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Assessing a New Threat: Gadgets
by Bryan Camareno a.k.a. DeathJester
December 15, 2006 

Hello everyone! I’m back to Pojo.com with another Featured Article and hopefully more to come on a more frequent basis; 2 months is a LONG time.

This week’s article will be one in a series of others that will attempt to assess the Metagame in a more detailed way: Through testing and meticulous research. It’s one thing to analyze the metagame by looking at decks on your computer screen. It’s a whole new world actually taking those decks, building them, and playing them against one another.

Anyway, I’m back doing Featured Articles. I’ve received a ton of requests from my colleagues in the YGO community and here I am. ^_^ Enjoy! 

How do the Gadgets work? 

The New Year is coming around and we are going to receive some New Year’s gifts straight from Japan: The Gadgets. The infamous Gadgets are known for terrorizing the Japanese metagame for years as one of the most consistent decks of a few previous formats. It was so good in fact, that the Gadget deck, coupled with Death Caliber Knight, made our version of the Chaos Deck (with Chaos Sorcerer) look like a joke.

As a quick overview, the Gadgets are what I like to call ‘187 monsters’. It’s a term I borrowed from Magic: The Gathering’s ‘187 creatures’. It’s the exact same thing, but using a different vocabulary. '187 creatures (or monsters) are creatures that have their effects trigger when they hit the field in a certain fashion. This is a bit different from Ignition effects like Strike Ninja. These 187 creatures have their effects activate as a result of their summoning. The most popular 187 creatures are the Monarchs. Their effects trigger as soon as they are Tribute summoned to the field.

The Monarchs are excellent because they become 'floaters' (a term borrowed from Jae Kim) as soon as they hit the field. A 'floater' is a monster that has "paid for itself". A monster that pays for itself can also refer to a monster that '+1s' on your opponent. A monster that is Normal Summoned is deemed as a -1. You spent a resource to bring that monster to the field. That resource spent was a card in your hand. Once that monster destroys another monster in battle it has "+1ed" or "paid for itself." In other words, it allowed you gain a card of advantage on your opponent without using any additional resources.

How do Gadgets affect the Metagame?

Long before the announcement of the Gadget release, this question has been largely a matter of speculation. There hasn’t been much serious tournament testing against this deck-type until they were announced for release in January. Their effects generate instant +1s for the user, but require significant defensive back-up in order to make the most out of them.

Card advantage, in definitive terms, is just having more cards than your opponent at any given time. Card advantage does not necessarily lead to more options. This statement rings true with the Gadgets as well. When you summon a Gadget you are placing an additional monster into your hand; a Gadget. The Gadgets do not exceed more than 1400 ATK without any help. 1400 ATK isn’t really much to boast about compared to Cyber Dragon and the Monarch family.

Thus, to reiterate my previous point, Gadgets require heavy defensive support to perform optimally.

A good example of an American Gadget build can be found in Jason Grabher-Meyer’s article on Yugioh.TCGPlayer.com: http://yugioh.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?id=1767

The article covers the basic of Gadgets and how they work. It’s good to educate yourself about these monsters since they will be played. Some Gadget builds may even play more Traps and defensive Spells than Jason’s build.

The Gadgets themselves speed up any deck they are placed in. If you decide to include 3 copies of each into your deck, you may end up drawing them at the wrong time. Think about it this way: What if you were allowed to play 9 copies of Hydrogeddon. Would you play a smaller sized deck? No, you would include more cards into your deck to prevent 1) A self deck-out and 2) Having 2 copies of Hydrogeddon in your hand.

Gadget decks will have to run more than the minimum 40 cards just to stack the statistics in their favor. Gadget decks depend highly on consistent opening hands that don’t feature more than one copy of a Gadget. 45-card decks won’t be uncommon in the coming months.

A more detailed look at the Gadget threat

Gadget decks are very good; period. Despite their low ATK values they can compensate for that with more monster removal than you can possibly imagine. Add it up:

1.      3 Smashing Ground

2.      2-3 Fissure

3.      2-3 Shrink

4.      1-2 Rush Recklessly (Sometimes)

5.      3 Sakuretsu Armor

6.      2-3 Widespread Ruin or Bottomless Trap Hole

7.      1 Nobleman of Crossout

8.      1 Ring of Destruction

9.      1 Torrential Tribute

10.  1 Mirror Force

That totals up to about…21 Spells/Traps specifically geared towards monster removal. Keep in mind that this total does not take into account the monsters specifically designed to destroy other monsters like Exiled Force. Easily up to 30 cards in a 45-card deck are committed to destroying monsters. This is what Gadget decks favor since they’re instant +1 effect allows the Gadget player to play as many 1-for-1 trades as possible without suffering the reduction of resources.

