Fayetteville duelist Tom Pierce plays for Team Concept, and when he showed me his deck this morning I admit: I was unimpressed. At first glance it looked like a lot of other Counter Fairy decks I’ve scoffed at in the past — I briefly confused it for Fatty Fairy. But three rounds and one undefeated record later, I took a look at Pierce’s decklist and found that my initial impression couldn’t be further from the truth. Pierce’s deck isn’t even really a Counter Fairy variant — it’s a dedicated Fairy deck built around Sky Scourge Invicil. Check it out . . . 

Three copies of Honest, two Majestic Mech – Ohka, three Herald of Orange Light, two Bountiful Artemis, and one Harvest Angel of Wisdom help this deck make the all-important tribute of a Light Fairy monster for Sky Scourge Invicil. Once that happens, all spell cards are negated: no Emergency Teleports, Destiny Draws, Allures, Charges, or Card of Safe Returns allowed. Two copies of Freed the Brave Wanderer capitalize on the deck’s adherence to a Light monster lineup, while three copies of Thunder King Rai-Oh and one Asura Priest allow for even more extraordinary things to be done with Honest.

Because of the deck’s strategic focus it runs very few spell cards; Pierce is playing only four big power spells plus two copies of Shrink. The Shrinks help him maintain the field presence he needs to tribute for Sky Scourge Invicil, while also protecting Bountiful Artemis — a card that can accelerate Pierce through his deck to a copy of Invicil, since it can’t be searched otherwise.

Since the deck will so often restrict its own ability to play spells it tends to rely on traps more often than other decks. Three Solemn Judgment, three Dark Bribe, and two Divine Wrath shut down key cards in this format while also comboing nicely with Bountiful Artemis. The Wraths also give Pierce a way to use dead cards such as an extra copy of Invicil, an unneeded Herald of Orange Light, or an inopportune Majestic Mech – Ohka. The Heralds perform a similar function, and the result is a deck that can make strong use of the lower utility cards it’s running even when they’re drawn at the wrong times.

With all those anti-removal cards in the deck, Pierce might as well protect something. He uses the protection from the Solemns and Dark Bribes to support two copies each of Royal Oppression and Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror, both of which are huge tech in the TeleDAD and Zombie matchups. The use of those two cards alongside three copies of Thunder King Rai-Oh actually makes this deck vaguely reminiscent of Stun, though it’s not packing Doomcaliber Knights and doesn’t adhere to that deck’s relatively well-established play patterns. Still, it has many of the same capabilities, and like the Japanese original, Pierce’s creation hovers in a space between Beatdown and precise control.

Mirror Force, Magic Cylinder, and two copies of Compulsory Evacuation Device round out the deck’s trap lineup. Mirror Force is superb in a deck that can so easily negate Stardust Dragon’s effect, while Compulsory Evacuation Device provides similar Synchro hate. Magic Cylinder is a game-winning card in today’s tournament too; pretty much everybody is still running Solemn Judgment, so a lot of Pierce’s wins will often be as easy as waiting to see a Solemn, making one attack, and then flipping Magic Cylinder later.

The use of Herald of Orange Light calls for some specific discussion. While there are plenty of targets that can get stomped through its negation effect, there are two big monsters that Pierce finds himself using it against the most: Dark Armed Dragon and Thought Ruler Archfiend. Playing it against Dark Armed Dragon is quite obvious: Herald will negate the Dragon’s destruction effect and destroy it, saving one card from being destroyed while costing the opponent another. But it’s a bit more nefarious against Thought Ruler, which remains the most commonly-played Synchro in today’s metagame. When Thought Ruler is targeted by something like Compulsory Evacuation Device and the Thought Ruler’s controller pays 1000 life points to negate the Device, Herald can be used to make sure Thought Ruler hits the dirt. It’s a big commitment, but it’s often a game-winning move, and it’s one Pierce noted as being relatively common.