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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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 Fusion monsters have always been cool, because they’re often some of the biggest and baddest monsters in a set. Plus, some Fusion monsters have incredible effects. However, before Magical Scientist hit the scene and made it quick and easy to get out Fusion monsters, they didn’t see a lot of serious play. Now, duelists are used to playing Fusion monsters, but anyone who wants to keep playing them will need to be creative after April 1, when the Scientist rotates out of the Advanced format. What will Fusion players do with good old Polymerization and Fusion Gate?
Shaun from Alberta, Canada, has addressed this problem. He has put together a playable deck that focuses on exploiting the high ATK values and awesome effects of Fusion monsters, without relying on the Scientist to get them on the field.
Here’s what Shaun had to say about his deck.
I’ve been playing Yu-Gi-Oh! since the Legend of Blue-Eyes White Dragon days. Before most players had even heard of Yugi Mutou, I was waiting for a Fusion monster to come out with more than 4000 ATK. The huge Fusion monsters from the television show and manga were pipe dreams for early duelists. When Master of Oz appeared on the scene, my wish was finally granted.
The goal is to get Master of Oz onto the field and deal massive damage in one shot. Ideally, you’ll defeat an opponent outright with the ATK boost provided by Wild Nature’s Release. Other tricks include running two copies of Mystik Wok, which will give you ample insurance if you play Wild Nature’s Release on Oz two times, and if an opponent hits your nearly 12,000 ATK monster with Ring of Destruction.
The deck also has a nasty field-control surprise involving Blowback Dragon and Gatling Dragon. The idea behind the combo is to get Blowback onto the field to destroy the card that’s bugging you the most, such as Black Luster Soldier or a well-abused copy of Wave-Motion Cannon. Once Blowback Dragon is on the field, you fuse it to bring out Gatling Dragon and try to clear more of the field with the Fusion monster’s effect. Then, you De-Fusion Gatling Dragon and special summon Blowback to terminate another monster, trap, or spell card. After all that, you can fuse Blowback again for more Gatling fun. The scary thing about this combo is that it’s easily done within the first five turns. It might be best to run two copies of Gatling Dragon, but one copy works just fine.
One of the drawbacks to this deck is that you can massively overextend in a single turn. Once Fiber Jar is nerfed from the game on April 1, we’ll have to use a strategy that measures how brutal it can be in a single turn. The goal isn’t to defeat your opponent quickly—it’s to hit your opponent with enough force to take him or her out in a single blow. A strong defense can delay your opponent long enough for you to summon a copy or two of Oz, boost it with Wild Nature’s Release, and then hit Oz with Ring of Destruction. This strategy will win you the game, provided that you haven’t taken any damage in previous turns.
By the way, this deck fits the April 1 Advanced format specifications.
Thank you for taking the time to read this decklist. I hope that it spawns a new insanity among players!
Shaun G.
Lacombe, Alberta
Cool! Here is Shaun’s original decklist.
Shaun’s Road to Oz
40 cards
Monsters: 16
2 Big Koala
1 Blowback Dragon
1 Chiron the Mage
2 Berserk Gorilla
3 Mad Dog of Darkness
3 King of the Swamp
1 Goddess with the Third Eye
1 Cyber Jar
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
Spells: 18
3 Polymerization
1 Fusion Gate
2 Mystik Wok
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Wild Nature’s Release
1 Premature Burial
2 Re-Fusion
1 De-Fusion
1 Pot of Greed
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps: 6
2 Threatening Roar
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Ring of Destruction
Fusion Deck: 4
3 Master of Oz
1 Gatling Dragon
 The first time that I looked at this deck, I thought that it was extremely strong for its type. King of the Swamp is probably the most valuable card that Fusion decks have ever gotten—having the ability to search for Polymerization is a great effect that unseats Fusion Gate as the best way to fuse your monsters. The deck’s size, strategy, and most of its tech is extremely good, and it’s nice to see a deck already using several new cards from Flaming Eternity. Beast Warrior players should take note—Shaun’s use of Chiron the Mage is a great move that lets him attack frequently without fear of reprisal. Plus, Threatening Roar keeps all of your smaller monsters safe from attack, while Re-Fusion can bring back one of your big hitters if it gets knocked out. Very cool!
My major concerns with this deck are its balance and its performance in the opening game. There are a few tweaks that we can make to improve the deck’s performance, giving it a bit more consistency so it can win more quickly.
First, because I’m going to give the deck more access to King of the Swamp, we can afford to lose the single copy of Goddess with the Third Eye. While you might think that running only three Fusion-replacement cards is a bit scanty, this deck is already running two pieces of recursion and you could easily side deck Monster Reincarnation if needed. It should be enough to run three Fusion-replacement cards that can also search for Polymerization.
Next, I’m going to remove Fusion Gate from the deck. With three copies each of King of the Swamp and Polymerization in the deck, Fusion Gate just isn’t necessary. Because the spell hurts the synergy with De-Fusion, Fusion Gate just seems like an awkward and slightly bulky card to run.
Since Fusion Gate is gone, I’m also going to remove De-Fusion. Even though Shaun’s combo with the spell is crushing, running a single copy with a conditional card can really bite him in the behind. I would suggest running two copies of this card in the side deck. Against a Lockdown Burn deck, having the option to de-fuse can be invaluable.
