Apotheosis 38: Dark Paladin

Dark Paladin is a beast. However, it’s difficult to get it to work in a competitive environment, despite all the cards designed to help get it into play. That said, it is possible, and I’m always up for a challenge. I figured I’d answer the call from Ira P., of Northboro MA. Here’s what Ira sent me.

I’ve been playing my Dark Paladin deck now for a little while and it always does well, but I just can’t seem to get the tournament win with it. Is there anything you can see that needs help? My main problem is normally having enough cards in my hand after the fusion to negate the spells and traps I need to negate, and the other issue is cards like Exiled Force and random monster-killing flip effects.

Please help!

—Ira P., Northboro MA


Here’s Ira’s current build.

Ira’s Dark Paladin Deck
41 Cards

Monsters
2 Dark Magician
1 Jinzo
1 Buster Blader
3 Luster Dragon
3 Spear Dragon
3 Troop Dragon
3 Masked Dragon
3 King of the Swamp
1 Exiled Force
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Reflect Bounder
1 Cyber Jar
1 Fiber Jar

Spells
2 Polymerization
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Painful Choice
1 Emblem of Dragon Destroyer
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart

Traps
3 Waboku
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Call of the Haunted

Fusion
3 Dark Paladin

This deck’s pretty solid, but I’m wary of Dark Paladin decks, because the fusion materials are both high-level monsters. Ira’s dealt with this issue by not running many of them. While I like the idea of only having three tribute monsters in the deck, I don’t like the idea of only having one copy of Buster Blader, and only one spell card to search for him, which could be negated. In my mind, the fact that the deck can’t search for Dark Magician hurts, so I’m interested in streamlining the deck a bit, steering it away from Buster Blader. The main changes I’ll be making to this deck are for the purpose of consistency in summoning Dark Paladin. I’m also going to drop in a couple little extras to help the deck out.

I’m removing the single Buster Blader, as well as Emblem of Dragon Destroyer, for that reason. Although they provide some nice power, I’m also removing three copies of Luster Dragon because they’re a bit slow and this deck needs all the speed it can get. The point of using so many dragons is to have them in the graveyard to fuel Dark Paladin, so the smaller dragons that thin the deck and maintain field presence are actually going to be more important than the ones that specialize in offense. It’s a rare case, but it’s definitely true here.

I’m going to remove one Masked Dragon as well. I think that five self-replacing Dragon-types are enough for this deck. Just remember that Troop Dragon has received errata—it needs to be destroyed in battle for its effect to work.

Exiled Force and Reflect Bounder also have to go, because they just don’t belong here. They’re excellent cards in a Warrior or Machine deck, and can also do very well in a good ol’ mixed Beatdown deck, but this deck needs synergistic monsters more than it needs independent high-utility ones. Both of these excellent monsters need to hit the road.

I’m also going to remove Fiber Jar. While the previous build of the deck could capitalize on the potential for a quick direct attack that Fiber Jar can sometimes present, I don’t think that’s as viable now. I’ve removed some of the beatsticks, and I don’t think that letting this deck become a Beatdown deck is the strongest way to emphasize the strategy Ira has in mind. The poor, beloved Fiber Jar will be left out in the cold with the mirrored guy and the exiled Force.

For reasons of space, I want to remove one Spear Dragon. It’s a nice, versatile card that lends some power to this deck, but we really need to keep it down to 40 cards and two should be enough to get the job done without getting in the way.

Finally, I’m going to make my ever-popular move and remove some Waboku from the deck. I can see its use as a single copy, but this deck does not need three of them, especially in its redone form, which will have a lot of monsters that you really won’t mind seeing attacked.

What am I going to add? First, I want to add one Beastking of the Swamps. This will give me four fusion substitutions and will alleviate the pressure a bit when I use King of the Swamp to search for Polymerization and thus lose the ability to use that one copy of the King for fusion material.

Since those four cards are so important to this deck, and since I want to add some searching into my fixed version, I’m going to add three Mother Grizzly. The copies of Mother Grizzly can be searched out to maintain board presence, or they can search for King of the Swamp or Beastking of the Swamps to use as fusion material. This means that the only monsters in the equation that are difficult to search for are the Dark Magicians, and that’s readily solved by . . .

 . . . playing three copies of Skilled Dark Magician. This card was made for this deck. It gives the speed and search, as well as summoning efficiency, that Dark Magician needs to be easily played and used seriously in high-level competition. In addition, the fact that Skilled Dark Magician has a very strong attack rating will help balance the fact that I removed several big attackers from the deck earlier on in the fix.

We can now search for both of our fusion materials, the deck is lighter on high-level monsters that can screw up its openings, and it thins itself well while maintaining a board presence. I want to add one more copy of Polymerization so that we have more freedom with King of the Swamp. Running three of them just seems like a natural choice in this deck. In addition, because this deck is a bit slow but can go off quickly once it gets the right things in hand, I’m going to add one copy of Torrential Tribute. Torrential Tribute will clear the field when we really need it, and is a great all-around pick for most decks in the Advanced format.

Finally, I’m going to add two copies of Staunch Defender. This will protect from having multiple monsters destroyed in combat in one turn, can force the opponent to repeatedly attack into a Dark Paladin repeatedly, and can also force an opponent to attack some of the self-replacing monsters like Troop Dragon or Mother Grizzly when he or she really doesn’t want to—for instance, if those monsters are in face-up defense position. The sheer number of self-replacing monsters in this deck makes Staunch Defender worth including, because once the first monster is destroyed, your opponent can no longer attack that turn.


The changes are as follows.

-1 Buster Blader
-3 Luster Dragon
-1 Masked Dragon
-1 Exiled Force
-1 Reflect Bounder
-1 Fiber Jar
-1 Spear Dragon
-1 Emblem of Dragon Destroyer
-2 Waboku

+3 Mother Grizzly
+1 Beastking of the Swamps
+3 Skilled Dark Magician
+1 Polymerization
+1 Torrential Tribute
+2 Staunch Defender

The final fixed build looks like this.

Ira’s Dark Paladin
Jason’s Fix
40 Cards

Monsters
2 Dark Magician
1 Jinzo
3 Skilled Dark Magician
2 Spear Dragon
3 Troop Dragon
2 Masked Dragon
3 King of the Swamp
3 Mother Grizzly
1 Beastking of the Swamps
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Cyber Jar

Spells
3 Polymerization
1 Premature Burial
1 Pot of Greed
1 Painful Choice
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart

Traps
2 Staunch Defender
1 Waboku
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute

Fusion
3 Dark Paladin

The deck should be a lot more consistent and a lot faster. The best opening plays are the ones that start thinning your deck and keep you on the field: Masked Dragon, Troop Dragon, and especially if you can get the fusion off on turn 2, Mother Grizzly. A player that’s familiar with this deck will focus on knowing when to bide your time and when to overwhelm your opponent quickly.

I’d suggest side decking some trap negation if possible. Jinzo’s already in here, but Magical Scientist and if possibly, perhaps even a few copies of Royal Decree. An extra Beastking of the Swamps can help too, and some additional spell and trap removal will help the deck handle Lockdown strategies that it can’t otherwise deal with.

Like any deck that invests heavily in one or two key monsters, remember to be careful with the big thugs once they hit the table. You don’t want to see them get destroyed, but you especially don’t want to see them Change of Hearted or Snatch Stealed either.

Thanks for sending it in, Ira! I hope this helps you out.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer


Have a deck to submit? Want to say hi? Get in touch with me via email at Jason@metagame.com.