Most of the popular monster types in Yu-Gi-Oh! have benefited from an entire set filled with support cards. For example, Warriors have Legacy of Darkness and all the support cards that come with it, and Spellcasters have Magician’s Force and its excellent Effect monsters. Sadly, not all monster types have this luxury. Today I’m going to talk about another one of those decks that the guy in your store with all the money used to play—the Machine deck.

The problem with building a good Machine deck has always been getting the monsters you need. For the longest time, Mechanicalchaser was only available to the lucky or the rich who were able to get three copies of theTournament Pack 1 ultra rare. To make matters worse, good Machine cards were released very slowly across many sets. This means that the cards didn’t exist to build the ideal Machine deck until a specific point in time. The time was the release of Dark Crisis, and the final piece of the puzzle was the ultra-rare Reflect Bounder.

Here’s an example of a Machine deck with all the trimmings.

Monsters: 16

1 Jinzo

1 Barrel Dragon

3 Mechanicalchaser

1 Reflect Bounder

2 Cannon Soldier

1 Kinetic Soldier

1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan

1 Cyber Jar

1 Fiber Jar

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tribe-Infecting Virus

1 Magical Scientist

Spells: 19

1 Pot of Greed

1 Graceful Charity

1 Raigeki

1 Monster Reborn

1 Dark Hole

1 Change of Heart

1 Snatch Steal

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Painful Choice

3 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Harpie’s Feather Duster

3 Limiter Removal

1 Premature Burial

Traps: 5

1 Mirror Force

1 Ring of Destruction

1 Imperial Order

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

A while ago, I mentioned that in order for a deck to be successful in a Control-based environment, it has to do one of two things. The deck has to either kill quickly or set up a situation where its resources could replace themselves more quickly than the opponent can deplete them. This deck is one of the former. It is a product of the post-Dark Crisis, pre-Invasion of Chaos environment, in which Control was still king.

The win condition of this deck should be easy to spot. It seeks to clear the opponent’s field, play some Machine-type monsters, and then activate as many copies of Limiter Removal as possible to turn the little Machines into giant, face-smashing robots. Alternatively, the Machine player could just clear out the opponent’s monsters and summon Jinzo, effectively neutralizing any traps that were hiding in the opponent’s spell and trap zone.

Essentially, the livelihood of the Machine deck depends on one formerly limited spell card, and one limited, high-level monster. Normally, this would make the deck hideously inconsistent, and no one would ever play it. Not so with the Machine deck. In addition to the deck’s great speed and power, each of its cardsis also a useful utility card. Reflect Bounder puts up a nice stall with a side of direct damage. Barrel Dragon is a giant monster with a built-in monster removal, and Cannon Soldier is a little bit of everything crammed into a tiny, searchable purple guy.

While the monsters are indeed excellent, the true powerhouse of the deck is Limiter Removal. Limiter Removal is by far one of the most useful quick-play spells in the game. Sure, it’s no Scapegoat or Mystical Space Typhoon, but doubling the ATK of all face-up Machines on your side of the field is nothing to sneeze at. In general, players use the card as part of the final offensive; however, that might not even be its best use. Because Limiter Removal is a quick-play spell, you can also use it defensively. Using Limiter Removal when Airknight Parshath attacks your Mechanicalchaser is a great way to reverse the advantage your opponent hoped to gain from the attack.

Obviously, this deck isn’t nearly as good as it sounds at this point. After all, none of us have ever seen a Regional Top 8 Machine deck, right? This deck, like so many others, had a few serious flaws that prevented it from really taking off. Because of the deck’s reliance on getting Limiter Removal in order to win, not drawing one is a recipe for disaster. Additionally, the base stats of most Machine type monsters are lower than those of the popular monsters in Control decks. Remember, we’re talking about a time when people still played Gemini Elf and Archfiend Soldier on a regular basis.

Another big problem with the deck is its incredible weakness to Scapegoat. This is also around the time when Scapegoat started to get popular, and because it isn’t affected by Jinzo, a well-timed Scapegoat can completely block the Machine deck’s combo. Other quick-play spells that were commonly used at the time are also a hassle for the Machine deck. Airknight Parshath-based control decks usually ran a Book of Moon or two, which was enough to foil the most well-laid plans of any deck.

The final major weakness of the Machine deck is its reliance on not running into hand disruption during the early game. This may seem like common sense, but it is more important to this Machine deck than many others of the time due to its combo-based nature. An early hit or two from Don Zaloog and Spirit Reaper or a lucky opening hand containing Delinquent Duo is hard to recover from with this deck.

The release of Invasion of Chaos wasn’t any help to the Machine deck, either. Chaos made the deck obsolete, so the few people playing it sold a Mechanicalchaser or two in order to buy their Chaos monsters. This deck, like so many others, was left by the wayside while Chaos Emperor Dragon – Envoy of the End ran its course. Fortunately for us, the Dragon is currently on the Forbidden List, along with a lot of the control deck’s flunkies.

Does that mean that it’s time for the Machine deck to make a comeback? Probably not. Even though the Dragon is gone, it was the least of the Machine deck’s worries. Hand disruption is still popular, and Scapegoat runs rampant all across the metagame. The current metagame places a large emphasis on removing monsters from the game with cards like D. D. Warrior Lady and D.D. Assailant. It isn’t even a guarantee that your huge monsters are going to make it through to the opponent’s life points, making it even harder for the Machine deck to win. I’d give this one a pass if I were you.

Next week, I’ll be starting a special series on the evolution of the Forbidden/Limited list, so make sure you don’t miss it! Until then, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu