Roy St. Clair’s X-Saber Deck

Player: Roy St. Clair
Deck: X-Saber

19 Monster
2x Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1x Sangan
1x Summoner Monk
1x Rescue Cat
1x Gorz the Emissary of Darkness
3x X-Saber Airbellum
3x XX-Saber Faultroll
2x XX-Saber Fulhelmknight
2x XX-Saber Ragigura
3x XX-Saber Emmersblade

11 Magic
2x Lightning Vortex
1x Giant Trunade
1x One for One
2x Saber Slash
1x Mind Control
1x Heavy Storm
3x My Body As A Shield

11 Trap
2x Bottomless Trap Hole
1x Torrential Tribute
1x Mirror Force
3x Gottoms’ Emergency Call
3x Saber Hole
1x Dimensional Prison

Side
1x Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter
3x Consecrated Light
2x Soul Release
1x Mystical Space Typhoon
1x Saber Slash
1x Trap Hole
1x Dust Tornado
3x Light-Imprisoning Mirror
2x Tuner’s Scheme

Extra
1x X-Saber Urbellum
1x Goyo Guardian
1x Stardust Dragon
1x Armory Arm
1x Black Rose Dragon
1x Ally of Justice Catastor
1x Colossal Fighter
1x Arcanite Magician
2x XX-Saber Hyunlei
2x XX-Saber Gottoms
2x Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier
1x Gaia Knight, the Force of Earth

St. Clair only included the X-Sabers in his Deck that he deemed the best. “X-Saber Airbellum,” “XX-Saber Faultroll,” “XX-Saber Fulhelmknight,” “XX-Saber Ragigura,” and “XX-Saber Emmersblade” all made it into St. Clair’s Main Deck, while others like “X-Saber Axel,” “X-Saber Galahad,” and “XX-Saber Gardestrike” were cut. Emmersblade is the heart of St. Clair’s Deck, allowing him to create cool combos that can tear down his opponents.

I asked St. Clair about some of his Deck’s favorite plays and he told me, “Special Summoning Ragigura with Emmersblade is an awesome play. I can return Emmersblade to my hand and then Summon it next turn before I Special Summon Faultroll.” A single copy of Emmersblade can make sure that St. Clair is able to Special Summon the copies of Faultroll that he draws.

“Saber Hole is broken,” St. Clair also said. “It stops everything.” With 14 X-Saber monsters in his Deck, St. Clair is easily able to activate “Saber Hole” to shut down any Summon his opponent attempts. Emmersblade makes it even easier to keep an X-Saber on the field by Special Summoning a new one whenever it’s destroyed. Popular monsters like “Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier,” “Dark Armed Dragon,” and “Judgment Dragon” all fall to “Saber Hole.”

“I’ve been wrecking people all day with Hyunlei,” St. Clair told me. He can Synchro Summon Hyunlei by Tuning “XX-Saber Emmersblade” with Airbellum or Fulhelmknight to wipe out his opponent’s Spell and Trap Cards. “I don’t have to worry about “Royal Decree” or “Royal Oppression” either.” With 2 copies of “Saber Slash” in his Main Deck, he could easily destroy either one of those cards if it becomes a problem for him. St. Clair prides himself on having answers to everything in his Deck. It sounded to me like there wasn’t anything about his Deck he didn’t like.

It’s also capable of a lot of explosive plays. He runs “One for One” to Special Summon Ragigura from his Deck and “Rescue Cat” to Special Summon 2 copies of “X-Saber Airbellum” from his Deck. He also plays “Summoner Monk” so he can Special Summon “Rescue Cat” from his Deck. This allows him to set up a lot of big plays, including the Special Summon of Faultroll to swarm the field and the “XX-Saber Gottoms” discard loop. To make sure his big play go through, St. Clair’s Deck packs 3 copies of “My Body as a Shield” to protect his monsters. When “XX-Saber Faultroll” starts swarming the field with X-Sabers, St. Clair can protect them all with “My Body as a Shield” to make sure his swarm is able to attack for the win.

St. Clair is also running a full 3 copies of “Gottoms’ Emergency Call” because of its amazing ability to Special Summon 2 monsters at once! This gives his a Deck a lot of speed that is unmatched by other Decks. Since he runs 5 Tuners that can be Special Summoned with Emmersblade, his Deck can also accommodate “Mind Control” and “Brain Control” better than most others. St. Clair can take control of his opponents’ monsters and use them to Special Summon strong Synchro monsters. With so many Tuners in his Deck, St. Clair can always put his opponents’ monsters to use.

St. Clair is the first Duelist ever to top a SHONEN JUMP Championship with X-Sabers, but he certainly won’t be the last. As Duelists realize the potential that so many of the X-Sabers and their support cards have, they’ll be able to take X-Sabers to the top just like St. Clair did today.