I hope you all did well and pulled some nice cards from Gladiator’s Assault this past weekend! Of course, the set is so good that hoping you pulled nice cards seems rather silly, but I digress.
Y’know, one of the things that sticks in my mind is going to my friend’s house after school every day back in middle school, playing games, watching TV, and doing jigsaw puzzles. And while we were watching TV, the two of us got addicted to Yu-Gi-Oh! Both of us found it funny that Kaiba always played his Blue-Eyes White Dragon and Yugi always had the cards to use his Dark Magician to trump him, which taught players a very important rule early on: spell and trap cards have a huge bearing on how well you perform in a duel. Dark Magician, while certainly not the best card in the game, has enough support that it remains a decent monster based solely on a bunch of other cards.
So with this in mind, I was very happy when Rebecca K. wrote to me with her Dark Magician-based deck from Hamburg, Germany.
The main strategy is abusing Diamond Dude to activate Dark Magic Attack, Dark Magic Curtain, and Diffusion Wave-Motion for free, while still being able to use them consistently (or discard them) if I end up drawing them. The deck did quite well, and frankly, most people don’t know how to play against it.
Dark Magic Attack destroys the backfield and makes opponents hesitate to set something. Deck Devastation Virus and Diffusion Wave-Motion allow me to wipe the monsters off their field. The deck usually plays slow, then explodes and blows up the field. I can spring several big attackers out of nowhere to press the damage. The opening turns can be a bit rough though, especially if the opponent keeps Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude in check or negates one of my key plays. I’d also like to fit in some more monster destruction, since Marshmallon and Spirit Reaper slow me down and are commonly played.
—Rebecca K
Here’s what the deck looked like:
Dark Magician’s Destiny: 42 cards
Monsters: 17
3 Dark Magician
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Magician of Faith
3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
2 Destiny Hero - Dasher
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Treeborn Frog
Spells: 18
3 Dark Magic Attack
3 Dark Magic Curtain
2 Diffusion Wave-Motion
1 Magical Dimension
3 Destiny Draw
1 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Monster Gate
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 7
2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Birthright
1 Torrential Tribute
The main issue I have to deal with in building a Dark Magician deck is that I always want to include a full set of some support, which should only be played as a single copy (or possibly not at all). It wasn’t that hard to figure out that Magical Hats had no place in an aggressive build with only flip-effect monsters to be its cohorts. It was also an issue for me a while back when I was using the Buster Blader and De-Fusion trick with Dark Paladin. Possibly the coolest way to do 8000 damage in a single turn is to attack with Dark Paladin and then use De-Fusion during the battle phase, attacking precisely for the remaining 5100 life points with the two Yugi staples. Of course, with so many variants, I shouldn’t feel that bad since all versions were quite fun (except the Zombie one, which generated my most humiliating defeat ever: my right leg still aches on rainy days). I did, however, get quite good at focusing a Dark Magician deck, which is lucky for Rebecca since her deck could use focus if it wants to do well.
Now, this Dark Magician build . . . I won’t say including the Destiny Heroes hurts it, since they work brilliantly with it, but all of the Destiny Heroes require a noticeable amount of effort to ensure that they get their incredible effects off—especially Diamond Dude, who benefits from staying on the field many turns in a row. Rebecca was very bright to see the value of Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude here. In this scenario, Dark Magic Attack becomes Harpie’s Feather Duster, Magic Stone Excavation is slightly better, and Destiny Draw becomes Pot of Greed, while Dark Magic Curtain . . . well, it’s still Dark Magic Curtain, only there’s no pain when your opponent flips over a Magic Drain.
It plays fairly well—you intermittently switch between using Dark Magician as an old-school beatstick of awesome and using Diamond Dude to play the effects of powerful spell cards for free. Destiny Hero - Dasher with Treeborn Frog and Destiny Hero - Fear Monger provide options during the downtime between Dark Magician face-bashings.
Rebecca mentioned one of the three things I want to fix here: monster destruction. The second is a lack of speed. I’m serious: this thing looks very fast at present, but it should be going twice as fast and trailing a "ZOOOOM!!" behind it like those old Road Runner cartoons. My final goal is to remove unnecessary support, or at the least make a decision on what support to use. Since I never said I was going to tackle the issues in order, I’ll begin with the latter of the three. My first decision is quite an easy one: cut Diffusion Wave-Motion. In a deck looking for monster destruction, there isn’t room for the extremely situational spell. Dark Magic Attack is a Harpie’s Feather Duster with Diamond Dude, but the Motion doesn’t go anywhere with Diamond Dude. It just gets dropped into the graveyard and looks sad the next turn unless you can put a Dark Magician on the field.
Another change is slight—Dark Magic Attack, while pleasant as the odd Harpie’s Feather Duster in this deck, is much more narrow than Magical Dimension, which has 50% more to work off of with support and alleviates the horrible situation where you draw a Dark Magician (yes, that does sound funny, and yes, it is true). It also provides limited monster destruction, which coincidentally we were looking for.
