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Since You’ve Been Gone
Kevin Cavanagh
12/16/2009  this article! - or -
February 8th, 2008. That was the date of the last article that I wrote here for TCGplayer. Ever since then, I have had to take a leave of absence to make school my main focus. I'm proud to say that I'm back now, ready to analyze all the big decks of the current metagame. For those of you that are curious – I'm still currently in school. I'm a senior in college now with graduation right around the corner. I have a light school load for my final semester, so I've spent much of the last month or so catching up on the game and everything I've missed since I've been gone. For those readers out there who don't know who I am, allow me a moment to introduce myself. My name is Kevin Cavanagh. I wrote about ten to fifteen articles for this site before I finished in the top 8 of Shonen Jump Championship Baltimore 2006. That tournament had a little over 550 people in attendance and I lost in the first round of the top 8 to Chris Winkler and his Strike Ninja variant. After that I became a “feature writer” here and wrote for a little over two years. Other credentials of mine include multiple regional top 8's and a 12th place finish at Shonen Jump Philadelphia 2006, where a last round loss in time cost me what would have been my second straight top 8 finish. I have never participated in a national's event due to the fact that I often split my time between Yu-Gi-Oh, Versus, and Magic. Before I get into my deck analysis for the day, there may be some players out there right now wondering how to get back into a game after taking such a long leave. You have to, essentially, start over. Everything you once were able to take for granted because it was “second nature” to you no longer applies. I knew a lot when I used to play, as some of you might remember. I wrote 75 articles for TCGplayer back in the day total. However, when you're coming back into a game after taking any kind of significant break, it's so important that you start over. Here is a break-down of everything that I did to “get back” into the game. November 24th: Become familiar with the newest Yu-Gi-Oh rulebook. November 26th: Review the newest Yu-Gi-Oh rulebook, again. November 27th through December 4th: Read all the new cards that have been released. December 6th and 7th: Become familiar with tier 1 decks, what they consist of. Look at forbidden / limited list. December 8th through 16th: Practice, Practice, Practice! I know everyone's first instinct may be to skip right to practicing. However, simply picking up what someone tells you is a tier 1 deck after being away for so long won't help. It won't help because you won't know what else is out there. In order to be successful at any game, you have to be ready for anything. In all of my experience in going to Shonen Jumps, I know there are two kinds of difficult games. The first kind is pretty straightforward: you play an expert duelist with a deck that you are familiar with. The second kind is trickier: you play an average duelist who is playing cards that the rest of the metagame does not play. To me, these games are far harder then playing the expert duelist. If you take the time to study every card and know what every card does, you should be able to mentally prepare a decklist in your head if someone is playing a surprise theme. This will help you in more ways then you could imagine. You will not have played against this type of deck before – so figuring out what you're playing against is going to be very important. All that being said, the metagame is what everyone cares about. The metagame is what you will constantly hear about the second you step into a regionals or a Shonen Jump Championship. Knowing the main decks in the metagame will help you in any tournament you enter. In my experience back, I have learned the following decks are tier 1: Lightsworn, Blackwings, “Syncro Cat”, Dark Armed Dragon, Gladiator Beasts, and Skill Drain Variants. There are many other decks that are competitive in this metagame as well. These decks may be referred to as “tier 2” by some players. For the first several articles, let's focus on the tier 1 decks you are sure to face at any big event. This article is going to take a closer look at Lightsworn. Lightsworn has won the last two Shonen Jump Championships, which has always been my standard for the “deck to beat”. This deck focuses a lot on “milling” your deck, meaning that you send cards from your deck to the graveyard. The deck can, every now and again, have a problem if it runs itself out of cards. However, sending cards to the graveyard can activate a lot of special effects and is actually the most efficient way in summoning Judgment Dragon. Without further ado, let's get a quick look at this deck. I'm going to use Vincent Ralambomiadana's 1st place build as an example. Deck Analysis: First of all, allow me to say how painful it was for me to realize that cards like Mystical Space Typhoon, Torrential Tribute, and Breaker the Magical Warrior are now in the side deck, of all places. If I was told I was able to play 3 Breaker the Magical Warrior in my main deck a couple of years back – I would have been the happiest guy in the whole world. That being said, everyone has their “standard rules”. These are the rules that make up who we are as duelists. Some people refuse to play anything but one certain theme deck. For me, a standard rule was to always play 40 cards. Never 41 or 42, but always 40. I realize that this is many peoples “standard rule”, but when you look at why you can't play cards like Mystical Space Typhoon and Breaker the Magical Warrior – it's because they don't fit. I can't think of a time where I would support more then 40 cards in a deck and that's often my first criticism when I see other's decks. Vincent has a 1st place build here – a 1st place build with 40 cards in it. This deck has a fantastic match-up against Dark Armed Dragon builds, which used to dominate the metagame – so I was told during my return process. Another strength of this deck is that it has one powerful win condition, which we can take a look at now.
