I’ve noticed that the last five decks profiled on New Grounds have included copies of Chaos Sorcerer, one of the undoubted shining stars of the format. Because I’m generally a fan of including powerful strategies in any mixture of cards that support them, Sorcerer was difficult to ignore in the past few articles. Each of the profiled decks featured a healthy balance of Light and Dark monsters that traditional Chaos Return variants couldn’t access, so splashing the top tier archetype’s trump card seemed only natural.

It takes a truly remarkable, memorable, and beautiful face to make an experienced duelist willingly give up the powers of a stud like Chaos Sorcerer. Thankfully, the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG has provided that face already. It’s Rescue Cat, and we’re going to build a top-class deck around the beguiling, round feline.

Creating Advantage Through the Rescue Cat Deck

Rescue Cat is an interesting critter that places a temporary condition on the field of two level 3 or lower Beast monsters. The three cards that spring readily to mind with this strategy are Gyaku Gire Panda, The Wicked Worm Beast, and Nimble Momonga. The fact is that the card was completely ignored by all but the savviest duelists upon release in Flaming Eternity, and the three monsters that it searches have also languished in obscurity. While Panda showed some prowess in the Scapegoat-dominated format of a year ago, it has disappeared since the limiting of the quick-play spell. The Wicked Worm Beast has been buried in the first Kaiba starter deck for years, providing the prototype for the Spirit mechanic but never serving any use in any deck whatsoever. And while Nimble Momonga is the most decorated of the lot (having appeared in the Cyber-Stein OTK deck), it’s far from popular.

So what does Rescue Cat do, in conjunction with its best Beast friends? The Panda can destroy almost every flip effect monster in the game with additional piercing damage, or take down huge threats like Cyber Dragon, provided there are three monsters on the field. It serves as the primary aggro mechanic. Bringing two out against a field of Sheep tokens and a monster will give you 5100 points of damage, almost enough for a one-turn kill. Worm Beast, on the other hand, will return to your hand at the end phase before Rescue Cat’s condition can trigger. You can use the Worm Beast for many purposes from that point on, including Graceful Charity bait. And finally, Nimble Momonga provides field presence and life points.

A triggered Rescue Cat might bring out a Momonga and a Worm Beast to the field. In the right situation, you’ll have two face-down Momongas and a Worm Beast in the hand at the end of your battle phase, all for the cost of one card. Now factor in the powerful deck-thinning you get from the Cat, coupled with the wonderful situations it can set up for all sorts of tricky uses, and you have the basis for a new archetype!

Build: The Big March of Small Animals

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Create advantageous situations through Rescue Cat to generate field and hand presence.

2) Utilize self-replacing monsters to lower the cost of tributes and card effects.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Giant Rat

2) Rescue Cat

Constructing the Monster Lineup of the Rescue Cat Deck

This time, we’ll organize the group into monsters that work with Rescue Cat (and the three copies of the card itself), monsters that work within the general Earth theme, and solid unthemed support.

The Small Animals That Will March:

3 Rescue Cat

3 Nimble Momonga

2 Gyaku Gire Panda

2 The Wicked Worm Beast

The optimal play (with or without Creature Swap in hand) is to immediately pull two copies of Worm Beast to the field, unless you can ensure a Nimble Momonga hit to bring two more to the field. Because Worm Beast is such a terrible card outside of Rescue Cat, you need to rid your deck of it as soon as possible. Drawing it at any point constitutes a failure, since it basically works as a wasted draw phase. Having said that, the rewards given by a successful Rescue Cat use easily outweigh the risks. Grabbing two Worm Beast cards will create an advantageous trade and instantly fill your hand.

Earth Support:

3 Giant Rat

1 Exiled Force

1 Injection Fairy Lily

Giant Rat can lead into Injection Fairy Lily and Exiled Force in emergencies, but you’ll definitely want to fish out Rescue Cat as soon as possible. You’ll more than likely have a card like Last Will or Creature Swap, or a tribute monster in hand. In these cases, Rescue Cat is the best search. It will then bring out either monsters like Nimble Momonga or cards to thin like Panda or Worm Beast. A play such as Rat into Cat, then Cat into a Worm Beast and a Panda, then tributing the Panda for a Monarch, should be common.

