Now that Wheeler is pleased, it’s time to cater to Kwame and discuss the Earth element! The Earth theme actually possesses plenty of powerful monsters that are splashable in almost any build, with cards like D. D. Assailant and Exiled Force popping up in numerous top-tier decks.

The widespread popularity of the Earth attribute provides a double-edged sword to your developing theme. The services of Gaia Power will augment some of the best monsters in the game, transforming them into unstoppable field control devices. However, it will also do the same to some of your opponent’s cards.

There are a few bonuses due to the Earth theme’s relative popularity as compared to the Fire deck. The issue is not that we’re trying to find as many good Earth attribute monsters as possible from meager pickings—rather, we want to pare down the field to only those Earth monsters that truly belong in the deck. The reason for this is because Earth monsters are easily some of the best in the game, and three slots will immediately be taken by D. D. Assailant. With the +500 ATK bonus from Gaia Power, it’ll become a 2200 ATK powerhouse that can take down any monster strong enough to destroy it.

Onward, then, to the Earth build!

Constructing a Solid Earth Monster Lineup

Unfortunately, many of the great Earth monsters are famous for their high DEF values. Cards like Big Shield Gardna and Legendary Jujitsu Master lose a lot of their function because of Gaia Power’s drawback, so they will be ignored completely. Therefore, Beatdown is the theme that emerges. There’s a laundry list of solid Earth beaters, including Berserk Gorilla, Enraged Battle Ox, Gigantes, The Rock Spirit, Bazoo the Soul Eater, and Acrobat Monkey. (I’m kidding about that last one.) Because D. D. Assailant will remove itself from the game, a strategy can be built around removing monsters from the graveyard as well.

We can add a pair of Bazoo the Soul Eater, since Bazoo will turn into a 3000 ATK monster with Gaia Power on the field. Bazoo is a great piece of tech for most decks, since it works well against Chaos Sorcerer, Cyber Dragon, and the Monarchs. Augment its ATK value by 500, making it a natural 2100, and you’ll be able to take down most monsters immediately.

Building off this, a few copies of Giant Rat will work well with this strategy, and serve as either a 1900 ATK monster with Gaia Power or a 1400 ATK self-replacing searcher without it. However, this self-replacing searcher is an interesting tool for the Earth deck, since it strikes a happy balance between the elemental strategies. What I mean by this is that other attribute decks (such as Wind) place little to no emphasis on their search cards because of a lack of suitable targets. Others, like the Fire deck that was analyzed last week, rely wholly on their search cards. Giant Rat finds a good middle ground, which bodes well for the balance of this Earth deck.

Good targets for Giant Rat’s effect include Exiled Force and Kinetic Soldier. The attack boost due to Gaia Power is almost irrelevant for the former, but it will still likely be the first thing that you’ll search out. For Kinetic Soldier, however, the 500 ATK boost is highly irrelevant. It moves from a rather passive 1350 ATK/1800 DEF monster to an 1850 ATK anti-Warrior powerhouse that can hold its own against a spent Breaker the Magical Warrior, Mystic Tomato, and other commonly played monsters. Running one copy should be sufficient, and more can be side-decked against Warrior heavy matchups, which should constitute about 80 percent of the competition at a Shonen Jump Championship or Regional tournament.

A few other Earth monsters that can make the jump from decent to great with the aid of Gaia Power are Enraged Battle Ox, Nimble Momonga, and Inaba White Rabbit. (Again, I’m kidding about that last one.) Enraged Battle Ox will deal immense piercing damage by boasting an ATK value of 2200. Nimble Momonga has excellent synergy with Giant Rat and boosts your life points by 3000 with a successful effect, while packing a muscular 1500 ATK that’s great for poking at your opponent’s life points. All of this attacking will spell doom for your opponent.

Incidentally, the attempt to create synergy with Bazoo the Soul Eater has also made it rather easy to support a copy of Gigantes, which is part of the “remove from game” elemental monsters that were introduced in Invasion of Chaos. On a clear field, a 2400 ATK powerhouse will help end games that much faster.

