I like it when great minds agree with me. While I wouldn’t presume to place myself among greats, it’s reassuring when play trends and truly awesome players seem to follow the same disciplines and game principles that I promote. I’ve totally been digging Jae Kim’s decks lately.

Coming off of a narrow defeat in the finals of last week’s Shonen Jump Championship in Charlotte, Kim’s deck indicates an understanding and appreciation for some often overlooked game factors. Though he ran a Zombie/Earth build in Charlotte and took it all the way to the top, representing Team Savage, he’s opted to run a Chaos variant this weekend. The surprising (and fascinating) thing? The deck follows a lot of the core principals and decisions that guided the building of his Zombie/Earth deck last week.

Kim’s deck last week played two copies of Pyramid Turtle and a pair of Giant Rat. The result was a deck that was capable of outperforming virtually anything else in the field when it opened on turn 1. It also gave him unprecedented control over his field presence, allowing him to search out everything from Vampire Lord and Spirit Reaper to Injection Fairy Lily—it was, in two words or less, “a beating.” Defeated on Day 2 only by the seemingly-unstoppable Anthony Alvarado (and his incredible opening of Pot of Greed and Delinquent Duo), Kim’s incredible level of control over the games he played usually began with the first card he set and continued from there, thanks to his use of self-replacing monsters.

That’s one of the trends that Kim has transplanted into this deck: the use of monsters that give substantial amounts of board control, defending their own presence on the field. Mystic Tomato and Spirit Reaper do it in this deck through effects, while Berserk Gorilla flexes its massive ATK to scare off would-be attackers. While it’s easy to see that a single monster in-hand is a “one” to card presence whether it’s in the hand or on the field, what can be hard for some duelists to understand is the fact that if the monster gets blown off the field in battle it’s just become a “minus one” in the long run. Kim has built this deck with that in mind, and some of his other choices reflect that.

“My Body As a Shield is godly,” said Kim, when asked. “I’ve tested it and it’s really good.” My Body As a Shield and Book of Moon provide the deck with unprecedented defensive potential, counteracting big destruction effects like Tribe-Infecting Virus and Lightning Vortex on a wholesale basis. The cost attached to My Body As a Shield is often completely worth it, even just to save a single monster. But when it counteracts an opponent’s investment of a discarded card, or saves multiple monsters, it’s truly incredible.

Other interesting choices for the deck include Creature Swap and three copies of Dust Tornado, both of which are deckbuilding decisions duplicated from Charlotte. Creature Swap has the potential to be brutal, giving the opponent cards like Spirit Reaper, Mystic Tomato, and Sangan. Heck, it even makes the inclusion of Mystic Swordsman LV2 in the main deck turn from “arguably risky” to “completely justifiable due to synergy.” Very nice.

The deck’s tribute monsters are of note as well. In a field where one copy each of Jinzo and Airknight Parshath seems to be almost standard, Kim has instead chosen to go with a pair of Airknights and no Jinzo. It’s a smart decision that is reinforced by his use of the three Dust Tornado—anything that gets set will likely be blown through anyway. While bluffed sets could potentially hurt Kim, you’ve got to remember we’re talking about a beyond-veteran player. This deck needs some careful attention, but in experienced hands it can work wonders.

If Jae Kim can start a trend towards an increased emphasis on maintaining board presence, it’s definitely going to bring the game forward. While many duelists would complain that much of Yu-Gi-Oh! comes down to luck, the use of proper monsters can often mitigate that fact. Jae Kim has clearly realized that, and his recent decks may set a trend that has been a long time coming in the current environment.