Shonen Jump Boston gave me the opportunity to run a few playtest rounds with Team Overdose. And while Bryan Coronel and Kris Perovic were going with the safe flip-flop control engine, Mr. Paul Levitin was playing something much different. Building off teammate Anthony Alvarado’s success at Hamilton, Paul was using a Giant Rat-fueled engine that led into Pyramid Turtle and some other incredibly nifty tricks. I thought it would be fun take a look at one of the best young deckbuilders in the game today and analyze his mindset.
Creating Advantage Through Paul’s Earth Control Concept
The deck was not the most appetizing to face because of its ability to dictate the flow of the opponent’s attacks. Any of the face-down monsters that he would play could grow into huge threats. Three copies of Giant Rat would dig out Injection Fairy Lily, Exiled Force, or even D. D. Warrior! On top of that, he would throw in extra helpings of Pyramid Turtle that could then shift into either Vampire Lord, Spirit Reaper, or Ryu Kokki. At times, it would have simply seemed smarter not to attack.
So I would pass a few battle phases, optioning to play more defensively and stay safe. Then Mr. Levitin would flip his filthy Des Lacooda and draw a card. And I would weep.
This proves an incredible way to play mind-games with your opponent. Utilizing a card like Des Lacooda (which happens to be searchable by Rat and Turtle if Paul happened to have a tribute in hand) forces the opponent into a catch-22. Attacking any monster but Lacooda will generally lead to an unfavorable search for a new card, while leaving it alone can cause huge problems in the future. This type of difficult puzzle is often hard for opponents to unlock, and Paul was banking on solid pieces of monster removal to take care of his threats. Let’s build an alternative version of this unique and wonderful deck.
Build: Earth Levitin Control
General Synergies and Goals:
1) Use the Giant Rat recruiter engine to segue into all sorts of different options.
Pivotal Cards:
1) Giant Rat
Constructing the Monster Lineup of the Earth Levitin Control Concept
Over the course of about eight duels with the man, I saw basically the entire deck just prior to the Jump tournament. It was a very solid build that devoted approximately equal monster slots to two different categories: field presence and monster removal.
Field Presence Support:
3 Giant Rat
3 Pyramid Turtle
1 Spirit Reaper
1 Ryu Kokki
1 Vampire Lord
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Treeborn Frog
2 Cyber Dragon
This group of monsters provides a solid framework for field presence. With six self-replacing recruiters, you can easily find the perfect monster for the situation. And because the deck loads up on monster removal, they’ll likely get through to the opponent’s life points unhindered quite often.
Now Giant Rat has proven to be one of the most versatile recruiters in the environment with its ability to search out life point gains in the form of Nimble Momonga, monster removal in the form of Exiled Force, or draw power in the form of Des Lacooda. This build in particular helps Rat really shine. It has numerous targets to choose, including Lily and Exiled but also Pyramid Turtle and D. D. Warrior. With that type of versatility, it truly becomes a Swiss Army knife of the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG.
Pyramid Turtle can then lead into monsters that will immediately remove your opponent’s threats. A monster like Ryu Kokki caused severe problems for my Cyber Dragon as it rammed into Turtles repeatedly. And if the monster is not beefier than Vampire Lord, that sinister field dominator will soon be hitting the field. But Paul’s favorite track was bringing out Des Lacooda, then flipping it up and down for a card. With all of the monster removal at his disposal, the card could grow to be a huge threat.
So what of this monster removal I keep referencing? Let’s take a look.
Monster Removal Support:
1 Injection Fairy Lily
2 Exiled Force
1 D. D. Warrior
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 D. D. Assailant
Incredibly solid here. This deck packs the standard two copies of Exiled Force, but also works in one copy each of the three D. D. removers. Each of these monsters is famous enough already and does not require explanation. However, I will say that all of my big threats would leave the field in a hurry once they swung into the different D. D. monsters. And running two copies of Reinforcement of the Army is a no-brainer that gives us the outs we need.
Spicy New Grounds Additions:
2 Bazoo the Soul-Eater
Rather than go with Paul’s field-presence tools (Gravekeeper’s Spy), I’d prefer to play the more aggressive Bazoo. We can cut the Pot of Avarice and move straight into a Return from the Different Dimension build, which is fitting for a Levitin-inspired build.
With all of the monster removal present in this build and the different self-replacing options, it should be quite easy to fuel the monkey. And because so many of the monsters in the deck can remove themselves as well, Return should be supported quite well.
The Spell and Trap Support for the Earth Levitin Control Concept
We start with the six trusty stand-by cards:
Graceful Charity
Heavy Storm
Mystical Space Typhoon
Confiscation
Premature Burial
Nobleman of Crossout
All of them belong in this build.
Conceptual Spell Support:
1 Smashing Ground: With a deck that requires so much field presence, Smashing Ground is key to taking down beefy monsters that yours may not be able to handle.
2 Reinforcement of the Army: This card was alluded to many times earlier. It provides searchable monster removal and field support as well.
1 Last Will: With all of your shenanigans going on, it should be quite easy to pull this effect off for a powerful monster from deck.
2 Creature Swap: Another cornerstone of the Earth recruiter strategy, double Creature Swap should be great for switching over some of your monsters.
1 Scapegoat: I think it’s a good idea to play Scapegoat with two Creature Swap cards. It provides good safety valves as always and can slow the tempo if needed.
1 Book of Life: This is a great card that many decks simply cannot use because of Spirit Reaper’s new Limited status. Because our strategy uses six Zombies, one can be supported to remove a pesky Treeborn Frog or other such suitable target.
And for the traps:
Ring of Destruction
Torrential Tribute
Mirror Force
No Call of the Haunted because of the lack of targets in the graveyard. Bazoo should be removing your good targets anyways.
Conceptual Trap Support:
1 Dust Tornado: You can use Dust Tornado to force simplification of the board. Since you should be afraid of your Ryu Kokki or Bazoo falling to a trap when it could clear a monster in battle, Dust Tornado provides a good general set-up.
2 Return from the Different Dimension: This card will be one of the biggest threats the deck offers. While the early game consists of setting up the field and trying to maintain a measured pace, you can explode any time you draw a Bazoo or get some D. D. monsters removed from game. And because Dust Tornado can be used in conjunction with this card to ambush the opponent, it’s even better!
Expected Matchups with the Best Decks in the Format
This is a perfect example of a generally standard deck that has been slightly modified by an experienced player. Paul decided to take the average Earth aggro archetype and tweak it out with personal touches such as the Zombies and the Des Lacooda.
The result is a deck that is versatile and can morph into whatever the situation requires. Since Giant Rat and Pyramid Turtle can trade in battle and turn into a variety of different tools for the objective at hand, mixing them in with the toolbox approach of Reinforcement of the Army is even better. And since the drawback of this engine is the lack of power it may have, the two copies of Bazoo the Soul Eater that I’ve added will hopefully give it just the punch required to take the deck over the edge.
It was quite fun playing a few games with Paul. And while his deck didn’t shine at Shonen Jump Boston, it was a great build that is extremely fun and rewarding to dissect. See you next week!