Vincent Tundo has pulled out of his Round 1 loss to come back and score a 1-1 placing, but his life in this tournament will still hang in the balance of every match he plays. With that being the situation, I want to show you his deck while he’s still in active contention for a seat in Day 2. Win or lose, Tundo’s innovative FTK deck is worth getting out into the eye of the dueling public. Here’s what it looks like.
If you missed the feature match, Tundo’s goal with this deck is to bring out Toon Cannon Soldier and Dark Magician of Chaos with Dimension Fusion waiting in the wings. When the Magician is tributed to deal 500 damage with Cannon Soldier’s effect, his own effect will remove him from the field. From there he can be brought back with Dimension Fusion, and the Magician’s recursion effect will then return Dimension Fusion to Tundo’s hand. As long as he’s got Spell Economics on the field and doesn’t have to pay life points to activate Dimension Fusion, Tundo can loop the combo and deal out 500 damage over and over until he takes a win.
It’s a combo that’s been around for quite a while, though in the past it used Cannon Soldier instead of Toon Cannon Soldier. The Toon version is used here because it can be searched out with Toon Table of Contents — somewhat a moot point since the deck also runs off an infinite draw combo, but important because one Toon Table of Contents can thin two more from the deck on its way to Toon Cannon Soldier. Thinning makes this deck’s Reloads and Magical Mallets supremely effective.
About that infinite draw combo — it’s actually the heart and soul of this deck, and it’s almost always necessary to establish the Dark Magician of Chaos loop. Cyber Valley is the fuel that this deck runs on. Once one hits the field two more can be brought out from the deck with Machine Duplication. At that point two can be removed from play to draw two cards, leaving one Cyber Valley in play. Dimension Fusion can be activated to bring back the other two, and Fusion will wind up in the graveyard.
From there, it’s just a matter of removing one Cyber Valley and a card in hand to send Dimension Fusion back to the top of the deck. Removing two more Valleys means another two draws, one of which will invariably be Dimension Fusion since it was just placed back on top of the deck. Activating Dimension Fusion then brings back all three Valleys and the loop results in an extra card drawn every time it’s executed. With Spell Economics on the field Tundo can draw through his entire deck, and when he gets to Dark Magician of Chaos and Toon Cannon Soldier he can remove them from play, out of his hand, by using them for a Cyber Valley’s “stack a card from your graveyard” effect.
Even if Tundo can’t find Spell Economics early on, a wealth of special summoning tricks can let him stretch those Cyber Valleys and draw more cards with them. Destiny Hero – Disk Commander can be brought back with Premature Burial for two draws, then removed with Cyber Valley for two more. Spell Striker can also be special summoned as fodder for Cyber Valley, and they double as tribute fodder in those rare situations where Tundo would want to actually tribute for Dark Magician of Chaos. That can come in handy if Dimension Fusion was sent to the graveyard.
The key weakness of this deck is that it relies on Dimension Fusion completely — it can’t win without it, so if your opponent has D.D. Crow in hand turn 1 they can shut down the First-Turn Knockout right off the bat. That’s where Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer comes in. A relatively late addition to the build, Kycoo has synergy with Allure of Darkness and keeps Crow from affecting Dimension Fusion. If Kycoo is removed from play, either for Allure or Cyber Valley, and is then brought back with Dimension Fusion, Fusion won’t be sent to the graveyard until after Kycoo is on the field protecting it. That alleviates the deck’s chief fear and really elevates it above other OTKs in this format.
While similar decks may run Reasoning and Monster Gate, this deck instead uses a grinding series of draw cards to create a more reliable build. Three Allure of Darkness, two Destiny Draw, and even three Upstart Goblin make the deck silky smooth in its execution. Thunder Dragons provide more deck thinning, fodder for Card Destruction, Reload, Magical Mallet, and even Magical Stone Excavation. Reinforcement of the Army provides even more thinning, as well as easy access to Disk Commander which is usually your default pull. It also lets Tundo get to Elemental Hero Stratos for those games where he can’t win on turn 1.
This deck is exceedingly dangerous. Tundo took a game loss for a decklist error in Round 3, giving up game 1 because he forgot to write a ‘1’ next to the Destiny Hero – Plasma in his side deck. It didn’t matter: he won out anyway to preserve his X-1 record. With that game loss now in the past it might be smooth sailing for the next seven rounds, and if he makes it to Day 2, well, I wouldn’t want to be his Top 16 opponent in the first playoff round tomorrow.