As much as I adore the superior power and superb strategic capabilities of my precious Ancient Gear monsters, I must admit to a certain soft spot for another particular theme. Perhaps it is their determined expressions, diverse effects, or surprising win conditions that makes me adore Amazonesses. Or maybe it’s just the tiaras, thigh-highs, and exotic earrings: it’s practically like diving into my own wardrobe!

Ahem. Forgive my enthusiasm.

While many duelists far less brilliant than myself would disregard the Amazonesses for competitive dueling, they do in fact command a couple of effects so powerful that even internationally-recognized stars have stood up to take note. Europe’s Adrian Madaj played a highly successful Amazoness Chain Master build last year, and both he and today’s deck contributor were really grasping in the right direction. Let’s take a look at what our contributor had to say.

Dear Dr. Vowler,

This is a version of a Warrior Toolbox that focuses on the Amazoness ladies. With the advent of the new Forbidden list, this deck can abuse Exiled Force and Injection Fairy Lily to simplify duels. My only problem is that I cannot figure out what tribute monster to include—I use Mobius the Frost Monarch to clear away spells and traps in order to score direct hits with either Lily or any of my Amazoness monsters.

I am usually able to summon Elemental Hero Wildheart to force my opponents to waste monster removal spells on him, and then win through my other monsters. However, this deck is quite vulnerable to Deck Devastation Virus and I usually lose whenever I get hit. Plus, using Amazoness Chain Master to snatch my opponent's Monarchs (which I can do quite often) and paying to use Lily or Confiscation often leaves me open to a loss through Ring of Destruction.

Any help will be greatly appreciated from one so noble as yourself.

Sarah R.

Miami, Florida

(A top Obelisk Blue Student!!!)

Oh my! What an exceptionally delightful letter Sarah sent to accompany her decklist! It’s addressed and signed properly, concise without sacrificing detail, and it isn’t even riddled with the typos that are so commonly peppered throughout the letters I receive. Finally, a student worthy of my teachings! I have no doubt that she is indeed a member of my prestigious Obelisk Blue, and I suppose the quality of her letter helps to explain the lack of such in other recent submissions.

All the other submitters were from Slifer Red.

Here is the decklist Sarah sent me:

Avenging Amazonesses—45 Cards

Monsters: 21

3 Amazoness Paladin

3 Amazoness Swords Woman

2 Amazoness Chain Master

3 Elemental Hero Wildheart

2 Giant Rat

3 Exiled Force

2 Injection Fairy Lily

1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

Spells: 15

2 Reinforcement of the Army

3 Hammer Shot

3 Rush Recklessly

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Pot of Avarice

1 Premature Burial

1 Confiscation

1 Snatch Steal

Traps: 9

3 Sakuretsu Armor

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

3 Compulsory Evacuation Device

My dear Sarah has done a number of things correctly here. While she is committed to the Amazoness theme, she is not running too many of them strictly for some sense of foolish dedication. In addition, the cards that support her theme also support others, and so she has selected some excellent complementary monsters in the form of Exiled Force and Elemental Hero Wildheart. Both can be searched out with Giant Rat and Reinforcement of the Army. Even D. D. Warrior Lady and Neo-Spacian Grand Mole take advantage of one of the deck’s two search methods.

Sarah has also recognized her theme’s inherent weaknesses, and made efforts to compensate for them. Amazonesses do not possess the brute strength of other monster families, so Sarah has opted to run Rush Recklessly. She’s also using three copies of Hammer Shot, banking on the fact that her monsters will be smaller than any face-up threats her opponent may control. That keeps her destroying important monsters in situations where Smashing Ground might be drawn away by Gravekeeper’s Spy or Legendary Jujitsu Master. Clever.

I can think of two ways in which I can improve Sarah’s deck, and the first hearkens back to last week’s resuscitation of the Big Fat Phoenix deck. While 45 cards may work for a well-structured Gadget build, Sarah’s deck has very little thinning at its disposal, so running such a surfeit of cards is going to keep her from her most important ones. We’ll need to slim things down a bit.

Secondly, while Sarah is using what I consider to be the three best Amazoness monsters available, I fear that she has neglected to make use of their greatest strength. One card makes Amazonesses a force to be feared in any format, but that card is not present here. Though it deviates from the usual “remove the chaff, add more wheat” approach of a traditional Apotheosis article, I’ll forego the initial series of drops and begin by adding three copies of the card that will turn this deck around: Amazoness Archers.

