One of the Decks that could make a big impact at this tournament is a Deck made up almost entirely of monsters, also known as “Monster Surge.” The cards played in a Monster Surge Deck can vary wildly from Duelist to Duelist, but what ties these Decks together is the ratio of monsters to the number of Spells and Traps. This strategy uses an abnormally high number of monsters: usually 37 or 38 with just 2 or 3 spells. By running almost no Spell or Trap Cards, a Duelist is guaranteed to draw monsters to attack with, and certain card effects become much more reliable than they would be normally.

One example is Gallis the Star Beast, one of Jaden’s monsters from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. If this Level 3 monster is in your hand, you can reveal the top card of your Deck and send it to your Graveyard. If it’s a monster, you deal damage to your opponent equal to 200 x its Level, and Special Summon Gallis from your hand. If the revealed card isn’t a monster, you destroy Gallis immediately instead. In a normal Deck, using Gallis can be risky. But in a deck with 37 or more monsters, you’re almost guaranteed to Special Summon it and deal damage.

Magical Merchant is another lynchpin for most Monster Surge builds. Its Flip Effect sends cards off the top of your Deck to the Graveyard until you reveal a Spell or Trap, which you then add to your hand. Normally, this would mean sending 2 or 3 monsters to your Graveyard to get a random card. But in a Monster Surge Deck, you can send way more monsters to your Graveyard, and you’ll have a good idea which Spell or Trap you might get, because you run so few of them.

The most common Spells used are Giant Trunade, Cold Wave, and sometimes Heavy Storm, all cards that clear the way for a big rush of Special Summons. Here’s an example, piloted today by Danny McNally.

Monsters: 38

3 Gallis the Star Beast

3 Magical Merchant

3 Witch of the Black Rose

3 Quickdraw Synchron

3 Caius the Shadow Monarch

3 Ryko the Lightsworn Hunter

3 Battle Fader

2 Lonefire Blossom

2 Dandylion

2 Level Eater

1 Light and Darkness Dragon

1 Dark Armed Dragon

1 Gorz the Emmisary of Darkness

1 Tragoedia

1 Tytannial Princess Of Cammelias

1 Chaos Sorcerer

1 Dark Simorgh

1 Plaguespreader Zombie

1 Sangan

1 Spore

1 Necro Gardna

Spells: 2

1 Cold Wave

1 Giant Trunade

Extra Deck: 15

1 Junk Destroyer

1 Drill Warrior

1 Nitro Warrior

1 Junk Archer

1 Turbo Warrior

1 Stardust Dragon

1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier

1 Goyo Guardian

1 Armory Arm

1 Blackrose Dragon

1 Colossal Fighter

1 Ally of Justice Catastor

1 Magical Andriod/Junk Destroyer

1 Zeman the Ape King

1 Mist Wurm

McNally is running a lot of monsters that are commonly played in Monster Surge. Gallis the Star Beast, Magical Merchant, and Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter are all pretty frequent choices.

McNally runs 3 copies of Witch of the Black Rose. When the Witch is Normal Summoned and you control no other cards, her controller can draw a card; if it’s not a monster you send it to the Graveyard and destroy Witch. If it is a monster, you get to keep it, and Witch survives. She’s a Level 4 Tuner with 1700 ATK, so she can combo with Gallis the Star Beast to make a Level 7 Synchro Summon.

Quickdraw Synchron can also be Tuned to Gallis, making Junk Destroyer to destroy one of the opponent’s cards. McNally also runs Dandylion, which he can search for with Lonefire Blossom, and lets him Synchro Summon Drill Warrior, Nitro Warrior, Junk Archer, or Turbo Warrior.

McNally also plays one Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, another monster he can get with his Lonefire Blossom.

McNally’s build puts a heavy emphasis on defense. Knowing that there are many Decks that can take him down in a single turn, McNally runs Gorz the Emissary of Darkness, Tragoedia, and 3 copies of Battle Fader. All three monsters can be used to shut down opposing OTKs, and thanks to Level Eater, even Gorz and its “Emissary of Darkness Token” can be used as Synchro Material Monsters. Monster Surge Decks don’t play Spell and Trap Cards to help out with defense, so McNally’s decision to play defensive monsters brings a lot of stability, plus some more Tribute fodder for his 3 copies of Caius the Shadow Monarch.

Of the 40 cards McNally plays, only 2 are Spells: Cold Wave and Giant Trunade. So when he flips Magical Merchant, he’s guaranteed to draw a Spell Card that will help him get some attacks past his opponent’s Trap Cards.

The real question for this Deck might be whether or not McNally’s playing aggressively enough. Will McNally’s choice to play a heavier range of defense cost him in the long run? Or will it prove to be just what he needs in an aggressive field full of X-Sabers and Infernities? We’ll have our answer later today, as we follow McNally’s progress.