Jason Holloway is renowned for a lot of things — some of them good, some of them controversial. Love him or hate him, he’s defined himself as a top competitor and a Shonen Jump Champion. But he’s never been known as a great strategist or innovator — his strengths have traditionally rested in his strong tactics instead.
This weekend he’s looking to change his stars. He’s playing one of the most daring and innovative decks present here today, and if he can make it all the way to Day 2, he’ll bring a new, totally unforeseen deck into the competitive fold. Earth Tuners with Giant Rat is a deck that’s seen a lot of speculative praise but little actual play recently. Holloway’s taking a chance, building on the core of that deck and then taking it to whole new levels by adding in an X-factor — Zombies. Here’s what it looks like:
The deck opens with incredible strength, packing Sangan, three copies of Pyramid Turtle, three copies of Giant Rat, and even a one-off copy of Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. This thing is extremely hard to approach in the early game, and even if Holloway is pitted against Gladiator Beasts (which have traditionally kept recruiters out of competitive play these past few months), he can always search out Mezuki with Pyramid Turtle if his opponent has access to Gladiator Beast Murmillo.
The same base of recruiters is a powerful offensive weapon in the early game as well, giving easy access to Ryu Kokki. Bottomless Trap Hole and Royal Oppression can’t be activated in the damage step, so Holloway can unleash a big hitter that’s nearly unstoppable early on. That’s just a sideshow though: the deck features two central game plans that make it difficult to predict, and even harder to play against.
Synchro monsters comprise the deck’s most visible path to victory — Jutte Fighter can be searched out with Giant Rat, which also maintains field presence to feed Synchro summons. While Holloway only runs one copy each of Il Blud, Ryu Kokki, and Zombie Master, he plays a full retinue of Mezuki — three copies. Backed by a whopping two copies of Burial From a Different Dimension, one Mezuki gives Holloway an easy way to special summon any of his six remaining Level 4 Zombies, or the Level 6 Blud and Kokki. Paired with Jutte Fighter’s two level stars those Zombies are perfect for deploying Goyo Guardian, or any of Stardust Dragon, Red Dragon Archfiend, Thought Ruler, or Colossal Fighter.
Two copies of Card of Safe Return let Holloway draw even more cards as he sets up his Synchro summons, and he’s main decking Gold Sarcophagus to search them out — any Zombie player’s dream card. Other choice picks for Sarcophagus include Crush Card Virus and Heavy Storm, two cards that are dangerous anywhere, but that Holloway’s deck can capitalize on more readily than other decks.
The alternative game plan is pure swarm with nearly-unstoppable monsters. Two Foolish Burial can feed Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest to the graveyard, setting up its special summon with Giant Rat or Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter. Failing that, Foolish Burial can send whichever Zombies to the yard that Holloway needs to get at — Mezuki, or targets for its effect. If the opponent refuses to attack Giant Rat as a result, Holloway can bide his time and then force an exchange with one of his three copies of Creature Swap. Doing so might not get him Green Baboon, but it’ll let him go off in any number of other ways.
Baboon is just one part of the swarm, of course. Zombies make up the rest, backed by three copies of Book of Life. The pace that Holloway can force with Foolish Burial and Book is incredible — it costs him cards to do so, but often the value of an early-game press (either with Synchros or just “a bunch of Zombies”) is worth it, even if it can’t be compensated for by Card of Safe Return.
Holloway’s two big tech picks are Neo-Spacian Grand Mole and Nobleman of Extermination. Grand Mole is seeing a ton of play this weekend as an answer to all of the Synchro monsters people are slinging around — the Mole’s being mained in everything, and sided everywhere else. But Nobleman of Extermination is a surprisingly smart choice that makes a ton of sense, and seems to be unique to Holloway’s deck (at least as far as this tournament goes). “I’m running it because getting rid of those Solemns and especially the Gladiator Beast War Chariots is so important. If I can get rid of those, I’m in the clear.” Aside from Solemn we’re not seeing a lot of traps being run in triplicate today — even the Gladiator players are opting to run two Chariot in most cases. But offing the Chariots before they can be recycled by Gladiator Beast Equeste is huge, and the actual number that the opponent runs doesn’t really matter — just getting them out of the duel is what counts. If Holloway’s free to use effects like those of Il Blud or Zombie Master he’s got a big advantage right off the bat.
Holloway’s won his first match of the day, and could go all the way to Day 2. His deck is very good at making surprise plays, and I think a lot of people are going to focus too much on either the Synchro side or the swarm strategy since they don’t really know what they’re dealing with. Doing so will give Holloway an advantage with the opposite tactic, and I think that fact alone can carry him to the Top 16.