World Champions Decks' Studied

World Championship 2004 - Deck Study
By Nerimon


Hey there, I had a free hour waiting for Big Brother to start so I thought I'd 
submit a study of the 8 decks that were used in the World Championship Finals, 
as it was posted up on pojo.

Hope you'll learn something - I thought the results were pretty surprising.



Cards that All Duellists Used:

MONSTER:
Sangan
Witch
DD. Lady - four of them ran 2, four of them ran 3 Tribe-Infecting Virus Breaker 
Magician of Faith - champ and 3rd place ran 2 each


7:
BLS and CED - everyone except one of the Japanese top 8 finalists ran both of these

6:
S. Serpent - top four all had this, two top 8 finalists and one in main deck; 
one duelist didn't have one anymore Kycoo

5:
Scientist - the top 4 finalists had these, along with two top 8 finalists; one 
duelist had this in the side-deck.
Reflect Bounder

4:
Jinzo
Spirit Reaper

3:
Shining Angel
Mystic Tomato
Don Zaloog

2:
Exiled Force
Bazoo
Berserk Gorilla

1:
Kuriboh
Dark Magician Of Chaos (the person who had this was ony running 1 - Double yoo 
tee eff?) Apprentice Magician Archfiend Soldier Airknight Parshath X-Head Cannon 
V-Lord Morphing Jar



Spells:

8:
Pot of Greed
Dark Hole
Heavy Storm
Monster Reborn
Graceful Charity
MST (everyone was running at least 2, most ran 3) Snatch Steal Premature 
Burial Mirage of Nightmare

7:
Nobleman of Crossout

5:
Scapegoat
The Forceful Sentry
Confiscation

3:
Creature Swap

2:
Swords of Revealing Light
Card Destruction

1:
Enemy Controller
Book of Moon
Reinforcement Of The Army
Smashing Ground
Reload
Dimension Fusion
Chain Energy


TRAPS:

8:
Mirror Force
Ring of Destruction
Call of the Haunted

7:
Torrential Tribute

4:
Waboku

3:
Cylinder

2:
Raigeki Break

1:
Sakuretsu Armour
Magic Jammer
Magic Drain
Drop Off
Ordeal of A Traveler
Bottomless Trap Hole


Notes:
I had no idea the tourney was pro-ban list. I'm assuming it was however, as it's the 
only explanation I could find for why our World Champion isn't running Raigeki XD I 
also thought at first that Ancient Sanctuary cards were banned because of the lack of 
Enemy Controllers, but two of the duelists had them, I expected more. And no Zaborg 
The Thunder Monarch! Sooner or later people will see the brilliance of that card. Sooo, 
thoughts ... I'm surprised by the lack of Jinzo in the decks, and by the people who 
threw Scientist in. I'm sure people who spent ages crafting perfect Scientist decks 
would be most offended - similarly, with the fact that BLS and CED were on every deck 
list!!! Everyone in the top 4 had one and, geez ... I can't wait for the next banlist. 
But I have a feeling they might hesitate from putting the Chaos creatures on because 
it'd mean people would have to rebuild their whole decks, if they have Chaos-themes 
strategies, and I don't think Konami would want that even though they'd get more money. 
But, I hate seeing cards thrown in on a whim, so I was disappointed by the lack of 
thought considering these are our best 8 representatives of Yu-Gi-Oh in the world. I 
won't start preaching originality but it's disappointing that they resort to uber-broken 
cards, and if they do they can't at least build a deck around them.

The appearance of Sangan in every deck also surprised me as you can't really get many 
monsters with less than 1500 ATK in an average deck, so unless you have 40 cards I 
think there are better options. I was surprised at the appearance of Magician of Faith, 
as I don't really like flip monsters, but that might jus be me and my beatdown deck, 
requiring super-speed. Only 2 decks had Berserk Gorilla in, which surprised me. And 
there were no typical 1900 'staples' like Spear Dragon, Slate Warrior or even Mad Dog 
of Darkness and Archfiend Soldier. I was therefore most grateful that I saw a couple 
in some side-decks :-D Goblin Attack Force was also pretty much a no-show. I think 
Swords of Revealing Light deserves more play, people don't have the excuse that it 
gets destroyed easily because most people are a lil' more easy on the S/T removal, 
and those who have an MST handy will be more likely to hit your face-down card, as 
SoRL kills itself anyway.

Lastly, Spells and Traps generally - since when was Mirage of Nightmare a staple? I 
think I totally missed something with that card. Only 3 Traps are staples, and 
considering everyone was anti-Mirror Force for ages, I'm glad it's on the top spot 
here. IO of course isn't on the list post-ban (or we have 8 champion duelists on a 
budget), and - only 4 Wabokus!!! Wake up, people, Waboku pwns!!! I'm glad Waboku 
had more slots than Cylinder but still ... and to the duelist who ran Ordeal of a 
Traveler, Bottomless Trap Hole, Sakuretsu Armour and Magic Drain, I commend you for 
your originality - I could laugh by saying you use these old, dodgy cards, but 
really you're being original and having fun, while still being one of the most highly 
ranked players in the world, and for this I admire you.


Where does this leave our meta-game? Clearly people are all for the effect monsters, 
stallers like Spirit Reaper and Shining Angel, Mystic Tomato and Reflect Bounder as 
a preference to the beatsticks like Spear Dragon, Goblin Attack Force, Slate Warrior 
and (to a lesser extent) Berserk Gorilla. Heavy removal cards also - Breaker, DD Lady, 
Exiled Force and Tribe-Infecting Virus all present - and not many strong attackers 
actually. I wonder how long these duels took without any strong offenders?

And so, I really hope my local tournament will start running pro-banlist tournaments 
soon, so I'll have a few free slots in my deck to fill :D *sneakily sketches BLS and 
CED onto Upper Deck's official banlist copy, writes a powerful errata for Skull Servant 
and skips away*

Seriously - I wonder how powerful Skull Servant would be with all these 'Level 2 or 
lower' cards released in AST, plus get three of them on the Field and you can use 
Delta Attacker, use some United We Stand/Mage Power stuff ... it'd rock!! That's a 
point too, no Equip cards except Snatch Steal seen in any decks right now.

And thus, I conclude my ramble. Hope you enjoyed and learned something ^^ Flame, comment, 
whatever - head all your thoughts over to alexd@pro-net.co.uk.

Neri