If you break it down, removal really comes in five flavors. The first, and most basic, is destruction. You get a monster, spell, or trap out of your way by sending it to the graveyard, and even cards that “send” or tribute the card are generally grouped into this category. The second type of removal is bounce, returning the opponent’s card back to his or her hand. The other three types of removal include removing a monster from play, taking control of it, and forcing it back to the top of the opponent’s deck.
The latter is fondly nicknamed “spinning,” because the card you’re removing goes from the opponent’s hand, to the field, and then back to the top of the deck where he or she is forced to draw it again. It’s a complete cycle, and usually a cycle of frustration. Spinning a card does more than just destroy it or remove it from play—it forces the opponent to draw it again, and depending on what you’re sending back to the top of the deck, you are often removing the opponent’s card and condemning him or her to a useless draw in the process. Spin a face-up card and you will know what the opponent’s next draw phase will bring, and plan accordingly.
It was with this mechanic in mind that an Australian reader created today’s featured deck. Here’s what he had to say about it:
Hi,
My name is Dave A. from Brisbane QLD in Australia. I am a huge fan of the new Advanced list and am looking forward to the new ideas that will come out of it. I went to my first tournament last night and came in first with this deck. I had to play some tough games. It basically tries to take advantage of cards that interfere with people’s draws and allow me to create some field presence at the same time. I made use of some of my favorite tech cards that may see some play in this format, such as Thunder Dragon, Phoenix Wing Wind Blast, Legendary Jujitsu Master, and Hydrogeddon.
I would love your thoughts on it.
Thanks,
—Dave A.
Brisbane, Australia
Here’s the deck Dave sent me.
Spin Spin—41 Cards
Monsters: 21
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
1 Exiled Force
1 Spirit Reaper
3 Hydrogeddon
2 Don Zaloog
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
3 Thunder Dragon
1 Magical Merchant
1 Magician of Faith
1 Sangan
Spells: 14
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Graceful Charity
2 Rush Recklessly
2 Smashing Ground
1 Reinforcement of the Army
1 Last Will
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Book of Moon
Traps: 6
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
It’s a pretty well-designed deck, and my fix this time around will be relatively minimal. All the concepts Dave has outlined are sound. This deck uses Legendary Jujitsu Master and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast in order to spin the opponent’s cards and disrupt his or her draws. That field-clearing power then takes advantage of powerful attackers like Hydrogeddon and Don Zaloog. Both are supported by a pair of Rush Recklessly cards, which is very popular right now in many of the North American metagames. Spent Jujitsu Masters can be used as tribute fodder for Mobius the Frost Monarch or Cyber Dragon, and Thunder Dragon cards are used to fuel Graceful Charity, Pot of Avarice, and Phoenix Wing Wind Blast.
The deck is definitely solid, but I think we can take the disruption theme a bit further. The first thing I want to do is drop Mobius the Frost Monarch. As much as this card continues to see significant play, it’s not a great fit for most metagames. Bottomless Trap Hole is becoming more and more common again, and chainable spells and traps like Rush Recklessly and Enemy Controller become more popular with every passing day. More than that, we’ve got a huge focus here on hand and draw manipulation, and though Mobius can sometimes free you up to attack with Don Zaloog or Hydrogeddon, Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch is just a more natural fit. Not only will we keep more pressure on the opponent’s hand, but we’ll also be able to pull tricks like spinning a high-level monster, letting the opponent draw it again, and then forcing him or her to discard it and take 500+ damage. Fun stuff.
Magical Merchant isn’t an optimal card for this deck, in my opinion. It combos very nicely with Pot of Avarice, digging through monsters and loading the graveyard, but it’s pretty bad if you’re forced to use its flip effect before you hit a Thunder Dragon. There’s only a 25% chance of that ever happening on a draw-by-draw basis, but in that situation you can risk discarding a Thunder Dragon to Merchant’s effect. From there on out, any Dragons you draw will virtually be dead cards, so Magical Merchant needs to be removed from the deck.
Premature Burial also seems like an awkward fit, because the deck holds very few cards that are good to special summon from the graveyard. Legendary Jujitsu Master is poor, Hydrogeddon is awkward, Don Zaloog is under-powered, and Breaker won’t get its counter. D. D. Warrior Lady will probably be removed from play anyways, and while Thunder Dragon cards are certainly accessible, they’re really not much more than tribute bait. That leaves Sangan, Cyber Dragon, the Monarchs, and Exiled Force—six monsters out of 21. That’s pretty weak and, while I can justify Call of the Haunted in this deck, Premature seems like overkill.
Finally, I’ll drop one Reinforcement of the Army card. This deck plays four Warriors, which is not enough to support two Reinforcements. Drawing these as dead cards because you’ve already seen all of your Warriors is just lame.
