PMurphy brought a cool ironic mix-up format to kick off the year: getting us to build side decks! This for sure brought me back to the early 2010s, when I was preparing multiple side decks for online-ranked simulators and in-person tournaments. I look forward to what this year has to offer for formats and fun matchups.

Here’s what each player brought:

SPIRE_FAN

Standard… with a side deck?! Say no more… I took my current main deck from ranked and created a side deck that goes back to the ones I made around ten years ago for ranked and tournament play. While I’ve played all of these cards in my main deck in the past, building a side deck was a lot of fun. While some cards like Neko Mane King and Penguin Soldier were ready for matchups like Dark Worlds and XYZ-Centered Decks, I for sure modernized my counter picks for the competitive community landscape. Even though Trap Cards aren’t played as much overall now, I still kept three Royal Decree in case someone brought a Labrynth and a Traptrix. Prohibition has always been a high-skill ceiling card, and the abundance of even more hand traps now adds to its strengths for combo play protection.

Toadyhoady

The Ignknight Master at this point, ToadyHoady brought an actual swarm of combos and extra deck climbing plays to capitalize off any lack of floodgates given to easily OTK with said-openings. I loved seeing his use of M-X-Saber Invoker while maintaining a strong array of negate cards like Crossout Designator and Called by the Grave to maintain his blitzing pressure. Speaking of, the use of Harpies Feather Duster and Monster Reborn in a side deck is big for the beforementioned strategies of recognizing what matchups might not negate cards as much, allowing for mass destruction and crucial revival plays respectively.

Cooldude112233445570

If there’s a future Divine Attribute effect for Vanquish Soul, we’ll know who got Konami at the grill. Long-running member Cooldude112233445570, brought another awesome deck to the monthly. I love the matchup flexibility in his build; it reminds me of multi-energy decks in Pokémon that could easily adapt to a lot of different combos. A cool thing he pointed out to me was the use of hand traps to provide different attributes needed in the hand for different Vanquish Soul monsters. There’s a ton of cool possible combos here. Great side deck with a wide arsenal of Kaiju’s for the previously mentioned attribute combos as well as disruptions with them and a triple Book of Moon to potentially lock-in games.

PMurphy (Champion)

The current tournament circuit killer, PMurphy has made quite the impression in the community for his dueling skills, not that his opponents ever had any doubt! The PSY-Frame offensive assault continues to reign down on the opponents with strong disruption and momentum reversal with an edge of Life Point control. I personally side deck swapped in a Prohibition for this matchup, but his use of strong pressure with multiple hand traps for sure made it a fun challenge to collect which card to halt… even with the card not being played during our set. Speaking of, his side deck showed the potential for even more PSY-Frame pressure while keeping Solemn Judgement and Scolding at the ready to stop even more plays.

Thanks again to all of the players that entered, and congrats to PMurphy for getting the trophy once again! We will see you next month as we begin to arrange dates on the community discord!