Quick Questions: Your Favorite Side Deck Card?
It’s a new Advanced Format and a new play environment, thanks to the release of Duelist Alliance and the introduction of new Deck themes like Shaddolls, Satellarknights, and Burning Abyss. That’s caused huge shifts in the competitive landscape, and that means the ability to make reads on this weekend’s metagame and to accurately predict which strategies would be the most successful was clutch. With that in mind we asked competitors in the YCS main event one of the biggest questions of the weekend: “What’s your favorite Side Deck card for YCS Toronto?”
“Fire Hand and Ice Hand!” –David Tuan Bui ~ Hamilton, Ontario
“Super Polymerization.” –Christopher Irama ~ Toronto, Ontario
“De-Fusion.” –Eric Dalton ~ Oshawa, Ontario
“Chain Disappearance.” –Alexandre Dalpe ~ Montreal, Quebec
“Forbidden Chalice.” –Loukas Peterson ~ Brentwood, Tennessee
“Flying “C”.” –Pasquale Crociata ~ New York City
“The Monarchs Stormforth.” –Frazier Smith ~ Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
“Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter.” –Desmond Johnson ~ Atlanta, Georgia
“A tie between Non-Fusion Area and The Monarchs Stormforth!” –Billy Brake ~ Dallas, Texas
“Necrovalley.” –Dale Bellido ~ Toronto, Ontario
“De-Fusion.” –Bo Tang ~ Toronto, Ontario
“Stygian Dirge.” –Iesha Rae Robinson ~ Grand Rapids, Michigan
Side Deck tech was really varied this weekend, since there are lots of answers to a lot of the biggest, most popular strategies. Chain Disappearance was a big standout against Burning Abyss, and De-Fusion was remarkably popular as one of the most-played pieces of Shaddoll tech this weekend, but Stygian Dirge – played for both the Satellarknight and Burning Abyss match-ups – still seemed to fly under the radar… just as it has in previous tournaments where it seemed like a great call despite a lack of popularity.
In a competition like this one, where the shape of the competitive landscape is relatively unpredictable, your Side Deck can make or break your performance even faster than it can in a more established play environment. We’ll see what Side Deck picks wind up defining the weekend once we see who makes the Top 16, and the Draft play cutoff!