By the time you read this, the new Advanced format will have officially rotated into use in North America and Europe, and hopefully you’ve already been able to create a deck or two using the new Forbidden list. If you’ve played in the new format at all, you’ve probably realized that it’s totally different from the one we’ve played in the past six months. Whether you’re a new duelist just jumping into the game, or a veteran who’s looking to find his or her way in a post-Thousand-Eyes Restrict/Tsukuyomi world, I’ll be doing my best to lay down the basics of the new format in the next few weeks. To start things off, allow me to recap my main points from last week:
- Field presence wins games.
- Deck manipulation helps you to take and maintain field presence.
- Extra draws for you and random discards for your opponent are a bonus.
A long time ago, I wrote an article about the “Chaos” mechanic. In that article, I made sure that everybody realized that Chaos wasn’t necessarily a type of monster or even just a word in the monster’s name. What distinguished these so-called “Chaos” monsters from other monsters was the manner in which they were summoned. Even if Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning can no longer be found in the Advanced format, removing cards in your graveyard from play in order to summon powerful monsters or to pay for other beneficial effects remains an important mechanic. Today’s deck is going to use the “remove X from your graveyard from play,” mechanic to demonstrate another important lesson that you’ll need to keep in mind when you’re playing in the new format: Always make the most out of every card you play.
Card Economy in a Post-Pot of Greed World
In the previous Advanced format, we didn’t need to worry about making the most of our cards, because they were so good that it didn’t matter. Scapegoat gave us four monsters for one card. When you account for the fact that everyone was playing three of them, most decks had three spells that could do the work of twelve monsters. We could use cards in hand with reckless abandon, knowing that we were just one flipped Magician of Faith away from drawing two extra cards due to our umpteenth play of Pot of Greed. Now that we have limited or no access to these cards, we need to know how to get the most out of every card we play, and we also need to keep in mind that we aren’t mystically going to topdeck Pot of Greed to replace our dwindling resources.
A good way to make the most of your cards is to choose cards for your deck such that they can be useful regardless of where they are—in hand, on the field, or in the graveyard. Take Sangan, for example. When it’s in your hand, it’s a great monster to play in any stage of the game. While you have it on the field, it’s a threat within a threat that’s capable of hitting for 1000 damage a swing or scuttling off to find an answer to your opponent’s strategy if he or she dares to destroy it. Once it’s in the graveyard, Sangan turns your revival cards (Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, and possibly The Shallow Grave) into potential search cards and sources of deck manipulation. It could also be removed from the game in order to pay the cost of an effect, or to special summon a monster (like Dark Necrofear). Now, not all cards are as useful as Sangan; in fact, most cards are nowhere near as good as Sangan. The point of today’s deck is to show that if you choose the right cards for your deck, they can serve a far greater purpose.
The Most Bang For Your Buck
I’ve chosen the theme for this week’s deck to revolve around using the cards in your graveyard in order to get extra advantages and bonuses out of them. Our first question should be, “What kind of advantages can I get out of my used stuff?” Well, the most obvious advantage is that you can get free summons of super-powerful monsters. Remember Black Luster Soldier – Envoy of the Beginning and Chaos Emperor Dragon –Envoy of the End? Those are the kinds of monster I’m talking about, though the remaining monsters that fit this description are nowhere near as powerful. While it doesn’t have as much raw power as the previously mentioned “Chaos” monsters, Dark Necrofear is an excellent monster with a killer effect that really demonstrates my point about getting the most out of your cards. First, you remove three previously owned Fiend monsters from your graveyard to bring it into play. When Necrofear bites the dust, you’ll get to steal a monster from your opponent during the end phase.* That sounds like a worthwhile investment to me.
Some monsters are capable of providing some extra card advantage or board presence just by being in the graveyard. The most well-known of these is Sinister Serpent, which managed to find its way on to the Forbidden list for being far too good at what it does. A close runner-up is the newly unlimited Vampire Lord, which can end up turning your opponent’s removal spells into dead cards due to its auto-revival effect. I’ve already decided that I’ll be using Dark Necrofear, so I’d like a Fiend-type monster that can provide some kind of bonus for me if it falls in battle.
Fortunately, Helpoemer fits the bill quite nicely, making your opponent stop to think about whether he or she wants to summon that Cyber Dragon and whack it, or use Dark Hole now and not bother with summoning this turn. If he or she does the former, he or she will have to randomly discard a card at the end of the battle phase, without even having a chance to set Dark Hole to keep it out of Helpoemer’s grasp.** If your opponent does the latter, you’ll have another Fiend to remove for Necrofear next turn and your opponent can’t summon his or her Dragon.
