The format is a very interesting one right now. Despite TeleDAD being the most dominant deck, we’re seeing more than just one boring mirror match after another. Everyone is trying to tech his or her deck in order to beat the mirror. Compulsory Evacuation Device has made the main deck, Thunder King Rai-Oh is all the rage right now, and Cold Wave is starting to sneak into people’s decks again. Often it’s these tech cards that take a player to Day 2.
During the Swiss rounds nobody knows your decklist, and your tech cards have all the surprise value you wanted each and every round. But in the Top 16 there is complete and total information. Your deck and side deck are revealed to your opponent, and he or she knows every trick you have up your sleeve. Knowing what can come is half the battle. It’s much easier to only prepare for a few scenarios, and if you know what your opponent has, you can do that both effectively and accurately. This is why the top decks are the most consistent on Day 2. Once they know what they’re up against, it’s only a matter of playing accordingly.
But until that point, surprise is enough to win you games. Games can be won by the opponent misplaying his or her cards, and if your opponent doesn’t know exactly what your deck is going to do next, he or she can’t know how to play correctly. The risk of making a mistake increases dramatically, and with it your chance of victory. This is the theory behind making a transition side deck, which paid off for decks like OD Burn and Cesar Stein.
Following a similar train of thought at Shonen Jump Championship Charlotte was Henry Su. Diamond Dude Turbo (DDT) has long been considered dead since the banning of Dimension Fusion. That one card, when combined with Dark Magician of Chaos and Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade, generated a special summoning frenzy and allowed for the use of multiple free spells a turn. Without those power cards the consistency is gone. Diamond Dude is never a sure shot, and sometimes even when he hits it does nothing to stop your opponent. Henry Su has aimed to minimize that disadvantage though, and made a Day 2 appearance with this Diamond Dude TeleDAD deck:
Monsters: 15
1 Prometheus, King of the Shadows
2 Dark Armed Dragon
3 Krebons
1 Sangan
1 Destiny Hero - Doom Lord
3 Destiny Hero - Malicious
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
Spells: 21
3 Allure of Darkness
3 Destiny Draw
1 Brain Control
1 Heavy Storm
1 Giant Trunade
1 Monster Reborn
2 Mind Control
3 Emergency Teleport
3 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Magical Mallet
2 Lightning Vortex
Traps: 4
3 Threatening Roar
1 Crush Card Virus
So you’re probably looking at this deck kind of like I did at first. It looks okay, and Diamond Dude is probably going to get a free spell most of the time. There are eighteen normal spells for Diamond Dude to hit, and monsters are pulled out of the deck all the time by cards like Sangan, Destiny Hero - Malicious, or Emergency Teleport. The chances of actually hitting something with Diamond Dude are pretty good.
But beyond that, the very first thing you need to look at is the number of monsters Su played: fifteen. Look at the type of monsters they are as well: the Destiny Hero engine, Krebons, Dark Armed Dragon, and Sangan/Prometheus, King of the Shadows. That’s the whole line-up. Clearly Henry Su had one thing in mind: get everything on the field and do it fast. In my testing I’ve found that TeleDAD can’t really hold on without having Synchro monsters up. Most players like to put them up late to protect themselves and to use them to solve a problem.
I’ve never been a fan of that. In my opinion Synchros can’t solve much. It’s too easy for the defending player to have a response to shut your Synchro down, and none have immediate destruction effects. This is why I’d rather use Synchros as a problem-maker. Make the opponent deal with your Synchros and you’ll get to use the full effect of Stardust Dragon. I think Henry Su does the same thing because he doesn’t play any other monsters. Clearly he just gets the Synchros out fast and supports them.
Threatening Roar is great protection for Synchro monsters. Battle is often the way TeleDAD deals with problems because the deck can only really produce big monsters. Without Dark Armed Dragon it relies on beating stuff up. Threatening Roar shuts that down while also providing protection in chainable form. If your opponent does decide to play Dark Armed, chances are he or she wants to make game. Roar is a perfect way to shut that down, saving your life and stranding your opponent’s Dark Armed on the field.
Threatening Roar also works perfectly with another card in the deck: Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude. Diamond Dude’s only weakness is that after he gets the free spell card he’s vulnerable to destruction by battle. It’s the same problem Don Zaloog has. Furthermore you never know if you’re even going to hit anything good, so he’s a risky card to play. But with Threatening Roar you get to protect that monster for another turn. Remember that Henry sets up quickly, so his games aren’t very long. Protecting Diamond Dude lets him stay alive for three turns instead of one: that can actually mean keeping him alive for half the duel. Multiple copies of Threatening Roar allow this to happen, which is why three can be played. Drawing more than one is a good thing.
In this deck Diamond Dude is either going to get you free draws, free monsters, or free ways to deal with opposing monsters. Regardless of which, your opponent is going to be in a tough spot. Having to deal with a monster that’s already earned you a card means investing something in the field. If your Diamond Dude hit a Lightning Vortex or Mind Control, your opponent is going to be especially unwilling to commit anything. This allows you to either keep your "free" monster for another turn or nets you one more Diamond Dude effect. The first two cases are equally stressful for your opponent to deal with. If Su has more cards than his opponent he’s going to love seeing that opponent commit to the table. It lets him make plays to take away opposing cards and force his opponent into action, confident that once the game is simplified he will be left with more monsters.
In fact it happens all the time: both players will have a field with one, two, or even three monsters on it for several turns. Necro Gardna and Stardust Dragon create some crazy locks, and with that comes periods of time where a Colossal Fighter takes down Goyo Guardian, Elemental Hero Stratos, and then Dark Grepher over three consecutive turns. Or Dark Armed Dragon tries to attack over Stardust Dragon two turns in a row, only to be repelled by Roar. In all of these scenarios you’d want the Mind Control or Lightning Vortex. Since Henry throws up the Synchros so quickly this is likely to happen a lot, making those cards the perfect kind of support.
Basically, there’s no real way to play against Henry’s deck. If he plays noncommittally with Diamond Dude and you don’t answer him, the Diamond Dude effects will pile up. If you do attempt an answer you’ll be out-gunned. If you commit to the field Henry can destroy you with his teched spell cards, and he’s going to be hard to defeat thanks to Threatening Roar. This twisted version of TeleDAD is just much harder for other TeleDAD builds to deal with.
—Matt Peddle