This is a reworked version of a blog i wrote on another site

Contretemps : X-Sabers done right

X-Sabers is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating archetypes to hit the TCG in a long time. At shonen Jump Championship Nashville Jon Moore deservedly got a fair share of attention for his deck. With the coverage on yugioh-card.com we can’t see where he finished eventually, but it isn’t that relevant. I found it to be a very good starting place. That same Jump Roy St.Clair got third place with his own build. Both of them proved that X-Sabers were a solid archetype in their own right, but more importantly that they can and SHOULD be played as such and not as something to turn into a half-assed hybrid. Until then the major thing plaguing the TCG concerning X-Sabers were hybdrids, and especially sabersworn hybrids. Most wanted to focus on fast special summoning and the faultroll loop, so they wanted to set up their graveyard and speed up their deck using the best remaining engine to do so, a Lightsworn engine. These days that means a Charge of the Light Brigade and a set of Solar Recharges powered by a personally selection of Lightsworn monsters, most notably multiples of ryko and Lyla. Oddly enough in that process they managed to do very little in terms of speed to set up plays, and they considerably damaged consistency. Problem with lightsworns is that they can’t hold the field. They are a set-up engine themselves. Lyla can be good this format when you hold on to her, but that sort of defeats the point of the engine since you are neither drawing or milling. Ryko has some synergy with the kitty you invariably play with 3 copies of X-Saber Airbellum that are mandatory in every X-Saber deck, but multiples are a liability in any format, and they are especially such in this format with Nobleman of Crossout bound to make a comeback due to those annoying hamsters they play in Kitty-Flamvell-Synchro decks. You would imagine this would be somewhat obvious from the fact that LS had no consistency themselves before charge of the lightbrigade was released.

Jon Moore played 2 ryko’s, a trooper and 2 foolish burials, true enough, but he was supporting two copies of gardestrike and 3 copies of Gottoms’ Emergency Call. I don’t really see the use in supporting Gardestrike in this deck at all, nor do I really think its good to play with 3 copies of Emergency Call. I will elaborate on Gardestrike later, but for E-Call my Reasoning is solely “Do I want to open up with two copies of this card ?”. However good it is, I can certainly see why both players made an effort to be able to support three, when I ask myself that Question, I already know I could be damaging my early game by playing three. Even with all the mill in the world, I doubt that is often considered a good opening hand. Notice however that St.Clair didn’t play any degree of mill at all. He had Summoner Monk and Sangan to get to the kitty faster, which expedited things, but he clearly demonstrates there is no need to speed up to set up big plays, these Sabers can hold their own just Fine with ample field control to set up their own plays.

St.Clair commented in his deck profile that he felt he had answers for everything in the deck. I would have to agree that his deck was almost as close to perfection as he could get it for the format he was playing in. I really doubt you can get away with a full set of Lightning Vortex in a deck that already mains two Saber Slash, mirror, torrential and Heavy Storm in a format where Starlight Road will be omnipresent in many a side deck and a few main decks, nor do I think you have to these days, and likewise My Body as a Shield just may not be ample protection to ensure a swarm or big move going off. Those are points I wish to address here today, but the aim of this paragraph was basically to say I too had some sceptiscism when I saw who played the deck, but I can’t argue with it now that I know what the deck looks like.

So lets have a look at how one would build a decent X-Saber deck this format

Monsters

The core of X-Saber monsters that both players played seems very solid to me. I would aim to keep that, and the Rescue Cat as well, solely by virtue of the fact that its too good not to play with 3 Airbellums. That gives us 14 monsters

3x X-Saber Airbellum
3x XX-Saber Faultroll
3x XX-Saber Emmersblade
2x XX-Saber Ragigura
2x XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
1x Rescue Cat

Notice that St.Clair played a bit of a synchro cat set-up with a Summoner Monk in there. The monk only had three targets, the main one being kitty, the other two being Kycoo. This was excellent tech for the previous format, the three spellcasters gave him easy access to Arcanite Magician, who was deadly when opponents committed to the field to avoid airbellum and gottoms stripping them clean, and having to only play two kycoo but having access to him with Summoner Monk leant more consistency with less redundancy. In a format with 3 burials from the DD and 2 Mezuki, Kycoo was likely the best tech there was. I think we won’t see much of Mezuki anymore, Necro Gardna will be a rare sight, and while vayu will still be around he’ll be less of an issue with burial down to one. That makes kycoo less optimal tech this format. Instead we are expecting gladiators and oppression blackwing as our main threats, followed by x-saber, flamvell-kitty-synchro, gigavise, gadgets, machina, monarch and zero decks. And a whole host of decks that can make a splash here or there as well.

