If there’s one thing I can’t get enough of right now, it’s Harpies. When Hysteric Party was released in Lord of the Storm, I was immediately hooked: I knew there was a deck there, even if the deck in question wasn’t quite ready to dominate.
Then Harpie Queen hit the game and I knew it was time to dust off the Harpie strategy. With three more monsters that could be special summoned through Hysteric Party, Harpies were ready for competition, and the fact that Harpie Queen has a sweet 1900 ATK just made her an even better fit. Add to that her ability to be pitched to the graveyard at will, plus her search effect, and you have one single card that revolutionizes an entire deck theme.
Both Crellian Vowler and Jerome McHale have created Harpie decks here at Metagame.com over the past months, but a reader from Kansas figured out a new strategic direction that I really like. Let me show you the letter he sent me . . .
Being a huge fan of piercing effects, and seeing them pretty much ignored in the current metagame, I decided to re-focus my Harpie deck. While surfing through my binder, I caught glimpse of the full effect of Enraged Battle Ox and realized that Winged Beasts were included in his piercing coverage!
Running this deck can be described simply . . . AGGRESSION!!! Harpies’ Hunting Ground and Raiza the Storm Monarch clear the way. When they don’t, Winged Rhynos dodges traps. And even if my opponent manages to destroy my Harpies, it simply sets up Hysteric Party for the win. The effect of Enraged Battle Ox coupled with the many ATK-boosted monsters in this deck, allows me to punish anyone trying to hide behind walls such as Spirit Reaper, Treeborn Frog, or Sheep tokens. The biggest threat I saw to my deck was Jinzo and Monarchs. So taking another clue from Jerome McHale and his side-deck suggestions, I decided that I would main two copies of Mask of Restrict. This piece of tech shuts down an incredible number of decks nowadays. I also threw in a couple copies of Shrink to help cope with the eventual “Cyber Dragon” encounter. In testing, Card Trooper’s boosting often left it short of my already boosted monsters, and that’s when it didn’t fall immediately to Chain Disappearance.
Any thoughts or improvements would be welcomed.
Thanks,
—Greg C.
Overland Park, KS
Here’s the decklist Greg sent me:
Really Pointy Harpies—40 Cards
Monsters: 20
3 Harpie Queen
3 Harpie Lady 1
2 Raiza the Storm Monarch
3 Flying Kamakiri #1
2 Enraged Battle Ox
2 Winged Rhynos
1 Hunter Owl
1 Silpheed
1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
1 Chaosrider Gustaph
1 Sangan
Spells: 11
2 Harpies’ Hunting Ground
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Elegant Egotist
1 Premature Burial
2 Shrink
1 Confiscation
Traps: 9
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Mask of Restrict
1 Icarus Attack
2 Hysteric Party
1 Mirror Force
2 Chain Disappearance
Greg’s deck looks pretty good! It has a solid infrastructure backed by plenty of search effects, all the necessary pieces of his combo, plus a lot of tech choices that help increase the number of tricks the deck can pull off. But like so many other decks I receive, I think all that tech might actually be slowing Greg down. Some cards here are just a bit too complicated and situational, so by replacing them with some effects that have higher utility, I think we’ll be able to improve Greg’s build.
First up, I want to remove a few monsters that don’t fit our theme as well as they could. I’m a huge fan of Silpheed: it’s an awesome monster with a great effect supported by respectable ATK, and I usually find most opponents just don’t know how to deal with it. However, it’s not a Winged Beast, and I really want all my attackers to work with Enraged Battle Ox. This concept just won’t work if my central combo isn’t playable. In addition, because this deck runs two copies of Hysteric Party, I’m wary of playing a card that forces me to remove a Wind monster from my graveyard. Sure, I could remove Twin-Headed Behemoth or Flying Kamakiri #1, but those won’t be available every game when I draw Silpheed, so sometimes I’ll be forced to remove a Harpie for it. That creates conflicts, which is something I want to avoid.
