It’s nearly September, and that means that a brand new format is rapidly approaching. Unfortunately, that means that this is the last time I’ll be able to talk about the current format, which is a shame considering that the past six months have been quite a treat for duelists. Just think about it. There have been nine different Shonen Jump Championships, each won by a different type of deck. We also saw a switch to a Top 16 playoff format for our major events and an increase in the number of prize cards awarded from two to four. On top of all that, the new card releases just keep on getting better, starting with Strike of Neos and going on through Tactical Evolution. Heck, we’ve even received exclusive world premiere cards just for attending Sneak Previews! These have truly been excellent months to be a duelist, so here’s hoping for more of the same in the next six.
On to business! There’s one deck that I’ve been meaning to write about for almost a year now, but I’ve never gotten around to it. Every time I’m about to finally sit down and talk about this deck, something huge comes up like a Sneak Preview or a cool, new deck that I feel compelled to immediately write about. But now, I’m faced with a unique week in which the talk of the town has been the release of the new Forbidden and Limited list over on www.yugioh-card.com. Turns out, this gives me a perfect opportunity to both talk about this deck and unveil its new form at the same time!
Here’s the basic reasoning behind the strategy: huge swarms of monsters properly backed by spells and traps win games. Therefore, being able to withstand the swarms and fight back with a field-clearing effect that leaves you with a huge monster on the field should also win games. Demise, King of Armageddon can clear everything except himself off the field, but he presents the problem of both being a Ritual monster and requiring a hefty life point payment in order to do his thing. We can do better than that. Who here remembers Levia-Dragon - Daedalus?
Cards from Invasion of Chaos tend to just get better and better as time goes on, and Levia-Dragon is no exception. In fact, it actually got a huge boost between the release of Force of the Breaker and the new Forbidden and Limited list. It can be brought out with only one tribute thanks to A Legendary Ocean, it has 2600 ATK (more than any Monarch and Jinzo), and finally, it can activate an effect that will wipe the field of everything but itself by paying a negligible cost. (Well, I suppose sending Umi to the graveyard isn’t really “negligible,” but considering that I don’t actually have to play the Umi card and the fact that my field spell would be destroyed by Levia-Dragon anyway, I don’t feel bad about shipping it off at all.)
Here’s what my Levia-Dragon - Daedalus build looks like, post-September 1st.
Monsters: 20
3 Levia-Dragon - Daedalus
3 Nightmare Penguin
3 Warrior of Atlantis
3 Hydrogeddon
2 Crystal Seer
2 Abyss Soldier
1 Sangan
1 Treeborn Frog
1 Magician of Faith
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells: 16
3 A Legendary Ocean
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Level Limit - Area B
1 Brain Control
1 Book of Moon
2 Enemy Controller
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Premature Burial
1 Scapegoat
3 Wave-Motion Cannon
Traps: 4
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Gravity Bind
1 Call of the Haunted
To be honest, the new Forbidden and Limited list does wonders for this deck. One of the main things that makes it so nasty is the fact that A Legendary Ocean drops the level of all Water monsters by 1 while they’re in your hand on or on the field. This means that Levia-Dragon - Daedalus, which is normally level 7, drops to level 6 and thus only requires one tribute. While this is often frustrating for the opponent (since you can resurrect Treeborn Frog and then drop A Legendary Ocean and tribute for Levia-Dragon), it has another side effect that makes fans of Card Trooper, Cyber Phoenix, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive shudder with fear. A Legendary Ocean makes Hydrogeddon a level 3, 1800 ATK monster that can swing through Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B. Throw in one of the three copies of Nightmare Penguin and you can bump that to a 2000 ATK Hydrogeddon terrorizing the field while your opponent’s monsters (sans Card Trooper) are stuck on the sidelines getting struck down and watching you special summon more copies of Hydrogeddon. Level Limit - Area B and Gravity Bind also help the secondary burn win condition represented by Wave-Motion Cannon. The thing about the new list that helps out so much is the fact that the one card that could both swing under the stall and be run in threes that people did run in threes was Limited to one per deck. Troop-Dupe could simply annihilate this deck in the same way it blew apart every other deck when executed successfully. Now, it’s a lot less likely that Card Trooper will even make an appearance in any given game since Snipe Hunter is more often the search to make with Sangan. This allows the triple threat nature of the deck to shine. Apply pressure with Hydrogeddon and Abyss Soldier, force the opponent into action with Wave-Motion Cannon, and then, after he or she commits to the field, wipe it clean with Levia-Dragon - Daedalus and swing for 2600 a turn.
