Deck Profile: Walter Chan

For being only three guys, Team Scrubs has made a big impact. With great showings into the later rounds of the tournament, they're also running some very coverage-worthy decks, and arguably the most important deck of the tournament is being used by Walter Chan and Ervin So. Here's Walter Chan's build of Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lock.

​Walter Chan's Sucky DeckMonsters: 17 1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning1 Jinzo2 Airknight Parshath2 Tsukuyomi1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer2 Magician of Faith1 Breaker the Magical Warrior1 Exiled Force1 Tribe-Infecting Virus1 D. D. Warrior Lady1 Sangan1 Apprentice Magician1 Morphing Jar1 Sinister SerpentSpells: 17 1 Pot of Greed1 Graceful Charity3 Scapegoat3 Metamorphosis1 Heavy Storm1 Snatch Steal1 Premature Burial2 Nobleman of Crossout1 Mystical Space Typhoon1 Lightning Vortex1 Wave-Motion Cannon1 Delinquent DuoTraps: 61 Mirror Force2 Waboku1 Torrential Tribute1 Call of the Haunted1 Ring of DestructionSide Deck:1 Swarm of Locusts2 Kinetic Soldier1 King Tiger Wanghu1 Book of Moon1 Swords of Revealing Light1 Wave-Motion Cannon2 Sakuretsu Armor3 Pyramid Turtle2 Vampire Lord1 Book of LifeFusion Deck:2 Dark Balter the Terrible3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight3 Dark Flare Knight2 Fiend Skull Dragon2 Gatling Dragon1 King Dragun1 The Last Warrior From Another Planet2 Ojama King1 Reaper on the Nightmare3 Ryu Senshi3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict1 Dragoness the Wicked Knight2 Darkfire Dragon1 Flame Swordsman2 Giltia the D. Knight3 Roaring Ocean Snake3 Sanwitch2 B. Skull Dragon1 Gaia the Dragon Champion1 Thousand Dragon1 Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon  The deck is based around the concept of locking the field with one or two Thousand-Eyes Restrict and then using Tsukuyomi to turn them face down. Grab a monster, turn Thousand-Eyes Restrict face down, and the attacked card is destroyed. Under the old rulings on position changes, the shift due to effect caused by Tsukuyomi would prevent you from flip summoning the same Thousand-Eyes Restrict on the same turn. But under the new rulings, you can suck up a monster, flip Thousand-Eyes face down with Tsukuyomi, flip Thousand-Eyes back up again, and then suck up a second monster. That's two pieces of removal in one turn. On top of that, if this is executed in exactly the described form, you end your turn with a face up Thousand-Eyes. That means the field is locked, nothing can be attacked or flipped aside from Thousand-Eyes Restrict, and you can suck up more monsters on your next turn. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this deck just won't stop sucking. There are concerns from some that this deck might be the next Chaos—the deck that dominates the format. Those concerns may be well-deserved, as TER Lock is an incredibly powerful strategy. The deck can employ a full retinue of support monsters, from the staple powerhouses like Breaker the Magical Warrior and D. D. Warrior Lady to more taste-driven selections like Exiled Force and Morphing Jar. The spells are standard powerhouse staples with a thick emphasis on the lynchpin spells necessitated by the deck's focus, including three copies of Metamorphosis and three copies of Scapegoat. It's also packing a copy of Wave-Motion Cannon which can distract an opponent, put pressure on them, or in the case of a lock, actually win the game. The trap cards run in the deck are also a mix of high-powered standbys that have become hallmarks of the format. The big four are all here: Mirror Force, Torrential Tribute, Call of the Haunted, and Ring of Destruction. But a pair of Waboku are also present. While I don't often like the card (and generally view it as overrated), it's certainly justified here, allowing the player to turn a Thousand-Eyes face down and leave it that way without immediately throwing it away. The deck opens slowly and topdecks sort of poorly, meaning it's weak in the first and last few turns of a game. But it can thoroughly dominate the early and mid-game, controlling the field entirely and leaving an opponent with no answers to its monster destruction engine. It can also do some neat tricks. For instance, it's possible to play Heavy Storm when a Thousand-Eyes has a monster equipped from a previous turn in order to clear it off and use the sucking effect again when Tsukuyomi isn't available. It's a dangerous deck, and it's bound to see more play in the future. Whether or not it will be the be-all and end-all some believe it might be is up in the air, but it's definitely a solid choice in the current metagame. The Top 8 should be a telling experience for this hot new potential-packed archetype!

Metagame.com (2005)

This article was originally written by Metagame.com, what was formerly the official website for large Yu-Gi-Oh! tournament coverage.  It has been preserved by GoatFormat.com so that players can learn from this historical tournament coverage.