This is it—the last week before we switch over to the new Advanced format. These past six months have taught us new ways to think about the game. We’ve (hopefully) progressed beyond the simple numerical-advantage model of dueling to a new tempo-based model, where the winner is the player who can take control of the board and hold onto it, regardless of how many cards are involved. We’ve seen Spirit Reapers hold off aggression long enough for some incredible comebacks, we’ve seen Cyber Dragons take down unprepared victims before they could set up their strategy, and we’ve seen Snatch Steal and Dark Hole reverse the tide of many a one-sided duel. In the end, though, the key factors in all these matches were the monsters involved. Today, my goal is to achieve absolute dominance of the board, and I’m going to do it with a Fusion monster.
The Last Stand
Monsters: 17
3 Zombyra the Dark
3 The Earth – Hex Sealed Fusion
3 Giant Rat
1 Sangan
1 Exiled Force
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
2 D. D.Assailant
3 Spirit Reaper
Spells: 10
1 Heavy Storm
1 Dark Hole
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Reinforcement of the Army
3 Smashing Ground
Traps: 14
3 Sakuretsu Armor
3 Dust Tornado
3 Solemn Judgment
3 Light of Intervention
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Torrential Tribute
Fusion Deck: 3
3 The Last Warrior from Another Planet
The goal of this deck is very simple. Light of Intervention and set up a state in which neither player is allowed to place a monster on to the field for any reason. With 2350 ATK, once you clear the field and achieve the lock, your opponent has a maximum of three turns after your first attack to get rid of the Last Warrior, or else it’s game over. Why should we try to make this happen? Because approximately 50 percent of every deck right now is comprised of monsters. That means at least half of your opponents deck will be completely useless. Your opponent won’t be able to fall back on monster based removal, can’t fall back on Spirit Reaper or Treeborn Frog to stall, and any other card in his or her deck that would somehow put a monster on the field is useless as well. Jinzo and Spell Canceller just wish that they could make that many cards unplayable.
As expected with cards of this type, there are a few rules issues that could use some clarification. First off, The Last Warrior from Another Planet destroys all of your other monsters, not your opponent’s. “Your other monsters” includes those you control thanks to Snatch Steal, so that is a plus. Then, as long as The Last Warrior is face-up on the field, neither player is allowed to summon monsters. This does not stop anyone from setting monsters face down, but it does stop cards that would special summon a monster face down, like Apprentice Magician or The Shallow Grave. Neither player can activate Scapegoat, Premature Burial, or Call of the Haunted while Last Warrior is in play, either. Adding Light of Intervention to the mix completes the lock, forcing all monsters to be summoned face-up. Obviously this can’t happen thanks to Last Warrior, and thus neither player can place any more monsters on the field. Light of Intervention also blocks Book of Moon from flipping your copy of Last Warrior down. You should also know that you can’t activate Light of Intervention in response to the act of an opponent setting a monster to make him or her play it face up, much like you can’t chain Anti-Spell Fragrance to a spell to make the opponent set that spell instead.
Now, think about the average deck you’re likely to face. Most decks are comprised of 20 or 21 monsters, so that’s at least 50 percent of your opponent’s potential draws becoming dead if you manage to complete the lock. Add on Premature Burial, Call of the Haunted, Scapegoat, Nobleman of Crossout, and Book of Moon, and you’ve got 25 or 26 cards that you don’t have to fear if you can pull off your win condition successfully. Out of the remaining fourteen or fifteen cards, there are approximately nine of them that can get rid of your Last Warrior after it’s successfully summoned. Let’s talk about how to stop this from happening.
The majority of these removal cards come in the form of Sakuretsu Armor and Widespread Ruin, so the three copies of Dust Tornado in the deck can take care of them. Snatch Steal can also be eliminated in this way, but the rest of the spell-based removal cards cannot. Smashing Ground and Dark Hole may be your biggest worries, and that’s what Solemn Judgment is for. Actually, Solemn Judgment is for any card your opponent plays that you think is worth paying half your life to negate. As I point out with every deck that runs Solemn Judgment, the card is only as good as the person who plays it. It’s up to you to pick the correct time to spring the trap. With this deck, it’s a bit easier to manage than usual. Anything that presents a direct threat to your win condition should be negated.
