Shonen Jump Championship Columbus has come and gone, and it left behind a strong Top 8 with a ton of excellent decks. Comparing SJC Houston to SJC Columbus, we see that the traits of a new format have held true once more. The initial Shonen Jump is full of aggressive, dominating decks that take advantage of the slow-paced control builds. This is simply because the slower-paced decks don’t yet know what to counter. They are quite broad, and unable to effectively control every possible aggro build. Although some will make it into the Top 8, it’s generally the aggressive decks that will win the tournament outright, since they’re able to rush over plenty of control-based decks.

However, once the leading decks become clear, the slower-paced builds can adjust accordingly and take down the leaders. We saw this when Flip Flop Control began taking over Warrior toolbox between the Chicago ‘05 and Los Angeles ‘05 Jumps, right before Bazoo/Return was unveiled by Team Scoop. Now take a look at the San Francisco ‘05 decklists. Not a single Bazoo/Return in sight, replaced by a handful of toolbox decks, a Monarch build, Flip Flop Control variants, and one man with an extremely large Fusion deck.

During this week and the next, I’ll be taking a look at this phenomenon, examining how one aggressive deck could take a Shonen Jump in such convincing fashion, then not appear anywhere for the next SJC as a strong control deck takes its place. The first part of this two-part series begins with Emon Ghaneian, whose aggressive Return from the Different Dimension deck made waves at Houston and led him to his third Shonen Jump Champion title. Here’s what he ran:

Monsters: 24

3 Bazoo the Soul-Eater

3 Card Trooper

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

3 Snipe Hunter

2 Cyber Phoenix

1 Jinzo

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Morphing Jar

3 Magical Merchant

3 Cyber Dragon

2 Exiled Force

Spells: 8

1 Dimension Fusion

1 Snatch Steal

1 Future Fusion

1 Heavy Storm

3 Smashing Ground

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 10

3 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Skull Lair

2 Sakuretsu Armor

Taking a look back to SJC Columbus in 2006, Emon took the tournament with what would become the top build of Chaos/Return for months to come. Though many had expected Shane Scurry’s Chaos/Return build from Baltimore to continue its dominance, it wasn’t until Emon took a much faster and more consistent build to the finish in Columbus that the deck was recognized as the top deck of its era.

In Orlando this year, Shane Scurry once again attempted to break the format with a Return build of his unique style. This one actually featured three copies of the then-un-Limited Dimension Fusion. For a long time it seemed as if Shane was on his way to another breakout win, but he fell just short, losing his final two rounds in Swiss play and barely missing the Top 8. In Houston, Emon refined Shane’s build to suit the format and to maintain its consistency through nine rounds. The deck was supposed to maintain card trades with the opponent without falling behind in either life points or resources available. At the same time, Emon wanted to slowly remove monsters from play, either through Bazoo the Soul-Eater or Skull Lair, allowing him to explode on any given turn with Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension.

The best thing about the deck is how it accomplishes all of these goals at once, without having to give up much to achieve them. Bazoo the Soul-Eater removes up to three monsters from play, which is usually enough to set up a game-shot a turn or two down the road. At the same time, when pumped up by his own effect, Bazoo can take down almost every monster currently seeing widespread play, including the devastating Monarchs.

Skull Lair also removes monsters from your graveyard from play while destroying monsters, and being a continuous trap gives it some extra power. Of course, Emon must be careful to flip Skull Lair before a chain is started or an attack declared so that he can use its effect before the resolution. Another nifty trick with Skull Lair is the ability to destroy your own monsters. While this won’t often come in handy, it can prove particularly useful when attempting a game shot with Return from the Different Dimension or when Emon has Card Trooper on his field. Destroying the Trooper lets Emon draw a card and possibly denies the effects of opposing Brain Control or Soul Exchange cards.

Card Trooper fuelled both these cards with plenty of monsters in the graveyard. With 24 monsters in his deck, Trooper would usually dump one or two monsters per Trooper effect for Emon. Knowing how Emon’s deck works, this would put incredible strain on the opponent to eliminate Card Trooper from the field, and since it draws a card when it’s destroyed on Emon’s side of the field, the opponent is going to want to take it down through battle or sacrifice it to the effects of Brain Control or Soul Exchange.

