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Doomkaiser Dragon
Card# CSOC-EN043
Doomkaiser Dragon's effect isn't just for Zombie World duelists: remember that its effect can swipe copies of Plaguespreader Zombie, too!
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There are about nine monster types that have consistently been strong forces in tournament decks. I’m talking about Warriors, Machines, Fiends, Spellcasters, Dragons, Fairies, Zombies, Beasts, and Beast-Warriors. Out of these, Warriors, Zombies, Beasts, and Beast Warriors have had the greatest impact on high-level play so far. I’ve already gone over Warriors in this column, so let’s take a look at their more primal counterparts, the Beasts and Beast Warriors.
Maximize!*
Monsters: 19
 3 Berserk Gorilla
2 King Tiger Wanghu
2 Enraged Battle Ox
2 Chiron the Mage
1 Sangan
1 Injection Fairy Lily
2 D.D. Assailant
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Jinzo
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
Spells: 15
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Snatch Steal
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Lightning Vortex
1 Premature Burial
2 Scapegoat
2 Enemy Controller
2 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Swords of Revealing Light
Traps: 6
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Mirror Force
1 Magic Cylinder
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
This is basically a Beatdown deck. The purpose is to smash your opponent as quickly as possible with big monsters. As such, this build runs a different ratio of monsters to spells and traps than most decks do. In fact, the ratio may look familiar to anyone who has been sneaking around on the message boards this past week. The top players in a couple of major tournaments in Asia were successful running the 19/15/6 ratio in their decks. Since most of those decks were aggressive and Beatdown-oriented, I wanted to try out the ratio in this deck.
In testing, the ratio worked out reasonably well. It did produce starting hands with more monsters than I usually like to see (three to four rather than my preferred two to three). Fortunately, that wasn’t much of an issue with this deck due to its heavily aggressive nature. The only time running nineteen monsters became a problem was when I drew nothing but monsters for the entire game. While that rarely happened, it is a distinct possibility and something that you should take into account when you’re practicing with this deck.
The spells and traps are fairly standard, with a nice balance between removal, control, and the essentials like Pot of Greed. Missing from the deck are the ever-present Magician of Faith and Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning. The Envoy isn’t in here because of the lack of Light monsters. Magician of Faith is missing for two reasons. First, to keep up the deck’s high speed, I didn’t include any flip effect monsters. Second, being free of flip effects means that you don’t have to worry about ill effects when you play Nobleman of Crossout. The deck’s strategy aims to play nothing but face up monsters, making an opponent’s Nobleman of Crossout a dead card.
 The main strength of this deck is that it can quickly back an opponent into a corner by dropping threats like Berserk Gorilla. Plus, King Tiger Wanghu can limit an opponent’s ability to defend his or her life points. When you have a 2000-ATK Gorilla and another monster that makes Scapegoat, Exiled Force, Injection Fairy Lily, and other cards utterly useless, your opponent could be in a bad situation. The Beast or Beast Warrior deck has excellent matchups against Warrior Swarm, Chaos, and to an extent, Zombies. Finally, Enraged Battle Ox allows you to smash through enemy sheep tokens as though they aren’t there and treat Spirit Reaper as though it has a big “Kick Me!” sign.
Unfortunately, the deck’s heavily aggressive nature gives it lousy matchups against Stall and Burn. That’s why my versions of the Beast deck runs plenty of extra spell and trap removal in the forms of Chiron the Mage and Mobius the Frost Monarch. Another potential weakness is the deck’s reliance on Berserk Gorilla to cause quick damage. Given the popularity of Enemy Controller, and to a lesser extent, Windstorm of Etaqua and Zero Gravity, the Gorilla can easily be killed without using a removal card. Rogue decks like Last Turn have a field day with Beasts and Beast Warriors because they can’t deal with the Last Turn/Jowgen combo or any of the other monsters that work well with Last Turn.
Operating Manual
If you’re playing the Beast or Beast Warrior deck, the ideal first turn involves Berserk Gorilla and a face down spell or trap. Mystical Space Typhoon and Bottomless Trap Hole are excellent candidates for this job. You’ll want to follow up on turn 2 with either Enraged Battle Ox or King Tiger Wanghu to quash your opponent’s defenses. If you can keep up the pressure and your opponent doesn’t draw all the right answers, you’ll have a great shot at winning the game. Remember, there are no wrong threats, but there are wrong answers. Having a good side deck is crucial to winning with this deck. Anything can and probably will happen to you over the course of a Shonen Jump Championship, so you need to be ready with the right answers.
When playing against a Beast or Beast Warrior deck, you can’t rely on Scapegoat to get you out of a jam. Your opponent can either kill all of your sheep tokens with King Tiger or smash through them with Enraged Battle Ox. Instead, place a higher value on Enemy Controller and Book of Moon. While Beasts and Beast Warriors have gigantic ATK values and killer effects, they have puny DEF values. Plus, Berserk Gorilla is destroyed when switched to defense position. You should also try to side deck lots of anti-aggressive cards, like Sakuretsu Armor, to keep the big monsters off your back.
“Duly Noted . . . and Ignored”**
At last, we’ve come to the part where various personalities from my playtesting group get to sound off about this week’s deck. As usual, all names are initialed to protect the “innocent.”
CH: Stupid trample. Trample is so annoying!
JM: You’re telling me that?
CH: Yes.
JM: That’s not particularly useful, is it? Does anyone else have something to say?
JC: This deck is unstoppable, given the right draw.
JM: I wouldn’t say “unstoppable,” but it’s darn good. Injection Fairy Lily is still the bane of my existence.
Well, my group wasn’t exactly talkative on the subject of Beast and Beast Warrior decks. Only one person at our store plays the deck, and he isn’t qualified for Nationals yet. Nevertheless, you’ll probably have to deal with it at some point, and knowing is half the battle.*** Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Next Week: Mighty morphin’ sheep tokens!
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu
* From the Transformers: Beast Wars. You know, when the Maximals transform.
** Another quote from Beast Wars. This time, it’s from Megatron. I just couldn’t help myself.
*** Go, Joe! |
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