In order to beat a deck you must understand all the nuances of the deck and how it plays. Agents are a very aggressive deck capable of ending games quickly so your deck needs to either be able to withstand everything they can throw at it or cut them down before they can set up their game-winning plays. You need to be prepared for every different strategy you might encounter at the event. As of right now, there are 3 different variations of the Agent deck floating around the forums.
The first is the Tour Guide From the Underworld build, or TGU Agent for short. I would guess this variant will be the most popular at the YCS events this weekend by a solid margin, so this is the variant you need to get down before you move onto others. The biggest perks of TGU Agent are that unlike the other 2 variants that only have 6-7 good Turn 1 summons (3 Earth, 3 Venus, Sangan) this variant has 9-10 good Turn 1 summons. Tour Guide increases the consistency of the deck by leaps and bounds while giving the deck solid DARK monsters for Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning (Chaos Sorcerer is also an option but not a commonly seen one).
The best way to beat this variant is to find ways to either get around the Sangan search with cards like Thunder King Rai-Oh, Caius the Shadow Monarch, or Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier. Since you may not always have those available, you can simply refuse to attack the Sangan until you can get the game into a position where the search will not make or break the game-state. What I mean by that is if you can drop Archlord Kristya (preferably with other Monsters already on the field) there is only 1 card in their deck Sangan can search that will help them get out of your lock: Honest. As long as you have an answer to the Honest or a way to finish the game that turn, you should cruise to victory most of the time.
The problem with playing like this is I do not believe Agents are the kind of deck you can expect to play passively against and beat them. The more you turtle up against Agents, the more opportunities Agents have to draw into their combos. Your deck needs to be able to lean on Agents early and force them into premature combo plays, which will allow you to counter back and take control of the game. It is for this reason I believe Thunder King Rai-Oh is an incredibly viable Main Deck card right now, which brings me to the second Agent variation: Pure Thunder King Agent, or TKR Agent for short.
TKR Agent lacks some of the explosiveness you get with the Tour Guide version, but you gain a excellent counter to their Tour Guide opener and a way to stop an Archlord Kristya/Master Hyperion/Black Luster Soldier drop. The biggest issue with the Rai-Oh variant is that you have to play extremely carefully with Rai-Oh because he is very susceptible to the Agent of Creation - Venus -> Gachi Gachi Gantetsu play. If you go the Rai-Oh route you need to have ways to protect your Rai-Oh from this. You are probably not going to want to Herald of Orange Light a Venus so cards like Bottomless Trap Hole, Maxx "C", and Effect Veiler will all combo nicely with Rai-Oh. The first 2 variants create kind of a unique decision for players. I personally believe the Tour Guide Variant is the better of the 2 decks but it is more susceptible to Thunder King Rai-Oh for running Tour Guide. For this reason, I have chosen to use the Thunder King variant as I believe Thunder King gives you a better chance at dealing with their plays and an extra defensive monster for the times you cannot keep backrows alive, but the decision is ultimately up to you.
The third variant is Tech Genus Agent, or T.G. Agent for short. This variant normally run 3 T.G. Striker and 3 T.G. Warwolf, sometimes alongside 2 copies of Tragoedia. Striker with Agent of Creation - Venus gives the deck easy Trishula access, while Warwolf with Venus creates some Gachi Gachi Gantetsu -> Rank 3 plays. The T.G. engine also floats all day, allowing you to keep a higher card in hand count for Tragoedia. With Tragoedia and Warwolf the deck has easy access to Black Luster Soldier and the ability to main Creature Swap with ease. I feel this version is the worst of the three because not only is it more susceptible to Rai-Oh than the Tour Guide version is, the T.G. engine is at its best when it is allowed to continuously float on the field and press, not used for Synchro/Xyz plays. The Synchro/Xyz plays are indeed nifty but they are not better than the ones the TGU variant puts out with Genex Ally Birdman in my opinion. Striker is a more flexible Genex Ally Birdman, but Striker has a much more limited to access to the Synchros your deck can put out. However ,I am sure this build will see some play because Creature Swap is devastating against monsters such as Archlord Kristya and Master Hyperion, so do not underestimate it.
