The Masked Bubble

Bubblebeat has been doing very very well recently which is to be expected as it's a new take on Hero's which is always a treat. The main premise of the deck is on Bubbleman adding major Xyz Options and with Blade Armor Ninja allowing OTK's with Stratos and Monster Reborn or surprise 4400 hits and with a new Xyz from the new Starter deck they also get a reliable stall option mixed with a Tsukuyomi for another avenue to run over big beaters. Essentially they now have good Offense, Defense, and can take an opponent's strength and destroy him with it through use of Super Polymerization. The deck also can successfully utilize Mask Change and Miracle Fusion for consistant Absolute Zero/Acid wipes. The deck has access to a ton of powerful plays and many control options while minimizing it's weakness to Royal Decree with a trap line-up of less than 10. With it's low monster count but high searchability there's just no point in not running enough spells to overwhelm with a ton of power cards.

The deck's power stems from constant pressure from HERO's that are essentially floaters especially Alius as a Spark makes a searched Alius into a plus 1. Hero Blast even gives you back that Alius for another 1 for 1. The deck just grinds out advantage and waits for the first few negates of the game. In order to push in for major damage with limited ways for the opponent to get out. The deck along with the pressure aims to punish misreads and misplays by the opponent. You set your hand and summon Stratos... if it goes unnegated they cannot stop your Bubbleman without taking a hit. The Xyz is just going to happen. And if they stop the Xyz they risk taking a Miracle Fusion to the face.

Stopping the deck is difficult you just simply must outplay and outread the deck. Making mistakes isn't safe against Bubblebeat so you must be on top of your game at all times and negate the major threats. You see a Stratos try to warning it. Do whatever you can to keep it off the field as they won't set their hand until they have a bubbleman in hand. If they misplay and set their hand first kill the Stratos ASAP any way you can and just deal with the bubbleman. If they leave a lone bubbleman on the field with backrow expect a Acid to hit you so try to avoid setting cards while that bubbleman is on field. End Phase Harpies Feather Duster or on chain Feather Duster hurts... If you can force a Vapor you'll be in good position as 2400 isn't hard to run over as they lose major Super Poly access and Mask Change. But they also gain access to Miracle Fusion which will be a problem so you'd have to be prepared to deal with that.

Essentially to defeat the deck you must take a stance of aggression if you can put them into a bad position they can often not turn it around very easily. They gain from putting the aggression against you. In a speed race though they have to take a defensive stance meaning you can get them to waste big cards early and lower their chances of using that card late game when it counts. You also once again have to outplay them and be a couple steps ahead in the game and remember every card they have activated throughout the duel so to know what they should have left in their deck to combat you with. In otherwords treat them like you would treat any control deck even though they are an aggressive deck as they still don't fight back well against large monsters and in TCG a Large DARK monster can often seal their fate as we don't yet have Escuridao. in OCG you want to be prepared for a Super Polymerization but also press as if the card didn't exist as it's an inevitability.

Good luck and tomorrow there will be a State of the Blog Address before the transition on April 1st to Card Reviews!! And on April 12/14 for the Return of the Duelist Reviews.