I love playing alternate formats in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, but it’s usually pretty hard to find someone willing to play a weird draft variant who isn’t me. As such, I really like cards that generate game conditions so drastic that they change how the game has to be played. It’s like playing in an alternate format, but I can spring the situation on unsuspecting duelists in tournaments and they won’t be able to run away. For the life of me, I can’t think of a card that creates weird game states that’s better than Ectoplasmer.
Ectoplasmer is a pretty simple continuous spell: when it’s on the field, each player has to tribute a face-up monster at the end of his or her turn (face-down monsters are safe). Then the opponent takes damage equal to half the ATK of the tributed monster. So if you’re attacking, you’re actively losing cards and field presence, but you’re dealing a ton of damage in the process. It’s really weird to play against for the first time, and it tends to generate a lot of game 1 wins.
Today’s contributor built his deck around exploiting Ectoplasmer’s effect. Here’s what he had to say about it . . .
Hey there!
I’ve always kinda been a fan of burn cards. Stall burn is always my favorite because it’s fun watching the other person squirm while you peel away his or her life points. It’s very Blofeldian. But Yu-Gi-Oh! is such an aggressive game that maintaining field control is very difficult, so I’ve had to set aside the burn cards for a while.
That is until I came across an older card: Ectoplasmer. It strikes me as a good card in this format, especially against Monarchs, since it really seems to keep the Monarch player from getting anything to tribute. And if, by chance, that Monarch does come out . . . it’s not going to stay around long.
The idea behind the deck is to activate Wave-Motion Cannon (or more than one!) early in the game, and then go for as much damage as possible by staying aggressive with Berserk Gorilla and the two Warwolfs (Pitch-Black is me metagaming against my store in particular where a lot of traps tend to be played), as well as scoring more damage with Stealth Bird. Through attacks and Ectoplasmer, I can average 1500-2000 damage a turn, then I can activate Wave-Motion Cannon for a third- or fourth-turn win. Using Ectoplasmer keeps my opponent from being able to mount much of a long-term defense since whatever he or she summons will be gone by end of turn, whereas I can keep feeding it with Malice Doll of Demise. I haven’t played this deck yet, since I’m still collecting all the cards for it. Any suggestions will be most appreciated.
Thanks!
—Cyd D.
I actually had to cut a few details from Cyd’s e-mail for the sake of space, but suffice to say, he’s put a good deal of thought into his deck. Here’s the list he sent me:
Exploiting Ectoplasmer—40 Cards
Monsters: 19
3 Berserk Gorilla
3 Gene-Warped Warwolf
3 Pitch-Black Warwolf
2 Malice Doll of Demise
2 Exiled Force
2 Stealth Bird
1 Mystic Swordsman LV2
1 Des Lacooda
1 Sangan
1 Cyber Dragon
Spells: 11
3 Wave-Motion Cannon
3 Ectoplasmer
2 Twister
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Snatch Steal
Traps: 10
3 Magic Jammer
2 Waboku
2 Sakuretsu Armor
2 Dust Tornado
1 Ultimate Offering
Whoa! Cyd’s deck is kind of all over the place. It’s got some stall cards, some aggressive monsters, some burn stuff, and a ton of spell and trap removal. There’s even Des Lacooda. I’m not sure why: everyone’s favorite dead camel is just kind of hanging out. The deck’s general lack of focus is the first thing I’d like to improve upon. Cyd’s got some great ideas, but they need to jive a bit better for this deck to work. I also want to use some of the new cards from Force of the Breaker. Several of the secret rares from that set look like they were designed specifically for use with Ectoplasmer, so I really don’t want to leave them out.
My goals are clear: I want to tighten up the deck and give it a bit more synergy, while maintaining Cyd’s aggressive game plan. I really think his strategy can work, so let’s get to it!
First up, I’m going to drop all three Berserk Gorilla cards and the three Gene-Warped Warwolf cards. While both are useful in the right situation, Force of the Breaker opened up some cool possibilities that are centered on aggressive monsters, so removing some of the big attackers makes sense. It’s basically just a rotation of his like-minded cards for mine.
