For over a year, Anthony Alvarado has made an illustrious dueling career out of playing the best, most obvious deck in the format, and then simply playing it better than all of his competition. He’ll frequently come to me before an event, teasingly invite me to see his deck, and then show me a total cookie cutter when I accept. The jerk.
So when he offered me a viewing of his deck this morning, I refused. It took him a while to get me to even look at the thing, I was so sure that he was pranking me. I was wrong, and for once, Anthony Alvarado is playing an interesting deck designed to counter the predicted metagame. It’s a Chaos variant that builds off some of the work we saw at Shonen Jump Championship Indianapolis:
Big Shark Chaos – 41 Cards
Monsters: 22
2 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Ryu Kokki
1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Asura Priest
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Giant Rat
2 Pyramid Turtle
1 Tsukuyomi
1 Exiled Force
1 Sangan
1 Cyber-Stein
1 Injection Fairy Lily
2 Magician of Faith
2 Spirit Reaper
Spells: 14
1 Graceful Charity
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Scapegoat
2 Creature Swap
1 Book of Moon
2 Enemy Controller
1 Smashing Ground
1 Last Will
Traps: 5
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Magic Cylinder
This is a great example of how an experienced player can take a very standard deck concept, and make it his or her own with a few alterations. I wouldn’t consider Alvarado’s Chaos build to be just “teched” with a few extra cards. Though he’s only added a handful unexpected picks to the usual lineup of Chaos support, he’s done more than just toss in a few things of his personal preference. Alvarado’s taken a Chaos deck and added a highly synergistic lineup of Zombie and Earth monsters in order to add speed, resiliency, and unpredictable answers to the mix.
Giant Rat and Pyramid Turtle are the foundation of Alvarado’s alternate strategy. They give him an ability to maintain board presence that is highly similar to that of a standard Recruiter Chaos, but they allow him access to different suites of monsters. The Rat itself can pull a Pyramid Turtle, or it can seek out and special summon Exiled Force or Injection Fairy Lily. The Pyramid Turtle can reinforce Alvarado’s defenses by pulling another copy of itself, or it can pluck out his lone copy of Ryu Kokki. The Kokki can in turn trade off with monsters like Mobius the Frost Monarch or Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, or just flat out demolish Cyber Dragon and Chaos Sorcerer in battle.
Magic Cylinder also makes an appearance, and it can create a brutal pincer effect with Injection Fairy Lily. Lily hits with an incredible speed, cleaving away almost half of an opponent’s 8000 LP with a direct attack. She’s often a tempting target for a counter attack after she makes a charging stab with her syringe, so Magic Cylinder keeps her safe while punishing the opponent with even more damage. It can also deflect attacks from Mystic Swordsman LV2 if the opponent sides it in to deal with Pyramid Turtle and Giant Rat.
From there the deck is very similar to a standard Chaos build, except it aims to use Chaos Sorcerer as more of a guaranteed late game card. Alvarado is only packing two copies instead of the three that a normal Recruiter Chaos could usually support — it’s going to take him longer than the average Chaos deck to actually build up a graveyard of Lights and Darks. At the same time, Chaos Sorcerer is better as a late game threat anyways, where it can function as a sort of “last man standing” that dominates the field. This deck can draw out threats like Smashing Ground and Sakuretsu very early on thanks to its plethora of high-pressure recruiters and vicious attacks (three Cyber Dragon let it explode more often than not on turn 1), and that means that Sorcerer has a better chance of sticking around when it hits the field.
The result is an aggressive deck that can change tempo in a heartbeat. Alvarado’s left his options open with an array of monsters and supporting effects that let him play aggressively and initiate exchanges quickly, or draw out a duel for turn after turn and grind out the long win.
Right now Alvarado is 4-1, and if he can win four more matches he’ll make Top 8 for sure. He’s no stranger to the Sunday tables, and if he makes it that far this weekend he might capture his second Shonen Jump Championship title.