Courtney Waller won YCS Kansas with a Chaos Deck; an underplayed strategy that most Duelists weren’t prepared for!  Chaos Decks use powerful LIGHT and DARK monsters, like Thunder King Rai-Oh and Tour Guide from the Underworld.  Once they hit the Graveyard, a Chaos Duelist can banish them to Special Summon Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer.  Here’s what makes this Deck so good: -A strong early game (the first couple turns before many cards have been played) with simple attackers like Thunder King Rai-Oh and Dimensional Alchemist. -An even stronger mid-game (after more cards and combos have been played), thanks to Chaos Sorcerer, Black Luster Soldier, and Caius the Shadow Monarch. -Strong defensive cards that can be played from the hand, especially Battle Fader. -Immunity to popular tech cards like Maxx “C”. This strategy is a one-two punch that starts off strong, and only gets better with time.  Chaos Decks hit the ground running with strong, simple Normal Summons early in the Duel.  They shut down the opponent’s attacks with cards like Battle Fader and Effect Veiler, and that lets them build toward a more powerful mid-game.  Now that you know the gameplan, Here’s the Deck that won Waller his Championship! Courtney Waller (1st Place) – Chaos – 41 Cards Monsters: 27 3 Tour Guide From the Underworld 3 Dimensional Alchemist 2 Thunder King Rai-Oh 2 Effect Veiler 2 Battle Fader 2 Caius the Shadow Monarch 2 Chaos Sorcerer 2 Maxx “C” 1 Honest 1 D.D. Crow 1 D.D. Warrior Lady 1 Sangan 1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer 1 Tragoedia 1 Gorz the Emissary of Darkness 1 Spirit Reaper 1 Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning Spells: 12 2 Pot of Duality 2 Mystical Space Typhoon 2 Enemy Controller 1 Heavy Storm 1 Monster Reborn 1 Book of Moon 1 Dark Hole 1 Allure of Darkness 1 Pot of Avarice Traps: 2 1 Trap Dustshoot 1 Torrential Tribute Extra Deck: 15 1 Number 39: Utopia 1 Number 17: Leviathan Dragon 1 Steelswarm Roach 2 Leviair the Sea Dragon 1 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier 1 Scrap Dragon 1 Stardust Dragon 1 Black Rose Dragon 1 Arcanite Magician 1 Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier 1 Magical Android 1 Armory Arm 1 Chimeratech Fortress Dragon 1 Wind-Up Zenmaines While flashy monsters like Chaos Sorcerer and Black Luster Soldier get all the glory, the real power of this strategy rests in the support lineup – it’s the little monsters that let your big ones go to work.  Here are some of the individual cards that make this Deck so good. Dimensional Alchemist is one of the most important cards this Deck plays.  It starts with 1300 ATK, but once a turn you can banish the top card of your Deck to boost Alchemist to 1800 ATK.  Then, when Alchemist is destroyed and goes from your side of the field to the Graveyard, you can add one of your banished monsters to your hand.  That’s awesome, for a lot of reasons. -Since you get another card when Alchemist is destroyed, you can play it aggressively and make fearless attacks. -Banishing cards sets up combos with Leviair the Sea Dragon. -If you banish cards to Special Summon your Chaos monsters, Alchemist lets you get them           back. Combo the Alchemist with Battle Fader, and you get a huge defense.  When your opponent attacks  directly, you can Special Summon Battle Fader and end the Battle Phase.  Then, when Fader leaves the field, it gets banished as part of its effect.  When the opponent attacks, Battle Fader protects you.  Then you can Tribute it for Caius the Shadow Monarch next turn, or use it as part of a Synchro Summon.  When it’s banished, you can get it back with Dimensional Alchemist and use its effect again.  By reusing Battle Faders, you buy yourself time to put together Duel-winning combos.  If your opponent plays too aggressively, you weather the assault with Fader, then devastate their monsters with cards like Dark Hole, and Chaos Sorcerer. Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Sorcerer are both truly awesome.  Each has huge Attack Points, but you can choose to banish a monster with their effects instead of attacking, too.  They’re really good at letting you play around Trap Cards. -If your opponent plays Solemn Warning to negate the Summon of your Chaos monster, they      lose 2000 Life Points.  You can still Normal Summon to make an attack anyways, and the     monsters you banish can become part of a bigger combo.  For instance, if your opponent uses             their removal when you Summon Chaos Sorcerer, you could Summon Tour Guide from the            Underworld to Xyz Summon Leviair the Sea Dragon, then Special Summon one of the        banished monsters with Leviar. -If your opponent has Bottomless Trap Hole and you Summon Chaos Sorcerer, you can use      its effect to immediately banish a monster.  Your opponent can still respond by destroying        Sorcerer with Bottomless, but they’ll lose a Trap Card and a monster, while you only lose   Sorcerer. -It’s not actually a Trap Card, but Maxx “C” can’t be used when you Special Summon Chaos Sorcerer or Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, because those cards do not have a Special Summon effect that starts a Chain. Your opponent would have to guess and use it before you Summon, after which you can just not Summon, wasting their Maxx “C”. One of the best ways to beat Trap Cards like Solemn Warning and Bottomless Trap Hole is to just overwhelm them. Those Traps usually destroy one monster at a time, so you can draw them out with your first Summon, and then follow up with another.  If you’re relying entirely on Normal Summoned monsters, that’s usually tough; but since you can Special Summon Chaos monsters from your hand, Chaos decks can do it really easily. This Deck is all about tricky monster effects and flexible combos, but it also packs a ton of raw power.  With strong defense, and the ability to dodge popular cards like Maxx “C”, it’s a great Deck that can demolish your enemies!