X-Sabers were one of the Decks that got a huge boost from The Shining Darkness. First off, it featured the mass release of X-Saber Pashuul and X-Saber Palomuro (previously only available in Duel Terminal machines), which made these cards tournament legal. That gave X-Sabers 2 new Tuner monsters. In addition, the World Premiere cards XX-Saber Boggart Knight and XX-Saber Darksoul have made the Deck far more powerful than ever before. X-Sabers are now faster, more flexible, and way better at Summoning monsters like XX-Saber Faultroll to create big combos.

Devin Clark is one of many Duelists piloting an X-Saber Deck this weekend. His build is a good example of what a lot of competitors are running, so it’s definitely worth a look. Check it out:

Monsters: 20

3x XX-Saber Emmersblade

3x X-saber Airbellum

3x XX-Saber Faultroll

2x XX-Saber Fulhelmknight

3x XX-Saber DarkSoul

2x XX-Saber BoggartKnight

1x X-Saber Pashuul

1x XX-Saber Ragigura

1x Summoner Monk

1x Rescue Cat

Spells: 10

1x Saber Slash

2x Book of Moon

1x Cold Wave

1x Giant Trunade

1x Heavy Storm

1x Mystical Space Typhoon

1x Mind Control

1x Brain Control

Traps: 10

2x Gottoms’ Emergency Call

2x Saber Hole

2x Bottomless Trap Hole                               

1x Torrential Tribute

1x Mirror Force

1x Royal Oppression

1x Solemn Judgment

Building an X-Saber Deck can be tricky, just because there are so many great cards to choose from. Especially for their monsters, where we can see that Clark just didn’t have the room to run X-Saber Palomuro. He played X-Saber Pashuul instead, a Tuner that can’t be destroyed by battle, so it opens up lots of possible combo plays.

The main X-Saber strategy is the same as it’s always been: Use a flurry of Special Summons to swarm the field with attacks, or unleash XX-Saber Gottoms and use its effect to force your opponent to discard their whole hand. If the opponent plays conservatively, XX-Saber Gottoms can send every card in their hand to the Graveyard. But aggressive play could lead to huge losses of cards to Saber Slash and XX-Saber Hyunlei. Both of these X-Saber strategies have become far stronger thanks to XX-Saber Boggart Knight and XX-Saber Darksoul.

XX-Saber Darksoul’s effect will usually be used to search out a copy of XX-Saber Faultroll. Since Darksoul’s search effect has no Level restriction, it’s one of the few ways to get Faultroll straight from your Deck. Once you have a Faultroll or 2 in-hand, XX-Saber Boggart Knight’s effect lets you Special Summon a second X-Saber along with itself. Now, with 2 X-Sabers on the Field, you can Special Summon every Faultroll in your hand. Each Faultroll Special Summons another monster from your Graveyard, giving you 4 or 5 monsters total.

That much Special Summoning power means that it’s easier than ever to assemble 2 Faultrolls and XX-Saber Gottoms to discard your opponent’s hand, and it’s easier to destroy more cards with Saber Slash. You can even just Summon Boggart Knight, Special Summon X-Saber Pashuul, and immediately Synchro Summon XX-Saber Hyunlei to destroy as many as 3 cards.

Rescue Cat is a great card with X-Sabers, and it’s better than ever. While X-Saber Duelists used to play Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter so that they could Special Summon Ryko and X-Saber Airbellum with the Cat and Synchro Summon a Level 5 monster, XX-Saber Darksoul is also a Beast-Type monster. That’s led Duelists like Devin Clark to abandon Ryko completely, throwing away the proverbial “old dog” because there are just too many new tricks to teach it.

Instead, this new breed of X-Saber Deck uses Rescue Cat to Special Summon XX-Saber Darksoul and X-Saber Airbellum together, Tuning them for Hyunlei, Goyo Guardian, or Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier, and getting a free search for another X-Saber with Darksoul’s effect. It’s a brutal play, and Clark is running Summoner Monk just so he can use Rescue Cat as often as possible. Since Boggart Knight is also a Level 4 monster, Clark still has monsters to Special Summon with the Monk if he draws Rescue Cat early (a problem that old X-Saber Decks ran into sometimes). The same Summoner Monk play can also be used to pair X-Saber Airbellum with the Monk itself, Synchro Summoning Arcanite Magician and leaving Darksoul to be destroyed in the End Phase, which will trigger Darksoul’s effect.

It’s unclear right now which X-Saber Decks will do the best here this weekend, but Decks like Devin Clark’s are a good indicator of what most well-built X-Saber Decks look like here in Day 1. Some Duelists are playing Palomuro over Pashuul, and you might see a few single-card tweaks here and there, but on the whole, Clark’s build is a good representation of dozens of other Decks being run by other Duelists. X-Sabers are faster, stronger, and pack a wider range of combos and plays, so they’re extremely popular in this tournament.