"You only won because I couldn't side deck for you"
"Of course /I/ have to play you"

Some of us love hearing stuff like this. Some of us don't. Not everyone is going to be playing one of the decks that I posted in my last article, outlining what to expect to be the biggest decks at Nationals. For those who missed it, here's a brief summary:

Tier 1
Dyno-Rabbit
Chaos Dragons
Inzektors

Tier 1.5
Wind-Ups
Heroes
Samurai*

Today I'm going to outline some other decks that I think may make a splash at the event that, even if you don't side deck for, you need to at least know the matchup.

Darkworlds

I've actually had to test this matchup pretty thoroughly, because it is about 50/50 with meta decks, and absolutely crushes non-marcro 'anti-meta' decks. There are a couple of builds to look at too; Standard Darkworlds, and Darkworld Turbo.

Boss monster: Grapha, Lord of Darkworld
Main Combo: Use discard engines to get Darkworld monster to put Grapha into play.

The turbo version generally cuts a lot of staples in order to play a huge card draw suite equipped with hand destruction. The version I've been testing has

3 Dragged Down to the Grave
Allure of Darkness
3 Dark World Dealings
3 Gates of Darkworld
3 Reckless Greed
3 Broww, Huntsmann of Darkworld

It also combos Mind Crush and Deck Devastation Virus together in order to disrupt the hand, rather than focus on the field. The deck has a lot of oomph and a pretty good chaos dragon matchup, since it just churns out a 3000 beatstick over. and over. and over. and over. On the other hand, the deck's biggest weaknesss lies in the fact that it churns out the /same/ 3000 beatstick, over and over.

Final Countdown

I was so happy to see this deck finally do well at a big tournament. Anybody who knows me in real life knows that I have been preaching about this deck for over a year now (seriously, I have a deck profile on my youtube channel from a long time ago). The metagame is actually very good for this deck right now. It beats the crap out of chaos dragons, but, loses to Rabbit about 60% of the time.

Boss monster: Morphing Jar?
Main Combo: IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWWWWWNNNNNNNNNNNNN

This deck's biggest weakness lies in the same place that most stun decks have their weaknesses. They can control a game and never feel like they are going to lose, but, if they slip up once, they will get looped out of the game to the point that they really can't recover. If you think there will be a lot of Chaos Dragons, I would pilot this in a heartbeat. If you are expecting more Rabbits, this is probably not the best deck choice. I assume this is about even with Inzektors, depending on who goes first and how quickly the deck draws Final Countdown. I have FC built right now, actually, and I would say that another one of the deck's biggest weaknesses, is that even with all the deck thinning it plays, Final Countdown can come late sometimes. If this happens, well, you have a lot of dead draws, because you have to not deck yourself out before turn 20.

Chain Burn

This deck has been tier 1 before, and right now, it may sneak its way up there. I personally am very seriously thinking of playing it. Basically the deck uses cards like Just Desserts, Secret Barrel, Chain Burn, etc. to burn the opponent out in 2-3 turns.

Boss Monster: Morphing Jar
Combos: 5 s/t set go

The deck's biggest weakness is anything with repeated s/t destruction. Dyno Rabbit and Samurai can both give the deck a run for its money. The deck also basically scoops to either a Naturia Beast or a Naturia Barkion. There isn't very much to really say about this deck. It isn't the easiest deck in the world to pilot, but, 'going through the motions' is pretty simple

Hieratics

This deck isn't actually very good. I hate to be that way, but, it suffers the same problem as Wind-Ups: Every single bit of hate there is turns off the combo.

Boss Monster: Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, Photon Bounzer
Combo: Spam Level 5 and 6 monsters for a one turn kill.

The combo itself is pretty long, but, generally, all of the namesake monsters have an effect where if you sacrifice them, you search your hand, deck, or graveyard, for a normal dragon type monster and special summon it as a 0/0 monster. Generally the deck either gets a Luster Dragon #2, or a Wattail Dragon (it plays both so chain disappearance doesn't completely kill the deck). Once they're both in play, the deck overlays them into a Hieratic Dragon King of Atum, who then detaches one of his materials to special summon either another Hieratic to overlay, or, a Red Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon, which special summons a material from the graveyard to do the same thing. After they have a healthy amount of monsters in play, they overlay Gaia Dragon, the Thunder Charger over all of their used Atums in order to also attack with them.

