First, though, I’d like to dig back through my mailbag and share some of the interesting letters I received in response to the last few decks I showcased.

Jeremiah Yang is full of great ideas for fans of the Agent deck!

Instead of using the Pikeru/Scapegoat combo, why not try the Hysteric Fairy/Scapegoat combo? Although you give up the constant life point gain when Pikeru is locked safely (behind) Messenger of Peace or Level Limit – Area B, you gain a bit of muscle and you basically have a life point gaining version of Cannon Soldier (or maybe Amazon Archer), which will allow you to play cards like Snatch Steal, Brain Control, and Creature Swap or possibly side deck them.

Jeremiah goes on to explain that Hysteric Fairy will also help to keep the number of monsters on your field at one, so that Burn decks can’t summon a Lava Golem to your field. In fact, he’s absolutely right. These Hysteric Fairy combos are an excellent way to play the deck, either in the main or side deck, and they drastically improve your win rate in the Burn matchup. With the new Forbidden list, however, the deck will have to undergo some serious changes in order to be successful in the new format.

“Orcasgt22” has his own ideas about the King of Dragons.

Tyrant Dragon owns, can’t argue that—but what about King Dragun? I'm curious why you didn't include a way to summon it (mainly by using Metamorphosis on Fusilier Dragon). Also, you said that Burst Breath is too destructive. Remember that Twin-Headed Behemoth with 1000 ATK is a good target for the card. Anti-Sheep Tech. I like the rest of the build.

Lots of people wondered why I didn’t include a way to bring out King Dragun. My answer? King Dragun is a poser! It’s not even a proper Dragon! Remember that King Dragun is a fusion of Lord of D. and Divine Dragon Ragnarok, making it not a real Dragon in my book. Gameplay-wise, Fusilier Dragon and Metamorphosis is a combo that I didn’t want to rely on, and I didn’t feel like throwing it in there just to have it. This build of the Dragon deck is based on delivering quick beatings, and I don’t want to be mucking around with Metamorphosis.

Additionally, with the dawn of the new format, Metamorphosis isn’t a particularly good option any more, so Fusilier is still out. What surprises me is that no one mentioned Mirage Dragon or Dragon’s Rage! I didn’t even remember that these cards existed until I read the article in print, and I immediately realized how good they’d be in this deck. I’ll have to come back to that one someday.

Finally, Dave made a comment about the Spirit deck that was ahead of its time.

You probably could have saved this article for after the October Forbidden/Limited list comes out. It might have a better shot at surviving in a new environment, and the way it's looking, October should be a very different environment.

No kidding, though I doubt he knew just how different the environment would be. “Spirits are always with you! Bwahahahaha!”*

One of the hardest parts of playing in a new format is figuring out exactly what’s important in that format. By that, I mean the things you need to pay attention to or maximize in order to stand the best possible chance of winning any given game. The previous format was all about holding as many cards in your hand as you possibly could, while simultaneously denying cards from your opponent. Monsters didn’t matter, as they could be easily blocked by Scapegoat or locked down by Thousand-Eyes Restrict—or Thousand-Eyes Restrict could just eat them and start attacking. The point is that the game was all about prodding at the opponent to try and force his or her hand, then setting up for a win once Thousand-Eyes Restrict or the Sheep tokens were removed from the field. All of this was served with a side of trinity cards and Magician of Faith abuse to help you overwhelm your opponent with options.

Now, there are more things to worry about. There are no real useable instant advantage cards, like Pot of Greed or Delinquent Duo, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict Lock with Scapegoat and Metamorphosis is all but dead. Finally, there’s no more Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning, Mirror Force, or Tribe-Infecting Virus to pull yourself out of a bad situation. What we do have to work with is Dark Hole, but Dark Hole assumes that you’ll survive your opponent’s initial onslaught and have a monster of your own that can follow up. It also can’t be sprung on an opponent—it’s a normal spell, rather than a trap like Mirror Force. What does all this mean for us? I could just tell you, but I think it’ll be more useful if I use this week’s deck to demonstrate my point.

“I’m a Rocket Man!”

Monsters: 20

2 Rocket Warrior

3 Shining Angel

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

2 White Magical Hat

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Sangan

3 Mystic Tomato

2 Masked Sorcerer

1 Don Zaloog

1 Mystic Swordsman LV2

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

Spells: 13

1 Dark Hole

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

2 Smashing Ground

2 Reinforcement of the Army

1 My Body as a Shield

1 Book of Moon

2 Enemy Controller

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

Traps: 8

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Bottomless Trap Hole

2 Widespread Ruin

2 Mirror Wall

First, this format places a higher emphasis on board position. If you have more monsters, that are bigger than your opponent’s monsters, and you can keep those monsters alive, you’ll probably win the game. Without Mirror Force, most removal cards that your opponent could play would result in a one-for-one trade, unless the removal cards happen to be Torrential Tribute or Dark Hole.

This also brings up the question of how you’re getting to this removal. Chances are good that you’re only going to be drawing one card per turn, so every removal card you draw is a card that isn’t going to increase your board presence—it will only diminish your opponent’s board presence. To achieve this end, I have 20 monsters in the deck. Remember that little sentence in the rulebook that said a good basic guideline is to have a 1:1 monster to spell and trap ratio? This seems like an excellent format in which to take that sentence to heart.

