X-Tapirs

So one of my favorite decks of all time is X-sabers:

• Their monsters have some of the best effects in the game.
• They can run higher numbers of spells and traps.
• They create a certain amount of pressure that is great in this format. You know, staring down a first turn monster that you really wish your opponent didn't have.

In my opinion, Sabers dance the fine line between what is balanced and what isn't. It has an excellent boss that you can't really run 3 copies of and it has excellent monsters that have a very broad range of Attack and Defense. Out of the many cards that you can splash into X-sabers, none of them are excessively powerful in this format. Konami also loves X-sabers, and has pumped out a number of reprints to make the deck more playable than ever. The coveted Emmersblade can be found in Hidden Arsenal Special Edition and we can find Darksoul in the new Number 10: Illumiknight Collectible Tin. Faultroll was reprinted as a rare in Turbo Pack 3 and Fulhelmknight is easy to find too. Basically, the only difficult card to get is XX-Saber Hyunlei.


So why didn't I build X-Sabers? Besides never holding onto their key cards for more than a week, I could not find a build I like. I can't simply build the decklists from YCS champions, my local version would have to be original. This format is also a little more difficult for Sabers as they can't out-sustain all the deck choices on the market. Because of this, a lot of people aren't actually playing X-Sabers, which is the perfect time to play it (who wants to play something that everyone else is?). I decided to go back to my fun, imaginary deck: X-Tapirs.

X-Tapirs uses beast support to confuse and out-sustain the enemy. Darksoul is the key component to this, so looping him is the way to outlive your opponent. Darksoul can't win by himself, so we have another X-Beast to get us cards: Garsem. Garsem hits the field at 1600 and goes up by 200 for every Saber. In this format, he is more likely to die from battle than an effect, but if your opponent wants to play Dark Hole, Torrential, or Mirror Force, they will have to give you an X-Saber from your deck. Along with Garsem, Airbellum eared a spot back into the deck. With these Beast attackers and Boggart Knight as the Beast-Warrior, Horn of the Phantom Beast has obviously made its way into the deck.

The Beast support doesn't end there. Mega Hamster is still one of the best 1st turn sets in Yugioh and gets you Darksoul or Airbellum right out of the deck. What can you do from there? Anything really. Enemy controller, Mind Control, Faultroll, Horn, and many other cards that aren't in my build can capitalize on Hamster. After Hamster, I HAD to include my 2nd favorite beast support in the game: Dark Desertapir. Desertapir and Gold Sarcophagus is a 5 card commitment to the deck. X-sabers already have plenty of room for cards, so running 2 extra Monster Reborns is a lot of fun. In X-sabers, Desertapir can give you plays that otherwise would not have happened:
Punish your opponent's Torrential by "Tapering" Airbellum to the field and attack directly.
Get a 2nd X-Saber for Faultroll.
Bait out Solemn Warning. Taper for any beast.
Tribute Darksoul for Enemy controller to take a tuner. Taper it back to synchro and get 2 monsters in your end phase.
Drop Gottoms and use Dark Desertapir to allow another discard through Gottom's effect.

What strays other players away for running this engine is finding something to do with used Dark Desertapirs. This is where the real hilarity ensues as Gold Sarc isn't the only card that can activate Dark Desertapir's effect. My favorite for this format is main decking Soul Release. The current errata on Soul Release is that you can remove up to 5 cards from all of the graveyards. This means that if your opponent milled well with Card Trooper, you can synchro Airbellum with Desertapir to make Naturia Beast. Then you can use Soul Release to remove Desertapir, remove their Veiler and Gorz in the graveyard, and summon Airbellum back to the field. The goal is to not minus yourself for playing Soul Release in the main deck. Even if you get back Darksoul or Hamster, you will have removed important cards from their grave to summon a Darksoul, Hamster, or Garsem to the field.

There are not many matchups that this deck cannot beat. The worst is probably gravekeepers, which will shut down Soul Release, Desertapir, Gottom's and Faultroll. Luckily, we can attack over their best monsters with Horn of the Phantom Beast on Boggart Knight and Garsem. If all else fails, the side deck will overcome any disadvantage X-Tapirs had. A few choices I had in mind were:
-Creature Swap for decks like Gravekeepers that summon 1-2 monsters at a time. You lose the search from Darksoul if you give it to your opponent, however, Gravekeepers have a hard time destroying an opposing 2500DEF Spy.
-Caius/Mobius. Sounds silly yes, but Caius and Mobius will ALWAYS bait out Solemn Warning and Judgment. In X-tapirs, it is easy to keep a monster on the field during your opponent's end phase, especially if you have the first move against Gravekeepers. You can flip Hamster to search out Darksoul. Afterward tribute Hamster or Darksoul for Caius and eliminate at least 1 card from their field.

There are many options for this deck and all of them are a lot of fun. I may actually give this a try in November and report back to you guys afterward.