It’s no secret—one of the most power-packed cards in the new Cyberdark Impact expansion is Justi-Break. With its printed text, it’s basically a second, third, or fourth Mirror Force, but with its current text it’s even better. If you haven’t seen the errata made to Justi-Break shortly after its release, here’s the card’s official text as it currently stands:
Activate only when your opponent declares an attack against a face-up Normal Monster on your side of the field. Destroy all monsters on the field, except face-up Attack Position Normal Monsters.
The original version would only destroy all face-up attack-position monsters (minus the normal monsters, of course). So while an opponent could develop their field by setting monsters and then only risk one as an attacker to lessen the impact of Justi-Break, you can’t do so anymore: even just one face-up attacker threatening a normal monster you control will be enough to wipe out an entire field of set Dekoichis and Tomatoes.
Ouch.
Despite all this impressive potential, many duelists can’t see how they could actually make Justi-Break work for them in a tournament. That’s unfortunate, because it’s really not that difficult to do if you put a bit of time into it. Reader Sam did just that when he created this week’s submitted deck for The Apotheosis. I’ll let him tell you about it!
Jason,
With the "Justi-Break" card having been released in Cyberdark Impact, there is serious potential for the revival of vanilla decks. Normal monsters have some serious support in this game with cards like Heart of the Underdog, Non-Spellcasting Area, Two-Man Cell Battle, Dark Factory of Mass Production, and Skill Drain. With Justi-Break now added to that list, it's high time I revived a vanilla deck that I used to run.
Enjoy!
—Sam P.
Sounds pretty cool. Sam is right: normal monsters have some truly great support cards, and in fact, one of the biggest challenges involved in building a deck around them is deciding which support cards to use. Here’s what Sam decided on . . .
Advent of the Normal—42 Cards
Monsters: 18
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
2 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
3 Luster Dragon
3 Insect Knight
3 Archfiend Soldier
2 Mad Dog of Darkness
2 Vorse Raider
2 Exiled Force
Spells: 16
2 Non-Spellcasting Area
2 Heart of the Underdog
2 Two-Man Cell Battle
2 Dark Factory of Mass Production
2 Emergency Provisions
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Graceful Charity
1 Premature Burial
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Nobleman of Crossout
Trap Count: 8
2 Skill Drain
3 Justi-Break
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
Sam is using a ton of cards that support normal monsters. In fact, he’s using six different cards total, all of which are being employed in multiples. That’s actually the main problem I see in this decklist: it looks like it’s trying to do far too much all in one deck. I need to pare it down to a simpler set of strategies before we can get it winning tournaments.
First up, I don’t think this is the place for Skill Drain. A normal monster deck can never produce the amount of synergy with Skill Drain that one focused on Dark or Earth monsters could, simply because those two attributes offer you a ton of great effect monsters that can get around Drain’s negation. On the Dark side, Mystic Tomato, Newdoria, Sangan, and Dark Mimic LV3 can all still be used while Skill Drain is on the field, because their effects trigger in the graveyard. The Earth ranks offer up Giant Rat, Exiled Force (which is actually present here), and Pyramid Turtle. Decks built around either monster family seem superior to a bunch of vanillas. With Skill Drain gone, there isn’t any reason to run Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast either, so I’ll cut the two Sam is running.
This deck can’t support Heart of the Underdog adequately either. Sam’s e-mail to me was actually quite long (too long to be included here), and went through the deck card by card. In that portion of the e-mail, Sam stated that Heart of the Underdog would get him an extra draw about a third of the time, since roughly a third of the deck is normal monsters. While that’s statistically true, we have to remember that the first extra draw is only going to balance out the card spent by placing Underdog on the field in the first place. Realistically, we’re probably looking at four to six turns before this thing actually nets us an “extra” draw. Since opponents will already be siding spell and trap removal against this deck the moment they see Justi-Break, the odds of an Underdog staying on the field for that length of time are extremely low. The fact that I’ll be reducing the count of normal monsters in the deck a bit makes this an even easier drop.
Two-Man Cell Battle is the last card I want to cut. I’m going to be removing a few level 4 normals from the deck, and even if I wasn’t, I’m not sure it’s worth a card just to deploy a couple extra monsters. Fields change fast in this format, and while you might want to over-extend one turn, you may not wish to on the next.
That leaves us with Justi-Break, Non-Spellcasting Area, and Dark Factory of Mass Production as our reasons for running normal monsters. That sounds like three very good reasons to me, so they’ll make up the strategic basis of our deck.
With six continuous cards removed, the two Emergency Provisions no longer have much use. Like Fusilier Dragon before them, they’re easily dropped from the deck. I’ll need a little bit more elbow room beyond that, so I’ll drop the four normal monsters with the lowest stats. By removing Mad Dog of Darkness and Vorse Raider I get the current deck list down to 28 cards, leaving me twelve deck slots to play with. That’s about how many I was aiming for, so it’s time to start adding cards.
One cool thing about Justi-Break is that you don’t have to run an all-normal deck to use it. Some effect monsters can dodge its wrath, and others just don’t mind being sent to the graveyard now and then. With Hydrogeddon and Scapegoat so big in this format, Asura Priest is incredibly useful, and its status as a Spirit means we can strike with it and then rescue it from the field before the opponent’s turn. Justi-Break doesn’t present a problem for it, so I want to go all-in and use three here. That’s a lot of Asura Priest cards, and it might be tough to deal with holding two, but opponents won’t see it coming and it’s a frequent target for Sakuretsu Armor anyway.
