo.

Never before have we seen such a combo-oriented format. Decks are no longer attempting to cover all bases and prepare adequately for every deck: they are simply trying to pull off their own tricks and overwhelm the opponent with their strategy of choice. Zombies do this by creating a snowballing force with Card of Safe Return and Pyramid Turtle. Perfect Circle attempts to pound the opponent into dust with Monarchs and special summons of Destiny Hero - Disk Commander. The format seems to be developing into a battle of who can get a combo off first.

As always, in times where one style of play seems to be taking over for good, a new deck or play style emerges to take advantage of it. Last format, it was Machines that broke into the spotlight—exploiting the weaknesses that Monarchs and other decks had without their monsters by playing three copies of Trap Dustshoot. Previously it was Diamond Dude Turbo, Demise OTK, and Bazoo Return that took advantage of slower-paced Monarch builds. This format, it was Donald Myers and his offbeat Monster control deck that propelled him to a third place finish at Shonen Jump Championship Chicago:

Monsters: 21

3 Cyber Dragon

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

1 Jinzo

3 Mystic Tomato

2 Newdoria

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Don Zaloog

1 Sangan

3 Sasuke Samurai #4

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 D.D. Warrior Lady

1 Flying Kamakiri #1

Spells: 11

2 My Body as a Shield

2 Nobleman of Crossout

2 Creature Swap

1 Heavy Storm

1 Smashing Ground

1 Premature Burial

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 8

3 Sakuretsu Armor

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

The first thing you should notice about this deck is how much monster control it actually plays. Not only are the spells and traps almost totally devoted to destroying or controlling monsters, but the monster cards themselves are oriented to improve Donald’s position on the field. The deck is designed to make the opponent run out of plays. Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and Newdoria are two examples of ways that Donald’s deck controls the opponent’s monsters. With Card Trooper now Limited and many players moving away from material like Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, Zaborg and Newdoria can feel free to blast away both face-up and face-down monsters. Newdoria can also be set without much fear, because there’s no longer a Card Trooper or Dekoichi to run it over and force a painful trade for Donald.

Three copies of Sakuretsu Armor and a pair of Bottomless Trap Hole cards complement the monster control by allowing Donald to rob his opponents of their battle phase. Not being able to connect with attacks means the Zombie deck is almost completely shut down. Being able to remove Zombie Master or Il Blud from play is especially useful, as they can no longer be brought back with Book of Life. Factor in Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, and Smashing Ground and it’s extremely hard for the Zombie deck to get anything going.

Sasuke Samurai #4 has seen the Top 8 spotlight before, and he was back for another appearance in Chicago. While many players discredit the deck because this Samurai’s effect is based on a coin flip, Sasuke Samurai #4 is actually more of a paralyzing tool than monster removal. Since the Samurai won’t die in battle if his effect is successful, very few players are willing to attack him with monsters that haven’t already somehow replaced themselves. As such, having one Sasuke Samurai #4 on the table can turn your opponent off of attacking for several turns. During this time, Donald can feel free to attack all of the defense-mode monsters he desires, potentially destroying them outside of battle before they can even flip.

Recruiters are another type of monster that your opponent usually doesn’t want to attack. Mystic Tomato is a monster almost no duelist wants to battle while Sangan could still be in the opponent’s deck. Doing so could set up a big Monarch play and put the overly aggressive player at an extreme disadvantage. Attacking recruiters is generally useless anyway, since they’ll simply replace themselves while filling the graveyard with food for Pot of Avarice.

So how does one take advantage of a paralyzed opponent? The opponent will still have his or her field as well, and if you’re unable to attack him or her, how do you successfully make the first move in a stand-off? Donald uses two copies of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch and two copies of Creature Swap to break open the stalemate. These cards can allow him to remove threats from the opponent’s side of the field and connect for lots of damage all in the same turn. Creature Swap and a tribute monster can allow Donald to remove opposing recruiters, as well as shift one of his own recruiters to the opponent.

Of course, plays like this can be risky, and Donald would want to ensure his attacks aren’t stopped. My Body as a Shield will prevent any big-time cards from blocking his path to victory. Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute can really hurt a monster control deck like this that aims to set up its field before winning the game. My Body as a Shield stops those clutch cards and will always take an opponent who thought he or she was safe by surprise.

Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper are included in the deck to further aid in the process of breaking up combos. Removing cards from the opponent’s hand is a sure-fire way to mess up his or her plans, and both of these monsters achieve that. Don Zaloog can also take advantage of players who flag their monsters by refusing to set any face down. We saw how Donald took advantage of such a play made by Len Bludt in the quarterfinals at SJC Chicago when Len summoned his Giant Rat on the first turn. Donald appeared to go on the defensive, but he had really led Len into a trap, and it cost Len big time.

Whether or not Sasuke Samurai #4 becomes big is entirely up in the air. However, I do expect to see more combo-breaker decks like Donald’s performing successfully in Shonen Jump Championships to come.