Skill Drain is one of the most misunderstood gems in the Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG. Capable of rendering hundreds of cards useless with a single flip and life point payment, it can be just as good for your own monsters as it can be terrible for your opponents’. Monarchs, Spirit Reaper, Don Zaloog, Hydrogeddon, flip effects, and more all become useless when this thing is out on the field. Build your deck properly and Skill Drain can present no disadvantages whatsoever to you, while providing plenty for the opposition. That’s exactly what reader Jembera had in mind when he designed his deck. Let’s see what he had to say about it!
Hey Jason,
Last format used to be dominated by the presence of the Dark and Light. Now, with Chaos Sorcerer removed from the tournament environment, that gives us a much, MUCH wider range of deck types for quality competition. Since the new Advanced list came into effect, my love for the game has been focused around one of the least played decks out there: Skill Drain! The idea behind the deck is to create a structure that has as much power without Skill Drain on the field as it would with it! The monsters either have effects that activate while in the hand (like Cyber Dragon's special summoning effect, the no tribute effect of Majestic Mech - Ohka, and such) or that activate in the graveyard (like Newdoria and recruiters).
With a presence of small ATK monsters that help maintain field and hand presence, along with the assortment of Spells and Traps to keep the field dominantly cleared, it causes the opponent to use up his or her options quickly. Place Skill Drain on the field to further limit the remaining options and it quickly becomes a buffet of life points for my monsters to pick away at.
—Jembera M.
Sounds like a promising proposition! Check out the deck list:
Drain Gain—41 Cards
Monsters: 21
3 Cyber Dragon
2 Majestic Mech - Ohka
3 Mystic Tomato
3 Newdoria
1 Dark Mimic LV3
2 Giant Rat
3 Nimble Momonga
2 Exiled Force
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells: 13
2 Smashing Ground
1 Pot of Avarice
2 Creature Swap
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Heavy Storm
1 Graceful Charity
1 Premature Burial
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Confiscation
1 Scapegoat
1 Last Will
Traps: 7
2 Skill Drain
2 Dust Tornado
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
Sure enough, it’s really solid! There are some cool concepts here, and the first one that stuck out at me was Dark Mimic LV3. Searchable via Mystic Tomato, it’s similar to Dekoichi the Battlechanted Locomotive, but because it claims its effect when it’s sent to the graveyard as a result of battle, Skill Drain won’t get in its way.
Also strong is the use of two Dust Tornado cards with two Skill Drain cards. If you’re an experienced Skill Drain player, or perhaps play Return from the Different Dimension semi-regularly, you’ll recognize the move here. Dust Tornado lets you knock one of the opponent’s spell or trap cards off the table in his or her end phase and then set Skill Drain for immediate use on the following turn. That keeps Skill Drain relatively safe, since the opponent never gets a chance to destroy it while it’s set unless he or she has an additional Mystical Space Typhoon or Dust Tornado face down, beyond the one that you might be destroying with your Tornado. Jembera has obviously put some testing and planning into the deck.
The one thing I’m really torn on is Last Will. On the one hand, Jembera is packing two Exiled Force cards and two Majestic Mech - Ohka cards, both of which work really well with Will, but in a scenario where things have gone decently well and Skill Drain is on the field, Last Will loses its synergy with Ohka and becomes a dead draw. It’s a difficult decision to make, but I’m going to drop the Will. I want this deck to explode once it gets Skill Drain onto the field, because you never know how long it’s actually going to stay there, and drawing into Last Will is going to slow the deck down unless it happens to have access to Exiled. While one could argue that Cyber Dragon’s tribute possibility makes Will more playable, that’s not ideal either, and, in fact, I’ll be dropping one of the Dragons as well.
The reason? This deck has a whopping eight recruiter monsters: three Nimble Momonga cards, three Mystic Tomato cards, and two Giant Rat cards. As a result, it’s going to be maintaining field presence like crazy, whether it’s got Drain on the field or not. That means Cyber Dragon will only be able to claim its effect a portion of the time, usually in the very early or very late game. To me, that doesn’t make it a candidate to run in threes. It’s stellar in this format, but not when you’re running eight recruiter monsters, and four more monsters that can discourage attack (Newdoria and Dark Mimic).
Speaking of which, I like Dark Mimic enough in this deck to run two, dropping one Newdoria to make it happen. Most Skill Drain decks run Morphing Jar in order to get to one of their two copies of Drain, and just accept that a post-Drain Jar is going to be a dead draw. While Dark Mimic LV3 isn’t going to plough through five cards at a time, I think it’s a viable alternative if it’s used in multiples. Plus, I like Jembera’s idea and I don’t mind giving it another card slot. A big priority for me when I tweak a deck is to try and incorporate the submitter’s own innovations.
