For the American players reading this coverage, the most familiar name in contention here today, aside from World Champion Dario Longo, may very well be Carlo Palazzo. The Brooklyn-born duelist has spent the better part of a year as part of a student exchange program, and is a legal resident that earned his invite to today’s European Championships. He’s representing Team Hunger Force but, more importantly, he’s fighting to bring honor to his newfound home: Italy.

Here’s what he’s running:

BaR-TY-Oh! — Suicidal Box — 40 Cards

Why yes, that is indeed a continuation in the long line of “Wonderbox” decks, though Palazzo’s creation runs only one copy of the signature card, Freed the Brave Wanderer. Feeding him with graveyard fodder are three Cyber Dragon, D. D. Warrior Lady, and three Banisher of the Radiance. Like Joe Whittaker, Palazzo is banking on Banisher of the Radiance and Royal Decree to bring him success here today.

However, the real center of the deck is its Warrior toolbox. With two Don Zaloog and two D. D. Assailant backed by three Shrink, this deck can create massive swings of card presence through battle. Shrink on a monster attacking Don Zaloog is a classic play that’s reached a level of textbook recognition in the past year, but has been infrequently seen in actual tournament play. It’s a quick and favorable trade of cards, with Palazzo losing his Shrink while his opponent loses a monster and an in-hand card to Zaloog’s effect. D. D. Assailant works differently, but toward a similar goal: Shrink lets Palazzo keep Assailant on the field when he comes under attack, and lets him attack over other monsters as needed. The result is an increased lifespan for the Assailants, meaning more opportunities to win straight battles with them unassisted. Decree makes Assailant and Zaloog very difficult to stop.

This deck builds off of that in a very conscious way, by using a ton of monster manipulation to force through direct attacks. Three Enemy Controller, three Smashing Ground, Book of Moon, and three Drillroid clear the field, allowing Palazzo to press through attacks with Zaloog while forcing the opponent to make desperate plays against Assailant. Ring of Destruction and Mirror Force are even being used here, in spite of Palazzo’s three Royal Decree (hopefully a decision that doesn’t came back to haunt the honorary Italian). When the game becomes simplified Freed becomes incredibly good, and Enemy Controller takes on a defensive tone to keep Freed on the table in order to let his rampage continue. Flat out, a well-fueled and defended Freed wins games in a topdecking situation, and with a total of twenty cards in this deck that easily create card-for-card trades, Palazzo can create that situation with ease.

Oh, and Freed royally messes up Dark Balter the Terrible and Ryu Senshi, too. It’s a nice little insurance plan just in case things do briefly go wrong against T-Hero, and it doesn’t require any spells. That’s good, since this deck is dependent on them, and Balter and Senshi negate them on a near-wholesale basis.

Going back to Banisher of the Radiance, its importance is even greater than usual in this deck, where alienating the opponent from his or her big tribute monsters is a bigger priority than it may be for others. Palazzo is not running Pulling the Rug or Trap Dustshoot, and he isn’t running any Monarchs himself, so his only preemptive measures against big tributes are a blend of aggression and Banisher. Banisher stops Treeborn Frog and Destiny Hero – Malicious, the two biggest sources of tribute fodder in this format, so it’s integral to Palazzo’s survival. Drillroid and the trio of Enemy Controller make short work of Gravekeeper’s Spy, too. This approach is a gamble, but if it pays off Palazzo should be able to blow through any Monarch variant he faces.

This deck is essentially just a series of metagame-driven tech calls, but they’re tied together around the Warrior toolbox engine: there’s simply no more varied, yet stable, unit of cards in this game to build a concept around. Destiny Heroes may be faster and more explosive, and Gadgets may be more reliable, but neither has the range of options at its core that Warriors offer.

Stability, maneuverability, and the top two tech cards going into this event may just be enough to bring Carlo Palazzo to Day 2!