Back when Return from the Different Dimension first made an impact, I started toying with the idea of alternative Return decks. Team Scoop had just made waves with their Bazoo Return build at Shonen Jump Championship Los Angeles, but their deck offered brute force and little finesse. I quickly realized that if you used other means of removing cards from the game, you could drastically change the dynamics of the Return strategy, often creating advantages and opportunities that a simple Bazoo deck didn’t have access to.

Fast forward a few months, when Chaos Return took center stage. The primary advantage offered by this variant was Chaos Sorcerer, and the control and attack power that it brought to the table. With Shane Scurry’s dominating performance at Shonen Jump Championship Baltimore, everyone hopped on the bandwagon. Meanwhile, other Return variants fell by the wayside. Today, we’ll take a look at a deck that I tested for several months after Team Scoop swept Los Angeles. Here’s what this week’s submitter has to say about it.

Hi Jason,

I recently discovered the hidden potential behind the card Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade and I decided to make a deck out of it. I continually reuse the Phoenix Blade by removing two Warrior-type monsters from my graveyard whenever possible, and make full use of cards like Spell Shield Type-8 by discarding my Phoenix Blade. When there are enough Warriors in my removed from play pile, I activate Return from the Different Dimension for game.

—Tony J, Ontario, Canada

Here’s what Tony’s decklist looks like:

Divine Sword Return—40 Cards

Monsters: 21

1 Freed the Matchless General

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

3 Marauding Captain

2 Exiled Force

2 Don Zaloog

2 Command Knight

2 Cyber Gymnast

1 Mystic Swordsman LV2

1 Sangan

1 Magician of Faith

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 11

3 Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade

2 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Last Will

1 Card Destruction

1 Graceful Charity

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 8

2 Return from the Different Dimension

2 Spell Shield Type-8

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ring of Destruction

So, what makes Divine Sword Return so special? Well, it offers a few cool things that the average Chaos Return never could.

First, that 300 ATK from Divine Sword can be very valuable. Give a Phoenix Blade to Don Zaloog, and suddenly he’s bashing his way through monsters like Banisher of the Radiance and Breaker. Pump him up with Command Knight, and he can trade off with Cyber Dragon. Blade Knight can take the Dragon down on his own under the right conditions, and Marauding Captain can defend himself from monsters like Mystic Tomato and Giant Rat. Pretty cool.

Beyond that, like Tony noted, Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade will often function as a free card—you’ll get it back eventually. Not only does that make it easier to run cards with discard costs, but you can also set Phoenix Blade in order to draw out spell and trap removal from your opponent. I’d say there’s nothing sweeter than suckering your opponent into using Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy a Blade, but this deck is actually capable of much more sweetness than that. Drawing out Heavy Storm with two Phoenix Blades? That’s just the beginning.

One of the benefits that emerged as duelists became more familiar with Return from the Different Dimension was the fact that if you chain it to an effect, all your returning monsters become immune to Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole. You saw Austin Kulman use that trick at US Nationals, chaining his Return to Heavy Storm. It’s pretty common knowledge now, but what you might not appreciate is how difficult it can be to find something good to chain to. So it’s neat that Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade sits in the graveyard and you can choose when to activate its effect. Even if you have no cards in hand, and nothing but Return on the field, you’ll always have an effect to chain to. Just announce the activation of Phoenix Blade’s “return to your hand effect,” and then chain Return. Since the last thing that happened as the chain resolved was the Blade bouncing to your hand, your opponent can’t activate cards like Torrential.

There are even more tricks that Tony isn’t using yet, but we’ll have him running at least one more by the time I’m finished adjusting the deck. Let’s get to it, and start dropping cards to make some room for new additions!

First up, that Spirit Reaper has got to go. This deck doesn’t need it. It can’t search it out with Mystic Tomato since the deck isn’t running any, and relying on Last Will and Sangan to dig for a single Reaper seems like a poor plan when you’ve got a toolbox of other options at your fingertips. There are several monsters I’d like to add to the deck, so Reaper’s got to take a hike. It’s good, but it’s not a staple. Welcome to September 1^st.

Next, I’m going to drop Freed the Matchless General. With Snatch Steal gone and the use of Monarchs seemingly on the rise, the world isn’t a friendly place for Freed. This deck doesn’t need it, and will probably prefer dropping another potential attacker instead of tribute summoning Freed.

Next, all three Marauding Captain cards will be dropped. While the Captain can generate some serious damage with the right opportunity, this deck needs the space for far better, more reliable tricks. Command Knight won’t be quite as cool without the Captain backing it up, but this deck just couldn’t defend Marauding Captain anyways. We’re going to be initiating a lot of card-for-card exchanges in order to soften up the field for Return, and that means we can’t afford to lose a ton of monsters on the field.

The last monster I want to drop is one of the two Cyber Gymnast cards. It’s pretty darn cool in this deck, allowing you to discard Phoenix Blade to destroy one of the opponent’s monsters, but again, we can’t do much to keep it on the table once Cyber Gymnast’s there, and we don’t want to lose monsters in battle. When you need it, you’ll be able to search the Gymnast out with Reinforcement of the Army, Last Will, or Sangan, so it’s not like it’ll be hard to get your hands on.

Card Destruction is going to be removed because we’ll have better ways of digging for key cards. The combo potential with Phoenix Blade just isn’t worth it, since you want to be able to aggressively dig through your deck without waiting for synergetic draws. Finally, the two copies of Spell Shield Type-8 are going to be bounced to the side deck in favor of something with a bit more utility, but a similar theme.

