This format so far has been great for innovators and players who like to approach the game with a different style. As the Forbidden and Limited list changes, so do the play styles of the majority of players in any given metagame. Everything is pretty complicated now, but it hasn’t always been so. Back in the day when destroying monsters by battle actually gained you some sort of definite advantage over your opponent, the game was much simpler. The battle phase was used to maximum potential, and as such most cards that were played were done so simply to affect the battle phase in a positive way.
Cards like Sakuretsu Armor and Smashing Ground ran rampant, allowing players to destroy monsters before, during, or after the battle phase. Dust Tornado was played to destroy those trap cards, and monsters like Mobius the Frost Monarch were thrown down to take care of both. However, players have become less concerned with the battle phase in the time since Monarchs were introduced. Cards are stripped outside of battle, and the battle phase is often conducted with a meaningless attack from a Sangan or Magician of Faith before the monster is tributed for a bigger one.
These days players aren’t very focused on destroying monsters in battle. Doing so often nets your opponent two cards in hand and a face-up Destiny Hero - Disk Commander via a destroyed Destiny Hero - Fear Monger. Marshmallon, Mystic Tomato, and Gravekeeper’s Spy aren’t exactly fun to swing into either, so rather than prevent people from attacking, players swap monster removal out for anti-metagame tech. D.D. Crow, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Pulling the Rug, and Trap Dustshoot, for example, have replaced cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Smashing Ground, and Sakuretsu Armor.
So why not bring the battle phase back? Hugo Adame did just that, taking this French-inspired Macro Cosmos build to a Top 16 finish at Shonen Jump Championship Orlando:
This deck does everything in the battle phase. The monsters are meant to eliminate opposing monsters without triggering their effects. Sometimes it’s with a monster’s own effect, and sometimes it’s with the support of another card. A closer examination of the deck will reveal that, one way or another, every card supports creating an advantage as the result of battle.
Banisher of the Radiance is one of the most powerful cards an anti-meta deck can have these days. Cards like Dark Armed Dragon and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander rely entirely on using the graveyard as a resource. Plenty of other cards need a well-stocked graveyard as well, and Banisher of the Radiance can prevent your opponent from ever having a graveyard at all. Assuming the Banisher can be protected, winning a game can be as easy as attacking until the opponent is out of defenders and life points.
D.D. Survivor and Macro Cosmos generate the same engine, only scarier. Monster removal won’t work on the Survivor, as he will return to the field at the end of the turn against almost any form of removal. Survivor picks up the slack Banisher drops by allowing safe attacks against opposing monsters that are in turn crippled by Cosmos.
So Hugo played a lot of monster removal and monster negation. Pulling the Rug, Solemn Judgment, and Trap Dustshoot all exist in the deck to protect against key monster cards. Raiza the Storm Monarch, Light and Darkness Dragon, Elemental Hero Stratos, and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander can all be blocked in some way by each of these cards. Taking care of any good monster the opponent drops leaves the Survivors and Banishers to run rampant, destroying all sorts of more vulnerable ones.
Of course, one of the best ways to answer this strategy is to build up a wall of defenders. Marshmallon, Spirit Reaper, and Gravekeeper’s Spy are all widely-played forms of defense that can prevent you from making any sort of aggressive play, leaving your opponent enough time to draw more removal cards than you can deal with. Hugo solved this problem with three copies of Exiled Force. Most of the time, Exiled will function as a card-for-card removal that can lead to your Elemental Hero Wildheart or D.D. Survivor cards poking for extra damage. However, at key times it can break the back of an opponent who was hoping to hide behind a big monster for several turns.
With so much monster removal and the promise of his opponents holding dead cards in their hands, Hugo went with a really aggressive monster line-up. Hoping to simply rush opponents who were crippled by Macro Cosmos, Hugo played a full army of Elemental Hero Stratos and Elemental Hero Wildheart cards. Wildheart being immune to Phoenix Wing Wind Blast is what makes him so appealing, as randomly blasting one of Hugo’s three back-row cards is not what an opponent wants to be doing.
Hugo also adds some spice to his deck with three copies of Gravekeeper’s Servant. The Servant isn’t too practical on its own, but when combined with a card that says cards will not be sent to the graveyard, it prevents the opponent from declaring an attack. With no fear from counter-attacks, Hugo can freely place his Wildheart cards on the field. Considering that he’ll back them up with Exiled Force and his spell cards, the opponent is in for a world of beatdown.
The spell cards help encourage exactly that. Nobleman of Crossout, Soul Taker, and Smashing Ground open the field up for direct attacks, giving room for Wildhearts and Survivors to swing directly. Enemy Controller can cripple an opposing monster by switching it to defense mode, allowing your weaker monster to clean it up while a fresh one swings directly shortly after.
Reinforcement of the Army acts as a monster removal card via Exiled Force when Hugo’s already got the Cosmos/Survivor thing going: otherwise he can use it to fetch a Survivor. Wildheart and Stratos are viable targets when trying to beat the opponent to a pulp, something the deck does quite often.
One last thing to note is that once again, Hugo made Day 2 with a build that main decks Macro Cosmos and sides into a Machine variant. It’s a different deck this time around, but the last time someone made back-to-back Day 2 appearances with an off-looking concept, it was called T-Hero, and it turned out to be one of the best decks ever seen. I think Hugo’s on to something with these Cosmos builds.
—Matt Peddle