Did you have fun reading about monsters with 2000 or more ATK last week? I hope you did, because you’re about to do it again. I’m back with part two! In this week’s article, I’ll cover the second half of my top twenty. Last week I showed you the best of the best Spellcasters, Warriors, and Zombies, and today I’ll take you on a guided tour of Machines and Fiends.

Deck Devastation Virus can be one of the most powerful cards in the game, but you have to know how and when to use it. That takes practice. It’s also pretty useless without the right monsters, so hopefully today’s list will increase your array of options, and you’ll find some which fit your personal style.

Let’s start with Machines!

Machines:

Blowback Dragon:

Japanese National Champion Shin Ishikawa took a Deck Devastation Virus build to the Top 8 of the World Championships, running three copies of this and Chaos Sorcerer as tribute fodder. Blowback Dragon is unique in that it can offer a double-whammy effect that can’t be stopped by anything other than a counter trap. If you summon Blowback Dragon, even if the opponent has Bottomless Trap Hole set and wishes to use it, you’ll still get to activate the Dragon’s effect with priority. If you activate Blowback’s effect, followed by the opponent chaining Bottomless, followed by you then tributing Blowback for Deck Devastation Virus, the chain that results looks like this:

Blowback Dragon’s Effect >>> Bottomless Trap Hole >>> Deck Devastation Virus

Blowback is tributed immediately at the point of Deck Devastation Virus’s activation, so Bottomless Trap Hole won’t resolve successfully. The only relevant effects are those of the Virus and the Dragon, and if you chose to target a big monster (or even got lucky with the right call on a set monster), you're often clearing the opponent's entire field.

Not only does your opponent potentially lose one more card than he or she would if you pulled this combo with any other monster, you gain information and wreak even more havoc than usual.

Big Core:

Big Core is completely Virus-ready! Who knew? Go ahead and run it through three battles to get rid of all of its tokens. Then, when its hull simply can’t take any more, tribute it off at the last second to shred your opponent’s field and hand. Its strong defensive field presence might surprise you, and just when the opponent thinks you’ve been trumped, you can feed Big Core to the Virus and have the last laugh. (If you’re like me, you probably pulled a lot of these monsters. Time to break them out and use them!)

Remember, too, that any Dark monster boosted over 2000 ATK by Limiter Removal can count as Virus fodder. Cannon Soldier, Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, and Mechanicalchaser all jump up to Virus-compliant ATK values, and since Limiter Removal is going to destroy the monsters it boosted anyways, you might as well tribute one of them to Deck Devastation. I call that efficiency! You can also summon Jinzo in face-down defense position and tribute it, since its effect only works when it’s face up. On their own, Machines might not have quite enough power to support this tricky trap, but Blowback Dragon is eminently splashable, and mixes well with some of the other monster types we’ve discussed.

Fiends:

Giant Orc:

Fiends have the most topnotch Virus-enabled monsters of all the available monster types, and none has seen more play within this context than Giant Orc. Like Zombyra the Dark and Dark Elf, Giant Orc has the advantage of convenience. Unlike most of the monsters on this list, it doesn’t have a tribute cost (it’s level 4), so you can drop it without warning and then tribute it off for the Virus whenever you’re ready.

Giant Orc also has the ability to beat down Cyber Dragon in battle, taking Zombyra’s ability to trade with the Dragon in combat one step further. Under the right conditions, Giant Orc can sit on the field and take down multiple opposing monsters before being tributed. Even if the opponent gets aggressive in order to take advantage of the Orc in its weakened defense position, Deck Devastation Virus changes a potentially pointless loss into a legitimate tactical sacrifice.

The End of Anubis: 

While recruiter monsters scamper through tournaments with abandon, The End of Anubis watches from your trade binder shaking its head. Not only does it shut down Mystic Tomato, Nimble Momonga, and all those other obnoxious little pests, it also knocks the wind out of Sangan, shuts down Magician of Faith, negates Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial, and keeps its foot firmly pressed on Treeborn Frog’s little neck. The 2500 ATK is an asset in a format dominated by 2400 ATK Monarchs, Phoenixes, and Jinzos, but poor Anubis always seems to be overshadowed by . . .

Dark Ruler Ha Des:

Ha Des does most of what Anubis can do, and a little bit more. Though its effect requires that it (or another of your Fiends) actually be routing flip effect monsters in battle in order to shut down their effects, Ha Des makes up for that little detail by negating any flip effect monster it destroys—not just ones that involve the graveyard, like Anubis (although Anubis doesn’t care if it’s a flip or not).