It should be noted that this deck does not run any copies of Mother Grizzly. That makes things a bit trickier when it comes to fetching Treeborn Frog, but you aren’t likely to want to use the effect of Treeborn Frog in the early game. In general, you’ll want to try to ride a Wave-Motion Cannon for a few turns in the early to mid game to force your opponent into action. Hopefully, he or she won’t be able to remove the Cannon and you’ll be able to fire it off before Raiza the Storm Monarch can bounce it back to the top of your deck. If Raiza does bounce the Cannon, you likely have cards elsewhere on the field to help you deal with the Monarch. It’ll set your draw back a turn, but hey, that’s what Raiza does.
Other than the Cannon, ideal early game plays would include Nightmare Penguin (to fend off some non-Cyber Dragon aggression and repel attackers like D. D. Assailant), Crystal Seer (to help sort out your draws), Treeborn Frog, and Sangan. That’s seven desirable openings if you’re going first. If you’re going second, I’d consider a copy of Hydrogeddon to be a reasonable opening play if you feel that your opponent’s opening move is weak. Remember, there are two copies of Nobleman of Crossout allowed right now, and paranoia around setting monsters is high. Between the players running Six Samurai and The Six Samurai - Irou, and everyone who decides to main both Crossouts, there are going to be a lot of face-up monsters to take advantage of. One monster in particular that is likely to be summoned face up more often than not is Apprentice Magician, since he is absolutely vital to making the Apprentice Monarch deck work. By all means, feel free to punish that play in such cases. Apprentice Magician players will be forced to tip their hands early when faced with Hydrogeddon or else run the risk of being swarmed to death before they can set up their combos.
Your combos, on the other hand, are likely to be set up primarily in the mid-game. With a combination of your Water monsters and Wave-Motion Cannon, you can likely get your opponent to commit four or five cards to the field in an attempt to flush you out before anything truly unfortunate happens. Unfortunately for the opponent, thanks to Warrior of Atlantis, A Legendary Ocean is just a discard away, and if he or she doesn’t have Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado the moment you drop it, it’s probably going to be followed by a 2600 ATK Sea Serpent that can wipe the field. This is another department in which Levia-Dragon won out thanks to the new Forbidden and Limited list. The fact that Smashing Ground and Brain Control were both Limited makes the longevity of your Levia-Dragon more of a sure thing. After your opponent has committed to the field and you’ve wiped it, he or she is likely to only have one or two cards left in hand. Maybe one of them is removal, maybe not, but he or she will be drawing for Limited cards to get your big beater off the field while you likely have two more copies of A Legendary Ocean and two copies of Warrior of Atlantis waiting to help you wipe the field again next turn. With the proper set-up, you can completely lock your opponent out of the game unless he or she succeeds in drawing specific Limited cards from the deck.
By the time you’re reading this, school will likely be back in session for most of you. It certainly will be for me, and I’m looking forward to getting a lot of dueling in under the new format to help kick back and relax. Speaking of school, the School of Duel is gearing up for a return, so keep a look out for it! The Shonen Jump Championship in College Park, MD will be the first true test of our players to see how quickly they can learn the ropes of this format. It’s shaping up to be an exciting September, so until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu
NEXT WEEK: the return of Magical Trevor.