Josh Layton's First Place Syn Shenron U9 Deck Profile
We at The Saibamen have been holding an online "Isolation Series" for the past two months to help bring the community together in this difficult time. Each week, players would fight for a weekly prize as well as cash, and win points in an overall leaderboard. The player that was atop that leaderboard at the end was crowned champ, and that player was Josh Layton! Each week there were different rules and pools of cards you could use, but the final week was a set 10 tournament, and Josh drove his already top place home with a win!
Here is his deck profile!
"I have been playing a lot of aggro decks lately and I kind of wanted to go and try out the Shadow dragons after reading some of the card effects so here is my bad first draft of the deck. The main theme of the deck is control. There are a lot of cards in this deck to control either the opponent's board or remaining energy to help you stall till you get to your win conditions.
Syn Shenron // Syn Shenron, Negative Energy Overflow -> Only shadow dragon lead (for now) so you need to run this lead to get the most out of the dragons.
While unawakened when attacking you get to look at the top 5 for a shadow dragon and add it to hand. This deck is running max shadow dragons (this deck is pre SCR releases) so you likely to hit a shadow dragon at least 1/3 of the time if you are lucky.
Secondary effect lets you switch one of your shadow dragons back to active mode at the end of your turn which is really good for the 9 drop Syn blocker as it allows you to swing and still use him as a blocker next turn.
Awaken effect is a draw 2 untap 1 and can be activated at 3 life or less or if you have a yellow unison card with a specified cost of 4. It is a not a bad awaken overall but since you have that secondary effect of awakening with that unison you can still awaken against stall decks which is not too bad.
When awakened he gets the standard card draw on swing as well as upgrading his untap one shadow dragon to now untapping all of your shadow dragons which allows you to go wide a bit more safely.
Really nice thing on this side is his activate main. For 6 yellow you can play up to 7 Shadow dragons with different names from your drop allowing you to essentially go all in on turn 6. There are currently only 6 shadow dragons revealed but having 6 cards for 6 energy is a pretty good deal.
Syn Package -> Syn Shenron is a beast. For two energy (and a bit of luck) you get to do so much.
4x Negative Energy One-Star Ball -> This card is unaffected by opponents skills as for 1 yellow energy you can place it in the drop to bring out Syn Shenron, Shadow Dragon Leader.
4 x Syn Shenron, Shadow Dragon Leader -> Allows you to select a rest mode leader and prevent him from attacking next turn which allows you to slow down decks like reboot Gohan or any of the mill leaders. And if is removed by KO or an opponent skill you get to draw a card and replay the negative energy ball restarting the cycle.
4 x Syn Shenron, Destruction incanate -> This card is probably the main reason I wanted to try the deck. When your opponent plays a card, you may choose it ignoring barrier and negate its skills for the turn. This does mean the on-play effects still activate but things like Double Strike, Dual Attack etc do not which can help slow your opponent down a lot. He also has blocker revenge which allows you to block most things with confidence (or baiting out opponent combos). When he is KO'd or removed from the battle area you also get to draw 2 and replay Negative Energy One-Star Ball from your drop which again restarts the chain.
Haze Package -> Haze is great as well for different reasons. Similar to Syn Shenron it is easy to get out but this card is more focused on attack rather then defense. You can do some serious damage with this set earlier game.
4 x Negative Energy Two-Star Ball -> Same as the Negative Energy One-Star Ball but for Haze Shenron.
4 x Haze Shenron, the Poisonmaker & Venomous Mist -> This card is just honestly great. First when evolving into this card you switch the card back to active mode and allowing you to attack again. This is great for that early game aggro swinging with the 3 drop for 15K critical then following it up with the this card's 20k double strike is a lot of damage for 2 energy total (1 for the ball, 1 for the evolve).
The card's effect is where it really shines though. When attacking or comboed, you may ditch a shadow dragon from hand and KO an opponent's battle card with a cost higher than their energy. For decks that rely on heavily on arrival or successor you can remove their cards without much effort and really slow them down.