Next, I’ll drop Mystic Swordsman LV2 and Des Lacooda. Neither of these monsters seems to fit the pace of the deck. I can understand where Cyd’s coming from: he has some big attackers, and the Swordsman will remove defenders from their path while Des Lacooda can turn itself face down to dodge Ectoplasmer, too. But each monster is very combo-dependant, and neither accomplishes much on its own—we can’t even defend them adequately. I’ll be refocusing these card slots into more aggressive monsters with higher utility.
The last monster I’d like to remove is one copy of Pitch-Black Warwolf. I’ll leave the other two since Cyd says they’re a good metagame read for his area, but I need one more card slot for monsters, and this is the easiest drop to make.
Moving on, I don’t think the spell and trap removal will be necessary. I’m going to drop Mystical Space Typhoon, both copies of Twister, and the pair of Dust Tornado cards. Defensive traps just aren’t all that popular at the moment, though these cards can certainly be added to the side deck if Cyd feels he needs them.
Ultimate Offering is promising, but conditional, and Waboku seems to belong in the side deck more than the main deck. My version of this strategy is going to be a bit more aggressive, so I don’t see Waboku being very helpful. Lastly, those two Sakuretsu Armor cards have got to go. If I were going to play a defensive card-for-card trap, I’d play Widespread Ruin for its superior performance against Cyber Phoenix.
So with nineteen cards dropped, I think I have ample space to make improvements. I want to start off with a suite of cards that I think this deck dearly needs: three copies of Mist Archfiend and three copies of Giant Orc. Mist Archfiend is a lot like Majestic Mech - Ohka, except that when you summon it without tribute and it destroys itself in the end phase, you take 1000 damage. The good news is that if you tribute it off for Ectoplasmer first, you won’t incur any damage at all. A straight shot with Mist Archfiend will shave 2400 life points off your opponent’s total, and Ectoplasmer will cause another 1200 damage—a total of 3600 from just one monster in a single turn. Impressive stuff. Giant Orc is almost as good, and both monsters are Dark with 0 DEF. That’ll come in handy later.
Next up, I’ll be adding two more Cyber Dragon cards to the deck. Cyd’s already running one, but two more are a must for any Ectoplasmer strategy. They let you keep a monster on the field at the end of the turn, since Cyber Dragon can be special summoned so easily, and that’s really valuable. Having a big threat on the table forces your opponent to attack it and get rid of it, which means he or she is playing face-up monsters and thus playing into your hands.
Two copies of Snipe Hunter round out the monster lineup, giving me something to do with conditional cards when I don’t need them. Too many big monsters before I’ve drawn Ectoplasmer? They’re discard fodder, and the same goes for extra copies of Ectoplasmer or unnecessary Magic Jammer cards. Between Magic Jammer, Snipe Hunter, and the lone copy of Lightning Vortex, I have plenty of discard outlets to balance the low utility of some of my cards.
The first spell I’ll add is Recurring Nightmare, which lets you return two Dark monsters with 0 DEF from your graveyard to your hand. That makes for an instant boost in hand presence, and in this deck, a direct path to more damage. It’s also a nice way to balance out all those discard costs, so running one copy is a great idea.
Premature Burial will let me bring back those big monsters I give up to feed Ectoplasmer, and will allow big damage against the open fields this deck tends to create. Nobleman of Crossout will punish any duelist who tries to outplay Ectoplasmer by setting monsters. Scapegoat provides last-ditch defense, as well as some fodder for Ectoplasmer when I’d rather keep my monster on the field.
Magic Cylinder is awesome in this deck. If I can draw the opponent into my game—one of repeated attacks and tributes to Ectoplasmer—I can usually beat him or her simply by virtue of my higher ATK values, but Magic Cylinder makes things even worse for the opponent, turning a big shot to me into big damage for him or her instead. Then, the opponent still loses his or her monster to Ectoplasmer. Awesome stuff.
