Today we look at a Dark Magician deck sent in by Phil, from Houston. The Dark Magician deck was a much-anticipated archetype leading up to the release of Magician’s Force, but when the set finally hit the streets, the deck never really took off in most metagames. We’ll see what we can do to make this deck attractive for tourney play. Phil had this to say about his deck:

I built this deck because I really like the Dark Magician monsters, and the effects are pretty good, too. I use Painful Choice and Graceful Charity to get a lot of Dark Magicians in my graveyard, then use monster control to get out my Dark Magician Girl and do a lot of damage.

I protect myself from damage with Mirror Force and Waboku, and when I've hit my opponent for enough damage, use Ring of Destruction to destroy my Dark Magician Girl for the win. I've done pretty well with this deck, but I think it could be improved a lot, and any advice you can give would be great. Thanks!

Here’s Phil's deck list:

Phil’s Dark Magician Deck
39 cards total

Monsters
1 Buster Blader
2 Dark Magician
3 Dark Magician Girl
2 Skilled Dark Magician
1 Skilled White Magician
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
3 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
1 Spear Dragon
1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
1 Exiled Force
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Witch of the Black Forest

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Swords of Revealing Light

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

This is a pretty great example of a Dark Magician deck. Phil decided to go with a 2/3 skew of Dark Magician to Dark Magician Girl, which is a popular choice. Generally, a 2/3 skew or a 3/2 skew is safe—I wouldn’t recommend running three of each. Five tribute monsters can be safe if you play very, very carefully, but six just seems excessive.

That said, we can streamline this deck and remove a few key pitfalls while taking advantage of the theme a little bit more. Bumping it up to a legal 40 cards is going to be important, too—I’m sure Phil just missed one card while he was writing up the decklist.

First off, there are a few things we can take out to give us some space to work. The Skilled White Magician is definitely an interesting card that can be used to great effectiveness, but it needs to be used in a deck that is more focused around it. Without synergetic cards to accompany Skilled White Magician, it’s really not all that useful, especially when it and the accompanying Buster Blader are run only as once-offs in a deck. So we’re going to take those two out.

Spear Dragon is also going to be removed. Spear Dragon is a fabulous card that I’d suggest for a lot of decks, but for this deck, since we’re bogged down with five monsters that require tributing to summon, we need to choose cards carefully. We’re aiming to utilize cards that contribute to the goal of getting out Dark Magicians and Dark Magician Girls or cards that can exploit the same cards that benefit from this goal, so Spear Dragon is unfortunately out.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest the removal of Tribe-Infecting Virus as well. Monster removal can certainly help this deck, and it can provide a way to get Dark Magicians into the graveyard from the hand, but it can also be a massive liability. In a lot of cases, you’re going to be low on in-hand cards while trying to defend yourself, and in a situation like that, Tribe-Infecting Virus really isn’t going to be of much use. Also, since this deck utilizes so many Spellcaster monsters, Tribe is going to be your worst nightmare. If the opponent has one Tribe in his or her deck along with a few pieces of recursion (Premature Burial, Monster Reborn, and Call of the Haunted), and he or she can bring it into the game, you’re in for a world of hurt. That said, Change of Heart, Creature Swap, or Snatch Steal could all place your Tribe-Infecting Virus under your opponent’s control. If your Tribe-Infecting Virus goes to the graveyard, then your opponent could also gain control of it by using Monster Reborn. A few other cards could also present similar situations, but these are the ones worth seriously considering. In my opinion, these four cards are enough to make one think twice about running Tribe-Infecting Virus in an attribute-specific specific deck. I’m going to remove Tribe.

The three copies of Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer follow the theme of Spellcaster types, but there’s an issue with that: the deck doesn’t use any cards that benefit Spellcasters as a group. Let’s drop two of these and keep one as a once-off. Side deck the other two for use against decks focused on Exodia, Vampire Lord, and heavy recursive strategies. Kycoo is sub-par for use as a straight attacker, so, we’re going to replace these two later on with monsters that have higher attack values. One is all right, though, and it will fit with other additions we’ll be making.

Lastly, though defense is very important to a deck like this, we’re going to drop one Waboku. Ring of Destruction, Swords of Revealing Light, Mirror Force, and the other Waboku are already a good suite of defensive picks, and though some space needs to be devoted to defense (which isn’t true for all decks), four slots in the deck is likely enough. However, feel free to side deck up to two more copies of Waboku if near-kamikaze over-extension is big in your area—in some metagames, you could foreseeably need them0.

Now that we’re down to 32 cards, let’s look at what to add to the deck.

Right off the bat, the addition of a third Skilled Dark Magician seems like a good idea. Skilled Dark Magician not only allows you to get Dark Magician into play, but by doing so, it provides two other important functions. First, its effect, when claimed, thins your deck by one card. Every Dark Magician you special summon from your deck is one less that you might draw; that’s one more card that could be a Pot of Greed, Raigeki, or game-breaking Change of Heart. Second, your opponent is going to have to think a bit harder about the spell cards he or she decides to use, thinking things like, “OK, I could use that Mystical Space Typhoon I just drew, but if I do, he’ll summon a Dark Magician. Do I want to do that?” Three Skilled Dark Magicians are, in my mind, an absolute staple for this type of deck. Few cards are as specialized and as valuable to a deck focusing on Dark Magician.