I know that all you die-hard Goat Control players are spinning in your computer chairs right now, shouting that 20 monsters is too many, even for a Beatdown deck. Do me a favor—before you write me an angry email, play a few games in this format with fourteen to sixteen monsters in your deck, and then tell me that you never wished you would have drawn a monster instead of an Enemy Controller or something else. Scapegoat is down to one copy per deck, and that means we’re all going to have to play with real monsters now.

Looking at my monster lineup, you’ll see that most of my monsters exist to help you leverage some kind of advantage over your opponent. Shining Angel and Mystic Tomato are excellent plays at any stage of the game, because every time your opponent destroys one with an attack (which is going to actually happen now), you get to replace it with another monster from your deck.

The monster that you take will depend on how the board looks at the time. If you’ve been attacked by a single monster that you can remove on the next turn, White Magical Hat or Don Zaloog is a good choice, because you’ll theoretically pull off a direct attack next turn. If you’re facing off against more than one monster, you’ll want to keep replacing Shining Angel or Mystic Tomato with itself until the last monster attacks. At that point, Rocket Warrior becomes a good choice, because it can either take out a smaller monster on its own or help one of your other monsters take out a bigger threat on your turn (like Vampire Lord).

On the subject of bigger threats, one of the worst things that can happen to you in this format is being caught off-guard by a high-level monster while you have nothing on the field. This can happen if your opponent decides to overextend to try and push through a quick win. For times like these, you’ve got three Cyber Dragons. Cyber Dragon can defeat a Vampire Lord on its own, and in conjunction with Rocket Warrior, it can take down just about any level 5 or 6 monster your opponent would care to play. Since this deck is based on maintaining a strong field presence, you usually shouldn’t be able to use the effect of Cyber Dragon. Remember, though, that you can normal summon it as well, so don’t immediately dismiss it as dead weight in those situations.

Speaking of dead weight, this brings me to another important point about playing in the new format—deck manipulation is key. Since you’re probably only going to be drawing one card per turn (barring hits by Masked Sorcerer or Airknight Parshath), you’ll want that one card to count for as much as possible. That means that you want to thin your deck of the cards that you would rather not draw, so that you’ll have the greatest chance of drawing a card that can help you out.

The best example of a card that can help you with this goal is Reinforcement of the Army. It’s one-for-one in terms of hand advantage, but it boosts your card quality by giving you access to whatever Warrior suits your needs at the time. As an added bonus, it removes a card from your deck as well bringing you one card closer to that Heavy Storm or Snatch Steal that will help you clinch the game. Shining Angel and Mystic Tomato are two more great deck thinners, as both can search for copies of themselves so that you don’t have to draw any more of them, and additionally, each one can get specific other monsters from your deck that you might need. Putting them directly on the field saves you the trouble of drawing and summoning them. These special summons happen in the damage step, so they’re also immune to Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole—making your self-replacing monsters a great way to thin your deck while maintaining board presence and wrecking your opponent.

Moving on, it’s time to look at ways that you can help keep your monsters on the board. First, the excellent tech card My Body as a Shield can negate any current removal card for the low, low price of 1500 life points. While it’s not too great in the late game, My Body as a Shield can help turn or keep the tide in your favor during the early and mid-game. You’re protected from attacks by Enemy Controller, Widespread Ruin, and Mirror Wall.

Widespread Ruin simply destroys the biggest monster your opponent has on his or her side of the field, but Enemy Controller and Mirror Wall are sneakier about it. Enemy Controller sets things up next turn, letting a monster destroy the opponent’s (hopefully) low-DEF monster so that you can swing in directly with Masked Sorcerer or White Magical Hat to net yourself either an extra draw or a random discard from your opponent's hand, both of which are excellent perks in this format.

Mirror Wall helps you do the same thing, except it does it better. You activate it when the opponent attacks, and then his or her monster’s ATK value will almost certainly drop to the point where your monster will beat it. If it happens to be attacking, say, Masked Sorcerer, and the Sorcerer does damage thanks to Mirror Wall, you’ve just drawn a bonus card! If your opponent attacked something else, you’re still set up next turn for a swing with White Magical Hat or Masked Sorcerer.

Let’s summarize what we’ve learned today.

1. Field presence wins games.
2. Deck manipulation helps you to take and maintain field presence.
3. Extra draws for you and random discards for them are a bonus.
4. Rocket Warrior and Cyber Dragon make a great team.
5. Mirror Wall is just nasty.

While this is just a basic deck to help you get used to the new Forbidden list, it’s also capable of doing some serious damage once you master it. Remember, just about anything is possible in this new format, from theme decks to wacky non-OTK combo decks. D. D. Survivor and Different Dimension Gate, anyone?** Feel free to experiment and have fun with the new format. Remember, you’re allowed to have fun when you play in Regionals or Shonen Jump Championships. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

Jerome McHale

jcmchale AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu

NEXT WEEK: Chaos wasn’t always “Remove a Dark and a Light monster from the graveyard.” Next week, kick back with the original “Chaos monsters” in a deck that “Came From Beyond the Graveyard!”

*Any Bleach fans out there?

**You’re dead to me, Empty Jar deck.