In case you’re desperate to know just what is inside that colorful box that will induce you to get one, I’ll give you a short guided tour! There are four stops on the list—Gadget support, Ancient Gear support, the big flashy card that supports both strategies, and notable reprints. Onward!

First stop—the more specific support. Like other Structure Decks before it, Machine Re-Volt incorporates a few different strategies. While the deck can be played as is, most players like to pick up several copies and rebuild the deck to taste, focusing on the particular strategy that appeals to them. There are a few ways you can go with this deck, so let’s begin by reviewing what’s on offer for Gadgets, followed by Ancient Gears.

Gadget Support

Okay, the Gadget monsters are the reason a lot of players will buy this deck. People have been eager to get their hands on these colorful little guys for quite some time, and here they are! Machine decks have focused mostly on Cyber-Stein over the last format or so, but Gadgets are going to rev up interest in the type. There are a few different ways to use these monsters. You can go for a fast OTK build, relying on Ultimate Offering to get five Gadgets out against your opponent’s cleared field. You can tinker with the classic “Fifth Gadget” deck, running three copies of each backed up with plenty of monster removal to keep your opponent off your back while you hammer away with your relatively small attackers. Perhaps you’d rather run fewer copies of each in a slower-paced beatdown style deck. It’s up to you! Here’s what Re-Volt can offer Gadget users:

The Red, Green, and Yellow Gadgets!

Obviously it’s got the Gadget monsters, one copy of each. You’ll need at least two (possibly three, depending on what you want to build) of each Gadget to build a viable deck. There’s a lot I can say about Gadget monsters, but I’m pretty sure that several of my fellow writers here at Metagame.com are planning to cover them extensively in the weeks to come—I’d hate to burn you out on them, so I won’t really dwell on their strategic uses. Instead, I’ll talk about the two new cards in the deck you might like to consider if you’re planning to experiment with a Gadget build.

First up, we’ve got Boot-Up Soldier - Dread Dynamo. It’s a fun name to say, and an interesting support card as well. It’s conditional, yes, but consider the possibilities before you pass it over. First off, that 2000 DEF is great, especially in a deck populated by little guys. Second, it can be special summoned with Giant Rat’s effect, meaning you can fetch it out as a level 4 2000 ATK attacker when you’ve got a Gadget on the field. Throw in Limiter Removal, and that’s going to hurt. Gadget decks sometimes have a hard time on turn 1 because many builds don’t have strong defensive monsters to open with—summon a Gadget, set a spell or trap, and let things play out — but Boot-Up Soldier is a viable set if you want to hide what you're playing for a turn, or just need to play defensively.

Next, we’ve got Stronghold the Moving Fortress. This is more of a “fun” card than a practical card, but it also has its uses. It’s a trap, but once activated it is summoned to your field in defense position and treated as a monster. If you’ve got all three Gadgets out, congratulations! You’ve netted yourself some 3000 ATK back-up. This one’s probably most useful in the OTK build, where it can be used as extra stall or as part of your KO. (What will Limiter put it up to? Oww . . . 6000 ATK.)  If you can fulfill the condition to get it out with 3000 ATK, you'll want to activate it in the opponent’s end phase—that way, you’ll be able to switch it to attack position for your turn. What fun!

If you can switch your brain from Gadgets to Gears for a moment, we’ll take a look at what the deck has to offer for this type.

Ancient Gear Support

Ancient Gear decks have had lots of cards designed for them already, but not enough to tempt that many players. It hasn’t been a deck type that attracted much attention before, but there are some intriguing new options in Re-Volt, so who knows? Maybe it’s time to fulfill your secret Dr. Crowler instincts, and build yourself an Ancient Gear deck! There are some daring deckbuilders out there who are always looking for something to tinker around with, aren’t there? Well, here’s what the new deck is going to give you to work with:

A lot of the Ancient Gear monsters act like “mini Jinzos” that prevent spell and trap cards from being activated when they attack. In my opinion, the real star is Ancient Gear Engineer. It’s a level 5 Machine—a bit like Breaker the Magical Warrior except searchable with Giant Rat and able to break something every turn it attacks. What’s more, it will negate and destroy any trap card that targets it, and your opponent cannot activate any spell or trap cards until the end of the damage step! You’ll drive people crazy with this card. They can’t use Sakuretsu Armor, they can’t respond with Scapegoat or Enemy Controller, and they can’t use Call of the Haunted to bring in a bigger monster to fend off your attack. Those cards will have to just sit there while you pick them off with Engineer’s other effect, and since many players will forget they can’t activate spells and traps when it attacks, you’ll know exactly what’s sitting back there.