Chaosrider Gustaph is similar. Sure, it’s searchable with Flying Kamakiri #1, but it’s also a Warrior. Since it can’t combo with Enraged Battle Ox, I’m going to have to drop it. The fact that it’s a mid-game and late game card that can be useless early on made this one an easy decision. I already have cards like Hysteric Party that aren’t good until a bunch of turns have passed, and they’re simply more important than our pal Gustaph.
Next up, I’m going to remove one Elegant Egotist and both copies of Shrink. While I think Egotist is a great way to build a swarm, I won’t always want to do that, and I don’t want to draw Egotist when I’m not ready for it. Running one copy is enough: two can present a liability, and the card’s utility just isn’t high enough to warrant running more than one. Shrink suffers from a similar problem: it’s great when you have a monster to defend yourself with, but terrible when you don’t. With all the Trap Dustshoot cards going around nowadays, I would prefer my monster removal to work independently of other cards.
Finally, there are the tech traps. While Mask of Restrict and Chain Disappearance can both be clever picks, I’m concerned about what Greg expressed in his letter: that Monarchs and Jinzo were his main problem. Flat out, if Mask of Restrict isn’t working to stop those cards, then it isn’t the right fit for this deck. As good as the Mask can be due to the vast number of cards it can shut out, it creates complicated game states instead of simplified ones. We really want to simplify the duel as quickly as possible, because that lets Hysteric Party (or anything with an ATK boost) become a game-winning card. Currently, Mask is working against one of this deck’s central goals, and from Greg’s comments, it’s not performing the way he wants it to. I’m going to remove both copies in favor of something else.
Chain Disappearance concerns me as well. Again, it’s great against certain monsters, but useless against others. This deck isn’t running some of the most basic, popular monster removal cards, and while that’s certainly no crime, I think it suffers as a result. I’ll be trading both copies of Chain Disappearance for something with higher utility.
I’m only going to drop the nine aforementioned cards, so let’s start adding a few! Remember, my goals are to increase the deck’s access to its Enraged Battle Ox combo, as well as help Greg handle Monarchs and Jinzo.
First up, a third copy of Enraged Battle Ox is a must. There’s no reason to skimp and play two instead of three. Even if you topdeck multiple copies of Battle Ox, it’s still a 1700 ATK beatstick that can pierce through your opponent’s defense-position monsters, so it’s not as if extra copies become dead weight. As soon as Enraged Battle Ox hits the field, it has a bull’s-eye (ironic, I know) right on its back, so playing the maximum number of copies permitted will increase our access to its effect many times over.
Moving on, I can’t over-emphasize how good Hunter Owl can be. On its own, it’s a searchable 1500 ATK monster. Alongside Harpie Lady 1, it goes to a ridiculous 2300 ATK, taking down Cyber Dragon with ease. It’s another Winged Beast for Enraged Battle Ox, and with a successful Hysteric Party, it can go as high as 3900 ATK before applying the bonus from Harpies’ Hunting Ground. That’s nuts, so running a second copy seems like a good idea.
Another Raiza the Storm Monarch will finish out my monster lineup. Synergy with Harpie Lady 1, Harpies’ Hunting Ground, and Icarus Attack make this a no-brainer: it’s an amazing card in almost any deck, let alone one that can support him with additional effects. Clearing the opponent’s spell and trap zone is important for what we’re trying to accomplish, and Raiza gives us another method by which we can accomplish that.
The rest of my additions are selected to accomplish one goal: kill stuff. Hysteric Party and Elegant Egotist give me the ability to swarm the field. Hunter Owl gets really big as I noted moments ago, and I can win very quickly provided I have the ability to deal damage. Enraged Battle Ox can take care of set monsters and let me exploit them to my advantage, but I’ll still have problems with face-up monsters, especially Jinzo and Monarchs as Greg noted.
