Adam Wilson is running a Deck today featuring Guardian Eatos and Dark Simorgh. It uses a variety of cool effects to keep the Graveyard clear, and dishes out fast attacks with Eatos, Simorgh, and other big, Special Summon monsters. We’ve seen Guardian Eatos Decks at SHONEN JUMP Championships and Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series events before, but Wilson’s build is hugely different, and avoids conventional choices like Dimensional Fissure. Here’s what it looks like.

Check back later for the full Deck list!

Wilson’s offensive core is built around Guardian Eatos and Dark Simorgh. Eatos requires no monsters in the Graveyard, and Simorgh is one of many cards that help make that happen, since you must remove monsters from the Graveyard to Summon Simorgh. Wilson also plays Chaos Sorcerer, Dark Armed Dragon, and Prometheus, King of the Shadows. All of these cards remove multiple monsters from the Graveyard. He also plays Destiny Hero – Dasher, Destiny Hero – Malicious, and Plaguespreader Zombie, all of which can remove themselves from the Graveyard.

In order to ensure that his attacks go off without a hitch, Wilson is running everything from Giant Trunade and Cold Wave to Trap Stuns and Magic Drain. Magic Drain stops the big field-clearing Spell Cards that often lead to One-Turn KO’s in tournaments like this one. It also helps Wilson fend off Book of Moon. Book of Moon is a very popular card these days, but both Dark Simorgh and Magic Drain stop it in its tracks.

Since Wilson is packing so many cards that can remove monsters from his Graveyard, he’s taking advantage of it with more than just Guardian Eatos. He’s also running Return From the Different Dimension, which can easily be a game-winning card when paired with just one of Wilson’s bigger monsters like Dark Simorgh or Chaos Sorcerer. More often though, Wilson will draw Return in the mid or late game when he’s already removed three, four, or more monsters. Summoning them all back can make for truly huge plays. It’s also a good combo with Soul Release, which turns an otherwise-dead Return into a card that lets Wilson Special Summon 5 monsters out of nowhere.

With a strong defense and a tricky monster lineup, Adam Wilson’s greatest strategic asset is the element of surprise, playing with cards that aren’t played much these days, and building up combo upon combo.