Because of this, I couldn’t resist taking a look at Eddie T.’s deck. Here’s what he had to say about it.

What’s up, Jason,

First off, let me say I make it a point to hit up Metagame.com every day. You guys keep it real and to the point. I study your articles and read them over and over, and I bring up points you make at team meetings and when building decks.

I want to take my game to the next level, which is why I’m asking the man for help on my deck. This brings me to my next point: my deck. With the format so filled with cookies, I have to put together a deck to counter them. I just can’t seem to get over the hump to win week in and week out. There’s no better person to ask than Jason, the deck master himself. The purpose of this deck is to get Ancient Gear Beast on the field to destroy self-replacing monsters and flip effects, with Windstorm of Etaqua to stop Cyber Dragon, Spirit Reaper, and Don Zaloog from hitting me. I’d appreciate it if you could help me out.

Thanks for your time, and you guys and gals at Metagame.com keep up the awesome work!

-Eddie T.

Here’s Eddie’s decklist.

Gear Beast Blast

41 Cards

Monsters: 21

3 Ancient Gear Beast

3 Spirit Reaper

3 Nimble Momonga

2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

2 Drillroid

2 D. D. Assailant

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Injection Fairy Lily

1 Exiled Force

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Giant Rat

Spells: 14

1 Dark Hole

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

1 Pot of Avarice

3 Smashing Ground

1 Creature Swap

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 My Body as a Shield

2 Rush Recklessly

1 Nobleman of Extermination

Traps: 6

2 Dust Tornado

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

2 Windstorm of Etaqua

What’s this? An Ancient Gear Beast deck that actually plans to tribute monsters for its Beasts? We’ll have to fix that. Overall, I think Eddie’s deck has been built pretty well. My main concerns are some of the choices made in the spell and trap lineup, and the distinct lack of Ancient Gear Castle. The Castle could do a lot for this deck, so let’s take a quick look at it.

The first reason we’d want to run Ancient Gear Castle is because we can tribute it for Ancient Gear Beast instead of a real monster. Not only does that give us more options in situations when we don’t really want to lose a monster, but it also means that the Gear Beast can hit the field when we have absolutely no monster presence. That’s pretty cool, and it allows the deck to rebound from bad situations.

The Castle’s other effect might be even better. Adding 300 ATK to the Gear Beast’s original 2000 takes it from its original status of Cyber Dragon fodder to a dominating total that’s capable of matching Goldd, Wu-Lord of Dark World. Those extra 300 points of power make a huge difference. Without the ability to go toe-to-toe with Cyber Dragon, I’d consider the deck unplayable. But Ancient Gear Castle puts it over the magic 2100 ATK threshold and gives the deck a fighting chance in the current Advanced environment. We need three, and I’m going to go so far as to add them before I even start dropping cards!

Speaking of, the first cuts I want to make are the pair of Drillroids and Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. I’d recommend that Kycoo get bumped to the side deck for Chaos matchups, but I don’t think either of these cards needs to be in the main deck. Drillroid isn’t nearly as important as it would be in other decks, because Eddie’s already packing a pair of Rush Recklessly, which gives him more answers to Spirit Reaper than usual. Running 21 monsters is a lot for a deck that isn’t using Cyber Dragon, and dropping down the total monster count will be the first step toward success.

Next, I’ll axe the one copy of Pot of Avarice. “ORA,” the message-board shorthand for “One Random Avarice,” takes a lot of heat from veteran duelists, and it should. In order to get the most out of Pot of Avarice, you need to support it with cards like Magical Merchant and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Otherwise, it could very easily become a dead card when it’s drawn. In addition, the increased play that Kycoo continues to see makes Avarice even harder to use reliably. This deck doesn’t have the support for it, so it shouldn’t be using the card.

Creature Swap also seems like a weird selection. I think it runs the risk of being a dead card, and I really don’t think that’s worth the potential payoff of Swapping Nimble Momonga or Giant Rat with your opponent.

I can appreciate what Eddie is trying to do by running Nobleman of Extermination. You can see that his decklist is devoid of Sakuretsu Armor, so he’s probably aiming to strip the opponent of their Sakuretsu Armors without costing himself anything in the process. This can be a great plan, but in order for it to succeed, you need to be running multiple copies of Nobleman of Extermination. You also still need monster control! Anyone who’s using this trick should be main-decking three copies of Widespread Ruin, and Eddie isn’t using any. Since I don’t have any indication that he owns any, and a playset of three Widespread Ruins is nosing its way toward $90 on the secondary market, I’m going to axe the one copy of Nobleman of Extermination and pursue an entirely different course of action.

Finally, I’m going to remove the two copies of Windstorm of Etaqua. While I really like Windstorm and played the heck out of it in the previous Advanced format, it’s taken an undeniable series of blows in the current format. It’s a lot harder to capitalize on the ability to shift your opponent’s monster positions. It’s harder to attack a monster in a weak position thanks to Sakuretsu and Widespread, and there are fewer Sheep tokens scampering about the average table. Etaqua is definitely still playable, and I’m glad to see that it’s being reprinted as one of the promo cards in those Shadow of Infinity Special Edition boxes. But what this deck really needs is a few pieces of straight monster destruction, and we need to make room for those. We can’t fully support Windstorm, so it’s an easy drop on a technical level . . .

 . . . but not on a personal level. Believe me, a single tear just rolled down my lonesome cheek. Farewell, little Windstorm.

Sniff.

That leaves us with eight card slots to work with, and as previously discussed, the first addition we need to make is three copies of Ancient Gear Castle. It’s a shame that this card isn’t a field spell, or else I’d add a copy of Terraforming to search for it too. Of course, being a continuous spell, you can always use multiple copies at once! Having multiple Castles out on the field will allow you to build towards multiple Gear Beasts, plus the ATK bonus will stack. That means your Ancient Gear Beast can overpower the format’s biggest monsters like Mobius the Frost Monarch and Jinzo!

