New Challengers Approach

May 24th marks the release of Dark Saviors, bringing to the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG a slew of new cards. The Vampire archetype returns from the dead with a vengeance and a hope; Fur Hire boards the Field, swashbuckling their way towards an uncertain future; in-demand older cards like Toon Table of Contents, Scapegoat, Allure of Darkness, and Foolish Burial Goods are graced with a shiny new printing; and most notably, most highly anticipated, the Sky Striker Ace herself escorts an arsenal of mech and tech to the competitive tables. As the set’s formal release approaches, many players have studied builds topping the OCG every week, and already have spent months crafting decks based off of the new cards. It is being predicted, supported by significant evidence from the OCG, that Sky Strikers will turn the meta on its head, as cards like Sky Striker Mecha – Hornet Drones, Sky Striker Mobilize – Engage!, and Sky Striker Mecha – Widow Anchor prove to be splashable regardless of deck as play starters without even using up a normal summon.

The set list is out, and we’ve known what’s coming from the OCG. Now, we need to know how to fight back. Let’s take a look at seven card choices for your own deck in order to stay ahead of the post-DASA meta curve and come out on top.

1. What’s Yours is Mine…

Debuting as a promotional card for Yu-Gi-Oh! 7 Trials to Glory – World Championship Tournament 2005, Mind Control is already seeing the occasional Main- or Side-Deck slots in the 2018 meta with Invoked decks. Mind Control offers some interesting options as a removal card, though vulnerable to anti-targeting effects, as your opponent is forced to relinquish one of their monsters for whatever non-tributing purposes you desire. It can pose enough threat to force a negation (e.g. targeting Odd-Eyes Vortex Dragon), opening up room for pushing your plays through, or act as a play-starter by yielding potential XYZ or Synchro material.

Mind Control’s particular relevancy though, with relation to Dark Saviors’ release, is the enabling towards Link laddering. In the age of Link summoning, plucking away, for example, your opponent’s Knightmare Unicorn puts you one monster away from your own Knightmare Gryphon or in spitting distance from a key Saryuja Skull Dread play. The Sky Striker match-up — especially the mirror match — can turn heavily with stealing a Sky Striker Ace – Kagari or Sky Striker Ace – Shizuku from your opponent, as they can be immediately linked away for another Sky Striker link, or used as part of the engine to start your own linking plays. While the monster you steal away may not be exactly the material you’re looking for, Mind Control will nearly always lead to monster advantage on your side of the Field.

2. …and What’s Mine is Also Mine

If you were on the competitive scene during 2013-2014, you may recall hearing about or playing a niche card called Retort during the height of Spellbook prowess. It’s highly unlikely that it would have ever seen Main Deck status, but as a Side Deck card in 2-to-3-deck spell-driven metas (did I say niche?), this little counter-trap is a monster as a go-first Side Deck option.

Retort is highly unique in its role: not only does it provide a spell-speed-3 negation for the user, but it also actually generates card advantage for its user. In high Spellbook meta times, negating an opponent’s Spellbook of Secrets or Spellbook Library of the Crescent, and getting your own back as a prize after already having played your own, could outright end duels as quick as they began. Now, when the success of the Sky Striker deck is contingent on the success of its spell cards, Retort can prove to be fatal when two Sky Striker decks face off. Go first, make your plays, set Retort, and wait for the opportune moment. This card will win games on its own.

3. The Blind Fire Disaster

With cards like Retort waiting in the backrow to strike, parallel with the rise of Altergeist as a real threat in the meta, it’s not going to be surprising to see more blind-fire attempts at removing face-down Spells/Traps before they become problematic. The issue with this, of course, is that sometimes, blind firing means you hit the wrong target, and sometimes, your luck is just really, really bad. Enter Waking the Dragon, Overlord Konami’s punishment to you for lashing out blindly at backrow without knowing what it is. Remember all of those really annoying Extra Deck cards that are really strong but can be really hard to get out? You know, Naturia Exterio, Raidraptor – Ultimate Falcon, Last Warrior from Another Planet, Beelze of the Diabolic Dragons, Borreload Dragon? All of those are summoned with the greatest of easy by Waking the Dragon if your opponent lashes out without information at your backrow. The best part, of course, is that Waking still activates if hit with something like Cosmic Cyclone; so, if you find yourself in a situation where you’re not sure about what’s behind door number one and decide to get rid of it without knowing what it is, there’s a chance you’ve actually made your situation worse. [EDIT: Thank you u/sidschingis and u/TheIRonTARDIS on reddit for ruling clarifications on Evenly Matched, much appreicated!]

If you’re a Sky Striker player, you might get really, really, really unlucky and truly blindfire to your own demise. Ultimate Falcon, Exterio, and Borreload may be particularly difficult to manage for Sky Striker as it is, but there can be another way to cripple the deck to nigh-unplayable in the mid-late game. Most people do sleep on Superheavy Samurai (and, sadly, reasonably so), but Superheavy Samurai Steam Train King may turn out to be one of the strongest pain trains since Rank 10 Trains bellowed through. Bringing a thick 4800 DEF body that can be used for attack power, Steam Train King can also seal coffins for Sky Strikers by banishing every Spell/Trap from their GY, and — adding insult to injury — burn them for 200 LP for each Spell/Trap banished. In a long game, that effectively not only negates all the setup a Sky Striker player has done but also can threaten severe lifepoint damage; after all, every Sky Striker Spell needs at least three Spell cards in the GY to get its secondary effect, so most Sky Striker decks build around piling as many Spells into the GY as possible, as quick as possible, without losing consistency. Late game burn for heavy damage, especially with the newly-updated End of Match Procedures, can and will spell defeat for some unlucky duelists.