What surprised me is that he excluded that other mainstay of kitty synchro, Cyber Dragon. And this format we have 2 cyber dragons, and I really don’t understand how you DON’T play them in a deck like this. Cyber Dragon is awesome by his own right (I honestly never thought I’d have to explain to anyone how awesome cydra is, it used to be I had to tell people he wasn’t an auto-include) because he is bottomless bait, an easy special summon beatstick and easy access to Chimeratech Fortress Dragon in a format that opens up to machine decks, but how on earth do you ignore Cyber Dragon in a deck that packs no less than 5 Level 3 tuners ? So for me its an obvious pick :

+2x Cyber Dragon

That’s also my Reasoning for not supporting gardestrike. The only thing he offers over Cyber Dragon is that with him on the field all my support works (slash, hole and E-Call), but with him being dead a lot in the early game that doesn’t really help, while Cyber Dragon adds early consistency, forcing an opponent to commit removal or have to deal with a number of LV8 synchros. I want to even out around 20 monsters and there is so much you can do with the last 4 slots. There was a whole debate from people about whether they needed Emmersblade or not, that Rat fetched everything besides Airbellum. The short of it is that Emmersblade keeps your support alive and a lot of times you want to get airbellum. But above all you need a full set because he is a LV3 non-tuner X-Saber monster that holds the field well. He basically turns into any LV6 synchro you want, helps in summoning out Faultroll (and what’s the point if you can’t get airbellum to the field with him) but most of all, as the ONLY LV3 non-tuner in the X-saber archetype, he gives easy access to XX-Saber Hyunlei. All that stuff I said for one reason : to point out that while rat can’t possibly replace emmersblade, you CAN add rats to the mix, giving you faster access to your x-sabers like emmersblade, but also to a host of toolbox options. This decktype was dubbed X-Box (X-saber ratbox). We already established Card Trooper was a good pick, but a card like Neo-Spacian Grand Mole can deal with a lot of issues that X-Sabers struggle with. Given fulhelmknight is a warrior you could also play a ROTA and tech MSLV2 or Exiled Force for the same purpose. That’s a lot of possibilities for 4 slots. And basically just something I wanted to share, since I’m going a different way. I want something that can hold my field better. At first I thought I could keep the ROTA and go with two copies of DD Assailant. Assailant is solid in this format, dealing with a lot of threats you don’t want to see out there. Flamvell Firedog and Gladiators break their teeth on Assailant. But in the end I opted out of DDA because he is LV4 with only 1600 DEF. He won’t hold the field a lot since he will be run over by cards when set with frequency, and when played in attack he is an easy mark for removal as well. Instead I chose for 2 copies of Legendary Jujitsu Master. LJM has 1800 DEF, ensuring he holds his own against a lot more threats while his effect achieves the same as DDA. Gladiators don’t get to search, Firedog doesn’t summon out magician etc. But mostly he is a LV3 card in a deck with LV3 tuners, giving me easy access to the cards I want, like Goyo Guardian and Brionac, and another sleeper pick I’ll mention later. If he could give me Hyunlei he would be perfect, but sadly nothing is perfect. The fact that he is earth will also let me play Naturia Beast, when the Beast and X-Saber Pashuul come out in July.

+2x Legendary Jujitsu Master

I’ve recently also been going back and forth, thinking of changing my two copies of LJM to two copies of Hedge Guard. The only reason I don’t want to main hedge guard is because I have no idea how many Gladiator Beast decks I will face. Info from Japanese tournaments so far seems to indicate that GB fails at bigger events, but is still massively played and does top and win smaller events. With all the hype they got as the number two deck to Blackwing Oppression (which is living up to its reputation apparently) I do expect them to see a lot of play here early format regardless of how they do. But apart from that matchup, hedge guard could be a much better fit. Its also a LV3 Earth non-tuner monster, so it fulfills the same role in that regard. It doesn’t give me any control over the opponents field, but as an early set not even firedog or cyber dragon can get over it, ensuring it will oft stay on the field, and it has more use in the later game, where you can discard it for its effect to keep an X-Saber out to play out a massive turn on the follow up, and when its in the grave it’s a plant-type monster to help you use Black Rose Dragon’s other effect. I mean, you play a plethora of LV3 tuners and how often will you be grabbing a LV4 monster for mind or brain control ? When you do, you only get to pick between X-Saber urbellum and black rose dragon. Neither of which is generally very versatile or powerful. But if Black Rose dragon gets its second effect, it’s a very viable play in a lot of different matchups.