Summoning this guy to the field can give you a lot of OTK (One-Turn-Kill) capabilities. This guy is a Dark Hole and a Heavy Storm “on a stick” for only 1000 life points. Not to mention that he gets to hit directly for 3000 if he hits successfully. Combine that with another monster or two you might be able to bring to the field on the same turn and you see quickly how this is one powerful win condition. However, getting Judgment Dragon out is going to take some work. Let's look at some of the other monster support that Lightsworn had to offer in Vincent's build.
Here's another power card for the deck that can change a lot of duels at the simple cost of a tribute. This card is everything the deck needs. It allows you to mill 4 cards – perfect. It gives you a big monster in case you are being overrun by something or your opponent has continuous effects that will hurt you like Royal Oppression. Vincent only ran 2 copies in his build; however, I would always run 3 given the chance. Having a Lightsworn monster shouldn't be very hard to come by. And if you are having trouble finding a monster to tribute off – you have likely all ready lost the game anyway. Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner Every Lightsworn deck should play a full compliment of Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. You're going to be sending a lot of cards to your graveyard with the effects of your Lightsworn monsters. Lumina gives you card selection. Her effect allows you to discard any card to special summon a Lightsworn monster onto the field that is in your graveyard. This can allow you to speed up the deck or possibly even give you the dark monster that you need to bring Chaos Sorcerer to the field if something is giving you trouble. Jason Holloway's build from the same tournament only ran 2 Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. However, I feel her card selection can both help bring important things back from the graveyard (Honest) and well as discard cards that you may not need (Necro Gardna) Necro Gardna Another card that every Lightsworn deck should be playing a full playset of. Necro Gardna provides a lot of benefits. Lightsworn is a deck that always going to have monsters in face-up attack position, for the most part. Necro Gardna has an effect that is activated when it's in the graveyard. You can use this effect to protect your monsters so they can use the mill effect that the deck needs to operate and you can also use Necro Gardna if you need a dark monster to bring out Chaos Sorcerer. Obviously, with 600 ATK and 1300 DEF this card is not going to be seeing play unless you simply need that extra 600 ATK to finish off a game. This makes this card a great card to discard to Lumina or any of the other discard effects that the deck runs. Honest This card was mentioned earlier when talking about the interaction that it can have with Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner. Honest is another staple in any variant of Lightsworn that you plan on building. This card is simply to powerful. This card will keep your opponent second guessing all the time. Your Lightsworn monsters can be small from time to time, so Honest will allow you to use combat tricks when something that's overpowering attacks into you. Wulf, Lightsworn Beast The big debate on this card seems to be if you should run 2 or 3. Personally, I would run 2. I would have too much fear of this card getting stuck in my hand if I ran a full playset of them. Lightsworn runs Plaguespreader Zombie to help get this card out your hand if it gets stuck, as well as Lumina as a last case resort. You wouldn't be able to summon it using Lumina, but you can at the very least get it out of your hand if it's taking up space. Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress I love this card. If I were to play this deck in a competitive tournament I would likely make sure I had a full playset of this card. I think 3 in the main deck might be a little too much, but throwing an extra one into the side deck wouldn't hurt. I think Mystical Space Typhoon takes the place of a third Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress. Mystical Space Typhoon gives you a spell card instead of a monster effect – so if you would rather use it then Lyla I think that would be Fine. Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress is in the main deck so it can deal with problematic cards like Royal Oppression, Skill Drain, Macro Cosmos, Dimensional Fissure, and even Light-Imprisoning Mirror. That concludes the “big” monsters that make up the deck. You may notice a couple of monsters that only appear once in the deck. This helps you meet the requirement of Judgment Dragon. This deck is designed to operate fast. If you get slowed down, you're going to either be overrun quickly or you are going to be decked out quickly. The next big part of the deck is the spells and traps that the deck runs. Charge of the Light Brigade Broken? When I first read what this card did I was in shock. I can't understand why this card is allowed to be played to a full 3. You don't lose any advantage by playing it AND it adds to your overall strategy. You can use this to grab any Lightsworn monster that might help you given the current game state. Personally, Lumina always seems like it would be a good grab and that's