Along with the now-dusty Vampire Lord, Invasion of Chaos’s Strike Ninja has always been my favorite card in the entire game. When the first wave of renowned duelists began emerging at the first Shonen Jump Championship events, theories on advanced concepts we take for granted today (such as card presence, tempo, and the floater mechanic) were still being formulated. Playing Strike Ninja showed me that he was incredibly powerful and almost indestructible, but my limited knowledge back in the day made it difficult to understand precisely what made him so great.

After another year of dueling experience, however, it’s clear why Strike Ninja is so powerful. He’s probably the best monster in the game for maintaining field presence. Since you can almost always choose whether to send him to the graveyard or leave a solid 1700 ATK monster on the field, his field presence is unlimited. Provided you have enough Dark monsters in the graveyard, the only way your opponent can permanently get rid of him is to set a monster like Legendary Jujitsu Master or Old Vindictive Magician and hope your monster attacks it. In fact, damage-step effects are probably the only way to permanently extract him from your hair.

Since you can draw into your own monster-removal effects to rid the field of stronger threats like Cyber Dragon and Mobius the Frost Monarch, threats to the Ninja’s safety can simply be ducked for a turn. If you have other monsters to set or summon, you probably won’t even take life point damage during the turn that Ninja vanishes!

Of course I’ve only been talking about the Ninja within the context of using generic Dark monsters. Having established that Strike Ninja is the best piece of field presence in the game, what happens if we throw D. D. Scout Plane into the mix?

Creating Advantage through the Future Scout Concept

The problem with D. D. Scout Plane is that, outside of its graveyard effect, it’s not a great monster. An ATK of 800 and DEF of 1200 won’t do much on the field, and the limitation of Nobleman of Crossout makes it highly unlikely that you’ll be able to peel off a hasty Crossout from your opponent. This makes the card nearly useless unless you can find a way to dump it into the graveyard. That’s where Future Fusion comes in!

Future Fusion is a Limited card that’s been seeing a lot of play for its ability to send monsters to the graveyard for a one-turn win involving Chimeratech Overdragon and Overload Fusion. Basically, after a choice selection of monsters has been sent to the graveyard (such as Jinzo and Spell Canceller) you can then play Overload Fusion and either Dimension Fusion or Return from the Different Dimension to seal the duel.

However, it can also be used for more than simple OTK potential. Since D. D. Scout Plane is a Machine monster (and Dark to boot), you can send up to three copies of it to the graveyard to fuel Strike Ninja’s effect later on. This is akin to the now-Forbidden Painful Choice in the sheer scope of its power. Having Ninja return two monsters to the field each turn that can set up for tribute summons or swing for 1600 damage a turn is not a pretty sight for your opponent. If we use a stable base of searchers to try to find Future Fusion and dump Planes to the graveyard, the deck should function quite effectively.

Build: The Future Scout Concept

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Send D. D. Scout Plane cards to the graveyard to fuel Strike Ninja’s effect.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Strike Ninja.

Constructing the Monster Lineup for the Future Scout Concept

The monsters in this group can be separated into three categories. The first involves Dark monsters that fuel Strike Ninja’s effect. The second involves monsters that are searched through Reinforcement of the Army. The final category involves general support.

Strike Ninja Support:

1 Sangan

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

2 D. D. Scout Plane

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Blowback Dragon

1 Jinzo

3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

1 Night Assailant

The monsters in this group are all fairly synergetic and support the Dark concept rather well. All of them except Blowback Dragon and Dark Magician of Chaos (both Dark monsters) appear frequently in top-level competition.

Warrior Support:

2 Strike Ninja

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 D. D. Assailant

1 Don Zaloog

1 D. D. Warrior

The monsters in this group can all be removed in some way, shape, or form for strategies based on Dimension Fusion. The three D. D. monsters are suitable targets for Reinforcement of the Army, while Don Zaloog is a Dark monster that can be removed in the graveyard. It provides a nice twist.

General Support:

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Treeborn Frog

1 Morphing Jar

Again, much of this is self-explanatory. Cyber Dragon is needed to bring out the Overdragon, and Morphing Jar sends monsters to the graveyard for Strike Ninja’s effect.

The Spell and Trap Support for the Future Scout Concept

We start with the trusty six, minus Mystical Space Typhoon:

Graceful Charity

Confiscation

Heavy Storm

Nobleman of Crossout

Premature Burial

Since Ninja can force out a number of set cards (while almost negating them) and we’re also running Jinzo, Mystical Space Typhoon is not really needed. I prefer cutting it for more defensive cards that help against super fast-paced strategies involving Cyber-Stein.

Conceptual Spell Support:

1 Scapegoat: Essential to maintaining field presence, Scapegoat should let you set up for a few turns at the least.

2 Enemy Controller: Doubling as both defense and a tool for setting up tribute summons, Enemy Controller is too versatile to ignore in this build.

1 Future Fusion: The linchpin of the entire strategy, this card will appear in most of your duels because of the thinning and draw power that the deck provides. After triggering a few Dekoichis, you should see this. Send almost every Machine you have to the graveyard with it.

1 Overload Fusion: The beauty of this card is that it can be used even without Future Fusion, since you have a huge base of monsters that will plausibly be in the graveyard after a few turns have passed.

1 Smashing Ground: Required to help Ninja maintain a foothold on the field.

2 Reinforcement of the Army: Again, this card is a no-brainer.

Let’s take a look at the traps we’re using:

Ring of Destruction

Torrential Tribute

Mirror Force

Call of the Haunted

All of the favorites will be used, due to their utility in this deck. Call of the Haunted is probably the best trap in this deck.

1 Return from the Different Dimension: This win condition is a huge help because it basically prevents you from losing to deck-out. With Jinzo and Dark Magician of Chaos as probable removed-from-game targets, it’s highly unlikely you can deck yourself out, even after thinning your deck out of ten monsters and using Morphing Jar.

Expected Matchups with the Best Decks in the Format

Strike Ninja is back to stay, and with the added push from Future Fusion it should be a force to be reckoned with. Thematically and conceptually, the deck is quite snug and clearly formulated.

The early game should involve a steady dose of card and field presence with Cyber Dragon swarming the field, D. D. monsters removing your opponent’s threats, and draw power through Dekoichi. In the mid-game you have multiple avenues for tribute summons while trying to draw into Future Fusion. Once the Planes hit the graveyard and Ninja hits the field, it should be incredibly difficult for your opponent to mount a comeback.

Check back next week for another New Grounds celebrity spotlight that features a noted duelist’s unique creation.