Jon Moore isn’t the only duelist drawing inspiration from the Chaos era here today. Jeff Baumgartner is a respected innovator, a moonlighting judge, and a generally quality human being with multiple Shonen Jump Day 2’s under his belt. The deck he chose to take to Nationals? “I call it Recruiter Chaos, minus the Chaos.”

In a recent regional, Baumgartner played this deck against six Gladiator Beast decks and 2-0’d them all. Now he’s got a refined build and he’s ready to take more predictable strategies by storm. Here’s his build:

“This is basically the same idea as what was going on two years ago,” explained Baumgartner, referencing the dominance of Recruiter Chaos in the summer of 2006, spawned by Europe’s Adrian Madaj. “You always have a monster on the field, and you continuously poke thanks to all the cards that simplify the game.” The deck has a lot of new twists to make up for the lack of Chaos monsters, and one big piece of tech may give Baumgartner the edge he needs. But first, the monsters.

When Jeff Baumgartner builds a recruiter deck, he doesn’t mess around. It’s largely focused on Light monsters, so though it runs just one copy of Mystic Tomato it packs a full playset of Shining Angel and even two copies of Nova Summoner, a card largely unheard of in serious competition. Both the Light and Dark recruiter chains lead into monster removal, with Mystic Tomato searching out Newdoria (or Sangan in a pinch), while Angel and Nova both search for, and benefit from, Honest.

Honest is a huge card here, because it turns relatively vulnerable looking Light recruiters into unstoppable powerhouses. If Baumgartner needs to attack over something, he can do it with the help of this highly-popular Fairy. But if an opponent decides to pick on one of his recruiters and try something clever, like oh, say, swinging with a Gladiator Beast in an attempt to cut off the recruiter chain with Gladiator Beast Murmillo, Honest turns the tables. You wouldn’t think a recruiter strategy could stand up to the Gladiator Beast monster removal engine, and that perception is going to give Baumgartner a huge edge. He wants to bait out attacks nearly all the time — it’s when the opponent attacks that this deck is at its best.

Cyber Dragon provides unexpected punch, as most duelists don’t see it coming, and it’s a fast comeback when the opponent does manage to wipe this deck off the field. Two Majestic Mech - Ohka also provide a ton of force, comboing with another card that Baumgartner is playing in triplicate.

The card in question would be Skill Drain, and it’s a real lynchpin in this deck. Baumgartner can win without it thanks to Honest, generally strong openings, and all of the removal he’s packing, but it’s definitely the chief reason he opted to use a recruiter strategy. “When it’s activated, Gladiators have just two outs provided they’re even running Mystical Space Typhoon and Heavy Storm. The same goes for Lightsworn and Dark Armed Dragon — they’re all monster-oriented.” The latter point is a fact: virtually everything in this format is vulnerable to Skill Drain, but most players who observed that immediately thought of Skill Drain Burn, not a battle-oriented strategy like this one. Three Solemn Judgment and the surprise choice of Fake Trap protect Skill Drain from opposing removal when it does emerge. Naturally, none of Baumgartner’s own effects are negated by Skill Drain, barring Honest’s recursive ability and Ohka’s shift to defense mode. The latter is obviously a bonus instead of a hindrance.

Zoma the Spirit is a surprising choice, but it fits perfectly with the deck’s pacing. Played in the end phase, Zoma can be turned to attack mode on the following turn and swing for 1800 damage — the deck makes lots of direct attacks, and tossing another 1800 damage at your opponent really speeds things up. Even better, Zoma’s effect can add even more damage to the mix, and on the off chance Baumgartner can keep it on the table against Dark Armed Dragon or Gyzarus he can ram it for a duel-ending dose of burn.

Again, the monster removal suite is important to this part of the strategy. Smashing Ground, Lightning Vortex, Bottomless Trap Hole, and even Dimensional Prison are just some of the removal cards Baumgartner has opted to use, and nearly half the deck is dedicated to destroying monsters. Dimensional Prison is particularly noteworthy. I stated earlier that this deck is at its best when the opponent is attacking, and I think Dimensional Prison isn’t something the average player will be expecting, given the prominence of Bestiari. If Dimensional Prison doesn’t fall victim to Gyzarus or Bestiari through Test Tiger, then a Gladiator opponent is in for yet another hurt: that’s one less Gladiator to bring back with Darius, threatening the deck’s early-game flexibility.

Baumgartner’s deck may encounter some rough draws here and there, but it’s definitely not making any needless sacrifices of utility at any point. The focus on removal, and the nature of the recruiter monsters means that most of its cards will be live plays when drawn. That makes it reliable, and while it doesn’t play any draw acceleration to get to Skill Drain, it does thin itself at a brisk pace thanks to all the recruiters. Baumgartner’s opted to forego potentially dead draws like Pot of Avarice and Dark Bribe, and if his gamble pays off, he should be well on his way to a strong finish here in Day 1. Mike Glowacki is running the exact same build, and so far both duelists have secured round 1 wins.