The combo itself is very, VERY fragile. Allow me to demonstrate:

Mask of Restrict: Doesn't allow tributing, so, no comboing.
Light Imprisoning Mirror: Doesnt allow any of the triggered effects to resolve to special summon monsters
Bottomless Trap Hole: Removes Atum before they can use the effect
Compulsory Evactuation Device: See above
Solemn Warning/Judgment: See above
Torrential Tribute: See Above
Book of Moon: Flips either the material or Atum before they use him**
Chain Disappearance: Removes their material to exceed
Effect Veiler: Negates Atum
Forbidden Chalice: See Above

Obv you can use the "removal kills monsters" argument against almost anything, but the combo is just so fragile, I don't see it ever being tier 1.

Macro Cosmos

This deck is actually pretty solid. I haven't tested against it yet, but, it can absolutely wreck several matchups with ease. I imagine that Chaos Dragons has a pretty hard time against this if they don't draw Lyla early.

Boss Monster: D. D. Survivor
Main Combo: D. D. Survivor and Dimension Fissure/Macro Cosmos

The deck is mostly an antimeta deck with a different monster suite. It doesnt really have any 'big plays' and therein lies the deck's biggest weakness. It can be in control of the game for an incredibly long time, but, a single heavy storm can completely ruin their day. Be careful against this deck with heavy storm, though, as they are more than likely to have starlight road. It has seen a resurgence in popularity and there is little reason to not play it in a deck that is as spell and trap based as this one.

Gravekeepers

Here we have one of my favorite decks of all time. I'm going to try to not show favoritism, but, it is going to be tricky. Gravekeepers basically revolve around the field spell card Necrovalley. Gravekeepers, in my opinion (here we go with that favoritism...) are the best anti-meta styled control deck right now, other than heroes. Right now there is such a significant amount of deck thinning, that Royal Tribute can be so consistent, and so brutal, early on in the game.

Boss Monster: Gravekeeper's Spy, Malefic Stardust Dragon
Main Combo: Gravekeeper's Descendant and Gravekeeper's Recruiter

Generally the deck aims to slow the game down in the first few turns, and then gradually whittle away the opponent's lifepoints, 2000 of them at a time. I could write an entire article about Gravekeepers, because I played them for so long (I actually have written at least two about the deck, feel free to check 'em out), but, I haven't the space or time in this article, so....

When it comes to actually beating Gravekeepers, just try to keep Necrovalley off of the field. Naturally that doesn't make the deck roll over and die, but, it makes all of the 'Keepers themselves much easier to manage. Shadow Imprisoning Mirror does a very significant amount of work in this matchup, so make sure to pack at least a couple in your sidedeck for the tournament (It completely pummels Inzektors, Darkworlds, and Gravekeepers, and hurts key monsters against Wind-Ups and Chaos Dragons***)

That will conclude the decks that I think round out commonly played decks that I expect could do decently throughout the tournament. For a list of decks that it definitely wouldn't hurt to at least be mindful of, make sure to look at:

Empty Jar
Anti-Monster Stun
Blackwings
Faeries
Infernities
Ninja Variants
Machina
Gadget Variants
Skill Drain decks
Tech Genius (T.G.)
Evols
Malefics
Lightsworn Variants other than Chaos Dragons
Frog variants
Flamvells

Those are just a few of the decks that I could possibly see doing well, and, frankly there is still a lot that I would like to discuss in the articles, but cannot due to time constraints between now and the actual tournament.

Feel free to contact me via social media or internet means if you want some tips about the decks I didn't go into enough detail about, or, just want tips on the newest deck you're brewing for locals!

twitter: Paper_gangsta_
facebook: facebook.com/shakezilluh
email: andro_sphinx@yahoo.com
pojo forums: themcshakealchemis (no t)
youtube: themcshakealchemist (with a T)

Thanks a lot for reading and the tremendous feedback I've been receiving from these articles! I means the world to me.****

Never Stop Learning

Sean Handy
The McShake Alchemist

*I explained this choice in the article, I understand people's skepticism, but, read the article to find out why!
**Careful if you fip the material, they flip back faceup as their normal stats.
*** If you are playing any of these decks, it may be a bad idea to side deck these cards.....
****Seriously though, writing is at least 100x more fun when people talk to about your articles and have questions. Without readers, articles are just journals. So really, thanks everyone.