If you were to pick one deck that you considered “classic,” how would you go about making your decision? Would you look for one of the very first competitive decks or perhaps choose a deck that was popular when you first started playing? Some people might choose one of the major strategies from their favorite point in the game’s history as a representative of everything they enjoy about playing. For me, I would have to pick the first deck that I was truly successful with, which also happens to be the deck that most considered to be the “default” for people to bring to Shonen Jump Championships during the first six months using a Forbidden List. That deck is, of course, Warrior Toolbox. Given its importance to both the history of the game and the evolution of competitive play, it only seems right to consider it a truly classic deck. Even without its historical value, Warrior Toolbox decks have been continuously good from the moment that Legacy of Darkness was released. Sure, most people seem to prefer the explosive power of the Six Samurai these days, but there’s just no denying that a good Warrior Toolbox deck can be one of the most effective and powerful decks in every conceivable format.

As I mentioned above, Warrior Toolbox first became possible with the release of Reinforcement of the Army in Legacy of Darkness. Along with Exiled Force and The Warrior Returning Alive, Toolbox players had access to a wide variety of offensive options not available to other players who simply played beatdown strategies. With the release of Pharaonic Guardian a few months afterward, Warrior Toolbox gained one of its most powerful allies, Don Zaloog, which paved the way for seamlessly integrating hand control tactics backed up by Yata-Garasu into the repertoire of Warrior Toolbox. It was an easy fit considering that the main purpose of the deck had always been to overwhelm the opponent and leave him or her with no way to fight back. In fact, Warrior Toolbox always seemed to get the long end of the stick when it came to new card releases. Tins featuring Blade Knight and Command Knight were released, further increasing the power of Reinforcement of the Army until it all came to a head with D. D. Assailant. D.D. Warrior Lady had been Limited, but a new monster that served a very similar purpose and was also capable of delivering a severe beating in the process was out and available in threes. Eventually, D. D. Assailant was Limited, and Warrior Toolbox took a backseat up until Elemental Hero Wildheart and Elemental Hero Stratos were released. Now, we can have three Assailants again, three copies of Exiled Force, our Wildhearts and Stratos, and everything else that Warrior Toolbox has going for it. It’s amazing and old school and new age all at the same time, and I think it deserves another look before we go into previews for Gladiator’s Assault.

Monsters: 20

3 Cyber Dragon

2 Freed the Matchless General

3 Elemental Hero Wildheart

1 Elemental Hero Stratos

3 D. D. Assailant

1 D.D. Warrior Lady

2 Exiled Force

2 Don Zaloog

1 Sangan

1 Snipe Hunter

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 11

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

2 Pot of Avarice

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Shrink

1 Premature Burial

2 Lightning Vortex

Traps: 9

1 Mirror Force

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

3 Dark Bribe

3 Forced Back

Initially, when I thought about what single deck I would consider to be a classic, I was going to choose Counter Fairy. However, while I adore the Counter Fairy theme and still think that it’s awesome in the right hands, you don’t really get the same feeling playing it that you do when you play a deck like Warrior Toolbox. Still, that just inspires me to play counter traps in this deck to add some of my own flavor to the mix, and I think that the ones I’ve chosen are particularly appropriate. Right now, there are few methods available to limit your opponent’s cards in hand. Having a constant source of discard is very, very good right now, especially considering that many of the most powerful cards in the format involve a discard cost in order to be useful. Zombie Master is one such card, and pitching either it or the monsters needed to fuel it from the opponent’s hand can be absolutely devastating. More devastating, however, is eliminating powerful cards like Raiza the Storm Monarch and Lightning Vortex from the opponent’s hand, ensuring that he or she will have minimal ability to fight back against your Warriors. Even if the opponent does manage to activate Lightning Vortex or Mirror Force against you, it’s highly probable that you can just say no to it thanks to the first counter trap I’m using, Dark Bribe. I talked about Dark Bribe quite a bit last week, and I’ll talk about it more in the next installment of School of Duel because, quite simply, Dark Bribe is a metagame-altering card. Many decks that seek to win off a specific spell or trap card, such as Crystal Beasts with Crystal Abundance, simply cannot rely on their win condition anymore due to fear of essentially free negation.  

Returning to the excellence of hand disruption, Forced Back acts as a handy method of keeping the field clear for Don Zaloog while also acting as an effective (albeit potentially temporary) counter to Monarchs. Of course, he could wind up being a permanent counter to a given Monarch if Don gets lucky and hits that card out of the opponent’s hand. The drawback of Dark Bribe is also lessened if negating a card with it allowed Don to deal damage to your opponent. Of course, Forced Back has that awful habit of not working against special summons like Cyber Dragon, and that’s where the threat of Shrink comes in. Many players will avoid attacking a Don Zaloog that’s been played in attack mode so long as there’s a back-row card to support it since they fear Shrink. Zombie decks can get around it a lot easier than most others since they can empty their own hands to rush the field, but in theory, you should be trying to prevent this via discard before the Zombie deck gets a chance to do its thing. Even if that plan goes south, D. D. Assailant can help you out by providing a solid attacker and defender at all points of the game. He also has a handy potential interaction with Shrink that you might want to consider in case your Zombie opponent tries to swap you an attack-position Pyramid Turtle and attack it with the Assailant. Just Shrink the Assailant, and all of a sudden you’ve managed to push through some damage while removing your opponent’s Turtle from play and ruining his or her plans to completely hose you with Creature Swap!

My favorite inclusion in the deck is one that I initially added simply for more classic flavor: Freed the Matchless General. Back when Julia Hedberg did her level 3 judge interviews, I picked Freed as the card I identify with most. Freed was also a major selling point of the Warrior Toolbox theme at one time. After all, the only thing better than searching your deck for the right Warrior for the task at hand is being able to do so every turn via a 2300 ATK monster that negates any spell that targets him. Back in the day, that kept you safe from both Change of Heart and Snatch Steal, in addition to the multiple copies of Book of Moon and the negative consequences of your own Premature Burial. Nowadays, that’s going to protect you from opposing copies of Shrink, Brain Control, Book of Moon, Enemy Controller, and Soul Exchange, while fulfilling the same function of replacing your draw with the effect of Reinforcement of the Army every turn. If nothing else, it’ll make your opponent deck out faster than you in those tense, drawn-out duels. Freed also becomes even handier with Pot of Avarice, as you can shuffle in your spent Warriors, draw two cards, and then search them out again for immediate use when your turn rolls around. This particular Warrior Toolbox build places somewhat of an emphasis on disruption, but there are many other builds that you can create to make this work even faster.

We’re just a few short weeks away from Gladiator’s Assault, so make sure to catch up with the latest and greatest previews from the set—starting next week right here on Metagame.com! Get ready for your first glance at some never-before-seen cards, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu

NEXT WEEK: I could tell you, but . . .