It’s Monday, April 16, and this past weekend’s Shonen Jump Championship was full of surprises!
Unexpected Developments Abound at Shonen Jump Championship Montreal
Right from the beginning—with the announcement that SJC Montreal would be held at the historic Marche Bonsecours marketplace—it was clear that the event was going to be a bit different. Sure enough, the past two days were full of surprising twists and turns.
Jasmin Gauthier brought Chain Strike burn back to the forefront of competition with a new variant that ran Pigeonholing Book of Spells and maxed out on Lava Golem. In fact, four of the sixteen decks that made Day 2 were burn strategies. Kris “Superman” Perovic returned to Top 8 action yet again, continuing to push Diamond Dude Turbo to new levels with a build that didn’t main a single copy of Destiny Hero - Dasher. Perhaps the most startling achievement of the weekend was Yannick Dubeau’s Day 2 qualification with, of all things, a Cyberdark deck!
Want to see how it all went down? You can check out the coverage from both days of competition right here on Metagame, and we’d certainly suggest that you do. Monarchs and burn both had explosive showings this time around, but Demise OTK, Diamond Dude Turbo, and Card Trooper Bazoo Return all proved that they have serious staying power in the current format. As the North American metagame continues to develop, we’ll be right there to bring you all the latest trends and keep you on the cutting edge.
This Week on Metagame.com
Mike Rosenberg opens things up this week with one of the most technically adept articles we’ve featured this year. With Strike of Neos Special Edition finally appearing in many stores across the US, most of us now have easy access to Shrink, and Mike is going to go really in-depth to show you what that means for dueling as a whole. The long-term ramifications of Shrink’s release and how it will affect your duels are both dealt with in this must-read article, so be sure to click on over and check it out!
Tomorrow, Jerome McHale is back from Shonen Jump Championship Montreal to hit you with a double-whammy. First up, he tackles the task of building a competitive deck around Dark Eradicator Warlock, the ultra rare from Structure Deck 6—Spellcaster’s Judgment. Yes, that Dark Eradicator Warlock. Jerome weaves together an array of offensive and defensive spell cards to create a truly memorable build that’s a blast to play. If you ever wanted to know if the Warlock could truly be competitive, well, Jerome’s got your answer.
Then, it’s another absolute must-read when Jerome examines pattern recognition in School of Duel. Keying off of classic plays and the logic that creates them, Jerome looks at issues like play style in the current environment, and why great players are often handicapped by their own experience. If you’re a beginner or intermediate duelist, there’s a lot here for you to benefit from, but if you’re a veteran, you might learn even more.
On Wednesday, we will be graced by the radiantly brilliant wisdom of Dr. Crellian Vowler, as he takes up a quirky deck from last format and transmutes it into something rather noteworthy. “OjaMachine Gun”, last format’s Snipe Hunter / Ojamagic deck, had only a few weeks to make an impact before the arrival of the Gadget monsters shut it down. However, Vowler is now resuscitating it in an all-new form to solve its Gadget problem and turn its worst matchup into one of its best. The name says it all—OjaManticore.
No single tech card from Strike of Neos has been given more attention lately than Pulling the Rug, but many duelists are still unclear on how it works. If you’ve played it lately yourself, or have been considering doing so, check out Curtis Schultz’s Duel Academy this Thursday. He’s going to illustrate how this hot new trap functions on basic and advanced levels, demonstrating finer rulings points to help you master one of the format’s most powerful cards.
What’s more fun than playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG? Playing it with a horde of your friends! Admit it: there’s probably at least one friend in your life that you wish would share your hobby, but bringing a new player into the game can be difficult. This Friday, Julia Hedberg helps get your recruitment endeavor onto Solid Ground as she examines methods you can use to get your friends into the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Useful? Very.
With Insect Demise OTK having such a big showing at SJC Columbus (and making the Top 8 yet again at Montreal), interest in the deck is incredibly high. However, one thing that has escaped the public eye is that there are many different versions of what can appear to be a single strategy. One of the most unique is Max Suffridge’s from Columbus, and this Saturday Matt Peddle will show you what makes it so different from all the others.
Finally, Jae Kim finishes out our week by sharing a deck he calls “Sledgehammer!” Yes, the exclamation point is part of the name. Last week, he showed you how to exploit one weakness in some of the format’s top decks: spell negation. This time around, he’s going to use recruiter monsters to accomplish the same thing—keying into a trend that some duelists have been giving a lot of very quiet attention.
That’s it for this week, but be sure to join us in another Seven Days as we start looking at the choicest picks from the upcoming expansion set, Force of the Breaker! It’s going to be an exciting two weeks packed with awesome new cards, so you won’t want to miss it.