Three weeks ago at YCS Toronto, Gladiator Beasts and X-Sabers were the 2 most-played Decks in the field. Those Decks will probably be popular again this weekend, but some Duelists are breaking from the herd to try and beat them, and 2008 U.S. National Champion Chris Bowling is one of those Duelists.

X-Sabers and Gladiator Beasts rely on monster effects for almost all of their big plays, and both Decks make heavy use of their Graveyard, usually for important Special Summons. Without those key effects and Graveyard tricks, both Decks have trouble dealing with big monsters. Bowling knows that, and has built his Deck to disrupt his opponent’s strategy and then use his own easy-to-Summon attackers.

Bowling uses a combination of cards like Skill Drain to negate important monster effects, and Dimensional Fissure to stop popular cards that revive from the Graveyard, like Gottoms’ Emergency Call and Gladiator Beast Darius. Step 1 is using cards like these to stop his opponent’s strategy. Then Bowling going on this attack with a lineup of high-ATK monsters that are easy for him to use and aren’t affected by the cards that are hurting his opponent. D.D. Survivor is a monster that keeps coming back because of its combo with Dimensional Fissure. Guardian Eatos is a 2500 ATK behemoth that can be Special Summoned for free if Dimensional Fissure is keeping the Graveyard empty. And Beast King Barbaros is a Level 4 monster with 3000 ATK when Skill Drain is on the field.

After disrupting the top Decks’ strategies, all Bowling needs to do is push them over with his big attackers. Here’s what the former U.S. National Champion’s Deck looks like this weekend:

Chris Bowling’s Eatos Beatdown:

Monsters:

3 D.D. Survivor

2 Beast King Barbaros

3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

1 Guardian Eatos

2 Cyber Valley

1 Exiled Force

1 Cyber Dragon

.

Spells:

3 Upstart Goblin

3 Pot of Duality

3 Dimensional Fissure

2 Book of Moon

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Dark Hole

.

Traps:

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Solemn Judgment

1 Starlight Road

1 Solemn Warning

1 Seven Tools of the Bandit

2 Skill Drain

1 Macro Cosmos

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Return From the Different Dimension

2 Dimensional Prison

1 Dark Bribe

“I’ve been winning all the tournaments in Texas with this,” said Bowling. “It destroys X-Sabers, Gladiator Beasts, Lightsworn, and many others.” But in a big tournament like this one, consistency is always the #1 priority. And that’s tricky with this Deck, because there’s no way to easily search for Skill Drain or Dimensional Fissure from the Deck. So instead, Bowling plays 3 copies of Pot of Duality and 3 Upstart Goblins to draw as many cards as possible. His Deck doesn’t do a lot of Special Summoning, so it’s really easy for him to max out on Pot of Duality.

Since Bowling plays 3 D.D. Survivors plus Reinforcement of the Army to search them out from his Deck, he also runs 2 Cyber Valleys. Combining these cards gives him another way to draw more cards and dig deeper through his Deck, getting him to his most important Spell and Trap Cards. (Cool Tip: Note that Bowling can also use D.D. Survivors and Guardian Eatos to make the 3 Tributes he’d need to Tribute Summon Beast King Barbaros, destroying all of his opponent’s cards and unleashing a 3000 ATK attacker. Bowling can devastate Duelists that play too many cards to the field.)

One of the trends we’re seeing here this weekend is a big upswing in the use of Seven Tools of the Bandit. Bowling himself is running it, and was eager to explain how deadly it can be: “I think the card is nothing short of amazing. With Heavy Storm gone, Trap Stun is a big threat and Seven Tools is great at countering it. It also stops Gladiator Beast War Chariot in Gladiator Beasts, Gottoms’ Emergency Call in X-Sabers, Beckoning Light in Lightsworn… Those are cards I would have normally negated with Solemn Judgment in the past, but Seven Tools stops them for just 1000 Life Points. Also, it’s great that it can counter Solemn Warning.”

Dimensional Fissure Decks are rare in Championship-level competition. Their big problem is that they’re not consistent enough to stick it out through multiple rounds of a big event. But with a slower format and more ways to draw cards, things may be different this weekend. Will Bowling successfully take advantage of the trends and score a Day 2 qualification? A Top 32 or Top 16 finish with an Eatos Deck would really turn some heads, and Bowling seems extremely confident in his chances.