I can say with 100% certainty that Demise OTK is the deck to beat today. After its win in Anaheim, anyone who isn’t main decking answers to the powerful combo deck is asking to lose. After all, the best way to beat a deck that you’re siding heavily for is to win game 1, giving you two more games worth of chances to draw into your side deck cards and really wreck your opponent. With Demise OTK, you’ve got a few options to stop the deck dead in its tracks while also providing cover against the other popular decks in the format. Let’s have a look at three traps that fit this description.

Cloak and Dagger — This rare continuous trap from Strike of Neos has been seeing sporadic play in side decks since the Regionals on Day 2 of SJC Columbus this year. Dagger is great for stopping Demise since it starts a chain upon the successful summon of whatever monster you’ve chosen to mark with its effect, blocking the summoning player from retaining priority to activate his or her monster’s effect. For Demise, this means an inability to clear the field and likely an inability to win the game. Against other decks, you can remove some key monsters from play without giving your opponent the opportunity to use them. Treeborn Frog is an easy mark since you can chain to the effect that special summons it from the graveyard to set up Cloak and Dagger. Setting up a Cloak and Dagger on Cyber Dragon will force your opponent to refrain from aggression early on and it gives him or her something else to potentially forget, leading to mistakes. There are also rumors that someone out there has managed to obtain three copies of a certain simian SJ promo, and, assuming that you remember what it is, you can chain to the effect that would special summon it to remove it from play.

Pulling the Rug — I expect to see three copies of this card between the main and side deck of every player who finishes today with a winning record, and that includes the Demise players. Rug is the go-to card in the most prominent matchups (Demise and Monarch variants) for total strategic ruination. Just one copy of Rug can blow a game wide open by negating a key Monarch or Ritual searcher. More than one practically guarantees the game against Demise and tremendously destabilizes Monarch players to the point where they need Treeborn Frog and a series of crazy topdecks in order to stay in the game. It also has (more narrow) applications in decks that need Elemental Hero Stratos to work and will only get better once Force of the Breaker becomes legal allowing you to slow down the Crystal Beast deck by cutting off Crystal Beast Sapphire Pegasus.

Royal Oppression — All of today’s top decks revolve around special summons. Gravekeeper’s Spy, Cyber Dragon, Monster Gate, and Destiny Hero — Malicious are four cards that will be seen in record numbers. All of them will fall to Royal Oppression. The downside to Oppression is that your opponent can use it too, but with clever deckbuilding and playing, this pitfall can be avoided. Also keep in mind that Royal Oppression eliminates your own ability to use Treeborn Frog, so you might not want to play it in a Monarch deck. Gadget variants are best suited for the main deck Oppression due to their near total lack of special summons and very powerful monster generating capabilities.

So that’s what I’m expecting today. A lot of Demise hate, a lot of Demise, and someone with three copies of the new Shonen Jump subscription promo. Of course with well over 600 people here today there’s no telling what else will come out of the woodwork, so keep on checking back with Metagame.com for the latest from SJC Philly!