When playing against a Gadget deck, you can expect to not have a monster on the field for more than 1 turn. How is that any different from now? Well…this statement will actually be true. Contrary to popular belief, the average life span of a creature in today’s format is about 2-3 turns. Playing against a Gadget deck is like throwing your monsters into a mine field.

A Gadget deck can play Solemn Judgment as reliable response to the majority of most threats. Here’s my attempt at a Gadget deck with Solemn Judgment:

.

This is a Warrior Toolbox variant of Gadgets. You could also play a Machine version. Gadgets are pretty versatile. If you don’t have Shrink, you can still use Rush Recklessly. Sometimes your version can contain Chiron the Mage or Mobius the Frost Monarch.

Countering the Gadgets

I’ve seen post upon post about countering the Gadgets. Gadgets are a bit over-hyped. There are ways to counter them. None of which require an entire deck built to beat them. Here are some ways to counter Gadgets and the drawbacks to each:

• Dark World decks playing Deck Devastation Virus are an excellent counter to a field swarmed with Gadgets. There some problems with this approach:
  • DDV will not stop a Gadget player from using a card like Last Will from summoning a Gadget and pulling out another by its effect.
  • DDV cannot stop Premature Burial or Call of the Haunted.
  • DDV will only stop Gadgets that are drawn. The larger the Gadget deck size is, the less chance you have of hitting a Gadget on the draw.  

• Monarch Control decks that Main-Deck Mobius may be the standard in next year’s Shonen Jumps. Gadget decks need to be protected from attacks via Spell/Traps. By themselves they are pitiful. There’s little you can do about Shrink or Enemy Controller, but you can nail their Sakuretsu Armors and Widespread Ruins. Also, your Cyber Dragons and Monarchs are much larger than the Gadgets are. A clear back field is not a good thing for a Gadget deck. Shield Crush is non-existent for now, so your support system can still be protected by Sakus and Widespreads. There are drawbacks to this approach as well:
  • Gadget decks use a whole slew spread of monster removal to reduce field presence and can use negation cards like Solemn Judgment to disable Tribute monsters like Mobius, Zaborg, and Thestalos.
  • The Toolbox versions of Gadgets can dismantle your support system. Be careful.

• Pre-Negators: The most powerful pre-negators available to us are: Trap Dustshoot, Mind Crush, D.D. Designator, Smoke Grenade of the Thief (in a very special case) and Confiscation. The Gadget player will make it very easy for you to guess what’s in his hand. All his Gadgets reveal the card he searched and guessing what kind of removal is in his hand is pretty much half and half. If a Gadget deck can’t keep summoning Gadgets from the hand then it can’t keep creating +1s on you.
  • There are some drawbacks to this approach too. Testing has shown, so far, that one pre-negator is not enough to hold back the Gadgets from producing +1s. It’s going to take a combination of pre-negators to slow down Gadgets. Don Zaloog will come in handy if you can get an attack through.

Applying this information to your testing pool

Last night, I took the opportunity to test some of these theories with my teammate Andre Correa as a part of our weekly team practice. The first thing we did is test the Gadget deck I have listed in this article versus the current reigning Monarch deck: The Ryan Spicer build that piloted by Hooman in SJC Anaheim.

The results out of 10 un-side boarded games ended up putting Gadgets with a 60% win percentage over the Monarch deck. That’s a good sign. However, it’s easy to take this number too seriously. It’s only 10 games after all. At the same time the Gadget deck itself is NOT broken, but extremely consistent. If you summon a Gagdet every turn, you will have a monster every turn. The deck is always generating +1 after +1 after +1 after +1. I like how the deck plays, but it takes some serious forethought. There are moments where you can overload your hand with Gadgets. At that point, you better hope you have enough monster removal to counter your opponent’s creatures.

