Deck Profile: Roy St. Clair’s X-Saber Deck
Thanks to the release of Absolute Powerforce, X-Sabers have finally made it to the top of a SHONEN JUMP Championship. Roy St. Clair took 3rd place in today’s competition, earning himself a “Dark End Dragon” prize card. Many of his opponents underestimated the power of “XX-Saber Emmersblade,” “XX-Saber Hyunlei,” and “Saber Hole,” allowing St. Clair to cruise through Day 1 and make to the top. Take a look at St. Clair’s list.
| Monsters | Spells | Traps | Side Deck | Extra Deck |
| 2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 1x Sangan 1x Summoner Monk 1x Rescue Cat 1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 3x X-Saber Airbellum 3x XX-Saber Faultroll 2x XX-Saber Fulhelmknight 2x XX-Saber Ragigura 3x XX-Saber Emmersblade |
2x Lightning Vortex 1x Giant Trunade 1x One for One 2x Saber Slash 1x Mind Control 1x Heavy Storm 3x My Body As A Shield |
2x Bottomless Trap Hole 1x Torrential Tribute 1x Mirror Force 3x Gottoms’ Emergency Call 3x Saber Hole 1x Dimensional Prison |
2x Soul Release 1x Trap Hole 1x Dust Tornado 1x Mystical Space Typhoon 3x Consecrated Light 3x Light-Imprisoning Mirror 2x Tuner’s Scheme 1x Saber Slash 1x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter |
1x X-Saber Urbellum 1x Goyo Guardian 1x Stardust Dragon 1x Armory Arm 1x Black Rose Dragon 1x Ally of Justice Catastor 1x Colossal Fighter 1x Arcanite Magician 2x XX-Saber Hyunlei 2x XX-Saber Gottoms 2x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier 1x Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth |
St. Clair only included the X-Sabers in his Deck that he deemed the best. “X-Saber Airbellum,” “XX-Saber Faultroll,” “XX-Saber Fulhelmknight,” “XX-Saber Ragigura,” and “XX-Saber Emmersblade” all made it into St. Clair’s Main Deck, while others like “X-Saber Axel,” “X-Saber Galahad,” and “XX-Saber Gardestrike” were cut. Emmersblade is the heart of St. Clair’s Deck, allowing him to create cool combos that can tear down his opponents.
I asked St. Clair about some of his Deck’s favorite plays and he told me, “Special Summoning Ragigura with Emmersblade is an awesome play. I can return Emmersblade to my hand and then Summon it next turn before I Special Summon Faultroll.” A single copy of Emmersblade can make sure that St. Clair is able to Special Summon the copies of Faultroll that he draws.
“Saber Hole is broken,” St. Clair also said. “It stops everything.” With 14 X-Saber monsters in his Deck, St. Clair is easily able to activate “Saber Hole” to shut down any Summon his opponent attempts. Emmersblade makes it even easier to keep an X-Saber on the field by Special Summoning a new one whenever it’s destroyed. Popular monsters like “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier,” “Dark Armed Dragon,” and “Judgment Dragon” all fall to “Saber Hole.”
“I’ve been wrecking people all day with Hyunlei,” St. Clair told me. He can Synchro Summon Hyunlei by Tuning “XX-Saber Emmersblade” with Airbellum or Fulhelmknight to wipe out his opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards. “I don’t have to worry about “Royal Decree” or “Royal Oppression” either.” With 2 copies of “Saber Slash” in his Main Deck, he could easily destroy either one of those cards if it becomes a problem for him. St. Clair prides himself on having answers to everything in his Deck. It sounded to me like there wasn’t anything about his Deck he didn’t like.
It’s also capable of a lot of explosive plays. He runs “One for One” to Special Summon Ragigura from his Deck and “Rescue Cat” to Special Summon 2 copies of “X-Saber Airbellum” from his Deck. He also plays “Summoner Monk” so he can Special Summon “Rescue Cat” from his Deck. This allows him to set up a lot of big plays, including the Special Summon of Faultroll to swarm the field and the “XX-Saber Gottoms” discard loop. To make sure his big play go through, St. Clair’s Deck packs 3 copies of “My Body as a Shield” to protect his monsters. When “XX-Saber Faultroll” starts swarming the field with X-Sabers, St. Clair can protect them all with “My Body as a Shield” to make sure his swarm is able to attack for the win.
St. Clair is also running a full 3 copies of “Gottoms’ Emergency Call” because of its amazing ability to Special Summon 2 monsters at once! This gives his a Deck a lot of speed that is unmatched by other Decks. Since he runs 5 Tuners that can be Special Summoned with Emmersblade, his Deck can also accommodate “Mind Control” and “Brain Control” better than most others. St. Clair can take control of his opponents’ monsters and use them to Special Summon strong Synchro monsters. With so many Tuners in his Deck, St. Clair can always put his opponents’ monsters to use.
St. Clair is the first Duelist ever to top a SHONEN JUMP Championship with X-Sabers, but he certainly won’t be the last. As Duelists realize the potential that so many of the X-Sabers and their support cards have, they’ll be able to take X-Sabers to the top just like St. Clair did today.
