Here are some of the interesting card trends that we’ve seen here at YCS Sacramento this weekend!

Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay

Interruptions from the hand can be extremely powerful! Cards like Ash Blossom & Joyous Spring, Infinite Impermanence, and Nibiru the Primal Being are all cards with effects that can be activated from the hand during the opponent’s turn in order to try and disrupt combos. Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay may not disrupt your opponent directly, but it’s a powerful card that can allow you to draw into extra interruptions when your opponent Special Summons a Link Monster.

The Fiendsmith cards from The Infinite Forbidden have proven to be extremely powerful in the current format, combining well with other strategies such as Snake-Eye and Yubel. The Fiendsmith engine makes use of several Link Monsters, including Fiendsmith’s Requiem, Fiendsmith’s Sequence, and Moon of the Closed Heaven. Having Phantazmay in your opening hand means that you can potentially draw into more interruptions, boosting your chance to keep your opponent off their ideal board.

Phantazmay’s other effect lets you negate the activation of a card that targets a monster you control by discarding a card. While that may seem situational, it can be useful against cards like Promethean Princess, Bestower of Flames and Unchained Soul of Rage. Furthermore, if your opponent doesn’t find a way to get rid of your Phantazmay, it can help provide some security performing your combos, possibly protecting you from cards like Effect Veiler and Infinite Impermanence.

Phantazmay can be a tricky card to use, and it may not be useful in certain matchups. For instance, Tenpai Dragons don’t Link Summon every Duel, so Phantazmay may not be a great option against that Deck. Despite that, we’ve seen Phantazmay in several Side Decks here in the Top Cut of the YCS!

Bystial Monsters

The Bystial monsters first debuted in Darkwing Blast, and quickly became a mainstay in the competitive scene to counter the Tearlament strategy. Now, it seems the Bystials have found their way into a ton of Main Decks here at YCS Sacramento. Bystial Magnamhut, Bystial Druiswurm, and Bystial Baldrake are all being used by many players in the Top Cut!

Given the popularity of Fiendsmith, the Bystial monsters can be an extremely effective way to counter one of the best engines in the game right now. One common play is to activate Fiendsmith’s Tract to get Fabled Lurrie to your hand and then discard it, activating Lurrie’s effect to Special Summon it to your side of the field. If your opponent controls a monster already, you can use the Bystial monsters to banish Lurrie from the Graveyard before it can hit the field, hopefully cutting off the engine’s line of play.

Aside from being used against the Fiendsmith engine, the Bystial cards still have a ton of utility in the current format; against Snake-Eye, Bystials can be used to banish I:P Masquerena from the opponent’s Graveyard, preventing them from placing it to the Spell/Trap Zone with Snake-Eyes Flamberge Dragon. Furthermore, against the Yubel strategy, it can banish key “Yubel” or Fiend monsters from the opponent’s Graveyard, making it more difficult for them to Special Summon Phantom of Yubel.

One thing worth noting is that one of the Bystial monsters, Bystial Baldrake, works well with a couple of other popular cards! Baldrake has a second effect, allowing you to Tribute 1 other LIGHT or DARK monster when your opponent Special Summons a Ritual, Fusion, Synchro, Xyz, and/or Link Monster to banish that monster! When going second, this can be difficult to do if Baldrake’s the only monster on your side of the field. However, Nibiru the Primal Being is a popular interruption from the hand that happens to be a LIGHT monster, so resolving Nibiru’s effect and then Special Summoning Baldrake afterwards provides a third interruption!

It even works nicely with Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay, since it happens to be a DARK monster you can Special Summon on your opponent’s turn as well. If paired with the correct card, Bystial Baldrake can effectively offer two interactions for just one card!

These are just a couple of the interesting tech choices that we’ve seen here at YCS Sacramento, but stay tuned for more as Day 2 continues!