I hate Bakura. That jerk.
You might not know what I’m talking about, or why I’m shaking my fist. In fact, you can’t see that I’m shaking my fist at this moment. But I am, take my word for it. If you know what I mean, you’ll understand why.
Bakura is one of the earlier opponents in Nightmare Troubadour, the Nintendo DS Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG game that brought us luscious promo cards, such as Silent Magician LV4 and Magician’s Circle. He’s a pushover, but he’s also infuriating to duel against, because he uses a combination of Ectoplasmer and Vengeful Bog Spirit to limit your attack options—usually to nothing. You’re left praying to topdeck lots of monsters with decent ATK values and hoping to burn him out with his own Ectoplasmer. It’s just one of the many frustrating experiences offered by the game to non-completists like myself who don’t prioritize spell and trap removal early enough in the story. To be fair, no one told me which packs had Dust Tornados in them.
Philip W. has concocted a deck that runs on similar principles, but it does far more than Bakura’s version. It has some cool combos, maintains board presence, and it wins games, which are three things that Bakura never really managed to do. Philip didn’t have much to say, but here’s the teaser that he sent me.
Based on the new Forbidden list, I put together this deck. People are going to be scrambling for a way to draw cards, and my deck can make use of that—in a most unusual way.
—Philip W.
Here’s the deck that Philip sent me.
Ectoplasmer Lock
41 Cards
Monsters: 15
3 Thunder Dragon
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
3 Malice Doll of Demise
1 Sangan
1 Cyber Jar
1 Exarion Universe
2 Dark Mimic LV1
1 Magician of Faith
1 Morphing Jar
Spells: 21
1 Scapegoat
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Messenger of Peace
3 Ectoplasmer
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Card of Safe Return
2 Magic Reflector
2 Giant Trunade
2 Emergency Provisions
1 Soul Exchange
2 Vengeful Bog Spirit
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
Traps: 5
1 Reckless Greed
2 Good Goblin Housekeeping
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute
Field control is a huge asset in the new Advanced format, and it’s one that no duelist can afford to be without. Smashing Ground has won and lost countless matches, and cards like Sakuretsu Armor and Bottomless Trap Hole have proven to be invaluable. Even regular old Trap Hole made several appearances at Shonen Jump Championship Atlanta, demonstrating just how important one-for-one card exchanges can be when monsters are involved.
This deck operates on that principle—devouring one of the opponent’s monsters each turn by using Ectoplasmer and dishing out a hefty amount of burn damage in the process. Sure, it can consume one of your monsters as well, but there are ways to get around that. For instance, you can set monsters instead of summoning them. But Philip has discovered some other solutions to this problem that are quite clever.
Scapegoat is one such solution. Is Ectoplasmer hungry? Feed it a Sheep token, and watch the fuzzballs smile in glee as they realize that for every one of their own kind that’s claimed by the afterlife, it’ll be matched with another monster that belonged to the opponent. A real monster. That’s some mutton well spent.
Alternately, Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6 is immune to Ectoplasmer’s effect and will go around it completely if Horus is the only face-up monster you control. The most impressive combo, though, involves Malice Doll of Demise. One doll can be repeatedly tributed for Ectoplasmer, returning to play next turn. They have pretty decent ATK values, so you can get some good burn out of them, and they can hold their own on the battlefield. This cycle of tributing gets really cool when Card of Safe Return hits the table, as every time Malice Doll returns to play from the graveyard, you’ll get to draw a card for each Card of Safe Return you control.
Meanwhile, Thunder Dragon (in conjunction with Good Goblin Housekeeping), Morphing Jar, and Cyber Jar speed the deck along to help you find its key combo pieces. Magic Reflector keeps those pieces safe once you use them, Emergency Provisions gives you a life point advantage if Ectoplasmer goes horribly wrong, and Messenger of Peace plus Vengeful Bog Spirit make life a living hell for anything that’s not named “Horus.” It’s a good strategy.
I want to make some changes, though. This deck could easily be the king of all field presence decks, and to achieve that end, I want to add some more monster destruction to ensure its dominance. I’m also going to switch up some of its drawing engine—I’m just not very thrilled with Good Goblin Housekeeping, I hate the idea of having nothing else to do with Thunder Dragon, and there are a few additions I want to make to the deck that will nullify Good Goblin Housekeeping.
The first addition is going to be Royal Decree. Three of them. Horus shuts down spells, at least as far as it’s concerned, but it’s still terribly vulnerable to a variety of traps. As such, I’m going to add Decrees out the wazoo and remove the other traps that would otherwise compete with it. I really feel that this deck will make an opponent’s options much more difficult once this change is in place.
