Spells: 21
3 Allure of Darkness
3 Trade-In
2 Card of Safe Return
2 Foolish Burial
2 Burial from a Different Dimension
2 Hand Destruction
2 Book of Life
2 A Feather of the Phoenix
1 Heavy Storm
1 Monster Reborn
1 Card Destruction

If you’ve been around the block a few times you’ve probably seen this before. The idea is to accelerate through cards until you have multiple copies of Mezuki and at least one Sky Scourge Norleras in your graveyard, with Phantom of Chaos in hand. At that point you summon Phantom, remove Norleras to mimic its effect, and use it with Phantom’s ability. Everything gets wiped, you get a free card, and then Mezuki summons something to whale on your opponent. Foolproof, right?

It certainly sounds like a good plan, but Regional-level success has been slim at best. The strategy itself is perfectly fine: all of the top decks right now are crippled when they’re sent into topdecking mode. The problem is execution: there are so many dead cards in Adam’s deck that strategic lynchpins could be tough to draw. On top of that, there are several cards that act as backup plans for when the main strategy doesn’t work. The problem? Their existence in this deck inhibits the central strategy, creating a vicious circle of failure.

We’re going to cut a lot of unnecessary cards, ditch some of the fancier high-risk inclusions, and improve this deck’s average utility so that it isn’t stuck with dead cards nearly so often. The reality is that this deck beats the top strategies when it works—we just need to make sure it works reliably.

First, let’s ditch the stuff that isn’t necessary. We’re going to drastically reduce the cost of this deck with our first cut: Dark Armed Dragon. This deck does a poor job of controlling its Dark count, and while Dark Armed is an amazing card, it’s just not necessary—I’d rather have a reliable strategy than a weaker one that might lucksack a win with Dark Armed Dragon. Card of Safe Return and Burial From a Different Dimension fit into the same category. While these would both be staples for a more conventional Zombie build, they’re potentially dead cards here and have little to do with the game positions Norleras wants to see.

I think the mistake most players make working with this strategy is the inclusion of Despair from the Dark and Trade-In. Sure, Trade-In can help you get Norleras to your graveyard if you happen to draw it, and Despair is a Mezuki-compatible filler card that helps you excuse the copies of Trade-In, but there’s a significant chance that either could be dead in the hand. The chance to topdeck Norleras when you’d prefer a live card is a necessary evil—this deck doesn’t work without it. But Despair and Trade-In will be liabilities on a regular basis, and we can’t afford that. There are better ways to get to key cards, and better ways to get Norleras into the graveyard.

With fewer high-level Darks to special summon it with, and a pressing need for more room, one copy of Dark Grepher has to go. Book of Life is another potentially dead card in the early game that we just don’t need, and A Feather of the Phoenix is the worst offender of the bunch. You don’t need to stack something to the top of your deck to win with the Norleras combo—if the combo goes off you’ll probably win no matter what. The Feather is a conditional, discard-costed effect that will almost never be useful unless you’ve already clinched your win.

We’ve dropped seventeen cards at this point, and we can add back sixteen more before we cross the 40-card threshold. We really don’t want to go to 41 cards here: this deck needs to draw particular combo pieces in order to win, so the smaller it is, the easier it will be to get to those cards.

Strangely enough, the most important of them is virtually unsearchable in Adam’s original build, and he was only playing two copies: Phantom of Chaos. This deck doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do if it doesn’t draw Phantom, so we’re immediately adding some search power: three Mystic Tomato cards and Sangan will search Phantom out as needed, making it far easier to pull off this deck’s central combo. The Tomatoes will absorb strings of attacks to help lend some longevity, and in the event that you’ve already got one copy of Phantom in hand, it can always search out the two copies of Goblin Zombie I’ll be adding instead. Goblin Zombie is a nice combo with Norleras’s effect, getting you another card in the wake of that effect’s resolution or loading your hand with copies of Mezuki to abuse afterward.