The last main benefit we can get from cards in our graveyard is to remove them to give one of our other monsters a bonus or activate a special effect. Both Bazoo the Soul Eater and Chaosrider Gustaph let you turn your used monster and spells, respectively, into extra ATK points. Because of this, they’re probably the most widely known cards of this type. Back when Painful Choice was allowed, Strike Ninja was very popular for a while, as its effect let it dodge something by removing itself from the game until the end of turn. This too was fueled by monsters in the graveyard, and when the monsters in question were D. D. Scout Planes, the effect resulted in extra monsters on the field that could be used for whatever you needed at the time.
The last of the well-known card effects that are activated by removing cards from your graveyard is that of the infamous Skull Lair. Skull Lair was initially printed with text that allowed you to use any type of card in your graveyard in order to fuel the effect—but once this was corrected to read “monster cards in your graveyard,” the card’s popularity quickly died out.
For this deck, I’m going to use a single copy of both Bazoo the Soul Eater and Chaosrider Gustaph to help me remove my non-Fiends and spells and to help fuel the most potentially powerful card in the deck, Gren Maju Da Eiza. With Gren Maju on the field, even the cards that I’ve already used once or twice can still serve one final purpose from beyond the grave. Now, let’s look at the deck—which I have fittingly dubbed, “The Most Duel For Your Dollar.”
Monsters: 21
2 Dark Necrofear
2 Helpoemer
2 Gren Maju Da Eiza
3 Giant Germ
1 Cannon Soldier
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Sangan
2 Slate Warrior
2 Goblin Elite Attack Force
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Mask of Darkness
1 Chaosrider Gustaph
1 Bazoo the Soul Eater
Spells: 11
1 Dark Hole
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Book of Moon
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Confiscation
2 Smashing Ground
2 Enemy Controller
Traps: 8
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Widespread Ruin
1 Ceasefire
1 Magic Cylinder
As you can see, this deck is primarily Fiend-based, as the Fiends seem to be quite good at making opponents suffer as a result of their demise. The new Goblin Elite Attack Force provides a sensible alternative to the 0 DEF Giant Orc, and Slate Warrior is a solid card in just about any aggressive deck. I’m also running twice the “normal” amount of traps, so it makes sense to include a single Mask of Darkness. It also fits the theme, as a Fiend that rewards you for having things in your graveyard. Giant Germ is a self-replacing Fiend monster with a bonus burn effect, so I kind of have to play three of them, and Mystic Tomato is also quite useful for keeping your board up. I’ve also included one Cannon Soldier as a nice way to finish off an opponent who is sitting at little to no life points, regardless of what he or she has sitting on their side of the field. The rest of the monsters were chosen for the same reasons that I gave above.
When playing this deck, part of your goal is to get three Fiends into the graveyard as fast as possible. Knowing this, the best play on your part is probably to set Giant Germ and then a trap of some sort. Ceasefire works best because it can block Nobleman of Crossout or another face-down monster removal effect they may have. Also, look for opportunities to put Helpoemer out on the field. As I stated above, Helpoemer’s a nasty card in this format where hand discard is very limited. Even if it goes out in a way other than fighting, it’s still useful as removal bait for Bazoo or Dark Necrofear.
Essentially, your goal should be to determine when you should let an attack resolve and when you should block it with something. If you can succeed in this goal, you can conserve your tricks for when your more important cards are on the field. Remember, you want a huge removed-from-game pile, but you don’t want those cards removed by Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer. If you see Kycoo, destroy it as fast as you possibly can, because it can ruin you in a big way if it’s allowed to stick around.
Other than Kycoo, your main concern is going to be Cyber Dragon. This deck doesn’t play any, but it does play plenty of cards that make Cyber Dragon seem like not such a good idea. Specifically, the opponent doesn’t want to attack Helpoemer with it and he or she can’t attack Dark Necrofear with it. With Cyber Dragon poised to be seen in triplicate in almost every aggressive deck, it makes these cards even more worth playing. As usual, while this deck isn’t a Shonen Jump Championship winner on its own, it can be an absolute nightmare to play against in the hands of a good player. If you decide to try it out, make sure to drop me a line at jcmchale AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu and let me know how it goes.***
Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
—Jerome McHale
NEXT WEEK: It’s time for the family feud! For the next two weeks, the Horus Dragon family will take on the Silent Swordsman family for total dominance of the new format. It’s “Fang and Flame” against “Sword and Shield!”
*This is assuming that your opponent has a face-up monster to steal.
**Unless he or she sets the Dark Hole first, but then it becomes vulnerable to spell or trap removal, and no one wants that.
***Just FYI, I’m not the guy to go to if you need a deck fix—that would be Jason. I love seeing all the interesting stuff you people come up with, but with college and everything, I honestly don’t have time to do deck fixes as well.