Corey Burkhart is one of the most recognizable Yu-Gi-Oh! players in North America for two reasons. He’s remarkably young for his skill level, and he plays absolutely everywhere.
I’ve been to a lot of events the past year and Corey and his older counterpart Scott have been at virtually every one. Their family runs a card store that sanctions Yu-Gi-Oh! events on a regular basis, and both of them have more practical experience than 95 percent of the topnotch competitors in the country. Both of them are incredibly good, and while Scott tends to perfect playing the decks he makes for himself, Corey sometimes branches out and takes some interesting risks.
Corey did just that at the Columbus Shonen Jump Championship.
Corey Burkhart’s Warrior Removal
Monsters
3 D. D. Warrior Lady
2 D. D. Assailant
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Magical Scientist
1 Jinzo
1 Don Zaloog
1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning
1 Fiber Jar
1 Magician of Faith
1 Blade Knight
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells
2 Reinforcement of the Army
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Snatch Steal
1 Smashing Ground
1 Painful Choice
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Confiscation
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Heavy Storm
1 The Forceful Sentry
1 Change of Heart
1 Scapegoat
1 Enemy Controller
1 Pot of Greed
1 Emergency Provisions
1 Premature Burial
Traps
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Dust Tornado
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Return From the Different Dimension
Side Deck
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Airknight Parshath
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Kinetic Soldier
1 Scapegoat
1 Book of Moon
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Metamorphosis
1 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Divine Wrath
2 Dust Tornado
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
Fusion Deck
1 Dragoness the Wicked Knight
1 Skull Knight
1 Fiend Skull Dragon
1 Darkfire Dragon
3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
2 Ojama King
3 Ryu Senshi
3 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Dark Flare Knight
3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight
This deck is an interesting twist on conventional Warrior Chaos decks. D. D. Assailant effectively changes a fringe build of a typical deck into a very different beast.
The conventional choices in the deck are pretty easy to explain. Playing a pair of D. D. Warrior Lady tends to be standard, and a third makes sense within the context of the deck. Tribe-Infecting Virus, Sinister Serpent, Magical Scientist, Jinzo, and a single copy of Don Zaloog are also pretty standard.
However, there are some interesting things about the monster choices. The single Blade Knight is really the only beatstick in the entire deck. It’s not running classic, high-ATK warrior monsters like Goblin Attack Force, any of the deck’s possible 1800+ ATK options, and it’s not using Command Knight. This deck plays almost like a sort of Warrior Control deck, and it’s in the light of that intent that it makes sense.
Fiber Jar is, in some ways, the most important card in the deck. A few select removals can rob an opponent of his most important monsters, and by resetting the fields and decks, you can easily place yourself at great advantage.
The spells are all pretty standard, but they’re all important and powerful. Reinforcement of the Army searches out the pieces to your domination, and Nobleman of Crossout kills the opponent’s openings and attempts to delay your crushing them, while at the same time boosting the removal theme. Change of Heart, Snatch Steal, Premature Burial, Scapegoat, and Pot of Greed are all cards considered to be must-plays in battle-oriented decks in the current environment. Meanwhile, Heavy Storm, The Forceful Sentry, and Confiscation all provide disruption to use as part of your attempt to control an opponent.
Emergency Provisions is currently the ultimate in chainable tech. Combining exceptionally well with Mirage of Nightmare, it can save you from being totally destroyed by Heavy Storm after over-extensions. It’s just the kind of thing that Corey’s play style puts to good use.
Mirage of Nightmare is definitely worthy of mention. In an era where Mirage of Nightmare is maligned by many players, Burkhart has taken what I’d consider to be the smart route of just running it anyway. Backed up with Emergency Provisions, Mystical Space Typhoon, one Dust Tornado, and Sinister Serpent, the deck has a great deal of combo potential. Playing Mirage of Nightmare is the right choice to make. It can help you accelerate through the deck as needed to get to Black Luster Soldier, and it helps the deck fill the graveyard with Dark and Light monsters to feed the Soldier’s summoning cost when it does hit your hand.
Two Bottomless Trap Hole work well against other Chaos matchups and keep the remove-from-play theme alive. Torrential Tribute, Ring of Destruction, and Call of the Haunted are just too good to not be playing in anything that tries to win through battle, and Return From the Different Dimension is the perfect combination of fun and game-breaking. Of all the cards in the deck, it’s definitely one of the most synergy-dependent, but the card’s combo potential is what it’s often lauded for. Instead, think of this card as the ultimate in tech against Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. Every time Kycoo takes a bite out of your graveyard, this card sets you up to bite back, often to win the game. It’s quite nasty, and should probably be seeing more play than it’s currently seeing.
The side deck is a nice mix of tech and extension-based strategies, giving more Warrior options while at the same time giving the deck access to metagame cards like Mobius the Frost Monarch and King Tiger Wanghu.
The fusion deck is standard but devastating, containing virtually any option you’d want to pull with Magical Scientist. In a Control-oriented deck, the Scientist is a definite must.
If the deck has any weaknesses, it’s likely the issue of resiliency. There’s little in the deck that maintains board presence aside from the arguments that can be made about the D. D. characters towards that cause. However, the deck is very good on defense, and once it starts controlling a game, it maintains board presence strictly by limiting the opponent’s options.