To support this strategy even further, we’ll include a copy of Injection Fairy Lily, a card that can end games in two to three turns. All of this quick attacking will spell doom for your opponent. Unfortunately, duelists have a nasty tendency to try to avert the doom you’ve created for them by retreating into a defensive shell. Enter Mystic Swordsman LV2, a card that removes defensive monsters from the equation! Even better, boosting it to 1400 ATK will let it take down any Sangan that plagues it.

Monsters: 19

3 Nimble Momonga

2 Giant Rat

1 Injection Fairy Lily

1 Exiled Force

1 Enraged Battle Ox

2 Bazoo the Soul Eater

3 D. D. Assailant

1 Mystic Swordsman LV2

1 Kinetic Soldier

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 D. D.Warrior Lady

1 Gigantes

You can easily see how much damage this deck can conjure up. Assuming the opponent hits your Nimble Momonga, you can jump back the next turn and pop him or her for 3000 damage or more with the help of Gaia Power. Therefore, the spell and trap lineup should work on preventing threats to your overextensions. Public enemy number one is Dark Hole, which will wipe out your field completely, and public enemy number two is Torrential Tribute, which will also wipe out your field.

Spells: 15

1 Dark Hole

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Snatch Steal

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

2 Smashing Ground

1 Creature Swap

1 Premature Burial

2 Reinforcement of the Army

3 Gaia Power

1 Nobleman of Extermination

The spell lineup will take advantage of the numerous Warriors in the deck. The two copies of Reinforcement of the Army will let you find an answer to any situation that threatens your field presence. Remember, you want to use Gaia Power to generate card advantage, so keep it in your hand as long as possible.

Summoning an Earth monster proudly and playing Gaia Power is usually not the right answer. Instead, try to use it to help a monster that is not entirely able to destroy another monster without the 500 ATK bonus. For example, you might play Gaia Power right before attacking your opponent’s Cyber Dragon with Enraged Battle Ox. This constitutes a gain of +1 card advantage.

To support this strategy, we’ll have to be wary of using more than one copy of Nobleman of Extermination, which would otherwise be superior to Dust Tornado in this particular deck. The reason is that your opponent’s Dust Tornado can cause a two-for-one resource loss for you! Imagine if you play Nobleman of Extermination on the only spell or trap on the opponent’s board. He or she might chain Dust Tornado to take out your Gaia Power! Fiendish!

Traps: 8

3 Dust Tornado

2 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Return from the Different Dimension

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Robbin’ Goblin

The solution to this problem, of course, is to run Dust Tornado to take out the opponent’s traps in the end phase! This strategy lends itself well to all sorts of devastating tricks involving setting Robbin’ Goblin, Call of the Haunted, or Return from the Different Dimension at the end phase. Speaking of which, here’s a simple equation.

What does a copy of Bazoo, three monsters in the graveyard, Dust Tornado, and Return from the Different Dimension spell for your opponent? The answer is D-O-O-M. You can destroy the opponent’s only spell or trap at the end phase with Dust Tornado, set Return from the Different Dimension, then smack him or her for a boatload of damage on the next turn with this nifty combo. Your opponent might try to avert that doom by setting a monster (going into that defensive shell he or she loves) but you don’t even have to dig out your copy of Mystic Swordsman LV2! As you well know, setting a monster during an opponent’s turn is illegal.

Anyway, a properly constructed Earth deck is definitely top-tier, and it can cope with all of the threats in the format. Perhaps we’ll see a copy of Gaia Power in the Top 8 of a Shonen Jump Championship. Have fun playing with this deck!

As for me, I regret ever making that Captain Planet joke in the Fire article. Sure, Wheeler and Kwame are pleased that I did justice to Fire and Earth, but Ma-Ti wants me to construct a Heart of the Underdog deck as soon as possible. Go figure.