Evan Vargas’s Soul Control deck has become one of the most net-decked archetypes in the country since he introduced it in Los Angeles on April 2, one day after the new Limited list was released. Using two copies of Magician of Faith, two Apprentice Magicians, and three Scapegoats didn’t seem like such a daring move in a time when Chaos Warriors, Zombies, and Burn decks were the big winners. Evan could safely bet on meeting only a few Airknight Parshaths and even fewer Beasts that push damage through defenders—even among the Earth Aggro decks, which favored Berserk Gorilla, D. D. Assailant and other beatsticks supported by massive monster removal and three copies of Giant Trunade.

Aside from his major achievement of finding a truly destructive use for Soul Exchange, Evan greatly assisted the current trend toward abuse of low-DEF monsters, which are now seeing renewed play even in the almighty Chaos decks. It seems like everyone wants to get their hands on a second Heavy Storm, Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, or Delinquent Duo. Both the new list and Evan Vargas have ushered in the era of these powerhouse spells. Of course, there were other factors, like the popular interest in Metamorphosis and the toolkit that the Fusion deck has become as a result, vividly illustrated by Thousand-Eyes Restrict being brought into play with Metamorphosis and a sheep token from Scapegoat.

Many duelists, including myself, see this as an opportunity to resurrect an old deck type: Beastdown. This deck uses high-ATK Beast-, Beast Warrior-, and Winged Beast-type monsters, as well as the trample effect provided by Enraged Battle Ox, to do damage to an opponent who is left hopelessly setting monster after monster. These decks are ruthless in Beatdown form, but an updated model would be more of an Aggro style. It should also take advantage of some of the cards that have come out since Invasion of Chaos—notably, Curse of Anubis, Chiron the Mage, and maybe even Behemoth the King of All Animals.

To take a closer look at this matchup, let’s look at two sample decklists side by side. First, we’ll review Evan’s Soul Control deck from Shonen Jump Los Angeles, and second, we’ll look at a typical Beastdown deck.

Evan Vargas’s Soul Control

Monsters: 17
3 Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys
1 Hand of Nephthys
2 Apprentice Magician
2 Magician of Faith
2 D. D. Assailant
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Sinister Serpent
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Sangan

Spells: 18
1 Pot of Greed
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Graceful Charity
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Metamorphosis
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Enemy Controller
3 Scapegoat
1 Lightning Vortex
2 Soul Exchange

Traps: 5
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
1 Royal Decree

Side Deck: 15
1 Morphing Jar
2 Kinetic Soldier
1 Airknight Parshath
2 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Metamorphosis
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Wave-Motion Cannon
1 Ceasefire
1 Windstorm of Etaqua
2 Dust Tornado


Typical Beastdown

Monsters: 17
1 Mystical Knight of Jackal
1 Behemoth the King of All Animals
1 Jinzo
1 Injection Fairy Lily
3 Enraged Battle Ox
3 Berserk Gorilla
2 Chiron the Mage
2 D. D. Assailant
1 Pitch-Black Warwolf
1 Exiled Force
1 Gigantes

Spells: 14
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Delinquent Duo
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Premature Burial
2 Enemy Controller
2 Smashing Ground
3 Giant Trunade

Traps: 9
1 Curse Of Anubis
1 Ceasefire
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Royal Command

The side deck could include:
Big-Tusked Mammoth
The March of Animals
Dust Tornado
Ultimate Offering
Royal Decree

Evan’s deck depends heavily on several points of tech. First, Soul Exchange and Thestalos the Firestorm Monarch need to be disruptive enough to make up for the loss of a battle phase. Against a Beastdown deck, Evan will more than likely use Thestalos’s discard effect to hit a level 4 monster for 400 damage. For the sake of argument, I included some higher-level monsters in the monster lineup as well. When a monster is discarded, about 450 life points is the average amount of damage that will be done. If Evan does hit a monster with Thestalos, he’s also feeding the graveyard for Gigantes, which could be played as a pair instead.

In return, when the Beastdown deck attacks one of Evan’s defense position monsters, the average amount of damage pushed through would be more than 1800. Of course, most of the Beasts don’t have this ability on their own, but Enraged Battle Ox would deal an average of 1685 damage per attack by himself. Thestalos gets to be summoned three times. Enraged Battle Ox has the potential to attack many more times than that.

The upside for the Soul Control player is that the aggressive nature of the Beastdown deck ensures that the face-down monsters will be attacked, and thus the Soul Control player can count on getting their effects . . . as long as Beastdown hasn’t already used Royal Command or Ceasefire. Granted, since this is only two cards, Soul Control probably will get back some kind of spell with Magician of Faith and may summon Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys as well.

Sacred Phoenix, if not met by Bottomless Trap Hole, might encounter D. D. Assailant or Injection Fairy Lily. There are also a couple of tribute monsters in the 2400 ATK range. Removing the Phoenix with Smashing Ground is not the best outcome, but since the deck doesn’t utilize many continuous spells or traps, the Heavy Storm effect that happens upon a Phoenix’s return to play is not likely to injure it much.

In the meantime, Soul Control has six cards that can remove a monster from play. It also has Swords of Revealing Light and a couple of Enemy Controllers to delay some of the attacks. That’s a surprising amount of removal, but none of it actually removes cards from the game, so the Beastdown player will always have the possibility of some recursion. The Beastdown deck uses nine cards for removal, including Exiled Force, and three more for putting off attacks. Of these, two remove cards from the game.

Of course, I have based all these effect count issues on what I have called a “typical Beastdown deck.” There are many who would play three copies of Bottomless Trap Hole, more spell and trap removal, or equip spells like Mage Power or United We Stand to increase the numbers in any of the above strategic areas.

By the same token, there will also be variants on Soul Control. In fact, it is doubtful that Evan will even bring this particular decklist to his next competition. Nonetheless, I’m predicting that with Soul Control in the metagame, with increasing numbers of Chaos decks, and with other decks all relying heavily on Scapegoat, Magician of Faith, Apprentice Magician, and Spirit Reaper, the Beastdown deck is going to have its day in the sun.