It’s Monday, September 15, 2008, and the next chapter in the war between Synchros and Gladiator Beasts is about to unfold.

It’s only been a few days since the battle of Baltimore, and hopes seem universally high for the new Teleport Dark Armed archetype. The number-one deck represented in Day 2, Teleport narrowly fell short of taking the Championship when Jeff Walker lost out to Jermol Jupiter and his Gladiator Beasts in the finals. Eyes have been opened, cards have been gathered, and builds have been tweaked and refined: will Gladiators finally be unhorsed in Tulsa?

If you can’t make it to the event yourself, be sure to join us for our live, extended coverage on September 27 and 28. We’ll be bringing you deck profiles, tech updates, feature matches, and the Metagame blog, all weekend long right from the tournament floor! But if you’re still on the fence about competing, keep in mind that the Premier Tournament Organizer, JDS Events, has secured a great rate at the neighboring Doubletree Hotel. For just $89.00 a night, you can stay in pretty plush digs, right next to the convention center. Hit up the PTO’s website for details on that, plus info on prizes, side events, directions, and more.

It’s going to be a tremendous event, so if you can make it, be sure to show up and take your shot at Shonen Jump glory!

For those who missed it, the new theme song is "Hyper Drive," one of two themes that the folks around here in the Metagame offices were hoping for. Just kidding—we definitely don’t have an office. But we do have strong opinions, nay, demands, about the quality of the Yu-Gi-Oh! theme songs, and "Hyper Drive" doesn’t disappoint. It’s a cool little tune you can throw on repeat and never get tired of, and it’s definitely my favorite Yu-Gi-Oh! theme so far.

This Week on Metagame
I started off the week looking at five of my top tech picks from Shonen Jump Championship Baltimore. It was a huge tournament with way too many new decks to cover, so consider this a belated tech update. What cards showed promise but didn’t make it to Day 2? Which Synchros were top picks for top players, but still aren’t getting their props? Click on over to find out.

Tomorrow, Jerome McHale brings you an updated version of Little City. It’s a control-heavy build teched to beat Teleport Dark Armed and other Synchro variants, and while it builds off the groundwork laid by Marco Cesario and the rest of Toronto’s Cardmasters’ crew, it’s got some great original ideas as well. If you’ve played the deck yourself, you should definitely check this out. If you haven’t, then it’s a great time to start, as Little City is set to lead the non-Synchro half of this format.

On Wednesday, Curtis Schultz works to fill in some gaps regrding the general-knowledge base of the average duelist, cleaning up some important details about what might be two of the biggest factors in this format: Skill Drain and Synchro monsters. Despite the sheer volume of play they’ve been seeing, a lot of players are still confused about some of the finer points. So, Curtis is going to take the guesswork out of everything in this week’s Duelist Academy.

There’s no doubt about it: speed is a defining hallmark of the new format. And with decks like Teleport Dark Armed running loose, players are going to have to work hard to keep up. Matt Peddle’s going to talk about that very topic this Thursday in Battlefields. Matt will discuss an emerging trend that, if mastered, can give you a big advantage in major competitions. Don’t miss it.

Friday, Bryan Camareno presents his thoughts on the role of Gladiator Beasts in the current format. We’ve all got our personal theories as to why they won in Baltimore, beating out a deck that most players believed to be superior. Bryan’s take on the situation is unique, and his article makes for an interesting read (he’ll present a perspective that will no doubt be controversial to many).

There’s been a lot of discussion lately about who had the best Teleport Dark Armed build at Baltimore—while Jeff Walker, Cesar Gonzalez, and Hector Heras each had powerful unique builds, my personal choice is Dale and Lazaro Bellido’s version. Taking three competitors to the Top 16, Dale and Lazaro’s version was arguably the most consistent build of the weekend, and this Saturday in The Champions, Matt’s going to show you why.

Finally, we let Ryan Murphy out of his cage this Sunday to bring you another Advanced format innovation: a deck he’s so confident about, he’s putting his personal stamp on it. "Dropkick Box" might be the first deck ever to let you play your opponent’s deck instead of your own. It’s a unique strategy that borrows from the top decks you could expect to face at a Regional or Shonen Jump Championship, with the end goal of taking all of your opponent’s stuff. You have to see this thing to believe it, and trust me, it’s worth resisting the urge to stop reading halfway through.

That’s it for this week, but join us in another seven days, as we count down the remaining hours to Shonen Jump Championship Tulsa! Gladiator Beasts and Teleport Dark Armed will clash once more, and this time, the outcome may just be different.