For the last slots I’m opting for Ryko and Gale. For all I said about Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter earlier, you can’t deny a single copy is good tech. With Rescue Cat, for lack of other things, he can get you Ally of Justice Catastor just like that, a little mill doesn’t hurt either. Originally I preferred Card Trooper, but again, in the interest of increasing early game consistency, would you rather set Ryko or Trooper ? The answer is obvious, and since Kitty gives options for a Ryko not drawn early, it was pretty much a done deal. I was talked into Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind, by a friend. Another LV3 tuner, might as well play another fulhelmknight I can hear some people thinking. I was playing Gorz in this slot before, coincidentally. But he said he played it to bring out Underground Arachnid. With Emmersblade and LJM in here holding the fort, and early game Gale into Arachnid can be game breaking. As you will see later this deck can ensure arachnid hits play, and after he does I take a monster with priority, shut down spells and traps in their battle phase, and if they happen to have Honest or kalut, it’ll only destroy their equipped monster. It cuts off key plays. This is fairly situational, as it requires an early gale, but as my friend put it, when is it ever a bad thing to play Gale ? He’s right, at worst its an easy out to a large monster blocking your path.

+1x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
+1x Blackwing – Gale the Whirlwind

Spells

With so many excellent trap options, you spell count will be low. That’s the main reason I opted to keep kitty and add two cyber dragons, but cut a Summoner Monk. That and the fact that after all was said and done kitty was my only remaining target for the monk, making him less useful overall. First off, the obvious. I would play two pieces of spell and trap removal. The typical choice would be Storm and MST, but I would personally say Trunade and Storm. And when someone like Jason Grabher-Meyer thinks Starlight Road will have such an impact as to not main storm, I might even consider Trunade and MST. Regardless, main two of the three and side the third. At the same time we are maining 6 tuners at LV3 and no LV4 non-tuners, making Mind Control and Brain Control, euh, no-brainers. Most of the time you will grab a level 4 for Black Rose or Urbellum, in rare cases a LV6 for Gottoms, LV5 for Stardust, colossal or whatever or a LV3 for Brionac or Goyo. None are bad plays for this deck. I also feel Mind Control will be a must with Flamvell-Kitty decks and their annoying hamsters. Grab a ryko to mill and kill before you synchro, but your own ryko will seem so much better as well when you grab a hamster of theirs and have something other to get than airbellum (since hamster sets the monster so you can’t use airbellum that turn)

1x Giant Trunade
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Mind Control
1x Brain Control

Both Moore and St.Clair played two Saber Slash and sided a third. I would agree. With the requirement three could be dead of leass useful, starlight only make it better to keep it at 2. At the same time I don’t want to play less than two because it’s an answer to major threats in the format like Dimensional Fissure and Royal Oppression. St.Clair played a whopping three copies of Vortex, which I feel was an excellent call for that format. In this format I don’t feel you can get away with that, since Starlight Road will oft be sided, but also because it will prove less rewarding to discard to destroy face-up monsters with less swarm and less face-up play than last format. Instead I would however play two copies of Smashing Ground in here. Smashing Ground clears threats before your sabers hit the field, potentially sidestepping War Chariot for Ragigura or Faultroll. With the way this deck keeps monsters off the field to begin with, through Saber Hole, Saber Slash and Bottomless Trap Hole, smashing perfectly supplements that strategy.

+2x Saber Slash
+2x Smashing Ground

A copy of One for One seems evident. Moore didn’t play it, but its too good at setting up a fast play with ragigura, grabbing either another X-saber to summon and then use faultroll in your hand, or vice versa, grab faultroll from the graveyard to supplement the X-Saber in your hand. These are the easy plays into XX-Saber Gottoms that this deck thrives on. But if you need more convincing, I have two more good reasons for you. The first is you will be siding Consecrated Light for Blackwings, another LV1 monster, and the other is that you’ll want to get used to it for when we get to play X-Saber Palomlo next June, providing an additional target for it, and a card (LV1 tuner that revives when X-Sabers get killed in battle) you really only want to play a copy of and still get into play as fast as you can.