One copy of Re-Fusion is going to bite the dust as well, but we’ll keep the other copy. Re-Fusion can be a great card in the mid- or late game, but in the early game or the opening, the spell is a dead card. We can’t afford that kind of weakness in today’s incredibly fast metagame, so the deck should only be using one copy of Re-Fusion. If you like Re-Fusion a lot, a second copy could be run in the side deck.
Lastly, I want to remove one copy of Mystik Wok. While the reasons that Shaun gave for playing the spell are solid, and it can give you massive amounts of life points, Mystik Wok is too conditional to run two copies. This deck needs to have a strong opening and early game to set up for the crucial mid- and late game, or else the deck can’t win. As a result, we need to reduce the number of synergy-dependent cards that don’t do much during the first half of a duel.
Now that we’ve removed some cards, it’s time to make additions! First, I want to add two copies of Mother Grizzly. The card will help us search for King of the Swamp, plus the Grizzly is a nice monster to summon or set in the opening or early game. Because Mother Grizzly can maintain field presence, it’s also invaluable as a defensive wall. After the Grizzly outlives its usefulness as a defensive tool, the card can shift gears to search for the all-important King or . . .
. . . Sinister Serpent. I’m going to add some cards to this deck that require discards from the hand, so running the Serpent is a no-brainer. Plus, the aforementioned Mother Grizzly can search for the Serpent, and it’s another strong defensive card to play in the opening and early game. Since we’re adding Sinister Serpent, it’s a great time to add Tribe-Infecting Virus as well. The Virus will do well in this deck, though you’ll want to be careful when you’re facing Beastdown decks.
Finally, I want to add a single copy of Lightning Vortex. One of the most impressive and powerful cards from Flaming Eternity, the Vortex is strong in virtually any battle-centric deck, but is extremely powerful in this deck in particular. The reason? The deck’s strategy is to sink big single shots into an opponent, so you want to get rid of your opponent’s possible options for stopping you. The deck is already packing a good amount of spell, trap, and generic “anywhere on the field” removal options, but Lightning Vortex is just too powerful and synergistic to pass up. The spell is a definite must in this deck.
 Here are the changes that I made.
-1 Goddess with the Third Eye
-1 Re-Fusion
-1 De-Fusion
-1 Fusion Gate
-1 Mystik Wok
+2 Mother Grizzly
+1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
+1 Sinister Serpent
+1 Lightning Vortex
And here’s what the final build looks like!
Shaun’s Road to Oz: Jason’s Fix
40 cards
Monsters: 19
2 Big Koala
1 Blowback Dragon
1 Chiron the Mage
2 Berserk Gorilla
3 Mad Dog of Darkness
3 King of the Swamp
1 Cyber Jar
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Sangan
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
2 Mother Grizzly
1 Sinister Serpent
Spells: 15
3 Polymerization
1 Mystik Wok
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
2 Wild Nature’s Release
1 Premature Burial
1 Re-Fusion
1 Pot of Greed
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Swords of Revealing Light
1 Lightning Vortex
Traps: 6
2 Threatening Roar
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Ring of Destruction
Fusion Deck: 4
3 Master of Oz
1 Gatling Dragon
The deck plays basically as Shaun described. In the early game, you want to stall for one turn and try to keep a monster on the field, and the deck has a great combination of brute strength and field maintenance to help you out. From turn 2 on, you have two goals—repress your opponent’s field presence so you can make your big finishing shot, and get your big finisher ready. Remember, you don’t need to summon Master of Oz to win, because many of the cards that can benefit from Wild Nature’s Release are big enough to deliver a coup de grace with a bit of help.
If a game runs long, this deck doesn’t have a lot to fear, because it topdecks well with its high-ATK monsters. You never want to be low on cards, because you want to get out your fusion monsters—but since the deck has strong elements of Beatdown, you can let the intended synergies slip and go into Beatdown mode if you need to. Threatening Roar can save you in the early game, but keep in mind how valuable the trap can be in the late game as well. You should save Threatening Roar if you think that you might need it later.
If you try out this deck, remember that it needs to be played aggressively. This isn’t your daddy’s Fusion deck that stalls out and loses ground until it manages to summon something big and purple. This deck is strong because it can be so commanding on the field. Remember what Shaun said—the deck wins by making big single hits. However, the deck doesn’t depend on those hits for its entire strategy. If you play the deck tightly and fiercely, it can do exceedingly well.
As for the side deck, I’d suggest you run a tech-based build. You should include the cards that I mentioned earlier (Re-Fusion and De-Fusion) but also tech hard against Warrior Chaos variants—Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole are friends of this deck. Against Lockdown Burn decks, you’ll probably want to side deck three copies of Giant Trunade. This deck will most likely need only one clean shot, so the fact that Trunade doesn’t clear the field permanently won’t be much of an issue.
That’s it! Shaun’s build is a great example of a competitive Fusion deck that you can play in the new format, so if you’ve been thinking about running one, this might be the deck for you. Thanks for sending it in, Shaun!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Are you interested in seeing your deck featured? Send a decklist formatted like the one in this article, your name, and your hometown to Jason@metagame.com, and your deck might be used in a future Apotheosis article! |
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