General Support:

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Spirit Reaper

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

1 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch

1 Treeborn Frog

The use of four tribute monsters is easily supported by the copies of Cat. An additional Treeborn Frog will be used to support the line. The sole copy of Spirit Reaper is necessary both for field presence and to provide a hand disruption search option with Last Will. The rest of the support cards are self-explanatory.

The Spell and Trap Support for our Furry, Adorable Automaton of Ferocity

Again, I’m going to start with spell and trap staples and fill the rest out with themed support.

Spell Staples:

1 Confiscation

1 Graceful Charity

1 Premature Burial

1 Snatch Steal

2 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

Themed Spell Support:

2 Creature Swap: The heavy use of self-replacing monsters, Worm Beasts, and searchers enables us to easily support two copies of Creature Swap.

1 Scapegoat: At once providing a wonderful buffer zone of defense and working in conjunction with our Swaps, this card is quite necessary.

1 Last Will: Again, this card is very well-supported within the theme. Exiled Force, tribute summons, and Rescue Cat will all trigger its effect.

1 Pot of Avarice: The Rescue Cat build is probably the best Avarice-supporting archetype in the game due to its easy discarding of monsters. Also keep in mind that the card helps future activations of Rescue Cat find the best pets for the job.

1 United We Stand: Absolutely essential. It will lead to pumps, at minimum, of 1600 ATK. Throw in a normal summon, in addition to the normal Rescue Cat, and you have a 2400 ATK pump for the price of one card.

Trap Staples:

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Mirror Force

Themed Trap Support:

2 Royal Decree or Dust Tornado: This is purely a judgment call based on your play style preference. If you are more of a control player, use Dust Tornado. If you wish to move aggressively, use the Decrees.

Expected Match-ups with the Best Decks in the Format

Rather than being a top-flight deck at the bottom of the barrel, I prefer to think of the Rescue Cat build as a casual play deck at the top of its class. While it can certainly make the Top 8 at a Regional in the hands of a great player, you should pause before taking it to a challenging event like a Shonen Jump Championship. The overwhelming deluge of Chaos Return matches will make it difficult to place in the Top 8.

However, the deck is incredibly solid against the different Chaos variants. Its three copies of Momonga and Rat each effectively counter the numerous Creature Swap variants that have been popping up. Access to either Decree or Dust will allow you to cancel with flipped Dekoichis across the board, wiping out the advantage that your opponent might take for granted. And your huge tribute monsters coupled with Lily make it difficult for your opponent to establish solid field presence. If Decree/Tornado and Mobius can stop the Return win condition, the match-up is very favorable.

The play style is all about conserving presence while simultaneously thinning the deck. Rescue Cat leads into three options that are always appropriate for the occasion. Learn to thin the deck of unneeded cards for the moment; you don’t want to tribute a Worm Beast or Momonga for that Monarch when Panda is the clear choice to sacrifice. Also learn to tribute summon in the main phase—if you can cancel a Momonga and bring two out, tribute one in main phase 2. This way, you lose no advantage and actually gain quite a bit from that Rescue Cat activation.

Having an effective six copies of Rescue Cat and Last Will makes it highly unlikely you’ll draw more than one Panda or Worm Beast in the opening hand. Drawing more than that amount is a mathematical catastrophe and will make it difficult to win. Aside from that minor nuisance, however, the deck is immensely stable and suffers from none of the dead draws that befall Chaos Return.

New Grounds Verdict: Consistent, solid, and stable. The deck might stumble against the continued pressure of multiple Sorcerers and Cyber Dragon cards, but the addition of four game-swinging power tributes and easy access to Creature Swap and Pot of Avarice swings the scale back in our favor. This deck is highly competitive in the hands of the skilled player who can discern when to battle, when to build field, and what to thin from the deck.