+1x One for One

For the last slot I will freely admit I failed to find a card that screams “I fit here perfectly” like all the rest does. When I entertained DDA, this was a ROTA. You could play a remaining My Body as a Shield here, you could keep Foolish Burial. All of them great. I personally decided to keep one Lightning Vortex, just because this deck is all bling anyway and my ulti vortex was staring at me with green eyes. But if anyone has the epiphany I failed to have, and finds a card for this last slot that really should be here as a one-of, let me know (and preferably why)

+1x Lightning Vortex

Traps

I already said I was only going to play two Gottoms’ Emergency Call and I’m sticking to that. If you can fit three and feel it plays well for you, you won’t hear me say its not an awesome card, but ask yourself, like me, do you really want to open up with two of these ? If you still want to play 3, feel free, and even if you follow my Reasoning, side a third copy for when you play a mirror match. From there I can’t see anyone not playing 3 Saber Hole. Its better than Gladiator Beast War Chariot in my opinion since it stops monsters from hitting the field, including big beaters. It has its shortcomings, but this is a Saber deck, it needs 3 Saber Holes. Period. I’m also keeping in 2 bottomless trap holes, they supplement the Saber Holes well in order to keep monsters off the field as much as possible. It’s a strategy as much as any that gives a whole new dimension to Airbellum, letting him fully flourish.

3x Saber Hole
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
2x Gottoms’ Emergency Call

And then on to the part that gives this deck its name. Contretemps, in French speaking language means mishap or setback. But I got the term from the sport of fencing, where it refers to drawing out a counter and they parrying and riposting it. The word here is counter. I’m making a counter Saber deck that does just that, riposte on an opponents plays that you can draw out with a combination of deckbuilding and playstyle. Instead of My Body as a Shield who can protect me from BTH, torrential or Mirror Force, I’m opting for counter traps that will also save me from flipped oppression and other things that threaten my game. It supplements well with the 3 Saber Hole, since adding 3 bribes and a solemn will give you 4 cards that can negate summons and 4 cards that can stop any spell or trap. Little slower than MBaaS, but the deck was already aiming at a set-up and the added versatility more than makes up for it. It also opens up a little idea for the side-deck.

+3x Dark Bribe
+1x Solemn Judgment

That’s where I had the trap line-up, but I’ve recently made a small change. I replaced my bottomless Trap Holes with two copies of Karma Cut. This deck can afford and even use the discard cost, so that fact is negligible, and karma cut lends me greater versatility. Like bottomless it only necks face-up monsters, but it has no limit on what monsters you remove or on the time you want to remove them, meaning it stays alive after your target has been summoned. The off chance you may get to remove additional copies of something isn’t a bad thing either. Playing decks packing Flamvells it can neutralize rekindling, or if you chance upon a rogue monarch deck packing two frogs, and they are both in the grave, well, you get the picture. But the biggest reason why I took a chance on this rather controversial change is that it does not destroy. It gets around stardust dragon, but also around what I deem will be one of the biggest pieces of tech this format, My body as a shield. It already saw massive play last format, I really only see that increasing this format. So one last change :

-2x Bottomless Trap Hole
+2x Karma Cut

That makes our deck complete at 41 cards :

I don’t think I need to elaborate any on the Extra deck, I already delved into level distribution and tech picks like Arachnid and Fortress Dragon.

The Side Deck

Its ill advised to suggest there is a hard side deck you should be running. Apart from the fact that a lot is always dependent on playstyle and where and when you will be playing the deck, this is a far from defined meta. All we can state for sure is we will be seeing a lot of Blackwing and Gladiator beast decks early on. Not that they will be top tier or your hardest fights by any measure, but simply that they are touted as such and hence will be the main course of most serious tournaments early on. For blackwings I’m content siding 3 Consecrated Light. With One for One in the main I may as well be playing four copies so I’ll be forcing them to play around it very early on, then keeping them off my field with inherent tech. This is NOT a difficult matchup, but the Consecrated Light makes it so very easy. For Gladiator Beasts you side in three copies of Swallow Flip. People who suggest Mirror of Oaths or corridor of suffering are better, you don’t know what you are talking about. Mirror doesn’t even stop Gyzarus. Swallow Flip not only stops what Mirror does and Gyzarus, it also means you can stop plays from Black Rose Dragon, Mist Wurm and a host of other cards you really don’t want ruining your day. I would side out Saber Hole for these, simply because Saber Hole can’t stop a summon caused by another card, same as Solemn Judgment. That would be the case for gladiator beasts. An interesting idea I had here was to side a Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord, since between flip, bribe and solemn it will be raining effects, and when you flip a gladiator it means you special summon an X-Saber. Ragigura into faulroll anyone ? I didn’t currently find room for it and didn’t want to waste the extra slot on gladiator beasts just yet, not knowing how big a part of the meta they will be. A third Saber Slash Should be included against face-up spells and traps like Skill Drain, Royal Oppression and Dimensional Fissure, possibly pesky things like Burden of the Mighty or Solidarity. Then for the same reason whichever standard s/t removal you didn’t main, in this case Heavy Storm. And if you feel X-sabers will be prevalent, a third Emergency call seems logical as well.

