I think someone in the Research & Development team for UDE really likes monkeys, because Berserk Gorilla is fantastic. This obviously upset monkey boasts an incredible 2000 ATK at level 4. While several other monsters have the same ugly punch, Berserk Gorilla’s effect does the least harm to your game. Having said that, the crazy primate is not too hot on the defensive side, showing off a less-than impressive 1000 DEF. This means that it’s vulnerable to Tsukuyomi, while still having a high enough DEF to make it a Smashing Ground target.

Berserk Gorilla has two other negative effects. First, it must attack at least once every battle phase, if it’s able. This isn’t much of a drawback, since you’ll want to take advantage of every battle phase by attacking with the Gorilla anyway. This effect usually won’t backfire, since there is almost nothing bigger that you can attack in the early game. Most of the time a bigger monster will attack the Berserk Gorilla on the opponent’s turn.

Sometimes your opponent might try to get tricky by summoning a bigger monster and not attacking. He or she is probably hoping to force you into attacking the larger monster, while still dodging any defensive card sets you may be getting ready to play. However, this can be risky: your opponent is taking a big chance hoping that you can’t deal with the scary monster and have nothing to tribute the Berserk Gorilla for. The worst-case scenario for you is if your opponent chains Call of the Haunted during the battle phase for anything with an ATK value higher than 2000. If you don’t have a quick-play spell or a trap to deal with the monster immediately, you’ll be forced to send your Gorilla on a mission to the graveyard.

The second downside of Berserk Gorilla is that it cannot be switched to defense position, or else it is sent to the graveyard. This essentially prohibits a player from setting Berserk Gorilla in defense position, since an attack from any monster would destroy it (either through battle or through its own effect when it’s flipped face-up). It also means that Enemy Controller or any card switching the Gorilla to face-up defense position will be an automatic removal card. This second effect basically tells you that once Berserk Gorilla is summoned, all it can do is attack or be offered as a tribute. That’s not really a problem, though, since it’s generally what you want to do with your oversized ape.

ANGRY ANGRY AGGRO!

Beastdown has always been once of my favorite archetypes, and Berserk Gorilla is the core of the deck’s strategy. The deck is exactly what it sounds like: a beatdown strategy with a focus on beast monsters. Beasts are used because of their generally high ATK values, their piercing damage* effects, and the Beast support cards. Unfortunately, most Beast support tends to promote over-extensions, which even a beatdown deck needs to avoid. Beasts have two tier-one support cards, though: Enraged Battle Ox and Beast Soul Swap.

The Battle Ox allows you to deal damage to your opponent’s life points without over-extending the field. Now that Mirror Force is back in business, the Beastdown deck has taken a hit. It can’t throw a second monster down to get in some life point damage any more, because Mirror Force would chew it up and spit it out. But now, the Beastdown player could simply have his or her Enraged Battle Ox constantly attack face-down monsters and deal piercing damage. It could easily bait out Mirror Force, allowing the Beastdown player to go nuts.

Beast Soul Swap is an interesting trap card, despite the fact that that many Beastdown players wouldn’t consider it tier one. It allows you to negate the effect of any card that targets a Beast monster you own. It’s useful to note that you can special summon the same Beast you returned. Sakuretsu Armor? Thanks, but I’ll still attack. Snatch Steal? I think I’ll bounce the target, then replace it. Beast Soul Swap also doubles as a win condition. Two direct Berserk Gorilla hits can easily take down an opponent with low life points. The beautiful thing? You can do all this without making any over-extensions.

Is Beastdown itself a playable deck? Definitely. Beast Soul Swap can let the Beastdown player maintain tempo, keep a strong card presence, and attack almost every turn without having to over-extend the field. Enraged Battle Ox helps put the hurt on control-based decks and has “I hate Scapegoat!” written all over it. What really makes the Beastdown deck work, though, is the ability to pack extra defensive cards. Most general cookie-cutter decks don’t need to run multiple copies of Enemy Controller or Bottomless Trap Hole (which can result in dead cards in a slow-paced game). However, the Beastdown deck can utilize them to prevent Cyber Dragon and Mobius the Frost Monarch from crushing their Beasts and taking tempo away.

In fact, all this talk is making me want to dust off my old Beast cards and see if I can get a Beastdown deck to work.

*For those who aren’t familiar with this term, “piercing damage” refers to dealing life point damage after attacking a defense-position monster. See Saber Beetle for an example.