So two Smashing Ground cards, a Torrential Tribute, and a Ring of Destruction provide the generic monster removal I feel this deck needs to really rock face. These cards all have high utility and even though we’re running cards that let us maintain field presence (potentially conflicting with Torrential Tribute), remember that Winged Rhynos and Hysteric Party can each work with Torrential in their own ways.
Beyond that, two copies of Pulling the Rug flesh out the last two cards of the deck. I don’t know how many times I’ve added Pulling the Rug to a deck lately, but only Trap Dustshoot rivals it. While Mask of Restrict stops what might be a larger range of monsters than Pulling, it doesn’t do anything to coerce the opponent into the game state I prefer. It lets the opponent keep all of his or her options—deferring them but not stopping them outright—and that always makes me nervous. In addition, Mask of Restrict really didn’t jive with this deck’s use of Heavy Storm, a questionable inclusion but one I opted to keep. Pulling the Rug stops Monarchs, Gadgets, and Stratos, and that seems like a good thing here.
And with those changes made, we’re finished! Here’s a list of the revisions:
-1 Silpheed
-1 Chaosrider Gustaph
-2 Shrink
-1 Elegant Egotist
-2 Mask of Restrict
-2 Chain Disappearance
+1 Enraged Battle Ox
+1 Hunter Owl
+1 Raiza the Storm Monarch
+2 Smashing Ground
+1 Torrential Tribute
+1 Ring of Destruction
+2 Pulling the Rug
The final build of the deck looks like this . . .
Really Pointy Harpies—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 21
3 Raiza the Storm Monarch
3 Harpie Queen
3 Harpie Lady 1
3 Flying Kamakiri #1
3 Enraged Battle Ox
2 Winged Rhynos
2 Hunter Owl
1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
1 Sangan
Spells: 10
2 Harpies’ Hunting Ground
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Elegant Egotist
1 Premature Burial
1 Confiscation
2 Smashing Ground
Traps: 9
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Hysteric Party
1 Icarus Attack
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Pulling the Rug
1 Torrential Tribute
With thirteen monsters that can take advantage of Enraged Battle Ox’s effect, this deck will now have an easier time stomping its opponents early. The addition of the third Battle Ox will help to make this a reality, meaning we won’t be waiting around or failing to deal damage.
This deck’s ideal opening plays are a set Flying Kamakiri #1, a set or summoned Sangan, or a set or summoned Twin-Headed Behemoth. Make the latter two calls based on your matchup: you’ll almost always want to set Sangan or Behemoth, but it’s especially good to do so if your opponent is running Zaborg the Thunder Monarch or Exiled Force. In addition, a set Winged Beast plus Icarus Attack is acceptable as well, especially if it leads into a Harpie Lady plus Elegant Egotist on the following turn.
In the early game, you want to press for damage as often as possible. Use your spell and trap removal here to ensure that your attacks aren’t interrupted: only play Harpies’ Hunting Ground when you know it will result in a card being destroyed through an immediate Harpie summon. In addition, don’t be afraid to play your monster removal early to force through more damage. This deck can afford that type of aggression.
Try to save Hunter Owl for a time when you can support it with Harpie Lady 1 and Harpies’ Hunting Ground. Don’t play it too early if you can avoid doing so, because on its own, its 1500 ATK is just begging to be wrecked by Banisher of the Radiance or something of a similar size. Speaking of Banisher, watch out for it: this deck will be able to handle it with far greater ease now that it has more monster removal, but it can still hurt you and render four of your cards useless (Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, and the two copies of Hysteric Party). If Banisher ever appears, be sure to prioritize its destruction at all costs.
If you’ve played Harpies recently but found they lacked a certain punch, this is the build you’ve been waiting for. It has so many tricks and synergies that it will take a bit of time for you to play it effectively, but once you do, it will be totally worthwhile. T-Hero (Destiny Hero beatdown) and Perfect Circle lose to this deck’s constant piercing damage and high ATK, while the right plays can see you laying out Trooper Monarch as well. Tournament competitive? Definitely. Try it out at your local or Regional after a bit of practice, and you’ll see what I mean.
—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.