Since it won’t negate and destroy spells that target it, you’ll be able to support its 1500 ATK with cards like Rush Recklessly. You can always use Limiter on it as well. Try it out with other aggressive cards like Hydrogeddon and see what you think! For total “back row” hate, team it up with Gigantes—Engineer is an Earth type, so it can be removed from the graveyard if your opponent tries to kill off Engineer and replenish his or her spells and traps.

There are a few new spells you might want to try out too. Ancient Gear Workshop will let you search out the exact Ancient Gear monster you want. Ancient Gear Tank equips to an Ancient Gear monster to give it a 600 ATK boost. What’s more, when the Tank is destroyed and sent to the graveyard, it nails your opponent for 600 damage. Opponents hate things like that, and they’ll hate it even more when you stick it on Ancient Gear Engineer. Or you can give it to Ancient Gear Beast if you’ve got a Cyber Dragon problem that needs dealing with.

Ancient Gear Explosive will let you blow up any of your face-up Ancient Gear monsters, to deal direct damage equal to half of the destroyed monster’s ATK. Sometimes all you need is that last little bit of damage, and it really packs a wallop with Ancient Gear Golem. You can annoy your opponent even further with Ancient Gear Fist—it gives any Ancient Gear monster it’s equipped to a sort of D. D. Warrior Lady/Drillroid effect, destroying any monster that battles with it at the end of the damage step. It’s not bad with Engineer after he’s already picked off some of the opponent’s back row, and it could deter an opponent from attacking him.

Gadgets or Ancient Gears . . . Gadgets or Ancient Gears . . . can’t make up your mind? Well, you can play a combination of both! There are some big showy monsters in the deck that tie both themes together—like this next card for instance. It’s big, it’s cool-looking, and if you like delivering combo-driven death to your opponent (and don’t mind reading card text with a magnifying glass), you might like to give it a go!

It’s (echo effect, please) Ancient Gear Gadjiltron Dragon, and it’s got a lot of effects to memorize. It’s a two-tribute monster, and if you use a Gadget as one of the tribute monsters, you’ll gain a bonus corresponding to the color of the Gadget tributed. Each different color gives a different effect, so you’ll need to pay attention to what you’re doing. All by its own self, this Dragon has the “when this card attacks, your opponent can’t activate spells or traps until the end of the damage step” effect, which makes it nice, but if you tribute a Green Gadget to bring the Dragon out, it’s even better. That will give you a 3000 ATK piercing monster that doesn’t care about Sakuretsu, Book of Moon, or Enemy Controller. You should all know by now how I feel about piercing damage—it’s the best darn damage there is. Especially when your opponent has to eat it!

We’ve just got time for the last stop—reprints! We look forward to reprints, right? You won’t be disappointed, because there are some great ones in this deck. Some of them we’ve seen before, some of them are new, but whatever! We’ve got reprints for everyone! Hurrah!

Gear Golem the Moving Fortress: This was previously an ultra rare in Ancient Sanctuary and a super in Dark Revelations Volume 2, where it was hard to pull. If you want to try it out you’ll be happy to get a reprint, because you probably traded the other ones, didn’t you?

Heavy Storm and Mystical Space Typhoon: These are in almost all the Structure Decks, but, hey, you use them in nearly every deck you build, and it’s always nice to have more. I laugh every time I look at that poor cow.

Limiter Removal, Enemy Controller, and Pot of Avarice: These are a special treat for players who missed Champion Pack: Game One, which included all three as rares. The first Champion Packs didn’t make it to a lot of places, so here’s another chance for players to get their first or extra copies of these cards. Limiter Removal has been reprinted several times, but more copies of Enemy Controller and Pot of Avarice are very nice to have.

Ultimate Offering, and two (count them, two) copies of Sakuretsu Armor, oh yeah! These two traps are great reprints because they’re both very Gadget-centric. You can really never have enough Sakuretsu Armor cards, and most Gadget decks will want to run three. Ultimate Offering is now limited to one, so if you lost yours ages ago, you can get a nice fresh new one without having to go hunting under your bed.

Ancient Gear Castle and Ancient Gear Golem are handy inclusions for players who’d like to try Ancient Gears. These cards were both only available as holos previously.

Well, that’s what you have to look forward to. If you want a copy of this deck, you’re going to have to get out there and look, because there are a lot of players eager to get their hands on it. I think most are going to be buying it in multiples to get the maximum use out of the Gadget monsters, so you might as well anticipate a shortage and get yours quickly. There’ll doubtless be a lot of discussion about cards from this deck in upcoming event coverage, as well as the regular columns of the other writers, so you know where to go to see what people are doing (and hopefully spark some ideas of your own). Enjoy!