One of the decks I was interested in seeing this weekend was Phoenix / Zombies. A dominating deck in the era of Thousand-Eyes Lock, the strategy was shelved by the arrival of Cyber Dragon, the first monster in history to make Vampire Lord a relative waste. Despite the valiant efforts of some players to support Vampire Lord with Enemy Controller and Rush Recklessly, the deck just didn’t perform like it did before. The days of Eric Wu’s Phoenix/Zombie domination at SJC Los Angeles seemed to have died out.

Monsters: 20

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Hand of Nephthys

1 Magician of Faith

2 Snipe Hunter

3 Pyramid Turtle

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

3 Cyber Dragon

3 Vampire Lord

1 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys

Spells: 13

2 Brain Control

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Confiscation

1 Shrink

1 Book of Life

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Graceful Charity

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Smashing Ground

1 Last Will

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 8

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Ring of Destruction

Yes, that is a Shrink that you see there! Where Rush Recklessly and Enemy Controller failed, it seems that Shrink is succeeding. It’s just one of the surprises that this deck is packing, and, while it doesn’t innovate in major ways, the subtle improvements Novoa has implemented appear to be paying off.

The first is the pair of Snipe Hunter: they’re probably the most drastic source of improvement in the archetype’s performance. One of the challenges this deck type faces is what to do when you draw into a Vampire Lord or Phoenix. The deck doesn’t aim to normal summon those monsters through tributes: the whole concept is dependent upon special summoning them from the deck, through Hand of Nephthys or Vampire Lord. Tributing them is a waste of your strategic potential. The pair of Snipe Hunters lets Novoa discard those extra tributes and turn them into valuable field control, setting them up for recursion via Book of Life, Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted while also putting away monsters that would threaten Vampire Lord, or remove from play effects that would hamper Phoenix. Treeborn Frog also helps keep drawn copies of the tribute monsters from becoming poor investments or remaining as dead cards.

Two Gravekeeper’s Spy do the same, providing easy tribute fodder while also teching Gadgets thanks to their “big fat defense.” They have the added bonus of creating even more problems for the opponent’s removal (no one wants to waste a Smashing Ground on a special summoned Spy), and they provide a free partner for Hand of Nephthys. While many would play this deck with a Giant Rat engine to support the Pyramid Turtles, Novoa’s invested more of his card slots in pure defense, and that’s worked for him.

A pair of Brain Controls helps even out the deck’s draws, another measure to balance out the chance of drawing tribute monsters. They also help the deck put forth unpredictable offensive pushes, which it can restabilize from thanks to all of the defensive cards: you don’t really care that you’re losing a card and giving the opponent’s monster back if you’ve got Spy or Pyramid Turtle set.

The trap lineup is interesting, because it features a surprisingly common choice here today: two Bottomless Trap Hole and two Sakuretsu Armor. With Gadgets being a popular read it’s almost odd that Bottomless has been so common here today, but clearly, duelists still feared Monarchs and were taking Dimensional Fissure very seriously. For Novoa, Bottomless Trap Hole performs a lot of expected functions, but it’s also yet another line of defense against Cyber Dragon.

Minus the Shrink (which can easily be subbed out for a comparable spell), this deck is an easy one to adapt to your own style. Hopefully Novoa’s streak continues, or that he can at least win three of his next four matches and make it to the Top 8. A Top 8 spot for this strategy would completely revamp an archetype that deserves to be recognized as a viable choice in the current North American metagame.