It’s finally coming! The next Structure Deck, Spellcaster’s Judgment, is on its way!

I obviously sound a bit excited about this one, but trust me, it’s for a good reason! Following hot on the heels of the best Structure Deck ever, Warrior’s Triumph, Spellcaster’s Judgment takes the entire Structure Deck concept into brand-new territory. At the same time, it introduces some very playable new cards, reprints a couple pricey classics, and gives Spellcasters just what they need in order to be viable in big tournaments.

Do you want to turn your Spellcaster Structure Deck into a ready-to-play tournament powerhouse? That’s what we’ll focus on doing today, as we’ll look at just one of the ways you can tweak the deck for major competition. First, let’s check out what Spellcaster’s Judgment looks like right out of the box, assuming it's the same as its Japanese counterpart.

Spellcaster’s Judgment: 40 Cards

Monsters: 19

1 Dark Eradicator Warlock

1 Mythical Beast Cerberus

1 Dark Magician

1 Gemini Elf

2 Magician of Faith

2 Skilled Dark Magician

2 Apprentice Magician

1 Chaos Command Magician

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Royal Magical Library

1 Tsukuyomi

1 Chaos Sorcerer

1 White Magician Pikeru

1 Blast Magician

1 Ebon Magician Curran

1 Rapid-Fire Magician

Spells: 16

1 Magical Blast

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Premature Burial

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Mage Power

1 Heavy Storm

1 Diffusion Wave-Motion

1 Reload

1 Dark Magic Attack

1 Spell Absorption

1 Lightning Vortex

2 Magical Dimension

1 Mystic Box

1 Nightmare’s Steelcage

Traps: 5

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Spell Shield Type-8

1 Pitch-Black Power Stone

1 Divine Wrath

1 Magic Cylinder

They say that when you’re writing, you should always save the best for last. This time around, I can’t wait that long. Magical Dimension is an amazing quick-play spell card that might just be what Spellcasters need in order to see global success as an archetype. Check out the card’s effect. You can only activate this card while there is a face-up Spellcaster-Type monster(s) on your side of the field. Tribute 1 monster on your side of the field and Special Summon 1 Spellcaster-Type monster from your hand. Then you can destroy 1 monster on the field.

There’s a lot going on with this card, but here’s the gist of it. You lose a card in hand, and a monster on the field. Your opponent loses a monster on the field, and then you get to replace your tributed monster. This is cool for a ton of reasons—the most obvious of these being the fact that you can choose to destroy any monster you wish, regardless of position. Do you need to get rid of a big monster like Mobius the Frost Monarch or Jinzo? They’re gone. Is D. D. Assailant setting up shop in the middle of the field with a lawn chair and a tent, staving off your attacks? Blow it right out of the battle and march onwards. Is there a face-down flip effect monster or a face-up Spirit Reaper? No problem. Heck, you can even use Magical Dimension to blow away monsters on your own side of the field. Sorry, Lava Golem.

The other cool use for this card is that it exchanges a monster on the field for a monster in your hand by tributing a monster on the field that you no longer need. Because Magical Dimension is a quick-play spell, you can fool an opponent into thinking you have only a weak monster defending your life points and then switch it out for a better monster once the battle phase rolls around. You can even attack with a Spellcaster of your own, tribute your “used” monster for Magical Dimension, destroy something with its effect, and then attack with the fresh Spellcaster that was rotated in. If you have multiple copies of Magical Dimension and a couple Spellcasters in your hand, you can chain attacks together. You can easily win duels by flooding the field with monsters and totally surprising your opponent.

Oh, and it ignores the level of the monster it summons, so Dark Magician, Cybernetic Magician, and many more can be brought to the field for free.

Cerberus is another fresh entry to the game’s roster, and it’s a powerful addition to the lineup of monster cards that use spell counters. Check it out.

Spellcaster/Effect - Light - Level 4 - 1400/1400

Each time you or your opponent activates 1 Spell Card, put 1 Spell Counter on this card. Increase the ATK of this card by 500 points for each Spell Counter on this card. At the end of the Battle Phase of the turn this card battles, remove all Spell Counters from this card.

It’s searchable with Shining Angel, and Cerberus’s presence on the field can discourage your opponent from activating spells. In short, spells make Cerberus angry, and the angrier it becomes, the higher its ATK value rises. Not only does that put pressure on your opponent, it can make for some cool combos on your side.