Also, since we removed those Kycoo the Ghost Destroyers and the Spear Dragon and only added in one more Skilled Dark Magician, we still need to make up for some offense. Archfiend Soldier is an easy addition to make to the deck, since Archfiend Soldiers are only normal rares. Considering that they’re 1900 ATK, level 4 monsters that you can use Witch of the Black Forest to search your deck for, this is one of the best deals going. We’re going to add in three of these. Why Archfiend Soldier in particular? Well, Archfiend Soldier is a Dark type monster, and this fits with a great deal of the rest of the monsters in the deck.

To take advantage of this, we’re going to add in two Mystic Plasma Zones. Almost every monster in the deck can benefit from Mystic Plasma Zone, and it’s a very easy card to get, so it seems like a natural to put into this deck, especially since the Wind-type Spear Dragon and the non-congruous Buster Blader and Skilled Light Magician have all been removed. Field spell cards are a bit unorthodox, but in this deck they’ll function well. Phil has a variety of decoys that can bait an opponent to Mystical Space Typhoon something other than the Mystic Plasma Zone, and he also has the option of cleverly using Mirage of Nightmare to protect Mystic Plasma Zone from Harpies Feather Duster and Heavy Storm. Generally speaking, you’re not likely to play anyone running more than five pieces of Spell/Trap removal, and many players play as few as four or even three. For the massive benefit that Mystic Plasma Zone can give this deck, it’s worth the little bit of extra care that will be needed to play them effectively.

If we’re going to use the Dark Magician “family” as the basis of a deck, we should definitely go all the way! Diffusion Wave-Motion is a card that is utterly useless in most decks and generally scoffed at, but with the wide array of Spellcasters in this deck (and especially since they can receive the bonus from Mystic Plasma Zone), this card just has too much potential to ignore. It's a secret rare, but, it’s possibly one of the least-popular secret rares ever printed, and it can be had from many stores and online sources for as little as $5.00, simply because no one needs it. This is good news for you. Let’s put two into the deck so that once Dark Magician or Dark Magician Girl do hit the field, they make a big impact.

Lastly, let’s add another piece of deck thinning and another great defensive option—add in one D. D. Warrior Lady to remove troublesome monsters and function as a wall. D. D. Warrior Lady is a fabulous opening move, whether you go first or second, and can really shine in a deck like this one. To accompany D. D. Warrior Lady, as well as Exiled Forces, Sinister Serpent, and Witch of the Black Forest, let’s add in a Sangan. This will give the deck resiliency, as well as an important way to get to its two pieces of removal that are in monster-form.

So, the changes I’ve suggested are:

-1 Buster Blader
-1 Skilled White Magician
-1 Spear Dragon
-1 Tribe-Infecting Virus
-2 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
-1 Waboku


+2 Diffusion Wave-Motion
+2 Mystic Plasma Zone
+1 Skilled Dark Magician
+3 Archfiend Soldier
+1 D. D. Warrior Lady
+1 Sangan

Here’s what the final deck looks like.

Dark Magician—Jason's Fix

42 cards total

Monsters
2 Dark Magician
3 Dark Magician Girl
3 Skilled Dark Magician
1 Breaker the Magical Warrior
1 Kycoo the Ghost Destroyer
3 Archfiend Soldier
1 D. D. Warrior Lady
1 Sangan
1 Exiled Force
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Witch of the Black Forest

Spells
1 Monster Reborn
1 Premature Burial
1 Snatch Steal
1 Change of Heart
1 Raigeki
1 Dark Hole
1 Harpie's Feather Duster
3 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Mirage of Nightmare
1 Pot of Greed
1 Graceful Charity
1 Painful Choice
1 Swords of Revealing Light
2 Diffusion Wave-Motion
2 Mystic Plasma Zone

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

The deck is now more effective in the first few turns of the game, which is where a deck like this can encounter serious problems. Sangan, Witch of the Black Forest, D. D. Warrior Lady, and even a Skilled Dark Magician followed by a volley of spell cards, are all great opening moves that can really move this deck forward.

That said, once the deck gets to the mid and late game point, and its strategy starts to kick in, Diffusion Wave-Motion and Mystic Plasma Zone will create a far bigger payoff than the deck was previously capable of achieving. Some Effect monsters will still cause this deck some serious grief, but, Diffusion Wave-Motion is going to help mitigate this, as well as really kick some serious butt.

As for the side deck, pick what’s right for you. Fiber Jar is going to be a problem, so two Nobleman of Crossout may be a good choice. Most of the deck’s monsters are Effect monsters, so Ceasefire might make sense to side deck in case you find yourself facing pesky Gravity Bind lockdown decks, allowing them to be finished off quickly and unexpectedly. The two copies Kycoo that were removed from the deck can also make great side deck material, and against a Control deck, consider running three Electric Snakes. One or two more copies of Waboku could also help, depending on what your metagame is like.

There we go! One tweaked Dark Magician deck, made to order. Thanks for sending it in, Phil!