Okay, They Grew on Me

It's official: I like X-Sabers now. That's quite the change of opinion since my video about Ragigura, I know, but after seeing them top a Shonen Jump Championship, I couldn't turn a blind eye to them anymore.

So, I went with the good ol' "copypasta into YVD" routine to start learning the ropes. Took me a few duels to get the hang of how they play and another few to stop misplaying obvious moves, but...

I can safely say that Roy St. Clair's deck is amazing (remember that it also has "Brain Control" in it! Typos for the loss!).

Of course, decks over 40 cards really bug me, so I cut "Dimensional Prison" and one "Lightning Vortex" after awhile. I'll probably be trying out options like Gardestrike, Garsem, and so forth in the coming days. The side deck also needs retooling for the new format. "Nobleman of Crossout" is a fantastic choice, among others.

"Saber Hole" is pretty impressive, but a good opponent will eventually learn how to play around it, if their deck has the capacity to do so, anyway. It's just as well; the absence of "Solemn Judgment" was really getting to me. -1 Hole, +1 Solemn looks solid.

"XX-Saber Emmersblade" really did revolutionize the deck. Not only is it a recruiter, but it keeps the deck's themed options online while making it easier to Synchro Summon level 6 monsters (Anyone for "Underground Arachnid" tech?!).

Then we come to "Saber Slash." This spell is a valuable asset to the deck without question. Blowing away a bunch of cards at the small price of field commitment is great, since that's something the deck excels at doing in the first place. What's more, since it doesn't target and is able to hit any face-up card (including the Sabers themselves), it can never trigger "Starlight Road." It should go without saying that this is a match-up dependent card. Sometimes it'll be necessary to side in the third copy, while other match-ups demand siding out one or both of the copies in the main deck.

I don't think I need to explain the horrors that "XX-Saber Faultroll" and "Gottoms' Emergency Call" are capable of unleashing upon the masses.

The Synchros are top-notch cards as well.

And who can forget the Cat -> double Airbellum plays that have been around since the dawn of Synchros in general? The move is absolutely crippling when it succeeds.

Thankfully that full set of "My Body as a Shield" is there to let those power plays go off full swing!

The deck as a whole is fun, has its own unique flavor, and looks bad ass. Things are only looking up for X-Sabers in this new format where anything goes, and they're only going to be getting better. I believe Kevin Tewart mentioned there were going to be more X-Sabers in the TCG release of The Shining Darkness, too, so look forward to new possibilities!