Okay, so I’ve dropped nine cards. The first thing I want to add is three D.D. Survivor cards. Sure, Bottomless Trap Hole isn’t played as much as Sakuretsu Armor in some areas thanks to the rise of Recruiter decks, but it still sees use, and that’s just the beginning of what D.D. Survivor offers. The real reason I want to use it is that it turns Return from the Different Dimension into a mid-game card. Have two Survivors removed thanks to Phoenix Blade? Pop Return and you’ll get them back. At the end of the turn, when Return removes them from the field, they’ll come back immediately. That’s a degree of field advantage that can’t be ignored, and turning Return from a potential dead draw into something far more useful is one of the primary advantages of running this deck.

Next, in order to balance out my removal of Card Destruction, I’m going to sub in Morphing Jar. It’s a lot of fun in this deck because of the dynamic Phoenix Blade creates. You’ll often be able to draw out spell and trap removal with the Blades, so you’ll be able to set stuff and then set Jar without having to worry about Heavy Storm. At the same time, if you ever catch your opponents in the first duel by baiting them into wasting spell and trap removal, they’ll think you’re bluffing with Blades when you set multiple cards. Morphing Jar will help you find your Return and Blade cards faster, while discarding extra Warrior monsters to remove later on: just like Card Destruction, but better.

The first spell I want to add is Nobleman of Crossout. This deck is going to play aggressively, and Nobleman is going to punish more conservative players while also stripping opponents of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Magical Merchant cards that would otherwise slow you down. Two Smashing Ground cards are going to be added as well. This is an aggressive Return build that can compensate for mid-level ATK topdecks with Phoenix Blade, so you really don’t mind pressing the game into a topdecking situation early on. Not only can you out-stat your opponent’s monsters, but you leave him or her wide open for Return from the Different Dimension. Smashing Ground will also take care of the big monsters that your horde can’t bring down on its own: Jinzo and Monarchs can hurt this deck if allowed to run wild.

Finally, I’m going to replace the two copies of Spell Shield Type-8 with two copies of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. Cards like these don’t just take advantage of the Phoenix Blade—they’ll often be your only way of getting the Blade into the graveyard, so it’s important to make them high utility. If you can’t activate them at will, you’re missing out. Wind Blast is incredibly easy to use, since the only thing it requires of the opponent is at least one of his or her cards on the field. Not only can Blast lock him or her into drawing useless tribute monsters that you’ll prevent from being summoned, but it can also function as added spell and trap removal. Is there a big monster in your way? Blast it. Mirror Force set? Blast it. This card is amazing in a deck that can pay discard costs for free, especially when you’ve got Don Zaloog out.

So, the final changes to the deck are as follows:

-1 Spirit Reaper     

-1 Freed the Matchless General

-3 Marauding Captain

-1 Cyber Gymnast

-1 Card Destruction

-2 Spell Shield Type-8

+1 Morphing Jar

+3 D.D. Survivor

+1 Nobleman of Crossout

+2 Smashing Ground

+2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

The fixed version of the deck looks like this . . .

Divine Sword Return—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards

Monsters: 19

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

3 D.D. Survivor

2 Exiled Force

2 Don Zaloog

2 Command Knight

1 Cyber Gymnast

1 Mystic Swordsman LV2

1 Sangan

1 Magician of Faith

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Morphing Jar

Spells: 13

3 Divine Sword - Phoenix Blade

2 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Last Will

1 Graceful Charity

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

1 Nobleman of Crossout

2 Smashing Ground

Traps: 8

2 Return from the Different Dimension

2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ring of Destruction

The deck doesn’t run any recruiter monsters, so openings can be a bit rough. Your ideal opening sets are Command Knight, D. D. Warrior Lady, or D. D. Assailant. Morphing Jar and Don Zaloog are both fair game too—turn 1 Morphing Jar is a lot more viable now that Nobleman of Crossout is down to one per deck.  

From there, you’ll hit the ground running. The key to this deck is offense—don’t let a Monarch player keep tribute fodder around, and bash through a Recruiter duelist’s monsters as quickly as possible. If there’s a monster you can’t deal with in battle, you’ve got two Exiled Force cards, two Smashing Ground cards, and Cyber Gymnast to blow it off the field. Be clever, and use those Phoenix Blades to your advantage. They’re incredibly difficult to play correctly, simply because they can do so much. Do you go for the 300 ATK bonus or do you set it, deterring the opponent from attacking or drawing out removal? Do you even play it, or do you keep it in your hand for use with Phoenix Wing Wind Blast? Questions like these drive the deck, and you’ll need to practice in order to answer them effectively.

You’ll usually want to press into the late game and create a topdecking situation as quickly as possible. While the opponent’s best topdeck will be Cyber Dragon, you’ll be able to match its ATK with Blade Knight and D.D. Survivor, thanks to Phoenix Blade. In addition, Return becomes almost an auto-win in this kind of situation. While Cyber-Stein could come off the top and ruin your day, the amount of damage being generated will usually cut it out of the duel pretty fast.

This deck can be a serious competitor at the Regional and SJC level in the new format. Warrior decks are going to be some of the best out there, and this is one of the more complicated and skillful variants on the theme. Opening hands of three Phoenix Blade cards can hurt, but with all of your monster control, you should be able to stall even the most aggressive opponents.

Give it a shot! Your opponents won’t believe the kinds of tricks this deck can pull off, and the satisfaction of using Return for three D.D. Survivor cards, or baiting out a Heavy Storm with Phoenix Blades, is just unparalleled. This deck is so versatile that you need to play it to believe it.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Working on a deck for the new Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.