For being only three guys, Team Scrubs has made a big impact. With great showings into the later rounds of the tournament, they're also running some very coverage-worthy decks, and arguably the most important deck of the tournament is being used by Walter Chan and Ervin So. Here's Walter Chan's build of
Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lock.
Walter Chan's Sucky Deck
The deck is based around the concept of locking the field with one or two
Thousand-Eyes Restrict and then using
Tsukuyomi to turn them face down. Grab a monster, turn
Thousand-Eyes Restrict face down, and the attacked card is destroyed. Under the old rulings on position changes, the shift due to effect caused by
Tsukuyomi would prevent you from flip summoning the same
Thousand-Eyes Restrict on the same turn. But under the new rulings, you can suck up a monster, flip Thousand-Eyes face down with
Tsukuyomi, flip Thousand-Eyes back up again, and then suck up a second monster. That's two pieces of removal in one turn. On top of that, if this is executed in exactly the described form, you end your turn with a face up Thousand-Eyes. That means the field is locked, nothing can be attacked or flipped aside from
Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and you can suck up more monsters on your next turn.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this deck just won't stop sucking.
There are concerns from some that this deck might be the next Chaos—the deck that dominates the format. Those concerns may be well-deserved, as TER Lock is an incredibly powerful strategy. The deck can employ a full retinue of support monsters, from the staple powerhouses like
Breaker the Magical Warrior and
D. D. Warrior Lady to more taste-driven selections like
Exiled Force and
Morphing Jar.
The spells are standard powerhouse staples with a thick emphasis on the lynchpin spells necessitated by the deck's focus, including three copies of
Metamorphosis and three copies of
Scapegoat. It's also packing a copy of
Wave-Motion Cannon which can distract an opponent, put pressure on them, or in the case of a lock, actually win the game.
The trap cards run in the deck are also a mix of high-powered standbys that have become hallmarks of the format. The big four are all here:
Mirror Force,
Torrential Tribute,
Call of the Haunted, and
Ring of Destruction. But a pair of
Waboku are also present. While I don't often like the card (and generally view it as overrated), it's certainly justified here, allowing the player to turn a Thousand-Eyes face down and leave it that way without immediately throwing it away.
The deck opens slowly and topdecks sort of poorly, meaning it's weak in the first and last few turns of a game. But it can thoroughly dominate the early and mid-game, controlling the field entirely and leaving an opponent with no answers to its monster destruction engine. It can also do some neat tricks. For instance, it's possible to play
Heavy Storm when a Thousand-Eyes has a monster equipped from a previous turn in order to clear it off and use the sucking effect again when
Tsukuyomi isn't available.
It's a dangerous deck, and it's bound to see more play in the future. Whether or not it will be the be-all and end-all some believe it might be is up in the air, but it's definitely a solid choice in the current metagame. The Top 8 should be a telling experience for this hot new potential-packed archetype!