Now that we have that out of the way, the question is: how do we deal with them all? I've already covered Thunder King Rai-Oh, who I believe is one of the best cards against Agents if you can protect him from Venus, so I won't repeat myself. Here are some other splash-able cards that can be used in various decks to deal with Agents:
Maxx "C": Maxx "C" is one of the best cards to have against a Venus play. It basically reads "Draw 1 card. Your opponent ends their Turn". Maxx "C" is not as good as Effect Veiler overall, but its strengths are that C is considerably stronger versus specific things. I personally feel C is at its best in Tour Guide decks since maining 1 copy of it gives you a nice Sangan toolbox where C can be searched out when he is most effective.
Bottomless Trap Hole: I feel like decks that run defensive Trap cards need to be maining Bottomless again. It basically hits every game winning Monster in Agents, and is probably the best way of getting rid of Kristya. Bottomless also helps keep the Venus and whatever else you might hit out of the graveyard, cutting off Hyperion, Kristya, and Black Luster Soldier.
Doomcaliber Knight: I don't see a lot of talk regarding this card right now. I believe most of it has to do with the fear of Effect Veiler, but Doomcaliber Knight is still a solid option for cutting of the Venus Plays and stopping them from dropping Archlord Kristya (Kristya's add a Fairy to hand effect is mandatory, so if you can keep it on the field it can at least stall the Kristya a turn). Most Agent lists I have seen lately are running 0-1 copies of Effect Veiler with at least 2 copies of Herald of Orange Light. This means they probably will not have Effect Veiler most of the time, and while they can just Herald the Doomcaliber that is an exchange they are probably not going to be thrilled to make and you can make your plays next turn a little more confidently since 1 Herald is out of the way. Doomcaliber Knight, unlike Thunder King, also protects himself from the Venus play. Lastly, Doomcaliber Knight is a DARK which means you have other ways to fuel Black Luster if you are not playing Tour Guide.
Mind Crush: As mentioned under Bottomless Trap Hole I would definitely main Bottomless over Mind Crush right now. Bottomless is a far more consistent card and Mind Crush is not the kind of a card you want to be maining at the first event of a format in my opinion. You may think half the field will be running Agents and Mind Crush is the stone cold nuts but what is predicted and what is realistic are almost never the same thing. That being said Mind Crush is an excellent Side Deck card against Agents (and many other decks). I would go as far as to say 2 copies of Mind Crush are a Side Deck staple right now. Against Agents Mind Crush hits the monsters the search off their Turn 1 summons (Sangan, Earth), cards they get off Gold Sarcophagus, and gives you the ability to strip them of obvious boss Monsters if they play a certain way. A good example would be is if they can make the Gachi Gachi Gantetsu + Stardust Dragon play but they pass it up in favor of Trishula to put them at 4 Fairies it is a pretty safe bet to Mind Crush Archlord Kristya in this situation. Obviously Mind Crush is a very risky card, and almost everytime you play Mind Crush wrong you will lose (there are exceptions to every rule but missing with Mind Crush hurts) so if you use Mind Crush you definitely need to test many sided games with it to get a feel for what you need to call and when you need to call it.
Leeching the Light: This isn't a card every deck can side, but if your deck can pump out Monsters with ease (Agents, Plants, etc) this card can steal you games and double as a card that can clear Rai-Oh/Kristya/etc in a pinch. In Agents your opponent can have out Gachi Gachi Gantetsu with 2 Shine Balls attached and 2000 ATK Venus. You summon your Venus, get 3 Shine Ball in attack, then activate Leeching the Light. You now have 3 2500 ATK Shine Balls and a 3600 ATK Venus. This is probably most effective way of dealing with the Venus/Gachi combination. Unlike the other cards mentioned this is not the kind of card you can side in everything and expect equally good results across the board but in decks that can Special Summon with great frequency Leeching the Light is an excellent card.
That about wraps this up, hopefully this article will help everybody be prepared for this weekend. I will probably have another article up after the YCS results are up discussing how completely wrong I was, so until then good luck to everybody from DGz attending events this weekend!
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