To those who are just tuning in, this is the episode where I play Polymerization: fusing two wonderful deck ideas to create something even better! Rewind to April 8, 2006, where I wrote an article about the Reasoning deck that focused on special summons to achieve solid objectives. Then take a look at the deck we examined last week, a Harpie Lady-themed build that sought to generate advantage through the wonderful properties of Icarus Attack. There is a strong synergy between these two deck ideas in the form of one card . . . one card to rule them all. I’m speaking of Sacred Crane, a nifty little common from Invasion of Chaos that fits both of our requirements for performing a fusion of the deck ideas. First, it’s a Winged Beast, thus fulfilling the conditions of Icarus Attack. Notice too, however, that it basically becomes a free-standing self-replacing monster any time it’s special summoned. This makes it one of the best cards in the entire game to see off of Reasoning or Monster Gate.

In a clever maneuver, we’re going to call this the MIA deck. It’s a concept deck that focuses on one combination for its win condition: Reasoning or Monster Gate (into Sacred Crane) followed by an Icarus Attack. Let’s take a look at the two best combinations in the game to analyze whether our deck is worth building. The original combo that formed the entire basis of the “Soul Control” deck looked something like this.

Step 1: Soul Exchange the opponent’s monster. You lose Soul Exchange, and the opponent will lose a monster.

Step 2: Summon Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch. In this case, your opponent loses a card in hand and a monster for your Soul Exchange. In addition, you have a 2400 ATK monster on the field.

The Deck Devastation Virus engine looks something like this.

Step 1: Create a 2000+ ATK self-replacing monster on the field through Blowback Dragon, Dark Magician of Chaos, or Chaos Sorcerer. Note that this is far more difficult than simply playing Reasoning or Soul Exchange.

Step 2: Activate Deck Devastation Virus in response to a piece of monster removal. At this point, your opponent loses a card (for the original self-replacing status of your 2000+ ATK monster), his or her piece of monster removal, and then a potential zero to five cards over the next three turns. You lose Deck Devastation Virus and its tribute cost.

Creating a Win Condition from the Stated Goal

Like decks that focus on Soul Exchange or Deck Devastation Virus, this particular combination takes advantage of our opponent’s saucy counter-attacks to generate massive gains. It looks something like this.

Step 1: Use Monster Gate or Reasoning to get Sacred Crane. This is an even trade with a 1600 ATK self-replacing monster. As you can imagine, the combination is sweet enough already. You draw a card with Crane’s effect to pay for the original Reasoning and have a nifty 1600 ATK monster on the field.

Step 2: Use Icarus Attack in conjunction with your brand-new self-replacing monster. In effect, you lose Reasoning and Icarus Attack, gain a draw for Reasoning, and destroy two of your opponent’s cards. If you can somehow bait the opponent into attempting a Smashing Ground, Sakuretsu Armor, or other piece of monster removal on Crane, it becomes even more skewed in your favor.

Build: MIA (Monster Gate/Icarus Attack) Concept

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Develop means of combining a special-summoned Sacred Crane with Icarus Attack.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Support that leads to special summons of monsters.

Constructing the Monster Lineup of our MIA Concept

The general rules for building a Monster Gate/Reasoning engine still apply. We’ll need plenty of self-replacing monsters, but flip effects must be used sparingly (because they’re absolutely terrible off a special summon). Tribute monsters are great, and we can pump up the counts slightly because of the circumstances. Let’s create a list of the best cards to see off of Reasoning or Monster Gate.

Happy Special Summonees

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

3 Sacred Crane

1 Airknight Parshath

Next, we can take a look at cards that will happily assist in the costs for Monster Gate. We call them . . .

Happy Special Summonee Reagents

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Treeborn Frog

After that, we have a group of monsters that don’t hurt if they’re pulled off of Monster Gate or Reasoning, and act wonderfully in those cases where you’re simply not able to draw the special summon engines.

Good for All Occasions

2 Cyber Dragon

3 Chaos Sorcerer

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 Spirit Reaper

1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

And finally, we conclude with the rogues that none of our other monsters want to play with. These three take a special category of their own.

Good For Our Purposes

1 Marauding Captain

1 Winged Sage Falcos

1 Stealth Bird

Onward to the spells and traps!

The Spell and Trap Support for our New Creation

We start with the staples:

1 Graceful Charity

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Premature Burial

1 Snatch Steal

Conceptual Spell Support

1 Scapegoat: This is highly necessary to provide a backbone for all of our shenanigans with Monster Gate. It also slows the game down and allows us to key in on certain required combinations.

2 Monster Gate: This is a good number that works great with self-replacing monsters and Scapegoat tokens.

2 Reasoning: Again, this is a solid number. If your opponent calls the level correctly, you’ll take a hit, so it’s important to mask our strategy.

2 Brain Control: A great card in conjunction with Monster Gate, this card also sets up some of our heavier tribute summons.

1 Swords of Revealing Light: This card flips monsters up to take with Brain Control and Sorcerer, while slowing the game down at the same time.

Let’s take a look at the trap lineup, along with the three staples (Mirror Force, Call of the Haunted, Torrential Tribute).

Conceptual Trap Support

1 Return from the Different Dimension: Absolutely huge with Sacred Crane, it also works wonders with Dark Magician of Chaos. The main source of fuel for the removed from game zone will be the three copies of Chaos Sorcerer.

2 Icarus Attack: Two seems like the perfect number. The splashed Stealth Bird and Winged Sage Falcos will ensure that this trap will go off consistently.

2 Dust Tornado: Because the use of multiple Reasoning and Monster Gate cards will lead to swarming the field, it is essential to avoid your opponent’s Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute.

Expected Matchup with Tier One Decks

Your opening game will consist of setting monsters while you attempt to secure a foothold on the field. Mathematics suggest that you’re bound to draw a few copies of Sacred Crane without being able to special summon them. In these cases, Sangan will usually want to fetch Marauding Captain. However, you can also summon the Cranes and push for 1600 damage in rare cases, particularly when you have Chaos Sorcerer in hand.

The deck favors closed resource situations, since they give you (and your opponent) the field presence necessary to make full use of your Icarus Attack. Remember that you’ll consistently have an advantage over your opponent in the number of monsters you can bring to the field. If the opponent’s Chaos return variant focuses on massive flip effect monsters with the occasional Cyber Dragon, he or she will be hard-pressed to keep up with your onslaught.

During the infrequent occasions where your opponent has no backfield, your deck should really go off. The objective is to hit somewhere in the range of 3000–4000 damage in one turn, which is certainly possible, provided you have Brain Control or Nobleman of Crossout in hand. If the game slows down, this deck begins to resemble Soul Control or Deck Devastation Virus Control in its ability to completely break things open.

New Grounds Verdict: Polymerization does something awesome! In this case, the fusion of deck ideas has created a very solid strategy.