It’s Monday, March 19th, and as the days tick down to Shonen Jump Championship Columbus, everybody’s trying to get their hands on Shrink!
Strike of Neos Special Edition Now Available
After spending almost a year as a Shonen Jump Champion-only promo, Shrink has finally been released to the masses! The popular and much-coveted spell card has been on the wish list of just about every serious duelist forever, and now you can get a playset of your own without shelling out thousands of dollars.
The Strike of Neos Special Edition pack comes with two boosters of Strike of Neos, one booster of Enemy of Justice, and two exclusive promo cards. The first is a super rare version of Shrink. The second is a super rare Cyber End Dragon with never-before-seen alternate art. The tone of the new art matches that of the alternate Cyber Dragon found in Duelist Pack—Zane Truesdale: it’s darker and more sinister, so if you’ve been lucky enough to crack one of the new Cyber Dragon cards, they make a great pairing. Both of the promos can only be found in Strike of Neos Special Edition, and both are marked as Limited Editions, right on the card.
With so many duelists trying to get their hands on Strike of Neos Special Edition for Shrink alone, they’re pretty tough to find right now. Currently you can only get it at Wal-Mart, but over coming weeks it’ll be available at other retailers as well. They went on sale as early as Wednesday last week in some areas, but many parts of the country have yet to receive their shipments, so call around to find out if your local Wal-Mart has them yet. Once they do, snap ‘em up quick, because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.
Shonen Jump Championship Columbus Just Days Away
The release of Shrink has made this weekend’s Shonen Jump Championship in Columbus, Ohio just a little bit more interesting. With Strike of Neos Special Edition selling out where it’s available, a lot of duelists are scrabbling to gather their playset before the SJC. Gadgets, Banisher of the Radiance, Hydrogeddon, Gravekeepers, and a lot of other popular cards might take center stage this weekend thanks to Shrink.
Hundreds of duelists will flood the Franklin County Veterans Memorial Center this Saturday and Sunday, and this SJC promises to be a big one! Ohio is relatively accessible to the rest of the country, which means that anybody from anywhere could show up to compete. The field should be huge, and the tournament itself is highly unpredictable given the format and the sheer number of local metagames that will be represented.
The impact of Card Trooper/Bazoo Return has been felt, and those who have the cards it requires are likely to seriously consider running it. Card Trooper is the hands-down hottest card of the year. Though less than twenty duelists ran Bazoo Return with the potent little Machine-type at SJC Houston, it was the only archetype to place multiple duelists in the Top 8. By comparison, over a hundred people showed up with focused Monarch builds and only one took a Top 8 slot.
But that’s not to say that the format is dominated by a cookie cutter. In Houston, we saw Kris Perovic take Diamond Dude Turbo all the way to the finals, and though he was the only competitor playing DDT, he seems to have set a trend. Warrior Toolbox, Dimensional Fissure, and Monarch/Gadget hybrids will also be popular, but expect some surprises. Advanced Ritual Art is fuelling the creativity of some of the game’s greatest competitors, and duelists continue to refine the Six Samurai into a brutally focused tour-de-force strategy. Anything could happen.
If you’re interested in heading out to compete but haven’t had the chance to make your travel arrangements, you can find all the information you need right here at the official event listing. Metagame’s own Jerome McHale will be coming to you live all weekend from the tournament floor, so if you can’t make it to this event yourself, then be sure to join us for the feature matches, deck profiles, and live coverage excitement you crave!
This Week on Metagame.com
Mike Rosenberg opens up our week with an in-depth look at Dimension Fusion. While this card has garnered a lot of attention over the past weeks and several different uses for it have been explored, Mike pays some extra attention to what sets it apart from its chief contemporary: Return from the Different Dimension. What makes Dimension Fusion so different from its trap counterpart, and why did it lie dormant for years before exploding onto the tournament scene? Mike’s going to explain that and more, so click on over!
One of the most thrilling feature matches from Shonen Jump Championship Houston was Joey Skiles’s round 7 showdown against Ricky Riles. In it, the previously unheralded Skiles put forth an impressive showing with an Elemental Hero deck keyed around Skyscraper 2 - Hero City. Now, Jerome’s back from Houston with his own spin on the deck, and he’s going to show you how to put together the most competitive Elemental Hero build ever.
On Wednesday, Crellian Vowler (we’re not caving to his demand for epithets this week!) poses an important question: why is no one playing Dark World? After a strong showing at the end of last year, Dark World gained some impressive new tricks from Strike of Neos, leaving Graceful Charity behind for Dark World Dealings and a bevy of new monsters. Vowler’s lecture this week focuses on fixing up a Dark World build focused on Deck Devastation Virus, and the resulting deck could definitely have a place in your gauntlet.
Curtis Schultz continues his series on Six Samurai rulings this week as he looks at how the team interacts with certain cards. It’s all about removal this Thursday as Curtis looks at how the team deals with Ring of Destruction, Lightning Vortex, and more, along with some details on the mechanics of Legendary Ebon Steed.
Friday, Julia Hedberg will show you what you can do to create successful playtesting sessions, and she’ll start by outlining why you should test to begin with. The best duelists and teams work hard to prepare for major events and adapt quickly to new developments. Solid Ground this week is jam-packed with tips to help you optimize your playtesting systems, and it’s really a must-read.
Finally, Matt Peddle finishes out the week with a look at the Card Trooper/Bazoo Return build that took Chris Sorelle all the way to the Top 8 of SJC Houston. Matt will give you an insider look at the pacing and psychology that makes this deck so powerful: there’s more to it than you might think.
That’s it for this week, but be sure to join us on Saturday for live coverage from Shonen Jump Championship Columbus!