After 11 rounds of Swiss, Honorable Billy Brake rose to the top with his Red and Blue Samurai Deck, emerging in first place! He then went on to win his Top 32 match against Honorable Joshua Harris’ Six Samurai. As this tournament draws to a close, we caught up with Brake to take a look at his innovative “Red and Blue” Deck.

Brake’s Deck can make the same basic plays that the other Six Samurai Decks profiled earlier are capable of, but with 2 copies of Legendary Six Samurai – Mizuho and 1 copy of Legendary Six Samurai – Shinai added into the mix, Brake is able to pull off a combo that gives him a virtually infinite number of Bushido Counters to use with his Gateway. Read more…

Fact Number 1! I think Shien’s Squire is adorable.

Fact Number 2! It’s also a Level 1 Tuner, can be Special Summoned with Gateway of the Six, and saves Samurai from Blackwing – Kalut the Moonshadow.

Fact Number 3? The unassuming little monkey is the basis of one of the flashiest, most unpredictable versions of Six Samurai being played here today! Armed with tech like Reinforce Truth and the stone-walling X-Saber Pashuul, Honorable Michael Smith-Grant and many of his friends are ready to defy expectations with their unique Samurai strategy. Read more…

Hidden Arsenal 3 and Storm of Ragnarok brought us lots of new cards for Worm Duelists, and there are many different ways to build a Worm Deck. You can use Worm Queen and Viper’s Rebirth; chip away at your opponent with the double-attacking Worm Tentacles and Honest; or focus on the massive Fusion Monster, Worm Zero. But Jake Johnson has a strategy most Duelists have never seen before. His strategy? To mimic one of the most successful and popular Decks: Blackwings.

With so many different monsters at their disposal, Johnson’s realized that certain Worms have similar uses to some of the Blackwing Duelist’s best cards. Worm Xex can send Worm Yagan from the Deck to the Graveyard, where it can be Special Summoned for free – alot like how Blackwing – Shura the Blue Flame gets a free Special Summon. Since most Worms are LIGHT, Honest fills the role of Blackwing – Kalut the Moonshadow, letting any Worm become a powerhouse in battle. And Offering to the Snake Deity is a trap card that destroys a Reptile-type monster along with 2 opposing cards, much like Icarus Attack.

So why not just play Blackwings? Check out Johnson’s Deck list, and we’ll talk about the reason for his choice… Read more…

Six Samurai, Scraps, and the Nordic Gods are front and center in the Storm of Ragnarok spotlight, but Karakuri Duelists have been very quietly gathering their power. In the past, the Karakuri Decks we’ve seen in Championship-level tournaments revolved around the use of Black Salvo and Machine Duplication to unleash Karakuri Shogun mdl 00 “Burei”. With Burei’s effect to Special Summon a Level 4 Karakuri from its controller’s Deck, plus extra copies of Black Salvo thanks to Machine Duplication, the Karakuri Duelist could Synchro Summon all 3 copies of Burei in a single turn and make one big, Duel-crushing attack.

Fast forward to today: the Karakuri strategy is still very similar, but Storm of Ragnarok has upped the ante! The Level 8 Synchro Monster Karakuri Steel Shogun mdl 00X “Bureido” is a lot like the Level 7 Burei, and also has the power to Special Summoning a Karakuri monster from its controller’s Deck when it’s Synchro Summoned. That blows the doors wide open, because instead of being locked into a Level 7 Synchro Summon to pull off the best play, you can now combo off with a Level 7 or Level 8. That flexibility gives a lot more options. Bureido also has a draw effect (draw once a turn when a Karakuri monster’s battle position is changed) and it has higher ATK. Add in the power of the World Premiere card Karakuri Muso MDL 818 “Haipa”, and Duelists like Bobby Brake are packing tons of new tricks here this weekend. Check it out! Read more…

Bursting out of Storm of Ragnarok, the Six Samurai are one of the Decks poised to dominate the event this weekend. The release of the Legendary Six Samurai and their new cohorts has rocketed the Deck to the forefront of competitive Dueling. Legendary Six Samurai – Kizan and Legendary Six Samurai – Kageki make it easy to get 2 Samurai to the field at once. Kagemusha of the Six Samurai is the theme’s first Tuner. Shien’s Smoke Signal lets a Samurai Duelist get to the right monsters at the right time. And the mighty Synchro Monster Legendary Six Samurai – Shi En negates card after card to pin the opponent down.

But more than just those few cards are seeing play this weekend, and there are too many variations on the Samurai theme to keep track of. Two of the most popular are a minimalistic build with as few as 10 monsters, and a meatier build with closer to 15. Honorable Jonathan Moore is the only Duelist to ever win a Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship with a Six Samurai Deck, and he’s back again today playing a 14-monster version. He’s gunning for another Six Samurai Championship win with this Deck: Read more…

Deck Statistics from YCS Atlanta

It’s been more than 2 months since the previous Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship Series in Atlanta, where Gravekeepers swept the field and sent the Dueling world reeling in surprise. In Atlanta, everyone felt the impact of Gravekeeper’s Recruiter from Starstrike Blast for the first time, and 3 Gravekeeper Duelists took the top 3 spots of the tournament! There was a bigger variety of Decks played in Atlanta than at any previous YCS of this format, and in the end, one of the most underrepresented Decks proved to be the most successful, showing that you don’t need to run the same Decks as everyone else to win!

The Top 5 Decks

But even though you don’t have to play one of the most common Decks to win, you will see them a lot at an average event. So you need to be ready to take them down when you face them. In Atlanta, the most popular Decks were Blackwings (14.6% of the field), X-Sabers (10.1% of the field), Quickdraw Dandywarrior (8.8%), Plant Synchro (7.7%), and Lightsworn (5.9% of the field). Read more…