Hello everyone! Renren here, back with this Week's Tech Report! Team YCS Sao Paulo just concluded, the first week of EU regionals proved to be quite fruitful, and NA's regional season is going strong as well. Today we'll be looking at some of the interesting tech choices people have brought last weekend. (September 2nd-3rd 2023). Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Invoking Executive Wrath
Deck: Unchained
Notable Tops: Team YCS Sao Paulo 1st Place / Team YCS Sao Paulo Top 4
Team YCS Sao Paulo was won by decorated player Pak Pamornsut and his team Better Have it! His brilliant take on Unchained brings something new to the table, making use of a small D/D/D engine with Dark Contract with the Gate! Jesse Kotton also made use of this strategy to get his team to the Top 4. So what does the small package do for Unchained?
Activating Gate lets you add D/D/D Vice King Requiem which is a fantastic extender for the deck. You can summon it from the Pendulum Scale by destroying the Dark Contract. Since Requiem is a D/D/D monster, you can Xyz Summon D/D/D Deviser King Deus Machinex by using it as the entire material! Not only that, it gets a bonus effect where you can destroy any card on the field and gain some LP by shuffling back the Contract into your Deck.
Use it to out problematic cards on the field, or blow up your own Unchained cards to plus! This gives the deck a powerful extender that doesn't use up your Normal Summon that doubles as removal if needed. Do note that Machinex can't use its powerful disruption effect unless you happen to open 2 Dark Contracts, in which case you get to use his effect twice, which is pretty sweet. Before you get locked into Fiends, you can also threaten to go into Divine Arsenal AA-ZEUS - Sky Thunder.
Lastly, it adds an extra threat layer to D/D/D Wave High King Caesar, as if it gets outed you add a free Dark Contract with the Gate, making your already impressive follow-up even more so.
Reinforce with Iblee and Beat Cop!
Deck: Rescue-ACE
Notable Tops: Idaho WCQ Regional 1st Place (REINFORCE!) / Team YCS Sao Paulo Top 16
Rescue-ACE has recently been favoring Knightmare Corruptor Iblee over Terahertz for its Extra Deck plays this week. This is because of Puzzlomino, the Drop-n-Deleter, and Gigantic Spright! The former modulates your levels, while the latter gets you to Iblee. From there, you can proceed to link into Beat Cop from the Underworld and give the Iblee to your opponent. Use Beat Cop's effect to tribute itself and place a Patrol Counter on the Iblee, making it so they can't crash it as it can be protected from battle or effect destruction once. Not only does this lock your opponent of the game if they don't have a way to remove Iblee, but it also shields the deck from Lightning Storm and Evenly Matched.
The deck underperformed in the YCS which was quite a surprise given its Regional dominance, but the topping list did still make use of Iblee's talents to lock out the opponent. Continuing on, this one particular Rescue-ACE Trap that got a lot of flak upon reveal because it "didn't help the deck enough" has managed to prove all of its doubters wrong and managed a solid win over in Idaho Regionals! REINFORCE! gives you a lot of extra utility, as it lets you double up on searches with ALERT!, making it so Impulse and Preventer setups are a lot easier to pull off. Its first effect of making your monster beefy is also relevant in staying alive in tougher matchups. Once it hits the GY, you can banish it to reset Alert and get your second search if Rescue-ACE Hydrant is on the field. Quite the nice tech!
INK's New Combo Piece
Deck: Infernoble Knight
Notable Tops: Louisville WCQ Regional Top 8
Infernoble Knight is an outstanding combo deck that's proven itself to be a very solid rogue contender in the current format. Rudy Torres decided to test out the Infernoble Knight Discord's special tech: Kashtira Fenrir! Now don't click away just yet as there's a lot more than meets the eye here. Not only does Fenrir serve as a powerful generic for both going first and second, but it just so happens to be a combo enabler in the deck! Let me explain.
The setup requires Fenrir and any level 4 monster in your hand. Summon Fenrir and add Riseheart to your hand. Normal Summon it and change it to a Level 7. From there, Link summon into Bujinki Ahashima! Ahashima will summon the Riseheart and Level 4 monster in your hand and go into Battlin' Boxer King Dempsey. Dempsey will search Fire Flint Lady and you can then make Isolde with the two and proceed to your full combo.
