Secret Tech

There is something I have been noticing lately after taking a good look at people who win tournaments. The most "tournament ready" deck has cards in it that you would NEVER think to main. Leaving them in the side deck is what us normal people do, but the top players main deck certain specific cards to throw off your opponent's strategies. Now, I'm not talking about maining a couple of Effect Veilers or Compulsory instead of D. prison, these cards are almost completely out of left field or shouldn't see the light of day outside of the side deck. I believe the idea is that "These cards are so good, you will PROBABLY side them in at game 2. So why not just use it in the main deck?" Whether this is a game winning strategy or not is a different question, but it seems to work for these guys. Let's take a look at the tech choices for the top 4 decks of YCS Anaheim that were recently released:

1st place-

Fossil Dyna Pachycephelo - Oh cool, Gadget Stun topped? Oh wait, it's Hero Beat. Well that makes a lot of sense, Fossil Dyna is great to side in against a LOT of decks. Well, the 1st place deck mained 2 of them, and sided them out when necessary. Of course, in this meta, Fossil Dyna can hit just about any deck, and certainly does nothing to Hero Beat. I really hope that Fossil Dyna is released in Gold Series 4. I would love to main 1 or 2 in Koakis. It has always been one of my favorites, it is just so hard to get right now.
Forbidden Chalice - No wonder people keep asking me for my Chalices. The card was never bad, but to most people, the card was never good either. And yet, this guy mained 2 of them and 0 Effect Veiler. What does Chalice have that Veiler doesn't? Well, Chalice's effect negation can be used on either player's turn. If they have Ryko set and you want to keep your monster on the field, you can actually activate Chalice during Damage Calculation to negate a flipped Ryko. You made Stardust Dragon but your opponent made Scrap Dragon? No fretting because Chalice will dominate Scrap Dragon in the damage step. The only real thing that veiler has over Chalice is the fact that it can't be MST'd. Also, you can use veilers as Chaos food, set it in extreme emergencies, or combine it with mind control for a synchro summon. So perhaps the best time to use Chalice is in a deck that doesn't use Mind Control, Pot of Avarice, or Chaos Sorcerer.

2nd Place
Mind Crush - We all know how good Mind Crush is. We all know that every top deck has some kind of search power. So why doesn't everyone use Mind Crush in their main deck? That is probably because of the ancient stigma of stubborn players. There are just some cards you want to fire off so badly in your deck that you are willing to sacrifice other great cards to add in more comboes. Mind Crush is almost easier to use than ever, and getting it turn 1 is one of the best 1 for 1s available. When can you use Mind Crush and know you're getting a hit? After the effects of Pot of Duality, Gateway of the Six Samurai, Sangan, Tuning, Gravekeeper's Commandant, Dragon Ravine, Malefic World, and any for of RotA. Card is almost too good not to run, and yet I haven't been.

Top 4
The one, SINGLE Smashing Ground - This I hate. I despise the idea of running 1 Smashing ground instead of 1 Compulsory, but there is a reason behind the madness. Smashing ground is a fall-back card, used when something unforeseen hits the field and you don't want it to stick around. Mega-Hamster, Spirit Repear and especially Gorz are good examples of this. You don't want to just Dark Hole the field, but it is too late to attack over them. So you use your 1 Smashing ground to turn your opponent's unexpected play into a reset, which is always good. Running 3 Smashing's turns your deck into an "anti-monster" deck. That is, almost anything you can't attack over, deserves a smashing ground. Very annoying, but it is a deck (that got into the top 32).

Dust Tornado - This one I hold a special place in my heart for. When Dust Tornado was first released, I main decked 2 in every(my single) deck. The March format we're in is plagued with excessive back-rows. Trap stun was the general answer to this, combined with a BRD or Hyunlei to wipe them all clean. Nowadays that is just too situational, and leaving a card on the field for too long is just too dangerous. This is where Dust Tornado shines. Unlike seven tools, it takes care of cards the moment you see it out of the opponent's hand. Also unlike Seven Tools, DT can hit face up cards that are already on the field, like CotH, or chainable to spells like DRAGON RAVINE, or Six Samurai United. What Seven tools has over DT though is the ability to "choose" which face down is the right one to stop. Since your opponent is activating a card that you will stop, you have the choice whether to flip 7 Tools or not to. Dust Tornado doesn't have that luxury. Trap Stun does something a little similar, but you also get to combo it with powerful, field-clearing effects, something DT also can not do. What DT does is constantly keeping your opponent in check, before they pile on too strong of a backrow.

Enemy Controller - This a something I have been thinking about for a while in Unicorn Synchro and UniSTORM. The deck that topped used both this and Mind Control, which gives you 2 powerful synchro options. You can tribute tokens and get an opponent's monster to synchro with. If they left a tuner on the field, you can flip Megahamster, summon something to tribute, and synchro. Enemy Controller also has the ability to stop 1 attack, which could mean setting a Tanngjostr in facedown defense position. The card is actually good in a lot of decks that hold a lot of resources, so I can understand why the guy that topped used this.

The OCG side of the table is miles different in terms of tech, but that is because the game is actually different. Their meta(even though they stick to a few decks) is pretty diverse, just like ours. But the powerful, game winning effects are different because their card pool is so enormous. We are getting them all eventually, but the Japanese get to abuse things a for a lot longer than we do. Here is a quick list of popular cards you can find on Shriek's OCG Website
-Greenkappa: Level 3 Dark Warrior so it has decent Attributes. 650/900 attack and defense is pretty pitiful, but it has a flip effect. "Select 2 face-down spell or trap cards and destroy them." Ehhhhhhhhh. The effect is okay, and you can combine it with random cards like LSS Kagemusha, or Dark Armed Dragon. I guess the JPs don't like to attack face-down cards?
-Malefics: We have gravekeepers and dragunities, but noone that topped uses Malefics in them. Why? Can't be sure to be honest. Who wouldnt want to special summon a 4000 attack monster, at LEAST to bait out a solemn. Oh well.

Unistorm is still my main deck right now, and even though my Shiresworn deck is very powerful, I want to play Nordics. I will continue to update my constant changes to the deck. I will create a powerful build out of it and I know it is possible.