In tonight’s matchup, we take a look at two Decks that have claimed Championship wins in the last month or so: X-Sabers and Plant Synchro. A series of fortunate events helped Plant Synchro climb over its brother Quickdraw Dandywarrior to claim a win in YCS Philadelphia, while X-Sabers notched another win in Mexico this past weekend. What happens when they go head to head? Read on to find out!

How do these Decks win Duels?

Both Decks are seeing lots of play right now because of how easy it is to Synchro Summon and destroy opposing cards with them. Plant Synchro’s key combo is to use Debris Dragon to Special Summon Dandylion from the Graveyard, and then Tune the 2 together for Black Rose Dragon, wiping the entire field clean.

After this you get 2 Fluff Tokens which you can use for further Synchro Summons. If you play another Debris Dragon while you’ve got your Fluff Tokens, you’ll be able to Synchro Summon Scrap Dragon, Stardust Dragon or Red Dragon Archfiend, 3 Synchros with very high ATK and game-changing effects.

Plant Synchro Decks have several other tricks too, like combining the Fluff Tokens with Spore and Glow-Up Bulb to Summon Formula Synchron, which allows you to Synchro Summon even on your opponent’s turn! There’s also Caius the Shadow Monarch and Tytannial, Princess of Camellias, 2 monsters that help you win Duels without making a single Synchro Summon.

X-Sabers have been around for a long time now, and most of their original tactics are still relevant today. The Deck revolves around XX-Saber Faultroll and XX-Saber Darksoul. Darksoul gets you your combo pieces and Faultroll lets you use them over and over again. An X-Saber Deck will aim to do 2 things in every Duel: wipe out your opponent’s Spells and Traps with XX-Saber Hyunlei, and empty their hand with XX-Saber Gottoms. Once both of these goals have been achieved, your opponent is left with nothing while you keep getting free monsters with Darksoul, allowing you to end the Duel as quickly as possible. Other cards to watch out for are XX-Saber Fulhelmknight, XX-Saber Emmersblade, Gottoms’ Emergency Call and Trap Stun, which ‘freezes’ your Trap Cards before Hyunlei can wipe them all out.

Fulhelmknight loves taking down Fluff Tokens.

X-Sabers: What to do against Plant Synchro

The best way to tackle Plant Synchro is to use their key cards against them. Dandylion produces 2 Fluff Tokens whenever it’s sent to the Graveyard, and these Tokens are Summoned in Defense Position with 0 DEF. That makes XX-Saber Fulhelmknight a very important card in this matchup. When you run over a Token with Fulhelmknight, you can Special Summon another (Level 4 or lower) X-Saber from your Graveyard, and since you’re still in the Battle Phase, you can attack with it right away! If your opponent has a lot of Fluff on the field, that 1 Fulhelmknight in your hand could turn into 3 Fulhelmknights and a Darksoul once it hits the field!

Caius and Black Rose will be your biggest assets.

Plant Synchro: How to tackle X-Sabers

How you handle X-Sabers depends largely on how their field is set up. If they only have a Set monster on the field it’s most likely a XX-Saber Darksoul or XX-Saber Emmersblade, 2 cards you don’t want to see in the Graveyard. Caius the Shadow Monarch will come in handy here, as it can remove them from play, stopping your opponent from getting their effects and Summoning them again.

Sometimes you’re better off Summoning Scrap Dragon, destroying the card and attacking directly. If it was an Emmersblade then you’ve caused your opponent a lot of problems, but if it was a Darksoul your opponent may have sent it to the Graveyard on their next turn anyway by Synchro Summoning XX-Saber Hyunlei or Goyo Guardian. Either way, 2800 damage is nothing to scoff at.

If you’re staring down a large field of monsters there’s only 1 thing that can really help you out; destroy everything! Plant Synchro Decks are capable of Summoning Black Rose Dragon at any time, so it’s often a good idea to hold back on a copy of Debris Dragon until you really need it. If you have Cold Wave or Trap Stun ready to go, even better as you can lock out key cards like your opponent’s Starlight Road, which can cancel out your combo at the worst possible time.

One important thing to remember though is to use up your Fluff Tokens whenever you can, as it only takes 1 XX-Saber Fulhelmknight to turn an even contest into an easy victory for your opponent. If you can’t use them up, be sure to protect them with Dimensional Prison, Solemn Warning and Mirror Force.

There are also cards that both Decks are capable of using that work well in this matchup. Solemn Warning can stop all key Synchro Summons on either side, as well as critical Normal Summons like Debris Dragon and XX-Saber Boggart Knight. D.D. Crow and Skull Meister can shut down Graveyard-based cards like Dandylion, XX-Saber Emmersblade, and XX-Saber Darksoul. Trap Stun and Seven Tools of the Bandit are also crucial in making sure your key combos aren’t impeded.

Both of these Decks are incredibly strong, so no matter what side of the table you’re on you’ve got a touch match ahead of you, but hopefully with these tips you’ll be the one who comes out on top.