"Using Raigeki, are you? I’ve heard of it. I wonder if it’ll work?" —Sealmaster Meisei


Sealmaster Meisei is very good at controlling the game. Depending on your strategy, you can use either Talisman of Spell Sealing or Talisman of Trap Sealing to eliminate threats from spell or trap cards. Talisman of Spell Sealing will typically be most effective, as it’s more likely that your opponent will have more spell cards than trap cards in his or her deck.

Which of the two methods you plan on using will determine the focus of your Sealmaster Meisei deck. Your deck should be designed around the thing you aren’t planning on controlling—if you plan on stopping spell cards, it will be worthwhile for your deck to focus on traps, and if you’d like to stop trap cards, using spells will be an effective strategy.

These two Sealmaster decks have different goals, but they use similar approaches to reach them. The first and most effective method combines Sealmaster Meisei, Wall of Revealing Light, and Talisman of Spell Sealing. Talisman of Spell Sealing prevents your opponent from destroying Wall of Revealing Light, which will protect Sealmaster Meisei and your other monsters from attack.


Sealmaster Onslaught
40 cards

Monsters
3 Sealmaster Meisei
2 Blowback Dragon
3 Zaborg the Thunder Monarch
2 The End of Anubis
2 Gear Golem the Moving Fortress
2 Stone Statue of the Aztecs
3 Night Assailant
2 Regenerating Mummy

Spells
3 Enemy Controller
3 Monster Gate
3 Mystik Wok

Traps
3 Talisman of Spell Sealing
3 Wall of Revealing Light
3 Curse of Anubis
3 Draining Shield

This Sealmaster Onslaught deck uses spell cards to protect Wall of Revealing Light. This will establish protection for small monsters that you can sacrifice to tribute summon more powerful monsters. The strong tribute summon monsters are the main focus of the deck. The smaller remaining monsters will serve as tributes to summon the stronger monsters and will also provide temporary defense while the deck begins to work.

Zaborg the Thunder Monarch is one of the meanest monsters of the bunch, rewarding you for tribute summoning it. Since this deck doesn’t rely on graveyard effects, The End of Anubis will work well to negate them. Only Night Assailant’s second effect and Regenerating Mummy’s effects would be negated, and they aren’t a major part of this deck’s strategy. Over the course of the game, Blowback Dragon is one of the most functional of the tribute monsters because of its ability to destroy any card on the opponent’s side of the field. However, it’s important to realize that its coin-flipping effect offers little reliability.

Many players may not be familiar with Monster Gate. Monster Gate’s goal is to replace one of the defensive monsters on the field with one of the higher-powered tribute monsters. There are multiple copies of spells and traps in the deck due to Monster Gate’s effect. Having important spells end up in the graveyard is a sure way to lose the game. The remaining spells in the deck are used for lifegain and monster disruption. Enemy Controller will either help subdue your opponent’s monsters or throw your opponent off his or her game.

Monster-based tactics will definitely throw off this deck’s strategy. Some traps, like Mirror Force, will creep in and could give you some trouble, but you shouldn’t be as concerned about them. Cards like Tribe-Infecting Virus, Breaker the Magical Warrior, and Jinzo will strongly affect this deck. It’s worth watching out for flip-effect monsters like Cyber Jar and Fiber Jar as well, and you will also have to work hard at recovering from traps—the deck doesn’t contain much that will counter them.


The second strategy is to use direct damage to finish off your opponent while the Sealmaster Meisei combo protects you.

Sealmaster Fire-Maelstrom
40 cards

Monsters
3 Sealmaster Meisei
3 Solar Flare Dragon
2 Needle Burrower
2 Atomic Firefly
2 The Agent of Creation - Venus
3 Mystical Shine Ball

Spells
3 Enemy Controller
2 Goblin Thief
2 Mystik Wok
2 Order to Charge
3 Level Limit - Area B

Traps
3 Talisman of Spell Sealing
3 Wall of Revealing Light
3 Solar Ray
2 Dora of Fate
2 Order to Smash

Solar Flare Dragon can deal 500 damage during each of your end phases. In multiples, this card will cause some real problems for your opponent. Light monsters and Solar Ray will deal 600 damage apiece. Use The Agent of Creation - Venus’s effect to get many Light monsters into play. You can also use Mystical Shine Ball with Order to Charge to eliminate any threats to your plan, such as Jinzo.

Dora of Fate will take advantage of the large number of level 3 monsters in the deck to deal damage to your opponent. This deck uses more level 3 monsters than most decks, which tend to focus on level 4 monsters. Dora of Fate lets you use this to your advantage.

Needle Burrower rewards you for destroying monsters in battle. It’s the only real offensive strategy in the deck. Enemy Controller can also aid Needle Burrower, forcing otherwise strong monsters into weaker defensive positions.

Goblin Thief can cause damage directly to your opponent, as well as give you more life points. Finally, Atomic Firefly will punish anyone that attacks it. Though it has to be face up, it is a Light monster, so it can also fuel Solar Ray.

Level Limit - Area B is also included in this deck, as it can be used as a back-up plan to slow your opponent down. Since this deck does not rely on offense, the limiting effect of Level Limit - Area B should not become a major drawback.

Next week . . . Sealed Sanctuary.

Send all comments, suggestions, and Menchi recipes to Curtis@metagame.com.