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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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Welcome to part one of a two-part series, written as an aside from my usual monthly column, The Apotheosis. Several weeks ago, Ian issued a really interesting challenge to any readers up to the task—create a deck that adhered to the current Limited list, but that didn't use cards from the first four expansions or any of the Starter decks. That meant no Legend of Blue Eyes White Dragon, no Metal Raiders, no Magic Ruler, and no Pharaoh's Servant. He called the format "Type A."
Pretty cool! There were a large number of responses, and Ian highlighted two of them in a follow-up article. The first deck was submitted by Kristoffer Deluna and was entitled "Illusionary Gravekeeper's." It was a great Gravekeeper deck that, despite being only 38 cards, looked pretty darn effective.
Here's the decklist Kristoffer sent in:
Illusionary Gravekeeper's
38 Cards
Monsters
2 A Cat of Ill Omen
2 Charm of Shabti
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
2 Gravekeeper's Guard
Spells
2 Autonomous Action Unit
2 Banner of Courage
2 Book of Moon
2 Book of Taiyou
3 Necrovalley
3 Terraforming
Traps
2 Adhesion Trap Hole
2 Hidden Book of Spell
3 Rite of Spirit
2 Sakuretsu Armor
 Not bad at all! Kristoffer picked up on some of the format's key cards. Book of Moon is superb in any format, but in Type A it really shines, acting as both a defensive and offensive card, and sharing synergy with a lot of other cards in fascinating and occasionally broken ways.
Kristoffer also recognized the power of Sakuretsu Armor, wisely running two of them. It's especially important in a Gravekeeper deck where, without Necrovalley, you might need a psychological advantage to convince your opponent not to take out your Gravekeeper monsters.
The deck runs the usual mix of Gravekeeper monsters, with three Necrovalley and three Terraforming to get everything up and running as quickly as possible. This is pretty standard. What isn't standard are the use of A Cat of Ill Omen and Charm of Shabti. A Cat of Ill Omen really makes up for the format's lack of certain deck thinners (Witch of the Black Forest, Sangan, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, and the Metal Raiders "replacement monsters" like Mystic Tomato and Shining Angel), allowing you to search for a specific trap card. This is great, because given the lack of Heavy Storm, Harpie's Feather Duster, Giant Trunade, and Mystical Space Typhoon, Type A allows for the playing of more trap cards than the current Constructed format. Since you're usually going to be running a lot of traps, you'll have a lot of options, and that makes A Cat of Ill Omen a high-utility card.
Charm of Shabti sort of takes the place of Waboku. It's a great card at any time in the game, but especially valuable during that period in which your monsters are relatively weak—before you get Necrovalley into play. Very efficient.
I do think this deck could use some work. There are some cards that aren't the best options possible. There are also a few strong cards that are especially powerful in this format that have been forgotten. No worries—it's a new format, and the deck, as it stands, is definitely far above the average entry. I simply have some suggestions to take it to the next level.
First, the items for elimination. Hidden Book of Spell doesn't seem like a high-utility card to me. There isn't much, other than Necrovalley, that you'd want to recur, and to be honest, I don't think it's worth two card slots to do that. If Hidden Book of Spell recurred cards to the hand, it would be stellar, but just getting Necrovalleys back into the deck seems like a waste of time. Because there aren't a lot of spell or trap removal cards in the Type A format, a player building a Type A deck doesn't need to worry quite as much about protecting Necrovalley. So the two copies of Hidden Book of Spell should be cut.
 I'm also going to drop Book of Taiyou. Barring some sort of odd combo deck, I don't think there's much reason for this card to see use in any Constructed format. It's nice to combo with Book of Moon and Magical Scientist—Book of Moon lets you free a Fusion monster from the end of turn destruction of Magical Scientist's effect, and an immediate follow-up with Book of Taiyou will let it attack directly on the turn in which it was summoned. But I don't think it's worth running two Book of Taiyou to accomplish that. The format has less card draw than regular Constructed, so a three card combo will be tricky to pull off, and even if it does work, I'm not sure that one Fusion monster justifies 1000 life points and three cards from the hand.
