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The Apotheosis: Steven’s Summoner Deck

Jason Grabher-Meyer

June 28, 2005

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The April changes to the Advanced format took One-Turn KO decks (OTKO) out of the metagame for a while. Magical Scientist and Makyura the Destructor were both lost from Advanced metagames, and for a time it seemed like one-turn wins were no longer possible.

Then Armed Samurai – Ben Kei came along, and everything changed.

Today, we’ll look at another deck that wins in one turn, exploiting the old-school strategy of bringing out a big Fusion monster, giving it Megamorph, and attacking with it to win the game in a single blow. Steven H. sent in today’s entry, and here’s what he had to say about his Summoner of Illusions deck.

Hello, Jason,

I read your article every time it comes out, and I’ve always been interested in sending you a deck. Since you do like to have a wide variety of decks in your articles and I haven’t seen a deck like this yet, I wanted to see what you can do with this deck.

The whole idea is to use Summoner of Illusions to summon Master of Oz and reduce my opponent’s life points to zero, OTK style. I hope that it is a challenge to make it into a tourney-winning deck. I have one request—please, no Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning in the main or side deck after the fixes, since I try to not use it.

Thanks for your time!

—Steven H.

The requested restriction on Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning rules out a potentially strong card for this deck, but I’ll respect Steven’s wishes in this matter. Here’s the decklist he sent me:

Steven’s Summoner Deck

41 Cards

Monsters: 12

3 Summoner of Illusions

2 Enraged Battle Ox

3 Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu

1 Sangan

Spells: 23

2 Metamorphsis

Traps: 6

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Royal Decree

3 Solemn Judgment

Like Steven said, the goal here is to get out Master of Oz with a copy of Megamorph and win the game with one big furry beating. Summoner of Illusions lets you “rent” Master of Oz, Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu fetches Megamorph, and Enraged Battle Ox cleans bothersome Scapegoat tokens off the field. Big Bang Shot also provides some anti-Goat tech, and can ensure that a big shot from your angry, Outback battle-buddy hits its mark regardless of what it has to go through. Giant Trunade is played over Heavy Storm as a field-clearer in order to turn Big Bang Shot into a piece of permanent monster removal, and Solemn Judgment and Messenger of Peace keep the deck safe.

This deck looks solid! It’s tightly focused and well-planned—perhaps even to the point that it’s a bit too narrow. However, that’s easier to fix than a deck without a clear focus, and it has the mark of a deckbuilder with a vision and a clear understanding of the core goals. There are just a few things I’d like to do with it.

First, I think the deck should get down to 40 cards. This is a combo-dependent deck, so we need to play the minimum number of cards permitted in a deck in order to find the cards we need when we need them.

Second, with only twelve monsters in the deck, I’m concerned about how well this strategy will fare against anything with a good early game. While it can win on its first turn in its current incarnation, it can also be utterly mauled by Warriors, Beastdown, or a purely aggressive player. Summoner of Illusions isn’t useful if it’s flipped on the opponent’s turn, so while the deck is packing three copies of Solemn Judgment and two copies of Messenger of Peace, I think we need some more defense. I’m willing to sacrifice this deck’s ability to achieve a turn one win in order to give it some more versatile defensive options. No worries—it can still win on turn two.

With those changes in mind, let’s clear up some space! First on the chopping block? Enraged Battle Ox. While Enraged Battle Ox is the deck’s only truly battle-worthy monster and it works well against Scapegoat, there are better options for dealing with those pesky Sheep tokens. Later on, I’ll be adding in a pair of cards that will take advantage of this deck’s potential synergies.

Next, I’m removing both copies of Upstart Goblin. There wasn’t a reason to be running more than one in the first place, since the deck was already over 40 cards. Unless you’re playing with something like Skilled White Magician or Skilled Dark Magician, which thrive on the use of spell cards, there’s no reason for running Upstart Goblin and bringing the deck over the 40-card goal that most players strive for. The fact that Upstart Goblin is not only useless, but gives the opponent enough life points to lift him or her out of Master of Oz’s one-turn KO range, is just salt rubbed into the proverbial wound.

Book of Taiyou is also going to be removed. Like I said, I’m willing to forego the deck’s ability to win on turn one in order to win more often in the long run. Don’t worry—we’re going to use these three card slots in a similar (but far more entertaining) way!

