|
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!
Click here for more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
|
| |
Today we’ll end our series on deck themes by examining a variety of decks that all depend on a specific win condition—Exodia, Final Countdown, Last Turn, or Destiny Board. Rather than targeting the opponent’s life points or cards, these decks activate a series of effects that result in one of Yu-Gi-Oh!’s alternate win conditions. You can find an earlier article detailing these win conditions in the Metagame.com archives. The implementation of the new Advanced format has changed several of these decks, so we’ll discuss some alternatives to a few of the key eliminated cards. Some of these decks are easier to build and play than others, but it’s worth trying at least one of them. Here we go!
Exodia Decks in All Their Glory
Probably the most popular “win condition” deck in existence, nearly every duelist has heard of, played with, or played against an Exodia deck. The premise of the deck is to draw all five pieces of Exodia, since a duelist automatically wins when all five pieces are present in his or her hand. The pieces can either be drawn or searched for during the course of the game, or the duelist can attempt to draw the entire contents of the deck in one turn. This choice leads to a few variations on the basic deck type, and we’ll take a closer look at three of the most popular ones. One thing that’s worth noting is that Exodia decks are almost always exactly 40 cards. The small deck size is vital for reaching the pieces quickly, so there is not a lot of room for extras in an Exodia deck. Therefore, the Exodia duelist tends to specialize his or her deck. There will, however, be some similarities in card choices between variations. Let’s begin with the basic “natural draw” Exodia deck.
Natural Draw Exodia Deck
The two key cards used for drawing Exodia pieces naturally used to be Sangan and Witch of the Black Forest. Since both of these cards are now forbidden in Advanced play, what do we do now? Let’s see . . .
Spell and trap cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• The Shallow Grave
• Call of the Haunted
• Gravity Bind
• Messenger of Peace
• Jar of Greed
• Backup Soldier
• Painful Choice
• Solemn Judgment
Less common but also used:
• Swords of Revealing Light
• Scapegoat
• Ceasefire
Monster cards:
• Exodia the Forbidden One
• Right Arm of the Forbidden One
• Left Arm of the Forbidden One
• Right Leg of the Forbidden One
• Left Leg of the Forbidden One
• Emissary of the Afterlife
• Spear Cretin
• Spirit Reaper
• Nimble Momonga
• Mystic Tomato
The goal of the deck is to hold off the opponent long enough to draw all five pieces of Exodia. Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan made it a lot easier, but here we are relying on Emissary of the Afterlife. Every time it goes to the graveyard, each duelist can search for a level 3 or lower normal monster and add it to his or her hand. Exodia the Forbidden One is an effect monster, but Emissary of the Afterlife can retrieve the other four pieces. This is where all the monster recursion comes in. Send the Emissary of the Afterlife repeatedly to the graveyard and bring it back to reuse the effect. Lockdown engine cards are usually present to keep the duelist around long enough to draw all the pieces.
Sustained Draw Exodia Decks
The Exodia decks designed to draw as many cards as possible at once are a little more complex. The three most popular ways to do this are with Manticore of Darkness, Butterfly Dagger – Elma, and Heart of the Underdog. All three versions share certain key cards, with some variations.
Spell and Trap cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Backup Soldier
• Painful Choice
• Solemn Judgment
• Jar of Greed
Monster cards:
• Exodia the Forbidden One
• Right Arm of the Forbidden One
• Left Arm of the Forbidden One
• Right Leg of the Forbidden One
• Left Leg of the Forbidden One
• Spear Cretin
• Des Feral Imp
• Mystic Tomato
• Nimble Momonga
Manticore of Darkness Exodia Deck
 This deck relies on a combo between Manticore of Darkness and Card of Safe Return. Ideally, one Manticore is in the graveyard and one is in the duelist’s hand. Manticore of Darkness’s effect allows a duelist to sacrifice a beast type monster from the hand in order to special summon Manticore of Darkness from the graveyard. Two Manticore of Darkness can therefore set up an infinite loop. Card of Safe Return allows a duelist to draw a card each time a monster is Special summoned, and the entire deck can be drawn in one turn. All five Exodia pieces will then be in the player’s hand, and a win is declared.
