If you checked out any of the coverage from this past weekend’s YCS in Toronto, then you know the secret is out: The Geargia monsters from Return of the Duelist are really good.  4 Duelists made it to the playoff rounds with straight-up Geargia Decks, one of whom made it all the way to the Semi-finals! That’s pretty crazy for a Deck that had only been legal for 5 days.

While they’re perfectly good on their own, as evidenced by YCS Toronto, the Geargia monsters can also be used to bolster a variety of older Machine-based strategies. Gear Gigant X isn’t picky about the Machines it fetches out of your Deck, making it a perfect fit in lots of Decks. For example…

Geargia in Machina

Machina Decks generally use the 3 “Gadget” monsters along with Machina Gearframe and Machina Fortress as their main monsters. The Gadgets and Gearframe can all add other cards to your hand when you Summon them, which makes your Deck function a lot more efficiently. Not only do you add key monsters like Machina Fortress to your hand with ease, but you’ll also draw into your key Spells and Traps quicker too, since you’re pulling all the monsters out of your Deck with effects. When everything goes to plan, you’ll be adding free cards to your hand every turn while your opponent slowly and inevitably runs out of monsters to play.

Add Gear Gigant X to your Extra Deck, and the Deck becomes even more vicious and efficient. Since the Gadgets and Machina Gearframe are Level 4, you can easily Summon Gear Gigant X. From there you can detach an Xyz Material to add a Gadget or Machina Gearframe to your hand, and once you Summon that monster you get another one for free! If everything goes smoothly, you can easily Summon a Gear Gigant X and/or Machina Fortress every turn until your opponent runs out of Life Points.

Geargia in Karakuri

Karakuri is another Machine-based deck that does a lot of searching and Special Summoning. For example, Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 “Ninishi” is a key card as it allows you to Normal Summon another Karakuri monster. If it’s a Level 4 (like Karakuri Ninja mdl 919 “Kuick”) you then Synchro Summon  Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei”, who in turn Special Summons another Karakuri monster from the Deck. The Deck is full of combos like these that can lead to swift and decisive victories.

With Geargia monsters in the Deck it can do all of the above, while also having many more new tricks to make use of. Geargiarmor can add Geargiaccelerator to your hand, which you can Special Summon right away. That gives you 2 Level 4 monsters to Summon Gear Gigant X with, which in turn lets you add Karakuri Komachi mdl 224 “Ninishi” to your hand. If you have another Karakuri monster in your hand already, Ninishi will let you Synchro Summon Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei”, whose effect Special Summons another Karakuri for free. It’s the same Karakuri combo as before, but with Geargiarmor you can start it off much earlier in a Duel while also putting an extra 2300 ATK on the field.

Another neat trick is Tributing Geargiano to Summon Karakuri Muso mdl 818 “Haipa”. Since Geargiano negates the effects of the monster it Summons, Haipa won’t turn to Defense Position after you attack with it. That gives you a 2100 ATK monster to take down nearly everything with, and when you need something bigger you can sue the Level 4 monster for Synchro or Xyz Summons, with both Gear Gigant X and the Karakuri Synchros being the Deck’s most powerful cards.

Geargia in other Decks

The Geargia monsters can fit into pretty much any Machine-based deck, as Gear Gigant X is easy to Summon and can search any lower Level Machine-Type. In Morphtronics you can add the all important Celfon Deck to your hand, in Ancient Gears you can use Ancient Gear Soldier and Ancient Gear Knight as Xyz Materials, and in Gradius-themed decks you can search for key cards like Jade Knight, Victory Viper XX03 and Blue Thunder T-45.

If you’re building any type of Machine deck in the near future, be sure to give the Geargia monsters a try. They’re easy to use and can work almost anywhere, and you can pick them all up in Return of the Duelist!