4. It Came From Outer Space

Speaking of Spell/Trap removal, Cosmic Cyclone may once again see an uptick in play. Pure variants of Sky Striker will be playing cards like Sky Striker Mecha Modules – Multirole, Sky Striker Airspace – Area Zero, and Sky Striker Mecharmory – Hercules Base, which will all be lingering on the board as vulnerable to removal. This goes for any deck, really, that relies on keeping certain cards — especially limited ones (see: SPYRAL Resort) — on the board in order to drive gaining and maintaining advantage

The particular bonus of Cosmic Cyclone is that not only will it remove these lingering Spells from the board but also from the game as well. This particular is actually the distinguishing factor in how Cyclone overtook Mystical Space Typhoon as the preferred one-for-one Spell/Trap removal card; though costing 1000 LP to activate, the trade-off of not only banishing but also not actually destroying that Spell/Trap makes Cyclone well worth the cost. Cylone is your escort for your opponent’s Spells/Traps to the Banished Zone, and against decks where having certain Spells/Traps in the GY is critical to their strategy, it can sometimes turn out to be the difference between having the “W” next to your name on the scorecard.

5. And Stay Out!

As a new meta favorite for sure, Called by the Grave has earned its popularity for being a strong, flexible answer to hand traps, regardless of the turn player. The ability to banish hand traps from the GY before they can resolve cannot be understated, and indeed, you’ll find 2-3 copies of this card in nearly every single competitive deck in the pre-DASA era. We ought consider, though, that Called by the Grave not only won’t go away with the release of Dark Saviors but may in fact actually become even stronger. Note the latter part of Called’s effect:

Target 1 monster in your opponent’s GY, banish it, and if you do, monsters with the same original name as that banished monster have their effects negated until the end of the next turn.

None of DASA’s archetypes can really escape feeling Called by the Grave. Every true Sky Striker monster — Raye and Link alike — may run into major hurdles having to work with effectively vanilla monsters for a turn, forcing them to lean harder on their Spell/Trap lineup for preservation. Fur Hire will need to be more thoughtful in how they flood the field, as any one of their monsters being in the GY prior to swarming can stop the swarm dead in its tracks. Vampires, though, will suffer the most, as hitting any one of several Vampire monsters or Mezuki can stop an entire turn dead in its tracks. Along with its already-known ability to also disrupt recursion cards like Monster Reborn and Soul Charge, don’t count on Called by the Grave disappearing from the competitive scene anytime soon.

6. Solemn’s Lost Cousin

Another favorite of rogue and meta players alike during the Spellbook era, Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell creates a severely problematic situation for Sky Striker players playing the mirror match. The normally steep cost of discarding a Spell is a joke of a cost and in many ways actually helps your deck along, and it packs one hell of a punch for the rest of the Duel. Have your early Hornet Drones, Engage!, or Widow Anchor negated by Cursed Seal? Time to start seriously considering whether it’s worth playing out the rest of that Duel, or if it’s more worthwhile to scoop up, take the “L”, and move on to the next game in the match. Cursed Seal is that good.

The big contention around Cursed Seal is the same contention that’s always existed around it: you need to have a Spell you can afford to get rid of in order to make it live. Maybe you have a Terraforming to spare in your Hand, or a dead Twin Twisters, but in all honesty, how often do the decks you play have a Spell card laying around to spare that you don’t need? Once you hit games two and three in a match, every card choice in your deck should be extremely intentional. So, the gravity of the Spell you’d have to sacrifice in order to play Cursed Seal would essentially need to match or beat the gravity of your opponent having access to the Spell you’re going to negate.

7. If Judgment Could Pick a Hand Trap

Thankfully for Sky Striker players (and every duelist, really), Konami has already provided a critical answer to cards like Cursed Seal through the last set in the form of Red Reboot. Reboot may be limited to just stopping Traps, but that limitation is easily overshadowed by the raw power of being able to negate traps at spell speed 3 directly from your Hand. Evenly Matched, any member of the Solemn suite, and all floodgates get knocked down a peg by Reboot, and though your opponent gets to search another trap, as well as have access to the Trap you negated next turn, that one turn may be all that you need to put your opponent in an insurmountable position.

Let me say, being on the receiving end of that insurmountable position sucks. Why? Because when Red Reboot goes through, while you get to search out another Trap, you don’t get to use any Trap cards for the rest of the turn. This card is the bastard child of Solemn Judgment and Trap Stun, and unless you have the hand traps or quick-play Spells to counter your opponent’s plays while they’re going off, you’re going to have a bad time for the rest of the game. Of the cards on this list, in terms of Side Deck options, this is the card that I most highly recommend having as a pocket three-of not only now but for the foreseeable future.

Final Thoughts

Personally, I’m intrigued to see where Dark Saviors takes the meta. While Sky Striker rises to the top of the set as being the clear and obvious meta shaker, I think Vampires and Fur Hire may bring some surprises, if not at the regional level, at least at the local level or with friends. Deck-building in the new post-DASA meta will take significantly more planning, forethought, and creativity, and hopefully, this article has brought up some new thoughts for your own personal building or play style, or at least helped you view some older cards in a new light.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this article! I’d love to hear your thoughts and your own predictions in the comments below.

Much love.

BM