Spell and Trap cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Card of Safe Return
• Jar of Greed
• Backup Soldier
• Painful Choice
• Solemn Judgment
• The Cheerful Coffin
• Card Destruction
• Reload
Monster cards:
• All five pieces of Exodia
• Manticore of Darkness
• Bubonic Vermin
• Nimble Momonga
• Giant Rat
• Fiber Jar
The monsters are predominantly Beast-type in order to take advantage of Manticore of Darkness’s effect. This makes Nimble Momonga even more irritating than usual for the opponent. If necessary, the Manticore can attack an opponent, since it has a respectable 2300 ATK. The duelist will want to cycle through the deck as quickly as possible to get to the Manticores and Card of Safe Return.
Butterfly Dagger Elma/Gearfried the Iron Knight Exodia Decks
These decks work similarly to the Manticore of Darkness decks. The goal is to set up a card interaction that results in a lot of draw power. Timing issues in the game have recently been formalized, which can affect how the combo in this deck goes off. It’s more easily interrupted now, but it’s still effective and worth discussing. The card combination here is Butterfly Dagger – Elma, Gearfried the Iron Knight, and Royal Magical Library.
Spell and Trap Cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Butterfly Dagger – Elma
• Reinforcement of the Army
• Painful Choice
• Backup Soldier
• Solemn Judgment
• Jar of Greed
• Gravity Bind
• The Shallow Grave
Monster cards:
• All five pieces of Exodia
• Gearfried the Iron Knight
• Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu
• Nimble Momonga
• Shining Angel
• Spirit Reaper
• Fiber Jar
 The goal is to get Royal Magical Library on the field along with Gearfried the Iron Knight and a Butterfly Dagger – Elma. The combo works like this: Gearfried the Iron Knight’s effect destroys equip spell cards attached to it. Butterfly Dagger – Elma’s effect returns it to the hand when destroyed while equipped to a monster. Royal Magical Library allows a duelist to place a spell counter on it whenever someone activates a spell card, and then allows you to discard three spell counters to draw a card. Now you see how it works! Butterfly Dagger – Elma and Gearfried the Iron Knight set up an infinite loop, allowing you to draw your entire deck. The attachment of Butterfly Dagger – Elma can be interrupted a number of ways, however, so watch out for that. Use Iron Blacksmith Kotetsu to get out the Dagger, Reinforcement of the Army to get out Gearfried, and Shining Angel to get out Royal Magical Library.
Heart of the Underdog Exodia Decks
This is an underplayed version, as it’s harder to pull off than the others. Still, it’s worth mentioning, because the decklist is so simple!
Spell and Trap cards:
• 3 Heart of the Underdog
Monster cards:
• All five pieces of Exodia
• 27 of your choice of normal monsters
It doesn’t get much simpler than that! The goal here is to get a Heart of the Underdog as quickly as possible, then use it’s effect to draw as many cards as possible. You hope for the best when you draw. The draw cycle can only be interrupted by another Heart of the Underdog or the Head of Exodia, the Forbidden One, which is an effect monster. If you don’t draw Heart of the Underdog early enough, you probably won’t win, but it’s a fun deck to play.
That’s our look at Exodia. New combos for this archetype seem to appear with the release of each new card set, so keep an eye out for upcoming variations. Now, let’s take a look at another win condition—Final Countdown.
Final Countdown Decks
These decks focus on playing Final Countdown as quickly as possible. A lockdown engine keeps the opponent as immobilized as possible while you try to survive for the next 20 turns (ten from each side).
