As the Advanced format evolves, players have begun to find aggressive foils to the slower reactive decks and the fast and brutal Cyber-Stein decks in the environment. If you check out the coverage of SJC Anaheim, you will notice that long-time player Theeresak Poonsombat (also known as T) reached the Top 8 with an aggressive Dark World deck that runs two copies of Deck Devastation Virus. However, the slower control decks, such as the Monarch control deck using the Apprentice Magician engine, still came out on top at the Shonen Jump Championship.

The reason for this could be a lack of proactive decks, such as the one T ran. Still, this SJC shows what players should be looking into if they want to dominate their nearby premiere events. Proactive decks (or simply decks that are not reactive), could be the better choice right now if players continue to sit on Monarch control or rely more on reactive cards than threatening cards. Last week, I brought up the chain cards from Cyberdark Impact as a new supplement to an aggressive burn deck. While Accumulated Fortune is a very powerful card for such a deck, it is only one way to continue to draw more burn effects. This deck could still use a powerful burn spell that can deal almost 2000 damage on its own.

Oh, right! Cyberdark Impact has that sort of card too! It’s called Chain Strike.

While Accumulated Fortune is the card-drawing power for a new aggro burn deck, Chain Strike is the new damage source that makes that deck what it is. Until Cyberdark Impact, the only burst-damage spells and traps that could deal more than a solid 1000 damage consistently were Ceasefire, Magic Cylinder, and Ring of Destruction. All three of these cards could deal serious life point damage, but only two of them were chainable. The rest of the burn cards all depended on being used in combos with other cards in order to deal that kind of damage. Just Desserts and Ojama Trio ranked up there with Ceasefire in damage, but were only amazing when you had both of them together. Des Koala could deal around 1600-2000 damage, but only in the early game. Secret Barrel used to consistently deal almost 2000 damage on its own, but that was back when Scapegoat was allowed at three copies per deck.

Chain Strike regularly deals 1200 damage, and can commonly be used to deal 2000 to 2400 direct damage as a chainable quick-play spell card! Damage from a spell like that isn’t usually seen in fast cards. Typically, only Wave-Motion Cannon can replicate such destruction, and only after sitting on the field for something like fifty million turns.

Unlike Accumulated Fortune, which you are playing to hit a threshold of chain link 4, Chain Strike has you trying to set up chains as high as they can go. This means that you won’t be trying to activate cards just to hit a certain chain link. You want to create the largest chain you possibly can so that your Chain Strike will deal enough damage to either win you the duel or lower your opponent’s life so much that one or two damage-oriented topdecks will win it for you.

Here are a few typical scenarios in which you need to decide how to maximize damage with Chain Strike:

Your hand has Mystical Space Typhoon, Chain Strike, Accumulated Fortune, Ojama Trio, and two Des Koala cards. Your opponent has a monster in face-down defense and a card set right behind it. You know your opponent is running a Monarch control deck practically identical to the one that won SJC Anaheim. What is your play?

This play appears deceptively easy, but it’s not really as simple as it looks. In this case, you have the Des Koala cards that you want to maximize, but your hand really encourages you to set everything you can. Unfortunately, this also encourages your opponent to play out his or her cards to make you clear your back row of potential burn. One Des Koala definitely needs to be set, however.

Your opponent can have a couple of options set: Apprentice Magician backed up by Sakuretsu Armor, or Scapegoat, or Mystic Tomato and the two mentioned spell or trap cards as the set back row card are the most likely possibilities. The idea for the opponent here is to drop a Monarch on turn 2. If he or she doesn’t have this optimal draw, then it is likely that the set monster is a Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, which means that the opponent’s tempo is likely to get wrecked by him or her even starting a chain link during the next turn. The opponent might lose any advantage, but your hand is going to be refueled and his or her field can be filled up quickly.

First of all, the Mystical Space Typhoon should be set face down. Do not try to trigger the opponent’s face-down card during your turn. The only way that this play can go haywire is if the opponent’s set card is Mystical Space Typhoon, since the rest of his or her plays are not going to be played if you just set cards. Your own Mystical Space Typhoon will be played in response to the opponent’s first action next turn in order to encourage that card to be flipped up if it’s chainable to the action. Next, set the rest of your spell and trap cards. You’ll have four set spell or trap cards and a set Des Koala.

The set four back row cards for you may keep your opponent from summoning Zaborg the Thunder Monarch, because you could easily chain to its effect with a Bottomless Trap Hole or a Torrential Tribute. The latter card nullifies the Zaborg, allowing you to press for an attack. If the opponent flip summons a Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, don’t activate anything. Wait to see if he or she tries to summon a Monarch. Otherwise, you’ll reveal all of your face-down spells and traps, telling your opponent to press a tempo advantage with Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Instead, chain to the effect triggered by the summoning of the incoming Monarch. If the set monster is one of the two monsters I originally expected, don’t flip anything until your next turn, when you can chain to your own flip summoning of Des Koala.

If you chain to your own Des Koala, you should activate your effects in the following order (especially if the opponent set a second monster). Chain to your own Des Koala (chain link 1) with Mystical Space Typhoon targeting the opponent’s face-down card. If the opponent does not respond, then chain to the Mystical Space Typhoon (chain link 2) with Ojama Trio. Respond to the chain link 3 Ojama Trio with Accumulated Fortune at chain link 4, and then finish the chain with Chain Strike at chain link 5. This play also gives you a chance to draw a quick-play spell that you can use before flipping Chain Strike, increasing its damage thanks to your opening draw when you begin your turn.

Here’s a more complicated example:

You have two Chain Strike cards and a Poison of the Old Man in hand, a Just Desserts and Ceasefire set, and a Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive in face-down defense. Your opponent has a set monster and a set spell or trap. What do you do?

This is an easy play to understand if you know that Chain Strike can be activated even if you have another Chain Strike on the chain. Why? Because the wording on Chain Strike says that you can’t activate the card if there are multiple copies of the same card on the chain. In this case, when you activate your second Chain Strike, you have already activated the card and both will resolve normally. You simply can’t use any other Chain Strikes or cards that have the same limitations on how they can be activated.

The chain should go in this order:

Chain Link 1: Flip summoned Dekoichi the Battle-Chanted Locomotive’s effect.

Chain Link 2: Just Desserts (perhaps to trigger a Royal Decree from the opponent in response)

Chain Link 3: Poison of the Old Man

Chain Link 4: Ceasefire

Chain Link 5: Chain Strike

Chain Link 6: Chain Strike

The resulting damage (assuming there were no chains from the opponent) is 6700, and you’re still drawing a card from Dekoichi. That’s not bad at all, is it?

Chain Strike is indeed a powerful card, and its ability to deal 2000 damage as a single card makes it a potent option for a burn deck. Next week, I’ll be taking the two cards I looked at and constructing some deck options based on the chain concept. This will include some other new Cyberdark Impact cards, so you won’t want to miss it!