3x Swallow Flip
3x Consecrated Light
1x Heavy Storm
1x Saber Slash
1x Gottoms’ Emergency Call

Then I would highly suggest 3 copies of Nobleman of Crossout. I may be one of the few that values Flamvell-kitty as high as I do, but truth is, X-sabers don’t do well against facedowns, period. Its just smart to play these in your side. Then I’m adding a copy each of Electric Virus and Puppet Plant. X-sabers, lots of warriors. LS hybrids, lots of warriors and spellcasters. Gadget and Machina, all machine. Deep draw and disaster dragon, all dragons. Rogue samurai deck, all warriors. The list goes on. An extra monster based Brain Control in a deck with 3 tuners won’t ever hurt you, I would imagine. The last slot I leave to your imagination. You could try vandy, or side an XX-Saber Garsem for Gladiator beasts as well. A Dust Tornado wouldn’t be bad. Like Swallow Flip a hero’s rule 2 can be a good substitute for one of your counter traps, as can Divine Wrath. Or even a single My Body as a Shield. Or maybe you are one of those people that just doesn’t feel comfortable without a torrential or Mirror Force in your deck.

+1x Puppet Plant
+1x Electric Virus
+3x Nobleman of Crossout
+1x Undetermined.

But like I said, just basing this on what you will face and the weaknesses of the deck, its too early to determine what else may be needed and at the cost of what.

Playstyle

I hate to break it to anyone, but this isn’t a hard deck to play. Keep monsters off the field with Saber Hole, Bottomless Trap Hole, LJM, Smashing Ground and Saber Slash, while you set your counters and keep monsters on the field with emmersblade, LJM and Cyber Dragon. Use airbellum to score free advantage until you can blow up with hyunlei and gottoms, which will now have free play thanks to your set counters. You can continuously threaten big plays from Cyber Dragon into LV8 synchro’s, kitty into catastor or other combo’s, anything off of brain or Mind Control, up to emergency call later in the game. By that time you may have loaded up on hyunlei or gottoms and you should be able to end game easily.

The intricacies of the deck are many, but once you grasp them, this deck plays itself. Some important things to know are that this deck is completely immune to Starlight Road. Starlight road is a major impact card on this format. It won’t be played nearly as much as its hyped, in fact, top decks don’t really have much use for it mained. But it will be plentiful in outsider strategies, cards depending on other cards staying out (macro, gravekeeper, samurai) and in many a side-deck. Quite a few people who don’t realize this might even side it in to try and stop your saber holes, but the rulings state that saber hole is always immune to Starlight Road. Saber Hole works the same way as R – Righteous Justice. It does not target, and you select the cards to destroy at the resolution, and not the activation when you have to chain starlight. The effect is mandatory to destroy as many face-up cards as you have face-up attack position X-sabers and you have to select them from ANYWHERE on the field, and Starlight, as per the ruling on R – Righteous Justice can only be activated when it is certain you will destroy two or more of THEIR cards. That means as long as there is a chance you could destroy less, for example by hitting your own cards, starlight Road cannot be used. And if you know that you get to destroy as many FACE-UP cards on the field as YOU control FACE-UP attack position X-Sabers, you will always have enough Face-up cards on the field for them to never be certain of you hitting two or more of their cards. Another key factor to this card is remember your options. When you summon out Hyunlei, his effect states you get to destroy UP TO 3 spell or trap cards. That can mean one or none. A lot of less experienced players will flip starlight road when they see your Hyunlei, after which you can calmly declare they jumped the gun and were only going to hit one of their cards. Then you can take out the other one, which is possibly a threat, or you can take out starlight and follow up with heavy storm or what not.