Next up, Banner of Courage. It's an okay card, but it doesn't carry your 1500 ATK monsters up to anything particularly significant. Whether they have 1500 ATK or 1700 ATK, 1800s and 1900s will still stomp on your monsters if they don't have a Necrovalley to back them up. There are some key cards that need these two slots, so I'm dropping Banner of Courage from the fixed build of the deck.
Adhesion Trap Hole is going to be tossed in favor of more important cards, as well. Allowing your un-buffed Gravekeeper monsters to take on monsters that would normally be larger than them is a good idea, but again, there are more important cards that need these card slots.
Lastly, I'm going to drop Autonomous Action Unit. It's a great card in this format and well worth its cost of 1500 life points. But remember that ideally we want Necrovalley to be out on the field, and you can't use Autonomous Action Unit while Necrovalley is in play. This means that if all goes according to plan, Autonomous Action Unit is unfortunately a dead draw. In a format without much card drawing or card thinning, we can't afford that. It's better to simply remove the card, and free up two slots for something better.
So, we've created ten open card slots and added to the two that came from the original deck's 38-card size, leaving us with twelve to fill. Quite a few of the cards we'll be adding would be good in virtually any Type A deck.
First up, Magical Scientist. Because this format is so trap-heavy (due to a lack of Jinzo and overpowered spell cards), Ryu Senshi is going to be exceedingly powerful. Dark Balter the Terrible, Dark Flare Knight, Thousand Eyes Restrict, and Fiend Skull Dragon are going to retain most of their usual utility, as well. However, as a bonus unique to this format, Book of Moon is going to see play in triplicates in a lot of Type A decks. This is important for Magical Scientist, because any Fusion monster special summoned to the field via its effect that is then flipped face down with a successfully resolved Book of Moon, escapes Magical Scientist's destruction drawback. In short, you get to keep it! In normal Constructed, this would most often be used with Dark Balter the Terrible, but here it can be extremely powerful when used with Ryu Senshi. So, we'll add Magical Scientist to the deck, providing us with field advantage, trap negation, effect negation, and big beatsticks, all for the low cost of 1000 life points.
Sinister Serpent is next to be added. It's a strong defensive card, which this deck needs, and it also combos with Raigeki Break.
 Raigeki Break is a staple in this format. Taking the place of Mystical Space Typhoon, it is costly, but for your one card (discarded from your hand) you get an incredible utility advantage—whenever needed, you can destroy a monster card just as easily as a spell or trap card could. It's an amazing card that is sure to be quite useful; basically the only viable card that can stop it is Ryu Senshi. So we'll add three Raigeki Break to the listing, which should make a huge difference in the deck's level of aggression and competitiveness.
Last up for monsters, I'm going to add in a Breaker the Magical Warrior. It provides card advantage and spell and trap removal in a format sorely lacking in both. Plus, at 1900 ATK, he makes a decent beatstick. Type A is all about utility, and Breaker the Magical Warrior has even higher utility in this format than it does in regular Constructed play.
Next up, spells. First, I'm going to add in a third Book of Moon. It's an amazing card, and now that we're running Magical Scientist, a third copy of Book of Moon is a great asset. Book of Moon can be used to negate one monster's attack, rescue one of your own monsters from Sakuretsu Armor, turn a high-ATK monster with low DEF into a sitting duck (especially nice since you're running Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier), and net you low-cost Fusion monsters with Magical Scientist. It's a really important card in the format, and potentially game-breaking when used correctly.
Next up, I'm going to add two Offerings to the Doomed. Though more Sakuretsu Armors or a couple of Bottomless Trap Holes might be good choices, it's important not to be too trap-heavy, especially when it comes to monster removal. In addition, Offerings to the Doomed is chainable and proactive—you can use it on your turn or your opponent's, at your own discretion, instead of waiting for your opponent to trigger it via summon or attack. Beyond that, since traps are so popular in the Type A format, it isn't exactly a long shot to think that some people might try running Royal Decree as their only trap, in an effort to stymie players using the expected quantity of trap cards. Diversifying your monster removal into spells will help combat this tactic, as uncommon as it might be, given the rarity of Royal Decree.
