Those of us following the various Yu-Gi-Oh!-related websites have no doubt come across the recent update to the Yu-Gi-Oh! policies set forth by UDE. Located at ude.com/policy , the new policy document focuses on various aspects of tournament play for the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG, including the tournament-legal game formats.
The newest of the three formats found in the policy document is the Sealed Deck format. Sealed Deck is similar to Draft, but without the actual act of drafting. Each player purchases or brings three sealed boosters from the set being used in the event. (Two or more sets can be used for the event, but it is suggested to stick mostly to the same set.) The players open the sealed packs they purchased and build a deck from those cards. The minimum deck size is twenty cards, and each player starts the duel with 4000 life points.
Sealed Deck choices are generally easier to make than choices in Draft. You can look at a Sealed Deck construction as being similar to the thought and time that would go into a Constructed deck, but with a focus on working against a smaller pool of cards.
The downside to Sealed Deck play is the limited variety of cards you are exposed to. The selection of cards you obtain from your three sealed packs will make or break your deck. You can easily find yourself stuck with cards that do nothing for your deck but have to be included in order to flesh it out to twenty cards.
In this article we will look at two players with three sealed packs each of Invasion of Chaos. I will examine the options available to each player and detail what cards I think they should or should not include in their decks.
Player 1
The cards available to player 1 mostly cover beatdown and burn, with some Chaos and disruption along for the ride. The cards break down as follows:
Beatdown: Berserk Gorilla, Enraged Battle Ox, Gigantes, Terrorking Salmon
Burn: Stealth Bird, Balloon Lizard, Inferno
Chaos: Spirit of the Pot of Greed, Chaos Sorcerer, Dimension Distortion
Disruption: Energy Drain, Silpheed
Player 1's strongest theme revolves around the use of Earth monsters. Gigantes has good odds of being put into play in this deck and can easily be counted on for support. Enraged Battle Ox lends itself well to being used with the various Beasts, Beast-Warriors, and Winged-Beasts the player has available in these packs, giving them all "Fairy Meteor Crush"-type damage. The “Crushing” damage will work well for Berserk Gorilla, which has a high enough ATK to take good advantage of it.
Stealth Bird and Balloon Lizard can offer their services for burn damage. Balloon Lizard may last longer than Stealth Bird, due to Stealth Bird becoming a target after its effect has been used—that 1000 damage can add up quickly.
The Chaos aspects of the deck are limited. Chaos Sorcerer will not be a consistent play for this deck, but should be included anyways due to the limited number of options available. If the pieces of the puzzle manage to come together, the rewards will be worthwhile.
Silpheed will not be able to function in this deck due to the lack of Wind monsters. Energy Drain will work better to support Inferno, as there are more then enough Fire monsters in the card pool to aid its arrival to the field. (Inferno could easily do damage with its effect if combined with Energy Drain.)
Gryphon's Feather Duster and Fiend's Hand Mirror serve the least purpose in this deck, but are needed to flesh it out to twenty cards. You can always use the Gryphon's Feather Duster to destroy unneeded traps and spell cards so you can gain life points. Chaos Greed will also be an unlikely play, but is included since it has better odds of being played then a card like Multiplication of Ants.
Player 1's Deck
Monsters
1 Terrorking Salmon
1 Berserk Gorilla
1 Enraged Battle Ox
1 Stealth Bird
1 Gigantes
1 Balloon Lizard
1 Crimson Ninja
1 Inferno
2 The Thing in the Crater
1 Molten Zombie
1 Chaos Sorcerer
1 Spirit of the Pot of Greed
Spells
Dimension Distortion
Gryphon's Feather Duster
Chaos Greed
Traps
2 Energy Drain
2 Fiend's Hand Mirror
Player 2
Player 2 has gotten pretty unlucky. These packs contain quite a few cards that don't work well together, along with monsters that lack offensive power. The cards break down as follows:
Beatdown: Terrorking Salmon, Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness, Gigantes, Enraged Battle Ox, Sacred Crane.
Disruption: Des Kangaroo; Compulsory Evacuation Device; A Hero Emerges; Begone, Knave!; Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell.
The beatdown and disruption cards will have to serve as the basis for this deck. Terrorking Salmon and Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness work in this regard with a Beast-ish mix from Enraged Battle Ox and its partners. Soul Tiger can function as a defensive wall for a time.
The spell and trap cards available to player 2 do not do much for this deck. A Hero Emerges has good odds of pulling a monster in this deck, but chances are it won't be the Terrorking Salmon. Begone, Knave! should be used as a ploy to disrupt the opponent's monsters that manage to do battle damage to player 2.
Player 2's Deck
Monsters
1 Terrorking Salmon
2 Sea Serpent Warrior of Darkness
1 Soul Tiger
2 Inferno
1 Molten Zombie
1 Enraged Battle Ox
1 Sacred Crane
1 Des Kangaroo
2 Coach Goblin
1 Gigantes
1 Lord Poison
Spells
1 Soul Absorption
1 Gryphon's Feather Duster
1 Recycle
Traps
1 Compulsory Evacuation Device
1 Begone, Knave!
1 Cursed Seal of the Forbidden Spell
The best suggestion anyone can give you is to do the best you can with what you have available. Player 2 was faced with this situation and had to make the most of things, as any one of us would have done.
Until next time . . . Berserk Gorilla, smash!
Send all comments, suggestions, and Menchi recipes to curtis@metagame.com.