Again, the Metagame.com staff will look at Cerberus in greater depth later on, but for now, keep in mind that Smashing Ground or Magical Dimension immediately bumps Cerberus up to 1900 ATK. It’s superb when used with Toon Table of Contents, as well. Activate one to grab another Table, activate that to grab a third Table, and then use the final copy to grab whatever Toon you like. Then, sit back and watch Cerberus become so ornery that it goes up to 2900 ATK.

“But, Jason!” you cry. “Once Cerberus attacks, it goes back to 1400 ATK! It’ll be run over on the following turn!” Right. And what card likes used-up Spellcasters? If you said “Magical Dimension”, you get a gold star.*

Are you starting to see a deck materialize? I am, too!

The Two-Pronged Attack of Spellcaster’s Judgment

With all that said, my favorite thing about Spellcaster’s Judgment isn’t a particular card. It’s actually the fact that in one box, you get the groundwork for two very different decks. Are you intrigued? Read on.

With the addition of some new monsters and spells, Spellcasters get a boost in two different departments, Beatdown and Burn. Cards like Ebon Magician Curran and Rapid-Fire Magician already provided Yu-Gi-Oh!’s magic-users with the ability to dish out direct damage, but Magical Blast and Dark Eradicator Warlock give them two consistent (and most importantly, renewable) sources of firepower. You can expect Spellcaster Burn to be a playable deck in the wake of Judgment’s release.

In the Beatdown department, Spellcasters get the two cards that I’ve already discussed. They’ve got plenty of high-ATK monsters, good control over the field, and a startling ability to turn one attacker into a sudden rush. Today, we’ll be looking at turning Spellcaster’s Judgment into an unstoppable, unpredictable Beatdown machine!

The first thing we need to do is separate all that Burn deck goodness from the Beatdown material. The Burn cards are great, but we want to win through battle, so we won’t really need direct damage in our new version of the deck.

Dark Eradicator Warlock, Ebon Magician Curran, Rapid-Fire Magician, Spell Absorption, Spell Shield Type-8, Royal Magical Library, White Magician Pikeru, Magical Blast, Reload, Lightning Vortex, and Nightmare’s Steelcage are all great cards for a Burn deck, but we’ll need to leave them behind for today’s endeavor. I’d suggest keeping them somewhere in a neat little pile, though. You might want to take a run at Spellcaster Burn sometime later, after all.

We’re only going to be using the single copy of Dark Magician that comes in the Spellcaster Structure, so we’re going to want to drop a few of the cards that work along with it. Diffusion Wave-Motion and Dark Magic Attack are both immensely powerful if they’re used properly, but we won’t have the support to run them efficiently in our new deck.

Blast Magician, Divine Wrath, and Mystic Box are all interesting, but they don’t fit in to my specific plans. Don’t write off Mystic Box, though. In a deck that’s using multiple copies of Cerberus and Shining Angel, it’s really fun to put an Angel in the Box and shunt it to your opponent’s side of the field. It’s a powerful combo, but it’s not exactly what I’m looking for here.

We don’t need Pitch-Black Power Stone, either, because we’re going to add in some alternate means of accruing spell counters. I’m also going to drop Chaos Command Magician, as very few monster effects that target a specific monster are being played right now. One copy of Magician of Faith must also be removed in order to make the deck legal for play in the Advanced format, since the Magician is limited, of course.

Now for the additions! We’re running Mythical Beast Cerberus and multiple copies of Skilled Dark Magician, and both have effects that I’d like to be able to use reliably. Because of that, I’m going to add in three copies of Toon Table of Contents. As I mentioned before, a full run of Tables will make Cerberus into a 2900 ATK skull-crusher for a single battle phase. But beyond that, Tables can also quickly load a Skilled Dark Magician to bring the real Dark Magician to the field. They even provide deck thinning, so we can safely run a little more than 40 cards. The problem with Table is that once you use the third copy, you often have nothing to grab, but that’s not the case in this deck! We’ll use one Toon Gemini Elf to give you something to search for. It’s a Spellcaster monster with a nice effect, even though it’s a little slow with its attack restriction.