The last card I want to drop is Scapegoat. While it’s a great source of defense and can combo well with Creature Swap, I don’t see it as a great fit for a deck that maintains field presence so aggressively. Get two monsters onto the field and it’s a dead card that can’t be chained. Lock yourself with four tokens on the field, and the opponent is free to sit there and build up a win before taking you apart. Getting stuck with nothing but a Nimble Momonga or Tomato on the field is pretty poor, and having to tribute either of those monsters just to mount some sort of offense is even worse.
I’ve already added another Dark Mimic LV3, so the other cards I want to add are both intended to leverage the maximum advantage out of this deck’s field presence. A third Smashing Ground is a must. Setting Nimble Momonga on turn 1, pulling two more on the opponent’s turn, and then playing Smashing and another attacker can rob your opponent of more than half of his or her life points, and that kind of play in the early game is exactly what this deck wants to see. Jambera’s designed a deck that can hit the ground running, so we want to maximize that potential.
The last card I want to add is Enemy Controller. Mystic Swordsman LV2 is really no fun, and Controller stops it in its tracks. We’ve got plenty of fodder monsters to tribute for Controller’s second effect, and often you’ll be able to steal a win by turning a defense position monster to attack and slamming it with Ohka. It’s a very high-utility card, and this deck can take advantage of it in a variety of ways.
Here are the changes I made to the original deck list:
-1 Cyber Dragon
-1 Newdoria
-1 Scapegoat
-1 Last Will
+1 Dark Mimic LV3
+1 Smashing Ground
+1 Enemy Controller
The fixed build looks like this:
Drain Gain—Jason’s Fix—40 Cards
Monsters: 20
2 Cyber Dragon
2 Majestic Mech - Ohka
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Newdoria
2 Dark Mimic LV3
2 Giant Rat
3 Nimble Momonga
2 Exiled Force
1 Sangan
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
Spells: 13
1 Pot of Avarice
1 Nobleman of Crossout
1 Heavy Storm
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Graceful Charity
1 Confiscation
1 Premature Burial
3 Smashing Ground
2 Creature Swap
1 Enemy Controller
Traps: 7
2 Skill Drain
2 Dust Tornado
1 Mirror Force
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Call of the Haunted
My tweaked version of the deck is very similar to the original, but I’ve improved the overall synergy and utility, smoothing out draws a bit and letting it take advantage of its strengths. Dead in-hand Cyber Dragon cards will be less of a problem, and the deck will now be capable of heightened aggression. Keeping opponents on the defensive is important, because if they’re setting monsters like Dekoichi and Magical Merchant to block damage, they’re incredibly vulnerable to Skill Drain. In addition, any damage scored early in the game is going to cushion the 1000 life point cost that Skill Drain demands.
This deck has plenty of superb opening plays. If you go first, Mystic Tomato, Nimble Momonga, and Giant Rat are all ideal. Newdoria, Sangan, and Dark Mimic LV3 are also acceptable, so this deck has an amazing thirteen viable monsters to set on turn 1.
From there you just want to build your forces through the early game and press on the opponent as quickly as possible. While it’s easy to make trades with cards like Smashing Ground or Ring of Destruction, remember that even without Skill Drain on the field, Ohka is still a very viable removal spell with legs. It costs you your normal summon for the turn, but running over a Cyber Dragon or trading with a Monarch can often be worth Ohka’s sacrifice. Remember, too, that it’s the best card in the deck to combo with Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, so you can afford to be reckless with it, especially if it lets you get in a few direct shots with your smaller monsters.
The mid-game is where you’ll hopefully see Skill Drain and even if both players have comparable field and hand presence going into a Skill Drain scenario, you should be able to cost your opponent a ton of cards and life points once Drain flips. Never flip Skill Drain until it’s needed; the best time to use it is in response to an effect that costs the opponent a card, such as a tribute for a Monarch, or the summoning of Breaker the Magical Warrior and successive use of his token.
Even if you hit the late game and lose Skill Drain, this deck topdecks pretty well. The Cyber Dragon cards and Ohka cards can dominate the field through attacks, while all of your recruiters can maintain field presence. When activating Pot of Avarice, think very carefully about what you’re going to recycle. While the automatic choice of three Nimble Momonga cards might be tempting, consider certain factors. Cyber Dragon can be incredibly good if the game moves to topdecking, and if you’ve already used Premature Burial and Call of the Haunted, consider shuffling back Ohka cards, especially if you’ve got at least one Drain left in the deck.
Skill Drain is always a competitive card, but the knowledge and experience it demands can scare away less diligent duelists. You’ll frequently hear the criticism of, “Well, any deck that relies on one card can’t be that good.” It’s a true statement, but this deck is a great example of a Skill Drain build that can survive and win without ever drawing into its key trap. It’s flexible and highly competitive, but don’t take my word for it: try it out for yourself!
—Jason Grabher-Meyer
Working on a deck for the new Advanced format? Looking for some help, or just want to see your creation right here on Metagame? Send it to me, and you might see your deck featured in an Apotheosis column! I’m Jason (at) metagame (dot) com, and I’m always looking for cool new decks to write about.