One of the biggest head-turners from Cyberdark Impact is Degenerate Circuit. It got a ton of attention right from the time it debuted at Sneak Preview events, and several of the decks submitted to me for use in this column over the past couple of weeks have used Circuit as their centerpiece.
Reader Josh K came up with an interesting approach that none of the other submissions hit upon, and that’s landed his deck right here in The Apotheosis! What makes it so unique? I’ll let him tell you.
Degenerate Circuit is an interesting card. I wanted to build a deck to maximize its potential, and run some surprise tech in the process. The deck uses Arsenal Summoner to bring Guardian Sphinx to my hand. If I flipped the Summoner myself, it becomes automatic tribute food. If not, I've got Soul Exchange to help with tributing. Losing my battle phase isn't so bad since Sphinx gets set when I tribute for it anyway. Compulsory Evacuation Device is just great with Circuit out, and I think the only thing the deck lacks is the ability to work smoothly when Circuit isn't in play, since you won't always have one out.
I know it's not perfect, I think the monster line-up needs some work. Any advice you have would be great, and if you'd feature it on The Apotheosis that would be cool too. Thanks for your time.
—Josh K.
Josh has taken advantage of one of my favorite obscure cards, Arsenal Summoner, and found yet another cool use for it. About a year ago, I ran a deck that used the Summoner to search out Gate Guardian, allowing me to drop it and UFOroid for a massive UFOroid Fighter thanks to Power Bond. While the deck was fun and it worked on occasion, it wasn’t exactly a tournament-winning powerhouse. Josh’s strategy has a lot more promise. Here’s the list:
Circuit Sphinx—41 Cards
Monsters: 20
3 Guardian Sphinx
3 Arsenal Summoner
2 Penguin Soldier
1 Sangan
1 Magician of Faith
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Exiled Force
1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Hyper Hammerhead
Spells: 12
3 Degenerate Circuit
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Premature Burial
2 Soul Exchange
1 Smashing Ground
1 My Body as a Shield
Traps: 9
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
2 Sakuretsu Armor
3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
Like Josh said, the deck looks like it can dominate once it gets set up. However, I’ve got some concerns. Josh’s primary problem was surviving the early game, and making it through situations where he lost Degenerate Circuit. We need to address that, prioritizing a few early-game cards and perhaps easing off some of the post-Circuit material. In addition, I’m a little wary of this deck’s chances against a player who holds Mystical Space Typhoon or Breaker the Magical Warrior until Circuit hits the field, then destroys it once it arrives. I think Josh needs stronger defense on several different levels.
First up, while Arsenal Summoner is a great idea, three copies of it seem like overkill. Opening with two or more copies of Summoner and Sphinx creates an instant disparity between Josh’s number of options and those open to his opponent, and that’s a losing proposition. Tossing one Summoner is a good idea.
Hyper Hammerhead will be removed, since I think this deck really only needs five monsters that bump things back to the opponent’s hand. The Sphinxes and Penguins are superb at what they do, but the Hammerhead is sub-par outside of a deck running Giant Rat. There isn’t much justification for playing Rat here, so Hammerhead needs to be sent packing.
Twin-Headed Behemoth, Exiled Force, and Spirit Reaper all offer protection from attackers in one form or another, but there are better defensive picks for this strategy. I’ll be dropping all three in order to streamline and refocus the monster line-up, making the deck faster in the process.
Both Soul Exchange cards will be removed next. While getting a free tribute is welcome, running two Soul Exchange cards with only three real tribute monsters is risky. This isn’t a Monarch deck packing six hard tributes: there are only three must-tribute monsters present. Soul Exchange is overkill, especially since the deck is already running Cyber Dragon, and I’ll be adding some monsters that help maintain field presence.
Finally, in a deck that can throw Raigeki at the opponent turn after turn, Smashing Ground and Sakuretsu Armor are frequently dead draws. Again, these effects can defend Josh before he gets Circuit and Sphinx onto the field, but they’re relatively useless after that. There are better, more versatile ways to accomplish what Josh needs to do.
That quick round of drops leaves us with 31 cards in the deck, and I’d really like to stay at the minimum deck size of 40. That will help us get to Degenerate Circuit and Sphinx faster, making the strategy more consistent. It’s a pretty simple philosophy, but sometimes it takes outside input to make cuts and keep your deck’s size down.
