I love Thunder Dragon. Regular readers already know I do, but I just thought I'd get that out into the open. Again. It gives hand advantage, fodder for Chaos monsters and other special summon–only beatsticks, fuel for Freed the Brave Wanderer, and deck thinning. Sometimes I like it so much that I forget where it truly belongs—in a deck running it for Fusion material.

Fusion monsters are sort of an enigma in Yu-Gi-Oh! Originally meant to be played with Polymerization, the initial offerings were rather sub-par considering how much trouble they took to get into play. Subsequent releases gave more and more incentives to play with Fusion monsters. Fusion Gate was a reusable alternative to Polymerization. Metamorphosis and Magical Scientist allowed a duelist to, in effect, "cheat", and gain access to Fusion monsters without having to play Fusion materials. Along the way, the "Fusion replacement" monsters like Versago the Destroyer and Goddess with the Third Eye also helped along those who would try and play decks based off of Fusion monsters. But it's still too complicated for the taste of most competitive players.

Today's deck focuses on Fusion monsters, and uses a variety of the different methods of summoning them. It was sent in by Brandon Thresix, and he had the following to say about his deck request:

I was wondering if you could fix my deck. I have a Fusion deck, here it is.

Thanks,

-Brandon Thresix, Washington, D.C.


A little light in the description, but the deck is a gem. Here's the decklist:

Brandon's Fusion Monster Deck
40 cards

Monsters
1 Jinzo
3 Thunder Dragon
2 Zombyra the Dark
2 Spirit Reaper
1 Summoned Skull
2 Goddess with the Third Eye
2 Versago the Destroyer
2 Magical Scientist
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Change of Heart
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Greed
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Painful Choice
1 Graceful Charity
2 Fusion Gate
1 Metamorphosis
1 Polymerization
1 Dimension Fusion

Traps
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Imperial Order
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Waboku

Fusion Deck
3 Thousand Eyes Restrict
3 Black Skull Dragon
3 Reaper on the Nightmare
3 The Last Warrior From Another Planet
3 Twin Headed Thunder Dragon
3 Ryu Senshi
3 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Fiend Skull Dragon
3 Dark Flare Knight
3 Fusionist


The deck looks pretty great. The Fusion deck is complete, in my opinion—I won't be adding anything to it, and taking anything from it would be pointless (might as well make it as tall and imposing as possible). For the main deck, I only have a few small issues:

Brandon's deck list stated that he was running two Magical Scientists. This is naturally against the Limited list, so we'll fix that up right away.

My second concern is that the deck might have some problems maintaining its field presence. It's a bit light on monsters that are level 4 or less, so I'm going to rework the deck a bit to maintain its board presence a bit better.

Lastly, I think with the recent release of Sanctuary in the Sky, Fusion Gate might see some issues strictly from being replaced on the field by Sanctuary. I'm going to do a bit of rebalancing to help this deck not get completely hosed by a deck running Sanctuary in the Sky.

First up, that second Magical Scientist has got to go. That's going to free up one card slot, which is good, because that card slot is needed—this deck is going to wind up a couple cards over 40, and since it relies so heavily on the cards that enable fusions, we need to be able to get to those as quickly as possible.

Along the same lines, I'm going to remove Premature Burial. Yes, using it to bring back a nice big Fusion monster would be great, but the main concern is getting to that Fusion monster, and there's just not a lot of fat to trim. So, Premature Burial has to go.

Next up, I'm going to drop the deck's single Waboku. I can definitely see the reason for running this over Mirror Force, if the decision was made based on playability instead of rarity—Waboku's chainable, and Mirror Force isn't. However, because this deck is sort of weak on the field, I think it needs Mirror Force to try and gain some field and card advantage.

I'm going to add in two Mystic Tomatoes. This is going to help you get to the Fusion material monsters you need, either by making them available via Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan (which Mystic Tomato can special summon), or by bringing Versago the Destroyer to the field. If you have one, it might even be a good idea to add another Versago the Destroyer to the deck and drop one of the Goddess With the Third Eye, just so you have maximum synergy between Mystic Tomato and your replacement Fusion material monsters. Mystic Tomato is also going to give you the board presence you need to survive. It takes us above 40 cards, but since it thins itself out of the deck and can even get us access to more thinners (Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan), it's not that big of an issue. The fact that the deck also runs Painful Choice, Thunder Dragon, and Mirage of Nightmare is going to compensate for this as well.

