A few weeks ago at Shonen Jump Championship Philadelphia, Zaki Said revolutionized Dark Armed Dragon decks. His turbo build powered him all the way to an 8-2 finish at that event, and though he lost out on a spot in the Top 16 due to poor tiebreakers he set a trend that Chris Bowling would follow up on. Bowling made Day 2 at Shonen Jump Championship Honolulu with a similar strategy, and then went on to play a variant of Dark Armed Dragon turbo at the World Championships last week in Berlin.

Now, Said is back to finish what he started, and this time he’s drawn on Eastern influences to help him tech against the expected metagame. After researching the top decks from Japan’s East Nationals he found inspiration in the Dark Armed Dragon builds being played on the other side of the Pacific, and the result is the deck’s 4-0 record here today. Check it out . . .

2 Destiny Hero - Malicious

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter

1 Destiny Hero - Plasma

1 Phantom of Chaos

1 Dark Grepher

1 Strike Ninja

1 Sangan

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

1 Jinzo

1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger

1 D.D. Crow

1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

Spells: 14

3 Destiny Draw

2 Allure of Darkness

2 Reinforcement of the Army

1 D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation

1 Heavy Storm

1 Brain Control

1 Premature Burial

1 Monster Reborn

1 Scapegoat

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 8

1 Crush Card Virus

1 Trap Dustshoot

1 Torrential Tribute

3 Solemn Judgment

1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

Many pieces of Said’s deck read like any other Dark Armed Dragon build. Three copies of Dark Armed, two Destiny Hero – Malicious cards, Dark Grepher, and Phantom of Chaos are all accounted for, as well as the expected retinue of Destiny Heroes to complement Elemental Hero Stratos. The draw suite is typical as well: three copies of Destiny Draw and two Allure of Darkness cards are fueled by two copies of Reinforcement of the Army. No Trade-In cards, nothing fancy.

In fact, the entire spell list is pretty typical, with one copy of D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation played alongside the expected Limited lineup: Heavy Storm, Brain Control, Monster Reborn, and all the usual suspects. The traps are similarly predictable: Crush Card Virus takes a starring role alongside Trap Dustshoot, Torrential Tribute, and three copies of Solemn Judgment. But the trap lineup has been diversified with plenty of once-offs, an underlying theme in the deck’s design. Said runs just one Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and one Bottomless Trap Hole, a decision that’s mirrored in the deck’s monster ranks.

And it’s the monsters where this deck innovates. By playing just one copy of cards like Destiny Hero - Plasma and Dark Grepher, Said has room to fit a ton of tech picks. At the forefront of his borrowed tech sits the one-time devastator of formats, Cyber Dragon.

“Cyber Dragon is crazy against Gladiator Beasts, sir!” explained Said with tremendous enthusiasm. “If they go first and set Solemn Judgment, they can’t really flip it to negate Cyber Dragon, so they have to take a hit. It runs over everything they have.” Indeed, with Gladiator Beast Hoplomus seeing ever-decreasing play, the Gladiators have lost the one monster they used to have that could have stood up to Cyber Dragon. Nothing they normal summon can even match it in attack mode, and Gladiator Beast Laquari needs to be special summoned just to make a trade in battle: not what Gladiators aim to do.

Should an opponent make a common opening like Elemental Hero Stratos or Gladiator Beast Laquari in attack mode, Cyber Dragon utterly punishes them. The impact isn’t a simple destroyed monster: losing a card is just the beginning. The real problem comes on the following turn when the opponent is still facing a 2100 ATK monster and needs to play a removal card in order to force through an attack. Matt Peddle’s done a lot of writing lately about how important the battle phase is to the current format, and a single monster that can just take it away from you in its entirety is a deadly thing.

Said also plays Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, yet another card that’s great against Gladiator Beasts. Like Cyber Dragon it manipulates the battle phase, interfering with attackers that would otherwise survive, often to tag out intro bigger plays. Ryko also has the advantage of being a main-decked answer to a variety of problem cards, eliminating Solemn Judgment before it can cause trouble, taking out Royal Oppression cards that would restrict Said from playing his Dark Armeds, or eliminating Gladiator Beast Heraklinos. While Ryko’s doing that it’s also filling the graveyard with Dark monsters and fodder for Phantom of Chaos.

Should Ryko or anything else fill the graveyard past the magical three Dark monsters Said relies on, he can always summon Strike Ninja to reduce the count of Darks to a more manageable number. Strike Ninja is the perfect monster to send after weaker pieces of field presence like Gladiator Beast Bestiari, dodging Bottomless Trap Hole or threatening to set a Gladiator player back a turn. It sets up D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation really nicely as well, often creating plays with Phantom of Chaos.

Right now Said is 4-0, and no one is more surprised than Said himself: “I knew it was good, but I didn’t know it was this good!” With an undefeated record halfway through this event, he’s broken through to the top tables filled with Gladiator Beast decks, and since that’s his best matchup he might have a strong chance to make Day 2.

Even if he doesn’t, his work incorporating Japanese tech like Cyber Dragon and Ryko into a North American Dark Armed Dragon build presents several great ideas: concepts we can learn from and apply to other builds in the future.