2 x Basil, Fatal Rampage -> Great card when all you want to do is tap down things and slow your opponent. It costs 1, you draw 1 and if they have 5 cards in rest mode gains dual attack + 15k all around a solid card.
3x Chappil the Iron Drake -> This card is a great deterrent for attacking and people tend to focus getting rid of this as a priority or using as much of their energy as possible before attacking.
2x Venomous Fist Lavendar -> Decent stall card as it allows you to once per game tap down 2 energy while also having deflect, barrier and blocker. I like the card (along with all of the Universe 9 dogs) but this can be removed if you want to run a smaller deck.
3 x Bergamo, Ferocious Roar -> Bergamo is just such good value the ability to tap down their energy or battle cards allows you to prevent some of the big threats of most decks or limit the amount of times they can attack in a turn.
2 x Bergamo, Lupine Predator -> Kind of a more edge case card. It allows you to lock your opponent down around turn 4 if you can get them tapped out and it also has triple attack which helps bring down some of the unison cards. On play the card taps down all their battle cards ignoring barrier and they can’t switch the cards back to active till the start of your next turn. Like the Lavendar this can be replaced or removed if you want to run a smaller deck.
2x Universe 9, Assemble! -> Good card overall gives you draw power and allows you to play out some of those Chappil or Basils from your deck if you can tap down your opponent's energy.
3x Mechikabura, Plotting Revival -> Mechikabura will allow you to awaken without being at 3 life or less (due to the leader's effect) and it has some insane effects.
The auto allows you to once per turn tap any opponent card when you lose a marker. This can help you tap down even more of your opponent's energy or battle cards. This also helps you play your Bergamo’s if you want to further tap down your opponent's cards.
The +1 ability allows you to draw a card and keep one of your opponent's cards tapped for turn. Really good to slow down some of the larger threats or in the mirror matches tap down the 9 drop blocker Shenron.
The -4 ability is the main reason you are going to want to run Mechikabara. The -4 ability allows you to steal your opponent's cards and switch them back to active mode. This pairs well with a lot of the tap down cards in the deck and overall it is a nice feeling when you steal their big hitters and use them against your opponent (probably does not feel good to have it used against you though).
3 x Great Ape Bardock, Raider's Warcry -> Solid 2 cost combo it also allows you to tap down your opponent's battle cards and draw. I am a fan of the card and I feel it is a staple for most yellow decks.
3 x Great Ape Son Goku, Saiyan Instincts -> Mainly in here for the draw power. You can change them for more of the Universe 9, Assemble! for more of a budget option or if you are feeling adventurous Kefla's Fury.
2 x Released from Evil -> This is a new counter and it is mainly in here for anything that has anything like double strike / dual attack as well as reboot Gohan. It does not stop the attack but it does negate the cards skills until your next main phase which can be all you need to last a bit longer.
3 x Flying Nimbus -> Great negate, stops your opponent’s swinging wide and again adds to the stall factor.
3 x Vegeta, Prideful Transformation -> This is one of the new counters plays in this set. When you play this card the opponent’s card is played in rest mode. When you have a yellow unison card with atleast 2 markers you can play it for free and with it also being a blocker it allows you to just keep the pressure off your leader a bit more.
4 x Zamasu, Sacred Disbelief-> Just keep tapping things down that is the point of super combos right? If you feel you are not keeping up with the draws you might want to switch this to some of the drawing combos but overall, I find the Zamasu works well with this set up.
1 x Cell Xeno, Unspeakable Abomination -> Until the SCRs are released for this set I am running this (and probably might still run this post reveal). Overall getting 12 cost on field with this deck is not too bad. With the Syn Shenron 9 drop and a haze 3 drop you have your conditions. It combos well into the awakened leader ability too as you can play all your shadow dragons swing wide then just successor them out for the Cell.
This is overall a pretty fun deck to play. There are probably some improvements you can make to increase your odds of seeing your shadow dragons but overall I had a great time playing and making the deck."
Here is the ever evolving decklist: https://www.dbs-decks.com/#!/deck/304026
Thanks to Josh for doing that write up for us! See some gameplay of his deck below!
~ Sam Russell
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