With lots of cards that can fit into almost any Deck, Duelist Revolution has had a big impact on the field this morning.  While Beast, Amazoness, and Naturia Decks got big boosts from themed cards, many Duelists are experimenting with the following cards in dozens of other Decks.  Here are the most popular in today’s field.

Solemn Warning:

Trap Cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Dimensional Prison, Trap Hole, and Sakuretsu Armor can only eliminate specific monsters under specific conditions. They can leave you vulnerable to any monster that doesn’t meet their specific requirements or that can use its effect even if you destroy it, but that’s not the case with the new Trap Card powerhouse, Solemn Warning!

Solemn Warning negates any Summon no matter how big or small the monster: and it doesn’t care how that monster was Summoned.  Normal Summons, Special Summons, Summons from an effect, even Flip Summons – Solemn Warning shuts it down.  And since Solemn Warning is a Counter Trap, you can’t Chain cards like Royal Decree to negate it.

For the cost of 2000 Life Points, you can forbid the Summon of almost anything, even tough-to-stop monsters like Light and Darkness Dragon and Herald of Perfection.  Synchro monsters with high-powered effects like  Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon; field-clearing monsters like Dark Armed Dragon and Judgment Dragon; and highly-effective Tribute Monsters like Caius the Shadow Monarch and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel all fall before Solemn Warning.

A ton of Duelists are experimenting with this card today, but it’s making its biggest impact in Decks that can follow up on it with big attacks or restrictive monster effects.  For instance, when a Naturia Duelist uses Naturia Bamboo Shoot to stop his opponent from activating Spell or Trap Cards, the main threat to Bamboo Shoot becomes monsters like Brionac or Caius the Shadow Monarch: Solemn Warning keeps those monsters from being Special Summoned.

Gladiator Beast Duelists can use Solemn Warning to keep the field clear of opposing monsters. That makes it really easy for Gladiator Beast Duelists to make direct attacks, which in turn means big effects and combos thanks to Gladiator tag-outs.  It’s a top-notch defensive card for Gadget Duelists, and it’s a whole lot better than Sakuretsu Armor in Decks like the one Anthony Meier piloted to victory at YCS Indianapolis. For most competitors, Solemn Warning is just too flexible and useful to ignore.

Chivalry:

Next up on our list is another powerful Counter Trap: Chivalry.  At first glance it looks like a topnotch counter to Gladiator Beast Decks: a card that can be Chained to a Gladiator Beast’s effect as the Battle Phase ends to destroy it and stop the Gladiator Duelist from Special Summoning another monster.  And it definitely is that – Gladiator Beast Duelists can be totally shut down with a single, well-timed Chivalry.  But it’s also much, much more.

If it’s a monster effect, and it activates in the Battle Phase, Chivalry can stop it.  That means “recruiter” monsters like Mystic Tomato, Pyramid Turtle, and XX-Saber Emmersblade won’t Special Summon anything.  Effects that trigger in the Graveyard when a monster is destroyed won’t work either: Cards like Sangan will be unable to let you search your Deck.  Blackwings won’t be able to use Blackwing – Kalut the Moonshadow to boost their ATK, and Lightsworn, Fairy, or Herald Duelists won’t be able to rely on Honest.  You can even stop Gorz the Emissary of Darkness.  Chivalry is a deadly card against certain Decks, and that’s made it a top Side Deck pick here this weekend.

Effect Veiler:

Rounding out our trio of hot new negation cards is Effect Veiler, a card that’s seeing both Side Deck and Main Deck play.  With the ability to negate an opposing monster effect during the opponent’s Main Phase, Veiler is hugely flexible.  You can use it to negate Monarch effects, protect your field from XX-Saber Hyunlei or Black Rose Dragon, or fend off Gladiator Beast Gyzarus.  Chain it to Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier’s effect to make your opponent discard cards for nothing, or negate Jinzo’s ability and destroy it with a Trap Card.

Debris Dragon is popular again thanks to Black Rose Dragon now being playable at 3 copies per Deck: Veiler keeps it from Special Summoning anything.  If you’re locked down under the effects of Naturia Bamboo Shoot or Naturia Beast, you can negate their effect with Effect Veiler: that gives you time to turn Naturia Beast face-down in the End Phase with Book of Moon.  Veiler will eliminate Bamboo Shoot’s lock entirely, because when it stops negating Bamboo Shoot’s ability, the Shoot won’t regain its suppressive effect.

