We’ve certainly been here before. In September of last year, Jose Arocho was devastating his opponents at Shonen Jump Championship Boston with a cutting-edge build of Cyber-Stein OTK. Now, he’s back in the spotlight with an updated version of yet another proven deck that could make a big impact: Trooper Return. 

The trick? Chain Disappearance. With Card Trooper being so popular and so important to many of the top decks today, Chain Disappearance is an incredibly powerful tech card. It also stops Sangan, Destiny Hero - Malicious, Treeborn Frog, Destiny Hero - Fear Monger, Destiny Hero - Disk Commander, and even Scapegoat, as well as a long list of slightly less popular cards. But in a deck with copies of three Return from the Different Dimension, the card becomes even cooler.

Chain Disappearance can be used on your own monsters as well as your opponent’s, so Arocho can summon his own Card Trooper, activate its effect, remove it from the field with Disappearance, and then strip his opponent’s hand and deck of all of their copies. It’s a big card investment, but it can really slow down the current Monarch and Destiny Hero decks that are somewhat dependent on Trooper.

Then, Return from the Different Dimension can bring the Trooper Arocho removed back into the game. From there he can use its effect again, sending a total of six cards to his graveyard from a single Trooper in one turn. While the move requires a Return or Dimensional Fissure to begin with, making a second Return difficult at this point, it does load quite a few hits for Skull Lair and Bazoo, and it turns Return into an early game card in some situations. Neat trick, and it’s one Arocho often follows up with Machine Duplication for game.

Yes, the deck is running Machine Duplication. Sacrificing the Smashing Grounds that Emon Ghaneian used in his version of Trooper Return (which won Shonen Jump Championship Houston), Arocho runs the now-dreaded Machine Duplication instead. The result is that a fast deck becomes even faster. Machine Duplication and Card Trooper combo to create a sudden offensive press that can win games for almost any deck. But in this one, it also sends nine cards to the graveyard, often enough to destroy two monsters with Skull Lair. Machine Duplication doesn’t just speed up the deck’s damage dealing capabilities: it enhances the control elements of the deck as well.