Woo! There’s nothing like building a deck with a slew of new cards, and Soul of the Duelist is packed with tons of really playable stuff. A lot of tribal decks—decks that focus on using one type of monster, like Warriors, Spellcasters, Beasts, and so on—get a big boost out of the new Advanced format. With the easy-access search cards such as Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan gone, Warriors’ abilities to grab specific monsters become more valuable. By the same token, cards like Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel are also more useful now. The same goes for spell and trap removal. With Mystical Space Typhoon now limited to one copy per deck, certain type-specific spell and trap removal cards go up in play value.
Pretty cool! Anthony sent in the following deck, and I really like its potential. It stood out not only as a great use of some new cards, but also as a deck where some old cards really shine. Here’s what Anthony had to say about it . . .
Dear Jason,
This is one of the decks I plan on building for the new post-ban tournament environment. I hope you like it.
-Anthony R.
Anthony was pretty brief. It’s always best when the deck submitter says a bit about their strategy, but his deck is really worth a look, so here’s the list. Note that if you don’t name your deck, I reserve the right to name it something really dorky, as I did here.
Horus and His Dragon Pals
42 cards
Monsters: 18
3 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
1 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8
3 Spear Dragon
2 Lord of D.
2 Element Dragon
1 Cyber Jar
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Magical Scientist
1 Sinister Serpent
Spells: 19
3 Level Up!
2 The Flute of Summoning Dragon
2 Smashing Ground
2 Stamping Destruction
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Painful Choice
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
2 Book of Moon
1 The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension
Traps: 5
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Royal Decree
 This deck’s pretty nice! The Horus line gives the Element Dragon +500 ATK for a total of 2000 ATK. The Lord of D. + The Flute of Summoning Dragon combo allows you to get in some special summons for an over-extension with any of your dragons, or to get out Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6. Stamping Destruction offers some nice type-specific spell and trap removal, and Cyber Jar (though a bit random) provides the massive draw power this deck needs to go off early. The ability to search your deck for Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 with Level Up! allows you to run just one copy of the dragon. Once Horus hits the field, you can use a Royal Decree to basically lock down all of your opponent’s options while you still use your spells . . . very nice.
I do have a few concerns with the deck. The first is reliably pulling off the Lord of D. + The Flute of Summoning Dragon combo. In my opinion, though you don’t need the combo to win, you’ll always do best if you can get the combo in the early or mid game. Cyber Jar helps with drawing, but since you can’t run Witch of the Black Forest or Sangan, I honestly think that we need to make it easier to get at Lord of D. We could do this either by adding a third Lord of D., or by adding something that can search for it.
My second concern is this deck’s positioning in the early game, especially on the opening turn. In its current incarnation, there are no particularly strong opening monsters. You have only the half-decent Sinister Serpent and Cyber Jar.
That said, I’m going to solve both problems by adding three Mystic Tomato to the deck. They’ll provide resilience, board presence, three good opening monsters, and a great way to pull Lord of D. When you don’t need Lord of D., you can always use Mystic Tomato as a defensive wall or as a nice counter to Injection Fairy Lily (which will likely see an increase in play in the Advanced format).
Before I can add anything, however, I need to strip some cards. I’m going to remove the two Element Dragons. It’s a great card, but I don’t think it’s as useful as Spear Dragon in most situations, and I think it’s better to take out some of the deck’s more synergy-dependant cards to bring in some high-utility monsters. If decks in your metagame are relatively slow to develop, feel free to rotate one or both of the two Element Dragons back into the deck. Try testing the deck without Element Dragon first, though.
Next, I’m going to remove the one copy of The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension. Yes, it’s the only way to get Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 back if it’s sent to the graveyard, but the deck is currently running only one copy of Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension and has no way to search for spells. There are other cards you’d rather search for anyway, and in order for Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension to be useable, you need to have four separate cards (Horus LV6 and LV8, Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension, and Level Up!) in the right place at the same time. The odds of that happening are slim, so Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension is out.
I’m also going to take out Breaker the Magical Warrior. Breaker is a great card, especially in the Advanced format where his talent for smashing spells and traps is highly valued, but running Breaker in a deck that’s already running Cyber Jar can make for a self-defeating mix. Since we really do need to keep the deck to 42 cards, one of the two needs to be cut. The deck already has four pieces of spell and trap removal, so I don’t think we’ll miss Breaker all that much. Definitely place it in the side deck just in case—it can always be subbed in over a copy of Spear Dragon if you come up against a lockdown deck with Gravity Bind or a total lock deck using Ojama Trio and Spatial Collapse.
