Great manners, great organization, and even better dueling skills have always set Comic Odyssey in a league of their own. The premier team in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game, they started high level competition as we now define it today. Another one of their hallmarks has always been a sense of individuality in deck building. Personal tech, wildly innovative decks from a few of their players, and individualized specialization have been integral to the team’s success.

While Laurents was fast to give credit for the deck to Luc, who has a longstanding history of creating innovative strategies for Comic Odyssey, Luc was in turn eager to give shoutouts to Emon Ghaneian and Jae Kim for their help in developing it. So, what did an amalgamation of some of the best deck builders and duelists in the world come up with?

Cuing off of the popularity of the single copies of Royal Decree from Shonen Jump Columbus, and Robert Morgan’s Top 8 qualification with a pair, the entire team is running Decree in triplicate. They’ve moved all-in, casting all other traps to the wind in favor of a whopping seventeen spells. Even more surprising is the lack of protection: a single Confiscation provides pre-negation, but the deck completely foregoes Magician of Faith as well. It’s the first of several surprising (and potentially potent) decisions that CO has made here.

With the threat of Sakuretsu Armor and Mirror Force hopefully eliminated, the deck’s monster spread is set to capitalize on advantage of field presence. Three Mystic Tomato, one more than even Dale Bellido is playing here today, keep monsters around and apply constant pressure to the opponent, but that’s not the biggest surprise. With the ability to attack freely, Laurents, Luc, and Hayakawa are planning to take full advantage of the insane potential contained in Asura Priest. They’re running a pair, and are banking on it to generate massive field advantage and equalize games they fall behind in. Losing because Decree didn’t come early? Flip it when it hits, drop Asura Priest, and level the playing field by wiping away all of the opponent’s monsters. Nice.

Even spicier is the use of Creature Swap, a popular card here today for many teams and independent duelists. Swap the opponent three Mystic Tomato and gain instant field and card advantage. You may lose Creature Swap and the Tomato, but you’ll gain a monster in return. Attack the Tomato and pull another monster to your side of the field. It’s an exchange of two cards in the long run for you, but the opponent loses their monster and you get to take a trip to the Tomato toolbox. Swap Spirit Reaper to simulate direct attacks: this deck is running three. Give ‘em Asura Priest and they get nothing, as it bounces back to your hand at the end of the turn. Creature Swap is intensely synergistic with this strategy, and while it’s being run all over the place today, no other deck uses it so effectively.

Like Dale Bellido, Comic Odyssey has opted to use a pair of Enemy Controller to replace traps that would normally be relied on to control the field. It brings bigger monsters into the range of Tomato’s 1400 ATK, destroys Spirit Reaper in the battle phase, and chains to the effects of Mobius and Zaborg to stave them off for a turn. They share another similarity with Bellido, too: they’re down to just one Smashing Ground. With Asura Priest providing Raigeki-like mass removal, and Creature Swap and Enemy Controller taking care of big monsters, Smashing Ground just isn’t all that important here. It’s a decision many are making today, opting for potential synergy over raw utility. Watch for this to be an important trend heading into Nationals two weeks from now.

With most duelists running eight or more traps, and relying heavily on those traps for field control, Comic Odyssey seems set to make an impact today. With Wilson Luc just barely falling short of what would have been his fifth Top 8 appearance at Shonen Jump Baltimore, today might finally be his day to return to the spotlight, and claim his place beside Theeresak Poonsombat as a five-time Top 8 finisher!