There are some cards that I wish I could just slap a "Handle With Care" sticker on without rendering them unplayable in tournaments. Certain cards are given such ridiculous effects that the only real way to balance them out is to have something very bad to happen to the user as a consequence or potential consequence of using the card. For example, Cup of Ace replicates Pot of Greed, but the person who gets the effect is literally up in the air. In the interest of being relevant, however, allow me to give you a much better example of the phenomenon: Power Bond. When you play Power Bond, someone is going down. Given that it lets you Fusion summon a Machine-type Fusion monster and double its almost assuredly impressive ATK, there’s a pretty good chance that your opponent is going to be the one to take the fall. Then again, if you don’t manage to win the turn you play Power Bond, it could come back to bite you very hard. The ways to avoid the ill effect of Power Bond are few and far between, so if you intend to wield this particular card, you need to be able to balance its game-swinging power with the fact that it burns you for your Fusion monster’s original ATK at the end of your turn. I find that the best way to do so is to ensure your victory by using a monster with at least 8000 ATK and making its attack unstoppable.

When it comes to being unstoppable, no monsters do it better than Ancient Gear monsters. Virtually all of them have a beautiful line of text on them stating that your opponent isn’t allowed to do anything to stop you with spells or traps when you attack, and that line is frequently joined by some pretty amazing effects as well. The classic Ancient Gear Beast negates the effect of any monster it destroys in battle, but the card that got people talking when it was first released was Ancient Gear Engineer. Searchable by Giant Rat and possessing a spell- or trap-destroying ability in addition to its untouchable status, the Engineer became a staple of Ratbox-style decks. Unfortunately, Ratbox never really took off, and thus the Engineer sits in shoeboxes, collecting dust and waiting for a reason to see play once more. Actually, all the Ancient Gear monsters are suffering from a similar condition, but thanks to Light of Destruction, their future is looking brighter than ever. Since The Lost Millennium, Ancient Gear Golem was the biggest Ancient Gear monster you could play. Fortunately, advances in naming technology have allowed this to change thanks to Light of Destruction. Since the best way to make an already big monster even bigger is to Fuse it with copies of itself and tack "Ultimate" onto the name, we have been graced with Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem, a Fusion monster that breaks the rules and breaks faces in the process.

Monsters: 15

3 Ancient Gear Golem
3 Ancient Gear Soldier
3 Ancient Gear Cannon
3 Ancient Gear
3 Cyber Valley

The goal here is really quite simple. First you play Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem. Then you win. Between Power Bond and Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem’s original ATK of 4400, it’s very likely that you’ll win on the turn that the Golem comes into play, which is good considering you’ll be taking 4400 to the face if you don’t. It’s also an extremely focused deck—meaning that you only really have the one win condition—but the entire deck is built around it as if it were a combo deck. In a way, it is a combo deck, just not in the way that we normally think of (as deck-drawing, infinite-looping powerhouses). Rather, the deck is comprised of a bunch of small combos that lead you toward the Fusion materials and requisite spell card for summoning one of the biggest monsters ever printed. In theory, you’re always going to want to summon the Golem with Power Bond so that you can win the game right then and there, but it should be noted that Future Fusion can present you with the option to summon Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem without the risk to your life points that Power Bond would pose. It’ll take a couple of turns, but over those turns you should be gathering the rest of your combo pieces anyway, so your opponent will have to try and combat both threats simultaneously. This frequently doesn’t work out for your opponent unless he or she is playing Gladiator Beasts . . . which seems like it would be a problem owing to their popularity as of late.

In an effort to not get run down by Gladiator Beasts, I’ve decided to borrow a page from the only Ancient-Gear-based deck ever to win a Shonen Jump Championship, Paul Lyn’s Rusty Bucket O’ Bolts. His deck had basically the same strategy as this one, except that its Fusion monster of choice was Chimeratech Overdragon, and he had a full three copies of a number of cards that are now Limited or Forbidden. Paul coped with the fact that Ancient Gear Drill introduces a delay into your plans by playing a full complement of Nightmare’s Steelcage to shut down the battle phase for two opposing turns. Right now, eliminating the battle phase is huge. Gladiator Beast decks are forced to go to straight for Gyzarus, which might just cause them a loss if you have Divine Wrath down. Wrath, in general, wrecks every single deck worth playing and a large number of the decks that aren’t, so despite the fact that traps slow combo decks down, this deck is already slowed down by the nature of its spell search card. Divine Wrath doesn’t really slow it down any further, but it does keep you safe from almost all of the best answers to your deck: Gladiator Beast Gyzarus, Dark Armed Dragon, and Judgment Dragon or Lyla, Lightsworn Sorceress. That said, Wraths don’t last forever, so you’d better be ready to pull the trigger as soon as the Steelcage wears off.

The Fusion materials for Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem consist of one regular Ancient Gear Golem and then any two other Ancient Gear monsters you can get your hands on. It’s tough to get all of those monsters in hand at once in addition to having the spell you need to Fuse them, so the fact that Ancient Gear and Ancient Gear Cannon are compatible with Machine Duplication is extremely useful. Depending on what spells you’re holding at the time, using Duplication on Ancient Gear or Ancient Gear Cannon might also set you up for a quick Spell Gear, making for an earlier threat than the opponent might expect.

One of the neat things about the Ancient Gear monsters’ wording is that it really messes with people who like to run Waboku. Basically, they have to reveal it as you’re entering your battle phase, at which point you simply don’t attack and force your opponent to deal with your Gear Golems. Tie this in to the fact that, for whatever reason, Waboku and Cold Wave are becoming less popular in Gladiator Beast decks despite being amazing for setting up and executing combos (I blame Steven Harris), and it actually becomes more difficult for Gladiator Beasts to deal with two copies of Ancient Gear Golem. This would be the recommended course of action against that deck. Against everyone else, however, the piercing 8800 ATK unstoppable behemoth is the way to go, and Machine Duplication will almost assuredly set you up for that too. If it doesn’t, it’s because you used it to replicate Cyber Valley and gave yourself the ability to draw even more cards or possibly manipulate your draws to get back cards from the graveyard. In a pinch, Cyber Valley is also a defensive trick that digs you one card deeper into the deck while negating an entire opposing battle phase. Finally, you can use the fact that Ancient Gear actually has an effect that lets you special summon more copies of itself from your hand to turn junk hands into potentially winning hands. Multiple Gears are useless to you if you draw them, so why not make the most of your Cyber Valley cards by removing a Valley and a Gear three times to draw six cards?

Overall, this deck is a lot less stable than the Destiny End Dragoon deck from last week. This is largely due to the fact that the cards that go into a Dragoon deck are tournament mainstays that can win games all on their own. You need your combos here, and that opens you to a lot more disruption than you’d have with the Dragoon deck. Combine that with the fact that even when you pull off your boss monster summon you still might take 4400 damage if you don’t win right away, and you’ll probably be looking for different ways to improve the build. That’s perfectly fine. The main goal this week was to provide a jumping-off point for anyone who’s looking to play with his or her Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem cards, and I know there are a lot of you out there. Happy smashing, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

—Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu