While Paul McCann’s Machina Gadget Deck focused more on defense and control, and Mark Garcia’s focused on all-out aggression, Noah Young is way on the other side of the map. He’s hanging out in Geartown! Young is using the framework of a basic Machina Gadget Deck and adding a handful of cards to turn it into a different apparatus altogether. With Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon and Geartown, Young’s created something totally different from the average Machina Gadget build!

Monsters:
3x Machina Fortress
3x Machina Gearframe
3x Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon
2x Red Gadget
2x Yellow Gadget
2x Green Gadget
1x Machina Force
2x Machina Peacemaker

Spells:
3x Geartown
3x Smashing Ground
2x Book of Moon
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Giant Trunade
1x Brain Control
1x Limiter Removal

Traps:
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dimensional Prison
2x Starlight Road
1x Solemn Judgment
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute

Young’s Deck plays all the Machina and Gadget monsters you’d expect to see: Machina Fortress, Machina Gearframe, Peacemaker and Force make the cut, alongside 2 copies of each Gadget. He makes room for 3 Ancieant Gear Gadjiltron Dragons and 3 Geartowns by cutting a few defensive cards, paring down the expected Spell and Trap Lineup to unlock explosive Dragon plays.

“If I have Geartown out on the field it’s mainly to make my opponent think twice about activating Heavy Storm.” Of course, he can also destroy Geartown himself with Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon. With a boost from Limiter Removal, Gadjiltron Dragon becomes a 6000 ATK monster that can’t be stopped by Spell or Trap Cards when it’s attacking.

“Another great thing about Geartown is being able to use the Tribute effect.” With Geartown face-up, Young can Tribute Summon Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon with just a single Tribute, claiming a range of effects if he Tributes a Gadget. If he Tributes Red Gadget or Yellow Gadget, the Dragon gains a relatively minor effect damage ability, but if he Tributes Green Gadget for the Summon, his 3000 ATK Gadjiltron Dragon will deal piercing damage when it attacks Defense Position monsters. A 3000 ATK piercer that’s immune from Spell and Trap Cards when it attacks isn’t something to take lightly, since it will punch holes through popular monsters like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, and scatter Fluff Tokens to the wind.

Young plays plenty of cards that can protect his Gadjiltron Dragon once it’s been successfully Summoned. 2 Books of Moon, 2 Bottomless Trap Holes, 2 Dimensional Prisons, 3 Smashing Grounds, and a couple more monster-destroying cards make it tough for an opponent to muster the raw attack power needed to break through the Dragon’s huge stats. Gadget Decks are all about destroying and removing cards to limit the opponent’s options against small monsters like Green Gadget. But when you leverage the kind of disruption into a huge monster like Gadjiltron Dragon instead, the effect is amplified: wins come faster, and it becomes even harder for your opponent to battle back.

Young quotes the Blackwing matchup as his most difficult: “I just try to keep Fortress on the field and play around Icarus Attack. I have to play flawlessly, and my Side Deck is key.” He says Gladiator Beasts are a better matchup for him, as are Synchro Cat Decks.

While other Gadget Duelists play within more defined boundaries of strategy, Noah Young is breaking out to try something cool. Will it win him a seat in the top 32? We’ll find out tomorrow.