I’m trying to figure out exactly what the requirements are for a win condition level monster to be universally hated by the people who firmly denounce any card that can make you win the game. There has always been a contingent of players who have hated every single good monster, starting all the way back at Summoned Skull of all things up until the present day with Dark Armed Dragon, Judgment Dragon, and most of the Synchros.

It’s irrational to be sure. I mean, if I’m not supposed to win with a powerful monster, what am I supposed to win with? Pecking someone to death with level-4 normal monsters just isn’t very satisfying to me, and I’m certain that it isn’t satisfying to be on the receiving end of it either. Perhaps it’s just the natural desire to complain about whatever card ends up beating you. I mean, if you get beat down by Elemental Hero Neos Alius, what are you supposed to complain about? Exactly. It’s got nothing interesting or cool about it at all. No one really likes playing with that card. Players simply do it because it makes sense in the deck that they’ve chosen. I’m not really trying to speak ill of Little City, since it’s a fantastic deck, but it just doesn’t have the oomph displayed by decks aiming to finish with a huge, powerful monster. I like win condition level monsters. The correct response to a wipe from Judgment Dragon is, "that’s pretty good," not a long expletive filled rant on the internet. Remember that when you invariably drop a game or match to Tempest Magician.

One of my favorite things about Tempest Magician is that she never has to see a battle phase in order for you to win the game with her. Monsters like Judgment Dragon and Gladiator Beast Gyzarus can get tripped up by the fact that they have to actually get to your opponent’s face in order to win you the game. One Waboku, Threatening Roar, or Necro Gardna can mean the difference between winning and watching your monster get struck down by a Synchro next turn. That’s never going to happen to Tempest Magician as long as you have enough spell counters on the field to get the job done. At 500 life points each, eight spell counters is enough to take out anyone who was forced to use Solemn Judgment. Even if your opponent hasn’t reduced his or her own life points in any way, there’s absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t help that player drop those excess points with your own monsters. Spellcasters aren’t exactly lacking in ATK, and they’ve got a number of incredibly disruptive effects to go along with them.

Monsters: 19

3 Magical Exemplar
3 Skilled Dark Magician
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
2 Apprentice Magician
2 Night’s End Sorcerer
2 Crystal Seer
2 Mythical Beast Cerberus
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Sangan

Extra Deck: 15

It’s funny, actually. If there are two things that Teleport Dark Armed Dragon decks need, it’s spell cards and the ability to remove cards in their graveyard from play. Guess what? Those happen to be two things that Spellcaster decks can shut down with ruthless efficiency. Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer has been around forever, and he’s still got some of the best words and numbers printed on him even when compared to the newer powerful cards. Dark monsters and Spellcasters just keep on getting better, and Kycoo is both. His ATK also matches that of Elemental Hero Stratos, but most importantly, he’s got an ability that prevents your opponent from activating the effect of Destiny Hero - Malicious or wiping your field with Dark Armed Dragon. Sure, the Dragon could attack first and then wipe, but there’s no guarantee it’ll make it through the battle phase alive and well. Cards like Dimensional Prison, Mirror Force, and Magical Dimension are immensely valuable in situations where your opponent is cut off from all his or her trickery and must rely on brute strength to achieve the results he or she wants.

Kycoo is great, but I think the more exciting card by far is the new field spell, Secret Village of the Spellcasters. As long as you control a Spellcaster and the opponent doesn’t, it’s a one-sided Imperial Order. If you don’t have any Spellcasters, it’s still a one-sided Imperial Order . . . just in the wrong direction. There’s a lot of power packed into this card, and it tends to be difficult for a Teleport Dark Armed Dragon player to get around it if that player can’t post some huge ATK and fast . . . which is one of the things that Secret Village of the Spellcasters helps to prevent.

Just think of it. If you open with one of your high-ATK Spellcasters and a Secret Village, your opponent has to hope his or her first six cards have Phoenix Wing Wind Blast or a bigger monster. Otherwise the game could be over right there! In game 1, it isn’t likely to happen since the only monsters that have a chance of fitting the bill are Stratos and Dark Grepher. Even then, neither of them is a catch-all solution to the problem, and if you dropped Skilled Dark Magician, the opponent is fresh out of luck! You just need to make sure that you can maintain the lock on the opponent’s spells by always keeping at least one Spellcaster face up. It’s a lot easier to do when the opponent can’t just play a bunch of draw spells and Emergency Teleport cards. You on the other hand, can play all the draw cards you like. Most of your Spellcasters are Dark monsters, making Allure of Darkness a surefire hit that will also load up (most of) your counter-bearing monsters while letting you draw even more spells. Crystal Seer is an excellent early game play that lets you be more selective about the cards that you put into your hand.

With this deck, you’ll be spending a lot of time beating down opponents, but there will always be the potential for your opponent to keep you from damaging him or her. Legendary Jujitsu Master can be disastrous, especially if you lose a monster with a lot of spell counters on it. In situations where you have a lot of counters and you’re unsure of your opponent’s set cards, it might be best to see if you can win the game outright with Tempest Magician. The oft-maligned Magical Exemplar is the perfect tool to help you find the cards you need to bring her out and also to accept a huge number of spell counters to be funneled into damage. In fact, a Tempest Magician summon is as easy as playing Foolish Burial while Exemplar is in play. Send Night’s End Sorcerer to the graveyard with Foolish Burial, then use the counters that Exemplar just gained to special summon him from the graveyard! You’ll have a low damage count if you were to fire the cannons, but the idea here is to exemplify exactly how easy it is for you to pull off a Synchro summon. It doesn’t even need to be Tempest Magician, since you’re running Goyo Guardian in there as well. In fact, if you can keep Magical Exemplar around long enough, she could help you fuel a ton of Synchro summons as long as you have spells to keep giving her counters and other monsters to use as materials. All that comes in addition to the fact that the Exemplar puts your opponent on a fairly tight clock, since her 1700 ATK + whatever you can bring out with her effect can lead to quick kills if your opponent isn’t careful.

Night’s End Sorcerer is another important piece of the big disruptive puzzle: not only does he allow a Synchro summon, he’ll almost always let you screw up your opponent’s plans as well. Removing two cards from your opponent’s graveyard is huge. You could set your opponent back to no Darks in the graveyard at all, or remove his or her Malicious or Plaguespreader Zombie before the opponent has the right cards to use either with. In fact, removing Zombies of both plague-spreading and generic varieties is going to be extremely useful in the future thanks to the rest of the cards provided by Crossroads of Chaos and the Zombie World structure deck. Look for Gladiator Beast Retiari to see play for exactly the same reason, even if the Gladiator Beast player is still running D.D. Crow. Special summoning the Sorcerer is easy, even without Magical Exemplar.

Magician’s Circle is one of the most useful search cards ever printed, since it allows you to further your strategy while denying your opponent use of utility Spellcasters like Breaker the Magical Warrior. It’s good stuff, and it’s here for your enjoyment now that Crossroads of Chaos is out. I hope you enjoyed the sneak preview, and until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

—Jerome McHale