Lastly, I’m going to chuck Torrential Tribute. Mystic Tomato is a counterintuitive card for Torrential Tribute, and since you’re already committing so much to individual high-level monsters, I don’t see Torrential Tribute being much more than a contingency card. Though Torrential Tribute is generally great in the Advanced format, I’d personally keep it to the side deck in this particular strategy. Ring of Destruction, the two Book of Moons, Cyber Jar, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Magical Scientist, and the two Smashing Grounds (which are going to be a near-staple in Advanced) offer plenty of monster destruction. Also, minimizing traps in a deck that ideally uses Royal Decree all the time will help minimize the number of dead cards you have in hand.
 So, I’m adding the three Mystic Tomato. To give them a lot more utility and make the deck unpredictable, I’m also adding one copy of one of my favorite cards—Cannon Soldier. Cannon Soldier does a lot for this deck. It can give your early or mid-game offensive push the extra steam it needs to be game-ending. It can double as monster removal when coupled with Snatch Steal or Change of Heart. It can convince an opponent you have something dangerous in your spell/trap field, and as an opening move it can throw off an opponent by making them think you’re running machines.
That’s a biggie. Machine decks will be huge in Advanced. They lost absolutely nothing specific to their strategies beyond Chaos Emperor Dragon - Envoy of the End, and that’s easily replaced by Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning. A turn 1 face-up Cannon Soldier with a face-down spell or trap behind it will send an opponent two clear messages. The first is: “I am playing a Machine deck.” The second is: “Attack Cannon Soldier and something is going to mess you up.” It’s an awesome card and a single copy fits perfectly in this deck.
Lastly, I’m going to add one more Flute of Summoning Dragon. Again, it’s not that I think the deck needs Flute to survive, I just think fits really, really well.
So, the total changes to the deck are as follows:
-2 Element Dragon
-1 The Graveyard in the Fourth Dimension
-1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
-1 Torrential Tribute
+3 Mystic Tomato
+1 Cannon Soldier
+1 The Flute of Summoning Dragon
This was not, overall, a dramatic fix. I think the original deck was built exceedingly well and just needed some assistance with its opening and its consistency. I love how ridiculously well defended Horus was in the original build—Book of Moon is a great card in any deck, but it’s a truly dominant and strategic one here. So, here’s what the final deck looks like:
Horus and His Dragon Pals - Jason’s Fix
42 cards
Monsters: 19
3 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV4
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
1 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8
3 Spear Dragon
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Lord of D.
1 Cyber Jar
1 Cannon Soldier
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Magical Scientist
1 Sinister Serpent
Spells: 19
3 Level Up!
3 The Flute of Summoning Dragon
2 Smashing Ground
2 Stamping Destruction
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Painful Choice
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
2 Book of Moon
Traps: 4
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Royal Decree
The deck’s opening plays are Mystic Tomato or, in a real pinch, Sinister Serpent or Cyber Jar. If you’re playing with someone who is not yet familiar with the deck, you can always open with Cannon Soldier to really mess with your opponent’s head.
 The deck can end the game at pretty much any time, thanks to Cannon Soldier. Remember that if you get a great start and take a few thousand life points on turns 1 or 2, you can always combo Magical Scientist with Cannon Soldier to do away with your opponent. The overall goal, though, is to bring out Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV8 through either Level Up! or the effect of Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6. You always want to be threatening your opponent with the possibility of Horus hitting the table on the next turn. That’s going to keep your opponent playing reactively, and once he or she is playing your game, you’re at a huge advantage.
You can win by progressing through the Horus line and locking down your opponent with Horus’s effect and Royal Decree, or you can win in the way a conventional dragon deck would—using recursive cards like Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, along with the Flute of Summoning Dragon + Lord of D. combo, to make a huge attack. Again, Cannon Soldier is really going to reinforce the latter strategy. Most dragon decks are sitting ducks after they make their over-extension. In most cases, Cannon Soldier allows you to dish out enough extra damage after that over-extension to take the game.
For side decking, I’d suggest the cards I mentioned above—two Element Dragons and Torrential Tribute are a good start, along with Breaker the Magical Warrior. From there, I’d suggest Twin-Headed Behemoth to continue the dragon theme and give you another strong opening card, as well as an extra copy of Stamping Destruction. Two Giant Trunades will help against lockdown decks, which are likely to gain a lot of popularity in the Advanced format. Ceasefire will help with both lockdown and Last Turn decks, as well as several other fringe archetypes.
Thanks for sending it in, Anthony! It’s a great deck, and hopefully my suggestions will make it that much better!
-Jason Grabher-Meyer |