Whew.

The banned and limited lists for the Advanced format are up, and starting this week we’re going to look at a lot of decks for the new environment! I received a few submissions a couple of months ago that I felt were best to defer until the new format became a reality, and like clockwork, Kevin was on hand to resubmit his deck. Here’s what he had to say about it.

You said to resend this deck when we learned of the banned list. Well, I waited, and with the banned list announced along with the new restricted list, I feel it's time to once again give you my original deck: Shift to Darkness.

Origin of the Deck: This deck started when I first heard about some of the original decks that were being made, the main one being Clown Control. I decided to begin looking at cards and trying to find a card that would stand out for its own deck.

When Legacy of Darkness finally hit the scene, I was buying up packs to get cards for my Warrior deck. But while doing this, I was drawn to a zombie card called Patrician of Darkness. I was interested in the idea of a monster with a shifting effect.

With the arrival of Vampire Lord, I knew I could finally begin to make a competitive shift deck that was also a hybrid Zombie deck. The idea was simple: Use only cards that would continually shift the game, be it through bringing out monsters, changing targets, or inflicting life point damage.

Over a year after hearing about Clown Control and getting my first Patrician of Darkness, the deck based around him and his vampire brother and sister-in-law was born.

Strategy and Combos: The idea behind this deck isn't pure winning. Instead, it is to leave your opponent with a feeling that they are on shaking ground, never knowing what to expect—if an attack would go through or if a monster would stay dead. In other words, the idea is to shift the control of the game away from my opponent and give it right back to me, over and over.

The combo I like to pull most of the time is to special summon Patrician of Darkness while having a wall monster on the field, be it Reflect Bounder, Ryu Kokki, or Giant Orc. While they try to decide what they want to do, I will be busy building up my army of Dark Zombies, using Mystic Plasma Zone to power up my 2000 ATK Zombies to a Jinzo-esque level of power. I also have spell and trap cards designed to shift monsters from different areas (graveyard to field, hand to field, from one side of the field to another), to shift my opponent’s cards to the graveyard, and to shift his or her attacks away from me.

Finally, I have included some anti-control cards, like Regenerating Mummy and Night Assailant, to help ensure that I can deal with any control deck that tries to take me down, while having control cards like Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower and Vampire Lord to give my opponents a taste of their own medicine.

Thanks for taking a look at it!

-Kevin, from Montreal, QC


Thanks, Kevin! Here’s the decklist Kevin sent in.


Shift to Darkness
42 cards

Monsters: 22
1 Vampire Lord
2 Patrician of Darkness
1 Ryu Kokki
3 Night Assailant
3 Regenerating Mummy
1 Reflect Bounder
2 Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower
3 Pyramid Turtle
2 Vampire Lady
1 Giant Orc
2 Archfiend Soldier
1 Magician of Faith

Spells: 14
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Mystic Plasma Zone
1 Enemy Controller
1 Tribute to the Doomed
1 Smashing Ground
3 Book of Life
1 Change of Heart
2 Call of the Mummy

Traps: 6
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Shift
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Waboku
1 Call of the Haunted

It’s a cool deck that looks like a lot of fun to play. I think it’s quite well built for its theme and focus, but there are a couple of tweaks that I believe would help it adjust to the Advanced format. I also think there are a few cool additions that can help the deck spin out even more surprises—deadly ones that can win games.

As usual, the first thing I want to do is make some room. I’m going to remove the pair of Soul-Absorbing Bone Towers from the deck because they’re a bit flimsy for the current monster set. Its effect can protect it nicely if the opponent has only one attacker, and Patrician of Darkness will obviously keep it out on the field. However, I’m not convinced that two of these are justified in this deck, especially considering the fact that we’re already high on the monster count. I like the fact that Vampire Lord and Vampire Lady can strip some key cards out of the opponent’s deck. Considering that Mystical Space Typhoon is now limited, deciding which spells to ditch can be a very difficult decision in Advanced play, and the Vampire effects are always good for removing a variety of traps. Again, the limited status of Torrential Tribute strengthens this initiative. So, Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower is out.

I’m also going to drop Call of the Mummy. Continuous spell cards are stronger in the Advanced format than they were before, considering the newly limited quantity of easy-access spell and trap removal. However, I think we could use these card slots in more effective ways that support the deck’s main game plan. I’ve also got a personal issue with including Call of the Mummy in most decks. I think it’s a limited-utility card that basically eats your hand as a result of over-aggressive play (and this is me talking—if you’ve ever played me, you know I’m Aggro-Boy). Considering the level of control this deck aims to achieve, I don’t think we ever want to be without a Zombie in play that would allow us to activate this card’s effect.

Surprise, surprise—I’m chuckin’ a Waboku, like I usually do. This deck has a lot of strong opening options from its monster set, including three Night Assailants, three Pyramid Turtles, Reflect Bounder, and Giant Orc. A lot of its single drops are highly controlling, often by offensive means, and considering that Raigeki and Dark Hole are not present in this format, monster removal on turn 1 (or any turn, really) isn’t as big of a problem. The defense given by Waboku isn’t needed here. Waboku is fired.

Tribute to the Doomed is fired, too. Don’t get me wrong—I love this card and have always played it when possible, despite most people thinking I’m crazy. I think it’s a perfect example of how TCGs are not purely an issue of math and card advantage, but also of guts and risk assessment. That said, we need space for Raigeki Break, and ousting this card doesn’t hurt much when you consider how similar the two cards are.

