Exploring Decks Without a Tour Guide

It's been about a week since my last post. I've begun to lose some steam on my NaNoWriMo project, so I've decided to try and jump start myself by writing today. I have been planning this article for a little while now, and today is as good as any to post it.

If you play in the TCG, you are very aware that Tour Guide from the Underworld is EVERYWHERE. The thing that always bugged me is that I don't particularly think Tour Guide is a very menacing card, she simply enables a skilled player to make menacing plays. She makes the rest of the deck better by her presence and her advantage. If you use your Solemn Warning or Effect Veiler on her, you don't have that same card for their other cards, like The Agent of Mystery - Earth or Caius, the Shadow Monarch. She's essentially a giant magnet for your big play counter cards, and if you don't stop her, she WILL make a big play, either with a clutch Leviair the Sea Dragon, Number 17: Leviathan, or even just getting a Sangan into play.

You could even go as far as to say that without her, "Plant" Synchron (which took a massive twenty of the top thirty-two spots at YCS Columbus) would be worthless without her. Though Konami has not posted the full top thirty-two decks from Columbus, the top few that have been posted all share one feature, three copies of Tour Guide from the Underworld.

So, the question has to be raised-- What would these decks look like if players didn't run Tour Guide? In OCG, Junk Doppel seems to be the synchro summoning deck of choice, and you would think that with Reborn Tengu in the TCG that Junk Doppel would be a solid competitor in the TCG. Whether people do not run it because it pales to its "plant" counter part or it is played and fails in this meta, there were none that appeared at Columbus or Toronto. This may be a bit of a stretch, but I believe that "plant" Synchro needs Tour Guide to play at the level it does now, and until I see evidence of one making the top thirty-two of a YCS without one, I will stand by that.

That being said, acknowledging that having access to three Tour Guides is a game changer, not every deck needs to run a set of Tour Guides to win. In fact, there were several decks in the top thirty-two (posted on Pojo) who made it that far without a single Tour Guide. They did not win the tournament, but to place in the top of a major event without using what is a card that easily defines the current meta is impressive. There are a handful of decks that by their own merit can push through a sea of money cards and still compete at a very high level.

In no particular order, here are my top five Tour Guide free high level decks.

Karakuri
This deck managed to top eight in the past two YCS tournaments and still get very little love. It has amazing search and summon abilities and huge monsters which also provides an impressive draw engine-- and this may be over looked, they shift to defense mode when attacked! That may seem like a minor detail, but sometimes getting nickel and dime-d by your opponent is how you lose games.

Pros
-Lot's of quick summoning via Ninishi and Kuick.
-Nearly on demand access to your deck with Inashichi and Genex Neutron.
-Easy access to Naturia Beast or Naturia Barkion.

Cons
-Not easy to fit in dark and light monsters for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.
-Can take a few turns to ramp up.
-Chimeratech Fortress Dragon and System Down, 'nuff said.

Agent
While its true that the most successful Agent decks all ran Tour Guide, there are so many variations of this deck that it's flexibility gives it a ton of strength. Most popularly, you see this deck combined with T.G. or Gallis. Some decks run Junk Synchron, others run Genex Ally Birdman, others run Thunder King Rai-Oh. There's so many ways to play this deck, it makes it extremely easy to put a good amount of creativity into your own flavor of the deck and not lose its driving force.

Pros
-Flexible at least four popular variations including Tour Guide, T.G, Rai-Oh/Control [more on this on a later post], and Gallis.
-A lot of boss monsters, most importantly Archlord Kristya which can lock down many of the most popular decks in the meta.
-A ton of search power, especially T.G. variations.
-Easily control your opponent with Herald of Orange Light.
-Access to Honest, one of the most devastating hand-traps, especially with Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

Cons
-Very poor early game. Win ration is very dependent on how early you can play The Agent of Creation - Venus.
-More vulnerable to Thunder King Rai-Oh than most decks.

Tech Genus
Though this deck is sort of falling out of popularity, I really like them. Maybe it's due to the number of time T.G. Warwolf into T.G. Striker has helped me buy time and synchros while playing my T.G. Agent decks, but T.G.s have a lot of appeal. They are fairly flexible, they can meld with most archetypes, but most popularly they are played pure or in combination with agents (though I hear the Gadget variation is very popular in OCG.) Not only that, but you can sort of consider T.G. variations into decks a way to effectively replace a Tour Guide. Sure, they're not as good as Tour Guide herself, but you can special summon a lot more often with these guys. As a pure deck, they are great for countering the meta.

Pros
-Easily runs Skill Drain. Nearly all of their effects activate in the graveyard (sorry T.G. Rush Rhino.)
-Huge trap selection allows for an answer to many of your opponents moves.
-Horn of the Phantom Beast gives this deck great draw power and the ability to overpower a lot of monsters.
-Low monster count, but they replace themselves when they're destroyed in combat.
-Access to Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion.

Cons
-Incredibly vulnerable to Thunder King Rai-Oh.
-Poor match up with Dark World.
-D.D. Crow, Debunk, and Kycoo, the Ghost Destroyer are staples in many side decks, all shut this deck down.
-Not easy to fit in dark and light monsters for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (at least not yet. I'm looking at you, Photon Sabre Tiger.)

X-Saber
Okay, so I've been gone from the game for a very, very long time, so I may be late to the party. X-Sabers has become one of my favorite archetypes in the past week. My friend Wimply and I have been looking for a new deck for him to play, and I mentioned that I remembered reading on The Casual Duelist's blog that X-Sabre could be a pretty good budget deck in the current meta with all the reprints. Budget it is! But not only that, I feel it's pretty successful too. It plays much like my old warrior deck and has the ability to summon multiple big monsters in one turn and make huge power plays with Gottoms' Emergency Call. Not only that, but most of the cards replace themselves. I think this deck is severely undervalued, even after a top thirty-two showing by Simon Phoenix at YCS Toronto.

Pros
-Fast deck, can easily swarm the field with three or four monsters by your second turn.
-Maintains field presence with XX-Saber Emmersblade, pretty awesome recruiter.
-Access to Naturia Beast and Naturia Barkion.
-Pretty good hand control monsters.
-Easy Synchro summoning.

Cons
-Lack of major boss monsters, including Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.
-Easy to over extend due to amount of available special summons.
-Poor match up with Dark World.

Heroes/Light Beat
Fusion monsters are a dying breed, but heroes keep them alive. Absolute Zero is Raigeki reborn, The Shining is amazing, especially when you steal your opponent's Master Hyperion to make ith with Super Polymerization. Heroes are fairly simple to play and thanks to our friend Rai-Oh in the main deck and Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo in the side deck, it has great potential to stop most decks that rely on special summoning (like Plant Synchro and Agents)

Pros
-Reinforcement of the Army, E-Emergency Call, and Elemental Hero Stratos allow you to search for monsters when you need them, highly valuable.
-Lots of high power low level monsters that can really help control the early game
-Able to use Honest with ease.
-Awesome fusion monsters, Super Polymerization in the main or side deck allows you to handle most of the meta.
-Gemini Spark can get you out of a lot of sticky situations.

Cons
-Seems to lack consistency, and it is very easy to over extend your hand with this deck.
-Hard to fit in dark monsters for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.
-Not very many tuners making synchro summoning difficult.

Thanks for reading folks, I'm going to post a deck video in the near future, I'm waiting on some new cards to come in via eBay very soon. Feel free to post your perceived highly competitive Tour Guide-less decks below! All comments are welcome!