Starter Decks: Twisted Knightmares and Match of the Millennium were released near the end of May and greatly shook up the competitive scene. Last format, which started in December with the release of Trials of the Kingdom, was mostly dominated by the Cocoon Warrior strategy.
Carlos Kretschmer took down YCS Utrecht's Speed Duel event using the Cocoon Warrior Strategy, and Aaron Forrest came first at one of the two events over in Las Vegas the same weekend. The Deck combines the synergy between and the Skill Card with the high ATK stat of Warriors like and .
Gearfried's weakness is actually a strength in Speed Duel!
This wasn't the only deck of the format. Mike Steinman took the other YCS Las Vegas event with an innovative Gravekeeper Insect build. Gravekeepers themselves were a pretty interesting pick for the format as well, just like Skull Servants, Zombies, and Relinquished. But enough of the old format, we're here for the shiny new cards! First we'll go over each of the four new Starter Decks and highlight some of the goodies they have to offer, and then I'll discuss some of the trends that we've been seeing in tournaments.
The Pegasus Deck
Just like Pegasus's initial Starter Deck, this one brings in cards for Pegasus's two iconic strategies. Toons got a massive boost, thanks to picks like , , and . Although Toon Gemini Elf is the most interesting out of all of these in a vacuum, the Toon Cards are just not enough to make the deck competitively relevant. Not even the new Skill Card can help them out, and while Toons are definitely something to be considered for having casual matches, this deck isn't making it to tournament top tables until we were to get cards like .
On the darker side of his soul, we see the G.O.A.T. from Goat Format, , enter the format as well, complete with the mandatory and a brand new Skill in {c=Thousand-Eyes Spell}. You can definitely play the new arsenal of cards, but this Skill is also great support for a pure Relinquished deck alongside . Thanks to the Thousand-Eyes Spell you don't even need to play Ritual Spell Cards anymore, and the Magician grants your deck the ability to "loop" your Relinquished every time your opponent gets rid of it.
"Your turn, Yugi-Boy."
The Yugi Deck
Just like the Pegasus Deck, Yugi's deck combines two of his signature themes from the anime series, namely Gaia the Fierce Knight and Ritual Summons. On the Ritual side of things we see the new Skill Card . It grants protection to the two monsters that helped Yugi out in the playoffs of the Duelist Kingdom tournament, and , as well as netting you some card advantage. The special add-ins for the Starter Deck include , which makes Ritual Summoning a bit easier if you're prepared to run Normal Monsters, although the card might be better for Thousand-Eyes Decks.
There's also , who is actually quite fearsome thanks to {c=Knight of Legend}. At the cost of being able to activate Set Cards, you can Normal Summon your classic Gaia without tributes, and all your Gaia monsters gain piercing damage. Whenever a Gaia monster does so, you get to draw two cards and discard one of them! is a bridge between these two decks, but is commonly played only to be Normal Summoned as a 1900 ATK beatstick.
Who cares about Magicians when you have Warriors like these guys?
The Bakura Deck
Bakura's deck features support for . {c=Into the Darkness Below} gives that sort of strategy some consistency as it lets you a Fiend Normal Monster once per turn, or search out any monster from your Deck when you have four or more of them with different names in your Graveyard. That's all very cool, but it's massively overshadowed by the other option in this deck: {c=Inner Conflict} is basically a that doesn't allow direct attacking for that monster, but the deck comes with an amazing array of 1-Tribute monsters in the form of and , which both punish passive play.
Another big new card from this Starter Deck is . This card was always worth some coin, even for common versions; so it's nice to see it reprinted again. It gives decks that play a lot of Dark Monsters more consistency and quicker access to their key cards. is an interesting piece of spot removal that is definitely a pleasant addition to the format as well. might be the best new card out of the entire set of decks. It becomes a monster that can take out a hefty chuck out of the opponent's Life Points when destroyed, and when it does stick around until your turn comes, its 1800 ATK is no joke either.
Gaap even allows your Zoma to attack on the turn you summon it!
