Fortunately, I re-learned a valuable lesson from this entire experience: people really hate it when you take their stuff and either refuse to give it back or give it back in worse condition than you took it. In fact, this is the concept that I had in mind when building my Synchro Dude deck from Baltimore. People hated the fact that I was taking their stuff and turning it into free cards and giant monsters for me, and in the case where I did have to give something back (like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter for instance), it was now useless to them.

After Baltimore, I realized that while my deck had an incredible long game, it lacked the ridiculous speed that makes Teleport Dark Armed Dragon so difficult to play against. The singular thing that kept me alive and winning in that matchup was the fact that I could foul up opponents’ best laid plans with a simple Mind Control. In fact, that one card probably did more damage to my opponents throughout the day than the entirety of the monsters in my extra deck. Stealing an opposing monster in order to turn it into cards or other monsters is so good that I’ve started jokingly calling Mind Control a 4000 point burn spell owing to how enticing it is to dump half your life to Solemn Judgment to negate it.

I realized then that what I really wanted was to combine the Teleport Dark Armed Dragon strategy with Synchro Dude. They share a lot of goals in common, so it shouldn’t be too difficult, right? It was a lot harder than I would have expected, and I’m still not sure I’ve got the whole thing right. I’d also very much like my 8-key back. But here it is:

Monsters: 19
3 Destiny Hero - Malicious
2 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
3 Krebons
2 Psychic Commander
2 Cyber Valley

I’ve been very hesitant to use Solemn Judgment over the past couple of months owing to the extremely steep cost. Normally, I’m OK with giving up half my life points to play it, even if it happens to cost me 4000, since I’m usually confident that using it will shut down my opponent’s plan for the turn. Since the advent of Synchro monsters and the Teleport Dark Armed Dragon deck, that’s not necessarily true. Ever. Basically, if you’re going to use Solemn Judgment, you want to make sure that your opponent can’t still put a lethal amount of damage on the field and take you out despite losing whatever you negated. It’s a tall task in a format where multiple Synchro monsters can be summoned at the drop of a hat, but based on the recent results from Seattle, it seems that the most successful players think that Solemn Judgment is not only a risk worth taking, but one that they can handle. I’ve had plenty of experience with the card myself, so for the time being I’m willing to defer to the judgment of the people who keep making Day 2 in this format and give Solemn Judgment a try.

I still think that one of the biggest problems with current Teleport Dark Armed Dragon builds is that they’re lacking in mid- to late-game removal options for both Synchro monsters and regular monsters as well. I’ve seen so many Lightsworn decks win because Phoenix Wing Wind Blast can’t be played as soon as it’s drawn, and more often, Lightsworn wins because Wing Blast can’t destroy all their monsters! Just bouncing Celestia, Lightsworn Angel to the top of the deck isn’t going to do you any good if Jain, Lightsworn Paladin and Wulf, Lightsworn Beast are going to beat you to death anyway. Lightning Vortex is a normal spell with a discard cost that can wipe every face-up monster your opponent controls. In short, it’s just about perfect for this deck. Pitch Malicious, wipe your opponent’s field, summon Colossal Fighter, and win! In fact, it flat-out punishes anyone who played Solemn Judgment earlier in the game by leaving that player open to that game-winning strike he or she had hoped to avoid. And what if that player wants to negate it? Just use one of your Solemn Judgment cards. You can even sneak it by an opposing counter trap if you’re lucky enough to hit it with Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude since Solemn can only negate the activation of spell cards . . . not the activation of a spell card’s effect!

The biggest weakness of this deck as opposed to the original Synchro Dude build is that you don’t have Grave Squirmer. Frankly, Grave Squirmer is amazing at any point in the game, but without Junk Synchron to re-use it (read Curtis’s article!) and the new focus on speed, Grave Squirmer no longer fits. In fact, the entire Tuner lineup of the old deck no longer fits, so I’m losing the position-change power of Jutte Fighter and the free monsters from Junk Synchron in favor of battle tricks from Psychic Commander and access to Emergency Teleport. Frankly, the addition of Emergency Teleport is huge. The difference between playing without Teleport and playing with it is something you really have to experience to understand. Teleport is what allows players to dump multiple Synchros on the field in a single turn in combination with any theft cards or Destiny Hero - Malicious.

Speaking of theft cards, part of the challenge in playing this deck is figuring out exactly when to activate Mind Control. There are a handful of big reasons to use one. First, you might need to remove a monster threat like Stardust Dragon or Dark Armed Dragon. You can only do the first if you also have Cyber Valley or some way to get rid of the Dragon once you’ve stolen it. It’s easier to get rid of monsters that have potentially self-destructive abilities like Dark Armed Dragon. Second, you can use it to steal an opponent’s monster for its effects or as Synchro material. Breaker the Magical Warrior and Dark Grepher are fun to take as you can frequently do both.

Finally, you might want to steal a monster just to get it out of the way of the rest of your attackers. I can’t begin to tell you how many duels I’ve won because I had Mind Control to move my opponent’s last set monster (usually something like Spirit Reaper, Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, or Gladiator Beast Hoplomus) out of the way so that my monsters could attack. You can even do it if your opponent is at low life points and has a non-Thought Ruler Synchro monster in the way of your Synchro monster. In short, Mind Control is an extremely flexible card that can bail you out of a variety of situations. You’ll be very happy whenever you see it in your hand.

—Jerome McHale