"System Down" - How To Counter Geartown Turbo

The release of Ancient Gear Awakening has undoubtedly had a huge impact on the meta, creating a brand new competitive deck that has completely taken over PvP. Many people are clearly struggling against this deck, so I decided to compile a list of strategies, cards, and decks that can be used to counter it.

When it’s destroyed, Geartown allows its controller to Special Summon an “Ancient Gear” monster from the hand, Deck or Graveyard. This Field Spell is an incredibly powerful card, but it also has a huge weakness: its effect can miss the timing. This particular topic can create a lot of confusion, but, don’t worry, I’ll try and explain it as clearly as possible.

When you activate a card or effect, you start a “Chain” and that certain card or effect you activated becomes the first “Link” of that Chain. If another card or effect is activated in response to the first one, then a new Link will be added to the Chain (Chain Link 2). Chains “resolve” backward, meaning the last card or effect that was activated will be the first one to resolve.

This is all you need to know for now. Let’s make a quick example:

• I activate Ancient Gear Fortress (Chain Link 1);
• My opponent responds by activating Cosmic Cyclone (Chain Link 2);
• Since I don’t want my card to get banished, I activate Twister and target my own card (Chain Link 3).

Now the Chain is going to resolve, starting from Twister, the last card that was activated. Ancient Gear Fortress is destroyed by Twister, Cosmic Cyclone resolves, but its target is not on the field anymore, so it’s sent directly to the Graveyard, and finally the first Chain Link resolves as well, even though Ancient Gear Fortress is not on the field anymore. Now Ancient Gear Fortress’ effect triggers from the Graveyard and starts a new chain.

If the last card activated did not have priority over the previous ones, then I wouldn’t have been able to prevent Ancient Gear Fortress from being banished.

Now let’s take a look at what happens when a card effect misses the timing:

• I activate Geartown (Chain Link 1);
• My opponent activates Twister and targets the Field Spell (Chain Link 2);
• Geartown is destroyed, but its effect does not trigger.

Geartown’s effect just missed the timing, meaning it didn’t have a chance to activate because its destruction was not the last thing that happened when the Chain resolved.

Geartown’s effect states “When this card is destroyed, you can...”, which means that it’s an optional effect (“...you can...”) and that, in order for it to trigger, the card being destroyed has to be the last thing to happen (“When...”).

Ancient Gear Fortress’ effect is optional as well (“...you can...”), but the first part is worded in a different way (“If this card is destroyed...”), which tells us that the effect will trigger even if the card being destroyed is not the last thing to happen.

While the Chain from the second example was resolving, there was no time for Geartown’s effect to activate and that’s why it missed the timing.

Cards that have “When...you can…” in their effects are the ones that can miss the timing.

If Geartown is destroyed at Chain Link 2 or higher, its effect will not activate.

• Geartown is activated (Chain Link 1);
• Twister is activated in response (Chain Link 2);
• Geartown is destroyed, but the Chain is still resolving, so the effect misses the timing.

Well, I’m not going to sit here and tell you to run three copies of System Down or Acid Rain, although the title of the article may have led you to believe so. It would obviously be better to implement into your deck more versatile cards that will come in handy even when you are not facing Geartown Turbo, so here are a few ideas:

This Quick-Play Spell can be used to nullify both Ancient Gear Fortress and Geartown.

Ancient Gear Fortress' effect can't miss the timing, so most of the times you will have to wait for your opponent to try and destroy it before activating Cosmic Cyclone. If your opponent has Fortress face-up on the field and another face-down card, you should assume that it’s a Twister/Double Cyclone/Uending Nightmare, so you should avoid taking the initiative. If your opponent targets a card in their Spell/Trap Zone with Galaxy Cyclone or Double Cyclone, you should assume that it’s an Ancient Gear Fortress and you should chain your Cosmic Cyclone to it.

Since Geartown's effect can miss the timing, you are free to take the initiative and activate Cosmic Cyclone whenever you want. Just like with Ancient Gear Fortress, you may prefer to wait for your opponent to activate Unending Nightmare, Twister or Double Cyclone before using your Quick-Play Spell just to get rid of an additional card in the process.

