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Deck Profile – James Laurent’s Counter Fairies
Team Illusion Duels to represent B.R.A.D.’S Sportscards and Collectibles in Coral Springs, Florida. Members of their team include SHONEN JUMP Champions like Andrew Fredella and Paul Lyn, and while the team is often known for their superior play with established Decks, they’re also renowned for their innovative efforts. Paul himself is part of an effort today to unleash a new build of Counter Fairies, as he teams up with Maurice Brantley and the Deck’s creator James Laurent.
In a slower format where a Counter Fairy Duelist has the time to match their Counter Traps to their opponent’s plays, “Bountiful Artemis” becomes one of the game’s most imposing sights. Thanks to “Honest” and a host of Counter Traps Artemis is often nigh-invincible, and expanding on that defensive superiority may be the key to Day 2 showings this weekend.
Here's what it looks like:
James Laurent’s Deck
| Monsters (18) | Spells (4) | Traps (18) | Side Deck | Extra Deck |
3 Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord |
3 Book of Moon |
3 Solemn Judgment |
The only Spell Cards this Deck runs are “Monster Reborn” and three copies of “Book of Moon.” Reborn is self-explanatory – it brings back a fallen copy of Artemis, lets the team reuse “Honest,” and can drop 2800 ATK to the field by Special Summoning “Van’Dalgyon the Dark Dragon Lord.” The Books are a legacy from previous builds, but are run in triplicate here to answer big trends in the field today – namely aggressive attacks and fast Synchro Summons. Books also give a catch-all answer to the Deck’s one big foil: “Jinzo.”
Unlike previously successful builds, this one runs Van’Dalgyon, a card that’s gained a lot of power lately with the rise of “Divine Wrath.” With Lightsworn and Gladiator Beasts both perceived as the Decks to beat, monster effects will fly left right and center in this format, and “Divine Wrath” is extremely good as a result. Negating a monster effect means not just a destroyed monster and a copy of Van’Dalgyon Summoned to the field, but it also means the activation of Van’Dalgyon’s third ability: another Special Summon, this time from its controller’s Graveyard. That means this Deck has three more ways to get a fallen Artemis back into the game.
“Cyber Dragon” adds muscle, “Thunder King Rai-Oh” shuts down searches and Synchro Summons (while providing respectable attack power), and “Legendary Jujitsu Master” foils Gladiator Beasts while buying time to draw into Artemis and appropriate Traps. The Trap lineup is more diverse than ever, including three copies of both “Divine Wrath” and “Solemn Judgment,” as well as copies of “Dark Bribe,” “Seven Tools of the Bandit,” and even “Magic Jammer”! “Bottomless Trap Hole,” “Mirror Force,” and “Compulsory Evacuation Device” also make the cut, providing more of that rock-solid defense that Laurent and the rest are relying on.
The cool thing about Counter Fairies in a format so defined by two top Decks, is that its main Deck contents be teched for those matchups without costing overall efficiency against Duelists with other strategies in Games 2 and 3. While the three “Divine Wrath” and two “Seven Tools of the Bandit” are obviously here primarily for Gladiator Beasts, the Deck easily sides into different Counter Traps to adapt to any other matchup.
Counter Fairies were an extremely good dark horse pick in formats gone by, but Teleport “Dark Armed Dragon” forced them out of competition with sheer speed. The nature of Counter Traps beyond “Solemn Judgment” rendered them too specific to answer opposing threats in a timely fashion – “Magic Drain” simply wasn’t useful if the opponent ran you down with monsters before ever activating a Spell Card, and it was laughable to even think of main Decking “Seven Tools of the Bandit” in a format where a single One-Turn KO combo could knock you out before your opponent ever Set Trap Cards. Now that things have slowed down a bit, the field is a lot friendlier to the Counter Trap strategy, meaning Trap lineups can be more diverse, more effective, and are less vulnerable to dreaded mismatched draws.
With three members of an experienced team playing this Deck here today, it really could make a Day 2 showing. Could this be the second time we see Counter Fairies in the Top 16? Team Illusion is certainly going to find out.
-Jason Grabher-Meyer