Not familiar with it? I suppose you’ve had more important things to do than study for your Ancient Traps class, hmm? Perhaps you had some hardcore slacking to attend to!? Your ignorance inflames me like a hideous rash! However, despite your failure, I’ll let you cram for a few moments so that we’re all on the same page.

Trap Card

You can only activate this card when your opponent declares an attack and if there is a monster(s) on your side of the field that includes “Amazoness” in its card name, or is named “Amazon Archer”. All monsters on your opponent’s side of the field are changed to face-up Attack Position (Flip Effects are not activated), and as long as they remain face-up on the field, their ATK(s) are decreased by 500 points. Your opponent must attack with all of his/her monsters.

Can you see how awe-inspiring this card can be? Imagine a field of Gadgets hurling themselves into the hail of arrows, crashing against the blade of a single Amazoness Swords Woman! Better yet, sniff the air and smell the scent of a thousand Sheep tokens led to slaughter, cooked over the victory bonfire of these mighty warrior princesses! Amazoness Archers turns one Amazoness monster into a veritable army, forcing a duelist to send his or her monsters to an untimely death and creating massive damage, card loss, and field equalization. It even negates flip effects like Gravekeeper’s Spy, Old Vindictive Magician, and Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive. Here, dear students, is a card that can shatter dreams and turn the most doomed of situations into victory!

So with three of these cards added to Sarah’s deck, our goals are clear: tighten up the decklist to increase Sarah’s chances of drawing into Amazoness Archers, and maximize the efficiency of the Archers when they are ready to fire.

Since this deck utilizes such effective search engines, we can afford to do without some of the duplicate monsters. One Exiled Force, one Elemental Hero Wildheart, and one Injection Fairy Lily will all be shifted into the side deck, where they can be called upon as needed. If we were to run extra copies of certain monsters (and we will), these just aren’t the right ones given our goals.

While Sarah’s thought process is clear, and Hammer Shot is in no way a poor call to make, we simply do not have room for it. Since Amazoness Archers works on the opponent’s turn, it would be best if our monster control cards were all quick-play spells or traps, allowing us to set up stable plays with the Archers. We’ll be adding in a bit more disruption later, but it’s going to be of a more versatile sort.

Again, Sarah’s intents with Rush Recklessly are clear: she’s looking to make up for the low ATK her Amazonesses possess, and this works especially well now that we’ll be running Archers. However, drawing too many copies in quick succession is a death sentence for almost any deck, and we simply cannot take those kinds of risks. We’ll continue to use two copies of Rush, but we’ll abandon the third.

Pot of Avarice is too slow for what we’re aiming to accomplish. While extra draws to help us set up Archers would be nice, this deck is already going to have issues with highly aggressive beatdown strategies. Another useless card in the early game is going to hurt our chances more than it will help, so we’ll remove the Pot from this build.

Lightning Vortex now works against what we’re trying to accomplish. We want the opponent to make the mistake of mustering multiferous monsters, because we can then eliminate them and convert them into damage with the Archers. Vortex may be viable as a side deck choice for certain swarm matchups, but Archers will always be preferable, and with three copies, the Vortex will rarely be needed.

. . . Yes, that’s right. “Multiferous.” It’s part of the English language, and you can look it up if you don’t believe me.

Moving along, removing the three copies of Compulsory Evacuation Device seems like an unfortunate necessity. On one hand, it was an interesting defensive choice that allowed for some utterly genius plays in conjunction with Amazoness Chain Master. Sarah could bounce the opponent’s best monster to his or her hand in response to an attack declaration on the Chain Master, and when the Master was destroyed, she would net Sarah that choice monster from the opponent’s hand. What a graceful and masterful plan! Unfortunately, Jinzo and Royal Decree are seeing increased play nowadays and we’re adding more traps to the deck, so I am wary of the risks associated with keeping these in the deck.

Along those same lines, I’ll also be removing one copy of Sakuretsu Armor. Why destroy one of the opponent’s monsters when we can needle all of them with our hail of arrows?

With a lucky thirteen cards removed from Sarah’s submitted build, we’ll be able to make eight additions to the deck without pressing it over the 40-card minimum. We’ve already added three copies of Amazoness Archers, so that leaves us room for five more cards.

My first addition is, to me, an absolute must. Amazoness Chain Master is the best solo Amazoness out there, and creates play situations that will boggle your opponents. To not run three would be nothing short of a weep-worthy shame, so we’ll add a third.

Next, building on the searchability that Sarah established will make the deck even more deadly. A third Giant Rat will give us more control over the field, maintaining presence upon it while searching out a versatile range of options. Sangan will make the deck even more precise.

