Several competitors are playing a Deck here today that we haven’t seen in months: Counter Fairies.  Those Duelists are hoping to take advantage of new trends in Advanced Format play.  A slower pace of play makes it easier to draw into the Deck’s lynchpin card, Bountiful Artemis; a Level 4 1600 ATK Fairy-Type monster that lets its controller draw a card every time a Counter Trap is activated.

Pot of Duality also helps the cause, giving more draws and more chances to get to the unsearchable Artemis.  With Heavy Storm gone, the Counter Fairy Duelist is also free to Set cards with impunity in most matchups.  Those three factors have caused a ton of renewed interest in the Counter Fairy strategy.

At the same time, new Counter Traps from Duelist Revolution also give the Deck a strong boost.  Solemn Warning is an incredibly popular card in this tournament, since it offers the ability to forbid an opposing Summon.  It’s being run in everything from Gladiators to Infernities, but it’s even better here in Counter Fairies, where you get to draw an extra card each time you (or your opponent!) activate it.  Chivalry, a popular Side Deck card in today’s field, becomes an excellent Main Deck play when it’s boosted by Artemis’ ability.

The game plan is simple: get to Bountiful Artemis, counter everything the opponent tries to do, and score crushing plays with Van’Dalgyon, the Dark Dragon Lord!  Here’s how 2009 Canadian National Championship Top Cut Duelist Curtis Bowles built his version of Counter Fairies for today’s competition:

Monsters:

3 Bountiful Artemis

3 Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord

3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

2 Honest

1 Spirit Reaper

2 Cyber Dragon

1 Morphing Jar

Spells:

3 Pot of Duality

3 Burden of the Mighty

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Monster Reborn

Traps:

1 Mirror Force

3 Dimensional Prison

3 Divine Wrath

3 Solemn Warning

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Chivalry

Bowles plays 3 copies each of Bountiful Artemis and Van’Dalgyon.  Since he runs Honest to protect Artemis from attacks, he also plays 3 Thunder King Rai-Oh.  Thunder King is a strong attacker, and in a tournament where so many Duelists are playing Pot of Duality, it takes on a new level of importance (Players can’t use Pot of Duality while Thunder King is in play).  Cyber Dragons give a bit more muscle to the Deck’s offensive lineup and can take advantage of  Honest.

Bowles plays almost 20Trap Cards, and that doesn’t leave much room for Spells.  Almost all of the Counter Fairy Duelists here today are playing 3 Pot of Duality, 2 Mystical Space Typhoon, and Monster Reborn, but Bowles is also running Burden of the Mighty.  Since Artemis only has 1600 ATK it’s a great choice to protect his most important monsters, and Burden works much more reliably now that Heavy Storm is out of the picture.

Bowles’ Counter Trap lineup includes Divine Wrath, Solemn Warning, Solemn Judgment, Chivalry, Dark Bribe, and Seven Tools of the Bandit.  The Divine Wraths (and Chivalries as long as they aren’t used in the Damage Step) let Bowles make the most of his Van’Dalgyons: while Van’Dalgyon has three additional effects depending on what it negates the activation of, the best bonus is awarded for negating a monster effect.

Van’Dalgyon dishes out 1500 damage for a negated Spell, and destroys a card when you negate a Trap, but Special Summoning a monster for negating a monster effect is almost always the best option of the three.  Bowles needs to keep Bountiful Artemis on the field in order to win, and while Monster Reborn helps him do that, Van’Dalgyon is extremely helpful.  It can also be used to retrieve Honest, Special Summoning it to the field so its effect can return it to its controller’s hand.

Playing Counter Fairies in a wide open field comes with unique challenges: namely, a Counter Fairy Duelist might have a hard time selecting the right Counter Traps for their Main Deck.  The Deck tends to do better in more refined fields, with fewer Decks to anticipate, but Bowles is betting that he’s made the right decisions: he’s clearly banking on the surprise factor of a Deck that hasn’t seen much competitive play for over a year.  Will it be enough to take him to Day 2?  We’ll find out later this evening!