From that point on, one copy of Reinforcement of the Army is a must. With three different Warrior monsters to choose from, Reinforcement will never be a dead card, and it will make side decking Mystic Swordsman LV2 a bit easier. The Swordsman can also be searched out with Giant Rat, so a pair of them in the side deck will make it much easier to deal with duelists who run multiple copies of Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive and Magical Merchant.

The last spell I want to add is sort of a penance for removing the two copies of Windstorm of Etaqua. Enemy Controller is going to give the same protection against Cyber Dragon and the same exploitation potential when faced with a weak defense position monster. At the same time, it can destroy Spirit Reaper, steal a monster in exchange for one of your own, and take advantage of cards like Nimble Momonga that give you extra field presence. It seems like a great fit for this deck, so I’m going to add a single copy.

Finally, I’m going to put in the three copies of Sakuretsu Armor that Eddie had been trying to play around including. Flat out, even though Ancient Gear Castle can allow Ancient Gear Beast to trump Cyber Dragon, that trick won’t work 100 percent of the time. Mystical Space Typhoon, Dust Tornado, or even just not drawing Ancient Gear Castle can leave your precious Gear Beasts vulnerable to attacks, so Sakuretsu Armor is a must for that reason alone. In addition, they’ll repel attacks from Spirit Reaper and Don Zaloog, ensuring that an unexpected loss of board presence won’t translate to a loss of hand presence as well.

Here are the changes I ended up making to Eddie’s deck!

-2 Drillroid

-2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer

-1 Creature Swap

-1 Pot of Avarice

-1 Nobleman of Extermination

-2 Windstorm of Etaqua

+3 Ancient Gear Castle

+1 Reinforcement of the Army

+1 Enemy Controller

+3 Sakuretsu Armor

The final fix looks like this.

Gear Beast Blast: Jason’s Fix

40 Cards

Monsters: 17

3 Ancient Gear Beast

3 Spirit Reaper

3 Nimble Momonga

2 D. D. Assailant

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Sangan

1 Injection Fairy Lily

1 Exiled Force

1 D. D. Warrior Lady

1 Giant Rat

Spells: 16

1 Dark Hole

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

3 Smashing Ground

1 Heavy Storm

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 My body as a Shield

2 Rush Recklessly

3 Ancient Gear Castle

1 Reinforcement of the Army

1 Enemy Controller

Traps: 7

2 Dust Tornado

1 Call of the Haunted

1 Torrential Tribute

3 Sakuretsu Armor

This is basically a standard Earth Beatdown deck, complete with Giant Rat to really maximize the potential of your shared synergies. But added to that, you’ve also got a really impressive beatstick in the form of Ancient Gear Beast. The Beast will allow you to truly capitalize on situations where you have field advantage. It’ll punch into an opponent without having to fear Sakuretsu Armor, Book of Moon, Enemy Controller, or Scapegoat, and often that surprise factor will be enough to get through at least one direct attack.

In addition, you should note that the Gear Beast negates the effect of any monster it destroys. That’s an amazing effect to have at your disposal, given the fact that so many duelists are now loading up on flip effect monsters. When it comes to dealing with Dekoichi and Magical Merchant, Ancient Gear Beast is basically a Mystic Swordsman LV2 with a lot more staying power. I consider that fact to be one of the most compelling reasons to play this deck in the current environment.

This deck has some great opening moves, in the form of Nimble Momonga and Giant Rat. You’ve also got several D. D. monsters to set and clear the field if they get attacked, so you should be able to open any duel in a strong position.

In the early game, you’re all about jockeying for advantage. Play the deck as you would any other beatdown build, and try to draw out Smashing Grounds whenever possible. Once Ancient Gear Beast hits the field you want to know that it’ll be able to stay there for a while, and every Smashing Ground that sees play before the Beast is one less answer that your opponent will have for it.

The mid-game is where this deck shines! With many players setting monster after monster from turn 4 onward, you’ll be able to start reaping the advantages of Gear Beast. Bring one or two to the field, pump them up with Ancient Gear Castle, and start smashing things around! Short of Widespread Ruin activated during the attack of a non-Gear Beast monster, you’ve got little to fear, so play aggressively and take down as many monsters as you can.

Ideally, by the time you hit the late game you’ll have serious card advantage. You’ve got some great topdecks thanks to your versatile Earth monsters, and Rush Recklessly can give those monsters the edge when it’s needed. Remember to play Rush intelligently. Don’t waste it when it isn’t either destroying Spirit Reaper or saving one of your monsters from destruction.

Matchups to watch out for? While this deck should peel apart Flip-Flop Control and anything resembling it, a Return from the Different Dimension strategy could give it some trouble. Keep your Momongas for the late game if possible, and exploit your ability to bounce away attackers with Rush Recklessly. Usually, a Return player won’t be able to account for things like losing a monster to a sudden increase in ATK, and often disrupting just a single attack will be enough to ruin their mathematically balanced shot at victory. Good stuff!

While most duelists looked at Ancient Gear Castle and immediately thought of Ancient Gear Golem, Ancient Gear Beast is a brilliant pick for the current format. If you want to see precisely why that’s the case, give this deck a workout at your local tournament. Ancient Gear Beast makes the little train cry, and that’s good enough for me!

—Jason Grabher-Meyer

Do you have an Advanced format deck you could use some help with, or that you just want to show off to the world? Do you want to see it appear in a future Apotheosis article? Send it to me at Jason(at)metagame(dot)com, with your name, location, and explanation of how the deck works—I might take a crack at it!