Finally, I’m going to remove one copy of Solemn Judgment and one copy of Brain Control. While the deck needs protection, it’s going to be getting it from other sources, so three copies of Solemn Judgment will be overkill. Additionally, while a pair of Brain Control can be amazing in a combat-oriented deck, our strategy in this deck revolves around a single combo. Control can remove a monster from the opponent’s side of the field and clear the way for Master of Oz, but it’s a dead card if an opponent has gone into defensive turtle mode and doesn’t have anything face up. Tributing someone else’s monster for Summoner of Illusions is always fun, but it doesn’t quite seem to fit here.

Now, let’s add some cards!

First, I want to give the deck a pair of Mystic Tomato. These can search for each other, hunt down Sangan, or even find some of your flip effect monsters in order to stall an opponent and prevent him or her from beating you to death before you’re ready with the Summoner of Illusions combo. In addition, we’ll be adding a few cards that have great synergy with this monster. The ability to maintain board presence is going to be a huge asset to this deck.

Remember when I took out the pair of Enraged Battle Ox? Taking their place is a pair of Asura Priest. Asura Priest has seen a ton of play recently, providing answers not just to Scapegoat, but also to self-replacing monsters like Giant Rat and Apprentice Magician. The best part? In this deck, it has Big Bang Shot to draw on, meaning you can easily knock an opponent out in a single turn if he or she has four Scapegoat tokens on his or her side of the field. That’s just nasty, and in my mind, it’s reason enough to add a second copy of Big Bang Shot to the deck.

Finally, this deck needs more defense, and has gained the ability to pull its flip effect monsters to the field in face up attack position. It can cut through defenders like butter thanks to Big Bang Shot, and it could summon multiple copies of Master of Oz in a single turn if only it could reuse Summoner’s effect. The solution to this problem? Three copies of Book of Moon. Book of Moon is going to add a whole new win condition to this deck, allowing you to attack your opponent with two Master of Oz on the same turn, provided you have the tribute resources to do so. It’s also going to make sure that the Summoner of Illusions you set on turn 1 makes it to turn 2 for you to flip it and possibly take the win, while at the same time giving you another line of defense against aggressive players. It’s going to provide a huge advantage over Steven’s previous build, and it’s an inexpensive addition to any deck.

Here are the total changes I made. They’re not too drastic, but the deck now has several more ways to win!

This is what the fixed version of the deck looks like.

Steven’s Summoner Deck: Jason’s Fix

40 Cards

Monsters: 14

3 Summoner of Illusions

3 Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu

1 Sangan

Spells: 21

Traps: 5

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Royal Decree

2 Solemn Judgment

Fusion:

3 Master of Oz

3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict

I took Steven’s completely passable combo deck and gave it a ton of options and more resiliency. It’s got a lot of tricks, most of which I’ve already mentioned, but a few that I skipped over.

Metamorphosis is really nice in this deck. Not only do you have a lot of fodder with which to bring out Thousand-Eyes Restrict, you’ve got ways to abuse it (like using Book of Moon to turn off the effect of Thousand-Eyes Restrict during your battle phase to allow for big attacks) and good reasons to do so, since it’s a great line of defense while you draw into your combo. At the same time, it also allows you to turn your Rent-a-Beast from Summoner of Illusions into a full-fledged copy. Use Metamorphosis to tribute that one-turn Master of Oz and trade it in for a permanent one.

Book of Moon allows a similar move. Bring out Master of Oz with Summoner of Illusions, let it do its thing for the turn, and if your opponent survives, you can use Book of Moon on it to keep it around. This is useful when you just can’t seem to draw Megamorph, can’t get your life points low enough to use it properly, or are confronted with an opponent who blows away your equipment with Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado in response to your declaration of attack. The Master has an incredible 3700 DEF, so it probably won’t be going down in battle to anything less than D. D. Warrior Lady.

For the side deck, I’d suggest extra copies of cards the deck is already using. A third Megamorph, third Big Bang Shot, and third Giant Trunade can all be rotated in as needed to ensure your win against a defensive player. Heavy Storm is also a smart pick for Lockdown matchups, and Sakuretsu Armor may be advisable for duels against particularly aggressive opponents. Tribe-Infecting Virus is going to be invaluable against Tribal Beatdown decks, so think about side decking one of those as well.

If you’ve been hankering for some OTKO action, or just really like bashing your opponent with big fuzzy monsters that cause embarrassing losses, go ahead and give this deck a try. It’s a blast to play, has the element of surprise on its side, and can really make a splash in your local metagame.

Thanks for sending it in, Steven!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Are you interested in seeing your deck featured in this column? Send a decklist formatted like the one in this article, your name, and your hometown to Jason@metagame.com, and your deck might be used in a future Apotheosis article!

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