In addition, Ha Des’s effect can negate the removal abilities of D. D. Warrior Lady and D. D. Assailant. Though its ATK is slightly lower, Ha Des can still take down Jinzo and the Monarchs without costing itself its own existence on the field. If recruiter monsters continue to be big as the new format continues, Ha Des might be a very good choice for a Fiend-heavy Deck Devastation strategy. Still, don’t discount The End of Anubis, since it plays nicely with Premature Burial and Call.

Terrorking Archfiend:

You can tribute a face-down Dark monster with 2000 ATK or more to pay the activation cost of Deck Devastation Virus, and that comes in handy when the monster you’re looking to tribute happens to be Terrorking Archfiend. Terrorking can be difficult to get into play, since it can’t be normal summoned or flip summoned unless you control another Archfiend. You can, however, set it and wait for it to be flipped by an attack. In this case, Deck Devastation becomes a great insurance policy. If the opponent attacks with a monster that isn’t big enough to destroy Terrorking, wonderful! You’ve got yourself a mini-Ha Des that doesn’t require a tribute, capable of negating cards that target it. If, however, something bigger comes knocking on Terrorking’s door, you can just tribute it for the Virus since you were going to lose it anyways.

Helpoemer:

Remember Helpoemer? (I’ve still got one—I was always thinking, “I’ve got to experiment with this guy.”) Helpoemer’s effect, which forces the opponent to discard a card every turn while Helpoemer is in the graveyard after being destroyed in battle, can be absolutely disastrous for your opponent. It’s essentially a free Spirit Reaper shot every turn, and your opponent can’t do much about it. Since it only has 1400 DEF, but an admirable 2000 ATK, your best bet to turn on its effect is usually to tribute summon it in face-down defense position. That way your opponent will either have to attack Helpoemer to reveal what it is (hopefully destroying it in the process), or remove it from play with Nobleman of Crossout or D. D. Warrior Lady.

If either of the latter two cards threatens it, you can tribute it for Deck Devastation Virus. It’s not ideal, but at least you’ll salvage some serious hand disruption from Helpoemer’s demise, which is what you were trying to do in the first place. If you can ever get Helpoemer and Deck Devastation Virus going at the same time, your opponent is going to be annoyed.

Sillva, Warlord of Dark World/Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World:

King Hung Shum, Hong Kong’s National Champion, took a Dark World deck packing three Sillva and two Goldd all the way to the finals of the World Championships this year. With the proper support, both of these monsters will usually enter play without needing a tribute, and from that point they can be used as part of a swarm strategy or as immediate tribute fodder for Deck Devastation.

Dark World monsters offer a lot of convenience for use with Deck Devastation Virus. You can tribute to bring them out if you want (or need) to, but it’s usually not even necessary to use your normal summon on them. In some ways this gives them a leg up on Zombyra, Dark Elf, and Giant Orc. In fact, the Dark World monsters combine very well with Treeborn Frog and a Frog-friendly trap lineup of chainable options. The Virus slides into such a trap list quite easily.

Dark Necrofear:

The final monster of our list is one of the most powerful. Sharing the convenience of easy special summoning that Sillva and Goldd enjoy, Necrofear is tempting because you don’t need to tribute a monster or use up a normal summon in order to bring it to the field. Ideally, you’d probably want to use its effect to take control of an opponent’s monster, but if they do anything to jeopardize that, you can tribute Necrofear for Deck Devastation Virus. Bottomless Trap Hole in response to your summon? Virus! D. D. Warrior Lady attacking? Virus! In this situation, Deck Devastation just makes an already-frustrating card that much harder to deal with. (I’ll say it again—the same thing I say every time I mention Dark Necrofear—if you’re going to use it, read the rulings to make sure you’re using it correctly!)

The main thing Fiends have going for them is their sheer range of options, and, once you settle on a few, you’ve got the proper support for Dark Necrofear, bringing everything full circle. While Fiends don’t have a Virus-enabling monster that performs like Dark Magician of Chaos or Blowback Dragon, their range of options runs the gamut from “easy and low maintenance” all the way to “requires a dedicated deck but performs impressively.” Some of the most promising Deck Devastation Virus strategies are buried in these eight monsters.

So, there you have it! A look at twenty of the most tournament-viable monsters to run with Deck Devastation Virus. By now I’d hope you’ve got some deck ideas—by all means, try them out! Deck Devastation Virus blows away recruiter monsters, stops Cyber-Stein before the opponent can ever summon it, and clears out annoying flip effect monsters. It’s a skill card that can be challenging, but with a bit of practice, you can master a game-winning effect that many duelists never anticipate.