It’s early here today at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center, but the buzz is that the new Quickdraw Dandywarrior Deck could have a huge impact in this tournament. A number of experienced Duelists are each running their own versions of this strategy, capitalizing on their opponents’ lack of experience playing against it. With so many flexible card choices there’s lots of room for customization, and that makes it a top pick for veterans.

One such competitor is Canada’s Sorosh Saberian, playing a version of the Deck with his own personal spin. Here’s what he’s running:

Monsters:
3x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3x Caius the Shadow Monarch
3x Debris Dragon
2x Quickdraw Synchron
2x Dandylion
2x Lonefire Blossom
1x Cyber Valley
1x Morphing Jar
1x Battle Fader
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
1x Tytannial, Princess of Camellias

Spells:
2x Pot of Avarice
2x Book of Moon
1x Charge of the Light Brigade
1x Brain Control
1x Heavy Storm
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Foolish Burial

Traps:
3x Dimensional Prison
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Dust Tornado
1x Call of the Haunted
1x Mirror Force
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Solemn Judgment

Like all Quickdraw Decks, this one revolves around Dandylion. It uses Lonefire Blossom and Foolish Burial to get Dandylion to the Graveyard, Special Sumoning Fluff Tokens. From there it uses those Tokens to Tribute Summon Caius the Shadow Monarch, or to make a variety of Synchro Summons.

Quickdraw Synchron is used to Special Summon Drill Warrior and Turbo Warrior. Turbo Warrior gains an ATK boost when it attacks monsters of Level 6 or higher, and it can’t be targeted by the effects of smaller monsters like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter or Gladiator Beasts. Drill Warrior can make direct attacks by halving its ATK, and it can then reset itself to its original 2400 ATK (and avoid attacks from bigger monsters) by removing itself from play for the turn. The cost to remove Drill Warrior from play is to discard a card, but Drill Warrior returns to your field on your next Standby Phase, and its effect returns a Monster Card to your hand. If you discard Dandylion to make Drill Warrior vanish, you can Special Summon 2 Fluff Tokens and then get Dandylion back with Drill Warrior’s effect.

Saberian also uses his Quickdraw Synchrons to Synchro Summon Nitro Warrior and Road Warrior. Both monsters can be deadly attackers, plus he plays a single Cyber Valley to Special Summon with Road Warrior’s effect.

The rest of Saberian’s Synchro Monsters are Synchro Summoned with Debris Dragon – he runs 3, using Debris’ effect to Special Summon Dandylion. Dandylion and Debris Dragon let Saberian unleash a Level 7 Synchro Summon, but a Fluff Token or Battle Fader will add 1 more Level, so he can Synchro Summon Red Dragon Archfiend or Stardust Dragon really easily. Cyber Valley and Battle Fader are just 2 of the cards Saberian’s included as personal choices. Check back once Day 1 is over to see a few more surprising picks in his Deck list.

Saberian runs 3 Ryko, Lightsworn Hunters, and even plays Charge of the Light Brigade to search it out. All 4 cards send 3 cards from the top of Saberian’s Deck to the Graveyard, giving him another way to get to Dandylion. They also feed into Pot of Avarice, so while Saberian destroys his opponent’s best cards with Ryko, he’s also building bigger plays. He can even use Debris Dragon to Special Summon Ryko, then Tune both together to Synchro Summon Iron Chain Dragon. Since Ryko can destroy a Bottomless Trap Hole or Royal Oppression that would destroy Iron Chain otherwise, the Hunter and the Dragon make a powerful, and easy, combo.

“My favorite opening move is Setting Ryko and Dust Tornado,” remarked Saberian. In that case, he can destroy his opponent’s monster with Ryko if it’s attacked, and then destroy another card if his opponent Sets something to the Spell & Trap Card Zone (a likely scenario when your opponent doesn’t have a monster on the field). From there, a Debris Dragon can bring out Iron Chain and score a quick 2500 damage, or a Dandylion play can allow for an even bigger Synchro Summon.

“I like opening with Foolish Burial into Debris Dragon, or Foolish with Lonefire Blossom too,” commented Saberian. In both those cases he’ll use Burial to send Dandylion to the Graveyard for 2 Fluff Tokens. If he has Debris Dragon he’ll Normal Summon it and use its effect to Special Summon Dandylion, Summoning a Level 8 Synchro Monster while still keeping his second Token around for later. If he has Lonefire instead, he’ll use it to Special Summon Tytannial, Princess of Camellias. He’ll use the 2 Fluff Tokens to power Tytannial’s effect, negating cards like Brain Control and Book of Moon. He might even use that first Lonefire to get a second before bringing out Tytannial. Using both Lonefires stacks monsters up in his Graveyard for Pot of Avarice later.

His final favored opening move is to Set Dust Tornado with Quickdraw Synchron and Dandylion in-hand. Dust Tornado will clear the way for Drill Warrior, ensuring that its first Special Summon isn’t interrupted. Since you can’t respond to the Standby Phase Special Summon of Drill Warrior via its effect, it will then be protected from Bottomless Trap Hole and Torrential Tribute. Saberian plays a deep Trap lineup with triple Dimensional Prisons, so once he gets out that first Drill Warrior he can do a great job protecting it and capitalizing, 1200 damage at a time.

Sorosh Saberian’s deck is a tremendous example of basic Quickdraw Dandywarrior strategy. Touches like Charge of the Light Brigade and his Trap lineup make the Deck what it is, and if a Deck like this one makes the Top 32 this weekend, it could be extremely influential.