I like Defender of the Forest, Green Baboon for three reasons. First, it’s a monkey: everyone likes monkeys, right? Second, it’s my favorite color. And third, it’s an unstoppable powerhouse that takes Beast decks right to the top of their competitive form.
That last part probably should have been first on the list.
The problem? With Destiny Hero - Malicious and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander seeing so much play nowadays, players are teching cards that let them remove monsters from your graveyard. Duelists like Dexter Dalit are main-decking this kind of tactic, and while they do it with the primary intent of stopping Destiny Hero strategies, it has the side effect of utterly destroying Green Baboon’s viability. When a Baboon deck loses its one big trump card to the removed from play pile, the duel tends to go downhill.
Hank, from Mississippi, has encountered this problem himself. Today, he’s asked me to see if I can help him overcome it. Here’s what he had to say . . .
Hello,
Ever since it was revealed that Defender of the Forest, Green Baboon would be a Shonen Jump subscriber promo, I felt that I should make a deck around it. However, with it being Limited to one per deck, this proved to be harder than I thought. I ran three Giant Rat cards, three Nimble Momonga cards, and three Hyena cards to try to thin the deck out as quickly as possible. Also, if I do get Baboon into my hand or grave, I could use Creature Swap on one of the three above-mentioned Beasts to destroy my own monster and summon Baboon. Card Trooper was also used to attempt to dump Baboon into the graveyard.
Unfortunately, it seemed to me that most good players in my area are side-decking D.D. Crow nowadays, which single-handedly dismantles the entire focus of the deck. At the same time, Destiny Hero - Malicious and Metamorphosis summon Dark Blade the Dragon Knight, which would remove Baboon from play. What kind of cards should I side against these? Is there a way to counter this?
I appreciate any help.
—Hank H.
Mississippi, United States
Here’s Hank’s deck:
My Favorite Monkey—42 Cards
Monsters: 23
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Defender of the Forest, Green Baboon
3 Giant Rat
3 Nimble Momonga
3 Hyena
3 Card Trooper
3 Enraged Battle Ox
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Sangan
1 Morphing Jar
1 Spirit Reaper
Spells: 13
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Confiscation
2 Creature Swap
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Smashing Ground
1 Premature Burial
2 Enemy Controller
Traps: 6
1 Mirror Force
1 Torrential Tribute
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Sakuretsu Armor
1 Dust Tornado
Stopping D.D. Crow is exceptionally difficult. There are very few cards that can negate its effect, and most require a lot of support to use efficiently (Necrovalley and Divine Wrath come to mind). Because D.D. Crow activates in the hand, not on the field or in the graveyard, it’s one of the most stable, reliable effects ever to be printed.
However, Hank’s problem is huge because D.D. Crow is only the beginning of his troubles. As he noted, Metamorphosis bringing out Dark Blade the Dragon Knight is also a concern, and Banisher of the Radiance is gaining a ton of popularity for main deck play as well. If I’m going to fix up this deck to try and combat the challenges Hank is likely to encounter, I need to factor in Banisher.
That’s a tall order, but I’m determined to make this work. My fix is going to have three aims: stop D.D. Crow, Banisher of the Radiance, and Dark Blade the Dragon Knight from messing with my monkey.
Let’s get to it.
I’ll need to drop some cards to make room for my additions, and the first to go is the Hyena trio. While having lots of Beast monsters on-hand is important in order to get the most out Green Baboon, there’s a reason your copies of Hyena are so dusty. It’s sort of a second-rate Nimble Momonga and even if I drop it from the deck, I’ll still have nine Beasts plus Pot of Avarice: that seems reliable enough for what we’re trying to achieve.
Next, while D. D. Warrior Lady and Spirit Reaper are good, they don’t do much to solve the three problems I’m trying to deal with. Neither can stop D.D. Crow, and though Spirit Reaper might force my opponent to discard Metamorphosis or Banisher, and D. D. Warrior Lady could remove Banisher from play, both options are relatively weak. They aren’t Beasts either, so that works against them: the Lady and the Reaper will be shown to the door.
Thanks to Enraged Battle Ox, this deck has the ability to punch through darn near any defense-position monster, making Nobleman of Crossout less important than it would be to other strategies. I don’t honestly see much of a need for it here, especially with the additions I plan to make. Two Creature Swap cards also seem excessive, especially since Hank is a bit mistaken: he won’t get to bring back Green Baboon when he destroys a Beast he shifted to his opponent’s side of the field, since Baboon specifies that you have to control the Beast that was destroyed. That means it has to be on your side of the field. I’m going to drop Nobleman and reduce this deck’s count of Creature Swap to one.
Call of the Haunted is just begging to be played here, and is the first card I’ll be adding to outplay D.D. Crow. If the opponent ever tries to remove Green Baboon from my graveyard, I can chain Call of the Haunted to bring Baboon to the field before Crow’s effect resolves: when it looks to get its grubby little talons into my majestic monkey’s fur, the Baboon will no longer be “in the graveyard”—a must for Crow’s effect. This makes Call a much better fit for the deck than Premature Burial, so I’ll drop the latter.
Torrential Tribute just doesn’t seem like a good fit here. It doesn’t work well with the three Nimble Momonga cards and three Giant Rat cards, both of which maintain field presence and create situations where activating Torrential would be inopportune. The three Cyber Dragon cards also become dead weight all too easily when Torrential is activated. Sure, I could summon a Beast, respond with Torrential to clear the field and then special summon Green Baboon as a result, but that’s a narrow play that involves one key monster. Currently Torrential is conflicting with nine monsters, and that makes it a poor pick for this particular deck.
Lastly, I’m not sure what that one Dust Tornado is doing here. This deck loves seeing the opponent activate Sakuretsu Armor to destroy a Beast, and many opponents will flat-out refuse to do so as a result. Besides, if I were to run Dust Tornado to keep my opponent’s defenses in a bind and dish out more piercing damage, I would run three Tornado cards, not just one.
With twelve cards cut and 31 remaining in the deck, I feel confident that it’s time to start adding cards. The first two might be my favorite: Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer stops D.D. Crow in its tracks, preventing the opponent from ever activating its effect. You can also use Kycoo to hammer home damage against a Destiny Hero player and remove that all-important Disk Commander from play. It’s great at hindering Treeborn Frog, Pot of Avarice, Destiny Hero - Dasher, and several other popular picks, so a pair of Kycoo cards seems like a natural fit here. It’s going to be even better once I finish adding cards.
Three Cold Wave cards will make a spectacular addition for a number of reasons. The first is obvious: it keeps Metamorphosis from ever seeing play, restricting the opponent’s use of Dark Blade the Dragon Knight. It also just happens to be a great card in the current format. Most the top decks nowadays are dependent on spells to win: Cold Wave robs Monarchs of their precious Brain Control and Soul Exchange, while Destiny Hero decks lose Destiny Draw, Premature Burial, and Call of the Haunted. Cold Wave will even suppress monster removal that would otherwise threaten Kycoo or keep me from dealing damage.
After sitting tableside all day long at Canadian Nationals, I’m convinced that this deck can capitalize on three Trap Dustshoot cards. Hank’s creation can swing very hard, very quickly, and Trap Dustshoot simplifies the duel while depriving the opponent of ways to deal with Green Baboon. It also stops Banisher of the Radiance and D.D. Crow before they can ever be used, and will go a long way toward slowing down decks that rely on Destiny Draw. Running three then allows me to run Mind Crush as well, which plays an interesting role here.
On one hand, Mind Crush can be a sure thing when my opponent searches for D.D. Crow with Sangan or I see his or her hand with Trap Dustshoot and Confiscation. However, it can also be a last-ditch move when Green Baboon is about to be destroyed and you’re willing to risk the loss of a card to eliminate the chance of D.D. Crow—just activate Mind Crush right before Baboon is sent to the graveyard and Crow can’t touch it. The popularity of Gadgets, Elemental Hero Stratos, and Reinforcement of the Army just make this an even easier call.
That’s it. A focused addition of five new cards in high quantities makes this fix very cohesive, and it should hold its own against top decks in sanctioned competition. Here are the changes I’ve made:
-3 Hyena
-1 D. D. Warrior Lady
-1 Spirit Reaper
-2 Enemy Controller
-1 Nobleman of Crossout
-1 Creature Swap
-1 Premature Burial
-1 Dust Tornado
-1 Torrential Tribute
+2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
+3 Cold Wave
+3 Trap Dustshoot
+1 Mind Crush
+1 Call of the Haunted
The final deck is as follows:
My Favorite Monkey — Jason’s Fix — 40 Cards
Monsters: 20
3 Cyber Dragon
1 Defender of the Forest, Green Baboon
3 Giant Rat
3 Nimble Momonga
3 Card Trooper
3 Enraged Battle Ox
2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Sangan
1 Morphing Jar
Spells: 11
1 Snatch Steal
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Heavy Storm
1 Confiscation
1 Creature Swap
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Smashing Ground
3 Cold Wave
Traps: 9
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
2 Sakuretsu Armor
3 Trap Dustshoot
1 Mind Crush
1 Call of the Haunted
Depending on your outlook, you’ve got up to eleven good opening monsters when you go first. Nimble Momonga and Giant Rat are ideal, but Card Trooper, Sangan, and even Morphing Jar are quite passable. If you don’t open with Green Baboon, your priority is to thin your deck toward it while creating an alternate offense, usually centered on Enraged Battle Ox and Cyber Dragon.
Remember that even if you don’t have Green Baboon in hand, you should never give that away to your opponent. Since Baboon can be special summoned from your hand, you can always bluff and make the opposition wonder if it’s wise to flip that Sakuretsu Armor he or she is fingering. This only works for so long: once your opponent does destroy a Beast and you fail to bring out Green Baboon, the jig is pretty much up . . . but you can ride this threat for a surprising length of time if you’re good with mind games.
Once you do have the Baboon at your disposal—either in the graveyard or in your hand—you want to start playing aggressively. Force your opponent into trading monster removal for one of your Beasts: you gain card presence whenever you make a card-for-card trade of that sort and bring Green Baboon back from the graveyard, and it’s the best kind of card presence—the kind that immediately results in you controlling a 2600 ATK monster that’s ready to smash things.
Simplified duels are your friends, because the fewer answers your opponent has to Green Baboon, the more turns it gets to pound his or her face into goo. Nimble Momonga also likes situations where your opponent suffers from a dearth of removal, and a lack of defensive traps means more damage with Enraged Battle Ox. It’s a tricky balancing act: if you simplify too much before the Baboon enters into the equation, the small size of your monsters will leave you in a weakened position. At the same time, though, getting cards out of the game in anticipation of Baboon can pay off. This deck takes experience and practice in order to be played effectively, and your normal dueling intuition may need some rethinking. When you are ready to simplify, you have a ton of ways to do so: you have five cards alone that initiate trades with cards in your opponent’s hand, something few other decks can lay claim to.
In the late game, Baboon is a beast (no pun intended). When every fourth card you topdeck unlocks access to a 2600 ATK behemoth, you’re in a good place. When both players are topdecking, Baboon is at its most vulnerable to D.D. Crow, but it only needs a few turns to end the duel anyway. If your opponent wants to trade one of his or her few remaining cards to eliminate one in your graveyard, I say let it happen: the rest of your monsters can get the job done in that scenario.
Defender of the Forest, Green Baboon is debuting as a much different card here in North America than it was when it was released in Japan. While many duelists have written it off, dedicated players will find that with a bit of forethought, it’s an incredible force that can decimate popular strategies. Give it a try yourself! So long as you take into account the obstacles you’re likely to encounter, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
Thanks for sending it in, Hank!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Got a cool deck that you think could benefit from some advice? Send me a decklist in the format shown in this article, along with your name, location, and a couple of paragraphs describing how the deck works. You can reach me at jdgmetagame@gmail.com.