That said, you only have three Solemn Judgments and no guarantee that you’ll draw them all, so how are you supposed to deal with the eight or more removal cards that your opponent can still access? The answer lies in the setup of the lock. Much like in my Turbo Miracle deck from a while back, you have enough good threats to play even without the copy of Last Warrior that your opponent is forced to answer. If you can soak up even one or two copies of Smashing Ground or Sakuretsu Armor with your Spirit Reapers, D. D. Assailants and various other threatening monsters, the chance that your opponent will draw into the last couple removals in his or her deck is significantly reduced.
Now, what’s the best way to go about summoning The Last Warrior from Another Planet? For starters, the answer isn’t Polymerization. I’m not a particular fan of harping about card exchanges, but in this case, I think it’s justified. Legitimately fusing the monsters together makes you spend an extra card in return for the ability to revive the Last Warrior. It also makes it harder to pull off. As it stands, I’m treating Last Warrior similarly to Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys. Let Giant Rat search out The Earth – Hex-Sealed Fusion, then summon Zombyra the Dark, and claim The Earth’s effect using priority during your next turn.
Chances are, the worst that will happen to you is Bottomless Trap Hole, but with the return of Trap Hole to the scene (to stop Don Zaloog and elemental searchers), your chances of successfully summoning the Last Warrior without having to immediately use a copy of Solemn Judgment are greatly increased. Despite this, it’s good to have Solemn Judgment on hand or to have already cleared out the opponent’s backfield to make absolutely sure you can execute your win condition. Once you do, your opponent should have about a maximum of three turns to get rid of the Last Warrior before you win the game—and fewer if you did any damage in your quest to clear his or her field and force some early removal.
Remember, even if your opponent does have more cards than you (due to your summon of The Last Warrior from Another Planet), that doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she can stop you. Most of his or her deck is dead and the momentum of the game is heavily in your favor. The pressure is on your opponent to find the proverbial needle in a haystack of monsters and monster-related spells. You just have to keep attacking, and if you’ve got Solemn Judgment down, you’ve made your opponent’s job harder without even trying. Just remember, you cannot afford to let the opponent remove or steal your Last Warrior. This makes Soul Control a not-so-hot matchup for you, because of its copies of Soul Exchange and Brain Control.
On the flip side of the coin, Flip-Flop control, Merchant Pot Turbo, and Treeborn Frog-based decks become an almost automatic win once the Warrior is summoned (or Light of Intervention is flipped). These decks rely on flip effects and summoning monsters in order to try to take control of the game, and they also tend to run more than the normal amount of monsters as well. This vastly decreases the options that these decks have to get rid of your Last Warrior. Treeborn Frog decks, in particular, run less hard removal, thanks to their need to have no spells or traps on the field to return the Frog.
As for how the deck will fare after the switch to the new Advanced format Forbidden list, the future is a bit cloudy. Needless to say, denial and negation strategies will continue to have serious power behind them despite the loss of Time Seal. Spirit Reaper is still in full-force, and Dark World is sure to see some more play entirely due to the return of Graceful Charity. It’ll be interesting to see how the new metagame will unfold, especially with the first Shonen Jump Championship using the new list scheduled to occur just one week after its introduction.
That’s going to wrap it up for me this week. Make a point to read the coverage of Shonen Jump Baltimore on April 8 and 9 to get your first look at what the game’s biggest names have in store for the new format. Until next time, play hard, play fair, and most importantly, have fun!
Jerome McHale
jcmchale@andrew.cmu.edu
NEXT WEEK: Many players claim that Dark World is Serious BusinessTM in the new format. I’ll have a go at it next time.