The last card group I’ll add is the traditional lineup of power-traps for this format. Mirror Force, Call of the Haunted, Ring of Destruction, and Torrential Tribute all fit well here—especially Torrential—so I’ll employ all four. This creates a much more predictable trap lineup than Cyd’s, but it’s also going to be more versatile in dealing with the average opponent.
With those cards added, let’s look at the list of total changes I made:
-3 Berserk Gorilla
-3 Gene-Warped Warwolf
-1 Pitch-Black Warwolf
-1 Mystic Swordsman LV2
-1 Des Lacooda
-1 Mystical Space Typhoon
-2 Twister
-2 Waboku
-2 Sakuretsu Armor
-2 Dust Tornado
-1 Ultimate Offering
+3 Mist Archfiend
+3 Giant Orc
+2 Cyber Dragon
+2 Snipe Hunter
+1 Premature Burial
+1 Recurring Nightmare
+1 Nobleman of Crossout
+1 Scapegoat
+1 Mirror Force
+1 Call of the Haunted
+1 Ring of Destruction
+1 Torrential Tribute
+1 Magic Cylinder
The final deck looks like this!
Ectoplasmer’s Electric Boogaloo—40 Cards
Monsters: 20
3 Cyber Dragon
3 Mist Archfiend
3 Giant Orc
2 Pitch-Black Warwolf
2 Snipe Hunter
2 Malice Doll of Demise
2 Exiled Force
2 Stealth Bird
1 Sangan
Spells: 12
3 Wave-Motion Cannon
3 Ectoplasmer
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Scapegoat
Traps: 8
3 Magic Jammer
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Mirror Force
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
The deck doesn’t really kick into high gear until you draw Ectoplasmer, but it can now hold its own until it gets there. The addition of the two copies of Cyber Dragon, Giant Orc, and Scapegoat give it a lot more longevity when the opening draw doesn’t go your way, and you can still deal some serious damage without Ectoplasmer on your side. Recurring Nightmare lets you get away with a level of aggression that wouldn’t be feasible otherwise.
Simplifying the game state can work in your favor, due to your big topdecks and the field-clearing power of Ectoplasmer. The fewer cards your opponent has, the less of a chance he or she will be able to deal with your continuous spell, and that’s something you should keep in mind when making play decisions that remove cards from the field. Simplification also helps Stealth Bird stick around.
You have very few, if any, good opening monsters. Setting Stealth Bird is viable, though your ideal play is definitely Malice Doll of Demise and Ectoplasmer backing it up. If you have that, you’re golden, but otherwise you’re going to have to improvise. You don’t want to take a big shot on your opponent’s first turn, but you also don’t want to lose a monster that could be important later. Always consider your openings carefully when playing this deck.
The early game and mid-game are where this strategy shines. The ability to drop Cyber Dragon and a 2200 ATK or 2400 ATK beatstick is quite formidable, and it’s not a play you should shy away from. If Ectoplasmer is online or you have Recurring Nightmare in your hand, you don’t need to play around Mirror Force and Torrential Tribute as much as other decks do: you can recover if you stumble into either trap. Still, this deck is not for the completely reckless. You want your potential damage to translate into, you know, real damage as often as possible, and that means presenting your smaller threats before the bigger ones in an effort to either sneak through hits or draw out your opponent’s answers earlier than necessary.
If you work it right, you’re looking at a big game of chicken played out in cardboard. The deck’s a blast to play, can be competitive in local tournaments, and will take your opponents completely by surprise. If you have some of the new secret rares and want to give them a try, this is the most entertaining way to use them, no doubt about it.
Thanks for sending it in, Cyd! Hopefully the fix helps.
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Got a cool deck that you think could benefit from some advice? Send me a decklist in the format shown in this article, along with your name, location, and a couple of paragraphs describing how the deck works. You can reach me at jdgmetagame@gmail.com.