That said, the three copies of Thunder Dragon no longer have a purpose. They literally do nothing in this deck without Good Goblin Housekeeping, and were probably a waste of space before it was removed. I’m a huge fan of the card, and I’m glad to see it get so much play thanks to the new Advanced list, but really, you need stronger reasons to put it in a deck than simply, “I’d like some deck thinning.” If that’s the only thing you need it for, self-replacing monsters or Toon Table of Contents will do a far better job, because they have alternate uses beyond simply sitting in your hand.
I’m ditching one Dark Mimic LV1, too. This is another monster I’m just not that thrilled with, and it’s frankly nothing more than underwhelming filler. I need the space and this is just overkill in the card drawing department.
To fill in the gaps, I’ll be adding three copies of Toon Table of Contents. These will replace the deck-thinning power that was lost by the removal of Thunder Dragon. However, I’m also going to add one copy of Toon Goblin Attack Force, which will give this deck a wall against Cyber Dragon. Once you get out Vengeful Bog Spirit, Toon Goblin Attack Force will really slow down any battle-oriented opponent.
Next, I’ll add three copies of Smashing Ground. Combined with Ectoplasmer, these three spells will virtually guarantee a nightmare for any opposing duelist who’s using a Beatdown deck, or another deck with a similar strategy. Will this occasionally be a dead draw? Sure, but only when your opponent either has no monsters, or is setting them all so that you can’t destroy them.
Finally, I want to add one copy of Confiscation. I never liked the term “pre-negator” but it’s actually perfect to describe this situation, because we’re specifically looking to eliminate spell and trap removal before it can ever be used. Heavy Storm is this deck’s worst nightmare, since under ideal conditions we’ll have Card of Safe Return, Ectoplasmer, and either Messenger of Peace or Vengeful Bog Spirit face up and vulnerable. Not only would it suck to hand over a three-for-one card exchange, but losing your control over the field can also equate game loss. That wouldn’t just “suck,” it would inhale rapidly with titanic force . . .
. . . although, polysyllabic euphemisms just don’t accurately portray the extreme quantities of suckage.
Here are the total changes I made to the deck.
-3 Thunder Dragon
-1 Dark Mimic LV1
-1 Soul Exchange
-2 Emergency Provisions
-1 Reckless Greed
-2 Good Goblin Housekeeping
-1 Call of the Haunted
-1 Torrential Tribute
+1 Toon Goblin Attack Force
+3 Smashing Ground
+3 Toon Table of Contents
+1 Confiscation
+3 Royal Decree
The completed fix is as follows.
Ectoplasmer Lock: Jason’s Fix
40 Cards
Monsters: 12
2 Horus the Black Flame Dragon LV6
3 Malice Doll of Demise
1 Sangan
1 Cyber Jar
1 Exarion Universe
1 Dark Mimic LV1
1 Magician of Faith
1 Morphing Jar
1 Toon Goblin Attack Force
Spells: 25
1 Scapegoat
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Messenger of Peace
3 Ectoplasmer
1 Nobleman of Crossout
3 Card of Safe Return
2 Magic Reflector
2 Giant Trunade
2 Vengeful Bog Spirit
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
3 Smashing Ground
3 Toon Table of Contents
1 Confiscation
Traps: 3
3 Royal Decree
Side Deck Suggestions:
1 Toon Cannon Soldier
1 Vengeful Bog Spirit
1 Messenger of Peace
This deck can still do its thing, and at the same time, it can keep Horus on the table far longer and negate Dust Tornado, all thanks to Royal Decree. It can stand up to Cyber Dragon, make better use of deck thinning, and secure its board position far more easily.
The result is a tricky deck that can be incredibly difficult to approach in the aggressive play environment that now exists in the current Advanced format. When you’re used to constant monster exchanges and winning card advantage primarily through battle, you’ll probably have no idea how to play against this deck, at first glance.
An extra copy of Vengeful Bog Spirit and Messenger of Peace in the side deck will let you tech for the matchup in the second game. Are you facing an aggressive Warrior deck that can still sneak monsters under your Messenger of Peace? Rotate one out for a third Bog Spirit. Alternatively, if you’re playing against someone who has nothing but big beatsticks, you don’t necessarily have to let him or her claim that one attack per turn that Bog Spirit permits. Rotating in a third Messenger of Peace over a Spirit may disallow attacking completely. Toon Cannon Soldier is an alternate option for matchups where you don’t need Toon Goblin Attack Force’s ATK, and its burn effect can earn you game wins at surprising times.
This is a neat deck that takes some time to figure out, but it’s a blast to play and it really makes good use of some new trends in the format. In the new Advanced environment, field control is king, and this deck can go toe to toe with any other in that department and come out on top. Give it a shot for yourself!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer