As you may already know, the Seattle Shonen Jump Championship marked the last tournament in which Cyber-Stein would be given away as part of the grand prize. This weekend, at the Gen Con Indy Shonen Jump Championship, a new prize will be unveiled for the 2005-2006 Shonen Jump Championship season. We may not know what it is yet, but seeing as the first Cyber-Stein was auctioned off at one point for $23,000, it’s clear that the new card will have to be something special in order to follow the phenomenon that was Cyber-Stein. In honor of all the previous Cyber-Stein winners, let’s have one more look at the decks that have shaped the dueling world as we know it.

Gen Con So Cal: The Legend Begins

We begin our story in December of 2004 at Gen Con So Cal, where 309 duelists showed up to find out just what the Shonen Jump Championship series was all about. It’s worth noting that back then, the game was played under the first incarnation of the Forbidden list. Cards like Mirror Force, Delinquent Duo, and Graceful Charity, all of which are currently staples of high-level competition, were still forbidden. Even after nine rounds of tough competition, the finalists were a diverse group, with five different deck types represented in the Top 8. These included Magical Scientist First-Turn Kill, Beastdown, Spellcasters/Dark Magician, Warriors, and Chaos, which was the eventual winning deck.

John Umali’s Chaos Deck

Gen Con So Cal Shonen Jump Championship, December 2004

Monsters: 16

1 Airknight Parshath

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Fiber Jar

2 Magician of Faith

1 Jinzo

1 Blade Knight

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

2 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Magical Scientist

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Reflect Bounder

1 Berserk Gorilla

Spells: 18

2 Scapegoat

1 Book of Moon

1 Mirage of Nightmare

1 Confiscation

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Emergency Provisions

1 Change of Heart

1 Creature Swap

1 Premature Burial

1 Pot of Greed

1 Heavy Storm

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Snatch Steal

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 The Forceful Sentry

1 Painful Choice

1 Metamorphosis

Traps: 6

1 Raigeki Break

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Sinister Serpent

Side Deck

2 Dust Tornado

1 Magic Drain

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Magic Cylinder

1 Ceasefire

1 Hallowed Life Barrier

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

1 Mask of Darkness

2 Mystic Swordsman LV2

1 Exiled Force

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

Fusion Deck

3 Ryu Senshi

3 Dark Balter the Terrible

2 Thousand-Eyes Restrict

3 Dark Flare Knight

3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight

2 Reaper on the Nightmare

1 Fiend Skull Dragon

1 Ojama King

1 St. Joan

1 Giltia the D. Knight

1 Musician King

1 Darkfire Dragon

1 Dragoness the Wicked Knight

Umali’s deck demonstrated the incredible resiliency of Chaos—able to stand up to anything, with the possible exception of Combo decks. Luckily for Umali, the Scientist deck was defeated by a ruling in the quarterfinals, so he never had to face it. If Henry Ke and his Scientist deck had won that match, there’s a good chance that he would have won the tournament and changed everything that we know about the metagame. As it stands, John Umali’s deck set the bar for all future Shonen Jump Championships under the old format. You either had to play the deck, a variant of the deck, or a deck that was designed to beat it in order to survive. This brings us to . . .

Las Vegas: Enter the Assailant

The Las Vegas Shonen Jump Championship showed us that a little tech goes a long way. One of the greatest strengths of the Chaos deck was its ability to turn losses into gains through Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. Players decided that the best way to stop the Soldier was to make sure that its necessary tributes never got to the graveyard, and that was best accomplished by using the video game promo D.D. Assailant. D.D. Assailant wasn’t just good at stopping Chaos fodder from reaching the graveyard—it was also an all-purpose threat remover, like a slightly less versatile version of D. D. Warrior Lady. Three players from the Top 8 chose to incorporate D.D. Assailant into their decks, and one of them, Comic Odyssey’s Wilson Luc, won it all.

