By the time you read this, Shonen Jump Championship Boston has come to a close and the new format has officially begun. The metagame has begun to take shape and the dominant deck types have started to emerge. Hopefully, this humble writer will have eight new weeks worth of decks to cover and not nearly enough time in which to do it. My past two reviews shed some light on the more popular archetypes before any premier tournament took place. My final review for this time period is an oldie, but a goodie: Chris Winkler’s SJC Baltimore Top 4 Strike Ninja deck.

Monsters—19

3 Mystic Tomato

1 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

3 Spirit Reaper

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

3 Strike Ninja

1 Sangan

1 Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World

1 Cyber Dragon

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Magician of Faith

1 Newdoria

Spells—13

1 Enemy Controller

1 Snatch Steal

1 Heavy Storm

1 Graceful Charity

1 Scapegoat

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Book of Moon

1 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Smashing Ground

1 Premature Burial

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps—10

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Blast with Chain

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

2 Dust Tornado

1 Sakuretsu Armor

This deck lost almost nothing to the new ban list. Spirit Reaper needs to be reduced to one copy, as does Nobleman of Crossout, and the Snatch Steal is now forbidden. However, some of the deck’s biggest problems went away along with those cards: namely Chaos Sorcerer and Tsukuyomi.

One of the great things about Strike Ninja is its ability to dodge enemy attacks, shunting them onto the shoulders of other defense monsters or your own life points. While this can mean less of a field with which to defend yourself, it also means you’ve got a 1700 ATK monster sticking around for the next turn to attack with or tribute. However, in ages past, the Strike Ninja player had worry about the opponent sending out a flurry of attacks. Special summoning both Cyber Dragon and Chaos Sorcerer meant that having Strike Ninja dodge the attack came at the cost of 4500 life points.

Now it’s less risky to pull Strike Ninja out of harm’s way. Chaos Sorcerer not only added 2300 ATK to the field, it also helped fuel Return from the Different Dimension the same turn it was summoned. Return is harder to get going now, so ideally Strike Ninja’s jog out of this dimension won’t cost you the game.

Winkler’s deck was built around overcoming the weaknesses of the Strike Ninja deck and countering the metagame. His monster line-up reflects that perfectly. Three copies of Mystic Tomato means that field presence will not drop too low, preventing Strike Ninja’s effect from becoming a liability. Spirit Reaper does the same thing: though naturally deadly in its ability to rob the opponent of cards in hand, it also functions as a defender, to protect the life points that Strike Ninja can’t. One could even argue that Newdoria does the same thing, since it can block two attacks quite easily. (The first is stopped with its own body, and the second is prevented through Newdoria’s effect.)

The other monsters in Winkler’s deck can be placed in the “anti-metagame” column. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and Goldd, Wu-Lord of the Dark World were used to stop two of the most feared cards at the time: Chaos Sorcerer and Spirit Reaper. However, now that the Sorcerer is forbidden and Reaper limited to one, the deck can free up some room for more tech or defensive cards.

The spell line-up in this deck is a pretty standard build. Double Smashing Ground cards were a good metagame choice for Spirit Reaper and Chaos Sorcerer. Both of those monsters could put a halt to Strike Ninja’s work, so having some spare monster removal cards was always a good thing. The deck was also pretty aggressive for the time, when flip effect monsters ran rampant.

Enemy Controller added to an already crowded defense department that included two copies of Bottomless Trap Hole, one copy of Sakuretsu Armor, and a lone Blast with Chain. When added to the staple defensive traps, they make for a deck that packs a lot to shield its life points. Bottomless Trap Hole helped Winkler put a quick stop to Cyber Dragon and Bazoo the Soul Eater. If he was lucky, Bottomless Trap Hole could also put a stop to an entire Return from the Different Dimension army.

However, I expect the main reason for having two copies of Bottomless Trap Hole in the main deck was to counter any Mobius the Frost Monarch cards running around. In addition to the normal damage Mobius can cause, having a Strike Ninja flattened or suffering 2400 damage is never fun. Winkler refused to let this happen to him. Blast with Chain also trumps Mobius, but the real prize is when Cyber Dragon thinks it’s got Strike Ninja cornered, only to find Blast with Chain turning the tables entirely.

Dust Tornado was most often aimed at taking down Return from the Different Dimension. However, the Tornado could also set up Call of the Haunted or Return from the Different Dimension for use the following turn, as well as save cards from Reaper. Dust Tornado is a truly crafty card, and in a deck as unpredictable as this one, I’m sure Winkler found many ways to abuse it.

The deck has a lot of free room now. With some cards forbidden or limited and the need for many other cards subsiding, there is a lot of space to tinker. Creature Swap makes an excellent card for this deck, for example. Newdoria, Mystic Tomato, and all sorts of flip effects love being thrown around with Creature Swap, and when you control the big monster, Strike Ninja’s effect is almost never a liability.

Chris Winkler unleashed Strike Ninja at the beginning of last format and surprised an unsuspecting metagame. There’s no doubt that the card will be strong this format as well, but will it break into another Top 8 performance? We’ll have to wait and see.