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sHecKii's Take
GenCon Indianapolis: The “Tech” Cards
August 24, 2005

I went to GenCon Indy with 1 goal in mind: To have fun with my friends. What I didn’t realize is I’ll be meeting with one of the best duelists in the United States. Normally when I enter any major Yu Gi Oh events, I’ll be so knowledgeable on the metagame and its “tech” cards. Some I didn’t understand but here are some I’ve grown to like.

1) Wave Motion Cannon

You might say it’s not “tech” enough since a lot of individuals already use this card, but ask how around and see how many people lost not a game but a MATCH to this card alone. In a “slow” format that consists of Thousand-Eyes Restrict, Scapegoats, and less Spell/Trap removal, Wave Motion Cannon seems like one of the perfect answers for this metagame.

The trick with Wave Motion Cannon is...well there isn’t one! If you splash 1-3 of these cards in a normal deck, your opponent may not have an answer to this one continuous spell card. Sure you could throw in multiple cards to support this, such as Solemn Judgement, but Cas Stomphorst and little Michael proved that these cards are playable in this metagame.

2 and 3) Abyss Soldier and Skilled Dark Magician

Remember this Water monster with a great effect? Well the National Champion Max Suffridge and Wilson Luc both used this “tech” for this SJC. Now that may lead to many individuals believing that they used a Water-based deck but they were not. Simply, they were playing with 2 Abyss Soldiers with 1 Sinister Serpent. Why? It’s the same reason I used 2 copies of Skilled Dark Magician in my SJC deck; its Tsukyomi/Asura Priest proof and it can trade with D.D. Assailant. Now Abyss Soldier with Sinister Serpent on either your own Airknight Parshath and/or your opponents is great control. Now two Skilled Dark Magicians were used in my deck (and apparently many other duelists since I played against them 4/9 rounds) for those same reasons but I believed using a monster that I could set first turn and only worry about Nobleman of Crossout as it’s main way to be destroyed was better for me. Also, I believed it was more consistent than having to depend on Sinister Serpent to “stop” the ever-prevalent Airknight Parshath. My teammate f00b and Sang Bui used one copy of Skilled Dark Magician also.

4) Big Shield Guardna

Apparently duelist got the memo from JAE LOVE about this card...FINALLY! For the first time, I had to actually encounter going against Big Shield (and even Mid Shield) Guardna and lost a Nobleman of Crossout in the process. Eric Wu and my opponent in the Top 8 of regionals on Sunday was one of the many to use this “tech” card at GenCon Indianapolis.

In a format where opponents cannot risk Magician of Faith getting one of the “trinity” spell cards from the Graveyard, they have to use Nobleman of Crossout on a facedown monster almost as soon as they have the opportunity. This is one of the best “counters” to Nobleman of Crossout (because it results in a 0for1 for your opponent). Also, if you think about it, it’s REALLY hard to kill that monster, seeing Big Shield Guardna has a very high defense and an opponent needs to “over-extend” to destroy this monster. If you haven’t tried this card out yet, I suggest you do. It doesn’t belong in every deck but it does belong in many.

5) Magical Merchant

This is one of my favorite cards in the game. When I met JAE LOVE for the first time, we were both apparently testing this “tech” at the same time about a year ago from this article. A lot of Canadian players love this card and Cas Stomphorst and Bryan Coronel used this tech also.

Sure the big risk of this card is “milling” away your Breaker the Magical Warrior, Tribe Infecting Virus, Black Luster Soldier, etc...monsters that you’d love to use it’s effect first but if you think about it, it’s the same odds of you milling away that precious Sinister Serpent, which then leads to a 2for1.

I used this card in the SJC also because of its type and star-level. It’s a Light monster AND it’s 1 star. That means its Chaos food and Metamorphosis-able into a Thousand-Eyes Restrict. Also, this card can be used as a Nobleman of Crossout bait. Magical Merchant is not as important as Magician of Faith retrieving a tier-1 Spell card from the graveyard.

6) Necrovalley

My teammate Evan Vargas, aka SandTrap, made what I considered the “best build” for a deck using Necrovalley. He made a Gravekeeper’s deck not based solely upon Necrovalley but used it as a synergy for this deck. Also, there was a top 8 that consisted of a deck based on Necrovalley which says a lot about this under-played deck type.

Why is it tech? Necrovalley prevents Magician of Faith’s effect and Chaos creatures. It also stops Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, and even “tech” cards like Monster Reincarnation and Night Assailant. Anything that targets the graveyard specifically is negated because of this effect. Also, Gravekeeper’s Spy + any other Gravekeeper creature generate creature/board advantage. I won’t go into detail about a Gravekeeper’s deck but it’s good enough to prevent most of the common cards played in this metagame.

You can always e-mail me at sheckii.teamsavage@cox.net I’ll try to answer every e-mail but sometimes because of school it’s very hard to reply to every e-mail.

- sHecKii aka Tony Lee (a proud member of Team Savage)