The link is Blowback Dragon. While its chance of gaining a card is only 50 percent compared to the more assured effects of the Monarchs, Blowback Dragon is undoubtedly the best monster for our goal of uniting Deck Devastation Virus and Soul Exchange. Throw in a handful of Chaos Sorcerer cards and the spicy Dark Magician of Chaos and we have the makings of a new Soul Control build!

Mechanics of Advantage from the New Age Soul Control Build

Imagine this scenario. Your opponent sets one monster and one spell or trap, and ends with four cards in hand. You draw, and activate Soul Exchange to tribute his or her set monster for Blowback Dragon, which then takes priority to clear his or her set Sakuretsu Armor. Next, you set Deck Devastation Virus from hand and end with three cards. If your opponent does not find a way to destroy the Dragon, you’ll get a free 50 percent shot at netting another card next turn. If he or she does activate an effect to destroy it, you’ll simply chain Deck Devastation Virus. In either case, achieving the main combo leads to an almost automatic victory.

Build: New Age Soul Control

General Synergies and Goals:

1) Utilize Soul Exchange and Snatch Steal to bring free Dark tribute monsters to the field.

2) Activate Deck Devastation Virus.

Pivotal Cards:

1) Effects that can speed up the process of drawing the key support spells and traps.

2) The main components of our combo.

Constructing the Monster Lineup of New Age Soul Control

We can separate our monster groups into three categories: Dark monsters that fulfill the Deck Devastation Virus requirement, support monsters that help us achieve either of the two combos, and general support.

Deck Devastation Virus Support:

1 Dark Magician of Chaos

3 Blowback Dragon

2 Chaos Sorcerer

I’m not a fan of simply adding a few copies of Chaos Sorcerer and then searching for Light monsters to support it. However, this is a special exception. Chaos Sorcerer is quite clearly the best card to use with Deck Devastation Virus, and our strategy will necessitate multiple copies of Cyber Dragon and Magical Merchant to set up our tributes and key support cards. It’s definitely a good idea to include a few Sorcerers with that type of synergetic lineup. The rest of the tribute monsters are self-explanatory, since they’re clearly the best 2000+ ATK Dark tribute monsters in the game (quite a specialized group to begin with).

Combo Support:

1 Morphing Jar

1 Magician of Faith

3 Magical Merchant

3 Cyber Dragon

1 Sangan

1 Treeborn Frog

3 Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive

2 Gravekeeper’s Spy

This deck will pack three copies of Dekoichi and Merchant, since they’re among the best resource-fetchers in the game. Merchant will send tributes such as Dark Magician of Chaos and Blowback to the graveyard while trying to fetch the otherwise unsearchable Soul Exchange and Deck Devastation Virus cards. Dekoichi will provide a solid body while drawing more options. Three copies of each card will also push them into the removed zone quite well, setting up tributes and such.

Because of the relative instability of the deck, all of the different resource searchers are necessary. Cards like Morphing Jar help us see more cards in the deck, which is always essential to any combo-based strategy.

General Support:

1 Breaker the Magical Warrior

1 Tsukuyomi

Breaker is Breaker, but Tsukuyomi is essential to stopping the few cards that trump Blowback Dragon in attack strength. It will help clear the Monarchs, as well as rescuing the different flip effects that the deck has packaged. Because of the deck’s tendency to set up a good Graceful Charity already (owing to its heavy tribute count), Night Assailant is unnecessary.

The Spell and Trap Support for our Soul Control Build

By observing the general synergies of the build, we can definitely cut some of the cards that are generally considered staples in other decks. The list of spell staples we will be including are:

1 Heavy Storm

1 Nobleman of Crossout

1 Snatch Steal

1 Premature Burial

1 Graceful Charity

The other cards are not necessary. Because the deck doesn’t seek to press the attack, Mystical Space Typhoon becomes expendable. The deck also uses Deck Devastation Virus to look at the opponent’s hand, so Confiscation is not essential (outside of the sideboard). And because two copies of Soul Exchange will clear face-down monsters, only one copy of Nobleman of Crossout is needed. (Put the other into your side deck.) The other spell slots will be devoted to the goal of the deck and how to best achieve it.

Conceptual Spell Support:

2 Soul Exchange: The glue that holds the strategy together. While this card can sometimes become dead weight in the hand, don’t ignore its powers. There are currently very few pieces of face-down removal in the game, and using this card to its full potential gives us numerous ways to handle face-down monsters.

1 Scapegoat: Slowing down the tempo of the game is essential for this deck. Scapegoat is the best way to do it.

1 Metamorphosis: By working in conjunction with Magical Merchant, Treeborn Frog, and others, this card allows you to slow the game down as well. In addition, a Thousand-Eyes Restrict that absorbs a 2000+ ATK monster then becomes fuel for Deck Devastation Virus.

1 Swords of Revealing Light: Again, this card is essential to slowing the pace of the game down. If your opponent has already used Breaker, it’s highly unlikely that he or she will use a card like Dust Tornado or Heavy Storm to clear your Swords, giving you three turns to build resources.

Trap Staples:

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

Conceptual Trap Support:

2 Return from the Different Dimension: This huge support card will help set up tributes, end games through Dark Magician of Chaos and Blowback Dragon, and generally prevent you from decking out. Since Soul Exchange willingly forfeits battle phases, you need a huge late game win condition to push through heavy damage.

1 Dust Tornado: The thought of adding a Tornado over the generally superior Mystical Space Typhoon seems a bit ludicrous, but being able to set cards in the end phase—like Deck Devastation Virus, Call of the Haunted, and Return from the Different Dimension—from hand earns Dust Tornado the nod.

2 Deck Devastation Virus: Be careful not to set these without an activation trigger. Otherwise, they’ll make Treeborn Frog a useless card.

Expected Matchups with the Best Decks in the Format

To be quite honest, as long as it has a good solid draw, this deck will win every game against every good deck. Unfortunately, the heavy use of somewhat inconsistent components can lead to terrible draws sometimes. The chief drawback of both Deck Devastation Virus and Soul Control are the bad draws and topdecks. To a certain extent, this deck magnifies both problems. However, it’s also packed to the gills with almost every single type of card that can help set up tribute monsters. We’re running Spies, Treeborn Frog, Scapegoat, Swords of Revealing Light, and the maximum amount of copies for two of the best self-replacing monsters in the game. While the bad topdecks and such cannot be avoided, we can still create a game state that slows the tempo down immensely. One Deck Devastation Virus activation and the game should be in your hand.

New Grounds Verdict: Soul Control with a twist to counter the general Chaos Return environment.