usually what I grab. That being said, there are several “1-of's” in the deck that you could go and grab with it as well depending on what stage of the game you are in. In conclusion, this is another one of those cards that every Lightsworn deck should be running 3 of. Solar Recharge Again. Broken? This card mills two cards as well as giving you what is almost a Pot of Greed. You have to discard a Lightsworn monster in order to use it – but getting through your deck faster is what really matters here. I remember the feeling every time I played Pot of Greed back in the day. I felt like I was cheating. Every time I have played Solar Recharge in my practice games – it feels like I'm cheating. This card helps you get to Judgment Dragon quicker and to your other support cards in the deck. There is no reason why you shouldn't be running 3. Beckoning Light The only trap card that deck truly needs to run. I once heard a very good player say that “card selection” was better then “card draw”. I have to say, I agree with that statement. Being able to select what you want, when you want it, is always going to be more important then generic card draw. This card can be used for so many functions. It can set up Judgment Dragon if you have too many of something in your graveyard and you need to get that number to 4. Those are some of the “big cards” of the deck. There will be player preference to every deck, but some cards need to be included. I feel that every Lightsworn deck should at least run 3 of each of the following cards if it's looking to be successful… Honest Necro Gardna Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner Celestia, Lightsworn Angel Solar Recharge Charge of the Light Brigade That only brings you up to 18 cards, which gives you some room to work with. Below are some other cards that you could run with the deck. I gave each a rating (1 for not useful, 5 for useful) in terms of how I think each would fit with Lightsworn. Monster Reincarnation Rating: 5 of 5 Explanation: Some Lightsworn variants like to run only 1 of this card, others 2, others 0. I would always have a fear of losing my big win condition with so much milling in the deck. I like to run 2 in my build of the deck. Losing copies of Judgment Dragon would be bad, obviously, but you can also use Monster Reincarnation for more then just that. As mentioned several times in this article, card selection is very powerful. It's been powerful in every card game I have ever played. If I were you – I would play more rather then less of this card. Herald of Creation Rating: 2 of 5 Explanation: This deck gets pretty tight pretty quick. I just declared 18 cards of any deck, which doesn't give us much else to work with. Not only that – but I prefer Monster Reincarnation to this card. Monster Reincarnation will give you card selection, whereas this card is only useful for Judgment Dragon. Foolish Burial Rating: 3 of 5 Explanation: I understand why people use it, but I wouldn't. You can use this card to get some effects online like Wulf, Lightsworn Beast and Necro Gardna. You can also use it if you are close to a Chaos Sorcerer or a Judgment Dragon. In the end though, your deck should work fast enough not to need Foolish Burial in it at all. Imperial Iron Wall Rating: 0 of 5 Explanation: It seems like it would be good. This would protect you against a lot of the weaknesses that the deck has. However, you have other cards that can deal with problematic cards. You have Lyla and Celestia, Lightsworn Angel if things go bad. Don't be tempted into thinking that this card can help you in tight situations. That's why we have cards like Breaker the Magical Warrior and Mystical Space Typhoon in the sideboard. We know that Royal Oppression, Skill Drain, and Macro Cosmos are going to be game 2 threats. Use cards that can have multiple uses, whereas this card really only has one and slows you down. The more time you spend worrying – the slower you are going off. Blasting the Ruins Rating: 1 of 5 Explanation: It's a good idea in theory, but a bad one in execution. First of all, it's dead early game. Second of all, it slows you down. And lastly, it requires you to have at least done a significant amount of damage before it wins you the game. If you have 30 cards in your graveyard, you should be close to winning anyway. I don't feel as if this card is needed. In conclusion, Lightsworn to me is the deck to beat right now. If you want to go to a tournament and have a great chance at winning – run it. If you are going to be playing something else, make sure you can beat this deck. If you can't beat Lightsworn with the deck you are running you're running a deck that's going to run into issues. For those of you who don't me – I'm usually pretty active in the forums when my article is posted. My forum name is cavanaghlegato. For those of you who do remember me, I'm afraid I can no longer do deck fixes to my e-mail. I have a lot of stuff on my plate right now. I will continue to spend my free time this winter break practicing the game and learning more and more so I can continue to keep everyone as fresh on the metagame as possible. I currently do not have a topic for next week, so any tier 1 deck that you could like to see analyzed let me know. Until Next Week, Kevin Cavanagh |
   
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