Goat Format World Championship 2023 Deck Tech: Andrea Marzocchi's Chaos Recruiter!

We've already mentioned the Goat Community Italia event GCI 10 when we discussed the 2nd place Relinquished list, but now we get to focus on the winner of that event, Andrea "Juve89" Marzocchi! It was on the back of the time-tested Warriors strategy that Marzocchi won GCI10, but the decorated player decided on something a little different for the World Championship: Recruiters! 

Deck List

As the name decks focus hard on the recruiter engines of Shining Angel and Mystic Tomato. Not only do these two cards make it easy to fill the graveyard with Light and Dark monsters , but they also bring a few other benefits as well. They are great as aggressive threats, allow for toolbox shenanigans, and even give the green light to cards like Creature Swap.

It's common for Chaos Recruiter decks to play higher-than-normal numbers of Chaos Sorcerer, and even lean heavily into the toolbox potential of the recruiters by playing things like Newdoria. Marzocchi went for a slightly different approach, though, instead banking on the newly appreciated strength of Spirit Reaper alongside the current king of tribute monsters, Zaborg the Thunder Monarch. Some meta calls are also apparent, like the double Mind Control in the main, and the choice to play two Royal Decree. 

Player Insight

Just like many of the other players here at the World Championship, Marzocchi chose his list based on what he thought the meta of the event would look like. It makes sense, as recruiters and the plays they enable are traditionally strong against the format's two most played decks, Turbo and Warriors. 

I wanted to play recruiters because they are good against the rest of the metagame. I started testing a standard list with Decrees, then switched to a more spicy one with fewer recruiters: Meta, Goat, and, of course, Decree. It shuts down Warrior and Turbo. It became a sort of anti-meta deck.


I expected Turbo and Warrior in large percentages. So I built my deck against them. With decrees, Swaps, Mind Cons, Zaborgs, and Reapers
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I play only five flips (three Spies, two Faiths) to dodge Mind Cons (I expected people to main deck them for this event). I play only one Shining Angel, but it could get not only D.D. Warrior Lady, but also MoF to be swapped or used with Metamorphosis.
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Marzocchi's predictions seem to have served him well, as he's currently sitting at a respectable 4-1 record at the time of this article's writing. Hopefully the deck continues to serve him well, as I think he's taken a liking to it, and understandably so! 

I like the deck. It has some surprising effects, as expected.
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I hope to do well tomorrow in the top cut.