After suffering a brutally disappointing showing at Canadian Nationals, local favorite Hsoros Nairebas is back this weekend with a slightly tweaked version of his Dark Creator Turbo deck, a strategy that has become his signature over the past six months here in Toronto. Nairebas’s failure at Nationals was a shock to everyone who plays with him on a regular basis, myself included, but since his deck revolves around a slew of “draw-two” spell cards with high-level monsters it carries with it a certain risk, and Nairebas paid for that at Nats.

But that’s all in the past. Today, Nairebas has gone up against merciless opponents with excellent track records: first Kyle Andrews, then Eric Herdzik, before losing to Josh Graham, another player who’s certainly no slouch.

Sorosh’s deck is a unique strategy that seems similar at first glance to those played by Said Zaki and Chris Bowling at recent Shonen Jump Championships. But it’s really very different. A stronger focus on draw cards and a pair of The Dark Creator results in an OTK strategy like no other, ballooning his field from no monsters to five at the drop of a hat and exploding in vicious combos to take fast wins. It was developed in conjunction with another top local competitor, Jeremy Lozon. Here’s what it looks like.

Any time this deck is discussed, the discussion has to start with Nairebas’s heavy suite of draw cards. Three copies of Trade-In and three copies of Destiny Draw help him load his graveyard. In a normal Dark deck that would be useful for both Dark Armed Dragon and Destiny Hero – Disk Commander, but here it’s also used as fuel for The Dark Creator. Two Allure of Darkness add more acceleration to the deck, and also justify the inclusion of two copies of D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation.

Two Phantom of Chaos also add more utility to Different Dimension Reincarnation. One of the slickest tricks this deck can pull off is the removal of a monster for the Phantom’s effect, followed by that monster’s immediate special summoning through Reincarnation. The Phantom itself is a very important piece of this deck’s strategy. While it’s been a great dark horse pick in other strategies, often mimicking Dark Armed Dragon or Judgment Dragon, here there are multiple high-impact monsters to mimic.

Nairebas runs three copies of Dark Armed, three copies of Destiny Hero – Plasma, and two copies of The Dark Creator, giving him plenty of discard fodder for his draw spells. But each monster is also a potent combo with Phantom of Chaos, generating a toolbox of effects for virtually no cost once Phantom hits the field. Mimicking Dark Armed Dragon gives massive removal, and removing Plasma gives a dose of monster removal and effect negation, but the real prize is often The Dark Creator. Removing a single copy of The Dark Creator can kick off a flurry of special summons, easily bringing a late game graveyard packed with Dark monsters down to a Dark Armed-compliant three.

The synergies in this deck are incredibly intricate, woven like a deadly spider web. It’s a cliche, but it’s an accurate description. The high-level monsters feed the draw cards, which in turn set them up to be summoned. Phantom of Chaos provides graveyard control and synergy with D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation, while taking advantage of those big monsters. Dark Grepher loads the graveyard for Dark Armed Dragon or The Dark Creator and manipulates draw percentages to maximize the deck’s effectiveness, while also feeding great effects to Phantom of Chaos.

Meanwhile, one-off monsters provide more cohesion and a wide range of tech options. One D.D. Crow counters popular cards while adding another Dark monster to the graveyard — important when your ideal graveyard count is five monsters instead of the more conventional three. Snipe Hunter provides a similar service, performing its primary effect while also making The Dark Creator a live card as needed. Jinzo is prime fodder for the Allure and Reincarnation synergy, while also taking advantage of all of the special summoning this deck can put out — he’s a frequent companion for The Dark Creator, and if you need to straight tribute for him, you can always special summon a Grepher to do so. A costly move, but one this deck can afford on many occasions.

Whenever you play against this behemoth you have the distinct feeling that you’re living on borrowed time. If the deck doesn’t kill you off by turn 2, you have to live in fear that it’ll do it on turn 3. Survive that, and you worry about turn 4. Every time you give this deck a turn, you’re giving it a chance to wreck you, because just a single card can set a long string of terrifying events into motion.

Nairebas was defeated last round, but fought back to beat Team Yugioh ETC’s Chris Flores in Round 4. With just five more rounds remaining, he could very well make it to Day 2. If he does he’ll revolutionize OTK strategies in this format.