Since Effect Veiler is sent straight from your hand to the Graveyard, it’s a tough card for your opponent to anticipate: especially when it’s so new.  That makes it almost impossible to play around unless your opponent showed it to you – which can happen, since it can be searched with Sangan.  It works really well with Cold Wave, because if you freeze out Spells and Traps for a turn, and your opponent tries to fight back with a monster effect, you can use Veiler to stop whatever plans they were trying to put together.

It’s even a Level 1 Tuner, too, so if you’re already wining the Duel and don’t need to use Veiler’s effect, you can Tune it to something and play aggressively.  It’s especially good in Quickdraw Decks, where Drill Warrior can let you reuse Effect Veiler by returning it to your hand.  We’re usually seeing it played in pairs today, both in Main Decks and Side Decks.

Scrap Dragon:

Many competitors are making room in their Extra Decks for Scrap Dragon.  While its second effect only benefits Scrap Duelists, its first effect is usable in any strategy, and it doesn’t require any specific Synchro Materials.  Scrap Dragon’s first effect lets you choose a card you control and a card your opponent controls and destroy them both.

Against stubborn monsters like Colossal Fighter or Blackwing Armor Master, or cards like Level Limit – Area B or Gravity Bind, it’s a quick solution that breaks the opponent’s hold over the Duel.  When a Duelist is leading, Scrap Dragon’s effect can destroy an opposing card Set in the Spell or Trap Zone to put pressure on the opponent, or it can clear away a Set monster that could have a powerful Flip Effect.

Duelists are getting pretty creative finding ways of tilting the Dragon’s effect in their favor.  Dandylion is a popular card this weekend, and if Scrap Dragon destroys it, its controller Special Summons 2 Fluff Tokens while destroying an opposing card with the Dragon’s ability.  Those Tokens can also be used next turn as fuel for Scrap Dragon’s fire.

Target a card like Mystical Space Typhoon, and you can Chain it to get its effect: you don’t really lose anything, because your Mystical Space Typhoon or Reckless Greed was going to be sent to the Graveyard after it resolved anyways.  Card Trooper, Sangan, XX-Saber Darksoul… there are lots of cards that give strong effects when Scrap Dragon destroys them, and Duelists are trying to make the most of those potential combos.

Pot of Duality:

Almost everyone who owns this card is playing it, even in Decks that rely on Special Summoning, like Gladiator Beasts.  Pot of Duality makes your opening hands better, lets you use Limited cards more often, and helps you find the right cards at the right time.  Most Duelists who have 3 copies are running them all, and if you ask the people not running Pot of Duality why they aren’t playing it, the answer is usually because they don’t have theirs yet.

Pot of Duality is especially good in certain standout Decks: for instance, Blackwing Duelists are finding success running Duality in tandem with Cards for Black Feathers.  Both Spell Cards keep their controller from Special Summoning for a given turn, and you can only activate 1 of each every turn: doubling up and playing both means more draws, while giving up nothing extra in the mean time.  After all, if you’re already giving up Special Summoning for a turn, you might as well draw more cards.

Blackwings also benefit because some of their most powerful cards are newly-Limited. Pot of Duality helps them draw Black Whirlwind and Royal Oppression, two cards that are now at 1-per-Deck, but that remain important parts of the Blackwing strategy.

Monarch Duelists are also reaping big rewards, since they don’t need to Special Summon every turn to win anyways.  Pot of Duality ensures that they get smooth, consistent draws, and it doesn’t interfere with basic combos like Soul Exchange + a Monarch.  In fact, it helps put those combos together.  Powerful draw cards that would help a strategy perform consistently across the long term used to be unique to specific themes: Lightsworn had Solar Recharge, Destiny Heroes had Destiny Draw, and so on.  Now, almost any Deck can be more consistent, thanks to Pot of Duality.  That could mean more creativity and more variety in big tournaments like this one.

Those are our Top 5 tech cards from Duelist Revolution here in Day 1!  Tomorrow, we’ll see which of these make the biggest impact on Day 2.