The Champions: Mike Gonzales

Shonen Jump Championship Orlando is now in the past, and it’s been quite some time since we’ve seen so many original builds make the Top 8 at a Shonen Jump!

Ever since the first Shonen Jump Championship, winning decklists have been published right here on Metagame.com, and players have been able to see and test the best decks in the format. As such, the decks that are initially the strongest quickly proliferate across the North American dueling scene.

A player who can accurately predict the metagame and build a strong deck against nearly every possible matchup can often take a Top 8 spot by surprise. The deck we’re looking at today is one of these, and by dissecting it, we can learn how similar success can be achieved.

Let’s rewind to SJC Austin, the second tournament of the current Advanced format. With Monarchs and Toolbox decks predicted by most to make up a majority of the field, we saw five of the Top 8 succeed with strong builds of those two strategies. Following behind them were two unique decks: Matt Stille’s Gearfried build was able to surprise a number of opponents, and Kevin Donnelly’s Cyber-Stein was one of the strongest and most consistent OTK builds the format has seen. But one of the decks that wound up doing better than both of those was a heavily-teched strategy played by Mike Gonzales:

Monsters—21

3 Hydrogeddon

1 Sangan

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

3 Cyber Dragon

2 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magician of Faith

1 Jinzo

1 Cyber-Stein

1 Treeborn Frog

Spells—13

1 Smashing Ground

1 Scapegoat

1 Premature Burial

1 Book of Moon

1 Brain Control

2 Enemy Controller

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Rush Recklessly

1 Graceful Charity

Traps—7

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Mirror Force

2 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Magic Cylinder

1 Torrential Tribute

The best word to describe this deck is “safe.” Most cards in this deck were useful on their own, and there aren’t many cards that did not work in a top-decking situation. That led to some very consistent draws for Gonzales. Believing that the field would include plenty of Lazaro’s Monarch decks and Warrior Toolboxes, Gonzales built his deck to take down small monsters like Dekoichi and Apprentice Magician that would normally lock up the field. Hydrogeddon is the primary actor here: beating up on little guys is what this molecular dinosaur does best. It destroys Apprentice Magician and Mystic Tomato pretty easily, and even a flipped Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive finds itself hopelessly outdone.

Gravekeeper’s Spy was an exceptional card for a metagame where most players weren’t prepared for it. Dekoichi and Apprentice absolutely hated Spy’s 2000 DEF, especially when flipping them face up means bringing another one to the field. The Spies also blocked opposing attackers like Breaker the Magical Warrior, D. D. Warrior Lady, and D. D. Assailant. This left Gonzales with some breathing room in which to set up his big Monarchs, which would swoop down and take care of any beatsticks threatening his life points. By themselves, the Spies can generate significant damage over time and lock up the field when attacking isn’t ideal.

Jinzo is another card that locks down the field with style . . . and it does so aggressively, rather than defensively like the Spies did. When Gonzales played this deck his opponents wouldn’t have had many turns to destroy Jinzo before his or her life points ran out, especially when Cyber Dragon, Hydrogeddon, Cyber-Stein, and/or Premature Burial tagged along. Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial further increased the threat of Jinzo, and since many decks weren’t packing multiple Smashing Ground cards at this time, opponents needed multiple copies of Zaborg the Thunder Monarch or Old Vindictive Magician to survive.

Mobius the Frost Monarch was used to take advantage of a metagame full of Sakuretsu Armor cards and bluffs. At the time this deck was played, it wasn’t uncommon to see multiple cards set in attempts to scare off an opposing Cyber-Stein or to guard from Mystical Space Typhoon, and Mobius’s ability to open up an opponent’s field was invaluable. Mobius also backed up Gonzales’s own Cyber-Stein and Hydrogeddon, paving the way for these cards to do some major damage.

Back to locking down the field, Swords of Revealing Light is probably the best card in this regard. For three turns, the duel was Gonzales’s to control. With the amount of aggressive monsters and trap hate in this deck, the opponent would often run out of defensive options before Swords ran out of turns. Without the ability to attack, Gonzales’s opponents could find themselves locked out of a duel they might have won otherwise.

Rush Recklessly functioned in a similar fashion, turning the opponent’s battle phase in Gonzales’s favor in some dramatic ways. Factor in Hydrogeddon or D.D. Warrior Lady (both of which are tempting attack targets that can best Cyber Dragon with the aid of Rush) and the opponent can end up losing monsters when he or she didn’t expect to. Even better, they could end up giving you a free monster thanks to Hydrogeddon! Enemy Controller is less risky than Rush since it’s got a higher utility and can block attacks all on its own, but the payoff isn’t quite as high. Stopping opposing attacks allows Gonzales to take advantage of his opponent’s monsters regardless of its ATK, by turning them to a vulnerable defense position and hitting them with Hydrogeddon. When combined with Mobius the Frost Monarch or Jinzo, the possibility to do real damage fast was always present.

The key to success in the future is knowing why certain decks make the Top 8. Over the next couple of weeks I’ll look at the top decks from Shonen Jump Championship Orlando, and discuss which ones anticipated the metagame and succeeded as a result. If this is how you want to earn your fame as a Top 8 competitor, try to model yourselves after these players. Know the weaknesses of a metagame’s decks, and build one of your own that can consistently exploit them game after game.