Let me begin by telling you how much I love koalas. When I was a kid, I didn’t have a stuffed bear—I had a stuffed koala. And my backpack, way back in elementary school? That was a koala, too. When I went to the bear-making store in the mall, I didn’t make teddy bears as gifts . . . I made koalas. I would dress them up in a dusty pair of pants and send them off as explorers of ancient ruins or rugged travelers of the great outback. Finally, I don’t buy those teddy bear graham crackers either. I prefer koala cookies filled with chocolate.
Recently, I was introduced to Mr. Chumley Huffington and his deck of koalas. How could I resist? I was powerless against
Master of Oz, the mightiest koala of all.
Heavyweight Champion of the World
“He’s the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world! Mostly ‘cuz any bloke that disputes it ain’t ever heard from again.”
In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Chumley Huffington will face a dire situation. His father, a strong and accomplished duelist, will face him in one decisive duel. If he fails, he will have to leave the school and never return! But his friends Jaden and Syrus are there to support him, and Syrus gives him the one card that Chumley needs to take his deck to a whole new level.
Chumley’s deck relies upon summoning one of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG’s strongest fusion monsters, Master of Oz. With a massive 4200 ATK, Master of Oz is strong enough to give nearly every monster in the game the fight of their life. Without Power Bond, even the mighty Cyber End Dragon would have cause for alarm!
Chumley fusion summons Master of Oz with its fusion material monsters—the Des Kangaroo that was given to him by Syrus, and his own Big Koala. This is one approach that’s pretty easy to take in order to get such a strong monster into the game. However, we’re going to take Chumley’s deck a few steps further.
King of the Swamp is our first addition to the deck. Its ability to be used as a substitute for fusion materials is useful, but its ability to search out Polymerization from your deck is also quite useful. With King of the Swamp included in the deck, you can lower your need for multiple copies of Polymerization, which will keep you from drawing it at inopportune times.
The Earth – Hex-Sealed Fusion is also added, for even more fusion functionality. The Earth – Hex-Sealed Fusion has the fusion-material substitution ability of King of the Swamp, but it goes a step beyond that by providing a way to special summon Master of Oz without the use of Polymerization. By tributing this monster and Des Kangaroo from your side of the field, you can special summon Master of Oz. This special summon will cost you fewer cards than the fusion summon, but it also means that the special summoned Master of Oz will be off-limits to revival effects.
The main focus of Chumley’s major offensive, the special summon of Master of Oz, also needs to be the focus of the real-life version of his deck. This condition establishes the basic framework of the deck, but the deck still needs some added elements to support this plan. Several cards have been added that Chumley does not use in his duel, and I’ll explain the reasons for their inclusion.
I also opted to focus on another aspect of Chumley that is a reflection of his class. Chumley is much like many of his fellow students in the Slifer Red dorm—they get by as best they can with what they have. Unlike the students in the higher-level dorms, Chumley doesn’t benefit from a bunch of rare and powerful cards. In this deck, I have set the same baseline, focusing on cards that are inexpensive and not too difficult to obtain.
Australia Deck
Monsters: 17
2 Des Koala
2 Big Koala
2 Des Kangaroo
2 King of the Swamp
2 Enraged Battle Ox
2 Berserk Gorilla
3 Nimble Momonga
1 Sangan
1 The Earth – Hex-Sealed Fusion
Spells: 21
2 Polymerization
3 Wild Nature’s Release
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Card Destruction
1 Heavy Storm
3 Giant Trunade
1 Premature Burial
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Scapegoat
2 Big Bang Shot
2 Smashing Ground
Traps: 2
1 Bottomless Trap Hole
1 Torrential Tribute
Fusion Deck: 3
3 Master of Oz
Come Out Fighting
The main “I smash you” victory condition for the Australia Deck reflects Chumley’s deck from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX—get out Master of Oz and beat the opponent down in one mighty attack. Allowing the game to continue on beyond Master of Oz’s attack is likely to end badly, due to the amount of cards spent bringing it into the duel. With this in mind, the deck has some cards that were chosen to clear the pathway for destruction.