On a lesser note, Saber Hole isn’t as good as it sounds. Its Summon negation works the same way as that of solemn judgment, which means it needs to activated in response to the monsters summon. So you can’t use it for anything special summoned by the effect of a spell, trap or monster effect, since the summon only occurs at resolution when you miss the timing to activate Saber Hole. No Mystic Tomato, No reasoning, No emmersblade, No Hamster, no call of the haunted etc. Solemn had the ability to stop spells and traps at activation as well, meaning it was only useless against monsters summoned by other monsters, but Saber Hole doesn’t have that benefit. You can play around it a lot of times though. When you suspect a hamster or flip effect monster, you can wait for them to flip it manually and negate the flip summon. With cards like Flamvell Firedog you have multiple options, either negating the summon of firedog or waiting for the ensuing synchro summon and negating that. Only recruiters can be an issue. In any case, it really does stress the importance of siding three copies of Nobleman of Crossout. And, as I alluded to, you’ll face a lot of my body as a shield, so you’ll be thankful you have solemn and Bribe in here when that happens.

Whatever you take away from this, the main point I’m making is that you shouldn’t underestimate X-sabers. They are a good theme in their own right and make the plays they need. The format is harder to prep for now than it was when St.Clair topped, but he demonstrated clearly you can have all the answers in a fast-paced explosive format. That makes it a given it will find the needed answers when this format settles down too. And then, come July, these guys get two major cards extra, X-Saber pashuul, a LV2, earth-attribute, Warrior-type tuner that can’t be destroyed in battle, and X-Saber Palomlo a LV1, earth-attribute, reptile-type tuner who, when in your graveyard, can be revived when you pay 500 LP when an X-Saber monster is destroyed in battle. This deck works perfectly Fine as is, just take out Gale and one fulhelmknight for one pashuul and one Palomlo, exit Underground Arachnid, likely for a Naturia Beast and the deck is playable again. You could even evolve into a dedicated X-Saber build, since with these two tuners it can be useful to play a theme-based beater at LV4 (Galahad or Anu Piranha) and in the process support a Gardestrike. That in turn makes ROTA more playable again and ensures you can synch into Hyunlei off of all your tuners. X-sabers have a lot of fight left in them and the best is yet to come. I’m not saying they will be top tier for sure, or that you need to pick them up (I’d say its pretty stupid to pay 80+ dollars per copy of emmersblade to play them in a wide-open format unless you have a love for X-sabers and they suit your playing style), but they will be at the very least a solid tier 1.5 deck with a lot of answers, a lot of speed and a lot of power.

Hmm for a lack of B-Wing Armor Master in the Extra deck,

Also Puppet Plant and Electric Virus - why include those in the Side - I'd understand the Machine aspect for Elec Virus but wouldnt System Down be a better substitute instead

Also Why use Dark bribe - is Dust Tornado better - ok its not chainable but you can set it - destoy your opponent set cards - Icarus, Waboku, Oppressionm Mirror etc assit Ryko and co prior to Ryko AND Gottoms Call where one is unsure if one would mill some Sabers whereas Bribe imo is an example of a card that a lot of people seem to think is good, but is actually awful. It's not in any way a replacement of Solemn Judgment or anything else as it simply gives your opponent more cards to throw at you... Dark Bribe may seem good, and you might state it's amazing, but in my personal opinion it's an awful card that has no place outside burn and stall or somethign which desperatly needs protection that mains at least 2 continuous Spells/Traps that need to be kept around (Call of the Haunted excluded)

still build looks promising yet i still say Dust Tornado > Bribe and System Down > Electric Virus

...

And opinions will differ. I remember when people said PWWB was awful because you had to discard, that solemn was too costly. Some cards you just have to know how to play and are worth it when you have something worth protecting. I wouldn't be caught dead playing it in a samurai deck now, but back when Samurai was fast, I loved counter samurai and it took me to countless tops and tournament victories. Thing with dust is that it won't let you hit spells played from the hand, and that you'll often have to used it before a trap or quickplay is played, because when chained, you're too late. In a day and age when decks play more traps than ever, and even vulnerable decks can set massively thanks to starlight road, the ability to negate what is important instead of destroying what isn't, is crucial.

