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 Deck

Monsters: 17 
1 Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning
1 Jinzo
2 Airknight Parshath
2 Tsukuyomi
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2 Magician of Faith
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Exiled Force
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Sangan
1 Apprentice Magician
1 Morphing Jar
1 Sinister Serpent

Spells: 17 
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
3 Scapegoat
3 Metamorphosis
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Wave-Motion Cannon
1 Delinquent Duo

Traps: 6
1 Mirror Force
2 Waboku
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ring of Destruction

Side Deck:
1 Swarm of Locusts
2 Kinetic Soldier
1 King Tiger Wanghu
1 Book of Moon
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Wave-Motion Cannon
2 Sakuretsu Armor
3 Pyramid Turtle
2 Vampire Lord
1 Book of Life

Fusion Deck:
2 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight
3 Dark Flare Knight
2 Fiend Skull Dragon
2 Gatling Dragon
1 King Dragun
1 The Last Warrior From Another Planet
2 Ojama King
1 Reaper on the Nightmare
3 Ryu Senshi
3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
1 Dragoness the Wicked Knight
2 Darkfire Dragon
1 Flame Swordsman
2 Giltia the D. Knight
3 Roaring Ocean Snake
3 Sanwitch
2 B. Skull Dragon
1 Gaia the Dragon Champion
1 Thousand Dragon
1 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.