I'm going to add in a Sinister Serpent. First off, it's hard to kill off permanently, so it's going to give you some decent defense. Second, it's a level 1 monster. That means you can get rid of it with Metamorphosis and then summon Thousand Eyes Restrict. Third, Sinister Serpent works exceedingly well with Mirage of Nightmare, often allowing you to, in effect, net an extra card every turn with Mirage of Nightmare's effect. It's important that Sinister Serpent is used this way with Mirage of Nightmare—Miraging for four cards each turn is going to hurt you pretty badly depending on what you lose from the deck. If you lose the Fusion spells, you're likely done for, so Sinister Serpent can help you control what you discard.

I'm going to add in one Cyber Jar as well. Cyber Jar is going to give you the speed you need in getting to your Fusion spells and Fusion material monsters ASAP. It'll either give you a good head start in the early game, or it will rejuvenate you in the mid and late game. In addition, it can always be a nice way to get some card advantage when your opponent has a few pieces of decent offense built up and is ready to start swinging at you. An opponent isn't going to see Cyber Jar coming if they know you're running this type of deck, so it brings a lot to the mix.

Lastly, to deal with the problem of Sanctuary in the Sky replacing your Fusion Gates, I'm going to recommend running a second copy of Polymerization. It's reliable, and since Sanctuary in the Sky is going to be seeing play for at least a while due to its minty freshness, it should really help this deck out in the current environment.

Here are the total changes:

-1 Magical Scientist
-1 Premature Burial
-1 Waboku

+2 Mystic Tomato
+1 Sinister Serpent
+1 Polymerization
+1 Mirror Force

Not much to change! The deck was quite good, and just needed some tweaking for extra tricks, legality, and a small update for the environment. Here's what the final build looks like:


Brandon's Fusion Monster Deck, Jason's Fix
43 cards

Monsters
1 Jinzo
3 Thunder Dragon
2 Zombyra the Dark
2 Spirit Reaper
1 Summoned Skull
2 Goddess with the Third Eye
2 Versago the Destroyer
1 Magical Scientist
1 Witch of the Black Forest
1 Sangan
1 Sinister Serpent
2 Mystic Tomato
1 Cyber Jar

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Change of Heart
1 Snatch Steal
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Pot of Greed
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Painful Choice
1 Graceful Charity
2 Fusion Gate
1 Metamorphosis
2 Polymerization
1 Dimension Fusion

Traps
1 Ring of Destruction
1 Imperial Order
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Mirror Force

Notice that now the deck has far stronger opening and early game options. Whereas the deck was previously quite weak in the opening as well as the first few turns of the game, the two Mystic Tomatoes suddenly become important and powerful first turn or second turn drops. Cyber Jar can be used as an opening monster if you feel gutsy, and Sinister Serpent makes a good conservative opening, while Witch of the Black Forest and Sangan are good as always. Spirit Reaper isn't a suggested opening, but it's passable in a pinch.

The early game is where this deck needs a lot of skill to play. Surviving while aggressively thinning your deck and trying to keep some pressure on your opponent is difficult, but Zombyra the Dark can be a huge help in this initiative. Mirage of Nightmare is exceedingly helpful, functioning as a fast method of getting to what you need, when you need it (which is pretty much a constant state of "NOW!").

I'd suggest side decking both against Chaos via Torrential Tribute and Bottomless Trap Hole, but also side decking for more options. You're running Magical Scientist and have alot of medium ATK monsters, so Book of Moon is really going to help you out. You can use it to negate an attack, you can use it to turn an attack-position monster to defense and then attack it, or you can use it to turn a Fusion monster special summoned by Magical Scientist into face down defense position, thus allowing it to escape from Magical Scientist's destruction effect.

The deck has a lot of interesting synergies, and it needs to be played with care and restraint; it likely won't win if an uber-aggressive approach is taken too early. You need to pick your spot, run the opponent low on cards for a bit, and then slam him or her with everything you have. Thousand Eyes Restrict and The Last Warrior from Another Planet can change this strategy, however, so be ready to shift gears when required. Opponents likely won't know what to expect from this deck, and thus you have the advantage of surprise. Keep them guessing and keep them on their toes, changing strategies when possible and beneficial.

Hopefully the suggestions help you out a bit, Brandon. Thanks for sending it in!


As a reminder, players with deck ideas they would like to see featured in this column can email their requests to jasonatmetagame@yahoo.com. Please include your first name, city and state of residence, deck list in the format used above, and a few sentences about your deck and the challenges and successes you've had with it.