Deck Profile: X-Sabers (& 09/20/13 Locals Report)

Hey guys! Ever since I realized that it's too difficult to play Frog Monarchs at locals anymore, I've been on a desperate search for a deck that I could put together easily that could also be effective in a highly competitive environment. I last played X-Sabers around two years ago after having been interested in the deck for probably a solid two and a half years, and decided to keep the core of the deck just in case I ever wanted to return to them. So on the Wednesday night before the tournament, I thought about it for a while and decided I'd give them a shot to test their potential. On Thursday, I put together my build after researching what modern players are doing with the deck, and on Friday, I competed in our local tournament. This post is more for me to archive my modern perspective of this deck rather than the tournament itself, and so here's what I came up with:

It's hard to talk about choices that I think might not be standard - since I have so little experience with this deck in modern times, I'm not sure what people would consider weird. So here's a couple of shots in the dark:

Some of my weirder choices might include Bear/Tenki, Crane Crane, and Saber Slash. I felt like Tenki was a good addition because it helped me deal with problem monsters and search Boggart Knight instead of having to run three. Crane Crane obviously has a place in a deck with a lot of Level 3 monsters and plenty of powerful Level 6 Synchros and Rank 3 Xyz. Saber Slash is just an obviously broken card; I have no idea why most X-Saber players I've seen don't run it.

Triple Faultroll has the potential to straight up ruin some of my hands, and with Darksoul to search him out I felt that three wasn't necessary. Triple Emergency Call just seems bad to me. Even with two, I always seem to draw it at inopportune moments where it's completely useless. And if there's anything I've learned about X-Sabers in the past few days, it's that dead cards are practically a death sentence.

Because of the deck's instability and tendency to get knocked off balance during testing, I was pretty sure that I wouldn't top this tournament. But I had to give it a shot just out of desperation, and so here we go with the tournament report.

09/20/13 Locals Report 

Round 1 vs Lightsworn
G1: He was unable to keep good field presence, and couldn't activate Beckoning Light since he had Decree out lol.

G2: My deck really started to struggle after he used Book to stop a Boggart play, then Dark Hole'd both of my monsters. But I eventually drew into more monster after a few years and overwhelmed him with Catastor.

1-0

Round 2 vs Chain Beat
I had to stop watching the Legend of Korra livestream for this match, so I hoped it would be worth it!

G1: I decided to scoop after attempting a push and losing out to Backrow Card #159 while locked under Grave of the Super Ancient Organism. Who the hell mains that? I guess it's a lot more relevant now that high-level monsters are stomping around everywhere, but it sure took me by surprise.

G2: I managed to work this into a favorable game after a bit, but things started going downhill after he Black Horn'd my Barkion and kept summoning floater after floater. Where the hell are those Iron Walls when you need them?

1-1

Round 3 vs Bujin
G1: I don't remember this game much, except for the realization that Bujin really are just not that great when you play double Mirror Force and Bear. I still lost however, as X-Sabers seem to have no good way of keeping up advantage.

G2: I had a very good shot at winning this one after killing multiple Yamato multiple times with the help of Debunk and Iron Wall, but he came back with Bujincarnation. I killed one Susanowo with Saber Slash and another with DDWL but was stuck with Pashuuls constantly draining my life points. Eventually I had to change one to attack, leaving him to summon Cranes and Turtle to simply attack it for the win.

1-2

I dropped after this round, and got my very first Astral Pack 3. Here it is with the other cards I got on that night before. And yes, that is indeed HTS Psyhemuth in both the picture and my decklist lol. I planned to play it and bought it right before the tournament; it's a really good card.

So with the tournament being said and done, I think there are a couple of changes I'd make to the deck. Of course with so little modern experience, it's hard to say what works best with X-Sabers. But regardless, I'd probably take out one Gottoms' Emergency Call. For some reason, that card just never puts in work for me. But I can't ignore how tremendously powerful it is, so I'd want to keep it main decked for now. I'd also play a second copy of Debunk if I had one, and probably take out Mind Crush for it. That card has always been great, but it's just amazing this format with Dragon Rulers, Mermails and some Infernities running around. I might also remove my copy of Vanity's Emptiness. It feels a lot like GEC in that it only seems to build off a good game state, rather than helping me adapt to both good and bad ones. Maybe if the deck had a lot more reliability in putting together fields that are hard to break with Emptiness, then I'd feel better about playing it. I might also consider siding Decree.

That's about all for now guys. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you again soon.