Oh, how I love Rescue Cat.

The fun thing about this ferocious little feline is that it can be used in so many different ways. While I adore the various incarnations of Cat’s Pajamas (a deck that uses Ojama Trio, Rescue Cat, and Gyaku-Gire Panda) that so often find their way into my testing gauntlet, the kitten can also create free discard fodder with The Wicked Worm Beast, or it can be used as part of a high-risk OTK. The latter is sometimes the most devastating, and though the limitation of Last Will knocked the Cat off the radar for many duelists, reader Jehd D. is giving it a shot!

Okay, this is a pretty interesting OTK deck. It’s based on Rescue Cat; that’s right, Rescue Cat! The combo aims to clear the field with the removal cards and use Rescue Cat to special summon two Milus Radiant cards. Then Premature Burial or Last Will can be used to bring back the Cat or summon another, digging out a third Milus Radiant and Des Wombat for a whopping 8500 damage in direct attacks.

But the flaw of the deck lies in Milus Radiant coming to hand before the combo goes off. That can be patched up with Pot of Avarice or Magical Mallet, but it’s still kind of sticky. So please Jason, fix my deck. It wins about half of its games right now, but its performance depends on draws.

—Jehd D.      

Since Premature Burial can fill in for the old school build’s second and third Last Will, we’ve got the basis of a solid strategy. Here’s the version of the deck that Jehd submitted to me. I took the liberty of giving it an adorable name.

The Whole Kitten Caboodle—40 Cards

Monsters: 20

1 Jinzo

3 Cyber Dragon

3 Rescue Cat

3 Milus Radiant

2 Des Wombat

3 Giant Rat

3 Nimble Momonga

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

Spells: 11

1 Last Will

1 Premature Burial

1 Heavy Storm

1 Graceful Charity

1 Magical Mallet

2 Lightning Vortex

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Swords of Revealing Light

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

Traps: 9

1 Royal Decree

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

2 Dust Tornado

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

1 Ring of Destruction

Jehd has the outline of a competitive deck built around this concept, but the problems he’s running into are common: he gets pounded if he doesn’t draw the right cards, and the win becomes far more difficult to secure when he draws Milus Radiant early on. My fixes revolve around speeding up the key combo, and letting the deck win out of situations it originally couldn’t.

First up, several of the cards being used here aren’t necessary. While Jinzo stops traps from interrupting your key play, you don’t need a tribute monster to create that situation. Three Cyber Dragon cards aren’t terribly important either, since the deck never needs to harass the opponent with non-Beast attackers if it works the way it should. Spirit Reaper is a nice stall card, but it takes up valuable real estate on the field and could (in conjunction with a second monster) clog things up enough to prevent your combo from working. I’ll be dropping all of those monsters, as well as the second Des Wombat.

Mystical Space Typhoon will be dropped for something more efficient, and Swords of Revealing Light will be traded for a better defensive card. Two Lightning Vortex cards are great against an opponent who summons every monster he or she plays, but they’re useless against set monsters. Royal Decree and Dust Tornado won’t be needed by the time I’m finished here, and the pair of Bottomless Trap Hole cards will be replaced by something more universally useful.

Whew! That quick round of cuts freed up fifteen card slots, which sounds like the perfect amount of room for what I’ve got in mind. First up, I want to add some monsters that will help the deck get to its key cards. Morphing Jar is a definite must for any combo-centric deck, but another good addition is a playset of Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu. The Iron Blacksmiths will let us search out Premature Burial, giving us five ways to draw into Premature or Last Will. Currently there’s only one target for Kotetsu’s search effect, but I’ll be adding another in order to ensure that he stays useful.

One Gyaku-Gire Panda definitely has a place here, for those situations where you have the combo, but the opponent still has one set monster remaining. The Panda has a lower base ATK than Des Wombat, but it can create wins where the Wombat can’t.

The last monster I want to add is Magician of Faith. This deck has several key spell cards in its lineup, and it’s going to be graced by a few more by the time I’m finished. Being able to reuse those cards (especially if they’re discarded by Morphing Jar) will be a valuable ability.

The first spell I want to add is Giant Trunade. It won’t just clear out bothersome traps; it will also combo with Premature Burial. If the deck loses a Milus Radiant or Des Wombat to the graveyard, it can bring that card back and still abuse Rescue Cat with Premature. Trunade and Magician of Faith will allow for the double or even triple use of Premature Burial, making the deck more resilient.