In my mind, there are two primary reasons to play Spellcaster Beatdown. The first is Magical Dimension, but the second is Magician’s Circle. It builds on the idea of swarming the opponent during the battle phase, and it can also search out single copies of Spellcasters. It punishes the average opponent for playing Breaker and Magician of Faith, it gives you an extra attack during combat, and it lets the deck act as a toolbox. While this fix is going to be pretty inexpensive on the whole, most of its cost is going to come from the addition of three copies of Magician’s Circle. They might take a little time to find, but the card is just too good to ignore.

With those in the deck, we suddenly get a new agenda: filling the toolbox by using single copies of excellent Spellcasters! First up is Injection Fairy Lily. With its incredible effect, it can easily make a surprising direct attack with Magical Dimension or Magician’s Circle. An unexpected hit for 3400 ATK is usually enough to win any duel. One Dark Elf will be included for the same reason. Though it costs 1000 life points to attack with, Dark Elf is a great wall and dishes out a lot of damage. While Dark Magician Girl also has 2000 ATK, it’s a tribute, which makes it difficult to deal with if you draw into it or get stuck with it in your opening hand. Dark Elf might be old-school, but it’s a great monster to open with on the first turn and will often seal a victory.

I’m going to add a third Skilled Dark Magician, too. It has great stats, and the ability to bring out Dark Magician without sacrificing your normal summon for the turn is fabulous.

Virtually every deck needs Sangan, and this one is no exception. While we can already search for Injection Fairy Lily, Magician of Faith, Apprentice Magician, and Cerberus, I want to provide some extra options that will take this deck to the next level. Morphing Jar and Spirit Reaper will both compensate for this deck’s tendency to aggressively over-extend, as well. I want to be launching flurries of special summoned monsters with Magical Dimension and Magician’s Circle on a regular basis, and that means that sometimes I’ll have very few cards in my hand. Morphing Jar can give me a new hand entirely, and Spirit Reaper can either defend me when things take a turn for the worse or ensure that my opponent loses hand presence as well. I’ll run one Morphing Jar and a pair of Spirit Reapers.

Finally for the monster lineup, I’d like to use one copy of Mobius the Frost Monarch. This deck likes to attack directly, and when it goes off with Dimensions and Circles, we need to ensure that there’s a clear path to the opponent’s life points, because Bottomless Trap Hole and Sakuretsu Armor make Spellcasters sad. When you’ve got a real game-ending monster lined up, like Lily or Cerberus, you need to ensure that they’ll be able to swing for damage, and Mobius can buy them the freedom they need. The deck’s ability to generate and maintain field presence also makes it slightly easier than normal for us to tribute summon monsters, so Mobius is a logical choice to achieve our goals.

Moving on to the spells, I immediately want to add a third copy of Magical Dimension. Man, am I ever enamored with this card! I’m going to quit extolling its virtues, because Jae’s going to discuss it this Saturday and I need to leave him with something to talk about. But yeah, it’s phenomenal, and the fact that you get not one, but two copies, in each Structure Deck is just awesome.

With Cerberus and Skilled Dark Magician adoring our use of spells, the deck cries out for Smashing Ground. Combined with the three copies of Magical Dimension, we’ve got a ton of spell-based field control. We’ll use it to compensate for our lack of Sakuretsu Armor, making this deck a bit more proactive and less reactive than most battle-oriented strategies. If you can’t get your hands on Smashing Ground, go ahead and use Fissure.

Beyond that, I want to add just a few more spells that are available as commons. Dark Hole and Snatch Steal are both easy to get, and they’ll continue this deck’s theme of superior field control. Dark Hole is particularly good here, because you can use it to clear the field and then bust loose with a chain of attacks that all start with a single Spellcaster.

Here are the total additions I made to the deck. Aside from Magician’s Circle and Injection Fairy Lily, all of the cards we added are available as silver-print rares or commons. Even if you just decide to run out to your local hobby store and pay cash for everything, you’re going to be getting an excellent value for your money.

Here are the changes I ended up making to turn Spellcaster’s Judgment into an aggressive Spellcaster Beatdown deck.

