I first noticed Marco before the Battle City tournament had officially begun, playing some warm-up games against random opponents. When I was first watching him play, I wrote his deck off as an archetypical Chaos deck, but since the flavor of Chaos decks is often different from region to region, I was curious to see what kind of Chaos deck he was playing—Beatdown, Control, Turbo, or a hybrid of two of those three. The answer surprised me. Marco was playing a Costdown Chaos deck.

Marco’s deck is interesting, partly because it’s a surprising concept, and partly because it works.

Monsters
1 Sangan
1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 Magician of Faith
1 Yata-Garasu
1 Cyber Jar
1 Airknight Parshath
1 Blowback Dragon
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
1 Mad Dog of Darkness
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Reflect Bounder
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Jinzo

Spells
1 Delinquent Duo
1 United We Stand
1 Mage Power
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Axe of Despair
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
1 Cost Down
1 Monster Reborn
1 Pot of Greed
1 Heavy Storm
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Premature Burial
1 Change of Heart
1 Enemy Controller
1 Raigeki

Traps
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Imperial Order
1 Waboku
1 Call of the Haunted

Marco is from the Netherlands, and was attending the event as part of a team of four players. When I asked about decks being played in his area his first immediate reply was “Pegasus decks,” which I needed to have clarified. “Decks with Toons, Relinquished, cards that Pegasus uses.” I’m still not sure if he was kidding. “Other decks people use in my area are Beatdowns, Darkness decks, Fiends . . .” I kind of tagged Chaos onto the list and he corrected me. “I’m really one of the few people in my area who plays Chaos. There isn’t a lot of it.” I joked that he must win a lot then, and he confirmed that he does.

I asked him about the deck and the concept since I wanted to get some explanation as to how he tested it and created it. “This is just a Beatdown Chaos. I’ve always played totally Chaos, but one week ago, I traded my Chaos Emperor Dragon, so I had to make something out of it. I made this.” I asked how Cost Down worked, because it seemed to me that was what really made the deck special. “It works well,” replied Marco. He really seemed to regard the deck as more of a Beatdown Chaos deck than I did.

He asked me what I thought was so interesting about the deck, and I told him that it was all the tribute monsters and how well they’re supported. Marco uses a number of tribute monsters that some duelists would consider to be insane, but he makes up for their weaknesses in several ways. Monster Reborn and Call of the Haunted are typical fare for virtually any deck, but Premature Burial is usually reserved for the overzealous or the clever. Cost Down is also a specialist card, so with Painful Choice and Graceful Charity to thin some of the tributes from the deck when possible, Marco can keep his draws from becoming clogged with high-level monsters. Cost Down and the special summon cards then provide a means to summon them, while Waboku, Magic Cylinder, Enemy Controller, Ring of Destruction, Torrential Tribute, and the other high-utility defensive cards provide disruption and defense for when the deck slows down. Add to that intricacy the fact that the tribute monsters selected continue the theme of Light and Dark monsters for feeding Black Luster Soldier –Envoy of the Beginning, and you’ve got a winning concept.

One of the most under-appreciated factors in deck building is the opening monster play. Decks with a lot of high-level monsters can often get tripped up here. Marco’s a risk-taker though. When I asked what his favorite opening monster play was in the deck he replied “Cyber Jar” —it doesn’t get much more high-risk than that! While watching his games, I saw him use Cyber Jar in all the ways it can be used; as a wall, a source of beatdown power, and a card drawing engine; and though it can often be a random factor in many decks it functions pretty consistently in this one.

I asked Marco how he thought he’d do in the tournament. “I don’t know. I’ve played so much, in a lot of tournaments, and I’ve won them, so, hopefully well.” Most players are unwilling to jinx themselves before a tournament, but Marco seemed to have a balance of confidence as well as a realistic and somewhat soft-spoken side. If the deck does well this weekend it wouldn’t be a surprise to see it imitated and tested in metagames world wide—it’s different and could have a lot of potential.