A couple weeks ago, Evan Vargas introduced me to the idea of the Scapegoat deck. It relies on special summoning huge monsters partly through the exploitation of Scapegoat.

About a year ago, Ian Estrin introduced me to the idea of the Cost Down deck—one that relied on special summoning huge monsters partly through the exploitation of Cost Down.

My response to both was the same. “That is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard.”

I tried the Cost Down deck quite a bit. It failed. Spectacularly. It exploded upon itself with the reliability and flair of a fireworks factory lit ablaze. I was right about that one, but I was wrong about the Scapegoat deck. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been looking up builds that have seen serious testing, and the deck is actually capable of being quite successful. Brian Ellis ran such a deck in SJC Orlando, and this is what he used:

Wolves in Goat’s Clothing – 42 cards

Monsters: 14
3 Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast
2 The Creator
1 Dark Ruler Ha Des
1 Jinzo
1 Airknight Parshath
1 Sinister Serpent
1 Guardian Angel Joan
1 Exiled Force
1 Black Tyranno
1 Invader of Darkness
1 Magical Scientist 

Spells: 22
1 Premature Burial
2 Enemy Controller
3 Reasoning
1 Heavy Storm
1 Pot of Greed
3 Scapegoat
2 Metamorphosis
1 Mystik Wok
2 Monster Gate
1 Painful choice
1 Card Destruction
1 Mystical Space Typhoon
1 Snatch Steal
1 Monster Reincarnation
1 Change of Heart 

Traps: 6
3 A Hero Emerges
1 Call of the Haunted
1 Raigeki Break
1 Ring of Destruction 

Fusion:
3 Thousand-Eyes Restrict
3 Dark Balter the Terrible
3 Dark Blade the Dragon Knight
3 Dark Flare Knight
2 Ryu Senshi
2 Fiend Skull Dragon
1 The Last Warrior from Another Planet
1 Flame Ghost
1 Dragoness the Wicked Knight
2 St. Joan
1 Karbonala Warrior
2 Charubin the Fire Knight
2 Darkfire Dragon
2 Twin-Headed Behemoth

Like the Cost Down decks of old, Scapegoat decks don’t rely entirely on Scapegoats for their survival. The key combo is the use of Scapegoat tokens to fuel Metamorphosis and Monster Gate, but the deck has lots of other methods of special summoning, too—either recursively from the graveyard through Call of the Haunted and Premature Burial, or from the hand via the severely underrated A Hero Emerges. The number of options for special summoning now available makes the concept of a special summon focused deck a lot more viable than last year, and there are other forms of support employed by the deck, as well.

Fusilier Dragon, the Dual-Mode Beast is a boon to this deck. As a special summon, it’s got great stats, but unlike the other high-level monsters in the deck, it’s not a dead card on its own. It may not be a great face-up summon, but it’s still summonable fodder, and that can be extremely valuable in a deck that sometimes stalls before it goes off. Once the deck does go off, though, Fusilier Dragon is still highly useful as a high-ATK monster to special summon. On top of that, it contributes to the deck’s wide spread of differing levels, which is an invaluable factor considering how much use this deck wants to get out of Reasoning. Even playing against this deck over and over, it’s very feasible that an opponent will never call Reasoning correctly.

In fact, that touches on one of the major strengths of this deck. Being so rogue, it not only means you’ll often have the advantage of surprise, but also that the first Reasoning is almost a guaranteed hit. “Four” is likely Brian Ellis’s favorite thing to hear today.

Sinister Serpent allows the deck to use cards like Monster Reincarnation repeatedly without having to kiss “real” card presence goodbye. Magical Scientist provides the offensive and defensive control that the game needs and makes excellent use of the deck’s extensive fusion deck. Lastly, for the normal summons, Exiled Force is a great bomb to drop on any trouble that threatens you. It’s important to remember that Exiled’s cost isn’t too much of a big deal to this deck—unlike most players, Ellis isn’t looking to make a normal summon each turn to keep the pressure on his opponent. The result is that Exiled Force is practically a free Tribute to the Doomed. In a deck that is not beaten, but is certainly threatened, by Airknight Parshath and Jinzo, that kind of protection is extremely important.

Spell-wise, the deck is a mix of standard battle-oriented spells and special summoning cards needed for the deck’s central strategies. The only card that doesn’t fit into that category is Mystik Wok, and it’s easy to think that Wok is incongruous and not worth making the build 41+ cards. However, it’s important to understand how Wok works in this deck. Though it can be used as a proactive way to gain a ton of life points, its primary use is as a defensive counter-play. If something is threatening your Guardian Angel Joan or Invader of Darkness—if your opponent has activated Hammer Shot, for instance—you can always chain Mystik Wok. Odds are good that even though the monster will be taken out, the opponent will flinch at your massive life point gain. This needs to be done carefully, of course, and should generally be reserved for when you have a single monster on the field, but when done properly, it can be a game saving move. It’s easy for this deck to get by on just one big beater at a time, as even if one goes down, another can take its place.

That’s what A Hero Emerges does. It doesn’t just get out your big monsters in a timely and frustrating fashion, but it allows you to leave yourself open to monster destruction and big attacks while still covering your behind. If that Invader of Darkness does get taken out and you have an open field, A Hero Emerges can protect you at a time in the turn when it’s very difficult to remove the new monster from the field. It’s a great card for all sorts of decks, but it really finds a unique spot for itself here.

Call of the Haunted speaks for itself, but Raigeki Break and Ring of Destruction are key, too. Ring is great everywhere, but here it shines for its ability to blow up monsters with 2500+ ATK and take the game for you. Raigeki Break provides another outlet for Sinister Serpent abuse, and it takes care of Airknight Parshath before it can attack. At the same time, it can clear the spell and trap zone, and it works wonders against Lockdown Burn (which can be a tough matchup for this deck).

It’s a cool deck, and the strategy will only get stronger with the new Limited list. Watch for both this deck and Brian Ellis to be significant forces over the coming months.