Now to revamp the entire monster lineup. The monsters are probably the weakest part of this deck. Despite comprising almost 20% of the build, the Destiny Heroes suffer from a lack of support and excessive demands for support. Of the seven Heroes we have, three we want to discard with Destiny Draw and four we want to summon, leaving little room for compromise. With so much attention drawn away from the Dark Magician theme as a result, it becomes a bit of a stretch to give them so much room in the deck. The Destiny Hero - Fear Monger and Destiny Hero - Disk Commander plan is used quite freely despite its reliance on blind luck just to get into the graveyard, and Destiny Hero - Dasher is splashed with four two-tribute monsters. If Foolish Burial belonged in any deck, it belongs in this one, but when it’s there, it’s targeting Treeborn Frog or possibly Dark Magician for some tricks with Birthright. By comparison, putting Destiny Hero - Disk Commander into the graveyard to bring out at some point in the unforeseen future with Fear Monger seems almost vanilla in comparison. The same goes for Dasher, who will do nothing when first relocated to the graveyard and requires a lucky draw of cards that compose 10% of the deck—cards that you don’t want to draw otherwise. I’m not saying the idea is bad, but in execution it’s molasses, and the Dark Magician theme could otherwise be scientifically equated with “c,” the speed of light.
My choices for complementing the deck as a whole are limited monster-wise to Apprentice Magician and Mystic Tomato. But the two cannot coexist without pushing the deck past 42 cards total, and that’s not really acceptable. Both are great here, so we’ll look at fine details—the little Spellcaster from Magician’s Force allows us to add Crystal Seer and Old Vindictive Magician, and the solanum lycopersicum mysticalus (in case you don’t remember that particular bad joke, it means Mystic Tomato) lets us play with Newdoria and the Destiny Heroes (as well as Snipe Hunter), allowing us to keep monster destruction in the deck and maintain certain forms of aggression. The choice is tough, so I’m presenting two alternate lists depending on your preference as a player. They will both be at the end of the column, although my notes will be covering the Apprentice Magician change. Either way we go, we can also fit in Pot of Avarice to help ensure that you aren’t ever left with useless copies of Dark Magic Curtain and to provide late-game fuel for the deck. I’m adding Spirit Reaper to help the odd tribute summon of Dark Magician, as well as to help push hand control in this deck.
With Apprentice Magician in the deck (along with his pals Old Vindictive Magician and Crystal Seer), it was hard to see how to keep the Destiny Heroes in. Dasher, Disk Commander, and Fear Monger all took a dive as I cut one of each. This also meant that I had to cut Destiny Draw, since I now had only four cards to use it with and I wanted to summon three of them, not pitch them to replace two cards in my hand.
Finally, I add one copy of Shield Crush and another of Smashing Ground. These changes demonstrate what I learned when building my Dark Magician decks years ago. First, when you want to play a bunch of sub-themes or engines (in this case, Destiny Heroes and an Apprentice Magician engine), chances are you should stop thinking of them as sub-themes and start thinking of them as helpful elements for your build. Second, when you construct these decks, space matters: be critical of your choices.
This deck plays a little more conservatively than the first, giving it a better chance against aggressive forces like Zombies or Six Samurai. Now the goal is either to explode or (in the event of a bad draw) to play with Diamond Dude while using the Apprentice Magician engine to keep yourself in the game and give room for a slow start to get moving. I very much doubt any slow starts will occur—this deck runs more effective copies of Dark Magician than most builds out there can handle with removal, and a 2500 ATK beatstick is quite a nice thing to play around with. Just ask Yugi.
Cut:
-2 Diffusion Wave-Motion
-1 Dark Magic Attack
-1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger
-1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
-1 Destiny Hero - Dasher
-3 Destiny Draw
Added:
+1 Magical Dimension
+1 Spirit Reaper
+1 Old Vindictive Magician
+1 Crystal Seer
+2 Apprentice Magician
+1 Pot of Avarice
+1 Shield Crush
+1 Smashing Ground
Destiny Magicians: 42 cards
Monsters: 19
3 Dark Magician
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Magician of Faith
3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1 Destiny Hero - Dasher
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan
1 Spirit Reaper
2 Apprentice Magician
1 Crystal Seer
1 Old Vindictive Magician
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Treeborn Frog
Spells: 16
3 Dark Magic Attack
2 Dark Magic Curtain
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Shield Crush
1 Smashing Ground
2 Magical Dimension
1 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Monster Gate
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
1 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 7
2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Birthright
1 Torrential Tribute
And as promised, here’s the Mystic Tomato build and my final lesson of the day: why fuss over one build when so many work for the deck? That was the first thing Dark Magician decks taught me.
Magic Tomato of Destiny: 42 cards
Monsters: 18
3 Dark Magician
1 Dark Magician of Chaos
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Magician of Faith
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Don Zaloog
3 Destiny Hero - Diamond Dude
1 Destiny Hero - Disk Commander
1 Destiny Hero - Fear Monger
1 Elemental Hero Stratos
1 Sangan
1 Snipe Hunter
1 Treeborn Frog
Spells: 17
3 Dark Magic Attack
2 Dark Magic Curtain
1 Smashing Ground
1 Shield Crush
3 Destiny Draw
1 Magical Stone Excavation
2 Monster Gate
1 Heavy Storm
1 Premature Burial
2 Reinforcement of the Army
Traps: 7
2 Deck Devastation Virus
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force
2 Birthright
1 Torrential Tribute
If you made it through all of that I applaud you: this was a long one. Until next time, duelists!
—Matt Murphy