-1 Dark Eradicator Warlock

-1 Royal Magical Library

-1 White Magician Pikeru

-1 Ebon Magician Curran

-1 Rapid-Fire Magician

-1 Spell Absorption

-1 Spell Shield Type-8

-1 Nightmare’s Steelcage

-1 Reload

-1 Magical Blast

-1 Lightning Vortex

-1 Diffusion Wave-Motion

-1 Dark Magic Attack

-1 Chaos Command Magician

-1 Blast Magician

-1 Pitch-Black Power Stone

-1 Divine Wrath

-1 Mystic Box

-1 Magician of Faith

+3 Toon Table of Contents

+1 Toon Gemini Elf

+3 Magician's Circle  

+1 Injection Fairy Lily

+1 Skilled Dark Magician

+1 Sangan

+1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

+1 Dark Elf

+2 Spirit Reaper

+1 Morphing Jar

+1 Magical Dimension

+1 Dark Hole

+1 Snatch Steal

+3 Smashing Ground

Here’s the final deck!

Jason’s Beatdown Fix

42 cards

Monsters: 20

1 Chaos Sorcerer

1 Dark Magician

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Mythical Beast Cerberus

1 Gemini Elf

1 Magician of Faith

3 Skilled Dark Magician

2 Apprentice Magician

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tsukuyomi

1 Toon Gemini Elf

1 Injection Fairy Lily

1 Dark Elf

2 Spirit Reaper

1 Sangan

1 Morphing Jar

Spells: 17

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Premature Burial

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Mage Power

1 Heavy Storm

3 Magical Dimension

3 Toon Table of Contents

1 Dark Hole

1 Snatch Steal

3 Smashing Ground

Traps: 5

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Magic Cylinder

3 Magician's Circle

The deck can play a defensive opening pretty well if it gets to go first, thanks to Spirit Reaper, Sangan, and Apprentice Magician. However, it can also open aggressively, summoning Dark Elf in an attempt to bully the opponent into setting a monster. While this can be risky (due to the popularity of Cyber Dragon), sometimes it’ll really pay off. Provided you have the proper cards, you can easily summon a second monster next turn and then launch a flurry of attacks with Magical Dimension, or even Magician’s Circle if you set it on turn one.

The early and mid-game are where this deck really shines. By the fourth or fifth turn, there’s a good chance that you’ve drawn into at least one Magical Dimension or Magician’s Circle, and when you do, you can break the moderate pace of play that most players favor in this part of the game. While Magician’s Circle is a highly beneficial card, remember that Magical Dimension can be played from your hand, so while your opponent might see a Circle coming, you can render him or her powerless to predict one or more Dimensions if you play carefully.

When you’re playing this deck, you want to push for a win as early as possible. Most duelists just don’t expect early-game defeats any more: One-Turn-KO decks aren’t common in most metagames, despite their strength, and the days of Warrior Rush strategies fuelled by Marauding Captain are long gone. Many top-notch duelists refuse to over-commit to the field, often cutting themselves off when they have two monsters deployed. The intent of this policy is to minimize the impact of mass removal cards like Torrential Tribute and Dark Hole, and it’s usually a good idea. You can keep cards in your hand, where they’re relatively safe, and still have enough field presence to maintain control of the game. However, this deck shreds that concept to pieces. With the ability to suddenly explode with three, four, or more attacks that the opponent didn’t predict, Spellcasters can easily wipe away a pair of monsters and then start bashing away at an opponent’s life points. Add to that the impressive monster removal effect of Magical Dimension, and you’re looking at a deck that takes accepted concepts of field presence and turns them on their ears.

This build of Spellcaster Beatdown loses some power if it ends up topdecking in the late game. It has a minimal count of self-replacing monsters, and it doesn’t have anything that can rival the topdeck power of, say, D. D. Assailant. But Magician’s Circle can often equate victory if both duelists are in such a situation. While Magical Dimension becomes a bit more difficult to use due to its substantial card requirement (one Spellcaster on the field and one in your hand for maximum efficiency), the Circle gets arguably stronger, especially since you can pull with it whatever you wish. Bolder duelists might even want to run a single copy of Masked Sorcerer for this purpose. Though the deck performs at its peak in the early and mid-game, the late game isn’t a death sentence. You can still play out of it.

There’s my fix! Keep checking back each day this week and next, as we here at Metagame.com blow the lid off of Spellcaster’s Judgment. You might have noticed that I said nothing of some of the new cards in the deck . . . head on back tomorrow for the first of several single-card articles, starting with Curtis taking a look at Dark Eradicator Warlock!

Spellcasters are finally taking center stage, and Spellcaster’s Judgment is your ticket to the show!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

*Gold star has no cash value. Gold stars can be redeemed at tournament events attended by Jason Grabher-Meyer for one (1) free hug from Jason.**

**Okay, fine. You can have two free hugs.