The final addition I’ll make is a pair of Enemy Controller cards. When you find yourself in a situation where one monster out of the lot your opponent controls can overcome your lone Amazoness, Enemy Controller takes that big threat out of the equation. It’s another card that helps compensate for the naturally low ATK values Amazonesses must deal with, and its chainability is an asset to a tricky deck like this one. When things go awry, Enemy Controller is often a convenient escape plan.

That is all for this part of the lecture. Someone get up here and transcribe a summation of my grand wisdom!

-1 Exiled Force

-1 Elemental Hero Wildheart

-1 Injection Fairy Lily

-3 Hammer Shot    

-1 Rush Recklessly

-1 Pot of Avarice

-1 Lightning Vortex

-3 Compulsory Evacuation Device

-1 Sakuretsu Armor

+1 Amazoness Chain Master

+1 Giant Rat

+1 Sangan

+2 Enemy Controller

+3 Amazoness Archers

Here is the final decklist, a product of two combined brilliances from Obelisk Blue!

Avenging Amazonesses—Vowler’s Version—40 Cards

Monsters: 21

1 Mobius the Frost Monarch

3 Amazoness Paladin

3 Amazoness Swords Woman

3 Amazoness Chain Master

2 Elemental Hero Wildheart

3 Giant Rat

2 Exiled Force

1 Injection Fairy Lily

1 D.D. Warrior Lady

1 Neo-Spacian Grand Mole

1 Sangan

Spells: 11

2 Reinforcement of the Army

2 Enemy Controller

2 Rush Recklessly

1 Mystical Space Typhoon

1 Heavy Storm

1 Premature Burial

1 Confiscation

1 Snatch Steal

Traps: 8

1 Mirror Force

1 Torrential Tribute

1 Call of the Haunted

2 Sakuretsu Armor

3 Amazoness Archers

Because this deck is so unique, I’ll share some tips with you to help you play it. Try and remember the following:

—Amazoness Archers is useless if all of those attacks you’re inciting end up hitting your life points directly. Even with 500 less ATK, Cyber Dragon will overcome your biggest monster if it has 1600 ATK or less. That means Amazoness Paladin is integral to this deck’s success in many situations, because she is the only Amazoness big enough to take down the Dragon.

—You must create the proper situation for Archers to be truly effective. If you have defense-position monsters for your opponent to attack, he or she will send the smaller monsters into those to save them from destruction. All your monsters should be in attack position when you activate Archers, and having out two big monsters is better than one, because that way you won’t find your clever plays dashed upon the cruel rocks of Ring of Destruction or Enemy Controller.

—The ATK reduction from Amazoness Archers lasts the entire duel, so long as the affected monsters stay on the field face up. They don’t just get to pull the arrows from their wounds and move on, so consider the long-term effects activating Archers may have. In addition, those ATK reductions are cumulative, so two Archers will reduce all of the opponent’s monsters by 1000 ATK total.

—Scapegoat is your best friend. If you can ever pressure the opponent into activating it, just leave the tokens on the field. Set up the perfect Archers play, let the opponent make one attack, and then unleash your game-winning trap card. Even token monsters are forced into attack position, and you can use that to create easy wins.

As for other points of strategy, consider this deck’s opening moves. Setting Sangan, D. D. Warrior Lady, or ideally, Giant Rat is as predictable as it is legitimate, but setting Amazoness Chain Master is far more creative. Her 1300 DEF is enough to rebuke an attack from Red Gadget or Yellow Gadget, and if she is attacked and destroyed, she’ll let you steal a card from the opponent’s hand right when it’s ripe with big, desirable monsters. She’ll also give you some integral knowledge as to your opponent’s future plays. If you can ever force through an attack with the Chain Master, note that the damage she causes with her 1500 ATK also happens to perfectly balance the cost of her effect! How delightful.

Amazonesses have some exceedingly unique capabilities at their disposal, and if you make use of them effectively, you’ll be stunned at their impact. If you’ve been looking for an Amazoness build to add to your gauntlet, I’d recommend this version as a topnotch example of the classic theme. Be daring like Sarah and try it for yourself—the sheer range of exclusive effects will stun your opponent.

—The Amazoness-Loving, Earring-Enthused Dr. Crellian Vowler, PhD

Are you a dismal slacker? Do you feel the need to seek help from someone clearly superior to you in every way? Don’t worry—just send me your Advanced format decklist, a few paragraphs describing what the deck does, and your name and location to: VowlerIsSoAwesome@gmail.com. I may take pity on you and feature your deck in my next lecture!