Walking around the top tables in round 4, one Deck stood out amongst the Infernities, X-Sabers, Gladiator Beasts, and Blackwings. Michael Hutchinson is undefeated heading into Round 5, with a Cherry Inmato Plant Synchro Deck that runs Power Tool Dragon. This is an old strategy that we’ve seen before, but new cards from The Shining Darkness have breathed new life into it. Here’s what Hutchinson’s Deck looks like:

Monsters:

2 Inmato

3 Cherry Inmato

2 Lonefire Blossom

2 Dandylion

1 Mystic Tomato

2 Botanical Lion

1 Spore

1 Tytannial, Princess of Camellias

1 Gigaplant

2 Caius the Shadow Monarch

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Sangan

Spells:

2 Supervise

1 D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation

2 Mark of the Rose

2 Nobleman of Extermination

2 Miracle Fertilizer

1 Heavy Storm

1 Allure of Darkness

1 Mind Control

1 Brain Control

1 Foolish Burial

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps:

2 Karma Cut

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Call of the Haunted

Hutchinson’s Deck has a number of ways to win. He can swarm the field with Plants thanks to Miracle Fertilizer, or control the Duel with Tytannial, Princess of Camellias and Caius the Shadow Monarch, or unleash a flurry of Synchros with Gigaplant and Supervise.

It’s the Synchro Summoning plan that usually takes center stage, and that’s where new cards from The Shining Darkness make all the difference. Spore is an incredibly popular card this weekend, and Hutchinson can do a couple of creative plays with it to devastate opponents:

-He can Tune it to Gigaplant to Synchro Summon a Level 7 monster, then remove Gigaplant to Special Summon Spore. Spore will become Level 7; perfect to Tune to a Fluff Token for a Level 8 Synchro Summon.

-He can pair Spore with a Level 4 to Summon Ally of Justice Catastor or Magical Android, then remove the Level 4 to Special Summon Spore as a Level 5; perfect to pair with a Level 3 like Inmato or Dandylion for a Level 8 Synchro Summon.

-He can remove a Level 2 Plant like Cherry Inmato to Special Summon Spore at Level 3, then Tune it to a Level 4 for Power Tool Dragon.

Notice the Inmato and Cherry Inmato! Hutchinson runs 2 copies of Inmato and 3 Cherry Inmatoes, adding to the Synchro craziness of his strategy. When Cherry Inmato is destroyed, he can Summon 2 more copies. Or he can Summon 1 more copy plus a regular Inmato for a Level 5 Synchro Summon. If he Special Summons 2 Cherry Inmatoes with his first copy, then the destruction of either Cherry will let him Special Summon 2 Inmatoes from his Deck. That gives him 8 total Levels for a Synchro Summon, plenty of fodder for Pot of Avarice, and the ability to load his Graveyard with DARK monsters for Dark Armed Dragon.

The Inmato engine also lets Hutchinson easily activate his 2 copies of Mark of the Rose. Along with 2 Supervise and 1 copy of D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation, he has 5 Equip Spells to use with Power Tool Dragon. This is an aggressive Equip-based strategy that lets him take control of opposing monsters and pull off big tricks with Gigaplant. D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation works really well with Spore. Hutchinson can remove Gigaplant, Botanical Lion, or Caius the Shadow Monarch for Spore’s effect, perform a Synchro Summon, then use D.D.R. to Special Summon whatever big monster he removed for Spore.

Hutchinson’s Deck uses monsters from all sorts of different places in the Duel to put together big turns. Cherry Inmato, Mystic Tomato, and Lonefire Blossom draw on the Deck to Special Summon. Dandylion, Spore, and Gigaplant all use the Graveyard in 1 way or another. D.D.R. – Different Dimension Reincarnation brings monsters back from the ‘removed zone’. And Mark of the Rose, Brain Control, and Mind Control take the opponent’s monsters to turn them against their controller. This Deck can go from having an empty field, to suddenly having multiple Synchro Monsters pulled from all over the place. Hutchinson’s taking a lot of competitors off-guard today, partly because they aren’t familiar with a lot of his cards, and partly because the Deck plays possum while setting up its big combo turns.