Nekroz leads the pack as the most represented strategy in the North American World Championship Qualifier, Duelists have worked especially hard leading up to this event to try to find the best ways to gain an edge and especially in the mirror match. However, the strategy can be fought in so many different ways that finding the optimal method for your particular Deck is important. One way Duelists have chosen to do so is Droll & Lock Bird, and although we haven’t seen much of this card since the WCQ season of 2013, Droll & Lock Bird may be one of the most effective ways of battling the Ritual strategy.

So why is Droll & Lock Bird so good? Well there are quite a few scenarios, especially in the Nekroz mirror match.

Any strategy that searches a ton is susceptible to Droll & Lock Bird, but Nekroz even functioned while locked down under it. Simply using Droll & Lock Bird after their first search will probably force them to end their turn, and if you’re using Nekroz yourself then you’ll most likely able to Summon Nekroz of Trishula and captalize on the situation.

Maxx “C” is one of the most played cards this weekend as it poses a great way of battling Nekroz. Anytime that one Duelist is caught under the effect of Maxx “C”, it is difficult to push through and follow your game plan without giving your opponent a ton of cards. This is especially true when you’re not able to clear your Field as you could possibly be punished next turn by the devastating effect of Nekroz of Trishula. However, Droll & Lock Bird poses a way for Duelists to fight through Maxx “C” in two ways. If you aren’t planning to search anymore this turn, you could Droll & Lock Bird after your opponent has drawn the first card for Maxx “C” and cut them off from gaining any additional advantage. A much cooler way of battling it though involves a combo of Tellarknight Ptolemaeus ranking itself up into Artifact Durendal to shuffle away both players hands and not having them draw thanks to Droll & Lock Bird.

How this works is during the End Phase of Summoning a Tellarknight Ptolemaeus while under Maxx “C”, you can put a Stellarknight Xyz as a material under it thanks to its effect, and now that you have at least three materials you can use its effect to rank itself up into Artifact Durendal. Once you Summon Artifact Durendal, your opponent will draw another card from Maxx “C”, and after this happens you can activate the effect of Artifact Durendal as Chain Link 1 and then Droll & Lock Bird as Chain Link 2 because you are still in the window to respond to Maxx “C” drawing a card because Droll & Lock Bird is a Quick Effect.

Outside of that awesome combo, players have begun doing their best to play around Maxx “C” by Summoning Nekroz of Valkyrus first so that they clear away their Field via its effect so that their opponent cannot use Nekroz of Trishula. The best way to Summon Nekroz of Valkyrus is using Shurit, Strategist of Nekroz as the Ritual Material because it can be used for the whole requirement while also providing the Nekroz player with an additional search, but after they search with Shurit, Strategist of Nekroz you can use Droll & Lock Bird to lock them for the rest of the turn. Why this is so powerful is because they will not be able to use the effect of Nekroz of Valkyrus to draw cards for the rest of the turn, and thus they are open to Nekroz of Trishula raining on their parade!

Nekroz Duelists are also very well known for using Lavalval Chain to its fullest, but one especially cool thing that they can do is stack a Droll & Lock Bird on top of their Deck and then draw it with the effect of Nekroz of Valkyrus. With this Set up in the mirror match, the Droll & Lock Bird acts to completely halt the opposing Nekroz Duelist’s turn. The following turn, the Lavalval Chain can then be used to either stack another copy of Droll & Lock Bird to effectively stop another turn, or simply find a powerful Monster such as Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands or Senju of the Thousand Hands to try to win the Duel!

Droll & Lock Bird is one of many tools that Duelists have chosen to utilize this weekend, so we’ll see what ends up being the most effective way to defeat Nekroz!