A full set of Giant Trunades will increase its odds of appearing in any duel. Giant Trunade will serve as the path clearer for spell and trap cards that your opponent has lying in wait. You don’t want a wayward Mirror Force to end your fun, so it’s best to clear it away before it can do any harm. Giant Trunade is also intended to function with Premature Burial and Big Bang Shot, allowing extra uses from both cards.
Now that we’ve cleared the path of spell and trap cards, we need to do something about those pesky monsters. Nobleman of Crossout will handle the face-down monsters and Smashing Ground will take care of the big guys. Bottomless Trap Hole will run support during the opponent’s turn, and Torrential Tribute is included for mass field clearing.
Once the opponent’s monsters are cleared out of the way, we can look into dealing the final blow. Wild Nature’s Release will help Master of Oz end the duel by increasing its ATK to 7900. A direct attack of 7900 is likely to end the duel after being delivered. This attack really does need to finish the job because Wild Nature’s Release will destroy the affected monster at the end of the turn, taking away your super-powered monster.
Some players will think of using Megamorph in place of the Wild Nature’s Release in an effort to double the Master of Oz’s original ATK, giving it 8400 ATK. This is also a good plan, but it only works while you have fewer life points than your opponent. Wild Nature’s Release many not always increase the Beast or Beast-Warrior’s ATK quite as much, but you know that its effect will be consistent.
Don’t be afraid to use Wild Nature’s Release to boost up your Beast monsters, like Des Kangaroo, when the path is clear. Even Des Koala will be a threat after being boosted up to 2900 ATK by Wild Nature’s Release. Every time you can smash your opponent for a large amount of damage, you’ll get one step closer to victory.
Sheep Slayers
After you unleash Master of Oz, you want its attack to connect and dish out as much punishment as possible. I’m sure you can think of the one card that’s guaranteed to get in the way, and that’s Scapegoat. Sheep tokens may be cute, but they aren’t koalas—so I don’t want to see them blocking the path.
Enraged Battle Ox is step one of our anti-Sheep agenda. Enraged Battle Ox will bless Master of Oz with the deadly piercing attack, turning those normally defensive Sheep tokens into glaring vulnerabilities. It will also give this power to other Beast and Beast-Warrior monsters in the deck, like Berserk Gorilla and Des Kangaroo. Even Nimble Momonga and Des Koala will get in on the fun, if you let them.
Step two is the equip card Big Bang Shot. Big Bang Shot will make any monster in the deck into a Sheep slayer, including Master of Oz. With that extra 400 ATK boost, you’ll have a 4600 ATK piercing monster and the Sheep will be running scared. It also combos nicely with Giant Trunade when you equip it to your opponent’s monster. Giant Trunade returns Big Bang Shot to your hand, but the equipped monster gets removed from play by Big Bang Shot’s effect!
“Wait” Training
We know how we intend to win and we know how to handle the opponent’s sheep tokens, but what do we do if we don’t quickly draw what we need to win? Until the pieces of the puzzle fall into place, we need to focus on our line of protection.
The Scapegoat Sheep tokens are lucky that they’re such useful little beasts. We will use them like our opponent does—however, ours are less likely to succumb to the ravaging blows of piercing attack monsters. While it’s possible that our opponent could have a single Enraged Battle Ox or Airknight Parshath in his or her deck, they are normally not used in multiples. But if you find yourself in a decidedly Sheep-unfriendly area, it may be best to replace them with a card like Messenger of Peace or Gravity Bind. Both cards can be removed from the field with Giant Trunade, keeping them from harming your Master of Oz offensive.
Nimble Momonga, the legendary flying rodent, may not last quite as long as the Sheep tokens, but it serves a strong purpose. They are your noble protectors and a quick means of thinning cards from your deck. They also slowly increase your life points, which helps us to stall out just a bit longer. Every extra turn helps.
Don’t allow yourself to become frustrated by any early loses you may incur while first playing this deck. It will take time to adapt to its strategies and learn when you should bring out Master of Oz and when you should instead hold on to it and bide your time. After you’ve gotten the hang of it, try expanding upon the deck by using cards like Summoner of Illusions and Cyber-Stein to create an entirely new way of bringing Master of Oz into the game.
Be sure to catch Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and root for Mr. Huffington! After all, he is the guy with the koalas . . .
Send all comments to Curtis@metagame.com.