Spell and Trap Cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Final Countdown
• Reload
• Gravity Bind
• Messenger of Peace
• Solemn Judgment
• Jar of Greed
• Spell Shield Type-8
• Pyro Clock of Destiny
Monster cards:
• Thunder Dragon
• Fiber Jar
• Nimble Momonga
• Mystic Tomato
• A Cat of Ill Omen
• Mask of Darkness
 Gravity Bind, Solemn Judgment, and Spell Shield Type-8 are vital for protecting the lockdown. A Cat of Ill Omen is sometimes used to get the proper traps going at the right time, and Reload’s cycling is enormously helpful for getting to Final Countdown as quickly as possible. Mask of Darkness helps you recur Pyro Clock of Destiny, moving the turn count farther ahead. Fiber Jar is fantastic in this deck too, since you can burn your hand getting to Final Countdown, set and activate it, and then reset the entire field with the Fiber Jar. This simultaneously screws your opponent out of their offense and lets you set up a new defense.
As long as we are on the subject of “Final,” let’s run through another win condition deck—Destiny Board.
Destiny Board (Final) Decks
This lockdown deck tries to achieve a win with Destiny Board by getting all five Spirit Messages into the spell and trap zone. There are very specific conditions under which the cards must be placed into the zone, so it’s important to know what you’re doing. The loss of spell and trap removal in Advanced play make this deck a bit more viable than it used to be.
Spell and Trap Cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Destiny Board
• Spirit Message “I”
• Spirit Message “N”
• Spirit Message “A”
• Spirit Message “L”
• Solemn Judgment
• Judgment of Anubis
• Messenger of Peace
• Scapegoat
• Offerings to the Doomed (Jinzo can really hurt you!)
Monster cards:
• Mystic Tomato
• Spear Cretin
• Nimble Momonga
• Penguin Soldier
• Spirit Reaper
• Spell Canceller
This is one of the few decks where Judgment of Anubis is a really good card, since your opponent will almost always push face-up monsters in an attempt to beat you down to zero before you complete the Spirit Message. Messenger of Peace is better than Gravity Bind, since you can stop paying for Messenger of Peace to remove it when you need that slot open for a Spirit Message. Remember the Spirit Messages must be put into play according to the terms on the cards for the win condition to be effective! Also, don’t fill up spell and trap zones with cards that you can’t easily get rid of.
For our last deck, we’re going to examine Last Turn!
Last Turn Decks
Last Turn decks can bring home the victories if built and played correctly. The most popular and effective version uses Jowgen the Spiritualist with Last Turn, which prevents the opponent summoning a monster. This results in an automatic win for you.
Spell and Trap cards:
• Core spell and trap cards:
• Last Turn
• Solemn Judgment
• Inspection
• Wall of Revealing Light
Less common but also used:
• Messenger of Peace
• Gravity Bind
Monster cards:
• Jowgen the Spiritualist
• Shining Angel
• Dark Elf
• Jirai Gumo
 The quicker the combo goes off, the better. The goal here is to summon Jowgen the Spiritualist, set Last Turn, and activate Inspection to reduce the duelist’s life points to 1000. Then, activate Last Turn, selecting Jowgen the Spiritualist. Jowgen’s effect prevents the opponent from Special summoning a monster, so the win condition on Final Countdown is satisfied, as Jowgen will be the only monster on the field. You can also use Wall of Revealing Light to bring the duelist’s life points down low enough to activate Last Turn.
Each of these decks are built to take advantage of a special win condition. Many share some common strategies—deck cycling, lockdown, and so forth—and it’s well worth trying out one or more of these. The Advanced format opens up a lot of new possibilities, so use the deck ideas here as a springboard to come up with your own. We certainly haven’t touched on every card or every combo, so consider this an open invitation to be creative. Take advantage of the variety of ways to win the game and come up with your own decks. Read over the “How to Win” article in the archives and make sure that you know how best to use the various cards.
Timing and priority issues impact these decks more than many others, so be certain you understand them. Look for a future article detailing that area of play. Meanwhile, experiment with some of these innovative ideas and see what you can come up with. The wider variety of decks you build and play, the deeper your understanding of the game. Good luck!
|
| |
| Top of Page |
|
|
| |
|