Next we have Sangan and Treeborn Frog. Under Justi-Break’s new text, either monster can be destroyed when it’s set on your side of the field and Justi-Break is resolved. However, neither monster really minds this situation: Sangan will get you a card to replace itself (provided you have one with 1500 ATK or less left in your deck) and Treeborn Frog will just hop back onto the field later on. Both of these monsters are useful on their own, but they’re especially good here because they’ll allow you to bluff as if you don’t have Justi-Break set when you actually do. “Who would set a monster when they have Justi-Break down?” You will, because you’re smart.
The only other monster I want to add is a pair of Summoned Skull cards. The Skulls are going to feed off of Treeborn Frog, and give us a reliable way of controlling (and by “controlling” I mean “wrecking”) Monarchs. Jinzo is also a big concern for this deck—he shuts down Justi-Break. So having something big enough to run him over is pretty awesome. Two is enough, especially since we’ll be able to recycle fallen Skulls with Dark Factory of Mass Production.
Man, I haven’t played with that card in years!
Since Dark Factory is one of our remaining lynchpin cards I definitely want to run three. In my mind it’s probably the best reason to run normal monsters, tied with Justi-Break. It’s free cards, which I’ll gladly take when you offer them. Dark Factory of Mass Production lets this deck present a ruthlessly aggressive offense, because if you lose multiple monsters to Torrential Tribute or Mirror Force, you can still push ahead next turn after getting your lost cards back. In addition, any duel-simplifying effects that trade one of your cards for one of the opponent’s (such as Smashing Ground or a Justi-Break used on a single monster) are going to leave you in a good position since you’ll simply have more cards than the opponent. Dark Factory of Mass Production is amazingly good, and is a perfect example of powerful themed support.
The last four cards I want to add are all control-oriented. They’ll help keep Jinzo under wraps, ensure a clear path for our beatsticks, and trade off cards to let us take full advantage of Dark Factory. Two Smashing Ground cards give simple, versatile monster destruction, while Enemy Controller provides another answer to Scapegoat, a defensive option, and a ton of chaining tricks. Finally, one Lightning Vortex provides even more mass removal, and gives us a way of using extra Asura Priest cards, a Sangan with nothing to search for, or even extra normal monsters retrieved with Dark Factory.
The changes to the deck are as follows:
-2 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
-2 Mad Dog of Darkness
-2 Vorse Raider
-2 Heart of the Underdog
-2 Emergency Provisions
-2 Two-Man Cell Battle
-2 Skill Drain
+2 Summoned Skull
+1 Sangan
+1 Treeborn Frog
+3 Asura Priest
+1 Dark Factory of Mass Production
+2 Smashing Ground
+1 Enemy Controller
+1 Lightning Vortex
The final deck list looks like this!
Advent of the Normal—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 19
2 Summoned Skull
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Sangan
1 Treeborn Frog
3 Asura Priest
3 Luster Dragon
3 Insect Knight
3 Archfiend Soldier
2 Exiled Force
Spells: 15
2 Non-Spellcasting Area
3 Dark Factory of Mass Production
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Graceful Charity
1 Premature Burial
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Nobleman of Crossout
2 Smashing Ground
1 Enemy Controller
1 Lightning Vortex
Trap Count: 6
3 Justi-Break
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Mirror Force
This deck wants to hit the ground running, and it’s incredibly aggressive. As a result, it doesn’t have any recruiters to open with. Your best opening moves are a set Sangan or Treeborn Frog, but all the normal monsters have good DEF values too, so you can set or summon those in a pinch. If you have Justi-Break, go ahead and summon the normal monster you want to bring out. Dare the opponent to push with Cyber Dragon and another attacker.
From the early game on, you just want to keep attacking and trading off cards. Even if you find yourself with a card or two less than your opponent at times, have faith that those Dark Factories are on their way. In addition, remember that in the long run, the total combined ATK of all your monsters is far higher than the opponent’s, so over a long period of time you’ll win more battles and stabilize the field in your favor. All of your removal functions as an equalizer for those times when the opponent has something with more than 1900 ATK.
How playable is the deck? Well, let’s look at the top decks from SJC Anaheim. Dark World is built around the concept of swarming with multiple monsters. If it tries that without first removing your Justi-Break, it basically loses. Creature Swap Control centers around a pair of Creature Swap cards, which can’t even be activated if Non-Spellcasting Area is on the field and all you have out are normal monsters. If you do happen to have something for the opponent to take, it’s probably Sangan or Treeborn. You’ve got a pretty good matchup against Monarchs since you hit so hard and fast, and Summoned Skull gives you an edge as well, provided it’s coming down after Zaborg and not before. Out of all the Top 8 decks from Anaheim, the only one that this deck has a bad matchup against is Kirk Leonhardt’s Dimensional Fissure build, but that’s still manageable in the later games of a match.
If you’ve been craving some Justi-Break action, I think this is the way to get it. While I’m sure other duelists will come up with some crazy (and deadly) deck concepts, this is how I like to run it, and so far it’s been pretty successful for me. Normal monsters are a lot more versatile than they might appear to be, so if you try this deck out, consider creating your own normal strategies too. The cards I cut from the deck—like Two-Man Cell Battle and Heart of the Underdog—can all be exceptionally good in the right deck. Justi-Break supports virtually any normal monster strategy you can create, so it’s truly worthy of experimentation. Try it out yourself!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Working on a deck for the 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.