There are a lot of strange cards running around out there these days: stuff like Broken Bamboo Sword and its various offshoots that are so limited in scope that they drive you to find some way to play and win with them against anyone other than your dog. Vincent Tundo gave it a go at U.S. Nationals this year, but unlike his offering from 2006 Nationals, things didn’t go so well this time. That’s because odd cards like the Bamboo Swords simply aren’t meant to be part of any sort of combo engine. They are what they are, nothing more.

Another card that falls into the category of "strange and good for the very specific purpose spelled out on the card" is the new field spell from Light of Destruction, Wetlands. I don’t think you can get much more specific than level 2 or lower, Water attribute, Aqua-type monsters, and unfortunately there really aren’t many monsters that fit the bill. I ran a search, and discovered that the list of monster cards that can receive the bonus from Wetlands is limited to fifteen. Only fifteen monsters can receive the benefit of Wetlands, and a few of them are silly normal monsters like Frog the Jam. Another is Treeborn Frog, which won’t even be around when you have Wetlands owing to the whole "only if you control no spell or trap cards" thing. Another two are the ammunition for Orca Mega-Fortress of Darkness, though I should note that Wetlands brings them up to 2200 ATK. They’re actually pretty respectable for a monster that might as well be normal. When all is said and done, the monsters you’d actually want to play that are also compatible with Wetlands boil down to Star Boy, Penguin Soldier, Poison Draw Frog, Unifrog, Ooguchi, and Substitoad. It seems like a rather meager list, but you’d be surprised at some of the stuff you can do with just those six monsters.

Between Star Boy and Wetlands, you can make some huge, direct attacking monsters that sometimes destroy spell and trap cards. It’s really quite nasty, and the best part is that you can also play the cards in such a way as to get them around any and all defenses your opponent might have while keeping your opponent stymied by your defenses. Even better, the defenses you have access to are formidable and very difficult to deal with given the proper protection.

I had initially planned on running a full-blown Frog deck this week, but my desire to put Wetlands to work was simply too great, resulting in the deck you’ll see below. Last week’s deck had a number of stray super rare cards in addition to a Mirror Force. This week I’m only using one foil, and that’s the super rare Penguin Soldier from the old Joey starter deck. At last check, it was going for a buck at my local game store, the same as a rare like Royal Oppression. There’s something to be said for being able to build a deck for twenty bucks that can still win some games, so let’s get to it, shall we?

Monsters: 17

3 Ooguchi
3 Unifrog
3 Poison Draw Frog
3 Star Boy
3 Penguin Soldier
1 Sangan
1 Morphing Jar

Based off the prices at my local card shop, you can build this deck with exactly fourteen dollars worth of singles. To the best of my knowledge, that makes it the cheapest currently legal deck I’ve ever built. The only thing I can think of that came close was Chain Burn, and without three copies of Chain Strike, that deck really isn’t doing much of anything these days. This deck most likely will make no waves whatsoever at anything higher than the local level, but the waves it does make are awesome indeed. Do you like locking down your opponent’s monsters? Do you like swinging directly for up to 3100 damage with a single monster? If you answered yes to either or both of those questions, then you’ll be glad to know that this is something today’s deck strives to do.

Between Wetlands and Star Boy, the maximum bonus you can grant to one of your monsters is 2700 ATK. Slap all that extra ATK onto Unifrog, and you can send it all directly at your opponent. If you have Poison Draw Frog on the field at the same time, you’ll be taking out one of your opponent’s spell or trap cards as well! Destroying opposing spell and trap cards is actually a background strategy for this deck. The main goal is to swing for as much direct damage as you can with huge Unifrog and Ooguchi cards. To help them get by and ensure that opponents just keep on taking damage, I’ve included Mystical Space Typhoon and three copies of Nobleman of Extermination to go with the copies of Unifrog, helping to clear the way.

In addition, Penguin Soldier can keep the field clear of monsters so that it’ll be more difficult for your opponent to make use of set monsters like Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter, Stealth Bird, and Des Lacooda. It feels awfully weird talking about Des Lacooda, but hey, apparently some people have decided that it won’t get run down by Gladiator Beast Whateverus, blown away by Gyzarus, Dark Armed Dragon, or Judgment Dragon, or nailed by Ryko or Ehren. These people are usually very wrong, and I chuckle a bit inside at the thought of flipping a Penguin Soldier to return a set Des Lacooda and bounce back the Soldier for immediate reuse. If you’re forced into bouncing multiple opposing monsters with the Soldier, you can always re-use it with Book of Moon after you swing with it. A Penguin Soldier can get pretty big, with Wetlands boosting it up to 1950 ATK and any one Star Boy making it bigger than a Monarch or Jinzo. With all the emphasis on removal these days, many players sometimes forget that monsters can attack each other, and, if need be, your super-powered Aqua critters can tangle with some of the best monsters in the game. Of course, there are some monsters that they can’t tangle with, owing primarily to the fact that those monsters will immediately blow yours away if possible. For that, we have Royal Oppression.

Frankly, I was stunned when I saw the new rules for continuous traps with ignition-like effects. Being able to flip an Oppression at the same timing as Solemn Judgment is ridiculous, and it almost makes it like the Imperial Order of monsters. The big question is, do we flip it when the opponent first tries to make a special summon, or do we flip it as soon as possible in order to try and sneak it around Solemn Judgment? Judgment is a rather huge problem for this deck, and I’d really prefer to use Oppression as surprise negation. That’s why the spell and trap removal portion of the deck is so necessary, and why Nobleman of Extermination heads the effort. Nobleman of Extermination has a bit of a flaw in that it can only destroy and remove the set trap from play if it isn’t flipped face up in response. That makes it completely useless against stuff like Royal Decree, but excellent against counter traps, especially Solemn Judgment. If your opponent doesn’t want to lose all his copies of Solemn Judgment, he’ll have to pay half his life to negate the card that’s destroying his Judgment. I can see this being worthwhile for the Solemn Judgment player, but only in some very narrow situations that you wouldn’t really want to be in anyway. With Oppression out and active, you stave off any real unpleasantness from your opponent, keeping the boss monsters out of play in addition to preventing draw shenanigans from Disk Commander.

While it may not be Card Trooper, Poison Draw Frog adds a reliable beatstick to the deck in addition to providing two other important functions. First, it turns on Unifrog’s spell and trap destruction effect. Second, and probably more importantly, Poison Draw Frog acts as your version of Card Trooper, replacing itself with a draw if it succumbs to attack or removal. The issue with missing the timing shouldn’t be a problem in the case of this deck, since you won’t be tributing it for anything.

Your worst matchup will be Monarchs that main a full complement of Soul Exchange cards. You really have nothing much to do in the face of losing your monster and then losing something else to the Monarch effect, so if you’re going to play this deck you need to side very heavily against Monarchs. Mask of Restrict does this job awfully well, and if you’re looking for something that synergizes with your deck and you’ve got the cash to throw down, Fog King can receive bonuses from your Star Boy cards to help keep it on the field.

If I’m counting right, we’ve got one week to go till previews for The Duelist Genesis begin, so until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!

—Jerome McHale