One of the things that many players like to do before a major event is to make predictions about what kinds of decks will be played and which strategies will make it to the Top 8. Seeing that Shonen Jump Championship Seattle has yet to occur at the time I’m writing this article, I’d like to make a little prediction myself: you aren’t going to see any normal monsters in the Top 8 decks. It’s not that normal monsters are bad or anything. Quite the opposite in fact. In general, normal monsters have the best ATK and DEF values of any monsters you can normal summon. After all, Gemini Elf and Summoned Skull were in every deck at their respective times of release due to their ability to boss around every other comparable monster in a one-mile radius. Back then, if your deck didn’t have any answers to Gemini Elf or Summoned Skull, you were gone after round 1 of any tournament you entered. If you think about it, it’s the same way now with Cyber Dragon and Monarchs. Not many people care so much about Summoned Skull, since it can’t be special summoned for free and it doesn’t destroy anything else when it comes into play. Gemini Elf is 200 ATK points smaller and can’t be special summoned like Cyber Dragon.

Or course, there are plenty of cards out there that reward you for playing with normal monsters: cards that help you make the most of the massive ATK and DEF strengths that normal monsters are capable of achieving with no nasty side effects. Yet people tend to ignore these cards, despite the fact that they’re often quite powerful. Cards like Heart of the Underdog and Non-Spellcasting Area can grant amazing abilities to players willing to forgo monster effects to use them. Skill Drain can even back that strategy up and make sure that your raw numbers really count. In my opinion, the real problem is that normal monsters don’t really have a headliner card that jumps out at you and makes you want to use them. Fortunately, that’s all about to change with Justi-Break!

Justi-Break       

Trap                                   

Activate only when your opponent attacks a face-up Normal Monster on your side of the field. Destroy all face-up Attack Position monsters on the field, except for Normal Monsters.

There’s this card that I keep seeing in all these Top 8 decks and nearly every deck I build. It’s limited to one per deck, it’s a trap card, and it blows away all my opponent’s attack-position monsters when they attack. What was it called . . . ? Oh yeah! Mirror Force! One of the few cards that sees play in almost every single combat-oriented deck and many that aren’t combat oriented. It’s been limited to one per deck since its initial release and has even spent some time on the Forbidden list. Now you can effectively run four of them, but only if you’re playing with normal monsters. How’s that for a reason to dust off your playset of Gemini Elf?

The mechanics of Justi-Break are quite simple. If your opponent attacks one of your face-up normal monsters, you activate this card, and then every attack-position monster on the field that isn’t a normal monster is destroyed. Since there’s a pretty good chance that your opponent isn’t playing normal monsters, that’s equivalent to hitting them with Mirror Force. There are two important limitations on this effect though, so you’ll want to make sure you fully understand them. First, you can only activate it when they attack a face-up normal monster. That means that you can’t use it to save a set monster from attack. If it’s small enough to require protection, you should probably play it face up anyway just to make the opponent worry about Justi-Break. Second, it destroys all attack-position monsters that aren’t normal monsters. That means that if you’ve taken control of any of the opponent’s monsters or if you’re just trying to splash in normal monsters along with effect monsters to take advantage of Justi-Break, those attack-position monsters are gone as well.

Of course, you really shouldn’t ever have a problem with either of those conditions assuming that you really are playing a normal monster strategy. First and foremost, your monsters should only be destroyed by attacks or traps. Monster effects can be negated by Skill Drain and spells fall to Non-Spellcasting Area. A few well-placed counter-traps can keep these cards on the field while you’re administering the beatings, and with Justi-Break thrown into the mix, your only real fear should be opposing trap cards. Counter-traps can take care of those as well if you’re so inclined. The end result is a team of high ATK and DEF monsters that can’t be taken down by any current strategy, with the possible exception of “draw Heavy Storm right after you use your last counter.” Combine that invulnerability with all the other cool stuff you can use when playing normal monsters and you’ve got a deck that’s ready for some serious competition.

“What other cool stuff,” you ask? Remember that HERO Flash!! deck I showed you a while back? Elemental Hero Neos and his crew would love to have a few extra copies of Mirror Force in their deck. Fusion-based Elemental Hero decks are also thrilled with the prospect of mass removal on a regular basis. In fact, mass removal seems to be something that Elemental Heroes do best. Between R - Righteous Justice and now Justi-Break, your opponent will be hard-pressed to keep his or her cards on the field. Want some more great reasons to play normal monsters? How about Dark Factory of Mass Production? Picking up two normal monsters from your graveyard is an excellent way to keep your hand filled and make sure that you can always make the most of Justi-Break. I mentioned Heart of the Underdog above, but I’ll bet that it’s been a while since most of you have seen it. In short, it lets you keep drawing cards during your draw phase until you hit something that isn’t a normal monster card. That means you’re guaranteed to get a spell or trap (or effect monster) every turn in addition to any and all normal monsters you pick up. It’s a great way to get to all your copies of Non-Spellcasting Area and Justi-Break, and it keeps your hand filled in case you want to play Two-Man Cell Battle.

With the Cell Battle on the field, it doesn’t matter if the opponent takes out a normal monster or two with his or her (singleton) Mirror Force. You can guarantee that you’ll have a normal monster on the field at the start of the opponent’s next turn by special summoning it in the end phase with Two-Man Cell Battle! Imagine how tough it is to play around one Mirror Force that your opponent may or may not have in his or her deck. Now imagine how difficult it would be to play around four of them while trying to fend off an unending assault of 1900+ ATK, spell-immune monsters. Kind of scary, don’t you think? Hopefully players will warm up to the idea once Cyberdark Impact hits the shelves. Speaking of the sneak preview, you are planning to go to the one nearest you, right? I mean, you wouldn’t want to miss out on an exclusive promotional card or the ability to get your hands on Cyberdark Impact before it hits stores would you? Of course you wouldn’t, so get yourself to the official website for the Cyberdark Impact Sneak Preview straightaway to make your plans for November 4^th and 5^th. I’ll be judging at the Sneak Preview in Butler, PA run by Professional Events Services so if you’re in the area, be sure to drop by, say hello, and play some Sealed Pack. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and, most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu