I received this deck from Emmet, a contributor hailing from San Diego, California. Emmet sent in an interesting Last Turn deck that I couldn’t resist fixing, and had the following to say about it:


Hi Jason!

I was wondering if you could help me with my Last Turn deck. I just started playing it, cause I got tired of playing my usual Beatdown deck. I want this deck to be tournament-worthy—not necessarily a guaranteed winner, but something that can see at least a few wins every time I play it. But I can tell I haven’t been able to ditch my Beatdown mindset. Help!

—Emmet, San Diego


Thanks Emmet! I’ll see what I can do about helping you break those old habits. Taking a look at Emmet’s deck, you can probably see exactly what he means . . .


Emmet’s Last Turn
40 cards

Monsters
3 Archfiend Soldier
3 Jowgen the Spiritualist
2 Goblin Attack Force
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Cyber Jar
1 Fiber Jar
1 Sangan
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Injection Fairy Lily
1 Sinister Serpent

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
1 Heavy Storm
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice

Traps
1 Imperial Order
3 Solemn Judgment
2 Seven Tools of the Bandit
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Last Turn
1 Ring of Destruction


Emmet’s problem is evident—he’s trying to play a Last Turn deck with a whole lot of Beatdown cards forming a large portion of it. This is pretty common when the typical experienced player decides, after a career of playing Beatdown and Control, to try out something new. Yu-Gi-Oh! has a card pool of more than 1,000 different cards in the North American environment, but only a portion of the card pool has really been Beatdown and Control worthy. Unfortunately, since about 90 percent of players are playing variants of these themes, the result is that most duelists are completely unaware of a large number of the cards available to them, and if they’re not completely in the dark, then they at least don’t have the instincts to know when to apply less obvious cards to certain tasks within a deck. I can vouch for this myself, as I’ve been in this position in the past.

But that’s all over for me, and hopefully I can help Emmet free himself from the same trap. The Beatdown cards do give Emmet a great deal of field control against decks with weaker monsters, but, the problem is that a dedicated Beatdown or swarm deck is still going to punch through the few monsters that are in the deck very easily, unless the deck was approached like regular Beatdown from a play perspective. This is doable, but it means compromising the objective of the deck—winning through Last Turn—and if you’re going to do that, you might as well just drop the Last Turn cards. Some themes can work very well when combined, don’t get me wrong. However, in this case, Emmet has found the folly in trying to mix two strategies that don’t fit well together.

Although field control is necessary to some degree for all decks, regardless of theme, certain decks need to attempt to control the field in different ways. Whereas a Beatdown deck is looking to control the field by thugging out the opponent’s monsters with its own, as well as the usual bag of tricks, a Last Turn deck is going to work better if the field is controlled through lockdown strategies and a maintained presence. A Last Turn deck can be difficult to play, because one needs to maintain control of the field while also taking damage, in order to be able to fulfill Last Turn’s condition for activation (having 1,000 life points or less remaining). In the past, this was achieved through abuse of Seven Tools of the Bandit, Delinquent Duo, and the all-important Solemn Judgment, as well as just taking damage. The deck was often too slow in getting out Jowgen the Spiritualist and Last Turn, though, so it was unfortunately highly reactive, and therefore at the mercy of the opponent. Luckily, revamped strategy and a couple of new cards, combined with a high level of focus, can take this once-reactive deck and make it highly proactive.

First, we need to do some trimming. The Beatdown-oriented cards have got to go, so that means we’re going to be kissing the three Archfiend Soldiers, the two Goblin Attack Forces, the Breaker the Magical Warrior, the Cyber Jar, and the Injection Fairy Lily goodbye. Lily can have her uses in such a deck; her ability to act a wall while giving you all-important life point loss used to make her a prime card for a Last Turn deck. However, with a lot more people now running Mystic Tomato, Lily is unfortunately very easy to crash. Lily players hate seeing Tomato on the field, because an intelligent player is going to attack with as many Tomatoes as possible, leaving the Lily player with one of two options: let the Lily go on the first Tomato’s attack, losing a monster and 1,000 life points, or risk pumping Lily, losing 2,000 life points to each Tomato and risking the Tomato-wielding player using his last Dark-type pull for a Don Zaloog (meaning you lose 7,000 life points, a card from your hand, and the Lily). Lily is a worthwhile card in other decks, but in this type of deck it’s a liability, both due to the dangers of Tomato and the fact that it’s unpredictable and game-losing if it ever gets hit with a Change of Heart or Snatch Steal.

Cyber Jar is getting dropped because Beatdown decks and Control decks are going to be able to capitalize on the draw power and field presence it provides far better than this deck itself can. Fiber Jar is also going to be dropped because we’re trying to establish a specific set of cards on the field, and resetting the game, especially after taking a life point loss, is going to be counter-productive to that goal.

Change of Heart and Snatch Steal are also must-drops. We’re going to be adding in three copies of Gravity Bind anyways. If the Gravity Binds weren’t going in, Change of Heart and Snatch Steal would still be likely candidates for leaving the building, just because these cards, though superb staples in most decks, are not suited to the type of field control and manipulation that we’re looking to exercise here. We need to get some wiggle room, so these two unfortunately have to go.

Heavy Storm is going to be dropped because it’s a dead card once a Gravity Bind or Last Turn hits the field. Spell and trap removal is exceedingly important for this deck, because if an opponent has a set Mystical Space Typhoon and can immediately blow away your Last Turn on the turn on which it is set, you are totally up the creek without a paddle. However, Heavy Storm is not the way to guard against that in this deck.

Lastly, a few cards that some might consider staples for this kind of deck are going to be sent to the big decklist in the sky. Ring of Destruction, one Solemn Judgment, and two Seven Tools of the Bandit are all going to be ousted in favor of different cards. The only card here that I could see a problem with dropping is the Ring—seriously, Emmet, if you find that it’s useful, put it back in the deck. Drop whatever feels right to make the room. But for now, I’ll take the risk and say that there’s probably a better way you could use the card slot.

So, the deck is now seventeen cards lighter. That’s a pretty big overhaul. However, this is a pretty cheap fix, as only three of the twenty cards I’m going to suggest adding in are of greater scarcity than a regular silver-foil rare. Those three cards are three copies of a super rare from Invasion of Chaos: Reload, easily one of my top picks from the set!

But first off, let’s handle the monsters. We want to turn this deck from a wannabe attack-oriented dominator to something that can maintain field presence. If we can do that while getting to the key cards of the deck more quickly, that’s not just a bonus, it’s a huge advantage to the deck that makes sense to build towards. That said, when it comes to maintaining field presence and giving a wide array of options, nothing is better than the same-type pull cards from Metal Raiders. We’re going to add in three Mystic Tomatoes to pull Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan, and three Shining Angels to pull Jowgen. Just make sure you don’t pull Jowgen to the field until you’re ready for him—once he’s there, you won’t be able to get the effects of Shining Angel or Mystic Tomato.

OK, that’s going to take care of the “get Jowgen really fast” issue. You’ve now got eleven monster cards in the deck that are capable of getting Jowgen onto the field, into your hand, or are Jowgen themselves (Shining Angel via its effect, and Mystic Tomato via Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan, which in turn can use their effects). Those cards are also going to thin your deck considerably if played correctly, so that’s going to help you get to Last Turn and some of the other cards that are highly desirable. However, let’s add in two Cat of Ill Omen to help with the Last Turn agenda. This probably isn’t an opening move, but as a second turn drop when you already have a Mystic Tomato or Shining Angel on the field, it’s great.

Last up, we’re going to add three Thunder Dragons to the deck. Thunder Dragon is going to effectively cost you a draw because it has very little function in the deck. However, once you draw one, you get card advantage by using its effect, and that one draw suddenly clears three cards from your deck. This deck isn’t going to be 40 cards—in fact, it’s going to be surprisingly larger than that—so the value of Thunder Dragon might first seem questionable. However, it’s going to help with paying for Mirage of Nightmare, and it’s going to work wonders with Reload. The only situation you’ll have to be careful of are those first turn draws with three Thunder Dragons in them. Still, the deck can work around that, either tributing them all and then refilling your hand with Mirage, or Reloading them all back into the deck for use at a later time. Thunder Dragon is a very cool card that really doesn’t see the play it deserves.

On the spell front, six cards are going to be added: three Inspections and three Reloads. Inspection is a lynchpin card for this deck, and not one that has gained popularity yet. Using Inspection, you can lose as many life points as you want in a single turn, without depending on your opponent doing anything (provided he or she has at least one card in hand). This card single-handedly removes most of the importance of Seven Tools of the Bandit and Solemn Judgment and turns the typical Last Turn deck from a reactive, sometimes erratic behemoth, into a lean, proactive, user-controlled machine. Inspection, Jowgen, and Last Turn mean game, and it’s through this combo that you’ll generally pull most of your wins once you become proficient with the deck.

Of course, decks reliant on three key cards need ways to get at those cards in order to work. Jowgen has certainly been taken care of, and we’ve got Cat of Ill Omen to aid in speeding Last Turn into the hand. However, Last Turn could still use some help, and we need a way to get at Inspection as soon as possible. This is where Reload comes in. One of the most versatile cards in Invasion of Chaos, Reload is going to combo superbly with Thunder Dragon. It’s also going to make an excellent draw-phase card when you’re about to be forced to pay for Mirage of Nightmare, allowing you a second change at getting your hands on a Sinister Serpent or a Mystical Space Typhoon. It’s also going to be a great card for drawing out your opponent’s spell and trap removal. Because it’s a quick-play, it can be chained, and your opponent will waste the removal that he or she should be trying to save for your Inspections and Last Turns. Reload is an incredible card that makes decks that are dependant on certain particular cards infinitely easier to play.

Lastly, the deck needs the all-important three copies of Gravity Bind. Cat of Ill Omen can be used to pull these alongside Last Turn as needed, and these will also probably be a popular reward for Reloading at the right time.

So, the changes are:

-3 Archfiend Soldier
-2 Goblin Attack Force
-1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
-1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
-1 Cyber Jar
-1 Fiber Jar
-1 Injection Fairy Lily
-1 Change of Heart
-1 Snatch Steal
-1 Heavy Storm
-1 Ring of Destruction
-1 Solemn Judgment
-2 Seven Tools of the Bandit

+3 Shining Angel
+3 Mystic Tomato
+2 Cat of Ill Omen
+3 Thunder Dragon
+3 Inspection
+3 Reload
+3 Gravity Bind

Here’s the final deck.

Last Turn—Jason’s Fix

44 cards total

Monsters
3 Shining Angel
3 Jowgen the Spiritualist
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Cat of Ill Omen
1 Sangan
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sinister Serpent
3 Thunder Dragon

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie’s Feather Duster
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
3 Inspection
3 Reload

Traps
1 Imperial Order
2 Solemn Judgment
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Last Turn
3 Gravity Bind


The deck has a lot of good opening moves, monster-wise, with everything but Jowgen the Spiritualist, Cat of Ill Omen, and the three Thunder Dragons serving as superb first-turn plays. The deck must be carefully played with the intent of drawing out spell and trap removal. Use your Mystical Space Typhoons and Reloads to do this when possible, and don’t be afraid to ditch a Dark Hole, Raigeki, Mirror Force, or anything else necessary to safely play Inspection, Last Turn, and Gravity Bind. Imperial Order and Mirage of Nightmare are integral cards to use as protection for your spell and trap zone. Jinzo will hurt this deck, so be sure to use Solemn Judgment, Dark Hole, and Raigeki as carefully as possible with this threat in mind. Side decking three Dark Cores can be a very good idea, and with Thunder Dragon and Sinister Serpent, you can afford to pay the discard cost. Other good side deck choices are Ring of Destruction and Offerings of the Doomed to tech Magical Scientist, the third Solemn Judgment, D. D. Warrior Lady, Exiled Force, and Tribe-Infecting Virus. However, only turn to your side deck if you absolutely must.

Make your first priority neutralizing the threats on the field with Shining Angel and Mystic Tomato, then quickly work to get at Last Turn and Inspection, using Reload, Painful Choice, Mirage of Nightmare, and Cat of Ill Omen. While doing so, draw out the opponent and get him or her to waste spell and trap removal. Then end the game. Sound simple? It’s not. But the deck is filled with options and some tricks that your opponent probably won’t see coming.

Thanks for sending it in, Emmet. I hope that helps!