Finally, I’m ditching a Shift. Sure, it’s the deck’s namesake, and it can be useful, but I’m not convinced it can be that useful. I do think it makes a great one-of for this type of concept, but we can use the second card slot to fit in some other cool tricks. Normally an inconsistency in strategy would be undesirable, but here it’s a goal and an asset. So I’m going to ride that idea as far as I can and only keep one Shift in the deck.

Now I’ve got some space to work with. Like I said earlier, I’m adding Raigeki Break. Sure, you could rely on Giant Trunade or Dust Tornado for your spell and trap removal, but for the cost of a single Sinister Serpent (ideally), you can blow up anything on the field that looks at you cock-eyed. Raigeki Break is a high-utility card, and considering the lack of play Jinzo has seen in main decks recently, it’s safe to verge on double-digit trap counts in most metagames. Two Raigeki Break make the cut.

So does a Sinister Serpent, because we want it for Raigeki Break. But I also think it fits the deck’s theme, and if you have one out along with a Patrician of Darkness it can be ridiculously annoying. You can use it as a blocker while resting safe in the knowledge that when you need it for card advantage, you can always Patrician of Darkness or Shift over an attack to whack it.

I’m also adding a third copy of Mystic Plasma Zone. With spells and traps being harder to destroy, field cards are a lot stronger. Especially right now, since the Advanced format is so new and “the next big things” in spell and trap removal haven’t been accepted and ingrained into the deck building habits of most player groups. The deck needs Mystic Plasma Zone to dominate the field in aggressive ways—it’s great when Mystic Plasma Zone is on the table, but the deck plays defensively when it doesn’t have it. The deck doesn’t need Mystic Plasma Zone to win, but it does need it to completely overwhelm the opponent in an instant and remain unpredictable and deadly. I figure that running three is a good move.

My personal favorite addition to this deck is A Hero Emerges. I’m going to add a pair for a few reasons. First, it’s a powerful and underplayed card. It can win games, and opponents hardly ever see it coming. Second, it’s a fun card to play that can really surprise duelists, which means that it fits this deck to a tee. Third and most importantly, it’s disgusting when you use it to special summon Patrician of Darkness. Because A Hero Emerges changes the number of face-up monsters on the defender’s side of the field during an attack, it triggers a replay. That means that if the opponent goes to attack one of your smaller monsters that would be destroyed, you can activate A Hero Emerges and drop a Patrician of Darkness (hopefully). Then, when the opponent attempts to attack again, he or she no longer has access to the intended victim and must instead tangle with the Patrician or worse.

Finally, I’m adding Ceasefire. No matter how many games I win with this card. and no matter how many times I shout its praises, people don’t see this card coming. Out of the 21 monsters in this deck, 19 are Effect monsters, so regardless of what the opponent is playing, you’ll be able to dish out a good amount of damage. Lockdown decks using Gravity Bind and Messenger of Peace are going to be very popular in the Advanced format (watch for a Warrior-oriented version of the classic Clown Control deck to rip up tournament play), and Ceasefire destroys those decks. It’s a great way to finish the game, a great way to open the game, and a great way to lean on the opponent at any time in between. Normal monsters are a lot less prevalent now than when Ceasefire first hit the environment, which means it’s even better than it used to be.

Let’s look at the total changes:

-2 Soul-Absorbing Bone Tower
-2 Call of the Mummy
-1 Waboku
-1 Tribute to the Doomed
-1 Shift

+1 Sinister Serpent
+1 Mystic Plasma Zone
+2 A Hero Emerges
+1 Ceasefire
+2 Raigeki Break

Here’s the final version of the deck:

Shift to Darkness—Jason’s Fix
42 cards

Monsters: 21
1 Vampire Lord
2 Patrician of Darkness
1 Ryu Kokki
3 Night Assailant
3 Regenerating Mummy
1 Reflect Bounder
3 Pyramid Turtle
2 Vampire Lady
1 Giant Orc
2 Archfiend Soldier
1 Magician of Faith
1 Sinister Serpent

Spells: 12
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Mystic Plasma Zone
1 Enemy Controller
1 Smashing Ground
3 Book of Life
1 Change of Heart

Traps: 9
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Shift
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ceasefire
2 Raigeki Break
2 A Hero Emerges

As I mentioned, the deck has quite a few strong opening plays. It can make the tricky opening of Pyramid Turtle, or open with a Night Assailant or other strong attacker to deter aggression on turn 1. From there, it utilizes its wealth of tricks to keep the opponent off balance, hopefully building a field presence so that Patrician of Darkness can be summoned and the fun can really begin. Though the deck doesn’t need Patrician to win, it becomes a game-winning card at the mid-game point when both players are low on cards. You want to strip your opponents of cards—not minding if the same happens to you—while at the same time getting into their heads and making them second-guess themselves. Then, once options for both players are depleted, you summon one of the big guns and revel in the fact that the opposition is powerless to do anything against you. Book of Life covers the times when your opponent has countermeasures, and Mystic Plasma Zone turns all of your monsters into aggression-deterring thugs. It’s pretty cool!

Thanks for sending it in, Kevin. I hope the fix helps!

-Jason Grabher-Meyer


Have a deck to submit? Want to say hi? Get in touch with me via email at Jason@metagame.com.