This deck is packing one Exiled Force, Reinforcement of the Army, and Last Will, so it’s really crying out for a second Exiled. That will let us trigger Last Will’s condition much faster, and from there we can fetch Don Zaloog, Reaper, D. D. Warrior Lady, or Sangan. In addition, the use of a second Exiled opens that up as an option too, meaning that we can clear two monsters in one turn with a single, in-hand Exiled and Will. Last Will certainly makes sense here, since we’ve got three brutal monsters that can be brought out if another goes down to Sakuretsu Armor in the battle phase—Spirit Reaper and the two Dons. A second Exiled just makes it even better.
Finally, I’d like to add one more Phoenix Wing Wind Blast to the deck. Not only does Wind Blast combo with Thunder Dragon, it also evens out poor draws or rough beat gameplay situations. Stuck with your last Hydrogeddon in your hand? Drew Nobleman of Crossout against an opponent who never seems to set monsters? Was Last Will a dead draw, or do you have no tribute monster for that Thestalos? Just pitch the useless card to Wind Blast—it wasn’t doing anything anyway. It’s even a great way to get a fifth monster into your graveyard for Pot of Avarice!
So, here are the changes I made to the deck.
-2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
-1 Magical Merchant
-1 Premature Burial
-1 Reinforcement of the Army
+2 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
+1 Exiled Force
+1 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
The final build, which is now down to a tight 40 cards, is as follows:
Spin Spin—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 21
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
2 Legendary Jujitsu Master
2 Exiled Force
1 Spirit Reaper
3 Hydrogeddon
2 Don Zaloog
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D.D. Warrior Lady
3 Thunder Dragon
1 Magician of Faith
1 Sangan
Spells: 12
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Graceful Charity
2 Rush Recklessly
2 Smashing Ground
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Book of Moon
1 Last Will
Traps: 7
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
3 Phoenix Wing Wind Blast
The deck is now a bit more effective at controlling the opponent’s options, and it favors a moderate tempo. It won’t topdeck as well as a beatdown build, but you want to be exchanging one card per turn under ideal conditions. That way, since your opponent isn’t actually gaining any cards in the long run, the effects of Don Zaloog and Thestalos will be amplified. You’ll also be able to predict the impact of a spun monster or face-up spell or trap card more easily, since fewer cards will be kicking around the field.
Your ideal opening move (when going first) is to set Legendary Jujitsu Master. Spirit Reaper and Sangan are also acceptable, and Don Zaloog is excellent if reinforced with a Phoenix Wing Wind Blast. If the opponent swings with a big monster, activate the Wind Blast to bounce it back to the top of his or her deck. Then next turn, you can attack with Don against a monster-free field, barring Cyber Dragon. If the monster attacking has less than 1600 ATK, it’ll crash into Don and the opponent will lose an in-hand card. From there, you can use the Wind Blast to clear the opponent’s back row in the end phase, summon a larger monster to clear away any opposing monsters, and swing with Don directly.
Play this deck aggressively and rely on the Jujitsu Masters only when defense is your best option. All your control is worth nothing if you don’t keep pressure on the opponent, and just stripping away cards and messing with the opponent’s deck isn’t very worthwhile if you don’t deal damage. Try to conserve Rush Recklessly, too. While it can be tempting to use it just to clear out a random monster, remember that it’s more valuable in conjunction with Don Zaloog and Hydrogeddon, or as a means to destroy a blocking Spirit Reaper. There are situations where it will be smarter to spend two cards through the use of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast than to expend only Rush. That’s a skill call, and it can be hard to make. Some degree of experience and long-term vision is necessary.
Something needs to be said about Thunder Dragon and Pot of Avarice. Many Monarch-based decks have used Thunder Dragon before in order to bring Avarice online earlier, but once they did that, the Dragons became useless. Not so here! If you can get Pot of Avarice resolved relatively early in the game, and then draw into your Thunder Dragon cards a second time, you’ll then be able to use them with Wind Blast, generating even more great plays. Don’t hesitate to discard all three of your in-hand Thunder Dragon cards just to use Avarice—you don’t need to hold onto them until they are naturally discarded through Graceful Charity or Wind Blast, because they’ll still be just as useful the next time they come around. Play things right, and you can create that situation.
This deck utilizes two of the best spin cards in the game to accomplish a form of control that many duelists have never even used. If you haven’t played these cards before, then this deck is a must-try in order to appreciate the spin mechanic, and the options that it brings. It’s a very balanced, aggressive example of what spin can do for you, and it can perform very well at the local or regional tournament level. If you’re looking for something new to try, give this a shot!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Working on a deck for the Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.