Las Vegas Shonen Jump Championship, February 2005

Monsters: 15

3 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 D.D. Assailant

1 Sinister Serpent

1 Fiber Jar

1 Jinzo

1 Magician of Faith

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Magical Scientist

1 Blade Knight

1 Don Zaloog

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

Spells: 18

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 The Forceful Sentry

1 Confiscation

1 Painful Choice

1 Mirage of Nightmare

1 Scapegoat

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Pot of Greed

1 Emergency Provisions

1 Heavy Storm

1 Enemy Controller

1 Smashing Ground

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

1 Change of Heart

Traps: 7

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Ring of Destruction

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Dust Tornado

Side Deck

2 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Scapegoat

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Dust Tornado

1 Book of Moon

2 Kinetic Soldier

1 King Tiger Wanghu

1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Airknight Parshath

1 Divine Wrath

Fusion Deck

3 Dark Flare Knight

2 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight

3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict

1 Reaper on the Nightmare

1 Fiend Skull Dragon

3 Musician King

3 Giltia the D. Knight

3 Ryu Senshi

3 Dark Balter the Terrible

1 Fusionist

2 Darkfire Dragon

3 Mokey Mokey King

3 Sanwitch

3 Ojama King

Wilson’s deck was filled with single copies of cards for every situation he could imagine, and judging from his first place finish, I’d say it paid off. The only cards he ran in multiples were removal cards (D.D. Assailant and Warrior Lady, Nobleman of Crossout, and Bottomless Trap Hole) and his search cards, which were two copies of Reinforcement of the Army). This also marked the first time that Return from the Different Dimension was seen in the main deck of a Shonen Jump Championship winner, and it confused a large portion of the dueling community for a while.

Another one of Wilson Luc’s interesting cards, Return from the Different Dimension, allowed him to bring back all his spent copies of D. D. Warrior Lady and D. D. Assailant for one final strike. Sadly, Return from the Different Dimension fell back into obscurity after that, never to return to a Shonen Jump Championship winner’s main deck.

Army of Duelists Gathers in Columbus, OH! Film at 11.

On February 13, 2005, the Shonen Jump Championship in Columbus shattered all previous attendance records for Yu-Gi-Oh! tournaments in North America, with a whopping 723 participants. Out of all those players, one truly interesting deck made the Top 8. Gustavo Reyes made it through 10 rounds of Swiss and two single-elimination rounds with his deck that featured The Creator and The Creator Incarnate, only to lose in the finals to Ohio native Pat Smith’s now-standard Chaos deck.

Pat Smith’s Chaos Deck

Columbus Shonen Jump Championship, February 2005

Monsters: 16

1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning

1 Sinister Serpent

1 Fiber Jar

2 Blade Knight

3 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

1 Magical Scientist

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

3 D.D. Assailant

Spells: 18

3 Scapegoat

1 Snatch Steal

2 Smashing Ground

1 Mirage of Nightmare

1 Painful Choice

3 Enemy Controller

1 Premature Burial

2 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Pot of Greed

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Emergency Provisions

Traps: 6

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

3 Sakuretsu Armor

Side Deck

1 Kinetic Soldier

1 Jinzo

3 Dust Tornado

1 Pikeru’s Circle of Enchantment

2 Hallowed Life Barrier

1 Ceasefire

1 Confiscation

1 The Forceful Sentry

2 Giant Trunade

2 Nobleman of Crossout

Fusion Deck

3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict

2 Ryu Senshi

2 Dark Balter the Terrible

3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight

2 Empress Judge

However, Pat’s deck was not without its own special innovations. He was the first to win a major event with three Sakuretsu Armors and three Enemy Controllers in his main deck. Sakuretsu Armor gave him an excellent source of extra removal so that the way would be clear for Blade Knight and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer to swing in. Enemy Controller switched any and all threatening monsters into their significantly less threatening defense positions so that Pat could pick them off easily in the next turn. He also had three copies of Scapegoat to abuse alongside Enemy Controller.

It is also important to note that he was not playing Metamorphosis in this deck. Before the changes in the rules on position changes and the loss of Magical Scientist from the format, Metamorphosis was usually only used in a deck specifically based around it, rather than in every single deck that runs Scapegoat. Of course, things were soon going to change, as the new Advanced format was rapidly approaching at that point. However, the old Advanced format was given one last hurrah in the form of the next Shonen Jump Championship—Shonen Jump Championship Orlando.

Check back on Wednesday for a continuing look at Great Moments in Shonen Jump Championship History!