One of the most interesting things about this tournament is that it’s the last Shonen Jump Championship until Shonen Jump San Mateo in December. Big tournaments have come thick and fast up until this weekend — Shonen Jump Washington was just four weeks ago, so this is the third Shonen Jump in just a month’s time. Once we’re finished here this weekend we’ll have to wait six weeks for the next big competition. And a lot’s going to change between now and then. By the time San Mateo rolls around it’ll practically be a new format; let’s look at the four big reasons why.
Premium Pack 1 Becomes Legal
Technically, Premium Pack cards are legal for local level play right now — they have been since Wednesday, the 10th. But they aren’t legal for Premier level play until the 20th, and that means they can’t be used in decks here this weekend. San Mateo will be a different story; by then Premium Packs will have been widely available for six weeks, even longer in some select areas, and they’ll all be legal for play in the Shonen.
Premium Pack 1 will have three major competitive impacts for the average player. The first and most obvious is Marshmallon. A lot of duelists are going to be splashing their single Limited copy into whatever they’re playing at the time, simply because the card is so good. Burn damage can be invaluable in this format, but Marshmallon’s ability to stop the opponent’s aggression is going to be its biggest asset. While the current Advanced environment isn’t the slowest one we’ve seen, it’s still not very quick with the exception of a few notable matchups, and many duels come down to big, complicated fields suddenly being simplified. That provides openings for game-winning attacks, and, like Spirit Reaper, Marshmallon can stymie your over-extending opponent in that scenario. If the opponent commits a bunch of hand presence to simplify and leave you vulnerable, rebutting his or her attacks leaves you with an advantage next turn. That’s something that, currently, players don’t have to deal with nearly as often.
Shield Crush will also be a force in San Mateo. Though most will probably choose to side deck it, and the card’s hype may not live up to its actual frequency of use, there are decks that will main multiple copies. While Marshmallon will be a strong force for complication of the field, Shield Crush will do the exact opposite; duelists are going to have to deal with the fact that they could lose an established field to more than just Nobleman of Crossout.
The final card that will have an obvious impact is Legacy of Yata-Garasu. Decks running the Third Planet draw engine of Jar of Greed and Reckless Greed are going to see a resurgence, since Legacy is just a straight upgrade of the Jar and gives the engine more speed and more chainable draw tricks.
That’s not to say that the reprint of Metalmorph, or the introduction of Dark Magic Curtain don’t have a chance of influencing San Mateo — they certainly do. But with three surefire bets, that alone is a big, big set of trends from just one source. And of course, there are still more items on this list.
Light and Darkness Dragon Hits North America
One of the most anticipated cards of all time, and one of the biggest, most important monsters in Japan’s metagame is coming to North America in late November, just in time to be legal for play in San Mateo. Distributed in the upcoming Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Manga, it’s going to be widely available to just about anyone who wants to get a copy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if at least a quarter of the tournament is running some sort of deck based around it.
For those not familiar with it, Light and Darkness Dragon has a lot of handy effects, but its most notable is a negation ability that kicks in and stops just about any effect at the cost of 500 ATK points. With 2800 ATK to begin with, it’ll usually negate at least two effects while it’s on the field, and a monster with that kind of power doesn’t just change games; it changes any format it’s playable in. Duelists are going to have to be prepared for a monster that can turn the bulk of their hand into deadweight, and a lot of players are going to try and eliminate that threat with main decked tech or an especially aggressive pace, designed to prevent the opponent from tributing.
Rise of the Dragon Lords Structure Deck
Kris Perovic was on me all week, insisting that I could somehow get him copies of the latest Structure. I couldn’t of course; no one has it in stock yet and I’m not sure why Kris was convinced I had a magical ability to get my hands on them early. Though hope was strong that Rise of the Dragon Lords would be on store shelves by now they won’t materialize until at least next week, and that means San Mateo will be the first Shonen Jump at which the deck’s dozen or so new cards will be playable.
The most notable is certainly Foolish Burial, a spell card combo players are drooling over. It lets you send one monster from your deck to your graveyard; it’s going to be a popular choice for a number of decks. Perfect Circle can get Treeborn Frog, Disk Commander, or Malicious into the graveyard without having to draw into them normally. Beasts can send Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest to the graveyard, and I’m sure several different strategies will try to load Dark Magician of Chaos for recursion. The possibilities are literally endless, and Foolish Burial will make several decks viable that aren’t seeing much play here this weekend.
In addition, Malevolent Catastrophe is the first of several cards lined up to destroy burn’s competitive status in this format. The Comic Odyssey burn variant profits from its ability to attack and deal damage with stuff like Card Trooper and its smaller hitters, but Catastrophe cuts that off at the knees. It’s a trap card that can be activated in response to an attack, a lot like Sakuretsu Armor, but, instead of destroying monsters, it destroys spell and trap cards. All of them. Like Heavy Storm. Burn hates it, and direct damage duelists are going to have to devote copies of Solemn Judgment and Dark Bribe to countering this card or simply give up on attacking.
Who knows what players will do with other new cards like Decoy Dragon or Herald of Creation. For now, this Structure Deck has at least two cards that will have major competitive impacts, and they’re going to be felt at San Mateo.
Gladiator’s Assault
I saved the biggest change for last — I just double-checked with UDE’s Premier Event Specialist Jeff Piroozshad, and he confirmed for me that Gladiator’s Assault will be legal for premier competition on December 1st. We still don’t know what TCG-exclusive cards we may see in the set. We also don’t know what the five Japanese cards taken from Shueisha will turn out to be either (Shueisha is the company that publishes the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga in Japan and thus owns the rights to the promos they distribute). Regardless, the core set itself will have several effects on the established North American metagame, including more hate for burn and a strong boost for The Six Samurai.
While trends set here this weekend will certainly continue to have relevance for the next four months, things are going to be very different come December. For many, this weekend really does represent the end of an era, and it’s impossible to predict which trends will carry through to Shonen Jump San Mateo and which will fail to do so.