Additionally, Riseheart has extra utility by virtue of being a Level 4 FIRE Warrior. Fenrir doubles up as an out to the Kashtira board if they dare activate Kashtira Shangri-Ira's effect on your turn. Neo-Spacian Aqua Dolphin heavily appreciates the high ATK stat, letting you snipe out bigger threats from your opponent's hand. Last, you can equip your Durendals to Fenrir without committing your Normal Summon. To sum it up, Fenrir is a huge boost to INK's defensive and engine count at the same time, which is a huge benefit.
One Crane To Rule Them All
Deck: Kashtira
Notable Tops: Louisville WCQ Regional Top 4 / Indianapolis WCQ Regional 1st Place (last week)
Jongwon John Lee brought a build of unique build of Kashtira that can handle Triple Tactics Talent, Book of Moon, and Nibiru, the Primal Being all at once! How does he do it? Well, it's all thanks to a certain old-school Lv4: Sacred Crane!
Use Arsenal Falcon to summon Sacred Crane, get yourself a draw, and then you can use Kashtira Riseheart and the bird to go into Number 41: Bagooska the Terribly Tired Tapir! He uses the spare Arsenal as material for Number F0: Utopic Draco Future by making the original F0 first. This forces a Nibiru from your opponent, as otherwise it is the last time they can do it (assuming no Imperm or Veiler gets in the way). From there, you can still use Kashtira Birth to get to Ariseheart.
The final endboard is Bagooska, F0, and Ariseheart with Birth face-up on the field. Book of Moon is ineffective as it can only answer one threat and Tactics is forced to take Bagooska for them to make progress. This can all be shut down by a nasty Book of Eclipse though, which is why he's taken some measures to help deal with the card. All in all, a pretty interesting setup that's meant to prey on common cards used to beat the Kashtira board.
Honorable Mentions
Superheavy Samurai Prodigy Wakaushi has found new life as a 1-card engine to make Battlin' Boxer King Dempsey for both Rescue-ACE and Vanquish Soul. The notable upside of this line is that it doesn't take up your Normal Summon, and the S/T conflict does not come up if you start with it. You also have additional options of Pendulum Summoning or Synchro Summoning if you wish.
Evil HERO Infernal Prodigy saw some sporadic play in the LATAM regional scene, giving Spright a free extender that wards off pressure against the likes of monster removal and Book of Moon.
Foolish Burial finally made its debut in Hoban and Molina's Top 4 YCS Unchained list, acting as a situational extender or additional combo piece that doesn't play into Droll. It was sighted again at the Ghent WCQ Regional, alongside Phantom Skyblaster as a 1-card Yama without having to run any additional bricks.
Knightmare Gryphon is now the new hotness when it comes to dealing with Purrely and the mirror match, as there are very few outs and it shuts down a lot of plays when co-linked with Muckraker From the Underworld. Gryphon even has the advantage of resetting your Unchained Trap cards!
Unchained Soul of Disaster was a tech card that was seen as an unneeded brick early on in the format, but thanks to the prominence of the mirror match, it has become an essential part of Unchained decks. Some duelists prefer to run it in the Side though.
Interrupted Kaiju Slumber is seeing a lot more play than usual again, finding itself both in Traptrix and Unchained lists that opt to forgo Tour Guide. The general format is quite lacking in hard negation, so Slumber can do its thing if uninterrupted.
Abyss Dweller is currently a good call for decks that have R4 access such as Rescue-ACE, Traptrix, and Vanquish Soul to help deal with the Unchained matchup.
Rescue-ACE strategies that don't go for Iblee can still make use of Puzzlomino to get to your Rank 4s! This also lets you access Springans Merrymaker into Sargas and a free Therion "King" Regulus for your troubles. A tech we haven't seen again since DUNE Week 1 makes a triumphant return by winning the Las Vegas WCQ Regional, piloted by Jesus Barrios.
For Infernoble fans, a sided option of Battlin' Boxer Uppercutter and Flamvell Counter has proven to be a decent option to help deal with Dark Ruler No More post-side. Due to the relative flexibility of the Extra Deck, options like Ignoble Knight of High Laundsallyn are showing up too, and Noble Arms - Caliburn when going into time to get an edge.
Fantastical Dragon Phantazmay has seen a modest return in many players' Side Decks as a decent option to go into both Rescue-ACE and Unchained. Notably, the targeting protection even helps to neutralize Soul of Rage. Skull Meister is seeing some play to help out vs Unchained and Labrynth. Some people are trying out PSY-Framegear Delta with mixed results.
Conclusion
That wraps up our look into the various tech cards for this week! I hope this article has given you some insight as to what's going on in the current metagame. Until next time folks, Renren out.
