There's an old saying that goes, “What you don't know can't hurt you.” Obviously, whoever came up with that never had to deal with some of the new cards from The Lost Millennium. We've had the set for about a week now, and already there are some pretty interesting deck ideas out there. The Machine deck that I showed you last week isn't exactly the most subtle deck in existence. Basically, its strategy consists of playing big monsters and smashing things. This week, I've got a deck lined up for all you strategists out there who'd rather play a thinking game than a smashing game.

 

 

Monsters: 18

3 Grave Ohja

2 Moai Interceptor Cannons

2 Guardian Statue

3 Stealth Bird

2 Mid Shield Gardna

2 Giant Rat

1 Magician of Faith

1 Cyber Jar

1 Sangan

1 Hieracosphinx

 

Spells: 15

1 Pot of Greed

1 Graceful Charity     

1 Lightning Vortex

1 Premature Burial

1 Delinquent Duo

2 Shifting Shadows

2 Swords of Concealing Light

2 Level Limit - Area B

2 Book of Moon

2 Wave-Motion Cannon

 

Traps: 7

2 Needle Ceiling

1 Ceasefire

1 Mirror Force

1 Ring of Destruction

2 Spell Shield Type-8

 

I bet that some of you out there are looking at this decklist and seeing a pile of utter jank. Well, this deck is pretty janky, but it's also frighteningly effective. At the most basic level, this is a Burn deck. However, the way you go about burning your opponents is unique. Instead of relying on one-shot traps and spells like Poison of the Old Man or Secret Barrel, this deck aims to pump out a steady flow of burn over the course of four or five turns while locking down as many of an opponent's options as possible.

 

 

One of the best things about this deck is that it plays the same way every time. Once you know what your field needs to look like in order to win, you can repeat that strategy each and every game. The problem is that it's a difficult position to set up. Ideally, you want to have at least one copy of Grave Ohja out along with three monsters that can flip face down once per turn. You'll also need either Shifting Shadows or Hieracosphinx and preferably something you can stall with. From there, all you need to do is flip your monsters up to deal damage, flip them back down again, and either shuffle up with Shifting Shadows or let your Hieracosphinx act as a wall. Simple, right?

 

Your first goal when playing this deck is to survive the early game. Usually, you can accomplish this with a strong opening play such as Mid Shield Gardna or Giant Rat. The Gardna can block an unfriendly Nobleman of Crossout, and the Rat replaces itself if it gets destroyed by a generic beatdown monster. If your opponent opts to play it safe by setting a monster of his or her own, you're one step closer to winning. Your next move should be playing either another face-down monster (preferably Stealth Bird) or Grave Ohja. At that point, you can start burning your opponent. Remember to play your defensive spells as needed, and try not to double up on the stall. If you can keep your monsters alive through the early turns, it should be a lot easier for you to win when the time comes.

 

Once you reach the mid- to late game, you should have enough monsters out to do at least 900 points of damage per turn. You'll be able to do a lot more damage if you have any copies of Stealth Bird out. Unfortunately, your opponent will have had plenty of time to bring out a horde of his or her own by then. Fortunately, this is where the deck will shine the most. Since nearly all of your monsters will be face down, Needle Ceiling won't hurt you much at all, but your opponent will be most displeased when his or her army goes down the drain. Plus, Swords of Concealing Light will be a nasty surprise for most opponents, because they can't attack you if all of their monsters are face down. In addition, flipping all of an opponent's monsters face down will shut off the effect of Des Wombat for two turns, which is a good thing, since Burn decks tend to roll over and die in reaction to the fuzzy power of Wombat.

 

Shifting Shadows and Hieracosphinx will be your main methods of keeping your face-down monsters safe from harm. Shuffling up your face-down monsters is an underrated strategy that will help you lose as few monsters as possible if you can keep your opponent's monster count low.

 

For example, let's say that I have Mid Shield Gardna, Moai Interceptor Cannons, and Guardian Statue face down on the field along with a face-up Grave Ohja. On my turn, I flip them all face up to deal 900 points of damage and return a monster to my opponent's hand. Then, I flip my monsters back face down. If my opponent is paying attention to the game, he or she will know where my Statue is, so most likely the bounced monster will be resummoned to attack the Guardian. To prevent this, I pay 300 life points to activate Shifting Shadows, so now my opponent has only a 33-percent chance of hitting the right card, assuming that I let him or her attack at all. In addition, if my opponent has Nobleman of Crossout, he or she has a 33-percent chance of wasting it on Mid Shield Gardna. If I happen to have a copy of Hieracosphinx in hand, I can tribute one of my monsters for it, and then it won't matter what my opponent summons, because he or she can't attack Guardian Statue. In a situation like this, my opponent will be blocked from attacking unless he or she has Lightning Vortex or Black Luster Soldier - Envoy of the Beginning.

 

 

I haven't been testing this deck for very long, but I've already found a couple of things that can go wrong with it. The first is that you can only normal summon one monster per turn. That's one of the reasons why surviving the early game with your field intact is so important. If you're stuck with only one monster for the entire game, you aren't going to win. This is why Giant Rat is an important card, because it allows you to take a hit or two while still maintaining your field presence. Plus, the Rat can grab Moai Interceptor Cannons, Guardian Statue, and Mid Shield Gardna, all of which you can immediately flip face down on your turn. Giant Rat is your friend—try not to let it get nailed by Nobleman of Crossout.

 

The other major problem is the same one that now plagues every Burn deck: . This critter can make your deck practically worthless, so it's important to do unspeakable things to the little fellow as soon as you see it. I recommend flipping it face down with either Book of Moon or Swords of Concealing Light and then doing as much damage as you can. The Wombat has a very low DEF, so for a more permanent solution, you should consider attacking it while it's down. Cyber Jar can also help here, but it's mainly in the deck to help you get more face-down monsters out.

 

 

I hope that everyone out there is enjoying the new cards from The Lost Millennium. If you come up with any ideas for potentially viable decks using the new cards (or older cards, for that matter), and you'd like me to test them out against some of the other gauntlet decks, feel free to drop me a line at jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu. Heck, if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions at all, you can send them to that address as well.

 

Next week, I'll be back to my regular column reviewing the proven decks that make up my playtesting group's gauntlet. If I recall correctly, those sheep tokens are still changing into hideous, thousand-eyed monsters with purple borders. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!