When I first looked over the characters in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and read about some of their early exploits, I realized that Syrus gets almost no respect from anybody. I mean, Jaden seems to appreciate him, but the fact remains that most of the GX cast don’t think of Syrus as much of a duelist. It’s a real shame, as he has what is easily one of the best decks on the show. Today, I’ll be bringing his deck to life.

The Main Players

Gyroid: Field presence is an important part of any duel. With Gyroid on the field, it’s like you’ve doubled your field presence. Your opponent can’t defeat it by battle on the first turn without using a multi-attack monster like Mataza the Zapper, which means there’s a good chance it’ll be around on turn 2 as tribute fodder or for anything else you need it to do. Of course, Gyroid is still vulnerable to standard removal spells, but who wants to use a removal spell on something like Gyroid? Wouldn’t they much rather use it on . . .

Jetroid: . . . this guy? I absolutely adore Jetroid’s effect, because it’s currently the only legal way to play traps without setting them first.* Jetroid lets you have all manner of fun by toying with your opponent, because you never have to put your traps where he or she can get at them. Did your opponent attack with Airknight Parshath or Berserk Gorilla? Drop Mirror Wall from your hand and rain on that parade. Is your opponent attacking with an entire army of monsters? It’s a good thing that you have Mirror Force in your hand.

Steamroid: When you absolutely have to take out Airknight Parshath right now, Steamroid is there for you. In fact, Steamroid can take out nearly every commonly played monster while that monster is attacking. Of course, it’s kind of bad when it gets attacked next turn and its ATK drops to 1300, but hey—that’s why you play traps and Limiter Removal!

Drillroid: What’s this? Why, it’s a card that’s worthy of being in many tournament decks! Huzzah! Drillroid combines the face-down hate of Mystic Swordsman LV2 with the face-up hate of Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke, but sadly, it doesn’t stop flip effects from happening like its LV2 rival. Regardless of its shortcomings, the sheer versatility of Drillroid may allow it to see some actual play in Shonen Jump Championships this season.

Patroid: A mediocre effect on a mediocre body is pretty, well, mediocre. This shouldn’t really appear in my real life rendition of Syrus’ deck, as it has just about nothing going for it. Extra information is good, but wasting a summon to get it is not.

UFORoid: . . . will not be appearing in this deck. Its effect can’t search out half of the Vehicroid monsters, and it’s a level 6 Machine-type monster that’s not named Jinzo. I don’t care if Syrus uses it in the show—it just doesn’t make the jump to reality.

Syrus does own a Power Bond, but he tends not to play with it. He also has the normal monster Cycroid, but it definitely won’t do you any good, even in a casual duel. He also plays Steam Gyroid, which is a fusion monster, but seeing as the result is worse than either of the material monsters, I think I’m justified in leaving it out of this version of his deck.

Other than that, a lot of the cards that Syrus plays haven’t been printed yet, so I’ll have to make some substitutions. I’m also going to add some of the more competitive Machine cards so that this deck can stand a chance in regular tournament play. Without further ado, I present . . .

Syrus Truesdale’s Vehicroid Deck

Monsters: 18

1 Jinzo

1 Blowback Dragon

3 Steamroid

3 Drillroid

2 Gyroid

2 Jetroid

2 Cannon Soldier

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

1 Morphing Jar

1 Cyber Jar

Spells: 14

1 Pot of Greed

1 Graceful Charity

1 Delinquent Duo

1 Snatch Steal

1 Heavy Storm

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Giant Trunade

1 Premature Burial

1 Smashing Ground

1 Nobleman of Crossout

3 Limiter Removal

Traps: 8

1 Metalmorph

1 Mirror Force

1 Mirror Wall

1 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Magic Cylinder**

I admit that within the realm of the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series, Syrus would probably never touch Tribe-Infecting Virus or Breaker the Magical Warrior. However, I’d bet that if he walked into an actual Shonen Jump Championship tournament, he’d be clamoring to trade for them at the event. Jinzo and Blowback Dragon are both powerful Machines that I could definitely see Syrus playing at some point in the future. Like, maybe when he gets over his irrational fear of Power Bond, or his rabid obsession with Dark Magician Girl.*** Then again, maybe not. Either way, both cards are powerful additions to this deck that will certainly help you out if you decide give this deck a go in an actual tournament.

As far as the spells are concerned, this deck is pretty faithful to what’s seen in the TV show. While I’m not using Polymerization or Power Bond, Syrus did play with Limiter Removal, Pot of Greed, and Mystical Space Typhoon. It may not seem like much, but when you factor in that he’s only dueled maybe three times so far, and we only saw the last turn or two of one of the duels (Go, Jetroid!), it’s amazing that we know anything about his choice of spells.

Sadly, we don’t know what traps Syrus plays with, so I had to wing it in that department. The only trap that we actually see him play is Magic Cylinder, and he only uses it in a throwaway duel at the start of an episode. I decided to stick with the theme of traps that are good to spring from your hand, and included Mirror Wall, Sakuretsu Armor, Mirror Force, Ring of Destruction, and Metalmorph. These are all good traps that you don’t want your opponent hitting with Mystical Space Typhoon before you have a chance to use them. Metalmorph also has the distinction of being included in the only other Machine deck that’s ever been seen on the show—it was played against Joey by Bandit Keith in the Duelist Kingdom semifinals.

As a side note, it’s a real shame that no one uses Metalmorph in competitive play. With the monster lineups of most decks being nearly identical, it seems as though a timely Metalmorph can really turn a game around. Allow me to give you an example of a common situation that I’ve seen at local tournaments.

Mike summons Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer and sets a card. Julia does the same thing on her turn. On Mike’s next turn, he summons Berserk Gorilla and runs over the opposing Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer before hitting Julia directly with his own copy of Kycoo.

Now, let’s say that Julia’s face down card is Metalmorph. Berserk Gorilla attacks Julia’s Kycoo, and that Kycoo is equipped with Metalmorph in response. Berserk Gorilla is gone and Kycoo can’t attack without help of its own. Next turn, Julia’s equipped Kycoo will run rampant over Mike’s regular one. If you think about it, stuff like this happens all the time, so if you can get your hands on Metalmorph at some point, go ahead and try it out.

Comments? Suggestions? Questions about the game, or even about Yu-Gi-Oh! GX? Send them to:

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu

NEXT WEEK: I’ll finally get around to some reader comments on the Exodia and Cyber-Stein decks. I also believe I said something about a deck that did something constructive with life gain—but more on that later.

*The currently forbidden way to do so is Makyura the Destructor

**He plays it from Jetroid’s effect when it’s attacked by Ancient Gear Golem. In reality, this move doesn’t work—so don’t try it.

***I know a lot of real people who can’t get over this one.