Ekibyo Drakmord will be the second “hit” for the three Blacksmiths, providing a renewable source of monster removal and stall power. That’s going to be important, because I’ll be adding three copies of Messenger of Peace to the deck in order to ensure that it survives long enough to draw (and execute) its key combo.

“But Jason!” you cry. “What if the opponent sets five monsters? Then the combo will never work!” That’s true: we need a clear field (or close to it) to win with the Rescue Cat OTK. While Ekibyo Drakmord, Lightning Vortex, and several other cards can’t destroy face-down monsters, a new card from Cyberdark Impact can. Flash of the Forbidden Spell is exactly what this deck needs to create big openings. It’s also a huge surprise, since the average opponent will respond to your lock by dropping as many cards onto the field as possible once he or she hits the maximum hand size. From there, Giant Trunade and Flash of the Forbidden Spell set you up with an open field to swing into.

Lastly, whenever I’m playing a dedicated OTK I like to balance the significant risk in doing so by using some hard negation—the more versatile the better. The reality is that this deck will probably never win through regular battle scenarios, so we need really powerful control cards to handle potential problems like D. D. Warrior Lady. We can recover from losing a Milus Radiant or similar monster to the graveyard, but things become darn near impossible if one gets removed from play instead. With that in mind, three Solemn Judgment cards seem like a very solid addition to finalize the build.

Here’s what the list of changes looks like:

-1 Jinzo

-3 Cyber Dragon

-1 Des Wombat

-1 Spirit Reaper

-2 Lightning Vortex

-1 Swords of Revealing Light

-1 Mystical Space Typhoon

-1 Royal Decree

-2 Dust Tornado

-2 Bottomless Trap Hole

+1 Gyaku-Gire Panda

+1 Morphing Jar

+3 Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu

+1 Magician of Faith

+1 Giant Trunade

+1 Ekibyo Drakmord

+1 Flash of the Forbidden Spell

+3 Messenger of Peace

+3 Solemn Judgment

The fixed build of the deck is as follows:

The Whole Kitten Caboodle—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards

Monsters: 20

3 Rescue Cat

3 Milus Radiant

1 Des Wombat

1 Gyaku-Gire Panda

3 Giant Rat

3 Nimble Momonga

1 Sangan

1 Morphing Jar

3 Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu

1 Magician of Faith

Spells: 13

1 Last Will

1 Premature Burial

1 Heavy Storm

1 Graceful Charity

1 Magical Mallet

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Ekibyo Drakmord

3 Messenger of Peace

1 Giant Trunade

1 Flash of the Forbidden Spell

Traps: 7

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Mirror Force

1 Ring of Destruction

3 Solemn Judgment

A regional-killer? Probably not. But this deck’s a blast from the past that can really hold its own in local tournaments, and with some practice, it can definitely chalk up some wins. (And frankly, if you’re not winning with something adorable like Rescue Cat, it doesn’t even count as a real victory to me.)

Your opening is pretty obvious: if you have the combo, just set a monster and then sweep up next turn. If you don’t, then setting Giant Rat or Nimble Momonga is ideal. Try to create a wall of fur between you and whatever’s currently trying to bash your life points.

If you have Messenger of Peace then you’ll want to use it. With that said, leaving it in your hand for a turn or two in order to deploy all of your Momongas or special summon Rescue Cat with Giant Rat can be a good idea. Once Messenger is on the field, you’ll want to back it up with Solemn Judgment: the average opponent will assume that a single Heavy Storm or Mystical Space Typhoon will be enough to clear Messenger, and you can use that to your advantage. Remember, Messenger is being played here because it’s the one locking agent that you can lift the moment you’re ready to attack: just stop paying for it when the time is right. In the meantime, remember that recruiters, Sangan, and several others will still be able to attack you.

Beware Mystic Swordsman LV2, but remember that you have several monsters that can destroy him. He’s a choice target for Ekibyo Drakmord, and he really doesn’t care for Ring of Destruction or Mirror Force either. Swordsman can change the shape of the duel, but he’s relatively easy to play around once you see him hit the table.

Mastering Solemn Judgment is the key to success with this deck. Knowing what to use it on will often be the difference between winning and losing, so consider all of your moves very carefully when it’s on the field. Yes, its primary function is to protect your lock, but it can also be used in the early game to stop a blocking trap, prevent the summon of a troublesome monster, and just about anything else.

If you’re looking to have some fun (and score some utterly embarrassing wins), this is the best way to do it! Nothing says “I owned you” like Rescue Cat, and this is the one deck that can drop the kitty victory as early as the first turn!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Working on a deck for the new Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.