As for electric virus vs System down : of course its better overall. But one card side against machines won't do a lot. If I needed to side against machines that badly, I would have spent more cards. I find that saber hole does just fine stopping gadgets and sniper from fetching, killing the advantage, or when they dump machines to drop fortress. Virus and puppet have only one purpose : when coming against a deck that lets you use them, as this format will have its share, they act as an extra brain control for all your tuners, or other aggressive purposes.

As for blackwing Armor master : I'm running one copy of a blackwing tuner and ZERO LV4 non-tuner monsters ... Bit situational, no ? When I do have a LV4 with brain or mind, it seems Urbellum and Black rose are my first picks. If anything armed wing might help out more, but I think given the deck, Uruquizas would be more useful. Sadly, no more room.

Hello. Were you able to test your deck? How his it running? I really like the time you took to write this. It helped me alot.

Thank you.

Only thing i wonder: hows the Jujitsus in the main deck?

So far so good, they work in a great deal of matchups. I just don't like it when they open up with cyber dragon. So far they were the right call, but if gladiator beasts should die down a bit, and I expect they might after the first jump, I'm thinking of replacing them with hedge guards. No advantage on the attack, but early game they will stay on the field, and late game they can protect a key monster. But as long as GB are floating around, I will stick with the LJM.

So do you happen to have a build with BK in it? I still can't believe they brought it out. For this format, it seems way too good.

TSHD-EN000 XX-Saber Boggart Knight
Level 4/EARTH
Beast-Warrior/Effect
1900 ATK/1000 DEF

When this card is Normal Summoned, you can Special Summon 1 "X-Saber" monster from your hand. This card cannot be used as Synchro Material Monster, except for the Synchro Summon of a "X-Saber" monster.

Working on it ;) Definitely needs three of them. And at least one palomuro and one pashuul. Definitely cutting at least one fulhelm as well.

I may be missing something, but where is the insect needed for Underground Arachnid?

Also for the undetermined spot in the side Mirror Force? D.D Crow? Burial from the Different Dimension?

How do you deal with removal decks?

XX-saber emmersblade ...

The entire deck has changed so far, in strategy, in line-up and the side-deck won't full shape out until May and I get a clearer picture of what's being played. With pashuul coming out sooner and the release of boggart knight, this deck can run a complete X-saber line-up that can consistently spam LV6 synchro's.

You mean like macro and d-fissure ? 3 saber slashes, heavy, trunade, MST ... The deck has a few revival tricks with E-call and faultroll, but it functions fine for a few turns to find an answer to that, its certainly not graveyard dependent.

Yea. Realised about Emmersblade when I was in bed...sorry about that.

I'm thinking of starting to do tournaments, would you recommend this dack to a beginner tournament player? I would like to either play X-Sabers or Sabersworn and this has convinced me to go with X-Sabers. and if so, could I use this?

Thanks

This deck as is ? of course not. In two weeks time we get a plethora of extra cards that make this deck ten times better. XX-saber Boggart Knight, X-Saber Pashuul, X-Saber palomuro, XX-Saber Darksoul, all prompt a more X-saber oriented build, that's also considerably faster.

Would I recommend the X-saber archetype ? Sure. There are a lot of intricacies to the deck but they can all easily be taught, if this type of deck matches your playstyle, then it will be very fun and rewarding to play. It is a Tier 1.5 deck, so as a beginning player you need to be aware its not the type of deck to give you autowins like the defining decks of the format (Synchro cat, Blackwings and to a lesser extent Gladiator beasts)

What I can tell you is to definitely not run sabersworn, it is highly inconsistent.

I'll likely post up my new post-TSHD build soon, I was planning on doing it this weekend, but figure I better wait until we learn what exactly XX-saber Darksoul is before I do, so I don't have to rewrite the whole thing next week :p But ive put a lot of time in this deck so far and I'm taking it to nationals for sure, so I can teach you how I play it, and how it can be played (not everyone plays it like I do, I require a clear strategy and a lot of consistency of my deck)

What the heck is XX-Saber Darksoul?

That would be great!! That's kind of how I play too (the clear strategy thing)

Thanks mate!

Well in terms of strategy, after the release of Boggart Knight, this deck is aggressive, swarming and empties your hand fast. That's mostly what you need to take into account. That its a deck that should be played with some caution and know-how, played fast and with a clear goal in mind, and should protect its field and finish the game fast. It plays a lot like six samurai back in the day.

I've started writing the update yesterday, with any luck I can post it on tuesday.