The first monster I want to add is Morphing Jar. Jar will be a boon in any matchup save Dark World, letting us dig towards Degenerate Circuit five cards at a time. While Josh can accelerate the time it takes to draw into Sphinx through Arsenal Summoner, there’s really no way to perform a similar function for Circuit. That’s why the other three monsters I’m adding to the deck will also be oriented towards deck thinning.
Nimble Momonga seems like a no-brainer here. This deck has two major challenges: first, thinning itself towards Degenerate Circuit while not dying and second, having the life points to pay Degenerate Circuit’s maintenance cost. A single Nimble Momonga protects life points in battle, actively helps us build them, and digs its two fuzzy compadres out of the deck so we can draw into Degenerate Circuit faster. Sounds like a winner to me!
When I removed Sakuretsu Armor and Smashing Ground from the deck, I noted that I wanted to replace them with more versatile cards: ones that presented more than just purely defensive options. Instead of the destruction cards Josh was using, I’d like to add Book of Moon and a pair of Enemy Controller cards to the deck. Book will let us reuse Arsenal Summoner, Penguin Soldier, Magician of Faith, and Morphing Jar, while Enemy Controller will let us swipe a monster instead of bouncing it with the Sphinx. That’ll let us end games faster in certain situations, while still keeping our defensive options open.
Finally, two copies of Magic Drain will keep Degenerate Circuit and Sphinx on the field when they’re threatened by spells. In a worst-case scenario, where the opponent discards another spell to force through the one that would otherwise by blocked by Drain, you’re still simplifying the duel by an extra card. That’s good news for this deck, since most opponents won’t be able to topdeck well against a single Sphinx, even without Degenerate Circuit backing it up.
So here are the changes I made to the deck:
-1 Arsenal Summoner
-1 Hyper Hammerhead
-1 Twin-Headed Behemoth
-1 Exiled Force
-1 Spirit Reaper
-1 Smashing Ground
-2 Soul Exchange
-2 Sakuretsu Armor
+3 Nimble Momonga
+1 Morphing Jar
+1 Book of Moon
+2 Enemy Controller
+2 Magic Drain
Here’s how the deck turned out!
Circuit Sphinx—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 19
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
3 Guardian Sphinx
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Arsenal Summoner
2 Penguin Soldier
1 Sangan
1 Magician of Faith
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
3 Nimble Momonga
1 Morphing Jar
Spells: 12
3 Degenerate Circuit
1 Graceful Charity
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Premature Burial
1 My Body as a Shield
1 Book of Moon
2 Enemy Controller
Traps: 9
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
3 Compulsory Evacuation Device
2 Magic Drain
Josh’s deck now opens with a lot more consistency. Nimble Momonga maintains field presence, D. D. Warrior Lady and Penguin Soldier create open fields for attacks, and Arsenal Summoner and Sangan fetch key cards. From the first turn onwards, your goals are pretty simple: get to Sphinx and Degenerate Circuit in order to create a situation where every monster the opponent summons winds up getting removed from play. Troublesome attackers like Mystic Swordsman LV2 and D. D. Warrior Lady can be dealt with via Compulsory Evacuation Device and Enemy Controller, and an attack that flips Sphinx in order to soften it up for Smashing Ground or Brain Control can be defeated in a similar fashion. You can even hold onto Book of Moon in order to draw out such a threat, and then beat it on the chain.
Once your combo gets going, time is of the essence: Degenerate Circuit’s life point cost isn’t huge, but it adds up quickly. Sphinx’s lone 1700 ATK can be enough to win the game over several turns, but don’t underestimate the potential of monsters like Penguin Soldier and Arsenal Summoner that can add to the beatings. Compulsory Evacuation Device and Enemy Controller become especially valuable at this point, because Call of the Haunted can often special summon a monster big enough to shut down your battle phase.
This deck isn’t particularly difficult to play, and it’s a nice one to try if you’re used to playing more typical strategies and want to give a combo deck a go. While many duelists are aware of the synergy between Degenerate Circuit and Guardian Sphinx, few are prepared to actually deal with it. This deck can profit from the slower tempos favored by Monarchs, wreck the huge fields that Dark World thrives upon, and if it can out-maneuver Creature Swap control, it can beat that too. The one matchup to really watch out for is Warrior Toolbox: Exiled Force, D. D. monsters, and Mystic Swordsman LV2 all create problems, but practice can even up the odds and Penguin Soldier works wonders.
Degenerate Circuit is a blast to play, and Josh’s deck is probably the best build I’ve seen so far. Give it a try yourself!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Working on a deck for the new Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame.com? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.