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Deck Profile – David Duran’s DARK Deck
David Duran is no stranger to the Day 2 tables. His first big showing came last year at SHONEN JUMP Championship Indianapolis, when he made the Top 16 with one of the most popular Decks of that era – Gladiator Beasts. Today he’s doing something different, creating a DARK Deck that taps into the oldschool “Dark Armed Dragon” Return strategy and adds in a bunch of new twists.
The plan? Summon the biggest, baddest DARK monsters in the game in every way possible – everything from Tribute Summons and “Destiny Hero - Dasher’s” effect to “Return from the Different Dimension” and “D.D.R. - Different Dimension Reincarnation.” Take a peek at the Deck list…
| Monsters | Spells | Traps | Side Deck | Extra Deck |
2 Destiny Hero - Plasma |
3 Destiny Draw |
3 Reckless Greed |
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At first glance the Deck looks pretty weird – Duran himself describes it as “looking like a pile of DARK monsters with good effects, and a “Dark Armed Dragon” with some removal. It looks trashy, but it’s actually good.” Duran’s monster lineup only has seven monsters he can Normal Summon without Tributing, with nine more monsters that must be Tribute Summoned or Special Summoned. But the Deck is shockingly fast despite this, with nine cards that allow Duran to draw more cards: 1 “Trade-In,” 2 “Allure of Darkness,” 3 “Destiny Draw,” and 3 copies of “Reckless Greed.”
Duran’s strategy is all about removing monsters with “Gold Sarcophagus” and “Allure of Darkness” to make big plays. Duran said, “A good opening play would be to activate “Gold Sarcophagus,” remove “Jinzo” from the Deck, and then Set “Escape from the Dark Dimension.”” That would set him up to Special Summon “Jinzo” with Escape later, and due to “Jinzo’s” Trap-negating effect, even if Escape is destroyed afterwards, “Jinzo” will remain on the field. Better yet, Escape can be Chained to something like “Bottomless Trap Hole,” and once “Jinzo” hits the field, the effect of “Bottomless Trap Hole” will be negated.
Combining “Gold Sarcophagus” with D.D.R. can Summon a ton of different monsters, everything from heavy-hitters to Tuners or Synchro Material Monsters. “If I’ve got a really strong opening then I can use that Sarcophagus to get “Dark Armed Dragon” or “Heavy Storm” and just win in two turns.” Since he can theoretically draw up to twenty cards in that time, it’s not an unlikely scenario.
One of the coolest monsters Duran is running is a true blast from the past: “Darklord Zerato.” While this card hasn’t seen as much tournament play for the better part of a year now, Duran loves it because its effect can destroy all of the opponent’s monsters, making it really effective against the big swarms of monsters he expects to see in this tournament, especially Lightsworn and Blackwings. In Duran’s own words, “Why not play a card that has a built in “Raigeki” and gets in for 2800 damage?”
“Darklord Zerato” is a great card when you’re up against “Aurkus, Lightsworn Druid,” because Darklord’s effect doesn’t target, so Aurkus can’t protect his Lightsworn allies. “A swift Darklord followed by “Soul Release” is pretty bad for Lightsworn and Vayu Turbo.” Oh yes – Duran is playing “Soul Release” to remove the opponent’s monsters from the Graveyard. It’s just one of the tricks in this teched out build!
With all the huge monsters, big effects, and out-of-nowhere plays, Duran expects his Deck to be a lot of fun, and be able to take on almost anything in this tournament. We’ll see how it does as the day plays out!
reported by
Jason Grabher-Meyer
