Standing against the tyrannical control of the Chaos Emperor Dragon, an old scientist stands next to a turtle with an overconfident, unwavering grin. The Dragon can’t display its overwhelming power if it never gets the chance to be summoned . . .
Playing against Chaos decks in the Traditional format can be daunting, and many players simply opt to take the proven, consistently powerful Chaos cards to their tournaments, relying on better hands and more skillfully played matches for victory. However, outside of this familiar conservatism (the normalcy of Chaos) exists a deck that has proven itself powerful enough to stand up to any opponent. The premise: decimate your opponent and claim victory before he or she even plays a card. This infamous deck is known as Magical Scientist OTK, a one-turn knockout deck that relies on your ability to keep yourself above 7000 life points and summon both Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle.
With a Fusion deck containing at least seven Fusion monsters with 2100 or more ATK, you summon Catapult Turtle and Magical Scientist. Using Magical Scientist, summon seven Fusion monsters and tribute them all to Catapult Turtle’s effect, after which you sacrifice the Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle. This combo doesn’t rely on attacking, leaving your opponent with few card options with which to stop you, while also allowing you the chance to beat your opponent before he or she ever plays a card!
The goal is simple: summon Magical Scientist and Catapult Turtle as fast as possible. However, the simplicity begins to dissipate when creating a decklist that allows for the fastest and most consistent summoning of the two monsters.
One of the quickest ways to special summon monsters is through the use of Reasoning and Monster Gate. This is how most Magical Scientist decks are played, and it is how we will construct our build.
The Monsters
With the knowledge that we will be running three copies of both Monster Gate and Reasoning, we will construct our monster lineup to complement the quick deck thinning and special summons. The fewer monsters we have, the better our chances of hitting a Catapult Turtle or Magical Scientist.
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
2 Catapult Turtle
1 Magical Scientist
3 Gilasaurus
The inclusion of Dark Magician of Chaos is warranted due to his amazing ability to abuse Monster Gate and Reasoning. If you special summon him, you’ll have the choice to reuse almost any spell. Gilasaurus is necessary for the use of Monster Gate on turn 1, and gives you the chance to special summon a monster to tribute in order to summon Catapult Turtle. With only seven monsters, you’ll find yourself able to quickly sift through your deck to deploy your game-winning combo.
The Spells
We want to draw as many cards as we possibly can in order to get access to our combo. Luckily, the Traditional format allows us a vast array of powerful cards that do just that.
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Card Destruction
1 Last Will
1 Premature Burial
1 Monster Reborn
1 Change of Heart
1 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Scapegoat
1 Level Limit - Area B
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Spell Reproduction
3 Dark World Dealings
3 Reasoning
3 Monster Gate
3 Magical Mallet
With this spell lineup, there is a distinct threat of the deck “fizzling out.” Most of the cards that sift through your deck and draw into your combo pieces will cost you a card. If you are forced to sacrifice enough cards from your hand in order to continue sifting, you could run out of options.
Dark World Dealings, a recently printed and vastly underrated card, is an amazing new addition to Magical Scientist OTK. Not only are you given the chance to grind through your deck, but you are also allowed the chance to discard a card. While this is often seen as a negative repercussion necessary as a cost, you could discard Dark Magician of Chaos or Catapult Turtle in order to special summon either via Premature Burial or Monster Reborn.
Another recently printed (and Limited) card, Magical Stone Excavation, offers you options the deck has never seen before. If you’ve just used Monster Gate to bring out Gilasaurus, for example, you can pitch a couple of useless cards in order to give the Gate another try. You can even discard Dark Magician of Chaos from your hand, along with another card, to retrieve Premature Burial from your graveyard. The possibilities here are overwhelming.
I’ve also included three defensive spells in order to safeguard the deck against its own bad hands. You can’t drop 1000 life points without it becoming increasingly difficult to win.
The Traps
A majority of the deck is invested in spells, and we want to limit our trap lineup. Traps have to wait a turn before they can be activated, which doesn’t work well in a deck that hopes to win before ending the first turn.
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Reckless Greed
3 Jar of Greed
3 Waboku
We are able to include another monster recursion card, Call of the Haunted, allowing us another opportunity to special summon a monster. The inclusion of Jar of Greed and Reckless Greed will offer more deck thinning, and assure us that even if we start with a poor hand, it will get much better quickly. Finally, three copies of Waboku are included to protect your life points.
The Final List
Monsters: 7
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
2 Catapult Turtle
1 Magical Scientist
3 Gilasaurus
Spells: 26
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Card Destruction
1 Last Will
1 Premature Burial
1 Monster Reborn
1 Change of Heart
1 Magical Stone Excavation
1 Scapegoat
1 Level Limit - Area B
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Spell Reproduction
3 Dark World Dealings
3 Reasoning
3 Monster Gate
3 Magical Mallet
Traps: 7
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Reckless Greed
1 Jar of Greed
3 Waboku
This deck has very few weaknesses, other than dealing with unfortunate opening hands. If a skilled player draws a good hand with this deck, there is very little anyone can do to stop it. This deck does not want to face a Dark World build, but dropping the Card Destruction and Dark World Dealings in your second and third game will help deter that weakness. The deck plays fast, and it can be difficult to wield. A single misplay could cost you the game, so, when testing this deck for the first time, you should try to have a friend looking over your shoulder.
Magical Scientist OTK has been a dominant force in the Traditional format, arguably yielding popularity only to Chaos. This week, we’ve continued charting previously explored territory. However, continue reading about the Traditional format, because in the following weeks we’ll be moving toward more innovative and obscure deck archetypes. The first step in the completion of a new Traditional masterpiece is attaining knowledge of the currently existing ones, and we will continue laying the foundation of the format before moving on to new concepts.