The Monarch build I ran during the first half of testing, which was Hooman Farahbakhsh’s deck, had trouble keeping up. Thankfully it runs 23 creatures. Here are some plays that gave me some positive results against the Toolbox version of the Gadget deck:

• Brain Control + Zaborg: This is a great field equalizer granted they don’t have Solemn Judgment. When you DO pull this off the end result is you spend 2 cards to destroy 2 of their creatures plus a backfield card they will respond with (Sak Armor or Widespread).
• Brain Control + Thestalos: This solution is a bit more passive than the previous one. Its effective lies in its ability to “even up the score a bit” against a Gadget deck. Again, if you can manage it, you can score a 3-for-2 with this maneuver by forcing them to respond with a backfield card.
• Run bigger creatures that are more easily summoned: Playing against Gadgets, I found that the greatest advantage I had was the fact that 9 of my creatures are significantly larger than the Gadget creatures. When these creatures went unchecked, I was winning the game. This adds truth to my statement that having more cards than your opponent does not equate to “card advantage”. You simply have more cards than they do or better “card presence”. Aside from that point, the most significant weakness of a Monarch deck is its inability to Tribute for a Monarch. Duh, everyone knows that. Gadgets very rarely let you keep a creature on the field. That’s why plays like Brain Control into a Monarch against this deck are a phenomenal. If Monarchs are to continue to exist in the format with Gadgets, running more creatures that can be easily summoned will be a Monarch deck’s saving grace.
• Attack the backfield: If there’s one weakness to the Gadget deck (albeit a minor one) from my testing experience I’d say it would have to be a weak backfield. There’s a reason why Gadgets need so much removal. Cards like Giant Trunade, Mobius, Chiron the Mage, and Dust Tornado will come in handy for sure. Especially Jinzo and Royal Decree. Beware though Solemn Judgment can hit Jinzo and Gadget decks that Main-deck Chiron will give your problems.
• Saving your own removal: Gadgets are floaters the minute they hit the field. Thus, it doesn’t make much sense to destroy them with a removal card the minute they attack or get summoned. Hopefully, you aren’t wasting your removal in this format anyway. Your goal is destroy these buggers via battle or other 187 creatures like Monarchs. You need to even up the card count a bit to force the gadget deck to commit more to the field. This how you want your removal to be used:
  • Turn 1: You set a creature and set an s/t.
  • Turn 2: Opponent summons Gadget; gets another Gadget. Plays Crossout and attacks. You let it through.
  • Turn 3: You summon Cyber Dragon and attack. They respond with Sakuretsu Armor or Widespread. You should set a recruiter at this point or a chump-blocking creature that will net gain you a card like Dekoichi.
  • Turn 4: My opponent summons either another Gadget or an MS LV2 (with my version). Opponent attacks, I respond with Sak Armor on the MS LV2 or the second Gadget. Then, let him attack my Dekoichi with the Gadget. I lose nothing that turn. This series of plays keep the Gadget player’s field small. That’s what you want. The more they have to rebuild their field and card presence, the better chance you have of pulling ahead and dominating their field with your bigger creatures.

What should you get out of this research?

Since I went through the trouble of doing this meticulous research for you guys ^_^, I would hope you finish this article with a better understanding of this imminent metagame threat. Of course, this small amount of research won’t put to rest the endless debates of the effects of Gadgets on our metagame in the future. My team and I still have many unanswered questions like:

• How do Gadgets match up against other established deck types in our format like: Dark World, Toolbox, Cyber-Stein OTK, Machine, etc.
• How do Gadgets integrate into our established deck types? (American players LOVE splashing cards and making hybrids; I’m guilty too ^_^)
• How will Gadgets change the pace of the metagame as a whole? (Currently, the format is considered aggressive and quick-paced.)
• Will Gadgets make the format even faster, outpace Monarchs, and leave Control decks in the dust?
• Will Gadgets make Control decks a bit faster and provide Control decks with what they need to compete with aggressive builds?
• Will Gadgets make discard-cost cards playable again?
• Will Gadgets severely affect our next Ban List? (Which is only a little over 3 months away) Konami also claims to take our metagame problems into account. Also, Gadgets in our format will further unite the two games together. Hopefully we can finally get all their cards and fully integrate the game into a global entity. This OCG/TCG crap is absolutely ludicrous. Let’s get some competition and good tournament structure to the OCG for once. We never know what’s going on over there!

In the end, it’s all speculation until the Regional and SJC result start pouring in. Hopefully I have brought a bit more clarity to this highly debated issue; looking at it from both sides of the spectrum. The more informed you are the better chances you’ll have of succeeding in what I feel will be a radically changing format in the next 3 months. I will be conducting more detailed research and I will be posting the up-to-the-minute info on my YGO blog at: http://www.thebestyugiohblog.blogspot.com/.

This research will be formulated into more detailed and highly informative articles on Pojo.com as the weeks go by. I’m looking forward to reporting more of the latest developments to the largest YGO audience on the internet: Pojo.com.