Despite the focus on competition here today, every serious duelist has top picks in their mind for April 1. Many have already done significant testing for the next Advanced format list, and nearly everyone has a strongly formed opinion on what will be dominant. I set out before the player meeting this morning in an effort to speak to fifteen duelists from all walks of success, asking them the burning question of the day: “What decks gain power on April 1?”
Here’s what Long Beach’s best had to say!
“Scapegoat gains power, that’s what gains power! Seriously, aggro gets so good. All the stall stuff that’s being run right now lasts two turns in the next format. You can stall for two turns and then you just get attacked over and over.”—Simon Choy, Level 3 judge
“Dark World. Graceful Charity? Dark World’s going to get a lot better.”—Ryan Hayakawa, two-time Shonen Jump Champion
“I’m inclined to agree.”—Matt Laurents of Team Comic Odyssey, grinning in response to Hayakawa’s statement.
“Dark World.”—Wilson Luc, another Shonen Jump Champ, echoing the sentiments of his teammates.
“I would have to say the Wu-Lords, Goldd and Sillva. Probably Strike Ninja Return with it.”—Cory Burkhart, who moved here from Michigan last April, now representing the legendary RIW Hobbies.
“Dark World!”—Carlos Santiago and Sang Bui, in near-unison. Sang went on to explain: “Graceful Charity is what, an instant plus-three? A plus-two. It’s an instant plus-two for that deck.”
“They need to like, errata that or something. Everybody’s gonna be playing it!”—Carlos Santiago.
“Dark World and Monarch Control, like, Zaborgs. The next format is all about field control, not so much hand control or hand advantage. No good player is going to attack into Mirror Force, so field advantage is going to be the most important thing.”—Lance Leonhardt, strategy writer and member of Team Enigma
“I . . . I don’t know. I haven’t even seen the list yet!”—Eric Wu, returning to Shonen Jump Championship competition after a long six months on the sidelines.
“The only thing that really gets a big boost is Dark World. People are saying that after a while Dark World is going to flop out—it’s not gonna flop out. There are so many ways to run the deck, and all you have to do is find that right way to run it. It’s going to be big.”—Chris Mooseman, respected online duelist
“What gains power? Dark world. As soon as I saw that Graceful Charity, I was like, nooo, noooooo! I think Dark World is going to be the number-one cookie cutter deck. Winning is fun!”—Kelli Wightman, local competitor
“Goldd. Dark World gets to be so good, they need to errata Graceful Charity to be a cost or something. Spirit Reaper goes from being an automatic two or three per deck to being like, ‘Do I even want to turn this to attack?’ Goldd just wrecks it. And drawing five off of Graceful is just amazing.”—Paul Levitin, winner of Shonen Jump Los Angeles
“The next format? I think it’ll still be Monarch and Frog, but the newest one will be removal. Enemy of Justice has a trap and magic card that removes anything. What’s it called? Yeah Macrocosmos! It kills Frog, it kills Dark World. I thought Dark World would be good, but it’s not. Dark World will be good for a month, but then Enemy of Justice will blow it away. D. D. Survivor ultimate rares are going to go up in price.”—Emon Ghaneian, leader of Team Naruto and winner of two side event Des Volstgalphs
“Dark World, definitely. I can take my deck right now, drop one Pot of Avarice for Graceful Charity, and it gains a lot of power. No Dark Hole is so good for this deck.”—Jorge Fabian Pina Lizarraga, Mexico National Champion and Finalist at the 2005 World Championship
“Graceful Charity helps Dark World so much. And the lack of Dark Hole is so good. Sure, there’s Mirror Force, but you’re playing just going to get rid of it anyway.”—Kirk Leonhardt, leader of Team Enigma and Shonen Jump Los Angeles Top 8 competitor
An overwhelming landslide for Dark World, with only a little dissention! With Dark Hole out of the format and Graceful Charity back in, Dark World will gain a ton of draw power and speed. Though the deck can still topdeck poorly, or draw into opening hands clogged with big tribute monsters, that hasn’t stopped the dueling world’s best from viewing Goldd and Sillva as the wave of the future. With all of the recent hubbub surrounding Treeborn Frog, the enthusiasm for Dark World was actually sort of surprising. Its potential inconsistency has to lead to its taking some heat in many Internet communities over the past weeks.
That said, some of the people I spoke to had some excellent reasoning. Dark World really can punish Spirit Reaper, which has no doubt been a defining card of the format. In addition, the sheer variety of approaches that one can take when building the deck makes it very strong, as Chris Mooseman observed. Deck Devastation Virus with plenty of big Fiends to back up the theme? Giant Trunade with blazingly fast OTK-like plays? Beatdown with tricks, Skill Drain with graveyard effect monsters . . . they’re all viable methods of harnessing the powers of the dark realm and its macabre denizens. That level of flexibility is going to make the deck hard to nail down.
Perhaps Emon Ghaneian’s comments are the most interesting. Macro Cosmos, an upcoming card in Enemy of Justice, removes cards from play that would be sent to the graveyard. Combined with D. D. Survivor, it can create a deck strategy that gets free tributes, burns up opponent’s Sakuretsu Armors and Smashing Grounds, and generates massive field and card advantage. If Dark World does prove to be dominant, Macro Cosmos could be the next big thing: Goldd and Sillva can’t be summoned to the field with their effects if they’re removed from play first, and that’s exactly what Cosmos is capable of.
There you have it! Fifteen duelists have given their perspective on the future, and with Round 1 about to begin, we turn our sights to the present. Seatings have just been posted for the player meeting, and the competition is about to kick off!