Another Hand Destruction will give the deck more draw power and yet another way to discard Norleras and Mezuki. Monster Reincarnation will allow more graveyard control, and it can help you take another shot at your combo when your opponent has an answer to Phantom of Chaos. Two copies of Cold Wave lock down all those nasty spells and traps that can ruin your plans, too. There’s nothing worse than seeing Solemn Judgment flip when you try to summon Phantom, while Phoenix Wing Wind Blast and Compulsory Evacuation Device aren’t far behind on the annoyance scale.

In fact, three copies of Solemn Judgment is a great idea for this deck, preempting anything that would threaten our plan. Three Threatening Roar cards buy time when it’s needed, shutting down opposing swarms and giving you a convenient out when your opponent tries to make big plays early.

That’s the last few cards I’ll be adding: check out the changes I’ve made . . .

-3 Despair from the Dark
-2 Dark Armed Dragon
-1 Dark Grepher
-3 Trade-In
-2 Card of Safe Return
-2 Burial from a Different Dimension
-2 A Feather of the Phoenix
-2 Book of Life

+3 Mystic Tomato
+2 Goblin Zombie
+1 Sangan
+1 Hand Destruction
+1 Monster Reincarnation
+2 Cold Wave
+3 Threatening Roar
+3 Solemn Judgment

The result is a deck that does only one thing, but does it very well—that’s often a risky approach to dueling, but in this particular case it works. Here’s what it looks like:

Monsters: 20
3 Sky Scourge Norleras
3 Mezuki
2 Dark Grepher
2 Plaguespreader Zombie
2 Zombie Master
2 Phantom of Chaos
1 Sangan
3 Mystic Tomato
2 Goblin Zombie

Extra Deck: 15 Cards

Adam’s build was geared more toward the First-Turn Knock Out, but there was really no reason for him to place himself under that pressure. By establishing a better defensive plan, we’ve created a deck that can see more cards before it needs to win, which ups consistency tremendously. Several cards, such as Hand Destruction and Cold Wave can be played to support your combo, as well as to disrupt your opponent—forcing discards and keeping the opposition from playing spells.

Your ideal opening move with this deck is to set Mystic Tomato or Goblin Zombie: throw down Solemn Judgment or Threatening Roar if you have one, just as a bit of insurance. Passing without summoning is perfectly acceptable if your ideal openings aren’t available, especially if you have a Roar down. Even a turn-1 Cold Wave is a fine move: though that play generally sees discussion in the context of a TeleDAD deck, and is usually flawed in its premise, it’s not bad here. All it does is let you see another card while moving you along to your first attacking turn. Activating Cold Wave and setting Tomato is a superb opening.

From there you have three goals you want to accomplish as soon as possible over the next three turns. One: drop Norleras to the graveyard. Two: do the same with at least one Mezuki (having Mezuki in your hand is just as good). Three: get Phantom of Chaos to the table. Any other Zombie cards you load into the graveyard just help you win faster after you go off—a useful luxury, but not absolutely necessary.

Protecting the Phantom play is highly important. I spoke earlier of Solemn Judgment and other traps, which can be circumvented by Cold Wave, Heavy Storm, your own Solemns, or in the case of Phoenix Wing Wind Blast or Compulsory, even Threatening Roar. Remember that Norleras’s effect sends cards to the graveyard—Stardust Dragon can’t touch it. Colossal Fighter can’t save itself since it’s not going down in battle, and Thought Ruler Archfiend can’t save itself for not one, but two reasons. This one effect cuts through everything being played right now, and with a streamlined build like this one it really isn’t hard to pull off.

In fact, the only real problem you may run into are other Zombie decks—opposing copies of Mezuki and Goblin Zombie can leave your opponent in a very strong position. In that case, your strategy is to either go off before your opponent can draw into too many Plaguespreader and Mezuki cards, or use Threatening Roar and your significant defensive presence to draw the Zombie deck into a longer game. Remember that you decide when to pull the trigger: all you need to do is make sure that your graveyard is loaded sufficiently so that your opponent won’t get to see his or her next turn, and your opponent’s Zombies won’t matter.

This strategy can definitely compete at the Regional and Shonen Jump level—it just needed to be done differently than it had been in the past. Don’t believe me? Try it out yourself. You’ll be surprised at how good this maligned strategy can be.

—Jason Grabher-Meyer