In Yu-Gi-Oh, there are always those archetypes which come out in new sets, which everyone dismisses as bad, unplayable, stupid, so on and so forth. Gladiator Beast was one of these, until Paul Levitin, beyond all odds piloted the deck and won a Shonen Jump Championship with it, before cards like Gyzarus and War Chariot even existed. The saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” could never be so correct in this instance. Many decks are much deeper then at first glance, and the Nordic deck is one of them, which to be honest, surprised even me!

As of Thursday night, I still had no idea what to run at YCS Charlotte, which led me to think of not even bother going. I didn’t feel comfortable with anything, and I knew that if I ran any of the decks I had been testing, I wouldn’t do well. At this point I turned to a good friend of mine, asking for his advice, something which I don’t often do. What he had told me made me almost go with the deck I was going to run, Dragunities, but he had thrown something at me that appealed to me. He told me he had all the cards to build a Nordic deck if I wanted to run them.

I had no idea what many Nordic Cards did, so I immediately went to the Yu-Gi-Oh wiki and browsed the cards available. I couldn’t understand why anyone would run this deck at first. But as I talked to my friend and read on, I saw some combos which appealed to me, and since I didn’t feel good running any deck, I said to myself “Well screw it, if I’m not gonna win I’m at least gonna have fun!”. And that’s exactly what I did… but boy was I going to be surprised what the weekend would bring.

Friday night, I meet up with my friend and borrow all the cards, go back to my Hotel around 9pm. YCS is only a few hours away and so I start screwing around with the deck nonstop trying to find a build somewhat competitive. I build what I think is going to work best and play against my friends, with dreadful results. I’m so disheartened for some reason, even though I wasn’t expecting to do well. I change a few things in my deck, extra, and side, and decide to try and sleep (again, with awful results).

Now to speed things up a bit, I’ll jump right into the tournament. I ended up getting a round 1 feature match vs. the WORST possible matchup ever. Gravekeeper’s with triple Thunder King Rai-oh. Believe me, I QQ’ed. But I somehow managed to pull out a win, I didn’t know if it was luck, the deck, my skill, or something of all three, but I was happy I won either way.

I proceeded to go 5-0. This turned heads, started gossip, and everywhere I turned people would stop and ask me “NORDICS!? REALLY?!?” I had more people watching my matches then many of the Feature Matches at times. It was quite overwhelming. By the end of the tournament though, I was sadly 8-3. Losing to 2 Gravekeeper decks, and an X Saber deck. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the decks I lost too, but the card Royal Oppression. All matches I lost were to that 1 card, which made me very, very upset.

Still though, I accomplished something no one has done yet with the Nordic Deck. This made many people go around trying to find cards to build and test the deck themselves. People started to second guess the common consensus that Nordics were garbage, including myself. I had totally been shocked by my performance, but still sadly disappointed I didn’t make it to the top cut. I firmly believe that if I had more than 12 hours to test and build the deck, I would have made top 32. There is always a next time though!

So without further delay, the Nordic Deck I ran at YCS Charlotte!

Monsters: 17

3 Vanadis of the Nordic Ascendant

3 Tanngrisnir of the Nordic Beasts

3 Tanngnjostr of the Nordic Beasts

3 Guldfaxe of the Nordic Beasts

3 Super-Nimble Mega Hamster

2 Effect Veiler

Spells: 11

3 Pot of Duality

2 Pot of Avarice

2 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Book of Moon

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Giant Trunade

Traps: 13

3 Gleipnir, the Fetters of Fenrir

1 Trap Dustshoot

2 Trap Stun

1 Solemn Judgment

2 Solemn Warning

2 Dimensional Prison

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Royal Oppression

Extra: 15

2 Thor, Lord of the Aesir

2 Stardust Dragon

2 Blackrose Dragon

1 Odin, Father of the Aesir

1 Ancient Sacred Wyvern

1 Scrap Dragon

1 Colossal Fighter

1 Scrap Archfiend

1 Ancient Fairy Dragon

1 Thought Ruler Archfiend

1 Brioanc Dragon of the Ice Barrier

Although many people think getting out the Nordic Gods is my win condition, this was not true. They are simply a tool just like every other Synchro Monster. You don’t bring them out because you CAN but because they are perfect for the situation.

My favorite plays usually happen after an opponent attacks a Super Nimble Mega Hamster. After this, if Hamster survives the attack, you can get Tanngnjostr face down, during your turn flip it up, and use its effect to Special Summon Guldfaxe. You can then proceed to Synchro with Hamster into a Level 8 monster, preferably Stardust in most situations, or a Level 7 monster.

Because there were so many Dragunity and Gravekeeper decks, being able to easily summon Black Rose Dragon, or Ancient Fairy Dragon, to destroy your opponents cards and Field Spells is beyond a blessing. I wish that I even ran 2 Ancient Fairy Dragon now if I could go back and change it.

Going first, and setting Tanngnjostr and some sort of defensive card and/or a Trap Stun is how I won so many games. This would allow me to protect my monster if needed, or against passive decks like GK and early game X Saber, which will just set a monster and numerous back rows their first turn, I wouldn’t need to worry about them trying to Summon a monster and attack my face down monster. So on the following turn, I would simply flip a Trap Stun, flip Tanngnjostr, and precede to Black Rose Dragon them. This normally caught about 3-5 cards, giving me an early advantage.

The surprise factor of the deck is insane. You catch so many people off guard with obscure plays, and even more obscure cards, that many times you’ll leave your opponent in a stupor, unknowing how to retaliate. This gives the deck an extreme advantage. The Nordic deck is certainly something I think we will see more of in the future.

Even though YCS is over now, I plan on working on this deck even more. I think there is something here that many players have dismissed, and I’m going to make sure I won’t miss something important, or game changing. As I said before, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, because who knows what hidden treasures you could be passing up!

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