UDS Invitational Indianapolis, IN: Tech Update #2
Duelists are trying out all sorts of different tech cards to gain the edge in this weekend’s competition. Check out some of the coolest tech cards that Duelists have been using this weekend to help them achieve their goal of going home with the UDS Championship Belt!
Jesse Kotton used Trishula, the Dragon of Icy Imprisonment in his Round 5 Feature Match yesterday, stripping Knightmare Phoenix from Robert Kenny’s Extra Deck and tearing apart his entire strategy. In a field of Duelists using Guardragons and lots of other Dragon-Type monsters like Chaos Dragon Levianeer, Trishula, the Dragon of Icy Imprisonment is easy to Summon and has a devastating effect. You can Special Summon Trishula from your Extra Deck by banishing 3 monsters with different names from your field. And if those 3 monsters are all Dragons, you can use its effect to banish a card from your own Deck, banish a card from the top of your opponent’s Deck, and banish a card from your opponent’s Extra Deck. This effect can be used to dismantle your opponent’s Extra Deck and sabotage your opponent’s strategy. In addition, if you use it to banish a Thunder Dragon monster from your Deck that has an effect that activates when it’s banished, you’ll get the benefit of that effect as well.
Solemn Judgment was a popular card used in triplicate in Duelists’ Decks before it was placed on the Forbidden & Limited List, and now it’s back at 3 per Deck for the first time in years! Each Solemn Judgment is better than the one before it, since the activation cost for using it is half of your Life Points. No matter how low a Duelist’s Life Points go, he or she can always afford to pay half of them, and paying half of one’s Life Points is less drastic when a Duelist’s Life Points are already low. Solemn Judgment is the ultimate Counter Trap Card, capable of negating Spells, Traps, or Summons, making it a powerful card for control-oriented strategies. 2019 World Championship Competitor Manav Dawar used 3 copies of Solemn Judgment in his Sky Striker Deck this weekend. We are likely to see other Duelists using 3 copies of Solemn Judgment in the current Advanced Format as well.
Like Solemn Judgment, Super Polymerization was removed from the Forbidden & Limited List entirely in the most recent Forbidden & Limited List update, allowing Duelists to use a full 3 copies. Some Duelists, like World Championship Competitor Jesse Kotton, capitalized on that change by using 3 copies in their Side Deck. Super Polymerization can be used to combine your opponent’s monsters together and allows you to Summon powerful Fusion Monsters of your own, like Starving Venom Fusion Dragon, Thunder Dragon Colossus, Thunder Dragon Titan, or Mudragon of the Swamp. Since an opponent can’t activate cards or effects in response to the activation of Super Polymerization, it will always remove monsters from your opponent’s field without fail. Super Polymerization also works to remove monsters from the field that can’t be targeted or destroyed, making it particularly powerful against monsters that are otherwise difficult to remove from the field.
Follow the coverage to see which cards are used to help Duelists triumph in the top 16 and beyond!
