It’s the end of Day One of the Yu-Gi-Oh! UK National Championships, and as in every tournament there are plenty of tech cards seeing play today. Cards that have not been given much thought in the past and old-school cards that seemed to have diminished from tournament play may come back to haunt opposition today. Here’s a sneaky peek at what cards are seeing a lot of play today, and could surprise us by bringing their owners to the top!

Exarion Universe

First, I want to look at what seems to be one of the most popular tech cards here today, Exarion Universe. Exarion is seeing an extremely high amount of play here at the National Championships, and word has spread of it as an option for the all-around Dark monster of choice (after the obvious Sangan, Breaker etc). Exarion Universe is being used here today mainly to counter flip-effect monsters which have a low defense, Scapegoat (if there are any), and to put a stopper on any plans that commonly played level 4 monsters may have planned, using its high defense to its advantage as well as its strong, steady attack.

Being a Dark monster also works in favor of Exarion, as it makes for good synergy with Strike Ninja and Chaos Sorcerer. Exarion Universe is a very versatile card, which makes predicting it anything but easy!

Night Assailant

Night Assailant has seen an amazing amount of play today! Finding its way into many decks, the simple explanation for the sudden imploration of Night Assailant is that it works well with flip effect monsters and Tsukuyomi. However not all decks utilize either of those, and so Night Assailant may be dead with no synergy if you just randomly throw it in somewhere. With lack of such cards as Dark Hole and mass removal in general, it seems apparent that you might want to splash the extra monster-form removal in Night Assailant, but remember, the card has many uses and forms of these uses, so you can always give it a try for yourself! Discarding for costs such as Lightning Vortex may seem like nothing when discarding Night Assailant, but you know, Night Assailant can win games by itself!

Mask of Darkness

Mask of Darkness got limited to one copy per deck due to the latest Forbidden list, and now, more than ever, I see the odd random person using a Mask of Darkness. Why? Simple. Mirror Force, Call of the Haunted, Torrential Tribute, and Solemn Judgment. These things all make Mask of Darkness that card that could get under your opponent’s skin very easily. Today Mask of Darkness shone through from a lot of other tech cards in managing to get an upper hand. It’s also Dark, which once again feeds Strike Ninja and Chaos Sorcerer. It makes sense that this card was limited to one copy per deck, as it seems to be all over this National Championship!