The Marik Deck
Similar to Bakura's deck, one of Marik's Skills is less commonly played than the other one. {c=Shadow Reborn} is a blue , which is a reference to how Marik's intended win condition in the Battle City finals was to resolve Monster Reborn on The Winged Dragon of Ra about fourteen times. The opponent takes no damage in the turn you use this Skill, which caused players to ignore it in favor of {c=Twisted Personality}! This Skill lets you build up counters every time damage is taken, and nets you card advantage by stripping resources off the opponent in exchange for them. Initially players feared this might support Burn decks, but they quickly realized that this Skill is a great counter against them as well.
Speaking of Burn, Marik's deck has some cards for that as well. and stole him some wins in Battle City, and these cards are seeing play in Speed Duels as well. Lava Golem is a nasty gift, especially when facing off against . Some of Marik's other signature cards also found their way into the format. , , and are fan favorites that could each have their niche applications.
Thank you, Marik, for taking Stall strategies out of the format. Very cool.
The Current Competitive Scene
Hi there, veteran player who scrolled past a large part of the article to get to this section. Earlier in this article we discussed how Cocoon Warrior was a force to be reckoned with, and it still is. However, there is a new deck in town that makes use of the Cocoon Skill, namely Dark Moth. Dark Moth employs the consistency option that Allure grants to help you draw into or . They help you clear anything that stands in your way of cracking a quick OTK with your . Below you can find sample decklists for these two deck types that topped an online tournament on the Tetra Speed Duel Discord channel.
"Classic" Warrior Moth (Skill: Cocoon of Ultra Evolution
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Dark Moth (Skill: Cocoon of Ultra Evolution
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All aboard the draw train!
These decks, as well as all other decks below, had an Extra Deck consisting of the best Fusions of the format, including . still exists, and bluffing that you're playing it is stronger than admitting you're not!
Dark Moth definitely seems to be the deck to beat of the format, as it's been claiming multiple top cut spots at online tournaments. Still, every list has its own specific flavor and tech, meaning that there is still a lot of room left for innovation in this format.
We already mentioned how Burn can easily employ the Twisted Personality Skill to keep up with card advantage. There's several routes to take here, but in the same tournament hosted by Tetra, one of the top cut players decided to go with a large Gravekeeper engine, using for burn damage, for an aggressive push, for consistency, and as an all-around great card.
Gravekeeper Burn (Skill: Twisted Personality)
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Specifically to counter Burn decks like this one, cards like see play in Side Decks. The key to beating Burn is having the option to play aggressively, and having counters to cards that can inflict massive damage like Zoma.
Is 500 a lot? Depends. 500 Damage? No. 500 Damage every turn? Yes.
To round off the top four of that tournament before we go look at some decklists from other events, we have Inner Conflict. It plays very aggressively and can easily capitalize on the opponent not having the necessary backrow to protect them from two or three attacks. In this case, the player opted for Gaap as their go-to Tribute Summon, but can be Tribute Summoned as well if necessary.
Conflict Warrior (Skill: Inner Conflict)
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Making an all-in aggressive push at the right time is key!
The Five Dimensions TCG Discord recently held a tournament too, and one of the decks that stood out in the top cut was a Relinquished build. It helps open the option of going for a Fusion Summon by teching , and otherwise heavily focused on the little loop with . The rest of that tournament's top cut featured Gravekeeper Burn, Lava Golem Burn, Inner Conflict Warrior, and Dark Moth, and can be found on their YouTube channel.
Relinquished
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With a thousand eyes and a good vanilla, hit them right in the life points.
Sadly, a lot of decks that I think look fun to play have yet to see success in online tournaments, which are usually on the smaller side as well. I decided to share only a handful of decklists to give a general idea of what decks look like, but there is plenty of life in the Speed Duel community. Hopefully, this format can kick off again as soon as real-life play gets going once more, because there definitely is still a lot left to be discovered here!
Cost-wise, Speed Duel never was very expensive. The most expensive card in the format probably was Parasite Paranoid, due to Cocoon Decks still being so popular. Even then, it is available for under €10. A playset of them is cheaper than some Advanced Constructed cards like or . As for the rest of the cards in the format, a lot of the ones that were more than a few euros saw reprints in these Starter Decks, like or . With the exception of the Cocoon decks, the decks in this article could probably be bought and shipped for less than the price of some of your Advanced Format staples, and you'll probably get a few hours of entertainment out of them.
If you have any cool ideas for Speed Duel decks using cards from the new set, let me know in the comments!
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