It's also of note that Offerings to the Doomed combos exceedingly well with Reckless Greed. Though I can't fit it into this deck, I'd add one Reckless Greed and a third Offerings to the Doomed if I felt I had the space—look for that combo to be big if you ever try playing in a Type A environment.
 Last up for spells, I'm adding United We Stand. With so much recursion, and the use of Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier, this deck just cries out for the use of United We Stand. Being able to provide a massive buff to a monster that can make damage carry through defense position monsters is great in any Constructed format, but it's especially great here, where spell and trap removal and Imperial Order aren't nearly so common. United We Stand also makes a nice opening play, protecting the Gravekeeper monsters that are normally weak in the first few turns of a duel.
Last up, there are two traps that are superb one-ofs in this format. With no Raigeki or Dark Hole, monster control is at a premium, so Ring of Destruction is a definite must-play. The fact that you're running United We Stand and can activate Ring of Destruction for a whole lot of game-ending damage is also nice.
Without Waboku or Mirror Force, another old favourite gains a lot of steam: Magic Cylinder. Though it's a "love it or leave it" card in the current Constructed environment, I'd dare say it's an obvious staple in Type A. It provides a ton of damage, negates an attack, and just generally messes up your opponent in several ways at once. Naturally, in a Gravekeeper deck it's going to have even more potential, keeping your Gravekeeper monsters safe when Necrovalley isn't in play.
So, here's the list of changes I'd suggest:
-2 Hidden Book of Spell
-2 Book of Taiyou
-2 Banner of Courage
-2 Adhesion Trap Hole
-2 Autonomous Action Unit
+1 Magical Scientist
+1 Sinister Serpent
+1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
+1 United We Stand
+1 Book of Moon
+2 Offerings to the Doomed
+1 Ring of Destruction
+1 Magic Cylinder
+3 Raigeki Break
And here's the final build of the deck:
Illusionary Gravekeeper's—Jason's Fix
40 Cards
Monsters
2 A Cat of Ill Omen
2 Charm of Shabti
3 Gravekeeper's Assailant
3 Gravekeeper's Spear Soldier
3 Gravekeeper's Spy
2 Gravekeeper's Guard
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Magical Scientist
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells
3 Book of Moon
2 Offerings to the Doomed
1 United We Stand
3 Necrovalley
3 Terraforming
Traps
3 Rite of Spirit
2 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Magic Cylinder
3 Raigeki Break
Fusion Deck
3 Ryu Senshi
2 Dark Balter the Terrible
2 Thousand Eyes Restrict
2 Dark Flare Knight
2 Fiend Skull Dragon
It should do well! It doesn't have the best opening monsters, but neither do most decks in this format. What it has to make up for the lack of openers, however, is an uncanny amount of recursion (made all the more impressive by Type A's lack of Monster Reborn, Call of the Haunted, and Premature Burial). It plays just like any other Gravekeeper deck, but without the resiliency of Mystic Tomato. Your goal is to get out a Necrovalley, distract your opponent from destroying it (hopefully via a few chained Rite of Spirits), and proceed to wail away on him or her until the game is over. It runs all the staples of the format and has several unique tricks, with excellent board control, great versatility, and oh yeah, recursion that just blows anything else out of the water.
Ian mentioned in his article that the only thing in the recursion department that can stand up to this deck is a Zombie build. He was right in saying that, as well as being very correct in pointing out that Book of Life isn't chainable or useable on the opponent's turn. It's really the superior board presence this deck delivers that distinguishes itself from others, and in a format without Raigeki, Dark Hole, Mystic Tomato, Shining Angel, Giant Rat, or Mirror Force, maintenance of board presence goes a long way.
Thanks for answering Ian's challenge, Kristoffer, and thanks to Ian for writing the original articles!
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