When you are dealing with Geartown, all of these cards can be used to make it miss the timing: you can chain them to the activation of the Field Spell, sit back and relax while your opponent is trying to understand what just happened.

Floodgate Trap Hole can lock Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon in face-down Defense Position, preventing it from declaring attacks and thus from destroying other copies of Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress. Since Floodgate does not target, it’s arguably superior to Paleozoic Canadia.

Masked HERO

"Level 6 or higher monsters your opponent controls cannot target this card for attacks"

Destiny HERO - Decider alone can completely shut down a Geartown Turbo Deck: as long as this is the only monster on your side of the field, Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon will not be able to declare an attack. Ancient Gear Wyvern can be used to destroy Destiny HERO - Decider and get out of the lockdown, but you can use your Spell and Trap Cards to stop it since, unlike Reactor Dragon, Wyvern does not prevent you from activating them on attack declaration.

Silent Spellbook

Silent Magician (and Silent Swordsman) is able to, once per turn, negate the activation of a Spell Card. You can negate the activation of Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress or, if your opponent activated them before you were able to Summon Silent Magician, you can still negate Twister, Double Cyclone and Galaxy Cyclone.

Unfortunately Silent Magician’s floating effect will not trigger if Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon or Ancient Gear Wyvern destroy it, but you can attack into them yourself and Summon Silent Magician LV8 from your hand or Deck. Unless your opponent is running Beatdown!, a 3500 ATK monster will be very difficult to deal with for them.

Spellbook of Fate banishes and does not target, which means that Ancient Gear Fortress will not be able to protect Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon from it. If Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon is banished, Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress will not be able to bring it back.

Ancient Gear Fusion Beatdown

With 4400 ATK and the ability to, when destroyed, float into an Ancient Gear Golem, Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem is a quite problematic card to deal with for a Geartown Turbo Deck. Middle Age Mechs will give your opponent no advantage since it boosts “Ancient Gear” monsters on both sides of the field.

Yubel Fire King

If Yubel - Terror Incarnate was Summoned via Fire King Island, then Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon can easily get rid of it by declaring an attack and then destroying the Field Spell. Since Reactor Dragon’s effect prevents your opponent from activating monster effects until the end of the Damage Step, Terror Incarnate’s effect will not trigger and your opponent will not be able to Special Summon Yubel - The Ultimate Nightmare.

Your opponent will also not be able to just Set Fire King Avatar Yaksha, wait for it to be destroyed, destroy Yubel from the hand via Yaksha’s effect and then Special Summon Terror Incarnate because of Ancient Gear Wyvern and Reactor Dragon, but, if Yaksha is the one attacking, then your opponent will get a Yubel - Terror Incarnate on the field without the Field Spell.

Fire King Island is a liability when facing Geartown Turbo: Twister, Double Cyclone and Unending Nightmare can all be chained to a card effect to destroy the Field Spell and make Yubel - Terror Incarnate’s effect miss the timing, but, if there is no Field Spell, then a monster that can’t be destroyed by battle is a huge issue.

As I mentioned, protection from destruction by battle is quite problematic for Geartown Turbo and that’s exactly what Amazoness Queen provides; Amazoness Queen and Amazoness Swords Woman make for a deadly combination.

As long as Amazoness Onslaught is already active on the field, you will be able to use its effect to banish Ancient Gear Reactor Dragon. When it comes to back row removal, Geartown Turbo relies on the same cards that are used to destroy Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress, which means that Cosmic Cyclone is usually not a card your opponent will run. You can easily recover Amazoness Onslaught from the Graveyard via Endless Trap Hell and proceed to banish all copies of Ancient Reactor Dragon in your opponent’s deck.

Koaki Meiru

If your opponent has Geartown and a face-down card that is causing delay, then it’s likely a Twister, Double Cyclone or Unending Nightmare. Target the face-down card with Koa'ki Meiru Maximus’ effect and leave your opponent with two options:
A. Activate the face-down card, destroy Geartown and watch as its effect does not activate.
B. Do nothing and likely get OTKed either way.

Blue-Eyes Cosmo Brain

Dragon Spirit of White can be used to get rid Geartown and Ancient Gear Fortress, but keep in mind that its effect can miss the timing as well. Do not chain Silver's Cry and Birthright to the activation of a card or effect.

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