With the Metagame writers on vacation for two weeks, I was not able to follow up on Shonen Jump Championship San Jose promptly once I saw the results. However, discussion on the various Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG internet communities still reflects what debuted at that premiere tournament. It’s now 2007, and with mid-format changes—along with new tournament decks—on the horizon, this is bound to be one of the most exciting and challenging years to be playing at a Shonen Jump Championship.

SJC San Jose certainly had a major impact on the current format. Primarily, it saw the major debut of Chain Strike Burn, one of the newest major decks, taking some of the best chainable burn cards to be released and combining them with new support cards from Cyberdark Impact such as Chain Strike and Accumulated Fortune. The deck itself consistently wins in the first three turns, and is known to win as early as its second turn. The last time we’ve seen consistency like this was with the old Scientist/Turtle OTK deck from ages ago.

There was a little bit of buzz around Chain Strike Burn before the event took place. Some players knew that the deck was good and played their specific builds, while others—not wanting to work on the new deck but instead wanting to be ready should it take off at the event—played tech in the side deck against it. Chain Strike Burn also managed to win a major European event leading up to SJC San Jose. Despite this small bit of buzz, the deck came out explosively at San Jose, leading many players to impressive records and two players to the Top 8.

Now that the event is finished, and players know about Chain Strike Burn, a lot of important questions have risen. Which Chain Strike Burn deck is the better variant? Should you focus your attention on the list from Geoffrey Fisicaro, or the one that Tomas Mijares ran? Or maybe the no-monster version that players like Matt Murphy and Chris Moosman used is the best option. One major question comes out of this puzzle: how can a card like Morphing Jar, one of the most insanely powerful effects for a burn deck, actually be cut out of Chain Strike Burn? Why would players like Chris Moosman opt not to run the Jar, and how does this reflect on the Top 8 lists from SJC San Jose that did run it, now that everyone knows what the deck is all about?

During the discussion of the Chain Strike Burn deck leading up to San Jose, Matt Peddle’s logic about whether or not to run Morphing Jar (a blowout win card for the deck) ran in the minds of everyone in the forum throughout the deck construction phase.

So why waste card space playing Morphing Jar, Cyber Archfiend or Mirror Force? I understand the reasoning, but think of it like this: if your opponent has something to negate your Mirror Force or Morphing Jar, that's one more turn which he or she has to beat you.

This ultimately led Matt, Brodie, and Chris to run the no-monster variant of the deck. Was this the right choice for a tournament in which Chain Strike Burn was a relative unknown? Possibly, since the idea was talked about on various forums. The deck also garnered some success in Europe. However, enough people may have been ignorant of the deck that running Morphing Jar would be a safe bet. After all, if Morphing Jar triggers for you, you will almost certainly win the game unless your opponent is also a burn deck. The monster may as well say “FLIP: Deal a ton of damage to your opponent,” because the amount of burn you will net in five free cards is usually enough to win the game during your next turn.

This strategy paid off for players like Tomas Mijares, who took the risk and made it to Day 2 while flinging Chain Strike cards at their opponents. However, I personally would not recommend that you run Morphing Jar if you plan to play Chain Strike Burn. I still believe Matt Peddle’s logic: that running monsters in your deck just gives your opponent unnecessary outs in game 1 to justify the spot for Morphing Jar over another basic burn card. This rings especially true after SJC San Jose, now that Chain Strike Burn is a known threat in the Advanced format and players will expect Morphing Jar if you actually set a monster.

Another major reason why I feel Morphing Jar is a dangerous inclusion in the deck is because Exiled Force is still somewhat justifiable if you’re siding against Chain Strike Burn, simply because it is more efficient than a lot of other cards you could take out, and it also has the added bonus of being able to remove Ojama tokens from your field. Yeah, that may not sound very good, but when you’re siding out well over ten cards already, you have to justify leaving in some sub-optimal choices against Chain Strike Burn. Unfortunately for Chain Strike Burn players, Exiled Force is a much more appealing card than Apprentice Magician or Old Vindictive Magician, and can be justifiably kept in after game 1, making Morphing Jar a dangerous choice pre side-decking or post side-decking.

However, running Mecha-Dog Marron along with Morphing Jar could give players like Tomas Mijares an edge. It punishes players who waste removal such as Exiled Force on face-down monsters. They could be destroying a Morphing Jar, or they could be starting a chain for you while you also nail them for 1000 points of damage. After all, there are more Mecha-Dogs in the Chain Strike Burn deck than there are Morphing Jar cards. The odds certainly don’t favor you if you’re staring at a face-down monster on the Chain Strike Burn player’s side of the field. What would the right play be?

While the decision isn’t pleasant, you only have one right play against a deck with Mecha-Dog Marron and Morphing Jar if the Chain Strike Burn player sets a monster. You have to destroy it without flipping it face up if you can.

Try as I might to dismiss this play, I just can’t. Theoretically, if you can use Exiled Force to pop a Chain Strike Burn player’s face-down monster, you have to do it. While the odds say that the face-down monster is Mecha-Dog Marron, you’ll almost certainly lose if you hesitate to destroy the monster and your opponent flip summons Morphing Jar. At the same time, if you attack into Morphing Jar, you still give the Chain Strike Burn player a fresh hand.

This logic also only applies to game 1. In game 2, if the opposing Morphing Jar would help you find your counters to Chain Strike Burn, then the right play is to attack into Morphing Jar. Also, if you are running multiple copies of Royal Decree, then you definitely want to attack into Morphing Jar. As the Chain Strike Burn player, could you justify including Morphing Jar in your deck if it helps your opponent dig for answers to your overall game plan? Or do you use the threat of Morphing Jar to coax the opponent into attacking straight into a Magic Cylinder?

Looks like I’m raising more questions than I am answering. The bottom line is that Chain Strike Burn is a very complicated deck, and it leads to some very complicated decisions in the deckbuilding phase. Morphing Jar can be the ultimate win card for Chain Strike Burn, but at the same time it can also backfire and deal no damage to the opponent if neutralized. Then there’s the threat of it backfiring by helping the opposing player find a counter to it. However, if you think about how many of your opponent’s cards you make more powerful (such as Nobleman of Crossout and Zaborg the Thunder Monarch), then the best decision would be to cut Morphing Jar out of the deck. This is especially true now that people know about Chain Strike Burn. Despite its power, the flip effect monster is bound to backfire on Chain Strike Burn’s general game plan (i.e., reduce the opponent’s life to 0 fast) far too often.

Perhaps Chain Strike Burn isn’t your style of deck though. Thankfully, while countering the deck can be frustrating (since you need to draw into your key cards early before you are wiped out), there are a few options in handling it. One of these cards is Jinzo, a practical and powerful main deck solution to a lot of cards in the format. Check back next week when I talk about Jinzo’s role, along with a little more discussion on the cards best used to dismantle Chain Strike Burn.