With the most-feared Decks in this weekend’s field focusing on big combos that unleash multiple Synchro Monsters and strings of Special Summons, Anti-Monster Decks are on the rise.  An Anti-Monster Deck packs large amounts of monster destruction to keep opponents off balance, paring their field down to size so that big 1900 attackers can clean up the leftovers.  It makes fast, direct attacks to pressure opponents into struggling for big plays before they’re ready to make them, and it can steal Duels before other Decks even get started.  The Anti-Monster Deck’s monster lineup is a mix of powerful, simple attackers with high ATK; combined with a few weaker monsters that have strong, disruptive effects.  Here’s a prime example of a new version of this Deck, Piloted to 89^th place by Daniel Deputy, missing out on the cut by just 1 Match Point.

Daniel Deputy’s Falcon Anti-Monster – 40 Cards

Monsters:

1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness

3 Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo

3 King Tiger Wanghu

3 Thunder King Rai-Oh

1 D.D. Warrior Lady

2 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind

2 Banisher of the Radiance

2 Mist Valley Falcon

Spells:

3 Pot of Duality

2 Smashing Ground

1 Giant Trunade

1 Dark Hole

1 Swords of Revealing Light

2 Burden of the Mighty

1 Monster Reborn

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps:

2 Solemn Warning

2 Dimensional Prison

2 Safe Zone

1 Scrap Iron Scarecrow

1 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Mirror Force

1 Royal Oppression

Deputy’s monster lineup says a lot of things about the shape of this tournament.  Three copies of Thunder King Rai-Oh have been a standard for almost every Anti-Monster build since the concept first debuted: it’s a defining card for the strategy, and it’s especially good here this weekend, negating the Special Summons of powerful Synchro Monsters.  Thunder King’s 1900 ATK also makes it a top-notch attacker, so it represents the perfect blend of high attack power and troublesome control effects: it really embodies what this strategy is all about.  Other familiar choices include D.D. Warrior Lady and Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, which make short work of big attackers and defenders, plus Breaker the Magical Warrior, which can function as both a beatstick, or Spell and Trap removal.

Those are the cards we’d expect to see in this Deck, but it’s the less conventional choices that make Deputy’s build so interesting – and successful.  Deputy runs a full 3 copies of both Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo and King Tiger Wanghu, two monsters with brutal Continuous Effects that restrict Summoning.  Fossil Dyna keeps either Duelist from Special Summoning, while King Tiger destroys any monsters that are Normal or Special Summoned with 1400 ATK or less.  King Tiger has grown to be an amazing card in the North American environment, for two big reasons.  First, the most popular Decks like Samurai, WATER Synchro, and Tengu Synchro all rely on low-ATK Synchro Materials to kick out most of their offense.  Second, while most eras of Dueling have alot of popular Decks with plenty of 1800 and 1900 ATK monsters they can easily Normal Summon, that just isn’t the case right now. Since everything is so combo-heavy, big simple attackers aren’t on the table very often.  In previous incarnations of the Advanced Format, King Tiger’s 1700 ATK would’ve been pretty easy to overcome.  But right now, attacking over it is far tougher than one would expect.  The longer King Tiger stays on the field the more it shapes the Duel, and Duelists are having a really tough time destroying it this weekend.

Also interesting is Deputy’s use of an even bigger attacker than these Decks normally play: Mist Valley Falcon.  The Falcon is a Level 4 powerhouse with 2000 Attack Points.  The only catch is that whenever it attacks, its controller needs to return a card from their side of the field back to its owner’s hand.  That’s not much of a stumbling block: normally, a Duelist like Deputy is just going to Set a Spell or Trap, then immediately bounce it back when Falcon attacks.  In fact, that ability to return cards to the hand can actually be really useful; Deputy can return Continuous cards to his hand to work around their effects, then play them again later.  Since Deputy runs Royal Oppression, he can return it to his hand and make Special Summons with stuff like Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, then Set Oppression again to keep his opponent locked down. Or, he can activate Safe Zone; use its effect for awhile; then return it to his hand so he can apply it to a different monster.  Cool stuff.

Anti-Monster strategies have underperformed at the last few YCS tournaments, but they’re a great fit for the field today.  Duelists like Daniel Deputy are taking the Deck in new directions, and that innovation – as well as their insight into the environment in this tournament – is paying off in the form of Day 2 success.