One good way to get your deck profiled during an event I’m covering is to ask me and to have a decklist ready. That’s exactly what Amaan Bahar did to get himself into this column. However, the fact that the deck is worthy of review definitely helped his chances.

Here’s the interesting Gravekeeper deck that Bahar was running at the Columbus Shonen Jump Championship.

Amaan Bahar’s Gravekeeper

Monsters
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Airknight Parshath
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Morphing Jar #1
1 Magical Scientist
2 Mystic Tomato
3 Gravekeeper’s Assailant
3 Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier
3 Gravekeeper’s Spy
1 Sinister Serpent

Spells
3 Necrovalley
2 Terraforming
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 The Forceful Sentry
1 Confiscation
1 Pot of Greed
2 Smashing Ground
1 Heavy Storm
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart

Traps
3 Rite of Spirit
2 Bottomless Trap Hole
2 Judgment of Anubis
1 Ring of Destruction

Side Deck
1 Grand Tiki Elder
2 The End of Anubis
1 Mobius the Frost Monarch
1 Gravekeeper’s Chief
1 Gravekeeper’s Cannon Soldier
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Fairy Box
2 Solemn Judgment
2 Magic Drain
1 Creature Swap
2 Royal Tribute

Fusion Deck
2 Sanwitch
2 Empress Judge
2 Punished Eagle
2 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight
2 Ojama King
2 Ryu Senshi
2 Dark Balter the Terrible
2 Fiend Skull Dragon
2 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
2 Dark Flare Knight
2 Musician King
2 Karbonala Warrior
2 Dragoness the Wicked Knight

Gravekeeper decks have been one of the most popular deck types to reinvent and run with. I’ve seen some very cool ones in my time, some ranging from very playable to “funplayable” (which is unplayable with an “f”). Bahar’s deck is definitely one of the former. It’s extremely bare bones, but it does what it should and it does it well.

First up, the traditional picks of Mystic Tomato, Gravekeeper’s Assailant, Gravekeeper’s Spear Soldier, and Gravekeeper’s Spy are all present. The Chief and Cannon Holder are relegated to the side deck, and instead of expanding the rest of the deck with more Gravekeeper monsters and dedicated support, the decklist is fleshed out by some high-utility monsters that fit the metagame. Mobius the Frost Monarch, Airknight Parshath, Tribe-Infecting Virus, Breaker the Magical Warrior, Magical Scientist, and Sinister Serpent are all mainstream cards that are often unbalancing when introduced into a Gravekeeper deck. The result is a deck that sacrifices specialization for higher overall utility, provided the player is skilled enough to use it properly. Essentially it’s a shift in the synergy/utility balance that moves away from how a Gravekeeper deck is normally skewed.

Morphing Jar gets its own mention because it’s a great card for this deck, and because more people should probably be playing it. It can be difficult to find, but if you can get one, then it’s great here, or in any deck that relies on a field card just for its sheer cycling power. It’s never really a dead draw, as even in a topdeck-concerned late game it’s not a bad move. If you’re playing a deck that hates those types of situations, then Morphing Jar will quickly get you out of them.

Spellwise, we’ve got a mix of established battle-oriented cards plus a field engine rotating around Necrovalley. The pair of Smashing Ground are important, as they compensate for the fact that Gravekeeper decks are weenie decks at heart, regardless of extreme tech such as this example. The virtue of Smashing Ground over Hammer Shot is certainly debatable, but a pair of either is definitely good medicine for this kind of deck.

The traps are fairly standard for this deck, but they’re incredibly effective. Three Rite of Spirit gives the deck the resilience it really needs to dominate the game. Two Bottomless Trap Hole provide a similar solution to the same problem, teching hard into Chaos and keeping large threats off your back. Two Judgment of Anubis hold off threats against Necrovalley and while being a bit conditional also provide some removal. Ring of Destruction rounds out the removal line up.

The side deck is a lot of tech and personal choices. Cards like Fairy Box are nice because they keep the deck from being attacked, while at the same time making an opponent feel as if you might be crazy. Creature Swap is incredibly good in a deck with so many small monsters, and some of the choices, like Grand Tiki Elder, seem like random filler.

The Fusion deck is the usual Scientist support, plus a few other random selections, much like Grand Tiki Elder.

The deck comes out of the gates a bit stronger than other Gravekeeper variants, based entirely on its expanded utility base. It’s not as synergy-dependent as most of its contemporaries would be, so it’s going to do better in the early game and it’s going to be far more consistent in the late game. That said, it won’t do as well in the mid-game when it really goes off, so you might see the late game more often. It’s a more consistent build than other decks and it won’t flop as easily as others might. Many Gravekeeper decks have issues with luck. This one minimizes that, and because of that, it can be exceptionally good in the current environment.