But battle isn’t going to be an easy task if Skull Lair is on the side of the Trooper, especially if it’s being constantly fuelled by Trooper and Magical Merchant effects. Magical Merchant dumps monsters in the graveyard while adding to deck consistency by ensuring there will sufficient spell and trap cards available to Emon. Gravekeeper’s Spy also speeds up the rate at which monsters go to the graveyard by searching more out to the field. These monsters can also press for extra damage or set up one of the tribute monsters Emon played.

These tribute monsters, in the form of Jinzo and Dark Magician of Chaos, are meant to be discarded to the graveyard by Snipe Hunter, Magical Merchant, or Morphing Jar rather than summoned by using monsters as a tribute. Both can be revived through Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted, but their primary duty will be to get removed from play to join the Return from the Different Dimension swarm. In doing so, their effects will often be the deciding factor in the Return tactic’s success.

Added into this mix are the effects of Cyber Phoenix, Exiled Force, and Snipe Hunter. Phoenix gives the deck some speed through its draw effect and protects the Machine-type monsters revived through Return from the Different Dimension from targeting effects. When accompanied by Jinzo, Machine-type monsters on Emon’s side of the field are virtually invincible. At this point, only Scapegoat can really prevent Emon from winning the game.

The latter pair of monsters aids the deck on three fronts. First, they eliminate opposing cards and force simplification on the field. In the case of Snipe Hunter, cards on both sides can be eliminated entirely in one turn. Second, they send monsters to the graveyard. Exiled Force sends itself there through its effect, and Snipe Hunter will likely discard monsters for its own cost. Snipe will also likely be destroyed as soon as possible by the opponent, feeding the graveyard with yet another monster. Finally, they provide strong utility when being revived by Return from the Different Dimension or Dimension Fusion. Both monsters can destroy opposing ones, eliminating the last defenses an opponent might have against Emon’s machines. Snipe Hunter can also take out spell and trap cards, making a deadly Return possible that much sooner. Finally, when brought back for the turn, Emon could use these monsters to destroy his own Card Troopers, which were also special summoned, and gain a valuable draw—all while fueling the graveyard with even more monster cards.

The spell and trap decisions for this line-up are very good. Three copies of Return from the Different Dimension and the lone Dimension Fusion allow for maximum OTK potential and a possible Return-toolbox. Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial allow the monsters sent to the graveyard through Card Trooper, Magical Merchant, or Snipe Hunter to be revived before they are removed from play. Three copies of Smashing Ground provide a strong consistency to the deck. Opposing monsters are sometimes insurmountable or risky to attack. In these scenarios, Smashing Ground gets them out of the way and allows Emon to attack directly or continue building his defenses. Sakuretsu Armor is included for the same reason.

Finally, Future Fusion is included in the deck for two reasons. The first is to fill the graveyard with plenty of monster cards straight from the deck by declaring Chimeratech Overdragon. Doing so can be risky, since everything Emon controls will be destroyed during his second turn after activation, but the payoff can be tremendously high if Emon is able to survive those turns and set up a Skull Lair or simply win the game outright. The second reason is to bring out a devastating monster in the form of either Cyber Twin Dragon or Cyber End Dragon. Both monsters can cause a lot of damage, and when sent to the graveyard, can fuel the effects of Skull Lair and Bazoo the Soul-Eater with themselves, as well as their Fusion material. Finally, since they have been Fusion summoned by the effect of Future Fusion, they can be revived by Call of the Haunted, Premature Burial, or Return from the Different Dimension, ending the game much more quickly and easily than ever before.

Consistency, synergy, and power of this magnitude hasn’t been seen since Emon’s first championship deck with Chaos/Return. It’s clear that the Team Overdose combination of Shane Scurry and Emon Ghaneian has produced some of the game’s best decks. You can expect to see this deck in Shonen Jump play for quite some time.